This song will talk to those of us who’ve been there. “Sittin While Shes Shoppin” by Jack Zerby puts something every man experiences, some more than others. The fun lyrics are similar to something Brad Paisley might spin out and the tune is along the same lines. Anyone who enjoys listening to Paisley would most definitely enjoy listening to Zerby.

The whole album is full of fun songs that make this a good addition to anyone’s collection.

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Today’s ASMW post is one hot off the presses (as in, it was just released YESTERDAY) by Devonshire surfer/singer-songwriter Ben Howard. From a first listen it seems to be a sort of English Jack Johnson which isn’t bad at all. In fact, one of his songs is already on the AS top 25.

If you’re looking for something to pass the time, every cut on this album would work.
For more, check out amiestreet.

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So today I celebrated another successful trip around the sun. In fact it was the 31st. I had a good lunch with some co-workers at Chili’s. I had tried to keep my birthday a secret at work but those pesky Human resource types like to spoil secrets but it was a good lunch.

Dinner was me and the girls (all four of them) at longhorns. Good company and good food. I had three surprise packages that I got to unwrap while waiting for dinner and that’s the point of this post.

The first thing I unwrapped was a small pack of ShamWow. Personally, this is probably the least favorite thing I received, but Vince does such a good job of selling it that I was intrigued. I mean, what else can you use to pickup a whole spilt bottle of coke (pop for you northerners)?

Second I unwrapped the Burger City Sliders maker. Its pretty cool and can make 5 of the little mini burgers in one go on my stove. Looking forward to making them for the girls.

Last and most certainly the most coveted present of all, Grace has already absconded with it, is the snuggie. Once you get past the fact that its a 20 dollar blanket, its pretty comfy (from the 5 seconds I got to hold it). I’m pretty sure that once I actually get to use it I’ll love it. Imagine rocking out to guitar hero while being snug as a bug. Sounds like fun to me!

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Here’s a little background… Yesterday evening, the Marietta City Council voted to ban smoking in the city square which is a public park. While I don’t particularly like ciggarett smoke, it doesn’t bother me when people do it in an open space such as A PARK. What does bother me is the fact that the city council feels the need to protect the guests to the park to this extent. Apparently, its more smokey at the square then I thought. Anyways, here’s a letter I wrote to the Council and Mayor this morning. It’s not as good as I had hoped, but I think it gets the job done…

Dear Marietta City Council,

I’m afraid you have failed the citizens of Marietta, GA, by enacting what is possibly the most inane piece of legislation possible. A smoking ban in a Public Park? Are you serious? Don’t get me wrong, smoking is a nuisance, and it should be banned in public places such as buildings, or other CONFINED areas where there isn’t an abundance of fresh air to replace the foul odor created, but in an outdoor atmosphere, such as the one at the Square, it’s just plain ridiculous to ban smoking. While you’re at it, you may want to consider banning driving around the square, mowing lawns near public parks, and walking dogs on the square as well as each of those contribute just as much harm to a person’s well being as smoking.

It’s this kind of encroachment in to the lives of individuals that causes a sour taste in the mouths of your constituents, and it’s one step closer to the socialist regimes that the United States used to stand against.

It might make sense that instead of a BLANKET ban on smoking in the park, you limit it to certain areas of the park. During expected high traffic times (such as the 4th of July, summer concerts or the taste of Marietta) traffic may in fact be lower now that you’ve banned smoking in that area. Was the “smoking ban” a rash decision or did the city council take time to think of and consider all the effects that such a ban would have on future activities?

As a frequent visitor of the square, my wife and I love to bring the kids to play on the train, to hear the music and to see Santa Claus, I was severely disappointed to hear that the city council was taking steps to further encroach on the liberties of their constituents. What’s next? Banning the selling of cigarettes inside City Limits?

Sincerely,

Mark Angeli

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Seriously, whats all the fuss about? I get that the man was one of the best selling artists of all time (though, I’m proud of the fact that I do not a single album of his, however my wife does). I also get that his videos were the coolest of their time. With out “Thriller” we wouldn’t have that awesome scene in 13 going on 30 or that sweet filipino prison video of the inmates doing the thriller dance that came out a couple of years ago. We wouldn’t have had parachute pants with zippers and red leather jackets either, but would the world be worse off? Not really.

In the time since Jackson passed, several other celebrities passed as well. Days before, Ed McMahon passed and earlier in the day when Jacko kicked, Farrah Fawcett passed from cancer as well. Yet neither of their deaths was made in to a spectacle. Why not? Farrah was probably more influential in the 70’s and 80’s then Michael ever was (and probably had more of a following in her day as well). Billy Mayes (you know, the OxiClean guy), Karl Malden and Rober McNamara (who actually had a greater impact on your life then you will ever realize) also passed in the days after MJ, yet one thing has been the top story on the news sites. MJ’s Death.

Imagine if the outpouring of support Jackson and his family have received and seen over the past week and half occurred EVERY time a US Solider lost his life protecting our country. Or if every time a Veteran of WWII, Vietnam or Korea was recognized the same way Michael Jackson is being with a Senate Resolution. It would be amazing.

If people paid as much attention to the goings on in Government as they do in pop culture or their website directories submissions, they would realize that Stewart Smalley from SNL was Sworn in yesterday as a Senator, that more taxes are being imposed on them in the name of Global Warming and that the Government is slowly encroaching in to more areas of our lives then ever before. However, we’ve simply become a culture of celebrity worship (don’t believe me, look at most of the television shows these days) where we would rather loose ourselves in their lives (or deaths) instead of standing up for our own.

If we made as much fuss about our jobs, our family, our friends, or our roles as citizens in this great nation, as we did about the passing of one, rather sad man, we’d be much better off as a country.

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The cool thing about Amie Street is the bevy of new and undiscovered groups that they manage to come up with. There is a ton of stuff on AS that iTunes can’t get anywhere near… and the prices are good to boot.

For instance, consider this new album from Nashville Rockabilly group Those Darlins. Snaggle Tooth Mama is a good example of their style. Makes you wonder if they really look like that after all… though it doesn’t matter, they sound like a trio of fun.

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Needless to say this past weekend Week was a busy one. Last Tuesday, The Braves were home against the Phillies, so I was down there for the strike out pyro. Thursday (7/2) we did a Friday night fireworks show as well as the normal game stuff. The show on Thursday was twelve and a half minutes long, almost double the normal length of the Friday Night Fireworks. Its not a bad thing, it just meant a little more work on the setup.

Friday was an off day, so we spent it at the pool, did dinner at Sonic (nothing better then a foot long chili cheese coney!) and caught the Kennesaw Fireworks display from the Bruster’s Ice Cream Parking lot. It was a good location as we weren’t looking directly up like we would have been if we had been at the depot.

Saturday morning saw me up at 6:30am to pick Eric up and head out to the Melrose Pyro Magazine in Aragon, Ga. (just north of Rockmart) so we could pick up our equipment truck. We got the truck and headed to the First United Methodist Church in Marietta to meet the fire marshal and start setting up. We probably started putting the racks together around 11:30am.

Unfortunately for us, the product (fireworks) were not allowed on site until 2pm, so I had to send the delivery truck away for an hour or so. We managed to get the product on site a little earlier when the Marietta Fire Department sent over a truck so we could load the shells.

The show consisted of over 350 cues, made up of 3″ timer chains, 4″ shells and timer chains and 5″ shells. The finale was approximately 15 cues of a box item (280 shots in 29 seconds), titanium salute chains, 3″ finale chains (which burn faster than the regular timer chains) and 14 five inch shells which we wired in with our finale chains.

We were setup and ready by 9pm (considering we lost one of our guys on an equipment run for 3 hours, that’s not bad) and when the show started at 9:30pm (on the nose) the first flip sent up an amazing shot of a Red, a white and a blue five inch shell (three shells) just after Ed Harris told Houston that we were go for main engine launch.

The show was approximately 22 minutes long and ended just after the music (its hard to get timing just right) and was probably better then anyone could have hoped for. The nice thing about this fourth of July was that the rain stayed away until Sunday. First time thats happened…

Below are some links to some videos on YouTube of the show…

• 8 minutes long
• 2:30 minutes long
• 4 minutes long

The photo of the Blue and Gold Fire works was taken by Dennis Esler Visit his site for more from the Marietta Square show and to purchase prints

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So I saw on twitter this morning that the Blackberry Wordpress app that *EVERYONE* has been waiting for was now in public beta and I had to jump at the chance to grab it.

So I did and while I’m learning the ropes, you have to be patient with me, but so far my first thought are about how absolutely AWESOME this app is!!

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So I came across these guys on Twitter quite accidentally. I saw the fifth video they had done to the news and the Dancing Ana Marie Cox and Rachael Maddow were just too hot. Imagine my delight when I came across the Auto Tune The News page at Amie Street. Not only can you download most of the mp3’s for the auto tune the news videos, you can now listen to them any time. And of course, there’s the Gregory Brothers the more serious side to the group.

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