GZ Expat, Part II

The Winter Sounds

My favorite independent music source, Insomnia Radio, recently passed along a Daily Dose of music about an old favorite band, The Winter Sounds. 

A couple of years ago, when I started exploring deeper and deeper the independent music scene, I was struck with a handful of bands that were under the independent Livewire Recordings label.  One day I decided to order up a handful of CD's and had them delivered to expat daughter and she was able to get me copies of the music (since I can't trust the mail system to deliver CD's to me).  The album I purchased was The Land of No Output, which they later refined and recorded as Porcelain Empire. 

The notice at Insomnia Radio was that the band were working on a new album, but were in need of some cash to get themselves the time to get it done.  In trying to raise some dough, they produced a 3 song EP, Pinebox...available on their website.

We are close to finishing our second album "Church of the Haunted South" To help us finish paying for it we are selling an advance copy of 3 of the new songs. So for the next few weeks for $3.99 you can download the "Pinebox EP" which features the songs: 'Pinebox', and the demo versions of 'Autumn Movement', and 'the Heart is Scarlett'.

The songs were recorded in Austin, TX @ Cacophony Recorders and Super!Alright! and produced by Danny Reisch and Mitch Billeaud (check out their band here: www.myspace.com/thelemurs)

Please spread the word on this.  We're very excited about the songs and can't wait to finish

OK...so why am I plugging these guys?  Well, I went to the sight and plopped down the massive sum of $3.99 for the 3 song download.  I got them on my laptop and turned them up...I liked what I heard and listened again and again.  The next day, I get an email from the band (specifically, Gina Asalon, the keyboardist), thanking me for buying the CD and telling me how cool it was that I was ALL the way in China, and I was still able to keep up with their music.

Stunned.

Think of it...I plunked FOUR BUCKS on an EP of demo music...and they thanked me!  As I told Gina, neither Eric Clapton, Tom Scholz, Mark Knopfler or Phil Collins ever thanked me for the hundreds of $$$ I have spent on their music over the years...and she thanked me for $4. 

Get over there and buy the EP...now. 

links for 2008-09-24

• Washington Times - McCain, Obama say unity needed on financial crisis
  They said the $700 billion plan the administration has proposed to bail out the financial industry is flawed, but that the effort to protect the U.S. economy must not fail.
  (tags: politics election economics)
• globesports.com: NHL to announce Asian television deal
  "The National Hockey League has great potential for development in Asia. We are thrilled to be able to bring another big American sport to Asian sports fans. . . Ice hockey is quite popular in the northern parts of China and its popularity is growing. The NHL represents the pinnacle of professional ice hockey and we are proud to be bringing the best of this exciting sport to the fans in China."
  (tags: hockey nhl)
• Washington Times - McCain suspends campaign, Obama won't
  "Tomorrow morning, I will suspend my campaign and return to Washington after speaking at the Clinton Global Initiative. I have spoken to Senator Obama and informed him of my decision and have asked him to join me,"
  (tags: politics election mccain)
• Washington Times - Poll finds 18 percent of voters undecided
  A recent AP-Yahoo News poll found that 18 percent of likely voters are up for grabs _ undecided or willing to change their minds
  (tags: politics election)
• CANUCKS HOCKEY BLOG | First impressions
  Steve Bernier put in a Pierre McGuire monster performance. If he plays big and aggresive every night like he did last night, the Canucks may have the power forward they’ve been looking for for the last two years.
  (tags: canucks hockey)
• Pre-season perfection
  Hansen was named the game's first star and Grabner scored the winning goal as the Canucks, albeit an entirely different group of Canucks, registered their second pre-season win in as many night over the Edmonton Oilers.
  (tags: canucks hockey)
• Cowan in tough for spot on roster
  "It wasn't my mindset to come in and just drag my ass," he explained. "It just didn't pan out the way I wanted it to.
  (tags: canucks hockey)
• Seattle Post-Intelligencer: Hockey
  The Canucks enter the 2008-09 campaign with many of the same issues that caused them to miss the playoffs last season.
  (tags: canucks hockey nhl)
• Michael J. Totten: The Scorching of Georgia
  I've seen many forest fires in my home state of Oregon. We get them every year. This is not what they look like. Forest fires, whether they were started by lightning, human negligence, or arson, tend to be large single infernos. Individual fires burned all over the place near Borjomi.
  (tags: blogs russia)
• China: Poison
  The Chinese are learning a lesson absorbed in the West a century ago; without regulation, intense competition in the food business will produce food contamination. It happened in the U.S. and Europe in the late 19th century. It's happened in other developing countries under similar circumstances
  (tags: china food copyright)
• FOX Sports on MSN - MLB - Griffey hits No. 610, all alone in 5th place
  Chicago White Sox center fielder Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 610th career homer Tuesday night in a 9-3 loss to the Minnesota Twins, moving him into sole possession of fifth place on baseball's career list. (GZE2 - From a Cubs fan...thank goodness, cuz I am embarassed of Sosa)
  (tags: baseball)
• Kirst Afloat: Typhoon Hagupit
  GZE2- Some good photos of HK during and after the storm
  (tags: hongkong weather blogs)
• China dairy firm knew of toxic milk for months: state media - Yahoo! Singapore News
  GZE2 - This should not surprise anyone...why on earth would the gov't want to disrupt the 'harmonious atmosphere' of the olympics? I just wonder about the countless other products that are getting away with whatever in this land of fakes and copies
  (tags: china chinaeconomy corruption)

links for 2008-09-22

• 9/21 vs Kelowna, or 2 bonus points - Portland Winter Hawks - OregonLive.com
  (Attendance: 1823) The bottom line is this: people will not come to games under the current ownership. The current ownership will not be the current ownership very soon. The question is whether they will return for the new ownership, and we will only find that out when it happens.
  (tags: winterhawks hockey)
• Reddin's goals, White's goaltending lead Winter Hawks to first win
  A night after dominating play and losing against one of the Western Hockey League's top teams, the Portland Winter Hawks beat another Sunday.
  (tags: winterhawks hockey)
• Man Actually Struck by Lighting for Swearing to God | Weird Asia News
  Wong finally “told him that if he dared to swear to God that he didn’t owe me the money, then I would waive his debt.”
  (tags: china news humor)
• globesports.com: Canucks put Wellwood on notice
  Wellwood's career with the Canucks might be over after a few preseason games, and by the middle of next week, he could be looking for work. The reason? Poor conditioning. (GZE2 - I guess some things just don't change...)
  (tags: canucks nhl hockey)

links for 2008-09-21

• Spokane beats Winter Hawks, 3-0
  (tags: winterhawks hockey)
• Fire at southern China club kills 43: state media - Yahoo! Singapore News
  A fire at a club in the southern Chinese city of Shenzhen, near the border with Hong Kong, has killed 43 people and left at least 51 injured, state-run media said on Sunday.
  (tags: china shenzhen)
• Postgame notes and quotes: Duck Football: with Rob Moseley
  The Ducks, as most losing teams do, thought they were the better team today. They were frustrated by the slow start, and by the ineffectiveness of the offense in the middle two quarters.
  (tags: oregon football)

links for 2008-09-19

• Nike Air Flight Lite High - Red / Black - Sneaker Files - Air Jordans - Nike Air Force Ones - SB - Release Dates - Info - News
  (tags: sneakers)
• VIDEO: Singapore GP Preview - Autoblog
  GZE2 - Wish I were there. They were setting all this up when we visited last month.
  (tags: cars singapore)
• Michael J. Totten: Al Qaeda's Defeat in Iraq
  Jennifer Rubin correctly noted that Couric asked Obama why the U.S. has not been attacked, but let’s leave that aside. The notion that “we gave Al Qaeda time to reconstitute itself” is breathtakingly ahistorical.
  (tags: blogs politics waronterror iraq)
• Washington Times - McCain says Fed should stop government bailouts
  The Republican presidential hopeful said the Fed should get back to "its core business of responsibly managing our money supply and inflation" and he laid out several recommendations for stabilizing markets in the financial crisis that has rocked Wall Street and commanded the dialogue in the presidential campaign.
  (tags: politics mccain economics)
• The Hockey News: Headlines: Canucks face lots of questions about offence as they prepare for new season
  The new includes GM Mike Gillis, forwards Pavol Demitra and Steve Bernier and a handful of lesser lights who won't be recognized on the streets of Vancouver anytime soon, even in this hockey mad town.
  (tags: hockey canucks nhl)
• Macs Used To Help Make New Microsoft Ad - Geekologie
  (tags: microsoft apple)
• Starbucks stops serving milk as China crisis snowballs - Yahoo! Singapore News
  Supermarket shelves across the country were emptied of many products made by Chinese dairy giants Mengniu, Yili and Guangming after the government said the chemical melamine had been discovered in some of their regular milk. (GZE2 - We had some in our cupboards)
  (tags: news china)
• Mayor in China fired in baby formula scandal - International Herald Tribune
  Producers trying to cut costs often dilute milk with water, which lowers the nutritional content. But the addition of melamine, which is high in nitrogen, helps the milk appear to meet nutrition standards by artificially raising its protein count.
  (tags: news china)
• Hawks small in size, but big in potential
  Over the past two seasons, the Winter Hawks have scored the WHL’s fewest goals (1.9 per game) and allowed the most (4.4).

  “Offensively, we’re going to be better,” coach Rich Kromm says

  
  
  (tags: hockey winterhawks)
  
  

links for 2008-09-18

• The Corner on National Review Online
  I join as a cosponsor of the Federal Housing Enterprise Regulatory Reform Act of 2005, S. 190, to underscore my support for quick passage of GSE regulatory reform legislation. If Congress does not act, American taxpayers will continue to be exposed to the enormous risk that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac pose to the housing market, the overall financial system, and the economy as a whole.
  (tags: mccain economics)
• Memo to US Secret Service: Net proxy may pinpoint Palin email hackers • The Register
  The breach of Palin's account "is pretty clearly against my terms of service," he said. "As exciting as it is to be in the news, this is not the type of activity I can encourage by any means."
  (tags: politics tech palin)

links for 2008-09-17

• Washington Times - Clinton fundraiser backs McCain over Obama
  "I believe that the McCain-Palin government will be a centrist government," Rothschild said. "It's not going to be an ideological government."
  (tags: politics election mccain)
• Coke Zero (Zero Seven) commercial features new Bond theme - Autoblog
  Jack White, one half of the Whites in the White Stripes, wrote and produced the new theme song for Quantum of Solace, sung by White and Alicia Keyes. Turns out that White also -- unwittingly and unhappily -- wrote the new theme song for Coke Zero.
  (tags: movies cars music)

Yeesh

I have a blog post all written up about the final leg of our summer holiday, Singapore.  But, when I copied it over to Typepad, the formatting was so messed up, I just didn't even want to go and look at it again.  I will...but give it some time. 

Yeah, blogging has been weak, at best.  Been busy with various activities, work, catching up on football and getting excited about hockey season again.  So, there you have it...my life. 

As part of that football catch-up routine...I give you this 'highlite' of an unbelievable hit on Cal's Jahrvid Best.  Be sure to watch the entire video...as Best really demonstrated how hard that hit really was....

links for 2008-09-15

• Thai party nominates Thaksin brother-in-law for prime minister - International Herald Tribune
  Leaders of the protest, which has blockaded the prime minister's office for nearly three weeks, responded angrily to the nomination, calling Somchai a front man for Thaksin and saying they would continue their protest until the government fell.
  (tags: thailand protests politics)
• Death in the Corn: Part I of III
  In September, the corn around Gibraltar is 10-11 feet tall. Crops grow close to the perimeter of the FOB, giving “Terry” Taliban plenty of cover.
  (tags: waronterror blogs)
• Lilly flirts with no-no of his own | cubs.com: News
  Ted Lilly was one hit worse than Carlos Zambrano. The left-hander nearly made it back-to-back no-hitters for the Cubs, flirting with a no-no vs. the Astros in 6-1 victory on Monday afternoon at Miller Park.
  (tags: baseball cubs)
• DUCK NOTES: UO welcomes familiar face to Autzen
  Quarterback Justin Roper will be out 2-4 weeks with a partially torn medial collateral ligament
  (tags: football oregon)
• CANUCKS HOCKEY BLOG | The next Canucks captain debate
  My personal choice for new Canucks captain is Willie Mitchell. He’s a leader and a warrior on the ice
  (tags: canucks nhl hockey)

links for 2008-09-14

• Zambrano No-Hits Astros
  GZE2 - Oh man...the guy was looking worn out and has sat out a few games...and comes back like this. October, here we come.
  (tags: cubs baseball)
• Little Green Footballs - Sharia Courts in Britain
  It has now emerged that sharia courts with these powers have been set up in London, Birmingham, Bradford and Manchester with the network’s headquarters in Nuneaton, Warwickshire. (GZE2 - a country with two sets of laws is a country divided)
  (tags: religion uk)
• Charlie Gibson's Gaffe
  while he looked down his nose and over his glasses with weary disdain, sighing and "sounding like an impatient teacher," as the Times noted. In doing so, he captured perfectly the establishment snobbery and intellectual condescension that has characterized the chattering classes' reaction to the mother of five who presumes to play on their stage.
  (tags: politics election palin)
• Not a Fish » Blog Archive » The Israeli media once again misses the plot
  Next the Palestinian terrorist stabbed a plucky nine year old boy who tried to battle with him and call help. Having stabbed the child five times in his back, he pushed him off a balcony down a two meter drop. (GZE2 - a good recap of the brutal media coverage...sounds like they were all trained in the USA)
  (tags: israel waronterror)
• China vows better food safety after baby milk scandal - Yahoo! Singapore News
  Sanlu added melamine, a chemical used to make plastics, glues and other products, to the milk powder in order to ensure that the protein content was up to standard, according to Gao. (GZE2 - I recently discovered copy Coca Cola in my fridge at work...the can and the label were the same, but printed in a different manner.)
  (tags: china copyright food)
• ESPN - Blount scores winning TD as Oregon stops Purdue in 2OT - NCAA College Football Recap
  (tags: oregon football)