Open Mic Underground Cleveland!

Jim Snively continues to run a 'hopping' (pun intended) Open Mic at McNamaras, I shot a few pics. last time I was out there and here they are:

Here is Jim while doing his thing:


Here is one of Joe and a few Hopping Beers:


Here is a pic of Neal Woolbright (with a nice blue sky behind him) taken out at the Enclave gig a couple weekends ago:


============= other news item ===============

Tim Fry will join me at the Enclave Friday 25th of June!

We expect really nice weather and an even nicer crowd - I am excited about this gig with Tim, we haven't had a chance to really sit down and JAM together at the Enclave since last, uhm, I dunno its been awhile (several months) since we played together out there - it's going to be real jammy, so you better git in there on the 25th!!

The Enclave!
Wow, Sat. night at the Enclave last weekend was sooo much fun! Not that we didn't have fun at our last show out there (thanks to Alex Brandy and Tim Fry for making that gig work) it's just that we didn't have much audience - not this time! There were plenty of folks out and about on the main drag, lots or Harley bikes and riders comming and going, lots of pedestrian traffic and plenty of that traffic came into shoppe to chill out with the bean squeezins and the music. Thankfully, Neal Woolbright was able to join me for the entire evening and his talent and skill were and are soooo appreciated! It would not have been half the fun without Neal, he brought several mouth harps, his guitar, his ass kickin' blues riff and his powerful voice - turns out that Neal can play a skillful bass guitar as well! What a guy! So, we had a great evening and we made a few bucks, with Sarah the barrista kicking in many of those beautiful bucks herself - for that ample contribution we are most thankfull!! Looking forward to playing out there again soon, however, I don't think Neal will be able to make this next gig - Neal is a busy guy with a family and an energetic lifestyle and he is currently pulling together a full blown blues band and they will be busy with rehearsel in preperation for hitting the circuit. Thanks so very much Neal for making the Enclave gig such a satisfying jam session - and thanks as well to Alex Brandy and Mark Ruppe for stopping by to make jammy contributions :)

Xela Luv Mutha
As you may or may not know, Cleveland is losing the Xela man for the majority of the dog days of summer 2004 - the luvmutha is bound for the West Coast (armed with a tiny lil' black guitar that could fit into a knapsack - its neato) where he will be playing several 'full band' shows with Corbie and Superdute in LA - yeah, the Xela man is flying his band out to LA for gigs in July on the 1st, 2nd, 3rd and 16th and then he is off into the wild blue yonder for the Great American Singer Songwriter Experience!! Catch Xela, SuperDute, and Corbie up in the Heights at the Grog Shop this sat. May 29th at MIDNIGHT!!

Wednesday at Arabica Universtiry Circle
The open mic at Arabica U continues to be a satisfying jam event and with attendance varying from OK to really good we usually get an unexpected suprise or two - last night we had a whole bike riding club come in for refreshments, must of been at least 15 of em', and they all ordered drinks and food and sat outside for about an hour before riding off into the sunset. We also had some filmakers from BLUE VINYL TOXIC COMEDY PICTURES shooting about an hour of digital video for a documentary on global warming, that was fun, they were interesting types and the web site is not only informative but the design is really top notch, I hope they can use some of the stuff they shot. We didn't have any early jammers, save for Ryann Anderson and I love the way Ryann plays the guitar, he always gets a sweeeet tone goin' on :) Later in the evening Tony and Bill stopped in and they brought bass, sax, and keys with them - we had a real laid back late night bluesy jazzy jammy session - with Mark Ruppe sitting in as well. Thank for comming by last night, you guys really made it happen!

Steve2 and Friends at the Enclave SAT May 22nd

Sat. May 22nd - the same weekend as the Hessler Street Fair - I seem to remember asking Phill Evetz to play an opening set, and he agreed to do so, however I have not heard from him nor have I seen him around ... well, if you read this, Phill, can you give me a call? I am gonna ask a couple other folks about comming out to play, try to get some JAM ACTION lined up, nowhadaimeanvern? And so here we go into another weekend... later!

Hessler Street Fair cometh soon MAY 22 and MAY 23 with all the Musical Sweetness and BeerDrinkIness you can possibly imagine!!

Matt Gerovac sent me the MAY schedule for his band and duo, so I am posting it here -

Also: Ryann Anderson will be at university Arabica on MAY 22nd
Matt G. the following Sunday at Barking Spider (that's MAY 23RD)

----------------------------------------------------
MATT GEROVAC IMPLOSION AND DUO SCHEDULE FOR MAY 2004
----------------------------------------------------
Fri., May 14, 9 p.m. - THE ROBIN HOOD INN
504 E. Main St. in Kent.
I'll be joined by hand drummer Phil Torres - we're
doing an acoustic set openning for COURAGEOUS MINORITY
and XELA!

Sat., May 15 9 p.m. - THE LIME SPIDER
207 S. Main St. in Akron
We'll be sharing the stage with BURNING RIVER BAND!
The LIME SPIDER is a great venue - great art on the
walls and some funny B Movies on the tube.

Thurs., May 20, 9 p.m. - GROG SHOP
2785 Euclid Hts. Blvd. - Cleveland Hts.
The duo opens for Melissa Ferrick!

Sun., May 23, 3 p.m. - BARKING SPIDER TAVERN
11310 Juniper Rd. in University Circle
Come for the HESSLER STREET FAIR - www.hessler.org
STAY for the IMPLOSION! ! !
It's FREEEEEEE!

Another great weekend of beer drinkening and guitar playerning!

This was a particularly notable weekend of both - I had the supreme pleasure of joining Bobby, Julie and Hazel Brightenstien and a bunch of their really groovy friends (and their children) for a super-duper outdoor back yard patio jam party on Saturday, it was soooooo fun! We had a modest crowd of party goers all of whom were people I knew, most of em' Phoenix goers, movers and or shakers. And the beer was fabulous, some kind of Hopus Maximus I think - really yummy and dark and, uhm, hoppy. And, there was a rope swing to which the kids just loved, I liked it too it was fun to swing out over the sidewalk and the fire-hydrant! Wheee! Second only to the beer and the fine company, we had a really great set of jams with Brett 'Cleveland Slim' Beutera and Adam Hoopengardner and the rest of the Burning River Blues Band. Yep, good company, good beer and kickin' jams what more can I guy possibly ask for on a Sat. night? I leave that question un-answered at this time however ask me later about my Sunday afternoon, which I spent drinking beer and cleaning up the back yard - mothers day indeed, heh.

Arabica and the Barking Spider

Had a really great open mic night last Wednesday, brought most of my toys: mixing board, snare drum, and bass guitar just in case there was to be any 'wild' jamming - so far the jamming hasn't been real crazy, but I never know what might happen so I try to be prepared.

Began setting things up when a really pretty young lady (who had been lounging around when I got there) approached to ask about getting signed up to play. I said hi and pointed out the sign up sheet and she introduced herself as Audra Kubat, in from Detroit to play at the Barking Spider and wanting to share a few songs at 9 before going over there. I played an early solo set for about 45 minutes while the room was really nice and quiet - only a few patrons, I just turned the PA waaaay down and crooned into that nice evening light, it was sweet, real sweet.

By the time Audra returned, several folks had dropped in, some who intended to play music including Jim Snively and another fellow by the name of Jimmy Logston. It was a really nice evening, Audra and Jimmy Logston both turned in great sets, Jim Snively sang really nice and mellow. After the Open Mic Jim Snively and I went to the Barking Spider to catch Audra's set - she is fantastic, I plan on catching her next show when she comes back to Cleveland - her next show is at the Mattress Factory in PA - from the website information, the place looks like its a really cool modern artsy type museum artist commune, hmmm, any possibility there is another Mattress Factory in Pitsburgh?

On a different note, my friend Liz Laguardia has been showing up at a few open mic nights here and there to read poetry and she has recently recorded a few poems, off-the-cuff, at my home studio. I plan on posting at least one of them to the site maybe after we have added some improvised guitar parts or some percussion - until then, here is one of her drawings from Arabica Open Mic a couple weeks ago:

New Exclusive Content Features!!

Interviews:

Hey, I know that some of my precious few visitors jump to this page from at least a few other pages that link directly to my blog, but remember -- there is other content within my spiffy site that you don't get here in the blog!! And in fact, I have only recently put the finishing touches on a couple of interview pieces, one piece from a couple of years ago put together from interviews with Scott Krauss and Diane Duncan of the 'Home & Garden' project and the other piece a very recent interview with the Cleveland King of Open Mic Xela!!

Home & Garden
Some of you, or many of you, might recognize the name Scott Krauss as long-time Pere Ubu drummer - yeah, THAT drummer -the drummer that played on the seminal 1978 recordings of 'The Modern Dance'. You may not hear too much from or about 'Home & Garden' but Scott and his associates are still hard at work on various projects and they have recorded works within the past couple of years that most of you have probably not heard.....so, included with the interview material is a single, precious, and complete MP3 song featuring talented performers who have worked with Diane and Scott in the studio to create some serious art!! So, gear up your ears with some phones, stream out the MP3 while you read through the interview and you will be blown away by what you hear because this is some amazing recorded music from a bunch of uber (no pun intended) talented artists making fantastic sounds - and featuring the unparalleled, raw, rare and wickedly naked voice talent of Diane Duncan - you can't get this exclusive content anywhere else except here at steve2.net!

Xela
The Open Mic contingency knows who Xela is - and so should YOU!! The one and only Luv Mutha, the current King of Cleveland Open Mic, the creator of mega dynamic works of art both visual and auditory, yes, Xela is the singularly original and notably unique Cleveland art force hard at work everyday makin' music and art that transcend ordinary reality and bend both time and space! During our interview Xela tells us a little bit about his family life, expresses lucid opinions regarding the use of natural resources and electricity, and he waxes poetic over music and the state of the ego on earth!! Read it up while you listen to the single jamming MP3 file 'Telle Cranial Creatures' !! Only right here at steve2.net!!!!

Grab the headphones and check out the brand new INTERVIEW ARCHIVE!!!

And to all those folks who come out to my Wednesday Night Open Mic at University Circle: BIG LOVE AND KEEP IT COMMING PLEASE!!!

Westlake's My Generation is closing it's doors!

I spoke with my friend Scott Krauss today - he has been the manager of My Generation in Westlake for a couple years after working for a very long time at Record Revolution up in Coventry - and he tells me that they are closing the doors and going out of business as of April 25th! I guess the CD resale business isn't what it used to be and is surely suffering the effects of the downturn in the general economy - or maybe its piracy and CD burning - anyones guess as to what the 'real' problem is, I always thought My Generation had a decent corner on the market out there in Westlake with literally tonnes of used CD's to browse through. My condolences to those hipsters who have been scratching out a living working out there, I guess you will all be moving onto the next gig. And what the heck happens to all that inventory??

Well, it's my guess that there are some pretty hot deals out there right now on DVD's, new and used CD's all that good stuff has got to be marked down as low as they can get it in an effort to get it out the door, probably worth a trip out there to or give em a call to see if they have what you are looking for:

My Generation
25947 Detroit Rd
Westlake, OH 44145-2426
(440) 871-5586

Open Mic Monday at McNamara's

By all appearances Jim Snively has - in a only a short period of time (about a month) - managed to create a respectable buzz around McNamara's Open Mic Monday Night - no small feat in this Northeast rust belt town full of hardened unemployed steel workers, hard weather, and harder nosed rock and rollers. And although McNamara's does host weekend live music, it's the Monday Night Open Mic event that pulls in the artistic bleeding-edge of plank spankers, finger pickers, singer songwriters, and poets from around the Cleveland metropolitan area that otherwise might never come out to the place - and these scensters are not your generic light weight Pepsi sipping peeps either, they constitute the caliber of clientele that bar owners love to see packin' a place: Guitar crazy beer lovin' singer songwriter types who like nothing more than to get together, talk shop, swap chops, and occasionally dance on the bar. If last nights attendance (a veritable who's who of Open Mic performers with Ryan Anderson, Kevin McCarthy, Tim Keo, Brad Kinney and John Bella to name a few ) is any indication of what's to come, then the continued success of this event is practically guaranteed.

Thank you and congratulations to both Jim and the bar owner (a local firefighter) on the effort required to put together a successful and happening Open Mic event!

Let's Keep up the good work!!


XELA to begin hosting Wilbert's Downtown Wednesday Night Open Mic

With Kevin McCarthy's imminent relocation to Sunny California (who can blame him - enough already of the harsh CLE winter salt), the reins to the Wilbert's Wednesday Night Open Mic at 812 Huron Rd E Cleveland, OH 44115-1123 (216) 902-4663 have been passed to the king of Open Mic night, Alex Alverez (aka: Xela)! As you probably already know, Alverez is well equipped to take this Wednesday night gig and turn it into a Jam Session Supreme-O to rival any in town - yeah, the lovely LuvMutha is getting plenty of practice at this kind of open mic revelry hosting no less than five nights a week of Open Mike Mayhem (see his website link for the complete schedule) at various locations around town.

Whew, Xela gonna be breaking out a big sweet sweat with all that singin' and sawin' goin' on!! I can already hear the crystal clear sounds of bronze acoustic strings snappin' and crackin' through that enormous PA !

Sunday Night in North Olmstead

Had a lil' Sunday Night get together with some friends last night, my first time out to visit Kris, Liz and baby Stella in North Olmstead. What a neat place Kris and Liz have, it's right there on a river with a bunch of trees and the view is really natural from the kitchen with the river and the trees and all. Kris made chilli and steak and we all ate some good food, drank some thick beer, and then setup for some jamming.

And jam we did (if only for a short while) with Kris playing drums, Tim Fry played his electric guit fiddle through a real vintage English made Marshall (a really tiny vintage Marshall - really cute with the smallest Celestian speaker I think I have ever seen - but it sounds real cool) Matt Gerovac played acoustic guitar and did some singing, I played the bass and it all felt good considering we hadn't played together under these circumstances before - we hit a couple of real good grooves - makes me wonder what we could do if we (brace yourself - here comes the dreaded word) practiced. Kris had company to entertain (Adam and Sarah, Miles and Evelynn from - uhm, somewhere West of Vermillion) and there were wee children on the scene (which is always cool because the young moms are so very nice and the kids Stella, Miles and Evelyn were sooooooo cute) so we didn't play for more than an hour nonetheless this little jam made me think that we might be doing this more frequently (not as practice per se but more for fun, dontcha know). And when the nice weather sets in Kris has a fire pit in the back yard out by the river - yeah!!

On a side note, I just got an email from Charlie Mosbrook this morning and he asked to have a link to his site added to my growing list - so, there it is over there on the right side of the page, although the links list is sorted alphabetically by the link and not the name. Looks like Charlie has a few gigs up on his schedule so I am gonna get out to one of em' in the near future. Stay in touch Charlie, good to hear from you!!

Arabica U Circle

Wednesday night was only the second or third (fourth?) time I have had the pleasure of playing and singing into this room - there is something really special about this room, it has a really big heart, and it is filled with a most interesting mix of people. In addition to it's most beautiful heart, this room has the peculiar effect of making me want to hit the road as a full time singer songwriter. This room makes me feel like I am going somewhere or that I have gone somewhere or that I must go somewhere - far away from my mostly milquetoast existence. If I could play rooms like this one every day (and I only suppose I could), I would do so. The question is: When do I start?

Last night the piano room was 'hoppin' - lot's of people comming and going - from in the piano room I can't even really see what is going on in the other rooms (or upstairs), can only hear the general hubbub all around. It seems to me that the first floor is the place to see and be seen, and of course that's where the live music happens, so those patrons who are sitting at those tables are a part of what is going on musically - they are musical participants or accomplices, you know what I mean? On this night, one of the large tables in the piano room hosted two consecutive parties of 6 (or more), the first party being a family of Korean folks, and when they cleared out, a group of distinguished 'over 50 types' sat down - they were just in time to hear Jim Snively play a set of his original tunes. I thought this to be entirely appropriate given that Jim is into his 50's as well!! Jim sounded really good, he mostly does, however consistently humble he is about his performance technique!

To summarize: I love this room! It is smoke free, geographically significant, and I feel rejuvenated when playing to a crowd there - it has a powerful magic to it when it is buzzing full of folks and I am hoping that the Wednesday Night Open Mic will once again become a powerful, popular, and entertaining event.

See you out there next Wednesday then, OK???

(I will have some copies of my demo CD with me)

Jim Snivley continues to host Monday Night Open Mic at McNamara's Pub!

With a mellow voice, a room-filling confidence and a friendly ease of manner Jim Snivley arrives armed with a stack of original songs and an unbeatable acoustic guitar tone. He is one of my favorite open mic performers and a fine singer songwriter who has made a consistent effort to show up for many of the local Open Mic events and its always good to see him. Jim has for the past few weeks been hosting this Open Mic and it's great to hear that he is going to continue to do so.

Come on out to McNamara's Pub at W87 & Lake Rd. just south of Don's Lighthouse Restaurant on Monday Night's from 7:30p/10:30 - grab a nice cold tap beer and listen to a varity of Open Mic performance from poetry to singer songwriters and beyond!!!

Sign up starts at 7:00pm


Steven Wilson (AKA: The Infamous Steve2) begins hosting the fabulous Wednesday Night Open Mic at the sprawling Arabica 'Coffee Mansion' University Circle!


It's true! Steve2 is assuming hosting honors at the 'Big Coffee Mansion', and am I excited?? Oh yeah!! It seems to me that only a couple of years ago this was a really happening night at The Mansion with singers and songwriters turning up in droves to fill the nightly roster. Recently this Open Mic event seems to have lost some of its vigor and is suffering an inconsistent turn out - I was there last Wednesday at about 10:45PM and played for an hour to only a few patrons and there were no singers or guitar players in the crowd other than host Branden. I had already heard that Branden was very busy with school work (working on some masters degree) and was filling the host duties on a 'temporary' basis (since Dusty Reins moved on) knowing this I mentioned to him that I was very interested in assuming the host duties. Branden sat kindly to listen to a few songs, gave me the un-official approval, and agreed to pass the batton. Wheee! He passed the idea along to Mark and the rest is history in the making!!! I hope to see Jim Snively, Unsub, Tim Fry, Josh Koppen, Brian, Tim Keo and many others in the near future - and with the summer heating up this ought to turn into a real happening once again!! Whooopeee!

Here is a BW art photo of the infamous Stella (My 1940's Chicago made guitar) - heh - I have played this guitar in the train station in Chicago - it has a VERY cool sounding sound - check it out on the mP3 pages by streaming "Snuggly Places" to some really BIG speakers - oh, and turn up the bass knob some.

My friend Ryan Smith (see link off to the right there...) is posting some really great stuff to his weblog, I have been checking it almost daily to see the witty running commentary, click the links, and view the pictures.

Went last Thursday to Arabica Westside (Rocky River) for the Coffee and Comfort Series to hear some music, and I had hoped to see a good sized crowd. What I found instead was only a handful of listeners sipping drinks and kicking back in the comfy couches and chairs. I bought a mug full of tea and read the Scene mag. and when Patty came in I tried to ask her about resurrecting the Wednesday Open Mic night - Patty indicated disinterest or at least she wasn't willing to discuss it with me in any detail saying only that she was 'working on some ideas' with Jim. However, I couldn't help notice that she WAS willing to spend several ten's of minutes chatting with Mr. Joe Rohan, one of the regular Thursday Night performers.

This night Joe was not performing and had instead come to hear his friend Annie Boxell, singer songwriter and piano player - she was in from 'out of town' (I think she said Charleston SC) - maybe that had something to do with the micro sized crowd.

After a night like that one I have to ask myself why the new owners of Rocky River Arabica continue to pay for top-tier talent when the crowds don't seem to be turning out in great enough numbers to support them - Annie Boxell was a perfect example of an up and comming 'out of towner' with a great voice who looked and sounded terrific but who obviously has little or no following in CLE. Maybe the new owners need bigger ads in The Scene or the Free Times?? Course, big ads cost big bucks - or maybe the owners ought to reconsider both the direction of the music program and the size of the budget - unless of course they plan on putting themselves out of business by hemorrhaging money into an upstart music schedule that appears to be producing little crowd response.

A smaller budget could be put to greater effect by bringing in more talent from the next tier down in the talent pyramid (so to speak), there are just so many talented amateur or semi professional local artists who want and need a greater degree of exposure, and many of them willing to work for less than half what a Joe Rohan or an Annie DeChant want for an evening of entertainment. In fact, the Open Mic concept is one inexpensive method to consistently and inexpensively draw attention to the fact that the cafe HAS regular music at all! I seem to remember seeing locals Tim Fry, Unsub, Xela, Mary Clare and Jim Snively at the open mic night and where are those cats now?

At this time, it does not seem that the Rocky River Arabica has developed a suitable reputation as a music venue. Paying for top tier talent to play there once a week is not going to build that reputation any faster than playing host to a variety of less expensive local musical acts.

C'mon' Jim and Patty get it together already - how many more money-losing Big-Top Thursday nights do you two need to schedule before you get with the program!!

Bring back the mid week Open Mic night and start booking some amateur and semi-professional local talent into the cafe for Saturday nights!!

New MP3 files posted to steve2.net!

I have finally broken down and paid for a FULL YEAR of web hosting - sixty bucks - no more banner ads, sigh. What a flippin RELIEF to be out from under the brick like banner ads at the top of every page, whew. I posted a PAYPAL DONATION button on the site allowing any who care to donate a buck or two to the Steve2 Recording and Hosting/Promotion Fund - heh, pretty clever huh? Yeah I thought so to.

You will now find that the site is looking pretty sharp and that there are BRAND NEW FRESH MP3 files up there to listen too - yup, and if you are making a movie, maybe you can toss me a soundtrack bone?? Hmmmm? I am itchin' to get into some soundtrack recording so if you like the two songs and you are MAKING A MOVIE then drop me line wontcha'??

Cleveland Music Festival

Looks like these guys (whoever 'these guys' are) now have a new web presence - hmmmm, the email newsletter sign up feature is broken, it looks like they are trying to program the feature in PERL - whatever, its broken - and I wonder how long it will take them to get it working.

The site has lots of great information about the fest. and of course theband registration information.

Hope we see Xela and Matt Gerovac Implosion, Brent Kirby, and Infinite Number of Sounds all getting good prime playing times and spots.

Oh, and how about those Vanity Crash guys, don't they have a record deal yet?? Gee, they are practically ooozing rock and roll glory from just about every angle and pore, whats the frickin' hold up??

The Return of the Evil Martian Bunny Ears!

A few days ago I found myself surfing and blogging about the Opportunity Rover and the Martian Bunny Ears photos, and I posted a few links to photos and articles that I thought were funny - and just the other day I found an official' version of the story posted to the JPL website regarding the mysterious "Bunny Ears". This is a nice article, very analytic and official - basically, the antidote to all the foolish nonsense that was posted when the ears were discovered in the panoramic photos.

I had gotten caught up in the bunny ears hype - Martian Bunny Ear Fever - and linked up a couple of cute websites that were riffing on the Ears, but missed posting this link to Martian Crabs Dot Com which is site design and concept completely devoted to the Martian bunny ears - sweet.

At this point I think I have pretty much worn this whole concept out, however I am writing a song called Evil Bunny Fuzz

Course, none of this has ANYTHING to do with open mic, but I was at PHO Open Mic last night - it was great - they have a house PA now!!

More later...

The Open Mic scene down at the old Mudhouse on Madison in Lakewood has really picked up just recently, no surprise, Spring is on the way and the birds and bees will all be buzzing, the folk singers will all be, well, humming strumming and folksinging about the town - I have attended a couple consecutive Friday nights and have found that the whole scene has re-invented itself - in a good way - you might remember that things had gotten a little crazy/cozy over there at one time - depending on what night you were there. All that has changed, the bartender Joe regularly wears a tie, its all very high-fahlutin - nah, just pulling yer leg (Joe really does wear ties though).

What I have seen is a parade of talented hosts (so far no hostess) for the Friday night show: Have heard/seen Tim Fry, Darren Branch and Kevin McCarthy host the Friday Night Open mic. In addition to those guys, have seen and heard from the usual stalwartly individuals (including myself and Josh): Jim Snively, Terry Writz, a couple of other guys - a guy named Brian playing/strumming really confident guitar and singing Americana style folksy cow-polksy originals in a most refreshing and assuredly room-filling tone - recently had the pleasure of the company of one Tim Keo who plays a really tuneful Martin acoustic bass AND a little squeeze box accordion, super cool sounds from the Squeeze box hope to hear Tim play again real soon - heard a handful of poet's (most of whom I find don't have a very exciting delivery or stage presence - but there have been a couple of exceptions although none yet have come anywhere close to reaching the heights of bombastic delivery of one of Bearcats kids - I can't remember his name, Julia's brother, whatever his name is).

Anyhow, Jim Snivley is also running an Open Mic now - I don't have the flyer handy, oops - will get that information up here as soon as possible.

Perspective:

OK, today one of my fellow co-workers (Mr. Glenn) tells me he watched the Mel G. movie (The Passion) over last weekend and that its entirely accurate and true to the actual story - so, now I am just going to have to put the effort into reading the new testament in order to get some additional historical perspective. I still feel like the sheer gory detail was a little too much, at least it was for me, but I am kinda wimpy in that regard. If the Mel movie is portraying the event the way it was supposed to have really happened, well it was cruel and awful and bloody.

On an entirely different topic, however relative to perspective in general - the crater at Meridiani Planum that the rover Opportunity is exploring is only about 65 feet in diameter (20 meters or so) and the rim of the crater, where all the interesting rocks are, is supposed to be about 10 meters (32 feet) from the rover - and I thought it was allot bigger - heh - well, it looks bigger in the pictures ive seen so far.

I have found this discussion thread regarding the search for water and and somewhere in there another thread with a reference to evil bunny fuzz on mars, very strange.

Here is a link to an official JPL/NASA panoramic shot of the inside of the crater with the evil bunny fuzz in the lower right corner of the shot.

Here is the link to the very funny evil mars bunny story that was written up in the NY Times - my kiddo keeps two bunnies as pets so this is especially funny to me.