Foo Fighters

Heather and I witnessed the Foo Fighters tonight at Blue Cross Arena in Rochester. Blue Cross Arena is actually the old War Memorial before the big corporate machine got their hands on it. I must say I really like what they did with the place. Everything got a nice modern face-lift from when I last remember.

It was surreal being there because that was the site of my very first rock concert. Iron Maiden Somewhere in Time Tour April 13th, 1987. I was 13 years old and I swore I was going to get my ass kicked just for looking at someone. There were fights everywhere and everyone was completely smashed on whatever their poison at the time. It turns out that I never got my ass kicked and I actually had an awesome time, I suppose it was life changing.

So I wasn't really excited to see the Foo's until yesterday when I watched a bunch of youtube videos. These guys sounded great and had amazing energy. Dave Grohl is absolutely one of the funniest front-men out right now. He actually stopped the show because a major fight broke out on the left side of the stage. "Are you guys ok over there? Ya know there are two things you should do at a rock concert. Enjoy the music.. and find someone to make out with. Dont find someone to fight with. If you cant find anyone to make out with ill be done in an hour and a 1/2 come find me backstage." I think he handled that perfectly because there were no problems after that( that we saw ).

We stood next to a long cat-walk in front of the sound booth, where Dave sometimes would run out to. He was literally 10 feet away from us a few times which was quite cool. Dave had great rapport with the crowd however we both agreed that he talked a bit too much. At one point Dave said you will learn 3 things at a foo fighters concert. "Number 1, I talk too much.... Number 2, We play allot of songs, Number 3, I talk too much". He probably talked for around 15 minutes or so. I think it killed some of the momentum here and there.

This was the setlist ..
Let It Die
The Pretender
Times Like These
No Way Back
Learn to Fly
Cheer Up, Boys (Your Make Up Is Running)
Young Man Blues (The Who)
Long Road to Ruin
Breakout
Stacked Actors

(no Acoustic stage )
Skin and Bones
Marigold
My Hero
(band intros)
Cold Day in the Sun
Everlong (finish with rock version)
Monkey Wrench
All My Life

ENCORE
Big Me
Bargain (The Who) with Gaz from Supergrass on lead vocals
Best Of You

Fair Haven Beach State Park

So Heather and I woke up rather late this morning. We were pretty fired up after the gig and were chatting till quite a bit after 4am with all the little details that happen on a typical Johnny Bender night out. The day looked to be a beautiful one so I had the idea of grabbing some beach gear, a couple subs and head up to Fair Haven for the day. I also had the plan of renting a canoe and teaching Heather all about it ( like I am some sort of expert? lol ).

So we got our stuff gathered, hit Wegmans and grabbed subs and were off. When we got there we found a great spot between the pond and the lake itself and had a great lunch. On the pond side I spotted a Herring hunting for fish in the water. Being the nature lover, I stalked over and snagged a couple great shots of him( or her ) feeding.

We baked ourselves in the sun for a while then decided it was time to go rent a canoe. We were assigned the number Four canoe. I guess that number isnt significant, but hey this is a memoir, so why not. So my canoeing experience is admittedly quite limited. I have probably only gone 3 times in my life. Having said that it slipped my mind which position was responsible for steering and which position provided the power. If I thought about it logically I would have known this, but getting to sleep at 4am prior my mind was a bit hazy. So I figured I would steer ( the hard part ) and Heather would just provide the power. I was wrong. The stern paddler provides the steering, the bow paddler provides the power.

So we got into the canoe when it was on shore and tried to move forward. Now if we had followed this 17 step guide on getting into a canoe we would have been fine. Instead we started moving our hips forward like someone was playing Digital Underground's "Humpty Dance" in the background. Im sure if I was the person renting the canoe to us, I would have taken a video and put it on youtube. So we get out there and prior to this I never told Heather what to do. She was holding the paddle somewhat like a sword or a banjo and it just wasnt working.

You see I believe I made her nervous. Prior to going out on the canoe I explained that canoeing had parallels to a relationship. They basically can make or break a relationship. In a very short amount of time while working together you can experience patience, forgiveness, anger, frustration and triumph among other emotions. You need to communicate on so many levels just to keep that dam thing in a straight line. So if you want to see if your relationship can stand the test of time, try canoeing together. I am happy to say that Heather and I didnt experience any of these emotions.

After showing her the correct method of holding the paddle along with the technique for steering we started gelling. We got into a great rythm and could actually make the boat go straight. It was very exciting to say the least. Yes sometimes simple things can be exciting. We had a great paddle around the pond and got to experience a swarm of dragonflies which Heather absolutely loved ( /sarcasm ). Im hoping I can get her out there again, and soon get ready for a true paddling adventure up in the Adirondacks.

Band Day.... Suzy's

So we come once again to another band day. Playing guitar and singing in a local band has its advantages. People generally think you are something more than you are, and you get free drinks. In my band Johnny Bender( www.johnnybender.com ) we have been slowly gaining a nice following. We have been playing together a long time, and there is allot of history involved that I may save for a later time. But needless to say there are no ego's, very very little drama, and we all get along and support each other. This really shows in our music and our crowd interactions.

Having said that I approach each gig with a bit of angst, excitement and apprehension. Since we are only a 4 piece and usually just 3 piece from the music side, Chris( bass ) , Bob (drums) and myself (guitar) need to really be on our game. Any screwups and you can immediately tell who it is. Not that we EVER screw up! So prior to each gig we have a setlist written up. We have a pool of around 80 songs at this point and we pick and chose some old tunes along with the staple songs of each night. Now usually I take this setlist and practice just about the whole thing for a week prior. This has been some overkill though and in the past has not helped my enthusiasm for the guitar. Practicing the same song over and over ad nauseum can have a negative effect. So this week I took a different approach and only practiced the songs the day before the gig and the day of the gig. I think it worked out fine.

I changed my strings and applied my Nut Sauce to various parts of my guitar. Yes you read that correctly and the picture at the right proves it. This is a space age lubricant for the guitar nut and the bridge that helps keeps the guitar in tune as well as prevents string breakage. Most likely its just some KY jelly or vasoline though. I prepped all of my gear, practiced the setlist for a couple hours and hit the road to Suzy's Tavern at 7pm.

Upon arriving I was greeted by Bob who is always just so full of positive energy, he could put anyone in a good mood. We all shuffled in and began setup which after all this time together takes about an hour and a 1/2. Tim was absolutely out of control and all of our moods were excellent, we knew it was going to be a good night. I never knew Tim could do such a perfect TaunTaun impression but he managed it. It was a rather Star Wars themed evening, and there were a few light saber ( tim's kids lightsabers ) battles that took place on stage and off stage throughout. Unfortunately I never snapped any pictures, but a friend of the band and the biggest AC/DC fan, Jenny, took place in one on-stage with Tim. It was wild. But I digress.

So setup went well, and we had a problem-free sound check this time. But when it got to be around 9:45 there was a very small crowd still. This happened last time we played Suzy's. It can make a musician nervous to see a pretty much empty bar, when you depend on the door fee for your pay. And just like last time we played Suzy's at 10pm the people faucet was turned and folks started pouring in. The night was a huge success and the band played with a ton of energy.

Not many bar owners are good to work with but Joe at Suzy's is just fantastic. I suppose he has a special place for us in his heart since we were the first band to play there. Im sure the fact that we pack his bar everytime helps as well : ) He walked up around 4 or 5 times and delivered shots to the band. I cant recall what these shots were but they were very tasty. You never get that type of service from a bar, let alone the owner. Joe wants us to play there exclusively in Auburn and waved a nice carrot ( cash ) in front of our faces. Stay tuned for the exciting conlusion of our descision to do that or not.

The band has been on a very nice roll lately and all of our hardwork has been paying off. People love our energy and enthusiasm and we just have fun on-stage, thats what its all about. Well that and making sure the chicks are dancing .... really ... its all about the chicks.

Taylor Valley State Forest July 4th 2008

Looking through our Hiking guide book for central New York I was at task for finding a good and challenging hike for the day. We wanted to be done by 5 pm at least so we could head to my sisters for a little 4th of July partying. Having looked to the area of last weeks hike ( Highland State Forest ) I still wanted to explore the valleys and deep forests there. Taylor Valley State forest was one of the few hikes in the guidebook that was a 2-day excursion. But looking closer at the details we could see that each day was separated into loops. One 9 mile loop and a smaller 4 mile loop to the north.

Mike "Think we can do 9 miles and get back in time?"
Heather being the eternal optimist "Sure!"

We prepared ourselves in the usual way. Each time we have gone on our hikes, we have thought of different essentials that we will need. Our day packs are becoming packed with things that will allow us to be comfortable in most conditions along with making sure we are safe and prepared. The big addition this time? Toilet Paper.
Yup toilet paper has many uses beyond what the normal human uses it for. Lost? Wrap yourself in toilet paper, can see someone in pure white for miles. Cold? Great fire starter implement. Song writing? Some of the best songs have been written on toilet paper. Napkins, headbands, shelter building, yes I am officially removing "toilet" from the name and I am calling it "survival paper".

So we gathered our things and set out for the hike around 10:30 am. I loaded up the TomTom with the directions and we were off. The funny thing about the TomTom is that it actually has a voice personality. The current personality is of a woman in her late 40's who has probably never felt the touch of a man and tells it like it is. Heather and I have fun telling her "No" when she tries to bring us to a spot where we dont feel is right. However more often than not, this car GPS has saved our buts from getting lost on more than one occasion. Which leads to highway 600.

Highway 600 ( telephone road ) is a road that looks like a highway but is NOT a highway. When you share the road with 2 ladies on horseback you know you are off the regular roads. It was a blast though because the road was just wide enough for my Exterra and I had to kick it into 4 wheel drive to make it up the hill. Thanks again TomTom!

We arrived finally and set off for our hike. I setup a "Track" on my gps and I made Heather in charge of the compass. We were going to get a crash course in navigating today, whether we wanted to or not. The hike was a typical loop that would end with us on the Fingerlakes Trail system. Half of it was on numerous forest roads and the other half was full of blazes and the Fingerlakes Trail.

Heather and I have not finished going through our orienteering book so we are complete noobs at navigating via map and compass. All of our previous hikes have had well blazed trails and its been pretty much cake. This was another story. The first half started out fine and easy to navigate. We had to depend on the description in the book and the small map provided and took various compass readings when we were about to make a turn. Easy right? The problem was that the map only showed the route to take but didnt actually show every road. We were dependent upon the compass and a really crappy map. When we summited the first hill/mountain the road started to come to various intersections. We had to be very cautious using our compass to make sure we were going the correct way.

At each of these intersection I would make a waypoint on the gps and we also were being tracked. We really couldnt get lost because we could just backtrack via the gps. It continued for a while, the numerous roads and then the mud started. There were storms the previous day so we really saw the effects of this. Tons of mud and we had no choice but to traverse through it. The benefit to the mud was the tracks that we saw. Horse hooves, deer tracks, people tracks, truck tracks, big foot tracks, bear tracks. Yup, pretty sure we saw bear tracks and bigfoot tracks, or perhaps these were just distortions from the mud.

Being dependent on the book the directions started out very detailed and soon became vague. This is where the problems started. We started questioning each turn we made and started becoming a bit nervous that we were further down the trail than we thought. After sitting and mulling over where we were, while checking my own gps it turned out that between the time the book was written and now a particular road name had changed. This alleviated our confusion and soon we were on our way down a busy highway till we saw the blazes for the Fingerlakes trail!

Once on the trail it was easy to see the blazes on the trees and we were once again comfortable knowing where we were. The trail itself though is rather primitive. One thing that Heather and find is that through experience we are learning much about what we should and shouldnt be doing while hiking. We really need to wear pants, or at least bring some to slip on over our shorts. The trail was rather overgrown in spots and we were constantly pushing through some rather dense brush. We constantly checked ourselves for ticks, as this would be a prime spot for them to attach themselves to us. We do however douse ourselves in Deet before setting off. Perhaps this has been effective. At one point on the trail we saw some kind of bones sitting in the middle of the trail. We inspected them but Heather said "Maybe we should get out of here?". I agreed. Never took a pic of these.

When all was said and done somehow according to the tracking in the gps we managed to hike 10.8 miles. That is a personal record, and our muscles and joints were feeling it. One thing we learned is that we need to make sure we have proper maps on our next excursion. Also need to really concentrate and learn orienteering with map and compass. We also never got to use the toilet paper for the uses above. Maybe next time.