Death to the Blog

He has been waiting patiently

Another day, another blog dies. It's official. I am calling it quits in the blogging world. With different prioritizes in my life, getting on the motorcycle has become a challenge lately. That does not mean I am selling the bike. It just means I am moving on to the next chapter....off the blog for now.

This blog was suppose to be my journal for rides and archiving my pictures. It is kind of hard to write when I am not getting out on the road. A friend of mine recently bought a bike. He wants to get out for a ride. My calendar is so full, I can't get out until the weekend after the 4th of July. Almost a month from now.

So instead of dragging this blog from week to week, I am handing in the keys. When I do get out on rides, I will still be taking pictures and sharing. You can still contact and view my rides at the following places. Thanks for reading.

Facebook (http://www.facebook.com/gillette1)

Picasa (my online web album)

Sport-Touring.net (aka Razors on the forum. I mostly post up in Region 4)

razorsparty@yahoo.com (my email address)

Tune Tuesday: Gomez - How We Operate

Here is a song that you will find in my Sunday morning play list. It is mostly made up of music found on 93.1 - XRT. If you are a Chicago reader, you know what I am talking about, "Chicago's Finest Rock". The station has a wide range of music covering genres from blues, reggae, folk, pop, and rock and roll but enough of the XRT plug.

Gomez came on the Razor scene in 2006 although they have been around for over ten years. They are an English indie rock band. This song stands out with the opening intro. It has that unique blue grass kind of sound.

When I heard it for the first time, I had to confirm that I did not switch over to the country station. Then unexpectedly, the song goes up beat and changes tempo. Great! Something that does not sound like Linkin Park or NickelBack (have I mentioned that I hate Nickelback?). It has that touch of Pearl Jam without the dirty garage sound.

I can play this song over and over. It never gets tired. The uniqueness of this sound pulls me in every time. It's not a rock anthem song so don't me wrong. I have a wide variety of music. Next week, I will be reviewing Gershwin's, Rhapsody in Blue.

Weekend Write-Up: Night Rider

I need to get me some Night Vision Goggles for the bike

Welcome to June-uary. Nothing short of snow here in the Mid West. I did not get out for a ride on Sunday as planned. As I was getting ready to leave, it was just a constant drizzle which makes for slick conditions.

Since a lot of riders were not showing up, I decided to "cage" it (cage = car). I met up with a few of the regulars from the area. I ate some breakfast and then headed north to do some personal shopping. Not much else to say about that.

Oh, I did stop at Ukes Harley in Kenosha for their open house. Like I said, not much else to say about that either.

(congratulation to Mooney for purchasing his new Buell. We will get out soon)

Friday night, I was able to get out and ride. I decided to surpise my wife by showing up at her event in Kenosha. The ride was perfect going north. The sun was going down. No wind. No chill in the air and most importanlty, no bugs.

For a moment, I had route 45 all to myelf as I crossed into Wisconsin. I just relaxed and took it all in. With the exception of my 1200 cc's, there was no noise. No sounds from telephones, no music, no kids fighting and noone to argue how bad my White Sox are. It's about as close to having a Zen moment that I am going to get.

On the way home, that's a different story. My motorcycle headlight, well, sucks for lack of better words. I don't usually ride after dark unless I am with another rider that I can follow. Knowing that Jenn would be in the SUV, I could follow her home.

We were moving along pretty well coming back into Illinois. Back on route 45, it is pretty much open fields with little cross roads but plenty of wild life. Jenn thought she would be doing me a favor by going faster then what the speed limit suggested. I really didn't want to loose sight of my truck because I was watching the trucks headlights down the road so I kept up. The whole way home, I was thinking to myself, please let Bambi be sleeping tonight. I don't want any forest rat surprises.

A couple of times I look down and I am doing over 70. Now I know some of you are thinking, 70 mph. Thats not fast. Tonight, try 70 mph, in your car, with your eyes closed and get back to me.

Lucklily, nothing happened. I get home and Jenn asks "was that fast enough enough for you?" I jokingly replied "are you trying to kill me?" I explained the lighting situaiton to Jenn. It's all good know.

That's my story and I am sticking to it.

Weekend Event: Sunday Bike Ride (part 2)

La Grange General Store in Wisconsin

Holy Crap! If the weather cooperates, I just might be able to ride this Sunday. Is this an event? Well, not really. Here is the way it works.

As some of you know, I mostly ride with the great people from Sport-Touring.Net. It is a motorcycle forum with a section for us mid-westerners.

A rider posts up for a meet and ride. This usually comes in the question of, "who wants to meet for coffee at such and such a place?" If you can make it, great. If not, there will be plenty more.

We usually meet around 10AM. Stand around, kick tires and flap our gums. Then when someone gets bored, they suggest a ride to some unknown location. I am not really doing these meets any justice but you have to experience to get the feel for one.

This Sunday, it was suggested to meet at Full Moon at 176 and 41 at 10:00. Sounds like the plan is breakfast then head to LaGrange Wisconsin for ice cream at the General Store. (yeah, we are a tough BIG bunch).

From La Grange, you can catch the scenic Kettle Moraines scenic route. A very popular area for us riders due to the twisty roads.

We welcome all kind of riders but encourage you to ride at your own pace. For the record, we do not ride in any Harley parade formations. Just get out and ride. Visit the website or contact me for any questions. As you can tell, this is an informal event.

Weekend Event: Lake County Cowboys Football (part 1)

Your Lake County Cowboys

Last week, I mentioned the news about Kevin Costners new baseball team coming to Zion, the Lake County Fielders. I just recently learned that Lake County has also a new semi-pro football team. Ladies and Gentlemen, lets welcome the Lake County Cowboys to Round Lake!

That's right. The Spartans Youth Football Program and the Round Lake Park District, has allowed the Cowboys to use the Ron Schmidt Football Field for their home field games this year.

The team is in it's third year now. They are part of Gridiron Football League. They will compete with nine other teams from Southern Wisconsin and Northern Illinois.

The cool thing about these games are that they are free. All games are played on Fridays at 7:00 PM. I can't make tonight's home opener but this sports junkie will be catching the action soon.

Here is the full schedule:

June 5: Kenosha Cougars

June 12: at Racine Gladiators

June 19: Racine Heat

June 26: Lake Shore Lynx

July 3: Bye week

July 10: South Milwaukee Rage

July 17: at Oak Creek Renegades

July 24: Union Grove Knights

July 31: at Kenosha Storm

August 7: West Allis Gators

August 14: at Kenosha Cougar

Tune Tuesday: Eagles of Death Metal

Every now and then, a band comes along that makes me fall in love with rock and roll all over again. It reminds my why rock is not dead. Why my son will not be buying the corporate canned music that the local Walmart is pushing (like that Nickelback crap)

Ladies and Gentlemen, enter Eagles of Death Metal. I am not even sure how I stumbled across this band. They really didn't get any radio play. After seeing the video, I am looking at the drummer and saying to myself, "that guy looks familiar." After doing some homework, I found out it is Josh Homme. The lead singer of Queen of the Stone Age. That band also rocks but that's another post.

Back to Eagles of Death Metal, they are an American garage rock band. They also have a touch of rockabilly to them. They play fast upbeat or what I call dirty rock. In the above video, watch for the many cameos including Jack Black and David Grohl.

Long Live Rock!

Weekend Write-Up: NextGenMuscleCars Show

Elanor: Go - Baby - Go

In stead of being out on two wheels for the Sunday morning ride, I opted for the all mighty dollar. I chose to DJ a car show in Elgin for the NextGenMuscleCars. We had a beautiful day of sunshine with the temperature hitting 75. You could not ask for better weather.

The show was a great success. Hennessy's, in Elgin, hosted over 60 cars from classic t-birds to the newly muscled retro styled cars. I played the music as a lot of spectators came out for this free event. The afternoon ended with a trophy presentation where even I had some input on the finalists.

Special thanks goes out to Dan. Congrats on your first show!

Click here for the slide show.