A friend of mine was recently “awarded” a brand new Zune for his work with the “empire”. Given his “love” for the “empire”, and knowing my love for Linux, and after seeing a rumor that there was work in progress on making a version of Linux to run on the Zune; he sent it to me - with the explicit requirement that I promise to put Linux on it as soon as possible.

Trouble is, it turns out that the rumor was way over-stated. While there are people working on getting Linux running on the Zune, they haven’t even come close to getting it to the first stage of something basic loading.

So, here I sit with a Zune. What to do? Well, I guess I’ll just have to attempt to use it as Microsoft intended for a while and see what it can do, and how well it manages to do it. I have a 5th Gen 30G Video iPod also, so I can do a little comparison, but I’ll mostly just stick to the good and bad of it straight up.

To start with, I have the brown? one. It’s a semi-transparent hunter green over a chocolate colored base. Kind of a cross between a cool effect, and poop.

OK. More to come shortly.

To quote James:
“I’ve seen fire and I’ve seen rain
I’ve seen sunny days that I thought would never end
I’ve seen lonely times when I could not find a friend
But I always thought that I’d see you again”

I’ll miss you, Tracey

I have a friend from way back. We never spent tons of time together, but friends non-the-less. We haven’t talked in a couple years, he’s back in Chicago, I’m now in Bakersfield. I think of him most when running sound (or just listening to a band). I keep listening for another guitar player like him. I’ve only known one other that comes close. You see, this friend has a gift… a wonderful gift. He can make a guitar sing… I mean really sing. Not leads, riffs, speed, dexterity, or all those other things that most people judge a guitar player by (which he can also do)… but giving the guitar a voice. I remember running sound when he played, and I could never mix his guitar like any other player. I had to mix it with the vocals instead of with the other instruments. It was a breath of sound, carrying a harmony… a background vocal with no words, just emotion. As he played, you could feel your heart and soul singing along in a language that can’t be expressed in mere words. I often had goose bumps when he played.

For me, all guitar players will always be rated against him. Although many other guitar players have great talent and ability, and make wonderful music that many people, including me, enjoy…. he was blessed with the gift of bringing mere strings, wood, and electronics to life. A true rarity.

I’m thinking especially of him now, since he is having major medical problems. Heart, liver, kidneys… they’re all in trouble, and he may not make it. I feel sad, not for him - he’d get to play in a much better band - but for his son, for all the people who love him, for me, and for music in general. I’m just praying that he can stick around and bless more people with his gift, and with his love.

Tracy, I miss hearing you play, and playing with you.

I ran monitors for the Hawk Nelson show at Jesus Shack on Sept. 19. What a great group of guys. They are the kind of people that makes doing sound a fun job.

The interesting thing was the opening band. A group I never heard of before, 4th Avenue Jones. I have to say, I was shocked! They were so calm during their sound check, and then came show time…. and they ROCKED!!!!! They used vocals, electric guitar, bass, drums and violin to mix hip-hop, soul, rock, metal and rap with incredible results. Did I mention that they ROCK!

Personally, they should be headlining shows.