New Years Resolution

I Chris hereby declare that in the new year of 2006 I will:
- Listen first, then speak (yah right, thats easy)
- I will cuddle more with the ones I love (no not you Colin)
- I set aside ME time (between the hours of 3:30am - 3:36am)
- I will watch what I eat (as it is going into my mouth)
- I will dance like no one is watching (my wife already thinks this is true)
- I will not jump Oz or Colin's shit for not UPDATING their blogs on a REGULAR BASIS (guys are you reading this)
- I will journey with my band to exotic new locations (there is this town of about 300 called tallawacky in Texas that has been BEGGING for us to come play)
- I will stand by and watch one of my homes be demolished, Deep Ellum (what do you actually expect me to do something about it)...

This is a good list to start from, I hope you are taking your New Years Resolutions as serious as me :) HAPPY NEW YEAR!

How time flies

Christmas is over and New Years is almost here. This year we were finally talked into playing a New Years Eve show. No it isn't in Dallas either, it is in Temple, Tx. at one of the bars we play at a lot called Bum's. This should be a great time, the listening audience there is always wanting to have a good time and well we like to bring it. We will have Pat our old sound guy running the board that night, and that almost garuantess us a good show. He is this dude we met a year or so ago, one great sound guy and also one great sax player. Yes he will have his sax that night too. Damn time to start thinking about new years resolutions...

Christmas Eve

Wow Christmas Eve already, I can't wait to see what Santa got me this year. I asked for about $5000 worth of toys, yah when you get older your toys get more expensive. I guess the stores figure that since we are older we have more money, sure...I think I have been pretty good this year. I have only yelled at Oz and Colin about 2 dozen times this year, and that is down from about 6 dozen in the previous year. I didn't book a show on Christmas day and we all agreed to take 2 weeks off at the end of the year. Guess I will just have to wait and see, 1 more day, I feel like a kid again.

Time off is good

This week and this weekend I am only working 1 job, just at the radio station and even though that will add up over 30 hours it is still nice to only work 1. No band this week or this weekend and no other daytime job duties. I actaully had time to go watch a movie last night at a theater. It was King Kong and it wasn't a bad movie at all, it was a little long and hard on the legs, not too bad. A couple more days till Christmas and I can't wait to see what Santa brings me. I know I told him that I wanted to upgrade my home recording studio, and I told him it was ok to wait till after Christmas to buy me the things I need. Guitar Center is SO overpriced right before Christmas. Funny Oz and I have gone in there several times in the past before Christmas just watching the sales guys salivate over the mom that walks in and says "I want to buy a guitar for my son" lady BIG mistake. Merry Happy Everyone...

I'm back...

And it was good to get away for the weekend. My next official snowboarding trip is in 3 weeks and I am already ready for that. Not only did I learn how to bust out a 180 on a ramp, I did something that I usually don't do. I got up and jammed with a musician/singer in a restaurant. Amy and I were eating enjoying his mixture of rock and country and of course I started making requests. At first he was a little timid, but then I think he, his name was Chuck, realized that I was not heckling him, we were enjoying his show. See I know that when you play in a restaurant you are usually background noise, but every musician wants attention and my wife and I gave it to him. As the night went on we clapped louder and hooped and hollered more and as we did, everybody in the room started to notice this magical musician, it wasn't a jukebox. We chatted with Chuck on a couple of his breaks and during one he suggested I get up there and jam with him. At first I said no thanks, I am on vacation, this is your time to shine. Then I just said "What the Hell", not like if I make a fool out of myself anyone will ever see me again. So I shouted "Chuck I am coming up, let’s play some Sweet Home Alabama" (every musician knows Sweet Home Alabama). We played and didn't sound too bad, a couple of mess-ups, what do you expect with never jamming together before. After we were done the place EXPLODED with applause and laughter, which I think was a good thing. It was a great experience and will become a lasting memory.

Last blog for a couple of days

Ok this is my last blog entry till next Tuesday, why? Because I am going to spend the next couple of days up in the mountains of New Mexico on my snowboard with my wife. Yes I am taking a couple of days where I do no work and cut myself off from the real world. I like most of you love the end of the year because it means the I get time off. Most companies shut down the last couple of weeks of the year and if they don't nobody does any work. Well monkeyshyne inc. is shut down till Dec. 30th, thats right now music for the next couple of weeks, not even practice. Yes we are still in the process of getting our CD finished and we are still working on a release date. All of that will be known soon.

I want to say Happy Holidays to all, remember it isn't about the presents or the shopping or all the material things it is about getting days off...ok it is also about the birth of our lord and saviour (Yes Colin is choking right now). Seriously though whether the Christians back in the day just wanted to cover up a pagan holiday or not, it still means something to me. I guess that is what they call faith, blind faith.

Peace to all and to all a good night.

Christmas Mood Video Completed

Thats right I have been talking about it for a while now and the video for "Christmas Mood" is now completed check it out at http://www.monkeyshine.info/christmas.html it is a little flash animation of my own creation. Hope you enjoy and hope it helps to get eveyone into the holiday spirits.

Deep Ellum, loosing a scene

Today I am not going to write a Blog, today I am going to refer everyone to http://www.monkeyshine.info to read my in depths article that I wrote on Deep Ellum and what I forsee as the death of a music scene. Please feel free to write me and let me know what you think or leave a comment on this Blog. Peace.

41 plays Woohooo

Wow everyone is just downloading this Christmas song like CRAZY...I mean 41 plays in 2 days that is 10x's the amount of plays we usually get within a day. Sure I am kidding a little, but it is just kewl for us as a band to be able to break out of our mold and right a song in a Christmas fashion. Sure a lot of people told us we have mellowed out in our path of rock n roll and sure we have a little, I guess writing a Christmas song just is icing on the cake. But hell I am not afraid, take chances, thats what life is about. If you haven't heard it yet check it out on our myspace page http://www.myspace.com/monkeyshyne and tell me what you think.

Christmas Mood finally here!!!

Ok the christmas song I have been promising is now out on the web, download for your Christmas pleasure. Go to our myspace page at http://www.myspace.com/monkeyshyne or download at http://www.monkeyshine.info/christmasmood.mp3. I am in the process of creating a video to go along with the holiday piece. Hopefully this will quench the appetite of those who are looking for the new monkeyshyne material, it is coming, the studio is just tough cause we want this to be perfect.

Also I have posted the latest in my monkeyshyne radio. What is that, well that is me just rambling about the band, what happened last weekend and what is coming up this weekend. If you get a chance listen at http://www.monkeyshine.info/msradio8.mp3. Please feel free to email me suggestions and comments at klewta@yahoo.com.

Scott has done it again

For those of you who don't know Scott he is our exclusive monkeyshyne photographer. I must say probably one of the best around. He also is just one kewl dude to hang out with. We met him a couple years back in Wichita Falls at the Iron Horse Pub and instantly he fell in love with the shyne, but not in a gay way, well at least I don't think so...Anyways Oz had already written something about him a couple weeks back, but now that he has posted some new picks of us I figured it was my turn to write about him. Not only is he a good photographer, but somehow he can related Michael Jackson to most situations in his life, for instance the other night when we were all out to eat and he said, "Man you guys should have seen this photo shoot I took, it was like Michael Jackson", I asked "DUDE, gross what are you taking nude pics of naked monkeys again" and he said "NO, geez beaver I was talking about the Beat Video", somehow it made sense to him, and I guess that is all that matters.

Check out his site http://www.scorndesign.com/ for some mighty fine pics.

Dang Scott did it again, what a pic...

Lost my voice

My worst fear as a musician finally came true, this weekend I lost my voice. About 1 1/2 hours into our 3 hour set Friday night in Tyler, Tx. my voice decided it was done and left me. I was feeling subpar and even went into the bathroom and said a water prayer to the porcelin gawd. I thought I would be fine to sing on Saturday me being superman and all, but to my suprise I still didn't have a voice Saturday morning either. I guess that just means that I am human and not from the planet zorg. Luckily monkeyshyne is a 2 singer band so Oz covered my butt both nights, thanks dude, you rock. I even think by the 2nd night he was liking it a little too much (lead singer syndrome). The kewl thing was is Saturday night we chose stage names, Oz was "Superman", Colin chose "Colin" (ya real original) and I chose "Raspy Cracker" because of my voice and well...

Christmas song coming soon....

This weekend

First let me apologize to those trying to get on the site today. I don't know how long it had been down, but monkeyshyne.com was out of order for a while. It is back up. Also here is the rundown for the weekend:

Tonight Clicks in Tyler, Tx from 9pm to midnight. This is always a kewl show, it is funny playing that early and ending by midnight, but we don't mind, just means we get on drunk on earlier.

Saturday night we are at the Garage in Denton, Tx. This is a sweet college hangout with a good time written all over it. Plenty of cheap beer and plenty of drunk college people and that always makes for a good time.

Also Oz and I wrote a Christmas song for the holidays called "Christmas Mood", yes there are some sexual overtones to it, but hey we are a rock band. That will be posted sometime nextweek to make your holidays happy or sexy...

Rules to live by

For those of you who know me, you know that I am constantly in search for the road to enlightenment. I focus on my self improvement almost everyday. I even carry around a card in my wallet that states many do's and dont's in life. Here are a couple of examples: "Encourage people, do not critisize", "If you cannot say something nice, don't say anything at all", "Don't be afraid to take risks". Now I am not saying I always follow these, but I try and that is why I have them written down as a reminder. There is one HUGE one that I left off though, "DON'T TAKE YOURSELF TOO SERIOUSLY"...dammit, that is a tough one. See the problem with me is I really think I can control myself and the things I am involved with, and that is just out right bullshit. No one can except for the almighty himself. See instead of enjoying the ride of life most of the time, I am fighting to take the wheel, or to jump out of the car. I just can't sit back and let someone else drive and just laugh at the traffic. I mean life is meant to be funny, even God knows that. I mean have you ever really looked at a man's penis, those things are funny looking. What about eyebrows, I mean 2 little patches of hair growing out of nowhere. Or my favorite the man that has more hair on his back than on his head, THAT IS FUNNY. So at the top of my list "Don't take yourself too seriously"...nirvana here I come...