Results are in

Since a commentor on this blog asked I will answer.  The results of the second test came back last night and I again got an A.  Good times, I've never been an A student before, always more comfortable around that low C, high D area.  For I had always believed that it's more impressive to pass with no effort than it is to succeed at the expense of your free time.  Now I'm older and I paid for the class and the book with my own money, it doesn't seem like that strategy makes as much sense.  Additionally I actually like accounting concepts, and I enjoy the professor.  Liking the material and the way that it's taught to you is certainly something that I lacked while in previous schooling efforts, but I can't blame my lack of success at academic life on that. Though some of them, ahem ms. ruder, deserve to be publicly scolded for a complete lack of effort in lesson plan and technique, I can now understand that they were merely putting into teaching the kind of effort I put into schooling, very little.  So now I see common ground with those lackluster teachers, they were just like me only paid to be there.  So hats off to all those bad teachers, I get it now.  

Anyway, this is about scholastic success, not the failures of uninspiring geometry teachers.  

Last night Angie and I were both dreading class, we were exhausted from the weekend and the workday and it took a lot to go face what we were both pretty sure were awful test grades.  Yet, surprise came to us immediately when we found we'd both done rather well on the test.  

In case you wonder what night class at a city college looks like.  

I know you can't tell, but that's the hollywood sign out the window of our classroom.  

So we compute on, calculators against the current, borne back into ceaselessly into accounts of the past. 

 

keeping up with the drummer

Leaving town this Thursday for a long weekend in New Orleans.  First time visit to a city I have always wanted to experience.  We are travelling to N.O. on the invite of a friend of ours who attended university there.  There is apparently a very fun costume party that we are going there to attend.  I'm going as Elton John...

This Elton John  to be exact.  

I don't have much expectation of what to see or do in New Orleans.  I find it usually works out better to keep travel expectations low and things that I "must" see or do to a minimum.  

Classes is still going relatively well.  We should get our second test results tonight in class. That could dramatically change how well class is going, this test was darn hard and took me up until 2 minutes to end.  Cross your fingers for Angie and I.  

Music is busy as always.  Devin Tait and the Traitors are about to put out a pretty stellar halloween EP, complete with at least one and maybe two music videos.  The for sure music video is for a new song called "until the break of dawn", it's a fun little monster romp and the video is just great.  

Turbo Sunshine just put out a new single, available here:

S no S is still hard at work on album number 8.  Here is one of the songs in progress:

Lastly there is a new collaboration in the works, but that will be discussed at another time.  

Kick drum channel

Working on micing a kick for rehearsal.  In this room on this day through this chain it sounds right.  Boom.

Adventures of the new Thornton Melon and other stuff

So if you didn't catch the reference in the subject I've casually began to dip a toe back into the world of higher education.  Angela and I are a few weeks into Accounting 1 at Los Angeles Community College.  We chose the course because both of us do a fair amount of accounting work in our day jobs and we figured it couldn't hurt to educate ourselves a little bit.  So far it's been great, we are both very happy with out professor and the work load is manageable, so much more so when you throw in the occasional down hour that comes with an office job and the fact that all of our homework is done online.  We have plans to take Accounting 2 together next semester, and we'll see how things go from there.  

I'm juggling musical projects at the moment.  My 8th S no S album is coming along fairly well, though actually recording has been stalled while I flesh out 2 more songs that seem necessary thematically.  With some luck and time those songs will move into the recording phase within a week and then I'll be back at tracking on the entire album with a vengeance.  

While S no S trucks along Turbo Sunshine is starting to get back in the action.  It's hard to keep a project moving forward when everyone in the band has other great love passion projects, but it's happening.  I expect to release the "Hey Citizen" single shortly and follow that up perhaps with a video and maybe the odd live show here or there.  

Devin's musical projects are moving forward at a good clip as well.  I engineered a drum session at my Studio Downtown for his Halloween Ep.  It was probably my best drum recording effort to date.  I'm excited that I don't have to mix or edit it.  

Angie has me busy helping her with props here and there.  I've been gluing three inch mirrors to some side pieces of a large prop for the past month.  It's not glamorous work but the results are stunning.  Next up I'll be doing some wood working for her.  I believe that's a top secret project so I'll button up about that one.  

I've been slacking a bit on the running, not piling on very many miles or even very frequent runs.  I've been working on some diet modifications though which I hope will improve overall performance when I have the time to get serious again.  

I'm finally coming up on the part of the year I've been looking forward to.  Here is the list of why:

Early october Angie and I are headed to Pioneer Town to the Desert Stars festival where we get to see the Dandies play at Pappy and Harriet's, which is seriously one of the most awesome places to see bands in the world.  We have a camp site reserved just outside the venue and the festival goes well into the night.  I'm keen for a night of fun and music under the desert stars.  

In late October we are going to New Orleans with a friend to attend a big gay party.  I'm super excited to finally see that town and sample it's many hedonistic delights.  

December then really picks up the action with a yuletide trip home to see my beloved family and to spend more time with my new niece.  

Capping the year on the 31st is our wedding in Las Vegas at the most ridiculous venue one could imagine.  I'll be glad to finally put a ring on it and make it official, even if it's just a silly formality.  I love my fiance and I'm super excited about making a life long commitment to being a lovable man.  

   

10 years

I just realized this blog turned 10 years old  two months ago.  I have no editorial comment at this time.

Season of the Brute

Midnight in Los Angeles

I've just returned from a downtown catch up session with my friend Damon.  We don't get to see one another very often but when we do it's very nice.  We went to the 2nd street cigar bar, paid the $5.00 VIP fee which allowed us to bring in our own cocktails to a private upstairs room.  We purchased a couple of cigars and had the VIP room to ourselves.  We smoked and caught up on our seldom intersecting lives.

I walked in to catch the last 5 minutes of Angela's consciousness.  I'm glad I got to see her before the sleep police took her to jail.

As I write this I'm listening to a harmonica track that Ronnie laid down on a new S no S tune called "season of the brute".  I always love to hear what Ronnie plays one S on S songs.  A rather soulful harmonica if I don't say so myself.  I'm excited for you, dear reader to hear it.

This brings me to the S no S album that is currently in the works, album number 8.  I'm pretty deep into the record, as usual it's at times boarding on an inescapable obsession.  I'm dealing with the demoralizing situation of spending all day long thinking about it, wanting to be working on it, only to burn every ounce of energy just living through the day, to come home at midnight and have no productive juice left.  This is a feeling I know well, yet dear reader don't feel poorly for me, it's the state of the universe.  I know enough about my process to know that I'll finish this beast in due time and that as frustrating as the waiting is, there is value in it.  Taking 15 years of song writing and squeezing it into a collection of 10 - 15 songs is a heady task.  It requires long wave thoughts, deep thinking and many stops and starts.  I will get there.

Season of the Brute

I’m fully grown in your garden

fend for myself in the dirt

I don’t go begging your pardon

I’m not your average worm

the season of the brute it's taken root

it’s taken root

the harvest of forbidden fruit

just when you think there’s nothing left that they could do   to you

the subtle pull of persistence

starts from deep in the earth

my cultivated existence

is probably more than what I deserve

the season of the brute it's taken root

it’s taken root

the harvest of forbidden fruit

when you believe there’s nothing left that you would care, to lose

the season of the brute it's taken root

I’ll die and meet you in heaven

all of your life I lurk

watching and waiting in shadows

and I do all the dirty work

when you can’t accept that things are through  here is proof

the season of the brute it's taken root

Midwick View Estates

Angie and I made a trek out to Monterrey Park this evening to adore this fountain.  Some info on this nifty feature Here. 

this last photo was from Angie to Rhonda.  "another sighting"

weekend wedding and bday

I had a fine weekend this past weekend.  Friday evening, after my customary phone conversation with my parents, Angela and I walked up to Kabuki for Happy Hour eats.  We stuck pretty much to the usual order:  Spicy Tuna Salad, Tempura Mozzarella Roll, California Roll & the Gold Rush Roll (basically a fried California roll.)  Dinner was yummy.  After our meal we walked up to Red Box to pick up a movie (walk of shame - stupid but fun.) We then hoofed it back home, picked up around the house a bit and settled in for the night.

Halfway through our movie Angela was down for the count.  I stopped the movie, I've completely given up on watching a movie in a single sitting, and headed into my room to work.  I have been working to wrap up a Remix of the Turbo Sunshine song Hey Citizen, which I'm getting pretty near to done with and I'm super happy about.  I finished this and then did some messing around with another track that is a few years in the making called "Volunteer Victims".   Will this song be for Turbo or S no S?  I do not yet know.  It's been rejected by Turbo once, but now that it's evolving more it might still find a home in a project where it could see live action.
 

I worked until my eyes drooped and I ceased to be productive.  Then I retired to the living room, freed the bunny for her nightly run around the big room and started to watch World War Z on Netflix.

Saturday was a pretty busy day.  I got out of bed just before 8am so that I could take the bunny to the salon for her nail trimming.  For this task I actually return to my old neighborhood in Atwater Village.  I drove over and sat with her until the took her in to trim, then I drove back home.  Angela had breakfast and coffee ready for me upon my arrival home.  Bacon, Eggs and French Toast. 

after breakfast I headed down to our rehearsal spot downtown to grab the video camera and tripod so Angela could film her Dance Lesson, which was later cancelled because her instructor forgot.  

I caught up on a few more chores and some recording for the rest of the morning and then pivoted to getting myself ready for a big gay wedding celebration at the CBS lot in the valley.  It was a great time, here are some photos.  

The Party was on the "New York Street" set.

Here is the best cellphone snap of the grooms, who I won't name because google is sneaky good.

Us

Devin and Dylan

and another 

We got home from the wedding around midnight.  Angela had the good sense to go to bed.  I stayed up and instead watched The Electric Six concert film "Absolute Treasure".  This is the concert that Angela and I flew to Detroit to see the filming of.  It's an excellent document and I had a total ball seeing it for the first time.  Even if it did keep me up way too late, I enjoyed every second of it. 

Sunday morning came around too early.  I woke up and went right back to bed.  It was easier to wake up the second time.  I journeyed over to Winchell's to hunt some bagels for breakfast.  They were also yummy.  

Sunday was a catch up day of rest and cleaning and some more recording.  I walked up to Amoeba music around 5 pm to get my brother's b-day present.  Around 6pm Angela and I started walking toward Hollywood and Highland to meet our Crew at Vegas Seafood Buffet for Devin's B-day Dinner.  Once everyone arrived we proceeded to give Devin Presents and stuff our faces.  It was nice. 

Turbo Workday

All Operators Are Busy

So I've not been blogging, what with my pops starting his own blog, a new niece in the world and other stuff going on I've been to satisfied to click clack away at these keys.  And yet it should not be this way, there is much to say, so while I'm on hold with the dreaded AT&T I'll break the seal and type out a few words, which will make it easier to blog more.

I'm leaving work in less than 4 hours and then it's off to meet said Niece.  I am very excited to meet this next generation of my family.  I'll reserve saying anything profound until I've actually held the little cabbage in my hands.

Zombies Run Season 2 Wrap

Zombies, Run! Season 3 gets released today.  I'm excited to have some new features and missions.  I pretty well clobbered Season 2, running every mission at minimum twice.  Above is my season 2 base, which I apparently get to keep building on in Season 3.  Here are my current stats at the end of season 2.  This combines all Zombies, Run! activities to date.

199 runs

864.93 mi dist

152:00:54 time

Recovery from my over-running injury has come along nicely.  I'm trying to take days off seriously to assure it doesn't happen again, but damn, I like to eat, so that makes it hard.  On that same front I've also decided to try and drop 10 or 15 pounds.  I assume that will make the running a bit nicer on my aging bones and body.  

I have a new mileage milestone in mind.  Google maps tells me that walking from Hollywood to Kansas City is a 1,583 mile trip.  When I get that number down I'll have a little party in my heart.  Hey, I'm over half way there!  Readers in Hays, Ks, I'll have that heart party at 1,325 miles.   With no injuries I may be able to knock that number out by the end of the year.  

   

Photos From Idyllwild, CA 4-6-14

Angela and I attended a wedding reception in Palm springs the weekend before last.  On our way home I decided we should take slight detour through a town I've always wanted to see,  Idylldwild, CA.  This tiny hamlet is located in the San Jacinto Mountains, about 2 hours away from our home in Hollywood.  Angela and I absolutely fell in love with this place.  The smell of burning firewood, the roving gangs of weekend warrior bikers.  We enjoyed  a calzone in a small market that was the best I've ever had.   

Our first discovery in town was this happy little deer.  There were several of these fella's sprinkled about.  

Isn't he just a darling?

Above is the town monument.  Basically take every mainly mountain animal you can think of and carve them out of one tree.  Some how I guess you have to offset all the frilly little deer flutting about town.  

And if the monument won't do it perhaps painting a car on it will.  

This is a nice store if you need an expensive hat.  

A shot of the main drag

Look, a tiny first run theater!

In case you were wondering, we have been looking at property in Idyllwild.  We found a reasonable mobile home in a nice community.  The only problem is that it's a 55+ park.  Again in life we find ourselves in need of some fake IDs.  

March of Miles

It's nice to have my legs back to working again. I ran 63.5 miles in March with plenty of days off. Starting to feel pretty good again, excited to feel more in shape. It seems like everyone in my family who is not pregnant is running occasionally now, way to go clan! Back to work for me.

Don't you own the Airwaves?

I've been working on a new Turbo Sunshine single called "Hey Citizen". It's actually one of the very first Turbo songs that was written. I was extremely happy with the Demo, but the process of taking it beyond the demo stage and still be happy with the sound quality was a bitch. It's taken me 3 years to get to a point where I'm nearly ready to put it out. so yeah, look out for that soon.

Today I have taken back up my push up hobby. I don't plan to get back up to 1000 a day. perhaps just a perfect form few hundred.

Running is getting back on track. I'm taking days off and focusing more on hills and interval work than sheer distance. Some nights though it's late and I'm feeling good and I just want to slip south through the massive dwellings of Hancock Park into Central LA, until the idyllic life meets with strife and the streets get rough and tumble. On those days I don't think about my hip or my stupid job or how frustrating it is trying to get things done and I just run.

I've wondered a lot lately if my father hadn't admired distance runners so openly when I was young if I would have pursued the activity until I learned to like it and then love it. Hearing my father talk about an activity with a certain amount of Awe really peaked my interest. I thought hmm, all one has to do is run and keep running, no ball, no special skill, just guts and heart. Legs help too.

thanks Pa.

Way Up in the Sky

This past Sunday was the 86th Annual Academy awards. Due to my job I have a special interest in them. So I watch them most years, and even enjoy them. Some years it's nice to forget about them though, and take advantage of the empty city streets to run an errand. This past Sunday Angela and I did both, watch and not watch. We began the afternoon by watching the first few awards at a friend's party, leaving early to go pay rent at the rehearsal space. Having finished that we decided to walk down to the grocery store to pick up some items for the week. On the walk back I noted the good year blimp hovering above the Dolby Theatre. Even better the blimp was broadcasting in large red letters the winner of each category as it was announced. It was a pleasure to walk in the crisp February night, disconnected from the biggest night in Hollywood but still firmly in the loop. I was even happy for MR. JK Livin.

Becoming all Wet

Tonight I get to play the songs I've written in front of other people. Last night it rained. It will rain again tomorrow and Saturday. All of these things are good things in my book. I do feel bad for the guys at my work who have to be down in the trenches setting up the Academy Awards in the rain, that won't be fun.

I watched "Into the Wild" earlier this week. I enjoyed it a lot. I can see where I was a little bit like that kid at his age. Thank goodness I was so lazy, that could have ended really badly. My 5 year plan once had the second entry as "walk from California to Florida." I do kinda wish I had done that, but I am happy with the measure of stability that I've managed to claw out of this unstable world. And yet I really would love to take the time to thru hike The Pacific Crest Trail.

Ah, the call of adventure. Will the exploits of others ever stop to stir something deep within me? Will I ever look at a mountain without wanting to climb it? I guess the least I could do this year is get my adventure pass to the Angeles National Forrest and climb all the main peaks that taunt me each day. Then if perhaps my ship, or the ship of someone I love comes in I'll be able to attack the PCT.

Last night I finished reading "Juliet, Naked" by Nick Hornby. I really do love his books. Easy, funny reads with heart and human insight. First person to ask me for it gets it in the mail.

Next up is the most recent David Brin book. "Existence".

VD in JT

My valentine and I planned a trip to Joshua Tree this past weekend. We stayed at the fabulous Joshua Tree Inn.

We left Hollywood around 2:30 but did not arrive in Joshua Tree until just after 7. Along the way we stopped for dinner, groceries and sanity. The Drive should have only taken 2.5 hours max, the actual travel time of 5 hours was ridiculous. Arriving at the Inn really melted that all away. We checked in and were led through the gorgeous courtyard to our room.

On the drive out we had been listening to the most recent episode of the Howard Stern show. We were surprised to hear the interview guest was Donovan, because we had selected to stay in the Donovan Suite at the Joshua Tree Inn. Sad to say it but Donovan comes off as a bit of a Turd in interviews, yet he makes up for it by being full of himself and boring. Perhaps this wasn't always the case.

After we settled in we walked to the store nearby for some water and hot chocolate. Then we went for a drive to search out the surroundings. We watched a little TV and Angela fell asleep. I smoked a cigar on the patio and joined her soon enough.

I was surprised to find myself wide awake at 6:45 on Saturday. I ventured into the common room to grab some coffee creamer and a few snacks from the snack basket. We had coffee in bed and woke up to a quiet morning in Joshua Tree. I wanted some more morning shots of the Inn so I ventured out to snap some pics.

Just before 8am we headed out to Joshua Tree National Park. A short five mile drive through the sparsely populated desert found us at the entrance to the park. We were pleasantly surprised to learn that the park was actually free entrance all weekend due to Presidents Day. That's $15 saved right there. Entering on a cool February morning to get our first look at the park felt amazing. The desert has always been a place where I could easily see beauty, but this was something else entirely otherworldly. We followed Park Blvd. through the beautiful landscape until we came to our first exploration at Hidden Valley (please make ranch dressing joke here, we did).

Next up we hiked to Barker Damn.

This was the only place in the park where I witnessed water not in a bottle or latrine.

the return trip from Barker Damn also has some petroglyphs:

The hiking and the early morning had us pretty hungry by this point, so we headed back to our little cabin to enjoy a bit of brunch. Our odd choice for this meal was a falafel wrap that we had picked up the night before while on traffic sanity break. Angela swears by this wrap from trader joes, but only if you are willing to take it apart, add additional vegetables to it, remove some falafel, and re-wrap it yourself. My oh my was she right about all of that. The morning sun and the food and the quiet then all fell upon us, and we could not resist the tug of a mini-nap. Like I always do during the day I slept a delicious 10 minutes. I quietly crept out of bed and onto the patio where I could plunk on my guitar and take in the day.

Once Angela awoke and we decided to walk down 29 palms highway into the town of Joshua Tree for a bit of random shopping. We came upon a farmers market and picked up some sweet potatoes. Then we visited a few thrift stores where we got a sequin shirt, a dvd copy of Garden State and a the Nick Hornby book "juliet, naked". What a haul!

Then we got back in the car for a little more desert adventure. I'd heard about a place called the integratron and wanted to check it out. Though it wasn't open it was still nice to see it in person and snap a few pictures.

After the Integratron the grocery store in Yucca Valley was rather mundane. Yet learning we had a barbeque grill made it a necessary stop for charcoal, steak and salmon.

After stopping back by the Inn we decided to head back to the national park for the rest of the evening. It's here that I should mention that Gram Parsons died in room number 8 at the Joshua Tree Inn. They have erected directly in front of number 8 a beautiful memorial to honor his spirit.

The odd story of Gram Parsons and Joshua Tree really only begins there. It ends again within the park itself, where his manager to some degree was able to partially cremate his stolen remains. The entire story is told rather well here. And so it was that I was interested in finding the spot at Cap Rock where his manager had set his spirit free. The park chooses not to memorialize Gram here, because people love to graffiti the final resting place of dead rock stars. So it's a little tough to find, but with the help of the internet, not really. Here is what it looked like when we visited:

Cap Rock in itself is pretty impressive and as the afternoon sun faded I couldn't resist climbing as high as could and playing on the rocks. Angela watched from below, until it appeared to dangerous when she yelled to me that she could no longer watch and that I should scream if I hurt myself.

When I climbed down to meet Angela she had developed a new plan while watching me bounce on the rocks, which she related in this manner: "Tomorrow morning why don't I wake you up early, and you can come back here to hike on your own while I pack up the room."
and I said: "well that's not really fair, I don't want to split up on our Valentine trip."
which she shut down with: "Can we just skip your 15 minutes of soul searching here and move on with this plan? I don't have time for it."

Next we drove further south into the park to Keys View, where we just missed the sunset but still got to take in incredible views.

This sign says "what's wrong with this picture:

Answer: the couple making out in front of dozens of people in a national park. (see lower left hand corner)

As darkness fell across the park we drove back to the Joshua Tree Inn. Once home I set up the BBQ grill and played guitar on the patio while we had beers and fun.

I prepared our Surf and Turf with mashed sweet potatoes which we enjoyed on our dining room table. We were both rather pleased with how it turned out. Soon the sand man came for us and we were off to sleep.

True to the idea of the day before I awoke early on Sunday to make my solo trek to the park. I had poured over the guide book before I left and settled on a hike up Ryan Mountain. It was the only attraction with the word strenuous in the title so that sounded good. I was a little alarmed when I read the sign at the trail head as I checked my clock. The sign called the 3 mile loop a 2-3 hour hike. After a 30 minute drive deep into the park I didn't have that amount of time left to do the hike, drive back, shower and still make check out. I decided I'd really turn on the speed and see how far I could make it before I had to turn back.

Trying to make good time took the hike from moderately strenuous to huffing and puffing hell. Luckily the trail was fairly empty allowing me to make good time.

I stopped to check my time when I was about 3/4 of the way up and I was confident that I could make it if I pushed it.

at the top I snapped some photos, soaked in the view and then headed back down as fast as I could.

The whole way down I beamed. It was so pretty as the sun burnt through the morning haze. I felt blessed that Angela recognized that I could do with a bit of "real" exercise and time in the park by myself. It's such a nice feeling when some one knows you well enough to give you what you need without asking for it.

From base to top and back the Ryan Mountain hike to just shy of 50 minutes. Here is a nice summary of the hike.

Sweaty and happy I headed back to Inn to check out. After a shower and loading the car I dropped a guitar pick in the metal cup at the Gram Parsons Memorial, as many have done before me.

We had lunch at Santana's in Joshua Tree, cheap Mexican food at it's sort of best. Full of cheese and salsa we headed back into the park. This time we drove the entire length of the park to meet the 10 freeway on the south side. Along the way we listened to Dub Step and stopped at a cactus garden.

Once on the 10 it was just a Sunday drive back to LA. Joshua Tree National park is a treasure, I hope to go back soon.