Here is my best friend Joe Garbus’ son Jack performing a classic Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds by the Beatles. “Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds” is a song written by John Lennon and Paul McCartney that was recorded by The Beatles for their 1967 album Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band. Click on the youtube video below and experience the intensity that is Jack Garbus… Check out my Internet Radio Station called Acid Rain Radio at http://www.acidrainradio.com for more cool tunes you can stream right to your computer.
Joe was kind enough to write a few words about Jack and his love and challenges in getting into playing Guitar.
Jack is 8 years old and has been playing guitar since September 07. He actually wanted to play guitar when he was 5 but the folks who run the local music store said his hands were too small. At 7 Jack went back in and they said that he was ready to go. He started playing simple tunes like “Ode to Joy” and learned a few parts of other classics like “Smoke on the Water” and “Day Tripper”. Jack takes a 30 minute lesson each week and jams with his overzealous father on drums and bass on a regular basis.
Merry Christmas to all. Just a quick post to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year from all of us at the Brennan-Horner family household! Here is video and a few pictures from Catherine’s School Christmas Party with a guest appearance from Santa himself!
Well, I told you in one of my previous blog entries that I would tell you how Acid Rain Radio was inspired. Joe Garbus and I met back in Junior High School over 31 years ago and he has been my best friend ever since. Joe runs his own company called Kensico Consulting. If you are ever in need of an expert in Voice Over IP (VoIP) just take a look at Kensico Consulting, LLC. He and I have been geeks forever. He just realized it this year though. (Had to say that dude.)
Joe and I had the same teacher for health at Harborfields High School where we both had to do a project for our final grade. Joe came up with an idea to do a multimedia presentation using at that time the latest computer technology:
Joe’s project was on Acid Rain. I completely forgot about my project and worked very closely with Joe through the whole process of developing the content to final production. Joe mixed some great progressive rock and his vocal overlay onto cassette at home. Using some great music from King Krimson, Yes, and Genesis to name a few. He and I along with some help from some of the experts on the Commodore PET pulled together some computer animation using PEEK and POKE to get some great lightning sequences to demonstrate the effects of acid rain on lakes and streams. We mixed all the content onto VHS and presented and Joe got an A in Health. I failed because I did not do my project. I was totally engrossed in Joe’s. At the end of the presentation Joe rolled the credits with Behind the Lines off the Genesis album Duke . It was totally cool. That is why when you hear the Acid Rain Radio promo I am playing the opening segment to Behind The Lines.
It was a total blast doing that project and it has been a total blast having a friend like Joe for so many years. Here is to another 50 years my friend you are the best!
Send an e-mail to me at christian.horner@centershore.com and let me know what you think? Or I have added some new ways of sending me notes. Just click on the icon on the right under Christian Online that says I am online and send me an IM. Or if I am not online just send me an SMS by typing in a message under Send Christian an SMS to send me a TXT message to my mobile phone. Just a few ways of communicating with me! Thanks….
I would like you all to check out the new and improved Centershore Consulting web site. It uses Joomla as the content management system. I am pretty excited about the new site. The content describes what my company does. Here is an excerpt from the homepage:
Centershore Consulting is a multi-faceted company providing a wide range of services to a broad and diverse customer base. From business strategy and due diligence services to large and small business IT consulting services, Centershore can customize engagement to fit your needs and requirements.Centershore’s suite of services includes:
Due diligence and business analysis
Competitive analysis
Information technology consulting
Spread the word. Centershore is open for business!!!
Well here is the next technology thing!!! Acid Rain Radio http://www.acidrainradio.com inspired by great friend Joe Garbus.
Check out the site and let me know what you think about the look and feel. In the upper right hand corner of the site you will see either Prog Rock or Jazz tunes being displayed. Joe told me about Delicious Agony Progressive Rock Radio located at http://www.deliciousagony.com . I downloaded a copy of Winamp (see below) and it took me “forever” to get around to listen, but after I did I went a bit further and built out two radio broadcasting servers based on IceCast and Ices. Acid Rain Radio went on the “air” or “ether” on Saturday November 19th.
There is all kinds of great streams on the site CHECK IT OUT!!!
I will strive to keep the content fresh and who knows where this will lead. I am planning on interviewing rock stars like Joe who you can hear play a version of Rock and Roll by Led Zepplin on the site if you listen long enough.
Well, Michael is now 14. Instead a party at Chucky Cheese he asked me to pull together a Halo 3 party. Well you all know what a geek I am so I went all out. I think I almost had more fun than Michael’s friends did. Thank you to Aunt Ellen for letting me borrow her projector. It was a great success! Michael’s comment this morning before school was “That was excellent dad, thank you so much!”. I was really trying for Cool Dad status and hopefully achieved it. Take a look at the pics and video. It was a blast pulling it all together. Pictures are directly below and the video below them.
Well this one had Carolyn and I laughing hysterically!!! Check out this guy on the right! Poor planning from a News 4 perspective! Later on in the clip they try and cut him out of the picture. Check it out and have a quick laugh!
We had a great time at the New York Metro Balloon and Music Festival on Saturday Aug, 11th. The 1 hour wait in line to get in was well worth it. Check out the pictures below for yourself! Big Head Todd and the Monsters played some great tunes and the balloons were amazing. As the sun was setting and Big Head was pumping out some great blues the 22 balloons were inflated. It was quite a sight seeing them come to life with flames shooting into them as they rose to the sky. They all flickered and glowed as the sun went out of sight. It was one of the coolest things we have ever seen. Here is the website http://www.metronyballoonfest.com/
If you take away Verizon’s horrible customer service, which I will go into in another posting and just purely take a look at their Broadband (Fiber) Internet speeds they are quite impressive. I have signed up for a 20Mb download and 5Mb upload service and just to see if they are providing what they were offering I went to http://www.dslreports.com and did a speed test. DSL Reports has been around for quite some time and they provide some great tools for checking internet access speeds. After running the Java based performance test to a test server in New Jersey I got the following results!! Nice job Verizon! Now just get your billing and customer support organization fixed and you might just have a good product that will allow you to survive the next 5 years.
Hey everybody. I just thought I would write a quick post about Michael’s current whereabouts! He is in Iceland! He left on the 28th of August and will be back on the 31st of July! I spoke to him last night and he sounds like he is having a great time! He is visiting with all of the family while there. Nanna and Gardar, Gunnhildur, and the entire family. I want to thank all my wonderful family in Iceland for hosting Michael. I love you all very much.
Michael told me that he is working in the mornings and playing, traveling, exploring, riding horses, and so much more. He even said that he may even bring home some money from working at the Hotel! He is heading up to the north next weekend to celebrate what would have been my Amma’s (Olina) 100th Birthday. It sounds like it is going to be quite a celebration. Carolyn and I very much wish we could be there with our entire family but we are happy that Michael is our ambassador.
Michael, have a wonderful time. We miss you very much and love you more.
I thought I would also post a slide show that I found on YouTube that shows the sights that Michael is experiencing now. Hope you enjoy.
(Had to say that dude.)
