Yeah travelodge

Andscape

Ele!

Off to palm springs!

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Turbo Songshine

Dark Matinee

Ladies and Gentlemen

The first ever Turbo Sunshine gig!

I'm the lead singer of the first band.  The bass player of the second band.  The guitar player of the third.  This is going to be a really fun day for me!

Always press record

Trip 2

Turbo Gear Truck

Things I find in my books

I have started reading The World According To Garp again.  I picked up my well worn copy, complete with missing cover and started to read.  I do love the book.  As I finished my first session of reading I leafed through the pages to find something to mark my spot, and I came across the item pictured above.  It's a second hand book.  I really like to think this particular book has been to Norway when I have not.  

This particular book mark happens to be a ticket stub to a funicular.  It's the most popular tourist attraction in Bergen, Norway.  

Floibanen Funicular

I'm at devins job before he is.

Tigre Fino fine arts !!!

Look Where We Could Be Headed

Free River.

What we do best

Walk a Smile

I'm on the subway, just leaving North Hollywood. I'm glad the train is gaining speed and volume as it means I'll no longer have to hear the conversation taking place in the seat in front of me. Already they are drowned out. I walk here after work because Angela had a job interview today in Westwood, and she then drove across town to eagle rock to help our friend Tiger prepare his art space for a show. I'm on the redline headed down town, where I will then transfer to the gold line so that I can meet her there.
Sometimes it feels like a pain in the ass to always be making plans and doing things after work but I realize on days like this how good for me it is. Breaking a routine is good for my mind, and it gives me new thoughts.
As I walked from work to the subway today I was thinking about an article I read which talked about how the act of smiling can make you feel happiness, even if you were not happy prior to smiling. I report anecdotally that is worked. To be fair I was already happy to be out for a walk on a beautiful day, but it made me feel even better to smile as I walked. I even started a game where I would try to make eye contact with people as I passed by them, and I would smile big at them as I did, they nearly all smiled back, it was good fun.
I'm at hollywood and vine, under where my brother works. Hi devin.

The subway car is now full. I wonder how much it weighs.

Wild Nights

I can't stop

Taking photos of this cat.

First Turbo Photo Shoot

Well... Sorta

American Quicksand

The title of this post is the most recent Turbo Sunshine song. Turbo Sunshine is the band I've been working on with Dolly Dagger and Devin Tait. I like this new song a lot. Tonight I was forced to play it for a couple of friends. It was a nice feeling because they both really liked it. I really like it.

More Love

Just a little bit of love

Re-Animator the Musical

At the hayworth.

Prison or downtown rehearsal?

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Downstairs at the House of Double D

I'm in weho, picking up my brother so we can drive to santa monica and play a show at Trip. I'm excited to play!

VE tco

Devin Tait and us at the palms.

The Dandy Warhols - I Am Free lyrics

I am in nerd mode tonight listening to the stream of the new dandy warhols album that is on rollingstone.com  I actually transcribed the lyrics. I am super in love with this song tonight. I have been googling synonyms ;)

the dandy warhols

I am free

I am free there’s no one tells me what to be ‘cause I know who I am and I am free

now I’m free at last my darkest past is fading fast and I can say at last that i am free

My soul is cleansed this tortured heart is on the mend again I know who I am and I am free

and when all of my friends forgive me of the worst I’ve been do they let me back in so I can begin again?

I am free I let music get inside of me till I know who I am and I am free I am free there’s music deep inside of me and I can let it out and let it be

and when they say payback is a bitch it’s a bitch you’ve got to make your peace with it.

and only then can you learn to sleep with it

And when time you see you’ve got to think twice before you do or say anything

and now I am free

I am free

c’mon I am free

well I am free

I'm really getting into this entire record. It takes a few listens, but what good record doesn't. Thanks CTT and all, this one delights me.

Turbo Morning

The River Vineland Flows Again

Sister Visitor

I've been none wordish on the internet lately, blogging only really in pictures. It's just fine to do that sometimes. So says I. I've been hammering away at things slowly and surely, I'm happy about a lot of stuff. I'm ready for my creative season, April and May. I feel a surge coming and I want to capture it, channel it and complete some things. Crossing appendages. Devin Tait and the Traitors played last night at the Viper Room. It was a great gig, the sound was wonderful. It was all the more special because our little Sister Adrienne was there. She is in town on business and originally didn't think she would be able to make the show, but luck would have it that she did. Special night. We got to have dinner at Panini across the street and to me another lifetime ago, after sound check. After the show we had a champagne toast at Devin and Dylan before calling it a fairly early night. I'm at work. It's raining. Outside our front room window in our apartment there is a tree. In the tree is a Dove. her name is Mabel, she has a nest. Her husband's name is Fankie, he walks on her head. Mabel has 2 eggs in the nest. The cats love to watch her from the window. Angela and I check on her constantly. It's the cutest thing ever.

Less a wrap up than it deserves

I wanted to try and get this down between tasks while I'm buzzing high on a mega dose pot of coffee which I brewed to facilitate actually getting some of my paperwork done, yet here I am blogging... it's a wonder anyone does anything at work with an internet connection.

Friday I left work at 1pm and headed out in search of gloves, this proved hard in mid March Los Angeles. I finally settled on some gardening gloves to wear under a pair of fingerless gloves I already owned. I also bought sandwich provisions. I headed home and Angela and I packed up our various items we thought we may need for snow boarding.
To back up, my brother Devin had purchased lift tickets at Mountain High Resort for the 4 of us as a Yuletide gift, and March 16th was the last day we could use them for night snowboarding.
So having packed up and made sandwiches we waited for Devin and Dylan to arrive, which they did shortly and soon we were off.

Mountain High is only 2 hours from Los Angeles, it was slightly trafficy on a Friday afternoon, but not nearly as bad as I have dealt with before. We arrived just after 5 and sorted out rental and lift tickets, leaving us a couple of hours of day light prior to sundown and night snowboarding. I had not been snowboarding in a long time. Angela had a lot of difficulty at first, and was not having any fun. We developed a technique where I would run about 15 yards down the mountain and let her board towards me, where I would then grab her and stop her from falling or going to fast. In this way we had great fun. After Angela got to the bottom of the bunny slope I would run to the top and grab my board and ride down. Devin and Dylan rode down the easy part of the mountain from the lifts several times while Angie and I played our game. I was impressed at Devin's ability, he's really far more coordinated than I usually give him credit for. As the sun set Angela grew tired and soon retired to drinking in the clubhouse with Devin. Dylan and I then got to go up the lift, my first time for the day. he'd been having some problems dismounting from the lift and our first time up we both fell on the disembark. The ride down was fun if not a bit icy and at times scary. I remembered quickly though how fun snowboarding really is. My second time up the lift after sundown I rode alone. The dark blue sky above me, the grey white snow below and all around me fresh air and only the slightest noise of the lift pulling me along. Peace and wonder. I didn't fall getting of the lift this time, and 2 chairs behind me neither did Dylan. The lift operator actually applauded Dylan, it was adorable. My last run down the mountain was nearly perfect. I was so disappointed to see the lift no longer running when I neared it. I started to walk into the clubhouse but decided to wait around and see where Dylan was. At first no sign, then I noticed a figure 200 yards up the mountain, lying flat, appearing to struggle to get up. Soon I realized the figure was Dylan. I remember the exhaustion from my first attempt at snowboarding. I took off my board and ran with it up the hill to Dylan, I pulled him up, strapped in and we both rode the last bit down together. The drive back to LA was fun, we listened to Radio Lab and talked. Thanks for the great gift devin! The very next night I had a surprise party. I thought I was having a St. Patrick's day meal at Devin's and then going out, but it was a sneaky surprise and it was picture perfect.

After part 1

A 14" chainsaw was not the tool for this monster.

Before

Hardware

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Tiger art show. Antebellum Gallery

Rehearsal Rain

Jennn and I enjoying free beer!

Free fire

Finally

I hads myself a really great surprise party!

Thank you devin, and the rest of you who can apparently keep secrets far better than I give credit for.

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Impromptu Walk through Beverly Hills.

Weekender

I'm at work and missing the hour of sleep that was taken from us, even though ultimately the added sunlight in the evening is very welcome. I had a fine weekend, my first weekend with only my own projects to worry about in a while. Friday night Angela and I embraced our advancing years and went to bed early, which allowed us to wake up bright eyed and bushy on Saturday. We had a bit of coffee and took off for Winchell's Donuts, for our attempt at establishing a one-doughnut-a-week tradition. I selected my new favorite a cinnamon and sugar glazed raised. We then took off towards the 10 freeway which took us to Santa Monica. We arrived at 9:30 and found plenty of metered parking by the Palisades Park. We walked down to the pier and then onto the beach where we had our snack and brief walk. We spent an hour milling about and as we were leaving the gush of people began to arrive. The timing was perfect.

We ventured back to Hollywood and stopped at the super market for some rabbit food. We had a leisurely lunch and finished watching a stupid movie (dream house w/ Daniel Craig). After lunch I ran from our place to runyon canyon, then up big mamma to the very top and wound down along the the far east side. From door to door it was a pretty rough 1.5 hours, but a nice way to burn 1000 calories.

I had some chores and bit of tweaking to do to a new Turbo Sunshine song which I completed happily.

For our evening we went to the Lemmle in Pasadena to see "My Week With Marilyn", which we both enjoyed. After the movie we had a few cocktails and slept soundly.

Sunday morning I went out and ran some errands, the highlight being finally being able to purchase a programmable coffee pot!

Sunday Afternoon Angela and I went to our Rehearsal Space and ran through all of our songs including the first attempt at "American Quicksand", which proves to be a little harder to play and sing than I had expected.

After rehearsal we had a nice lunch and a nap on the couch. Then we washed my dirty dirty car and did a little more grocery shopping. We watched Clint Eastwood's Bloodwork, and then Angela fell asleep. I wrapped up my weekend by re-watching the new "true grit".

Simone saturday

Goal achieved

10 x 100 !!!

Strange Obsession

I'm don't know how many times in the 7 or 8 years I've been blogging that I have decided to post pictures of this view. This has got to be at least the 3rd time.
Perhaps its because I usually see this view when I finally get free from the office to walk the dogs.

Enjoy.

Post Haze

With the Academy Awards last night Awards Season is now drawing to a close. Hopefully this will allow me to clean my desk at work of the stacks and stacks of paper. I hope to experience less stress in my work life for a while, though there are signs that stress reduction isn't really in the cards around here. So we lived through another season, I'm relieved.

Last night I made a playlist of the Turbo Sunshine Demos and laid on the floor in my room next to the bunny and listened to them through headphones. So far there are 9 songs and they all fit pretty well together. some of them flowed into each other nearly perfect. I need to add at least one different flavor before I start trying to tie it all up into an album, I have a feeling it needs to be down tempo.

My First LA home.

Chatsworth oaks park

Pet rock

Parked in the Past

12 years ago when I first moved to los angeles with my brother I would come here and sit on this big rock in this empty park in the far west end of the san fernando valley and play my guitar.

I had to go out on a rare service call for work and when I realized I was close I had to come here and visit my rock.

How it looks

How it happens

I got home from work tonight to a nearly empty living room and dining room. The living room has been put together with the tv finally arriving at a permanent home. The couch and the chair sit comfortably with the bed and lamps. The walls look wonderful in the dim electric light, the pink is nearly orange salmon.

I say hello to Angela, who is at the computer doing research having worked part of the day doing books and the other part cleaning and arranging our home.

I lay down for a 15 minute nap.

We run to the drug store, like literally we run. We buy tooth brushes and an empty spray bottle. We see founding member of Saigon Kick and later star of sex rehab Phil Varone. We run home. I run a couple more miles by myself.

I come home and I shower.

Angela has prepared pasta and green beans. It's yums. I eat.

We drive to a red box and return "the Rum Diary".

Angie leaves to watch Ru Paul's Drag Race with Devin and Dylan at their place.

I'm now drinking red wine and writing the guitar part for a new Turbo Sunshine song. It's going well. The windows are open and traffic whizzes past. I hear sirens on occasion and voices without people.

Devin Tait Live at The Other Door 2/8/12

The Other Door is located on a slightly sleepy stretch of Burbank Blvd, it used to be a lesbian establishment called Moon Shadows. I had been to Moon Shadows many times and even played there once in my old band. I was immediately impressed by the changes in decor they had made, though I felt a bit like they were over reaching to charge a $5 cover for what is still essential a neighborhood bar, albeit a very nice one.

The event began early on a Wednesday night, so only a small crowd had the pleasure of hearing Devin Tait perform. Listening to the sound man set up and check I quickly felt much better about where my $5 cover went. The sound system in the bar has been heavily upgraded and having a competent personable sound man there for the evening is no small expense.

Devin usually plays shows with a band as Devin Tait and the Traitors, and in the interest of disclosure I will admit that I'm usually a Traitor. This was a rare treat for me to be able to just sit back and listen. When playing solo the shows are quieter and simpler, just Devin and an electric piano.

The show opened with "Alien Nation", the song has been re-worked since it was recorded for his album and now features a stunning intro and outro, both of which really add a layer of drama. The intro with big open chords becomes the perfect counter point to the large left hand bass drones that start the first verse. It felt like a perfect way to start the set. Devin was confident on this tune and the vocal delivery in particular stood out as being spot on.

After the first song Devin took a brief pause to introduce a cover by what he said was one of his favorite bands. He then Launched into "Doctor Doctor" by the Thompson Twins. For a song usually dripping with Synthesizer it translated well to the piano.

A never before played live B-side was up next, "k18" which was just released as the flip side to the single "Tape". Some of the vocal notes in the first verse of this song appeared to put Devin's low vocal register to the test, but he did manage to always just reach them. The song is quite beautiful and I found my self transported to lonely stretches of American back roads as it played.

"Strange Season" is a stand out Track from Devin's 2011 album "It's Never the Way You Imagine" and every bit of the beauty and atmosphere of the songs translates in the live performance. The vocal melody towards the end seems to have even evolved further in the numerous live performances since the albums release, there is an added power and confidence that has Devin evolving the melodic them ever so slightly, giving the song resolution live that it barely hints at on record.

"Roam" by the b52s was played next. The entire room was singing along and clapping to this one. It's ambitious to take any full band with multiple vocalists songs and play them in a stripped down solo format, but it can also be very rewarding, allowing the listener a glimpse of the song below.

The evening's highlight was the live debut of "Underwater Breathing" the 10th Track from "It's Never the Way you Imagine It". Something really came together by the time this song came up in the set. I'm not sure if the sound man made some additional tweaks or if the arrangement of this song just really shines on piano, but the bass notes in the verses of this song were simply amazing. This is the longest song from the album and it's quite a feat to play the entire thing live. Building from a beautiful piano intro, to the power of the left hand in the verses the chorus then just soars. The emotion portrayed in this song is deep and easily relate-able. The delivery of the lines: "I can't be the only one, can't feel so lonely,I had your back now I see you leaving, Suspended in motion, arrested progression, I will remain underwater breathing" provided the emotional high water mark for the evening. The instrumental break with the solo during this song was nearly note perfect, if not for one tiny flub the entire performance would have been flawless.

The set closed with a cover of "Speechless" by Lady Ga Ga. A powerful tribute from Devin to his life partner. At this point in the set the vocals were so confident an powerful it would have been easy to hear every word from the parking lot without a microphone. A very nice way to close the set, sending the folks who had gathered here off into the night feeling good.

It was a fine set, and I was glad to be there to bear witness.

Devin Tait plays again with the Traitors this Friday at Red Rocks on the Sunset Strip at 10pm.

Morning Reading

"Am I an optimist? I see hope in the very fact that we brag so little, and that we worry so much about the parts of the task still left undone." - David Brin

I'm again actively not working when I have a lot to do. Some days the only way to gain the activation energy to begin being the only person in this office actually working is by taking a bit of time to myself. I take comfort in the fact though that with a cash short fall this week I'm the only person in my office being paid... so fair is fair but it's still difficult.
So prior to whipping out a big round of press billing I read this excellent interview with David Brin. David has become my favorite living author. I get so much out of each of his books, but more than anything I just enjoy reading them, they are very fun to me. I really want to revisit the second uplift trilogy. Followed perhaps by the first.

Here is the interview.

Okay, now I will work.

Greystone Bowl

After

Before

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