Just stained up the floor model Ideamen Gear Coasters. Oops, I forgot to put on the rubber gloves...

Stain...
So I've been without a computer for a looong time. I had to do *something* while I was without my screen time, so I took up a bit of fine woodworking while I was away. I learned to make mortise and tenon joints, dovetail joints, did some routing, table sawing, scroll sawing and drill pressing. As a first project I made a toolbox.

The Parts

The frame, strong enough to stand on unglued

Assembled
I actually got all the tools and stuff for an ongoing project... You may have seen the flowers I keep behind my ear at shows, the thing that holds them is actually the main reason I started the whole woodworking thing.

The flower holder, prototype
I needed to make a jig to do all the wire bending, and I needed the tools to make it, and... I needed to learn how to make more than just that to justify all these darn tools. Sooo.... I'll be making all kinds of neat things, the first of which will be the coasters. They'll be stained, sealed, varnished and screen printed. There's enough material in the boards I'm using to make a handful of extra gears for refrigerator magnets. It's a *lot* of work, I think we're looking at something like 7 hours per set in labor. I'll be making some not printed for sale to the steampunk crowd, and just so you know, those will be going for about $100 per set. For YOU, the printed Ideamen set will go for something like $60. That's less than $10 per hour, and that's how much we love you. We hope you love these things as much as I love making them.
Next up, a solid oak merch rack for the Ideamen merch booth, and a spiffy keyboard case for Timmy.
In the meantime I might figure out what's wrong with the paginator on our website... I can't go back past page two. Booooooooo.

I got me some bald. Locks Of Love got a new wig. Man this feels good, for at least the last 3 years I've been wanting to unload all this hair off of my head. Here's some shots of the process....

The braiding

The cuts

The end result
Got some other nifty things in the works. Anyone interested in Ideamen Gear Coasters? They are genuine involute gears, they mesh (as in they work like real gears should), and I made them myself. I love being an Ideamen...

The glue up

This is the last photograph of me with hair. The beard's going too, for those of you who were asking what I look like without a beard. It's summer, and I've wanted to unload this stuff on my head for a few years now, but the guys in the band wouldn't let me. Heee heee heeee, try and stop me now! After tomorrow someone will have a nice wig.

And yes, Gary Schultz, that's you in the background...

Hey folks, sorry it's been so long since a post. I've been without a computer for a while... But now that I have one, I shot someone I know a link to a youtube video of us, and while I was there, clicked on a link to the 'top Ideamen videos', and couldn't watch half of them because they were blocked by SME. Boooooooo. My own video, the one I spent 600 hours rendering and uploaded MYSELF, blocked by Sony Music Entertainment. Why? I dunno. But I'm not too happy about it. This is MINE. Not Sony's. I'd like it back. Goodnight.

We just got back from our little run out to Canada. We hit Toronto, Ottawa and Montreal. The weather was awesome, Toronto was warm, Ottawa slightly less warm, and Montreal was a little cold. The roads were clear, open and moose free. It took us a metric minute to get the hang of driving in kilometers and buying gas in litres, but once we got our Loonies and Toonies in order we were able to order some Poutine without getting funny looks.
Poutine

The Smiling Budha
The first night we played a little nook called the Smiling Budha. It was owned by Wayne Gretski. Seriously. Except this Wayne Gretski is a middle aged Chinese guy that owns a bar in Toronto. We arrived quite early so we had plenty of time to drive around a hotel for a couple of hours looking for a parking spot. We didn't find one so we canceled our reservation. The show was good, the place filled up reasonably well and the bands were allright. Thanks to Jackie for coming with us and running merch. And for having bunny ears. Super awesome thanks to Drew and Emi for letting us crash at their place.
We had fun
Timmy slept in the kitchen

Saturday we arrived just in the nick of time in Ottawa at a classyish venue named Zaphod Beeblebrox. I read my first Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy book when I was 8, so I had to order a Pan Galactic Gargle Blaster. The stage in this place was awesome, the lights doubly so. It was located in a slammin' part of town surrounded by all sorts of cool shops, restaurants and horse drawn carriages on one way streets. There was a bakery nearby where oddly enough we picked up some seafood salad and ratatouille, oddlier yet they had Obama Cookies up at the front counter. Marc had the bright idea to find a place with a better bathroom and went over to the Hard Rock Cafe, only to find out that those bathrooms weren't that much better. After the show we drove to Montreal and crashed with our new friends Dave and Gayle. Thanks Dave and Gayle!
The Lights

Obama Cookies
Nice place

We woke up refreshed, and ready thanks to a massage session at Dave and Gayle's, as well as only a couple blocks from Sunday's venue, Le Devon Orange. Montreal is a giant island mostly populated with folks who speak french as a primary language. They have really good food. We're so glad we got to play this place. The scene was vibrant, the people were really nice, all 12 bands on the bill showed up and played, and there was a vending machine that sold art, poetry and culture. It was awesome.
Aaaahhh...
Dude from Wrong Era!

The drive home was a bit of a stretch, roughly 17 hours with the border stop. We did it in shifts and drove the whole way through. Fortunately, getting back in was easier than getting out. Back to recording a new album!