Race fans, “the Shootout” WAS here! Congrats to TEAM HARVICK and, speaking of De Je’Vue;

…Will Jimmie Johnson just continue his winning streak, for a 4th year? I kind of hope so, it makes my Sundays much more constructive once Jimmy starts crawling up the pack because I then know the day is young, and there’s time to go mow, shop or hit up the grocery store while everybody else is watching Jimmy sit back in cruise control taking naps lap after lap.

People who say “Nascar is boring.. how can you watch cars go around and round in a circle all day?” MUST be  watching Jimmie Johnson and Jeff Gordon exchanging sparkling logo-bright smiles at each other while the rest of the pack tries to apparently stay of their way. I much prefer the old days of Wallace, Earnhardt (The Big E, not so much the little ‘e’ after he shaved his goat-tee) and Jarrett, swapping paint and top 3 positons week after week.

Ahhh wait, but this year, this year is different they say! They’ve thrown a new needle into the Nascar haystack. Down force has been changed, and the front ends have been changed. (to more closely resemble that of a vehicle that looks like one you could actually go out and drive the next day) and so, the battle for “aero-equal” begins anew. This will keep me watching for atleast 25 laps …. Then…. I can go to Home Depot, miss the crowd of Tony Stewart fans, and buy those recessed track lights I’ve been meaning to install, over the next three hours and twenty-six minutes…

While Jimmy… just drives away.

-=Gs=-

In the next issue of SPOKANE FLYER: (The WPA’s Official Inland-NW News Source/Feb 2010)

Mother Nature's Punch Bowl

I’d like to salute INTELLICAST.COM for taking weather graphical depiction into the next generation! I, as professional “WX-GEEK”, and former “North Idaho Weather-Girl” have had dreams of just such an interface. Full color radar composite with tab overlays for precip, Clouds, vapor, Infra-red & warning boxes. Now, NOAA, NWS, in conjunction with FAA, have undertaken a similar project in the Aviation-Weather data center, and these tools are the next generation for data acquisition and as close to real-time (well, within 10-15 minutes, usually, for we the non-paying customers) as we can get dissemination.

Also good news for we the West Coasters: funding has been approved for a secondary coastal radar, and we shall have a much better picture of those storms developing off the coast or perhaps before “slipping” between the footprints of our old spotty coastal network. I, for one, am very excited; storms like THIS (on right) should be less un-expected .

-=GS=-

Switching the focus onto aviation for a minute here, I’ve just completed writing an article about the impact of hosting the 2010 Winter Olympics on regional air-service.

Over the ISC National Skating Championships (Spokane, WA.) 1-25-2010

May serve as some beneficial use to you whether a pilot, or not, should you notice an unusual amount of air-traffic over Spokane for the next weeks. Or if you’re planning a trip and wondering if there will be any delays involved, I offer several tips on where to look for clues. It’s posted in the Washington Pilots Association’s monthly newsletter “Spokane Flyer“ that you can download a copy of HERE.

UPDATE: (1-25) We beat the Pacific-Maritime air mass and did some night approaches over at COE, along with “Safety Pilot” Dave. It was alot of fun, some quality “hood time”, and we got some very cool pics as the lower cloud deck began to roll in off the lake… see these pics POSTED IN HIGH-DEF in the FLYBOY3 Album, the set starts near the end of “DARK SKIES” collection.

-=GS=-

We here at GS-Central are all geared-up from the holidays and looking forward to an exciting year! Aside from the newest addition to our little production clan (welcome to the fold, Scotty) we have two new editing bays finally saying goodbye to the last WIN98 operating system;  Tech talk: we had an issue with animated text on the new studio-14 software and the support couldn’t seem to narrow it down- but next time you contact them and they ask if you’re using a Radeon 9250 video card~ you can bet that question was due TO ME. Simplest solution was self-correct. o the Radeon 4200 with pixel-shader 2.0! As it turned out, none of that mattered anyway,  because when the adobe suite arrived (and my bank account was tapped out) it kind of makes the studio text stale beans…  check it out on the DEMOS page.

FITTY!!! Old bud & CMS Security-head “Ziggy“ just celebrated his 50th, and that was a blast! (pics posted on Facebook) If you ever got to go back stage with me at ROCK 106 or 94&1/2, you probably have met Chuck at some point, checking to make sure your pass was the right color. By the way, *attention E-bay’ers*… has a large wardrobe of Blue Shirts, in case you need one. He also has a very cool job making really really BIG things now (See elsewhere in this blog) and gets to drive this neat little Taco-Mobile around the office (above) and golf-course.

WHERE'S YOUR LEG-WARMERS, CHUCK?

We wish him another great 50yrs, but he’s got to lose the picture where he looks like the Bike Cop from RENO-911 ….(See photo at right) And, yes, he still wears those 80’s shorts, I’m told.

Then there’s “Nascar crew chief Mike” back in town and wearing his stars and stripes proudly (Thank you for your service, SIR!)

Mike & Merry, We mean Elizabeth!

Mike is doing great and if you are ever buried with “full military honors” chances are good ‘ol Mike will be escorting you, at full attention, off of the airplane and onto the memorial with his top team of drill-staff.  And that’s a wrap on the holidays, now it’s back to work… I’m building a Storm-Tracker 7 Mega-Doppler Super Weather-2010  Graphic just for kicks, maybe I’ll put it on the WX-GEEK page later for my METEO Buds.

-=G=-

As we close the book on another great decade Rockin’ the Inland Northwest, Geoff Scott would like to thank our 12,000 visitors (not to mention the 60,000 listeners) to “The Freeway500″ website, with a final countdown.

TOP-10 OF ‘09 FREEWAY500

picture THIS crowd.... only 30X larger!

10. GOING SOLO#11 409
9. ROYAL BLISS 624
9. POP EVIL 704
8. TESLA 814
7. JET BLACK STARE 1,332
6.  HELI-LESSON#5 1,368
5. WASHINGTON PILOTS 1,428
4. IN THIS MOMENT 2,444
3.  SEATTLE SEA GALS 2,512
2. QUEENSRYCHE “AMERICAN SOLDIER” 2,522
1. SAVING ABEL 2,627

Congrats to our “big winners” this year; SAVING ABEL, QUEENSRYCHE, ROYAL BLISS, THE SEA-GALS & WASHINGTON PILOTS! We enjoyed 129,791 ‘hits’ as the site continued to develop, entertain & grow. The NEXT decade proves to be a challenge for today’s terrestrial content providers, however, This website, looks forward to the “expanding threshold” and embraces a larger perspective.

I just hope I’ll be able to say the new year right, without putting an “O” in front of it~

~ Geoff

** I just put the good voodoo on you, by wearing my antlers so you don’t have to drive into Santa’s sleigh on Holiday Eve. Or a 9’ moose for that matter along some desolate stretch of Montana Freeway. ….We’ve got the horns~ so you don’t have to.

-=Gs=-

Merry Berries.

Honored to have been elected to the WASHINGTON PILOT’S ASSOCIATION/SPOKANE Board of Directors… So, to celebrate; we went flying! (of course) Not quite the challenge of “Contaminated Surfaces” training, this flight on the backside of a cold front Friday night, blustery cold~gusting to 20kts, and shooting some long approaches to the new extended Runway21 at Geiger. For you NON-pilots the crosswind technique is a delicate balance of slipping into the wind with one wing lower, and ‘kicking’ rudder in the opposite direction to maintain lateral stability as to land with one wheel (upwind) aligned with the runway and then rotation follows through on the roll-out. Let’s just say it’s dance on the feet and a careful ballet of cross-control up above… Kind of like the last time I tried to disco.
-=Gs=-

Want to thank Rock 94 & 1/2 and ROYAL BLISS for an awesome show at CLUB-EDGE! …You want some pictures?

Royal Bliss pics are here!

Playing to a “private party” of Rock listeners who braved the November weather to Rock the night away, we enjoyed opening acts; 33, Character Flaw, and L.S.Di-ablo (Winners of the “battle Of the Bands” two weeks ago, seen below) There were also many “Cameo” appearences by Tanzi and a few of the RACKTOBER CALANDER GIRLS sharing stage with GEOFF SCOTT as MC’s for the evening. It was a great night of solid wall-to-wall rockin’ and excitement! ROYAL BLISS performed a full set and then asked everybody if they minded if they played a few new songs (Not always a good idea, but this night, the crowd seemed genuinely receptive in the notion) it was good to hear a fresh set.

They also had a NEW CD in tow “STUDIO A” (that isn’t going to be officially released until next week) found one at the merch stand, and bought it, then I turned around to see Taylor standing there “Congratulations, you just bought the VERY FIRST copy of our new CD!” *Bonus prize* it was then promptly whisked backstage to be signed by the entire band. Kewl Beans!

PS: Chris, love the “Dudley Doo-right” you should keep it, bro.

Honored to have been nominated “Best In The Business” by industry giants AV-DELI!

Welcome to the lab.

Representing over 50 markets & seven countries, in this yearly compilation we hear some of the greatest Production/Imaging people in THE WORLD. These, the artists that color “the sounds you hear”, create the flavor of your favorite shows; bring life to disembodied words branding attitude, putting personality to the intangible, and leave a memorable impression that jumps at you from your radio.

Known simply in the trade as “the missing link”, these master designers live by one simple rule: A station (on a crowded dial) without identity, is just a number~ without a face.

LEARN'N TO BURN

Spokane’s freshest rock, for two fun-filled days at CLUB-EDGE this weekend! It was the BATTLE OF THE BANDS; Six of the area’s finest (plus BUTT UGLY, the official “battle opening band”) taking stage for solid guitar-fury, screamin’ leads & enthusiastic audience appeal! All competing for their chance to score prime-opening slot for nationally touring ROYAL BLISS (Club Edge; 11-13)

A big thanks to ALL the bands, none of them ’sucked’ and that made it hard; The judges definitely had their work cut out, weighing each band’s own strength and weakness, and the crowd had their favorites, too!

L S Diablo wins "the battle"

HERE ARE THE FINAL RESULTS:

#1. L S DIABLO  …Will be opening for ROYAL BLISS on 11-13!!!

#2. VANGUARD

#3. PRIOR SIN

Honorable mentions to BUMP DOOSIE, CRIMSON RESOLVE, and LEVEL ZERO for awesome sets. Everyone came to rock the place, and I would have been happy to have any one of theses bands opening for a number of shows…

Runners' up / VANGAURD

PRIOR-SIN

NEXT UP: SUPERSUCKERS @ CLUB-EDGE (SPRAGUE & VISTA) THIS FRIDAY NIGHT, 10-30. I remember watching these all-star punkin’ rock-a-billy blues-dudes opening for FOO FIGHTERS, in San Fran about 15 years ago at the legendary Fillmore and the SMOKED THE NIGHT… Don’t miss this show! LO-DOUGH and good to go, we’ll see you Friday night. -=Gs=-