Because they Make Me Smile

For reasons I can't quite explain I'm a little down today. Maybe it has something to do with seeing how depressed my wife was when she couldn't manage to get some prime fan club tickets for an upcoming Rick Springfield show.


The website for the venue is completely awful and wholly incapable of handling the kind of traffic a fan club pre-sale can generate I guess. The folks at Centreevents have truly let down a lot of people today and they'd better get their crap in a pile soon! I shudder to think how they treat their regular customers.

Otherwise I guess I'm a bit down because I've been in such a slump of gigs. It is so uncharacteristic to be 9 days into December before my first real gig. It really puts a damper on any sorts of plans for holiday shopping and fun. Everything this year has been a bit off thanks to our fantastic President, the glowing economy, and the many unrelated issues that have popped up this year, sidetracking my business. I'm sure I'll talk about those some other time.

In an attempt to remedy my blue day and to celebrate my gig which takes place later this evening I thought I'd post a couple of silly photos taken at a Christmas event from a few years back.

These are from the annual event held at the Allen Bradley/Rockwell Automation Christmas party in Milwaukee, WI. This company has been around for about 100 years or so and is one of the few factories that still has a full professional stage installed in the facility.

Years back, it was customary for large factories such as this one to have complete entertainment, health, and even living accommodations for their workers. Since so many people spent long hours in the factory and away from home, these amenities would be provided to keep things "civilized" and maintain some sense of natural life.

It was great fun working the shows over the course of the weekend for these folks. They give away thousands of gift packages for all the kids and the employees really love that this company keeps with a long-standing tradition.

I couldn't resist the opportunity to get a snapshot of me next to a giant penguin and I'm using one of these photos as my business holiday/marketing card this year. I'm already feeling better for sharing!