What did you get for Christmas?

What did I get? I got to learn the ins and outs of my furnace since it decided to stop working on Christmas Eve morning.

Yup ... busted furnace ... thank you Santa/baby Jesus.

Seems that the motor that drives the fan needed to blow the carbon dioxide out of the furnace stopped working. I have a high efficiency furnace so 90% of the heat is removed from the gas burners and the left over Carbon Dioxide is blown out of the house via PVC Piping (since it is too cold to rise on it's own via a flue duct) ... and as a fail safe for the furnace, if the blower doesn't turn on to remove the CO2, then the furnace doesn't light or else I would have a house full of a deadly gas.

I'm now on day 3 without heat. The thermostat is reading 50 degrees. Like I said, the furnace stopped working on Christmas Eve morning. I have a home warranty with a company that is very efficient, they had a local heating company ready to come out to my house within a few hours that same day ... but since it was Christmas Eve, I told them to wait until the morning of the 26th ... figured no one wants to be on call, working on a furnace, the night before Christmas. I wasn't going to be around my house most of Christmas Eve and Day anyway.

Now, today, the furnace people have been here and the part has been ordered. It could arrive later today or it could take as long as Friday before they get the furnace back up and running. It's pretty cold in the house but it's not unbearable ... I'm sure catching a cold is inevitable, though.

Chihuly Nights

Last night, I went and saw the Dale Chihuly Glass Exhibit at Phipps Conservatory again. This time I took my parents as part of their Christmas gift. The exhibit was supposed to end in November but they extended it's stay into the new year. It's a wonderful exhibit and I wouldn't be surprised if I didn't go one more time before it's gone. A few of my photos can be found here.

Netflix Grrrr.

I wrote a letter to Netflix last week complaining that they just seem to not have enough 'new release' movies in circulation. I told them that it was ridiculous that the first 18 movies in my queue were not available for rental because of 'long waits' but were indeed released ... I wrote that I have been a customer of theirs for close to 7 years and complained (maybe threatened) that I could easily go to a local Blockbuster to get these movies if I really wanted to.

For example, 'Transformers', which came out on DVD in October still has a 'very long wait' on my queue. Now I'm not 'dieing' to see this film ... it's just the principle that's frustrating ... that it's been over 2 1/2 months since it's release and they do not have a copy they can send to me ... also, 'Pirates of the Carribean 3' is on my list and I see ads for it's DVD release on TV every freakin' day but I already assume that I'll have to wait until next year to get it from Netflix.

I mentioned that even though I have some 375 movies in my queu, I was getting sick of watching 'older' movies while waiting an average of 2 months for the new releases to become available. Don't get me wrong, I like me my classics, foreign films, cult favorites and indie flicks, all which are usually in high supply from Netflix ... it's just that sometimes I want to veg out to the latest action flick or stupid comedy i.e. 'Die Hard 4', 'Knocked Up', 'Superbad', etc.

Anyway, since writing to Netflix last Tuesday, newer released movies have been freeing up on my queue. Including 'Transformers', 'Live Free and Die Hard', etc.

Maybe Netflix's customer service actually responded to my complaint. We'll see what happens.

We're Baaaaaack!

and I heard you missed us!

Great debut night to 'Brotha Mike's' and my new weekly DJ night last Friday. Hopefully this is a start to another exciting and long lived weekly party. It was great seeing so many people come out to support ... some people I haven't seen in many months. Shake it!

Friday Dance Party

The afterparty we threw the other night went extremely well. My buddy and I started promoting around 7pm during the gallery crawl on Penn Avenue (which the afteparty was 'officially' for). We introduced ourselves to all of the gallery owners and invited them down to the party - many of them actually showed up. Around midnight The Shadow Lounge was filled to capacity ... at least 120 paying customers were through the door. Everyone was dancing to the eclectic mix of Funk, Northern Soul, Retro, R&B and Boogaloo sounds provided by the Djs ... and over $600 was collected at the door for our 'special cause'. It was a blast.

The rest of the photos can be viewed here. The party was such a success that the owner of the venue wants to discuss having it happen once a month.

I'm down with that.

oh yeah ...

and Van Halen (the reunited Roth era Van Halen) just announced that they are extending their tour into next year ... and Pittsburgh was added to their list of cities they will be stopping in. Actually, I don't know how Pittsburgh was not on their list from the beginning ... I mean, seriously ... what city is not more Van Halen than PGH? C'mon.

Anyway, I am super psyched about this. I have total faith in these guys that the show will be one of the best rock shows I have ever experienced. In fact, after seeing them I'm confident that I'm going to have to start using a scale of 1 to Van Halen to describe anything that is near awesome.



I just hope they can keep it together long enough and avoid the inevitable band meltdown until they make it here.

Speaking of promoting ...

I also spent the weekend hanging out at the ALTO Lounge in Shadyside ... doing, ah, research ...

Starting Friday December 14th, 'Brother Mike' and I will be resuming our duties as hosts for the only 'House and Techno' music DJ night in the Eastside. We'll be residing over a weekly dance party at this place - every Friday night - offering up soulful house music and funky techno in a loungy, chill out atmosphere.

3 Big DJs from 3 Big Parties

Just when I thought I was out of the 'promoting' game ... this happens:
A buddy of mine and I threw this little party together in less than 24 hours. It will be the official afterparty for the Unblurred First Friday event taking place on Penn Ave. this Friday (even got it cleared with the Penn Ave Arts Initiative). Nice to know that the connections are still there after being out of the club promoting scene for close to a year. Got the venue free of charge, convinced all of the DJs to play for free, got the flyer design donated and even managed to offer up a pretty nice drink special on top of it all. The money collected from the $5 'suggested donation' cover charge will all go to a local benefit that I can't reveil at this time.