Aug
4
Kevin Babb at Java G’s
August 4, 2008 | Leave a Comment
My nephew Kevin is playing next week at Java G’s in St. Charles (click here for a map). Check out his MySpace page for more information. He’s a good guitarist and writes a lot of his own music.
http://www.myspace.com/kevinbabb
V2
Aug
2
Laney’s Tees
August 2, 2008 | Leave a Comment
My wife has started a t-shirt shop on Cafe Press. There are a lot of them out there but hers is unique with some pretty cool designs and more coming. She has some already out there. You can access her shop by clicking the image below.
Jul
18
Dani on YouTube?
July 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Elaine was messing around on the net last week and found some songs our daughter did with Chris Porcelli (Vic Porcelli’s son … Vic is on the radio here in St. Louis, MO) and Mitch Leitschuh … they were messing around with some Standards. Rate the songs a five. She sounds like she is from the 1930s and 1940s … not 1990s and 2000s. :-) So I’m proud of her.
You Give Me Fever - http://youtube.com/watch?v=sCSA4sJd8ek
Why Don’t You Do Right? - http://youtube.com/watch?v=nd7yKgLs7Kk
V2
Jun
20
Arter Properties
June 20, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Elaine got everything done for her realestate brokership. Check out the cool logo. It’s neat to see your name on all kinds of signs around town. 
Jun
18
QuikTrip PumpStart
June 18, 2008 | Leave a Comment
My family and I have been affected by the high price of gasoline in the US (compared to what we used to pay) lately and I notice everything when I go to the pump. Well today I was surprised when I saw that the QuikTrip in my neighborhood started requiring all cash customers to either pay first (before pumping) or use a PumpStart Card.
I had never heard of such a thing and decided to do some research on it and found out that it is an attempt to help avoid the growing amount of fuel theft. Made sense to me (not that I like it) in regards to rising fuel cost. Lately in St. Louis people have been hitting car dealerships to steal gas from cars on the lot (see article). Then I found out this intitiative has actually been going on since 2005 (see article).
Oh well … another change … I found it interesting and discouraging (for several reasons).
V2
Jun
13
Movie: The Happening (8/10)
June 13, 2008 | Leave a Comment
V3 (my 21 year old son) and I went to see the new M. Night Shyamalan move The Happening. I have to say it was pretty good. On a scale of 1-10 (10 being the best) I’d give it 8 out of 10.
I won’t tell you about the movie because I don’t want to spoil it but it’s a good premise and a very interesting story. The characters aren’t very deep but the story is very engaging. I will say it is his goriest movie to date. It was very violent and bloody and is noted as being his first R rated movie (because of the violence).
V3 and I both enjoyed it … if you like bizarre stories and gore you’ll like this movie.
V2 (Vince Jr.)
Jun
11
KlipFolio
June 11, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I had been looking for an RSS aggregator (and more) and something that works kind of like Yahoo Widgets (but doesn’t suck). I found KlipFolio awhile back and it is really a neat little app if you want to keep in touch with several sources of information. It’s very easy to use and the new Beta for Version 5 has some neat new features.
I love the Facebook Friends update … I don’t have to log in to see my friends statuses. I even created some shortcuts to Twitter and Facebook to updates so I can update more frequently.
The programming interface is basically JavaScript and XML … I wrote a small Klip (like a web part in SharePoint) in just a few minutes (was building a clock and the object model didn’t work as expected). Anyway … it’s a pretty neat little application if you like that kind of thing. In combination with TrueLaunchBar and Actual Window Manager (the two utilities I just can’t live without) you get a lot of power, freedom and control over your Windows environment.
Vince
Jun
10
Why Joe Pass Rules
June 10, 2008 | Leave a Comment
Well … I guess you should listen to his music and you will be convinced. They guy just has massive amounts of style and cool.
If you like good jazz and/or just unbelievable guitar skill you gotta check Mr. Pass out. My dad (Vince Arter, Sr.), who I consider one of a living legend in jazz and R&B (classic R&B) guitar plays a lot lot Joe Pass.
Anyway … check him out … give him a listen. This is what I aspire to. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joe_Pass
Vince
Apr
28
Second Birth to Play Holy Trinity’s 160th Anniversary Block Party
April 28, 2008 | Leave a Comment
My band (Second Birth) will be the entertainment at Holy Trinity’s 160th Anniversary block party (our bass player knows someone that goes there and got us the gig). I’ve heard they do this for the city of St. Louis every year and that it is usually pretty good. This year being a big anniversary year (and with us there) it should be even better. 
It is on Sunday, May 18th from 11 AM – 2 PM (we’ll probably start about 10:30.) For those of you that know Rich Stratmann he is in the band as well along with the bassist from the Bellville Philharmonic. We play a good mix of “interesting” music. ïŠ
I don’t know why it calls us the Stratman4 in their newsletter. That’s not our name (or Rich’s by spelling) and we have 5 people (sometimes 6) not 4. I’ll have to ask Rich about that. I think they just forgot our real name but that’s us they are talking about.
So if you aren’t busy come on out and join us. ïŠ Please feel free to forward to folks I forgot to include.
http://www.holytrinitystl.org/pdf/080677_newsletter.pdf
Vince
Jan
23
Simpsonize Me!
January 23, 2008 | Leave a Comment
I was watching TV the other day and noticed an ad for the site http://www.simpsonizeme.com. So I gave it a try. Not bad. You can tell that it fakes some of it by “analyzing” your picture and picking a starting picture close to you. Here is what came out of that with my tweaking for my daughter. Pretty close!
Anyway … have a good one … try Simpsonize Me and see how close it comes to you! Interesting … if not time consuming … diversion.
Vince
