january 31, 2007
hello all! there has been a recent update to the site. the photos page has been updated with a new slideshow style viewer. its not a database viewer it is a javascript viewer. so it may take a bit to load all the photos. so, be patient. when i get an opportunity to upgrade to a database style, there will be many more photos to upload. i also added some youtube links to the videos page.
adios!
may 12, 2006
it was a week of highs and lows - mostly lows....my father in law passed away and maggie and i were devastated. he was a good man and will be missed in many ways. he did a lot for us and for everyone he came in cantact with. but we have the assurance of knowing that we will meet him again. you can read his obituary here. he was truly a legend in his own time.
also, at long last, the time has come to announce the completion of recording cold blue sky, gristle's cd. now we just have to finish mixing, mastering, artwork, duplication, marketing, and whatever else there is to do. i'll keep everyone updated as we finish each step!
i had the chance to upload more fan letters to read. check'm out!
june 29, 2005
there are too many new things on the site for me to make a list. please just tool around and check out some of the newness! you'll notice a new homepage look and some links that have been fixed and updated. i've kept a lot of the old stuff as archives. let me know if you find any dead links or something screwy, and i'll have a look at it. (email ben)
on anther subject, that being music, if you're going to be in houston on july 14th please come to the gristle show. we will be playing at the sherlock's pub on west gray. we'd love to see you there.
february 24, 2005
just a couple of updates to the fan page and the mp3 page. don't be too critical of the mp3s. they are live and practically unrehearsed!
february 10, 2005
it's that time again. that's right, you guessed it....time for the annual gristle show! that's our track record so far, atleast. we played once in '03 & once in '04. we hope to play more than once this year but you never know. if history repeats itself we'll only do it once. so listen carefully and plan accordingly: sunday, february 27 2005 - the engine room. i just looked and they don't have anything on their schedule about it. but if you need a phone number or directions you'll find them there.
ben
february 7, 2005
i trust everyone's 2005 is going well thus far? the real beginning of the year is upon us...the super bowl is over and now we can all breathe a sigh of relief and be about our business! i was just doing some updating and found an email from steve dacus. it's OLD! but i uploaded it along with another testimonial to the fans page. nothing more to add at this point. happy new year everyone!
december 16, 2004
it's fixed!!! can you believe it? i finally got released from server hell and the message board is back. thanks to everyone for their patience. i'm sure i wasn't as patient with the poor system administrator who had to field my numerous emails. but they did have it coming, right? in the end it all worked out and i can't wait to hear what everyone has been up to for the past couple of months.
ben
december 8, 2004
another fan testimonial has been added. check it out! it's from our own mr. edmonds. and i thought he didn't care....i'm a bit vaclempt (sp?) talk amongst yourselves. new wave music was neither new nor wavy, discuss! i've got some schpilkis(sp?) in my scinectikazoink(whaaaaa???)...
december 7, 2004
for those of you still visiting the site for updates on the nightmarish server hell that has been plaguing the galactic cowboys website, the saga continues. there have been no steps forward in this drama. i am still not receiving emails at ben@galacticcowboys.com. i am still not able to set permissions for my ftp files. the message board and the formmail forwarding are still on the fritz....it's not a good thing. i am thinking seriously of moving the site off the hosting service that i have been using since '97. those of you who'd like to email me, you can use this addy: smilnben@swbell.net. i'd love to hear how everyone is doing. in the meantime keep your fingers crossed and keep checking the site.
november 23, 2004
AAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!! it's been a week since i've been able to access the site! but today i finally get to tell y'all what's been going on. my hosting service moved the site to a newer, faster server. this by itself is good news. unfortunately they didn't let me know ahead of time what they were up to, and as a result i've been out of contact with all of you for a week now. i haven't gotten email, the message board has been down...(still is!) and to top it all off, i couldn't even ftp into my site to post a notice. it's been really frustrating for me and i hope that they don't decide to move me again too soon because i don't like this kind of pressure. :) i'm hoping that the message board will be up again soon and we'll all laugh heartily about all this. hang in there!
november 12, 2004
just updated the photos page, bio page and fans page and added a fan letter. those of you who have been procrastinating concerning your fan letter to the band have had ample time to gather your thoughts about galactic cowboys. now it is time to put those thoughts to email and send them to me to be uploaded for posterity! thanks to those who have sent in many emails.
i used a fan pic for the header on the fans page. anyone know who these people are? i don't mean me, alan, monty, dane or mike portnoy.....i mean the others. if you are one of these fans let me know so that i can post your name somewhere and thank you for sending me the photo.
ben
november 6, 2004
hello all! it's a beautiful fall day in houston. yes, i said fall in the same sentence with houston. it couldn't be a more beautiful day. it's probably what most of you in the north experience in early september. but in houston we like to delay gratification until all the other states are living through blizzards and record cold spells.
you're probably wondering why i'm updating the "what's new" page....well, gristle had a very productive day in the studio yesterday and i wanted to proclaim it loudly! we are sooooooo close to finishing it is scary! i don't want to lead anyone on with a release date because, who knows what could come up next to slow down this "snail stuck in molasses" process that we've been going through to record???? however i think we can all take comfort in the fact that I (you noticed i used a capital i for emphasis only!), yes I, the cynical sceptic that I am, am feeling a tinge of relief concerning this long awaited project. thanks for your patience. talk to you again soon, i hope.
ben
october 4, 2004
i'm taking on the daunting task of revamping the site!
btw, thanks to all of you who tuned into djwill's show on knac.com. it was a nice trip down memory lane.
now to the item at hand. i know that the site has been, hmmmmmm how can i put this, boring for quite awhile. i'm going to do my best, not only to update the look, but also to validate the xhtml and css (style sheets) so that everyone can see the same thing when they come to the gc site. it's a bummer when you think you've designed something "just so" and someone looks at it and says, "that's not what i see!" beauty is truly in the eye of the beholder, but i'd atleast like to know that the beholder is beholding EXACTLY what i want them to see! if you scroll to the very very bottom of the page you'll see the w3c seals of approval, something i'm particularly proud of. you can email me at ben@galacticcowboys.com and let me know what you think about the design idea. and uh, i already know it's simpler.....that's the point!
adios,
ben
june 7, 2004
ba baba ba ba ba bum!(trumpet intro.)
after another outbreak of "oh yeah, i was just remembering how bad THE HORSE THAT BUD BOUGHT sounds"-itus, the faq page has been updated with an appropriate answer by one of the co-producers, alan doss. check out question number 37.
adios,
ben
july 25, 2003
nothing important......so unimportant as a matter of fact, that i'm not going to make any sort of big announcement.
i was just fiddling about with quicktime pro and imovie and came up with this inane little film. just go to the video page to check it out. it's a 7 meg file so it will take a while to download. don't worry, if you give up before it's done and never get to see it, i won't hold it against you!
adios,
ben
may 21, 2003
greetings, patient fans!
here's your first look at gristle! there's also a listen in there....don't get carried away thinking i uploaded a whole song. i just looped the intro to a song called "turn to salt". hope you like it.
adios,
ben
july 30, 2002
you're not going to believe what i finally figured out!
a couple of years back before liz got so busy with her post-grad work at university of texas, she gave me a video cd that contained some little animated shorts that she had done as well as two of our videos. the other day it dawned on me that i might be able to save them to my desktop and play them on my computer. and hey, if i can do that then maybe i can upload them to the website so that everyone can enjoy them on their own home computers! it turns out that the .mov format was sooooooo incredibly large that my server rejected them several times. so i downloaded the pro version of quicktime and, voila! you can now go to the video page and view two of our videos online. i hope to get some more videos digitized and uploaded soon.
i also added one more person to the fans page. see you soon!
adios
ben
may 8, 2001
hello friends and neighbors!
believe it or not i did some updating on the site. first, is the lyrics page for let it go. second, are the emails and posts that have been submitted for the fans page. i hope that everyone is doing well and that the Lord has been blessing y'all so much that you just can't stand it anymore.
adios
january 28, 2001
my, how time flies. it's been over six months since the release of the final galactic cowboys record. i told y'all that i would do a flash animation for it and i have finally come through. the lyrics have not been done yet because i'm hoping that wally has already typed them up and will email them to me soon. or, some real fan can email the LET IT GO lyrics to me neatly typed in microsoft word. check out the records page.
there were also some minor tweeks to the core page.
on a side note, wally is well on his way to becoming a master of PROTOOLS®. i'm sure that he'll have something amazing for everyone to hear in the not so distant future. (this was me (ben) talking...the previous comment in no way relflects a willingness on wally's part to release musical stylings in the near, distant or otherwise indeterminable future.) i (ben) have also been dabbling but have no idea when there will be something worth releasing to the general public.
october 17, 2000
i can't believe it's been almost two months since my last update! things have been extremely hectic in houston town. i haven't forgotten about the final installment for the records page. i just have to find the time to make an animation for LIG... enough of what i haven't had time to do, what i did do was update the fans page. i hope everyone is doing peachy and that his or her favorite sporting team is winning!
adios, y'all!
august 29, 2000
after many months of learning and rebuilding i'm finally up through "at the end of the day" on the records page. now i just have to figure out a fitting idea for LIG...oh, just so you know, slap the fly on the horses nose (bud) and click the spaceman's helmet (ateotd) to see the lyrics pages. it will all be clear once you see the pages.
august 26, 2000
a couple years ago when liz was webmistress, she uploaded some wav files of a little known band called "bob watkins". last year the site was hacked and some of the files that weren't backed up were lost. the "bob watkins" files were part of that loss. not too long ago i was asked about what happened to a rare sound bite that was once located on this site, where ben huggins, wally farkas, alan doss, ty tabor, jerry gaskill and frank hart all played the abbey road medley. this line up IS "bob watkins" and you can now download the full medley(not as clean of a file. because of the size it was converted at a lower rate to make it a smaller download) or two portions of the medley that were edited out and converted to mp3 at a higher rate. either way, you can go to the mp3 page and check them out for yourself.
august 22, 2000
little by little i'm updating the records page.
take a look at the rage page.
august 18, 2000
another testimonial has been added to the fans page.
just wondering how difficult it was to figure out the new core page. was anyone baffled? or, was it pretty wasy to conquer? feel free to post any comments on the message board.
august 17, 2000
you may have noticed some changes in the site. then again, you may not have. that is neither here nor there...the important thing is you're here! anyways, everyone should navigate around the site and make sure they know where everything is located now. some of the links have been moved. nothing has been deleted. the only thing that is MIA for now is the "cool site of the week". i've grown bored with it for now and it will lie dorment until such time as i find a suitable cool site to revive my interest. that should just about do it. hope everyone is doing swell!
august 10, 2000
I don't want to sound like I'm Diana Ross discovering the Jackson 5....but I'm proud to present to you... geek ! Geek is the new band featuring Jerrimy and Joy Gaskill (sons of Jerry Gaskill-King's X). The band's EP, "Smells Like Tuna," will be released September 12, 2000. Follow the link to check out the band's bio (which you should print out and take to your local record store, and say..."hey dude, can you please order this for me? Everything you need is on this sheet of paper. Cool, thanks!"). You can also see a picture of Geek in action and hear a snippet of the track "Brainpeal." Make sure to buy a copy or two!
Thanks, Wally Farkas
august 6, 2000
it looks like the domination of biff and deren has come to an end. a new winner has emerged as this week's cool site winner!
you'll also find a new testimonial on the fans page.
july 31, 2000
after a long absence our own liz reeder made a brief appearance to submit this weeks cool site. nice to have you back, liz!
also updated was the fans page.
adios!
july 24, 2000
it's been a while since i've updated the "site of the week" (at this rate it's more like month). but here's the lates offering from biff. hope everyone is doing well!
adios!
july 2, 2000
some pics from blake and holly's let it go party. additionally, there has been another song added to the mp3 page.
june 27, 2000
it's seems that deren refuses to accept defeat!
june 27, 2000
another japanese bonus track has been uploaded on the mp3 page.
june 24, 2000
it's time to officially recognize the total domination of biff mayhem. he has consistently turned it excellent cool sites and has become the site of the week champion of champions! biff's pic-o-d-week. in a side note, deren is running a distant second. the rest of you need to put the full body crush on these two and show them that they aren't the only game in town.
adios!
june 20, 2000
the day has arrived! "let it go" should be in your favorite record store, cyber or otherwise, today. furthermore, after much hounding i've finally uploaded mp3's of the japanese bonus tracks from ATEOTD and HORSE. you can download the whole song or just a snippet.
adios!
june 19, 2000
what's all the fuss about? i'll tell you what all the fuss is about... i finally uploaded an mp3 file!!!! yea!!! yippy!!! it's something from the new album, "let it go". hey, it's a day early, you can't beat that! four words of warning, short song, biiiiiiig file! happy listening.
in addition, there is a new testimonial on the fans page.
june 9, 2000
working on the site as usual...just busy, busy, busy. there is a new animation and lyrics page for machine fish. i'm going through them in order, so be patient. click to go to the discography.
adios
june 6, 2000
for those of you who rarely if ever go to the opening page of this site, you might want to go there now and check out the changes.
may 31, 2000
a timely update to the cool site of the week. funny, yet not so funny...
may 24, 2000
ellen's testimonial was added to the fans page. keep them coming, y'all!
may 21, 2000
the fans page has been updated with more testimonials. on a side note, ben's oldest son micah graduated from st. thomas high school last night in houston, texas. he (ben/me/i) yelled extremely loud!
may 11, 2000
yet another question has been answered for all who care to know. check out question # 35! question #12 has also been updated. last but not least, drop by the cool page while you're hangin' out. (submitted by bryan1971)
may 3, 2000
hermen's cool link, dude...
may 1, 2000
i had to upload these fan testimonials for posterity.
april 28, 2000
there is an announcement on the news page.
april 26, 2000
check out the records page.there is a new animation for space in your face and also a new lyrics page. for some reason this animation is larger than the ship movie...i'm still in the learning phase and don't have all the answers. i need to see more entries for the "cool site of the week". so far i haven't found anything worthy :)
april 17, 2000
check out the records page to see how i'd like to change the site. i've been trying my hand at FLASH! there's no sound yet but that shouldn't be too far behind. so far i've only done the self titled album.
have fun!
april 11, 2000
it's a couple weeks overdue, but the cool site of the week has been updated with a place that contains SO much online liesure stuff that you'll be overwhelmed!
there are two new fan testimonials. KEEP THEM COMING!
the studio report has a further note for the curious.
march 22, 2000
the update you've all been waiting for as well as a new cool site of the week.
march 9, 2000
the faq page has been updated to accommodate another reccuring question.
BEHOLD QUESTION 34!
march 7, 2000
for his nostalgic entry in the cool site of the week contest, deren winns! (pardon the pun)
march 5, 2000
i've been using my spare time to familiarize myself with my graphics software. thought y'all might get a kick out of this.
march 2, 2000
thanks to bryan1971 for the blistering press page update.
february 29, 2000
if you'd be so kind as to visit the studio report page, you'll find an update.
thank you!
february 24, 2000
join bug on his mule -lennium vacation!
february 19, 2000
happy birthday to our own monty colvin!
february 11, 2000
something amusing for thephotos page. true metal!!! death to false metal! arggghhh.....uh, yeah...
february 7, 2000
this week's cool link is a scientific breakthrough with a creamy center...
february 3, 2000
yet another brief update on the studio report page.
february 2, 2000
a brief update on the studio report page.
january 31, 2000
to see this week's cool link, is to see grace in action. be warned, prolonged exposure to this site may cause insanity!
january 29, 2000
check out the studio page!
january 26, 2000
i know it's a slow train comin' but the photos page has been updated. in trying to hold to my promise, i will continue to go through my photo collection and upload new and old pictures as often as i can. have fun!
january 23, 2000
wow, there are many new things to see and read, so cinch up your belts and get to mousin'. your first stop will be the cool site of the week. next stop is the press page where you'll find a brand new link to a new rock review interview with ben. after reading an email from a fan i was prompted to add question #32 to the faq page. finally, if anyone is interested, i added functionality to the merchandise page for all of you who are in the market for some gc stuff.
january 18, 2000
two things new: go to the studio page and what's cool this week
january 12, 2000
i don't think that anyone will need to be told what's new! if you made it this far then you know that the opening page is NEW. hopefully everyone will take this change in stride. if not, we'll have to do some grief counseling.
the cool contest has begun as well. the winners are picked by a member of the band and it is always totally arbitrary. email your favorite sites and see if you can become cool link of the week. there are no requirements. whether humorous, informative, bizarre, instructional, any of these attributes will qualify as reason to nominate a website. good luck!
check out the studio report.
january 5, 2000
oh, my bones are achin' from sittin' here all day! the good news is that i've revamped one page so far. check it out. be sure to check out the messages in the url window at the bottom of your browser.
january 4, 2000
just a little update.
december 16, 1999
you've been waiting a long time and it's finally here, the FAQ page is a reality.
december 14, 1999
can you believe it?, two updates in one day!
december 14, 1999
after a profound tongue lashing, here's an update!
november 23,1999
an early christmas present from galactic cowboys!
november 12, 1999
a long awaited update
