I have not been keeping up on my updates to this here blog. Not sure how many read it but it will be cool to go back and read it when I’m like 64. I’m gonna start updating on a more consistent basis. Here’s what we got in short:

- Vegas next weekend for Frozen Fury 12, will be our 3rd year.
- Going to see the Reverend Horton Heat and Motorhead in Vegas on the 10th with Sergio.
- Work is awesome and I love it.
- Gonna be selling CDs and LPs at the Pearl Jam show on the 9th for Lou’s.
- I’ve been rocking the gym with Sergio. Lost about 10lbs so far, but looking like I’ve lost more. Means I’m getting ripped.
- Planning a trip to Belgium next year for my big 30.
- Not playing music. Lots of people have been asking me to jam with em, but only one or two sound like fun.
- Pretty much got my finances in order and should be debt free by the end of October.

I’m sure there’s more but I forget all the cool shit. Like I said, I’ll try and document it here rather than Facebook and such.

So it’s been a while since I last updated. Been a bit busy with the site I’m now working on. You can see a sneak peek in the image i posted. So far everything is on track to meet the launch this Friday. We had the site pretty much done when I did my last update, but never had a launch date. We also didn’t really have an idea how we were going to market this site or anything like that. It was going to be done how we normally do things in the world of Indie Record Stores, from the store level out. This would have meant it would of taken a little while to get it off the ground, but it still would of done pretty well if you ask me. A few weeks back we signed on this PR guy named Chris Parker and he went through and created an entire brand for not just the site, but Indie Record Stores as a whole. We had to completely re-dress the site in about a month but we got it done and now I can’t wait to launch this sucker. I can’t wait to see the response to the new design and new branding of the site.

In non-work related stuff, I’ve been busy, but not in the work sort of way. I went to Vegas for the Viva Las Vegas Rockabilly Weekender. That was pretty out of control with a bunch of “doucheabilly” folks getting all drunk and crazy in Vegas. Just how I like it. This all went down at the Orleans, but I stayed at the Tropicana. Was nice to get away from the chaos at the end of the night, but did kinda suck having to get a cab all the time. The only draw back of the trip was being in Vegas for 4 days. Anything more than 2 is too much in my opinion. The best part of the trip was my buddy Megan drove out Saturday morning and we ran around Vegas till 6 Sunday morning. Got 3 hours of sleep and i ditched out on my flight home and drove with her back. That made the entire weekend. Ohh shit, i forgot about the tiki bar. Frankie’s Tiki Room is the best. I’m going there every time I go to Vegas and so should you.

Went to LA for Geri’s birthday and what an awesome time we had. Jase and Geri can down for a Belgian Beer Fest at Pizza Port in Carlsbad which was fargin awesome. Was such a great weekend all around. They then came back down for a Thee Corsairs show. That’s right, we played a show after a year of not doing anything. We opened for The Head Cat which features Lemmy from Motorhead and Slim Jim Phantom of the Stray Cats. Another amazing time with the Rex’s. This weekend we meet up with them again for a weekend at the Disneyland Resort for Jordan’s birthday. We’re gonna rock DCA on Saturday and then Disneyland on Sunday. I already know it’s going to be a crazy/fun weekend cause of the folks that are gonna be there.

Ok, i should get back to working on the site. Only got a few more days till launch.

- going to the gym is more fun than I thought it would be.

- I think eating better will be pretty easy.

- I love how I now love the things I used to hate

- North Park looks so different now.

- I still don’t understand body language and actions and I will never understand the opposite sex, then again, I should just tell em how I feel. Just hate the fear of rejection.

-I still have no clue what others think of me, not that I should really let it bother me.

- busy month. Murder city next week, as well as the reverend then off to Nashville.

- can’t wait till Viva.

- I love hockey and I love the kings.

More later….

So this week I didn’t take the train all week long. It was kind of nice having my freedom to drive around when I got to Oceanside as well as have the chance to do what ever I wanted on the way home. Then again there was something missing this week. Maybe I like the train to much? This coming week I was going to start going to the gym with Sergio and Aaron so I wanted to see how traffic and such would be and also see how the getting ready times would work at home. Everything seemed to work out just fine so I was all ready to get the gym membership until I did something to my finger. Could be broken or I just jammed it somehow. Today it feels much better than it did the other day, but I’m still going to the Dr tomorrow to see what it was.

Went to Riviera with Megan, Mike and Jolene. It was super packed there and the wait was one and a half to two hours unless we could find something in the bar. There were what looked to be a couple empty tables, one had a plate and half a drink and the other had one person sitting there talking to people standing up. Jolene checked one and Megan checked the other. One table the people were just at the grill and the other the folks were just sitting there while their table was being set up so they let us have the table. SWEET. Of course the food was great and the drinks were mixed perfectly. I fucking love this place and more than the Turf. There is just something about the Riviera that I like and it’s had to pin-point it.

At dinner I was convinced by everyone that I should go to Viva Las Vegas in April. They all said it’s nothing but fun and I had always wanted to go, but not by myself. So I went online to book my stuff and the hotel it’s at is completely booked and I’m not sure I want to go if I have to stay at another hotel. Then I say to myself, It’s Vegas and everything is close so why not get a good deal somewhere else and then take a cab to the show. So that’s exactly what I did. I got a pretty sweet deal from Travelocity and I’m staying at the Tropicana and I’m kinda pleased about that. If I wanna get away from the crazyness at the Orleans I can go back to my hotel and play some video poker or something. Can’t wait for that to come up now, the only bummer is I’m gonna have to miss Turbonegro I think cause they play the following weekend in San Francisco. I’ll figure something out. HAHAH

So today has turned out to be a damn good one so far. Since the early 90′s I’ve been a fan of hockey and more importantly the Los Angeles Kings. I guess it was in my blood cause my mom was a big hockey fan herself back when San Diego had the Gulls in the old WHL, before there was the NHL there were like 4 different leagues and when the NHL expanded from the original 6 teams became the main league that players tried to play in, and she even helped run the booster club for the team. We had been watching Kings hockey on TV a few years after Gretzky was traded to LA. So when the IHL started to expand a bit the Gulls returned to the Sports Arena. Our family knowing we were big hockey fans got our mom some tickets to a game for her birthday I think it was. It was a truly amazing gift that started what looks to be a lifetime passion of hockey for not just Jordan and I, but also passed it on to our younger brothers Steven and Patrick. Never would of thought a family that grew up in Southern California would be die hard hockey fans huh?

In 95 the Gulls were moved to Long Beach, but a new version of the Gulls joined the WCHL. The sad thing about this team was they were the best sporting team in San Diego yet no one really went to games and the team eventually folded. I still think San Diego is a good hockey town and we need a new team. We’ll NEVER have a NHL team due to the fact we don’t have an arena worthy enough of a NHL team and with how hard it was to get Petco and the troubles the Chargers are having the citizens of San Diego will never let a new arena be built. Because of this problem the Kings have and always will be my home team. Yeah I could go see more games in Anaheim, but I don’t like the Ducks much.

Like I posted before, for the last 10 years the Kings have held a pre-season game at the MGM Grand in Las Vegas. Last year was the first year we decided to make the trip out for the game. Out of all the times we’ve been to Vegas I think we all can say that was by far the best trip. When they announced when this years Frozen Fury was going to be held we knew we had to go again. I found out about a month ago that one of our reps at Lou’s is a huge Kings fan as well. She and I got talking and one day she sent me over a pre-sale code for FF tickets that only season ticket holders got. Sweet, we get tickets before anyone else. A few days later I get the promotional code from her for the hotel rooms. Jordan went ahead and purchased the tickets to the game and also reserved the room for the weekend. Thanks to the folks over at the letsgokings.com message board I got a link to pick up one of the older Kings jerseys for only $69 from hockeygiant.com. Normally they go for $250 but you can find deals for an even $200. These are the same ones the players wear on the ice. So to get one for $69 was a steal and I had to jump on it.

Today, as I’m relaxing on my day of and getting ready to go see the new Indiana Jones film tonight my new jersey gets delivered by FedEx. After over 10 years of wanting one I finally got one!! If that wasn’t good enough as Jordan and I are eating lunch in the living room the mail gets dropped off. Jordan opens an envelope up and what’s inside??? FROZEN FURY 11 TICKETS!!!! September can’t get here fast enough. This time we’ll have Jase and Geri along for the trip so expect to see a bunch of photos.

As you read in my last post my new years eve was pretty epic. Do i consider it a great end to a pretty good year that has just passed or a beginning to an amazing year that is to come. I’ll go 50/50 on that cause so far 2008 has been pretty damn good and i can’t complain about everything that happened in 2007. The above picture is another one from New Years Eve. For those of you that don’t know that’s from Motorhead in the picture with us. It may look as those the photo is spliced together, well that’s cause Ritz or where ever doesn’t know how to cut photos when they print them. haha. Anyway, we got to meet him and hang out. It was pretty amazing.

This last weekend we headed out to vegas to celebrate Elvia’s birthday. We stayed at the brand new Palazzo which is the new tower that is attached to the Venetian. Every room in the place is a suite so we relaxed in style. The Official grand opening happened while we were there which was kinda cool but kinda not. They still had a bunch of work that needed to be done and lots of stuff they were lacking. We still had masking tape in our bathroom from where they painted. The nice thing about that is knowing we were the very first people to sleep in that room. Kinda crazy to think about what will happen in that room in the future. We had a great view of Treasure Island but of course with it being vegas we didn’t stay in our room that much. We hit up the Star Trek bar over at the Hilton and lost $100 on craps right away. Not a good start. We mainly walked between the Venetian and Caesar’s Palace. We all had a great time and of course can’t wait to go back. There was lots of this going on:

Now, the news of the day. Turbonegro will be playing the 2nd day of Coachella. If you didn’t already know i fargin love turbonegro and can’t wait to see em play once again. I got to try and get free tickets from some label cause it’s $90 a day to go to Coachella. They say they will be playing some other west coast shows but i don’t think any of them will be in San Diego or LA due to the show freeze that Coachella puts on all bands playing. Either way i’m gonna see em cause i’m president of the San Diego Turbojugend and I HAVE to be there.

That’s about it for now. Will be doing updates a little more often, it’s just been kinda crazy the last few weeks. Ohh, and my car got all fixed up and i should have it back by weeks end. Thanks to the drunk guy that hit me cause i won’t have to pay a dime to get it fixed.

Sooo.. spent the weekend in vegas for the Frozen Fury X game between the LA Kings and Colorado Avalanche. I’ve been to vegas many, many times but i have to say that this trip… it was the most epic of all trips. here is a run down of the chaos that happened:

Friday:
Got up early and hopped on a flight to vegas. we got into vegas at about 11 in the morning. We checked into the room at the MGM, which i have to say is one nice hotel, and then headed over to Ellis Island for lunch. Ellis Island is off the strip but they got this kick ass $6.95 steak special which comes with a beer from their micro brew. I’m kind of a beer snob so i was a little reluctant to try one but their dark beer is damn good. I highly suggest you check it out. We then headed over to Bills Gambeling hall and Jordan and I played craps for about 2 hours. We both threw down $100 and ended up walking away with a few hundred bucks each. I think i had like $350 worth of $25 chips in my pocket. Went back to the MGM to hit up the pool. Was kinda cold due to the weather so we just spent the time in the hot tub. For dinner we went to Shibuya for saki and sushi. Such a good dinner and amazing way to end the night, so i thought. Headed over to New York New York to see what kind of odds they had on craps and we found the new Star Wars penny slots. I put in $100 and ended up winning $480. That’s right, $480 on a penny slot. We then headed to Excalibur and played some craps there. Lost $100 but hey, i was WAY up. On the way back to the room we stopped at a Pong slot machine and i then again won like $250 of so. All in all a pretty good 1st day.

Saturday:
Woke up at like 11 and hit the MGM buffet. sucked as most buffets in vegas do. Went back over to NY, NY to play a little more star wars slots. I lost $100 right away but Jordan won like $300. I suggest you play one of those slots on max bet if you see one. Went back to excalibur to play some more craps and got on a $5 table. not 5 min into playing they raised the minimum to $10 and made everyone up their bets even though we were there before the raise up in bet. we cashed out and went back to hit the pool some more. Spent a few hours in the pool and just chilled. Went to the room for a shower and on the way up all the Kings fans started to line up and get ready for the game. When we got back downstairs on our way to the game the entire back part of MGM was packed with hockey fans. Seas of black and purple made their way into the arena. Was quite an amazing game that ended with a shootout and the kings winning. After the game we headed over to the Hooters Hotel and Casino. Jordan and i sat down at the “Deal or no Deal” slots and played for hours on hours with only putting in $100. Jordan ended up waling away with about $200 and me nothing. The entire time we were playing Elvia was playing a “fishing” slot and won a hundred or so. When we got back to the MGM we were wasted, hungry and on a high from winning money and such. Ended up getting to bed around 3 in the morning but hey, that’s what you’re supposed to do in vegas.

sunday:
went back to hooters for breakfast/lunch depending on what you wanna call it. went over to the Venetian after lunch and played some more Star wars. I lost another $100 or so and was kinda bummed. Jordan won as did elvia. What ever, my trip was still paid for and then some. on the way back to MGM we stopped at Casino Royal cause they have $3 craps. All of us put down $100 and it was about 1pm. Next thing you know we’re wasted, each got a few hundred in chips in our pockets, and it’s about 5:30 in the evening. We spent a little over 4 hours at one table with only putting $100 down. we cash out so we can get our luggage and head to the airport. Jokingly jordan says, “play a max bet on star wars before we leave.” So i sit down, put $10 in and hit max bet. Nothing. Again, nothing. One last time and 5 Luke Skywalkers show up and i win $105. I cash out, and we are on our way back to MGM. at this time i have all the money back that i had at the end of friday plus $100. After stopping and having dinner at Mon Ami Gabi, which was like $50 a piece i count my money. I ended up only spending $15 all day long. How farging great is that?

When we get home we all count up our money.

I got to vegas with $400. I got home with $660.
Jordan and elvia started with $400 each. Got home with $1050 or so.

we’ve never had a trip where everyone comes home with the money they got there with let alone more than what they went with. most epic weekend ever and i’m glad i got to spend it with Jordan and Elvia.

so, this last week has been a weird one. I’ve just been a little out of it. not sure why. I think i wanna get out of town for a bit. Maybe go out on tour and play music. Realized it’s been almost 4 months since we plast played a show. Got to see and hang out with the Rev a few days which was cool. That may be why i’m so pumped to get out and play music. Also came into crunch time for the vegas trip. I’ve been super worried about it due to lack of money and the fact we still didn’t have a van rented to make the drive out there. Now that everything is taken care of i feel better. All we have to do now is get out to Vegas. Can’t fargin wait.

On a side note, my left arm has been bugging me for the last 2 days. it feels like it’s sore and weak. not really weak, but sore. kinda feels like i got a slight sunburn on it. know how that feels? or like when you got a tattoo a week ago and it’s starting to peel? i did notice today that my skin is super dry and looks all old and shit. kinda weird. must be a side affect of the new drugs my DR has me on. i should call em tomorrow and see what’s up.

My new favorite band of the moment is Th’ Legendry Shack Shakers. Now i’ve seen em with the RHH before and we got to open for em at Brick By Brick but i never really watched em. After seeing them twice this week i’ve realized their greatness. I highly suggest you go check em out and buy their albums. And to top it off the guys are super fuckin cool.

I just wanna say that 2006 was pretty kick ass. To everyone that i hung out with and spent time with. Thanks. You helped make it kick ass. I regret nothing that happened cause it all worked out in the end.

2007…. fuck yeah. I’m looking forward to this year big time. Not only am i gonna have a record out, but we’ll be playing a bunch of shows and branching out of SoCal. Looking forward to playing for people who have no idea who we are. Looking forward to spending a bunch of time with friends new and old.

Already know that this is gonna be a good year due to the Reverend shows coming up in a couple of weeks as well as the 2 Corsairs shows in Vegas with Deadbolt. that’s gonna be such a good weekend. It’s also PDX’s birthday so you know we’re gonna destroy vegas.

man, what a crazy past few day’s it’s been. i invented the ass cube, pooped out a corvette and gotten my ass kicked by justine. yes, that all happened in one night.

i must say that i got a kick ass group of friends that know how to have a good time, all the time. i got the most drunk I’ve ever been in my life the other day and not really sure how i feel about that. I’m normally always in control and take care of the drunk ones but it was my turn to be the drunken idiot. thanks to the folks for taking care of me and sorry to the one i beat up on in a playful way. and don’t worry mom, no one got hurt.

looking forward to this week. get to spend some time with friends and family on Thursday. i think Friday I’m gonna go see the Tenacious D movie once again. the other day i finally got my room all cleaned up and organized again and i’m glad i did. i love having everything in it’s place. looking forward to going to San Jose for Christmas this year. I love it up there, especially that time of year cause it’s all cold and raining. The sun is nice here , but sometimes you need a change from the norm.

so working on a deadbolt show in Vegas for January. i got them to say yes to the show and Jenny-O (the promoter) booked the show and got everything lined up. now we’re just waiting to hear back from the booking agent and everything will be good to go. hope we can get everything worked out. it would be Deadbolt, Thee Corsairs, Thee Swank Bastards and 2 more bands. i Forget who though.

all is well in the life of this cowpuncher. hope the same goes for all of you out there in TV land.

ps. if you wanna see pictures of what i’ve been up to the past month or so check out my picasa account. should be adding a bunch more soon. you can also look on my brother’s account for more pictures. it’s in the “linked galleries” on the righ hand side. http://www.picasaweb.google.com/drewvis