There’s no question, crime is up right now in Madison. It could be a spike on the graph chart, but it could also be a new trend in a growing city without an adequate number of police officers. I was listening to WIBA this morning, they were interviewing a police officer that sounded frustrated. He said he wants the police force to be more pro-active by having more patrols, but there’s only so much the police force can do.

I found out just yesterday, a friend, who lives in a nice/quiet neighborhood on the West side, had his car broken into, with a boulder. I swear, this rock was about the size of a basketball. They threw it right through one of the windows, and took his video iPod. Seriously, who are these punks? That’s a pretty minor crime compared to some of the other things I’ve been hearing on the news. I’ve heard the word “murder” more than I care to the last few months, and it’s getting ridiculous.

I still think Madison is a very safe place to live, BUT, I think the City of Madison needs to take action.

Latest crimes in Madison

2006 Residential Burglary

2006 Non-Residential Burglary

2006 Robbery

MPD Report on Robbery Statistics

Is Madison Losing Another Neighborhood

I’ve been a huge Drive-By Truckers fan for many years now, so I was pretty upset when I learned one of my favorite members, Jason Isbell, left the band. But, he’s a great singer/songwriter, so everyone just knew he’d go solo, and he did. He’s playing this Friday at the Union Terrace, I’ll be one of crazies trying to get as close to the stage as possible.

www.jasonisbell.com

www.myspace.com/jasonisbellmusic

www.union.wisc.edu

Singer Jason Isbell keeps on Trucking

I decided this past weekend that I no longer want to be a member of 20 Reasons Taken. The 20 or so reasons for leaving I’ll keep to myself, except for the manner on how I left the band. I told the band last Thursday I was unhappy with the band and needed time to think about things. The band members, whom I thought were my friends, decided it wasn’t cool I was honest with my 20 reasons for being unhappy, and decided to do the dumping before getting dumped. Either way, I wish them the best of luck.

Email they sent me:

“Since email seems to be your choice mode of communication, we will communicate in the same manner. This last week, you have brought a lot to our attention that, not only were we unaware of, but now have now also become issues that we have to deal with as a band. Due to the fact that a meeting was not an option until you had reached your decision, the three of us have gotten together to discuss our situation, and have reached our own decision. It is not one we wanted to make, but we feel that we have no choice. 20 Reasons Taken has decided to move on without Brett Farrey on bass guitar, and continue on with our current schedule as planned. We would like to finish out our 2 shows in August with you if you would choose to do so. For a further explanation, you may feel free to contact anyone of us at anytime, or simply reference any one of your emails to us. Thank you for the great experience, we have enjoyed playing with you. Good luck in the future.”

What might happen when we start running out of oil. It’s going to happen.

Proof people are dumb enough to believe that 9/11 was planned. The Bush administration might be evil enough to do something like this, they just aren’t smart enough.

Just for Kurt. Was Kurt Cobain murdered? I say “yes”.

Wisconsin Puppy Mill Project - I had no idea.

Translate binary code. Kinda nerdy, but also kinda cool.

A site devoted to “Near Death Experiences”. I’m not saying I believe in any of this crap, but it passes the time.
Upload a photo and make yourself into a Simpson’s character…no joke!

I swear! I was driving down Raymond Road this past weekend and I saw a baby, still young enough to be in diapers, walking down the sidewalk by himself. My girlfriend and I saw a police officer pulled off the side of the road, so we went back to tell him about it. I pulled in front of the officer’s car and walked to his window. Immediately, I thought to myself, this cop looks pissed about something. I told him about the baby, and he talked to me like I was a criminal or something. Here I am trying to help a baby, and he’s pulling attitude with me.

Anyway, I get back in the car and we pull away. We don’t drive 30 feet and a kid that looked between 2-3 years old throws a rock at our car. That little boy was also unattended. The cop swiftly pulled up next to the boy, and I don’t know what happened because we just kept driving, we’d both had enough.

SWS plans to have a reunion show at the High Noon Saloon in Madison, WI on December 14th. All members will be there for the show, including Joy Dragland. The last time we played a show was June 29th, 2004. We’re also trying to put together a show on the 15th, which may be in Dubuque.

http://www.myspace.com/smokinwithsuperman 

I went up to Iron Mountain, MI to stay at my girlfriend’s parent’s cottage. We ended up going to small bar called Bimbos to get some pizza. I’m not sure how, but somehow we got on the topic of Steve Mariucci, probably because his photo is on every bar’s wall in Upper Michigan. Anyway, our waitress said she knew Steve and that he just moved to California. We all ask, “Why California?” She said he has a line on a football job sometime after the upcoming season. If this is true, he knows something many of us don’t. Either some coach is calling it quits at the end of the season, or he knows of a coach about to get fired. Either way, it’ll be interested to see where the former Iron Mountain resident ends up. My guess is either head coach for University of California, Berklee or USC….it might be time for Pete Carroll to take another shot at the pros.

Email I received:

“Steve Mariucci never left California. His wife is from So Cal originally. He has raised his kids in California since he began coaching CAL in 1995.

This article doesn’t surprise me in the least, yet the Vatican never really ceases to amaze me with their arrogance.

Who are they to judge? That should be their God’s job, not the job of the pope to write-off on some statement, and then it is so. If there is a God somewhere that is waiting to judge us, I would hope the Vatican is on the top of his/her “shit-list”.

Catholicism is the true path to salvation? They can sell that line to me all day long, I’m not buying it. Theoretically speaking, if Jesus came back from the dead, what religion do you think he’d be? Many Christians forget that Jesus was a Jew.

Liberal Catholicism. I know a lot of Catholics, and I’ve had lengthy discussions involving Catholicism, and religion in general. I get the feeling many of the younger generations would like to see the church loosen up it’s grip on their conservative approach. As much as I disliked the last pope, I was getting the sense that the religion was heading in the right direction. But now, they’re sadly taking a step backward. The real question is, “Why?”

Control. I believe they want to stay as conservative as possible for as long as they can to stay in control. If they lose control of the church, they could end up with a woman priest, or maybe something even worse. Again, I don’t believe it’s our place to judge. I grew up with the United Methodist religion, which I joking call “Catholic Lite”, and we had several women ministers at our church. I remember asking one of my friends when I was kid why his church didn’t allow female priests, and he didn’t have an answer. I’ve never heard a good answer, and most Catholics I’ve talked to would like to see women priests.

They should be encouraging Christianity in a time when many young people are pushing religion aside for faith.

The last 10 years of my life have been very confusing in regards to religion. I haven’t come across a religion that really makes me believe, so to speak. For now, I just try to be a good person, and hopefully that is good enough for whatever God has my fate in his/her hands.

Related Stories:

Pope: Other Christians not true churches

Vatican says other Christian churches “Wounded”

Forum Discussion

I played at Summerfest yesterday with 20 Reasons Taken. What a fun show!

1:30 – I picked up the drummer, Jason, loaded up his drums and headed to the singers house in Waukesha, where Dain was busy changing his strings. We leave his place with two vehicles, since Summerfest only allowed us two vehicles.

4:00 – We arrive at Summerfest. Load-in is back behind the Marcus Amphitheater, right underneath the bridge. Bands pull up, unload their gear, park their vehicles, and then wait for a Hertz box truck to come pick up their gear, and a van to pick us up. I think we waited for almost an hour….damn it was hot!

5:15 – The vehicles drive right to the right side of the stage, we load all of our gear, and then try and stay cool. Did I mention it’s hot? We hydrate. There was another band getting ready to play, so I went out front and watched the band with my girlfriend, her sister, and some other band peeps.

5:45 – Shit! We go on a 6:30. I slam a beer and head backstage to warm-up.

6:15 – The band finishes, we start loading gear on. We had been waiting for this show for a long time, so everyone was pretty frantic. I just did my own thing. I got my amp rockin’, tuned up my basses, and I was ready to roll. Thankfully, I brought an extra shirt, since the one I was wearing was already pretty sweat-soaked, and we hadn’t even started playing.

6:20 – Soundcheck. I hear, “Band to the stage for a soundcheck”. The sound company was very professional and kept everything on schedule. My monitors were amazing! It was like my own personal PA system. I had everything coming through them, including drums! They were so loud, they overpowered my amp, which was fine. A huge thumbs up to Clearwing!

6:30 – We played. We felt we had a good set, but we were all pretty drained by the heat toward the end. We all looked dehydrated and about ready to pass out. The crowed was awesome!

7:30 – We finished our last song and tore down our gear. As soon as I relax for a bit, I sat in the air-conditioned dressing room for a bit sucking on a Red Bull and splashed some ice cold water on my face. I dried off, changed my shirt, and that was it. We got our check, a ride back to our vehicles, and headed back to Madison.

We felt lucky to get the opportunity to play Summerfest, and hope we can play again sometime. Thanks Summerfest.

Cop Cleared of Wrongdoing in Skateboarder Choking Incident

The Hot Springs Police Department has found that choking a 13 year old kid by a cop easily twice his size was necessary. I find it hard to believe a cop that big deemed it necessary. Even though some of those kids did try to get a way, none of them looked like a threat to me, and their only crime was skating in an area where they shouldn’t have been on National Skate Day. Plain and simple, officer Williams was on a power trip, and assaulting little kids was his way of feeling good about himself. My guess is he was bullied in school or had a bad upbringing.

No matter the outcome, the kids came out on top. The cop, well, he’ll have to live with this the rest of his life. My guess this isn’t over quite yet, I’m sure the parents will go after him with a civil suit.