So Far from Lebanon 6.24.11

Nasty mean mosquitoes, gorgeous pink sunsets, chaotic driving, mouth watering food, wicked stomach aches, truly organic fruits and veggies without the need of an organic label, cool oxygenated air, overwhelming family love, new Arabic words, internet and cell phone withdrawals, frequent power outages, and obnoxious yet soothing Muslim prayer chants on the village loudspeakers.

My first couple of days have been pretty amazing here in Lebanon. The entire family is coming in to celebrate my cousin Adham’s wedding. This will be one of the biggest weddings in our family as there were be four separate celebrations with over 1,000 people in attendance.The tension with Syria is really starting to heat up so we are hoping that this won’t mess with the wedding.

I will be putting together a percussion group here in Lebanon to perform at the wedding and we will be going by the name “Dirbeki Trix.” More to come!

 

Best Soundcheck of my entire career

I just had the best soundcheck of my entire career. These Japanese are so polite and professional. We are so excited to be performing at the Hansen Music Festival, pictures coming soon!

DrumJam in Okinawa, Japan!

Okinawa, ever heard of it? It’s an island about two hours (on an airplane) south east of Japan. It has only been annexed to Japan for about 100 years so it has the Japanese influence with a laid back island feel to it. We were greeted by Midori, the MCCS Okinawa POC. She was so kind to us! We were taken on a brand new bus 40 minutes away from the airport to a base called Camp Foster. She took us to lunch and went over all the logistics for the next weekend. We are performing at the Hansen Music Festival. The festival will include bands such as the popular Japanese Metal group 8 ball, R04 and a massive laser light show as well as many cultural performances. We are performing at 7:30 on Saturday and then headlining the festival on Sunday! Supposedly, there are 10,000-20,000 people who attend, cannot wait for this opportunity! Check out the following link for more information! http://www.japanupdate.com/?id=10474 -Chris Saad

Under $100 Holiday Gift Show

This Thursday is your chance to get a piece of Austin’s most finest representation of local artwork for under $100 bucks!All artwork is 100% Local.

Featuring works from Graham Franciose, Judy Paul, Allison Gregory, Brian Gilbert, Joel Ganucheau, Jay Geurink, Don Madden, Darvin Jones, Jake Bryer, Amanda Westbrook, Catherine Hart, Heather Hurst, Dan Grissom, Neil Ganucheau, Kim Brill, Limbo Jewelry and many more!

The artwork presented at Austin Art Garage  screams Austin all over it.

It features many different types of art that will grab your emotions and demand your feelings to set aside all the distractions in this world and allow your visions to escape during that very moment of visual experience.

The best way to show off your Austin spirit is to represent it in your very own living room, bathroom, office, bedroom or kitchen.

Enjoy appetizers from Hosteria Verde and live music from DJ Kid Gorilla, Meggan Carney & the Flying Trapeze and A.J. Vincent.

When: Thursday December 10th, 2009 7PM – 10PM

Where: @ Austin Art Garage (2200 S. Lamar Blvd.; behind Strut)What: 100% locally made art for Under $100 with live music, food and drinks

Exclusive Track by Meggan Carney

The lovely Meggan Carney was so nice to let “Got Entertainment” have a limited time exclusive listening  track of one of her latest songs titled MOA. She will be performing at Austin Art Garage this Thursday at 7 pm and Momo’s shortly after at midnight with her full band “the Flying Trapeze”.

Enjoy!

The Operations of a Music Festival

Dr. Helene Caudill, my operations management professor at St. Edward’s University put her students on a mission to analyze the operations of a business. I decided to tap into my film making skills an put together a short video about the operations of a music festival. The festival that I analyzed is Fun Fun Fun Festival and I interviewed Kristina Vallejo, a professional event coordinator.

Music by DrumJam and Jungleset!

Miranda Art Gallery

I was invited to the Miranda Art Gallery last night by my aunt Jo Hyman. She had a couple pieces of art for sale at this event where over hundreds of pieces each sold for $100.00.

The gallery was packed when I arrived with a DJ in tact and free wine at the entrance. The event was brilliant and I could tell it was very successful as red sticker dots were posted on the paintings when they sold (and there were ALOT of red stickers). Jo wouldn’t tell me what art she created so I was forced to hunt down what I think she had created. I found three out of the four pieces she made and predicted that they would sell within the next hour.

Miranda would give $50 to the artists, $40 for herself and $10 donated to charity. There will be a huge Christmas event at the Gallery on December 16th, 17th and 18th. The gallery is located on East Sixth st. (2 miles east of I-35) right next to the Livestrong building.

My mom Janet and my Aunt Jo

Two  of Jo’s Paintings sold!

FreeDocumentaries.org

A crossbreed of film entertainment and education, documentaries have proven their worth by exposing many different issues in a creative fashion.

This website called Freedocumentaries.org has a really great selection of documentaries that are surely to entertain and inform the eager consumer.

It’s Free, no advertisements and the quality is fairly decent.

FreeDocumentaries.org

Superbowl Entertainment + More??

A couple weeks ago the Who was confirmed to perform at the Superbowl Halftime show this spring. This is not recent news but at least they are having an iconic 70′s rock band rather than Taylor Swift, Jonas Brothers or Kanye West performing.

Will the Who be the 70′s rocker band to headline the circuit of festivals in 2010? I predict that the band will fully take advantage of there massive TV appearance and either tour the heck out of the U.S. or hit up every music festival with 50,000+ attendees.

A.C.L. Headliner? I think so.

D.A.B. confirms that Kanye West DID NOT purchase Austonian Loft

“New crib-LOFT IN- where its at-AUSTIN-where is that-Texas!” It has been confirmed by Jude Galligan of the Downtown Austin Blog that Kayne DID NOT purchase a condo suite at the Austonian. It seemed that just weeks ago, everyone in Austin was talking about Kanye West’s big purchase, however, this was just a strategic guerrilla marketing plan/false rumor going around town. Kanye did make a big impression during last years SXSW and it would seem that he would want to have the hottest crib in Austin that he could use for about 10 days out of the year. Maybe he is just waiting for Taylor Swift to purchase a unit first? Whatever the situation, the penthouse is listed between 4-6 million and there are only a handful of buyers in Austin who could really afford this penthouse unit. Here is a link to one of the penthouse suits listed at 4 million.