Just a quick blog entry to update about the math tournament - it has been an enormous success. I am the midst of grading tons of exams, but the main figures are in: about 200 schools and over 5,000 students from across the country participated in the First Annual American High School Internet Mathematics Competition (www.ahsimc.com).

The first checks have arrived from folks buying the 2004 AHSIMC Solutions Guide, which is a great thing too. Hopefully we'll sell them all before our big National Awards Announcement on November 1, where we'll announce the winner and runner-up, along with several other awards, via national press release.

Then it'll be on to the next step.

Be careful what you wish for.

Democrats should remember these words over the next couple of months. While George W. Bush is certainly a lightning rod of Democratic hatred and contempt, and has ended up on the wrong side of so many issues as to virtually guarantee a loss come November 2, those who have come to hate the President simply because of the "way he looks" or his corporate history, rather than his current policies, are making a big mistake.

I'm the first to admit that Bush is not exactly a smart man. He lacks communication skills - there's evidence he screws up personal, one-on-one communication as much as he falters in speeches to large groups - but is this a reason to vote him out?

He's also shown a remarkable inability to be compassionate. I couldn't care less what anyone has to say on the matter - a Constitutional ban on gay marriage is one of the most ANTI-CHRISTIAN acts our government could possibly commit, and should never have even been contemplated by any of our country's elected officials. I find Cheney's executive role in the party that proposed this bill to be revolting, considering his gay daughter.

Toss in an Iraq here, bad economy there, lack of contrition everywhere, and its most likely lights out for Bush come November 2.

But let me tell you why this isn't great news for Democrats. Being President of the United States means you not only have to deal with domestic policy issues and master international relations - both of which Kerry can do - but the President also has to have charisma and a sense of dramatic flair. This is the age of TV and the internet, after all, and a boring Kerry could lull Democratic hopes into a long-term coma.

With actually compelling Democratic Presidential candidates coming down the pipeline in 2008 and 2012, such as O'Bama from Illinois and Hillary Clinton, a Bush defeat could allow Kerry to thoroughly convince the nation's vast moderate constituency that electing a Democrat isn't such a great idea after all. It would be an ironic end to this political era for the political careers of these two people, with marks of true leadership and charisma, to be derailed by none other than George W. Bush.

So while Democrats rally against Bush with historic fervor and ferocity, don't let the long-term implications a lackluster Kerry tenure could cause get lost in the shuffle. After all, you gotta be careful what you wish for ... you just might get it.

Lots of change over the next few months, and certainly over the next year...getting married next summer, launch of the AHSIMC behemoth in just a month now, escalation of promotion behind "Maintain Radio Silence"over the next year, as well as school! And looking for a job next summer! Lots to do!!

I recently discovered this song and it really captures the feeling of questioning what's going on in life at any given moment. Not so much doubting that we are on the correct path, but just kinda taking a step back and looking at the big picture of life, and wondering WHY.

My faith in God only makes me want to ask "why?" even more. I am amazed that my years of prayer regarding my personal life, as well as prayer for the ability to contribute something to the world around me, has been answered in the incredible way it has at this point in August 2004. But it just makes the question of "why?" that much more compelling. Maybe over the next year, it will start to become clearer.

And with my grandmother, the last of my grandparents, on her deathbed even as I write this, the question of "why" takes on a different meaning. Why will she not be able to see me get married? Why does she have to suffer, dying a slow death to cancer?

And of course, I could just as easily ask why has she been allowed to be such a valuable part of my life for so long ... much longer than some people get to have family around them.

Its exactly what John Mayer's asking here. For now, we wait and wonder - and be so grateful for what we do have.

2005 will be a great year.


"Why Georgia" - John Mayer

I am driving up 85
in the kind of morning that lasts all afternoon...
just stuck inside the gloom.

4 more exits to my apartment,
but I am tempted to keep the car in drive...
and leave it all behind.

Cause I wonder sometimes about the outcome
of a still-verdictless life.

Am I living it right?
Am I living it right??
Am I living it right?
Why ... why Georgia, why?

I rent a room and I fill the spaces
with wood in places to make it feel like home...
but all I feel's alone.
It might be a quarter-life crisis,
or just the stirring in my soul.

Either way...
I wonder sometimes, about the outcome
of a still-verdictless life.

Am I living it right?
Am I living it right??
Am I living it right?
Why Georgia? Why?

So what? So I've got a smile on?
Its hiding the quiet superstitions in my head.
Don't believe me when I say I've got it down.

Everybody is just a stranger
but that's the danger
in going my own way.

I guess its the price I have to pay.

Still, "everything happens for a reason"
is no reason not to ask myself:

Am I living it right?
Am I living it right??
Am I living it right?
Why? Tell me why...
Why Georgia? Why?

Long time since I've posted here...lets get up to date!

Just saw "Harold and Kumar Go To White Castle."  Really funny stuff.  A bunch of random humor about two stoners...I didn't expect to be that funny, but it was hilarious.  Check it out next weekend.

I did a routine check on Google to discover that the Toledo City Paper reviewed "Maintain Radio Silence" and had some nice things to say.  I have a quote from the review up on my webpage, www.bradleymetrock.com.  Its really cool to discover that your work has had a positive impact with someone you don't even know.

The 1st Annual American High School Internet Mathematics Competition is quickly approaching.  Ben has been hard at work polishing up the solutions guide, his girlfriend Ellen has been putting in some great graphic design work in designing us a logo, and I've been working on compiling a database of press contacts so we can get the word out about this thing!  Its a really exciting time, as every day brings the tournament closer, and an increasing realization that this will be really, REALLY BIG.

I'm close to wrapping up my music research project as well.  I've been running some regression analyses and compiling data on the effect of piracy, particularly across genres, and have some theories that I'll be putting out there in a paper by the end of the summer.

I happened upon the playlist of the person who downloaded the 100,000,000th song off of Apple iTunes, and have discovered two great new artists: Jamie Cullum and Ben Jelen.

Check these guys out ASAP!  I just downloaded Ben Jelen's entire album, and he's got some stunning pop songs on there.  "Come On" is simply gorgeous, and I highly recommend downloading it in your preferred method, legal or not...

I head out to Arlington, Texas, tomorrow to visit Lori and her family.  She's been out there the past week and a half hanging out with the fam before law school starts up at Tennessee in mid-August.  When both of us return on the same flight back to Nashville on Thursday, 7/29, things may be a little different...?  Did I just say that?

I had the good fortune of being able to take a day or two to drive up to Chicago and visit Gaurav and Carlos.  We all hung out, took in a Cubs game (Prior got hurt....not good...), and had some great food in Little Italy.  Its so wonderful to be able to hang out with friends and catch up...thanks guys for being so hospitable up there.

When I come back, it'll be off to Huntsville to meet Mathew Crawford, Tipton, and network with other math sponsors in promoting the AHSIMC.  Then on July 31, I'll be at Anita's wedding, and then on August 1, it'll be back to Nashville for a while until the school year starts.

If you're reading this, take care, and talk to you soon.

March has been a busy month! Let's get caught up.

First, Vandy made it to the Sweet 16 for the first time since 1993! Great season for the Commodores, and a nice farewell for Matt Freije.

I'm going to temporarily hold off on discussing, in detail, what's going on with my album, but its very exciting stuff. In addition to promotions I've been doing, I've also been looking for a "residency" in town, where I come in the same night every week and perform songs from Maintain Radio Silence. Things are moving right along and some significant developments are close.

Another thing I've been working on is starting the National Online Mathematics Competition, which will be the United States' first online math contest. Yes, the AHSME (American High School Mathematics Exam), NME, and some others have been around forever...but no one has ventured online yet.

Our first test is completely written, and shortly a webpage will be developed for "NOMC". The idea will be to get schools to participate, at no charge, for the first year, and to develop fully fleshed out revenue streams once we have a base level of participation.

I won't go into much detail here on this issue either, but it could generate some nice income as early as 2005.

One final note...I was pleasantly surprised to receive an email from Owen officials that they are looking to license music from Maintain Radio Silence to use in some upcoming video material. Not only is this a great chance for me to help my school, but I could also be looking at some good money from the licensing as well. More on this soon too.

Hope everyone is doing well. The fourth (of 4) "mods", or quarters, is underway at Vandy business school, and it looks like a nice end to a great year. Taking courses in Business Ethics, Business in the World Economy (macroeconomics), and Corporate Financial Policy, as well as the Compendia music industry project that lasts all semester. So I'm keeping busy!

Remember, if you haven't purchased your own copy of Maintain Radio Silence, head on over to www.bradleymetrock.com NOW! Talk to you guys soon.

My website for Maintain Radio Silence is up and running - its accessible either at www.bradleymetrock.com or www.maintainradiosilence.com.

I am so excited that the project is complete and ready to sell! I really think people will enjoy it.

Business school is back in full force - I'm taking three classes this quarter, in addition to a project with Compendia Music Group along with Kris and Quentin. The project will entail creating a tool to measure the profit potential of artists, so the company can more easily decide what acts to sign and which to pass on. There will be other tasks involved too, but that's the primary one.

My three classes are Strategic Management - a "core" class which all students are required to take - and two Finance classes, Securities and Portfolios, as well as Corporate Value Management. In Strategic Management and "Corp Val", we have groups which divide up large team-based assignments to complete. Securities and Portfolios focuses more on individual problem sets.

Maybe one day I'll finally be done with school, forever, and will get to experience the real world. Maybe.

Kris, Quentin, and I have also started our own management group/record label, and are closing in on signing our first act. Can't say much more about it right now, but as soon as something's definite, I'll post the artist's website and some of his music here. While nothing is definite, for whatever act our management group signs, Mariner Records may get the rights to the first album recorded early in 2005.

Lori, her brother James, John Hart and I participated in a football playoff pool, where each of us put in $5 and the person with the most points (received for correct predictions of the games) wins the $20. Unbelievably, Lori ended up winning, which has now become a complete and total embarrassment. Ok, not really, but I don't know any guy who enjoys losing a sports-related contest to his girlfriend...

Books of the moment: "Moneyball" - Michael Lewis; "The Number" - Alex Berenson
Movies of the moment: "Indiana Jones and the Raiders of the Lost Ark"; "Dune"
Video games of the moment: "Final Fantasy X-2"; "NCAA Football 2004"
Music of the moment: "Sing the Sorrow" - AFI; "All That You Can't Leave Behind" - U2

Artwork is wrapping up on Maintain Radio Silence, and it looks great. George Otvos, as usual, has done a great job.

A thought of mine for a while, regarding physical music product, has been that as it has moved from large albums, which took up a lot of space, to cassette tapes and CDs, that there has been some sort of subconscious impact on the "space" society gives music within our daily lives.

If you buy that, its just another reason why less and less people buy music at the $14-$15 level...its just not worth that much to anyone anymore. Without the time - the "space" allocated in our lives - to digest whole albums and experience new music, no one's willing to spend even half of historical CD prices to purchase whole albums.

In piecing together Maintain Radio Silence's artwork package, I am really happy about the decision to have the album done in DVD packaging. Not only is there more room in the booklet contained inside - which is nice! - but I am interested to see how people respond to the larger, unorthodox DVD-style packaging of the album.

I suspect it will be received favorably, as the art looks really cool, and its likely that when I am running a label as my fulltime job, I will release all label albums in this larger DVD packaging. Not only is the larger size of the DVD package a "plus", but there is perceived value in anything looking like a DVD these days - they are just that popular.

Maybe its much ado about nothing, who knows. But I like that the album looks a little different even BEFORE you hear any of it.

I have my Operations exam tomorrow from 1 PM to 4 PM, and then Finance's final exam from 8 AM to 11 AM (ouch!) on Wednesday. Then, it'll be naptime before LORD OF THE RINGS: RETURN OF THE KING that night!!!

Also, the Titans beat the Bills today (in Nashville) behind 3 TD (2 passing, 1 rushing) of Billy Volek...and Vanderbilt men's basketball is now 6-0 and, with a couple of SEC road wins, headed toward an NCAA Tournament berth.

Better get to sleep - after the exam tomorrow, I'm going out with Lori to dinner with her aunt and uncle at Carrabba's! YUM.

About to call it a night after hanging out with Hetesh and watching Vanderbilt whip Indiana in men's basketball here in good old Birmingham.

I'm sitting here right now listening to "The Long and Winding Road", in anticipation of getting to here the new "Let It Be...Naked", which reproduces the famous Beatles album but with several production changes, including stripping some of the songs of the "wall of sound" which was producer Phil Spector's landmark.

I love just getting some work done while listening to good music!

The cover for Maintain Radio Silence is done, as the creation of the album artwork (for its DVD-case packaging) is pushing ahead. It looks cool, and I'm excited about the project wrapping up over the next month...so I can decide what exactly I'm going to do with it!

Business school is definitely going to be ratcheting it up a notch until the end of the semester. I'm glad I've been able to get some stuff done even in the first day or two of this break. Lori flies in Wednesday, so obviously no work will be done between then and Friday, til we go back to Nashville!

Found out last week my grandmother has stage IV lung cancer, as well as colon cancer and breast cancer. Likely, the cancer developed in part of the body and has just spread everywhere. She won't live long, but hopefully this Thanksgiving will be a great time to be with her and the rest of my family. I don't even want to think about it, she's been such an incredible person in my life. I just hope I am able to visit enough from Nashville down to Birmingham while she's still here.

I am headed down to Auburn this afternoon to stay at Airport House with the guys. Mark is coming in from Atlanta, and Ben and Steven will be coming over from Tuscaloosa for the big game...THE IRON BOWL. Auburn should crush Alabama easily, if they play well. They've been back-and-forth all season, so we'll see what happens.

I'll come back to Birmingham Monday and get some schoolwork done, as well as fixing my car. Lori will fly in from Nashville Wednesday night, and will get to spend Thanksgiving with me and my family! We'll head back to Nashville together on Friday.

My trip to Auburn today has been delayed by a meeting with a lawyer over at the Vandy Law School regarding the new label venture that me and two other Owen guys (Kris and Quentin) are starting up. This will be of substantially larger scope than the label I started in college, though we may retain the Mariner Records name. The premise around which the label will operate is a killer idea and we should be able to convince some experienced music industry folks to come on board, as well as VC to lend us some help as well.

Curiously enough, the person in charge of all music retail for Best Buy was an Owen graduate...one of several contacts in the industry that the three of us have discovered in the short time we've been planning this venture.

I'm extremely excited. Although I can't go into the details here, I am beginning to see exactly how a future in music can lead the way to making some great money right out of grad school, and lead to even larger plans.

Early in the week, my grandmother entered the hospital with pneumonia and possibly cancer. After running a test that caused a massive slowdown in heart rate, doctors had to insert a pacemaker.

She's doing better now, but I'm headed home this weekend as a result to visit and check up on the situation. I'll leave immediately after attending the Owen Finance Conference at Loews Vanderbilt Hotel on Friday, an event I'm really looking forward to.

Last time I was home - two weeks ago - I took my car for its regular maintenance, and also to get the engine looked at (the "check engine" light keeps going on and off every couple days or so) and to get my left brake light replaced. Unfortunately for me, when they fixed the brake light, they miswired a variety of things, and now my blinkers don't work and the wiring of the buttons on my steering wheel have a variety of unintended functions!

Needless to say, the car dealership will be another stop in Birmingham this weekend as well.

Fire Emblem, just released for Game Boy Advance, is a killer turn-based strategy/RPG hybrid that would alone almost justify buying the system. Highly recommend it if you're looking to kill off some productivity.

Also, in other news, the Titans are turning into an unstoppable force in the AFC. McNair's brilliant passing is opening up the dormant running game, and toss in a very, very solid defense that doesn't miss a tackle, and you've got a recipe for winning a bunch of games. Titans are going to win the Super Bowl this year, I just know it!

Life is good. After a weekend of visiting Satya and Hetesh at home, and Ben and Steven in Tuscaloosa, I'm back preparing for a brutal Accounting exam coming up on Friday.

I had to get up out of bed once I remembered I hadn't sent my Operations group my part of our group assignment due Thursday...another guy is piecing all the individual parts together to make the paper cohesive, which was my job last time, and by sending it to him hours late, I hope I haven't thrown him off too much.

I discovered tonight, on my hard drive, a recording of the first song I recorded with George (in my living room!) which he wrote, and came right at the start of my interest in recording music, writing music, and all that stuff. Its a great thing about computers, the way they archive the past in incredible detail. Certainly, I had forgotten completely about the recording, and it was great to listen to it and remember how fun it was playing together at the start of undergrad at Vandy.

What, years later, eventually became of those sessions - the Jimmy B & the Fortune 500 material - will be my blueprint in recording new artists, at whatever point in the future I am operating my label full-time. I look forward to adding film and video game projects to that as well. I can't tell you how great it would be to be financially - and, to some extent, creatively - responsible for the latest, incredible new video game to hit the market. I probably wouldn't be able to stop playing it...haha.

Matrix Revolutions comes out today, but I promised Lori I wouldn't see it until I had taken my Accounting exam. She's great at keeping me in line...seeing the end of the classic trilogy will be a great reward for hard work on Saturday, instead of having it throw off the entire timing of the week by seeing it before my exam.

She did a great job of raising her LSAT score from 156 to 160, which along with Phi Beta Kappa from Vandy, ought to be able to get her into Vandy Law in early decision. We'll hear back by December 15, and obviously there's a lot riding on the line there, as she may be headed off to Baylor Law in the spring if she gets deferred or rejected. I'm optimistic - things work out like they should.

I am really looking forward to visiting Auburn for this year's Iron Bowl! I haven't seen John, Jeremy, David, and the Airport House gang in a long time. And depending on which Auburn team shows up, maybe Auburn has give us something to celebrate.

Its getting late...I have to get up at least somewhat early to review accounting ratio interpretations. Seeing the connection between b-school work and future earnings keeps this train moving, though. Time to get some sleep - its going to be a long couple of days.

Life at the Owen School of Management has begun.

Tons of reading, too many assignments, and more than enough work...but its great because everything learned is important and applicable toward the future!

On Monday, the first official day of class, my Leading Teams and Organizations class met and I was assigned to a team to complete a case study on a fictional character named Erik Peterson. The case was due Wednesday, giving us only 2 days to assemble 5 pages of text (plus 2 exhibits) and it was really tough since we had an international student in our group who speaks "just enough" English. Which, of course, wasn't enough, but we made it.

I don't think I've had this much fun doing this much work since math team in high school!


On another note, after running one of my usual Google searches on Jimmy B & the Fortune 500, I found the following profile of a random Furman student, who for some reason felt compelled to include a quote from War Machine among his favorite quotes!

Its cool to find stuff like this that happens as a result of putting a creative work out there...you never get to see how people respond to it, but you know some people do enjoy it and take something away from it.

http://www.w4gs.org/memberpages/af4hk/profile.htm


If you haven't placed your order for both "Everything You Know Is Wrong" - Jimmy B & the Fortune 500's last work for a while - and "Maintain Radio Silence", by instrumental disc, you need to do it soon so you can get a free Mariner Records frisbee!

We're not skimping on the frisbees, now...they are regulation size and weight. There aren't many of them at all so go to jbf500.com and mail me a check and order one!

Lori surprised me today with buying me Two Towers as a present for starting business school, but told me I couldn't watch it until my work was done on Thursday (end of business school week of classes) ... so I guess I better get back to work.

Talk to you soon.

Full post coming on orientation ending and classes at Owen about to start!

One quick thing...I would give a lot to find out who exactly runs www.metrock.com, and the corresponding "Metrock Records". Another Squished Mosquito production? What the hell?

No one in my family or extended family has any idea what it is or who's running it...kinda strange, huh?

Friday's here, and running some errands with Lori and her sister tonight, including dinner at 5 and Diner! Slurp.

Its a wrap...Maintain Radio Silence is complete!

I am extremely pleased with the album. I wasn't sure, entering the project, if an album of 12-15 instrumental songs with piano as the primary instrument would be compelling.

I still don't know if it is (!) but I think most people will really enjoy it.

The Steinway concert piano blended wonderfully with a variety of synth sounds of all different types for some promising new re-interpretations of Jimmy B & the Fortune 500 material, as well as some brand new songs...some of which were simply made up on the spot!

In the next month or two, I will plan a new initiative behind the promotion of Maintain Radio Silence ...approximately 250 copies of the instrumental album will be personally delivered to Nashville-area nursing home residents, with follow-up performances to occur on a month-to-month basis.

This will be a great way to give back to the community, and to show my appreciation for being able to do what I love to do and record new music for release by Mariner Records.

I will also be seeking out a lawyer to license some of the instrumental music to commercial interests...this will be the primary way I hope to regain the investment in the album's production.

Bradley Hartman, the engineer who recorded Maintain Radio Silence from his house in Hillsboro, was wonderful to work with and a great talent with bringing out the best in the audio. I hope to work with him again at some point.

I'll be back and forth from Birmingham in the next day or so, moving stuff from home up here to my new place, then Orientation at Owen starts bright and early Wednesday. See you soon.

Recording Maintain Radio Silence is underway and is actually a day ahead of schedule. As I've mentioned before, the album is strictly instrumental...recording piano for all tracks has concluded and I'm halfway through laying down the accompanying keyboard pads/synths to the songs.

The track listing will be different than the one I originally posted...a revised listing will be posted next week. Some changes include the addition of an instrumental version of "Near From Far", an additional new track or two, and the integration of Bruce Hornsby's "The Way It Is" into "Someone Else's Song" as an introduction.

Next Monday and Tuesday, I'll be moving into my new place over on West End (3415 West End, to be exact) and I can't wait! The condominium unit I'm moving into is actually a 2-bedroom unit, so anyone who wants to come visit Nashville is welcome to come and stay. I believe the Vanderbilt/Auburn game is up here in Nashville this year, so I expect to see plenty of people up here!

Orientation at Owen starts next week!

The following is an email that I sent to the Jimmy B & the Fortune 500 listserv...

--------------
On September 30, Jimmy B & the Fortune 500's follow-up
album "Everything You Know Is Wrong" will be released at a price of
$4.99.

On November 11, Bradley Metrock's solo piano instrumental
album, "Maintain Radio Silence", will be released at a price of $7.99.

You can order BOTH for $10.00 and receive a high-quality Mariner
Records frisbee FREE.

A single check for $10, made out to Bradley Metrock, can net you 3
Mariner Records discs!!

For details, visit Jimmy B & the Fortune 500's homepage,
www.jbf500.com.
--------------

Everything is progressing smoothly for on-time releases of Mariner Records two new discs of material prior to the end of the year.

When I get a chance this weekend, I'll be back to elaborate on Mariner Records' stance on piracy, as well as my progress toward a National Championship for Vanderbilt's football team in NCAA Football 2004.

Writing a quick entry before what promises to be a hectic weekend.

Courtney Wilson is getting married! This is wonderful! I will be attending the ceremony on Saturday and absolutely can't wait. Couldn't happen to a better person, and I really look forward to catching up with several friends both Thursday night in Birmingham and Friday night in Georgia.

Tomorrow is the last day of my internship at Extreme Writers Group, and Michael, Jason, and Rya are taking me out to Logan's for lunch to celebrate! That was my choice because I haven't been there in so long and its SKRUMPTIOUS.

Back on Sunday. See you then.

Slowly getting prepared to begin tracking my solo project, Maintain Radio Silence. It will consist of 12 instrumental songs, some of which are re-interpretations of JBF500 material, some of which are new pieces, and some of which are cover tunes.

Bradley Hartman will engineer the album, and it will be recorded on a Steinway concert piano in his home studio in Hillsboro.

Tentative track listing:

1. Black and White
2. Before The Day Is Done
3. Maintain Radio Silence
4. Paradox
5. As I Am
6. Happiness in F Major
7. The Way It Is (instrumental cover of Bruce Hornsby's song)
8. War Machine
9. No One Knows
10. Carry On
11. [instrumental medley of 90's covers]
12. Revolution



Art production has begun for "Everything You Know Is Wrong", and its still on time for its release date of 9.30.03. Inside the album liner notes (which will be a booklet, like "one day soon" featured) will be lyrics as well as a statement by Mariner Records condoning piracy. Yes, condoning piracy...more on this later.

My solo album will be released on November 11, with a b-side surfacing on a new webpage sometime in October.

Back from Dallas in time to resume the good old night job at Measurement, Incorporated tonight. Isn't that the shadiest name of a company you've ever heard?

I sit from 5 to 10:15 (4 to 10:15 today, cause I'm going in early with nothing else to do.) and grade the SAME PROBLEM OVER AND OVER the whole time. The problem is an open-ended free response math question from the Massachusetts 10th Grade Exit Exam.

Already, someone has gotten fired due to use of a racial slur, the company is running approximately one month behind in a job that was supposed to take 6 weeks at maximum, and half the people there don't even understand the math behind the problem. If it weren't for a good-sized paycheck I get from them every now and then, there wouldn't be much reason to stick around even a day longer.

Fortunately, it doesn't last much longer, as Owen's MBA Orientation begins August 13.

My internship at Extreme Writers Group has been wonderful, but it will be ending within a month as well. Getting to see the insides of the music publishing world, and the great business acumen of the two co-founders Michael Martin and Jason Houser, has been eye-opening and a great jumpstart to business school.

With "Built To Last" just about wrapped up, I have started reading "Don't Know Much About History" by Kenneth C. Davis. It takes American History topics from Columbus' voyages to the Bush/Gore election debacle and goes through them in a question/answer format that makes for really interesting reading.

Being in Dallas with Lori was really enjoyable, even though the Mariners lost last Sunday night when we took in a night game. Her family is a lot of fun to be around, and were really hospitable. I am looking forward to going back!

Only other news is that I cancelled the studio session in Birmingham for this weekend to give me more time to prepare new material for an upcoming mostly-instrumental solo album, tentatively titled "Maintain Radio Silence". I think there will end up being a track on there by the same name, but too early to tell. Everything is still on track for the release of the "Everything You Know Is Wrong" EP on September 30.

Gotta go to the bank before heading out (early) to MI. Hopefully everyone is doing great.

Headed to Dallas to spend the July 4th weekend (plus some) with Lori and her family...back July 9th in time for work at night!

I got to sit in on Shannon Lawson's latest recording session at Omni Studios on Wednesday, and it was great! I got to meet several established studio musicians and watch how long-time professionals go about recording songs they have never heard prior to that day. Fascinating stuff.

I have a long entry I've been waiting to write about my night job grading papers, but it will have to wait. See you next week, and have a great holiday!

Bradley