Friday, October 30, 2009

Happy Birthday Genevieve!

Just a quick shout out to my sister, my ally, my co-conspirator, my confidante, my friend... Here she is at the ripe old age of 3, a mere 25 years ago! How can it be that it seems like everything happened just yesterday?
Have a great birthday and a fun Halloween tomorrow! I love you very very much!!!!

Thursday, October 29, 2009

Blog Spawn

Since the whole joke-y notion of forming a band and going on an open mic night tour has become remarkably real, we decided it might be more convenient (you know, for the fans) to have a website for all things DWO (Double-Wide Optimism is a mouthful when you keep talking about it all the time....) The schaackmobile blog will still contain links to the various goings-on at the band's webpage (can you believe I just wrote that???) but will resume its normal blogginess and more general musings as well.

Feel free to check out the new site at doublewideoptimism.blogspot.com!

Monday, October 26, 2009

The Arlington Sessions

I am not really sure where to begin describing this past weekend. As devoted readers know, Shane came into town for a pre-tour rehearsal weekend. What started as a lark, with Shane blurting out "We should go on an open mic night tour!" after the Players Pub incident last December, is becoming-- dare I say it?-- a reality. We spent the weekend working on songs and playing guitar (and banjo!) as we planned (and eating hamburgers, and doing photo shoots, and making videos-- mainly of drunken dancing at Saturday night's BBQ, mind you-- and most of the other things that were on our to do list). But the whole thing got turned up to eleven when we went into the Lab of Luxury studios here in Arlington yesterday to record some of the songs we've been working on. After making sure we had our instruments, tuner, picks, lyrics, the teach-yourself-how-to-play-banjo book, and plenty of nervous energy, we went over hoping to record scratch tracks with which we could practice a little bit over the next month, perhaps in an attempt to not suck when we went on tour. Our able producers (Jeff Streicher and Jesse Meik of Jude the Innocent fame-- album from them, coming soon!), however, somehow transformed our simple little ditties into ACTUAL SONGS!!! I don't know how they did it (neither does Shane, he thinks they used magic) but somehow or another, we now have three seed songs for an EP. Currently labeled "The Arlington Sessions", this recording session exceeded our wildest hopes and dreams. It was so fun, I have to recommend that everyone who might read this go out, pick up an instrument, write a song, and record it. It is the most fun thing you could possibly do. Even my schaack-optimism was dwarfed by the final product, an example of which you can hear below. Of course, when we are on tour, Jeff and Jesse won't be there laying awesome drum tracks and intoxicating bass lines, so it will sound a little bit more like good ol' me and Shane, but it was so fun to watch the song grow and develop as we layered the music and at least some new elements can be re-created on stage with castanets and some fearless harmonizing. Like I said, go do this if you can. You will wonder why you do anything else. More DWO tour details soon!


To hear Double-Wide Optimism's official worldwide debut
of their self-titled single,
"Double-Wide Optimism"
click below!
(that's a lot of optimism in one sentence, brace yourself!)

Written by
Shane Lewinski
Performed by
Shane Lewinski, Jeff Streicher, Jesse Meik, and Sarah Schaack
Produced by Jude the Innocent and recorded at The Lab of Luxury,
Arlington, TX 2009



Thursday, October 22, 2009

The Winner, and Still Champion

Despite a late-hour coup attempt by proponents of The Teapot Dome Scandal, the voice of fans WORLDWIDE (yes, apparently two people in Wales voted!) has been heard and the winning band name is: Double-Wide Optimism! Thanks to all who participated in the democratization of rock n' roll (a whopping 57 people voted, temporarily increasing my readership beyond my wildest hopes!) In the timeless words of AC/DC-- for those about to rock, we salute you!

Now onto the tour! Shane arrives tonight at the delightfully named Love Airfield in Dallas for our pre-tour rehearsal/recording weekend! That's right guys-- we are gonna practice! Well, we are gonna play guitar all weekend and eat hamburgers like we normally do when I hang out with Shane, but hopefully that will have some positive downstream effects when we hit the road.

The weekend's festivities include, but are not limited to, the following: writing songs, playing guitar, learning banjo really quick, recording an EP at the Lab of Luxury studio (= my friend and fellow biologist Jeff Streicher's apartment), a photoshoot, designing tour t-shirts (maroon won, by the way-- graphic post forthcoming! wait, that sounds naughty....), making a video, eating hamburgers, performing live, going to shows, jamming, doubling down on Shane's induction into the Schaackmobile Hall of Fame, making s'mores, and, most likely, multiple trips to Guitar Center. Sound fun? Come on over! We can act like rockstars together! I am pretty sure eating s'mores is rockstaresque behavior,... isn't it?

Thanks again for all your support for this cockamamie venture-- literally, the band Double-Wide Optimism would not exist without you all! Fear not for your ears-- no matter how hard I try, there is no way I am going to master simultaneously playing the harmonica and guitar at the same time by November.photo credit: Shane Lewinski

Thursday, October 15, 2009

Reader's Choice Poll

As you may remember, Shane and I are going on tour in November throughout the midwest.... I am pleased to announce our tour schedule is tentatively planned for the following dates and cities:
Saturday, Nov 21: Pre-tour rehearsal, St. Louis, MO
Sunday, Nov. 22: St. Paul, MN
Plum's Neighborhood Bar & Grille
480 Snelling Ave S, 651-699-2227/9 pm

Monday, Nov. 23: Madison, WI
The Come Back In
508 E. Wilson Street, Phone: 608-258-8619/9:30 pm
Tuesday, Nov. 24: Chicago, IL
The Holiday Club- www.holidayclubchicago.com
4000 N Sheridan, Chicago, 773- 348-9600/8 pm

Wednesday, Nov. 25: Edwardsville, IL
The Stagger Inn
104 E. Vandalia St, (618) 656-4221
(VIP afterparty for groupies, TBA)
Although we are defying conventions left and right (most of which musicians and fans alike hold dear-- most importantly, possessing significant musical talent), we are adhering to some. First of all, we need a band name. Second of all, once we have a band name, we need to make concert t-shirts. Third of all, we have to write and practice some songs. (Ranked in order of importance, to us.) The first item is up to you guys though, so please make your voice heard by voting in the 1st Annual Schaackmobile Reader's Choice Poll! (upper right hand corner of the blog) Other than our original band name, which was thought up by my old labmate Casey McGrath, the options are entirely the brainchild of Shane Lewinski, founding member of what we will, for the time being, refer to as Band X. We will do what our fans demand!

The choice is yours, and the nominees are:

The Teapot Dome Scandal
Cher-a (a combination of Shane and Sarah)
Double-wide Optimism
Second String
Schaackzilla and the Monkey Man
Warning Track Power (to fully understand how clever this actually is, check out the wikipedia article explanation here)

Here are the specs:
You can vote as often as you like, but only for one name at a time.
You can see the results by clicking on "View Results" and using the left-right scroll bar.
Write-in nominations of your own creation can be submitted via the comment tool, and will be added below as write-in candidate options.
Voting will close on October 22 so we have time to custom design t-shirts and get them ordered before hitting the road!
I have been sketching some preliminary t-shirt graphics, but the final product, including t-shirt color, will depend on the voice of the people!
No need to buy tickets! No need to plan ahead! Why do U2 go through all the trouble of hauling that 360 stage around when they, too, could take advantage of neighborhood open mic nights??? We would love to see any friendly faces that might be able to make it and promise to dedicate our inevitable cover of Every Rose Has Its Thorn to anyone who drives over 10 miles to come see us! Hopefully living on the road won't harden us too much and we'll be able to fend off the heaps of groupies trying to make out with us all the time-- perhaps that hardship can even be parlayed into future songs of heartbreak and desperation!
Here's hoping!!!!!

Addendum: Astute reader Dan Janes has started a write-in campaign for two new names.... I can't actually add them to the poll because voting has already started and the widget rules won't allow changes, but I can list them here:

Obscured by Corn
Brimming with Vivacity in the Parlance of Our Times

Monday, October 5, 2009

Bigfoot Research

I have been a delinquent blogger, I know. But keep in mind that delinquent blogger = non-delinquent post-doc, so it isn't such a terrible thing. I mentioned last week that I would say a few words about the 9th Annual Texas Bigfoot Research Conference which was held in mid-September at the University of Texas-Tyler (a sister school!) since I, too, like research. For those of you who don't already know, although the mythos of Bigfoot (aka Sasquatch, the Yeti, the Abominable Snowman-- take your pick, different names but the same hairy, giant, elusive, hominoid-like creature) is worldwide, it has certain areas of high concentration. Like Canada (where I am from). And Texas (where I now live). Although I wasn't able to attend this particular conference, several delegates from my department went, including Christian Cox (pictured above with typical Bigfoot evidence and namesake; happy birthday Christian!) These colleagues of mine attended, in addition to 400+ other people (who presumably did NOT go as a joke), reported back on the latest findings, and, of course, brought me a t-shirt. The annual meeting consists of a full day of 40 minute talks from experts on a variety of topics ranging from "Sasquatch 101" to this year's special guest, Bob Gimlin (Mr. Gimlin is one of two people credited for making the only not-revealed-to-be-a-fake-yet 1967 Sasquatch video still in circulation; see still frame below). Unlike what you might expect of a research conference, the talks aren't so much about evidence for Bigfoot as much as they are about how to catch/prove/photograph/depict/describe Bigfoot more effectively during inevitable future encounters. It also sounds like there is a fair amount of Bigfoot-skeptic bashing, Bigfoot belief-declaring, and Bigfoot sighting retelling. My understanding is that pretty much everybody there has either a) seen Bigfoot or b) expects to, which would indicate maybe Bigfeet aren't so rare afterall, since the conference is so well attended. In addition to the researchers interested in Bigfoot, there were researchers interested in people interested in Bigfoot -- from the psychology department. They passed out surveys to everyone in the audience in hopes of continuing their efforts to identify what characteristics typify Bigfoot believers and, perhaps more interestingly, Bigfoot researchers, such as those attending this conference. Their data reveal that typical Bigfoot believers tend to come from low income households and usually have little to no education. But Bigfoot researchers? Interestingly, they defy definition, fit no profile, and typically represent no single demographic category. Why? Well, perhaps it is hard to predict exactly what kind of scientist would risk their career and credibility chasing after a legendary creature most often shown to actually be someone running around in an ape suit or a misidentified bear. However, in the spirit of scientific objectivity, after devoting an entire post to the topic, I feel obligated to provide the link to where you should file a report (hopefully more peaceful than the one recounted by this nature-loving mountain climber, above) if you should see one. And for those of you who have now come to expect an interactive blog reading experience or simply want to avoid doing research (on Bigfoot or any other topic), check out the song/video by Tenacious D called Sasquatch on youtube here.

Coming later this week! A Reader's Choice Poll to pick the band name before Shane and I go on tour at Thanksgiving. Remember-- this is what everyone is getting for Christmas because no one is actually going to buy our concert t-shirts-- so make your voice heard above the din of the other 2 or 3 voices! Like they say in Chicago-- vote early, vote often!