This is me and my beautiful wife Andra at Sequiya National Park.

Music

 

This is my old band called "Total Strangers".  Just remmember that plaid shorts and mullets were both "in" back then.

My Top 10 Albums Of All Time

"Fair Warning" by Van Halen

This album is one of the best rock albums ever recorded.  The main guitar riff in “Mean Street” is the heaviest thing ever caught on tape!  This is a guitar player’s album.

"2112" by Rush

This album takes its name from the seven part suite on the first side.  The musicianship is of course incredible and the story is fantastic.  It takes place in a futuristic society controlled by the Priests of the Temples of Syrinx.  They of course control all information including songs.  In the song “Discovery”, a man finds a guitar and learns to play music like he has never heard.  He presents his discovery to the Priest’s who destroy the guitar.  He later kills himself and at the end a war begins.  It is a heavy metal, science fiction, Geek tragedy and it is truly magnificent!

“Tower of Power” by Tower of Power.

Funky grooves, groundbreaking rhythm section, soulful singing and the best horn section in the world.  It just doesn’t get any better than this.

"MF Horn 2" by Maynard Ferguson

This album is out of print in its original form.  You can get it now bundled with an album of Maynard Ferguson ballads.  I got this album on tape when I was in highschool jazz band and we were attempting to play the MF version of “Spinning Wheel”.  It changed my life!  Up until that point I was one of those kids that thought jazz was “elevator music”.  I had no idea jazz could be so LOUD!  From that point forward, Kenny G. was elevator music and I sought out jazz that rocks! 

"Friday Night in San Francisco" by John McLaughlin, Al Di Meola, Paco De Lucia

Until you have heard this album, you don’t know what a guitar is capable of.  Enough said.

"Heavy Weather" by Weather Report

This is groundbreaking jazz with the best bass player to ever walk the planet.

“InnerVisions” by Stevie Wonder

It is an absoluste masterpeice.  Social commentary wrapped around pure genious funk and soul.

"Chicago II" by Chicago

This is another pure masterpeice.  It is a double album that is start to finish perfection.  It is a mix of jazz, rock and even classical.  If you only know their greatist hits then you are really missing out.

"Blood Sugar Sex Magik" by Red Hot Chili Peppers

This was my white album.  I wanted to be Flea so bad it hurt!  

  "Iconoclast" by Stratus

Ok, I have to admit that I am biased on this one.  I know these guys.  However, you won't find a better jazz fusion album anywhere.  I heard this album develop from rough mixes to masterpieces.  This one is out of print as well so let me know if you want to hear it.

 

Politics

I am a Goldwater / Reagan conservative.  Here is what I believe in a nut shell:

1. The constitution is a great document.  Members of congress ought to read it some time!
2. The federal government is not the answer.  Read the 10^th amendment to the constitution.
3. I believe in rugged individualism.
4. Government should stay out of our personal lives.  Republicans and Democrats are both guilty of this, they are just on different sides of the spectrum.
5. The only time a free market economy doesn’t work is when government tries to “regulate” it.
6. The idea that we build sports stadiums with taxpayer money while bridges and infrastructure are crumbling is ridiculous.
7. LIMITED GOVERNMENT!!!
8. LIMITED GOVERNMENT!!!
9. LIMITED GOVERNMENT!!!
10. Lastly, I believe that Abraham Lincoln was wrong when he said that all men are created equal.  Every person is uniquely different.  They each have different strengths, weaknesses, abilities and interests.  The one thing that government should insure is that everyone should be treated equally under the law.

Quotes:

"Politics is supposed to be the second-oldest profession. I have come to realize that it bears a very close resemblance to the first."
      Ronald Reagan

“Remember that a government big enough to give you everything you want is also big enough to take away everything you have.”      Barry Goldwater

“No matter how worthy the cause, it is robbery, theft, and injustice to confiscate the property of one person and give it to another to whom it does not belong.”     Walter Williams