so long, 2006!

upcoming gigs for The Humiliators

Hey, all you faithful Humiliators! We've managed to land a couple of gigs - Thursday, 21 Dec 2006 @ Headhunters (708 Red River) and Wednesday, 17 Jan 2007 at Trophy's (2008 S. Congress) - scoot over to The Humiliators MySpace for more info and showtimes - see ya there!!

Fall Camping Trip 2006 Pics are up

Head over to

Fall Camping Trip - 2006

to check out some of the pics from our trip to SW Oklahoma... you can see more here, at my brother's Flickr page - look for the set labeled "Birthday Weekend"

Toddfest pix and upcoming gigs...

Go check out The Humiliators Myspace; Michelle has linked the slideshow she put together from Toddfest 06... over 90 pics that will either remind you of the good times you had that night, fill in some blank spots from that night ;) or make you insanely jealous that you couldn't be there... but take heart - The Humiliators will be joining forces with the Killer Crocs of Uganda at RedRum on Thursday, September 14... so if you missed out, or simply can't get enough rock-n-roll, come out and Support Your Local Bands (tm)!!!

... and the rock gods smiled...

ho-lee-freakin'-cats! What a weekend! The party out at Jim's place was awesome, and not only because it didn't rain this year - lots of folks were there, and our set went really well! There was some guy in the pool that was headbangin' like mad - rock on, dude! :) It was freakin' hot out there - good thing the pool was handy, but after the show I was soaked and whipped... big thanks to Jim and Joyce for having us out and keeping us fed and watered ;) After a few bottles of water and a double-and-a-half of Glenfiddich, I felt much better, so I got into the truck and headed home... made it home and got in bed by 0130 - 18 hours to ToddFest. Around ten-ish, I woke up, got out of bed, dragged a comb... wait, stop. ;) The girls left for lunch and shopping, I grabbed a late lunch after doing a bit of laundry and then tried to chill for a few hours until it was time to leave... easier said than done, though... I wasn't so much nervous as ready to get started!

I went early to get a good parking space, and found one right in front of the fence for easy loading... Another huge shout out and lots of love to Vince and the gang at The Velvet Spade - except I don't think it's The Velvet Spade anymore, just never asked what the new name is gonna be; whatever it is, those guys rock! You have to go check this place out - it is definitely one of my favorite watering holes in town! So, after clear skies the night before, it had been raining off and on throughout the day so it looked like we were gonna have to play inside (very crowded), but in the end we decided to play outside and the rock gods smiled! No rain, lots and lots of people, and more than enough rock to go around!

First up was The Killer Crocs of Uganda with a killer set, then an interlude with Fire K8 on the rooftop, and Miss Maulie vamping her way across the stage... w00t! :) Then The Humiliators took the stage, and let me tell you - I was nervous... but I knew if I could hit those first notes it'd be cool from there on. I have to say, we freakin' rocked! All the work and practice paid off in full last night, and it was freakin' awesome! After another sizzling interlude with Fire K8 and Miss Maulie (I'll never look at martini's the same way again :) ), Austin's Loudest Band, Steamroller, took the stage... all I can say is, holee cats... those guys are awesome! The crowd was right up on the stage, there was random moshing going on, it was loud and we were loving it! They took us right up to the stroke of 0200, when it was over and everyone had to load up and leave... of course you never just leave ;) so it was about 0315 before I finally got the truck pointed north... and, after spending 40 minutes in the line at Whataburger (apparently they only staff two people max at that time) I crashed out about 0440. Big props again to the guys at the Velvet Spade, Killer Crocs, Steamroller, my homies in The Humiliators, Miss Maulie, Fire K8, and a big Happy Birthday to Todd, the whole reason for ToddFest in the first place, and to his wife Michelle for doing such an awesome job organizing such a big event... we really packed the Spade!

So now, it looks like we are going to work on a couple of new originals, and maybe get a gig or two in the coming months... keep an eye on our site for more info!

counting down to party time...

Holy cats, only 4 days left till the Big Party Weekend! We have been rehearsing like mad for the last week, with only one more scheduled before the weekend... it is gonna be *awesome*! It's gonna be tough to make it to Friday at the office :) good thing I took Friday off - it'll make the week that much shorter!

good times with the killer crocs

Todd and I went to check out the Killer Crocs Of Uganda at the Red Eyed Fly last night - great show, guys! Todd has known those guys for a long time, and I was definitely looking forward to seeing them onstage, since we will both be at Toddfest on 22 July; it was a blast! Afterwards we hung out and BS'd... got to meet and greet everyone, so that was really cool... I'm really stoked about the show - there's gonna be an assload of rock unloaded at The Velvet Spade! Speaking of The Velvet Spade, we drifted over there after the show at the REF to see what was cooking and get another look at the venue... while we were there we also caught a bit of Topaz - these guys are awesome! Funk rock at its best - driving bass, solid drums, crybaby action on the guitars and a sax to round it all out... good stuff, Maynard! Another good thing to see was that somehow they found a way to cram six (yes, six) guys on the teeny indoor stage... which bodes well, if it keeps raining in July... so either way, we are good to go. Jeff S. is back in town but will be leaving to be with his family and will be back next week - keep him in your thoughts.

swordchucks win. every time.

things have gotten quite interesting; we had an impromptu gig scheduled for 12 July that has since been cancelled; which is a good thing since our drummer is dealing with a family emergency (hang in there, man!)... at least they are offering to give us some other dates! I have been working my fingers off, getting ready for the Big Party Weekend; work has been, well, work :P Keep your eye out at the humiliators site for more info on upcoming gigs!

for more info about swordchucks, click here!

ARRL FD 2006 SK CL DE NZ5G *

Chris (KK7SM) and I went to Canyon Lake this year for Field Day... it was much nicer than trying to sleep at roadside parks! For one thing, no drunk college kids pulling up at 0300 and tossing beer bottles out of the car... plus, we could put up a real campsite rather than sleeping in the truck!

Our plan was to have everything ready well ahead of FD weekend, including all the cables needed to run RTTY/PSK and the CW keyer; However, thanks to Fed/UPS, plus some not-so-clear diagrams and other factors, we ended up with non-functional cables, putting RTTY/PSK on the back burner... so we made the call to go almost totally CW this year - I think we made 6 phone contacts, and then we bailed and ran CW for the rest of the time that we operated. It was rather warm and humid, so we were taking frequent breaks, and we ended up calling it a day much earlier than last year... even so, we came only 4 points short of our score last year! I'm sure that if we had known that, we would have stayed on for 3 more CW contacts... oh well. We were able to copy the CW and RTTY Field Day bulletins; receiving was not the issue, it was the transmit side that was jacked up. And, as a sign of being at the bottom of the sunspot cycle, we almost exclusively operated on 20 meters... we made a couple of contacts on either 10m or 15m, but 20m was where it was all happening - to paraphrase the commercial, "Hooray, 20m!"

We are already plotting for next year; I think we are going to switch from 1C (mobile) to 1B (battery power), so that we can use better antennas... some of the battery-powered guys we ran into almost blew our speaker out, and you know that they weren't running 1500w on battery power (unless they were operating from the U505)! However it works out, though, we will definetly have a good time doing it - Field Day has gotten better every year! We had awesome chow on Friday night (thick steaks with beans and garlic potatoes) and Saturday morning (Beef sausages, scrambled eggs), and lots of good camp coffee... too bad it wasn't about ten degrees (F) cooler... that's what we get for having Field Day in June though - would it be so hard to have it in March?? :)

* If none of this made any sense, go to the Amateur Radio Relay League (ARRL) website and find out more about Amateur Radio - or just ask that guy/gal with the funny tag and all the antennas on their vehicle :)

Ghana 2 USA 1 - Our Cup Run Is Over :(

Italy did their part in defeating the Czech Republic (ITA 2 CZE 0), but we couldn't hold up our end of the bargain - it is full time, and that means that we are finished in World Cup play. Unfortunately, I was unable to watch or listen to the game, so I had to follow the BBC live updates on the BBC Sport website; there were a number of interesting observations made, and it seems like we may have gotten the wrong end of a number of questionable calls; particularly the penalty kick at 49' (4 min stoppage?? wow). However, our side still had a number of chances to score that were squandered, so you can't say we didn't have the opportunity to advance... and it is good to see Ghana advance, especially the way they are playing right now. It would have been really nice to see us go forward though; every four years the state of football in the US improves dramatically... the more we play world-class opponents the better we will become (and keep the NBA/MLB/NFL/NHL mindset away, especially with regards to television coverage). I was also glad to see the US side finally show up and play two good matches, after the utterly dismal effort in the opener vs. the Czech Republic. The only thing left for the US to do now is to be classy and not incessantly whine about the refs, the calls etc., and just enjoy the rest of the Cup.

one down, one to go....

Well, I'm not sure what the regulars thought, but we had a pretty good time at The Water Tank on Monday night; most of the other folks there for Open Mic Night seemed to be regulars, and the music selection ranged from C&W (Butter My Biscuit) to 70's Lite Rock (Summer Breeze) to Top 40 (Sex & Candy)... then The Humiliators took the stage! We had to modify the playlist a bit - "Left for Dead" would have gotten us tossed off the stage, I think, but we put five solid tunes out while we had the spotlight - "In Your Eyes", "Sabado", "Detroit Rock City", "Fight For Your Right (To Party)" and "Shine". I'm just glad that no beer bottles were thrown our way :) Now that that's out of the way, I think we are gonna squeeze one more gig in before the July Party Weekend - for details check out The Humiliators MySpace page.

...they call it "riding the gravy train".....

ok, so maybe we're not gonna be playing to 60,000 screaming fans, making millions of dollars, or becoming Colombia's leading export partner ;) but for The Humiliators it's a step in the right direction... We're playing an open-mic at The Water Tank (US183/McNeil); it's a good chance to work out the kinks before our back-to-back gigs in July. If you are in the Austin area, come check us out at 9ish tonite!

by the way... which one's Tommy???

one more hurdle overcome by sheer stubbornness... we finally settled on a name for the band: Tommy English and the Humiliators - like most band names, there's a story in there, but it'd take too long to tell right now... catch any of us over a beer and I'm sure you'll hear it :) you can go to www.thehumiliators.com to find out more. We go into the studio this Saturday to record some original material; you can download a demo track from the website.