Confession Time

Wow.
Go to this site

People are anonymously sending in their secrets on one 4x6 postcard to this guy who is posting them online. It's a VERY interesting site, very haunting and sad (and occassionally humourous, but it seems misplaced honestly).

So post anonymously and let's share our secrets? Maybe.

Reverse Translation Fun Song

I have a strange game I like to play. I like to take lyrics to a song and use an online translator to change into, say German, or French, or whatever. Then I take the resultant French and translate it back into English. I find it quite hilarious to see how the song has been mangled!

Anyway, I'm thinking of posting one of these reverse translated gems here every once in a while and the first person who guesses the song which has been screwed up wins a hug from Shane or a handshake from Ian, which ever you prefer.

Here it is:

She the eyes likes me a fishes when I am weak that I was locked in your can in forms heart for the weeks that I was drawn in your pit trap of tar of liking I wish that I could eat
your cancer when you done u-turns (alt:... when you turn black one)

Hé! the expectation! I obtained a new complaint forever in the debt to your inestimable counsel Hé! The expectation! (Alt: hate! haight!) I obtained a new complaint forever in the debt to your inestimable counsel Hé! the expectation! I obtained a new complaint forever in the debt to your inestimable counsel Your
counsel

The orchidées meats food forgive person nevertheless Cut me just on the hair of the angel and the breath of the baby hymen Broken of your height I am left black that
the Lance down below your umbilical rope if I can climb just return

Hé! the expectation! I obtained a new complaint forever in the debt to your inestimable counsel Hé! The expectation! I obtained a new complaint forever in the debt to your inestimable counsel Hé! The expectation! I obtained a new complaint forever in the debt to your inestimable counsel Your counsel

She the eyes likes me a fishes when I am weak that I was locked in your can in forms heart for the weeks that I was drawn in your pit trap of tar of liking I wish that I could eat
your cancer when you done u-turns (alt:... when you turn black one)

Hé! the expectation! I obtained a new complaint forever in the debt to your inestimable counsel Hé! The expectation! I obtained a new complaint forever in the debt to your inestimable counsel Hé! The expectation! I obtained a new complaint forever in the debt to your inestimable counsel

Your counsel (x3)

Audioscobbler

Lately I've been having fun with a nifty little free community service called Audioscrobbler.

Basically, you download a plug-in that tells a server what music you listen to. Then it compares your musical tastes to other peoples and recommends musical friends. Then you and your new friends can swap artists that each other have never heard of. . . Lots of fun! And quite interesting. I would definitely check it out if I were you.

You can also look up bands and see what other bands their fans listen to.

Here's where you all come in.

See, you look up the Look Machine, and there are 2 people. Me. . .. and some mysterious stranger who listened to fanatic once! Maybe some of you could. . . um. .. join up. . . and listen to us a little so we have some more representation? That would be swell. I mean, even Milli Vanilli has 936 people who have listened to them on Audioscrobbler. We need more than 2 (1 not counting me).

Acronym Generator

All right, here's the deal. Everyone has to go to this site, put in their name, copy the results, then post it. Here's what I got.

X	X-Rated
E	Energetic
R	Rare
X	X-Rated
E	Elitist
S	Stunning

Name / Username:

Name Acronym Generator
From Go-Quiz.com

The Rock Concert

Thanks to all who came out, we drew a nice amount and had a really good time. Nice venue! Smoke machine, lights, real stage. . . lots of fun. I think more and more we are growing as a band together, it's very cool to watch.

This show kind of capped a crazy week for the Look Machine. We spent insane hours this week recording some exellenet new demos with Chad, Josh and Nathan from Boy Sets Fire. I don't think we can really express how great and helpful and brilliant they've been in this process. We're going to have a shining new 8 song mini album when all is said and done and it's really sounding excitedly great.

Nathan is particular is totally and completely kicking me in every way imaginable. And it's been incredibly helpful. He's attempting to, in his words, shake me free of both the worship team sound and the perfect studio diet pepsi voice. Probably the best thing he is doing is really pushing me to emotionally invest myself in the music and sell out to it in every performance. You know what, it's hard work. . . really hard. All hot and sweaty, almost crying. . . but it's worth. Boy Sets Fire has an early recording called, "This Crying This Screaming My Voice is being born" and I think it's appropriate to this process. Anyway, I have to say that the results are really starting to show in the recordings. I'm very happy with them. Just little changes here and there are making a huge difference. And a word about Nathan, the dude is freakin' amazing and very creative and very nice. . . and completely through and through a proffessional singer. Anyway, enough of that lovefest. But I do have a recording of a nice little duet of him and myself that I will sell on eBay once their next album sells 5 million copies.

Of course, Josh and Chad are amazing too. But then, they aren't the ones who are busting into the recording booth and saying, "STOP singing like a p_ssy!,' or, "NO NO, that melody is way to "As the deer panteth for the water," . . . so I'll just dedicate this post to the man, the myth, the legend who is Nathan Gray.

Anyway, back to the show, lots of good times,. . .

Here's the setlist for those who care:

As Much
Fanatic
Whipping Boy
All Our Hands
My Name
If I Ever
Live our Lives
Lose Yourself
Simpler than it Seems

I have GOT to put together film for our shows. I HAVE TO DO IT.

Tori. . .sorry you tried and got lost, we would have loved to see you there. Mayve we'll have a special show just for you some time soon.

A Cool New Javascript Thing

Here are some pictures of our previous shows.



by "our" i mean that we were there. or maybe not. but we like that bends. or not. maybe they're just cool pictures. or maybe not.

Rock Concert this Friday (reminder)

Well everybody, don't forget that this friday night we have a big concert with "The Mint." You can find all of the details below in Jason's previous post about this show. This may be our only show around the Newark, DE area before we disperse for the summer, so come out and see us. It should be really fun.

If you are lucky, it will be this cool(Drew already said he would dress like this).

Palkophobia

You can't escape them.

duck phobia

You can't escape them.

The Scottish Games at Fair Hill Maryland

I don't think I have even a drop of Scottish blood, though movies like Braveheart and events like the Scottish games certainly make me wish I had just a little. But I can still be an outsider enjoying bagpipes, tree throwing and pitchforking, right?
It's a pretty good time, if you ever want to stop by.

Thank God!

I am Finished. Let the summer Begin!

Playstation 3 versus XBOX 360 versus Nintendo Revolution

I think it goes without saying that they will all be fast, they will all be online, they will all be high def graphics, and they will all be wireless. I think all three look pretty good too. Of course, we have no idea how much they cost, but it can be safely assumed that the 360 and Sony will be about the same price, with the Revolution a little bit cheaper.

So which will you be buying? Please cast your vote in the comments section and let me know why too.

I think I may buy 2.

I definitely will not buy 3.

I definitely will buy 1.

If I bought only 1, I'm buying the Revolution. My time is at a premium, so I can't spend hours playing a whole library of games anyway. And for my money, any system that has Zelda is the system I want. PLUS, you will be able to download games from the last 20 years, dating back to the NES.

I'm sold, that's amazing.

The ability to play RC Pro AM, Kid Icuras, Rush N' Attack, Trojan, etc will make it worth every last cent.

The only reason I've even had a Sony Playstation was to play Dance Dance Revolution, and it looks like they will port that franchise to Nintendo.

If I buy 2, which again I might, I'll probably also get the 360. I like the GB size on the Hard Drive and I have a hunch that 360 will slowly become the console of choice for many 3rd party developers - reportedly it's very easy to develop games for the XBOX. Why the 360 over the PS3? Mostly because it's launching first, and I know I want to wait for the Revolution, but I don't want to be totally left behind. Plus, the idea of Halo 3 is pretty enticing, and XBOX Live has a great headstart over any other online gaming community.

So that's where I am. . .

How about you?

I am all for religious freedoms. . .. BUT blood and sharks do not mix!

This just makes no sense. As my friend Bryan who sent this to me said, "File this one under: No Kidding."

S.Africa animal sacrifice could spark shark attack
12 May 2005 10:13:24 GMT
Source: Reuters
JOHANNESBURG, May 12 (Reuters) - Blood from sheep butchered in a religious ritual at one of South Africa's busiest tourist beaches could tempt sharks towards bathers, an official warned on Thursday.
A small group called the Healing Oracle has carried out such sacrifices on a beach in the eastern coastal city of Durban, media reported. Its leader Prophet Moses Michael said it was inspired by the Old Testament to help cure sick people.
But biologist Sheldon Dudley of the Natal Sharks Board, which aims to reduce attacks on humans, said the blood may attract sharks even though the beach is protected by nets.
"Putting blood or offal into the water is simply not sensible," he told Reuters. "A shark in the vicinity of the beach may come to investigate."
Shark nets have helped to reduce attacks in South Africa and Durban has not seen any major incident in recent years. But three or four people are attacked every year elsewhere off the country's coasts, Dudley said.
Animal protection officers said they were also investigating cruelty allegations around the sacrifices, and an official supervising the Durban beach said they were unacceptable.
"A beach is a public place and we can't have animals being sacrificed in front of visitors and children," the beach official told Durban's daily news.

Warning: It's a scam

Laura sent this to me a while ago. Unfortionately it was too late, I had already fallen for the scam. I hate it when people are always sending around these stupid, bogus warnings, but this one is real. It hapened to me already, and I just want to spare the rest of you. This is important, please get the word out!

If someone comes to your front door saying they are
conducting a survey on deer ticks, and asks you to
take your clothes off and dance around with your
arms up, DO NOT DO IT!!

IT IS A SCAM! They only want to see you naked!

I wish I'd gotten this last week. I feel so stupid now.

May 27th at the Iron Hill Church with the Mint

Another show announcement:

We're honored to be playing with Lancaster-based band the Mint. They are very good – a main stage band at Creation.



Details can be found here. One of the organizers saw us play at the Trabant and liked us, so we'll be playing between 8 PM and 8.45 PM. Pretty cool. Admission is free, so there is NO REASON for you all to not show up! See you there.

Summer

Summer is pretty much here now. It's getting all hot out and I want to eat ice cream every day. I have only one more week of school! It's going to be crazy busy, but after friday I am free as a bird.

Overall, I had a really fun semester. I decided to spend more time having fun and sleeping instead of just studying all the time. I am pretty pleased with the results. My grades aren't quite what they were last semester, but the biggest difference is that I was happy this time. Man does not live by books alone.

So here is my tentative plan for the summer: I'll take a week or two off and just have fun. Hopefully we'll spend a good bit of that time in the studio! By and by, I'll start working construction. I'll do that and take some capming trips for the next two months, then I am going to New York to work at a summer camp. It's shaping up to be pretty fun. What are you all up to?

Pictures from the Trabant Show

Cool fan Tori was nice enough to post pictures of us on her myspace weblog.

Check them out

Oliver the Humanzee?

At 11 a documentary started about this strange creature from the Congo named Oliver that was very likely half human half chimpanzee, called a Humanzee. They said that they would do DNA testing once and for all to find out if this was true.



Oliver's face looked a little more human, he only walked upright, liked to mix drinks and smoke cigars, and preferred the company of humans to chimps. Especially the ladies (seriously, the first time he was sold was because he nearly raped his owner's wife.)

Anyway, I want to go to bed, not stay up until midnight waiting to see the results of the DNA testing. Not waiting while they tell me that Ligers exist (lion and tigers mating) and mules (donkeys and horses), so there is no scientific reason that Humanzees cannot also exsit (humans and . . . ugh. . . chimps).

So I looked it up online.

"Oliver is all chimp. 100%" Just kind of an ugly mutated one I guess.

Thanks Animal Planet for wasting my time!

PS. The show in front of the Trabant went well yesterday, and we actually picked up another show because someone there really liked us. Details to come.

Surprise!

Yo. We have another show. Sorry, this is coming with very little notice, but it was a surprise to all of us.

Tomorrow, Wednesday, May 11th. 5 pm outside of Trabant at the University of Delaware. For those of you who don't know where that is, it's the corner of South College ave and Main Street in Newark, Delaware. It is outside and it's free. Stop by if you feel like it.

Myspace.com: Indi Rock Band Mega Site

Myspace.com is a pretty cool web site. Anybody can become a member for free. Any member can post their own pictures, music, weblog entries etc... There are thousands of bands that have websites on myspace. People can sigh up to be "friends" of the band to show their support, leave comments, and meet lots of very strange cyber-people. Shane was kind enough to make a myspace site for the lookmachine.myspace site for the lookmachine.

Shane made our site about 2 weeks ago and we already have 100 friends!!! You should go and check it out if you get a chance. Everyone is welcome as a friend of The Look Machine.

My monthly hypothetical.

If the god of rock and roll deemed The Look Machine unworthy to ever "rock" again, should the band continue their collective musical career in the style of:

A) Hip-hop
B) Boy Band
C) Acid Jazz
or
D) Movie Soundracks?

Please give your reasoning, otherwise it will not be funny.

Thank you.

Xerxes

Rocking our way on out of the Relay for Life

Me being the total and complete rock star that I am, I wanted to make sure I didn't lose too much sleep during our concert. So I actually went to sleep at 5 PM on Saturday, and slept until 10 PM. YES! Then I woke up, exercised, took a shower, and we met at the Palkovitz's for practice at 12.30.

We ran through our set and we were very tight and very good. How exciting, since this is our first show with the new lineup. We're psyched to go and rock.

We load up our now considerable amount of gear, since they told us that all they would provide was electrical plugs. Nothing else. And we get to the Field House at 2.30 AM.

We're confronted with a sleepy looking campground outside. A field of tents and sleeping people. And a small 4 feet by 4 feet stage with some lights and folding chairs scattered about.

"Is that our stage?" Drew asks.

"I hope not." Is all I have to say.

I run into the Field House, looking for someone in charge. I find a girl with a Relay for Life shirt.

"Oh, I'm glad you're here. We didn't have a contact number. The last band that played got lots of complaints from the neighbors so we wanted to know if there was anyway you could play an acoustic set without any amplification?"

An acoustic set without any amplification = some dudes singing around the campfire. Not a bad thing to do, but certainly not worth staying up all night. Incidentally, there were already some dudes singing around a campfire.

I ask if we could have moderate amplification, for the bass, and the vocals, and to mike the acoustic guitars and drums.

"We really just don't want to have the cops come again."

OK, hard to argue with that.

I ask if there is anyway we could play inside, if the schedules could be switched around.

"No sorry, we really can't."

The girl was nice, it's not her fault the cops came and people complained, so I'm not going to be Mr. Mean about this.

Drew and I and Shane had driven seperately from Ian and Collin, and we want to find them. We find them inside.

And now we are told that we have been moved into the inside schedule. SCORE!

We'll have from 3.30 until 4.15 or 4.30, we're told.

There are actually alot of people inside. Walking around the track, hanging out in tents, some sleeping. . .

The solo acoustic guitarist before us stops his set at around 3.30. We're all set up and ready to go by 3.40.

One of the girls comes up to me before the show and says, "The acoustics are really bad in here so the less powerful the sound the better."

I nod even though I have no idea what she means by this.

Shane lets loose with a little drumming just to test the sound. The reverb is pretty incredible in the cavernous room. Some people cheer. I think, "This is going to be lots of fun."

We jump into our set. Energetic and tight, we're having fun. .. people seem like they are into it. We get through our first 2 songs.

The girl approaches us and tells Collin she needs us to turn down by another half. That there have been lots of complaints already. She assures us it's not the music, just that it's too loud.

Our next song is an acoustic one anyway, so we do turn down. But here's the problem. We have live drums. You can't turn them down! And we have to be able to hear each other. So we do need some sound. But we manage through the next song. I have to say though that some of the wind has been taken out of our collective sails, at least mine. We didn't come to sing people gentle whispery lullabies.

The girl approaches me and asks me to make an announcement that she hands to me on a piece of paper. I dutifully tell everyone that there is a pie eating contest outside, and that everyone should go to it. (And leave our cacophony of madness, apparently!)

In our set, the song after the acoustic number is by far our hardest song. Well, we're turned down, but here goes.

We play it with energy, sounding pretty good I think. It is now 4 AM, still another 15 - 30 minutes to play.

The girl comes up to us and says, "OK, thanks the next band needs to set up now! That's it!"

SHUT DOWN! Boom it's over.

We all had to laugh. What else can you do.

Here's the thing, why invite a full band to an event like this? You know who the complaints were coming from? People who were trying to sleep. Yes, about a third of the people there were trying to sleep. Of course they were going to be upset. If they just wanted small acoustic acts that played to the seats directly in front of the stage, they should have told us that -- we could have done that! But with live drums and all, that's just not possible.

Positives from the night
1.) I think we sounded pretty great as a band, and now have confidence that we're ready to commence playing with the new lineup.
2.) The DJ there loved us, and hated how we got shut down. He does hundreds of events every year and said that he might be able to get us to play some of them.
3.) I ate very good french toast after the show at the Eagle Diner. Of course the unfair thing was that I had to order the "Hungry Woman's Platter" to get it.

Reminder

Hey. I just wanted to remind everybody, we are having a show tonight/tomorrow morning at 3 am. Now you might think that this will be a bad time, but it's actually a good time. It is good because you don't have plans for that time of night and should deffinately show up! It's at the field house on the UD campus along 896.

See you there.

The Wilmington Flower Market

I went to the Wilmington Flower Market today with my wife and kids, and sister-in-law and mother-in-law. It was fun, but in a freezing, windburnt chilly kind of way.

Any, by far the most disturbing thing was the performance of Elmo and Zoe provided by Dave's Cast of Characters. Aside from the normal worn, saggy costumes that are to be expected by these "outside of the theme park" characters, and the abysmal sound and sound effects that attempted to make Elmo sound like Elmo. . .

Elmo was dancing to the song, "Get your freak on."

What?!

And trying to get the toddlers and preschoolers to dance with him.

Who organized this party, Michael Jackson?

I'm amazed at the decisions some people make.

Tip: If you're having a party, DON'T invite Dan's Cast of Characters.

I would have my memomy erased if it could rid me of the image. . . .

Collector's edition "Bobble Head Drew Copeland"

Drew Has Been Complaining that there are not enough pictures of him on the site. I put together somethig special for the guy. This is one of a 5 part series of collectible "Look Machine Bobble-heads."

Fan mail

I love the way this world is connected.

Someone from Massachusetts is vacationing in Ireland and they discover a new band. . . the Look Machine.

Hi:

My name is Bob, and found out about you from Jaon Garvey in
the Dingle Peninsula, we were vacationing.
My wife has a long distant cousine in Dingle Town, Liam Higgins, and we
visited him at the School where he teaches.
Joan Garvey told us about you guys, along with The Frames, and The
Flying cows over Ventry, which I haven't researched yet, but being a
lover of music, I will.
I heard your cuts on the web, and liked a lot!
I will be buying your CD when available.
We are from Sturbridge, Massachusetts, and I have a pretty large Music
Library, with many types of music that I listen to.
From Rock to Ragae, to Soul, Blues, Irish, Spanish, African, just to
name a few.
Right now I have almost 40-Gig worth of music in my library, and when
you CD comes out, I'll be buying it.
I'm also a Mac Guy, and if your into Music, it's a must! to have one!
Macs are Awesome!

Good sound! Keep up the hard work, and you'll succeed!

Best regards,

Bob

Joan Garvey is the owner of a bed and breakfast in Ireland. I'm not sure how exactly she is a fan of ours, but I'm guessing it has something to do with a recent Palkovitz parent vacation to the area. . ..

Getting mentioned along with the Frames is very cool.