Grim Grinning Ghosts

Most of you know that I am a Dis freak. If you are wondering what a Dis freak is, then you have stumbled upon the blog of the wrong Michael Gray. Good luck finding the one you were looking for. For those of you who understand the lingo, please keep reading.

My friend Jason Palmer (a fellow freak) told me of a friend of his who did a cover of one of the best Disneyland ride theme songs in existence -- "Grim Grinning Ghosts" from The Haunted Mansion. If you have heard and enjoy the version done by The Barenaked Ladies (the band, not the actual barenaked ladies you see out there nowadays) then I think you will be impressed with this version. I wish that I could actually link it here, but I cannot. Instead, I will link you to his page on soundclick.com. To go there, click here.

The guitarist's name is Jason Croyle and he does a great job with the guitar. Here is what he says about this song:

This is a cover of the theme from Disneyland's Haunted Mansion attraction, written by Xavier Atencio and Buddy Baker. I arranged and recorded the song for my wife in August 2005 in anticipation of our 6th anniversary trip to Disneyland.

The song features a Fender Stratocaster that I briefly owned and customized, as well as my Peavey Millennium bass and my wife's Yamaha DGX-200 keyboard. I played all guitar, bass, and keyboard parts, and programmed the drum track using a combination of set patterns from the keyboard and one-shots.

I hope you enjoy it. Let me know what you think.

Kappa Beta Fatty-boom-ba-latty

Well it happened. I am now an official member of a prestigious group of rather portly individuals. I am an integral part of an American fraternity known as "Kappa Beta Fatty" Before today, I was an honorable member, but never fully received my admission until a month or so ago when I weighed in at 275 lbs.

I know what you are thinking: "How does this guy find armchairs that don't squeeze him at the love handles?" To my defense, I am 6' 5" tall with a naturally larger build (thanks Dad). To be clear, I am only about 50 pounds above my personal ideal weight of 225.

You may be wondering why I am bothering to share this offensively-obese information with the Blogger public. Well the primary reason is because I just returned from a good workout. I know a guy at my church who plays the bass in the Praise Team. His name is Tom. A few weeks ago I noticed that he had an Infinity Fitness keyring plastic barcode thing. That happens to be the small gym I am a member of...or rather, where I pay my dues. We have begun to workout together (because I refuse to workout alone) and I am doing everything I can to get back in shape and hopefully get my fraternity membership revoked within the next few months.

As it happens, I hate getting in shape, but I really enjoy working out. I think I hate getting in shape because I am an impatient, results-oriented guy and fat burning ranks up there in speed with the melting of the polar ice caps. I like working out because it gives you more energy and becomes slightly less taxing on the body each time you do it. Hopefully in a year or so I will look like Christian Bale in "Batman Begins" (I think we can all agree that would be cool).

Wish me luck.