Best Christmas Gift

In Portland on Christmas day the Portland Trailblazers went up against the Northwest leading Denver Nuggets. I was fortunate enough to have tickets to this game, and what a game it was. My brother and I got to our seats early like I always like to do when I go to a game. Our seats were in the lower bowl behind the Nuggets bench. At one end of the court you could see Ty Lawson and Chris Anderson warming up for this Division match up. On the far side of the court the young rookie power forwards were warming up for the Trailblazers.

As people kept pouring into the Rose Garden my brother and I decided to get a tasty beverage. He went domestic with a Coors light while I went local with a Widmer Hefeweizen for just $1 more. We convened back at our seats and continued to enjoy warm ups. Soon

the lights went dim and we were listening to a great national anthem by a local saxophone player. The national anthem was over and the starting line ups were being announced. The crowd was very excited for this Christmas day game, especially after the hard, but successful road trip we just got back from(3-1).

The game started out very close, going bucket for bucket for most of the 1st quarter before the Nuggets center Chris "Birdman" Anderson came up with a couple of blocks. At the end of the first quarter the Nuggets were leading 31-24. Brandon Roy was the only reason that the Blazers were staying in the game. The blazers played a tough 2nd quarter which ended with a Brandon Roy shot with 2.0 seconds left to bring the Trailblazers within 2. Roy ended the half with 25 points. The second half held much of the same as the first half. But the Blazers didn't rest all of their hopes on Brandon's shoulders. This half Martell Webster picked up the slack(11 points) along with the two point gaurds Steve Blake(17 points, with 5 three-pointers) and Andre Miller(14 points). The game staid tight until mid way through the 4th quarter. The blazers picked up their defense and went on a run that allowed them to take over the lead and hold the lead till the end of the game.

In the 4th quarter the blazers were able to edge the Nuggets by 13 points. In the end the blazers were victorious with a score of 107-96. The player of the game was Brandon Roy with 41 points, 6 Rebounds, and 4 Ast.

Overall the game was the closest game that I have been to in a long time. The Blazers 6th man(the home crowd) was really in attendance this game. Getting as loud as they could and standing for the final 3 minutes of the game. And as a sign in the stadium stated, Santa is really a Blazers fan after all.

Memphis Blue's is Rocking

This week MemphisSmoke promises to be a good time. They have live performances on Wednesday thru Saturday. Starting off Wednesday at 8:30 Howard Glazer and the EL34s will be performing. Howard Glazer has just released his second album Liquor Store Legend which he is hoping to do as well as his debut album Brown Paper Bag which climbed all the way to 19 on the Living Blues national radio charts. His music grabs from every inch of his musical background be it blues, rock and acoustic. He is accompanied by Bob Godwin on the bass and Charles Stuart on the drums as the EL34s. This Wednesday night promises to be filled with some great blues music and some good drinks as always with $2 20 oz bud lights and $3 U-Call it from 4PM - close.

Thursday and Friday night starting at 9 and 10 respectively will continue the good music and good fun with The Reefermen performing live. From what I have been told by my brother, who has seen them once before at Ye Old Saloon in Royal Oak, this is a great band that play a lot of great classic covers. If you check out there myspace page you can sample of their original tunes which you know they will be performing Thursday night. The Reefermen are more of a rock jam band with some sick guitar offered on most of their tunes.

Finally closing out the music at Memphis Smoke for the week we have the Detroit Blues Society Jam. The music will start at 9, the jam will start at 10. Bring your friends, your instruments, and even your band and jam with the Detroit Blues Society.

Top 5 songs to listen to on a Monday morning
1) It's All Right - Traveling Wilbury's
2) It Was A Good Day - Ice Cube
3)The Time's They Are A-Changin' - Bob Dylan
4)Roll the Windows Up - Nipsey Hu$$le
5)One Fine Day - The Offspring

Guitar Teachers

In my never ending quest to become a great guitarist, or even just an average guitarist, I have stumbled across a web site devoted to teaching people like myself some simple songs. This website is called Three Chord Guitars. The man who started this site goes simply by Mojo. I know what your thinking, but its not the same Mojo on the popular Detroit morning radio show.

This site is totally free and Mojo hopes to keep it free for as long as he can pay the hosting fees. This is a very helpful site when it comes to learning some popular songs such as Johnny Cash's Folsom Prison Blues. It also is great to learn just some sweet blues riffs. This website overs up chords charts and videos for beginners up to experienced players. So if you are interested in learning some guitar riffs, or learn to play some of your favorite songs visit Three Chord Guitars.

Another great place to learn just some cool riffs and folk type songs is a web site called Lesson share. This website is hosted by Jeff Keen who is a great guitarist. He focuses mostly on Folk and country style riffs to teach you via videos and tabs. My favorite that I am trying to master right now is the Sugarfoot Rag for Guitar.

If you work better with just reading tabs then a great website that has a great archive of guitar and bass tabs is Ultimate Guitar. You can search through the archive with ease and they have multiple tab styles for many of the songs. The Ultimate Guitar Tabs archive also offers news on popular musicians along with open forums where you can talk about music events in your area, along with picking techniques and such.

Top 5 Guitar songs I hope to learn
1) Folsom Prison Blues-Johnny Cash
2) Sugerfoot Rag
3) The Times The are a Changin' -Bob Dylan
4) Cocaine Blues - Johny Cash
5) Here Comes the Sun -The Beatles

Ice Fishing

So sitting around watching an African hunt on the VS network my brother and I got the idea of going ice fishing. Well it is not quite cold enough right now, but I thought I better do some research on ice fishing. I am just assuming that we cut a hole in the ice, put some lines down with bate, sit back and drink until you get a bite. And from what my friends tell me, that's basically it.

While doing some research I came across a forum in which fanatic and newbies, like my self,come together and discuss ice fishing in the state of Michigan. This specific forum is called ICESHANTY.com. While just snooping around I found a great thread that I thought I would share to lighten the mood a little. What have you lost in an ice hole? Sound provocative right...I read through this thread and I wrote down some of the funnier incidents.

Irish Jigger lost his cell phone in the ice hole a couple years back. When his wife asked how it fell out he replied, " because you keep calling me!"
buffettphan606 lost a list of things but some of the ones I found most interesting was that he lost his respect, and innocence in the ice hole...Matt what are we getting ourselves into.

While researching where we should go to start our quest to become the best ice fishers ever to have called the state of Oregon home I ventured onto the Michigan Sports Man Magazine web site. This website you can find everything you need to know about fishing and hunting in MI. I looked up Ice fishing and found an article that talks about the hot spots to go ice fishing in MI. I assume that if we travel to these locations we will be able to start ice fishing and meet a good amount of veteran ice fishers that will show us a thing or two. Or at least give is come beers.

Now to figure out what equipment I will need to get to become an ice fisher.

I will leave you with the top 5 lakes in Michigan for Ice fishing in no particular order.

1) LAKE CADILLAC
2) MUD LAKE
3) PORTAGE LAKE
4) MUSKEGON LAKE
5) BIG BLUE LAKE

Bringing the Memphis Blues to Royal Oak, MI

Tonight at Memphis Smoke in Royal Oak, MI The Wall Clocks will be performing live. The Wall clocks will be on the eve of the release of their album, Odds and Beginnings, which releases on October 29th. Kicking off with a record release party at the Hard Rock Cafe in Detroit. If you are into a band that has some indie rock mixed with a slight dash of blues rhythm come on out to the Smoke and get a good listen.

While you are out tonight you can also be watch the Detroit Pistons open the season away from home in Memphis, TN. They will be taking on the Memphis Grizzles on FSS-MEM. This Friday at the Palace of Auburn Hills the Detroit Pistons will have there season home opener against Kevin Durant and the Oklahoma Thunder. The first 5000 people will get a free Charlie Villanueva Halloween themed jersey so dont miss out.

Also Thursday night at Memphis Smoke the Catfish Project will be performing with no cover charge at the door. This is more of back alley blues band. This is a band that sounds best in the kinds of dives that smell like stale cigarettes and beer from the night before. So even though Memphis Smoke isn't really a dive, I think we can make them feel right at home. I know I will be there checking out the music and also watching my beloved Trailblazers taking on Carmelo Anthony and the Denver Nuggets on TNT Thursday night.

So come on out to Royal Oak and Memphis Smoke to enjoy some live music, some good drinks, some good laughs, and some overall fun.

Field of Dreams

If you build it...they will come, and they did.

My Tuesday afternoon started off on a pretty good note. On the drive home I was listening to 99.5 in Detroit and they were talking about a topic that I knew a little something about so I decided to call in and give my 2 cents. Low and be hold, they put my call on the radio. I was super stoked about this because I had never heard my voice on the radio. Also because my girlfriend was able to listen and hear it too. So right from there I knew it was gonna be a good afternoon.

That night I went to Oakland University to play in the King of the Rec 3 on 3 tournament put on by Alpha Omega. It was a good tournament with some good players, but we eventually got 3rd place. After showering in the dorms I headed towards the bar to indulge in some NBA season opening Basketball. During the tournament the Cleveland Cavaliers lost to the Boston Celtics. Now it was time for the Lakers to take on the Clippers, not really that important. The match up I was looking forward to was the rematch of the 2008-2009 first round playoffs between the Portland Trailblazers and the Huston Rockets. On my way to Norms Field of Dreams on Rochester Rd. off of 14 mile I decided to call ahead and make sure they had the Blazers game on. Of course they did.

As I arrived some light rain started to fall. As step into the bar a stench of smoke and beer hits me like ton of bricks. I show my ID to the bouncer and make my way to the bar. As I make my way across the room I notice that they had a pay as you go pool table being occupied. They seemed to have a stage area which would be for some live music. I noticed that there are two dart boards separated by the entire bar. As I make it to the bar I notice that the bartender was an extremely large white man that looks like he would be better off as a bouncer then a bartender. I find a seat near the bar and turn the table side TV to the Blazers game. It was the 2nd quarter and the game was tied. I ordered me a delicious cheese burger with fries for a reasonable $6.50. I also decide to order a 1st half beer. There specials for Tuesday are $2 20 oz. Domestic drafts. My drink of choice tonight was Bud Light.

As I sit back during the halftime show I start looking around at the type of people that are in the Field of Dreams that night. I notice that one of the waitresses was a pregnant women. Now i don't know too much about pregnant women but I don't think she should be serving drunk people in a smokey atmosphere. Besides that shock there was a man with no arm rocking the RUN DMC T-shirt roaming around the bar. And finally was the man who complemented me on my spectacles. This man had no front teeth, and his gums were black with chewing tobacco. We discussed all different types of frames and such.

On the box, the music was hot. There was some decent music playing. I walked in and there was some rock music playing, cant remember who it was, but decent. Then they surprised me by playing some Notorious BIG Juicy. Followed by a Wu Tang Clan song. The music continued but became more modern as the night went on.

As the night came to a close due to my exhaustion the Blazers were up by 16 with half of the 4th quarter to go. I knew the game was already over, my main man Travis Outlaw was killing it and ended up with 23 points. Also because Martell Webster played his first regular season game since the 2008-2009 season opener in which he only played 5 minutes before he went down with injury. He eventually ended up with 14 points. Greg Oden started his sophomore year with a quiet game in the points column but ended with 12 rebounds and 5 blocks. Brandon Roy trying to build on his already bright resume started the season with 20 points 5 rebounds and 5 assist. The Houston Rockets didn't just roll over and die in this game. They had a strong showing from former University of Oregon player Aaron Brooks with 19 points and 5 assists. Even though Aaron Brooks had a strong showing the Rockets couldn't hold of the Blazers with a final score of 96 - 87. Even though the Blazers were victorious they did not play there best game. They had 26 turnovers Greg Oden having 7 alone.

The Dude Starts Blogging

I am a resident of the Ferndale, MI area as of right now. I am currently living with my Oldest brother(rad-aholic) and his new wife. I will be residing with them until after Christmas when I will then return to school to continue my education in engineering. When I say engineering I mean fluid dynamics. When I say fluid dynamics I really mean the study of how quickly my friends and I can consume all sorts of alcohol and what kind of events will come from the consumption of alcohol. Oh well I digress, I am currently working for a small engineering firm in the metro Detroit area. I know right, who would hire me. Well lets just say I'm a good interviewer.

So for the time being most of my blogs will have to do with the adventures I have with my brother in the small but event filled city of Ferndale along with any crazy ideas that we come by. The biggest idea that we are thinking of starting a brewery in the basement or as we call it, the Man Cave.

If you would like to read about some of the things my brother has been blogging about he is rad-aholic. He has some pretty good topics on his blog including, but not limited to, local shows in the Ann Arbor and Royal Oak area.

So to start it off and kind of give you a feel of who I am as a person I will end with this.

Top 5 Musical Artists I am into right now(In no particular Order):
1) Bob Dylan( like his songs, read a book of his, learning to play guitar and his music is not too hard to learn to show off to the ladies)
2) Nipsey Hu$$le (what i didn't mention was I'm originally from the west coast, well the white west coast, Oregon. but I do enjoy the rap scene. Nipsey is an up and coming rapper dropping his first big album 12.22.09 South Central State of Mind BUY IT!)
3) The Offspring( Really enjoyed their newest album. I've been a fan for a long time and just saw them in concert over the summer for the first time. Just amazing)
4)Woody Guthrie(One of the biggest influences to Bob Dylan back in the day when he was getting started. Really good folk singer)
5)Kenny Chesney(There is something about his country lyrics that just gets me)