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This weekend was supposed to be the peak of the colors for the fall season, so Stacy and I made a point to go out to a few different places to enjoy our favorite time of year.  On Saturday we went to Covered Road, on the way to Freda, MI.  On Sunday, we went to Hungarian Falls to take a look at the colors.  Anyway, here is what the Keweenaw has to offer for fall colors this year.

Last Weekend, the Keweenaw Brewing Company hosted the first brewfest in the Houghton Area. The event included 20 breweries with 60 different beers for tasting, live music by the Keweenaw Bluegrass Band and Captain Woody Boogie & the Pirates of Grove, chicken BBQ and rib dinners, and a rib cook off.  And lets face it, the best type of beer drinking is afternoon drinking on a gorgeous Keweenaw summer day…

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Since our old wedding website is stagnant, I figured I would update folks on my website.  Our wedding photos are up, and they are pretty damn good.  Adam Johnson and his crew did a fantastic job shooting our wedding.  I’ll stop writing, I think the photos speak for themselves.  If you would like to see the full highlight gallery, visit the gallery.

It has been a few weeks since I have last posted anything, and for good reason.  Over the last 3 weeks, between work (preparation for Orientation), wedding planning, the wedding itself, and the honeymoon, I haven’t had much time to myself to sit down and write.  Now, I can reflect on everything that happened over the last three weeks.

The wedding was fantastic.  I am fortunate to have a bunch of really good friends who drove hundreds of miles to get here, some of which I did not see for the better part of six years.  From Kansas, Wyoming, Downstate, Wisconsin, and Illinois, friends and family joined Stacy and I on our wedding day, and we were grateful to have such a wonderful to join us on this special day.

The weather was perfect, the church was air conditioned, and so was the reception hall. During the ceremony, both Stace and I were very nervous, but we managed to make it through the half hour ceremony without any problems.

We rented the Red Jacket Trolley for the wedding to booze cruise on between the ceremony and the reception.  We drove out to Mclain State Park, and shot a bunch of photos, and half the wedding party jumped into the water off the breaker.  I can’t see what Adam Johnson was able to capture with the shots of us out here, but I’m sure they were pretty amazing.

The reception was great as well.  There were a lot of people on the dance floor right on up to the last dance, which was very nice to see.  People seemed to have a lot of fun, and so did Stace and I.

Where the real fun started for Stace and I was during the honeymoon.  The following morning, we opened gifts real quick, and we were on our way to Marquette to fly into San Fransisco.  Our itinerary included 3 full days in San Fransisco, and 4 full days in Yosemite National Park.  We didn’t get into San Fransisco until late Sunday night, so we just went to bed that night, and Monday was the day we actually started our Honeymoon.

Monday morning we decided that we should probably do the cliche thing and head over to the Golden Gate Bridge.  So the first thing we did after breakfast was get in our Ruby Red convertible Ford Mustang and drove across the Golden Gate Bridge.  We felt like the Full House family, so we had to make sure that we went and found the Full House house as well.  We did a little bit of shopping to prepare for the woods, stopped at the Apple Headquarters (yes, I’m a fanboi), and got dressed up all fancy and went out to eat at Kincaids Bayhouse.

On Tuesday we found ourselves driving into Yosemite National Park.  About 3 hours away from San Fransisco, it felt as if we were never going to get there.  Very dry, desert like region, and all of a sudden, you drive over a big hill and we approached some of the greenest landscape I have ever been in to.  Absolutely gorgeous.  We checked into our cabin at the Evergreen Lodge, took a quick “tourist tour” of Yosemite Valley, went to dinner, and went to bed early to prepare for a busy day on Wednesday.

Wednesday was a day where we planned to Horseback ride, check out Hetch Hetchy, and go a day hike.  Hetch Hetchy to me, was the highlight of the trip.  Absolutely gorgeous, little to no people and some of the most unique rock faces I have encountered in my time on this earth.  After hiking around Hetch Hetchy, we went back to Camp Mather to do a bit of Horseback riding, as it was Stacy’s wish to go trail riding through the National Park and surrounding areas.  For me, I wasn’t all that exciting to go horseback riding, but after we were on our way, it actually was a lot of fun.  On Friday, we ended up going horseback riding again at the south entrance of the park for 5 hours, but I’ll touch base on that later.

Thursday was by far the most ambitious day.  We planned a day jam packed with activities that started at 7 in the morning and went until 10 at night.  We started with a big breakfast before going on a 10 mile bike ride to Granite Gorge trail head, where we ended up hiking 4 miles and going on a swim.  We came across a few creatures, a whip-tail and a snake, and some huge pine cones.  Fortunately we were done hiking before it hit the warm part of the day, and we were out of the Gorge by 1:30 in the afternoon.

In the afternoon, we each got a massage.  This was my first massage, and it was definitely something I was doing out of my comfort zone, but it was totally worth it. I am totally game for doing this sort of thing again.  After the massage, we went down to the Mariposa Grove to see our first batch of Redwoods on the trip.  We hustled down the trail knowing that we needed to to grab a quick bite to eat, before we went on our way out to a vista to watch the Sunset.  After we ate to hang out for the evening with a bottle of wine and some cheeses to watch the sunset.  There were some wildfires off to the North, so the haze of the Valley was great for the different colors we had on our sunset.

Friday, we went on our long horseback riding adventure.  We went for about 5 hours out to the Redwoods.  It was very dusty, but it was a lot of fun.  We started at Fish Camp, CA and rode into the National Park, tied up our horses, ate lunch, gawked at the Redwoods, and made our back to the Ranch.  That night, we  went back to San Fransisco to board our plane the next day after a quick visit to the zoo.  All in all, the Honeymoon was a perfect vacation and we had a lot of fun.  We both left Yosemite thinking of all the things we missed and all the things we would like to do in another visit.

One of the reasons I love the Keweenaw and will probably never leave is because of the awesome berry season we have in the area.  Strawberries come first, usually starting at the end of June and going through the beginning of July.  Shortly after strawberries are out of cycle, wild blueberries, thimbleberries and raspberries start to ripen. Stacy and I took a trip out to Big Traverse Bay on Saturday to see how the blueberries were doing, and the berries were not quite ready, but we said they would be ready in a few days.

Yesterday we decided it was time…a few of us went out to Hungarian Falls with the goal of picking thimbleberries for jam making, however, they were not quite ready in a lot of shady spots, and the patches that were ready were mostly picked by other people.  We gave up on the thimbleberries, and went out to one of the most beautiful beaches in Michigan, Big Traverse Bay, and picked enough blueberries to last us quite some time.   Below are some pictures courtesy of my good friend Michael Blanchard.

In my Media and Communication Theory class, we ahve been talking about how our society has changed significantly due to technological world of communication. This stuff fascinates me so I figured I would share it with all of you.

People seem less concerned about good sources, and no one necessarily needs to be an expert in order to be considered a legitimate source. I’m guilty of this, as I have used sources in term papers that are from other college students that they used in their term papers.  I have no idea where they got these thoughts from, but they sounded legitimate enough to me.    As we live in this digital age, we are slowly introducing a new generation of experts, and yet we do not know who is editing these things.   Who are these experts?  What is considered scholarly?   For example, Wikipedia supposedly has 1000 editors that confirm everything that is upload on to their site, and yet you only have 3 days of training in order to become a Wikipedia editor.

YouTube is a prime example of what is going on in this digital age.  We, as the consumers are now becoming the producers.  We do not have to be talented or knowledgeable to be famous anymore, and we don’t need thousands of dollars of equipment to make an album or make a movie, and we can just upload these things on to the web hoping that it will exceed above and beyond the rest.  This is why FOX, CBS, NBC, ABC, etc…are hurting financially.  People who used to watch those experts make shows such as ER are now watch Red vs. Blue on YouTube instead.

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to watch the video below. I cannot think of a better example of what is happening in our consumer driven society.  It is an hour long video, but it is well worth watching as it is very interesting.  Enjoy.

Been a while since I last blogged…no live shows or exciting developments.  Maybe Phish will get a fall tour going in November-December, and I’ll be able to get my groove on mid-semester.

Anyway….

On Monday I started my last year at Michigan Tech. Slated to graduate in December, I have since changed majors, went on Co-Op, keeping me in Houghton until May. Given the job market and the way things have played out in my life within the last year, I am glad that I have this opportunity to stay in school with as little responsibility as possible for the extra five months. I’ve now got the time to look at what I’ve accomplished, put together a professional portfolio, and to start looking for a job….in the Houghton area.

Stacy still has 2 years of Nursing school left. I will not be leaving Houghton anytime soon. As pessimistic as many are about finding a job in the Houghton area for at least two years after I graduate, I’m feeling alright. I can always work part time for a business doing something relatively similar to what I want to do, and then do freelance work on the side.   Anyway, there are plenty of things to ponder after I graduate, first I have to complete the following courses:

The American Experience – This class focuses on the history of the United States from the Revolution through WWI.   This is the first of my classes to get my minor in American Studies

American Foreign Policy – This class is exactly as it sounds.   It focuses on the domestic and international effects of decision making in regard to the United States’ foreign policy.

Environmental Policy and Politics – This class focuses on the issues we face in a free market society, and why it doesn’t necessarily coincide with being “Evironmentally Friendly”  This is more or less a problem-solving type of course.

Media and Communication – This class focuses on new types of media, and what is happening with the old types of media.   This type of class is the kind of class that really makes me want to apply for grad school.

Adv. Practicum in Scientific and Technical Communication – This class is also known as the “Senior Capstone” class for STC majors at Michigan Tech.  I’m not exactly sure what this class consists of, but I know it supposed to help push me to the next level with everything I have learned the past four years.

I am continuing to work at COMPASS, the Outdoor Adventure Program, and the Challenge Course this fall.   Between my three jobs, 15 credits, and other miscellaneous projects, I should keep myself pretty busy.

Tomorrow I am getting some engagement photos taken by Juskuz Photography.  I should have some images posted of my ugly face relatively soon.

A week ago from today I went back to my favorite place in the Midwest, Alpine Valley, to  go see Coldplay during their Viva La Vida tour.   They only play in the United States once every 3-5 years, so I figured I better take my opportunity now and run with it.   Who knows, next time they are back in the United States, I might have 2 dogs, 2 children, and I will be married with a full-time job.  Gotta jump at these opportunities when I have them, because I might not have them later in life.

Do be brutally honest, I was expecting to be somewhat disappointed after seeing Phish a month earlier.  Could it really get any better than seeing Phish?  No, not at all.   However, Coldplay caught me by surprise, and I enjoyed the show exponentially more than I anticipated.  Coldplay puts on a completely different type of show than any other band I’ve saw live, filled with theatrics, movie screens, and sing-alongs.

Coldplay opened with “Space Odyssey 2001″ as it segued into their mysterious themes from the Viva La Vida album, swinging lighted “lanterns” as they came onto the stage. You can kind of see this in the YouTube video off of my iPhone…sorry for the poor quality.

It was a cold and rainy day to go to a show, but that didn’t stop anyone from entering or leaving the Alpine Valley gates.  Stacy and I threw a blanket over our heads and that seemed to work fine for the duration of the evening.   The rain dampened the sound a bit (no pun intended), but that is not Coldplay’s fault, its just something I noticed with the rain coming down sidways with a 20mph wind.  Alpine Valley always has good sound, the acoustics of the 3 wood pavilions are engineered perfect for the landscape in which it is built on.

Confetti, balloons, some slight improv, and a WWI themed show was the golden ticket for Coldplay putting on a good show.  Coldplay, while not a musically sophisticated band, held all sorts of energy with simple guitar riffs, and powerful techno synthetics as they wandered through the audience.  Coldplay was kind enough to make their way through all sides of the Amphitheater, playing songs from two sides of the lawn (getting us quite a bit closer to the band). They even played “Billie Jean” at the center lawn, their own tribute to Michael Jackson, which was pretty cool.

Here is a video of the “Billy Jean” tribute.

If you ever get a chance to see Coldplay on their next world tour, do so.  Tickets are cheap (about $30 per ticket).  Here is a video that should give you an idea of the type of energy Coldplay brings to the stage.

Everytime I go to a show at Alpine Valley, I feel as if it is time to move away from Houghton.   I love it here, but I feel as if down in Wisconsin, out towards Red Rocks, the Gorge, or Deer Creek is really where I want to be.  Music is a wonderful thing, and when you are in a live music setting, I find it interesting that people come together with different interpretations of the music, yet as a group of 40,000 people, we all find some sense of euphoria in what we are witnessing.   It is truely a remarkable experience that words cannot describe.

Anyway, a week and a half until I see Phish at Toyota Park.  They are playing the best sets yet.  I think that the month of July really helped them gain back any lost chemistry.  June was a magical month for the band, now they are well on their way to being who they were in 1996, 1997, 1998.   I will keep you posted on my third Phish experience, sets 5 and 6 of my short Live Phish career.

Well folks, its been the better part of a month since I went to see Phish down at Alpine Valley.   I’ve been under the impression that if I don’t turn my notes into a comprehensive document relatively soon, I am going to forget bits and pieces of the show.

I’ve been listening to Phish for six years.   Out of those six years, I have been studying Phish extensively for about 4 of those years.  In the last two years, I took a drift away from studying Phish musically, and started studying Phish culturally.   All in all, I’ve considered myself a hardcore, diehard Phan for a quarter of my life, and it always was embarrassing to talk Phish with another Phan when I never saw them live.   Nonetheless, I knew what I was in for, and prior to going, that I was ready for the weekend of my life.

Stacy and I arrived in Lake Geneva, Wisconsin the night before the first show.  Went out to a local brewery, ate pizza, and let the tornados, hail, and rain leave before we set up camp that night.   We knew the nasty weather wasn’t going hang around long, as the green blobs on the radar were on their way out into Lake Michigan.   We set up camp later that evening, went to bed, woke up to it being 80 degrees at 8:00AM.   Could ask for a better day to go see a show at one of the most gorgeous outdoor amphitheaters in the country.

We made breakfast(bacon, eggs, toast) and sat in the sun for a while, deciding what we should do before we went tailgating.   We had the whole day ahead of us, as the parking lot did not open until 3:00.   We went into town, checked out some local shops, stopped at a Caribou Coffee, and watched Phan come pouring into the small town of Lake Geneva.   The town was packed, and I’m sure business owners were happy to see Phans flooding their town.  Later on that day, we went down to the Bigfoot Beach, laid in the sun and relaxed.

2:30 arrived, and we figured it was time to head to the parking lot.   We had kabobs for tailgating, I had plenty of beer and bottled water to keep us going for the four hours before show time.  It took about 20 minutes to get into the parking lot, which I didn’t think was that bad.  Alpine Valley had a good traffic flow, given that there is only one road to get in and out of the place.  We got out of the car, and we were embraced with hugs, not handshakes by our neighbors.   After long discussions with a few of our neighbors, I was already feeling the warmth of the most friendly group of people in the United States.   The first person I interacted with was at his 20th show.  He said he always wanted to get to 20, and he has had to wait 5 years to get there.   We played the game, “So what do you think they are going to open with?” and he said “Llama” and I said “Punch.”

We walked around the parking lot to take in the culture as cars were flooding the gates.   I’ve never saw such a friendly crowd in all my life.   Every corner someone would say “Hi” or “How’s it going?”  When people asked me what number show I was at, I said my first.   Often I was embraced with a hug and a “Welcome.”   Many phans seems to be impressed with my knowledge and Phishtory.   I didn’t feel out of place at all, like I thought I would.

The demographics caught me by surprise.   I was expecting people in their 30s to be the age group that dominated the parking lot.   I found that there were a lot of Phans from the 90s (some people brought their wives, daughters and sons), but I also found that there were a lot of people in their early to mid-twenties there as well.   I was also expecting a lot more people from the Midwest, where it seems that most people have travelled quite some distance to get to Alpine Valley according to their license plates and small talk.

Stacy and I meandered our way over to the T-Shirt booth, picked out some shirts and headed back to our car to cook our kabobs.   There was plenty of commerce in the parking lot, people trying to sell shirts, bags, skirts, hoola hoops, food, beer, narcotics, posters, cd’s, water, flags, glowsticks, blankets, hoodies, tickets etc…you name it, someone was trying to sell it.  Heck, we had people want to buy our kabobs off of us.   If I were to do this all over again, I would have brought more food and made a few bucks.   I’m a damn good cook (I like to think so, anyway), I’d buy food off of me.

Stace and I finished eating and decided to head in about an hour before showtime to get a good seat.   We sat in almost exactly the same place as last year for the Dave Matthews Band, Center Left Pavilion.   The band, as expected, did not start right at 7, in fact, it was about 7:50 before they took the stage.   The crowed roared louder than at any point during Dave Matthews here last year.   You could immediately tell that people were here to see what they have missed the last five years.   Phish waited a good two to three minutes to soak in the recognition from the crowd before anyone hit a note.

Trey started scratching his guitar…was it it!?   Yes, it was, it was “Punch You in the Eye” and I called it.   I went nuts, started groovin’ almost immediately, waiting for my first “Hey!”   Talk about serious energy, starting with a “Punch.”  The sun was just going behind the billboard, helping with the lighting.  The band played “Punch” very solid, without a lot of improv, but it was an excellent jam to start.  The band kept the energy going, wasting no time going right into Runaway Jim, which was a well polished jam as well.   The band took a second, and start with Stash, in which they almost lost a few times.  Trey was not hitting his guitar licks in sync with the rest of the band.  ”Stash” was probably the largest disappointment in the first set of the first night, as the improv was going somewhere and I just felt that they ended the jam too soon.  Phish could have made up for the mishaps in the beginning of the song if they kept “rolling with the punches.”

Highlights of the rest of the night were “Run Like an Antelope” and “Maze” which were both off the hook.  Maze was a beast, and I developed a newfound love for this jam since hearing it at Alpine Valley.  There were some definite highs and lows in the show(Stash, and a pretty boring Ghost).  I give Night 1 a 7 out of 10

Once again, I cannot say in words how much energy there was throughout the course of my first night with Phish, it is something I have never experienced with any other fanbase in the country.

The sets one and two were as follows:

I: Punch You in the Eye, Runaway Jim, Stash, Yamar, Bathtub Gin, Kill Devil Falls, Train Song, Farmhouse, Sparkle, Run Like An Antelope

II: Waves > Sample In A Jar, Maze, Makisupa Policeman, Ghost > The Lizards, You Enjoy Myself > NICU, Prince Caspian > Waste, Fire

E: Character Zero

Night 2 we ended up meeting up with some folks from Colorado. They have been following Phish around all month, and they were very interesting people to talk to. Stacy and I played ladder golf with them.   I discussed the return of Phish with them in great detail. They say they have never been happier to be part of such a musical revolution.  I really enjoyed hearing their stories and their perspectives on Phish, and I was really glad to meet this highly intellectual group of people.  These guys new the band like the back of their hand, frontwards, backwards, inside and out, they could tell you anything.  Later, we met up with a Monk, who was taking an oath of poverty to follow Phish and share the wealth of knowledge of ancient Indian scripture. I didn’t agree with his thoughts fully, but he was an interesting person to talk to nonetheless.  We both walked away from each other with a great deal of respect for one another.

Stacy and I grilled hamburgers, played some frisbee and checked out the other end of the parking lots that we didn’t check out the day before. We decided to head in quite a bit earlier the second day in hope of finding a really good spot. We did, front and center on the lawn.

Once we were in and the Phish took the stage, I knew that night 2 would  end up being everything I expected  it to be.  Their last night to their first tour in 5 years.   They HAD to go out with a bang, right?

They started off the night with a little “Fathers Day Treat” which I found pretty meaningful. They brought their kids out on stage to sit in a bathtub during “Brother.” Why a bathtub? The lyrics to the song are as follows: “Somebody’s jumping in the tub with your brother”

Heres the video:

Phish played two solid sets from beginning to end.  Here is the setlist:

Set I: Brother, Wolfman’s Brother, Funky Bitch, The Divided Sky, Joy, Back on the Train, Taste, Poor Heart, The Horse > Silent in the Morning, The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday > Avenue Malkenu > The Man Who Stepped Into Yesterday, Time Turns Elastic

Set II: Crosseyed & Painless -> Down with Disease, Bug, Piper, Wading in a Velvet Sea, Boogie On Reggae Woman, Slave to the Traffic Light

Encore: Grind, Frankenstein

I don’t know if I can highlight any particular jam from either set.  Everything was polished, Phish rarely any mistakes, and it was just a downright fun couple of sets.   Groovin’, from beginning to end.  Divided Sky was revolutionary to me, so much different than hearing it on album.  Trey’s crisp guitar notes and Page’s intense punches on the grand piano are exponentially more powerful when you hear the jam live.   Phish’s Piper was a monster as well, providing exploratory development from another dimension I have never heard Piper go before.   Phish literally silenced the crowd in awe a few times throughout the show with some deep and dark grooves.

Overall, Night 2 was everything everyone expected it to be.  There were some rarities, surprises, and some solid jams.   I was expecting either a Tweeprise or a Frankenstein for an encore, well, I got a Frankenstein for an encore, and it was downright unbelieveable…not just any Frankenstein, one with a 5-neck guitar, keytar, and a flamin’ bass guitar.  Here’s the video for the Frankenstein:

Couldn’t ask for a better second night.   I give this show a 9 out of 10.

I cannot go with closing this post without giving you my wish list for Toyota Park.  Yes, I am going to see Phish again in about 3 weeks down in Chicago.  Coldplay next week, Phish two weeks after!  Here is my wish list:

Set 1

• Axilla I
• Harry Hood
• Chalkdust Torture
• Reba
• Limb By Limb
• Cavern
• Possum
• Squirming Coil
• Loving Cup
• Guyute
• Theme From the Bottom

Set 2

• Axilla II
• Free
• Split Open and Melt
• Heavy Things
• Mikes Song
• I am Hydrogen
• Weekapug Groove
• ACDC Bag
• Suzy Greenburg

Encore:

• Twist
• Tweezer Reprise

I will write again when I come back from Alpine Valley next week to see Coldplay.

Have a good one.

Last night I was able to make it to my first social paddle of the season.   I had a lot of fun, there were a dozen of us, which is a pretty good turnout.  Anyway, here is a link to some pictures from last nights extravaganza….

http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2071738&id=6604903&l=4c584bb15f

Tonight I should finish my post on my experience of seeing Phish after 6 years of waiting.   Stay tuned…