Thursday, September 1, 2011
Wednesday, August 17, 2011
Face melting goodness, just like mom used to make
Ok, shameless self promotion... deal with it, yes it's spelled with only ONE V!
CD Baby
https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/skivies
Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Lorem-Ipsum/dp/B0056BGGBA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313624600&sr=8-1
For all you Mac babies out there
iTunes
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/lorem-ipsum/id443190327
Interview that took place with the Westword while I was in Canada.
http://blogs.westword.com/backbeat/2011/06/the_skivies_on_its_history_and_lorem_ipsum.php
Clicky... listen read... enjoy. Tell your friends!
CD Baby
https://www.cdbaby.com/cd/skivies
Amazon
http://www.amazon.com/Lorem-Ipsum/dp/B0056BGGBA/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1313624600&sr=8-1
For all you Mac babies out there
iTunes
http://itunes.apple.com/us/album/lorem-ipsum/id443190327
Interview that took place with the Westword while I was in Canada.
http://blogs.westword.com/backbeat/2011/06/the_skivies_on_its_history_and_lorem_ipsum.php
Clicky... listen read... enjoy. Tell your friends!
Saturday, August 13, 2011
Old folk art = new challenge
Birthday Party Discovery
Recently I met with some friends to celebrate our drummer, Ryan's 30th birthday at Casa Bonita of all places... Ever since he'd seen the South Park episode he's wanted to go there... and what self respecting full grown 30 year old man wouldn't? Your 30's are a milestone! Gone are the days when no one gives you credibility based solely on your age (read lack of experience)...
So, we took in the sights, smells and (stifling the urge to vomit... ok it wasn't that bad... well, almost) tastes. Holly and I ordered TWO carafes of margarita, foolhardy as it may seem given that we hadn't yet tasted them. Afterwards we were pretty confident that we'd made a poor choice. They lacked every component that makes you call a margarita a margarita... unless you substitute anti-freeze to give it that neon yellow green color so prevalent in nature.
Ok so after we got the food part out of the way it was time to go truly experience "Casa don't Eata" in all its splendor, I mean that's what you're paying for right? The experience! We went through the pirate's cave, I forgot what its actual name is, then we played ski ball, everyone donated our tickets so Ryan could get the best of the most useless shit they give out as prizes. He chose the tiara, some Groucho glasses (that would be too small on a Cambodian toddler) and a stuffed green frog whose stuffing is probably toxic to say the least. We watched various characters get shoved off the 2nd story ledge into the famous pool below, then the guy in the gorilla suit chased the same characters around the dining room while...
Wait! (What's this?) Actual real, genuine mariachis! (And they're GOOD!) They were playing a traditional folk set list too! No half assed La Bamba crap either! Trumpets, guitar, violins, vihuela and best of all guitarron! Many of the group agreed that this was by far the best asset Casa Bonita had to offer and these people were by far the most talented in the room. It wasn't until about a month later that I would get bitten by an interesting sort of bug.
You shold know...
Being a musician (a mediocre bass player/ mediocre guitar player) with A.D.D. I have found what can be a dream come true for people like me. This morning I was clicking through Youtube videos and came across a couple of good guitarron players. I've always been curious about the instrument and every time I've seen live mariachis I find myself watching what the guitarron is doing. The complexity of their bass lines for the instrument having so short a neck... it's really something. I've always wanted to incorporate this instrument into a different style just to see what texture it could add. So I did what anyone with a curious itch would do to scratch it... I Googled it.
Homework
Search box [guitaron] Google's reply [showing results for "guitarron" instead] Me: thanks Google for making the correct assumption and not telling me or the rest of the world what a dumb illiterate ass I am...
One of the first places that comes up is search engine gold, one better, I'll explain that in a minute.
After looking at various instruments on eBay, guitar center and other online stores I'd had it in my head that I was going to own one of these things no matter what... but I didn't want to commit to something like this until I got to actually play one... no way would I spend approximately $1000 for a good one... let alone $300+ for a crappy one, besides I don't know the first thing about them aside from the fact that they sound COOL!
Luck!
Finally I go back and click on the link for a local shop called Mi Vida Strings- http://www.mividastrings.com/index.html and find everything I could want to know (except for how to play one). The owner Eric Trujillo is a craftsman who specializes in upright bass among other stringed instruments. Aside from being one unique quirky cat that collects and sells Dunny and Munny (http://www.kidrobot.com/), he's quickly making a name for himself in the luthier community, especially given the fact that he is possibly the only luthier that specializes in the less common instruments across 4 states. He's super friendly and was more than happy to answer every question I had about my new found interest.
After answering my questions he told me "you know I do rent instruments so if it's something you're not too sure about why don't you take it home for a month, if you decide you want to continue with it you can rent to own."
Exactly what I needed! So, he set one up with new strings while Holly and I went across the street to a little Italian deli which he recommended. We had eaten a big breakfast earlier so we passed on food, just got some teas and bought a fresh baked cantaloupe cake... and some nice balsamic vinegar... dammit.
About an hour later we came back and he had just finished prepping the instrument for me, I filled out the necessary paperwork and we were driving home with my new oversized baby...
Moment of truth
From the moment I set this thing in my lap I knew I was in for a challenge... traditionally it's tuned ADGCEA, sometimes the high A is tuned an octave lower to put it one octave higher than the low A. Did that make sense? Didn't to me either.
The neck is a foot long at most, and the body's about the size of a small coffee table and it has 6 strings.
After tuning it for about 15 minutes then trying to noodle around on the thing and come up with something that didn't sound Egyptian, I decided I'd better get a book... I found Mariachi Mastery by Jeff Nevin
http://www.amazon.com/Mariachi-Mastery-Maestria-Guitarron-Enhanced/dp/0849734622/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1313280442&sr=8-2
Hopefully this will be a good starting point.
Then I read in Wikipedia that of all the bands and in all the places, The Eagles used guitarron on "Hotel California"... ugh... to quote the big Lebowski:
so... lessons? I guess I'll know exactly how cool this thing can be once I can play something that wont cause my cat to attack me when I play it. I'll keep you posted on that.
Recently I met with some friends to celebrate our drummer, Ryan's 30th birthday at Casa Bonita of all places... Ever since he'd seen the South Park episode he's wanted to go there... and what self respecting full grown 30 year old man wouldn't? Your 30's are a milestone! Gone are the days when no one gives you credibility based solely on your age (read lack of experience)...
So, we took in the sights, smells and (stifling the urge to vomit... ok it wasn't that bad... well, almost) tastes. Holly and I ordered TWO carafes of margarita, foolhardy as it may seem given that we hadn't yet tasted them. Afterwards we were pretty confident that we'd made a poor choice. They lacked every component that makes you call a margarita a margarita... unless you substitute anti-freeze to give it that neon yellow green color so prevalent in nature.
Ok so after we got the food part out of the way it was time to go truly experience "Casa don't Eata" in all its splendor, I mean that's what you're paying for right? The experience! We went through the pirate's cave, I forgot what its actual name is, then we played ski ball, everyone donated our tickets so Ryan could get the best of the most useless shit they give out as prizes. He chose the tiara, some Groucho glasses (that would be too small on a Cambodian toddler) and a stuffed green frog whose stuffing is probably toxic to say the least. We watched various characters get shoved off the 2nd story ledge into the famous pool below, then the guy in the gorilla suit chased the same characters around the dining room while...
Wait! (What's this?) Actual real, genuine mariachis! (And they're GOOD!) They were playing a traditional folk set list too! No half assed La Bamba crap either! Trumpets, guitar, violins, vihuela and best of all guitarron! Many of the group agreed that this was by far the best asset Casa Bonita had to offer and these people were by far the most talented in the room. It wasn't until about a month later that I would get bitten by an interesting sort of bug.
You shold know...
Being a musician (a mediocre bass player/ mediocre guitar player) with A.D.D. I have found what can be a dream come true for people like me. This morning I was clicking through Youtube videos and came across a couple of good guitarron players. I've always been curious about the instrument and every time I've seen live mariachis I find myself watching what the guitarron is doing. The complexity of their bass lines for the instrument having so short a neck... it's really something. I've always wanted to incorporate this instrument into a different style just to see what texture it could add. So I did what anyone with a curious itch would do to scratch it... I Googled it.
Homework
Search box [guitaron] Google's reply [showing results for "guitarron" instead] Me: thanks Google for making the correct assumption and not telling me or the rest of the world what a dumb illiterate ass I am...
One of the first places that comes up is search engine gold, one better, I'll explain that in a minute.
After looking at various instruments on eBay, guitar center and other online stores I'd had it in my head that I was going to own one of these things no matter what... but I didn't want to commit to something like this until I got to actually play one... no way would I spend approximately $1000 for a good one... let alone $300+ for a crappy one, besides I don't know the first thing about them aside from the fact that they sound COOL!
Luck!
Finally I go back and click on the link for a local shop called Mi Vida Strings- http://www.mividastrings.com/index.html and find everything I could want to know (except for how to play one). The owner Eric Trujillo is a craftsman who specializes in upright bass among other stringed instruments. Aside from being one unique quirky cat that collects and sells Dunny and Munny (http://www.kidrobot.com/), he's quickly making a name for himself in the luthier community, especially given the fact that he is possibly the only luthier that specializes in the less common instruments across 4 states. He's super friendly and was more than happy to answer every question I had about my new found interest.
After answering my questions he told me "you know I do rent instruments so if it's something you're not too sure about why don't you take it home for a month, if you decide you want to continue with it you can rent to own."
Exactly what I needed! So, he set one up with new strings while Holly and I went across the street to a little Italian deli which he recommended. We had eaten a big breakfast earlier so we passed on food, just got some teas and bought a fresh baked cantaloupe cake... and some nice balsamic vinegar... dammit.
About an hour later we came back and he had just finished prepping the instrument for me, I filled out the necessary paperwork and we were driving home with my new oversized baby...
Moment of truth
From the moment I set this thing in my lap I knew I was in for a challenge... traditionally it's tuned ADGCEA, sometimes the high A is tuned an octave lower to put it one octave higher than the low A. Did that make sense? Didn't to me either.
The neck is a foot long at most, and the body's about the size of a small coffee table and it has 6 strings.
After tuning it for about 15 minutes then trying to noodle around on the thing and come up with something that didn't sound Egyptian, I decided I'd better get a book... I found Mariachi Mastery by Jeff Nevin
http://www.amazon.com/Mariachi-Mastery-Maestria-Guitarron-Enhanced/dp/0849734622/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1313280442&sr=8-2
Hopefully this will be a good starting point.
Then I read in Wikipedia that of all the bands and in all the places, The Eagles used guitarron on "Hotel California"... ugh... to quote the big Lebowski:
so... lessons? I guess I'll know exactly how cool this thing can be once I can play something that wont cause my cat to attack me when I play it. I'll keep you posted on that.
Thursday, July 21, 2011
0 gravity
Over the course of years two people consume each other's identity losing themselves in the process. Maybe this is why elderly couples start to look alike after so much time. It's a rarity anymore where once it was the standard- http://www.divorcereform.org/rates.html although they say that divorce rates drop during a recession.
Thursday, December 30, 2010
Preoccupado
"Bill dropped his keys on the counter and sat there staring at them... suddenly thinking about all the times he'd thrown his keys there before- and how many days of his life were wasted repeating the same tasks and rituals in his apartment over and over again. Then he wondered if; realistically... this WAS his life and the unusal part was his time spent doing other things."
the full 17 minutes is available at this link:
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/NYQoLzDeMV8/
the full 17 minutes is available at this link:
http://www.tudou.com/programs/view/NYQoLzDeMV8/
Funny how this resonated with me… I've gotten caught in that vortex of thoughts in one form or another many times a day. Maybe people are adding up the time we spend in line, at a red light or on hold and our growing awareness of such things are causing us to become so impatient as a society. I believe we're evolving towards convenience and instant gratification and at such an exponential pace since the invention of the microchip that we can very well become teleporting blobs with skinny 80 fingered hands and the ability to nuke a hot pocket will become as rare and even valued as the ability to hunt, skin, butcher, prepare and preserve wild game...
Yeah, my teachers always admonished me for using run on sentences but what do they know? (Funny, they've been saying the same thing about me) I haven't written in cursive since the 7th grade... hmm go figure- another dying skill. Sucked at algebra too, guess I can put away any hopes of being a rocket scientist. I am fortunate enough to know how to hunt, skin etc... wild game. A great skill set to have in the event of societal collapse, maybe a mixed blessing in the event of zombie outbreak.
Who knows, maybe that's how it goes down on 12/21/12... Yeah! Zombies! Nah, it'll probably be the same as Y2K and Oral Roberts being "taken home by god" if he didn't have $8mil raised by 3/1/87. We all wake up or maybe... sleep off that night and go back to work with the realization that the giant stone calendar maker at the time simply said "Meh... I'm done making calendars." and closed up shop...
Yeah, my teachers always admonished me for using run on sentences but what do they know? (Funny, they've been saying the same thing about me) I haven't written in cursive since the 7th grade... hmm go figure- another dying skill. Sucked at algebra too, guess I can put away any hopes of being a rocket scientist. I am fortunate enough to know how to hunt, skin etc... wild game. A great skill set to have in the event of societal collapse, maybe a mixed blessing in the event of zombie outbreak.
Who knows, maybe that's how it goes down on 12/21/12... Yeah! Zombies! Nah, it'll probably be the same as Y2K and Oral Roberts being "taken home by god" if he didn't have $8mil raised by 3/1/87. We all wake up or maybe... sleep off that night and go back to work with the realization that the giant stone calendar maker at the time simply said "Meh... I'm done making calendars." and closed up shop...
Wednesday, December 15, 2010
Easter fiasco 2006
Here's a little story from 2006:
On Easter Sunday Holly and I hosted a little get together at our house for my family and a couple of friends. After doing a peak to floor cleaning the night before, the house looked beautiful and ready for festivities. We started the holiday off by going to a choral service at the Holy Ghost Catholic Church in the morning, then got home and began cooking and drinking wine (as is standard operating procedure at our house). We all enjoyed a wonderful meal and decided to continue with our earlier wine endeavor but this time on the front porch.
About 3 bottles of wine later (It was just before sunset) we notice a smokey smell and for about a minute thought that someone down the street was barbecuing some paint. A few minutes later, when greasy black smoke was billowing out of the front door, we realized that it was us! I ran into the bathroom to see the wicker shelf eyesore above the toilet was engulfed in flames and that we were in fact barbecuing makeup and toiletries along with an acrylic toilet seat and yes... paint! This all compliments of an unattended candle which the door must have knocked over since it opens up into, yes... the wicker shelf. My buddy Trent, being the prepared one that he is, ran to the kitchen, wet two dish towels and handed me one to wear as a kerchief over my nose and mouth. Then the rescue/ firefighting evolution began. Holly handed me a fire extinguisher which I aimed at the fire, squeezed the trigger and emitted about a 3 second burst, then it was empty. Trent went with her to rig up th e garden hose while I went to look for the cat who was relaxing on the bed. Well, she was drooling with little watery green eyes but she seemed nonetheless relaxed showing no urge to flee. I scooped her up and ran to the front yard and handed her to someone so I could go back in and continue to rescue the tarantula and continue putting out the fire. At some point, Holly phoned the fire department while Trent and I put out the fire. The smoke in the house was so thick at this point that you could not see 3 feet in front of you. Somehow, the cat decided she was safer under our bed than outside around all the looky loos and decided to bolt for cover. We had to re-rescue her and put her in Holly's car.
The fire department arrived about 10 minutes after the call, then admonished Trent and I for taking matters into our own hands but we both decided not to tell them that we each have firefighting experience.
After a little Q and A session with the neighbors and gathering up a few things that we could get by on, my brother who works at the Marriott in Cherry Creek, very generously went half with us on the cost of our hotel room.
Now almost 2 weeks later, Holly and I will be out of the house until the beginning of August while repairs are being made to our 1 bathroom house due to smoke damage and a charred but structurally sound and in tact bathroom. The upshot is that we were in the process of remodeling the bathroom and now the brunt of the cost will be picked up by insurance. Big bonus! The downside is that we just finished repainting the kitchen and will have to repaint the entire main floor as well as refinsish the wood flooring throughout the entire house due to some soot being tracked into it.
We are adjusting quite nicely to our 2 bedroom 2 bath flat in Stapleton though and insurance is paying our expenses there as well!
After moving back in in late August we were pleased to find that the movers which our insurance company hired (meth heads for hire?) had either broken or stolen half of our more expensive items.
If all else fails, skip work!
Sleep
There are hundreds of reasons ranging from stress, anxiety, lack of exercise... well, I get decent exercise from work but not a proper work out; that's got to happen soon. Hopefully that will help with the insomnia, I really don't want to take a sleeping aid, I feel like my brain chemistry is jacked up enough as it is. We do have a neighbor one block over that works for a sleep clinic, I've been contemplating setting up an appointment although for one to study your sleeping habits one would actually have to observe you sleeping! I might as well take advantage of this health insurance which I'm paying for out my nose... maybe they'll cover it. Aside from getting wood or farting and snoring and drooling, what dignity could I possibly lose by having a stranger watch me sleep?
Work
So aside from being an insomniac I suppose I can go a little more into who I am; those of you with better things to do-feel free to navigate back into the ether from whence you came.
I'm the proverbial "jack of all trades- master of none"- I've worked in every trade from metal fabricator- I.T. network support and even sou chef. Sales seems to find its way on my resume frequently for some reason since about 2005 (hmmm... about the time my sleeping patterns started screwing with me?).
I started working for a wheelchair company back in March and it's a job that I really truly enjoy for several reasons. For starters there's the obvious sense of fulfillment as these aren't typical wheelchairs; they're "positioning" chairs that are primarily used in long term care and skilled nursing facilities. If someone is completely immobile along the Rocky Mountain region, chances are they're in or need one of my chairs. A lot of these people are simply waiting for God so it's nice to make them as comfortable as possible while they're here. Plus they're a hell of a lot more grateful than the overpaid blow-hards that we build a network infrastructure for... you're welcome very much.
Another reason I'm so fond of this work is that I am the only distributor in over a thousand square miles; Colorado and New Mexico are my primary area of focus. I have a spectacularly scenic drive to nearly everywhere I go, I'd take tons of pictures where I not so intent on getting there first… yet another thing I need to work on. With winter rolling in I do have plans of stopping at as many ski areas as possible as I'm quite an avid snowboarder. Not great mind you, just avid.
So you couple the above reasons and then add that the company is based out of Ontario and I see my bosses probably once a year and you have a win/win/win situation! I guess the only drawbacks to the job are having to clean wheelchairs that come back (trust me... ugh...), and the driving which can get me to my destination or home at wee hours in the morning. But hey, I guess there are advantages to getting by with an hour or two of sleep per night.
Play
Hmmm... I seem to have forgotten how to do that… more like vegging on my ass when I'm done with an 18 hour day. I remember enjoying it, I just need to do it more. I do play in a band called the Skivies, they've been around for a while I'm just the latest addition. I hope they don't wind up with a bass player's morgue like these guys http://www.themelvins.net/pics/morgue/bassistmorgue.html. Nah, just kidding... actually we're wrapping up recording 9 new songs… well, 8 and then a 30 minute noise piece. It's exciting because although I've recorded before, even in the studio with bands, this will be the first published work for me.
We were contacted by our friends in the band Action Friend who we've played numerous shows with, they told us that Toshi Kasai was coming to Denver to record them and he would like to record some other local bands as well. We had been working on lots of new material but we felt it was far from ready; this was debated heavily for a few days, then our singer put his foot down and said "fuck it, if we wait until we're ready we'll never release a recording!" I agreed although if there was anyone in the group that felt their (meaning my) material was sub par and needed work it was me.
Long story short, Toshi was amazing to work with, very patient and a wizard with his knowledge and equipment. We got the rough mixes back and were all floored! Hopefully we'll have the time to support the songs with some shows! Go to http://www.theskivies.com/, hopefully we'll have some new stuff up there soon!
That's it for now, I'll throw something else against the wall when I feel inspired to do so. Thanks!
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