Digitizing Life

My parents had given me most of my "treasures" that I had left behind in my old room when they moved out of their house 2 years ago. They recently emptied their storage unit and gave me my last 2 boxes. I had no clue what was going to be in these, but it ends up that they were full of old books, CDs, and photo albums...none of which I was particularly missing.

I started unloading and decided pretty quickly to donate most of the books to the library. And then decided to put the CDs in iTunes and donate most of those to the library as well (and in the process inspired Jay to do the same with most of his DVDs).

And then there were the photo albums...Well I just decided that October is going to be the month of photo scanning, and then I'm going to THROW THEM AWAY! That's right - in the trash.

We live in the digital age people! Jay and I never put a CD in a player - we listen to music off the computer or an iPod. We don't use DVDs - we watch movies off of the Apple TV, which comes off of the computer. We don't read books because we just don't read books. And we have never gotten out a photo album to look at pictures. They will be more useful when digital - more organized, searchable, emailable, and takes up no space! And you can always reprint if you need a physical copy.

So tonight was Night 1. I scanned 82. There are 6 albums, and I'm guessing on average they have 250 pics for a total of 1,500. At this rate, I think I can do it. 18 nights of scanning...

I decided I should post a few each time I scan. IT'S SO EASY NOW THAT THEY'RE DIGITIZED!

Here is Sophomore year Homecoming...check out those mums! I'll have to find pics of subsequent years because they just got bigger from here...


And another...I like this dress...


My last dance recital before quitting ballet. I was a doll in the party scene of the Nutcracker. I got to ride in that box with the candy canes on it onto the stage with my matching doll partner, and then we came out of the box to do our little dance.


Kath's bday in 1998. I think everything we are wearing in this is Abercrombie. And check out Lauren's overalls!


This is me and my friend Ashley at UM Army the summer before our Junior year. I just wanted to put this one on here because I lifeguarded this summer, and it's the most tan I've ever been.


And Junior year Homecoming (I've decided I should put one up from each because I like my dresses!). Once again benefiting from the lifeguard tan...


Between his hair and my socks, this picture is pretty amazing (in the mall parking lot getting ready to leave for Wilderness).

Quicksand River

Jay has been playing some shows with his friend Brent Nettles, who just released his first album called "Quicksand River." Jay said it's one of the most enjoyable times he's had playing music live.

You should listen to Brent's music (you can download here). Jay's favorites are "Where We Will Go" and "Me and All My Friends" and I think mine is "A Dollar Bill":

90s Flashback: The Rest of It

In my quest to relive awesome music of the 90s, I realized that much of it is better to forget (MMM Bop or Tubthumpers anyone?) But here are some more of the good ones that we should remember together:

Matchbox 20 - "Hang" (1996):


Third Eye Blind - "Motorcycle Drive By" (which I already mentioned here...but I love it!...and this guy's pictures are hilarious with the words) and "God of Wine" (1997):




Oasis - "Champagne Supernova" (1995):

90s Flashback: Lisa Loeb

Remember Lisa Loeb?!? I guarantee you every girl between the ages of maybe 27 and 37 could still sing you every word to "Stay" off of her album "Tails" that came out in 1995 (that was 16 years ago!!).

I'm pretty sure I could sing most words to most songs off that album [update: actually not true - apparently I skipped quite a few that I didn't really like because I didn't even recognize a few], but these were my favorites:

Do You Sleep?:


Snow Day:


It's Over:

90s Flashback: Fiona Apple

Remember Fiona Apple? According to Wikipedia she's still out there making music, but she's kind of been off the radar since her first album called "Tidal." She was 19 when this record came out! This is the same record that has "Criminal" and "Shadowboxer," but these are my favorites:

Never is a Promise:


Pale September:


They sound sad, but they remind me of happiness and good weather.

Project Recap: Dining and Living Rooms

I talk a lot about projects we are in the middle of, but I realized that I very seldom actually show a finished product. Well with the purchase of a Craigslist coffee table last night, our front 2 rooms are nearly complete enough that I thought I'd have a little show-and-tell. Here's a recap of how we got here.

When we first moved in in 2009, we had pot lights put in, and Jay painted the walls and ceiling white. They were yellow. Yes, even the ceiling. Jay is not normally one to spearhead a painting project, but he HATES yellow. We actually spilled about half a gallon of paint on the dining room carpet but weren't too concerned knowing we had to get rid of it anyway.

You'll remember our record wall from last year we built when both of our dads gave Jay their old records, as well as the old record player from Jay's parents I painted white:



In August last year, I showed my chandelier painting project for the dining room. And I talked about painting an old lamp I took from my mom. My mom just got me this fun shade from Anthropologie for it:



In December of 2010, I showed our tree wall project for the dining room, and you can also see the new wood floors we had installed. (I never put pics of this process up and I just found a bunch, so I'll have to do a follow-up.)

Here is a pillow my mom helped me make around this time using Ikea fabric:



Back in February, I wrote about picking fabrics to recover all my Craiglist finds. Well we did it.

Couch went from this...


...to this:


And chair went from this...

[I can't find the before...I'm convinced I will though]

...to this:


My inspiration was this chair from Anthropologie that I always loved:

This shows the detail of the top of the table we bought last night (notice our wedding book, which I finally did this last Christmas 3.5 years after the fact...it's currently our only coffee table book). This table taught me perseverance with Craigslist - this was the 3rd table I contacted a seller about. I checked every day, multiple times a day once a lost the first 2.


I have learned my Craigslist lesson: upholstered furniture has to be reupholstered ($$$$) - wooden furniture just has to be wiped off.

And altogether, it looks like this!





The only thing we bought brand new besides the shade my mom got and the Ikea fabric for the pillows was the rug. Last December I was having a bad day and just decided I would feel better if I spent a good amount of money, and Jay said OK. So that's what I got.

The grey-ish chairs also came from my parents. They were pink - we had them recovered. And the table by the grey-ish chairs was also from their old house (I think it was in Kath's old room as a nightstand ????)

I have a few more ideas in here, but we've made a lot of progress over the last 2 years!

[Sidenote: New goal for self is to stop using my camera phone and actually get out our good camera!]

Unfinished Project Month - Update

So an update on unfinished projects...I'm still painting kitchen cabinets. Two down, three to go. I now remember why I never finished this 2 years ago.

Today while painting, I listened to Shiny Toy Guns, who Jay and I saw open years ago for Mute Math. They had some radio songs, but I decided today I really like this less-listened-to song:



And this is Jay's favorite off this album:


And this was in a Lincoln commercial:

The Worst Feeling...

...when you find something you love on Craigslist, email the person, and they never respond back.

[Sigh]

August = Unfinished Project Month

I decided a few weeks ago that August should be "unfinished project month." I have lots of ideas for new projects I want to do, so I figured we should finish up a handful of projects that have been sitting 99% complete for too long. We pretty much already had all the supplies we needed. And now that we have a nail gun, these were even easier!

Project #1: Quarter round in my closet
Procrastinated for: 1 year
Time to complete: 20 mins to cut and nail (40 mins if you include my trip to Lowes)
Cost: $4.69



Project #2: Install glass in guest bathroom cabinets
Procrastinated for: 1.5 years
Time to complete: 30 mins
Cost: free (that's right...we already had the glass cut and everything thanks to my mother over a year ago)


Project #3: Touch-up paint baseboards
Procrastinated for: 1 year
Time to complete: 2 hours
Cost: free

I've left the worst for last...painting the rest of the insides of our kitchen cabinets. I wrote about the horribleness of it here. What I didn't mention is that we didn't exactly finish. We didn't paint what we knew we wouldn't use. And we, in fact, don't use any that haven't been painted.

And here's a pic of Jay with my sister's baby Jack at a brewery (blurry because Jack wasn't digging the brewery). Just because they're both cute boys:

Backyard: Planning Phase 1

If there is one thing NOT lacking in our backyard, it's vision. I absolutely obsess over what COULD be because right now there is not a lot happening.

Well tonight was an exciting night, because I found 1 thing I was thinking we could use back there for free. These are now sitting in our garage:



I saw them on the side of the road (trust me, they weren't actually still in the person's yard...they were more on the road, which means you can take them). So right around 9 tonight, Jay and our neighbor Kevin loaded 3 up in the car. I knew Kevin's wife Stephanie would be totally on board with this and want a few, too. [I forgot to mention that they were REALLY heavy...Stephanie said, "They must really love us," as we stood there watching them get them in the car...]



So now the plan is to get a chain saw to cut each in half. We're thinking we'll need to strip the bark off, and I haven't decided about painting. But then they'll be nice little tables.

This is my plan for what I like to call "Phase 1" for the backyard:



We already have the lights, fire pit, stumps (!!), bench (antique store for $150), and captain's chairs (free from my mother...and apparently kind of in right now I discovered while Googling for a pic). I'm thinking about painting the chairs a funky bright color just for the heck of it.

So now we just need some tall plants and a brick patio. (As a side note, I found several palettes of bricks on Craigslist for $100, but you had to go pick them up and figure out how to get them loaded up and transported wherever you wanted them. For the sake of our marriage, I figured it was worth buying them somewhere that would deliver.)

David Ramirez - Fires

Another project Jay worked on. One of my favorites. Visit the Serial Box for an interview and pics.



Everything is tracked live (hence the video), and they typically only do 1 or 2 takes of each song. Jay engineered and mixed. Here is all the audio they did from the session (that you can download for free!):

Toothpick Sculpture

San Francisco, 35 years in the making:


By Scott Weaver. This news story talks to him a bit (and as someone with toothpick "sculpture" experience, I agree with him on the choice of Elmer's glue):

Fluorescent Light Sculpture

Now this is an interesting one to me because I admittedly find these a bit perplexing. But I've seen Dan Flavin installations in nearly every modern art museum I've ever been to.

They usually look something like this, and I thought I was missing something the first time I saw one in the corner of a museum:


This one is here in Houston in an old warehouse (actually an old grocery store), the design of which was completed by Flavin just 2 days before his death. There is something kind of cool about the intensity of the colors. (Jay lasted about 5 minutes when he went):


But like the paper and glass sculpture, what's impressive to me about this is the creative use of something common that we all know...Flavin "limited his materials to commercially available fluorescent tubing in standard sizes, shapes, and colors, extracting banal hardware from its utilitarian context and inserting it into the world of high art."

Glass Sculpture

The graphic designer I worked with years ago loved Dale Chihuly's work. He does these crazy, glass blown chandeliers and installations.

This one is at the Bellagio:

This one was a Christmas decoration at the White House and is now at the Clinton library in Little Rock (I saw it):

Related Story: When my parents were building their house, their builder took them through some of his biggest, baddest houses. My mom talked about how this one house that was over the top in every respect had a giant chandelier that hung 2-3 stories high in the entry way of the house and looked like sea urchins. Well it ends up the largest privately owned Chuhuly chandelier is in The Woodlands. Wowser.

Paper Sculpture

I write a lot about music on here, so I've decided to intentionally write about some other things for a bit. This week, I'm thinking artsy sculptural things.

First up, Peter Callesen.

I would consider myself pretty handy with an xacto blade, but this is incredible. This is the type of work that just blows my mind in terms of the creativity someone has (not to mention patience in execution).





"A large part of my work is made from A4 sheets of paper...The thin white paper gives the paper sculptures a frailty that underlines the tragic and romantic theme of my works...The paper cut sculptures explore the probable and magical transformation of the flat sheet of paper into figures that expand into the space surrounding them. The negative and absent 2 dimensional space left by the cut, points out the contrast to the 3 dimensional reality it creates, even though the figures still stick to their origin without the possibility of escaping. In that sense there is also an aspect of something tragic in many of the cuts."

The Damnwells

I've said it before, but I love hearing all the projects Jay works on. Here is an amazing SerialBox session that was released not too long ago that Jay mixed. Go to the SerialBox site to read an interview and hear audio from 4 other songs.

Bon Iver, Bon Iver

A few months ago, Bon Iver released a new album that we just bought called Bon Iver, Bon Iver. It's a good one.

Towers:


Though to me it's not as memorable as his first album that came out in 2008. One of our faves - I listened to it so much I should be embarrassed. Something about this song makes you feel like you should just cry:


This guy is hipster gold because not only is his music kind of this weird, indie thing, but he recorded his first album one winter in his father's cabin in Wisconsin after he left North Carolina to recuperate from his band breaking up and relationship ending. He said: "I left North Carolina and went up there because I didn't know where else to go and I knew that I wanted to be alone and I knew that I wanted to be where it was cold." Gold.

Kick Starter?

Some of you may have heard of this new website called kickstarter (www.kickstarter.com). For those of you who haven't I can explain. Kickstarter is a website where creative types can raise money for new projects. This isn't limited to just music, but can be applied to many different creative endeavors. For example, documentaries, design ideas, musical records, and the list goes on. The catch to raising money is that people pledge and if the goal is met the funds are pushed through. If the goal is not met no ones pledge is collected. It's pretty crazy how much money is being pledged and raised through this site. Projects can be any amount. I've seen projects range from $1,000 to $250,000. It's pretty amazing and crazy.

When I first heard about this I was really excited. I saw how people were getting their projects funded and paid for. It was great. It was more than great it was amazing. All you had to do was offer some sort of tier based return system. If you pledge $1 you get.... $10 you get... $25 you get... and so on. The website started getting all sorts of attention from people in Houston. I only really know of bands and songwriters who used it to fund projects, but people were really talking about it.

But then I started to think about it. Yes it is an amazing way to raise funds for a creative project or design idea etc. But, at the end of the day the burden of this project no longer falls on the shoulders of the artist and or creator, but on the shoulders of it's supporters/fans/network/whatever you want to call it. I think most artists would say that's why it's so great, but I tend to disagree. Not completely, but on a couple of levels.

First, what if you are a big fan of a certain songwriter or band and you have the ability to give $10 dollars so that they can make another record? Sounds great right? What if the record isn't any good? I guess you are willing to take that chance at $10 bucks right? What about $25 bucks? $50? $100? Over $1000?! and yes people are giving thousands if not more in some cases. I think at the end of the day the burden should fall on the artist.

Second, don't we have to work for what we get? At least it used to be that way in the days of our parents. I think we have turned into a society where anything goes and most things should go your way and be free at the same time. There is a huge sense of entitlement amongst our generation. People expect to live in a nice place with nice things and have a nice job that pays a lot of $. All the while basically doing nothing for it.

I don't know. On some levels I like it and some levels I don't. Honestly it's probably just some really douchey people on there that don't need the money and are getting all of their "fans" to pay for their lazy ass self centered lack of hard work.

Last thing. I have a studio. It's a creative endeavor. I could set a goal to make my studio better, bigger, higher quality, etc. I could offer all sorts of tiers as to what you could get from my studio. The difference is that the end product is up to the pledger instead of the artist/creator. But would you REALLY give money to that cause?

J

Domestic Disturbance and Me

Interesting/Crazy story.

Tonight: Left house around 11:00 to meet my friend for a late movie. On my way a young girl steps out into the street waving her arms. My first thought was that she was joking, drunk, being stupid, etc. But, as I got closer I could see there was something wrong. I pulled over and rolled down the window. As she approached a young guy/boy came up behind her and tried to block her from talking to me. She said that this guy used to be her boyfriend and that he wouldn't leave her alone. She was a little hysterical and crying. She had a bike and wanted to ride home. I didn't know how serious it was and the boy was a little standoffish to me even though he was being loud and physical with her. When I would talk to her he would back away. He started to get more physical with her - pushing and grabbing pretty forcefully - which was pissing me off. I was worried so I told her to get on her bike and that I would follow her home. Selfishly I did this to protect myself first - I needed to asess the situation. 

After she was on the bike for a bout 700 or so yards - I decided to pull over so I could put her bike in the back and drive her home. As I was pulling up the tailgate when I saw the young guy approaching on his little ghetto looking bike. This time it was more serious. She had not entered my car yet and so I walked over to the passenger side to let her in. The boy was yelling at her not to get in my car. After I put her in - I began to walk back to the driver side - I assumed she locked the door when she got in but the window was still down. As I walked around to my door he had unlocked the door and pulled her out - this was the point I got angry. All I did was raise my voice. I yelled "hey" which was just enough to get him to leave the girl alone. I walked towards him quickly and thankfully it took his attention off of the girl. I approached him and he pretended to have some sort of knife behind his back. Which of course he didn't grab or take out of a bag. He threatened to stab me. I was %80 sure he didn't have anything, but I didn't want to risk it. Then for some idiotic reason he got his phone out pretending to call the cops on me. (really? you're going to call the cops on me? right after threatening to stab me?) The girl was in the car and he wasn't trying to get her out this time. I got in the car and took her home.

 It's crazy the things you think about though. Honestly, I was looking for something to use as a weapon. Most likely it would have been my tire iron. I really wanted to beat the shit out of this kid. You must be a complete coward to hit women. when I backtracked from taking her home - I went looking for him. Drove around and didn't find him. Lucky for him.

I don't think my friends and I have enough tattoos to pull this off...

But look at how colorful and beautiful this wedding is (and read more here):

4 Years

Last week was our 4 year anniversary. Jay called me the morning of to gloat about how after 4 years, he finally knew exactly what to get me. So I spent the rest of the day telling a co-worker my guesses.

I was wrong. This is what he got me:

Six metal drawers for our lower kitchen cabinetry! This says 2 things about us. 1 - He does get me well enough now to know EXACTLY what to get me. 2 - There must be something very wrong with me.

[And I technically didn't get him anything. I just told him he could spend money on studio gear. My VP jokingly told me, "Honeymoon's over." It probably is - but I think it's much better than that now.]

Thank you Internet

The internet has come along way since AOL. The most interesting thing to date has been my ability to talk/connect with musicians and other working professionals in my industry so easily.

A couple of years ago I listened to a record called "Albertine" by Brooke Fraser. The record was great, but the drumming was incredible. I found out who tracked drums on the record and then using facebook of all things I tracked down the drummer. His name is Aaron Sterling. Since then I have had the opportunity and the privilege to correspond with Aaron quite a few times over online messages and then through a series of emails. He was very insightful and willing to give me some of his time and most recently he was nice enough to call me.

We talked about drumming, the industry, changes over the years, working as a drummer, LA, Nashville, etc. etc. He is currently tracking John Mayer's new record in NYC right now. The small connection I've had with him has been a blessing. It's a small thing for him, but a big thing for me.

The internet is amazing.

J

R&B Wednesday

I Don't Really Like Movies...

Not like Jay does. But I do love documentaries! And I'd like to watch this one:



[Jay plays for this guy's sister and her husband. And they are wonderful.]

Belong

I'm a bit particular about the art in our house. This really bothered Jay at first - he hated all the blank, empty walls. But my deal with art is that it should be meaningful in some way. I'm completely not a picture person, but I think what a lot of people do with pictures in their house is what I do with our art. So I like to either do it myself or know the person who did it, and I like for it to have a story that is significant to us in some way and represents our life at that moment in time.

Well we've just acquired a painting that fits all the criteria!


At the church we go to, there is a resident artist that paints during all the services. It's pretty incredible because he paints these in just over an hour and does it 5 times per weekend for each service (the five are usually similar with slight variations). Jay has asked him a few times if we could buy one of the pieces he's done during a service, but it never works out. Well 2 Sundays ago, I really liked his painting. So I asked him if we could buy it (he usually sells them for $250 I think), and he straight up gave it to me! It's now in our living room.


In addition to the message behind the painting and Scott's awesome artistic style, another thing I love about what he does is that he painted it on a cheap piece of 4'x3' particle board that's maybe 1/4" thick. Somehow that makes it more accessible to me. We decided to mount it to a 1x3 frame to give it some more substance. Here we are building said frame in our living room (this is the project that actually led us to buying the nail gun).


And since I'm never in a hurry and tend to have a long-term vision, I see this as having 2 friends in the future to really fill up the wall. See?

Small Laundry Room Projects

Sometimes it's the small things in life...

We've just added 3 small, cheap organizational things to our small laundry room, and it makes me so happy. I just really really like for things to look nice and for everything to have a little spot to go home to.

First, a wall-mounted thingy I got at Lowe's to hold brooms, mops, etc:


Second, a screen thing to hide the water heater (these were actually already in our house from the previous owner, and it seemed like a good use for one - we've got 2 more):


And finally, a little drying rack we got at Ikea. This is my attempt at a panoramic to show where things are in relation to each other:


Jay's got some big ideas for the laundry room. We just bought a nail gun (!), and he's more open to projects when he's got new tools to try out.

SerialBox Presents: Thad Cockrell

As I mentioned here, Jay loves this guy, recently got to play for him, and did the audio for this:


Listen to the entire set, see pics, and read the interview here. I think you can even download the audio at the very bottom of the page!

Listening To: Elliott Smith

Jay recently bought an Elliott Smith song, and I'd forgotten how much I loved listening to his moody, sad music in undergrad late at night while working in the studio building models. He committed suicide in 2003, which seems fitting for his very somber and melancholy music.

This has always been my favorite:

Now I'm in a Folksy Mood

Ahhhh...people being in love:


This song has one of my all-time favorite song lyrics: "I'd rather be working for a paycheck than waiting to win the lottery..."

6 Years of music

I haven't posted anything in a long long time. Linz (wife) is much better than me at being current.

My sister Leanne told me the other day that one of her friends enjoyed reading the new music that Linz and I listen to and post about. Lindsay said that it was only because SHE blogged about it. I agreed but added that she typically hears the music from me and THEN blogs about it. I'm just giving her a hard time. Lindsay has great taste in music. We love everything from Cinematic Orchestra to Katy Perry. I really enjoy good pop music. Leanne says she feels bad because she listens to Justin Bieber and Katy Perry. Little does she know.... hahaha.

I have been making music and playing music for six years. It's interesting to look back on what I thought was such a difficult time and realize it was all very necessary. It would be easy to look on a lot of missed opportunities as bad luck or misfortune and let some of those things overshadow the good days, great songs, great gigs, and great people. I'm very thankful for all the good.

Everyone has to learn and grow some where right? Well... at least the people who are attempting to go, do, and be better all around seem to. I think a lot of the music scene has to do with not necessarily who you know but who you are. Is he or she a good hang or do people get quiet/make a face when that person is mentioned. It's easy to know very quickly.

As a Jesus follower and a "Bible" believer - I feel like it's very true that "no one is good, not one" - basically - everybody has flaws and is capable of being a complete ass/shit/whatever you call terrible people. But truly - I really have met some great people, and I have recently decided that I'm done trying to impress the people who "I'm supposed to impress or befriend so that..." - mainly because I've missed out on a lot of good things because I was too wrapped up in an idea of a person or a gig, or a project, or a band etc. etc. etc. Plus - we all know where the pity parties lead to.... no friends, no calls, no work. I've been there and it's not a fun place to be.

In the last two years I've produced or co-produced four EP's consisting of:
Neal Mabry
Hooray For Love
Tommy Lynch
Tim Qualls
A New Band - currently with no name that is really kick ass - I'm in this band. More to come later about this.

Each project was completely different. Different songs, players, places, seasons, and people all together.

Producing music is one of my favorite things to do. It's tricky and difficult, but the rewards can be great. Some times you can give a song or a record new direction by writing something new for it - shoving it really hard out of it's comfort zone or slightly nudging it in a different direction. Some times it's taxing and some times it's effortless. The best way to be good at something is to find someone who does it well and copy them. I'm serious. You want to know the difference between a good producer and a great producer? Look for the guy everyone talks about being such a great person. You can be great at your craft, but if you suck - nobody really cares about you. If you are a great hang- then the sky is the limit.

Andy Hunt is a producer in Nashville. He is also a very well known engineer and songwriter. I got connected with Andy through my friend Ryan Booth who interned for another producer that Andy used to share a space with in Nashville (Mitch Dane). I've worked with Andy on a few things - mainly utilizing his skills to mix some of my projects. Working on a record in Nashville with him for about three days was enough to solidify my thoughts about producing and how I would approach working on my own projects. I couldn't believe how encouraging and positive this guy was. So even keel and joyful. I felt like he was genuinely glad to see his friends and thankful he got to make music. There is definitely a nitty gritty technical detailed side to producing and music, but watching Andy work inspired me. Anyways - like I said - I feel very lucky to have had the opportunities I've had. Besides - how many bands do you absolutely love that you have NO idea as to the names of ANY of the guys who are either in the band, produced the music, or worked as engineers? I would say it's more than %90. Probably closer to %99 if you are like me.

All that says is that most of the people who work in music, who are very talented, and are really great will probably never ever be famous.

The reality is that there are thousands of people in the music biz that are extremely talented in different areas of music that we will never know about. From musicians to producers to songwriters. I think the question for people like myself is "Am I ok with not ever being famous?" I think I can say for certain that yes - I am, but I'll never say I wouldn't want that. Who wouldn't?

Anyways - enough rambling. Here is a list of music (I've) been listening to for the last few years.

Thad Cockrell - To Be Loved- Favorite record of 2010 - Linz will blog about him soon and my recent experience.
Paper Route - Absence - Favorite record of 2009

I recently started listening to the Beatles. So many songs to check out. If you aren't a beatles fan - don't beat yourself up or be afraid to say you haven't really listened to them - people can get over themselves. it's OK. If you want to start with the Beatles try listening to Revolver. I think that's a good one to start with. (quick thought - if you tell someone you haven't ever listened to beatles and they give you a condescending look or say something snide = don't fear they are probably terrible... - on the other hand - if they are really nice and say - oh man check out ______________ yadda yadda yadda = be happy. they are cool)

Landon Pigg - The Boy Who Never - Great record!!
Black Dub
The Civil Wars
Jonsi - Go live
Jonsi and Alex - Riceboy sleeps
K.S. Rhoads - Dead Language
Helios
Adele - 21
The Alternate Routes - Good and reckless and true
Ben Folds - Way To Normal
The Cinematic Orchestra

Coldplay - Viva la vida - if you have only listened to the title track - shame on you - listen to the rest of the record!! AMAZING

Death Cab - narrow stairs
Florence and The Machine - (I discovered them and told Linz BTW)

The Gabe Dixon Band - been listening to them for a long time, but they came out with a self titled record and it was really good

Glen Hansard

I own every Harry Connick Jr. Record - you should too - if you like that sort of genre

BTW I listen to the Vince Guaraldi Trio - Charlie Brown Xmas - ALL YEAR LONG

Huey Lewis and The News - one band I remember my dad listening to on road trips growing up

Miles Davis - kind of blue - if you don't like jazz - buy this record
Jonsi - Go
Katy Perry
Michael Buble
Muse
Ray LaMontagne - Trouble, Til the Sun Turns black
Ryan Adams - Love is Hell Pt. I and II
Sarah Bareilles - either of her records
Sean Carey - All we Grow
Bon Iver
Sheryl Crow - 100 Miles From memphis
Van Morrison
U2

Hopefully I'll be posting more regularly

J

Favorite Sing-Along Song

I posted about sing-along songs once before, but this is my all time favorite (look how much fun they're having!):


(Here's the album version, which is awesome and has the all-popular xylophone going for it, but as you can tell from the live version, it really is meant to sing along to). I love love love Rilo Kiley. Perhaps you recognize the lead singer and guitar player?


[Jenny Lewis as Shelly Long's daughter in Troop Beverly Hills...she also sang back-up for The Postal Service]


[Blake Sennett as the bully in Boy Meets World]

Speaking of Ben Folds...

Our friend BF covered a Ke$ha song called Sleazy, which I'd never heard so I previewed it in iTunes...this version is way better:



I love how he takes ridiculous, trashy songs and turns it into something brilliant and trashy. [Note: Here we can excuse the trashiness because it's to raise funds for Japan...]

And while we are on the subject of awesome trashy covers, if you've never heard his cover of "Bitches Ain't Shit" you should probably listen to it. It's a Dr. Dre song he covered back in the day, and I've never heard such horrible horrible lyrics sang so beautifully. Seriously, just look up the lyrics...I would post them here but I'm too embarrassed.

It's Not Just Me

I like things organized. I made Jay take me to Target last night at 9:45 because we had run out of white hangers.

So understandably, there are many images on this website that make my heart skip a beat: Things Organized Neatly.

[After looking through too many of these, I honestly feel like people like things to be organized because we are innately attracted to patterns, beautiful design, grouping objects in themes, etc. The ones with pattern and repetition really get me.]

8in8

This is one of the most insane and coolest things I've ever heard of...

A few night ago, Ben Folds, who is just one of our favorites, teamed up with 3 other folks (lead singer of OK Go, songwriter Amanda Palmer and her author husband) to write and record 8 songs in 8 hours - 4 pm to midnight, west coast time. Neil Gairman (the author) tweeted throughout, taking suggestions for lyrics, album name, etc, and they live video-streamed the whole thing. They released the songs here the following morning, and then performed them live at Boston's Berklee College of Music that night.

And though they only got to 6 songs, and they're kind of weird, I'm still blown away by the concept.

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.