A little project...

About a month ago, I decided to give a little project a go. For those of you that know me, I am a pretty big Dave Matthews Band fan. I have been to 37 DMB shows over the past 10 years and have made some amazing friends over those years. One of the great things about this community is tapers. These are individuals who attend shows and record them, then share them with everyone so that you can hear how the band sounded on that particular night. These records are always free and must be traded in a lossless format, normally FLAC or SHN. I really don't want to get into the difference of mp3, wav, and lossless formats, but just know that soundwise, lossless is way better.

Before the internet become what it is today, fans in the DMB community used B&P (Burn & Package). Basically once someone had a particular show, you would send them CD's with the appropriate return envelope, they would burn it for you, then return it to you. Then you could return the favor for someone else. Once the internet blew up, the shows were just uploaded to some particular site and you could download then. The way this was done was through a system called Bit Torrent. One of the more popular torrent clients is Utorrent. This is a peer to peer sharing system that has become pretty popular. All of this sound a little over your head? Its ok, I am here to help.

I have teamed up with a few buddies and we have basically done everything for you. All you have to do is download and worry about nothing I have previously talked about. The only thing you really have to do, if you only use iTunes, is convert to WAV. Just download Traders Little Helper, drag the downloaded FLAC files into the program, and decode. Drag into iTunes and you will be listening to shows in no time.

Here is a link to the DMB Spreadsheet that we have created and will continue to update as more shows become available.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/pub?key=0Ag_UrbWRnAujdGZmbWtVU1BJaExCdWhDQjZuazByeEE&hl=en&output=html

Currently there are 589 full band shows and 141 Dave Matthews and Tim Reynolds show.

It is great to download shows from years past and listen to how much the band has evolved over time. I will feature shows on occasion that I feel would be great to listen to. I hope that this can provide those who can't torrent, or those who simply don't know how to, and way to enjoys shows from years past. Happy Listening.

Is there a particular show you downloaded that you really liked? Do you have any questions on how to obtain one of these show?

The Dark Tower

I am currently embarking on the journey to the Dark Tower. For those who don't know what this is, it is a book series of Stephen King's (easily my favorite author) that he has been writing since 1982. There are currently seven volumes, and he is working on an eighth as we speak. I am about half done with the third book and have trouble putting it down at times.

I have always been a reader, but for some reason haven't read a book in a while. I think the last book that i read all the way through was the first Twilight (i'll get to that series again at some point) book. A friend (thank you Hamrick) recommended that I pick up The Gunslinger, the first in the series. I have a fairly large collection of King books, but I had never really wanted to embark on the Dark Tower adventure. I am a fairly big Lord Of The Rings fan, but man are those a tough read. I was reassured this was drastically different, but wasn't to Sci-Fi that it would lose my attention. So, on the recommendation , I headed to the local Barnes and Noble and found a nice copy of it. Within two days, I was back in the car going to get the second and third book.


The Gunslinger was a pretty simple read. No be honest, not a lot happens. You do get to know that Roland of Gilead is the last gunslinger on the planet and he is in pursuit of this "Man In Black". They flash back to a few of Roland's childhood, but mainly focus on the finding this man. He encounters a strange city, finds a boy in the desert all alone, and finds himself on a mine car under a mountain. I really don't want to give away all that happens in the book, but it was very entertaining to the point that I needed to have more Roland in my life.

The seconds book, The Drawing Of The Three, picks up seven hours after the first book ends. The book makes it first little sci-fi turn, almost like the movie Being John Malkovich. Roland ends up finding out that he isn't going to be making this journey alone. Eddie and Odetta (who later becomes Susannah) will be joining him. Eddie is a heroin addict and Odetta is an African American women who has no legs below the knees. They have there ups and downs as they all start to get to know one another, but they all know it is their destiny to be there and to head towards this tower.

The Waste Lands, is the third book in the series and I am enjoying that as I type this. There is a person very familiar to Roland and his past that joins the threesome. Roland is teaching Susannah, Eddie, and this unnamed person the tricks to his trade. Though none of them will ever be the gunslinger he is, they are making great strides in becoming great "back up" for him. They just came across a little town and had the first decent meal in over 3 months and are about ready to enter a strange city. They first have to cross this ginormous bridge that is very similar to the George Washington Bridge is NYC. For talking with others, and the anticipation the book is building up to, things are about to get very very interesting. I will admit that this is the slowest of all the books due to the fact they are building a bunch of stuff up and nothing has really happened. Maybe I will change my mind, once I am finished with it.

I plan on talking about this series until I am through with it. Hope you enjoy the little reviews and I will do my best not to spoil everything that happens.

Have you read this series before? What did you think? Give me some hints on what to look forward to!!!

COD, Wings, and Beer

This has been a pretty uneventful yet fun couple of days. The new Call Of Duty: Black Ops came out yesterday and I found a beer here in town that got me pretty excited.

I have been playing Call of Duty since it first came out, and I do have to say this is probably the best so far. Granted, I haven't played it very much yet, but the graphics and the game play seem to be the best yet. There are some issues with the online play right now, but i am sure in no time there will be updates to fix all the issues. It was pretty crazy logging in around 10am yesterday morning as see a million other people playing online. I think back to the time when I got that first Nintendo system and playing Mario Bros. was the coolest thing ever. It is simply amazing the strides the video game industry has taken in 20 years. In looking into some first days sales, it looks like this game will top $310 million. That is roughly saying that five million people have purchased the game and registered to play online. I will provide a little more insightful review once I have had a change to play the campaign and experience all the maps online. If you are online and want to play, shoot me a friends invite. I play on the PS3 and my psn is: johnny_splash

I really didn't feel like cooking last night. I have been enjoying left overs the past couple of days from the meals cooked over the weekend. You can check those out here. So it turned into a Wing night. Called up Buffalo Wild Wings and placed a nice carry out order. I highly recommend the Caribbean Jerk and the Parmesan Garlic. On Tuesdays you can get bone-in wings for $0.45. Not to shabby if you ask me (though I do remember when it was only a Quarter). It took about 20 minutes for them to get the order ready so I ran over to the liquor store to grab a six pack. Gotta have beer when you eat wings, right? I kind of had my heart set on the Sun King Creame Ale, but I thought I would give the cooler a once over. To my surprise, I see some Schlafly's!

When I went to St. Louis over Halloween I toured their brewery, sampled a few of their brews, and was upset I didn't grab any to bring home with me. I had never seen it in Indy before so my mind was instantly made up to grab a six pack. There were three different brews to choose from, the Pale Ale, the Pilsner, and the Dry Hopped APA. Decided to go with the APA and I remember really liking that on the beer tour. I do have to say it was a nice surprise and complimented the wings to perfection. Next time you are out and about and happen to see something from Schlafly's I would highly recommend it! Haven't tasted anything bad from them yet!!

Due Date

I went and saw the movie Due Date this weekend. For those of you that don't know, it is the new Zach Galifinakis and Robert Downey Jr. movie. I had seen the previews a couple of times, and this seemed like my kind of movie. Going into it, its hard to not try to compare it to The Hangover. It does have the same Director, Todd Phillips, and Mr. Galifinakis was in that movies as well, but I went into it with an open mind.

The basic concept of the movie was two strangers sharing a rent a car from Atlanta to LA. Zach needs to get there to start a career in Hollywood and Downey Jr.'s wife is having a C-section and he can't miss it. The reason they have to make this trip in a vehicle is because of Zach's ability to pretty much screw up everything. He landed them both on a no-fly list, thus a placing them in a rent a car.

I don't want to ruin the movie for those who haven't seen it, so I will be vague. I really enjoyed the trip to The Waffle House, Juliette Lewis's house, The Grand Canyon, and finally the hospital. Jamie Fox and Danny McBride provided quite the laughs in there short lived scenes as well.

Galifinakis did not disappoint with his one liners, crazy looks, and phenomenal dramatic walk aways. I think that he was cast perfect for this movie as I could not see anyone playing the role of Ethan Tremblay (or Carter). I was a little skeptical about seeing Robert Downey Jr. in a comedy, but he for sure pulled it off. To be honest, I think he pulled off the biggest laugh in the movie while he was watching Juliette Lewis kids while she dealt with Zach.

Overall, I would recommend this movie to pretty much everyone. Is it a movie that I would spend another $12 to see in the theater? Probably not. Did it live up to The Hangover? Not really. It did provide a lot of laughs and I am glad that I went to see it. I would give this flick a solid B.

The Why Store

I decided to head over to The Lake House Tavern last night for dinner and listen to The Why Store. They are a band that was formed in Muncie, IN, home of the Ball State Cardinals back in the late 1980's. They have had some ups and down's as a band and finally decided to call it quits on New Year's Eve of 2005. The lead singer, Chris Shaffer, decided to try and reincarnate the band and got a few new guys to start back up again. They probably won't reach superstar status but if you are in the Indianapolis area, check the Why Store page and see if they are playing at a local bar.

In talking about them last night, i learned that in 1997 they played a free concert before the Phish run at Deer Creek in Noblesville and packed the joint to the fences. It is crazy that a band can play a place like that, all be it free, then turn and play at a local bar in front of no more that 100 people. The great thing was, they were playing just the same as they would of in front of 25,000. Ok, maybe the lead singer wouldn't leave the stage in the middle of a song, hit the restroom, hit the bar, then return to the stage to finish a song.

I enjoyed the Shrimp 'Po Boy sandwich for dinner with a side of steak fries. The spicy mustard added just the right touch for the sandwich. If you ever go there, make sure to get the steak fries. These are probably my favorite fries that I have ever had. Something about the seasoning they use on it just works out to perfection. Drink of choice for the evening was Goose Island's 312.

Give This a Shot...

I have tried a couple of great recipes this week. If you check out My Food, I am going to keep it up to date on some good things for everyone to try. I will be recapping at the end of the week and hopefully it can provide everyone with some new idea's, when it comes to dinner.

On Tuesday, I gave the Sunday Chicken Dinner a shot. This was something that I have never attempted before. I had pretty much everything in the pantry. Instead of the Cajun seasoning that was recommended, I went with this Adobo Seasoning and it worked out to perfection. It added a spice to the chicken and the potatoes unlike any I have ever tried before. I did add a little bit of Garlic Powder and Red Pepper into the mixture before I rolled the chicken in it. The two hour cook time may seem a little long, but once it comes out of the over you forget about the cook time. There was more than enough to feed myself and my roommate, plus leftovers for a nice lunch the next day. Overall, I would give this meal a B+.

Wednesday, I gave Chicken Pot Pie another try. This was the second time i attempted to make this, I have to say, this is probably my favorite meal I have ever cooked. It is kind of tricky to make because you have multiple things on the stove at the same time. You have to let the veggies and chicken boil for about 15 min, while you are making the gravy to pour on top of it. No worries though, if the gravy gets done a little early, just change the heat to low and give it a stir every minute or so, until the chicken is done. I would recommend setting the pie crusts out while you are fixing everything so that they soften up, just a bit. It makes it way easier to seal the edges once you pour everything into the bottom crust. 35 minutes in the oven was perfect for my stove. If you want a little extra pop on this, before you place the top crust on, sprinkle some shredded cheese, of your choice, generously over everything (I prefer Pepper Jack). This meal gets an A+.

I was thinking about just cooking up a frozen pizza on Thursday, but decided to try my skills at a Tuna Casserole. I have done the whole Tuna Helper multiple times, but I wanted to try something a little different. I had to make a run to the store for some Egg Noodles and Cheese (again, went with Pepper Jack). To be honest, the thing that took the longest on this meal, was waiting on the water to boil. Once the noodles and peas were done and you drain the water out, I would recommend placing everything else in the pot (minus the cheese) before you return to the heat. You don't want to burn the noodles on the bottom. Stir it all together and return to the heat then place the cheese on top, wait about 45 seconds for it to melt, then give it all a good stir. It calls for 10 slices of cheese, but you could get away with going as low as 5 slices more than likely. This makes A LOT of food. I had a generous helping and there is probably enough left for 3 meals. If you are cooking for a family of four or five, this could be a perfect meal for you. Quick, Easy, and lots of food! This meal gets a B- from me, only because I used all 10 slices of cheese and it was a little too much.

Umphrey's Weekend

A little over 2 months ago I purchased ticket to Umphrey's McGee for this past weekend. Man O Man was that a well spent $40. Really can't beat seeing one of the best bands out there for $20 a night.

Woke up on Saturday and was pretty lazy. Stacy decided to bake some Pumpkin Spice Cupcakes and they turned out pretty delicious. We drank a few beers and watched some College Football, then decided we would hit up Schlafly's. We went on a tour of the brewery and got 4 or 5 free samples at the end, then hit up the bar and grabbed a beer at the bar before we left. Very cool little place and some great beer that I had never had before.

We headed over to Blueberry Hill to grab some dinner. Highly recommend getting the Hickory Burger. Can't go wrong at this place really. Very inexpensive, and very delicious. We had a couple of pitchers of the Shlafly's Octoberfest and had some Cheddar Cheese Balls after the burger was gone. Those things were flat yummy. Basically fired cheese balls. It was then time to head to the show at The Pageant.

We sat off the the left side of the stage and enjoy the wonderful sounds of The Woods Brothers. Never really listened to them before, but I was pretty impressed and may have to get some of their music. Umphrey's came on stage a little after 8pm and played until around midnight.

10.30.2010 - The Pageant, St. Louis, MO
Set One
All In Time > The Linear, Red Tape, Tribute to the Spinal Shaft, Bulls On the Bus > Front Porch > Cemetery Walk II

Set Two
In Bloom > Booth Love, Rocker (part II) > In the Kitchen, Miss Tinkle's Overture > Andy's Last Beer, Higgins > Miss Tinkle's Overture

Encore
Push the Pig > All In Time

Highlights of the nights we easily The Linear and Front Porch> Cemetery Walk II. I was really hoping for In The Kitchen because I hadn't heard it before, so I was excited to see it and it did not disappoint. Higgin > Tinkle's were out of this world to end the second set. After the show was over, it was time for bed. This was my 5th time seeing these guys and was probably my favorite.

Sunday was another relaxing day. Watched some NFL, played some Madden 11, drank a coup le of beers, and ate some great food that Matty grilled up. Chicken and Brats. You can't really go wrong there. We headed over the The Pageant a little earlier to get a better spot than the night before.
I really can't describe the scene on Sunday. So many random costumes. The theme of the nights was Mash-Ups so a lot of people were dressed as two things. ie...Tony The Tiger Woods, Sponge Bob Marley. The band came on a little after 8pm and man they looked great. Jake was Paul Stanley Cup, Bayless was Yoko Bono, Joel was Pope John Paul Shaffer, Kris was Larry David Lettermen, and Andy was GI Joe Kim Noah. Stasik was probably my favorite as Dr. Evil Knievel. When they brought out mini Dr. Evil Knievel I lost it. So funny and so appropriate for this night. We had a great spot right in front of the sound board and rocked out with 2,000 people.

10.31.2010 - The Pageant, St. Louis, MO

Set One
Ocean Billy > Conduit, Nothing Too Fancy > Hangover, November Walk$, Women Wine and Song > Ocean Billy, 1348 > The Way You Rule the World$$ > 1348

Set Two
The Triple Wide^ > Bitter Sweet Haji*, Bridgeless > Walletsworth, "Top Ten" list^^, Prowler > Bridgeless, Sociable Jimmy > Nothing Too Fancy, 1901 Jump**, Bright Lights Big City

EncoreJaJunk > Don't Stop the Spirit of the Radio%% > JaJunk

$ November Rain (Guns N' Roses) + Cemetery Walk mash-up
$ Everybody Wants to Rule the World (Tears for Fears) + The Way You Make Me Feel (Michael Jackson) mash-up
* Hajimemashite + Bitter Sweet Symphony (The Verve) mash-up
** 1901 (Phoenix) + Jump (Van Halen) + Fuck You (Cee Lo) mash-up
%% Don't Stop Believin' (Journey) + Spirit of the Radio (Rush) mash-up

The mash-ups were absolutely awesome. My favorites of the night were probably November Walk or Bitter Sweet Haji. It was amazing how seamless these guys made the transitions from song to song. I'm a big 1348 fan so whey busted that out I was very please. JaJunk is a go to song for me, so to hear that in the encore left me with a very satisfied taste in my mouth.

Overall the weekend was absolutely perfect. Great company, great beer, and amazing shows. If you ever get the change to see Umphrey's DO IT. It is totally worth it.