2-0(*?)

Jeromey Balderrama

NorvTurner

Two days after the Broncos huge win over the Chargers, and still everyone is talking about the “Refgate” show heard around the world.  In case you don’t follow the NFL/Broncos, head ref Ed Hochuli (who should be called “Ed Hurcules”) blew a call on the last drive. Peter King describes it best in his column:

Methodically, Cutler drove Denver downfield. On second-and-one from the Charger 17 with 77 seconds left, Cutler rolled right and the ball popped out of his right hand as he raised it to throw. He definitely was not in the throwing motion. The ball landed on the ground near the Chargers’ 10, and San Diego recovered. But wait. Hochuli had blown his whistle. The play was dead. When a quarterback loses the ball on a play like this, any whistle means the play is over, unlike if it happens to a running back or receiver; those balls can be recovered. Not this one. Denver retained possession. Two plays later, Cutler threw to second-round rookie Eddie Royal for a four-yard touchdown. Immediately, Shanahan held up two fingers.

I respect Peter King and his statement when he says in the same column “The Chargers were robbed”.  The refs did blow the call.  At the same time, the Refs weren’t the ones couldn’t stop Cutler from throwing the touchdown pass two plays later, and the Refs weren’t the ones that gave Eddie Royal the two point conversion as well.

Either way, I’ll take 2-0 and the Broncos Offense machine running on all cylinders.  The defense. well I hope they can step it up with the Saints come to town this weekend.  The Chargers have great weapons, and they were able to hold those weapons down in the first half.  However, blowing it in the second half has become all-too common for the Broncos defense.  Something tells me that this next Sunday will be another shoot-out.

Social Problems (caused by Evil Conservatives)

Jeromey Balderrama

As you may know I’m still on the process of trying to finish my school.  With my increasingly heavy workload at my job, I’ve been working through school at a snail’s pace, which has resulted in me taking a lot of classes that have nothing to do with my education and are generally a waste of time. Enter my latest class: Social Problems.

I signed up for this class because I apparently need an Arts/Humanities credit and figured this would have been an easy course.  Little did I know that this class is just another example of political indoctrination in higher ed, and this class should essentially be renamed “Social Problems caused by Evil Conservatives".

I try to stray away from politics in my blog, but as far as my political leanings, I classify myself as a South Park Conservative: I’m a fiscal conservative that doesn’t subscribe to social right wing views, but I despise liberal socialism.

I realize that there is a level of political complexity when you’re talking about Sociology, but I don’t understand how spending the first 10-15 minutes of each class period talking about the political candidates. We don’t discuss the issues, but more just make baseless disparagements without any claims – with the instructor making statements such as "Sarah Palin is setting back the woman politician by 30 years", but without any details.

Now we’re on the topic of Health Care, which basically becomes a Republican blame-game as to why we don’t have universally socialized medicine.  In addition, when it comes time for us to watch the movies, our instructor went to the best source he could find: Michael’s Moore’s "Sicko".  I’m not saying that the movie doesn’t make valid points, but really, Michael Moore?  And are there any plans to show any other documentaries like Dead Meat or Uninsured in America to some kind of balance?  At this point it doesn’t look likely.

I’m not naive to think this type of bias doesn’t exist on college campuses, but I am continually frustrated that this kind of propaganda runs rampant in the guise of higher education and inclusiveness, creating an aura of anything but tolerance and acceptance for anyone that doesn’t agree with them.

Call for Help: I’ve been given a pretty lame assignment in this class. I’ve been asked to ask someone about their experience receiving medical treatment in the US.  What kind of treatment did they get?  What was the end result, not just physically, but also financially, socially, etc.  If you have a minute and have a story to tell, would you mind sharing it in the comments section of the blog?  It would be a really big help, especially if it’s a positive experience getting the medical attention.

Only on Craigslist…

Jeromey Balderrama

Only on Craiglist can you find someone who actually would write this ad:

need a laptop for travel and family communication. I have to travel quite a bit and miss my family. We have a laptop but its the only one we have and can’t afford a 2nd. My family use it as home cpu. I can give you a tax deductable reciept for the value of it for tax credit. I need one that has wireless internet reception and able to connect usb’s and plenty of memory.

Where do you even begin with this one?  I don’t mean to sound insensitive, but if if you already have a laptop, wouldn’t you be better off getting a dirt-cheap desktop system for your family and take that laptop?  Also a tax-deductible receipt – as if that doesn’t smell like fraud (“deductible” spelled wrong no less).

Also asking for a free handout, but it has to have Wi-Fi and plenty of memory.  Give me a break!

Reflections on Hermans

Jeromey Balderrama

In my previous post I alluded to Greenfoot’s show at Herman’s Hideaway on Wednesday.  For those who don’t live in Denver (or simply may not know) Herman’s has the reputation for being one of the area’s premier venues for live, local music in the state.  We were definitely excited about playing there, even if it was on the “New Music Night”.

Herman’s is definitely a nice venue for live music. It has a nice big stage, and has a pretty nice size and layout.  However, I personally like venues like Buffalo Rose and The D-Note better.

Musically we ended up playing pretty well.  We played a show at 2 Doors Down the weekend before, which turned out to be an awesome show.  We couldn’t help but come off a bit of a musical hangover from the previous show, Wednesday night couldn’t complete.  Part of it is that I had a hard time adjusting to the house drumset. 

Also during our set we were interrupted with the sound guy removing an amp stand that we were using, right in the middle of our show.  It was pretty damn unprofessional: first off to use another band’s gear as “house” equipment is pretty crappy (either it’s “house” equipment or it’s not), and to do it in the middle of our set doesn’t show much respect for us on stage.

One other things about Herman’s frustrated us.  One of the ways they gage a band’s success is by giving tickets to the bands, then counting the tickets that bands bring in.  They distribute these tickets to bands – some discount, some comp tickets – and encourage the bands to distribute them.  The tickets we got were comp tickets, which we assumed were “complimentary”. Apparently “comp” means something else at Herman’s, because fans that showed up with these tickets were charged $2 to come in.  Making matters worse, our band didn’t get any of that money, meaning Herman’s pocketed it.  Call it a miscommunication or getting ripped off, but the people who came to see us got screwed.

I don’t write this post to rip on the venue, and Greenfoot definitely wouldn’t turn down a venue, especially as popular as Herman’s, but the benefit of “New Music Night” is pretty questionable in our minds right now.

Bethany took some really cool pictures from the show. Check them out below:

House Drumsets [why they suck]

Jeromey Balderrama

Last night Greenfoot played a show over at Herman’s Hideaway (for which I’ll offer some additional thoughts in a later post).  As part of the “New Talent Showcase”, one of the important stipulations were the two dreaded words drummers hate to hear “House Drumset”.

I cringed when I heard the news, and after playing the set last evening, my dread was justified.

I understand the reasons why venue owners and concert promoters want to use House Drumsets.  When you have multiple bands in one evening, you want to do everything to ensure bands get on and off the stage quickly.  Having a large piece of equipment remain stationary makes sense, especially when the drums have mics attached to them.  However, I can guaranteed that the person who made/promoted that decision is not a drummer.

When I’m asked what it’s like playing on a house drum set, I give the analogy of driving someone else’s car in a race: Yes, you’ll be able to drive the car and you know where the gas, brake & steering wheel are, but you don’t know the intricacies of this car. You don’t know how it accelerates, how it breaks, how it handles around curves.  The same things goes with drum sets.  It bothers me that people wouldn’t fathom telling guitar players to play on someone else’s guitar, yet have no problem telling drummers they have to play a drum set that gets pounded night in & night out.

This particular drum set appeared to have a 10″, 13″ & 16″ with Pinstripe heads torque’d pretty high.  What this means is that they were “ping-y” and “ring-“, a stark contrast from my darker ebony heads that produce a warmer tone that works with our music.  In addition, I had to grow used to 3 toms pretty quick, a departure from my 4 toms.  It doesn’t help that I flip the order of my two rack toms – the non-standard configuration probably a bad habit, but it’s what I’ve grown accustomed to.  In my bass drum I have a pillow, which produces a more muffled sound, while allowing a good bounce response.  The House Drumset had no such pillow, and it took an adjustment.

The policy allowed us to bring in our snare drum, pedals & cymbals. At this point, the only thing that was left of the drum set was the bass drum and three toms – which makes me wonder how much time was really saved. 

What owners/promoters don’t understand is that if you give them a staging area to set up their gear off-stage, a good drummer can get their drum on stage and ready to go in roughly the same time it takes a guitar player to set up their amp, pedals, and tune their guitars.

When I was in high school, I played on a foreign drum set each and every day – but school drum sets are different than House Drumsets.  With school drum sets you typically get a period of time to be acclimated to the kit before you play it at anything meaningful.  With the House Kit the sound check is the first chance you get to sit behind the kit.  To borrow a line from A.I., “We’re talking about practice, not the game”.  I’m all about rehearsing on another drum set to help save time – but when you’re essentially putting on an audition it’s pretty lofty to expect drummers to be in their elements in a kit they just started playing.

Like I said, I understand House Drum set may make sense to some, but it doesn’t make sense to drummers.