The Panic is touring the West Coast this fall with a three night stop at the Fox Theatre in Oakland. I picked up general admission tickets this morning and look forward to some good ol’ fashion, southern fried rockin’ roll come November.

A friend at work told me about The Oatmeal.com and I feel it’s my duty as a person (who enjoys complete nonsense) to pass this along — it’s friggen hilarious!

http://theoatmeal.com/

We’re in the planning stages of an incredible trip to explore Southeast Europe.  In June of next year we plan to visit Istanbul, Athens, and then charter a 40ft catamaran to sail the Greek Isles by way of the Aegean Sea. The full details are still being worked out so I’ll provide more information once the plans are finalized.

In the meantime, here’s an overview of the isles we’re planning to sail.

The fine gentlemen at 2nd Sunday and Mission Rock have graciously asked me to play on NYE ‘09 so this is shout to all the funky house music lovers to join us for a NYE blowout. In addition to myself, the line up includes the legendary Dj Dan, Derrick Carter, D:fuse, Jay Tripwire, Dj Rooz, and Rouzbeh.

Mission Rock was so much fun last year that we decided to close the door on ‘08 with a more personal touch. A two our closing set!! It’s been a couple years since I’ve played on NYE so I’m bringing the house down for this one. My set starts at 3am so come early to hear Dj Dan work his magic. He’s playing from 1am to 3am. It’s going to be an awesome night.

Much love in ‘09!

Across the country, an increasing number of cities, counties and states are making it easier for citizens to vote without standing in long lines or using potentially flawed electronic voting equipment. Whether by allowing no-excuse absentee balloting, enabling voters to permanently choose absentee balloting, or adopting vote by mail, election officials, particularly those in the West, are embracing this trend.

Absentee voting is conducted by mail-in paper ballot prior to the day of the election.  While all states offer some version of it, there’s a lot of variation in states’ procedures for absentee voting.  For instance, some states offer “no-excuse” absentee voting, allowing any registered voter to vote absentee without requiring that the voter state a reason for his/her desire to vote absentee.  Other states permit voters to vote absentee only under a limited set of circumstances.

In the fine state of California, no excuse is required. Furthermore, you may also place yourself on a "permanent absentee" list by checking a box and signing your name on a vote-by-mail ballot request form. You will automatically be mailed a vote-by-mail ballot for each election as long as you continue to vote.

GoVoteAbsentee.org has graciously provided all the information and step-by-step instructions for filing the Absentee Vote-By-Mail form in your county.

On September 26th, 27th and 28th, the San Francisco Blues Festival will carry on its tradition as the longest running blues festival in the world.  Held on the green at Fort Mason’s Great Meadow and framed by the stunning backdrop of the Golden Gate Bridge and the Bay, the Festival will celebrate its 36th year with an all-star lineup of some of the best blues performers in the world.

 Saturday the 27th

• Hot Tuna
• Delta Groove All Star Blues Revue
• Elmore James Jr. with Cadillac Zack
• Delta Wires Big Band Harmonica and Horn Blues

Sunday the 28th

• Johnny Winter
• Buckwheat Zydeco
• Curtis Salgado Big Band

Over the past several years Tina and I have been on a quest to see our favorite rockin’ roll bands of the 70’s and 80’s. Thankfully, the San Francisco Bay Area is a habitual stop for many concert tours which has given us the privilege of catching many of the greats, including: The Eagles, Steve Miller Band, Prince, Stevie Wonder, The Police, Van Halen, Janes Addiction, Boston, Mark Knopfler, The Doobie Brothers, Tom Petty, Chicago, Steve Winwood, BB King, The Rolling Stones and few others that are escaping my mind. But what musical journey (pardon the pun) would be complete without a band from San Francisco that gave us the cheesiest power ballads of all time.

One of my dearest friends from college is getting married in Crested Butte, CO on August 30th, 2008.  Kort Snyder, possibly the sweetest and most genuine person I’ve ever met, will tie the knot with his long time girlfriend, Stacy.  I had the pleasure of meeting her at our wedding in Mexico last year and can honestly say that he’s a lucky man.  It’s hard enough to find a woman in Gunnison/Crested Butte, much less one that’s beautiful on the inside, and out.  Nice work Mr. Snyder!  And congratulations to you both.  From what I saw in Cabo you have a wonderful future ahead.

We look forward to celebrating with you in CB!

August is shaping up to be a Widespread month!! As previously noted, Tina and I are traveling to Crested Butte, CO for a friends wedding on August 30th.  We’ve just received more good news, the icing on the cake, if  you will… after playing the Outside Lands festival in SF, Widespread Panic is headed to Colorado to play the Jazz Aspen Snowmass festival.  Which falls perfectly in line with our travel plans.  A full weekend of live music in Golden Gate Park and we’re off to Aspen to continue our hippie fix with our good friends from Colorado. It’s gonna be a crazy week!

The Indian summer months are final upon us and what better way to celebrate the end of San Francisco’s winter than a weekend of rockin’ music, insane crowds, and hopefully, blue skies!  On August 22nd, 2008 Golden Gate Park will be overrun with dancing hippies, beer gardens, and band shells. And for good reason, the Outside Land’s promoter’s have pulled together a stellar line up for this event.  Radiohead, Beck, Steel Pulse, Primus, Galactic, Widespread Panic, ALO, and Mike Gordon to name a few. 

Tina and I will be there all three nights!  You’ll most likely find us at one of the following shows…

August 22, 2008

Radiohead, Beck, and Steel Pulse

August 23, 2008

Tom Petty, Primus, Galactic, and Soul Krewe feat. the Dirty Dozen Brass Band

August 24, 2008

Widespread Panic, ALO, and Mike Gordon

The musical genius best-known for his role in the band Dire Straits is touring North America this summer to promote his latest solo album titled “Kill to Get Crimson”. The tour will bring Knopfler to the Greek Theatre on June 27, 2008. I’ve been a longtime fan of the English rocker and look forward to seeing him play live.

Check out the live concert Dire Straits performed in San Antonio, TX on August, 16th 1985. It’s a beauty! Also, if you haven’t followed Mark Knopfler’s career since Dire Straits’ dissolution in 1995, I highly recommend the following albums.

	The Ragpicker’s Dream Knopfler pays homage to the American roots music he’s always admired.
	Shangri-La Knopfler’s fourth studio album, Shangri-La, has been called “perhaps his most rocking album since his halcyon days in Dire Straits.

This is a unanimous declaration of house music!  Come celebrate life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness with us at Shine on July 4th, 2008.  The festivities begin with a BBQ at Mr. Darren Story’s casa to celebrate his graduation from business school.  After which we’ll stroll over to Shine and continue our celebration of indepen-dance.

Location:

Shine
1337 Mission St. between 9th and 10th
San Francisco, CA

www.shinesf.com

Dj’s for the evening:

• Donnie Sizemore
• Johnny Collective
• Chad Clubb & Special Guests

The team behind ItsOurTree.com has released a free tool to build your family tree in a dynamic, drag and drop, zoom in and out interface. In what feels like Google Maps for your family, enter your name and email address, then add your parents, your kids, their parents, etc. Each person node expands to a full profile with fields for the birth date, a photo, maiden name, place of birth, current location, and an area to free-type notes and stories, too. The result is a good-looking visualization of your ancestry—in fact, filling in the blanks becomes addictive quickly. Looks like a great place to visit with your family and save the stories, places, and names that you don’t want to forget.

http://www.itsourtree.com

Johnny Lee demonstrates his amazing Wii Remote hacks, which transform the $40 game piece into a digital whiteboard, a touch screen and a head-mounted 3-D viewer. A multi-ovation demo from TED2008.

Learn more about Johnny Lee and his latest projects.

• http://procrastineering.blogspot.com
• http://www.cs.cmu.edu/~johnny/projects/wii/

Also, check out TED (www.ted.com) if you haven’t heard of it. TED stands for Technology, Entertainment, Design. It started out (in 1984) as a conference bringing together people from those three worlds. Since then its scope has become ever broader.

The website contains some fascinating presentations, demos and discussions that are inspired by the world’s greatest thinkers and doers.

On occasion I find myself peering in to the world of the absurdly rich to understand what is possible with unlimited resources. In this case, I found a home theatre system that’s a bit gratuitous…

$6 Million Home Theater from Jeremy Kipnis

First up, music engineer, producer, classical music lover and now the creator of a gigantic home theater system, Jeremy Kipnis sure knows his entertainment. His latest home entertainment offering is not only filthy posh, it’s actually quite a bargain for US $6 million. Sure, what a bargain!

Source: http://www.bornrich.org/entry/6-million-home-theater-from-jeremy-kipnis-for-a-party-of-three/

There’s nothing better than arriving at a concert with high expectations and leaving with an utter sense of satisfaction. Which is exactly what we got with the Steve Miller Band on Wednesday, March 26th. The four hour concert consisted of the Steve Miller Band, a dozen special guests, and their opening act, four-time Grammy nominated blues/rock guitarist, Robben Ford.

Tina and I arrived at the Fillmore Auditorium early and got a nice spot for the show – 10 feet from the stage, dead center. The opener, Robben Ford, started around 8:15pm and played an outstanding set. I’d never heard of Ford before the show, but I won’t forget him. His power trio seamlessly fused blues, jazz and rock with undeniable grace and style. One friend summed it up well saying, “You can’t fake this kind of music.”

Robben Ford has released more than 20 albums in his 35 year career and was named one of the “100 Greatest Guitarists of the 20th Century” by Musicians magazine. I’ve yet to hear any of his albums but I’m on the hunt and will post a review in the future.

The rest of the evening was a musical journey…

Steve Miller opened the two and half hour marathon sitting on a barstool, telling stories and playing a couple acoustic tracks off his latest album. Between each song he’d tell stories about his trials, tribulations and successes as a musician in San Francisco. He spoke with the energy, passion and humor that one would expect from the mastermind behind the “pompatus of love”. He said Wednesday night was his 109th show at the Fillmore.

Nothing made that more obvious than the special guests that joined him on stage. My personal favorite is actively touring with the Steve Miller Band; the fourth brother of the Wooten family, Joseph Wooten. An incredibly talented pianist, singer and song writer, Joseph plays like a man possessed.

The biggest shock of the evening was 9 time Grammy award winner and Hall of Famer, Bonnie Raitt. After a few minutes on stage Tina and I were both thinking… is that Bonnie Raitt!? She never sang but played 3 fantastic blues songs with the band. On a side note, checkout the Fillmore poster above. Notice a resemblance?

Two other blues musicians (whose names I didn’t catch) also joined the band. A trombone player with an incredible voice and another blues singer shown in the picture above with Steve Miller, Bonnie Raitt, Billy Peterson and Kenny Lee Lewis.

Photo note: we left our camera at home and had to use a cell phone. Sorry for the poor quality.

Shortly after Raitt left the stage they announced the arrival of Joe Satriani. The alien-like guitarist joined Miller and the rest of the band for the reminder of the evening. I gave Tina a little background on Satriani and told her to hold on for a ride. We were not disappointed! He showed off his blues roots and took the energy to a new level.

The final guest for the evening was Al Jardine of the Beach Boys. He took the stage and sang Swingtown and a Beach Boys cover to close the show. It ended around 12:20am and we all left the building with smiles.

It was great show! And to top it off, as Tina and I were walking to our car we ran in to Steve Miller walking out the back door to his tour bus. I stopped and said, “Thank you so much for a wonderful evening.” He looked at us both, smiled and waved goodbye.

Live at the Fillmore

March 24, 25, 26th 2008
Three Nights At The Fillmore
San Francisco, CA

As a kid growing up in the ’70s I was exposed to many different genres of music – classical, blues, folk, country, jazz, disco, and of course, rockin’ roll. All of it had a profound effect on my life, but there were a few bands whose music created an intense emotional bond to that era. One such band is, without question, the Steve Miller Band.

Throughout the ’70s the Steve Miller Band was cranking out hit songs like Jet Airliner, The Stake, Winter Time, The Joker, Serenade, and Fly Like an Eagle. Their sound is unmistakable and takes us back to a time when life was simple and rockin’ roll moved a generation. For me, the Steve Miller Band goes down in history as one of the greatest bands of all time.

The good news is that they’re not done! On March 26th, 2008, Tina and I will be at the Fillmore Auditorium in San Francisco to see the Steve Miller Band kick off their 2008 tour. I look forward to the journey back in time.