Last Thursday I spent all day at the Hideaway Studio with Joe Mabbott for the final mixing session of the record. Everything went great and I feel super confident that the album is a wrap musically.  My friend deVon (aka dVRG) even came in to lay down some sweet rhodes lines.  It ruled, he killed it.  Below is a pretty low quality picture of him ripping it up, and you can click on the following link to see a short video of it: deVon rhodes video.

Other than that it was just a matter of working out all the little kinks and tweaks to help me continue to tolerate these songs.  Usually at this point in the “making of an album” stage I start to despise the songs a little because I’ve heard them each about seventy trillion times.  Even the slightest kick sound being not quite right will drive me insane.  So the final mix day is super important.   It always makes me feel a lot better about the project.  And man do I feel awesome right now.  Here’s a picture of what it looks like when all of the mixing tweaks get handled.  One of the greatest joys in this life for me is crossing things off a list.  Bam, mission accomplished.

So yeah, the mixing of the album is done and I’ve come up with the song sequence too.  And at this moment in time at least, I don’t hate this record.  In fact I might be totally in love with it, and I’m extremely excited for people to hear it.  As much as it would rule to put it out right now though, it’s looking like a late summer release is a lot more realistic in order to really push it right.  I can live with that, summer’s gonna fly by anyways.  Hopefully I can leak a track or two on here a bit earlier too.  

So at this point we move into the next phase: VISUALZ.  The fun stuff.  I’m meeting with my ultimate homie Matt Scharenbroich today to start diving in to all things album artwork and music videos, and I’m way pumped about it.  He’s the drummer in TPC! and did all the artwork for almost every single one of those records.  You can check out his website HERE .  I’ll keep you posted on how everything is turning out for sure.  

For now I leave you with a fantastic Bonus Jam from Joey Scarbury, because I feel so free right now.  Ha!  Have an incredible week big duns.

Click here to view the embedded video.

– Beak

www.twitter.com/_LAZERBEAK_

Anyways, with spring being right around the corner I thought I would take this opportunity to talk in great detail about one of my all time favorite activities: Tubing. 

Few things in this life will ever rival the triumphant feeling of slowly floating down a river in an inner tube, tied to several other wonderful friend’s inner tubes,  drinking beers and Mike’s Hard Raspberry Lemonades (or strawberry pop) on a bright, hot summer afternoon.  If you have never experienced it first hand, my heart aches for you.  It is the thought and promise of future tubing excursions in fact that generally motivates me through the long Minnesota winter months.  And so over the last three years or so, we have started this tradition of treking out to the Cannon River every July around my birthday for an epic tubing/camping weekend.  Brings a smile to my face just typing this stuff.  As we get closer to July I will try to break down some more detailed Do’s and Dont’s of Tubing, and hopefully at that time I’ll also be able to share with you a song off my new record all about this tubing tradition.  For now though I just wanted to put the thought in everybody’s head while we still have all of spring and summer ahead of us:  Make sure to go tubing this year.  You owe at least that much to yourself. 

Below is a very special Bonus Jam.  It is easily the greatest song ever written about tubing and it rules super hard.  It’s by Hockey Night, off their Top 5 Best Albums of the Decade record “Keep Guessin,” and it somehow manages to capture the wonder, joy, and lazyness of this incredible activity in musical form.  Enjoy. 

UPDATE:  My iTunes file is too big to upload on here, so this is a link to the song on last.fm (Bonus Jam fail):

Hockey Night – Tubin’

Hope you have a wonderful week.  See you next Tuesday.     

– Beak

“Lazerbeak’s List Of Some Pretty Awesome Things (At This Moment In Time At Least)”

The Wire

Per usual, I am way late to this party.  I’ve heard people say this is the greatest TV show ever for at least five years and yet did nothing.  Well I’ve finally given in to my curiosity and it turns out that The Wire is indeed the greatest TV show ever (at this moment in time at least).  But you probably already knew that.  I’ve been watching an episode or two before I go to bed every night for the last few months, and I’m just starting the final season tonight.  Man I am gonna be sad when it’s over.  

Maxwell “BLACKsummers’night”

I never really got that into Maxwell growing up, so when his new record dropped this summer I didn’t give it much thought, except that what they played on KMOJ sounded pretty sweet.  Sims put me onto the album a few months back and it continues to be on constant rotation.  Sounds simultaneously like an old soul record and yet also like it’s from the future at the exact same time.  There are some serious jams on here.  Plus his performance at the Grammy’s was one of the only non-vomit inducing songs the whole night (and he brought Roberta Flack up on stage!).  I’m pretty sure watching the American Idiot: Broadway Musical performance took several years off my life.

Die Antwoord

You’ve probably already heard all about this: the latest international sensation to hit the internets over the last few weeks.  Some really weird trashy rap/rave group from South Africa .  I’ve read a lot of articles that this is a total joke (a la Da Ali G Show) but I really could care less.  The beats are pretty great, the raps aren’t even half bad, plus they have an incredible looking website with all sorts of cool videos and songs and pictures and whatnot.  I’ve definitely spent several hours trying to figure it all out and wasn’t even upset when I realized how much time I had wasted.  Am I crazy for genuinely enjoying this stuff, and not on an ironic level either?  Give it to me straight, I can take it.

Total Waste Of Time

Totalwasteoftime.tumblr.com to be exact.  This is a new website that my good friend MJ started recently.  He posts totally hilarious stuff that he finds on the internets at breakneck speeds.  Seriously, if you like  a website to be constantly updated with new content, this is the one for you.  I generally check this every night before falling asleep and it never disappoints.  I always laugh my ass off.  Check it out.  Below is just a small taste of what is in store.

Well, that concludes this edition of “Lazerbeak’s List Of Pretty Awesome Things (At This Moment In Time At Least)”. I’ll try to come up with a better list for the next blog.  Hope you have a great week and I’ll see you next Tuesday for sure.

– Beak

Now for some heavier news.  Yesterday morning my Gramps, Harvey “Guts” Mader, passed away at the ripe old age of 94.  I honestly thought he might just outlive us all.  He was an incredible man who will be missed greatly and remembered always.  I just wanted to relay a few random memories of him that will always make me smile, while they’re still fresh in my head.    

- The man loved soup.  It did not matter what type of restaurant we went to, soup was gonna be had.  At the end of a long day, he would regularly take the newspaper and a bowl of soup into the bathtub and take a bath while enjoying both.  Unbelievable.  As a kid I thought this was the single most awesome thing a person could do.   I tried it several times.  It rules.  I highly recommend you give it a shot sometime.  To this day I think it must be the reason that I love soup so much myself.   

- When he turned 90 we planned a huge surprise birthday for him in Chicago with all sorts of friends and family from all over the country.  When he walked into the huge banquet room and we all jumped up to surprise him, his pants fell down completely to the floor.  Ha!  I’m talking some America’s Funniest Video grand prize winner video if I can find it.  Hilarious.  

- He spent the majority of his life completely immersed in politics and registering people to vote.  It was his passion.  He helped on numerous campaigns in Chicago.  Him and my Grandma would even come up and stay with us every time Wellstone was running for election to help out at his offices.  Just last year after Obama won, Gramps got an invitation from the Democratic Party to attend the inauguration.  And so at 93, his caretaker drove them from Chicago to D.C. to be a part of history.  They even sat him next to the Tuskegge Airmen, as a World War II vet.  Such an amazing exclamation point on a life devoted to bringing about political change. 

Absolutely as legendary as they come.  Love you Gramps.  Rest in peace.

– Beak

And click HERE to see an adorable video of 18 month old Finn saying “Beak” for the first time.  Warms my heart.

The game was awesome.  I love that we’ve had a good run of close Super Bowls for quite a few years now.  Gotta say I was pulling for the Colts, but I’m not mad at the Saints.  The sting of them taking down the Vikes has subsided over time.  I was really excited to rate all the new commercials too, but it turned out that most of them sucked.  That Snickers Abe Vigoda one takes the cake hands down, definitely worthy of a 10 crockpot rating.  Other than that though I wasn’t super impressed.  The Google commercial and the one with all the kids toys driving around together were cool.  All the Doritos ones were pretty much the worst except for that kid slapping the dude.  The Bud Light auto tune commerical wins only because they actually got T-Pain in it singing about guacamole at the end!   Overall I’d give this year’s Super Bowl commercials a rating of about 4 crockpots. I really hope they do better next year.  If you’re curious or missed the game you can click HERE to see all the commercials.  I actually spent all yesterday morning rewatching these to make sure I didn’t miss anything (kind of pathetic now that I think about it).  Oh well.

I’m gearing up to play this Rhymesayers Haiti benefit show tonight at First Ave.  Guess it’s already sold out, but if you’re in the area make sure to come out to Sauce (Lake and Lyndale) on this Saturday night.  I’ll be backing up Sims, plus the one and only Toki Wright is on the bill as well as Danami.  Should be a wonderful evening of good rap music. 

Gonna bow out with a couple Bonus Jams.  I’ve been listening to nothing but Luther Vandross and Teddy Pendergrass these last few weeks.  Man these two are some of the best to ever do it, absolute undeniable LEGENDZ.  A sincere and heartfelt rest in peace to these incredible men.  Have a sweet week.  See you next Tuesday.

– Beak

In my family, watching the Super Bowl has always been synonymous with eating nachos.  My mom would always make them as a halftime snack when I was growing up, and as I became older I started adding to her recipe and putting my own twist on it.  In all actuality this is one of the only things that I know how to cook by myself.  And now for the first time ever, I am going to share this recipe with you, in hopes that  it could make your own Super Bowl party just a little bit more awesome.  So without any further ado I bring to you:

The Legendary Mader Family Nacho Cheese Recipe

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

1 block of Velveeta cheese

1 can of Firehouse spicy chili (more meat and beans in it the better)

1 jar of hot salsa (I usually just roll with Tostito’s)

1 jar of jalapenos

A little bit of hot sauce (Frank’s or Louisiana)

2 big family size bags of tortilla chips

A crockpot 

Cut up the Velveeta cheese block into smaller cubes and place into crockpot.  Turn on high.  Wait til the cheese has melted a bit and then dump in the can of chili and jar of salsa.  Stir that stuff up real nice.  Add jalapenos to your liking (but don’t add the excess juice, just drain the peppers).  I usually use a little over half the jar but you can go easy on them or just put them on the side if you want.  Finish it off with some generous splashes of hot sauce and then let it heat up for another 20 minutes or so.     Bam!  There you have it.  One of the easiest things to make and yet one of the most satisfying foods you will ever eat in your lifetime.  It doesn’t hurt to have a cold bottle of Bud handy to wash it down either. 

Or if you’re really brave, you could wash it down with a little thing I like to call The Lava Banger.  This is a shot we made up on tour over the summer, and it is pretty intense.  I will warn you: it does not taste good, but it does look pretty cool.  

The Lava Banger Shot

WHAT YOU’LL NEED

Welch’s Strawberry pop

Bacardi 151

Cinnamon

Pop Rocks

A lighter

Get a shot glass and fill half of it with Welch’s Strawberry pop (the best pop ever).  Then you fill the top half of the shot with Bacardi 151.  This is the flammable stuff so PLEASE BE CAREFUL.  Put your lighter up to the top of the shot and ignite the Bacardi.  It should light on fire a little bit and turn to a blue flame.  Then sprinkle a little cinnamon on top of the flame.  The fire gets bigger and the cinnamon will start sparkling.  Very important: BLOW THE FIRE OUT BEFORE YOU DRINK THE SHOT.  Seriously.  Then drink the shot and chase it with a handful of Pop Rocks (they are the only thing that makes this somewhat enjoyable to ingest).  Bam, you just drank a genuine authentic Lava Banger, the liquid equivalent to what Lazerbeak beats sound like. 

I hope that these two recipes will bring new wonder and enjoyment to your already very exciting Superbowl traditions.  I still haven’t decided who I’m rooting for yet.  Any other year it would’ve been the Saints,  but I just haven’t been able to get over the gut wrenching loss they handed to the Vikes.  We’ll see.  Regardless, I am super excited for all the new commercials.   For the last four years I have been talking about starting a blog solely to rate and critique Superbowl commercials, using a rating system based on a scale from one to ten Crockpots. Now I finally have the forum to do such a thing.  Expect a full breakdown of the best and worst commercials on next week’s blog. 

FINAL THOUGHTS:

- If you’re looking to kick off Superbowl weekend with a bang and you live in the Twin Cities, you have to come down to the 2 Year Anniversary of Get Cryphy in the VIP room at First Ave on Feb. 5th.  Jimmy 2 Times, Plain Ole Bill, and Mike 2600 have been rocking people’s faces off consistently, and this is gonna be a night of epic dance partying.  More info at getcryphy.com.  Below is a Bonus Jam remix that Jimmy did, using the vocals from “Savion Glover” over this obscure Trick Daddy song called “I Pop” (produced by the late Disco D).  Pretty sweet stuff.

SAVION GLOVER POPS(Jimmy2times Blend)  <—— click here

- The homie Mike Swoop releases his debut instrumental album “New Love” today.  One of the best producers out of this fine state in my opinion.  Check it out, as well as his CD release show on Friday at Sauce with Big Quarters and Toki Wright. 

- Last but not least, P.O.S. and Dessa left this morning to depart on a seven week tour of the entire country.  It is gonna be insane!!!  Go and check these shows out if they come to your city.  You will not be disappointed.  Click HERE for all the dates.

Have a fantastic week.  I hope you enjoy the Big Game and all the wonderful festivities that go along with it.  Nacho Cheese and Lava Bangers 4 Life!!!

– Beak 

FRIDAY

Friday night was the big release party for Dessa’s album.  This was one of the first Doomtree shows in forever that I was able to just go and enjoy from the crowd as a spectator.  Let me tell you, it ruled.  We got down there around 10:00 and found out it had already sold out!  Cecil (with awesome backing band) slayed.  I usually can’t get down with live hip hop that often, but those dudes pull it off so tastefully.  The night belonged to Dessa though.  She destroyed.  Everything just seemed to be working.  And I loved the intermission Knives On Fire set that broke up her two sets.  Thanks to everyone that came out to support the event.  It really felt like a big exciting deal that I can only imagine will carry over to every single city she plays on this upcoming tour with Stef.  Hell of a night.  Vita.mn shot a bunch of pictures from the show.  Click HERE to take a look. 

SATURDAY

Modern Radio Records 10 Year Anniversary Party.  Modern Radio put out the TPC! album “Let’s War” back when we were all still in highschool (Class of 2000 represent).  Can’t believe how fast time flies.  As a band we pretty much haven’t played together in about two years, but when they asked us to do a reunion show for this thing it just felt right.  I gotta say, for only 3 or 4 practices we absolutely brought the flames!  There were so many incredible friends, new and old, that made it out for this (even on the iciest night of the winter) it was just overwhelming.  Felt like a big old family reunion.  I managed to remember all my lyrics and almost all of my guitar parts (although my amp did shut down for one song) and we all managed to get through the 12 song set without keeling over and dying from exhaustion.  Forgot how much energy is exerted at these shows.  I had gotten a little soft having just been tapping on the MPC for a couple years on stage.  Anyways, again a tremendous thank you to anyone that braved the elements and made it down.  A complete and total success and an incredible time that I will not soon forget.  LEGENDZ!  Reviler has a great picture/video recap of the show HERE.

SUNDAY

This was to be the day that the Vikes marched their way into the Superbowl.  What an insane evening filled with such extreme highs and devasting lows.  I haven’t quite processed the crushing loss yet (and refuse to watch ESPN all week) because it still stings pretty good.  All I can say is it was an incredibly joyous and truly fun season to watch and be a part of.  Haven’t felt that kind of excitement and comradery coursing through the city in awhile.  Favre is not gonna retire with his last pass being an interception.   Next year we will rise from the ashes and claim what is rightfully ours.  Go Vikes til I die.  And the night was not a total loss either.  Roons cooked up some of the best pot pie I’ve ever tasted, and Liz made sure the Purple Ape shots were always flowing in abundance.  Being in the company of friends definitely helped soften the blow.      

So the IAW has come to a close.  I spent the entire day yesterday fairly hungover and attempting to transform an old college fight song into a dirty south banger for some potential commercial (don’t ask).  And tonight Sims and I will be in Des Moines at Drake University to play some rap music.  On our eternal grind.  Next week will be the unveiling of the world famous nacho cheese recipe and Lava Banger shot ingredients, just in time for the Superbowl.  Trust me, you’re gonna want to know about this stuff.  Hope you have a good week.  Bonus Vikings Jam below.

– Beak

Click here to view the embedded video.

“The Top Three Insanely Awesome Things Of The Week”

Dessa – “A Badly Broken Code”  (1/19/10)

It has truly been a long time coming and I am just so thrilled to see this album get launched out into the world today.  An unmeasurable amount of sweat and time and effort has gone into this project, and this is definitely Doomtree’s biggest push behind a record to date.  We just finished shooting another music video for it over the weekend, which puts us up to 4 videos shot (crazy!).  Paper Tiger and MK Larada did a great job handling most of the production and Dessa really knocked it out the park, plus the artwork that MK pulled off for it is totally nutz.  Seriously buy this album, it should be available on iTunes today as well.  Friday is gonna be the release party at the Fine Line with Dessa, Cecil, Jeremy Messersmith, and I’m sure more than a few Doomtree cameos.  Not to be missed if you live anywhere close to the Twin Cities.  Below is the video for “Dixon’s Girl” if you haven’t seen it yet, which just so happened to be in the top 5 most viewed videos on Myspace this week.  Big things.

The Plastic Constellations One-Off Reunion Show (1/23/10)

If you didn’t know, The Plastic Constellations is a band I’ve played in since the 8th grade, long before ambitions of being a rap producer.  A couple years ago we decided to go on an “indefinite hiatus” after about twelve years of recording records, touring the country, and drinking way too many Sparks together.  We got asked to play this 10 year anniversary show though for a great local label in town called Modern Radio and couldn’t resist.  The dudes in TPC! have been my best friends for over half of my life now, and the last few weeks of practicing again have ruled (even though I managed to forget everything about playing guitar).  So come see the original LEGENDZ of the game.  It’s an all ages show at the Cedar Cultural Center on Saturday the 23rd.  Vampire Hands, STNNNG, and Skoal Kodiak are also playing.    Below is a little video Modern Radio made to promote the show, and below that is a picture of me and Jeff on Sunday celebrating the Viking victory with nachos and sunglasses.  Not really sure what that was all about, but how can you go wrong with nacho cheese? (that recipe is coming to Tuesdays With Lazerbeak in just a matter of weeks):

The Vikings/Saints NFC Championship Game (1/24/10)

Holy lord, last Sunday was absolute mayhem at my place after the Vikings rolled over the Cowboys (as witnessed by the weird picture above).  What an incredible game, so so proud.  Now this coming Sunday just one team stands in our way of getting to the Superbowl.  Sunday at 5:20 it is going down!!!  If we can play like we did against the Cowboys I really don’t think the Saints can stop us.  Below is a picture of me and my dog Della before the game.  My mom actually made the Vikings sweatshirt that she is wearing.  Love you Mom.  GO VIKES!!!  

Wow, what a crazy week.  SO pumped.  I hope your week is filled with just as many insanely awesome things as well.  See you next Tuesday or maybe even earlier.    

– Beak

Mississippi Records Tape Series    

My friend McTubbins put me onto this stuff awhile back.  I guess Mississippi Records is a pretty small vinyl and cassette label out of Portland, OR (misleading, I know) that specializes in small run obscure recordings involving a ton of different genres.  From a quick google search it looks like they’ve put out about 50 records at this point.  The really awesome thing though is that they have this free downloadable mixtape series with each tape focusing on some super rare cuts of a specific genre (gospel, samba, etc), and it is some incredibly well put together stuff.  The samba tape has basically been on nonstop for the last month at my house.  Really great music to clean up your house or cook breakfast to.  Below are a few links to the tapes that I’ve really gotten into, there are a ton more of them though and so far I haven’t been disappointed once.  Definitely worth researching and checking out if you’ve got the time.   

Samba Triste  (really awesome Brazilian comp)

We’re Gonna Make It, part 1 (a sweet comp of obscure early soul music)

ESPN’s 30 For 30 Documentary Series

So I guess ESPN turned 30 this year or something, and they decided to celebrate by asking 30 different film makers to create a bunch of documentaries about interesting and often forgotten sports events that have happened in the last three decades (hence the title 30 For 30).  They’ve already aired quite a few of these, so chances are if you watch ESPN you’ve already come across this.  I’ve been super impressed by pretty much all of them.  Even if you don’t like sports I think you might be into this just because they are so well put together.  The weird thing is a lot of these tend to be pretty sad stories (the death of Len Bias, the demise of the USFL, Gretzky getting traded to L.A., the end of Ali’s career) that often times don’t really have a redemptive ending or any great outcome.  Kind of a bummer, but in a strangely good way.  I’ve definitely learned a lot, and much respect to ESPN for taking some risks and doing it real big on their 30th.  Hopefully they’ll compile this into a big DVD collectors set or something after all the documentaries air.   You can go to 30for30.espn.com for more info and a schedule of when the next ones will be on.  

Bam!  A list of two great series.  Pretty groundbreaking blogging, I know.  At the end of the month I’m gonna finally reveal the world famous Superbowl nacho cheese recipe, as well as the details involved in making a Lava Banger shot, so it will get better.  Gotta go to the Current now to record this TPC! interview/performance.  Getting the band back together never felt so good.  Hope you have a great week.  Next Tuesday we will celebrate the Vikings absolute desecration of the Cowboys in the second round of the playoffs.  I’ll leave you with a picture taken last night of me holding what has to be the very last seasonal Mike’s Hard Raspberry Lemonade in the world, until summertime at least (thanks Johnson’s!).  If anyone has any leads on where I can find more, please holler.  

– Beak

twitter.com/_LAZERBEAK_

myspace.com/lazerbeak 

If you know me at all, you know that I am a pretty huge proponent of the new 3-D movie craze.  It just looks too awesome not to like.  UP!, Coraline, and Monsters Vs. Aliens all ruled, and I even enjoyed Beowulf quite a bit (so many dragons) even though it got pretty awful reviews.  Don’t even get me started on this new Toy Story 3 dealy coming out soon.  With all that said though, for some reason when the previews for Avatar came out earlier this year I really wasn’t that interested.  It just looked pretty terrible, and I couldn’t imagine that 3-D would be enough to make it sweet.  A few weeks after it came out though I had like twenty different people in my ear telling me how amazing it was and that I would love it, so I decided that on the last day of the decade I would give it a shot and kinda go out with a 3-D bang.  

My little cousin was off from school, so my sister and I decided to take him on a trip to the Mall Of America and go check out a matinee.  Big mistake.  We got into the movie a little late and Avatar had already started.  It took forever to find seats in the pitch darkness of the theater, but we finally worked our way into some spots and settled in.  I was pretty pumped actually, plus my sister had bought me some nachos (double bonus) so everything appeared to be golden.  I grabbed my 3-D glasses and went to throw them on when all of a sudden I felt something quite sharp inside of my eyelid, jabbing against my EYEBALL!!!  What the eff man!!!  In my haste (and to my credit, in complete darkness) I somehow managed to  jam one end of the glasses directly into my right eye instead of placing it over my ear like everyone else in the theater had done.  So not cool!  I spent the duration of the 2 1/2 hour film with one hand over my eye and tears spilling out of one lens of my 3-D glasses, all the while trying to play it extremely cool and not look like a cry baby in front of my 12 year old cousin.  Man, I really messed this one up big time.  

And it didn’t really get better after the movie was over.  By the time the wife and I were ready to go out for New Years Eve later that night, my vision was incredibly blurry and my eye was all swollen and bloodshot.  Not a good look on anyone and also a total bummer.  Brittany dragged me out of the house regardless though, and my good friend Scoops was actually able to knit me a makeshift eyepatch on the spot right before the party started.  The generous amounts of both champagne and whiskey that I ingested later, combined with the abundance of friends and loved ones all around made me forget all about the pain entirely.  Jeff even gave me a holiday bail bonds shirt that he had received at the liquor store earlier that night.  The power of friendship prevailed once again and this whole thing kind of turned out to be the feel good story of the year for me.  The saying stays the same in 2010:  Never let a mother effer break you dawg, especially if that mother effer is a pair of 3-D glasses.

Over the next couple days my eye has slowly recovered and I feel like a million bucks again, but man that was bad.  One of the more embarassing stories I’ve ever been apart of.  At the time it happened I had sworn off ever going to see another 3-D movie again and had cursed James Cameron’s name to the high heavens.  A lawsuit crossed my mind, but they made me give the glasses back when the movie was over so that wasn’t even an option!  After giving it a lot of thought though, I think if I just practice extreme caution next time around I can get past this whole ordeal.  I can’t really give Avatar two thumbs up yet until I actually see it with both eyes, but I’ll keep you posted.  One thing I do know for certain, Toy Story 3 is gonna rule so hard.

Thanks for enduring this incredibly long and quite possibly uninteresting story.  Next week I’ll be back to lists of awesome things and Bonus Jams.  Again, happy New Year.  2010 is ours.  See you next week.

– Beak