Josh Bubniak

It has been a great time being home with family and friends here in IL. The snow is a little too much for me, but then again, I always hated the snow, even when I was little. Ah well.

Christmas and the related festivities was a good time this year. I was asked to play at Vineyard for the Christmas Eve services, which was a lot of fun! (Audio can be found over on Shannon’s blog at http://www.mcmahonweb.com) After the service, I headed back to my parents house for dinner, a movie, and video games with the brothers. We ended up doing christmas with my family on the 25th, and christmas with Michelle’s family on the 26th. It was nice to be with family and not have too many awkward moments. As usual, I’m concerned about my brothers and their well-being, but that’s to be expected being the oldest with such big gaps in age I guess. I just hope they get their heads out of their asses before too much damage has occurred!

Anywho, while it has been great being here, I’m honestly ready to go home to my own house and get this move out of the way, and get school started! That’s the goal anyway. Speaking of school, it’s time to go log in and get things accomplished before heading out today.

So, I’m MOSTLY done with the redesign. I still have to get some gallery’s up and linked, but nothing horrible. Woot! Time for bed now.

So, I’m working on a re-design of joshbubniak.com…it’s a lot of work to do a complete re-design, at least for me. I hate it, but the page that’s currently up is hard to navigate and hard to see if you’ve changed pages. I’ve actually gotten some complaints from clients because of it, and that’s not a good thing. Oh well. Here we go!

So, it’s thanksgiving. A lot of people I know are making lists of what they’re thankful for today. I’m not big on doing that, but this year, things are a bit different. Here’s a handful of the most important things I’m thankful for.

• My Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ
• My beautiful, loving, caring, humble, understanding and worthy of many more adjectives wife
• My unborn daughter, Kaiyah. I’m super excited to have you around kiddo!!
• My loving family, on both sides. I’m very proud of my siblings, and can’t wait to see what you accomplish in life. Shoot for the stars
• My multitude of friends. Each one of you is special to me. I’m sorry I’ve been so bad at getting together with most of you. It doesn’t mean I don’t love you!

So, that’s my short list. Time to head back to eating and visiting with family.

Today is my wife, Michelle’s birthday! Happy Birthday baby!

I have a huge love of local music. Most of my friends are musicians, and we all have supported each other and our respective projects over the years. I love going to a show, hearing some awesome music, and enjoying the company of great people. Most of the time, there is a great sense of community among local bands. None of us make much, if any money, and we really do it for the enjoyment of entertaining folks. Of course, most folks I know want to “make it”, in whatever abstract meaning that phrase means to them. To some, it’s having a good draw at all their shows and being well known locally. To others, it’s a record contract, and national touring. Whatever. I just like playing…although, I wouldn’t pass any of that up!

I played a show last night with the band I currently play with, Radar Orchestra. We played with some great bands and the venue was decent, even if the head sound engineer is a bit short, with little tact. Nothing horrible, and I can honestly say I’ve been a bigger jerk to bigger name acts, but while it’s not a big deal, it’s just not a great way to treat anyone you ask to come play. Anyway, enough of that.

The Airway is honestly one of the better venues in the East Bay I’ve been to. Good system, competent front of house guy, and monitors where I actually heard what I wanted…that’s more than you get most places! We were the first band of the night, and when we started, the first people I saw walk up to the stage to watch were Chance and Corey from The Kinzie Affair. They stayed right up front for the majority of the set, and were active listeners, and some of the people I could see who got into the music. I didn’t see many of the other folks from the other bands around, but hey, the lights were in my eyes, so I can’t say for sure. The thing is, I love seeing other bands getting involved during other bands sets. Being the guys that yell back at you, and cheer the loudest at the end of your songs and set. This is the type of behavior that strengthens the music community, and promotes a mutual love with bands who play together. I love it! I have had a fantastic time in the past playing with other bands on more than one date, and sincerely miss playing with the guys from Sullivan, The Fall of Icarus and others.

Back to the gig last night. After getting done with our set, the guys from The Kinzie Affair jumped on stage, and completely helped us load out, shook our hands, and really were sincere about liking the set. After we got our stuff squared away, we went out front to check them out. Watching them, it was clear that they’re tight musically, and sound great. During their set, I went back to the green room to change clothes, grab my stuff, and nab something to eat. I walked in there to see a bunch of the guys from the other bands just sitting in there talking, not giving a crap about the bands that are out there playing.

Here’s my issue…I HATE it when bands, especially the “headliners” don’t show support for the other bands they’re playing with. It makes me sick. Especially when, like last night, there weren’t a ton of people at the venue, so that support is all the more needed.The prickishness of some musicians will never cease to amaze me, and the lack of respect from those folks who may have something like a major label deal, even if they aren’t doing much with it, is upsetting.

I don’t care if you hate their music, love their music, or are ambivalent. Show some support! Get out there and cheer and clap for them! Slap them on the back after their set and tell them they played a good show!

I left the green room, and was a bit saddened that these guys didn’t have the decency to be out there supporting the other bands. I finished listening to The Kinzie Affair’s set, helped them load out, then loaded up my own things and that was that. I’m a hypocrite for leaving, I know, but when there’s that lack of respect, I feel no need to give you any, and won’t. This is a major flaw in my own life, and is something I’m working on as time goes on, and I think my wife will tell you that I have changed since we first got married.

It’s difficult to grasp that as a christian, I live in a perpetual state of grace and should extend that grace to others. It’s hard when a stranger makes you feel disrespected, but it’s even harder when all your friends flake on you, but want you to be there for them and be supportive for whatever is going on in their lives. It’s a challenge to extend love and grace, even when you don’t want to. Especially when you don’t want to.

Yeah, I might try blogging again…my first post should come a bit later on today. Enjoy.