Server Crash!!

I guess my server just took a dump...please excuse me while I clean it up. =)

Concentration - Scott's House

For the overnight accommodations after the gig I camped out at the Bailey's house in Atascadero. They are a wonderful family! I was blown away by Scott's guitar collection. He owns an awesome array of equipment ranging from the early 1900's to today.

This picture was taken by his wife during an after breakfast jam. Scott was showing me a really cool gypsy jazz / bossa nova song. Scott has the incredible talent to solo beautiful melodies over just about anything.

San Miguel with Beaujolais

Lots of fun playing our gig in San Miguel. It was a 50th birthday party for 2 musicans. Our first set was a disaster due to a bad PA and monitor setup. The audience couldn't hear us. We couldn't hear us. I couldn't hear myself. We just got through it and I just sat there as a total poser.

We took a break to let the birthday boys play. For our second set the system was setup much better. The problem was a monitor cable that was pinched and shorting out the mixer.

Able to hear what we're playing we blazed through out set list with intention. We played faster tempo music and actually had folks dancing on the floor. We even played a few requests. My favorites were "Take it Easy", "Europa", and "Lean on Me". They came out really well and the crowd loved it!

Making the band, part 1

... and not MTV style.

Tyler is looking to put together a band.

1. Musicians who are serious about playing, and if things go well would consider doing it semi-professionally.

2. You don't have to the best musician but I can't be in a band with someone that doesn't have a desire to be better than they are, or worse, isn't willing to work at that.

3. You gotta have good (and loud) gear and I'd prefer you know how to use it

4. 3-5 piece, the dynamics of a 3 piece band differ completely from a 4 or 5 piece but I am happy doing either.

5. Good people, there is nothing worse than practicing with someone who gives you the feeling they are doing you a favor by playing

6. As for content, I am very open, but I am extremely interested in original semi-experimental rock. No cheesy prog, or "look at me I can play 16ths at 405218bpm". I am getting into weird sound fx and stuff and I would like to incorporate that into my next band. Something like this song with some lyrics, and way less guitar wanking.


I would like to join him in the search. We need to get some more musicans together to see what the mix would be like. In .COM speak..."We need to create synergy!!"

Morning Commute

I'm sitting here in a meeting still shaking with a faint breath...

While driving to work today I hit a water puddle. My car hydroplaned off the road and into a four wheel skid. I plowed right into a newly planted orchard taking a bunch of saplings with me. I thought for sure that I was going to roll but my Explorer pulled out of the skid.

Needless to say, I'm still dealing with the anxiety an hour after it happened.

Say Hi to Speedy

Guess who moved in?

Say hi to "Speedy"...my new roomate:




My brother gave him to me. He loves to sing in the morning. I'm hoping that will help get my arse out of bed earlier!!! lol

World Ag Exp '05

Going through my camera I found this picture I took a few weeks back of the Farm Show:

Tales of 'The Shave'

So I'm here in Belmont, CA for training on Oracle. I'm have pretty much all I need except for shaving cream. I call up the operator an ask if they have some. The lady tells me that the vending machine has it. So I run down and even though it's $2.00 for a small pack of cream and a cheap razor I buy it.

I run up and open the package only to find the package was broke and the cream was dried up. I pondered about it and though that if I added water it would come back. So I kick on the shower finger out the tiny dab but it didn't work.

Fustrated I figured I'd be MANly and shave with out cream. But with my whiskers with a one and a half day growth it's a train wreck. I nicked my self 6 times just around my chin.

So looking around I see a bar of soap! Ahhh... So I lather up and start hacking at it. But the soap starts to thin and eventually I get fustrated only this time with soap in my eye!

Then I get this wild idea. Toothpaste!!! I grab the tube lay out a dab and smear it on. It begins a slight tingle. I start shaving but the tingle get stronger. The mint must be 100x stronger on a face, especially with existing nicks!

At this point I'm nearly done so I just finish up. I eventually finish up with a semi decent shave. All in all I have a face with 6 nicks, super clean and soft from the soap, and fresh with a minty scent. I guess it will work for the evening...all I need now is a female partner to test it out =)

Moral of the story: Only shave with designated shaving cream.

The next gig!

(left to right: Scott, Matt, Adam, and RC)

Aymiee called me last night to deliver some exciting news. Matt and Scott, both accomplished musicians from DAG night, are playing a gig next saturday. They needed someone to fill in for rhythm guitar and asked if I would be interested. I called Matt today and said I'm all in!

The gig is a 50th birthday party for two other musicians. It's pretty much going to be a huge jam session with Matt and Scott's group as the main group. Matt said we'll be playing a mixture of jazz, blues, rock and country. OH and get this...he said he would pay me to help cover expenses!! He was excited to offer me my first paid gig!!! =)

We're planning on meeting up Monday to go over some of the material. That would be a big help. The last two gigs I played the material was new to me. I was a bit intimidated trying to feel my through the songs live looking for places to fit in. It really helps to have a chance to experiement with textures and harmonies. I'm way excited!

Art, Music, and the Boda Bag!

We all enjoyed a entertaining weekend!

It started Saturday at Cafe Vio in Paso Robles. Aymiee had an art showing for her jazz collection at the cafe. The owner of the cafe really liked her work and will be presenting it for a few weeks.

A husband and wife couple, Peter and Deborah Hewitt, from our DAG jam session and I were the live entertainment. They wrote a lot of original material. I did my best to just sit in and play bass and rythmn guitar. One of the songs played was "Black Velvet". I really liked how it came out. Deborah has a really clean and crisp singing voice with a nice swing to it. I really enjoyed playing with them. We will be meeting again to arrange a set for future gigs. I'm really excited about that.

For dinner a big group of us all met at the 10th street cafe in San Miguel (the town homepage has a box about it on the lower right). It's a really cool Basque style restaurant. We all enjoyed a seven course meal family style and made lots of new friends. I brought the guitar and was able to get Vince to sing with me. He's my Portuguese "brother" from Paramount Farms (he and I are the only Portuguese employees at the plant). He's got an awesome voice and can sing Marvin Gaye VERY well. We played "Sexual Healing" and "Let's get it on" for the restaurant and had the whole place dancing and singing! It was a blast!!!

Below are pictures of the evidence ...



Some of Aymiee's Art







A couple shots of the group playing (left to right: arsy, peter, and deborah)







How to enjoy wine, BODA STYLE!!






Vince and I playing Marvin Gaye







Dallas is the owner of the cafe...he dug the group and loved the music!!



(more pics over at aymiee.com: Cafe Vio & 10th Street Cafe)

Name that tune!

Last night at the jam session we pulled of a tune by ear. We couldn't think of the name but Ty mentioned it was the theme for the show "The Apprentice".

To fill in the blanks it's "For the love of money" by the O'Jays. "money, money, money, money, moooooney.....MONEY!"

Last night's jam was great! We got a handful of songs sounding pretty good: "Pink Floyd - Comfortably Numb", "Weezer - Say it ain't so", "Metallica - Enter Sandman", "Golden Earring - Radar Love", "Greenday - Longview"

Last read

Just finished reading "Tuesday's with Morrie". Quick little read with lots of depth to it. I'm amazed at how much resolve he made in his last days.

He message was clear: life counts when you connect with those you love.

The birth of cool

Aymiee's work will be on display at Cafe Vio in paso Robles. She completed a small collection of jazz artists. If you're in the area come on down, have a cup of coffee and enjoy the art. There will be live music by a couple of musicians from our DAG Night jam session. Adam, who's the guitar instructor from DAG, will be leading the jam. I'll be sitting in with bass and guitar trying not to cause too much trouble =) Hope to see ya all there!

Double Stop Fun

I was playing with harmonies using double stops with Sting's "Fields of Gold". Here's a small clip including a bass line:

fog.mp3

2000 MSL

Ahhh...it felt so good to get up in the air this weekend. I flew both sat and sun. My first flight on sat was less than a good experience. I felt like I was relearning things...compare that to wobbling on a bicycle. But it all sunk in that evening which resulted in a very good flight on sunday. The next day I felt back in control with the airplane.

Next scheduled flight is this upcoming sat. I just need one more solo cross country to meet my requirements. After that I'm hoping to go up for a few pre-test flights. If those look good I'll schedule an appointment for the practical. yeah!

Double Feature Day

Good day lined up...

First I have the Cessna scheduled from 12:00-4:00. I'm excited about getting back in the air. I'll be meeting with my flight instructor to approve the flight plan for tomorrow's cross country flight. I'm thinking of flying up to Hollister for lunch and then down to Paso before heading back.

Later tonight it's a jam session at Bens. Tyler is going to be there too. We've been working on some material to see what we could pull off together. We all picked 4 songs to work on:

Ben's Selection:

• NIN - Just Like You Imagined
• Live - White Discussion
• Saxon Shore Amber, Ember, Glow
• The Cult - Hollow Man

Tyler's Selection:

• Pink Floyd - Hey You
• Weezer - Say it ain't so
• Liquid Tension Experiment - Pardigm Shift

My Selection:

• Chilli Peppers - Higher Ground
• Green Day - Longview
• Alice in Chains - Rooster
• Golden Earring - Radar Love

Should be fun!

Virtual Jam

I found some drum tracks today and was practicing with the bass. I came up with a little run and recorded it: proj3.mp3

I pinged Tyler to see what he could do with it and quickly returned a VERY cool solo over it. Check it out over on his site.

http://www.junebughunter.net/2005/02/lick-of-night_03.html

That's what I call a virtual jam!!! Now we just need to get Mr. Ben in the loop!!!

Studio in Santa Fe

Studio 3.0

I would love to be a fly on that wall! I've seen Ottmar live 3 times and loved it. There's so much attention to each note...and the tone...ahhhhhh

I miss riding

I was sorting out some files and came across this picture which was taken about 3 years back:



It's been over a year since I injured myself on the bike. It was also the last time I rode. Over the weekend I went out to the dairy and fixed the bike (since it was still messed up from the crash). I'm am soooooooo ready for a good ride. Gorman or Hollister seem like good place to go!

Trips around the elevators

Last night I had the coolest dream. I like to think of my dreams as real world because in some sense they really are something you experience.

The dream somehow started with me in an elevator. When I got to my level to get off I noticed everybody in the elevator was getting off to. As soon as we stepped out there was a huge line. I have no idea what the line was for but all of us from the elevator knew that we had to stand in line.

I thought to myself there's gotta be a better way around this. So I told the group that I was going to search around to see what's up. And that's where the fun started. I started going up and down elevators and across levels in search to find out where I was at and how to get around the long line. I spent my entire dream doing this.

The interesting part was all the people I met in the elevators. There was a girl in one elevator who seemed very depressed. She carried this barbie doll and didn't speak a word. Here eyes were black.

In another elevator an obese woman stepped into the elevator looked at me and socked me in the mouth. I remember feeling the pain in my dream.

Another elevator had an old man who I talked a bunch with. He had so many answers for the questions I had.

Getting off at one floor I saw a really nice looking girl playing guitar. I wanted to introduce myself by I missed by the doors closing.

In my entire dream I was wandering around this building meeting people in elevators. It was very adventurous. It lasted long enough to meet some of the characters again.

One trip around I saw the depressed girl again. This time she was happy and as she looked over to me she tossed out her barbie.

I ended up getting a smile for the obese woman who socked me. On another trip around I saw the pretty girl again playing guitar. This time she was sitting talking to a guy and as I glanced around I noticed he played guitar too. There were sitting in some sort of coffee lounge area.

The building I was in was quite large...it reminded me of the Luxor in Las Vegas. It had the same kind of theme but was very modern.

I guess I could relate things back to my real life for analysis but I won't...I think it would ruin it =)

Rock Fonts

Rock fonts

Happy Birthday Evan!

We celebrated Evan's 5th birthday Saturday afternoon at the AeroDog hot dog stand. It's a cool little place. The owners took an old fuselage from the aircraft bone yard in Mojave and turned it into a resturant. The party actually took place in the back where they built a mini hanger.