John

Listen to your momma!

2009-09-18T13:00:00.000-07:00

So my mom caught me mowing the lawn wearing flip flops the other day, and went bonkers. Well... sometimes you should just listen to your parent's advice. IT IS NOT SMART TO MOW THE LAWN IN FLIP FLOPS. I know, MOST people would never think of it, but a know a few others who love to feel that freshly cut grass on their bare toes on a nice sunny day. Again, DON’T DO IT. Or this may happen. These puppies were expensive!

Kari

2009-08-17T10:34:00.000-07:00

Klinkenborg!

New PJ disc

2009-08-04T20:19:00.000-07:00

Check out info on Pearl Jam's new album, Backspacer, coming out Sept. 20th. http://www.pearljam.com/.

You can hear The Fixer on their site, and if you play their artwork game, you can score a free download of one of the demo's. Sweet stuff!

OK, I need to fall asleep.

Love,

J. Lew

Lance Bass?

2009-03-25T15:01:00.000-07:00

"OK,OK, Guess which hand your carreer is in before I officially flush it down the toilet."

Who came first, Yogi Bear or Yogi Berra?

2009-03-13T09:01:00.001-07:00

This question popped into my head while showering this morning. "Why were you thinking about these two characters in the shower?" you ask. Well, I think it is becoming more and more an obsession of mine to Wikipedia things. I "wiki" everything.

Ex.) Last year, when the Giants won the Super bowl, I used wikipedia to look up what the third Manning brother (yes there is one) did for a living because his other two brothers were two of the biggest names is sports at that point.

Turns out he is the eldest bro., was a star receiver is high school with Peyton as his QB, but was diagnosed with spinal stenosis, a narrowing of the spine, and was forced to be a spectator from there on out. He now is part owner of an energy firm in New Orleans that works with oil and gas stocks.

To get more in depth, I will also note that while I was looking this information up, Eli Manning’s Wikipedia page was updated that he had won Superbowl 42. The funny thing is that the game wasn't quite over, there was maybe a few seconds left on the clock, and I think the classless opposing coach, Bill Belichick, had already left the game, because the Giants were definitely going to win. Yes, wikipedia was reporting the news before it happened!

So today I checked old "wiki" and found out that Yogi Berra, born Lawrence Peter Berra in 1925, was later nicknamed "Yogi" by his friend and fellow Major League baseball player, Bobby Hofman, years before the picnic basket stealing bear named Yogi appeared as a Hanna-Barbera cartoon in 1958, when Berra was in his early 30's. The article also stated that Hanna-Barbera denied that the bear was named after Berra, and that Berra was sometimes called "Yogi Bear," which he hated.

First in '09

2009-02-24T13:18:00.000-08:00

What can I say? I am terrible at blogging. I haven’t written in, well, I think Squints from the Sandlot would say it best, “For-e-ver”. Or as any good text messenger would say “4EVR.” Either way, it’s been awhile. Nothing crazy insane has been happening, and that’s good in my book. I feel like I have had a ton to write about though, and I’m sad to write that I’m sure I have forgotten more than half of it already. My brain just isn’t as sharp as the cheddar cheese I had last night, or was it last week? See! And as in every one of my blogs, I promise I will try my best to write more, and be more interesting and funny, yadda, yadda, yadda, but this time I swear it’s true.

I see my last blog was Dec. 4th. Wow. What can I tell you?

It’s a new year. We had a smaller New Year’s Party this year, and it was at Dave’s apartment instead of my house. It was a good time, great friends, and the party food was amazing. I drank a bottle of Strawberry Andre throughout the evening, and was quite intent with the evening.

I was finally able to go snowboarding a few weeks ago (well, my version of snowboarding,) and while listening to my IPod, I found these songs to be great while plowing down the hill with reckless abandon.

Cherub Rock – Smashing Pumpkins
Barrel of a Gun – Guster
Hurt – Johnny Cash (NIN cover)
(Nice to Meet You) Anyway – Gavin DeGraw
Surrender – Cheap Trick
Crown of Thorns – Pearl Jam (Mother Love Bone cover)
Soul Singing – The Black Crowes
Good Graces – State Radio

I also found these songs to be enjoyable while ridding up the lift.

Bruises – Chairlift (Yes, I played this on purpose)
The Most Beautiful girl in the Room – Flight of the Conchords
Razorblades & Hand grenades – Josiah Leming
Drummer – Coconut Records

In the two hours I managed to literally tear up the hill, I listened to more songs, but mostly kept skipping ahead in shuffle mode. Also, I accidentally skipped ahead a few times when I fell since I refuse to get a case for my IPod because cases make them look stupid. Now that I think about it though, what looks more stupid? A sleek and thin new IPod classic NOT in a case, or me falling about 4 times every time I go down a slope, and then having to take of at least one of my gloves, unzip my jacket pocket, take out the IPod, turn in back on/up/whatever else is wrong with it? Yeah, I agree with you.

Dave and I saw State Radio at the Water Street Music Hall last week. Great show, and the 4th time I’ve seen the band. If you haven’t heard of them please check out a few songs. I would suggest the song “Camilo” as a sampler. They encored with a cover of the Gerry Rafferty song “Baker Street” which features a classic sax line from the 80’s, and after the show, a reggae version of Radiohead’s “Karma Police” played over the PA system. I later downloaded the song by The Easy Star All-Stars.
I’ll let you go for now, but I already have a few things written down for next time, and I promise to write again this week, and then I’ll try to stay in touch at least once a week after that. “Watch me now! Hey!”

Random thoughts now that I'm home

2008-12-04T08:37:00.001-08:00

Yes, my BLOG has been not only quiet, but silent the past two months. About as quiet as Marshawn Lynch after his hit-n-run at the beginning of the Bills season this year. Anyway. I never told the cyber world that was able to finish my goal of walking / jogging / running / stair stepping 100 miles by Dave's wedding. I did reach that goal, and lost about 10 lbs. in the process. Bonus! After that, though, since I was traveling for work, I lost my routine, and was pretty dorment for awhile, BUT, now I have something new. Wii Fit. This little game that works with Nintendo Wii has inspired me to get active again. I can't wait to get cracking on it each day to beat by best times scores on balance and aerobics games. I still hold the record of a not to shabby 312 holla-hoops in 70 seconds. I could have died for this feat considering I hold my breath during the event because breathing screws up my rythmn.

Also, I just found out that if you consistently do well on Wii Mario Kart, you can unlock your own (Mii) character to race against Mario and the gang. A new challeng to myself is now in order. You know when a product is good when you see it in a store and want to buy it even when you already own it.

I think there was a time in my life where I only wore "California Raisins" t-shirts.

My new favorite song is "Human" by The Killers. About two weeks ago it was "Love Lockdown" by Kanye West, and the week before that, it was "Bruises" by Chairlift. You should DL all three.

Band wise, we have eight solid instamental ideas recorded as demos, which I am repeatedly listening to to write melody and lyric ideas. Things are moving along nicely. We are practicing tonight as well, so more should come down the pike.

Keep in touch, and keep watching those Christmas specials. It's the most wonderful time of the year! - J. Lew

My best man speech for Dave's Wedding

2008-10-07T20:39:00.000-07:00

"True love is hard to find, sometimes you think you have true love and then you catch the early flight home from San Diego, no this Is not the right speech either

For reals, for reals, let us begin.

Dave Woolever has been my best friend since 5th grade. Back then, we were a motley crew. “The hill gang,” which our North Hornell friend, Keith Burrell, later so lovingly titled since we all lived on Gypsy Hill, consisted of Dave and I, his sister Jennifer, Matt Burdell, Doug Herbert, Kevin Valentine my cousins Paul and Lisa. We used to play in the woods behind Fairview Avenue every day. We used to walk through the woods up to the Donlan’s farm and build hay bale forts, with tunnels, secret passages, and booby-traps. I always made sure there was a make out room. It was never used.

Back then we were full of imagination and dreams for the future. We used to imagine that we had girlfriends, and dream that one day, we would.

Our parents let us do whatever we wanted back then. If I had kids, I would never let them hang out in a bunch of hay bales full of snakes, mice and God knows what else.

Now, being friends with Dave can be tough. When you go through your whole life being the nice guy, and then you get placed next to Dave, well, suddenly, you’re not such a nice guy.

See Dave is the straight man in this relationship. Marieka is the one that gives you great stories, one of the guys, the 5th Badgemen.

As an only child, Dave is the closest thing I have to a brother. Today I am happy to finally welcome Marieka as my sister as well. Even though she’s pretty much been there for years now. Marieka has been one of my best friends for almost a decade. Yes, a decade long journey that I know Marieka would call, Phenomenal. With Marieka by our sides, Dave and I have been through the greatest, the badest, and the downright ugliest.

I’m standing here as the best man, but I can honestly say that that is only because the best man is sitting next to me. As Tina Turner would say, Dave is “simply the best.” He is the best friend, the best the best son, the best brother, the best “father” to Ruby. The F’ing BEST guitar player, the best boyfriend, the best fiancé, and today, will now take on the roll of, the best husband.

And for those who were not able to be in attendance here today, They don’t know what they are missing, but I will be posting a transcript if this presentation on my blog which can be found at www.badgemen.com

At this point, I will now ask you all join me in raising a glass for a toast.

To Dave and Marieka Woolever, we wish you, a merry Christmas? We wish you “the best,” to continued happiness, for years, and decades, and hopefully, a century to come. I know the best is yet to come.

This excerpt was originally titled “Dave’s Speech,” on my computer, but is now entitled, “‘Twas meant.” When Dave and Marieka started dating, a lot of their relationship was via Instant Messenger, where they always used to sign off by saying “It was meant”, as in meant to be. Us guys, of course, turned their cute sign off into “’Twas meant” just to make fun of poor Dave.

12 Miles to go

2008-09-27T12:47:00.000-07:00

Some of you may be wondering why I haven’t been putting the play lists from my runs in the blog. Well that’s easy. I put a TV in the room where I have my elliptical, hence gaining my attention both visually and aurally. Right now, I’m checking out all the new seasons to my favorite shows like “It’s Always Sunny in Philadelphia,” “90210,” and “How I met your Mother.” I’m also trying to finish up the 4th season of another favorite show, “Entourage,” to which I always get a buzz from, so it’s great for running. I am watching that on DVD before I start to watch the new season which has already started. I can’t wait to get totally caught up.

I am up to 88 miles in my quest for 100. I have seven days left to run 12 more miles. It should be no problem, SHOULD being the key word. We’ll see. I plan on chipping away a little bit after work today. Yes, today, a Saturday! We had an open house today, and are just awaiting the last tour groups to return before I head out to enjoy the rest of my short weekend.

It seems like a lot as well as not much has been happening. I did manage to check out Weezer at Madison Square Garden the other night while I was near the city for work. Great show, great setlist, and great seats. I also scalped my ticket for below retail, so I had en extremely qucik and exciting ngiht in the city.

Check out the first pics in my BLOG section.

The first pic is pretty much from where I was sitting and features a number of Weezer fans from NYC who were pre-selected to jam with the band on stage during two encore songs, "Island in the Sun" and "Beverly Hills."

This second image is just a cool shot from earlier in the show with River's shredding.

Until next time.

- John

Gasoline, Tamboureens & Going green

2008-09-10T13:31:00.000-07:00

I fueled my car up about four times last weekend on a trip to PA with the band trailer in tow. The trip was two-fold. I started at IKEA in Philly and was able to upgrade my bedroom suite. The cheapest gas I saw was near Lewisburg, PA which was set at $3.53. It just sucks to know that we are still close to $4 in Hornell & Alfred. The other reason for the trip was to see my Aunt Joan. She had a big birthday bash with family and friends including a live band for about five hours (crazy.) followed by my DJ expertise, a catering staff, and two bartenders. I feel the band was the best part of course. They are known as “The Tamboureens” and play British invasion style music. To quote Seth from the movie Superbad, “Have you ever looked into his eyes, it was like the first time I heard the Beatles.” After talking with the band, we are planning on playing a gig together around Hornell in November, so we’ll fill you in as details get organized.

I’m not sure if it’s the Tambo's influence only, but I have been exploring the Beatles music further than I ever have before. I’m trying to look at them as more of an original boy and, and deeper into the music that they managed to write, all members included. Did you know that Paul and John were writing music together at Paul's house when they were 16 and 17 years old? That’s awesome!

Just an FYI. My birthday is this Friday (the 12th,) and I’ll be 28. After my mom and my Aunt Joan did some birthday shopping for me, I am now own 30 ties. They gave them to me already because of th3 30 total, my Aunt claims that half are out of style, and my mom claimed that the other half have stains on them.

I am now up to 66 miles walked / ran out of the target of 100 by Oct. 4th. Tonight I plan on doing another two, and should be around 75 by the weekend.
I went to the Buffalo Bills game this past weekend and watched them take care of the Seattle Seahawks. It poured. Although I was fine because for some reason I brought my poncho even though the Buffalo meteorologists called for a beautiful day in Orchard Park. My favorite part of the day was our three hour pregame tailgate where I was able to find a ridiculous looking Bills do-rag and join a number of other fans in their harassment of passing by Seahawks fans. Seahawks Suck! Seahawks suck!

And as far a going green goes. Recycle! I started almost two months ago, and My weekly garbage output is about a thitd of what it was with all the gatorade bottles, and 12 oz. cans of Tropicana lemonade that I drink. Pretty much all that you will find in the ol' fridge are beverages.

OK, I am off like a light. I'll see you all on the new BADGEMEN.com.

Like - John.

DW, USA, Favre & that filthy elliptical

2008-08-13T09:48:00.001-07:00

Why haven’t I written in about two weeks. Well we had Dave’s HUGE BASH of a bachelor party on the 1st – 3rd of August. What a smashing time. Friday night, we had 27 guys over to my parents cottage on Smith Pond in Howard, NY, and everybody had a great time of gambling / fishing / lawn games / and a bonfire storytelling about some pretty nasty stuff. I added in a few good ones, all too nasty to be added here of course.

On Sat we went to the Clark household (Dave’s soon to be in-laws) for a back lawn party with the brides friends as well. Holy hell what a show. Our drummer, Josh, was so slammed; he was making snow angels, yes, in August, YES, in regular grass. And, needless to say, he was not the worst one. On Sunday, we helped clean up the Clarks house a bit. They had pretty much beat everybody to the punch in the morning, which makes sense if you read back a few lines to how bad some people were, and then helped Dave’s fiancé sort through all of the things THEY got for their shower that Dave had to keep questioning where they were going to put everything.

In other news, I am now up to 30 miles on the elliptical and still in route to 100 by October 4th. According to my calculations, that’s 30%. Tonight, I plan on running another four miles before I head to the Pizza Hut buffet. I know it sounds bad, but I’m eating better as well. My cupboards and a drawer at work now have seven different Kashi products. All of which are good for you, and surprisingly tasty. There are a ton of others, but they all kind of look to much like grain. My favs so far are the apple spice breakfast bars, trail mix bars, chocolate chip cookies, cheese it type snacks, and the peanut butter bars.

This is also odd. I haven’t watched the Olympics since 1992 when the men’s B-ball Dream Team pretty much destroyed the rest of the world in every sport there was. Well, I’m hooked this year. I’ve been watching it all. My TV has been stuck on NBC since Sunday night when the men’s relay swimming won gold. Michael Phelps is amazing, and should be with those flippers he has for feet. I swear he looks just like a dolphin when they show an underwater camera shot.

Favre to the Jets??? I don’t even won’t to get into this being an avid Bills fan and a long time Favre lover. Oh well. I’ll say hello to him in Nov. 2nd in Buff.

Take ‘er easy America. RIP Bernie Mac & Shaft.