15 FEB - Had lunch with my old Dread34-mate, Ski today. Gosh, I love that guy. One of the smartest, kindest, most balanced and insightful gentlemen with whom I have ever had the pleasure of interfacing. While I don't miss the actual work of Dread34 (though I might, someday), I miss working *with him*. That probably makes no sense. I would imagine that *none* of this makes *that* much sense.

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14 Feb - Love fiercely, y'all.

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12 Feb - Saddy night was aiight. Chilling with Fishman's staff and their extra-late stragglers was one of the eve's highlights. In many ways, the-nerve really is starting over from scratch. That part appeals to me much more than I thought it would.  I can't wait to get back to Slim's. While I meant that I can't wait for *the band* to play Slim's again, it just occurred to me that I haven't really stepped out of the house much, at all of late. Oh yeah... I know what it is, I always forget - I can see the light at the end of the tunnel of my regularly scheduled SAD/Winter Blahs.

I already feel my more upbeat springtime persona trying to take hold. In exactly 2 days, I'll be well on my way back. Cool.

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5 Feb - The cat, Tastrophe sure builds up alot of static electricity during the cold weather. Thus, he's acquired yet another in a litany of nicknames. Behold: Big Electric (Cat). It makes me laugh - Big Electric does not seem to get the joke, as he is probably not an Adrian Belew fan.

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4 Feb - Last night, we snuck into MVP and did an unannounced, impromptu mini set
for their open mic night. I love my boys for blessing me with stuff like that. And Heavens-To-Betsy, they're a strong-ass band. We shook the dust out of the system, hammered out some bugs - Some of the the finer points of our performance, like transitions between songs (segueways). I dunno if we'll have a crowd tonight at Cafe De La Luz, but I do know this: thems that do show up are prone to get knocked "funkonsious"

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2 Feb - Mark's MP3 stream works! I'm really close to getting mine right, too... Mark was first because he is smarter than me and 3 of my other best friends, combined. I rather like back-and-forth brainy exercises, like this streaming server project. Maybe that's why my daygig is still kinda cool to me - well, cool enough to keep showing up. The hardest part is securing the makeshift server... against (harmless but often precocious and mischievous) guys like Mark.

Anyways, the web page www.RaleighRock.com will be up in a few hours, humping TWO separate programming streams to follow soon after. One is the RaleighRockRadio (RRR) Free-For-All... Self-explanatory, except perhaps for the "Rock" label; it's used in the sense of a *critique*, not genre...

The other stream, called "RaleighRockRadiOnline (RRR) All Stars" -
Raleigh's Near-Famous, Infamous, media darlings (past and present), some of our boyhood heros; peeps and songs we think you just gotta hear: DAG, and COC are easy calls... I dug up some Arrogance/Don Dixon, The Fabulous Knobs (Wood[peckers]s/Terry Anderson), The Veldt, Nantucket / PKM, Glass Moon, Slackmates, pretty much anybody who may have claimed Raleigh and sold more records than us. Which reminds me: who borrowed my Ryan Adams, dagnabit? I also coulda swore I owned Tift Merritt, at one time or another. Give my s**t back, please? If you know any of these folks, pass this message along, for me.

Surely I've forgotten some obvious ones. I suppose now's as good of a time as any to open the doors for other suggestions and submissions. E-mail your us favorite Raleigh artist names or songs titles to RRRRequests@the-nerve.com. If you're a hammerhea.... errr musician, and you want some, send your best MP3 to RRRSubmissions@the-nerve.com. You can also click the Donation/Support link as soon as you see it. This effort is far from cheap. That's why we call it a labor of love...

But I digress, as I'm like to do... I was looking for an old (I mean WAY old) Blue Nation cassette to digitalize... Man, do I ever miss Rob. I can hardly watch Monday Night Rasslin' anymore without wanting to cry. He would call and we'd crack "Sports Entertainment" jokes until we just HOWLED... Anyways, while I didn't find Rob's band (yet), but I *did* dig up some double-extra cool old vinyl: UVProm AND 3PM!! Man, they were really good bands. Didja forget? Not for long...

1 Feb - Man, did I ever get a lot of feedback from the last nerv-us letter, renewing ties with a lotta pals. Maybe we'll pull in a decent house on Friday.

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MIkeEHype sez: Day-ummm.... what a great.....long.... nap. It's good to be back. I do tend to hibernate from time to time. It's that or either better drugs and I SO not like the legally approved. I watch the ads on all my ka-zillion channels telling me things like I need to ask my doc if its right for me to folks promising to make my penis bigger but he said "no compute" to what I really needed. In other words he said "I aint prescribing you no THC cause you say it keeps you from hurting others". So I sez, I guess I gotta go see my good buddy Hambone for medical advice. He'll know what to do. And he did as usual. Life is good. Ok, enough of my rambling... See ya at the next funky occasion, but only if you truly want to be funked. All squares stay home, don't tread on me. Peace ~ MikEhype...

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1/31 - I am downright *hammered*. On a Monday night. Shameful, I know. I blame both Jeff and Kraze. Easy call. Nevertheless, I do so love those Hammerheads. It's hard to believe they hold down real jobs. Figuratively speaking, those are manly manly men, in my world.

By comparison, it's still very early, so's easily I'll make the bright-eyed and bushy-tailed mandate, tomorrow AM. Piece of cake.

Earlier today, I sent out the first mass nerv-us mailing in quite a while... It was good... Felt weird, though. Peeps answered back like they missed it, or something. Feedback feels good. Part of the "batten down the hatches hermitic 'work'" to which I eluded in that mssg. was related to the return of RaleighRockRadiOnline, our net radio vision of "All of Us, All the Time". Real Broadcast radio is no longer listenable. Don't get me started about Media Ownership Consolidation. Just don't do it... I'm a recovering broadcaster, you know... I have rather strong opinions in the matter .

You see, our current mass media terrian is VERY similar to that of the former Soviet Republic, just before it fell... 300 and some channels, but two or three actual owners, all of whom have eire and direct ties to "The Party". The only *real* difference is the name of the party pulling the strings. But I have faith. America will take her country back. BushCo. was quite right in his Black Thursday address; the innate human desire for freedom is quite the force. I suspect he missed the irony, however. But, again, I digress.

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1/20:
Today sucks. For starters, it's BlackThursday. Lovers of Democracy everywhere will be protesting this coronation/tragedy/travesty. Just like 4 years ago (when democracy lovers made it rain eggs, until King George II ran for cover), most folks will never know. That explains my bad mood. But what would explain my worse-than-bad-I-mean-HORRID mood, today? This patently un-fun adjustment to our post-democracy/pre-apocalypse era is bad enough.

Blogs have links, right? Get some: Bush and Christian Left . But yesterday really really REALLY sucked, as many of my peeps and I endured the very worst traffic jam in NC history. My usual 40 minute drive home from the daygig exceeded 6 hours. After I exhausted the ears of everyone I could (plus a few answering machines, to boot) via cell, I had some time to think. How in the world can a group of adults move in what is ostensibly the same direction, while simultaneously annoying (and seemingly impede) each other in said process. Sometimes, a band is like that.

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1/18:
We went to SAsh and bought a JBL EON PA. Today was a very good day.

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1/17:
Yesterday was our second practice where we're back at full strength. We're quickly acting like tallest dwarfs in the room, again. That's kinda nice, in spite of the same old "testosterousquabbles," as we barrel headlong toward the daring, gun-slinging-type of maneuvers that I live for -

"I guess we'll have to ditch the eye candy for Cafe De La Luz show..." "No we don't! Why ditch it? We're finally getting it where we want it... and it's friggin' COOL!" "We only have five minutes of set-up time - you know how these multi-band clusterfuqs go, dude." "So WHAT?!?! We can do it... if we set our minds to it and plan it right..."

That kinda stuff makes me smile. Mah dayam boys... heh... Quite the band of badasses - Often, I'm just along for the ride. Like an MC or a referee - you gotta think they enjoy the show, too.

What's more, my cat, Tastrophe, is feeling a lot better. $100.00 divided by 1 shot of some kind of cortisone equals 1 little medium-sized furry miracle. Today was a very good day.