Hell Yeah!

I've mentioned that with the influx of gigs I've been reinvesting any post-bill surplus into the business, something I don't always get the chance to do. Wednesday was all about that important investing into my hopeful and continual success.

I finally set up an account at Streamhoster and uploaded my new videos. Soon I'll have new streaming Windows Media Player vids at my main website, which is LONG overdue to say the least. You can see the same videos in lower resolution form at Stickam, and I plan on having links to them from my main site as well so the viewer can have some options.

I also managed to get my ad placed on a slick new booking referral site called Gig Salad. I've been wanting to sign up for this place for some time now and I just haven't had the cash to get the listing I wanted. Gig Salad is similar to another referral site, Gig Masters. I've gotten quite a lot of work from them over the years and this new site promises to bring on even more. Check out my new profile page.

Normally, I'd spend all extra cash on the selfish, the frivolous, and the wholly unnecessary. I'm obviously growing in the responsibility department by thinking through my bill situation and reviewing my business needs. This being said, all work and no play makes Andy a loser fuckwad. So today I bought myself a little present.

On August 13th, one of my few days off in the next couple weeks, I will be heading up to Milwaukee to watch a concert by...

The James Gang!

Hell to the Yeah!

I may not have mentioned it here often enough, but I am a HUGE fan of Joe Walsh. Joe is among my favorite guitar players, singers, & entertainers in general. To me, he has always been the human inspiration for the Floyd the Bass Player character in the Muppets. He's funny, intelligent, & capable of living the rock star life to the extreme. He's also very funny, which is always a big plus for me.

It is widely known among my friends that if I'm aware that Joe Walsh is playing somewhere near me and I have the means to see him play, I'll drop everything to do so. I've seen him 5 times before (twice with Eagles & three solo shows) and I lament the fact I haven't seen him more often. As silly as it may sound, after every performance I've always felt that, were I to die for any reason, my life would be happy and complete at that moment. It's been about 7 years since I last saw him perform and I'm way overdue for that kind of contentment.

The James Gang made a few surprise appearances on the Drew Carey Show, which always made me happy, though I yearned for a real concert. They had a couple of special performances at the Rock & Roll Hall of Fame some years back and I couldn't get tickets under any circumstances. For me, getting to see Walsh back with the original James Gang is akin to being able to see Cream reunite, something I also missed. ;)

April & I heard about this tour and I vowed to see the show. Sadly, when the tickets went up for sale, two problems arose. First, we completely forgot about the sale date and the show sold out almost immediately. For several weeks not even a single ticket would come up on eBay or at any ticket broker locations. The next issue was that we were both so broke (Remember all the tales of financial woe I've shared this year?) that even if we had remembered the tickets were going on sale, we couldn't have bought them. It was some time before we even would have had the cash for a broker price.

Just the other day, after weeks of DAILY & diligent searching on the part of my lovely wife (I'd had resolved to the fact I was going to miss this show) some tickets finally came up for sale. They were certainly higher than face value, but considerably less than the cost of an Eagles ticket. More importantly, they were happily in the "once in a lifetime, well worth it to me, and still quite affordable given all the gigs I've been working lately" price.

Today, AFTER I'd made sure all my bills were paid, AFTER I'd paid for the new advertising, & AFTER I'd paid to set up my Streamhoster account, I bought a pair of tickets to see the rock band Pete Townshend has called the best he ever saw. My younger brother, Matt, will be making the trip from Michigan to enjoy the experience with me. He's never even seen Joe Walsh once! How has he lived all these years?

I may not be well off and I'm certainly not so busy that I'm debt-free, but for right now, life's been good to me (so far).