Blog THIS!

Offline

2006-11-26T12:31:00.000-06:00

So, I'm moving my computer to the basement for a week or so to record some drums. I may or may not connect my internet cable down there, so I'll probably be offline for a bit. I think I'm gonna delete this blog eventually, too. It's unfocused and random. I think I'll create a different one, or a couple different ones. Or maybe not. I like blogging, but it's been hard to get myself to do it. I think if I make a new one, I'll go with a more "creative writing" approach. Because writing about the rummage sale I just had is, well, kinda boring. And those of you who read this are probably gonna find out about my life happenings through other channels anyway. I tried a time traveler blog for a bit, and it was okay. Any suggestions on what I could do for a creative one? Maybe I'll just write crazy random shit with some underlying theme. Anyway, I should probably concentrate on music anyway. I ain't gettin any younger. Gotta write and record as much punk as I can before I get soft and start writing all polkas. 'Cause it's comin, folks... sewiously.

Rock the Vote!

2006-11-07T16:20:00.000-06:00

Bring the gays back from Iraq! Let the troops get married! And KILL WHITEY! umm... yeah. I hope my vote counts this time. :)

YES!

2006-10-16T20:11:00.000-05:00

Stephen Colbert just got every Star Wars geek to vote democrat. Way to go, Steve-o!

New Weird Al!

2006-09-21T21:17:00.000-05:00

Fuckin A! .... http://axiomsun.com/todays_buzz/videosift/weird_al_-_white_and_nerdy.html

Weird Al is one of the very few bands from whom I'll buy a new album without listening first. The guy is a fuckin' genius, I tell ya. I've worked on a few parodies in my life, but none will compare to Al. I bow to him.

Me likey funny.

2006-09-05T00:13:00.000-05:00

"I was inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame by Ray Charles. He also taught me how to drive."
-Billy Joel, "Secrets", Conan O'Brien-

I'm sick of these mutha fuckin' snakes on this mutha fuckin' plane!!!

2006-08-18T22:26:00.000-05:00

And the crowd goes wild! haha... I bet half of the dorks who saw "Snakes On A Plane" tonight are gonna use that as the title of their next post. Man, it was fun. My Oscar prediction right now is that, well, "Snakes On A Plane" will win NOTHING! haha.. But it was fun to see a movie with a theater full of movie geeks cheering and laughing and clapping. Good times, I tell ya. Just go into it expecting crap and you'll be surprised. It's not super cheesy like I thought it would be. Lots of action. And.. well... snakes! Man, I'm still smilin' a half hour after leaving the theater.

"Fluff nugget munch-mallow"

2006-08-13T22:17:00.000-05:00

That's the kind of thing drunk people say. A guy we met at the Bristled Boar last night said it. Not sure what he was talking about, but we thought it was funny. Another good title for this post would be "What the hell did I do last night?" or "Lost Sunday" since I basically slept all day today after a crazy afterbar until 8am. Chris (GovZero guitarist) and I checked out Johnny Rocker and the High Rollers for a bit at Club Tavern, then walked over to the Bristled Boar. Started talking to this other guy Chris and he invited us to his afterbar. We drank a LOT of alcohol, met some cool people, played Yahtzee and then... well my memory gets fuzzy after the Yahtzee. Woke up at 4pm, got a ride back to my place and slept until 10pm. Now I'm having breakfast before going back to sleep for the night. Fucked up, huh? So, if any of those kids read this, thanks to Chris and Shawn for having us over to their SWEET apartment, and thanks to Julia for the engaging political discussion. When you run for president, I'll vote for you. Okay. Need... sleep... now.

Sunspot's Special Little Day

2006-07-20T17:08:00.000-05:00

It's been 10 years of Mikey, The Stud, and Wendy Lynn, and Sunspot is having their anniversary show at the Capital Brewery right by our house tomorrow (Friday)! It's from 6pm to 9pm and everyone is welcome over to see our new place afterwards. BYOB. We're pretty much unpacked enough. At least enough to have people over. :) The end of 2006 marks 10 years since BORD started, too, although Sunspot stayed together a little longer. I think the members of BORD just didn't have sex with each other enough. We've had some great times with the 'Spot, so show your support for our best friends in rock and come to the show. It's free, too! So, if you need our address just give a call. We're right on University, so we'll probably walk on over to the Beer Garden around 5:30 or so.

Re-Punk-blican

2006-07-11T17:18:00.000-05:00

Oh man, this video is freakin hilarious! Well, it's not like being a republican makes your music suck, 'cause Michale (yeah, I didn't know it was spelled like that, either) Graves fuckin rules. His voice is like melted... metal.. or something. It's awesome. But I think just to keep band tension to a minimum, I'll start a side project with Jon Stewart instead of Michale. I'm sure ol' Jonny plays at least a mean tambourine. Maybe he'll help me write that anti-Ann Coulter song that's been swimmin' round in my head. Nah.. that would be WAY too easy. That chick is fuckin wack. Even Bill O'Reilly thinks so, and he's the spawn of Hilter. Anyway, back to music. Check out Dragonforce. They too, rule. They don't write 'em like that anymore! And although most would say "NO ONE should write music like that" I say fuck it. I think it's fun. A little cheesy I guess, but shit, I listen to NERFHERDER for christ's sake. I write songs about monkeys and beer.

Anyway, here I am at my new house. It's awesome. It's in Middleton, so stop by sometime everybody! Just call a couple minutes ahead of time, since I walk around naked sometimes now since it's just me and E. On second thought, just come on in. But don't say I didn't warn you.

Signing off for a week or so...

2006-06-28T18:24:00.000-05:00

Saturday we'll be moving into our new place, which will freakin rock. We won't have internet until next Wednesday or something. I may check my email at work if I can be sneaky, otherwise I might get the shakes from withdrawal. Anyway, we'll have a new phone number then, too. Until then we'll have E's cell phone. So.. see ya soon!

Weird Dream, and Moving

2006-06-17T14:38:00.000-05:00

Last night I had a weird dream. There were two huge lines with maybe a thousand people in each one or so. They led from the streets of some city into two different buildings. At the end of each line was a keg of beer. I assume they were never-ending kegs. (sing Never-Ending BEEER Keg!...) Anyway, the people in one line were all war veterans, and the people in the other line were all FAWMers. Maybe I think that vets and songwriters all deserve a beer. :) Or maybe I dream of a world where songwriters outnumber our armies, because war no longer exists and all that's left are old vets. That would rock. In another part of the dream, a gang of Italians were chasing me (maybe I miss the Sopranos) and then Erika was sitting on the lap of a S.W.A.T. team member, feeding him trail mix. I don't know where that came from.

So, in two weeks we're moving out of the Springswood Manor. It's been an awesome house. We've had some sweet parties (7 keggers in 4 years!) and good times. Our new house will only be 50% Ensign, as opposed to 75%, like here. I'll miss the "kids," as we call Amber and Dylan, but it'll be nice not to have their leftover fast food in the fridge tempting me all the time. :) We'll have three bedrooms, so I'll have a bigger room to put my computer and amps in, and all I have to do is invest in a nicer sound card and I'm ready to start recording a ton of stuff.

Our phone number will probably change, but we'll still have E's cellphone for a while until we get a new phone line (I might get a cell myself, if I can afford it). If you need the number, email or call me!

Oh, one more thing. Government Zero, my new punk band, will be playing our FIRST SHOW EVER at the King Club next Saturday, June 24th. We'll be playing with Sunspot and Big Fur, who both kick a snow leopard's ass. Show starts at 10, we play first, cover's about 5 bucks or so.. the usual. Hope to see you there!

FAWM

2006-05-14T19:25:00.000-05:00

I got to meet the other "FAWMers" Thursday, and they rock. If you don't know what I'm talking about, check it out HERE! Come to the show. It's gonna be a blast! I guess we're gonna decorate the stage like a living room, and we're all gonna sit up there and take turns playing songs. Sweet! Catch a rare acoustic performance by myself, with Wendy from Sunspot on violin for a couple tunes! It's gonna be a good time. And if you want to help me out, feel free to download this FLYER for the show, and hang it up where people will see. Hopefully we'll get a good crowd to come out and chill with us on a Sunday night (May 21st). It's from 7pm to around 10 or so. At the High Noon Saloon in Madison! So, not too late for you folks that gotta wake up early (most of us). It'll be laid back, fun, alcoholic if you so prefer, and musical. The cover is a measly 6 bucks. Hope to see you there!

ps- to listen to a few of the songs I may be playing, go here.

America... fuck yeah.

2006-05-03T20:36:00.000-05:00

If you haven't seen Stephen Colbert rip Bush a new asshole at his very own White House Correspondence Dinner, you have to check it out. I guess Jon Stewart said something like it was the balls-iest thing he'd ever seen, but I don't know. I think it was just what I would expect. I just wonder why the hell they'd invite Colbert to the dinner to SPEAK! I think possibly the administration is dumb enough to actually BELIEVE that Colbert is really right-wing, since he plays that character on his show. Well, anyway, I think I'll blog about something else non-political later, but I couldn't pass up the chance to let the world (aka the 5 people who read this blog) know about this video. Kick ass, man. Anarchy. Hell yeah.

I Love Music

2006-03-29T12:14:00.000-06:00

I'm home sick from work today. And this time I'm actually sick. Just a little sore throat, no need to worry. (insert blowjob joke here). Anyway, my cousin Kevin, who I call Cousin Kevin, sent me the link to Pandora.com and it rocks. It's a pretty simple idea and I'm sure there are more like it out there on the ol' "internet" but I love this one. Right now I created a Ramones / Green Day station. They have a ton of music I haven't heard, which is cool. You should check it out. I also still frequent allofmp3.com to download stuff cheap. Speaking of music, I still need to buy some good equipment for recording. I have a decent vocal mic and condenser mic now, but I need a small mixer with phantom power (I wasn't even sure what that WAS until yesterday when a co-worker who works at a studio told me) and a good sound card. So far I have whatever Dell had that was the best they could give me. But it's still only a mono 1/8 inch input. So, if anyone has any suggestions where I can get stuff for cheap, let me know. I really want to be able to record stuff well. Right now everything I do is okay, but there's still a lot of background hiss and such. When Erika and I move, I'm gonna try to soundproof my computer room and see if that helps. Right now I think a lot of the computer humming is what you hear in the background.

I'm gonna be playing some acoustic stuff for the FAWM showcase coming up Sunday, May 21st at the High Noon Saloon. More details on that later. So far I think there will be about 6 Madison songwriters who made it to the 14-song mark and we'll each play about 4 or 5 songs or something. It should be a lot of fun!

Movies and such...

2006-03-20T17:02:00.000-06:00

This is frickin sweet.

E and I saw CSA this weekend. Stands for "Confederate States of America" and it's a mockumentary about what the country would be like had the South won the Civil War. It was awesome! Funny, yet frightening as the same time. I recommend it to all! It's playing at the Orpheum in Madison. In the same little theater that BORD played a show in once!

Speaking of movies, anyone seen Wet Hot American Summer? It's a comedy few have heard about, but I thought it was frickin hilarious. It's made by a few of the guys from that old sketch comedy show on MTV, The State. I loved that show.

I also love Netflix. I can see what my friends are watching and how they rated stuff. And make fun of them when they give Miss Congeniality 5 stars.

I watched "Big" on AMC last night. It was that DVD_TV thing, where they show fun facts about the flick on the lower half of the screen while it's playing. Pretty cool. Did you know Harrison Ford applied to be the main character? haha.. man, I couldn't see that. Robert De Niro, too! I love Tom Hanks. He's so god damn happy all the time. I hear he's the nicest guy in Hollywood. I'd be second, if Hollywood would give me a chance.

Speaking of Holly Wood, that's the name of my good friend's fiance. Sweet, huh? My best friend is also getting married, but not until next year. Crazy shit, I tell ya. I always thought it would be weird when my really good friends got married, but it's really not. There's not much difference between that and just dating and living together. Just that piece of paper you get, and you have to buy an expensive-ass ring! I hear the tax benefits are nice, though. I wish them the best marriage has to offer, like oral sex whenever you want! (I've been watching too much porn lately).

I read this article about people approaching 30 and how you have less friends. I guess that's true, but the ones you hold on to are the ones who truly rock. Rock on, friends. You rock.

We know nothing.

2006-03-11T11:25:00.000-06:00

Every once in a while people get the impression that mankind has discovered everything it possibly can on Earth. I mean, there are so many billions of people spread out everywhere, how could we miss something? But in fact, we know nothing. These two articles (crater and mouse-squirrel) are pretty exciting. It blows my mind when shit like this is discovered. Kick ass.

Also, we are but mere infants when it comes to where technology can take us. We think of chamber pots and aquaducts as pretty primitive now, but in the future (the future, Conan?) people will laugh at our silly little "internet" and how you have to "type" with your "hands." This article reminds me of a quote from BTTF2: "You mean you have to use your hands? That's like a baby's toy!"

Here's lookin' at you, kid

2006-03-09T23:33:00.000-06:00

I finally saw Casablanca. What a great movie! It's a classic for a reason. And Ingred Bergman is hot. Now I know where Rick's Cafe (the Madison music newspaper) got its name, and where the line "Play it, Sam" came from. Although I always thought it was "Play it again, Sam." But, they didn't say again in the movie. hmm.. I also understand about the line "We'll always have Paris," which in Red Dwarf is "We'll always have parrots." haha.. Anyway, I like knowing origins of things like that. For years I had no idea where the line in UHF "This means something; this is important!" came from. I just thought it was Weird Al being, well, weird! I have a friend who knows the origin of a lot of English words and phrases. It's always fun to ask him about things. I know there are plenty of websites to find these answers, but it's cool to hear it from a knowledgable friend instead. I still wanna know the REAL origin of "shit," though. I don't know what to believe online.

La la la la la....

2006-03-02T21:14:00.000-06:00

I wrote 14 songs this February. Check them out here. Hope you like it! Rumors are we might do a show in the future with some artists from Madison who joined in on this thing.

:(

2006-02-23T22:01:00.000-06:00

Why didn't anyone tell me G'Kar (Andreas Katsulas) died? A toast... to our favorite Narn. He will be missed by all. Even Londo. "No little fishies, just Londo and me."

Can't have kids - saving up for mansion...

2006-02-23T21:10:00.000-06:00

Read THIS. Maybe that will help with overpopulation. hehe. Sorry, ma, you're just gonna have to wait for Dan or Mike if you wanna become a grandma.

Lottery, FAWM, Over-peopleified

2006-02-18T19:38:00.000-06:00

What would you do if I won the lottery? Like the BIG one. I was listening to 92.1 the other day, and instead of the usual political talk, there was a nice change of pace because Ed Schultz was interviewing a guy who won 150 million bucks in the lottery a few years back. Largest pot ever (up until 2001). The guy said if he could go back, he wouldn't buy the ticket. He said the money didn't change him personally, but he lost a lot of friends because they all changed. A guy he knew for 30 years asked if he'd pay off 18,000 dollars in credit card debt for him. He did it out of the kindness of his heart, and then a year or so later the same guy racked up another 20 grand in debt and wanted THAT paid off, too. Well, of course the lottery guy didn't do it, and he lost a friend because of it. Shitty. I'd like to think my friends wouldn't do that, because I think most of them realize that if I won a shitload of money, the first thing I would do would be to give away half a shitload, at least! Half a shitload is a crapload, I think. And a fuckload is 2.5 shitloads. Anyway, the point the guy made is that it was really cool to give money to people that can't help themselves, like the ridiculously poor and whatnot. But the credit card guy could've paid off his own debt and learned some responsibility. I've often thought of the kick-ass things I'd do if I won the lottery. Emotionally, I'm pretty tough, so I don't think it would be too horrible going through all the crap like that guy did. The good stuff would far outweigh the bad. Plus, I'd find out who my real friends are. The ones patient enough to wait for a fraction of a shitload of money, instead of asking first. :) Hell, I'm broke as fuck right now but I'll still buy your makin-more-money-than-me ass a beer!

Check out the songs on www.fawm.org - My name on there is JRamoneWI and I've uploaded 3 songs so far. That's pretty short of the expected 14 for the month. I may be able to do it. Not sure. If I don't, I won't be too disappointed. I think I'll crank out a few "off the top of my head" songs. The other day at GZ practice, I came up with a tune about "head lice and the gout." The "kids" seemed to like it.

I promised myself I wouldn't blog about the snow, so I won't. But I have to express my perplexedness at the homeless in Wisconsin, the land of the cold... I've always thought that if for some unforseen reason I become homeless without a chance for recovery anytime soon, the first thing I'd do is WALK THE FUCK SOUTH! As much as I despise the white trash redneck hicks and their rusty pickup trucks blasting Alan Jackson, I sure do like their weather. Hey, homeless people - it's WARM DOWN THERE! It's not like there's more room up here or anything. I'd rather find a nice open stretch of beach in Florida to sleep on than a cardboard box in 20 below weather here. You know, I'm watching Deadwood right now (which is friggin' sweet, if you ask me!) and it makes me wonder. When we (the whiteys) settled this stolen land of ours, were we aware that it was warmer down south? I mean, there WEREN'T 6 billion people on Earth yet. There was room to move around and settle wherever. And if somewhere was already settled, you could just shoot whoever got their first. Awesome! haha. I'm just sayin' I wish my ancestors would've been a little more like me and HATED the cold more than anything in the world. That's all I'm saying.

Speaking of 6 billion people, I have something to say to everyone. Stop having so many god damn kids! Catholics bug the shit out of me because of their policy to have as many kids as humanly possible. Why? What is the point? Believe me, there ain't no fuckin' shortage! In fact, there are thousands of kids waiting to be adopted, and some never will because there's no one around for them. Everyone is busy creating their own little people to overpopulate this dying planet. Maybe if we start cooking children. That would take care of overpopulation and feeding the hungry. The government is already taking care of killing off the elderly earlier. By the time we get old, we'll have to wait until 75 to retire. Which means the uber-stress of working when we're too old to be working will stop our tickers short of their expected um.. expectancy. Also, "they" employ airplanes to fly over elderly communities and release contrails of chemicals that slowly poison old folk but make it look like they are dying of natural causes.

What do mean I'm paranoid?

I love the internet.

2006-02-05T12:28:00.000-06:00

This proves my theory.

Oldies

2006-02-04T21:52:00.000-06:00

Today I heard Billy Joel's "Uptown Girl" on the "oldies" station in Madison, 94.9. WTF? I mean, I like some 80's tunes like that one, and I like oldies, like Elvis and such, but it reminds me of the line in the song "1985" by Bowling for Soup. "When did Motley Crue become classic rock?" I think the term "oldies" pretty much brings to mind doo-wop, 50's and 60's rock, malt shops and poodle skirts. But according to how Madison's oldies station is progressing, in 15 years MC Hammer will be considered oldies. And that is just wrong.

Speaking of music, I think I might attempt this little project - The February Album Writing Month Challenge. Kinda like what I did with The Stint, only I don't need to book a show. Just record a shitload of songs in a short time. I'm writing one for my Dad and Cindy's wedding reception which is in a week. In Milwaukee. Should be a good time! They got married in Jamaica, barefoot on a beach. Sweet.

Anyone know how to back up DVDs or parts of DVDs to .avi files, or .mpegs on your hard drive? I've tried to no avail with a couple freeware programs, but it never seems to work. I wanna get footage of the Spoof Fests I've done on my computer (from the DVDs I got) so I can post it on my website, as soon as I get one. The bordfans site will be no more soon, so I'm gettin' a different site. Any suggestions for a name? I'll have a separate one, most likely, for Government Zero, but I need name ideas for my personal site. www.timbudziszewski.com would be a little to hard to spell for most.

Anyone listen to 92.1 in Madison? They talk about some good stuff on there, but it really infuriates me most of the time. Ignorance really is bliss, I tell ya. Sometimes I just need to take a break from listening to any news about our fuckhead of a president, because it gets me to the verge of screaming.

I saw King Kong. It was freakin' sweet. God damn, that monkey looked real. They still haven't perfected making CGI humans look real enough, though.

I have a new position at work. It's pretty sweet. I monitor and time calls for all the CAs (captioning assistants) at Captel. It's nice because I get to stay as busy as I want so the day goes by fast. But if I'm tired or feeling lazy, I can work at a slower pace. Everyday there is always something to do, but very little that absolutely HAS to be done by any specific person in my team. That rocks.

Albuquerque

2006-01-07T17:12:00.000-06:00

Kicks ass that I can spell that, huh? And that's where I'll be for the next week, if ya need me. Visiting my mom and stepdad, Ken. I love flying. Love riding in planes, too. I'm sure I wouldn't if I was a business man or something and had to do it often. But once every year or so is cool. Should be in the 50s or 60s down there. Sweet. We might take a short trip to Roswell to uncover the truth the government has been hiding from us for decades. Or we might just sit around playing boardgames. Whatever. I'm gonna listen to Weird Al's "Albuquerque" to get pumped. It's probably the best 12 minute, two-chord song ever written.

Happy New Year

2005-12-31T11:36:00.000-06:00

2006 sounds so futuristic, doesn't it? Where the hell is my robot? Or my flying car? Actually, the robot thing is doable. I read (in PopSci, of course) that the newest version of the Roomba vacuum cleaner will have a port where you can plug in a small computer and do some hacking to be able to control it with your Bluetooth cell phone, or program where you want it to go. You could attach a webcam to it, and have a home security system. Sweet.

Last week I stayed at my dad's place for Xmas. It was fun. They have about 30 movie channels on their digital cable, so when I'm just chillin' there, I usually catch a movie I've been wanting to see but didn't know if it was actually worth the 4 dollar rental (or Netflix queue space). But last week, guess what was on? The Garbage Pail Kids Movie! Holy crap, I was so excited. I saw it in the theater when I was about 9. I still have a small box of cards, too. Let me say, it was one of the most horribly terrific movies I've seen in a long time. One of those that is so bad, that it's actually watchable because you know they weren't even trying to make a decent movie. Man, it brought back memories. Greaser Greg was my favorite in that flick. They also had Foul Phil, Ali Gator, Nat Nerd... awesome.

Well, this year was pretty freakin sweet. Although it started with the official demise of B.o.r.d. (RIP) in January, that at least left me open to do other projects and expand my music... ality? Sure, that's a word. "Government Zero" now has almost a complete setlist which still needs work, but we should be playing a show within, I'd say, 2 months. Also, I've been writing a lot of really poppy oldies-punk rock and roll type songs for a project I've dubbed "Eddie Ate Dynamite." I think that one will be something where I will attempt to do some good recordings playing all the instruments myself. If it works out, I may hunt down some musicians to put together a live show for that.

I also did "The Stint" with Dan from Rattbelly (and the Dark Clan and Null Device and Stromkern and... how many fuckin bands is that guy in!?) which was shitloads of fun, and a real challenge. I think setting a deadline was the key to getting it done. I hate to be the guy that's a stickler for a set schedule for things like that, but I think maybe setting some "due dates" for GZero will help us speed this shit up. I really want to play again, and I don't know if I'll be able to round up anyone for Spoof Fest again this year. We'll see. Maybe I need a year off. So anyway, Dan convinced me to start yet ANOTHER band with him, so we'll see how that pans out. We both have some kick-ass shit to bring to the table, so there's no telling what'll come of it. Plus, I've always wanted to do a Rattbelly cover. :)

Well, thanks to everyone who made this a great year. January gave me and E a chance to take a nice trip to Florida, thanks to stepdad Ken's timeshare. Rock! Spoof Fest in April was awesome. Playing bass with The Culture Club rocked. Tinker (who was Boy George) and the rest of the guys kick ass and we're so fun to work with. Trivia in Stevens Point was awesome (a radio trivia contest where we got together with about 8 friends in a hotel room and didn't sleep all weekend while we fed on junk food and soda and surfed online to find out what the sign on Napolean Dynamite's bedroom door said!). Our Halloween party was a total success with beer a-flowin' and chocolate a-fountainin'!

To top it all off, I turned 27 and haven't yet OD'd on heroine, like the rockstar I am. (Or would like to believe I am!). So, on that note, let me knock on wood, because I only have until my 28th birthday - October 19th, 2006 (the FUTURE, CONAN?) to make my first million with one of my bands before I die a tragic rockstar death in a trashed hotel room with hookers and coke and burned lampshades and broken bottles of Jack Daniels all around. Wish me luck, and Happy Fuckin' New Year!