Say Yes to Ogden!

Moros Eros

We tried to get a show with metal band Hurt at the Avalon in Murray. We didn't get it, but as a consolation prize, we were offered a show in Ogden. Though we weren't really sure if we wanted to make the cold trip up to O-town, we decided to say yes.

This will be our first show since November-ish, when we played at Kilby and decided that it's not really that fun to keep playing to the same empty room. But Ogden is a new place. Hey, maybe Ogden has been waiting for us. Maybe it's the untapped market that will push Johnny Tightlips to the forefront of rockdom. Who knows.

So if any of you are in Weber County on Tuesday night...

Johnny Tightlips
I Am the Ocean
Casket Salesmen
In Manhattan
The Cosmonauts
Moros Eros

at the Country Club Theater,
3930 Washington Blvd

No More Naked Old Men

It was bad enough at the Community College - all the old firemen standing there naked, chatting it up, with their belly laughs and sweeping arm gestures. I feel very uncomfortable around male nudity. Very uncomfortable.

Luckily, when going to the gym at the College, there was a large locker room. I could overt my eyes when walking past the old naked men and go hide myself in the back corner. Not so at new job.

There is a gym here on the first floor of my building. It's small, but sufficient. However, the locker room is very small. And no matter how I time it, I always end up in there at the same time as all the naked old men. And there's nowhere to go.

Kids + Guns = Great Idea!

From today's Deseret Morning News:

"Big-game hunters could be younger under a bill passed by the House Tuesday morning despite some concerns about the level of maturity for younger hunters.
The age required for a big-game hunting permit would be lowered from 14 years to 12 years of age under HB67, which passed the House 50-24. The younger age is fast becoming the national standard, said Rep. Curt Oda, R-Clearfield, the bill's sponsor, and an age limit of 14 in Utah is 'very restrictive.'
Since the child would be required to pass a hunter's safety course, prove their proficiency with a rifle and be accompanied by an adult, Oda said that the appropriate safeguards would be in place. As for their maturity, he noted that he received his first BB gun at age 4 and subsequently killed almost 3,000 birds over the course of a summer, which taught him both the realities of life and guns."

I am the only one who, in this age of rampant school shootings, thinks it is a bad idea to lower the age requirement for kids and guns? The guy shot 3,000 birds in a summer - is that supposed to impress us? I don't really think the PETA folks are going to like that at all.

I can promise you this, though, at age 4 Paige will have a bb gun. I want her to shoot everything!

January Consumption

Music

Of Montreal - Satanic Panic in the Attic
Band of Horses - Everything all the Time
Punk Goes '90s
Plus/Minus - Let's Build a Fire
Cobra Starship - S/T
The Thermals
Grizzly Bear - Yellow House

Books

Love is a Mixtape by Rob Sheffield

Television: Wanna Bask in Your Golden Light

The Sutherlands have entered the 20th Century! We now have cable TV (well, satellite tv anyway). As I suspected, there really isn't ever anything actually on TV, even if you have more stations. But I have found a few new shows to watch. Oh, and the DVR is truly the best invention in the history of the world.

Currently watching:

• The Hills (hooray for not having to download it off the internet. And with the OC being canceled, how else am I going to get my fix of California living?)
• The White Rapper Show (I'm white, I have always wanted to be a rapper. And it's a lot better than you'd think.)
• Anything to do with Metal on VH1 (Traci and I watched three hours of Heavy: The History of Metal. Three hours.)
• Journey to the Center of the Rock/World's Best Videos on IMF (IMF rocks. Unfortunately, we only have a trial version of it. I don't know at what point it's going to go away, but I don't want it leave! There are even less videos on MTV, MTV2 and VH1 than I could have possibly imagined. Like no videos.)
• I'm from Rolling Stone on MTV (I have always wanted to write for Rolling Stone. Plus I'm white and I want to be a rapper.)

I haven't really gotten into The Daily Show or the Colbert Report like I thought I would, but hey, we'll see how it goes. I also haven't ventured out into the world of Adult Swim yet. Traci is addicted to The Girls Next Door and Dr. 90210.

Oh, the Chicken Dance

Many thanks to RB for sending me this collage of chicken dances from my favorite canceled show, Arrested Development. As you watch this, picture me huddled over my computer in my little cubicle, trying so hard not to laugh out loud - with my face turning all red, and my shoulders bobbing up and down in silent laughter.

Talladega Nights

After a short stint of actually going to the movies, I'm back to renting DVDs. Last night, Traci and I watched Talladega Nights: The Ballad of Ricky Bobby. We both love Will Farrell, but this was not his best performance. Though there were a few laughs, overall, the film was only mildly entertaining.

For us parents, the best line of the whole movie was during one of Ricky Bobby's prayers to "Baby Jesus."

Dear little baby Jesus, who's sittin' in his crib watchin' the Baby Einstein videos, learnin' 'bout shapes and colors. I would like to thank you for bringin' me and my moma together, and also that my kids no longer sound like retarded gang-bangers.

Oh, that dang Baby Einstein company! You make us crazy, but everyone once in a while you sneak into a Will Farrell joke and make us laugh.

While Talladega Nights was plenty watchable, if you really need to get your funny on, stick with Anchorman.

Paige's Birthday (Part II)

So, it's been almost two months since Paige's birthday, but I finally put these pictures on my computer and they are just too cute not to post.

Here's a kid who is feeling very serious about being so very old:



Luckily, the somberness quickly faded when we got a little bit of sugar in her:

Lessons He's Learned?

He’s back. Shawn Nelson is on the cover of this month’s Utah Business Magazine – but as the top story of “The Lessons They Learned.” Here’s what Shawn supposed learned, though it doesn’t seem like he’s learned much at all:

The story: For the better part of a decade, Shawn Nelson served as a poster child of small business success. Not only did he ride the wave as a successful Utah entrepreneur, but he pushed it to the extremes, taking giant leaps—quite literally in the case of his skydiving stunt for Richard Branson’s reality TV series “Rebel Billionaire”—before the wave came crashing in around him.

In October 2005, LoveSac, the company Nelson started in his basement, was named Utah’s fastest growing company. Three months later, Nelson and his admittedly young team were in the middle of a Chapter 11 reorganization, trying to make sense of faltering franchisees and creditors who were expecting payment.

“At that point the company’s finances are the concern of a lot of people, including the people that we owed money to,” Nelson says. “So the people that owe money to us, for instance our franchisees, all come under fire, and a lot of them had to close because they themselves didn’t pay their bills.”

The million dollars Nelson won on television went right back into the company to help during the reorganization, he says, and LoveSac is now alive and well. Sales were expected to reach nearly $10 million in 2006, a sobering statistic considering the same figures the previous year were expected to be around $30 million.

The lesson: Reorganization at LoveSac also meant a big move across the country. “We had to eliminate most of the employees and start over, and the biggest bummer of it all for Utah is that LoveSac is no longer a Utah company,” Nelson says.

The self-named “ChiefSac” acknowledges that the fast growth of the company was a little too much for him and his inexperienced staff to handle. The former corporate staff of 60 has completely changed, with about a dozen retail veterans running the company from its new home in Connecticut.

“Being an entrepreneur and business leader doesn’t require any specific experience, but in functional and operational management positions, experience is everything…” Nelson says. “I had a lot of people with great attitudes and great spirit and with a lot of great work ethic, but they didn’t necessarily have the right experience, and that is my fault as a business leader as I gathered them around me.”

I can’t believe that Shawn actually admitted that hiring his family, his fraternity buddies and his ex-girlfriends was a bad idea. I though that bad hiring policy was the foundation upon which the foam-filled empire was built? But, in usual fashion, he still points the blame at the franchisees – “they didn’t pay their bills.” Poor Chief Sac.

A Song for a Depressing Thursday

For those of you who are sick about the fact that it's only Thursday morning, which means that there is still all of today and tomorrow before the weekend - and there's like no more holidays until President's Day (my job doesn't recognize MLK Jr. Day, hmmm....), here's a little song for you.

Brand New - Sowing Season (Yeah) [MP3]

Here's my take on this song, and Brand New's latest album The Devil and God are Raging Inside Me. It's the musical equivalent of feeling like God doesn't like you, and even more disappointing, realizing that Satan doesn't have your back, either. Like Brand New's previous two releases, this one's not great all the way through, but the good stuff (like this opening track) are so good that it's easy to overlook the weaknesses of the whole. Having the best title and artwork, not to mention having www.fightoffyourdemons.com as your band's website, can't hurt either.

Anyway, have a great, angry Thursday.