Once a year I get to jump on stage and belt out a few tunes with some of the best musicians in Seattle. This year's show is a benefit for the Seattle Brain Cancer Walk . The show will be at the 2 Bit Saloon in Seattle's Ballard nieghborhood Friday (August 22nd). This years line up features great rock & roll from The Industry People, QmP, Snakes of Christ (Danzig tribute band) and a band so cool they only play once a year, The Goddamn Finkelstein Shit Kids - a bunch of musical bad asses from various Seattle bands covering songs from all over the rock spectrum. See you there! If you can't make the show you can make a donation at Braincancerwalk.org

Super Bowl XLVIII (A.K.A the opening act for Bruno Mars) was the highest rated Super Bowl to date,and had the largest audience in American television history with 111.5 million viewers. The Seattle Seahawks’ 43-8 bare bottom spanking of the Denver Broncos tops the previous viewership record of the 111.34 million who watched the 2012 Super Bowl on NBC.

 The half-time show also set a record with 115.3 million viewers watching Bruno Mars and the Red Hot Chili Peppers, beating the 110.8 million delivered by Beyonce last year and the prior record of 114.0 million set by Madonna two years ago.

One Denver radio station is getting in on the Seahawks / Broncos rivalry. Denver's classic rock station "The Mountain" is banning all Seattle based bands from its airwaves until after Super Bowl Sunday in an effort to help Bronco fans "keep the positive energy going in preparation for the Super Bowl". That means no music from Pearl Jam, Nirvana, Heart, Soundgarden or Jimmy Hendrix. I suppose two can play at that game, but do you really think anybody would notice if Seattle area radio stations stopped playing Sugarloaf?

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I had a blast last Saturday night making my 2nd appearance as Bald Elvis at the 17th Annual Seattle Invitationals.
More than 20 Elvis tribute artists of all genders, shapes and sizes descended upon Seattle’s Experience Music Project to battle for the title of best Elvis impersonator. No I didn’t win the big competition … I didn’t even place … that’s OK, though, it was a great time!
Below is are some video clips

Link to KOMO story

Link to Seattle Times story

(Associated Press),  NEW YORK  -- Nirvana, Kiss and Peter Gabriel will be inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame next year.

The Rock Hall announced Tuesday that Hall and Oates, Linda Ronstadt and Cat Stevens also will be inducted April 10 at the Barclays Center in Brooklyn.

Artists are eligible for induction 25 years after their first release. Nirvana received a nomination in its first year of eligibility and next year the band will celebrate the 25th anniversary of its debut, "Bleach." The induction comes 20 years after frontman Kurt Cobain committed suicide at age 27.

This year also marked first-time nominations for Hall and Oates, Gabriel and Ronstadt. Kiss and Stevens, who have been nominated in the past, made the cut after being absent from the list for several years.

The Rolling Stones' managers, Andrew Loog Oldham and Brian Epstein, will receive Ahmet Ertegun awards, a non-performing honor. Bruce Springsteen's E Street Band will get the award for musical excellence.

N.W.A., one of the 16 nominees announced in October, did not make the cut. The iconic rap group includes Dr. Dre, who has launched successful solo albums and is the producer behind Eminem, 50 Cent and Kendrick Lamar.

More than 700 Rock Hall voters determined the 2014 class.

The 29th annual Rock and Roll Hall of Fame Induction Ceremony will be open to the public. Tickets go on sale next month.

The event will air on HBO in May.

Seattle is the smartest city in North America, according to the business magazine Fast Company.  The land of Boeing, Microsoft, Starbucks and Grunge moved into the top spot from last year’s third-place showing. Seattle led the pack in Smart Economy and Smart Government rankings while coming in second behind Washington, D.C. in the Smart People category. Recently Seattle made the top of some less flattering list like 4th worst traffic congestion, and one of the snobbiest cities. See the full list of Smartest Cities in North America here.

The Tom Tom traffic-data company has ranked Seattle 4th for the worst city in the U.S. for congestion. 

According to Tom Tom's annual study ....

* The average Seattle-area driver wastes 35 minutes in slowdowns for every hour on the road, during commute periods.

* Morning commute times are 48 percent longer than in free-flowing traffic, while afternoon commutes take 70 percent longer. On a 24-hour average, the delay is 25 percent.

* Wednesday mornings and Friday afternoons are the worst times to travel.

Los Angeles was listed as the most congested city in the U.S. 
Seattle was ranked as number 4 in the U.S. and 7 in the world.  Portland was ranked as 13th worst in the world and Rio DeJaneiro was number 1. The TomTom Index is used as a tool for city planners evaluating areas in need of upgrades or changes to improve traffic flow.

Some of you may have noticed that I've been gone a while Its a long story so here it goes..... 

July 29 2005 I passed out in my apartment and was taken to Harborview Medical Center in Seattle. At first we thought I was suffering from heat stroke, I was actually bleeding internally  from  scare tissue in my esophagus ( gotta take that acid reflux thing seriously kids ).

After vomiting blood all over myself and the ER nurses I was rushed into emergency surgery, at one point the doctors told my family  they were considering surgically removing my stomach ( they didn't, thank god that would have really sucked!).

 During surgery I inhaled vomit into my lungs.  ( Yup, just like Jimi Hendrix )

 This lead to pneumonia and a condition call Acute Respiratory Distress Syndrome or ARDS.

The doctors gave me less that a 50/50 chance of living ( my family brought in a priest to perform last rights, what a drag! )

I was in a coma for 7 weeks, when I finally woke up my muscles had atrophied to the point that I could barley move. I spent a month in a nursing home to get me weaned off myriad of medications (which included morphine and methadone) and get my muscles working again

Believe it or not I actually feel pretty lucky. ARDS affects over 150,000 people a year  is about 50 percent  fatal and kills more people a year than breast cancer, according to the ARDS foundation Many ARDS survivors end up permanently disabled.

I still have some physical therapy to go through but over all I feel pretty good.

I came out of this experience with about half a million dollars in medical bills, a new appreciation for life and a really cool scar that runs from my navel to my sternum.

The doctors and nurses  at Harborview did a great job at keeping my alive especially the ICU staff. I'd like to thank the physical  therapy staff at Queen Ann Health Care as well.

Its been a tough few months and I couldn't have gotten through it without the help of my family, friends and co-workers

Told you it was a long story

For more details go to  the KOMO 4 Website

http://www.komotv.com/news/story.asp?ID=39421