Turkey day begins!

Time ticking down

I walked through the chatue de Vincennes yesterday afternoon. It's quite a large compound with a moat, castle and keep. It was cold so I didn't stick around for the tour. We have a large tub in the timeshare, so I had a bath to warm up after my walk. Angela was already in the process of prepping her self fabulous. Last night was my first chance to dress up so it was exciting. Angela wore a formal gown and I had a sparkly purple bow tie. It felt nice.
Once ready we shlepped it down to the metro line one and transferred to the 9. The metro exits with a nice view of the Eiffel tower. We found a little cafe near the crazy horse saloon where we had a nice dinner. Or waiter was lovely and very kind and very interested in angela's tattoos. Angela had ravioli and I again had a croque mosiuer (sp).
After dinner we wandered around some and waited for the Eiffel tower to pop. Once it did we went to the crazy horse, I will talk about that and raidd bar later, we are leaving.

Morning off, big night tonight

Angie and I decided we would take the morning off and catch up on rest and just enjoy "being" in France. Devin set his alarm for 8, and then it went off every 10 minutes until 8:45 or so. Angie got up and made coffee so the boys could get up and make good on their plan to hit the town early. Angie and I walked to the market and the bakery to get breakfast. Its been surprisingly cheap to shop for little bites in Vincennes. After eating we laid back down and promptly fell back asleep. It's now afternoon here and I'm starting to really perk up and get excited for tonight. Angie and I have tickets to the famous cabaret crazy horse tonight, it has been a big dream of angela's to go there. We plan to have a nice dinner on our way to the crazy horse and then meet the boys at a gay bar called Raid afterwards.

Yesterday we started off by visiting laura at her office, we had a late start though so we missed having lunch with her. After a brief stop for photos at the arc de triumph we went to the crazy horse box office so that Angela and I might buy tickets. We then spent a couple of hours shopping on the champs de élysées.

We were hungry, as a tourist gets, and stopped in for a bit of pizza and beer. The beer was nice so we had a couple. Wile eating and drinking we made a plan for our next activity, though it was late in the day we thought we would go to the catacombs. We hopped on a metro that ended up being an elevated train as opposed to an underground tube and it ran the closest we had been yet to the Eiffel Tower, truly stunning to see from the train, we appeared to be the only people on the rush hour train that cared to look as we went passed.

When we finally found the entrance to the catacombs they were closed sonwew stopped into a cafe for beer and cocktails. It was happy hour which was fortunate for our pockets. The little cafe was rather cute.

We were beat from a day of tramping about so we headed back to our room. I picked out a random cheap bottle of wine at the market which turned out to be very good. We drank our wine and soon fell asleep. I woke up wide awake at 4am and my tossing did the same to Angela. It took hours to get back to sleep, and as soon as I did devins alarm started up. Oh boy!


I just cleaned the apartment and now i'm feeling like a quick walk through the Bois de Vincennes.

How to say yesterday in French

I don't know.

Yesterday we woke up a touch hungover from our first night out. We met a local named dero who owned 4 hotels on Sunday night. He bought us a beer and took us back to his house where he gave us expensive wine and then turned into an asshole. When he told Angie she should not talk because she was annoying we decided to leave. Good wine though.

So we woke up yesterday to a breakfast of leeks and eggs prepared by Devin. Delicious! We took the metro to the chatelet les halles stop and walked along the seine to Notre dame. We walked through Notre dame and took many pictures for mom. It was big but didn't make me the so much about god. After Notre Dame we bought croque monsiurs and ate them on a pont over the seine. Devin had a hot dog. ;)

After breakfast we ate some famous ice cream and walked and walked. We ended up at a museum of modern art with a name I can't recall. We paid three euro to take an escalator to the top where we could watch the sunset. We stayed until the light show at the eiffel tower went off, pretty!
We were pretty beat so we had Indian food and called it a day.

We woke up late this morning, I woke up first. I went to the market and bought bananas, grapes and cheese. I then went to a bakery and night croissants and a baguette. Angie was up making eggs and potatoes when I returned, Dylan and Devin woke up shortly there after and we all ate.

Now we showered and prepped and we shall head to meet Laura Conrad, who was in devin's class at natoma, who was briefly my girlfriend in the 6th grade who now lives in Vincennes per chance just one block or so from our time share.

Au Revior!

Also yesterday is hier

Arrived and rested

The super shuttle picked Angie and me up at 6:20am and uneventfully drove us to LAX. It was overcast and Los Angeles was damp from a nice overnight rain, as if we had given the city a bath so that it would be nice and clean when departed. I'm sure we can trust Angelenos to keep it that way while we are gone. Security and bag checking was a simple affair and we then had plenty of time left to have a sit down breakfast. Fence toast for Angela, of course, and a breakfast burrito for me.
The first flight was to Chicago, after boarding Angela sussed that our flight wasn't totally fully and that we should grab the empty row in front of us, we did and it was a bit a fight to hold on to our empty seat while a group of stragglers boarded but it proved to be very much worth it. We had a row of three seats which allowed us to lay across one another and really spread out. The flight to Chicago was even faster than advertised so we arrived in Chicago in just over three hours feeling pretty spry and excited.
The chicago airport is good as far as Midwestern airports go. It's large and has plenty to look at on a lay over. We ate a snack and then walked laps for the duration of our time there. Angie has never technically been to Chicago so I was trying to find views through the window to give her a glimpse of what she's missed. I think I found sears tower, do they still call it that or is it like the Verizon tower now? I know those corporate types are big on buying up naming rights and I can't imagine sears still has that type of weight to throw around.
Our flight to Paris left on time, and was sadly full. Our row was perhaps overfull as we had a rotund rita sitting in our third chair. I was a little relieved that this woman spilling over her chair was French, and not a typical overfed American tourist, at least I didn't have to grapple with my sense of national embarrassment as well as a strangers back fat. Angela rode next to Rita for the first few hours, till the leaning had killednher back, I then switched with her. I was mad at Rita for the first half hour, but then I decided it wasn't her fault, after all my legs don't really fit in the allotted space either, so I forgave the fatty on my row and blamed the airline in my mind, after that she just became a nice comfy pillow to lean against. On the flight I watched parts of mr poppers penguins, which was pretty stupid. I had rented "the change up" through iTunes prior to leaving, which turned out to be extremely funny. I watched it nearl 3/4 of the way through the trip while everyone else slumbered and it made me feel a touch awkward to be convulsing with stifled laughter while everyone else around me slept. The flight was a touch long and uncomfortable, but not unbearable and finally at 8am (11 pm la time) Paris time we arrived.
We got our bags and made our way to an info counter where we learned our train was under construction for a couple of days and not running. We would need to catch a shuttle to a different platform, this was confusing and a bit stressful but not as hard as it could have been. While on the bus and the train a couple of different American sought out our council on how to get were they were going so I suppose we gave off a false sense of confidence.
We switched trains at the chatelet les balled station and soon found ourselves in vincennes.

Ok my dinner is on the table, which through a strange turn was prepared as a brunch by my girlfriend from the 6th grade. More on that later.

Chicago loves america!

One flight down

Walking around the chicago airport mentally preparing to not hardly move for the next 8 hours.
Watched larry crowne on the firs flight and actually really enjoyed it. Rare to see a decent film on a flight.

Coming Clean Before Leaving

I heard on the radio the other day that there are only two stories to be told. Someone comes to town and someone leaves town. I don't much care for the over generalization of the arts but I pass it along from the comfort of a hollywood laundry all the same. I have one more day of work before I leave for a week. I'm ready to get a break from my job and my co-workers. I'm ready to sit somewhere foreign and picture a map of the world and think about how far away I am from my daily life.

Short/Long

I'm waiting for a bus this morning but I'm really waiting for a plane.

Bookmark Mining

I'm always leaving things in books that I used as a bookmark while reading a book. Our book club is reading "A Farewell to Arms" a book I happen to have already read. I dug out my copy to brush up and found the two scanned items above.

Boarding Passes are a very common item to find in books. I come across them in a lot of used books in book stores even. I am always tickled though to find one of my own because it gives me a very specific date when I happened to be in a certain place.

Using the ticket as a reference I found a blog I wrote about the trip. I wrote in great detail about the event leading up to the sound check without even talking about the show. If I recall the show was fairly good and there were people there. Our friends from Hays, KS. Dennis and Ingrid were in attendance.

What I found most funny about this ticket stub though is what is not mentioned in the blog entry. The ticket is from our return trip to LA, and it's a flight that we missed. I'm not sure if this is the original boarding pass or the boarding pass for the flight we missed. We should have known better then booking an early morning flight for a group of degenerates. I'm not sure exactly what happened with missing the flight. I remember Devin realizing it was going to be a problem getting to the airport, and I believe his plan was to stay up all night to be sure he could rouse everyone. Somewhere involving alcohol and sleep deprivation that plan fell apart, probably something to do with me and my ex. Luckily we manage to get out of town on the next flight and home safely to LA.

The other item I found in the book is Devin's sequence notes for the SG song "Static Cling". I find these items a lot. I can only partially read what it means. On the left under the title it lists all the different sections of the song, with the number of where that portion is saved in the Korg Electribe Sequencer. To the right of that is a listing of the different sounds on the Electribe. Below and corresponding to each part of the song is a list of the actual sounds that occur in each sequence. for example, the first one saved sequence B43 is the pre chorus to static cling. The chart on the right shows that in that part of the song there is a bass drum, a bass synth a piano and a lead synth. At least I assume that is what L means. Devin always had to make these charts because when recording these songs onto our 16 track we would have to hook the two machines together using midi, and then solo each individual sound in the sequence and play the song the entire way through. Since we were using the 16 track as the master and the electribe as the slave it would then line up perfectly(K, if you are reading this you know that perfectly is a relative term and that on the sample level this actually gave us some problems down the road) and give me final mix control.

It's funny to me that these two items are in the book, because Static Cling contains the line "The only new york you brought with you". I like every thing about this song except how ridiculous the story behind it was. It was basically a fuck you song to a "rival" band who didn't think twice about our band. It was total an imaginary story line about people we didn't hardly even know and certainly had no rational reason to have a beef with. I actual met the to girls from this band years later in a totally new situation. I didn't at first even recognize them. One of them remembered me and we had a great talk about old times and I got to know them for real. They were great and it made me laugh to think about this song.

Massive Unexplainable

My life in the present is difficult to relate to in blog format. Or maybe it's difficult to explain or express. I realize though that the point of this blog has never been to explain at all, but merely to attempt to express and hopefully later recall.
After my neck injury I have have started to rebuild a new push up routine. I have decided to do it a bit more safely this time and take two days a week off, plus the weekend. This morning is the first morning where I have started to feel the exhilaration of power come back. It's a nice feeling to do something stupidly physically during a day of staring at a computer.

In three weeks I will travel to Paris. Angela and I will be meeting Devin and Dylan there for a week. I am so excited. I've started taking a crash course in french using Rosetta Stone. At this point it feels like a fun game, I don't know how helpful it will be in the long run but it's fun for now. In a couple of days though I feel as though I've learned as much french as I did spanish in 2 years of high school.

The move is coming along. we put the first coat of yellow paint on Angie's room last night. It's bright and lovely. Another coat will get applied in the next couple of days.

Angela had a burlesque prop custom built by ex Invis Matter Bass player Ben. It's a giant inflatable swan with an ego box. the ego box contains a power cord and pump and wheels for portability. It's very well made. It's an exciting time to see Angela pulling so much of this together. She has spent years researching and studying, and budgeting for costume and props. Now she will move into the final stages of decoration and costume and planning a new routine. She has selected a secret new song to dance to. I can't wait to see it performed.

Turbo Sunshine is coming along in a most surprising way. Angie and I have been going to our rehearsal space downtown twice a week working on our parts. Devin and Elene come along when time permits. For now Angela and I have the most work to do anyway. each week Angie picks up a new layer of intricacy, it has me most excited. I want turbo to be a very concise deliberate band, and we are well on the way to becoming that. I have some re-writing to do on early turbo songs, and at least one new song dying to be born. I think we will be ready to gig early in 2012.

I'm excited for the holidays coming up. Thanksgiving I will make a turkey for Angie's family in San Diego and on Yuletide my family will be here.

Huge shout out to Devin for having another Delicious Documentary this past weekend. He made yummy food and we enjoyed the film "Cropsey"

A couple other docs I've recently loved:

American: The Bill Hicks Story

Gonzo: The Life and Work of Dr. Hunter S. Thompson

I just finished reading David Brin's Kiln People. I wasn't as in love with the end as I was the whole book but it was such a fantastic journey that it doesn't matter one bit. Now that I've read the entire Brin Catalog I'm pleased to see he has a new one coming out next year.

Fresh dumpster at craig's

It's showtime.

Bomb shelter highway

Progress computing

My new computer on the table.

Staging area

I've just finished a 12 minute nap. Laying in bed with the cats, hopeful about my evening and all the nice things in store.

Dog is dead

Bye bye silver spoon

Nugget horses

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I'm a mutation

Going through some song files on the computer and came across a couple of recent tunes that were further along then I recalled. A fun feeling no doubt. Then my computer crashed and I ended up taking this picture of my hand.

I'm glad its friday night.

I have been hearing some far out sounds lately and it reminded me that I need to allow myself to play around more. I decided that tonight I was just going to make a weird sound, now I find myself taking a picture of my hand.

Computer is now back to life.

The future of my computing

Straddle

I believe that the new world and the old world meet. No one lives totally in the new world yet, the best you can do is have one foot in both the new and the old. Many people have taken this first step while many people remain totally, firmly planted in the old world. I believe this is how it has always been.

Once Again Under Ground

720 am and I'm back in transit. Massive transit. It takes 11 minutes of fast walking to get from our place to the hollywood and vine stop, a fun fact.

I enjoyed the 11 minutes walking though Hollywood, the city actually appears to care on a weekday morning. People replace billboards and clean sidewalks. The glow of the light between the buildings holds forgiveness for the night before. Even the homeless deep in sleep seem ro have staked out a tiny temporary peace.
Here underground no says anything, just echoing silence and the breeze of my approaching train.

Subway Tunnels

Dropped my explorer off at the mechanic. After a re-registration fiasco I learned that my car needed smogged. My car passes smog on all points but due to the check engine light being on I need to have it repaired for it to pass. Annoying. So I just left it in the valley and I'm now taking the subway home.
I'm deep under ground in north hollywood, at my most visted redline stop. This used to be where I got off every morning and on every afternoon. Good memories actually. I have plans to get a bike in a few months so that I can ride to the subway, take the subway and then ride to work, skipping the annoying bus ride on the north hollywood end. I think that would feel rather nice.

My weekend was good. We bought some items needed for our house and painted the dining room, as those of you who saw the pictures might have guessed.
Think good car repair thoughts for me. I do not know how much this will cost yet. Cross fingers, pray, whatever you feel works best when wishing for a good petty outcome.

Saturday night we saw "contagion" at what we call Dylan's theater, which is actually the TV academy theater, here they show movies as a part of a film group. Its always fun to see a film there. "Contagion" as scary, and moving and all sorts of other things. An experience to say the least.

I don't know what this fella pictured is all about but I passed him on the way to the train. Seemed like a nice thing to include in my subterranean blog.

Pink plunge!

Dining room before pt 2

Dining room before.

For the record

Living room and dining room pink, fashion room and hallway yellow.

The painting begins!

Its been a good weekend. Today we decided to take the pink plunge and get busy! Perhaps updates to follow.

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Oddie guitar.

Feed the man

Airport bar!

IMG00195-20110911-1109.jpg

if it keeps me warm at night

Simone is Angela's best friend in the world, because of this he is now one of my best friends. He hates when she is away, he meows at me everytime I see him. He suspects it is my fault that she's not here. Still he gets over it long enough to sleep with me and for this I owe him a great bit of gratitude.

First Transmission from a Brand new home.

Yesterday was hell, perhaps I will write about it when it's more than just yesterday's news. Let us just say that Devin and Dylan saved the day!

Here is a webcam view from the window just behind the desk in my room. I'm in love with my new space.

Done ug. Dead

Brothers to the rescue. Thanks. Dead.

Still runnin.

And resume

Ate sandwich. Took 45 minute nap on the floor. Now coffee time and back into the relocation. Its gotta be tough living like a refugee.

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Time for a break.

Progress

Its a great big day!

! ! !

Buddy

For the last 9 years Buddy here has been one of my best friends. He still loves to sleep the day away on my desk. Does it get any better?

Last Atwater Wednesday

On this day of the week next week I will be living in Hollywood. I'm excited. Still much to be done to prepare for the move but it would seem to me we are getting closer.
On Monday Tiger left for burning man. He stopped by my office and left the keys to his truck which was parked in front of his house in Echo Park. I went home after work, ate dinner and then took a 5 minute nap. After the nap I emailed a couple of different people regarding our couch for sale and then double checked the distance to Tiger's house. I decided 5.5 miles was a safe distance to run. I took his keys and headed out the door. I sort of forgot the number of hills that exist between Atwater Village and MacArthur Park. Still it was a beautiful evening and I enjoyed my run through the east side.
Last night we rehearsed with Turbo Sunshine again. Each week we get better at playing together I find. As usually downtown rehearsal was a hot sweaty box. I can't seem to drink enough water to replenish what I lose there. I don't care about the heat though, it's nice to play music with friends.
Tonight I will try and sell the couch and make my first effort to rid the patio of all the unwanted material. I was looking at the patio last night. We haven't really used it much, since it felt like being in a fish bowl, but it was always a beautiful diorama to look out on at night with the lights going and the fountain in full swing.

Candles on a Cake

Friday ended a long week at work. I left work and called Ma and Pa as I almost always do. We got caught up on this that and the other things while I drove over to our new apartment building to pay the prorated rent for September. It was nice to see that my new commute will take just about the same amount of time as my old one.
It took quite a long time to get home in Friday evening traffic after that drive. By the time my drive was over I was completely over the week. I stopped for a six pack and Angie and I drank it and recuperated from the week. Around midnight we video chatted with a rather kooky Oddie and Amanda, that was fun!
Saturday morning I awoke fairly early by my standards and went to get breakfast. After breakfast I drove over to Tiger's house so I could take him to Van Nuys where he was renting a van for burning man. I spent the rest of the day Saturday packing and doing laundry and cleaning. Around 7:30 pm Angela and I had been in the house long enough so we went to Griffith Park for a walk. It was really fun to talk about all the fun things we have coming up and to get to be in the park at dusk. It sure has been nice living across from such a wonderful resource. I have promised the park that I will still visit often.
Sunday Morning was awesome. It was Angie's birthday. She woke me up around 7am to tell me that fright night 3D was playing in Burbank at 9:45 am and that she wanted to go. I went back to bed until 8:45 and then woke up and dressed. We drove to the movie. Seeing 3D movies is so expensive, but if you go that early they are only 10 bucks and no one else is there. The movie was fun, I liked it as much as the original, which I only saw last year for the first time. Angie who has loved the original forever liked it but not as much as the O.G. version.
After the movie Angie wanted pancakes. We went to Denny's and found out that on your birthday you can get a free grand slam breakfast!
Breakfast over it was back to work for the two of us. I re-arranged all the boxes in the house lining them up along the north wall. This gave us better access to what we had already packed and more space for more packing. I took pictures of our loyal and faithful couch and posted it on Craigslist. I now have two people who desperately wish to buy it. I feel good about letting it go. I think it will make someone else happy and it will save me trying to move it.
In the middle of the afternoon we were out of boxes. I dropped off 3 bags of clothes at "Out of the Closet", a gay friendly thrift store, and then headed out on the hunt. It took me a while but I managed to track down a fair amount of empty cardboard containers.
We worked on the packing and cleaning and throwing away until evening. We then went to a laundry mat in Eagle Rock to deliver a Boom Box to Tiger, who wanted one for burning man. Tiger bought us both a beverage and we drank it in the parking lot talking. After this we were beat. We came home to watch Sunday night TV and call it a night.
Now it's Monday and there are things to be done. I'm so excited for September.

Happy hour

Not many nights of patio left

Kissing the patio goodbye! What you don't hear in this post is the sound of children shrieking, but I do.

things that people did/do that shaped/shape me

Dad winning a satellite dish from the 1st national bank in Natoma -
Compared to the other farm kids around us we had culture, sure it was pop culture but it still counted for something. We had MTV at a very early age and that really affected my brother, and anything that has really affected my brother has ended up really affecting me. I am pretty certain my dad won a $100 dish and then had to pay subscription and equipment fees on top of that. Without that link to the large world I would be different, for certain.

My Mom deciding to run in the Hadley Stampede and encouraging me to run with her -
This also happened while we lived on the farm and I don't remember much about how it came up. I just recall that mom was doing a lot of walking up and down the county roads near our house at this time and that she was entering the 2 mile time trial at the hospital in Hays, Kansas. I wanted to do it also. I believe I did it 2 years in a row. I remember going out and training really hard the night before running up and down the hill by our house. I guess I assumed that since Rocky got in shape during a one song montage that training one night for an athletic event was totally sufficient.
Lack of training or not this was my first introduction to endurance sports, which suite me just fine. This is really when I remember first learning to love running long distances.

Mom and Dad letting us run wild with a video camera -
Farm life is wonderful for children but it can be stifling to social creatures. Luckily there was always enough for me and my siblings to do that we overcame the isolation. When Mom and Dad gave up on the idea that the video camera was not a toy we suddenly had an outlet for expression that was limitless. We learned to be creative with what we had, which is still how I create anything today.

Mom and Dad moving us kids off the farm and into "the big city" -
I was 12 when we moved from the farm to a town of 17,000 - 25,000. The school's were better and all my new friends were further along in their social evolution. It felt like an 80's movie. This single event was massive.

Dad taking me on Bike Across Kansas -
I was sick in the beginning and it was hard to not finish the ride on the first day. I got better by day two and had a blast the entire week. Riding across the state gave me something to be proud of, and a sense that the impossible was possible and that the world was big but not as big as I had previously assumed.

Devin buying a second hand guitar for me to play -
When Devin came home with a guitar and told me I would learn to play it and we would be in a band it was a big moment. Even at the time I knew it was a big moment. I still relate to music through the guitar, it was the first door that opened into a world that grows bigger every day.

Jason making reading books cool - I didn't think much of reading until I became friends with Jason. All the sudden I had someone in my life who was cool and he liked to read, henceforth reading is all the sudden cool. It was really that simple but as anyone who has read more than the books they make you read in high school can testify, this has a massive impact. I might have found my way to loving reading eventually, but I wouldn't have started in high school had it not been for Jason.

My Sister making me realize the value of being nice to people even when you don't have to -
I will admit I was a pretty rough brother to have for a lot of my life. My sister took the brunt of a lot of teasing. She took it and fought back where she could. It took a very long time, about 30 years but at some point I've learned to be nice to my sister and through that I hope to learn to be nicer to most folks.

Ronnie teaching me that writing your own songs is even cooler than being able to play them -
I'm not a great musician, but I can write a song. I can write them from just about any instrument or point of view. They are not all good, but that doesn't matter because when they are good it's totally worth while. Ronnie always told me that being able to write a song was the coolest. I took that bit and ran with it.

My cousin Travis made science and history cool -
Travis was an enormous influence on me as a kid. When he was excited about something all of us cousins were excited about it. He loved the unexplained and then the unexplained getting explained. A teacher can't make things like that cool, but the kid you admire most in the world sure can.

Devin asking/telling me that we would move to Los Angeles together -
It was rough moving from Kansas to Los Angeles. It was scary and exciting and humbling and empowering.

My employers believing in me -
I've changed a lot in the 9 years I have been at my job. I went from having no responsibility to a lot of it. There are times I want to walk out the door and never look back. There are times I walk out the door at the end of the day and I look back proud of myself.

Angela expecting more from me -
Angela has really helped me grow up. I can't get by on charm and the seat of my pants or standing still. I have to work harder to be a better partner always because she does and it wouldn't be fair if I didn't.



There is a bunch of other stuff too.

Hoarders or Movers?

First 4

Turbo Rehearsal last night was the most promising. I have been making some changes to the sound setup and it seems to be paying off. The tuesday night routine seems to work well for us. Angela and I have a quick bite to eat after work and then I prepare the items I need for the evenings rehearsal. Then I pack up my guitar and a few other items and we head down to the studio downtown. We arrive around 7 and lock ourselves into our room. Angela sets up her drums while I set up the backing track PA and various amps. I needed to work on a speaker cabinet last night so I set up the backing track so that Angela could practice while I took it apart. This was the first night we attempted to use headphones for her and it seemed to really pay off. She has been focusing on a new song in her lessons so she ran through it 4 or five times. I used some contact cleaner in a few spots on the cabinet and in about 30 seconds all was good.
After all this was completed Devin and Xin Xin arrived and we set up the keyboards. I knew Xin Xin had been having trouble hearing herself in rehearsal, and since she is new to the rock situation I decided I would work out a solution for that. I have been scrounging things up and I've now managed to figure out an amp and Cabinet that work for this purpose. I think it paid off nicely because it allows her to set her own volume level independent of all the other noise we have blasting from our speakers.
After last weeks rehearsal it was decided that we should revamp the way we rehearse and the tracks we use. I made much simpler mixes of all the backing tracks and we decided to just focus on 4 songs.

The 4 songs we chose are
Hey Citizen
I need a Priest
Welcome to the Fallout
Beat for the Broken Hearted

I love these 4 songs. We will stick to these until we feel confident and then we will slowly add in the others.

Stacking Boxes

What used to be the "Dining" area of our apartment, which we never used as such, is now filled with boxes and and other items that need not boxed. Angela is determined she will make this move as efficient as possible, that and I believe she is simply too excited to leave the current place of residence. I am excited to leave as well, I won't really miss anything about our building or our well decorated cave. I will miss the ease of getting around in Atwater Village and even Glendale. I will miss my evening runs in Griffith Park the most. Not having to worry about cars at all while running is exceedingly pleasant and relaxing.

Here are some pictures of our new place. Lets call them before photos.





Last week Angela and I drove over and parked in the new neighborhood and took a walk scouting places where one could eat and drink. I think we will have a nice time being more central and able for social occasions. I've never lived such a short distance to a subway stop, it's a new frontier.

This weekend went by in a blur. I worked all day Saturday at Craig's. Saturday evening we went to the annual Luau at Hampton Place, my previous place of residence. It was fun to see our old roommate Adro, and her boyfriend Quinn, who had many exciting stories to tell me by the pool. Our favorite neighbor Jennn was there as well. It will be nice to live just a little over a mile away from all our old pals at Hampton.

Sunday was a big day of shopping and packing and planning. We followed the day up with a bit of sushi, a long nap and then a trip downtown to La Cita to take a photo for DT & T. The photos I have seen turned out rather nice. The club was a lot of fun too.

I'm a bit Ty Ty now. Tonight I will go see Conan 3d on a man date.

We're Moving Van, We're Moving Van

It's time to move yet again. Angela and I have decided to move to Hollywood. Our current quiet life in Atwater Village has been at times to quiet and too loud. While it was good for us to move out into what feels like the sticks, and be a 30 dollar cab ride away from going out, it has lately started to feel isolating from our friends. We want to walk more places and be out of the house more. At the same time our quiet building has become anything but, it's become Lord of Flies every evening with bands of roving screaming banshee children. I like kids, love them in fact, I just don't need to have other people's children in my daily life that I can't scold or spank. A locked gate is no substitute for actually spending time with your children, or hiring a baby sitter when you are too lazy to watch them. So all of this and a desire for a change has led us to move back to Hollywood. We won't always be this age, so we kind of want to make the most of it while we are. Suburban living is not yet for Angela and Me.
On top of my excitement in living back in the thick of it all, I'm also pleased to report that this is my first 2 bedroom apartment. In typical non traditional form we have again decided the bed should be in the living room and that the two bedrooms will be for Angela and I to each have our own creative space. This is mad crazy exciting.

Yay!

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Hot Little Cave

Dreams can come true. Ever since I've lived in Los Angeles I've wanted to have a lock out rehearsal space. I guess the term lockout implies that all other bands are locked out of your space, and it's yours all the time. The financial reality of renting any space in Los Angeles makes total lockout impractical for me at this time, so our space is shared with 2 other bands. It does mean large musical gear can be stored out of our home now, and that I I have a space to make loud noise at least 2 nights a week. At least one of our fellow bands practices very little, so there is a bit more time up for grabs.
I moved in a load of speakers and amps this past sunday. I couldn't help but plug in my guitar for some fun while I was there. It felt very nice.

Our lockout came about because Angela is taking up drums and has been very interested in having a space to practice. She worked her contacts and very quickly this space fell right into our laps. It was a perhaps a little sooner than we anticipated it happening but the deal is too good to pass up.

Just kidding

Down town

Out front of jalisco bar, waiting to play. Very excited.

In the middle of typing I was just engaged by a high priest. He said the world is an egg waiting to hatch heaven. Heavy heaven.

Dt and the T rehearsal

How did this place become like my second weho home.

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Living into Wisdom

I'm taking a small moment of gratitude. I am proud of everyone in my immediate life this morning. This past weekend my sister and mom were out for a visit. It was so much fun to see them in the flesh, and to speak and laugh with them. We had many mini adventures. High light for me was Hall & Oates at the Bowl with Adrienne, Angela, our friend Gina, Amanda, Jessica and Amanda's father John. A night to remember forgetting!

We also had wonderful fun at the beach, Dylan's mother's pool and Off Vine. It's nice to hang out with grown up Oddie!

At this very moment Angela is in a rehearsal space taking drum lessons from former SG drummer Alexa. I'm so proud of her that she sets her sights on things and then goes out and grabs them. She is very tenacious in that way. Adding to my gratitude is that in the very same building as where she is taking her lesson is a lock out where Turbo Sunshine will find a home. I can't say enough about how happy I am for these things to be happening.

Tomorrow we will rehearse at the palms for DT&T. I'm really proud of how hard Devin has worked to make his solo project happen. As musician's we really have started to all gel nicely, with each gig getting better than the last.

Everyone I know is reasonably healthy at the moment. Everyone has enough to eat. We all have a reasonable amount of freedom. Things could always be better, but there is no guarantee they will get that way, but sure as the sun sets one day it will get worse than it is now. I'm happy to have what I have when I have it.