Root River Flooding Pictures... West Allis, WI 4-10-2008

Be sure to check ou the new pics of the Root River flood in June 2008 that can be found here.

Here's some pics I took of the Root River flooding in West Allis, WI in April of 2008. It's usually a tiny creek of 3 to 5 feet wide. That night it was a raging torrent (well relatively speaking). The snow had just melted and the ground was still frozen and was not absorbing much water. In parts of the river that got dammed up with debris, it had become a small lake.

The Amp's Soul is from the Generation of Pure Rock... with a smathering of everything...time for a listen to Amp the Soul

Here's the place to be for music in the pursuit of amplifying your soul. We try to get our brains out of it and play from the heart.

You can wander around in the our big listing of Soul Amp music:

http://soul-amp.com/freebies

Or check out the top ten Amp Songs:

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

Or just sit back and let the music of this long tune take you wherever.... I guarantee you'll have bits of this music stuck in your head in a good way after just one listen:

How About Some Hammond

Thank you for stopping by.

Oh, and if you like jammy, "instrurock" tunes, check out Mindedelic Flower Rainbows:

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

Psychedelic pic of the Nord Electro 2 and Hammond M3 and lyric writing Bradly style... Ice Beneath the Snow.

Psychedelic Nord Electro 2 with a Hammond M3 in the background. Photo by Mike Fisk

Time to see how Bradly's brain works. Below are the lyrics for Ice Beneath the Snow that he was reading while he was singing the song. So listen to the song here:

Ice Beneath the Snow

While reading his lyrics... just odd how what he sings fits perfectly and the lyrics don't necessarily match... not sure how he does that.

You can also watch the video of him doing it here:

Ice Beneath the Snow - Video

Bradly Odland's lyrics to Ice Beneath the Snow page 1. Photo by Mike Fisk

Bradly Odland's lyrics to Ice Beneath the Snow page 2. Photo by Mike Fisk

Here's more psychedelic Photo Art pictures:

• Psychelic Queen Anne's Lace in Space
• 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
  
  

To House of Guinness and our fans: Thank you!

Thank you for the warm reception during our gig at HOG on Friday, May 9, 2008. The band had a kick *ss time and we hope you did too. All the tunes from the gig will be posted here in the coming weeks. So don't be a stranger!

T-bow bobblehead curse continues....

Unfortunately, the Derrick Turnbow bobblehead curse continues:

http://blogs.jsonline.com/brewers/archive/2008/05/13/more-of-same-from-turnbow.aspx

I do wish the best for Derrick.... good luck in the minors and quit worrying about things and just throw the d*mn ball. =)

Turnbow and Mets....Derrick Turnbow, don't you do it.... Don't go to the Mets... the curse will only double... stay a Brewer

Just read this on JS Online:

Report: Mets Show Interest in Turnbow

Turnbow, you don't want to go there. The Mets are one's who started the curse.

It's all playing into their devious plans.

Stay a Brewer so the curse remains broken.

Read about it:

The curse of the Turnbow Bobblehead!

umbut - to doubt - a term to express doubt when talking about designs of an engineering nature

I had this weird dream last night that I was an electrical engineer for some mining company... actually in my dream I was a consultant for the company....but no matter. So I'm sitting around this table at a restaurant with other engineers and everytime someone has an idea about something, this one guy across the table from me says.... "ummmmm but" and then gives a reason why he doesn't think it won't work. Then this waiter comes over and he says to him that we're discussing the "umbuts" meaning the doubts about the design. It just stuck with me. So now I'll introduce this new term to the world... (unless somebody else already made it up).... welcome to "umbut".

So....

Umbut, I think that term may already have been used somewhere dude.

Ok, bye for now.

Derrick Turnbow Bobblehead Curse...Turnbow and Mets....Turnbow Mojo..May 13th, 2006 Brewers vs Mets...flashlight photo art....a bobblehead with hair

Derrick Turnbow Bobblehead looking a bit concerned (flashlight photo art). Photo by Mike Fisk.

Saturday May 13th, 2006 was Derrick Turnbow bobblehead day. This was the day a voodoo curse was placed on Derrick Turnbow by a New York Mets fan. He stole Derrick's pitching mojo. I was there and I saw it. He was sitting in the row in front of me and I take some of the blame because I could have stopped him. This curse may have been unwittingly placed... an act of drunken stupidity, but perhaps it was done all in malice. On that day, just before Derrick came to the mound to close the game, the fan ripped the head from the Turnbow bobblehead and with its spring dangling from its detached head, he rudely tossed the remains over the railing to the seats below.

Derrick Turnbow Bobblehead looking not a bit happy that now that he found out about the curse. (flashlight photo art...interesting how the light changes his expression). Photo by Mike Fisk.

Had only I intervened... how history would have changed.

Thus began the curse that has plague Turnbow with wild pitch after wild pitch.

Turnbow had been on the rise up until then. He was the rock star pitcher. The crowds went nuts when his name was called out to close a game. Since then his star has fallen and it's all due to this Mets fan.

Derrick Turnbow Bobblehead remembering the previous glory (flashlight photo art). Check out the cool hair... that's the only bobblehead with hair that I'm aware of...Photo by Mike Fisk.

We have decided to finally rectify and reverse this curse. Through various incantations, potions, and spells, we have removed the curse from you, Derrick (although both curse and cure are null and void if you end up pitching for some other franchise other than the Brewers and their affiliates). So no more worries, Derrick. Just throw strikes without thought. The curse is gone and your command and consistency will return. Your pitching mojo has been returned!

Derrick Turnbow Bobblehead looking relived to know that the curse is gone (flashlight photo art). Photo by Mike Fisk.

Disclaimer: Your's truely doesn't really believe any of this stuff... it's all for laughs and we sincerely hope with all out hearts that Derrick does get his command back and helps the Brewers to the playoffs. They need you buddy!

Be sure to catch some groovy free music while you're here!

You can catch more flashlightphoto art here:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/06/picture-of-floating-umbrella-house-of.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/05/curse-of-derrick-turnbow-bobblehead-may.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/03/flower-power-flashlight-photos-still.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/03/artistic-band-photo-using-flashlight.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/06/lovely-sea-monster-in-underwater.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/05/life-and-beauty-is-all-in-shit-time-to.html

Strange Peace Sign - Life and Beauty is all in the Shit... tolerance for the shit....weird led light photo art w/ peace fingers and abstract pillows

Light photo art... peace fingers... photo by Mike Fisk

The grubs, worms, dangerous fertilizers, pesticides, herbicides, all kinds of rotting matter, make up that perfect lawn. The human beside you or the baby in your arms that you love and find beatiful is full of guts and sh*t and all kinds of disgusting stuff. Your amazing home got there because you sucked away the dust mites and flushed the shit and scrubbed the rotting material away and there still some left and there'll be more tomorrow and all that you flushed away is still with us. And so on.... I could go on quite a bit on this and so can you. There's a ton of it. So everybody let's get over ourselves, our races, our religions, our countries, our ways of life....because life and beauty is in the shit, there's ice beneath the snow... it's time to make a motion of love....

Be tolerant of others because they are made of shit just like you and they and you are beautiful.

As my niece would say, Peace Out!

Make A Motion of Love

Here's some more light photo art. These were created by leaving the aperture open, take a pic with a flash, and then moving the camera in front of some of the led's in the electronics (like the DVD player and Wireless hub) in the darkened room. Enjoy.

Light photo art... peace fingers... photo by Mike Fisk

Light photo art... peace fingers... photo by Mike Fisk

Light photo art... peace fingers... photo by Mike Fisk

Light photo art... abstract pillow... photo by Mike Fisk

Light photo art... abstract pillow... photo by Mike Fisk

You can catch more flashlightphoto art here:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/06/picture-of-floating-umbrella-house-of.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/05/curse-of-derrick-turnbow-bobblehead-may.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/03/flower-power-flashlight-photos-still.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/03/artistic-band-photo-using-flashlight.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/06/lovely-sea-monster-in-underwater.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/05/life-and-beauty-is-all-in-shit-time-to.html

Here's more psychedelic LED Photo Art pictures:

• Queen Anne's Lace flower LED Photo Art
• Glass Earth Globe with blue LED light Photo Art - Looks like electric bolts
• Galactic Weed

Top Ten Songs from Milwaukee's Soul Amp - Wisconsin Top Ten Songs

Just released the Top Ten Songs from Milwaukee, Wisconsin from the band Soul Amp.

They can be found here:

Top Ten Songs

All the free music can be found here:

Free Music

Oldies from Soul Amp's M1 - soundtrack material - music for movies - muscial paintings

I was going through some of my old files trying to clean some stuff up and I ran across some old tunes I created about 5 years. And so I posted a bunch of these M1 Oldies at:

http://soul-amp.com/freebies/oldies_of_M1

Check them out if you like. I posted a couple of my favorites individually so that they get podcasted. There's a lot of stuff there. Some of it pretty weird. Some of it New Ageish. Yep, so if listen you can here some of the crap I did back then in our current music.

Unfortunately, I was going through a rough period then and at one point I deleted a bunch of my old tunes. So only a couple people ever got to hear those. So it goes.... Here's one that got saved though (back then I frequently named tunes with the date I wrote and recorded them):

2003_06_23

Maybe someday I'll give it a proper name. It really needs to be re-recorded anyhow.... Enjoy.

New Age Soul Amp - Ok Not really - an Oldie from M1.... painting musical pictures....

Yep... it's a bit New Ageish... but I was thinking more along the lines of painting pictures with music. So here ya go:

Sleepless Sunrise

Soundtrack... movie music... oldies from M1... oldies from a Soul Amp musician

M2 you might like this one.

I wrote this for a friend of a friend who was going to do a movie, but it never got made. Maybe M2 can use it for his movie =)

It's pretty weird and spooky.....

Atmospheric

Another sailing inspired Tune - another M1 oldie

Here's another oldie from the M1 archives. It's another sailing inspired tune... it's a worth a listen... I think some of these could be redone and used for sound tracks. Back then I would write and record a tune in betwen 1 and 2 hours. Whatever came into my head... overdubs and very few retakes. Some came out a bit cheasy but I like some of them still. Here's a tune inspired by sailing with Bradly:

Catching the Wind

Halloween tune - Oldies of M1

Here's a strange one that I created on Halloween night in 2003. I'm pretty sure that I stayed up that whole night. I walked around, almost got into fight with a drunk, wrote a resume for a friend, and composed and recorded this tune. Pretty crazy times. I was going through a lot back then.

Anyhow, here ya go:

Halloween 2003

Soul Amp Lyrics - Lyrics on sailing, corporate greed, addiction, shut-ins, vandalism, suicide, modern love, death, rocks, rivers, driving, excuses

Soul Amp Lyrics can be found on the Soul Amp site. They are in two place. The lyrics for Strip Mall Heaven are found here:

Strip Mall Heaven - Soul Amp - Lyrics

And here are other lyrics to a bunch of other songs:

Other Soul Amp Lyrics

You'll find all kinds of great poetry there: Lyrics on sailing, corporate greed, addiction, shut-ins, lonliness, suicide, modern love, death, divisions between people, excuses, vandalism, rocks, driving, growing up, violence, ice, clothes.... basically all life has to offer. Have fun digging around in it if you dare. You might find something there that sheds some light on the human condition... well at least the conditions of 3 very oddball rockers. Enjoy.

Greed and Lost Jobs... a short story of millions and layoffs...

Here's a short story. It's a true story.

A company was sold and the executives walked away with sickening amounts of money. It was about 20 people who were grossly enriched. Many stock holders also won this lottery, but the 20 people directly benefitted hugely from their brilliant decisions of cutting back on operating costs by cutting workers (human beings) and thereby improving the bottom line.

Maybe this story will bore you as it happens everyday. But I'll tell you it to you again if you'll listen.

No great vision was needed. No desire to motivate and empower the workers to make a better company through growth in innovation and new products. The company was sick inside, but looked much healthier from the outside and so was sold for an ungodly amount of money to a much bigger company.

The 20 people walked away with millions and millions. You would be shocked by the amounts. Or maybe you wouldn't. And in our weakened economy created by the 20 people and all their thousands of friends (yes only thousands, not many of us get to share in that level of greed), the company is now going through round 5 of layoffs. Expenses must be cut. The only way is to cut the workers.

Yesterday one of those workers was let go in the morning. She was one of hundreds. She was not forced to leave immediately but was allow to stay for the day. She spent the day cleaning up all the work she had been doing for she had been lately working overtime (no extra pay for salaried workers) to enrich the company's leaders and stockholders. She could have left the minute they told her about losing her job. But she stayed and worked to get as much done as she could; to leave things in the best state as possible. She worked into the night and I thought, how stupid. To give so much for no return. The 20 people would never have done that and I think they would think her stupid as well.

But I was wrong. It was not stupid. It was noble. It was doing the right thing as painful as that might be. She is an older worker without a job in a weakened economy.

The 20 people did not do the right thing, and yet I feel certain they are enjoying their blood money.

And so I say pray for the noble people and the greedy people and will have hope that someday it won't be like this anymore.

www.soulamp.com

There has been much confusion about which soul amp we are. We are the rock 'n roll, alternative jam band soul amp. We are at http://www.soul-amp.com/. We have the dash in our url.

Just so you know....

While you're here catch the top ten tunes:

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

Flashlight photo art - strange Birthday Balloon photos - open aperture night photos

Flashlight photo art by Mike Fisk

Here's some more flashlight photo art like the Flower Power photos I took and the flashlight band photo (which is also found in different forms here and here).

I just opened the aperture and shined a flashlight around artfully.

Catch the Top Ten Soul Amp Songs by clicking this link.

You can catch more flashlightphoto art here:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/06/picture-of-floating-umbrella-house-of.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/05/curse-of-derrick-turnbow-bobblehead-may.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/03/flower-power-flashlight-photos-still.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/03/artistic-band-photo-using-flashlight.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/06/lovely-sea-monster-in-underwater.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/05/life-and-beauty-is-all-in-shit-time-to.html

And here's a cool pic of a ripped flannel shirt shot with finger over flash to create a blood red effect:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2007/09/for-you-to-bleed.html

And More free Soul Amp music here:

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

Milwaukee Coast Guard Station Demolished....3/25/2008

The Milwaukee Historic Coast Guard station was demolished on 3/25/2008.

Here's a story on it:

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=732153

Click here for pics of the building before it was destroyed.

Cougars in Wisconsin - in Walworth County

The DNR is investigating cougar tracks found on March 7 seven miles northeast of Elkhorn:

http://www.chippewa.com/articles/2008/03/16/ap-state-wi/d8velcp80.txt

"Although there have been reports of cougars around the state since then, none have been documented as wild cats since the early 1900s."

My bandmate and good friend M2 has been tracking information about cougars (aka mountain lions...when they are found in the Rockies) in Wisconsin (in particular Southeast Wisconsin). It's quite interesting that he is way ahead of the DNR on uncovering information about them:

http://voodoodrums.blogspot.com/2007/09/possible-druid-activity-in-kettle.html

http://voodoodrums.blogspot.com/2007/09/this-guy-probably-got-eaten.html

Maggie also has some info on them:

http://theessenceoftriangularity.blogspot.com/2007/09/cougarsmountain-lions-in-wisconsin.html

It's great to see some of M2's theories and Maggie's information validated!!! =)

Ice Bergs on Lake Michigan...

Check these out:

http://www.crh.noaa.gov/crnews/display_story.php?wfo=mkx&storyid=13545&source=0

Some very cool Lake Michigan iceberg satellite images and airplane photos. The warm weather and West wind have blown the ice that was accumulated on the western shores of Lake Michigan miles out into the lake. I wonder what would happen if the warmup stops and the wind shifts to the East. That might cause a cool ice pile-up on the shores... probably too late in the season for that to happen.

I have some more Lake Michigan ice pics that I'll post maybe this weekend... I've been a slacker getting this stuff posted.

Here's a song about people being cold and cruel to each other (look for the line...."showed you ice parades"):

Setting Traps

Winter Fading In Wisconsin-Ice Beneath the Snow - Soul Amp releases new song/video - No Voodoo drummer this time - piano, acoustic guitar, Hammond M3

Snow and Ice in Milwaukee WI - Jan 2008 - photo by Mike Fisk

"Winter's Bones Begin to Show"

Bradly and I were able to get together for a Soul Amp practice tonight. Our Voodoo Drummer, M2, could not make it tonight. (M2, check out the orbs in that pic...pretty cool eh?)

Bradly had a chord progression in mind and so we ended up writing this short tune. Bradly actually wrote some lyrics down this time and we made a couple of changes to them and did about three takes.

It's a song that has to do some with the reluctant release of winter's grip on us (it's been many months since we've had a decent thaw and now the snow is finally melting some after the 4th snowiest winter in Milwaukee so far). But there's more to it than that.... you'll have to listen to find out.

It has piano (off the Nord Electro 2), Hammond M3, and acoustic guitar.

It may be the shortest tune we've ever done.

Here ya go:

Ice Beneath the Snow

You can also check out the video of us recording this take of the song at:

Ice Beneath the Snow - Video

Ice in Milwaukee WI through a windshield in the sunrise - Jan 2008 - photo by Mike Fisk

"The Sun Begins to Glow"

Milwaukee Coast Guard Station - Historic Building Lake Michigan Is Scheduled to be Razed (perhaps this month, March 2008)

Historic Coast Guard Station - the tree that lost its branch which fell into the side of the building - Milwaukee WI - Jan 30 2008 - photo by Mike Fisk

The historic Coast Guard Station in Milwaukee on McKinley Marina may sooned be destroyed. I have always found the building to be very interesting. It's a 92 year building that has experienced two fires since it was abandoned in 1972. I would love to take a look inside myself (I suspect it's full of photographic opportunities). Some people find it an eyesore and I disagree completely. It's a lovely old structure.

The following is a good article with excellent photos about the restoration funding effort:

http://milwaukeestreets.blogspot.com/2007/10/coast-guard-station-salvation.html

As you can see, even in the few months since October 2007, it has experienced further damage include a tree falling on the south side of the building.

Here's a current article from JS Online:

http://www.jsonline.com/story/index.aspx?id=573278

Enjoy the pics, it may be the last we see of her.

Historic Coast Guard Station - Milwaukee WI - Jan 30 2008 - the back of the building with the boat launches - photo by Mike Fisk

Historic Coast Guard Station rear of building with boat launches - Milwaukee WI - Jan 30 2008 - photo by Mike Fisk

Historic Coast Guard Station - the bridge over the boat launches - Milwaukee WI - Jan 30 2008 - photo by Mike Fisk

Historic Coast Guard Station - Milwaukee WI - Jan 30 2008 - photo by Mike Fisk

Historic Coast Guard Station - the lookout tower - Milwaukee WI - Jan 30 2008 - photo by Mike Fisk

Historic Coast Guard Station - Milwaukee WI - Jan 30 2008 - photo by Mike Fisk

Historic Coast Guard Station - Milwaukee WI - Jan 30 2008 - photo by Mike Fisk

Historic Coast Guard Station - the tree branch that smashed into the side of the building -Milwaukee WI - Jan 30 2008 - photo by Mike Fisk

Historic Coast Guard Station - the tree branch that smashed into the side of the building -Milwaukee WI - Jan 30 2008 - photo by Mike Fisk

Historic Coast Guard Station - Milwaukee WI - Jan 30 2008 - photo by Mike Fisk

Historic Coast Guard Station - Milwaukee WI - Jan 30 2008 - photo by Mike Fisk

Here's Soul Amp's top ten songs:

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

Here's the Milwaukee Skyline during warmer weather:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2007/10/sailing-in-milwaukee.html

Here's some coldest day in 2008 in Milwaukee pics:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/01/coldest-day-in-milwaukee-2008-milwaukee.html

Here's some pics of a stranded sail boat from 2007:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2007/12/chinook-34-wrecked-milwaukee-sailboat.html

Horizons They Are Gonna Meet You - Wisconsin Jam Band, Soul Amp Experience, Releases alt country scratch tune... more than a bit farty in places...

Horizon Sunrise Photo with Rocky Mountains in the Background Driving on Hight - photo by Mike Fisk

Horizons They Are Gonna Meet You

Here's a new one for you that was recorded in September 2007 by Bradly and myself. It's a first take (or rather an only take), so it's a bit rough. It was recorded using the Hammond M3 and Bradly's Strat using the Zoom H4 as per the usual these days. It's a song about driving through the desert... not sure where (not necessarily the Arizona desert) and about getting through life's troubles and how there is always another day or something like that... sh*t I've said too much already... just take a listen... you'll want to listen to this at least twice before it's sinks in some... so don't just hate it right away... give it a chance to breath... there's some farty stuff in there.... we probably should have called the band Fart Proudly.... well here's goes and enjoy:

Horizons They Are Gonna Meet You

Here's Soul Amp's top ten songs:

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

Here's the Milwaukee Skyline:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2007/10/sailing-in-milwaukee.html

Here's some other coldest day in Milwaukee pics:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/01/coldest-day-in-milwaukee-2008-milwaukee.html

Here's some pics of a stranded sail boat on the shores of Lake Michigan:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2007/12/chinook-34-wrecked-milwaukee-sailboat.html

Flower power - flashlight photo art - still life image study - dead yellow roses in a vase - aperture open - samuri swords - smoking pipes

Here's some more Flower Power photos (well the the last flower power thing was a painting).

I'm calling these flashlight photo art (I'm not sure that's an actual artform... if not, I'm inventing it). Click here for a Soul Amp photo using the same technique.

On these, I opened the aperture on the camera for 30 seconds and shined a flashlight around artistically. It took a bit of experimenting, but I think these came out looking pretty cool. Those are samuri swords that my bro gave me and the pipes are my grandfathers... The dead yellow roses are from E. I dried them to save them. She also gave me some roses for valentine's day that I'm drying. Not sure where I'm going to put those. The vase was created by the very talented artist named Arthur Romero. (If you get a chance to buy an Arthur Romeor, do it... it'll be a good investment in the future... and he's my brother-in-law =) ) In front of the vase is a prayer bowl.

Be sure to click on the images to blow them up if you like.













Be sure to grab some free Soul Amp MP3s for your player at:

Free Soul Amp Music

You can catch more flashlightphoto art here:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/06/picture-of-floating-umbrella-house-of.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/05/curse-of-derrick-turnbow-bobblehead-may.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/03/flower-power-flashlight-photos-still.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/03/artistic-band-photo-using-flashlight.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/06/lovely-sea-monster-in-underwater.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/05/life-and-beauty-is-all-in-shit-time-to.html

Phonies and the "Catcher in the Rye" and Innocence Lost... sitting on a Hammond M3

"Catcher in the Rye" on a Hammond M3 - photo by Mike Fisk - March 2008

For whatever reason, I was thinking about J.D. Salinger's "Catcher in the Rye" last night.

The book is one of my favorites and I have identified a lot with the narrator/main character, Holden Caulfield. A key theme to the book is Holden's dislike of phony people. I've always had a disdain for people who didn't appear genuine to me, but I've been thinking about that lately.

There is another aspect to phony other than trying to be something you're not. And though I think most people do a bit or a lot of that, the other aspect is not saying what you mean.

It's always bugged me when people don't behave the way they really feel towards me and it also bugs me that I do that myself to them. When we're kids we don't have the phony-filter turned on because we don't know any better. We just say and do whatever the hell we're feeling. That's why kids can be so charming and also so exacerbating. It takes awhile for the innonence of our childhood to get pounded out and molded to the point where we may lose some of our simple charm, but we also become less annoying.

Its kind of like when Bilbo says "Good Morning" to Gandalf at the start of the book "The Hobbit". Gandalf says, "What do you mean?....Do you wish me a good morning; or mean that it is a good morning whether I want it or not; or that you feel it is a good morning; or that it is a morning to be good on?"

A lot of what we say is just so that we get along somehow, but we really don't want to be bothered with the details or really getting to the true meaning what we're saying; heck it's the stuff we always say in given situations. Occasionally someone, like Gandalf, comes along and slices through our phony-filters to find out what we really mean. In the Hobbit, Gandalf finally says to Bilbo, "What a lot of things you do use Good morning for!... Now you mean that you want to be rid of me, and that it won't be good till I move off..."

Ultimately all this phoniness crap appears to have it's root in trying to get stuff from other people by saying or acting or doing stuff that's not truely who we are or what we feel. I find we mask what we really feel to protect either ourselves from riprisal and hassle from others or to protect others from unnecessary pain and conflict.

I'd like to minimize the phony-filter in myself by turning my inpatient or critical feelings into something genuine and kind in regards to finding good things about people. And that takes more work than the standard "Good Morning"... When I can...I'd at least I'd like to try.... maybe return to some of the innonene, but put in the effort to polish it off with a dash of practicality and hope to avoid appearing phony.

.... And when there really isn't any good side to comment on, I'm going to just have to tell it like it is and let the chips fall where they may....

Anyhow, not sure that made any sense, but that's what I think.... oh and sorry about not tying this thing back to "Catcher in the Rye"... all right I'll try.... let's see here ...to summarize Holden wants so save his sister from growing up because he's hating it himself and he sees the innonence in her. But when he get's the chance to save her he doesn't.... so in a sence he's a phony too and I think that was the lesson of the book which I don't think I really got until just recently. Oh well... I'm slow.

Have a great weekend!

....and be sure to grab some free Soul Amp MP3s for your player at:

Free Soul Amp Music

Gigs coming up for your chance to the see THE AMP live... nothing like some good ol' rock n' roll!

Looks like we might have a gig lined up for April 5. More info to follow.

We definitely have a gig lined up at the House of Guinness in Waukesha, WI on Friday May 9. So there will be oppurtunities soon to see the Amp.

In the meantime be sure check out all the new music that's being released here:

FREE SOUL AMP MUSIC

Artistic Band Photo using flashlight and open aperture - Friday Party Tune from Milwaukee's Jam Band - lots of Strat Guitar and Hammond B3 Organ!!!

Soul Amp - Mike Fisk, Bradly Odland, Michael Nettesheim - March 6 2008

click the pic to zoom in

Well we finally got back to practicing after a long hiatus of about 3 months. It was pretty damn nice to see each other after such a long while. We have tried to get together to play, but between all our job and family responsiblities and the fact that nature has snowed its ass off this year in Wisconsin (as you can see in the pic), it has taken while to reconvene to rock.

The pic was taken by opening the aperture on my camera for 30 seconds and shining a flashlight on our faces (in my case there was a bit too much flashlight). There were actually 3 photos taken; one of each of us and then I stitched them together in Paint Shop Pro (a now fairly defunct product since Corel bought them and changed the program... made it worse imho). There were some technical glitches with the camera and we were cold, so it didn't come out as cool as I wanted it to. But M2 looks damn cool in it.

We were a bit rusty last night but we did record a couple of semi-gems. Here's one of them. It's a party tune to get your Friday partying started off just right... it's packed with Strat and Hammond B3 and lots of brilliant musical farts... so crank it up and have a great weekend!! Here's the tune:

Funky Kicking Blues Crusher

More free music can be had here.

You can catch more flashlightphoto art here:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/06/picture-of-floating-umbrella-house-of.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/05/curse-of-derrick-turnbow-bobblehead-may.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/03/flower-power-flashlight-photos-still.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/03/artistic-band-photo-using-flashlight.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/06/lovely-sea-monster-in-underwater.html

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/05/life-and-beauty-is-all-in-shit-time-to.html

Milwaukee Wisconsin Jam Alternative Band Soul Amp Releases new Song about Time - Includes Denver Bar photo of Clock - recorded on Zoom H4 - Free Music

Bar clock in Colorado - Nov 2005 - photo by Mike Fisk

Here's a new song from our November 2007 jam session. Bradly made up the lyrics on the fly as per the usual as of late. It was recorded using the Zoom H4, mastered on Ozone3 in Sonar.

Another big ending!


Here's the song:

Time

Click here for info on more Free Music and MP3s.

Watercolor pencil image - Flower Power Image - And Free Music

Free Music Can be Found Here

This was created using watercolor pencils and regular color pencils. I'm really digging using watercolor pencils. You end up with something much different from regular watercolors and they are very easy to use.

Here's a water color and pastel image to check out:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/01/more-weird-artthe-hat-stick-and-wind.html

Also, here's another odd painting the you might like:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/01/milwaukee-photographer-and-alternative.html

Here's another watercolor and pastel painting:

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/06/lovely-sea-monster-in-underwater.html

Here's some flashlight flower pics to check out (weird stuff):

http://soul-amp.blogspot.com/2008/03/flower-power-flashlight-photos-still.html




Enjoy, live long, and prosper!