More about the squirrel

i took this blog post and fixed it up a bit... edited the grammar a lot... and posted it to JPG Magazine for the "nice to meet you" submission. Take a look and vote if you can! http://www.jpgmag.com/stories/6111

Inquisitive Squirrel

so it's just another thursday morning, i didn't really think anything exciting was going to happen today other than i was going to go to richmond camera and pick up some prints and catch a cup of coffee with a friend who's moving away on sunday. however, i was just in my back yard talking to my roomate and her mom and eating half a grapefruit that was wrapped in tin foil and this squirrel starts to get friendly, we think because he had something shiny. he's all over the fence, not even 2 feet away, and just walking back and forth and being very inquisitive. me... being well... me... gives the grapefruit to my roomate and says "keep him occupied while i get my camera" and i ran inside and got my camera bag. the little squirrel had apparently tried to climb up my roommate's leg while i was inside and had then climbed into our tree. so, first things first, i pull out my LC-A and i'm get 2 snaps off at the closest focus setting (.8 meters) and the little bugger just takes a flying jump and lands on my head.

that's right folks, nothing like nature in the morning.

i'll post the two shots i got off (even if they are out of focus because he was too close) when i get the roll developed. i had every intention of taking digital too, but after he jumped on my head and i flipped my head upside down and then had him cling to my bag, and then have me fling him off my bag in one rather ungraceful swoop, he didn't want to come back out to play. and really, i don't blame him. i actually think if i were an inquisitive squirrel, i'd try to make new friends too, he just hadn't learned the proper social skills yet.

oktokino

i won oktokino today, 10 bucaroos to spend in the lomo online store... soon i'll have enough of these "piggie points" to buy a new camera :P

if you want to see the "movie" that won (it's an actionsampler photo that is animated into a 4 frame stop animation) you can go here: www.lomography.com/oktokino

i'm so happy i'm moving

today i actually had to climb in my passenger side door to get in my car because the stupid-head who owns the red blazer that was parked next to my car was literally half an inch from my side view mirror, the door wouldn't open more than an inch.

i'm so over this building. 5 days... just 5 more days. then... all the glory of floyd ave will be mine... all mine. and my roomate's of course. ;)

how random is this?

sheep, made from telephone parts, found on www.bookofjoe.com
StumbleUpon is my friend

if you don't have StumbleUpon or don't know what it is, go download it here


sheep, made from telephone parts, found on www.bookofjoe.com

i never really post anything worthwhile

unless i'm writing a book. i've noticed that. and i don't post often... i think it's because i'm stuck not behind my computer all day (usually) and on days where i do have off i'm usually keeping myself entertained by uploading a massive amount of photos to my various accounts that i upload to (flickr, jpg mag, my lomohome, etc) and i always forget to update this.

however

i found this just now somehow... i think i ended up clicking "stumble" instead of my shortcut to flickr and found it...
but check this out, it's crazy! i want to be able to catch something like this in a photo:






the crayon one is by far the best i think, but dang, that's cool.

last night i ran lights for sister hazel, their crew rocked, hardcore. they were great to work with and easy going, and if any of them ever read this somehow i'm not afraid to say that. they were a blast. i'm crossing my fingers that i'll get to work with them in september... crossing my fingers. it might happen. if it does i'll be sure to let everyone know. you should cross your fingers for me too.

tonight i worked for incredible edibles as a caterer for a wedding. i haven't done catering since high school, i forgot how fun it is. joey (a bartender from toad's) happened to be attending this wedding. that was pretty funny, didn't think i'd know anyone at the event but hey, it's richmond. i was the turkey slicer for the better part of the evening. i sliced that turkey like it was my job. because it was. hah. i made two types of pasta dishes for a bit, aaaand i made crepes. not from scratch mind you, these were pre-made crepes that just needed to be heated in the pan and have the insides put in them. and then the peoples could top them with whatever they desired as long as it was in the bowls at the station: caramel, chocolate, strawberry sauce, peanuts, walnuts, sprinkles, oreos, and whipped cream.

the beer kegs that we got from legend wouldn't tap well, either the seals on the kegs themselves or the seals on the taps were bad or the taps they gave us didn't match the kegs, but they sucked. a lot. i was happy i wasn't working the bar.

so yeah. that was my yesterday and today. maybe i'll update this more often... but i wouldn't count on it.

Dark Corner Rumble

so i managed to win another lomo competition

hah! awesome.

check out the link to see the gallery of submissions!

i was wondering when this would start happening...

Europe Clears Mobiles on Aircraft

i always seem to blog in the wee hours of the morning...

it's so inconvenient! on nights where i try to fall asleep early, i actually make an effort to not go out, i can't sleep for the life of me even though i'm exhausted.

i got up early this morning to go strike the lighting rig for a show in virginia beach with darren and co... and was surprised when i got there with chris that HAH! we were striking the lights for the 700 Club. easy day, but i wish it'd been an easy day in richmond rather than virginia beach... oooh well. a jorb's a jorb, i like having an income. it's a nice thing to be able to pay rent.

speaking of rent, i'm moving in june. score. i landed a sweet pad that i'll be sharing with my good friend from vermont. im stoked.

back to being up late... i've found that this is really the only time i end up listening to BBC Radio 6, and that is also rather inconvenient, because i start listening and i don't want to fall asleep because the DJs crack me up and the music is so good. i never would have started listening to 6music if G hadn't told me about it. so now i'm telling you about it. http://www.bbc.co.uk/6music/

i love boing boing

i just scrolled through the first page of boing boing and found this article: Burglar nabbed playing dead at a funeral parlor

that and i think rss feeds are super cool, scientific american showed me a possible new species of fish

long time, no post...

ok... so, i haven't posted in a month... believe me, i've actually thought about posting. i even wrote down 25 pages of "stuff" while i was over in the UK. that's right, i was in the UK. i left on the 18th of february and didn't get back into the country until the 5th of march. i was thinking "hey, i'll type it all and do a bunch of posts when i get home" HA... yeah... like i have time to type up 25 pages of stuff and like you (the whole probably 2 people that might read this) are going to want to read all that. so here, the abridged version. i was there, the first night i spent at my friend Lori's house in Woolrich Arsenal and then i spent the 19th through the 25th with Brice Woodall and the Positrons. they rock my socks off. i helped them drag their gear through the underground for their four shows.

show one: The Dublin Castle in Camden. the girl running sound there admitted to us that she didn't want to be at work that day, that she hoped she could have an easy in and out day, and then her mood changed the second she started sound checking Brice. she said, "bands like you are the reason i work in this business. you're going to make it some day, and i'm going to be able to say 'back in the day at the dublin castle i ran sound for Brice Woodall and the Positrons' and that makes every night of unknown bands worth my time. thanks for reminding me." pretty cool. however... people at The Dublin Castle can't spell:

show two: Abbey Road Studios. WOAH.

i don't even know how to describe this day. it was so awesome. the session seemingly went on forever, every time we thought they'd gotten to their last song, they'd get asked to play another. they covered the beatles "a day in the life" and i swear... i hadn't heard this cover ever before, and it just absolutely floored me. i was grinning ear to ear and got chills down my arms. i actually stopped taking pictures at that moment... i had to snap out of it to capture Ted's reaction to the song. (Ted is the DJ for U-Pop, the XM station that was doing these sessions)

he was writing stuff down and only listening to one half of his headphones and literally stopped everything he was doing, put the other ear of his headphones on and closed his eyes. he was totally, i don't know how to put it than to quote a line from Garden State, he was totally "in it." if you don't believe that is a quote from Garden State, you can go to IMDB and read it for yourself.

show three: The Cavern Club, Liverpool.

we were all pretty excited to take a train to liverpool and get to the cavern. we stayed at a kickin' little bed and breakfast called the wellington inn. i highly suggest staying there if you ever go to liverpool, cheap, nice owners, and good breakfast. 25 pounds a night.

anyway, the cavern club was awesome. cool cool venue. the people that were at that show (the few of them) loved the set. we hung out with some guys from York who wanted to show us a good time in liverpool that night... at like 3am. it didn't last long. they wanted to go to loud clubs and we... well, we weren't having it. we nicely excused ourselves and headed back for the wellington, where we hung out with the owners until the wee hours of the morning. and by we i mean brice, steve, and mark because i was exhausted. i tried really hard to stay awake... i tried so hard that i was falling asleep sitting up... and they were all laughing at me i'm sure.

we got up the next morning and had breakfast downstairs, we filled out orders the day before and gave it to the lady who was cooking for us, so we all got exactly what we ordered and it was delicious. coffee... tea... orange juice... pretty much anything you wanted. and a good time.

unfortunately just after breakfast we had to head back to lime street station and go back to london. steve passed out on the train...

and i went through photos (big surprise). we had the day off and steve and i wandered around south bank and made our way to chalk farm so that he could see the banksy i knew was there

unfortunately she's been buffed quite a lot, when i was there in september she was practically untouched except for by the elements, like the moss growing over her shoes. i was very bummed to see how destroyed she'd gotten.

the next day was another day of wandering, i don't remember exactly where to, but we wandered and saw stuff, and then went to the queen boadicea where brice was doing an open mic nite. with only 3 songs, he still managed to put on one hell of a show

the very next day the guys were off to the airport, and i headed for Euston Station (again) to take the train (again) but this time i was off to Manchester to see Gareth! (yes, that's me and G... we were at the lomo world congress back in september, this was from the dance party the very last night) G rocks my socks, it's not very often you meet someone as cool as G.

... this journey is to be continued at a later date... because i'm starting to fall asleep sitting upright...

Down...

today was the longest 14.67 hours of my life. it was a 1 band show. 1 band. they had two tour busses, one with a trailer of gear (like 8 guitar cabs, 4 bass cabs, drums, guitars... the usual) and one trailer that was practically empty with just merch in it. just a trailer of stuff really! they got there at 11:30, you can't make noise at Toad's Place until 5:00. it doesn't take 5.5 hours to set up a trailer of gear. we were done by 1:30 ish... SLOW as hell... and then we had to sit there, because they "neeeeded 2 loaders on all day"

did i mention i was the lighting engineer and the stage manager today... and a loader too apparently because i was one of the 4 counted for loading.

and then they sound checked for 3 hours. 3 hours. only 7 minutes of those three hours were with the band. if i hear "check one, two, neei, neeih, pa, pu, click, click" again, i might shoot someone. and then for the show, it was actually so loud that i didn't want to even try to listen.

Leftsetz Letter

barry sent me an email today, letting me know about a wordpress blog he subscribes to called "The Leftsetz Letter." i read the attached "blog" that was with barry's email and i gotta say it had some really good stuff in it, so i thought i'd share the link to the blog itself: http://leftsetz.com/wordpress

here's some background on Bob Leftsetz himself (taken from the "author" section on his blog)

Bob Lefsetz is the author of "The Lefsetz Letter." Famous for being beholden to no one and speaking the truth, Lefsetz addresses the issues that are at the core of the music business: downloading, copy protection, pricing and the music itself.

His intense brilliance captivates readers from Steven Tyler to Rick Nielsen to Bryan Adams to Quincy Jones to EVERYBODY who’s in the music business.

Never boring, always entertaining, Bob’s insights are fueled by his stint as an entertainment business attorney, majordomo of Sanctuary Music’s American division and consultancies to major labels.

"The Lefsetz Letter" has been publishing for the past 20 years. First as hard copy, most recently as an email newsletter and now, for the first time, in blog form.

the last paragraph of his blog "belonging" is quite brilliant and so true with the last sentence: "Being a fan is like having a hobby, you'll spend unlimited amounts on your hobby. But only if you believe in it." i'd give you a summary, but really, there's no point when you can just go read it, so here: read it.

the flickr

i've finally finished the daunting task of going through the MOUNTAIN of photos i took on the cruise, along with the photos i took before, after, and at the murphy's kids show in harrisonburg, the photos from robert's birthday, and just some random stuff from around town.
here's a few fisheye favorites:






i could keep going, but you should just go check out the flickr photostream and look for yourself :)

so...

i've been out of reach of the internet for some time, granted i was back in the states on the 1st of the month, i worked a 15 hour day on the 2nd at Toad's Place with Killswitch Engage, and honestly that was one of the better days i've worked there. From the 31st to the 1st i didn't sleep, i believe the term J.J. and i used was "rock till we dock" and i must say, we did just that with the help of Clif. From tht 1st to the 2nd, i got a few hours sleep and got to work at 9am, for a load in that we all thought started at 9:30, but that actually started at 11. go communication go. the Killswitch crew was awesome though, at least one of the guys had come through to Toad's before and remembered most of us. their lighting guy dara was a trip, what a blast to work with, all day Robert and i were like "man, i'm so exhausted but with the way this day is going, it's the perfect day to be tired, this guy makes you wake up and want to be here." i love days like that.

the days following the Killswitch show consisted of me going through the mountain of photos i took while on the cruise. nearly 3000. i narrowed it down to a mere 704 to upload to flickr, i'm sure i could narrow it down a few more, but that would have taken waaaay more effort and i don't use the "ef" word around here.

i had an absolute blast on the cruise. it was the Barenaked Ladies "Ships and Dip III" cruise and i had the opportunity to run lights for Carbon Leaf. Chris was running the monitor board, he would have run both if they'd brought their usual console that Chris can control via his laptop like he usually does, but because the band flew down to miami, the left the console at home and opted to use the house board. Clif was aboard running front of house, it was so good so see him again. i'd only been able to work with him at Carbon Leaf shows a few times before he left, and it was a real treat having him be a guest artist of sorts on the cruise with the Leaf boys, other than the time that the snake patch was one off and Barry's mic wasn't on for a bit of Tom Sawyer it was smooth sailing ;)

Carbon Leaf played the Lido Deck stage 3 times, and every time i had a few more lights to play with. all the fixtures except for the front light was LED, so i had a handful of LED parcans, and then i got some LED bars added each day. the third show i was going to do lights, but it got rescheduled, and what's the point of turning on lights at 1:30 in the afternoon? you can't see them. i took photos (big surprise there right?) and Barry joked that he wasn't actually going to pay me, he was just going to cover my bar tab. nothin' but love Barry, nothin' but love.

Sixthman, the company who organized the whole cruise, managed to schedule Great Big Sea and Gaelic Storm at practically the same time every day, which was a bummer for me, they're both really great. i ended up going to the Great Big Sea shows each time though, i kept on saying "i gotta get to Gaelic Storm today" and i'd go to GBS because they always started 30 minutes earlier than Gaelic Storm, and i'd get suckered into staying at the GBS show and feeling sad that i missed Gaelic Storm again... i kept telling Patrick that i'd get shots for him for the Gaelic Storm website and i only got a handful... meanwhile i got tons of GBS shots. i'm lame.

the first night i lived out my lameness, falling asleep early. the week prior to the cruise was intense, ending with me going with Murphy's Kids to Harrisonburg and helping them out and hanging out with their friends until 4 am, sleeping on the floor of their friend's house with Gibby next to me and Kelley sleeping on the gap between the two couches using someone's leg as a pillow... and this girl who i later learned was named "Cargo" waking up before 6am, grabbing my hand and trying to get me to wake up to dance with her... such a strange evening. i think Jack tackled me at some point too... anyway, we got back in town at 3, i ran to CVS, bought film, went home, did the last minute pack and got a call from Orbitz saying my flight was canceled! AH! thank god there was one more flight going to Miami through Charlotte, otherwise i'd have been screwed. i took off from Richmond International at 8:04, had an hour layover in Charlotte, and on the flight to Miami sat next to Craig from New Odds, pretty cool dude!, and landed in Miami at midnight, where the hotel shuttle refused to pick me up. i love Miami. such friendly people. i wanted to slap that hotel clerk through the phone. but HAH, i got reimbursed for the cab ride after some rather ingenious chatting the next morning with the clerk.

day two found Carbon Leaf on the Lido Deck at 9:30, prime time for people and lighting ;) that show looked so kickin'. a couple times i caught Chris leaning out from around the speaker stacks on stage with a thumbs up and a "keep rockin" face. i stayed up with J.J., Clif, Chris and Jessie until 6:30 that morning. we went and got pizza at some point at the 24 hour pizza joint on board, drank at the casino bar, rode up and down on the elevator pushing every button, just generally causing a raucous... and got up at 7:30 to go scuba diving with Chris and Jessie. their friend Freddie works on Grand Cayman and has the hookup with the scuba scuba, it felt so good to get back in the water. and for free too! got back on the boat, woke up J.J. at noon, went back over to Grand Cayman with her, and found a couple odds and ends for my mommy :) next time i see her i have to remember to give her the stuff.

the third night on the cruise i hung out with the Carbon Leaf guys, the Gaelic Storm guys, and Sean McCann from Great Big Sea. i gotta say, this was probably the best night on the cruise. Sean, Patrick and Twigger (Steve) are some of the nicest guys. Sean and Barry got into a funny tiff about who was tougher, and it ended in Barry standing in the ice water in the cooler and Sean drinking rum. Carter played Sean's guitar while making fun of Sean for wearing his acoustic so low saying "how the hell do you play like this," and he and Barry and Sean attempted to jam out "The Rover" and it ended in Barry humming to Sean's singing. we were in Sean's room and on his balcony all night... on the 8th floor of this ship (the ship had 11 floors... 11 floors! the Carnival Victory is like a floating city... well really any cruise is...) which looked over the stern of the ship and also the port side. he had the coolest room on the ship as far as i was concerned, with a wrap around balcony like that! the glow of the boat on the surf it was kicking up was incredible, probably the deepest and brightest blue i've seen, and the drop-off in brightness was extreme, bright blue right to black like the night sky, where the stars were so bright you could actually see them twinkle. truly incredible. i didn't want to leave, but i knew i needed to get at least 2 hours of sleep...

woke up early yet again, around 8:30, and went to the artist beach party on a private beach in Jamaica. the one day that i can actually get some sun! and it's cloudy. J.J. still managed to get burned tho, and from the MySpace message i just got from her she's peeling like a rattlesnake :D i liked the sentence so i stole it, sorry to publicize your skin dude :P watching the BNL and Guster guys play frisbee was hilarious, and having beer brought to you at 10am after drinking Sean's rum was just a bad plan. i felt like crap all day... it was a mix between hungover feeling and seasick, i couldn't tell the difference really... but after an Irish Car Bomb (yes!) with Clif and J.J. i felt amazing! gotta love how alcohol makes you feel like crap and then better again! another long night of absolute insanity, playing huge sized chess, and eating yet more pizza we called it a night at 5 and i managed to sleep until 11:30ish. thank god. Carbon Leaf was on at 1:30 and after that i had nothin' but fun to get into.

i caught every show on the Lido Deck (GBS and New Odds) and the first bit of BNL that night, i really wish i hadn't missed Gaelic Storm... it actually made me really sad, kind of a buzz kill, but if that's the only regret from the whole thing then i'm ok. after the New Odds set, they changed into drag and came back out on deck. over the next hour more band members from every band on the boat came and joined them, eventually with nearly 30 people on stage jamming for 4 and a half hours, not stopping for anything. one song morphed into another and another. it was incredible. if you don't believe me, check out www.flickr.com/photos/plaidleaf in the "The Final Jam" set, you'll see the photos. i was right up in the mess of artists with my camera right in their face. i've never had an opportunity to be in the middle of something like that. it was amazing. with that natural high, rock till we dock became such a reality. J.J. ordered room service while we packed and hung out with Clif at 6am, when i turned on my blackberry and got a mountain of messages. i did a quick glance/scroll through them and lo-and-behold, i got one from the lomographic society. for those of you who know me, i've been big into lomography since 2003, having won a competition in '03, going to Beijing, China because of it, and placing 7th in the Congress in China and going to the Congress held in London this past September. apparently my massive upload of photos and my photo stories i sent into them for the competition were worth it...

because i won.

i won the Lomo World Congress 2007 in London, England. there were over 220 people at this convention from all over the world, all taking photos like crazy. i met so many amazing people on that trip that i'm actually going back to London in two weeks to see them and also to run lights for Brice Woodall and the Positrons on their mini UK tour, where the big show is at Abbey Road Studios! I'm going to run lights at Abbey Road! so many big amazing things happening this year... it's nuts! www.lomography.com/congress2007 has all the info on the congress, i'm not sure if they've posted winners yet. but soon there will be a Japanese magazine featuring my win at the Congress, so i'll be sure to post a link to it. i was in such shock when i read the email i didn't even know how to speak or anything. i'm so happy Clif and J.J. were there when i read it. i don't know what i would have done without them on this cruise, they were like my best friends on the cruise, it wouldn't have been the same without them. shout out to you guys, you rock.

getting off the boat at 8:30 that morning was fun, the computers in Customs were all crashing so it took 5 million years to leave. poor Terry and his wife had their bags completely strip searched, Chris and Jessie had to go into a second screening. what a mess. a crew of us sat at the Miami airport for 7 hours... what a long day. and then i worked Killswitch the very next day... so now that i've gone completely round robin with this ridiculously long post, i'll shut up.

enjoy your morning... i'll be sleeping because sleep is my best friend. we don't hang out much anymore.

Battles - Mirrored

my good freind dave watkins turned me on to this band and they totally blow my mind. dave's music actually blows my mind too, so check out his myspace page by clicking his name above because dave rocks, hardcore.

my friend joe foley wrote this about battles yesterday and i don't think i could agree any more. check it:

Album: Mirrored
Band: Battles
Tracks: 11
Top Single: Atlas

This album is the result of 4 gentlemen from different musical backgrounds coming together to attempt to generate a sound unlike what most have heard prior to. Driven by the thunderous pulse of John Stanier (drums; ex Helmet/Tomahawk), and punctuated by the live vocal samplings of Tyondai Braxton (vocals, guitar, keys; Son of Anthony Braxton), this experimental rock album certainly is a must have for any music lover.

Battles is unique, when compared to similarly processed music, in the fact that the drums remain almost untouched by the digitizing that the remainder of the band undertakes, giving the band a very a very organic feel, even with the ability for Stanier's ability to play with almost drum machine like precision.

With out seeing this group live, I would have almost been convinced that this music was solely the work of studio programming, because of how tight, and in sync with each other Battles plays. It is truly a sight to see and hear, when Battles plays live, the live elements being blended with sampled pieces (which are created on the spot!) is absolutely masterful.

One thing I would like to see come from this group is a remixing of their music done into a surround sound version. Battles really has knocked it out of the park with this offering!

Eric Johnson, and all his awesomeness

so last night i listened to the entire "ah via musicom" album, and i honestly can't remember the last time i listened to this album. i had it the year it came out, my uncle got it for me, i was 5 or 6, it was one of those first cds i ever had, the first being stevie ray vaughn "in step," zz top's "greatest hits," and the black crowes "shake your money maker." i remember waking up early on weekends and loading these cds in my dad's 6 cd changer and putting the volume as low as it would go and sitting with my head right next to the speaker to listen to it so i wouldn't wake up my parents. last night was the first time i'd listened to it in such a long time. that cd and many others disappeared in my junior year of high school when my whole collection got swiped during a show i was running... i've managed to almost buy the whole thing back, but i knew i had forgotten some holes - "ah via musicom" being one of them. when guitar hero III came out and cliffs of dover was on it, that image of me sitting with my head against the speaker came flying back and i had to get it. i will cope with just having the mp3s of it right now (thank you jeremy) but i will go to plan 9 and i will buy it the second i see it.

i gotta admit, i feel kind of like a new person.

so i woke up this morning at 10ish and man, it feels good not to be getting up at 645am like i did all last week for that cheerleading competition.

however

i haven't had to turn on the heat in my apartment yet this "winter" because it's been so warm outside, i guess the weather has taken a dive because i woke up to my apartment being a whomping 59 degrees this morning. i thought, hey, i'll just wear a sweatshirt and sweatpants and hide under a blanket on the couch while i check my emails but it didn't cut it. i gave in. my heat is on... for today. who knows, it might be 89 degrees tomorrow with the way the weather has been

so... long time

in the car ride back from the cheerleading competition in charlotte, nc today we got into a discussion about google and how cool everything that google makes is. we talked about blogger and i honestly didn't think i had this account, i don't remember setting it up in may of 2004...

but it's here now and you know what... i think i might actually write in it.