Dear Fans of Believer,

Thank you all so much for your generosity in helping us achieve our mission. Our lab (in conjunction with Kurt Bachman a few years ago) has made it a top priority to find new therapies and one day cures for breast cancer. We are attempting to identify and validate new targets for breast cancer therapy, as well as create new drugs to treat breast cancers that harbor these genetically defined targets.  The work we do is both labor intense and expensive, and your contribution will go a long way in helping us buy the necessary supplies needed to carry out our experiments.  Thanks once again and Happy Holidays.
 

Ben Ho Park, M.D., Ph.D. 
Associate Professor of Oncology

Associate Director, Medical Oncology Fellowship Training Program
The Sidney Kimmel Comprehensive Cancer Center at Johns Hopkins
Park Lab website:  https://jshare.johnshopkins.edu/bpark2/Park_Lab/index.htm

This message is being brought to you by the letter 'F' and the number '6'.
    Down and dirty greetings from BelieverLand in sunny Central PA. It has come around to me gypping you out of your hard earned entertainment dollar yet again. My apologies in advance.
    I have to tell you fine people that there is a great deal of excitement here over the impending Believer studio album. We're currently devising a working schedule (of sorts) and hope to keep you all updated on the progress as it happens.
    On a personal note, I've hit a depressing part of the year...the part in which I have to winterize my boat (Bass Tracker PT185) and put it to rest until March. I really have to move South where the boat and I can be in the sunshine year 'round hunting for our favorite animal and friend, the largemouth bass. The only thing that could make a bass better would be if it could rock like David Lee Roth. Speaking of this wonderful creature (the bass, not David Lee Roth, although he's wonderful in his own right), check out my bio on the BELIEVERBAND.NET page to get a couple of links for fishing companies that are good friends of mine.
    Finally, the other day I found myself contemplating the genius within the Muppet Show theme song and realized that I would like to share some of the current musical selections I'm favoring. I'm going to go with the full albums, although the Itunes/Ipod are always on shuffle. I'm hoping that the rest of the band will join in with me on this theme and share their current top 10 albums or tracks on their upcoming blogs. Please feel free to comment back and list your current faves...maybe we'll all gain some new musical heroes? These are in no particular order:

1) Oingo Boingo - Only A Lad
2) Woven Hand - Consider the Birds
3) Rammstein - Reise, Reise
4) Sevendust - Animosity
5) Kenna - Make Sure They See My Face
6) Deltron 3030 - Deltron 3030
7) Dead Kennedys - Plastic Surgery Disasters
8) Hall and Oates - Greatest Hits
9) Suicidal Tendencies - How will I laugh...
10) Dokken - Back for the Attack

    Until the next time we meet my dear friends...enclosed is a picture of my cat teaching me how to play bass.



EN

Hello once again to all.  I first want to thank all of those who dared to come see us live.  We have been having an amazing time on stage.  There will be more shows coming but we must start the writing process for the next record.  Time flies when you're having fun so to speak.  We have many new ideas and are really pumped to bring you the next wave of Believer recordings.  Should be INSANE!!!

Thanks to everyone who purchased "The Brave" shirts for breast cancer research.  We have many left and want to sell them all to maximize your donations (girly T's also available).  These were designed to minimize promoting the band so even those who aren't Believer fans can wear them.  Even though October was breast cancer awareness, this is not a disease that should be limited to donations for one month.  We must find a cure and every penny helps to pay for the expensive research needed.  Please tell your friends and with the holidays coming, these will make an amazing gift.

I'll be back with more ramblings in the near future so standby.  Thanks again for your continued support!

Cheers,
KB

Well folks, it's my turn again to let you into my humble life. Cycling has always been a part of my life, from trying to be the neighborhood Evel Knievel to racing BMX and Mountain bike, riding Trials, and just goin out with friends on road rides. Along with pipe smoking, it tends to relax me. Believe it or not there is something relaxing to me about goin downhill on some crazy single track that is so steep that your stomach is laying on your seat and your ass is about 1/2" off the back tire( forget sittin at home on the recliner watchin TV, that ain"t relaxin). Wait, let me go one step further how about...........goin downhill on some crazy single track that is so steep that your stomach is laying on your seat and your ass is about 1/2" off the back tire at night in the winter when it's about 20 degrees outside.....YEAH! That's what I'm talkin about. You brethren of the bike out there know exactly what I'm sayin! I must also add, doin my night laps at the 24 Hours of Canaan and havin loads of people littered all over the downhill cheerin ya on is purely priceless! Unfortunately, I have had to tame myself a bit upon shredding the trails due to the possibility of having four band mates pissin and moanin if I would happen to show up to practice with anything broken. Riding in general is great but you can't beat rippin the trails is central PA at night with a bunch of buds!!!!


My trusty POS Cherokee w/ my Smorgasbord Cycles hardtail!!! 853 steel frame...steel is real!!!!!!

Jeff here with a link to some live video of Pappy Bachman's question and
answer time from the first Believer show in a decade and a half.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vm3xAg4S6Fo&feature=channel

I particularly enjoy the part where Kurt struggles with his guitar cable and
eventually decides it's not worth it anymore (the show must go on). Sure,
it's a fun moment, but looking a little deeper we can see the same thing
happen in other areas of life. We often think we have to stop what we're
doing in order to untangle all the imperfections in whatever situation we
find ourselves in. But sometimes the most effective way to deal with these
distractions is to simply accept them or ignore them and move on.

One of the things I like about the Believer live shows is that we've created
moments of spontaneity throughout our set where what happens is going to be
different every night. It keeps it fun and interesting. Our next show is in
Philadelphia next Thursday, October 22. We look forward to seeing you there.

In closing, I'd like to share this heartwarming photo of a lady bug corpse
on a child's foot.

Hello Everyone!  KB here to talk about Breast Cancer Awareness Month.  As many of you know, I am a cancer researcher.  There are several people in my life who have been touched by this disease, some are survivors and some who were not as fortunate.  I am therefore quite passionate about wiping out this horrible illness as are many of my friends in the research community.  We (Believer) have decided to release a limited time only T-shirt (girls and guys) to sell during the month of October with proceeds going to help fund ground-breaking cancer research at Johns Hopkins where I earned my Ph.D.  I know that Believer fans and metal fans in general will step up for this cause and we thank you in advance for your support.  Please feel free to enter the name of someone during your purchase that you wish to honor with your donation and we will post a list on our sites to acknowledge your help with this fight. 

With many thanks,
KB

Enough with the small talk I'm diving right in this one. Right now is a perfect time to start planning next years lawn. What I like to do around this time is core aeration. What that is, is a machine that goes over your lawn punching six inch tubes into the soil. Whats left behind are these 3 to 4 inch plugs of soil.  The main purpose for core aeration is to get oxygen to the roots of your grass. Which helps the deterioration of thatch, which helps water get to those roots, which makes those roots go deeper. Deeper roots means healthier lawn. I've found over the years that deeper, thicker roots helps with the prevention of weeds. Now this is just me and my lawn, the Scotts man down the road will tell you otherwise but then again he is trying to sell a product. After aeration I like to apply a winterizer, usually in mid October. The final step to my fall lawn shut down is to put this baby asleep with about 80LBS of pelletized lime. 80LBS seems to work fine for me, I'm working with 5000 sq. ft.I usually apply this about 4-6 weeks after my winterizer. The lime will balance the PH level of your soil after a season worth of applying all the nitrates that come along with regular fertilizing. I'm the only guy out in mid November with my spreader, but than I'm usually the only guy out in March mowing my grass too. Now of course that has to do with the warm winters we have had the past few years. Now reading this creates a lot of questions, I understand, I can answer some I suggest staying on this here interweb and doing some lawn care searches on your favorite search engine. Until next time...
Thanks for reading my blog and hope to see you all at the first show in 16 years. September 25th at The Sterling Hotel in Allentown, PA.
Stay Green!
Kev

Elton again...blogging to you from the wild and wooly world of all that is Believer. I thought I should update you on the whole David Lee Roth fan mail situation. As I am writing this, I have not received a response from Mr. Roth. I did, however, manage to pick up a copy of his autobiography 'Crazy From the Heat'. Not only did I get it for 50 cents at a used book stand, but it was sitting on a newly put out pile of books...right on top...glimmering in a shaft of sunlight...just for me. I wonder if that was Dave's way of talking to me? Sadly, I didn't find the other books I was hoping to find: Rich Hall's book of Sniglets, a German to English Dictionary, and Truly Tasteless Jokes 3.  Maybe next trip to the old book stand.
I should thank Kurt for getting around to actually blogging on the page with his recipe. For those who don't have the background of the band, Kurt is as elusive as Roger Denby. Now, whomever can tell me who Roger Denby is and where that reference comes from will get a special gift from me. Let's see, I can't promise to clip off one of Kevin's dreads without him noticing, or steal one of Joey's broken sticks, but I can safely say that I could manage to send you a small box of raisins for your correct response.
In case you weren't aware, the first Believer show is less than 2 weeks from becoming reality in Allentown, PA on the 25th of Sept. We're all very excited to get out there and play some of these tunes for you. In the meantime, I hope I hear from everyone of you, and I hope someone can answer my little riddle...which would do nothing short of filling my little heart with glee, and if you're wise enough, your mailbox with a some raisins.
Enclosed is a picture of dragonflies doing the nasty on someone else's feet.

I guess it’s my turn to blog about something and get Elton and Jeff off my ass…bugging me to do this.  So here I go.  When Believer was just being hatched, I was in high school and had a part time job as a cook at an Italian restaurant in Hershey, PA.  I really fell in love with the experimentation of cooking during this stint (as you know I’m a science geek, so this should come as no surprise).  It really is like a chemistry experiment to me with trying to put the right “molecules” or subunits together to create something tasty.  With that tidbit of history I will share with you, Believer’s Army of the Insane, one of my favorite recipes that I created during the Gabriel sessions.  This was derived following numerous conversations with a fellow science and cooking geek, Joel Greshock (had to give a well-deserved shout out to Joel).  This recipe involves brining the chicken prior to dry roasting.  Brine is basically very salty water, but of course I add to this for flavor.  You will submerge an approximately 4lb. whole chicken (rinse it first and remove any gut packaging) into a special “Gabriel Chicken” brine for 5-6 hours at room temperature.

Brine (5-6 hours rm temp)*:
1 gal H2O
1 cup Kosher salt
1/4 cup honey
1/2 cup King's Syrup (or another brand)
1 Tbsp Hoisin sauce
1/2 cup Granulated brown sugar (Domino’s Brownulated, Light Brown Sugar)
1 tsp ground ginger

*You will have to heat this mixture to get everything into solution, so make sure you let it cool to room temp before adding the bird. I usually add _ gallon of H2O and then add the last _ gallon made up of ice and H2O after heating which helps to cool the brine quickly.

I don't rinse after brining but you must dry the bird completely inside and out with paper towels or something (very important step!!). If the bird is not dry it will not dry roast properly. Preheat the oven to 450 degrees F.  Place the bird into a roasting pan, breast side up and sprinkle some Kosher salt and pepper inside and then rain evenly a generous amount of Kosher salt and pepper on the outside of the bird along with a decent amount of Domino’s granulated brown sugar (the salt crisps the skin which locks in the juices).  I tie the legs together (truss the bird) also.  Put the bird into the oven (middle rack) uncovered and bake for 60 minutes BUT during the last 20 minutes or so cover with foil (not tight) as this will create more condensation that drips in the pan (awesome juices) and keep the skin from getting burned and black.  Take it out, leaving it in the pan and spoon the pan juice over the bird and let it sit for like 5-10 minutes.  You are then ready to feast on the super juicy meat that falls right off the bone.  Frickin AWESOME!!!!  ENJOY!!!

Stay tuned for my blog about getting the US $2 bill back into mass circulation!