This week was a pretty good one. Monday I went to the Brother Ali/Swollen Members/Gaiden show at Vaudeville Mews. It was awesome. Swollen Members are really hype and Brother Ali is really good.

Wednesday, Kari and I went to a Cornell alumni thing at Mondo's in Des Moines. It was pretty nice to see some people and hear some things going on at Cornell. But it's also pretty funny that after all the money we spent on that school we had to pay for our own food and drinks. Then I met Zach @ Val Air for the Reliant K/MXPX show. It was pretty funny. We walked in to the biggest crowd I've seen at Val Air so far - 95% of which were H.S. kids. The number of zits in that crowd was INSANE. Plus there were soooooo many girls. It was like …

While I was on my honeymoon I got this email from Kevi that said, "Here's the plan... Friday, Nov. 4, we go to Cedar Rapids and hang out with the cast of Viva la Bam. Saturday, Nov. 5, we film Tonya's musical and then come home." I was confused, but when I got home he told me that he bought VIP tickets for Don Vito's Back to School Tour, where apparently Don Vito and guests from Viva la Bam tour around with rock bands. I'm not really a fan of Viva la Bam, in fact I think it's a pretty awful show - totally scripted. But I do love all the old cky videos. They're like Viva la Bam, but without mtv and infinitely deep pockets. So they're way better. That said, I'm definitely a fan of most of the cast of Viva la Bam, so I was in. Though …

Friday, Kari's dad and I bottled beer, then Nick and Nicole visited while we cut my hair.

Saturday, Kevi and I drove to the Quad Cities for Ben's Wicked Undergroupd Rap festival. It was a lot of fun. There were some good acts and also some not-so-good acts. Dan Tha Saltine was really good, as was Claas, and the Unidentified Suspects. I may have to go see the Unidentified Suspects again since they are from Des Moines. This metal band from the QC (The Guerrilla Cadets) ruled. They are Christian metal so I'm sure they felt a bit out of place, but they were awesome. After Claas was on, Kevi and I decided to drive to Cornell because people were there for homecoming. We hung out with Lindsey, her friends, Harper, etc. I love …

OMG. This sucks. So, my friend Ben is having this underground rap festival Saturday the 15th in the Quad Cities. I've gotta go to help support Ben and of course, underground rap.

But, today I was checking some of my favorite bands' tour schedules. Bloodhound Gang and HIM both released new CDs, so I checked their sites first. HIM is really not coming near here, but they are stopping in Minneapolis, which is close enough for me to drive to for a show. However, they are there the 21st - the night before my wedding - GAH! Bloodhound Gang, on the other hand, is going to be @ Quest, Minneapolis on the 16th - the day after Ben's show. If I could get back here quick on Sunday, I could maybe find a friend to drive up there to see the …

So this weekend was nice, lots happened. Thursday I met some buddies at Rock Bottom, then went out to DMMC's True to the Art show. It was really good, probably the best Hip Hop show I've been to in Des Moines. Everyone had really good sets and there were 175+ people there - big for hip hop in Des Moines. Aeon Grey and Really Real had a great set. Gai Den was a little off, but still good. The Gutter Bros (Brandon J Atlas and Shaoo Zulu) were definitely decent. Rebel's Advocate (the guys whose music video I'm working on) were awesome. I recorded most of the show so hopefully video will be available on their respective sites soon.

Friday nothing really happened, just cleaning, hanging out, and Simpson's.

Then Saturday I tanned …

I sort of forgot to write about things going on. It's been so crazy hot that not much has happened. 2 weekends ago Zach and I tried to go soaping downtown, we hadn't gone in forever so we decided to give it a shot again. After about 10 minutes we were dying, so we just decided to walk around the city. We found some wicked sculptures. Then we decided to check out the new i235 pedestrian bridge but somehow ended up way way past it, haha. We zig zagged back through some ghetto, and finally got to the bridge. it's pretty nice, but we really couldn't figure out the point. I mean the other new ped bridges connect to schools. This one connects ghetto A to ghetto B. And the end closer to downtown Ys off into nothing. I mean it led us …

Ok, so as everyone has probably heard 100 times, my birthday is being stolen by my sister's wedding, which is sweet. However, Kari is doing a pretty freakin awesome job of making up for it. Last night she took me to Tony Hawk's Boom Boom Huck Jam. First of all Wells Fargo Arena just opened Tuesday, so this was the first event to come there... plus Kari got us 3rd row seats, basically right in the half pipe. Moto-X guys were jumping over our heads, etc. It ruled so much.

The only downside to our seats was that we couldnt quite see the 30 foot drop in and 20 foot quarter pipe that were on the outsides of the halfpipe. Plus we were so close that the safety net was messing with my camera focus... Whatever though, they had 4 screens …

This weekend was pretty unproductive, but definitely had some good times. Friday I drove out to Rich's for his birthday, and to see Tech N9ne of course. It was nice to see everyone, mitch, rankin, ben (somehow there are never pics of ben), and tons of other peeps that I don't really know that well.

So first was Tech N9ne at Quad City Live. We got in free because apparently we knew someone that did some work for the owners. So yeah, the show was crazy in more ways than 1. As always Tech N9ne was awesome. He is seriously one of the most insane rappers ever. So much talent, so little props. I love his shows. It's also nice to see Kutt Calhoun and Krizz Kalico again. But probably the most insane part of the show is this... I used …

Man, I love good shows. And I know the show is good when I have to take my shirt off for the drive home due to it being covered in sweat (or faygo).

So yeah, last night Kevi and I went to see Mindless Self Indulgence at Val Air. It's my second time seeing them live - and they are so good live. One thing that sucked was that there was a gate keeping the crowd from pushing all the way up to the stage... but whatever, we still pushed up to the 2nd row.

Anyway, first was Super 8-bit Brothers. Every song of theirs was about video games. They were a little weird, a little funny, but not that awesome. Then was SMB. Some girl told me to yell "sellouts" when they came on, because apparently they changed their band name to something …

Ok so... Insanity lately. More to come. On top of being totally swamped at work, I've been crazy busy at night.

Last week lots happened, Monday - The Show is the Rainbow at Vaudeville, then hanging out at the Lift. Tuesday - Lost Film Festival at the Art Center. Wednesday - golf. Thursday - Dug a hole. Friday - Kari and I's parents came for the weekend (with their dogs). The place was out of control with Sadie, Chomp, and Ninja running around.

We went for pizza and then built the form for my shed. Saturday we woke up, finished the form, and then poured cement. Thanks to MC Kock, r00, Kevi, and Dads. My shed is gonna be super sweet. I hope the cement doesnt break. After cement, we hung out for quite a while, Ninja got …

Friday, Rich, and a kid from my H.S., Shawn Rankin, drove up for the Eightball and MJG concert. I wasn't going to go, because I've only heard a few of their songs... but by the time they got to my house I decided to go. Before the show, we all ate at Okoboji, where we saved some little kid from having a steak knife driven through his head.

The show was at Val Air and was pretty awesome. Eightball is a big big dude and MJG has some pretty big dreads. It was a short set (only like 6 songs) but it was a lot of fun - had some drinks, heard good music, saw lots of booty dancing, etc. Shawn got busted peeing in the bush by a cop outside when we were leaving, haha. "Hey! What are you doing?! Do you not see me standing over here?" "aww …

Yesterday after work, Nick and I met Kevi to drive to Knickerbockers in Lincoln, NE. The trip was to see everyone's favorite "nerdcore/hip hop" artist, MC Chris. The show was supposed to start at 9, but that never happens, so we hung out at the bar, which is a pretty cool place.

MC Chris' opener was a dude who went by "The Show is the Rainbow." He did his sound test/setup after we got there, which included setting up a PC, projector, and a sheet - haha. Anyway, this dude was crazy. I'm so mad I didn't buy his CD. He had put together this video that he played during the entire show and went along with his songs the whole time. It was great. I can't really describe his style, he made fun of Indie, hippies, laws, and republicans a …

Last Friday started out so so lame, but then after driving to Ames and Mt Vernon, things got much more fun. First of all we brought Elizabeth a birthday cake with a little chub in it. Then we all celebrated her birthday. It was fun, I drank ecto cooler out of a boot and met Elizabeth's "brother" John, who was awesome. Later we ran around town, saw friends, goofed off, hung out with a spanish professor, etc. Later, I found Matt in his bed, and then I climbed into another random guy's bed... haha

The next day, we met Jeff at Lincoln Cafe, and then went to Theta formal in Waterloo. I wore a bright shirt, a wide tie, and some bling, RULE. Jon and I hung out more, Elizabeth wore a poncho-in-a-football, people wrestled, and of course g…

In my last article I talked about wanting to go to Ryan Dunn's Rock Tour with Kevi. You know, the show that was supposed to have The Alter Boys and Disengage playing, and be hosted by the cast of Viva la Bam (mainly Dunn, Phil, April, Raab, Rake, and di'Camillo). These MTV heads were actually coming to Des Moines, IA. Weird.

So yesterday I shaved my goatee, threw on my "not bam" shirt and some glasses and went to Kevi's house. We looked up the time of the show on Val Air's site, went to an ATM, and then called a cab and headed down to the Val Air Ballroom.

When we pulled up (fashionably late), we noticed that there were 2 cars in the lot. wtf. We drove up to the front where I went to get a closer look at the door. That's …

Some things are going on. Kari's parents stopped out Friday night before their flight to Phoenix in the morning. We had a good time, went to Buca di Beppo, ate in the kitchen, had too many limoncellos. Her family loves food like no other. It's insane

Saturday I got a lot done, sometimes it rules to actually stay home on weekends. Wait no. I want to tour the world! Nick and Nicole came over later, we ate those Harry Potter Jelly Belly's - flavors like soap, sardines, spaghetti, dirt, earthworm, booger, ear wax, and vomit. I totally expected vomit to be the worst, but it was definitely earthworm. gross.

Transferring all my websites to my (kari's dad's) server is really annoying. It seriously takes forever. Create a new site …

This weekend was pretty good. Friday, Nick and I went to Jazzy Willy's to watch Luke rap. The first dude that went on, Gai Den Gadema, was real real good. Then we saw Renaissance, a group from Iowa City. They brought these 2 white guys with them, one was their DJ and the other was some random guy. Apparently the white guys were trying to start a rap group so they got to perform 2 songs. When I saw the one guy come onto stage he was wearing small jeans, a red CCCP shirt with a stretched out neck, plastic glasses with wire frames around the lenses, and had long hair parted on the side. I totally expected some kind of indie rock to come out of his mouth, but dude started rapping like he was a gangsta, haha. It was funny.

But …

So this weekend was awesome. Rich, Ben, Kevi, Lindsey, and Steph all came up to stay with us. We had a house warming party Friday night, which was really fun. We had about 30 people show up and almost everyone brought beer, wine, or alcohol... so my refrigerator is insane. There was a lot of hanging out, playing cards, playing ping pong, soaping, heeling, smoking cigars, etc. Thanks to everyone that came out and for the gifts, Kari and I had a blast.

Saturday, Ben, Rich, Kevi, and I went to ICP. What an awesome show. Esham did pretty much all old school stuff, it was a really tight, but short set... ABK also had a really good set, Mack 10 was awesome, and ICP did a great great show. All good stuff. Their set was pretty cool …

So this weekend was pretty productive. I really had a lot of fun.

First, Zach and Kevi met me at the cAb after work, then we ate at Rock Bottom. Rocktoberfest is out again and it is oh so good. After Rock Bottom we started filming our new movie, which we're entering in the Good Morning America: Scary Movie Contest. We finished filming about 1:30 AM and then hit up Legends for a quick game of pool. Our video is pretty good, it's almost ready to send in - Hopefully we win. ;)

Saturday we woke up, ate at HuHot, checked out Jordan Creek (where we saw this XTerra), then did some skating. And for dinner Zach wanted to try sushi so we had dinner at Taki. After all that it was time for Tech N9ne at Val Air Ballroom. It was a great …

So this weekend I was scheduled to do a Heelys demo in Chicago. Kari was already going to Barrington (a suburb) to visit friends and see a Jimmy Buffet concert (dork, haha). So I rode along with her and cassie and got dropped off at a train station and played with my camera while I waited. Harper and I then went to Crobar at 2am with Jordan and Monica. It was nice to see Claudia and Red Hair Matt again too. They had some 70s disco theme going on or something - it was funny. We got back and went to bed at 5 - I love Crobar.

Saturday, I woke up early for a Heelys demo at Nordstroms In Woodfield mall. The guys I went with were really cool and the demo went awesome. After that, Harper and I met at crobar to catch our escalade limo …

So Des Moines puts on this annual festival called 515 Alive. I decided to give it a shot this year and it was surprisingly really cool. First we (Nick, Nicole, Kari, Kevi, and I) checked out the bmx / skateboarding setup... which was pretty lame. They only had 1 spine and 1 fun box. Both of which had obviously been sitting in some dude's back yard or something - made out of plywood, no coping, and a huge lip to get over. Their was no way that a skateboard could even get onto the ramp.. poor skateboarders. Plus most of the bikers were just stalling on their back peg or wheel. So this part made me sad...

We also watched some grafitti artists and breakdancers. Then we walked around to different venues and outdoor stages watching …