More fun in the studio.

Last night we mixed a couple of new phase 3 tracks at MRX. I haven't had the chance to listen to them today, but I remember they sounded good. I'm going back tonight to try and sift through some more tracks. Its been refreshing to spend more time in the studio. I had forgotten how good the Quad Eight board sounds.
Ben from MRX is geting ready to record a album for a new band called Grand Archives. Its some members of Carissa's Weird. Their demo he worked on sounded great and they got signed to Sub Pop. He's going to have a budget to work with so its exciting.

Sleepytime Gorilla Museum/PLEASEEASAUR/Sugar Skulls

Last night we made it out to Nuemo's for a satisfying night of weird and wacky music.

The first band was Sugar Skulls. The three front women were clad in outfits made from a dumpster dived shower curtain. Looking past the outfits into their heavily bass/violin driven jazzy numbers one will find a tight unit. They have spent sometime recording recently and I only hope the CD can capture the live experience which was exceptional. I look forward to seeing them again soon.


Pleaseeasaur is a one man act that can only be completely experienced live. I will say that for a lo-fi multimedia show, this guy takes the cake. Funny, engaging and all together wacky, I would recommend it to anyone who hasn't had the pleasure before.

For me the Sleepytime Gorilla Museum fills a much needed gap in today's music. They build some of their own instruments, play found percussion, weave together dissonance, melody, and junk industrial performance. They do this without sounding like many of the other bands who do this now or in the past. This is to say that have their own style. Whimsical one moment, psychotic the next, heavy and soft they flow in and out of styles flawlessly. A must for fans of Crash Worship, Hitting Birth, Sharkbait and Babyland.

Long Weekend

Looks like we will be heading to the Folklife festival after I get off work for the start to our long weekend. My wife wants to look for some art for our bare wall in the living room. I know the excitement never stops.

Tomorrow we should be heading out to see our friends the Sugar Skulls open the show at Nuemo's. They are playing with Sleepytime Gorilla Museum and Pleaseesaur (not sure about that spelling). Should be a good time. The rest of the weekend will be spent in quite contemplation.

The long weekend is sort of a double edged sword. I get excited and when it starts its great. The second day is great as well, but I can feel something is amiss. The third morning even better, but I don't want it to end. Then when I return to work, I realize I have an extra day's worth of stuff to do, and one less day in the week to do it. It can set the balance off for months. Right about when its back to normal, another one arrives. crazy, I know.

The mystery is solved

Looks like ig from what i saw today was right many posts ago. seattlest.com reported in a post on West Seattle Blog that has a link to a You Tube video from No Touching Ground. It shows the artist putting up the moose and the owl as well as talking about his inspiration.

I'm glad to put a face to the art, but I think I liked the mystery better before it was solved. I will try looking at the artist's stuff though, even if it did seem like they were looking for a little free publicity.

Watching The Bridge

Last night I watched one of the best documentaries I have ever seen. "The Bridge" is about suicide and the people who jump off the Golden Gate Bridge. While I can't recommend it to everyone, look for it if you think you want a realistic look at suicide.

The film is interviews with people who were friends with people who jumped, people who witnessed and/ or stopped jumpers and people who survived jumping. It also has footage of the jumpers themselves on the bridge and jumping off. I went to the movie's website and read the director's statement. It described how they got the footage and when they would try to help.

That was the only question I had after watching, how could they keep filming.

Television void

We have passed the void, but I still feel an emptiness approaching early as most of the shows I like are hitting the summer rerun period. I know that some of the other shows I usually watch in the summer won't be starting until the middle of June.

The Sopranos are winding down, with characters dropping like flies. I won't elaborate for those who haven't caught up yet. But with only a couple of episodes left Sunday night is looking bleak. Who knows when Deadwood will start. I try not to look on the websites to find out in advance when shows are airing, I like the surprise.

I like to think back to when the Sopranos first started. I watched a few of the first episodes with my wife, but then a band I was working for went on tour. Soon most of the band and crew became fans of the show and we would try to find hotels with HBO so we could watch the latest episode every Sunday night. I think we also saw "Office Space" in the theater on that tour. Some good entertainment that year.

Mothers Day

We went out to brunch for mothers day. Our friend's son wanted to wish everyone a Happy Mothers Day. I think we will go see the movie Waitress later, if we can pull ourselves off the couch. Its a lazy Sunday if you didn't already know.
Just relax.
I talked to my mom and she said Dirk was sleeping. He only sleeps for 1 hour at a time. I'm glad I will get to meet him later when he has calmed down.
We also went to look at books at the bookstore. I saw a new book that I reserved at the library "The King of Methleham" by Mark Lindquist. I liked it because the main character is a small-time drug maker who is also a master identity thief. The last alias he uses is Howard Schultz. I thought that was hilarious.

Studio funtime

Today I got to have lots of fun recording my friends Ben, Scott and Thomas. They have a band called Some Salesmen. It has been a while since I recorded drums and guitars and such. My wife says its like riding a bike and I think I can still do that too. We got some great drum sounds. It reminded me why I started doing it in the first place. Rekindling the fire of my youth. The studio is MRX. If you are in Seattle come check it out. You can look at their myspace page if you want.
Mysterious Red X Studios

Acid Mother Temple w/ Mammatus

Last night I got to witness the psychedelic splendor of Acid Mothers Temple as well as Mammatus who I had never heard before .

When I arrived Mammatus was already onstage and kicking out the heavy space jams. They all wore robes and played fast and loose.

Towards the end one of the members of Acid Mothers temple came out with a staff and as the band jammed he seemed to be summoning something. I will definitely check these guys out again.

After the AMT set up and delivered like they always do.

Its hard to describe this band, at moments they are crazed jazz noise freakouts, while other times coherent improv space jams. All the players are amazing none the less. I have seen them 4 times and everyone has been different. Check them out next time they are in town, you won't regret it!!!

Meet Dirk

This is Dirk. He is my dad's new dog. He's a Wirehaired Pointing Griffon. He just wanted to say hello.

1 more old graffiti photo

I keep forgetting to add this one. It was taken at the same time as the other train shot I had. I love the horizontal lines. Its like they make it move faster. I need to get out and take some more photos. Maybe this weekend.

Check this out, funny news story.

http://www.thedenverchannel.com/irresistible/13275792/detail.html

I also saw a video on the Fox news website.
This Art Student dresses up roadkill. She even puts nail polish on them. So, next time you drive by a dead animal on the side of the road, slow down and look for the nail polish.

this is not very cool marketing

So a few weeks ago I heard a news report about candy flavored crystal meth. The dark humor side of me thought the future has arrived. But my other side thought kids will die soon. Then yesterday MSNBC. Drug Dealers peddling new kid-friendly mixes That is messed up!!! As if wanting to experiment with drugs and peer pressure wasn't enough, now they are thinking up new ways to make them appealing.

Writer's block or otherwise known as the dark period (too heavy ? I think so )

This one of my artistic phases where I 'm fairly stuck. Now in the past I would hit this point going crazy. Try real hard to keep busy, you know force it out. Like when you rock back and forth on the toilet when you are constipated. Or is that just me? Anyway, its not like I'm not doing anything, I just have lots of ideas that I keep refusing to write down. Or if I do I don't finish them. Or I tell them to people and then they don't sound as good to me as they did in my head. I took this photo a few months ago and keep coming back to it. I think its a good representation of electronic music. Its DJ L.A.M.P. playing with the noisettes. I wish I could be playing like that. But for now I can at least capture that feeling in the wild.

today is day for shopping

Today is a day to shop of things needed for the house. Bug repellent, smell repellent, socks, and ear plugs. We also need to find Boris some new litter, the pet store told my wife that they are no longer going to be manufacturing the brand we use. Oh the dilemma.

photos of New York windows and childhood memories

When phones started to come with cameras built in I felt like the future had arrived. Growing up I spent a great deal of time reading. Never one to go for reality I always liked stories of fantasy or science fiction. I began reading the Greek myths then moved on to "The Hobbit" and "The Lord of the Rings" . When I hit "Dune" and then went to see "Star Wars" there was no turning back. I would dream of the future and the cool gadgets that would come. Flying cars, lasers and communicators from "Star Trek" would float around in my head. I thought about being alive to see the year 2001 from "2001 A Space Odyssey". As I got older time hadn't caught up with my imagination like it was supposed too, but some cool items have arrived. One of those is the ability to have both video and still photos from my cell phone. Here are some photos I took last year in New York.

This was from a hallway in the MOMA. It was my first visit to the new facility. I had a good visit, but could have spent more time wandering. I did get to see a great exhibit on the DADA movement.

Its been a while so I 'm not sure where this was taken. I have for some time been fascinated with taking photo that include different angles and multiple views. If you look closely this one is like staring into a mirror that is reflecting another mirror. The windows just keep going into infinity.

On the way to the airport

I have always had a infatuation with construction equipment. Maybe it started when I was a kid and I was playing with Tonka trucks and Caterpillar bulldozers. Maybe it just has to do with the names of the machinery itself, earth mover, bulldozer, backhoe, jackhammer and so on. The words themselves seem powerful and mysterious like the secrets of a magician. It could also just be the fact that their purpose is both to destroy and rebuild. or it could just be that the machines themselves looks real cool. This one I don't know the name of. It is used to build the elevated track for the light rail train. I have seen it many times in the last few months on my way out to the airport. I like the fact that a machine can move along and create an elevated surface. It looks like a bug slowly creeping towards Seattle in some horror movie, "The Slug that clogged the Roadways", or unclogged them eventually I guess. That remains to be seen. The bridge builder or whatever it is called still looks real cool.