The Castile : A Pricey Dump

I took this photo yesterday as Tess and I were heading out and if you read my earlier post about our apartment in Clarksville then you will already understand the nature of this post and my frustrations about living at The Castile. I assure you, I have no fascination with dog poo, in short, I'm chronicling the amount of dog waste scattered about our courtyard. I figured the previous photo didn't achieve the justice this one does.

Also, this weekend while performing an Internet search on The Castile, I came across the post below. This person obviously shares the same concerns I do and then some. I don't know as much about the management structure as this person does, but I appreciate his/her honesty and bravado to tell it like it is. Don't rent from Burlington Ventures, or The Castile.

From ApartmentRatings.com:

I lived there for 3 years. I will never recommend this place because of the following: - The apartments are rat infested and roach infested. - The apartments are expensive for the lack of quality in materials these apartments offer. - Management is terrible-- Michelle is a witch to deal with-- never on the side of the tenant & absolutely no interpersonal communications skills at all-- very rude!!, Trevor is slow and more of a minion of Michelle and Steve's than any real help, Steve is a greedy owner and selfish not interested in reinvesting in the property's well- keeping-- he is the top tier that trickles down the poor management style to the rest of the staff, and the new person-- Erin, is another of Steve's minions that is cracking down on tenants being social by sending violation notices to tenants who didn't have anything to do with those violations-- very irresponsible. All in all, Burlington Ventures is a shifty organization that's not worthy of any one's money. - There is dog waste everywhere. They started allowing dogs-- and BIG dogs-- to make more money. Problem is, the tenants are not caring and grounds keeping has refused to pick up the dog's waste. So the waste sits around and rots unless a tenant volunteers and picks it up for the careless dog owners. Below is a collection of photos of waste from the Castile courtyard. - I saw a used band aid on the sidewalk in the courtyard at the Castile bio degrade over the course of several months because nobody bothered to pick it up-- not even the cleaning crew. In fact, the cleaning crew is barely there. Trash cans in the court yard frequently overflow for weeks because the crew doesn't clean it up. The pool frequently goes algae green for days because the pool cleaning is haphazard. There are weeds and mushrooms that frequently grow in the courtyard due to a lack of care and what I suspect is party-goers relieving themselves in the courtyard. The cigarette butts are EVERYWHERE! - They raised my rent $100.00 each year I lived there. That is the steepest increase in rent I have ever experienced in my years as a renting tenant. I started out at $850.00/mo and three years later I was paying $1100.00/mo. These people are sharks. Steve is a shameless shark. Do yourself a favor-- don't live here. It's a waste of any one's hard-earned money.

Too funny, all too familiar and spot on. Thanks Internet person and stay tuned for more.

Lee Waters covers Jennyanykind's "Why You Wanna Treat Me Like That?"

No words needed. Good job Lee!

ArcAttack : Singing Tesla Coils

Last Wednesday night, I had the good fortune of catching this unique show put on by a unique band, ArcAttack. They played on the steps in front of the UT Tower for a university sponsored physics event. I can honestly say I've never seen anything quite like this. It's obvious a lot of thought, time, energy, effort and care goes into an ArcAttack performance.

The guy in the middle manipulating the Singing Tesla Coils is dressed from head to toe in metal (metal suit, metal gloves, metal boots, metal helmet). Imagine playing two giant electrically charged Theremin then you will somewhat have the picture. It's beyond words really. I wonder where they practice and how they do it? This is music and performance taken to another level. The only instruments not programmed are the guitars. The percussion (two complete drum sets and extra snares) is triggered by a synth player which automates all of it.

Here is an ArcAttack song I captured with my cell phone.

Judge Rules Army Corps' at Fault for Katrina Flooding

I'm usually not one for posting other people's writings on my blog, however this time I make an exception: a win for the people of the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish in New Orleans, or at least some accountability finally.
The short of the story is this: On Wednesday, a Federal Judge ruled The Army Corps of Engineers' failed to properly maintain a navigation channel which directly caused flooding in the Lower Ninth Ward and St. Bernard Parish of New Orleans. He ruled further the corps would not be held liable for the flooding of eastern New Orleans. I'm not sure if the latter part is such great news and surely the government is going to appeal, but as for now six of the plantiffs in the case were awarded $720,000 in damages, but the government could eventually be forced to pay much more in damages. The ruling should give more than 100,00 other individuals, businesses and government entities a better shot at claiming billions of dollars in damages.

My take on this is, if we can send men into space, if we can crash rockets on the moon, if we can put chemicals into clouds to manipulate weather patterns, if we can give a man or woman a face transplant, we should be able to maintain our levees and irrigation systems that protect our cities. Without doubt, the world is certainly turning, getting hotter by the moment so who knows what type of storm, natural or man made disaster is coming next. In this world and our society there must be accountability to protect our people from future devastation such as Hurricane Katrina. For those of you lulled to sleep by the t.v. or whatever you're doing, it's time to wake up. If you haven't checked out anything about The Watchers or the Book of Enoch, then in future posts, my goal is to educate you.

Athens v Sparta : The History of the Peloponnesian War

Athens v Sparta plays a showcase for the UT Classicist Society @ the Cactus Cafe. Thanks go out to Tess for taking these shots of us playing. She took a lot more and I believe they are streaming on this blog's main page right now.

Creston Funk: guitar, Jamie Roadman: drums, Me: bass

Evan Jacobs: Keys, Charlie Roadman: Guitar, Kevin Higginbotham:Vocals

The show rolls along. Jamie: drums, Me: staring off into space and Ken Webster: reading Thucydides as the bands sails along behind him.

I really enjoy being a part of this project. It's different. It's unique. I get the chills playing it because it's moody music plus I get to hold it together with the bass. It's also nice because we get to play venues other than bars. Within the last couple of months we played an amazing auditorium in San Antonio at Trinity University. We've played the new Casbeers in San Antonio which is a neat and intimate venue because it was originally built as a Methodist Church in the 1920's and today nothing has changed with the design or layout of the building, other than the addition of a restaurant to the lower floor and hosting live music once in a while. The wooden pews are still there as well as the majestic stained glass windows and deep red carpet.

Next month we are playing December 11th and 12th at The Hyde Park Theater and we are lining up a tour of some West Coast Universities in April. Check out our video below.

The Dandy Warhols

the ticket: i was excited to receive it in the mail.

The crowd outside of Emo's

The lively and colorful crowd inside Emo's.

the little girl's colorful Indian head-dress.

Courtney Taylor-Taylor as The Dandy's take the stage.

A blurry shot of Courtney Taylor-Taylor.

The Band

Tess at the end of the night

I'd been waiting to see The Dandy Warhols for some time. I finally got my chance this September and although Emo's is not my favorite venue to see a live music, this time was not so bad. Still the men's bathroom is worse than any road house bathroom barn stall ever imagined. I don't understand why the don't just ask you to piss and shit on to the floor squatting over a drain?

Anyway this time was not so bad. We got to sit on the little bleacher seats next to the stage in the outdoor venue and it was manageable. They sounded rough around the edges moreso than their recordings do. They were loose and sloppy, but still locked into a their unique and unmistakeable Dandy Warhol's groove and vibe. Overall I enjoyed it.

If you'd like to learn more about The Dandy Warhols, follow the links.

Touring the Universe : Depeche Mode

As I start to look back on the year that's coming to a close, the year of two thousand nine there are many things to be thankful for and one of them was this particular trip to Dallas for Depeche Mode's Touring the Universe. I've tried my best to lay these pictures out in the order the show went down. I can't tell you the songs they were playing the time the photo was taken, but I will tell you I got some good ones.

My oh my how times have changed, I remember being checked for cameras walking in to big shows. The artists used to somewhat have control over fans from bringing cameras to shows, not anymore, those days are obviously over. Everyone has an iPhone, Smart Phone or some sort of digital camera these days. These shots just were taken with a Cannon Power Shot SD780 IS, my birthday present from Tess this year. All right let's get back to the show shall we? The first photo was taken after Peter Bjorn and John's set was over and we were waiting for the band to take the stage.

And here they are: Martin Gore and Dave Gahan. Check out Martin's killer silver sparkle suit. His guitar tones were incredible. It's amazing and impressive that he's the only guitar player in the band. Although he writes most all of the bands music, Depeche Mode would not be Depeche Mode without it's members, especially Dave Gahan. His stage presence and vocal styling would be very hard to replace. Dave's obviously wearing his usual black pants and vest with no shirt.

I like this one, a sea of heads and hands. I was surprised by the wide range of fans in attendance. The parking lot crowd was not what I'd anticipated or expected. I had no expectations really but I was inspired by the wide range of age, race and ethnicity.

Another shot of Martin and Dave with Christian Eigner on drums. He is an amazing drummer who makes drumming look easy. The whole time he's rock solid, in the pocket, driving the band, playing right along with loops, beats, a single guitar or freaky synth bleeps. He locks in well with Martin on the bluesy numbers like "Personal Jesus."

Here's a shot of the raven and the full band. I was able to move around a little bit to get shots from different angles before security said anything. They got pretty mean towards the end of the show because I walked up a bit too much for their liking.

Another raven shot of the full band. I can't remember the second keyboard/synth player's name but there's Andy Fletcher off to the right, the shadowy figure in the corner.

Dave Gahan doing what he does best, dancing. He moves like a Whirling Dervish and sweats like an animal. On this tour, he's had a tumor removed, gastrointestinal problems, a torn muscle and his voice went out yet touring the universe goes on. These guys love what they do, they live for it. More people need to hear songs from Sounds of the Universe just like they hear "Personal Jesus," "Policy of Truth" and "People are People" on the radio today.

A shot of the projections: Martin and Dave.

Gahan in the middle of an air guitar moment. Check out the projection screen behind him and the look on his face. He looks possessed. I like the hand up to the left as well.

Drummer: Christian Eigner and Dave Gahan in front of some really cool spotlights and projections. The set look, feel and design was created by Anton Corbijn.

Closing out the show: Christian and Dave. Dave giving every ounce of himself to the performance. I can only imagine what it must feel like to go home after a tour like this? They create this wonderful world of music and display night after night, all over the world. They do it well. Some artists never go home, case in point: Bob Dylan.

And that's it folks, the end of the show. Time to go home, wait..I mean time to wait in the parking lot for an hour and fifteen minutes in uncontrolled bumper to bumper traffic leaving the parking lot. After a really long time, we were out of there on our way back home to Flower Mound. Tess was a trooper for going to this show with me. I don't think she likes DM as much as I do, but I'm pretty sure she had a good time. I thank her for going with me.