Rock n Roll Wine

Start:	Nov 16, '07 7:00p
Location:	Risque, Paris Hotel

www.rocknrollwine.com

Zion National Park, 11/07-11/08

Most pictures are from the park. The buffalo pictures are from Mt. Carmel. The elk pictures are from Springdale.

Rock the Block on Fremont East

Start:	Nov 17, '07 12:00p
End:	Nov 17, '07 5:00p
Location:	East Fremont, Downtown Las Vegas

The revitalization of downtown Las Vegas continues to expand as both national and local bands come together for the inaugural Rock the Block Music Festival in downtown’s newest entertainment mecca the Fremont East Entertainment District on Saturday, November 17 from noon – 10 p.m. Tickets go on sale Friday, October 26 through all Ticketmaster outlets. Tickets are $10 in advance or $15 at the door.

Famed rockers Flyleaf will headline the daylong music festival.
Rock the Block will feature additional performances by Smile Empty Soul, Franky Perez, Searchlight, Left Standing and Conflict of Interest. These bands will perform on the Jagermeister stage.

Food and drink will be available for purchase on site, as well as additional activities taking place within Beauty Bar and The Griffin throughout the day. Guests at Beauty Bar and The Griffin must be 21 years of age or older.

Fremont East is located at Fremont Street and Las Vegas Boulevard in the world famous downtown area. Parking is available at any of the following parking garages: Neonopolis, Fremont Street Experience, Four Queens, Lady Luck or surrounding properties.

Fremont East from Las Vegas Boulevard to 8th Street will be closed to all vehicle traffic from 8 p.m. on November 16 through 5 a.m. Sunday, November 18 in order to accommodate this street celebration.

Neon Boneyard Museum

Took some vacation last week and finally made an appointment to tour the Neon Boneyard. This museum is run by a non-profit organization that collects (donations) of old Vegas Neon signs and restores them. See their website here: http://www.neonmuseum.org/boneyard.html.

It was very cool.

Golf Photography

playing with my new camera some more.

Vegoose Music Festival 2007

The 2007 Vegoose Music Festival was this past weekend (10/27-10/28). The lineup wasn't as great as last year, but we still had a good time. I do think I may be getting too old for 2 day music festivals :).

One bummer- they didn't allow professional cameras (i.e. cameras with removable lenses) unless you had credentials, so I couldn't bring my good camera and had to revert back to my 4mp Canon Powershot... but the photos are ok (just could've been better).

The lineup (*denotes bands we saw):
10/27
Gogol Bordello*
Lupe Fiasco*
Battles*
Blonde Redhead*
Mastodon
STS9
Atmosphere
Cypress Hill
Public Enemy*
The Shins*
M.I.A.
Queens of the Stone Age
Federico Aubele
Iggy and the Stooges*
Thievery Corporation*
Daft Punk*

10/28
Pharoahe Monch
ALO
Ghostface Killah
Robert Randolph and the Family Band
Ghostland Observatory*
Michael Franti and Spearhead
Infected Mushroom
Umphrey's McGee*
Muse*
Unkle*
Moe.
Rage Against the Machine*

I think my favorite was Muse, a band I wasn't even familiar with prior. The program compared them to Depeche Mode, but I heard DM, some Queen and maybe some Keane thrown in there. It was probably the best set beginning to end.

It was great to see Public Enemy live. The only bad thing was they were on at the same time as Cypress Hill (bad scheduling in my opinion) so we couldn't see both.

A lot of people were looking forward to Daft Punk. I was not that familiar with their music. It was good, but I still don't get the interest in seeing Electronic music live. They don't play instruments, they wear robot disguises and sit behind a booth and who knows what they are doing, possibly pushing the 'play' button on the CD player loaded with their album. Maybe if I was drunk I would have enjoyed the performance at the end of Day 1, but instead I was tired and wanted to go to sleep. The crowd enjoyed it though.

Rage sounded great. Photos from day two are limited because we sat further back and enjoyed the music more, rather than squishing up closer to the stages.

Albums purchased at the festival: 1 - Redhead Blonde. Never heard of them before, but the lead female singer had a really ethereal sound. I would say this music resembled Cocteau Twins a little bit.

All in all fun was had, but I need a week to recover.

Apple iPhone Contains 'Hazardous' Chemicals

http://www.informationweek.com/hardware/showArticle.jhtml;?articleID=202402995
Greenpeace claims that Apple's new iPhone contains "brominated flame retardants"
and other chemicals that can be harmful to the environment. "If Apple really
wants to reinvent the phone," says the environmental advocacy group, "it needs
to design out all hazardous substances."