Invidiosulus

Oh yes! There is indeed quite a bit of good music out there, but you do indeed have to find it. Thank God for the internet and satellite radio! I can't even begin to count how many awesome new bands that I've never even heard about simply from surfing the internet or hearing something on satellite radio. For example, I have an account on eMusic, with which I've found an downloaded a ton of stuff. Also love listening to internet radio (friggan AOL of all things has this totally kick-@$$ power metal station on thier "AOL Radio" service that I love to listen to!) Unfortunatly, my experience is that I am not finding the good music on the so-called "mainstream" media, such as terrestrial FM radio, nor on TV, including "American Idol". I just find myself not enjoying any of that pop tripe they keep parading out on that Godforsaken show. I think I barely managed to sit through one episode and vowed that I'd never do that again! Another example was that New Years Eve countdown thing they have with D ick Clark (edit - seems our naughty word bannisher is getting a bit over zealous here). This past one, I found myself muting it out on nearly every song that was played on there. As soon as the ball dropped, I killed the TV and went to bed - enough of that tripe! To find an "Idol" artist that I actually cared about, I ended having to watch, via internet, a version of "Idol" from another country! "Finnish Idol", that is, to see Ari Koivunen belt out some pretty kick-@$$ heavy metal songs, including "Fullmoon" by Sonata Arctica (video of Sonata Arctica themselves performing this - can you imagine THAT being done on "American Idol"? BTW, thier most recent album, Unia, friggan totally kicks some serious @$$!) and "Hunting High and Low" by Stratovarious ( ). Despite getting negative reviews from all the judges, due to constantly picking heavy metal songs, the public disagreed and kept voting him on to continue. He ultimately managed to win the entire thing! There used to be a YouTube video of his performance singing the Sonata Arctica song, which was in the finals, but alas, can't seem to find it anymore (probably has since been taken down). I've even managed to get ahold of a copy of his album Fuel For The Fire, which was not easy as it has never been released in the US, which I found to be pretty darn good. Somehow, I don't think he would make it past the first round in "American Idol", simply due to the different culture of the whole thing. I don't know how the American public would take to something like that! Agast! Heavy Metal on an 'Idol" show - the horrors! Who would've thunk? I doubt Simon Cowell would even know what to do with himself if somebody got up there and started belting out some Iron Maiden (which Ari also did BTW!), for example, let alone a lesser known band such as Sonata Arctica. Says something about my taste in music, though! Will buy an album from an "Idol" artist from another country, which was never released in this country, yet I would not even give two nickels nor the time of day for any of the artists nor thier albums that came from the "Idol" show in this country! Heck, I won't even waste the bandwidth and harddrive space to download any of them off a pirate torrent site, either! As far as the big numbers of albums sold that was quoted above, I still go by the old adage - because something is popular, does not mean it is also good. Look at Bose! Need I say more? I'll have to check out Ari's album. Sonata Arctica is one of my fav scandinavian metal bands. It would be fun to see some real metal on an american idol show.

Congratulations!!!!!![]

Some of the best burgers I've ever had the pleasure of eating were made with some teriyaki sauce and other "secret" ingredients, we also started the charcoal with a heavy dose of toluene we had on hand as octane booster. However, Mmmmmmmm, I just made some burgers with the montreal seasoning and soaked it in some green Tabasco sauce. I used Lea and Perrins Worcestershire instead of a Teriyaki sauce. They turned out very very good, the green flavor adds such a nice depth to the taste. Even better then the high octane burgers!! []

My Father in Law runs all of his cars on Veggie Diesel. He just goes around to various resturants in his area and removes their used vegetable oil(canola has a lower solidifying temperature) and takes it home and strains it through some foodservice "sock" filters and then it's ready to go into the car. The modifications to the cars themselves aren't that extensive, a secondary tank for regular diesel used to start the car and run it for a minute before shutting down to make sure the injectors stay clear in cooler weather, and some heat exchange units on the Veggie fuel lines that are hooked into the radiator lines to help liquify the veggie. Last year they made several trips from Montreal QC, down to Atlanta GA, and back all on veggie for free. Heather and I have a filtering setup and a storage barrel and a duel tank fuel valve, just no diesel car to use it with at the moment. She had a jetta but it was a canadian spec model with no airbags so importing and registering it down here was a no go and it apparently died on the way back to Montreal. Maybe this summer we'll get a diesel and do the conversion. Peace, Josh

Erik, I really enjoyed reading your article. So very neat. I almost felt like I was reading Journey to the Center of the Earth, complete with a Rick Wakeman soundtrack. -Josh

Hard to say. When I built the stands they went from being upside down on a shelf on the top of my desk in a really small apt to being at one end of a 15x20 foot living room with a dining room connecting to it and now they are in the bottom of our apt which is a room about 9x25. Currently I'm very happy with the way they sound with the eq set flat on my yamaha receiver. They do have an extra piece of 3/4" mdf piggy packed on the back of the cabinet so the 1/2" back panel no longer resonates with the low freq's(a mod I feel helped the sound if not the lower reach of the bass). Peace, Josh

Those plans look great. Here's a pic of the stands I made for my Heresy's. They are made out of 3/4 inch birch, just screwed together. I sized the bottom section to be the right size for LP's and the little top shelf to fit DVD/VHS cases. They bring the midrange right up to ear level[] Peace, Josh

A while back I suffered an unfortunate incedent involving falling asleep during the second side of ELP's Trilogy. The unfortunate thing being the part where the needle jumped out of the runout groove and let itself drag on the label for a few hours before I woke up. So now I'm wondering what sort of cheap(under $50) replacement cartridge/needle setup I should look for? Am I completely wasting my time or are there any decent offerings at that price range? This is going on a Sony PS-LX350H or something, so not a a super hifi turntable but it works and has standard 1/2" mounting holes for the cartridge. TIA Peace, Josh

That one was a genuine candid shot.He managed to be all over the place without being conspicuous. Now we just have to go through 600+ pictures and decide which ones we want prints made of. Tad Evearitt is just an awesome guy all around even if he drinks all my coffee. He works at the same college my dad and I work at so we fuel our javaddiction together. Thanks everyone for the kind words. I got the Heresy's moved out of my old place and set up in our new apt two nights ago. Nice to have some good tunes playing while we unpack and try and settle in. I got to explain to Mrs. Brown all about different frequencies, horn loading, BEC tweeters, etc... Peace, Josh

We tied the knot on Sep 1st. It was such a wonderful day. Just thought I'd share some pics, http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/12.jpg http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/13.jpg http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/14.jpg http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/15.jpg BLING! http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/16.jpg http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/17.jpg http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/18.jpg http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/19.jpg http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/20.jpg http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/21.jpg http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/22.jpg http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/23.jpg http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/24.jpg http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/25.jpg http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/26.jpg http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/27.jpg http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/28.jpg http://jpbturbo.com/wedding/images/29.jpg Peace, Josh

Nice bass, Mines not signed by anybody famous but it sounds pretty nice []

I need to watch Godzilla Final Wars again.

Joe Osborn created my favorite bass line ever for the fifth dimension on Aquarius/let the sun shine.

What/where do you race? I had a volvo 245 that I raced down at Montgomery Motorsports Park in alabama. The 245 had Megasquirt standalone EMS, Wideband 02, rally grind cam from Sweden, giant intercooler, 3" exhaust, and a Garrett T3 all on the stock high compression NA motor. I never got a chance to get any quick runs in as I was still sorting the car out when I was down there and I had tuned during cooler weather and my spark gap was a little too wide for the track so I ended up only being able to rev it out to about 4500 rpm instead of the 7000 I was used to. I think the best I managed that night was a 16.5[N] But I still managed to beat every honda that lined up against me [] A week later somebody ran me off the road and it was totaled.

I'm more used to a .500 tree and using my left and right foot.

I've seen Victor Wooten a number of times with the Flecktones and on his solo tours and he puts on an amazing show. Last fall I saw Primus down in ATL and Les Claypool was certainly amazing, the whole band rocked . Only real downside of the concert was trying to drive afterwards and realizing I had a second hand buzz from all the pot that was smoked. Dave Larue is really good, I saw him playing with John Petrucci earlier this spring. This thread makes me want to go dig out my jazz bass and fire up the GK and annoy the neighbors.

I've been thinking about building something with the 12" 2025H drivers out of the JBL 4636 subs I've got. As is they don't go very low but they do sound pretty good in the tiny ported cabs. Anybody have any ideas about what to do with em? Perhaps DJK has some ideas stored in his library of a brain. Peace, Josh

It's so cold that politicians are putting their hands in their own pockets.

Those wrecks are the unfortunate result of my top secret underground electro-magnet research facility.

Wow, Sorry to hear you've got a strange disease but glad to hear that you are feeling better.

Your engine doesn't suffer. Letting it idle for more than 10 seconds simply wastes fuel and pollutes the atmosphere for no good reason. Some cars with forged parts such as pistons will experience more wear if driven immediately after starting.The forged pistons can expand more as they come up to normal operating tempature so they are slightly undersized so once heated they will have the optimum close piston to cylinder wall clearance. Also some cars EFI systems will run in closed loop mode(injectors spewing a preset amount of fuel regardless of how efficiently it is being burned) until the coolant reaches normal operating temperature so driving the car before it's warmed up could use more fuel overall then waiting until the car is at temperature before cruising around.

My fiance's dad owns diesel cars that have been converted to run on used vegetable oil. Pretty nice to be able to drive around for free. He just has to go to a few resturants every other weekend or so and fill up his storage buckets and then spend an hour or two to filter it in his garage. Not really much in the way of conversion either, the only thing really needed in his suburban and jetta are some heaters to keep the veggie liquid in the canadian winters and a seperate tank and stuff.

$1.99 for 87 octane regular stuff here in NW GA. Almost makes me glad I'm not driving my turbo car which only took the 93 octane juice.

Nice. It's interesting to hear Iron Maiden(the trooper) played on Gibsons.

A band I've been listening to out of Brazil is Hibria. Really good guitar parts and a straightforward heavy metal sound. Not sure if I mentioned Blind Guardian yet. I saw them in Atlanta a month or so ago and it was an amazing show. And what about Evergrey? They put on a freaking awesome show at last years ProgPower. The quality of their sound and showmanship was great, probably my favorite performance of the weekend.