Listening To: Thad Cockrell

One of Jay's absolute favorite albums last year was Thad Cockrell's "To Be Loved." It's pretty great. Here Thad is performing my favorite off the album acoustic on a radio station:



Well, apparently Thad is friends with the pastor of our church, who invited him to play on Easter. And so Jay got to play 7 songs with him this last Sunday, which was really cool for him. They didn't practice at all - they totally winged it , which I think was intimidating for Jay, but Thad was really nice and cool about the whole thing. Jay loved him.

And here is "Pride Won't Get Us Where We're Going" off the album:


Later Sunday night, Jay helped out with the audio of a video shoot for Thad. We have some friends who shoot videos of bands doing broken down sets. I'll post the final video when it gets finished, but in the meantime check out a "behind the scenes" here. You spot Jay; I'll spot all the gear we've bought over the years ($$$$).

Some of Us Were Designed for More "Academic" Pursuits

We (ie I) haven't been updating the blog lately for one main reason: there just isn't enough time. And this is due to one main reason: P90X.

That's right - we're doing P90X. [Almost] every night, we have to do an hour to an hour-and-a-half of push-ups, pull-ups, abs, curls, lunges, squats, yoga, stretching... And let me tell you, P90X has taught me how unfair life is.

We're in the 2nd month, and though I can tell I'm quite a bit stronger - can pretty much do a push-up...am sooooo close to being able to do a pull-up - I don't think I look that different. Haven't lost any weight...no six-pack...no bulging biceps.

And then there's Jay.

He's got pecs.

He's got biceps.

He's got massive calf muscles.

Several people have asked him if he's working out, because he really is bulking up. And last time I checked, WE'RE DOING THE SAME WORKOUT! And not that I want to bulk up, but still... If Jay just thinks about eating better, he loses 5 pounds.

This month we finally decided we had to start eating better so that the sweat and sore muscles aren't entirely in vain. So we'll see...

The Melancholy Sessions

A project that Jay produced/recorded/mixed is available for free on Noise Trade today HERE. You can also have a listen by streaming HERE. [Just fixed this link - sorry!]

A few months ago, Jay started working with a Houston-area fellow named Tim Qualls producing a jammier, slightly stripped down version of 4 of his songs. They recorded just about everything at our house, avoiding drums by using lots and lots of hand claps (I'm even in there somewhere!). I think the final product is pretty killer - a little moody, a little poetic...hence the title of the EP.

Jay worked really hard on this project and really pushed Tim to step outside his box, and I think they're both quite pleased with the finished product.

Gotta Get Down on Friday

If you have somehow missed it, watch at least the first minute of this YouTube video that currently has 81 MILLION VIEWS! I'm perplexed...I think it's a joke, right??



Then you can fully appreciate:

Listening Tonight: Adele - 19

This album is called "19" because she was 19 when she recorded it. Her newest album is called "21"...I don't know about you, but this is not what I was doing when I was 19.

The Table

Earlier this year, Jay worked on a project with a Houston area singer-songwriter named Tommy Lynch. This last week, Tommy released "The Table" as a 5-song EP on his website for $5, with all proceeds going to an organization fighting sex trafficking. So you should visit his website to listen and support a good cause. (Note: one of the songs that plays on his website called "Eternal King" is actually from a previous record).

Other than being a good cause, this project has been one of my favorites that Jay has worked on - I can objectively say that the music is really good. Tommy is very talented as a songwriter, and I really like his voice. He's a great cook, and just a nice guy. And of course I think Jay is more talented than most, and he acted as producer, engineer, drummer, and mixer.

To record the EP, Jay and Tommy moved into my parents house for 2 weeks while they were out of town and set up a make-shift recording studio with the main tracking room in their living room and the control room in my dad's study. They'd work as late into the night as they possibly could, with a new musician showing up every couple of days to track bass, guitar, keys. They even used my mom's mother's baby grand piano on a song or two.

This is my favorite of the 5 songs set to pictures they took at the house:



And since I'm always so impressed with the talented people that work on records with Jay, the people who worked on this one were:

Bass - Paul Engelking
Guitar - Matt "Frodo" Kidd
Keys - Brian Mann
Background Vocals - Lizzie Bailey
Audio Engineer Extraordinaire - Daniel Karr

Adding a little color to our world of White and Grey

You may recall my Craigslist couch that I got about a year ago:


I bought it with the intention of recovering. Well my mom, Jay, and I actually spent hours today looking at upholstery samples. These pictures are horrible because they are from my phone, but the winner is kind of yellowish while still remaining neutral.

What's even more exciting is that I also recently bought a Craigslist chair ($38!), and we also picked out samples for that. We're going bold:


So between buying rugs for Christmas and reupholstering furniture, I feel very grown up.

Goal #5: Paint Something

Goal #5 was to paint something (I previously mentioned that Goal #6 was to read more).

Do I did.

I used all the paint samples left over from choosing paint for the living room, and was then of course disappointed that it was so similar in color to the walls. But that's ok because we'll (eventually) have some brighter things on some of the other walls.

On a sidenote, I also touched up our old TV console. This was actually an old '70s dresser that someone gave my younger sister. She didn't really want it, so I decided that we (me and Jay) should rip all the hardware off, lose the drawers, and spray paint it black. Everyone thought this was such a bad idea. They were wrong.

I Like Your Digs

Jay: "Are 'digs' shoes or your house?"
Me: "...digs...house? Yeah house."
Jay: "OK...apparently I'm not hip with my lingo."
Me: "Yeah I don't think that sounds very hip..."
Jay: "Nope. It is. It's what the kids are saying these days."

So when should I start feeling old?

I'm going to stuff all our money under our mattress...

Bernie Madoff will be sitting in jail for the rest of his life for operating the so-called largest Ponzi scheme in history. The actual amount of the fraud is estimated to be likely between $12 to $20 billion.

I was thinking about this and what a Ponzi scheme is (from Wikipedia, emphasis mine):

A Ponzi scheme is a fraudulent investment operation that pays returns to separate investors, not from any actual profit earned by the organization, but from their own money or money paid by subsequent investors. The Ponzi scheme usually entices new investors by offering returns other investments cannot guarantee, in the form of short-term returns that are either abnormally high or unusually consistent. The perpetuation of the returns that a Ponzi scheme advertises and pays requires an ever-increasing flow of money from investors to keep the scheme going.

So hasn't our government in essence been running a much larger Ponzi scheme in Social Security? Much larger and much farther reaching than what Madoff did? And actually, I just discovered that this is not my own original idea (also on Wikipedia):

Social Security has been a pyramid scheme from the beginning. Those who paid in first received money from those who paid in second — and so on, generation after generation. This was great so long as the small generation when Social Security began was being supported by larger generations resulting from the baby boom. But, like all pyramid schemes, the whole thing is in big trouble once the pyramid stops growing. When the baby boomers retire, that will be the moment of truth — or of more artful lies. Just like Enron. — Thomas Sowell, Capitalism Magazine

Others call it a "quasi" pyramid scheme because a true Ponzi scheme proffers a mythical source of revenue-generation, while social security payments have always been openly underwritten by tax revenue. Either way, this is a big deal. Consider:

• In 2004 the U.S. Social Security system paid out almost $500 billion in benefits
  
• The U.S. Social Security program is the largest government program in the world and the single greatest expenditure in the federal budget
• The program is currently estimated to keep roughly 40% of all Americans age 65 or older out of poverty

In general, I don't really have political leanings because I think I've become quite jaded to believe that few (if any politicians) have the best interest of the country in mind. I think debt is bad. I think programs like Social Security that are not sustainable and that drive us further into debt are bad. Like personal finances, the way to fix this is to spend less and/or earn more, implying that we need to tax more and spend less. But politicians fight for the opposite because that will win elections.

The things that keep me up at night...sigh...

Fire and Dynamite

Craigslist Cleanout

Jay cleaned out the garage some this weekend, and in there was an old Ikea dresser that he got before we were married. It's damaged and not really worth anything, and Jay just wanted to throw it out. He didn't even want to take it to Goodwill because he thought no one would want it. I convinced him that we should just put it on Craigslist for free so that we wouldn't even have to move it. He was resistant, but I insisted. And I'm not even kidding - I got 6 emails in 9 minutes! The dresser was gone within 3 hours of posting.

So then I got bold. Next, we posted this built-in thingy that was removed at some point from somewhere in our house and has been sitting in our garage since we moved into our house. We were totally going to trash it and I figured we'd throw it up there (for free) to see if we got any takers. Within 2 minutes, 2 emails. About 24 hours, gone!

After that one, Jay was ready to post all sorts of stuff and thought we should try for some $$. The thing with Craigslist, though, is people are looking for deals, especially if the deal is it's free. But good lesson learned - if you want to take something to Goodwill (or apparently to a dumpster) and it's semi difficult to get there, just put it on Craigslist!

My First Favorite Songs

How awesome is his hair? I remember one time when I was probably 5, I was mad at my dad for some reason so he put this song on because he knew I liked it, and it took all that was in me to not get up and dance around.

My parents bought me this tape at Hastings in Conroe.

I can remember listening to this in the car and making my dad rewind it repeatedly.

I never knew a Beetle sang this song!

(from 1987)

I can't believe this song came out 10 years ago...

Now that we are done with the first decade of the 2000s, the beginning of the 2000s is much farther away than it seems like they should be. Here are some other albums that came out in 2001 that make it feel like a long time ago:

• Weezer's green album
• Jimmy Eat World's Bleed American
• Destiny Child's Survivor
  
• even N'Sync (the album with that Dirty Pop song)! Who knew they even made it out of the 90s?!
  

Google 4eva

Did you know that the most visited website in 2010 was Facebook? And that "facebook" was the most searched term, followed by "facebook login."

Google came in second. This is absolutely mind-boggling to me as one of Google's most dedicated customers (and yes I know I'm not actually paying for anything...but I am loyal). Do you know how many times a day I google "excel how to..."? Today, Google taught me about indirect cell referencing in Excel, explained that honey doesn't go bad, showed me how to get to a wedding cake tasting place (more fun when you're not the bride I think), helped me find a conversion chart for yards of trash into tons... I mean, what did Facebook ever do for me?!

Goal #6: Read More

Last week I sent a list of goals I have to Jay.

Sidenote: Although this is happening at the beginning of the year, I wasn't really inspired by the idea of New Year's Resolutions...I was inspired by a friend who was in town for Christmas and we met up with who is always trying out new things. For instance, this year she wanted to try some tap-dancing classes and is doing a series of paintings. Last year, her husband got her an accordion, so she learned how to play it. I figured if I didn't really think about what I would like to try out in life besides go to work everyday I might not ever do anything else.

Back to the main story. Goal #6 was "Read more." So now I'm a reader. And since I also decided that "you can't manage what you don't measure" (words of wisdom from a business school friend), I'm keeping track of what I read on Good Reads, which I actually joined probably a year ago and have never actually done anything with. So if you're on there, we can be friends.

I might try to set a goal like a book per month or something, but right now my only criteria is to not actually buy any books because of Goal #4, which was "Declutter our house and live more simply (ie buy less and buy more intentionally)." And since I don't think I've ever reread a book or see value in having most books after they are read, I with intentionally not buy any. Luckily I've already got about 5 or 6 lined up!

Pomplamoose

My mom asked me the other day who these people in this commercial were - she thought they looked like we should be friends with them. They are a band called Pomplamoose, and they are another good example of a band totally made by YouTube.

Here they are in action (for Jay):


And the girl is just amazing...and I've always loved this song:


I actually ran across them totally by accident when I was reading up on Ben Folds (did anyone see him on The Sing Off? - I just love him). They did this pretty cool collaboration with an author:

I just decided...

...that gift bags are cheating. Plus, you can regift them, which makes them that much less personal. And there is no challenge. For instance, I like to see if I can get 45 degree angles on all my corner folds. My brother-in-law likes to see how few pieces of tape he can use when wrapping.

Name the Worst Font on the Count of Three...

I believed that unarguably the worst font of all time was Comic Sans (when googled, this is the first page to come up). But my sister and her friend both voted Papyrus. So I decided to do some extensive research (ie I googled) and found "America's Most Fonted: The 7 Worst Fonts":

1. Comic Sans MS (of course...and I will think even worse of you if it is purple and used in your email signature)
2. Bradley Hand ITC
3. Curlz MT
4. Papyrus (still not acceptable if you work at a church)
5. Vivaldi
6. Kristen ITC
7. Viner Hand ITC

So let's just all agree to look for some better fonts. My sister and I share a fondness for Gill Sans. Jay likes ITC Avant Garde. When in doubt, just go with Helvetica.