Archive for October 2006

Possible Gangster Fun Reunion?

October 11, 2006 Music 14 comments

For those of you who know what I’m talking about…there’s talk about a Gangster Fun reunion show happening at Detroit’s Magestic Theatre on December 29.

For those of you who don’t know what I’m talking about…I was in a ska band in the late 80s to early 90s in Detroit. Sometimes called the “Godfathers of Midwestern Ska”, Gangster Fun was a strange mash-up of really good musicians and really entertaining people playing ska mixed with classic rock. During the period I was in the band, we inspired a boat-load of other ska bands, some of whom are still playing and apparently doing quite well.

Despite a crazed bunch of fans, 4 or 5 albums, and a couple tours, Gangster Fun never did well enough to be a full time job for anyone. After several old-time members left, it very slowly morphed into a much different band and then broke apart during the 2nd half of the 90s.

The reunion show, if it happens, will be largely an early-90s Gangster Fun show, which will be exciting to a bunch of people in their mid-30s in Detroit, and maybe to a bunch of younger people who have only heard about G-Fun.

If you’re curious, you can view some videos of the band, and of me playing sax, on Google Video. Here’s a direct link.

Picking up the sax again

October 11, 2006 Me, Music 2 comments

For a reason that deserves its own post, I’m playing sax again after a 10 or 12 year hiatus. The hiatus started when I sold my last tenor sax to get some money to help pay for moving to California. I don’t regret that. It was a crummy sax, and I figured I’d get a new one in no time.

But I never did get a new one. I totally regret that. About 2 weeks ago, however, I just did it. I bought a Yamaha YTS-61 off eBay. It arrived yesterday, and I’m in love with it.

I still remember how to play, but I now pretty much suck at sax and I really need lessons and LOTS of practice.

While searching around for free internet lessons and sax teachers, I found the most incredible site ever: http://www.saxlessons.com/. My original plan was to start taking lessons with a real teacher as quickly as possible, but I think that this site can delay me needing to start incuring that expense for several months. I hope this guy (Alastair Ingram) is doing well with his site, and I highly recommend it to anyone who has any interest whatsoever in playing saxophone.

Wednesday is Suit Day

October 9, 2006 Business No comments

Strange things are afoot at Minnick Web Services.

I came to the office slightly better dressed than normal today to try to cover up my hangover from Sunday night’s festivities. Basically, instead of wearing jeans and a dress shirt, I threw on a sportscoat and went for the whole “tech company executive” look. At our monday morning meeting (MMM), I got a couple compliments and questions about the jacket. Next thing I knew, someone suggested that we have a “suit day”, and I blurted out that it should be Wednesday. And so it is.

If you’ve ever been to our office, you’ll understand how strange “suit day” will be. I’m actually excited about it, and it seems like everyone else is too. Could it be that everyone is burned out on new economy office “fun” ideas like loud music, strange lighting, sleepover-casual dress code and free moutain dew? This has got me thinking about what other “outdated” business standards might present the next kick for our post-dot-com office….suggestions?

Looking for a theme that doesn’t suck

October 7, 2006 Meta No comments

since switching to wordpress last week, the only theme I’ve seen that I like is the default one. I’m sticking with it for now, but maybe if I have some time I’ll look for a better one or pimp it out a bit.