Monofog Live @ The Hi-Dive Denver 5-10-08

Zombi Love Song by Monofog @ The Hi Dive Denver 5-10-08 from Steve Navarre on Vimeo.

Pindral Is Opening For Fish!

RIP Gary Gygax. Dungeons and Dragons co-creator

I remember the first time my friends and I first heard of D&D. It was probably 1976. I was at Mike Jones' house, my best bud back in the day, and he got this phone call from a friend of ours who had moved from Bowling Green, OH. to Ann Arbor, MI. Kevin was the guy's name and he was describing to Mike how he was playing this game and they were battling orcs and shit in a dungeon. It was the craziest thing we'd ever heard! We had to find out what the hell he was talking about. Next time Kevin came down for a visit he taught us how to play...there was no turning back after that! The love affair/obsession lasted until 1982, when we graduated from high school. Life changed somewhat for our core party of gamers. Some had somewhat steady girlfriends, some joined the military, some found other activities, not to mention we became of legal age to buy alcohol.

At the peek of our gaming years in Jr. High and High School, my mom predicted we wouldn't be playing D&D into our adulthood. I remember looking at her as if she was speaking in a foreign tongue or something. "Impossible! What are you talking about? D&D is the coolest game ever!" was probably my reply. It was a lifestyle really. At that time I could not imagine life without D&D and the other Role Playing Games we played such as Traveller(Star Wars like game), Boothill(western gunslingers), Top Secret(James Bond-type action) and the countless other strategic board games. Of course mom ended up being right, but the six or seven or so years we immersed ourselves into the games was pure geek heaven. On March 4, 2008 D&D co-creator Gary Gygax passed away. Thanks for the great times Mr. Gygax. Even though it's been 25 years since I've played I still hold those memories in very high regard. I have an album of photos of the original D&D books and other items we used in the mid-1970's over on my Photo Web Site.

Bob Drake's Cabinet of Curiosities 1-19-08

First show of 2008. Very fun evening at The Mercury Cafe!
Blapathy, with members of Hamster Theater et al, opened the show with an all improv set followed by Bob, Dave Kerman and Dave Campbell and others performing Bob's songs.

Check out Bob's blog for details and links to pics and videos I took.

Goodbye Film - End Of An Era

I've worked in the photo lab industry for over 20 years. The last 12 at a pro photo lab Qube visual, formerly know as Cies Sexton or Photobition. The other day was the last run of film processing for this business. I wrote this note to the other employees who may not have realized how much the photo industry has changed because of the digital revolution.

Hey, all. Thought I'd share some history of this place we call the Qube.

As most of you know the film department is being shut down today for good. It’s truly the end of an era for this place, and Denver really. Sign of the times though, like the music industry facing changes with digital music, the photo industry must change also. Face it, our life styles are ever changing as certain aspects become more and more convenient with digital cameras and mp3 players, etc.

(If some of my numbers are off here I apologize-Ray and Brent can maybe correct me). This place has been one of the most respected and largest professional photo labs in the country for the last 25 plus years. The film processing and photo services carried this place financially a good deal of that time. When I started working here 12 years ago we had 5 people working 2 shifts in the film department alone. I believe we averaged taking in $100,000 a month at times...just the film department! We had over 100 employees here, about half of which worked only in the photo side of things processing film, making photographic prints or taking in film related orders. The Customer Service department had over 10 folks (?) alone mostly taking care of the 100’s of photographers that used our services. I just checked that plastic slide mounter in the film department and over 58,600,000 35mm slides had been mounted on that machine alone in the last 10 years. Holy crap! That’s a lot of film! That’s not even counting the other formats that have gone through those machines.

So, I bid the end of that era a fond farewell here and look forward to what the future brings us. I’m still proud to be part of this place even though the times, they have a changed...and will continue to do so. Change is good as they say. :)

Best of 2007

Happy New Year! To wrap up the year thought I'd list some favorite recordings:

In no particular order:

Porcupine Tree - Fear of a Blank Planet (Another classic in my book)
Porcupine Tree - Nil Recurring EP (Fantastic companion release to FOABP)
Sleepytime Gorilla Museum - In Glorious Times (Perhaps SGM's "proggiest" release yet)
Future Kings of England - The Fate of Old Mother Orvis (Their 2nd CD. A wonderful blend of early era Pink Floyd and Gabriel era Genesis)
Ian Neal - The Lake EP (Prog-tronic? Cool blend of prog and modern electronic stylings)
Saturation Point - Three (Post-rock with electronic elements)
Riverside - Rapid Eye Movement (Wow! These guys can do no wrong. Bookend to their Reality Dream Trilogy)
Saga - 10,000 Days (Send off to Michael Sadler. Done right!)
God Is An Astronaut - Far From Refuge (Post rock with keyboards and piano added)
Radio Massacre International - Rain Falls In Grey (Tribute to Syd Barret. Awesome!)
Flower Kings - Sum of No Evil (Roine said they were going to do an overtly prog album...nicely done!)
Marillion - Somewhere Else (Another fan polarizing CD. I' m on the side who likes it!)
Tuner - Pole (Pat Mastlotto and Markus Reuter's latest. "Modernistic rock")
Steve Moore - The Henge (Zombi Keyboardist's first solo CD. Great electronic effort)
Hiromi - Time Control (Super fusion album for this Japanese keyboardist)
Alan Pasqua - The Antisocial Club (Another great fusion album)
The Gourishankar - 2nd Hands (Interesting modern prog from the Russian Federation)


Best show would have to go to Genesis. Never seen them in person before. The guys can still bring it. Even though we sat way in the back of the Pepsi Center, the sound was great and the visual effects mind boggling. I thought they did a fantastic blend of their pop and more "artful" material. The Rockies won their playoff round against the Phillies that night too, making the evening even more enjoyable!

Great new prog band!

Band: Baron Rootes

Baron Rootes is a post-prog band out of Ishpeming, Michigan. Formed in the winter of 2006 this talented quartet of brothers decided to hole themselves up out in a remote hunting camp/recording studio in the backwoods. The Piirto brothers (grandsons of Finnish immigrants) stocked with an ample supply of vodka, beer, baked beans, eggs, pasties and deer jerky, took an oath not to come out of the woods until they had an album. Mission accomplished! While their album will surely go down as a prog classic, their live show is even better. It's a must see!

Album: Eudoxus (crater)

Tracks:

1-Nigel Payne - hectic opening instrumental track which features their now famous ax-and-saw-to-guitar solo...ya gotta see them perform this one live to appreciate the nuances.

2-Fred Ottman - 70's era King Crimson and Gabriel-era Genesis influences can be heard on this mini epic of sorts. Combine those classic prog elements with the sounds of farting and we have truly original piece...again live...well, the smell is definitely one of the important features missed when just listening to the album.

3-Watts's Spiny Rat - Another instrumental that takes the listener on what the band describes as a sauna induced trip. Apparently vodka and 140 degree sauna's can induce quite the hallucinogenic trip, as all the member swore they saw giant rats coming out of the sauna steam at one point.

4-Emperor Rosk - After one heats up in a sauna, am told running out naked and rolling in the snow to cool off is a tradition and can produce a euphoric feeling. It's all the band would offer as an explanation regarding the title of this quirky number which features a solo section of an odd sounding sort of rhythmic skin slapping. Again, seeing this one done live...well lets just say, while seeing drunk men run around on stage naked may not be that desirable to most, the skin slapping section will all make sense.

5-The 411 - The band set their instruments up in the cabin's kitchen and in this avant-garde tour de force. Clanging, banging, strumming, and striking everything within reach, including the kitchen sink for 45 minutes...well lets just say you've probably not heard anything quite like it. A few of my friends, after hearing this piece told me they wanted their 45 minutes back. You're mileage may vary. My fav section would be the frying egg on the stove solo at the 30:32 minute mark. The puking/heavy vomiting solo that end the album is one of music history's finest moments imo. This piece is a fan fav in concert because the audience gets free fried eggs at the end of the show. The guys are pretty good cooks I must say! The audience is encouraged to join in on the ending puking section. What a way to finish the evening!

Move over Sleepytime Gorilla Museum, these guys can perform a live set like none other.





Ok...if ya can't tell, this is a bit of a spoof...duh! The idea comes from Word magazine. The game is WikiProg. Make your own fictitious prog band by using Wikipedia.

1) go to Wikipedia.
2) click 'random article' - this is your band name
3) click again - this is your album title
4) repeat for album tracks
5) embellish