Top 100 Music Related Blogs from Dolphin Music - Soul Amp made the list at number 93

Very cool that we made it to 93 out of 100 on the top music related blogs. Check out the link here:

http://www.dolphinmusic.co.uk/news/news-story/news_id/2348/utm_source/Dolphin%2BMusic/utm_medium/email/utm_content/Top%2BBlogs%2BNews%2BStory/utm_campaign/Weekly%2BNewsletter%2B%2B15th%2BAug

Scooters - Rockerbox Rally 2008 in Milwaukee - Photo of Stella

Stella Scooter with other powered bikes on sidewalk in Milwaukee, WI. Photo by Michael Nettesheim

Check out this new site from our drummer M2:

http://the-flying-circus.blogspot.com/

It's all about scooters and cool stuff like that including M2's own Stella scooter pictured above which is a 2-stroke 150cc from Genuine Scooters. If you want to save some gas and have a great time doing it... check one out.

M2 recently went to the Rockerbox rally in Milwaukee. Check out his story on it:

http://the-flying-circus.blogspot.com/2008/08/rockerbox-2008.html

I hope to post new tunes very soon, but in the meantime check out our top ten tunes:

http://www.soul-amp.com/Top_Ten_Songs.html

Or, the latest jam:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/08/1st-tune-free-mp3-from-may-2008-hog.html

Psychedelic Photos of Queen Anne's Lace Flower in Space - Flower LED Photo Art...Inter Soul Song - 1st Live Tune (free MP3) - May 08 HOG Show

Queen Anne's Lace Flower LED Photo Art for the new Soul Amp Tune. Photo by Mike Fisk

Trans Inter-Soul Connector - mp3

OK, this time I'm posting our first set in order from first to last. Yep, breaking with tradition. So this another tune from the House of Guinness Show in May. Not much to say, just hope you groove out to the InstruRock tune. Made it up the fly and it seemed to be fairly, warmly received. Enjoy the flower LED Photo Art pictures and have a super cool Monday!

More photos of Queen Anne's lace in Sunset and some explanation and description of this invasive weed can be found here (hey, we're an invasive wee too):

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/08/queen-annes-lace-in-sunset-photo.html

If you're into this tune, you might like this one too:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/07/flower-photo-collage-psychedelic-photo.html

Here's some cool pics of Queen Anne's Lace:


http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/08/queen-annes-lace-in-sunset-photo.html


Here's free Soul Amp music (over 200 free mp3's to download):

http://soul-amp.com/freebies

Here's more psychedelic Photo Art pictures:

Autumn Photo Collage

Flower Photo Collage with lot's of depth and detail to get lost in

Glass Earth Globe with blue LED light Photo Art - Looks like electric bolts

Strange finger peace sign LED Photo Art

A Weed surrounded by strange lights

Autumn Leaf and Tree

Swirling Autumn Pschedelic Leaf and Tree Photos

Street spin photo

Close up of a flower

Sunset Feathers from a Jet

Sunset Cloud Quilt

Finger is Fully Recovered after being smashed over one year ago...fingernail back to normal... gardening dirt under fingernail photo

Finger and fingernail fully recovered after being smashed in May 2007. Photo by Mike Fisk

Well it's been over 1 year since my fingernail was smashed (and probably broken, though I never went to a doc to get it checked out). There are many folks hitting site to take a look at it when it was all smashed and I've been meaning to post what it looks like now. It's fully recovered and you can't even tell anything ever happened to it. In fact is was pretty much fully recovered within 8 months. It just took me a while to get around to posting new pics. Lots of music to post first.

There's some dirt under the fingernail after doing some gardening, but as you can see, it's a beautiful, fully functioning finger again...playing rock-n-roll keys...noisely, nervously, annoyingly tapping on tables and percussionable objects....attached to a hairy hand.



So those with smashed fingers, you have my empathy. Hang in there... time will heal it.

Here's all the posts documenting the smashed finger saga (in reverse order):

• finger and fingernail fully recovered!!!...1 year and 4 months later....
• fingernail recovering...5.5 month update....
• fingernail recovering...4 month update....
• fingernail recovering...3rd month update....
• fingernail starting to grow back - about 2.5 months after the smashing.
• fingernail coming off - about 2 months after the smashing.
• update 1.5 months.
• update 2.5 weeks.
• stabbed the finger to release the pressure.
• smashed a finger.

Anyone with a story of a smashed finger, I'll be happy to post it. Just drop an email or feel free to comment on this post or any of the others.

Here's one from a reader named Gordon:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/11/photos-of-finger-that-was-sliced-by.html

And in the meantime, feel free to distract yourself with some delightful music from my band, Soul Amp:

http://www.soul-amp.com/Top_Ten_Songs.html

Queen Anne's Lace in Sunset Photo - An Invasive Weed in Wisconsin - Nostalgia - Milwaukee Sunset

Queen Anne's Lace at Sunset in Milwaukee, WI, August 7, 2008. Photo by Mike Fisk

Ripples From the Stone - an mp3

What struck me recently as kind of odd is how I sometimes get nostalgic for times that were somewhat crappy.

I took pics last night of the sunset, but was feeling very stressed out about work (in fact, I was still at work and was only taking a break because the sunset looked nice). So it was not a very good time. But then I was thinking about how I look back on other times that weren't so nice that I've made it through. Sometimes I look back fondly even when times were not cool. I wondered at that and I wondered at whether, or not, I'd remember last night as something good. And then I thought, perhaps, for me, the feeling of nostalgia comes partly from just knowing how things turned out. I made it through it and so it would feel safe to go back to it. The great unknown future is more stressful.

Perhaps nostalgia is a bit of an instinctive feeling. Going back to something that's known as safe even if it wasn't that great. All creatures seem to try to control their environment to some extent. What better way than go back to what is already a known.

Anyhow, the flower in the pic is Queen Anne's Lace. It's a nasty weed with a beautiful flower that's all over the place. It's the origin of cultivated carrots (how cool, huh?). It was brought to this country by the colonists as a medicinal plant. The roots are high in vitamin A and the juice is supposed to be a diuretic and maybe has some anti-cancer properties. It's a real pretty weed, but a pain in the *ss to get rid of. It's a compound flower. Each flower is made up of thousands of tiny flowers. The center of the compound flower is often purplish (although I haven't seen that too much). Here's a good site about Queen Anne's Lace:

http://www.hort.wisc.edu/mastergardener/features/weeds/QAL/QueensAnneLace.pdf

The song is an old one. But songs don't get more nostalgic that this one. It's really an amazing tune considering how Bradly created the words on the fly. He's also playing a concertina-type accordion thingy on it (what's it called, Brady?... is it just a concertina?). All around, a pretty cool tune in my humblest opinion.

Be sure to check out Soul Amp's top ten tunes:

http://www.soul-amp.com/Top_Ten_Songs.html

And check out all the other Soul Amp free mp3s here:

http://www.soul-amp.com/freebies

And here's a cool pic of a weed with lights flowing all around it:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/07/galactic-weed-led-photo-art-soul-amp.html

And here's more pics:

Milwaukee Sunset, August 2008. Photo by Mike Fisk

Here's more Queen Anne's Lace flowers:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/08/queen-annes-lace-in-sunset-photo.html

Feel Something - Overdriven Zoom H4 - Recorded too hot - Distorted Nords - and a Pastel Sketch of a Winding Road with one Tree

Feel Something - Winding Road - Pastel Sketch by Mike Fisk

Feel Something - mp3

Here's another tune from the April 2008 Practice session (check out the strange highway pics on the previous April tune post). Just want to remind you, we make this stuff up on the fly... so please do NOT expect perfection. Enjoy it for what it is.... in all it's farty glory. So this one was recorded too hot on the Zoom H4. So it's a bit distorted in spots.

Anyhow, Bradly is making up the words and melody as she goes... not sure they are even words sometimes... And the pastel sketch drawing was just something that came to me to match the tune....

Bye for now. Enjoy your hump day.

Catch the Top Ten Tunes of Soul Amp here:

http://www.soul-amp.com/Top_Ten_Songs.html

Oh I forgot to mention, did you catch M2's "Most Horrible Sound Known to Man" at the end of "Feel Something"? Pretty strange huh? Here's an even longer version of that weird scream thingy:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2007/11/now-for-somthing-completely-different.html

Photos of Marquette Interchange in Winter, Feb 2008, Milwaukee...27 Miles To Go Song from April Practice... when in doubt rock out!

Marquette Interchange in morning on I94 in Milwaukee, February 2008. Photo by Mike Fisk

27 Miles To Go (Lover's Game Tonight) -mp3

See now the post of 2 days ago makes sense, huh?

After we got done with Slinky Slider, we went right away into this song. I did a little digital editing to get it work. So this is another tune from our April 2008 practice.

I wasn't able to really get what Bradly was saying lyrically, but I was able to pull out enough to name the tune. And that inspired me to post these pics of the Marquette Interchange in Milwaukee. Fits in with my tradition of posting some winter images in summer and summer images in winter. It's going be like 90 degrees today. So enjoy the cold images, eh?

The tunes a bit of a punky mess, but I dig it. I hope you do to. It's our Friday gift to you. Enjoy the tune and enjoy your weekend.

Catch the Soul Amp top ten tunes here:

http://www.soul-amp.com/Top_Ten_Songs.html

Here's more pics of the Marquette Interchange:

Marquette Interchange in morning on I94 in Milwaukee, February 2008. Photo by Mike Fisk

Here's more free music (sorted in most recent order):

http://www.soul-amp.com/freebies/?M=D

Check out some very cool pottery:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/07/amazing-pottery-best-pottery-ive-seen.html