Save the Date

Attention Internet:

I, Shaun P Wisniewski, will be marrying Julie V Koziara in the fall of 2011.
There's a chance you'll be invited, and a chance you won't.
Our budget is only going to allow us about 80 guests, and after family, that leaves about 20 open seats for friends...
So if you're family, you're probably going to receive your "save the date" soon.
If you're a friend, cross your fingers, or start sending bribes my way.

That is all for now.

Life is good.

I'll elaborate more later.

--Shaun

October, September, August, July... and the future

It's been a while since I blogged... So what's going on?

Well I got a new job. I work at Plum Market in Bloomfield MI. I ring up groceries and bag them up. I mingle with the rich all day. It's fairly nice. My co-workers are great for the most part. The clientele spend more on groceries in one trip than I make in 2 weeks, but they're mostly kind and cheerful. Every job in customer service has downsides, has assholes and such, but overall I like the job a lot.

Julie is still grooming pups. She gets raises all the time. It's almost comical the amount of times she comes home and says, "I make this much now." I feel like the minute I announce her hourly raise it'll change, so we'll just say she makes much more than me, and will continue to make more than me until I hit the lotto.

Julie was sick for a few weeks. Really sick. Bad G.I. issues, and she lost a bunch of weight... She had a stay in the hospital for a week or so. The docs couldn't say for sure what the heck was wrong, but they discharged her with a bunch of different drugs and they seem to help. She's been feeling better, which is wonderful.

We are moving soon. November 1st we get the keys to our new place. We're both very excited. The new house we're renting is very nice, and we signed the lease for 2 years, so we'll be there for a bit. The move will probably be the easiest move I've ever done. The new house is right around the block from our current house. It's a 2 bedroom ranch with all new appliances, hardwood floors, nice big basement, etc. The address is 851 Silman if anyone wants to visit in the near future... Maybe we'll have a house warming party. We'll see.

Here are some pictures of when we moved into our current house. Trip down memory lane on 675 Jewell.


Our bedroom.


Danny's weird room. 2 doors.


Matt in the upstairs kitchenette.


Boxes and shits, looking through dining room to living room.


Music/Art room.


We had a nice stay here, aside from the strange land lord issues... and the occasional roommate disagreement. Like, "Matt, I'm still waiting on the money from 5 months ago..." - or - "Danny, please stop throwing things like chairs and entertainment centers off the balcony and leaving them in the backyard, broken for weeks..."

But no big deal. we all survived. It's time to move on... To nicer, smaller pastures.

Those are the big changes as of recent.
Everything else is still going along normally.
I'm writing new songs, and Julie is make new art.
Penny is still spoiled and the cats still hate her.

I'll try and update more.

Just seems like I have little time to do things like this now.

Oh well.

Thanks for checking in.

--Shaun

Shows and tell.

Hello reader.

It's your friendly neighborhood internet neighbor here: Shaun "the wiz" Wisniewski.

A few things:

We [meaning me and Danny K.] played a show last Friday with "The Dead People" [Jason Edgil and Chops] and Jason did some dance/karaoke type things to close out the night.

It was a house party, which is always fun. Half of the people there are there for the bands and the other are there to get wasted and try to bump into members of the opposite sex. It's kind of like a bar, except you usually know everyone there and wish you didn't by the end of the night.

Here are some pics from the event.

Julie on the porch

Jason rapping with porn on TV

Brian's arm, Katie, and Danny pre-show on the porch

Jason and Chops play as "The Dead People" while Brian glares at them shirtlessly

Me and Danny playing songs.

All in all, it was a good time. Some video and audio were taken of some of the performances which I may post once it is all sorted out...

If you're at all interested, I have a blog dedicated to the music project Danny and I are birthing, and you can find it here: http://matildaandfriends.blogspot.com/

In related news, my friend Chelsea is coming into town this week, and we're planning on doing a quiet acoustic show in my backyard on Friday. Not sure yet who all is playing... Me and Danny will do a coffee house type show with minimal amplification, brushes instead of drum sticks, etc. Chelsea will for sure play. Some other musical things will happen too. I'm trying to leave it more open ended in hopes that people just want to initiate song sharing and the like.

And in other, different, yet related news, check this out: http://theblackbottomcollective.blogspot.com/

But if you don't want to click that link and just read, look below this line:

A few friends and I are going to start renting a building in the area for rehearsal, recording, playing shows, making art, having art shows, etc.

The idea is to start a collective of like minded creative people and have them all chip in to make a sweet space to do what they love. And on top of that each person can help the other out...

Say I'm recording an album, and need a drum track, I can ask someone in the collective to help. Then I'm done recording, and I'd like some art for the cover. Ask someone in the collective. And I want to sell the CD, or make vinyl, I could throw a show, ask some of the other musicians to fill out the bill, ask an artist for a T-shirt design to sell, charge 5 bucks at the door, etc.

And this is just one scenario.

So hopefully, in the coming months, me and some close friends will be hard at work inside a big building in Ferndale and being much more productive in what we all love to do.

This is all for now.

Excitement seeps from my pores now-a-days.

Always looking for a brighter future.

Farewell B.B.C. [again]

The return makes one love the farewell.
--Alfred de Musset

Saturday and Sunday night came and left with Big Black Cloud creating a trail of smoke behind them. Both shows were top notch; the first being at the Shack by Woodbridge Pub and the second at Cass Cafe. The sound at Cass was a bit better, but not by much. Both shows had their strengths. Saturday's show was just an all out party. Everyone got much too drunk, but had a great time. Sunday was more down-tempo drinking wise because everyone was hung over. The atmosphere was pretty chilled out, until the end of the night when everyone got to the point of super drunk, and we made our exit when some drunk guy kept bumping our car with his car trying to parallel park.

Here are some pictures.


Sometimes my shutter doesn't open all the way.
Still a neat picture from Saturday.




Saturday Shack playing.



Tommy and Jason.
People kept asking, "Are they twins?"



Not sure what's happening...
Julie, Jeremy, and Jennifer [Triple J] on Saturday.



The garden, and the seance orb at the Shack




The only picture of me from either night.
Pictured here with Fred. [He drove.]



The crowd outside of the shack after BBC.



Rainy Sunday afternoon. Penn and Julie.



Lots o' Drops.



Cat and dogs.




Cass Cafe. Sunday night.



Trombone-ing on Sunday



The crowd at the Cafe after BBC



Blood and guts. Epic.






Another live shot from Sunday.


All and all it was a wonderful weekend. It was very nice seeing Josh and his band mates again. It had been about 2 years. 2 years ago, we all figured it was the last time we'd see Big Black Cloud, and it was sad, but sweet. And these 2 shows were no different, sad but sweet. 'Sweet' like the taste... and 'sweet' like "awesome, rock n' rollin' good time, dude."
And sad, like, sad.

Like puppies getting hit by cars and the cars are being driven by dying babies with grandma passing away in the backseat.


But still sweet, too.

We're posting less because we're doing more... Not the other way around.

Hello Shaulie blog. It's been a while.
How are you? Is everything alright? They treating you okay around here?

Me?

I've been... busy. It's hard to come by this way and see you now-a-days. I try and just check my electronic mails and get off this thing. Maybe occasionally I look around at Facebook, but you're better baby. You're my blog. Don't ever forget that. Facebook don't mean a thing to me. I'm only keepin' her around to stay connected with family and such.

In all honesty, I've been working a lot at my job. Long stretches too, like, 8 or 9 or 10 days in a row with no day off...
Working a lot on the yard, and on the house.
Working on writing new songs, and new pieces of creative writing [I've got this this one idea: Stand-up comedy bit told by a hardcore Christian... I don't want to give anything away yet, but let's just say right off the bat that this guy hates gay people. And by hate, I mean hate...]
I've also been working a bit on my beer gut, and this game called Super Mario Galaxy 2. The game isn't even mine, Fred brought it over and just left it for me to get sucked into. Thanks Fred for making me abandon my blog for Mario-Awesomeness (for real, thanks).

Julie has been just as busy with nearly all of the same things. Except, when you go back through the aforementioned list replace writing songs and creative writing with Frontierville and researching/changing her diet to help acid reflux.

Aside from that it's just about the exact same.

Another big slice of our time pie has been devoted to our new neighbors. They moved in about a month ago and they are both totally rad. It's another couple, named Jeremy and Jennifer and we get along just swimmingly. Anytime we're outside and the neighbors are also outside it ends with us all on one porch talking for hours. Then we'll play games on the Wii, or break out a board game, or just start drinking and telling stories, and before you know it, it's 1:40am and you have to be up in 6 hours to go to work...

Anyway, those are the reasons I haven't been around much, Shaulie Blog.

Tonight is the Big Black Cloud show! First one in a while. Couple years? I'm very excited.

Check out B.B.C. here for free streaming and free download. While your at it, check out the other stuff "God Sags His Pants" has to offer. I'm in love with almost all of it but I'm bias because I've known Josh for a while and like him very much...

But if you're interested in coming, it's tonight at the Shack.
And tomorrow they are playing Cass Collective.


I'll bring my camera back out of hiding soon and maybe post some pixx of the happenings, the neighbors, our yard we work so hard on, etc.

Thanks for understanding my situation blog. You're my favorite thing on the internet.


(not really)

Personalize funny videos and birthday eCards at JibJab!

hold on

Goodbye Old Empire

This week I broke up with the rock band I was playing with.
[Goodbye Old Empire!]
There were many factors that lead to this.
I guess it's easiest to say that I was unhappy with some of the decisions that were being made with out me. Upset that I was fed some lines of shit in hopes that I would bite and keep on keeping on. Unsure if these decisions meant that I would be next on the chopping block.

Long story short, I just wanted a clean healthy break and figured that now would be better than later considering the band was already spinning into transition. And the good news is that I've been received well post-break by the rest of the band. They all have sent me well wishes and seem to understand my want to split.

More good news is that I can focus my musical energy on my own projects now. Since I joined Old Empire almost a year ago, I've put my own solo music on hiatus, and any other project for that matter. I'm excited to dive back into my own musical realm and play shows now that I got my stage legs back in business. That's why I joined the Old E in the first place. To meet people in the local scene, play out live, play with some excellent musicians, and just gain insight and experience to how it all works. I definitely got that over the last year, and much more.

So I can't remember if I've shared this on this blog yet, but here:
http://matildaandfriends.blogspot.com/

This is what I've been doing in my spare time with Danny, soon to be my full time musical venture. We're playing and re-writing some older 'Matilda' songs, writing brand new ones, and having a blast.

Let me know if you're interested in this.
If you like it, or think it needs polishing, or don't care at all...
You can even come over and play with us if you wish! [But we'll probably kick you out of the band, just because we've been hurt and wish to do the hurting now.]



I'll leave you with a trip down memory lane.



Paychecks



Hamtown blowout. Julie, Danny, Dan Clark, Sara[h?]



Tempermill. Me and Dave [you know, from Blanche]



Pure 11. This was in a magazine somewhere I heard.



Hamtramck alley. My second show with the band.


Cheers.

26 and pissed.

Hello blog:
I'm 26 [read: old, washed up, wanna-be man], and this isn't Julie typing.

How did you all let me get this old?
I'm still smoking, and drinking, and working a shit job.
I'm close to having my degree, but close isn't good enough.

But enough negativity...
I just like to bitch sometimes.

So birf-day happened on the 29th of April. Came and went with no real black eyes or feathers in my cap.

I was on a week [read: 9 days] vacation. Just went back to work last Monday.
Over my little stay-home-from-work stint we made lots of fires in my new fire pit. Cooked food in/on my new BBQ grill. Played a whole lot of NBA Jam in the shed. Good times.

Friends and family thought it would be nice to have a party for my b-day, and I agreed after some thought. So Julie and I spent a lot of time making our yard and house look nice, invited a bunch of folk over, and the rest was history.



Blurry L to R : Fred, Conner, Tracey, Shannon, Carl, Kalli, Sophia



Line of chairs.



Fred Man-ing the grill.




Julie + Me.




Another baby Sophia and her mommy Stash.





It was my goal to record some new 'Matilda' [read: solo music project] stuff but it just wasn't in the cards. I had to download a new recording program, and it wasn't jiving with my computer.
So then I wen to Radio Shack and spent 45 dollars on different cables and cords and connectors to try and rig it all up, and instead of working I just spent money on shit I didn't really need.
But it wasn't all bad.
In preparation of recording I got a bunch of new musical ideas bouncing around in my head.
Put those down on cassette tape and stored some in my loop pedal for a later date.


To wrap up my vacation, me and Julie and Danny played Clue a bunch of times. I lost every time, and Julie almost won every time.

Set-up action!



By the way:
She's on my shit list for being so damn good at Clue.

That is all.

k9

Friday night was an odd night.

Old Empire had a short show at the International Pop Overthrow Fest.
Got the the bar around 8:15. Went on stage to set up around 8:45. At about 9 o' clock we played for 20 minutes. Left around 9:35, and got home before 10 to meet up with some friends who were coming over.

Julie had invited Katie and Brian over for calm and cool evening of wine, and maybe a movie, or something.
So I asked Fred and Andrew if they wanted to come by also... You know, to make things more interesting.
Then my roommate Danny gets home from the show and brings with him all of Old Empire, and some other friends/girlfriends of band members.
This was good though, because before this the "calm get together" had turned into a race to get drunk so that no one is as awkward as them sober selves.

So now, it's a party. There are about 15 people here just drinking and laughing and carrying on. And I start to get in the groove. I'm feeling good. I'm on my fourth beer, and just going with the flow of things.

Then Andrew asks me to try his "Frank Wine." [Frank is his girlfriend's father who makes his own wine] - I do. It tastes pretty good, a little too sweet because I think it was a Merlot, but still good none the less. So then Andrew pours me a glass of it, and he drinks from the bottle. I'm still trying to drink beer, so I'm chasing this wine with beer, because I don't want to be rude, I mean, Andrew just took the energy to pour me a glass, and even though I don't want the drink I drink it. On top of that, I don't want him to think that I don't like the wine, because I did, I was just already 4 beers into my night, and I don't know about you, but when I mix, I pay for it.

So I start to mix beer and wine [not in the same glass, but might as well have been.]
I had the above mentioned beers,
then Frank Wine,
then another beer,
then someone wanted to make me a mimosa so they did,
then Julie got tired and asked me to finish her drink,
then someone asked me to try their mix drink [melon vodka and something something],
another mimosa,
then another beer,
then we were out of orange juice, so someone was mixing up wine and sprite, and made me one of those...

It all went down so quick. Things really get moving when you're drinking.

Finally it was pretty late. Everyone gone but Fred and Andrew. There was something going on, or tha just went on, a fight or argument, with Brian and Katie that I was too drunk to understand or know with a right mind what to say or do in the situation. So I told Fred I was going to bed, and to make sure the house gets closed up when he left, and to call me tomorrow. . .

But I actually, probably said, "Frdd. I cnann't stod up ennemor. Ihghatta goto bed now.[mumble] Whellya luck up dudde, and cull meh, and[mumble] habe agud might tomight [mumble mumble]"

I go in my bedroom, take off my clothes and get in bed. Fall asleep for about 10 minutes and something wakes me up. I feel a little gurgle in my belly, so I put my jeans on backwards and go to the bathroom to try and puke.

I lay on the floor for a few, drink some water from the sink, throw up finally, clean up myself as well as the bathroom, put my pants on correctly and go back to the bedroom. I undress again and go to bed.

I fall asleep a second time. This time I'm sleeping for about an hour. 45 minutes or so. I wake up at 4:15 in the morning puking. So I'm trying to hold it in my mouth while I'm getting out of bed, but I can't so I'm trying to hold it in my hands as I'm running to the bathroom but that fails too. It's very dark, but I'm sure I just barfed all over my bedroom, probably on my clothes and bed. And now I'm in the bathroom really just puking my guts out. Nude, and freezing cold on the bathroom tile with a trail of puke that leads from my side of the bed to the bathroom, I'm in there throwing up for almost a half hour straight.

Julie comes to the door.
"Shaun"
"[grgleee]yeah?"
"You need anything?"
"I need clothes!"
"You puked all over the dog"

I open the door, all the puke is gone because Julie cleaned it up. The dog is outside and won't come back in because she's really scared and confused at how her pep-pep can wake up and start making growling noises and cover her in warm stinky slime. I'm wrapped in a bath towel because I was shivering, nude, in a pile of my own cold puke on the bathroom floor.

"Thanks for cleaning."

I go to the bedroom, get some old clothes on, go back in the bathroom and sleep a while.







I woke up yesterday, and got dressed to go to a wake. And that's what I did yesterday. Mourned the dead with family I don't see often and pretended like I didn't spend the night before covering my dog in puke from drinking too much.

All in all pretty solid weekend.



Today I work.




And tomorrow I call about a job interview... again.

But this one seems promising, so, I don't want to jinx it, so if something good happens, I'll post it here.


And here are some random picture of things that went on the past couple days since my last post. Bubbles and show and cleaning and wake and etc.



Sonic the Shed Hog!!
Turning our shed into an old school game room, or maybe just a general hang out area. We have a TV and couch and old stereo in there. Need a mini-fridge and some decoration.




Bubbles.



Bubbles.






Bubbles.



Blurry Bubbles.



Bubble movie...


[Done with bubbles now]



Cousin Stefan with his baby boy Eddie [Post Wake]




Stone.






Short Show at IPO.






In a car. Think we were on our way to Subway. I mean Taco Bell.





Art Room finally slightly more organized, but coming along.






This is all for now.

Good day.

Cocktails

Christ was resurrected... But not before a number of my friends got hammered at my house. All in all a good time was had. It was a DIY Cocktail fest. I bought a large amount of party supplies and made a list of cocktails you could make with everything. Though it was a good idea in theory, in practice, it was not.

Everyone was pretty much sloshed after 2 drinks. But, aside from a few messes and some big bumping egos, no real issues came of a house full of wasted arty types.

Thanks to everyone who showed up and dressed up.


Pen and Julie




Blurred kitchen folk



Alexis and Shaun picking a play list



Cheers from Alexis and Fred



Brian and Julie early in the night


Fred and Julie posing.






Cheese! from Katie and Carl



"Take a picture wiff me!" She said.



Then started dancing like a fool.



The only non-issue issue that transpired.





Aside from that, not much has been going on. Julie and I have been working a bunch since vacation. Paying bills and spring cleaning. Trying to make our outside [front yard and back] more livable. I've been riding my bike a lot. Normal end of March/ early April stuff.


Oh yeah... I played a solo show a few weeks back. That was really cool.


Motion


Yelping


Speaking of solo stuff...
Danny and I have been working on our little music project. We've decided to play some old Matilda songs and re-work them in a band setting, as well as the new stuff we've been writing.

Hopefully we can get that project more polished and maybe play some shows. Maybe record the new stuff. Not really that concerned about it. I'm having a great time playing music and that's all that counts.


And, of course, Old Empire is still playing shows all the time and it's always fun, even if sometimes we fuck up an entire song and just quit in the middle.
If you're interested, this Saturday at the Majestic Cafe.


Come on down.