Friday, June 25, 2010
Sunday, June 20, 2010
Sunny day smiley face
Wednesday, June 16, 2010
Sin and the City
I'm getting super excited to go play in Las Vegas this Saturday. I realize that I've never actually performed there. My old band played there right after they broke up with me so I missed it. I'm excited to spend a weekend with my good friends in a fun location. I think our set list is tight and ready and well thought out. The band has never sounded better then we sound right now. I love playing music and I love road trips to play music.
It's a sin to put miles on the earth in pursuit of mindless escapism. Thinking about the earth bleeding into the ocean as I drive many miles is sobering and sickening. I know this, but I'm going to do it anyway. Does this make me a bad person? There are a lot of hard questions we need to start asking ourselves about the way we live.
My evening work outs are getting harder. The sun is much more present at 5pm than it was at 6:45. Yesterday I ran hill sprints and skipped rope. I thought I might die for a moment but I suppose that is when it's working. I'm feeling better from it and my body is looking nicer. It's hard for me, to continue with a strict regimen I have to get in as many days a week as possible and I have a lot happening in the next couple of weeks. If I miss too many days in a row I lose a routine very easily and that scares me because I'm enjoying myself a lot right now.
Rehearsal tonight.
It's a sin to put miles on the earth in pursuit of mindless escapism. Thinking about the earth bleeding into the ocean as I drive many miles is sobering and sickening. I know this, but I'm going to do it anyway. Does this make me a bad person? There are a lot of hard questions we need to start asking ourselves about the way we live.
My evening work outs are getting harder. The sun is much more present at 5pm than it was at 6:45. Yesterday I ran hill sprints and skipped rope. I thought I might die for a moment but I suppose that is when it's working. I'm feeling better from it and my body is looking nicer. It's hard for me, to continue with a strict regimen I have to get in as many days a week as possible and I have a lot happening in the next couple of weeks. If I miss too many days in a row I lose a routine very easily and that scares me because I'm enjoying myself a lot right now.
Rehearsal tonight.
Monday, June 14, 2010
So Dark It's Light
I did a fair amount of work on getting some Turbo Sunshine songs set up for rehearsals with my self and Angela. I transferred 10 tracks out of my Digital Audio Workstation on my computer and into my R16. I plan to begin jamming them out now to see which ones feel like they need guitar and which ones don't.
The rest of the weekend was spent really putting our house into shape. We should be totally ready for the arrival of my parents the weekend after next. That is exciting.
I missed the last 2 days of the week last week working out so I made sure to get in a really hard work out on both Saturday and Sunday. I did a low weight hi rep workout Saturday and a pretty hard interval work out on the elliptical yesterday. I'm sore, I like it.
I am excited about hitting vegas with Invisible Material this weekend. I feel like our set is down tight and that we will really enjoy ourselves. I love rock and roll.
The rest of the weekend was spent really putting our house into shape. We should be totally ready for the arrival of my parents the weekend after next. That is exciting.
I missed the last 2 days of the week last week working out so I made sure to get in a really hard work out on both Saturday and Sunday. I did a low weight hi rep workout Saturday and a pretty hard interval work out on the elliptical yesterday. I'm sore, I like it.
I am excited about hitting vegas with Invisible Material this weekend. I feel like our set is down tight and that we will really enjoy ourselves. I love rock and roll.
Friday, June 11, 2010
Wednesday, June 09, 2010
Tuesday, June 08, 2010
Kansas lightning boot camp day 2
5 minutes rope jump
1/4 mile up hill sprint
6 minutes rope jump
1/4 mile up hill sprint
10 minutes rope jump
1/4 mile up hill sprint
Died.
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Monday, June 07, 2010
The Graduate
Friday night was the last boot camp. Robin showed up peppy and ready to work. After a very short period of stretching and hellos we got down to crunches, we did 200 of them right off the bat and I guessed quickly and correctly that his goal would be to get 1000 in. Robin was pushing extra hard through out the work out and I could not figure out why. Finally after just 40 minutes he stopped and told us we had all done a great job. He then walked over and picked up a bunch of dog tags and started to have a small ceremony to mark our month of work. He told a little bit about each graduate and then hugged us and handed us our tags. They say "Kiwi Thunder Crops." on one and "Boot Camp Graduate" on the other. It was cute and I felt really accomplished to have taken the time to go through the experience.
I packed my back pack this morning with work out clothes and shoes, almost out of habit. I plan to continue to work out as hard as possible and with as much variety as I can manage. I feel the variety injected into working out was perhaps the most useful part of the boot camp experience. That and being pushed hard. Tonight I plan to stop in Griffith park on my way home and do my own version of a boot camp work out. I want to continue to build off of my hard work and I also have found I really enjoy working out in a park. It will take a little bit of courage to be out there alone looking like a fool but I think it's worth while.
This weekend was short and I miss it. We got a good bit of work done and we had a wonderful time at the drive in last night seeing "Get him to the Greek" and "Iron Man 2". The sky was so perfect grey last night.
I packed my back pack this morning with work out clothes and shoes, almost out of habit. I plan to continue to work out as hard as possible and with as much variety as I can manage. I feel the variety injected into working out was perhaps the most useful part of the boot camp experience. That and being pushed hard. Tonight I plan to stop in Griffith park on my way home and do my own version of a boot camp work out. I want to continue to build off of my hard work and I also have found I really enjoy working out in a park. It will take a little bit of courage to be out there alone looking like a fool but I think it's worth while.
This weekend was short and I miss it. We got a good bit of work done and we had a wonderful time at the drive in last night seeing "Get him to the Greek" and "Iron Man 2". The sky was so perfect grey last night.
Friday, June 04, 2010
One last look
Thursday, June 03, 2010
Over the final hump day and a movie about basketball
Boot Camp nearly broke me last night. About halfway through I started feeling that I simply could not keep up. By the end of boot camp I started feeling paranoid that I was getting sick, since Angela had told me the night before that she was feeling a bit under the weather. I almost sat out the last few exercises because I was certain that I was just making myself sick. After we had finished I was walking back to my vehicle with a boot camp veteran who told me that Robin always goes hardest on the last wednesday and thursday. I wasn't getting sick at all, It was just really damn difficult.
Angie wasn't feeling well when I arrived home. I showered and started dinner and then Angela did the fine tuning of the meal.
Angela fell asleep on the couch shortly after the meal and I tried to pry myself up to go and work on a bit of music, I failed to get to the computer. Yet another day spent thinking about the projects I want to work on and then by the time I get home there is nothing left. I hate when this happens.
I was just about to doze off on the floor when I remember we had recently purchased a nice sativa through a friend of the farmacy. I had a bit of this and suddenly I felt more awake, but still not energetic enough to create. Browsing through my DVR I realized that I had recorded several movies recently from Turner Classic Movies. I love that it's possible to record good movies commercial free with very little effort. I chose to watch the movie "Hoosiers", and boy do I have memories associated with this movie.
The movie apparently came out in November of 1986, and when I turned 8 in march of 1987 it was still playing at the theater in Hays, KS, the nearest movie theater to my home town. From what I remember, my mother and the mother of another boy who shared my birthday, and for some reason I seem to remember my Aunt Sharon, drove me, the other birthday boy and all of the boys from my third grade class to watch the film. I don't have a total memory of the occasion but I seem to remember it being a bit stressful for my mother.
I don't recall off hand if I liked the movie at the time, I'm sure I did since it was about sports, but there might have been at times too much "people" in the movie for my attention span.
I won't critic the movie from my experience watching it this time because I don't care and neither should anyone reading this. It actually just made me think a lot about my dad, and the world he grew up in. He would have been about 10 years behind the timeline of the movie, but still in a fairly similar world. He would have been the age I was when I first saw the movie at the time that the events in the movie took place. Watching it last night I realized that a lot of what I associate with my father's early life comes from movies like this. I am guilty of romanticising Paradise, Kansas in the 1950's and 60's. Of thinking of the world my father grew up in as something simpler and perhaps more wholesome. I wouldn't on most day's trade my experience for his, but I will try my best to honor and respect them.
It was an odd feeling last night, and I didn't fall asleep until very late.
Angie wasn't feeling well when I arrived home. I showered and started dinner and then Angela did the fine tuning of the meal.
Angela fell asleep on the couch shortly after the meal and I tried to pry myself up to go and work on a bit of music, I failed to get to the computer. Yet another day spent thinking about the projects I want to work on and then by the time I get home there is nothing left. I hate when this happens.
I was just about to doze off on the floor when I remember we had recently purchased a nice sativa through a friend of the farmacy. I had a bit of this and suddenly I felt more awake, but still not energetic enough to create. Browsing through my DVR I realized that I had recorded several movies recently from Turner Classic Movies. I love that it's possible to record good movies commercial free with very little effort. I chose to watch the movie "Hoosiers", and boy do I have memories associated with this movie.
The movie apparently came out in November of 1986, and when I turned 8 in march of 1987 it was still playing at the theater in Hays, KS, the nearest movie theater to my home town. From what I remember, my mother and the mother of another boy who shared my birthday, and for some reason I seem to remember my Aunt Sharon, drove me, the other birthday boy and all of the boys from my third grade class to watch the film. I don't have a total memory of the occasion but I seem to remember it being a bit stressful for my mother.
I don't recall off hand if I liked the movie at the time, I'm sure I did since it was about sports, but there might have been at times too much "people" in the movie for my attention span.
I won't critic the movie from my experience watching it this time because I don't care and neither should anyone reading this. It actually just made me think a lot about my dad, and the world he grew up in. He would have been about 10 years behind the timeline of the movie, but still in a fairly similar world. He would have been the age I was when I first saw the movie at the time that the events in the movie took place. Watching it last night I realized that a lot of what I associate with my father's early life comes from movies like this. I am guilty of romanticising Paradise, Kansas in the 1950's and 60's. Of thinking of the world my father grew up in as something simpler and perhaps more wholesome. I wouldn't on most day's trade my experience for his, but I will try my best to honor and respect them.
It was an odd feeling last night, and I didn't fall asleep until very late.
Wednesday, June 02, 2010
Dwindling looks
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17
Yesterday was a long day, it was twenty four hours. I got up around 7:50 and Left the house with Angela. She drove me to my car and I drove on to work. Work was a typical first day of the month, I collected all the work orders from last month and in pencil I re-worked last months invoices to be this months invoices. I should be typing those as I type this.
After work I had some time to kill before boot camp and I had my guitar with me. I drove to Devin and Dylan's and had my snack. I then worked on figuring out how the bassline and the rhythm guitar work for wouldn't it be good. I played the youtube video over and over. The deeper I get into this song the more I realize the impressive pop perfection that makes it what it is. That bassline is masterful, subtle and varied. I realize I get so lazy with my basslines, I get the pattern and I tend to repeat, but there is so much more to really fine work.
I also started figuring out the Bassline to Wang Chung's Dance Hall Days. I have been considering recording a version of that one too. It's a bit easier and I've always loved how dark it is. I might change my mind about the easy factor once I start actually recreating it.
We were back in Runyon Canyon last night. It was nice to see most of the guys again, we all showed up with our jump ropes as requested. We were then divided by Robin in to groups of two for our relay teams. One team member stayed at the bottom of the court and jumped rope while another team member ran up the stairs to the fence and back. Your incentive to run fast was that your partner was stuck jumping rope for as long as it took you to run to the top and back, which is no simple task. We each did the stairs three times and jumped rope three times. At the end we were all beat but happy as usual. It's really a beautiful time of night in the early summer to walk back to your car after boot camp while the sky is in the gloaming. Feeling a bit proud of yourself for the hard work you just went through.
I have been driving Robin home after boot camp most nights, since he and Michelle share a car, which usually means she has it. Last night I drove him home but I was going to his house anyway for an invisible material rehearsal minus Devin. I played acoustic guitar and Ben played an unplugged electric and we played along to various recordings which robin had made in to a play list of our vegas set. It was nice to finally see Robin's apartment, since I've missed his last 2 parties. We jammed through the set once and then had a glass of wine and some smoke. Michelle arived home and we visited for a brief spell. I was starting to feel pretty tired and ready to get home and shower and eat.
I got home around 10:30 and walked Angela home, she had been visiting at our neighbors apartment. I showered and heated up my dinner and joined Angela on the couch. It felt nice to be in my comfy cozies and in my own home. I ate and then rubbed Angela's feet for a about 3 minutes, after which she fell deeply asleep. I tried to watch an episode of "It's Always Sunny in Philedelphia" but my recordings were calling. I started recording the intro bass part to "Wouldn't it be Good" that I had figured out earlier at Devin and Dylan's. It was slow going and I found myself doing a lot of Midi editing to even make it sound passable. I plan ultimately to play the line on the bass since it will then sound more like the original but for now I want it to be Midi so I can much about with the tempo of the entire arrangment. I finished the intro and started a bit of the 1st verse and then I happened to glance at the clock to notice it was already 12:45 am. Once I noticed that I realized I was rather exhausted and that I would need some sleep in order to do it all again in a 7 hours.
I did my nightly regemine and then escorted sleepy head from the couch to the bed. I set my alarm and checked the doors and turned out the lights. Frusciante was at the foot of the bed waiting for me and Simone was already trying to get on Angela's pillow for the night. I laid down and put a blanket over my chest so that Frusciante might climb up and purr me to sleep.
Zzz
After work I had some time to kill before boot camp and I had my guitar with me. I drove to Devin and Dylan's and had my snack. I then worked on figuring out how the bassline and the rhythm guitar work for wouldn't it be good. I played the youtube video over and over. The deeper I get into this song the more I realize the impressive pop perfection that makes it what it is. That bassline is masterful, subtle and varied. I realize I get so lazy with my basslines, I get the pattern and I tend to repeat, but there is so much more to really fine work.
I also started figuring out the Bassline to Wang Chung's Dance Hall Days. I have been considering recording a version of that one too. It's a bit easier and I've always loved how dark it is. I might change my mind about the easy factor once I start actually recreating it.
We were back in Runyon Canyon last night. It was nice to see most of the guys again, we all showed up with our jump ropes as requested. We were then divided by Robin in to groups of two for our relay teams. One team member stayed at the bottom of the court and jumped rope while another team member ran up the stairs to the fence and back. Your incentive to run fast was that your partner was stuck jumping rope for as long as it took you to run to the top and back, which is no simple task. We each did the stairs three times and jumped rope three times. At the end we were all beat but happy as usual. It's really a beautiful time of night in the early summer to walk back to your car after boot camp while the sky is in the gloaming. Feeling a bit proud of yourself for the hard work you just went through.
I have been driving Robin home after boot camp most nights, since he and Michelle share a car, which usually means she has it. Last night I drove him home but I was going to his house anyway for an invisible material rehearsal minus Devin. I played acoustic guitar and Ben played an unplugged electric and we played along to various recordings which robin had made in to a play list of our vegas set. It was nice to finally see Robin's apartment, since I've missed his last 2 parties. We jammed through the set once and then had a glass of wine and some smoke. Michelle arived home and we visited for a brief spell. I was starting to feel pretty tired and ready to get home and shower and eat.
I got home around 10:30 and walked Angela home, she had been visiting at our neighbors apartment. I showered and heated up my dinner and joined Angela on the couch. It felt nice to be in my comfy cozies and in my own home. I ate and then rubbed Angela's feet for a about 3 minutes, after which she fell deeply asleep. I tried to watch an episode of "It's Always Sunny in Philedelphia" but my recordings were calling. I started recording the intro bass part to "Wouldn't it be Good" that I had figured out earlier at Devin and Dylan's. It was slow going and I found myself doing a lot of Midi editing to even make it sound passable. I plan ultimately to play the line on the bass since it will then sound more like the original but for now I want it to be Midi so I can much about with the tempo of the entire arrangment. I finished the intro and started a bit of the 1st verse and then I happened to glance at the clock to notice it was already 12:45 am. Once I noticed that I realized I was rather exhausted and that I would need some sleep in order to do it all again in a 7 hours.
I did my nightly regemine and then escorted sleepy head from the couch to the bed. I set my alarm and checked the doors and turned out the lights. Frusciante was at the foot of the bed waiting for me and Simone was already trying to get on Angela's pillow for the night. I laid down and put a blanket over my chest so that Frusciante might climb up and purr me to sleep.
Zzz
Tuesday, June 01, 2010
Day 15 and a Miss and Memorial Day
Friday night was another circuit workout in Plummer Park. This one was hearty and 10 stations long with a jog in between. We completed the circuit 3 times. At the end of the workout everyone was completely wiped, sittin gon the edge of the tennis courts. The sun was setting and the park was teaming with all manner of people, young and alike. I felt rather accomplished and peaceful and ready to begin a 3 day weekend.
Work hasn't been so fun for me lately. It's been stressful and at times ridiculous. I was really looking forward to removing my mind from the struggle for a spell.
Friday night Angela and I stayed up late catching up with each other having hardly seen one another for the entire week. We watched our TV shows and drank beer on the couch. We made a brief visit to the pool and hot tub around 10 pm for a nice swim and soak. It was a fun night catching up with Angela and enjoying each others company. We made vague plans for our weekend chores and went to bed around 330 am.
Saturday morning Angela woke up around 10:30. I had made coffee before going to bed and woke up briefly around 7:00am to turn it on. Angela is groggy to the extreme when she wakes up and is therefore pretty useless until she has her coffee, she is in fact so groggy it's nearly dangerous for her to make her own coffee. On this morning I heard her wake up and while she ventured into the bathroom I went and poured her a cop, gathered her glasses and turned the TV on to her morning program. I then met her at the bathroom door and walked her carefully to the couch so that she might sit down and begin to wake up. I went right back to bed.
I woke up around 11:30 to see a text from Ben that he and Roxie would be heading to Naja's in Redondo Beach for a bit of beer. Angela and I thought this seemed like a good idea so we got ready and headed down to meet them. Naja's is a great little spot on the boardwalk with over 100 different beers on tap. I tried a couple of them and thoroughly enjoyed them. We then road a tilt-a-whirl, went of a walk and head home. Saturday night was a lazy night where we just couldn't see fit to leave the house.
Sunday was a repeat of Saturday, though Angela started much earlier than I did. We had many chores to complete on this day. Angela did a lot of them before I even started my day. I hung a few pictures and some decorative jewels which Devin had given to Angela a while back. They look smashing above our bathroom mirror. I then went out to pick up quarters for laundry. I did 4 loads while Angela napped. I started working on a Cover of "wouldn't it be good" by Nick Kershaw for Turbo Sunshine. I loaded the song in and Programmed the Drum beat in a couple of hours. I found that the song is deceptive in it's simplicity. There are some interesting things going on which I had not noticed until I was deep into the bowels of the song's skeleton. I am forever impressed with the work other musicians have managed to complete. I would do good to perform more pop song autopsies.
Sunday Night a new friend of mine, Nancie, came over to meet Angela for the first time. She is such a wonderful lady. We sat on our patio and had several beers and visited with Rebbecca and Loren. After Rebbecca and Loren went home we went out for a couple of drinks at The Big Foot Lodge.
On memorial day we washed and vacuumed the car and went to Fresh and Easy to stock up on a bunch of groceries. We always grab as many extra coupons as we can when they arrive in the mail and we had a stack about to expire. We stocked up on freezable items and canned goods. I then drove across town to move Devin's car so he would not get ticket or towed while out of town.
We finished our weekend with BBQ in the park in our apartment complex. Angela, Rebbecca, Loren, Tiger and I all ate well at a picnic table in the moderate southern California climate. We drank drinks and we played games. It felt nice and I enjoyed it.
I did skip out on Boot Camp because of the holiday. I'm going to forgive me for it and keep on keeping on. I'm going to start counting calories I think. Robin has been telling us it's the best way to diet, that science will not let you down. I did some calculating and figured out my BMR, along with my different activity multipliers and it was some interesting stuff. Now to put it all into practice.
Work hasn't been so fun for me lately. It's been stressful and at times ridiculous. I was really looking forward to removing my mind from the struggle for a spell.
Friday night Angela and I stayed up late catching up with each other having hardly seen one another for the entire week. We watched our TV shows and drank beer on the couch. We made a brief visit to the pool and hot tub around 10 pm for a nice swim and soak. It was a fun night catching up with Angela and enjoying each others company. We made vague plans for our weekend chores and went to bed around 330 am.
Saturday morning Angela woke up around 10:30. I had made coffee before going to bed and woke up briefly around 7:00am to turn it on. Angela is groggy to the extreme when she wakes up and is therefore pretty useless until she has her coffee, she is in fact so groggy it's nearly dangerous for her to make her own coffee. On this morning I heard her wake up and while she ventured into the bathroom I went and poured her a cop, gathered her glasses and turned the TV on to her morning program. I then met her at the bathroom door and walked her carefully to the couch so that she might sit down and begin to wake up. I went right back to bed.
I woke up around 11:30 to see a text from Ben that he and Roxie would be heading to Naja's in Redondo Beach for a bit of beer. Angela and I thought this seemed like a good idea so we got ready and headed down to meet them. Naja's is a great little spot on the boardwalk with over 100 different beers on tap. I tried a couple of them and thoroughly enjoyed them. We then road a tilt-a-whirl, went of a walk and head home. Saturday night was a lazy night where we just couldn't see fit to leave the house.
Sunday was a repeat of Saturday, though Angela started much earlier than I did. We had many chores to complete on this day. Angela did a lot of them before I even started my day. I hung a few pictures and some decorative jewels which Devin had given to Angela a while back. They look smashing above our bathroom mirror. I then went out to pick up quarters for laundry. I did 4 loads while Angela napped. I started working on a Cover of "wouldn't it be good" by Nick Kershaw for Turbo Sunshine. I loaded the song in and Programmed the Drum beat in a couple of hours. I found that the song is deceptive in it's simplicity. There are some interesting things going on which I had not noticed until I was deep into the bowels of the song's skeleton. I am forever impressed with the work other musicians have managed to complete. I would do good to perform more pop song autopsies.
Sunday Night a new friend of mine, Nancie, came over to meet Angela for the first time. She is such a wonderful lady. We sat on our patio and had several beers and visited with Rebbecca and Loren. After Rebbecca and Loren went home we went out for a couple of drinks at The Big Foot Lodge.
On memorial day we washed and vacuumed the car and went to Fresh and Easy to stock up on a bunch of groceries. We always grab as many extra coupons as we can when they arrive in the mail and we had a stack about to expire. We stocked up on freezable items and canned goods. I then drove across town to move Devin's car so he would not get ticket or towed while out of town.
We finished our weekend with BBQ in the park in our apartment complex. Angela, Rebbecca, Loren, Tiger and I all ate well at a picnic table in the moderate southern California climate. We drank drinks and we played games. It felt nice and I enjoyed it.
I did skip out on Boot Camp because of the holiday. I'm going to forgive me for it and keep on keeping on. I'm going to start counting calories I think. Robin has been telling us it's the best way to diet, that science will not let you down. I did some calculating and figured out my BMR, along with my different activity multipliers and it was some interesting stuff. Now to put it all into practice.
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