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

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.

Najas place

Day 14 done, don't get all butt hurt

Between sidways bear crawls on day 13 and last nights runyon canyon experience my ass is very sore. Yesterday we did something that could only be considered a human tractor pull. We were instructed to bring our rubber resistance bands to the canyon, which I knew meant trouble. They are rubber tubs with 20 that provide pounds of resistance and have a handle on each end. The resistance weighting was not important for this exercies. We all ran to near the top of the canyon in the center most path until we neared the steepest part. Then we partnered up and one person wrapped the tub around the other's waist and stood behind them holding the two handles. The person in front then had to run approximately 300 meters to the top of the hill driving their knees high while the person behind them walked slowly and held them back. We took turns doing this three times each. Robin instructed us that the trip to the top was to take no less than five minutes. The first one was a real bastard, the second one a bitch and the third a real mother fucker. Honestly. On my last trip up Robin decided that my partner was not providing enough resistance so he held on for a while as well. One of our fellow boot campers, Luther, was there taking pictures as well. I'm sure Ill show up in all my red faced glory with a band tight around my bulging stomach in every concievable corner of the internet from here until the end of the digital age. Oh me.

So I'm sore. Tonight is the end of week three. I'm happy and feeling good.

7 more times

Headed to an empty devin and dylans place. I have my guitar to keep me company. 7 more boot camps.

Rainy Morning Story

I felt I should take a little me time this morning and write a little story. Here you go:

Ten Early Minutes

I probably should have shined my shoes. What is that white stuff? How did I get white stuff on the tops of black shoes? It isn't like I wear one white shoe and one black shoe, that would makes sense if I did, cause the white shoe would scuff the black shoe and leave a mark. I hope this guy doesn't go for that whole "Shoes make the man" philosophy. Is it even going to be a guy? Surely they told me on the message, I should have paid more attention. At least I got the address right.
These walls must be mahogany. Deep rich mahogany, either that or really thick dry toffee. I should have eaten this morning.
I'm pretty sure it's going to be a guy, the receptionist is pretty in the way that would appeal to a guy, a white guy at that; wonder if that will work to my advantage.
I've always heard that you should show up early to these things but not too early. How could my cellphone be so much faster then the office clock? Maybe this guy is a real hard ass who likes to play psychological games with people. I bet there are guys that do stuff like that, they call people in for an interview or a meeting and then they have a slower clock then everyone else in the world and they make you sit hungry in a room with walls made of toffee and they watch you and have a snack. That painting doesn't even look real, that is probably where they would hide the camera. Or maybe it looks out from one of the letter O's on these fancy books there. I bet if I time that big clock behind her head with my cellphone I'd find that it moves at a slower ratio. This is the big test part, he will observe how I deal with being dumped into a circumstance that is counter to my normal perception and see how I react. By the time I get called in he will have totally made up his mind based on read outs of facial interpretation software. I wonder if the software has already alerted him that I'm wise to the ruse? I have slammed dunked this thing, scuffed shoes and all.
Scuffed shoes say a lot about a person: "I don't just dress like this for interviews, I wear shoes like this daily".
I bet if I got up and walked over and had a bite of that toffee book shelf this would all be over. He'd come out to shake my hand and offer me his number two slot.
"I could use somebody like you, somebody who eats when they're hungry and sleeps when they're tired and wears nice shoes on a regular basis."
What did that girl say her name was? Jessica? Jasmine? Should I be making small talk? She looks kind of busy. They probably want someone who knows when to talk and when to shut up. This is when you shut up, that girl just answers phones and jots down messages. The number two in a place like this wouldn't have much to say to a girl like that. She is fairly attractive though. Maybe this guy is a real cocksmith and he looks for that in others. I bet he fancies himself a Don Juan. He probably will want to take me out to some gentleman's club afterwards and see how I handle myself around women. He might be looking for a confidant. He might be banging Janice here and dying to tell some one about it. The whole interview is probably just going to be sordid details of what he does to her and how she likes it. I will need to appear impressed, but not all that interested. I don't want him to think I'm picturing him in his moment of conquest, better to appear that I've been in similar situations and that I respect him for his prowess. I'll probably have to keep up with listening to all his inner most secrets from here on out. It's going to get old but it will be worth it for the money.
When I tell people that I came in for an entry level interview and walked out of some bar eight hours later holding up the staggering president of the company with my new title of VP they will hardly believe it. I will just say that I used personality mirroring, and that I he saw something in me. I'll be really vague about it. People will fill in their own blanks. They will start to remember that they always saw something a little special in me, that there was just something a little more capable about me. When this guy is ready to retire he's going to pass the reigns to me, he's probably been looking for some one that reminds him of himself. I bet I will have to marry his daughter. She is probably beautiful but spoiled, but maybe she just hasn't met anyone she can be herself with. When he dies I'll just sell the company to the highest bidder and we will move to an Island. I'll probably cheat and she'll ignore it. She'll cheat too. We will have a house staff that is basically a harem. And we'll slowly grow to hate each other for our infidelity. We will start to play games with people like "Who's Afraid of Virginia Wolf". In the end we will realize that we are meant for one another and that we've really loved each other too much all along.
I'm going to need a new place to live while I wait to marry his daughter. He might even have a penthouse apartment somewhere for me. A place he takes women to, his own private sanctuary. It will be all modern and sparse and I won't bring anything into it. He will always chide me about that. "You gotta make yourself at home here Edwards! You are like a ghost. Make a mess, I pay people good money to clean up after you and you live like a damn monk." He will say those kind of things but in a way that lets me know he really respects my economy of life. I will only rarely bring people over to my new place, only after I've learned at what hours he might stop by. I won't see a lot of my old friends for quite a while after I get this job. I won't return phone calls for a month or so, I will mean to, but I just won't have time. I bet Allen will come by my place in two weeks and knock till he gets so worked up that he goes to the land lady to have her let him in so he can find my corpse. She will tell him how I called to tell her that I'm moving out and that she could do whatever she wanted with my stuff. She will tell him how I didn't care at all about my security deposit. She'll probably try and give him a box of my things. He will leave me a big "what the fuck" is up message and I'll finally return his call. I'll have him meet me in the bar on the ground floor of my new building and then he will pound me with questions. I will smile the whole time and tell him to relax and have a martini, "it's on me" I'll say, and "Relax for a second Allen, I've had a crazy couple of weeks, let me catch my breath and then I'll show you whats going on with me."
He will be shaking wanting so bad to know what has happened. I'll drink my drink and order another one but I'll secretly have it sent up to my room. Finally I'll just get up real cool and tell Allen, "All right just follow me and I'll show you what's been happening." When we walk into the lobby the door guy will smile and call me by name. I'll slap a $20 in his hand thank him. Allen won't know what to think of that. When we get into the elevator and I press PH he won't be able to stop the questions. I'll tell him just to be patient...

"David Edwards? Ms. Johnson will see you now."

Twelve And Thirteen

Runyon Canyon again on Tuesday. Drill circuit on the tennis court broken up by a loop run of the bottom section of the east hill. We shared the court with what a appeared to be a hearing impaired trainee and a trainer versed in sign language. There seemed to be much more general chatting going on between these two then working out. I was jealous. It reminded me of living briefly in Olathe, KS, home to the Kansas School for the Deaf. I always enjoyed passing a vehicle to see the occupants conversing in sign, keeping a wide berth in these situations in recommended.

Plummer Park last night was a battle. I felt a bit bad about the way I ate during the day and decided I would take it out on myself at boot camp. It seemed to me other people in our group were stepping it up as well. With each workout it is starting to feel like the time goes by a little faster, so I feel more confident in giving each exercise my all. When we finished last night I felt accomplished and spent. Really proud too.

I missed Devin and Dylan at boot camp. When I got to my truck at the end of the workout I saw I had a message from my dad. He was letting me know that they were all together and thinking of me. I gave him a call and heard the sound of many familiar voices talking at once. I felt a deep longing to see everyone there.

No teammates

Devin and Dylan are in Kansas today. I'm headed to their house. To change and wait for bootcamp. Their street looks so pretty! It won't be as fun tonight without them.

Tag you're it

I am of the opinion that taggers a generally stupid, but I can at least give a little credit to some of them for having balls. I see some tags in crowded metro areas and I can't help but be a tiny bit impressed at the stones it took to place the tag there. Tags in overlook parks far from view of any street which johnny law might pass by on are just silly. I mean really?

9, 10, 11

Boot Camp continues. I was up late late late last Wednesday, which made boot camp on Thursday in Runyon Canyon a chore. I pushed myself as much as one could push, but it was a difficult journey. Last Friday was a circuit work out in the park. We used large exercise balls at the first station. We placed them under out feet and supported our upper bodies by our arms in a push up position, then rolling our feet forward on the ball towards our middles, this greatly worked our abdomens. we were to perform this exercise for a minute and then move on to the next. The next station required us to swing 25 pound weights directly in front of us using a thrust motion with out hips. Then on to a couple of matts where we did v-up ab lifts passing a soccer ball from our feet to our hands and then back. We did each station with a teammate. Devin did not attend since he had to get ready for boot camp, so Dylan and I were a team. The next stop had two mats on the ground facing each other, we were to do these strange push ups which require a person to drop to an elbow one arm at a time, and then back up, at the top of the cycle we were required to give our partner a hand slap five. At the next station we then did sit ups with a medicine ball above our heads, passing it to our partner in the middle at the end of each sit up, he would then take the ball and do one while I did one empty handed. Then we moved to the retaining wall by the tennis court where we would do tricep presses with our feet out in front of us. Next it was to a set of rubber training bands where we would perform curls. Finally the circuit would end with wall sits and calf raises. We did the circle twice for a minute each and a third time for a minute and a half. Hard work of course, but at least a bit of variety.

Yesterday found us back in the park for the third Monday in a row. Many of our people were unable to attend. I am now official the only member with perfect attendance. I felt stronger for the first time in the park work outs. Two days off over the weekend helped and I felt more capable. I'm trying to remember as many exercises as I can because this has been great for my body. I would like to continue my own personal boot camp in Griffith park after this one is complete. It will be nice to go directly from work and stop on my way home rather than spending so much time in West Hollywood waiting for it to begin. It has been very nice though spending so much more time with Devin and Dylan. I'm bummed that they will be heading to Kansas and Canada in the coming weeks and will not be there to hang with.

Only one more Monday remains.

North Sentinel Island

I have my interests and islands are a big one. I found another interesting one recently while reading an article.

From wikipedia:

North Sentinel Island is home to a tribe of indigenous people, the Sentinelese, whose present numbers are estimated to be anywhere between 50 and 400 individuals. They reject any contact with other people, and are among the last peoples to remain virtually untouched by modern civilization[citation needed]. Because there has never been any treaty with the people of the island, nor any record of a physical occupation whereby the people of the island have conceded sovereignty, the island exists in a curious state of limbo under established international law and can be seen as a sovereign entity under Indian protection. It is, therefore, one of the de facto autonomous regions of India.

Another fine article with history of the North Sentinelese can be found here.

It's romantic for modern folks to consider life untouched by technology and "progress". I've been lately considering a story about a return to pioneering in the vast and less populated Midwest, where the promise of self subsistence calls.

Halfway day

Tonight is the halfway day of boot camp. Yesterday was sprints at runyon. Today is back to the park. Looking forward to the weekend off.

7 ate me

I'm tired a bit today. Boot camp on days 7 and 8 were difficult. We did a massive amount of jump roping on tuesday. Actually only 9 minutes in total, but there was much other activity in between. Apparently it takes 20 minutes of jumping rope to burn off the calories in one candy bar. Nothing is worth 20 minutes of jumping rope.

Yesterday in the park was a bear as well.

I should have gone to bed way earlier last night. Tonight will be rough.

Again

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Dmv and day 6 down

I'm waiting at the dmv. Making my new car official. My number is b125. There are many different letter codes. The Bs are currently on 103.

Boot camp was good last night. We were in the park again but it felt just a touch easier to perform some of the motions. I'm also not as sore today. Tonight will be runyon canyon and we have been asked to bring our jump ropes.

Moistly Overlooked

I'm back at my spot but its rainy. I'm eating lunch meat, cheese and a pickle. Yum. Back to the boots!

Five Days Done

Friday Boot Camp in the park was just as grueling. By the end of the work out I my body was so tired I was probably only completing one rep to every five of Robin's. Exhausted. Driving home through firday night traffic was ridiculous. At least it gave me time to catch up on some phone calls. I had a nice chat with Jason R, learned a bit about what it takes to get your doctorate in his field. Sounds exhausting but I'm proud of him. Is it pride you feel when some one you care about does something completely beyond your ability or is it awe? On Jason's Suggestion I am this very morning digging into Nick Drake on LALA.

After Boot camp I stopped and picked up some champagne so that Angela and I might celebrate my victory. When I got home Angela cooked up some wonderful Fish Taco's while I showered. I dried off and enjoyed them fully. Angela has a gift with food, and I'm glad she shares it. We spent the rest of this night chatting on the couch and watching something on the Tele.

Saturday Morning I woke up at 9 am. Angela made Eggs and Tortialla and which I quickly enjoyed before heading off to my Boss' house to do some work. We have a large unfinished task waiting in the old office in his garage but we didn't really get to that. We did a day of general cleaning and maitanence. I pruned some headges, raked a bunch of leaves and through away a bunch of things that needed throwing away.

Saturday evening was another lazy evening.

Sunday I had an Invis Mater rehearsal. Running through our new songs, which I recorded. Will get around to mixing them down this week.

Grind Grind Grind.

Shadow hat

Looking over friday

Back at my spot and it is as lovely today as it has been all week. There is an older tourist couple here hugging each other and taking pictures. Lots of birds singing back and forth. I'm a little further down the hill than usual, sitting cross legged on a stone wall. From where I sit the sound of cars on mullholland are muffled a bit. The dull roar of tires hitting pavement on the 101 freeway below sounds a bit like white noise. There are tiny bugs fluttering around me, occasionally they brush my skin leaving me a bit itchy.
The sun is warming my left arm and the left side of my face while a breeze cools my right arm.
A dog somewhere below let's out a demand for attention, she has been home alone all day.

Four Days Down

I didn't get my little snack in the park last night. I drove to the optometrist instead and picked up contacts for Angela and myself. I then had a nice drive through Cold Water Canyon, which I haven't been through in a while. It seemed like I used to take Cold Water at least once a week, now that I'm out of Weho there is not the same need. It's pretty though, and occasionally I miss it. I like certain roads, streets and routes, I get attached to them and I have associations. Even if some of them are awful. Like the time I recall driving my ex home as she was horribly drunk, screaming the lyrics to "Johnny are you Queer?" at me, as if it was an insult, then hurling her half drank beer out the window just to hear it pop on the pavement. Hmm... I'm pretty glad I don't have to drive through that canyon so much anymore.
So after the canyon I went and changed at Devin and Dylan's and then headed to another canyon, Runyon, and me the rest of the boot campers. We did interval runs up the easy way, if you want to call it easy. One minute run to thirty seconds walking all the way up. Boot camp in the canyon is easier for me since I'm used to that kind of working out. I can handle that type of pain pretty well and since I know the distances it's easier to push myself. We finished the session with shuffle steps up the steepest part of the path followed by sprints. Exhausting but rewarding.
After we finished I dropped Robin by the subway so he could head downtown to prepare for and art show fundraiser he was doing and I went home to shower and change so Angela and I could attend. The art auction was in an apartment and was planned to coincide with the monthly downtown art walk. There are so many people in downtown on this night that parking can be a real bastard. Luckily we found a yellow loading only spot, which many people don't realize you can park at in los angeles after 7pm. The apartment was rather packed and steamy but there was plenty of wine and many good friends. We stayed about an hour and then headed home.
I watched a bit of TV and then collapsed on the bed and died for 7 hours.

Day Three Down

Last night was another boot camp in Plummer Park in West Hollywood. I was seriously sore all day long and I had serious doubts about weather I would make it. After my snack in the park I drove to Devin and Dylan's while listening to Aldous Huxley narrate a radio presentation of "A Brave New World". I had found it last week on a website and burnt it down to a disc. I like his voice but something about it put me off. Much of the language stayed the same, but it focused much more on the dialogue. In a way it seemed to be such obvious exposition that it was taking away from my good memories of the book. Perhaps it will treat me better on some long car drive where I can really listen.
I arrived at Devin and Dylan's to see a strange site. The only available parking space I could find was behind an old school mustang parked next to a school. The trunk was open. There was a man kneeling next to the curb. He had a bottle of what appeared to be tequila in one hand and a double shot glass in the other. In the time it took me to park I watched him down 3 double shots. He looked at me and said nothing. I tried to remember that I've probably done things in the streets of west Hollywood that would have appeared just as creepy, so I let him be. I was hoping that at least his car would still be there when I returned, so that I would know he wasn't driving anywhere. It was.

Boot camp was really hard, perhaps the hardest night yet. I felt good when it was over, but exhausted. Angela was planning to go see a movie with our friends Rebecca and Loren, "Behind the Burly Q". I told her I would be too tired to go and that I would stay home and go to bed early. On my way home though I started to feel like I hadn't seen her all week, and I decided to suck it up and go. I was glad I did. We ate at Sushi Dan's, because we both love the baked scallop California roll. Yummy. The movie was very interesting and informative telling from interviews exactly what it was like to be a Burlesque performer from the 20's to 50's.

Today I feel less sore. My body actually feels a bit trimmer and I'm encouraged. 1 Hump day is down, 3 more to go.

Overlooking again

I'm back at my spot, breeze is nice and the sun still shines. Apple, banana and cereal bar. Feels just as nice as it did yesterday.
Angela has plans to go to a movie this evening, I think I will sit this one out and catch up on rest. I will be beat after boot camp.

Day Two Down

Boot Camp was good at Runyon Canyon last night. Robin is good and gently nudging a person to push themselves. We ran the stairs section 3 times last night fast and then we did a longer run from the stairs to one of the peaks to end the day. I felt great the first time up. Robin ran right next to me and forced me to hit all the steps; some of them are a good 2.5 feet off the ground and hitting them uphill on a run feels like the steeplechase. "Come on Brandon, with those long legs you should be hitting every stair." When I got to the top Robin gave me a high five and sent me right back down. It was fun to see all the other guys struggling up the hill while I was going down. The second trip up was already feeling a bit tougher, but I still made it at a nice clip. The third trip was killing me, luckily there was heavy traffic on the bottom stairs that forced me to slow up a bit. I got to the top and back down with some time to spare after the third trip, waiting for the others to finish so I had a nice stretch and tried to catch my breath. The fourth trip was killer, Robin attempted to motivate me to keep pace with him on the long climb but there was no chance of that happening, I watched him cruise up the hill and finally out of view behind a bend. I was thinking about the Iron Man event he will be doing in a few months and trying to comprehend the type of physical conditioning that must take. It's honestly amazing. Swimming 2.4 miles, biking 112 and finishing that up with a 26 mile run. Jesus.

When I arrived home Angela was at Rebecca and Loren's place preparing for a BBQ. I showered quickly and joined them. Rebecca grilled Shrimp, Mushrooms, Corn and Garlic Cheese Bread. Angela made a fantastic salad to boot. It was the most amazing meal, I could have easily eaten the entire thing I was so hungry.

I feel pretty sore today but I'm enthused. I get older every day and one day my body won't be able to participate in these types of shenanigans. I am enjoying this feeling.

A person could get used to this

Birds sing and cars rumble past. Feel the breeze and the sun. Being here.

Overlook

Pre boot camp snack

Just received a call from devin that he won't be home for a while before boot camp. This leaves me with a bit of time to kill. I've stopped at an overlook park along mulholland drive to eat an apple, banana and a cereal bar. Its pretty here. When I used to live in west hollywood I would occasionally stop here and have a cigar on my way home. I was frantic then and I didn't take time to really enjoy those moments. Instead there was something subversive about stopping on my way home to smoke a cigar when I knew my ex was waiting. Back then I wouldn't have taken so much time away from being degenerate to do a boot camp. This feels nice though, it sunny and there is a breeze. Angela the kind supportive doll that she is packed my snack and told me I could eat it whenever but that it would be smart to save it until late afternoon. She is cute like that, understands that I eat
compulsively and then regret it. Today i am glad I listened.

Its nice to sit here and not be in any hurry. It was easy to think that I was going to be losing precious time doing this boot camp, that somehow not getting home right at 530 was going to cut into my life. Today though I see that its a blessing. I miss seeing angela after a long day at work, but its not like she's away on holiday or I'm off to the army. Its good that I'm doing something different, it leads to moments like this. Where I spend 5 minutes typing on a tiny phone instead of eating my food and enjoying this view. ;)

Day One Down

I'm doing a boot camp this month. Robin, the singer for the band I'm in is the instructor. Devin is doing it also which is great. I love working out, and working out with other people is fun for me since I am usually on my own or with Angela in the gym in our building, but even then she and I are doing different things. My biggest concern when committing to this boot camp was the time consideration. I get off work at 5 pm in the San Fernando Valley, and boot camp does not start until 6:45 pm in West Hollywood. Driving home would just mean wasting gas and that I would end up being in the car for over an hour. Most days hopefully I will just be able to go to Devin and Dylan's place to kill the time, then I can give Devin a ride to and from boot camp also. If nothing else it's great to know I'll see my brother a bit more often.
Today Apparently we will be running in Runyon Canyon, I'm excited to do that since 2 years ago when I first started to actively take care of my self again Runyon Canyon was that place where I chose to do that. I have many good memories there.

This is movie going done right.

Exploring the drive in.

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Failure

I'm walking into the house. We bit off more than could be chewed so we packed everything up and we are calling it a day.

Perhaps follow up photos to come next week.

Beat. Feels good.

The contents of the room.

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Starting carpet.

Plastic seal.

Painting base board

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Sort of before

2 years ago when I first started putting in a bit of extra time at my bosses house on the weekends this room was a home office turned dog house.
When my boss stopped working from home he blocked off the back part of the room with boards and he left everything in place, computers still on. 13 years later when we started to clean it out the room was full of dirt and dog hair. 13 years of it.
6 months ago it was clean enough that Angie and I painted it. Now today we will lay carpet, after I finish mopping.

stick your nose only where your nose can go

There is more good going around this world then credit. I creep around the Internet and I observe. I've been reading blogs written by people I know and people I don't and today they have added up to a good feeling in me. I've been listening to music that I don't really know, all for free on lala.com, and then I get side tracked and I want to go back and listen to some music that I remember from a time in my life that I may have forgotten and it all floods back.
I remember listening to music on a stereo that I bought with money from the sale of my second bucket calf. I purchased the cd/tape player at walmart with money from an animal that I fed every cold morning with a bottle. It never occurred to me that I should cherish the animal more than the stereo. Yet I cried when one day in a fit of rage directed at my brother I slammed a stick down on my bed and cracked the remote to the stereo in half, and not a tear the day I sent the calf off to be slaughtered. I was just happy to have the money and have the chore over with. It's sort of amazing that I learned to appreciate anything isn't it?

So I used to listen to music on a stereo that I bought with the life of animal that I fed with a bottle. Now I listen to it for free on the Internet while I'm being paid to do some tasks in an office.

And there are all these good things going on in spite of how odd it seems when you just look at a little part of it. That's why people don't give the entire life experience enough credit. If you look at a little slice of anything you can make it suck, or if you expect it to be something that it just isn't then it can suck. Just staying alive is enough.

A friend of mine didn't manage to get through last week. So not staying alive is enough too. "We all pay for life with death. So everything in between should be free." Bill Hicks said that, and he's dead so he should know.

Another friend of mine cut his arm, pretty badly. Severed, collapsed artery bad. He hasn't been sure he will get to keep it. It seems to be getting better now and there is blood flowing in his hand again. Life is a series of consequences.

There is a lot that happens.

I'm listening to Catherine Wheel's album Chrome now. It reminds me of a car and a closet. I have so many memories that tie music to cars. Cars crash and the music still plays.

I laid a car to rest last night.

I was certain that this car would leave me stranded in the middle of the 5 freeway at some point. That consequence never occurred. Instead I watched a fork lift take it away.

It's electric, I checked it.

I am a lucky bastard. I woke up today to a nice sensation, a special electricity flowing through me. Happy firing neurons in my brain. And here it is, I am deeply effected at times by material possession. I am not so evolved as to be past the fleeting feeling of completeness that comes from the acquisition of new things. I am in many ways still a child in soul and mind and in the way I choose to interact with society at large. I have not really settled down and I have actively pursued the desires and lifestyle of youth. As a result of this I have not achieved much success in the financial realm, and I have not reaped the benefits of high pay.
I have been driving a car that could be described kindly as a "shit box". It is a 1995 Saturn with 130,000 hard Los Angeles miles on it. The transmission is going and the clock is ticking. I entered the 5 freeway for my short morning commute everyday with the closest thing I get to prayer; in my mind I recognized the possibility that this journey could be the journey where the car finally refused to go any further. In honor of possibility I would always drive the Saturn in the two right lanes, in the hopes that I might have enough momentum to safely pull to the shoulder of the freeway, and not find myself stuck in the fast lane with a target on my bumper.
I have great fucking parents. Sorry for swearing folks but I need to stress it, and that's how I perform that task. I wasn't born into a perfect family. My parents and my siblings and I had a lot to learn about loving and forgiving and letting go. I don't know what my parents thought of their ability to raise children when I was young. They knew enough to know that they had further to go, and that there was always a better way to be. Looking back now I see the progression. My parents worked hard to be better parents constantly and thoroughly. Therapy and continued education and a focused attention to mine and my siblings needs. To run a farm and work a job and raise three active children while driving 40 miles one way to get their masters degrees. These are not people that ever chose the easy way. These are adults that accepted the responsibility that they chose when they decided to commit to raising children. It is because I have the parents that I do that I recognize that even though I'm 31 I am still very much a child. I have chosen to be this way and I recognize that it is a gift from my parents that I am able enjoy this choice.
I have noticed some changes in myself. I have started to accept more responsibility. I now share my life with Angela, who didn't have the luxury I did growing up of such a stable home life. Angela is much more of an adult than I am, because she had to be. She budgets and she correlates her actions with their consequences. She has faced the world with out a safety net and she has gained much practical wisdom from that. I have been learning from her. I have learned to make many different choices. I not nearly as reckless now as I have been. I can see self destructive behaviors better now and I often choose to avoid them in order to be a stable partner for her. I can see how my parents grew into the people they are, by caring about some one else so deeply that you constantly want to choose what best benefits them. I get it.
I have diverted from what I assumed this post would be about. I was having shallow thoughts and they have now run a bit deep. I really was just planning to tell you about the vehicle which my parents bought for me. And to express the feeling I get that I'm 31 and my parents still buy me a car. It is a funny sort of feeling, but I'm thankful for it. My parents gave my brother their old car. I was happy for him. He gave me his old car, which he had managed to keep running with good responsible care. He is actually now the guy I go to for advice on how to take care of a car, because he kept the shitbox running when no one else believed it could be done, and he did it by taking very good care of it and taking the time to do regular maintenance. Like before it broke down he would take it to the shop. This idea had before now been unknown to me.
My parents felt bad about that they didn't have two cars to give away, because I ribbed them about it, because I'm still a bit of a child. They felt so bad about it that they finally forced me to let them help me by myself a new used car. And when I say "help" I mean they paid for it. So I ended up buying a Ford Explorer from the company I work for. It was purchased new for my boss Craig to drive in 1998. He drove it for 10 years and then bought himself a new vehicle. It's basically been parked for the last 2 years and driven maybe once a month. So for a 1998 it has low miles and it's in excellent condition. Have a look:


So I woke up today and I was excited and happy that I had a new car to drive to work. I can actually listen to music in my car instead of playing the harmonica. Which gets a little old after about 20 minutes. The stereo is half of the fun of a car. I woke up with the before mentioned electricity and I recognized it's source as being material and a bit shallow, but it is not phony, it's electric.
I swam in my shallow waters to the closet and I picked out a cute shirt and a cute pairs jeans and a cute hat, which I later changed for a different cute hat, since apparently my first hat was not cute with my first outfit. I felt good and I looked in the mirror. I acknowledged my reflection, and we shared a moment.

I carried with me to my car a fashionable looking umbrella, a book and a yogurt/granola snack which Angela had prepared for me. I felt like someone I would like to meet. I walked to my new vehicle and got in.

This next section has a sound track. For your convenience I have embedded it.

I start my Explorer and this song comes on in my cd player. Press start now.

Being Bad Feels Pretty Good - ...

I am smiling. I turn right on Garden and then right again on Edenhurst. I accelerate up Edenhurst and I am enjoying the V6 engine. I realize with some level of guilt that there are serious consequences to driving big vehicles. I say to myself you are American and you can't help it that you enjoy these things. I decide for the moment to let that go. I am thinking about my parents buying me a car. I have the beginnings of the thoughts I wrote about above. The song is building. I am feeling good. I think about my state of prolonged childhood. I think about the fact that I have the same dreams for my life that I had when I was in high school. I also realize that in many ways I have attained those dreams. I am what I wanted to be, I have chosen this life.
I realize that I have grown, I have new dreams in addition to the old ones. I have started to see more of my father in myself. I have started to dream about being a father. I have caught myself in the way I speak to Angela, speaking as my father would to my mother and it feels good, it fits. I can see that I am growing up, I'm just not there yet; I am so thankful that I don't yet have to.

The freeway felt good. Some days it feels dirty, and I feel as though I'm driving through the ruins of what was wrong with the American dream. Today though I feel the power of possession and the ingenuity it took to build the freeways and the vehicles which pound it with their tires.

Practical Practice

I had a good weekend. I woke up Friday morning exhausted and not feeling well so I emailed in sick. I won't lie, it felt very nice. I spent most of the day sleeping and on the couch.
When I was young I used to enjoy staying home from school. I hated actually being sick and staying home, but being healthy and home was fantastic. I worked out a deal with my parents when I was in high school. I was allowed 2 personal days a semester to be out from school sick. I would plan those days carefully, to maximize my day off activities. Some days I would spend playing a video game which I had carefully rented the evening before. Other days off I would drive to my family's farm 40 miles away with a gun or two, spending the day in the air making lots of noise.

Friday night I went to see Ben, the bass player for Invis Matter's other band play. They are a sort of shock metal outfit aiming for maximum gross out. They played at a place called "CIA" which I had always wanted to go to anyway. It is only a couple of blocks from the apartment I lived in with Dudley in North Hollywood, so my curiosity about the venue was always strong. It really did not disappoint, filled with all sorts of strange items and painted to look like a black light clown dungeon. Ben's band was really good and entertaining to watch.

Saturday I slept until 10:30, when Angela woke me up to kill a wasp that had flown into our apartment. I was tired and blurry when she was waking me and I ended up very disappointed to learn that I wouldn't be smashing a White Anglo Saxon Protestant with an LA Weekly but an actual apocrita. Damn my luck.

Later in the morning Angela and I had Turbo Sunshine practice. At this point it consists of me teaching Angela to play keyboard parts to some of my new songs. We have only attempted this one other time before. Saturday went very well. Angela learned to play the bass line on a keyboard to my new song "What You Would Have Me Do". She learned to play it the entire way through, in less than 45 minutes. I was impressed as hell and very proud. It certainly makes me start to consider all the possibilities for Turbo Sunshine.
I have been kicking around many ideas for Turbo Sunshine and it makes me so very excited. I really want to have my very own band again, filled with collaboration and as drama free as a band can be. I know that no one ever starts a band and thinks, we are going to fight constantly and I'm going to be a diva about everything, but perhaps because a person starts a band with out having been through some one else's ridiculous diva fits maybe they don't understand the negative impact it has on the experience of those around them so they never stress to themselves the importance of good manners. I am over simplifying but I think it's important to set goals for your own behavior. Having high expectations of oneself is usually a good thing. **Flash to a year in the future and I'm throwing a drunken bitch fit onstage with 7 people in the audience because the sound guy isn't turning my microphone up to feedback levels.**
So far the songs which I have started for Turbo Sunshine are as follows:

"Far Out With You" This song sounds a bit like space, as it is supposed to. It has a very heavy bass groove verse with a floating gravity defying chorus. I am totally pleased with the current form and direction of this song. My goal for further work on this tune is adding vocal harmonies in the chorus sections.

"We Want a New God" I have started the lyrical idea and guitar part for this song. I am super pleased with the guitar part. Angela has learned a nice little pad part to play during the verses but I'm thinking of having her learn the bass line instead. I like my lyrical idea thus far but I'm concerned about the melody line being a bit too bland. I would describe the sound as Electro Psychedelic. Devin wrote the main musical back bone to this song which has me very excited. He and I have not collaborated on every aspect of a song in a long time, usually someone else gets the pleasure of singing on a track which we work hard to make sound awesome, I'm glad that this time around one of us will reap the rewards. This song is currently in a bit of limbo because I do not have the individual tracks for Devin's parts, they are sitting on the hard drive of his computer which currently will not turn on. **Brandon crosses fingers and tries to remember how to pray**

"Who Killed Love?" This song is pretty ridiculous and goth. Angela always used to call overly dramatic love songs "Who Killed Love?" I liked the phrase so much I just used it literally. I'm pretty far along on this song, but I'm at a cross roads trying to figure out a better beat. I did a few hours of work on the beat last week but I'm not convinced that I improved anything. I also need some major vocal harmony in this tune.

"What You Would Have Me Do" I had the music to this tune for a while but never heard a melody. Three weeks ago though when Angela was in San Diego I pulled this tune up very late at night and the words and melody fell into place nearly instantly. I'm now super pleased with the direction this song is heading. Having Angela learn the bass line so quickly was inspiring. I think I need to add a new section towards the end of this tune, hopefully building up to a nice crescendo.

"Taming the Itch" I started to finish this song as a tune to Include on the S no S album "Albino Elephant". I hadn't thought much of it but I did enjoy the lyrics and the synth sounds. At the last moment I re-worked the beat and the song came to life. I am now totally in love with the song and could not imagine it not having a place in Turbo Sunshine. It seems very near to being done, anything I add at this point could put the song over the top or kill it. Only time will tell.

"Dreaming a Memory" I have music for this song, though I feel like it has an overly absent bridge at this point. I started writing lyrics at my desk yesterday and a melody in my head. This song will be a creepy stalker song. I hope to mess about with a scratch vocal in the next few days.

"Hey Citizen" Another song started by Devin. This track was fantastic when it arrived in my in box. I wrote the lyrics very quickly and I'm super pleased with the way it's coming together. Sadly it's also in Devin's computer hell for the time being. The great thing about my brother is that he's super talented. Even if his computer is completely dead he will be able to re-do anything lost. Luckily I know in my heart that his computer will breath again.

In addition to these original songs I also really want to actively remix other artists as Turbo Sunshine. I have one completed for Swivek which I have previously posted, and I'm currently working on one for a new band "Bonfire Bandit".

I have been thinking about Turbo Sunshine constantly. I realized while listening to demos the other night that I am making a record that I would have loved at 17 years old. That is perhaps the most exciting part of these new creations.

I love the sounds that can be made

So here I am. Getting a bit older. It's Thursday and I'm feeling human enough to blog. I have been damn tired this week. My idea of heaven is being left alone to sleep. Hear that god? I don't need a tunnel and I don't need the light, just flip the switch at the end and let it all go dark.
Of course if it were dark I wouldn't see this lovely dog Coffee pictured with me above. I will enjoy looking at hims while I can. Damn he is sweet. I find that its perfectly acceptable at my work to kick my feet up on the desk and lean back in my chair as long as I have a dog on my chest. You can imagine how happy that arrangement makes me.

So this plastic device is adding to my happiness. It's extremely portable and runs on batteries, yet it allows me to capture 8 simultaneous tracks of 24 bit audio and then easily transfer those to a computer for further mixing and manipulation. This is a very good thing when you have a girlfriend who loves nothing more than falling asleep on the couch at 8pm. I can then just collect my little plastic box and head to the back of the apartment to make my noises. I'm considering doing an album deep in the depths of Griffith park too. I do enjoy the modern world at times.

This bubbling little buddy is a welcome sound source addition to my life. Thanks to my birthday our patio is getting a boost in the amenities sector. I love the sound of falling water. Bye bye freeway noise, hello life giving water.

And then there is the soft purr of a kitty nuzzling his little face against his mommie. Indeed.



When this is all over and they do turn out the light, don't ever let anyone tell you I didn't love ever tired minute.

My last post as a 30 year old

I'm happy today. I'm optimistic.

Last night I mixed down Devin's song Sleepy Town. I'm not happy with it, it's not done. I need his guidance. I need to come up with a guitar part. Hopefully that will tie the entire song together and give it the sense of build we are looking for.

I worked on Reprogramming the drums for a Turbo Sunshine song called "Who Killed Love?". I was so pleased with myself when I first came up with the idea, but I find now that it's become the least exciting song to me in the set of Turbo Sunshine songs.

This momentum I have going is nice. I need to keep in mind that having more ideas than time is a good thing.

Solitary Confinement

Angela left early Saturday to visit her grandmother in San Diego. I stayed behind since I know the two of them really enjoy spending time alone together. In my adult life I have not spent much time alone. I find that curious because I've always been a person that takes to solitary time very easily.
As a young boy I spent most of my time alone. I would wander off into the wilds of our family farm and spend my day pretending to be an Indian. I passed many hours this way and I believe it helped create in me an independent imagination. And once a person develops that being alone can be pretty joyful.
Once I started recording music my love of time spent in the company of only myself really flourished. I enjoy getting feedback from others as soon as a song is finished, but I really don't mind not speaking to some one for hours and hours while I create it. I spent so many weekend and evening hours alone in my mid twenties and I enjoyed everyone of them.
This weekend was a return to form for me. Angela left in the afternoon and I took up the task of doing all my chores in 3 hours. I finished my list of things to be accomplished for the weekend as fast as I could and I then journeyed to the gym to put in an hour and clear my mind. Returning I showered and went to the store to stock up on food for my time alone. I finished all of this around 8pm on Saturday and then I got busy working.

I spent the first 2 hours working on a bass line for my brother's song "Sleepy Town". I love this song and when I started mixing it I had a revelation early that drastically changed the way the song sounds. I got it to about 75% done and I have just been struggling to put it all together from that point and finish the last 25%. At the end of the two hours I was disappointed and left with the feeling that nothing I did was even usable. I decided to close that project and move on for the night.

Next up I wanted to finish a song I started a while back with no project in mind. It was always an odd song but I loved something about it. It's called "Taming the Itch". Last week I decided it was close enough to being finished that I could just finish the lyrics, sing them, mix it and call it good for inclusion on "Albino Elephant". I had assumed I would do just this, but when I started working I decided I could not live with the drum track. I started to reprogram them and suddenly the song came a live. I worked on it for about 3 hours and in the end mixed it down an mp3 file and added it to my phone. I then had a smoke and went for a late night walk to listen. Hearing the rough version through headphones got me super excited. I decided that this song deserved a better fate than "albino Elephant", not to disparage that project but I have been wavering on what that album is. With the surprise turn out of this tune I decided to let the past stand as it was and not include any new spruced up tracks on that collection. I just want to document that era as it was. In the future I plan to re-purpose parts of it but I think "Taming the Itch" made up my mind about what the last S no S album will be.

Due to the time change and the excitement "Taming the Itch" cause I couldn't sleep for a while. I started to think about a way to make "Turbo Sunshine" a viable live band and a plan was coming together. I finally succumbed around 5am.

I woke up refreshed an energized at 11:00 am. I made a bit of breakfast and tried to watch "Engineering an Empire" off the dvr. I made it about 20 minutes before I was up and at the computer. I started sifting through half finished projects looking for my next project. I settled on a song called "Far Out With You". I loaded the porject and then changed into running clothes. I smoked a bit of medicine to allow for a proper run and headed off to Griffith Park. It was a fabulous day in griffith park. All told I put in two hours and probably ran a bit over 10 miles. It was wonderful.

I returned to the apartment and showered. I then really hunkered down. I worked for around 4 hours on "Far it with You". It was a bit frustrating to put this one together and in the end I didn't have the instant feeling of satisfaction.

I then wanted to throw down a few vocal ideas to a track Devin performed the music to. It's called "Hey Citizen" and I just love it. I recorded the small bits I had and mixed it down as well.

I've been kicking around a song called "Who killed love?" for a while and decided that it sounded very much like what I have been hearing in my head as the sound for Turbo Sunshine. While walking around listening to "Taming the Itch" I realized that in some ways it sounded a lot like Nine Inch Nails. It got me thinking that 90's psuedo industrial music is such a large part of my musical make up. Since I am not 15 anymore I find the lyrics in that music I use to love to be cringe inducing. I have started to see that there might be a large use of the sonic qualities of that music I once loved in the music I now want to create. Perhaps something like The Dandy Warhols meets Nine Inch Nails. God. I can't believe I jsut typed that. Disregard all of this. That statement means nothing.
I sang the second verse of Who Killed Love? and went out to get beer. I didn't want to lie in bed awake half the night again, so I thought some beer might do me good.

I returned from the store and had a few beers while I loaded the new songs onto my phone. I then lit a cigar and went for a walk. I was loving the new songs and it was only 9 o'clock. I decided I oculd swing one more before the time to sleep was dire. I found a piece of music I had written nothing to yet and just started to sing whatever came to mind. In about half an hour I had the first two verses and the chorus to a new song called "What you would have me do". At this point I had polished my sixer and decided I should have another walk and listen.

It was a great walk. I ended feeling pleased with myself. I came home and tried to watch TV. TV wasn't working for me. I put my headphoens back on and played each song a couple more times.

Finally I went to bed. I was missing Angela as I laid down but I knew she was having a ncie time and that she would return soon enough.

Cold Wet Paint

I meant to blog about having cold wet paint dumped on me for hours this weekend but my bother beat me to it and with much more detail and accuracy than I could muster from five days away. Don't let that stop you from reading it though. It was hard and uncomfortable at times, but it was so much fun. I went home on saturday and sunday night and felt proud of myself and everyone involved. I'm excited to see the result and to remember for a long time to come that someone once had the idea of dumping paint on me all day, and I agreed to do it.

I'm feeling physically pretty good these days. I have been stretching before exercising for the first time in my life and lifting high reps of less weight. People always told me that a person should stretch before exertion but I never really bought it. I get the benefits now, it actually feels nicer all the time to be a bit more limber. I can touch my toes with a locked leg now, I couldn't even do that in high school while running cross country.
I went for a nice 5 mile run through the streets of Atwater Village and Glendale last night. The sky over Griffith park looked amazing and I managed to jay walk and catch stoplights in just the right manner so that I never once had to stop. I dodged cars and dogs and peoples and kept moving. Every time I started to feel tired I remember that my sister is going to run a half marathon in under two hours, and that to do that she must run nine minute miles instead of ten minute miles. I would just say that to myself when I wanted to rest while running: "Nine Minute Miles". I was probably running closer to seven minute miles last night, but nine sounded better.
I finished with a stupid sprint kick up Edenhurst to Veselich. I like to run in the park or at night because I like to finish big and it's a bit embarrassing in the middle of the sun light to be grinding full bore up a residential street. I would make fun of me if I saw myself doing that. It feels good though, and to finish a run without it is sort of like sex with no orgasm.
As I walked back to the apartment after the run trying to catch my breath I asked myself how I ever stopped running for such a long period of time. I didn't answer because of course I remember, still it seems so stupid now.

I have not been writing much lately. I need to lock myself in a room and revise a bunch of the shit I've spewed out but it's just not happening. I want to be that type of person, I respect that kind of focused energy but at heart there is something in me that lacks a measure of discipline. Why can't I just do it perfect the first time?

Less Productive than Predicted

I wasn't as on the ball this weekend than I predicted. Friday night Angela and I dropped in on Devin and Dylan so that I could grab my guitar which I plan to use for the Invisible Material video and also a keyboard which I plan to use to teach Angela to play for Turbo Sunshine. It was a nice evening, at the end we dropped them off in the rain so they could attend "Puppetry of the Penis".
Saturday I slept till just after 10am and rolled out of bed to have coffee and relax before getting to work. Angela and I then went to our buildings gym and worked out.
I then settled in to work on some mixes. I feel pretty confident that I finished Alien Nation. I burned it down to a Wav and used the new google documents feature to send it to Devin and Ronnie. Ronnie seemed pleased with the mix but Devin listened only on headphones and had some doubts. I next finished Invisible Material's cover of "My Girl Wants to Party all the Time". I was happy with the results so I dispersed it amongst Ronnie and my fellow band members.
Angela and I then went to Joans fabrics and for a drive around Glendale/Burbank. I got a text from Devin then which told me about a show they were going to in Venice. An all gay cover band called "the gayties" were doing a set at the Rooster Fish. Angela and I decided to head over to Devin and Dylans and go with them. The set was great, they even played a Hoodoo Gurus song!
Somewhere between getting to the Rooster Fish and getting back to Devin and Dylans my weekends productivity became derailed. We partied perhaps a bit too hard and ended up staying at Devin and Dylans instead of risking the drive home. Sunday was then spent in lazy recovery.

On the drive to the Rooster Fish I did have a proud moment. Devin burned down the two new songs I completed that afternoon to a cd and blared them in the car for all to hear. It sounded great and Devin agreed. Everyone was very proud of Devin's song. I'm really looking forward to the rest of the album.

Weekend Overdrive

I've got projects. I'm all talk and no action. I have become a project starter and not a project finisher. I'm going to change all of that this weekend. Here is my extremely ambitious list of things I want to finish this weekend. They will require focus and computer time.

1. Clean our ugly oven. Mandatory
2. Do Laundry. Mandatory
3. Finish Mixing/Mastering Alien Nation Mandatory
4. Finish Mixing/Mastering Invis Matter's My Girl Wants to Party All the Time Mandatory
5. Rehearse for Invisible Material Video Shoot Mandatory
6. Finish Reprogramming drums for Sleepy Town
7. Finish Mixing and Mastering on I like the Way
8. Re-write First Chapter of More Possible Than Perfect
9. Exercise Mandatory
10. Breath Optional

I'm excited you see, I have purpose and I need to get to it. Finishing things is good business.

Citizen Turbo

I have too many irons and not enough fire, or perhaps just not enough time.

I really need to help Devin finish his solo album and I need to finish the S no S project. I am promising myself that I'm going to do both of these things before I get to deeply involved in...

The two new tracks that Devin sent me last night which will become Turbo Sunshine songs!! Turbo Sunshine will be taking over where S no S left off but with the hopes that it is always a collaborative project between myself and at least one other person, hopefully many people. It is the project that I plan to put the most of myself into and something that I really would like to develop into a project that plays live, hopefully sharing stages and possibly musicians with Devin's solo project when that is up and running. I want to take the best parts of S no S, the unpredictablility and energy and further those in more melodic tunes.
Most importantly I want it to be very collaborative and in the spirit the first thing which I have completed which will wear the Turbo Sunshine name is a remix of my friend Bradley's song, "Rock Hard". Bradley puts out music under the name Swivek, and you can check him out here.
Here is the remix:
Rock Hard(Turbo Sunshine Mix) by Turbo Sunshine
Notice the fantastic backing vocals? This is the first recording which Angela has ever sang on. So cute! I look forward to making use of that voice in many projects to come.

The two songs Devin sent over last night were working titled:

"Silver Grey" I like the title and immmediatly started writing lyrics using the two colors. I'm having second thoughts about the approach today, but it was fun to even record a small bit of vocals to it last night. I did lay down a nice clean guitar line around midnight last night, which I think could evolve to bcome something absoloutely wonderful. Once I added the guitar line I realized that it has a certain "ladyslipper" quality to it, I like.

"WNN0438" is an upbeat, synthy number. WNN0438 were the call letters to my family's CB radios which we used on the farm. I started thinking about CB radios and that I didn't know until just a few days ago that C.B. stands for Citizen's Band, and that led me to thinking about the actual fact that all radio and tv bandwidth is publicly owned, which considering how it's so often used as a weapon to bad ends against us seems sort of screwed up. With that thinking I came up with a line for the chorus:
"Hey Citizen, Don't you own the airwaves".
I started working up a talking heads "fear of music" era gutar line for the song that seems like it will compliment all the synths well. This morning I was listening here at work and I heard the beginnings of a bass line.

Turbo Sunshine is going to be a lot of fun for me. Collaborating with Devin is one of my favorite things in the world, I'm very lucky.

In a State of Repair

Working away. Getting very excited about some things in life.

Planning a weekend getaway to Mexico in April.

The Oscars are in full swing so work is very busy.

I did my taxes over the weekend and once the return arrives I should be able to purchase the Zoom recorder that I've been lusting over. The applications of this device are many and far reaching. It will open up many interesting opportunities to me. I'm interested in doing a bit of extreme recording in Griffith Park. I'm interested in doing some Invisible Material recordings with it. I'm interested in doing a project with Angela and another friend with it. I also plan to do a lot of my own work on it.


Invisible Material has been hard at work planning a video shoot. This video will have the highest production values of any video of which I have been a part of. Everyone has been working very hard to make the video possible. Ben has actually taken it upon himself to build an upright bass from scratch and he's coming along nicely. What he has finished so far is pictured above. He chose to build a new bass because he does not wish to have paint splattered all over his real one, something I can't say the directors do not wish to do to us band members. It will be very messy. Our biggest snag this far is in the location, there just are not a lot of cheap places where you can throw that paint all over.
State of the bass update:


This weekend we went to a really great loft party downtown with Tiger. It was oddly held in a loft I had been to 6 years before when SG played a friends party. The place hadn't really changed much. We stayed pretty late into the night and had a total blast. Kool Kieth and Lady Tigra played.

Sunday we went to the Drive-in with Devin, Dylan, Rebbecca and Loren and saw Valentines Day and The Blindside. It was a beautiful night, we watched part of the first movie in lawn chairs outside of the cars. It was D&D's first trip to this drive in and I'm thrilled that they both seemed to love it.

Saturday Afternoon in the "flea market"( a section of our parking garage where the building and it's residents place items they no longer want or that those who have moved out left behind) we found three aloe vera plants. They were in serious need of some TLC so we moved them up to our rescue plant sanctuary, also known as the patio.

Our patio is the last part of Atwater Village home to be finished. We are working away and in march hope to add astro turf and a fountain. So as far as birthday gifts go anything that might be spent at Lowe's could come very much in handy. Hint hint hint. :)

With out further ado, our new rescue plants, alvin, simon and theodore:

Cat fancy accounting

Rain!