I Need A Priest

I neglected to share this completed work on my blog so I'm doing so now. If you want to download the single w/ the b-side for free go to here.

I enjoy this song, playing it live is super fun. It's not very complicated, and there isn't a great deal too it, yet I'm proud of it. I'm also completely stoked to have had Rob from Does it Offend You, Yeah mix it. He did a great job and it saved me the strain of trying to wear two hats at once.

The 800

I feel slow now when I run and that's fine. It's fine because at least I am running. I went for a 5 miler the other night while listening to the new Broken Bells album, which I highly recommend. Jason you should check it out. My run was a nice slow plod through Hancock Park, but it was hip pain free and that's what really mattered.

At some point during my run I started thinking about running track while growing up, and how much less fun that experience was than cross country running. I though about how running 8 laps around for the 3200 was monotonous, to the point where it was possible to observe the spectators actually losing interest while waiting for the participants to finish. I thought about the one time I ran a mile in under 5 minutes in competition, in Salina, Kansas. I wondered, would be possible to do again?

Then I thought about an event that I had tried to wipe from my memory. The 800 and the 3200 meter relay, where 4 guys each run 800 meters. That distance and the mental and physical agony that accompany it are still vivid memories. I hated the solo 800 meter, as much as I loved it for the challenge. The real kicker though was the relay, because it wasn't just you. Three other guys were going through what you had gone through and every second you lose to the competition is a let down. I usually ran the third leg of this relay, because that's where the slowest guy goes. The hand off wasn't as practiced or precise as it needs to be in the shorter relay, usually the tricky part was that the guy handing you the baton wanted nothing more than to fall down and die immediately after handing you the stick, so I needed to grab it on the first try and let him get out of agony.

By the third leg of the 3200 meter relay the competition was usually spread out. It was tough to gauge where I was in relation to the other teams so I would always just try and run as fast as I could for as long as I could and then when the death of the spirit and the body comes it's just a game of holding on for how ever long I had left in the half mile of hell. If I did die during my leg it was important to find the drive to resurrect myself as much as possible coming down the last stretch into the hand-off. At this point the anchor runner was in sight. Standing there with his hand out, waiting for my slow ass to barrel down that last 100 meter straight to hand him the baton. This is when time to dig deep and realizes I'm not going to die and that i have more to give than I thought. Most often in this event I got to hand the baton to a fellow cross country runner and all around athlete Justin Robinson. I knew that whatever pain I put myself through for my leg was somehow just a fraction of what Justin would go through, and that always made me put more into it. He would usually yell something halfway between admonishment and encouragement in my direction once I got within earshot.

There are very few feelings finer in this world than handing a relay baton to a fast anchor runner of the 3200 meter relay. For two minutes this baton has been an albatross. The single mission to keep it in my hands and transport it around a 1/4 mile track twice and hand it to the next guy. By the time I had circled the track twice and approached the hand off I felt the baton to be an extension of myself, an embodiment of my better self containing my hopes and dreams of glory. I usually felt this so powerfully that in the first few seconds after the hand off as I would watch Justin's amazing display of speed recede before me I would actually feel as though it was I moving that fast. That moment and that feeling is worth the hell of going all out for 800 meters.

Then I would snap back into my body that hurt. All the while watching the anchors do battle, waiting to see if I would I get a medal.

11 months left

I decided that my new year will actually begin on February 1st. We as a species don't live in perfect sync so why pretend to share the same annual cycle? As an added bonus to this new way of thinking, I'm not late getting in my year goals, I'm early! 1. Take a class 2. Respect my voice as an instrument 3. learn to cook, bake and prepare more delicious yet sensible food. 4. Figure out the meaning of life. 5. Execute a balanced exercise regime 6. Finish the 8th S no S Album 7. Release a new Turbo Song every other month 8. Learn a new skill 9. Regularly Meditate 10. Move on and let shit go.

Performance Review 2013

Here is my list of goals from 2013 with the results:

2013 Goals

1. Complete S no S Album "10 Digits" - Ha Sucka! I completed this one in April. you can get it here for no cost: http://snos.bandcamp.com

2. Improve reading speed - I totally did nothing to further this goal. I'm interested in this concept, but I guess I was too lazy to actually take it on. I should actually just read more in general. Last year was no good reading year.

3. Complete all mission in "Zombies, Run!" - This i did easily, many times over. would you like to see my stats from the year? well here you are:
163 runs
709.43 mi dist
123:42:42 time
To bad about my hip injury that sidelined me for the last month and a half. I've been tipping my toes back in the running waters slowly. It's going to take a lot to get back to where I was. I'll need to be smarter about how I do it too, incorporating workouts that aren't runs.

4. Complete and release something from Turbo Sunshine - Just barely can I claim victory in this one. http://turbosunshine.bandcamp.com 5. Complete one video project for S no S & Turbo Sunshine - This gets a score of 1/2. I did complete several S no S videos, but nothing for turbo.

6. Go to bed earlier, wake up better rested - I'm not sure, but I'm inclined to say that I did do this better than I had in previous years. I'll count it.

7. Be a good mentor - Shit, this is a tough one. I did well until the system got in my way. Now I have very little contact with my mentee. I'll not count this, it wouldn't be right.

8. Create Demo Real for Turbo Filmworks - So didn't do this. 9. Focus more on the the present - I'll award no points for this. I caught myself not being present too much last year, which is an improvement but it's not a victory.

10. Remember that all the people in this world haven't had the advantages that I've had - Ok, I did.

Total score. 5.5 out of 10. Honorable Mentions of achievement: I learned to bake a lot more shit. I rode my bike a lot. I made the bed nearly every day. I tried hard.

2013 was a year of unforeseen obstacle. It really screwed with me at times but I made it out the other side and I'm now facing down a new year. I'll make a goal list soon. RIP 2013, you won't be missed.

Loops

Back at the hotel monte vista after 6 or 7 years.  Ended up in the exact same room.  So much the same but everything's changed. 

Good Day

Hip is feeling better. It rained today.  Yule tide is fast approaching.  A member of the now defunct DIOYY is mixing the next turbo single.  Happy day. 

Pixies

Bettina wanted to let you know that I had a nice weekend. Here she is enjoying my favorite blanket. I've never really grown out of having a favorite blanket.

This weekend was busy yet I still found time to make homemade tortillas. This is the dough ball I started with.

These are the smaller balls that make each tortilla.

This is my reserve grand champion tortilla.

This is my grand champion tortilla.

This is my banana-nut bread. Which should be called banana nut cake. I didn't run this weekend. I'm still resting the hip. I rode my bike a couple of times and that felt very nice. I'm diligently working on a bunch of new music and I have a collaboration in the works with a member of one of my favorite bands.

On Injury and Other Stuff

So this right hip of mine is being a fucker. I was able to get in a couple of runs the week before last and it was stiff on the first run but on the second run two days later it full on hurt. I've been back to resting it. I run with angela a little, which doesn't hurt, and feels good. I've been cycling too because that doesn't hurt it and it feels good to get huffing and puffing. So I'm going to take it easy for another week and go see the doctor. I had a pretty good weekend. Friday night Angie and I went out to a nice dinner at Balcones Del Peru, a Peruvian restaurant on vine street, just a short walk from our apartment. The food was excellent and the staff super friendly. We will be going back soon. After the movie we watched a couple of movies until Angela fell asleep. I retired to my room to work and found that Ronnie was still up and online. We video chatted a bit and I went to work on some new music. I'm starting to put together an 8th S no S album at while still working on the Turbo Sunshine singles. This 8th album will be an intersection of the digital sounds of the last S no S album and the more acoustic offerings that have made up earlier parts of the catalog. There's a lot of work to be done, but it's exciting. Saturday we went downtown to get more crystals for Angie's costume. I then worked on mixes and went for a long bike ride around lake Hollywood. It was a chilly ride, and it's a decent climb from our apartment to the lake, but it's so beautiful. Lake Hollywood is hard enough to find that it's never very full. I think most people don't even realize that there is a lake in the shadow of the Hollywood sign. After my ride Angela and I walked to rent Red 2 at the Redbox and then walked a few more miles to the grocery store. I needed to buy more bread making supplies, I had a pretzel recipe I was very interested in trying out.

I made the first batch for dinner on Saturday night, and my did they turn out tasty. Sunday morning I made an additional batch which I shaped much better. I took those to Devin and Dylan's for brunch. Angie made breakfast sandwiches and Devin had some home-made starbucks cranberry bars. Add Jarrod's cheese platter and we had a little feast. After the feast Dylan and I rode our bikes up to Greystone mansion park, which of course was closed for a private event. Feeling foolish we decided to try and ride up to Mulholland Drive. We managed to only climb 1/2 of the way there before we gave up. The ride down sure was fun. The rest of Sunday was spent preparing for the week and cleaning house. Today is a big day in our on going legal battle. It's either time to panic or breath a small sigh of relief. I'll know sometime around 4pm. Cross whatever you got.

Back Leg

My hip has been hurting.  I took the last 2 weeks of november off.  Today I tried a slow run up runyon. Its so nice to run again.  My leg was stiff and timid but it held up. 
I have had a great weekend. 

Radio Goo Goo

Last weekend my Band and Devin's bands played a house party in Bakersfield, which some how always manages to be a fun town. The show itself was not without it's difficulties, like the Police shutting us down in our last song, but the trip was fun. For me the highlight was getting to hear a song I wrote and recorded played on terrestrial radio. That was a great feeling. I have only this photo of Coco Ono behind the drums to mark the occasion.

Running Runyon in the Fog

It approximately 3.5 miles from my door to the top of Runyon Canyon park where these photos were taken. It's uphill the pretty much the entire way, but the view is always a worthy reward. I took these pictures to try and capture what it looks like when it's threatening to rain at the top. The pictures fail at conveying the feeling, but they might give you an idea. Running has been a nice escape in what has been a pretty difficult time. I'm very thankful that my body works.

Bit Coins

My uncle Ronnie has me obsessed with bitcoins lately. Please give me some if you have them.

Welcome to the Fallout!

An Absolute Treasure

The weekend before last Angela and I flew to Detroit to witness the Electric Six filming a live concert DVD. My most kind brother and his friend Jarod picked us up at our place at 7:50pm and drove us to LAX. We made the mistake of booking a red eye on Spirit Airlines. Red Eye flights after a full workday are already a lesson in pain and humiliation, but Spirit has managed to take the experience to an entirely new circle of hell. I can't imagine the evil genius who managed to design the seat configuration on their planes, but he should be working in enhanced interrogation. Spirit Airlines hates your freedom. By the time you pay for your bag and your water on board you aren't saving any money, but because the fairs appear to be lower when booking online it attracts plenty of broke families with screaming children. At least I assume they were screaming children, when flying Spirit Airlines it might have just been another broken adult gone round the bend.
Our winged torture device took off late, because Spirit Airlines is really not very good at anything except making your travel experience miserable. We were in the air just after 11pm, and we tried our best to sleep. We landed a touch late and began our journey through the Detroit Wayne County Airport. We took a shuttle bus to the Dollar car rental lot. We drove off the lot with our Chevy Malibu just after 7am.
The drive into the big D was interesting, and exciting. You see a few burned out homes east of the freeway, but some very pretty buildings and landscapes as well. Downtown was a bit of ghost town when we arrived so early on a Saturday morning. I was left wondering if the absence of souls had more to do with the day of the week and the time of day or the 62% decline in population over the last 60 years.
Our trip had been planned in a whirlwind and on the cheap, so there were several points where we took chances. The first was with Spirit Airlines, and those with a memory of preceding paragraphs know how well that worked out. the second was deciding on a rental car verse a cab from the hotel. This turned out to be an excellent decision. The biggest chance of all though was booking the Courtyard Marriott for one night only. Saturday night. Check in was scheduled for 3pm and I rolled into town at 8am after hell flight #666. I parked the car out front and approached the counter with much trepidation. I explained to the girl behind the counter that I knew I was crazy early, but I would appreciate it if they could give me a call when my room was ready. She smiled and said "your room is ready now". Thank you Downtown Courtyard Marriott in Detroit. I loved you. They even managed to honor my request for a high floor.

We rode to the 18th floor and walked into our room with this south east facing room.

That's Canada over there. One of the few places in the USA where you can look south to Canada.

This was the view looking the opposite direction, west into downtown Detroit.

We unpacked a bit and headed down to the restaurant for the most soul satisfying breakfast buffet. Bacon, omlette, bagel, sausage and french toast. Carbapalooza and so damn good. After breakfast we took a soak in the hot tub. The hot tub had very much the same view as our room, though a little lower. The pool area was also completely empty. The Marriott very quickly undid the damage to our well being that Spirit Airlines had caused. After our tub we ventured back to our room for a nice 3 hour sleep. We woke up happy and excited and ready to explore.

Our hotel was connected to the GM building across the street by a tunnel and to the rest of downtown by the People Mover We paid our 75 cents and rode the loop around snapping pictures and getting a feel for the city.

After the People Mover ride we walked through the skywalk into the GM building. This is the view of the Detroit river from said building.

As we exited the GM building we were delighted to find it sprinkling outside.

Check out this little asshole.

Downtown Detroit has a lot of public art.

After our river walk we ventured into downtown to find something to eat. We also found a beach in the middle of a public square

We eventually settled on a hole in the wall pizza place called Slices where we had an amazing calzone.

Then it was back to the hotel for some rest and get ready for the show. While relaxing I noticed that the E-six were posting sound check photos to facebook. I couldn't resist walking over to the venue to see if I could hear them. Alas I could not, but I did recognize their well worn van and trailer.

Here are a few more random pics I snapped while wandering. Eventually showtime rolled around and we made our way to Saint Andrews Hall. I loved the venue. The show was amazing and I left feeling like the Electric Six has some of the friendliest fun loving fans you'll meet. I could go into detail but it will soon be available on DVD.

Sunny Sunday Morning. Sunday Morning was the exact opposite of Saturday morning. The Lions had a home game and there were tailgate parties in parking lots all over downtown. Had we been in the mood to tie one on, this would have been a grand day to do it. Instead we found a nice place in greektown for breakfast and checked out of our hotel. This is where the decision to get a rental car would really pay off. From 12pm to 5pm we drove around exploring detroit.

Here begins my photos of the Heidlberg Project

To contrast with the Heidlberg Project we drove 20 minutes north to Gross Point Park, which reminded me very much of LA's hancock park, if it happened to be set alongside a gorgeous river. We had an ice coffee and walked through a street fair. On the drive back we drove around Bell Isle Park.

Last but not least we drove by Motown. Hours later we were back in LA, riding in Devin's car with Dylan in the front seat. Off to meet our pets and prepare for the coming week of work. We had such a wonderful time. I would gladly visit the motor city again. Thanks to the electric six for the lovely time.