September 12, 2007
Birthdays & other things...

Evelyn and I had a joint Birthday party this past weekend. All of our friends and relatives came over. So many people came it was hard to talk or associate with all of them. The party started at 5pm and the last person left at 1am, now THAT’S A PARTY!!!!! We also went for a little vacation a few weekends ago to Clearwater, FL and hung out on the beach a few days; we also met up with our friends Andrew & Deb and went to see Kathy Griffin live. She’s pretty funny; she’s all about talking about “Her Gays”, which really leaves a lot of people feeling like they don’t belong in the audience, like me. Whatever, we’re suppose to go see Sara Silverman in a month with Andrew & Deb, that’ll be fun, she’s got a sick sense of humor that I really like ;)

We’re now contemplating moving to a new house. It sucks, we don’t want to move but every year the assessment bill hits us because we live in a town home where everyone pays for each other’s fixes and the bill is just too much! I don’t mind putting the money into my OWN home but putting money into someone else’s home and not getting anything out of it is ridiculous!

Dead Mens Dreams is working on finishing the CD artwork and getting the CDs duplicated and then start working on a CD release party! I’ve been working on the DMD stage banner (I’ll hopefully have that done in a week), and I sent the artwork in to the drumhead place to get our logo done on Jim’s drumheads. So DMD is slowly but surely getting there. We’ve had many meetings together trying to figure out our next steps as a band.

June 11, 2007
We're back from vakay

We started in San Francisco and ended in San Diego for Evelyn's grandfather's Birth Day. Check out the pictures here.

Sunday:
We took the train from the Oakland airport to San Francisco, and got on the bus in San Fran and saw a lot of laid back people drinking beer and running around in weird clothes (tootoos, bikinis, bright blue and yellow jumpsuits), we thought this was a bit weird but it's San Francisco, so we just thought it was normal, then we heard it was the “Bay to Breakers” day, once a year the whole city does a marathon run and it's the only day in San Fran that everyone can wear what they want or wear nothing at all and drink anywhere they want.

After we got to our hotel we hit the Fisherman’s wharf and Pier 39. Saw street performers, Evelyn wanted a ice cream sundae at the Ghirardelli store but the line was out the door and down the block, so we headed to the hotel for the night.

Monday:
We went to breakfast at Lories right next to the Ghirardelli store, we headed down to the Wharf again but we went on the trolley to see the city. We stopped at the Trolley Museum, and then got back on to the end of the line in down town San Francisco. I went into a music/DVD store and bought a few DVD for our airplane ride home in a week (always thinking ahead). It was cold in San Fran and Evelyn hadn’t packed for this so we stopped and got her an Old Navy jacket.

We got on the bus line and headed to the Cliff House. The sutra baths used to be there. We had Fish & Chips at the house, which were incredible (and greasy as hell), and they brought us rolls, called Parisian bread, that we’ve never seen before, it was empty inside, it tasted kind of like a pancake.

We got back on the bus and hit the Chinese garden where Evelyn took a ton of pictures for her computer desktop.

We went back to the hotel to rest our feet and then we did a San Francisco Ghost Tour. We done more than a few ghost tours in every city we vacation, they are very entertaining. The guide was very funny; the stories were cool but not very scary.

Tuesday:
The next morning we headed out to Alcatraz. I was skeptical that it would be a good tour; I’ve heard it’s good, but how good could looking at jail cells be? The price of entry is a boat ride over then you walk, and walk, and walk, and finally get too the jail building which is freak’n HUGE! Then they give you a ear phones with a digital player that takes you on a self guided tour (you can pause it whenever). The tour was guided by 4 inmates and 4 guards. They lead you around the jail and tell you stories of what happened and fights and breakouts and stuff.

When we were done there was a guy bringing a few older woman (we found out later they were nurses and asked to see the hospital, which was closed to the public due to people vandalizing in ‘91) upstairs behind the DO NOT ENTER sign, and Evelyn & I snuck in and found we were in the upper hospital and psych ward where the Robert "The Birdman" stayed. He incited a lot of riots in jail so they gave him his own place upstairs away from the regular population. We found out that the Birdman was a freak’n crazy guy and not as nice as he’s portrayed in the movies. Over the course of Stroud's thirty years of imprisonment at Leavenworth, he developed a keen interest in canaries, after finding an injured bird in the recreation yard. Stroud was initially allowed to breed birds and maintain a lab inside two adjoining segregation cells, since it was felt that this activity would provide for productive use of his time. As a result of this privilege, Stroud was able to author two books on canaries and their diseases, having raised nearly 300 birds in his cells, carefully studying their habits and physiology, and he even developed and marketed medicines for various bird ailments. When he was transferred to Alcatraz he was not allowed the birds.

When we cam eback down there was a bunch of people listening to a guy talk about Al Capone, so we sat listened about Al from birth to death, VERY interesting stuff. Found out that Al came up with the expiration date on products because children were drinking sour milk and he wanted that stopped, and started the soup kitchens for the poor. He was a humanitarian BUT if you got on his bad side you were sleeping with the fishes.

We headed back to San Fran and ate at the wharf, then hit the Ghirardelli store and Evelyn finally got her Ice Cream Sundae.

Wednesday:
We left for San Diego. We drove down the West Coast on “1” which was a windy road on the ocean. We stopped off at the first Lighthouse, and boy was it eerie from the fog. We stopped a few times to take pictures of the coast. We stopped to eat at Big Sur then took off and drove the last windy stretch in the dark and fog, which was a bitch and a hef! We stayed in a great hotel in Cambria with a fireplace.

Thursday:
We went to Hearst Castle took tour number 2 because Evelyn was there before and took tour 1 already.

Headed down the road again and stopped at Santa Cruz stop for the arcade miniature golf for only $5.

Then we headed over to Don & Donna’s house to stay for the night. Don is a therapist for 30 years and Evelyn talked about lots of things with him since she just graduated her Masters from Metal Health counseling.

Friday:
We headed to the Monterey Aquarium. WoW! I’m not into Aquariums but this one was done right! VERY interesting things to see and learn.

Then we headed to San Diego, we got there late and met up with Monica and Michael at Ruth & Don’s house.

Saturday:
Got up late from the late night, and went to breakfast at Ruth & Don’s. Then we went to see Orlando Harder (Evelyn’s grandfather), then we went to the Coronado Hotel. It was time for a early dinner at Ruth & Don’t “Thaco Thaturday”, Woo-hoo Thacos!!!

Sunday:
Went to the San Diego Zoo. I’ve never been there but heard it was the best, and it is! I thought Busch Gardens was good. Then we went to Ruth & Don’t again to have Orlando’s Birthday Party. Happy 90th Birthday Orlando!!!!

We left and stayed with John & Connie for the night. Evelyn helped Connie out with her computer.

Monday:
Off to San Diego airport for our return.

May 13, 2007
Evelyn Graduates Rollins College with a Masters!!!

This past week has been full of family and craziness. Evelyn has finally graduated Rollins College with a Masters in Psychotherapy. We had a packed full house party this weekend. All of Evelyn’s family and friends came over. If you'd like to see pictures of the Graduation, Party, & Tahco Thursday click here.

Click here for pictures of recent events.

May 8, 2007
2 Shows Down More To Come

I had a great time jamming with my band in Gainesville and St. Pete the past 2 weekends. We were tight and sounded great! I was just a tad worried that my new singing voice wouldn't go over well but everyone at the shows came to me after and commended me on my style or singing and said they really liked it. If you'd like to see pictures of the Gainesville show click here.

Evelyn has finally graduated Rollins College with a Masters in Psychotherapy. We’re having a party this weekend. All of Evelyn’s family is now staying with us (Monica & Michael, Nana & Sam, Ruth & Don), and we’ll have more family and friends here Saturday.

Click here for pictures of recent events.

March 27, 2007
Waiting...

Jamming with the band on the weekends, working my business during the the weekdays (I love staring out my office window). Just trying to bite my lip and do what needs to get done and wait for our CD release. We're playing 2 shows, one in Gainesville and the other in St. Pete, check our website for more details.

March 2, 2007
Monica's getting Married!?!?

Evelyn & Pito took off for Arizona to be at Monica’s wedding on Saturday. Monica is Evelyn’s sister and she wanted a VERY small wedding so Justin & I are here at home doing our usual thing. Here’s to you Monica!!!

Apparently James (our manager from Ruins of Old Management) heard the first master of DEAD MENS DREAMS and thought it could sound better so he went into the studio to polish it up. We’re now waiting for the new master.

I got together with my band this weekend and we went over all of the harmonies for singing in the songs. This is the FIRST time I have guys in my band backing me up with vocals to make the harmonies sound awesome!!!

We've had the "play out bug" since we started this band last year, and now that we have the CD done and we're gettgin tighter with the music and harmonies we're thkining of playing out before the CD hits the stores!

We went over to Timmy Vasquez’s studio to take pictures of the band. We left with 2 cool pictures he can work with. Timmy is also working on the CD layout, and will be using the pictures he took of us in the layout.

February 5, 2007
Finished recording

Spent a week at Mana Recording doing vocals for my band Dead Mens Dreams, and then mixing the album. I didn't want to come home, I wanted to just get the CD done then hit the road and tour!!! But unfortunately there is this thing called reality, and paying bills, so I came back to lots of work for my business. Hard to catch up on business while away. More pictures here.

Anyway, we're waiting for the master to come back from West West Side Music. We’ll be putting a few songs on our myspace page to get everyone pumped to hear us live. I can’t wait to get back on stage, and this time it’s a bit different because I’m actually trying to sing.

I’ve been talking to James from Ruins Of Old Management and he says we’ll most likely have a world wide CD release by summer ’07. Just imagine, having my own band’s CD available in Best Buy and iTunes… shit.

We get our photos taken with Timmy @ Concussion Graphics next weekend and then Timmy will start on the CD layout. I can’t wait to see that too! Since the days of DNS Timmy has become quite the artist, I’m proud of that guy!!! He’s also been working on making his own recording studio, check it out.

Went to see Pan’s Labyrinth Saturday, damn gruesome movie, good story but boring movie. Had fun with Jack, Whitney & Steve yesterday, that kid is not a baby anymore; he’s been saying “No” to mommy and getting into power struggles with her. Although he’s coming into his own he’s still a fucking great kid! He loves to pick up anything that looks like a microphone and start singing, really LOUD. I didn’t teach him this, he’s only 2 years old, and doesn’t understand certain things and I’ve never sang in front of him, but when we get together we all sing kids songs with him and he LOVES IT! Click here for a new movie clip.

January 2, 2007
The Holidays are over! No more Santa for you.

Evelyn and I went to NYC for Christmas Eve and a week's vacation. I'm not sure I'd call it a vacation after walking our asses off all over the city to enjoy it, but we did see some cool things and met up with old friends. We got to hang out with my old buddy Phil Avelli (guy who's helping me write Keepers of the Orb), and we got to hang out with my other old friend Richard Christy (used to drum for Iced Earth & Death, now he produces the Howard Stern show). To see pics click here...

A lot of people are confused about my status in bands these days. I quit 5 Billion Dead and I'm singing full time for a band I put together called Dead Mens Dreams. We have not played live in a club yet, but we have jammed together as a band for about 6 months every other weekend in Orlando or in West Palm Beach, the reason why is because the drummer and guitarist live in West Palm Beach. We're going into the studio late January to record a full length album, which will be sold at our shows in March, so be expecting to see us live around that time.

Don't read any further if you want to read what we actually did on vacation. You can follow along with the pictures here. Since I had the camera in my pocket most of the time, I usually took shots with Evelyn in them. You'll also notice that we always have our hats on in the pictures because it was cold!!!

Christmas Eve (Sunday):
Evelyn & I flew into Kennedy Christmas eve, and had a supper shuttle van ride. What a NYC bumpy ride! Hold on! Our hotel was on Williams St, right next to Wall st. (NYC Subway Map) We headed out immediately to have some uptown fun. We went to the 4, 5, & 6 subway and bought a week pass ($2 one way on the subway, our week passes cost $24 a piece, that's a LOT cheaper than taxis!) we headed to to Times Square (42nd st) and had a $18 burger at T.G.I.Fridays, then we headed Rockefeller Center to see the tree and all the foofoo on sex 5th ave. it was quite late by this point so we headed back to the hotel. The hotel was Club Quarters, a really nice place. I noticed on our whole trip to NYC that they don't give anyone any room for your legs when sitting on the john.

Christmas Day (Monday):
We ate breakfast at the hotel restaurant Bull Run, it was actually a really good buffet of scrambled eggs, bacon, French toast and other stuff, cost $30! Damn NYC is expensive!!! We're used to Florida prices :( We headed over to see Ground Zero now (Gound Zero 1, & 2), no one was working and we got some good photos. Then we headed to Chinatown to look around and eat. It reminded me of Tijuana with all the open shops and yelling at us walking by to buy stuff.
We checked out the Mahayana Buddhist temple, also check this one out it looks awesome! We bought a miniature Buddha (a tradition on xmas/new years eve we have since we got married) and watched a few people pray to the big guy and burn incense. We thought we found a really cool place too eat, it had ok atmosphere but when we got our Genuine Chinese food we almost gagged on the whole meal, we tried to eat all of the different things but it just gave us the skivvies. As we were leaving Chinatown it started to rain so we bought a $3 umbrella from one of the open shops then we bought a bag of Hong Kong doughnuts (the way they were cooking them was in a waffle maker that had round holes, and it tasted like an airy pancake). We went back to our hotel to take a breather. Our feet were feeling the walking. We didn't eat much at that Chinese place and I wanted to taste NYCs best Pizza. I haven't lived in NYC since '91 so I was a little out of date with the places, so I looked on the internet for some good places and asked a few of my NYC friends and they said John's Pizza on Bleekeer was the best. John's was closed so I checked the Internet for top pizza places to eat at in NYC, and at the top was a place called Joe's Pizza right off of Carmine and Bleeker st. So Evelyn and I ventured out. Evelyn really enjoyed the pizza. I liked it but it didn't have enough cheese or sauce on it for my liking. I guess I'm used to Florida pizza now (Dom's on Edgewater rules!!), this pizza tasted like a cracker with cheese.

Boxing Day (Tuesday):
All of the good museums open on Wednesday, and we wanted to start museuming it up so we found one that was open, the Museum of Sex. When we got there we asked the curator if he knew of any good places to eat because we were starving. He pointed us to a place around the corner called the Flatiron. Pretty good prices for meals :)
We headed back to the museum of Sex. It starts out with old Chinese drawings of sex, then it goes into Manga comix/animation. The second floor were clips from old stag movies, then a huge room of artifacts from past to present of books to devices for sex. Pretty interesting stuff. We headed back to the hotel to rest and figure out what was next. Evelyn wanted to go to South Street SeaPort. No subway ride it was only a few blocks away. By the way every seems like every block has either a Starbucks (coffee) or a Duane Reade (pharmacy). So every morning Evelyn wanted to get a decaf coffee. We're not much for caffeine drinks. Did I also mention that it was really cold in NYC the first few days we were there; so hot drinks weren't a bad idea. Anyway, we walked over to South Street and saw they were having The Bodies exhibit. Evelyn had already seen it in Tampa and I really wasn't interested at that point although it does look interesting. We looked at the huge ships, and walked around a bit, then went into the shops and found a nice place to eat at the top of the mall that had an incredible view of the Brooklyn, Manhattan, and Williamsburg bridges. The food was awesome but the service sucked!

Wednesday:
Phil Avelli called and woke us up that morning and said let's eat! Phil & I went to the School of Visual Arts together and shared a lot of classes. He's always been a good friend of mine. He's still helping me with my book Keepers of the Orb. We said we wanted NYC pizza, so he suggested John's Pizza! So we told him we would meet him there in an hour. On our way over on the subway Evelyn and I agreed that our legs were really hurting from all the walking we were doing. We're not young anymore and we're not used to walking this much. I told Evelyn we would take it easy today and do more stuff Thursday. Phil found us on the street while we headed to John's pizza. Of course he had no hat on and just a sweat shirt, he lives in the Bronx so he's used to the cold. We had a one person wait at John's and we grabbed a table. These tables were so small that I could get my jacket off when I was seated. I thought the pizza was better than Joe's but still not that great. Evelyn didn't like it as much; she doesn't like a lot of sauce. We talked to Phil about what we were doing in life and he told us what he was doing. When we were done with our pizza the waiter old us to hit the road, we walked out to a HUGE line of people waiting to get in to eat. Damn! I'm glad we got in when we did. Phil said he had to go home and be with the family so we all went on the subway to Grand Central and parted ways. We stayed on the subway and went to the Whitney Museum. This museum is usually hit or miss with me. Every other time I go there's a good exhibit, so I was hoping his would be an "every other time". Nope. The ground floor exhibit sucked! There was only one floor that was decent but still sucked. We were disappointed :(
By the time we left it was dark out. We walked down the east side of Central Park and walked over to FAO Schwartz. Before we got there though there was a hug window building with a big apple hanging in the middle of it, a Mac in the Box. What a great idea for a store. People were filing in and walking down the glass stairs to the store that was under FAO. It had EVERYTHING Mac you could think of. Since Evelyn and I had just bought each other nano's for an X-mas gift and I have a iMac for work we were pretty interested. We looked around but couldn't really play with anything because the place was mobbed. Evelyn was feeling a little cramped so we left. We tried to get into FAO but the line was TOOOO LONG. So we headed back to the subway. We went to St. Mark's place (another site better pics) and had a nice meal South of there at a place called the Poetessa. When we were done we went back and checked out a few St. Mark's shops. That street has changed a LOT. More than any other place in NYC I think. They had some really up to date shops on the street, looking almost like it wasn't the cool place to be anymore, not the underground scene like it used to be. I went into St. Mark's Comics and asked the guy if they had any new comics by Matt Wagner. He said they actually did, and showed me a new issue of Batman & the Mad Monk. I was in heaven!!! I hadn't read a Matt Wagner written & Drawn comic in years. Damn I'm a geek! Anyway I bought a few back issues too.

Thursday:
Our legs were killing us!!! I told Ev we would take it easy Wednesday but we didn't. We started with a call from Richard Christy an old friend of mine from Florida who used to play drums in Iced Earth and Death. I met him when he played in Death because I redesigned the Death Logo for Chuck Schuldiner R.I.P. :( Chuck would always ask about the monkey, he and Richard digged my comic Woodrow. I used to hang with Richard at the Lost & Found (Orlando Florida) when that was open and talk to him about the funny phone calls he would leave for Howard Stern and the funny songs he would sing and get them played on Howard. A year later Richard was in the running for Stuttering John's job on the Howard Stern show and won. So he has been working for Howard ever since. Richard told us to meet him near Rockefeller Center and we'd get a bite to eat. Seems like this whole trip is about food. Anyway, we met up with Richard and we went too his favorite pizza place, and damn this pizza was GOOD!!!!!!! Even Evelyn liked it! I can't tell you where this place is because Artie and Sal and other Howard Show regulars eat there and I wouldn't want it on my shoulders that people find the place just to meet those guys. While we were in the pizza place talking about old times and new ones, Richard was spotted by various people and asked for his autograph and pictures taken of him with their cell phones. When we left the back of the pizza place, Richard's fans said goodbye to Richard and they all clapped. Richard said to us that has never happened before. I said get used to it, it's gonna happen more often. Richard brought us up to the Sirius Radio Studios and we had a look around. We ended up in Richard's office that he shares with Sal Governale. He showed us how he brings up the voice samples of every guest Howard has on the show and how he makes prank phone calls with it. Good stuff! We said our goodbyes and headed over to the Guggenheim. Apparently Evelyn had never been to the Guggenheim and loved it!! We wanted a great restaurant to eat at since this was our last night in NYC. We asked around where the best steaks on the city were and a person told us The Post House on 63 East side. So we had a steak and dessert there. Wow! That guy was right, great meal!!! The dessert was a chocolate box with a white chocolate cover with vanilla and chocolate mouse inside with whip crème and raspberries. We dragged our asses to the subway and I wanted to see Battery Park. When we got down there we found it was under construction. What a bummer. We went to the waterfront of the park and enjoyed the view (statue of liberty). We were exhausted but we needed to do one more thing before we left! Rub the bull’s nose! So we headed over to Wall st and found the bull. Evelyn rubbed its nose for good financial luck for the coming year. I licked it. I wonder what that will do?

Friday:
We left for the plane at 5:30am in the supper shuttle van. What a NYC bumpy ride! Hold on! We sat and waited for the plane until 8:15am watching the habits of New Yorkers and Floridians together. We got home and decided to eat at our favorite place, Chili's. Evelyn doesn't drink and during the trip she didn't drink so she said she wanted a margarita. We made it home and Evelyn passed out. I joined her and we both woke up the next morning. Damn we were tired from our NYC trip!!!

Saturday:
We checked emails, did a few work related things then ate at Tijuana Flats, then went to see Night at the Museum with Ben Stiller. Good movie. I'm not usually into kids movies but this was really good! We came home and watched more movies and made iPod Nano covers so they wouldn't get scratched. Evelyn wanted an iPod cover but thought they were too expensive so we went too Joann Fabric and bought some cool fabric to cover it with.

Sunday (New Year's Eve):
Did more of the same as Saturday. Went to Costco to stock up on food. Actually went thought the year's receipts and separated the cash ones from the debit ones, then watched more movies until midnight.

Monday (January 1, 2007):
We kissed at midnight to bring in the New Year! Then we went to sleep. I woke up and wrote this. Time to think about getting back to work.

December 11, 2006
The Holidays are here.... and I'm heading to NYC!

I just finished preproduction vocals this past weekend in West Palm with Dead Mens Dreams, and they're sounding wicked! I've NEVER sang like this on anything I've ever done so I'm really psyched! You guys that have heard my past musical endevours are going to be surprised at what you'll hear. We'll be hitting Mana Recording at the end of January.

Evelyn and I went to Evelyn's Godmother's (Vicky McVay-Froom) Champions Benefit to celebrate her many selfless acts of being a good samaritan (The Don Diebel Award). We love Vicky & Fenton very much! Thanx for having us in your life guys! Click here for pictures of the event.

Since Justin is heading to NY to be with his Bio dad (Scott), Evelyn & I decided to head to NYC for Christmas Eve and the rest of that week, so I'm also hoping to be able to hook up with my old pal Phil Avelli, and Richard Christy for a couple brews!

I also wanted to throw a Congratulation at my friend Matt Wagner (5 Billion Dead Bassist) for getting married to Cammie, you go guys!!!!

November 16, 2006
My new band's Update

We're meeting with Ruins Of Old Management this weekend to work out a deal for my band Dead Mens Dreams. We've been in talks with them for the past 2 months and if all goes well we'll be recording at Mana Studio in St. Pete, Florida, at the end of January & playing out by March with full length CD in hand. We're in pre-production right now at Claudzilla's studio Audio Daze. What is pre-production? Well to us it means recording the whole album and listening to it before we record at Mana so we can hear what things we need to tweak, fix, & change.

In home life we've been having Thaco Thursdays due to Evelyn not being around Mon-Wed at her internship for her Masters program (only 6 more months). Check out the Thaco Thursday pictures on Pitos' website PapitoPaul.us. If you'd like to see some more pics of the family life go to the Adventure page.

October 31, 2006
GARY DUFNER & LIFE

I had some time to make a website for myself instead of making sites for everyone else, Happy Halloween Sheople...

In related news, I just designed Richard Christy's website. He used to drum for Death & Iced Earth, and now he works for Howard Stern.

By the way, those of you that know me, I've decided to make a major change in life and quit 5 Billion Dead, and I'm now singing for Dead Mens Dreams.

I jammed with Dead Mens Dreams this past weekend and we have 7 songs written and one cover tune. So we'll be heading to Claudzilla's studio Audio Daze next month to lay this puppy down! We'll have CDs, shirts, stickers and be playing out by February 2006 as of now. I'm really hoping we can pull that off because I'm itching to play out!!!!! AND I know you guys are itching to see this new project! All I can say is we're groovy as a ten ton brick Bitch!

G (aka Strain)