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The Guggenheim Grotto Fantasy Football League

In a week or so the English Premiership Football League begins again and this means the start of another Fantasy Football season. Myself and Mick discovered it last year and found that managing a team was a great way of killing time during the long drives we undertake on tour. This year we decided to share the fun and so we have created a league for friends of The Guggenheim Grotto, which we’ve titled "The Spiegel League". Now you can pit your managerial skills against ours and challenge us to the title of team of the season. The prize for ending up top of the The Spiegel League after all 38 gameweeks is a Guggenheim Grotto t-shirt. Okay, a signed Guggenheim Grotto t-shirt. 
 
To enter you must first create your own team. Go here to do so: http://fantasy.premierleague.com
Once you’ve created your team then use this code to join our league: 309964-195060
 
May the best team win (and apologies to the bulk of our American fans who we imagine have absolutely no clue about, or interest in, any of this).
 

Kevin


posted: Aug 05, 2010 23:50 by kevin
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Bethlehem, Here We Come

"It’s like we’re driving through a painters canvas" - Mick
 
 

We spent the last month living on the West Coast in Long Beach and playing residencies in LA, San Diego and Ventura. The gigs were really great and we want to thank all of you for coming out to share your evening with us. Special mention goes to Zoeys in Ventura, which was sold out each week and where we had a whole lot of fun singing into pianos and what have you. A huge thank you to Polly and Steve at Zoeys for making it such a great experience for us. Every night after the gig when everyone went home we’d sit down with Polly and Steve for a chat and they’d feed us coffee and a secret recipe fancy custard fit for the Gods. 

 
In our time on the West Coast I also managed to fit in a tandem skydive (cue thumbs in the air skydive photo).
 
Somewhere above Lake Elsinore 
 
 

So once again we find ourselves making the journey from coast to coast. Most people who ever take on the task of driving clear across America in less than one week will do it once and leave it at that. This will be our fourth time doing it. It’s ridiculous really, madness… but it works out more economical for us in the long run as we get to have our own car on either coast for when we tour. For our previous three jaunts across this vast nation we took the southern route through Arizona, New Mexico, the Texas Pan Handle, Oklahoma and so on. This time to mix it up a bit we decided to take the route through Nevada, Utah, Colorado, Nebraska…

This latter route goes over the Rockies so it’s far more testing on the driver and the car… but it has so much more to offer. Our first night we stopped in Vegas and stayed in a giant pyramid (not our choice, blame William Shatner and priceline - it did the trick though). The next day we put in a 600 plus miles journey so we could arrive in beautiful Glenwood Springs that night. Come Sunset we’re driving through Utah and we’re the only car on the highway. It was if the entire world was ours. It was magnificent - colours, clouds, rock formations,mountains, shadows and skies like I’ve never seen.

 
This morning in Glenwood Springs we both got a massage at this great place called Splendor Mountain Spa (www.splendormtndayspa.com). The knots and nodules have been worked out and we are ready for some more hardcore driving. Next Sunday we play Bethlehem, PA. Best get going then.

posted: Aug 04, 2010 00:58 by kevin
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Drummer and Bass Player Join us for June Residencies

Myself and Mick are very excited about the June residencies in New York and Philly. The exciting news is we will be performing with a band for these dates.
This is the first time we have toured with a rhythm section in the states so it’s a real milestone for us.
With new additions Michael Thurber on Bass and Michael Davis on Drums, it will now be  a band of three Micks and one Kevin.
Our more rockier songs like Sunshine Makes Me High, Portmarnock Beach Boy Blue and Girl With The Cards will now come back into the set and songs like Vertigo and Just Not Just will be even funkier than before.
We hope to see you at our shows. They are going to be magnificent.

Check out our June gigs in Philly and New York here


posted: May 26, 2010 21:02 by kevin
3 comments



I want you in my pocket (and so does Mick)

It is time for us to make new business cards but rather than design them myself I have been inspired with a much better idea by a great friend of mine (and a great photographer) canvasbeauty.net. She had business cards made where each card displayed a different one of her photos.
 
So here’s the idea: you create our business cards.
 
Take a photo, paint a picture, create something special, send it to us. We put it on the card.
"The higher I climb the more I present myself to the possibility of falling down" by Jessie Stewart
 
Your creativity becomes an ambassador for The Grotto and we get to carry a mobile art gallery in our pocket. It’s a beautiful idea.
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
As with all great art there must be boundaries and rules. These are ours:
 
  1. No stealing other peoples artwork. It’s gotta be yours to give.
  2. No photographic or painted images of either myself or Mick. The last thing I want to be carrying around in my pocket is Mick’s face (and likewise I’m sure).
  3. You must title the piece with a lyric from one of our songs. You don’t need to put the title in the image… just let us know in your email to us that this piece of art is called so and so. This way you can create something from scratch inspired by one of our lyrics but you could also apply one of our lyrics to a piece of art you’ve already created - perhaps they marry well, compliment each other, or cast a new light on one  another.
  4. The closing date for us to receive your image is Sunday the 6th of June
  5. We can only accept the file as a JPEG or a PDF.
  6. These are the dimensions it will need to be in pixels, millimeters or inches:
  • 1039 x 697 pixels (300dpi)
  1. 88mm x 59mm (300dpi)
  2. 3.46" x 2.32" (300dpi)

 
Send your artwork to Art@GuggenheimGrotto.com
 
I just can't seem to get out of bed anymore - Kristen Gill 
 

And finally, I thought you might be interested in knowing that the paper your artwork will be featured on will be:

100% recycled post consumer waste
100% recyclable & biodegradeable
FSC Certified
Smartwood Certified
Manufactured using wind power


posted: May 06, 2010 20:50 by kevin
1 comment



Master Of The Universe

 

A few days ago we got our new album The Universe Is Laughing back from being mastered. For me getting the final mastered album is even more exciting than the next stage which is getting the packaging back. The mastering stage is the point in the whole process of making an album where the aural fairy dust is added. Songs open up and become more… well they just become more. We’ve been listening to it now over these past few days at any opportunity we can get. I carry my iPod around with me and a lead so I can try it our on different people’s hi-fi systems. It sounds beautiful. It even sounds great on our cars stereo which is saying something because the Town and Country we own has a truly horrible stereo system.
 

The reason I’m telling you all this is because while we are not yet ready to release the full album we would like to give you a wee taster of the aural joy we’ve been experiencing these past few days.

We’ve added our new song "Wisdom" to our media player.

Not only can you listen to your hearts content but should you feel you can’t wait until the official release of the full album to own a copy of Wisdom, we’ve also provided a handy link right here on this page so you can buy it now. How very thoughtful of us.

We hope you enjoy it.

-Kevin


posted: Apr 22, 2010 17:52 by admin
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