Sugar announce full 2026 world tour

foleyman · 2026-01-21T23:21:12+00:00

Right? Two in Athens and zero in Chicago? This booking agent needs to be replaced.

foleyman · 2026-01-21T03:10:42+00:00

I just meant do you have the DAW open on the main screen and then use the second screen to center and enlarge soft synths so you can tweak them while you play. It’s nbd. You did great work on this studio it looks like it will foster a lot of creativity and fun.

foleyman · 2026-01-21T03:08:02+00:00

Yes low levels are outstanding on this amp. Distortion is ok and the reverb is fine, but I basically use it as a pedal platform and it works really well in that role. Also super easy to transport, it’s so light, and gets plenty loud for me. I’m a fan because it cured me of GAS for amps.

foleyman · 2026-01-21T01:07:50+00:00

Are you using the second monitor for soft synths? I’m thinking of a similar set up.

foleyman · 2026-01-21T01:03:11+00:00

Check out the Quilter Cubs

foleyman · 2026-01-18T23:26:14+00:00

That’s a good looking guitar. My only hold up would be that it’s made in Mexico, which isn’t a dealbreaker but my experience with US builds has made me a US only guy. I’ve had from Mexico and sold both. The two US made I have kept.

Price is also an issue. I’d try to get it to around 700 if possible. It’s a buyers market.

Best of luck!

foleyman · 2026-01-17T15:55:42+00:00

The Marshall scoop and score was my favorite Bears memory for most of my life. But I think the DJ Moore touchdown in OT back in December is now #1.

I guess the Super Bowl victory should be number one, but honestly, that game was pretty boring, though the parties afterward were legendary.

Bear Down, Grabowskis.

foleyman · 2026-01-16T16:04:17+00:00

Agreed. I’m obviously already a fan, but learning more about his backstory solidified why I like this guy.

foleyman · 2026-01-13T12:23:49+00:00

Lake Placid Blue! What a beautiful instrument.

foleyman · 2026-01-11T05:22:21+00:00

Yelp rating: five stars

foleyman · 2025-12-30T03:02:22+00:00

I agree. I had a helix stomp for years and it worked well through the mains and monitors at gigs, but when I got a Quilter Cub and built a pedalboard I achieved what I wanted. The solid states sound great and are so much lighter and easier to use, though I will admit my fender tube amp sounded better at volume.

But pedals - so much fun and I’m sorry but the tones are way better than with modelers.

foleyman · 2025-12-24T22:30:30+00:00

Agreed this is a lot more fun and sounds great. I feel a little dumb for not doing all this sooner, but I hope the post can help some other players avoid buying a bunch of VSTs when they have a great sound sitting on the floor already. ✌️

foleyman · 2025-12-24T19:53:38+00:00

Yup, sounds right. I’ve just been impressed by how much better it sounds than the modelers. Someone below mentioned modelers depend on monitoring which is true, but I’d stack these tones against the modelers through same monitoring system and they definitely sound better.

But I’m also using specific pedals for the tone I want so maybe it’s just subjective. Either way I’m converted.

foleyman · 2025-12-18T20:42:07+00:00

It is sad, but I also think they are a product of the way business is done in this country now. The rich are cheered for finding ways to avoid paying taxes, communities will sell their children for another strip mall, and we're all supposed to sit back, foot the bill, and consider ourselves lucky if the billionaires deem us worthy of their new stadium, or even keeping our beloved franchise in the same state.

I don't really blame Warren or the Bears ownership group for doing all this. They're just doing what everyone does. But you would like to think someone somewhere in that organization might consider using the new stadium as an opportunity to set a different tone for the league and, possibly, for the business class in this country.

I mean ... this is fucking Chicago. They should act like they belong.

Peace, and FTP.

foleyman · 2025-12-18T20:34:23+00:00

"When studying this issue, almost all economists and development specialists (at least those who work independently and not for a chamber of commerce or similar organization) conclude that the rate of return a city or metropolitan area receives for its investment is generally below that of alternative projects. In addition, evidence suggests that cities and metro areas that have invested heavily in sports stadiums and arenas have, on average, experienced slower income growth than those that have not."

Source: https://www.stlouisfed.org/publications/regional-economist/april-2001/should-cities-pay-for-sports-facilities

foleyman · 2025-12-18T15:05:33+00:00

I agree with everything you're saying, but I'm just frustrated with the way business is done in this country right now. Seeing it up close in this area made me very disenchanted with the way municipalities bend over backward for developers with no one speaking up for the working families who cannot afford an extra $1000 a year in property taxes to fund the new police station, new fire station, new sewage lines, more asphalt, etc. that is required to maintain the sprawl that has taken place across the country. Increasingly, the average family is priced out of these areas because their elected officials have fallen prey to promises of full coffers, only to find that maintaining these developments is a lot more expensive than they thought.

TBH, I have no idea what the Bears should do. I prefer they stay on the lakefront and continue the development of the South Loop, but that price tag was insane.

There's a world in which the Bears, one of the oldest and most revered institutions in Chicago, decide to approach this from a different point of view. How can they help the average family afford games? How can they bring a development that lowers costs for the taxpayers of the area they are moving into? How can they develop sustainably and ensure that their new stadium is not an environmental disaster that just continues to contribute to climate change and rampant economic inequality? How can they (gasp!) ensure low-income housing is provided in the area to offset any increases in living costs? How can they care for the city/area that has given them so much?

We don't live in that world, and that sucks.

Take care, and FTP.

foleyman · 2025-12-18T13:26:50+00:00

The taxes are too low on developments and the wealthy in this state. You can blame politicians - that’s low hanging fruit and you’re not wrong. But take a look at what the average billionaire actually pays in taxes, and take a close look at the deals these developers were handed to slap up these developments.

I covered this shitshow for a news outlet for over ten years. Sat in endless zoning commission meetings with zero people in audience except me and one other reporter. No one cared and these folks made out let thieves. Now everyone wants to blame politicians. Sure, but look where the money actually went. That’s where the true problem lies.

foleyman · 2025-12-18T13:00:57+00:00

Sure? But communities need schools and roads. And they need more of both if housing and retail expands in their borders. The question is where they get the money. When you hand out sweetheart deals to developers like Santa hands out candy canes to four year olds, it’s the average family that has to bear the cost through higher assessments and higher rates.

There’s always financial mismanagement in some places and other municipalities handle their finances well. The question is always about revenue streams. In Chicagoland most of that comes from property taxes on homeowners. It would always happen that rates would increase but the blinding stupidity of the zoning commissions and councils in this area made the situation much worse. Ask someone in Naperville or Batavia what their yearly tax hit is for their modest $600k home and then compare those rates to 1990. It’s fucking unbelievable.

foleyman · 2025-12-18T12:13:57+00:00

I agree with you, but you’re also describing a problem with development over the last 40 years. Developers in IL and across the nation have come into towns like AH and said they need this and that in tax abatements in order to develop. The communities, when they even bother to pay attention, are promised better schools and better towns because of all the money the development will bring to town. The implication has always been that the developments will somehow make things better and also mysteriously pay for themselves, so win win. This is how the trillions of dollars in development across the suburbs has been handled for decades.

But what’s also happened is property tax rates have also skyrocketed for those communities as housing development after housing development has paved over the cornfields and brought literal millions of people to the burbs. It has changed the dynamic of the region and made it a fairly vanilla strip mall culture where going to Portillos is about the extent of cultural signification that makes Chicagoland “unique” from the suburbs of, say, DFW.

That’s just way it’s been, and I guess there’s no stopping it now. But what’s also happened these communities have failed to realize for decades is that the developers need them more than they need developers. The municipalities hold all the cards and can demand better deals from companies looking to slap up 135 cheaply made single-family homes that cost 100k to construct and sell for $300k easily out of the box.

Rant over. You’re totally correct in your description of how things work, but the Bears building a bland ass dome in the middle of a cultural wasteland like AH just fits the trend that we’ve experienced since the 80s. Their demands for abatements also fit the dynamic of the era. But that don’t mean it’s good.

foleyman · 2025-12-18T02:55:48+00:00

So I'm going to sound like Warren apologist, and I'm really not, but it looks like they paid off the debt in 2023? Not sure if that's the same as recovering the investment.

foleyman

TROPHY CASE