8/18/08
More content.......
In the making anyway......
So I took the ruff scratch track music I was working on and put it to some
hiking video I took. Since I had to upload it to Vimeo to test the compression
settings I figure I’d let ya’ll have a look before I delete it.
Now most of the video footage is long zooms since I was testing out the focal
length of the new HD camera so it should be easy to see just how powerful
a 20X lens is.
As for the music, Jeremy from Floodgate Alive is working on the lyrics and
until he’s done I can’t track the final instruments so I’m
currently in waiting mode. For now scratch tracks is the best I can do......
Other then this, nothing new. I’m really getting burned out on bad luck right now. I figure the less I try to do the less that can go wrong...... Of course that’s when the shit-out-of-no-where shows up isn’t it........
8/4/08
Another effort.....
Ok it’s not like I’m skirting my thoughts pages entries. As a
matter of fact I’ve started a dozen or so lately it’s just I've
got no motivation to finish them.
I start with a great rant but the spew just kind of peters out. It’s
not like I lack things to spew about, hell I can spew about nothing better
then the average person- I am the king of meaningless dribble.
There’s just stretches of time in life where you just don’t care
and right now I’m in the middle of not caring. That’s not a negative,
things still tick me off I just don’t care enough about them to spew.
I’ve done a couple of three day scooter trips and had a great time but
just don’t care to elaborate. Music stuff is going- nothing big so just
more of the same. Video- Well being out of town has slowed that down but even
if I was busy with it, I just don’t care to type about it. I posted
the one quick video of nothingness I had laying around so that was something
I guess. Content is content whether or not it’s of interest. Deciding
something is not of interest means you took enough time to decide if it was
interesting or not- that I guess makes it worth it. If it takes up time I
suppose it’s appreciable whether or not it serves a purpose for the
masses......
I could go through my dozen or so ruff drafts and come up with some kind of
summary for the last month but in reality I just don’t care to do it.
Maybe the summery of the time since my last meaningful meaningless entry is
that I just don’t care about anything enough to type it out.
Well there you go, typing about nothing became something to type about. The
literary equivalent of eating plain yogurt........
7/30/08
Too many things.....
Far too busy for thoughts page garble right now. Gotta run..... But here's a quick video of old DDP laying down some scratch tracks during a writing session.
The audio is just room audio and I synce'd up all the camera audio tracks together and that's the mix. Low tech but I ain't got time to get fancy. At least you get to hear how close I track to a click.....
7/14/08
That’s more like it.....
Ok no weather complaints from DDP the past few days. 20 more weeks like that
one we just had and I’m all good.
Moving along now....
Well in a bit of unforeseen (and extremely rare) bit of good luck for ol’
DDP, the local Mac store said they’d fix my main web computer under
my not-extended-enough extended warranty. If you remember correctly that computer
hit the shitter a couple of days after my all expensive extended coverage
ended. I called Mac and they were like “bummer dude, can’t help”.
Went to the Mac store to order the crapped out part and Mr. Fix It dude there
said “I’ll take care of it under the expired warranty. We can
pull a few extra strings here at the store. Don’t worry about it”.
The thing is when someone does something as kind as that it actually pisses
me off. Who does this guy think he is destroying my lack of faith in mankind
by doing something nice for a total stranger.........
Anyway, Mr. Fix It dude saved me 250 bucks and I’m very grateful, though
feeling a little guilty about getting something for nothing..... Just like
Apple has felt for all the extended service warranties I’ve bought and
never used.........
Good thing I didn’t need to replace the computer, that extra money went
towards replacing my washing machine that broke down a couple of days after
my computer hit the crapper.....
Hiking and video........
So I did my first “before noon” hike the other day. DDP is not
a morning person by any means...
There I am lugging 50 pounds of camera gear all up the big rock in the heat
of the day just to get more pictures of grey rocks, grey water and three different
shades of green trees. “Colorful” is not a word I would use to
describe the pacnorwes gift to the wonders of local mother nature. Though
the scenery is amazing, it’s really pretty bland. It’s amazing
because it’s massive and that’s really about it.
The thing I notice most with all this hiking is the fact that though I’ve
been hitting the club for a year now and have trimmed down a bit, I’m
still pretty damn out of shape. An hour on the tread mill is nothing compared
to an hour up the side of a mountain. No matter how hard you try to avoid
it, if you really want to get in shape you’re going to have to do some
of it outside. A gym full of hundreds of thousands of dollars worth of equipment
can’t work the body parts that a free walk up a mountain can....
Music stuff....
So FloodGate Alive drummer Dango stopped by the studio this afternoon to lay
down some scratch drum tracks on a few new tunes I’m working on. Admittedly
I’m kind of spoiled with my current recording set up. I’ve got
the digital drums set up in the control room so working over parts with a
drummer is pretty darn easy since I don’t have to compete with talking
over loud drums. When I’ve got something to say I can just hit the mute
button and instant silence. Try doing that in a rehearsal room with a real
drummer......
Anyway, three new tunes scratched out and moving on to the next batch. What
I need now is a few more rainy days so I’ve got nothing better to do
then finish some more songs......
Gotta run, need to get up before noon tomorrow and get ins some scooter ridin'. It hasn't rained in almost a week, we're due for a massive storm any day now.....
7/4/08
Happy 4th.....
A lot of people have died so we can celebrate this day and a lot more will have to pass so we continue to celebrate it. Sucks but that’s just the way it is......
Speaking of the 4th....
Like usual in the pacnorwes, the 4th of July brings us crappy weather. Admittedly
it’s not raining yet, but “blah” is about the only way to
describe how it looks outside. To be honest, it’s actually better that
it’s crappy out. The rains that have drenched us as of lately will keep
the fires down that are started by stupid guys with matches and paper wrapped
gun powder that makes Indians and Chinese rich. Year after year a post 4th
of July ritual includes climbing up on my roof and picking up the debris that
results from Chinese manufacturing and Indian marketing.
Guys love shit that blows up. It’s just part of our nature. And fireworks
for a guy is a lot like sex for a guy- once it blows up they could care less
about where it lands or the results of their inability to control where they
lit the fuse....... The abundance of fires started on the 4th of July and
the welfare system prove my point.......
Studio work.....
The other benefit of blah weather is that it keeps me in the studio instead
of out enjoying the sun. The result has been a few tunes actually taking form.
Interestingly for me, so far none of the tunes I’ve made progress on
are any from any of the ideas I already had down. In my mind, my song writing
ritual is to sit down an listen to the multitudes of 30 second scratch ideas
I plop down on the hard drive when the mood strikes. I always put down these
quick ideas with the thought that eventually I’ll get around to working
on them when it’s time to start writing a new CD. They’re just
quick reminder notes to myself of a cool riff or idea that’s in my head
“right now” but I’m too lazy to develop it at the time.
There’s no lyrics, it’s just 30 seconds of wanking guitar riff
usually accompanied by 30 seconds of an attempted guitar solo that appears
to be more like me trying to figure out what key it’s in and not some
badass “hit making” solo (all guitar players think their guitar
solo is what will make a song a hit. They might not outwardly admit it but
deep down inside it’s how all guitar players think. It’s why they
expect the singer to get his part in one take yet spend countless hours tying
to to lay down 20 seconds of wanking... ).....
Anyway.....The problem is I stink at keeping track of these “ideas”
and when it comes time to work on a new CD I get tired of sifting through
countless meaningless song titles trying to find something I want to spend
time on to finish. Most of the time when listening to this old stuff I think
to myself “what the hell were you thinking...Idiot”. Obviously
at the time I thought it was a great idea but days, weeks, months, years later
it’s just a stupid useless riff. If bad musical ideas were worth money,
I’d be the richest man on earth....
So after seemingly endlessly sifting through useless song titles like “turd
bank”, “belly rub kitty” and “acoustic grrbbb”
I end up just noodling around on the guitar and coming up with something new.
It’s really an asinine, counterintuitive way to work but it’s
just how I do it.
I’d be a lot more efficient songwriter if I always thought I was working
on a new CD instead of setting some arbitrary point in time that is “CD
start date”. I mean really, it’s not like anyone is waiting for
a DDP album or the label is demanding three CD’s in 2 years. Defining
a start date is just another stupid thing I do that has no valid reason nor
does it serve a purpose other then giving me something to type about on these
here thoughts pages.......... Which is another stupid thing I do without any
reason.
Come to think of it, if it weren’t for doing meaningless stupid things
I could spend most days just laying in bed......
Ok, off to have another listen to “turd bank” and try to figure
out what I was thinking at the time..... Maybe it just needs a better solo......
7/3/08
I’m tryin’ to sleep around here......
Doesn’t Mother Nature have any freakin’ manners? I crash out this
morning around 4 and come 5 o’clock the thunder is rattling the house.
Non-stop bombs have been going off for the last 5 freakin’ hours. The
rain came down so hard at 5 am it sounded like a herd of horses running on
pavement.
I’ve now got a 20 foot branch from one of my trees laying in the backyard.
I assume the concussion from the thunder snapped it since there's been no
wind.
Hey what’s a July in the pacnorwes without a major thunder and lightning
storm..... yeah right......
As I sit here in the coffee shop it is raining like crazy. It’s a painful
reminder that owning two scooters in the pacnorwes is one of the biggest wastes
of money. It’s no wonder that if we get three days in a row without
rain people start screaming “drought!!!”.
You’ve got to be kidding me......
Ok so my main home computer just hit the shitter. Of course it went TU a few
days after the extended warranty expired. DDP wouldn’t have it any other
way....
Ok replacing it wasn’t in the budget but hell 90% of the money I’ve
spent over the last two years hasn’t been part of the budget so what
the hell right?
Then yesterday after a hike on Mt Rainier I come home to find my washer has
hit the shitter. A freakin’ washer people! I’m a bachelor, the
things I absolutely don’t want to spend money on is health food, vacuum
cleaners and washers/dryers. What total bullshit.
But there’s a reason for this rash of crap luck- I got a letter the
other day saying I qualified for the “stimulation” check from
the IRS. Of course the IRS penalized my refund because of some bullshit limit
thing. I guarantee the Section 8’s that have overrun my little city
got their full refund.
Anyway, so one day I think I’ve got an extra bit of spending cash, the
next day I’ve got to spend 5 times the amount just to break even.
So goes the DDP curse. Every positive step forward is met with a two step
backwards penalty. Goddamn it pisses me off.......
Up the mountain again.......
So my latest addiction appears to be hiking. I headed up the big mountain
again yesterday, the third time in the last week. Armed with the new camera
in hand I headed up and over rocks, boulders, streams and fallen trees. It’s
really one hell of a work out and the views are unbelievable. The solitude
and peacefulness of hiking miles up the side of a mountain remind me of the
solitude and peacefulness of being out in the middle of nowhere on a motorcycle.
For me, nothing is better for my mental health then hours of nothingness.
Not that I don’t enjoy being around people, it’s just there needs
to be something that counters it.
Maybe I’m just addicted to “newness”. When something is
new it’s a challenge, it’s a change of pace. There’s some
kind of mental draw to experiencing things for the first time. Like the brain
is releasing some kind of high juice that excites the senses. The addiction
is to learn more about something new and to get better at it so you’re
no longer a bumbling newbie. Once the learning aspect of whatever is new starts
to wane, it usually loses it’s luster and it’s time to move on
to something else that’s new..... or maybe I’ve just got a short
attention span and can’t stay focused on one thing for any length of
time.......
Anyway, next up on the list of to-do’s is planning a camping trip around
hiking spots. Camping would be the next logical step for me since camping
gear is outrageously expensive and a total waste of money. Camping also makes
sense because since you can only do it a few times a year, knowing my luck,
the few times a year I’ll plan on going the weather will be true crap
no matter where or when I plan on going. Thus ensuring the DDP curse will
continue and give me something to bitch about when my latest camping trip
gets rained, snowed, stormed, hurricane’d, volcano’d, earthquake’d,
tsunami’d, wild fired, flooded, that-could-never-happen act-of-god’d
out........
Ok I’m off to look at washers.........
6/30/08
Heading to the Mountain....
So last week I figured I’d head to the big mountain in the pacnorwes
and get some video shooting done with the new video camera. I head out for
the 2 hour drive only to find an hour into it that the main road I was going
to take to the mountain was closed- the entire freeway, all directions. No
warning signs or detour signs the entire way up to the closed off point- DDP
curse my friends.... Of course after I turn around I start to see detour signs.
So I guess they figure people will only be driving AWAY from the freeway and
never towards it so there’s only need to put up detour signs in one
direction..... F.
So that adds 45 minutes to my commute but it did give me a chance to brush
up on my cussing. When I’m dictator of the world I promise to fix all
these kinds of problems while slightly reducing the worlds population...
Anyway an hour and 45 minutes after the detour and after following stupid
drivers acting stupidly, I arrive at said big mountain. When I get to the
toll booth to enter the park I am met with signs informing me that the mountain
is basically closed. The smartass little 17 year old at the booth informs
me that due to the late snow storms (in June) that the opening of the roads
has be postponed until July 3rd. Glad I traveled almost three hours for this....
So I head up about a mile to the road closure and make the best of a crap
ass situation- I’m used to doing that. I walk out to a semi-dry riverbed
and go about testing the new camera for a few hours. Interestingly as pissed
as I was most of the way up, once I was actually doing what I came to do I
was enjoying it. My point is all the people that caused me to be unhappy all
the way up should be smooshed into oblivion.
So yesterday I decide to head up to the mountain again, this time prepared
to do some actual hiking on one of the few open trails. I take along Hawaii
Dan as a pack mule and put on an actual pair of suburban hiking boots (made
for people who want to look like naturists but only want to spend 45 bucks
and wear them to the strip malls....). Up the trail we head thinking would
be walking up an urban hiking trail- that would be a small cleared road up
a mountain that yuppie city folk walk up in their thousand dollar REI outfits
and think themselves naturists.
Well hell, the trail got washed out in a flood a couple of years ago and we
end up actually climbing over boulders, fallen trees and through streams.
A little more involved then I had anticipated-consider me a discount outfit
wearing urban hiker.....
Anyway we got up about a mile and a half in three hours and got some great
video footage before headind back down. It was pretty kick ass actually. There
was a lot of hikers up there and to my surprise a lot of hot females hiking
together. Hell there were more hotties up there then the coffee shop as of
late.....
I’d like to post some footage but since my web computer is down it’d
be too much of a pain the the butt to do with my old web computer.
Needless to say once the two inch piece of skin grows back on the back of
my heal I’ll be hiking back up the mountain for some more footage.
This time in my 125 dollar urban hiking boots I picked up today..........
Less then 900 dollars to go until I’m a faux naturist.............
6/21/08
First day of summer....
Right... here in the pacnorwes it looks more like a 50’s movie of London
without the fog.
The thing that I’m noticing more and more around here is how flat all
the colors are. I attribute my newfound awareness to my new video camera-
let me explain. Panasonic cameras are renowned for their vibrant colors: sharp,
bright and “larger then life” so-to-speak. Having 5 of those got
me used to that “look”.
Canon cameras are known for their flat, plain colors. My latest camera is
a Canon so going from one extreme to the other is a pretty obvious change.
That got me thinking more about how colors are perceived in real life. Real
life is not hyper colors, hyper colors are artificial. When you experience
real life it’s flatter and duller then when you remember real life.
Looking back things are brighter and sharp then being there- it’s like
your mind runs through a hyper-naitor when it shows your memories on your
brains movie screen.
While most people like the overblown color look, I tend to lean towards favoring
the flatter colors. That would explain why I as always de-saturating the Panasonics
colors in post.
Back to the summer thing- bottom line is that even the flat, dull colors of
real life look better in the sunlight and sunlight is something the pacnorwes
is most definitely lacking on the first day of summer. That was really me
whole point here but in typical DDP fashion it involved getting sidetracked
along the way.
In the studio....
So I had some retirees in the studio over the last couple of days doing an
old college song for their fraternity. Having them in really hit home the
idea that music is timeless(ageless) and being able to create music is a gift
beyond measure.
These guys get together once a week to play and do the occasional live show.
This is the first time any of them have been in the studio and while they
could be out playing golf instead, I really don’t think 20 years from
now their great, great grandkids will enjoy looking at one of their old golf
score cards as much as they will get a kick out of hearing the song we’re
recording right now.
And moving on...
So for the first time in probably 4 years I have absolutely no projects I’m
working on. That sucks in a way because I really do like working on other
peoples projects. On the other hand it eliminates any excuses to start work
on a new USC disc- hell I spent 4 days working around the house, I don’t
even have yard work as an excuse.
So when I get done with my cup-o-the-bean it’s studio time for DDP.
Rest assured people, DDP’s singing days are over and it’s time
to start looking for a real singer to join in. While I actually got a kick
out of singing on “oh hell...” a singer is not what I long to
be. Guitar playing and lyric writing I enjoy, flexing my vocal chords for
the world to hear I do not (and the world feels the same way).
I’ll still verbally brow-beat the next singer to get what I want just
to keep their ego’s in check. There can only be one oversized ego in
the studio and that would be mine since it’s my studio. I’ve got
a list of musicians that will vouch for me on that statement by the way......
and no I don’t feel bad about it...... If you want a lollypop for being
good go to the dentist.
And once I start getting some ideas down it’ll actually give me reason
to sit here and write up some thoughts instead of miscellaneous and pointless
ramblings like those of late.....
Video-
So the MDA video has been viewed a butt load of times yet I haven’t
heard from anyone whether they can use it or not. Since it’s been almost
a week I’ll assume they have no use for it which really kind of sucks.
I think it came out pretty freakin’ cool and there’s got to be
a bunch of MDA kids that would love to see it. Maybe I’m wrong or maybe
people just don’t understand the power of content.........
6/16/08
More Hi Def messin’ around....
So Hawaii Dan and his brother Jack are big into MDA charity work and they
were asked to do the photography for a local get together Saturday. Well DDP
saw that as a great opportunity to tag along and put the new HD video camera
to work. There’s no better way to learn something new then to jump into
the fire- hell with owners manuals....
So I walked around for a couple of hours and just got a bunch of quick shots
to throw together for a “highlight” reel of the event.
I created a sound track out of a crap load of loops, again a “learning
while doing” lesson, and spent the afternoon editing the shots. What
I ended up with is a reminder that content is everything. While my shots and
command of the camera need more work and my percussion loop sound track is
nothing spectacular, when it’s all put together it’s verifiable
content and it serves a purpose.
All-in-all I think it came out pretty bitchin’.
http://www.unclesaltyscabin.com/video/MDA_test_web_lrg.mov
6/13/08
Hi def excitement.....
Ok when you spend a bunch of money on a new camera you just want to use it.
What you use it on doesn't matter, you just want to use it on something so
you can play with it. New things are always like that...
Anyway, Jim the painter stopped by yesterday and had time to kill so we headed
down to a local park and made this little ditty below.
Now say what you will, making something is better then making nothing whether
it's good or not, and I actually learned a lot about the new camera.
The thing is Jim was all up for making something scary and frightening and
showing off his evil creation. DDP wasn't. My camera, my editing, my soundtrack.
Who do you think won?
6/10/08
Of course......
So Friday I spend more money on a hi def video camera for a project I’ve
got brewing in my little pea head. I timed it with the summer coming because
I need a couple of weeks of sunshine to make it happen. Even here in this
crappy weather capital of the US there’s bound to be a couple of sunny
days during the 3 month summer time.
I spend the money on Friday, Saturday there’s a story on the front page
that says we’re going to be cloudy, dark and damp through July. Go freakin’
figure- the DDP Curse. I shouldn’t be surprised but I’m still
pissed. I won’t even go into todays headline that said the pacnorwes
is colder the Siberia for the month of June so far. If I would have been smart
two years ago I would have left this shit hole of a region when I quit working.
F’n hindsight.....
Anyway, I was teetering on sending the camera back because basically I’m
counting on my idea not being worth a shit. Problem is when the big box got
delivered on Tuesday I couldn’t not open it. Once I saw it I had to
use it. Once I saw the resolution I was sold...... even though I’ve
got nothing now planned that needs the extra resolution........
So today I tried to make the best of a bad situation. I figured hell I’m
fairly creative, I’ll go down to the water front and find something
of interest to film. I toss the gear in my car and head on down. I get down
to the beach area and have a look around- it’s basically like looking
at a huge gray scale. There is absolutely no color other then the street signs.
If you were to shoot across the beach to the water you couldn’t tell
the difference between full color and black-n-white. Natures very own dull
“concrete jungle”. Even the water front buildings are gray. The
only real color was a patch of weeds growing between some dead gray logs.
Hell, even the stupid piece of civic “art work” down by the pier
is nothing more then a bunch of gray boulders stacked on top of each other
and tied together with gray cables- that is no shit people.
It then dawned on me that my little city is void of visual saturation. Unless
your version of an interesting backdrop is strip malls this is one boring
freakin’ town- It’s sad when the local Red Robin sticks out because
it’s the most colorful thing on the block.....
Anyway I’m keeping the camera because it rocks. If I send it back the
weather reports will be wrong and it’ll break records for sunshine the
next two months. If I keep it, well it can’t get an duller and gray
then it already is so I’ll just deal with it. If I decide to write a
short film about depression and suicide I’ve got the perfect city to
film it in. You know how Devils Tower was the perfect backdrop of Close Encounters?
It just makes sense that aliens would visit there. Well my town is the perfect
backdrop for depression- it just looks like you’d want to kill yourself
here.......
Speaking of Close Encounters of the Third Kind- I watched it the other night.
Sorry people, I know it’s 30 years old but I don’t get it. After
watching it I realized that in not having ever seen it before I was not missing
anything. Technically the visual effects still hold up 30 years later, story
wise and acting it’s just plain bad......
On the other hand I watched Juno- great for trying to be an indie style film.
And There Will Be Blood- One of the best movies I’ve seen in some time.
Freakin’ awesome and looked great.
Floodgate Alive update.......
Hey the music side of the live project is done. They picked up the audio masters
on Sunday and now it’s just down to the finishing touches on the video
as I understand it. I believe they’re planning on sending it of for
production by the end of the week.
I think the FGA fans are really going to dig it. I think the music side came
out pretty darn good- they’re really good worship songs and the band
played great and of course it sounds, biased of course, awesome. Sounds like
a band playing live in a big hall with a bunch of people in it.
The video teasers I’ve seen are excellent to so I’m sure that
the DVD side will be great.
I hope the band pushes it hard because it’s got a lot of potential.....
but I’ve thought that about a lot of projects I’ve worked on and
ended up being wrong.....
But really, for FGA fans it’ll be worth the wait. I’m assuming
it’ll be available sometime in July.
Congrats to the Floodgate Alive people. It’s the day that seemed like
it would never come........
Ok, the coffee shop is getting ready to close. I’m going to go home and stare at my new camera and see if that motivates me to think of something bitchin’ to tape with all that extra resolution........ or mount it on the wall with my 5 other cameras and just call that art........
5/22/08
3100 miles of therapy.....
Nothing refreshes the things in your life that need refreshing like 3100 miles
on a scooter rambling aimlessly around the American roadways. You can spend
5k on a shrink and try to find the meaning, I prefer to spend a few hundred
on gas and a few hundred more on hotel rooms and figure it out myself....
or just forget all about it......
Got back yesterday from a week out on the open road. Living on mickey d's,
power bars and red bull I went from desert to shinning sea. I drove through
record highs above a hundred and through snow and hail storms and freezing
weather with ice warnings. 50 mile-an-hour winds to eerily still and silent
nothingness in the middle of nothingness. Places where no one locks their
doors to the heart of gang land where every window had layers of bars and
chain link fence surrounded everything.
Through major metropolises and small towns with the population 1 1/2. Yeah
that’s what the street sign said. Most small towns are pretty conservative,
I figure that town had a liberal in it and they only count for half out in
the country.......
Anyway, to be honest if you think the world revolves around big cities you
need to get out more. People in small towns are the best. They’re genuine.
After spending most of my time this last week riding through bumpkin towns
it reinforces my faith in mankind. Have lunch at a diner in a town with less
then 50 people in the middle of nowhere and make up your own mind. Or be like
most city folk and just dismiss it without experiencing it. I could care less
actually......
Over the course of 3100 hundred miles I ran into more then my fare share of
road construction. I would venture to say at least every hundred miles of
road time I’d run into some kind of road construction. Even out in the
middle of nowhere there’s road construction. I would also venture to
say that out of the hundred miles between construction sites, 50 of those
miles needed to be worked on. The roads are in sad shape everywhere and it
really makes you wonder how it got that way and if it can ever be fixed. Maybe
it’s an anti-oil conspiracy or something. It’s hard to believe
with all the gas taxes we pay that the roads could get to this. I think there’s
some kind of bullshit accounting going on somewhere and the welfare system
is benefiting more from gas tax then the roads..... But that’s just
my anti-socialist mentality at work.........
The other thing I should point out is how hot the chicks seem to look everywhere
else. My theory continues to holds true- the longer the weather is warm, the
less they can wear to cover it up, the better they keep their bodies, the
better they feel about their outside the better they feel about their inside
the nicer they are. It’s a win-win package. Proving my theory correct
every time I head south keeps me from heading north. Alaska is not on one
of my “must travel to” lists.
So now that I’m back......
So now that I’m refreshed from my travels I can look forward to getting
back to all those things that create the need for me to hop on the scooter
and get away for 3000 miles of refreshing.
Yard work calls, inside the house needs some attention, I’m going to
start work on a new CD and the cats need their bellies rubbed.
Just typing the words as I stare out the window at the pouring down rain back
here in the pacnorwes I can feel the refreshed feeling being sucked from my
body......
5/2/08
Well it’s been a while.....
Ok, first post in damn near a month- what the hell is going on.....
Well I just wasn’t motivated after spending 8 days in bed sick as a
dog. It took me a week after that to get around to being somewhat normal and
then I had a severe case of the lazies. I’ve been typing I just haven’t
been posting.
A quick summery of all that hasn’t been posted. Out of context, highlight
form. You add the details:
People piss me off, it’s just the way it is.
You can’t change stupid people, and there are far too many stupid people
roaming around free.
Being born does not give you the right to be an ass. You have the right to
live as long as you don’t drain humanity. Once you do, you no longer
have the right to live. Case-in-point: If Hitler was killed when he was a
rotten teen the world would have been a better place. Bad people need to die-
the future will be a better place for it.
The weather around here sucks and is more unpredictable then ever. It’s
like bi-polar weather.
People who want toll roads and higher gas taxes are idiots. And stupid. A
very dangerous combination. A good chance they’re in politics.
Politicians suck and your favorite candidate is just as bad and deceitful
as the incumbent you vigorously hate. You’re just too blind to see it.
I am not.
Luck is 99% luck and 1% hard work. Hard work does not create luck-Destiny
is far more powerful then hard work. It’s why the unemployed alcoholic
wins the lottery.
All the hot chicks are married.
The Floodgate Alive project is in perpetual “one more small thing”
mode. A common problem when not paying by the hour.
The more weight you lose the more you realize you need to lose and the hard
it is to lose. The laws of weight gain/loss defy all common sense and fairness.
All coffee shops are too freakin’ packed. You know you’ve got
issues when you drive around to four different shops trying to find one that
isn’t full of church youth groups or AA meetings. I ended up making
tea at home.
Reality shows and gossip news programs cause more brain damage in one hour
then all of Bolivia has caused since the beginning of time. I don’t
do drugs but I believe they should legalize pot and outlaw Dr. Phil.
Common sense is so rare I often think I’m the only person that has it.
If you disagree with me you’ve just proven my point.
Sure she’s got a great hinny and sweet tah-tah’s but all that
perfume tells me she’s trying to cover up something you can’t
see.
Talking about all your personal problems in a coffee shop is not “keeping
it between us two”. You’re in a coffee shop for christ sakes,
we can all hear you. My two cents- you’re pathetic and you deserved
it. You’re a freakin drama queen. And no I don’t think the doctor
can give you something for that.
Wanting to have sex with someone and thinking someone is hot are two different
things. They’re two different desperation levels. The latter always
involves the former, the former is irreverent to the latter.
Kids are taller and dumber then when I was their age.
It’s a good thing when other guys think your girl is hot. If you’re
afraid she’s going to jump on every guy that looks at her maybe you
should stay home more often or get a girlfriend with four legs. You won’t
have to worry about competition then unless you live in Enumclaw. Or maybe
try treating her like a queen and maybe she’ll just want you.
It’s ok if you’re a mean ugly fat chick- the world needs tele-marketers.
Now get your fat ass out of my coffee shop. It's no wonder your kid doesn't
listen to you, even a 10 year old knows you're a piece of shit.
There’s something sexy about watching a hot barista pump chocolate out
of a big stainless steel bucket. Or is it just me?
Barista chicks with great bodies don't make the coffee taste better, they just make paying 3 bucks for hot water and bean sap seem worth it. If gas stations hired playmates to pump gas, 5 bucks a gallon wouldn't seem so bad.
I was out and about on my scooter yesterday. The world is a better place on
two wheels.
I bought a new leather riding jacket cause my old one is just to damn big.
Little in life feels better then spend money on smaller clothes because you
have to.
Johnny Cash came over the coffee shop radio, you know there's just not enough
mariachi horns in todays popular music.
Alright, that’s a one-cup-of-coffee worth of highlights from the last month. I’m outta here.....
4/13/08
Go figure.......
So yesterday was the nicest day in the pacnorwes for the last 6 months and
who was in bed being sick? Oh yea, DDP was sick as a dog and that’s
DDP luck in a nut shell people.
Screw that, I hoped on the scooter anyway and got a few hours in anyway. Then
it was right back home and into the sack......
Another improv’ video.....
...in the works.
It was Friday night and I was bored again so I set up some cameras and did
a little improv skit. It’s no “Ginger Baker Rocks” but still
it’s something right? Content people, it’s all about content...
Anyway, I’ve still got some editing to do so it won’t be up for
a few days. Again it’s a little stupid DDP humor thing so don’t
expect much, but like usual I think it’s funny...... what you think
isn’t important....Ok, back to being sick.
This post was just to let you know I’m alive and kickin’ at 1:30
in the morning.....
4/2/08
Just F’n pissed......
You ever wake up and just just feel pissed. Not pissed at something or somebody,
pissed at everything. Everything you see or think about just pisses you off.
You even start digging back to things you haven’t thought about for
seemingly ever and those things piss you off. There’s no particular
thing that set you off, you’re just f’n pissed.
I tend to grind my teeth a lot when I get pissed like this, then my jaw starts
to hurt and I’m pissed because of that...... I can’t be the only
one that wakes up in this state-of-pissed and I can’t be the only one
that doesn’t know why they wake up like this. Like life, there are no
answers it just is.
Oh well, I’ll get over it, I always do. Until then I’ll just be
pissed......
Freaky weather.......
Where the hell is our global warming? The last week has brought the pacnorwes
a smorgasbord of weather, mostly sitting on the shitty side of the table.
Within an hour period we’ve had snow, hail, pouring down rain and clear
blue, albeit freezing, skies. This cycle seems to keep repeating itself in
random intervals over the last week and it sucks. Well, to be honest it pisses
me off really. I washed my car because it was sunny out, after I put a way
the hose it snowed. Got my bike out to ride and by the time I was ready to
go it was raining.
The weather has been so crappy and unpredictable you’d think it was
summer around here......... and that pisses me off........
The video front.....
So I’ve been looking into launching the video business this last week.
I’ve got Hawaii Dan starting work on some print ad’s and have
been searching the competition to see what others are offering.
The range of quality is all over the place as far as video goes. That just
means the weeding-out part of the business cycle hasn’t started yet.
Anytime technology becomes affordable and easy to use there’s a stampede
of people that have a mind set for starting a business but don’t have
a mind set for being good at what they’re selling.
Anyway, as I’m checking the various sites an ill feeling comes over
me- do I really want to spend afternoons video taping weddings?..... I mean
what the F’. Weddings are the bread and butter for a lot of video start-ups
and I can’t think of anything much less appealing then the uncreative
documenting of the beginning of the divorce process......
Real weddings aren’t like the movies. It’s not full of hot model
looking chicks in sexing dresses that just overdosed on female Viagra. It’s
your Aunt Bertha getting too drunk and falling out of her size 16 dress. It’s
little kids running around crying and screaming and parents wanting it on
video because it’s so cute.
It’s usually a bunch of ugly people trying to dress up like they’re
not ugly and pretending that though the stats don’t favor this relationship,
this one is the one that’s going to last.
And I’ve got news for you, if there’s any woman at the wedding
that can’t wait to take you home and do the woody dance, it’s
not the wedding that’s got them in the mood- they’re desperate
365 days out of the year and they would be just as willing to play with your
bone-pony if you met at a funeral, weight watchers meeting or an all-you-can-eat
buffet. Knock-knock, reality people- those are the facts. Hot chicks at weddings
don’t want your salami, you disgust them in a rented suit just as much
as you do in casual attire.
Anyway, I’m not down on marriage, especially other peoples, I just don’t
really know if I can sit through the whole process just to make a buck.
You’ve got to start somewhere, I’m just not sure if starting off
their is any better then working at Boeing......
It all boils down to how much money is enough money to get you to do something
you’re not really into. And lately I’m questioning how much money
is enough money to do something I’m actually really into. I really hate
the business side of business........Thinking about it all just makes me pissed.
Hey the Handbasket video.....
Ok, damn here’s something that’s not currently pissing me off!
Wow, I’ve sent out a butt load of the free DVD’s this past week.
Once the band started to promote the fact that I was sending off freebies,
the in box started filling up with addresses and complimentary feedback. How
f’n cool is that?
I’ve got to say, Half Zaftig has a bunch of really polite, respectful
and kind fans. Even giving away free DVD’s I’d expect at least
a few rude assholes because that’s just how it always goes. Not the
case here, not once.
You know I’d send them out a DVD no matter what because I’m a
man-of-my-word, but it’s nice to know that they appreciate it.
For me, it feels good to know that I’m doing my part to help promote
a great CD and spread the word about some of Jim Kruize’s artwork. It’s
really been a win-win situation for everyone involved and I hope it continues.
Now if you want to talk about pissing me off, let me tell you about the lines
at the post office....... Jesus F’n Christ!!!!
Alright, I’m heading out of the coffee shop now before the blue skies turn to a hail storm......
3/27/08
Cool....
So there’s been a steady stream of requests for the Handbasket video
since Half Zaftig started putting email links on some of the sites they frequent-
way freakin’ cool. All the feedback has been very positive, HZ has got
some very kind fans.
Several comments veering towards the “is it really true I can get a
FREE dvd?”. Yep, no strings attached. No shipping charges- even to the
Netherlands. It’s just free because DDP is just a nice guy.
Besides it’s not like the numbers of requests are clogging up the internet
bandwidth ya know...
Anyway, I’ve been a veritable DVD making factory here. Not only have
I mailed off a butt load of discs but this morning at 5 am Harley Dave and
myself headed down to Studio A and dropped off a little homemade “display”
of discs in case any of the bands there are interested in checking it out.
I sent Harley Dave a txt message saying I needed a car-pool lane buddy. Yeah
traffic heading into Seattle at 5 am sucks. Throw in no less then three accidents
on I-5 within 15 miles and things don’t get an ay better.
A note to all those jackasses in the Capital- we don’t need mandatory
forced bussing and population movement control, we need more F’n roads.
It’s the environmentalists that are causing the traffic jams. The interstate
system would have never been built if the environmentalists would have had
the power in the 50’s that they have now. Take money out of the welfare
system and put it into more lanes and more off ramps. That will benefit capitalism
and reverse our forced Socialism slanted ways.
And you even mention toll roads and I’ll kick your wimpy anti-capitalist,
tax loving, population controlling ass.......
Ok, now I can feel myself getting pissed..........
Cool- literally
Here in the pacnorwes it is damn cold. Not like Arctic cold but cold enough
for me to bitch about it. We even had snow yesterday. If I didn’t have
heated leather seats in the new car I don’t think I could make it for
my 5 am coffee run. Yeah it’s that ruff.
Fix those links.....
Ok the THOUGHTS page here should look back-to-normal after not looking normal
for a month or so now.
Man my web site organization just sucks. Throw on top of that my web hosting
company messing with directory structure and it’s a receipt for disaster.
The thing is I don’t want to be a web designer, I don’t want to
think about file structure and I don’t want to trouble shoot another
companies inability to implement a change without screwing up everyone that
uses it’s services. When I have to deal with that shit I’m slow
to react but quick to bitch..........
3/24/08
Handbasket/freebee.......
Just to reiterate, send me a mailing address to
feedback@unclesaltyscabin.com and I’ll indeed send you off the Handbasket
DVD with the bonus material.
The first batch is getting mailed out this afternoon. If you’re a Half
Zaftig fan it will be a cool addition to your collection, maybe it’ll
be a collectors item someday........
So is there an ulterior motive for this? Why would I send out something for
free? Exactly what is the catch? Ain't I losing money?
Well not everything is about moneyMoney ruins purity far more often then it
encourages it..... Besides, if every regular reader here asked for one it
most likely wouldn’t break the bank. It’s not like thoughts pages
readership is bogging down internet bandwidth people. Though you’re
here for some DDP spew, most of the world avoids it.......... Maybe I should
hire a marketing manager.......
Ok, 3 am and what’s up....
I’m freezing my ass off that’s what. Here in the pacnorwes it
is damn cold. Not like Arctic cold but cold enough for me to bitch about it.
If I didn’t have heated seats in the new car I don’t think I could
make it for my 5 am coffee run. Yeah it’s that ruff.
Ok, that’s enough for 3 am....
3/23/08
Jesus people....
So it being Easter and all I figured everyone would be at church so I ‘d
have the coffee shop to myself. Figured wrong. It’s like everyone is
dressed for church but there all hanging out here instead, heathens...
Anyway, there’s truly nothing like the site of a properly figured lady
in a silk Easter dress. It’s really what Easters all about. Praise Jesus
and all......
Chromatic aberrations and whatnot.....
Technology doesn’t change physics, it just simplifies the interface.
Last night I spent far more time then a normal person would do watching instructional
videos on things such as chromatic aberrations and optical alignment charts
as they apply to digital video cameras. Ok that’s stuff I really don’t
give much thought to but once you actually have it explained in plain english
and watch real-life examples you start to think “hey there might actually
be something to that”. Hell most of us don’t think twice about
the technology behind auto focus and auto exposure, it just works right? But
when you see the technological breakdown it dawns on you that life isn’t
just point-and-shoot.
Now I’m a visual type learner myself. I can read about that stuff but
I don’t totally understand it. But once I actually SEE it I can then
wrap my hands around it- Tell me how to change my oil and I’m lost,
let me watch you do it once and I’ll open my own lube shop.
Anyway, I’m glad there’s people that really dig that technology/engineering
crap because if they didn’t, well, we wouldn’t have point-and-shoot.
I’m also reminded that there’s a big difference between the weekend
warrior that enjoys the fruit of the simplified interface and the pro that
does it manually for a living........
No matter how good you are, the more you know the more you suck.
3/21/08
Damn.....
It is freakin’ cold out. Yesterday afternoon I got hailed on like it
was the end of the world and this morning heading to the coffee shop I nearly
froze the jewels off while I waited for my windows to defrost. I hate the
cold. It’s bullshit. Where the hell is our global warming!!!!
Up all night.....
So since I was up all night/morning with nothing better to do so I spent the
wee hours of the morning on the internet checking out music videos by no known
video guys. Before I get the hypocrite label let me state that not one video
I watched was on youppop or myspit. Most were on independent DOP web sites
and those guys don’t put up crap versions. Those guys are serious about
showing off their work and don’t compromise when it comes to displaying
it.
A couple things stuck me as I watch several demo reels-
First there’s people doing some amazing work. Some very creative stuff
going on out there.
The second thing that struck me is “where the hell are these bands getting
the money”. I’m sure a lot of these videos were small label bands
but it’s pretty obvious that it wasn’t done for cheap. Several
were pretty elaborate setups and the editing and color work on top of the
camera work was all top notch. I’m sure the majority of these acts aren’t
getting played on MTV2 or Fuse so there must be some other outlets that are
making it worth the investment. Let’s face it, you don’t shoot
a 25 to 50 thousand dollar video just to get it on youpoop......
The third thing was how shitty a lot of music is that has great videos. Some
of the bands are just plain lousy. The recordings ran the gamut from picture
perfect lifeless auto-tuned talented computer operator created plastic to
“well lets save money on the recording so we can spend more on the video”.
......we interrupt this useless thoughts entry to mention that “damn
this is a good morning to be in the coffee shop”. It is hottie central
and I’ve only been here 15 minutes. Even the moms look great this morning....
Ok back to the videos. I can only assume that a lot of these videos are being
made by people in the movie industry that keep themselves busy by doing music
videos in their off time. Hell, a lot of them looked better then several of
the my last few netflicks picks. I’m starting to think the movie industry
needs to give up on film, video just looks better now a days when shot right.
Anyway, it’s a great time to enjoy things that are creative because
some creative people are really doing some creative stuff. And it’s
a super great time to be creative.
Conversely it’s a terrible time to be a procrastinator because it’s
so easy to get passed by while you’re talking and before you know it
you’re dead.
3/17/08
Forgotten treasures........
So I pulled out the old studio Widows computer the other day looking for a
particular program and ended up spending a few hours going through the old
music drives. There was a plethora of old ideas I completely forgot about,
all in various states of creation. Some of the stuff goes back at least 6
years if not longer. Stuff that I was going to finish for the Hooch CD but
obviously put on the back burner for what was surely a good reason at the
time.
Anyway I plan on spending some time this next week working on some of those
old ideas and use them for the ground work for another album.
What I also found was some material from what must have been DDP’s first
drum session. Guitarist John Williams and bassist Steve Germiat were over
to record and apparently DDP jumped on the drum set for a few tunes. Now the
drumming is barely passable but the guitar and bass tones are mint. John and
Steve are great players and carry the tune with some tasty playing and I added
a couple of guitar solos where I assume originally was suppose to be B3 overdubs.
John guitar is the full sounding fluid rhythm and solos, DDP takes the ice-pick
tone solo before the bass solo and the last Gary Moore tone sounding bit.
I just set up a mic on a little 10 watt amp in the living room and jammed
away to the cats displeasure. I thought about adding my own rhythm behind
Johns solos but I couldn’t figure out the chords....... besides I haven’t
played in a while, my fingers were killing me...
Since it was just a jam song it didn’t have a name, so I gave it and
the band one. Go here and check out:
‘Smooth
Gas Attack’ by the Traveling Flatulators
Floodgate Alive update......
Handed off the first mix for the band to listen to and make notes for changes.
Sometime this week we’ll compare notes and go from there. Depending
on how far off my first effort is hopefully this project will come to a close
by the end of the week.
After that it’s out of my control so I’m not sure when FGA fans
can expect the live DVD/CD set but I can tell you it’s a lot closer
then it was 6 months ago.
I can only assume the FGA fans haven’t forgotten about this ongoing
project, after all we’re working on close to a year now.........
Freebees.....
So I made up some DVD’s of the Handbasket video complete with bonus
material. If anyone wants a free copy just drop me an email with an address
and I’ll mail you off one. I’m sure Half Zaftig won’t mind.
I think it all came out pretty bitchin’. Watching it on a real TV beats
the hell out of watching it on a computer screen. And just about anything
beats the hell out of watching a video on Youpoop or myspit. People can get
all excited over the “leveling of the playing field” that those
sites do for the little guy but watching and listening to stuff I’ve
done on there is a little offensive actually...... I mean I’ve got at
least 60 hours into the production of the Handbasket video and 59 of those
hours are for not on youpoops compressed mono turdulation version. Now don’t
get me wrong, yeah for the fact that those sites exist so people can get a
taste, just don’t let it be the end-all for content. If something on
there perks your interest, ask for a full quality version. Don’t be
satisfied with being entertained by mediocrity- especially if the mediocrity
is driven only by convenience. It’s like letting internet porn take
the place of human contact. I mean really people, is tossin’ off to
a WMV file really the same as exchanging body fluids with a living, breathing,
responsive being? You’re getting off either way just one way is a hell
of a lot more rewarding and exciting..... at least for me. Maybe you guys
are into the virtual sex thing.
Anyway you can add it to the collection of all the other DDP projects that
you’ve help support over the years........ You have been supporting
DDP projects haven’t you?
3/10/08
I'll fix the links soon I promise........
Freakin killer dude......
Ok so yesterday was some ambient recording for FGA in this huge church where
the live DVD was shot. Thing is no one showed but ol’ DDP. Guess I was
the only one really doing anything and other then a quick visit from their
live sound man Derek to fire up the PA I was on my own. I can only assume
the head honcho’s at the church had no idea that the building would
be left in my hands, a trusting bunch they are. In fact no one at the church
that knew what was going on, they just let me in as they were leaving and
I had at it. DDP locked alone in a church. There’s a movie in that I
know it.......
Anyway, so here’s DDP all alone in a big church with a 6 piece DW drum
set up on stage, well what the hell do you think I would do? So of course
I did. Only for about 10 or 15 minutes even though I supposedly had the church
from 2 until 11, but I did record it. I had a couple of mic’s set up
about 80 feet from the stage and about 80 feet apart. There’s no close
mic’s, it’s just the two distant mics picking up the raw drums,
not even running through the PA. I only had one drum stick and some kind of
broken up rod thing but the way I play it really doesn’t matter ya know?
Listening back I wish I would have stayed and played all night. What’s
the chance of DDP getting a huge church all to himself ever again..... While
I’m alive anyway, my dead body lying in state isn’t the same.
If you’ve got good speakers and can get past the playing the sound is
freakin’ awesome. All natural bad ass verb coming off a sweet but out-of-tune
drum kit. If I could get the church all to myself for a month I’d record
a masterpiece I just know it.......
2/27/08
For those of you that just want the quick and easy version of the new Half Zaftig video, here's the youpoop and myspace link. Youpoop is mono but looks pretty decent, myspace is stereo so it sounds better but might play back a little jittery.
Of course you could do what's right and just go to the Quick Time version I already posted but I know some of you won't because that's just the way you are.....
2/26/08
It's done.....
Ok these posts are all getting put up on the same day so it gets kind of
confusing/pointless. Go down a few posts and read up to get them in chronological
order if you must.....
Anyway, the Handbasket video is done and posted. If you're skipping the chronological
part above, Handbasket is a song on the Life Like Luster CD from Half Zaftig.
For more details do the chronological thing noted above.
The Quick Time version I've posted may take a minute or two to get going but
it's a large file and the extra time spent downloading beats the hell out
of watching a much crappier version quicker. Come on people if you're sitting
there reading these pages you really have nothing better to do right now anyway.
If you did you sure in the hell wouldn't be here. Besides, if you were getting
busy with your lady you wouldn't think quicker is better now would you? Give
me a break...
Soon there will be a youpoop version and the moderately better myspace version
but until then this is it.
So have a look and be a critic. Just remember that though being a critic only
takes one view, creating something to be critiqued takes hours and hours....
and that's after taking years and years to get good enough to spend hours
and hours creating something....
2/25/08
Oh yeah.....
Back at the coffee shop finishing up the Half Zaftig video for Handbasket.
Just did the last edit and heading home to do the final color work. You're
gonna dig it cause it is way cool. The best way to watch it is gonna be in
a dark room and wearing headphones. The larger the screen the better the experience.
Maybe the band will release it as a DVD video single. Do they even have those?
If they don't this could be a first and it would make a helluva launch single.
Like a lot of things I do, you probably won't understand it the first time
through, but watch it several times before you make an opinion. I know in
today's entertain-me-quickly-so-I-don't-have-to-think-McDonalds-Pepsi-commercial-mentality-society
that's asking a lot from people but trust me, watch closely and watch slowly
and you'll see it like I filmed it and the way I intended it to be. If you
watch it closely 3 times and think it sucks then you just don't like it and
I can respect that. If you can't invest that much time to get it then your
opinion is half-assed and you don't count. Go back to playing super mario
or wii bowling..... Invest countless hours/days/weeks/months of your life
getting up to level 5 before they come out with the new and improved 2.0 version........
or before you die. Which ever comes first........
2/23/08
From the coffee shop....
Just a quickie from the empty coffee shop where I alone occupy the lone occupied
table here on a Friday night- some social life eh?
Well jest as you may at my apparent lack-of-a-life but in my self-imposed
social exile I sit here and I create something that is cooler then shit in
my eyes. And trust me, the only eyes that matter are mine when I'm speaking
from my view. As a matter-of-fact, the older I get the more my point-of-view
is the only view I care about. Listening to other peoples point-of-view hasn't
gotten me anywhere so why the hell should I give it any mind?????
Anyway, back to the creating thing. Here I sit with my fruit laptop and a
bus powered drive editing away on the new music video for Half Zaftig. The
band gave me free reign for the song Handbasket off their latest release to
do as I please with for a video. I singled this song out early on in the recording
process as my favorite of the new CD and long after the disc has been finished,
it's still on the top of my list from their latest CD. When I know I like
something I know I like it....
So the video revolves around Jim-the-painters Studio A rehearsal facility.
Jim is quite the artists and an eccentric and the marriage of Handbasket and
Jim's freaky-ass rehearsal studio art hit me right off the bat. I actually
had the concept in mind when the band first started tracking the song two
years ago or so. Back then I thought it would just make a cool video, little
did I know that years later I'd have to gear and the ok from the band to make
it happen. Top that off with Jim-the-painters willingness to help out and
have my way with his rehearsal studio and DDP is one happy video directory
puppy motherf@#$er.
The band will be by tomorrow to do the last few shots and I've got under two
minutes of editing to finish off and it'll be done. It's coming out totally
badass and though you might not get it, it's freakin' cool. The reality of
it is I can't really take credit for how cool it's gonna be. Handbasket is
a great tune and Jim's artwork is freakin' awesome. I'm just the guy putting
the two together- I'm just the "button-pusher". I'm not sure if
it's a Music video with cool art or an Art video with cool music.
Whatever it is, it's gonna make me look like I know what I'm doing and I'll
act like it's all about me when I'm accepting the video award.........
2/21/08
Stupid, ironic, stupidly ironic, ironically stupid....?
Ok, nice day out here in the Pacnorwes so I decide to take a scooter ride.
Vroom vroom and I’m off. Heading down the local drag I come to a stop
at a stoplight at a busy intersection. I’ll be here a while. As i sit
and wait I look around to take in the “what’s going on around
here”. Something catches my eye to my right, it’s a guy throwing
out a neon yellow colored “something”. Upon paying further attention
I notice it is in fact one of those foam ear plugs this late 20 something
has thrown out the window. Making it a complete set, I watch him pull another
ear plug out of his other ear and toss it out on the ground. There the two
foam ear plugs sit right next to his driver side door, neon yellow for all
the world to see. The wind picks up a bit and they roll around like a couple
of tiny confused mice wondering which direction they should head off to.
Now people litter every day, people are pigs and that’s just the way
it is. Most of the time I see it happen I just think- “what a freakin’
rude pig” and let it go. Especially cigarette butts. Not to be an far-winged
environmentalist but come on people, is it really that hard to keep a little
plastic garbage bag in your car?
Anyway, what I find so attention-getting, stupid and ironic about this littering
sighting is the fact that dude doing the littering is in fact driving a garbage
truck. Oh yeah, he’s sitting in the worlds largest motorized garbage
can and this f’n idiot has to throw out his foam ear plugs onto the
road. Does that make sense to any normal-minded person out there? It’s
like working for Honeybucket and taking a dump next to your own portable outhouse.
It’s like using a condom but cutting a hole out of the end so your schlong
can breathe. It makes no f’n sense, there’s no common sense involved
and anyone that is that completely stupid does in fact not deserve to use
up the same air I breathe.
I don’t give a shit about the littering part, I give a shit about the
stupid part. This driver for Waste Management is so f’n stupid he needs
to be the pro-choice poster child. “Keep abortion legal or you might
contribute to the stupidity of mankind like this jackasses parents did”.
Moving on......
The Charlie Drown live video is done, check out some samples here for all you smart people with Quick Time 7 or go to Charlie's own youpoop page and check it out there for those of you who don’t care about image/sound quality or in fact just lack the technical capacity to download and install one of the most common video players available today......
2/6/08
Productive at the coffee shop.....
Ok I’m not there right now but I was a few hours ago. The last couple
of nights has seen me up at the coffee shop with laptop and external hard
drive in hand editing the Charlie Drown video footage.
How cool is that to hang out at a coffee shop and actually be productive whilst
I sit there downing a cup-of-the-bean? It was fun sitting there in the corner
creating something instead of reading the paper or typing mindless spew for
these here pages, most of which never make it to these here pages....... And
since the hotties are hew and far between anymore it actually gives me a legitimate
reason to hang out there and not just sit there looking like a perv, you know?
Anyway, I gave the band the original edits I had done last week and not surprisingly
they were not exactly what they were looking for. Seems everyone the generations
below me wants lots of quick cuts- the “pepsi commercial” syndrome
as I often refer to it. Well that’s cool, it’s a learning experience
for me and creating something other then what I would be interested in is
teaching me some things I wasn’t interested in learning, but now that
I’ve worked on it some of it’s pretty cool. Besides it’s
not my project so you got to try and make it useful for them right? The only
thing is pepsi commercial edits is time consuming when you’re trying
to figure it out and when the footage wasn’t shot with that in mind.
On the positive side though a lot of the footage that wasn’t usable
before is usable now. Interestingly from the original shoot the footage that
was the worst ending up becoming the most “artistic” and some
of the coolest cuts..... It’s amazing how a blurry out-of-focus falling
down quick pan can tie together a couple of shots and make you look avant-garde
cool.....it’s probably how impressionism started. go figure.....
Now if I could just get paid for it.....
2/3/08
Well of course.....
So I’m watching the Super Bowl at a local bar with some friends. I hate
the team from Boston cause they’re babies and cheaters and I only like
the team from New York because they’re playing the team from Boston.
Since who wins or who loses doesn’t really affect my life I’m
really not that in to it, this is after all just a game. But the thought of
another team from Boston winning a championship of any kind just makes me
sick and actually gets me more into the game then I care to admit.
I really gave the team from New York no chance, the other team was just to
good of cheaters to lose. So I was pleasantly surprised when it actually turned
out to be a great game through 3 and a half quarters. I love defensive games,
they’re far tougher then scoring onslaught games. I like grit and grind
where most people like the long ball and big scores.....
Anyway when the cheaters took the lead with under 3 minutes left I knew that
the game was over. All the hope of the previous three and a half quarters
was for not. Cheaters always win and that’s just how life goes, face
it there are no moral victories, life is against you....
So two plays into the New York teams final drive I see no hope and would rather
head to the gym then stick around watching the inevitable pathetic last two
downs of the losing team. Sticking around the bar to listen to a bunch of
obnoxious Boston fans gloat was not on my list of things to do.
So I head off to the club with two and a half minutes left knowing that by
the time I got my workout clothes on it would all be over and I would be stuck
watching and listening to the media beat the Boston win into the ground.......
Then the call came. Hawaii Dan stuck around to watch the ending and the team
from New York got their shit together and scored. He was ecstatic, the bar
people in the background were ecstatic. He then stayed on the phone and gave
me a play-by-play of the last 35 futile seconds for the team from Boston.
Try as they might they in fact lost. New York won. It was one of the greatest
endings in Super Bowl history....... and I missed it because I just knew they
were going to lose. You wait an entire season, thousands of hours, many months,
endless quarters to get to the end of the Super Bowl to see who’s the
champion then you miss out on the most exciting and important two and a half
minutes because you know the outcome before it’s played........ what
an f’n idiot............
1/29/08
Well shit......
So it’s 5:30 am and I’m suffering from severe “I can’t
sleep” syndrome. Actually I’m working on about day 5 of this.
So what do you do when you can’t sleep at 5:30 am? You hit the coffee
shop for a cup-o-the-bean, a muffin and some thoughts page spew for your reading
entertainment.....Ok, so some didn’t get it....
So I guess a little explanation is in order for “The Kids” video.
First off yes it is disgusting- it’s suppose to be.
See once there was a time before everything was safe and commercial. Not everything
is meant to be part of a marketing campaign. Once upon a time you could use
shock value to make your point. That was before parents and kids liked the
same heavy metal and punk bands. Before parents took their kids to slasher
movies because they both wanted to see it. Yes a time before Volvos......
Second, it’s suppose to represent the stupidity of both sexes. Woman
who lie to get what they want and men who rely on ignoring problems and hoping
it will go away. Anyone who says they haven’t been on either side of
the scenario is lying their ass off.
It’s not actually about what you’re disgusted by...... Sorry I
forgot to write “Hamburger” on the mickey D’s wrapper..........
Random spew:
Floodgate Alive is in tonight to review the audio tracks for the live DVD.
I believe we truly are heading towards the actual end of this project......
though they are the king of the “oh and one more thing......”
Charlie Drown along with Pete and Lizzy will be in Wednesday to go over some
edit changes for the video of their CD release show. Pete has the audio finished
up so hopefully there will be something soon for you to check out
.
My web host company still has my directory crap messed up so it looks like
DDP will have to redo the site once again. Though it will be seamless from
your stand point it’s gonna be a pain in the ass for me. I hate things
that create a pain in the ass for me. There always so unnecessary.
Every day I work out I gain weight, every day I take off I loose weight. Since
I workout 6 days a week this fact isn’t doing me any favors. I’m
pretty sure I’m the only fat guy out there that this happens to. Once
again proving there is in fact a black cloud that hangs over my head.......
I love my 17” mac book pro but I really miss my 12” mac book that
took a mac poop on me last month. That means I’m going to have to buy
another small laptop because sometimes smaller is better......
I wrote the song “Collapse” because of a certain situation that
happened one day and I rushed home to write it down. I find that song has
become the theme song of my life lately. Interestingly it’s never the
positive songs that haunt you it’s always the songs of misery......
Sitting here now at 6 am I’m reminded that no hotties come in to a coffee
shop this early.... nor do they work in a coffee shop this early......
The closest thing to being creative I’ve done since I finished The Kids
video last week was string Harley Dave’s guitar for him......... I’m
pathetic.....
The local paper is running a series of stories on how pathetically corrupt our local college football team is. Problem is when they were corrupt they were winners and I have a feeling most arm chair quarterbacks are now pissed because cleaning up the program has created a losing team......... From (many of the): boosters to judges to lawyers to school administrators to the athletes, the series shows them all to be pathetic sick people.... just like I always knew they were....... For people that put such a high priority on winning they’re all a bunch of losers........ and they want 150 million from tax payers to improve their stadium....... tack on an extra 50 million to that and they can add a couple of rows of jail cells. That would solve a lot of logistic issues for some of the players.......
.I won 36 bucks on the lotto yesterday. That just happens to be 999,964 dollars from being happy......
Ok, I think we've all had enough of DDP at 6 am....
1/27/08
Quiz time.....
Ok longtime readers will recall I swore off politically based thoughts spew
well over a year ago, maybe two. For the most part I’ve kept to that
commitment with just an occasional lapse for no other reason then the fact
every once-in-a-while I like to say something to piss off the right or the
left.
A slam against the overly liberal left or the overly religious right just
helps me maintain my balance in the middle. I take up the same spot that common
sense does which seemingly doesn’t find a home on either the right of
left side.....(see I had to get dig in there and yes I feel better for it...)
Anyway, last night while over at another house I caught what passes for television
these days (remember I only do DVD movies, no cable and no local stations)
and while catching a little of the unbelievable bullshit called election ‘08
coverage I came up with a couple of questions and observations:
1-What’s the difference between a white person that won’t vote
for a presidential candidate just because s/he is black and a black person
that will vote for a presidential candidate just because s/he is black? Absolutely
nothing.
2-What’s the difference between a man that won’t vote for a presidential
candidate just because the candidate is a woman and a woman that will vote
for a presidential candidate just because the candidate is a woman? Again
absolutely nothing.
Here’s why I don’t vote- it’s not about politics it’s
about who can paint themselves as more popular and hip. National politics
is nothing more then a high school popularity contest. If you just take a
moment to watch it from the outside you’ll realize how f’n stupid
it is. It’s marketing 101 and nothing more. It’s plastic and none
of it is real.
All the candidates are just repeating the exact same crap we hear every 4
years. Hell some of their bullshit goes back to long before Teddy Roosevelt.
NONE of it is original or ground breaking. NONE of it is for the better because
nothing will change. It’s all for show and nothing more.
The reform platform is nothing more then the new guys saying they’ll
be different then the old guys, making people think that they in fact will
make things better. It doesn’t matter if people feel they’ve got
it good. There’s always going to be a majority of people that can be
convinced that in fact no matter how good it is now it could be way better.
The grass is always greener on the other side..... It’s all about change
because god only knows every 4 years that’s exactly what the people
need.
So here’s the deal though, change won’t happen because in the
big picture people don’t want real change. People don’t like real
change. Change is fear, change is unknown. Change only sounds good when you’re
spouting off about it- great in concept, not so great in implementation.
Proof in point- I’ll bet a good majority of you reading this bitch about
your job. You’ve said more then once “I wish I had a better job”
or “I hate working here” but you’re still there aren’t
you. Sure maybe you could get a better job but there’s something safe
about knowing the job you have sucks and you can deal with that because you’re
used to it. Changing jobs may mean you’ve got to adjust to a new way
of working at a place that just sucks different. Relationships are the same-
it’s why people stay with people they don’t really like. Changing
girlfriends does not always mean trading up.......
People don’t want change, they want better. And they want better only
if they don’t have to change. It’s why they stay at their jobs,
they stay married, they form habits they never break. People love the stability
of nothing changing but they want a better house, car, wife, girlfriend, sex
life etc. The majority of people don’t want the uncertainty that change
cannot only bring better but it can bring worse. It’s human nature to
talk big but act small. Politicians feed on that nature, work up everyone
into a frenzy then they reap the rewards of sitting back and doing nothing
knowing that’s exactly what the people want. In another 4 years we’ll
hear all the same bullshit and the results will be the same. There will be
a whole new generation of young people they can influence with the glitter
of the show and skip over getting down and dirty to the realities of change
and the person with the nicest suite, fanciest hairdo and designer lobbyists
will win again......
If you’re one of the few people that care about the issues then just
like me, your vote doesn’t count. Realize now that there’s no
hope to fix what is screwed up because it’s working to the advantage
of those that prey on the weak and they’re far to ingrained in the process
to be removed from it.....
America becomes more and more superficial every day. What they need is to
have everything taken away. Only then will the issues become important again
and what a candidate actually does will out weigh how nice they look on TV.
Okay, that’s enough politics for one year. I’m feeling a bit nauseous
just typing about it.....
1/24/08
Shit....
So my Web hosting company sucks and there's issues with directories and the what-not, but with a little hacker info from Half Zaftig Yogi I think I might have the new video posted here. He found it when the link wasn't even posted for public consumption......Don't let him see your credit card!
Now you might not think it's very funny by I myself think it's hilarious. But maybe I'm just little different.....
The Kids- good version:
The kids- shitty youpoop version:
1/22/08
A quickie from the coffee shop..... where there are absolutely no hotties
to be found........
Another video shoot..
So with the help of Valerie Young there’s another DDP video about to
hit the internet. Sunday afternoon the two of us filmed “The Kids”,
a 3 plus minute little ditty written by yours truly. Tomorrow Harley Dave
and myself will shoot the last 30 seconds of footage that’s needed and
hopefully I should have it posted before the weekend.
There’s a good chance that no one will find any humor in it but watching
the rough edits I’ve done so far cracked my arse up. It’s not
that I think I’m funny it’s just I know what I think is funny
so when I do something I think is funny I laugh. Often I’m the only
one laughing but that’s besides the point- this video is funny to me.
My video side is just like my musical side- I do what I like and f- the rest.
If anyone wants to share in the feeling it creates in me then “yeah
us” if not, change the channel. Trust me, the last thing the world needs
is yet another critic.....
Anyway, I’ve got to give a big DDP pat on the back to Valerie for actually
going along with the shoot even after she read the script and doing a great
job. She was quite the trooper throughout the 4 hour shoot and hardly a peep
about having to do take after take. Some of you may know what a pain in the
ass I can be to work with when I actually know what I’m doing, imagine
what it’s like to have to take direction from DDP when I have no idea
what I’m doing....
And since you asked...(which some actually have...)
Yes there is a follow up to GInger Baker Rocks in the works. The problem is
there’s actually a script for this episode unlike the total improv of
the first one. That’s making it a little tougher on ol’ DDP because
DDP really doesn’t do the script thing very well..... on top of not
doing the acting thing very well.... on top of not really knowing the whole
movie making thing......
Anyway, the improv of the first one is what made it interesting to me so actually
having a script to follow will probably be a let down but bottom line, every
bad project I shoot is one bad project closer to doing a good project.
Experience is the only way to climb the ladder......
Well that was good......
So the other day my fat boxer guy grill went tits up(side note- why when something
does bad do you use the term “tits up”? I mean isn’t tits
up a good thing? If you think about it, it’s the tits that sag down
that’s actually not right......). Anyway:
It’s the second one I’ve gone through and it seems they’re
good for about two years at a pop.
Since I’m not big on the culinary market wares I’m not sure if
the big fat boxer dude is selling me something that is unique or I’m
paying too much for something thats available without the marketing hype.
Whatever, I go in to the store and I look for a picture of the fat boxer on
the box and I buy it. No thinking involved, stupidity is bliss.
As I walk down the aisle with my two year grill under my arm I notice that
I’m passing by a row of gizmos that makes me stop and have a second
look. It’s the blender section. Ah yes, there is truly something magical
about blenders that until I walked by the blender section I never really thought
of.
Once my eyes gazed upon the thick glass containers sitting on top the magical
control panel with all the cool blend buttons on it I knew I had to add one
to my kitchen counter.
There’s just something about 4 razor sharp metal blades sitting at the
bottom of a heavy duty glass jug that sits on top an electrical motor that
screams “manliness”. guys dig machinery, especially machinery
that is meant to obliterate things that aren’t meant to be obliterated.
Like a wrecking ball for your kitchen, chunks of whole things go into the
blender and what comes out is liquified. That’s badass. The word “puree”
sounds kind of femmie but when you hit that button the results are anything
but.
As I stared at my choices, I did not see the fat boxer dude on any blender
boxes, I was overwhelmed with the selection. This after all the first blender
I’ve ever bought. Oh yeah, I was a blender virgin. So of course since
I was selecting a blender to cure me of my blender virginess I went with a
blender solely on it’s looks. I wanted it for nothing more then it’s
sexiness. Sure there were smarter blenders out there but come on, I’m
just going to use one, two of the buttons at most so how smart does the blender
have to be.
Once at home and on my counter I realize that I’ve made a fine choice
then it’s off to the store to pick up stuff to liquify. You got it-
it’s smoothie time. To be honest, I’m not sure what else you use
a blender for. It’s not like you throw eggs in a blender or use it to
make mashed potatoes right? You sure as hell down puree a steak.
So it was ice, strawberries, bananas and some honey. And for the first time
in my life tonight I made a mondo smoothie and it brought me much happiness.
I feel that my blender and I will spend many an evenings liquifying that which
is solid and chugging it down with much gusto and satisfaction...... hopefully
at least for two years until it breaks..........
1/8/08
DDP goes to Washington.......err Kent......
So DDP had a summons for jury duty in King County Superior court this week.
Yeah I was excited too.....
Anyway I had a long and eventful story planned about my two day escaped but
decided to ditch it for a simple, condensed version.
Through all the bullshit of the two days, in the end I got out of jury duty
for a sexual assault case. The case was going to last at least two weeks and
since ol’ DDP doesn’t have a “real” job and is middle
class white guy with no kids, no wife and a car he was ripe for the pickin’s.
I assured the judge and defense attorney that I couldn’t guarantee an
unbiased opinion since that’s a touchy subject for DDP. Readers here
will vouch for my support of the death penalty for rapists and long time friends
will vouch for the fact I usual take a woman's word as fact even though I
know better. I’ve got many a failed past relationships to prove my lack
of good judgment when it comes to believing the opposite sex.
What should be noted here is that Superior court is unlike regular crack-head
court. Walking in to a Superior court room, at least in Kent anyway, was surprisingly
intimidating. The judge was a woman and perched up on her thrown she cast
an ominous presence over the room. She was extremely pleasant and articulate
but I was taken back by the amount of respect I instantly had for her and
the judicial process. I was the lone person in the jury box and it was an
unsettling feeling. It was a private interview that I was in for and only
the judge, prosecuting attorney, defendant, defense attorney and bailiff were
in the room. This was no joke, it’s the real shit. No joking around
or small talk. Win or loose this case in this room was changing lives forever.
Actually sitting in the room and taking in the surroundings I was amazed at
how much it’s NOT like TV. This isn’t traffic court people.
Anyway, I didn’t lie to get out of jury duty but I did state the facts
as I saw fit and much to the displeasure of the judge, the defendant and his
lawyer I was set free.
After that I was released for the rest of the week and won’t get called
back for at least another 2 years.
Now it’s not that I didn’t want to do my civic duty it’s
just that there were 199 other people in the jury pool with me and they were
all more then eager to help out Americas democratic foundation. Like usual
for DDP, I kept to myself while everyone else conversed away and made new
friends- there was lots of “waiting around time” i the jury pool
room . People were genuinely excited to be there and be a part of it all.
Admittedly it was interesting and I’m glad I live in a country where
the justice system, as imperfect as it is, is run this way. It’s just
that America is the land of choices and I choose to go unnoticed and watch
from the background. Though with that being said, it would have been interesting
to be part of the whole thing playing out. I just didn’t want to be
one of the ones that was f’n up the rest of either party’s lives.....
even if they did/didn’t deserve it.....
One things for sure, I never want to be on the wrong side of a Superior court......
1/2/08
Yeah......
My first entry in ’08. There will be no new years observations here,
no hope-for-the-new-year fantasies. What year it is makes no difference in
the success or failures. Dates are just ways to mark points in time, there
is nothing about points in time that will make a difference in history other
then to give us a timeline to archive it by. If you did nothing improve your
life on July 7th, January 1st isn’t going to help you either.
Personally I look forward to the new year just like I look forward to every
day. If I’m still breathing, it’s all good.
Though I do take an abnormal satisfaction out of seeing peoples new years
resolutions turn to shit. Maybe it's some kind of Freudian "justifying
myself as a loser" thing or "miserly loves company" but come
one people, if you truly need it to be a "new year" in order to
get your life together there's more messed up with you then you realize. Once
you figure out what that is, well then changing your ways is a down hill battle........
Before you nail me to the cross for my own opinion email me your new years
resolution success story May 15th. Hopefully you're still on target, but if
your resolution is all but forgotten just read the previous paragraph..........
All joking aside, I wish everyone the best of everything in '08. It will only be what you make it to be so work hard at making it the best.
12/29/07
Getting worse......
Maybe it’s just because I’ve got a new car or maybe it’s
just because it’s a fact- people are driving shittier then ever before.
I mean people drive like crap.
I wish I had a laser gun and could zap all the a-holes who cut me off into
oblivion. Face it people, there are people out there who don’t deserve
to live. Child molesters, rapist, thieves and bad drivers all need a quick
one way trip to ash. People seem to think that just because they were born
they can shit on everyone else, which includes driving like shit and making
everyone else get out of the way. Even worse is those f’n a-holes who
use your car as a door stop for their welfaremobile in a parking lot. News
to the black lady in the Red Robin parking lot the other day- if your ass
wasn’t so fat you wouldn’t have to open your door so wide so you
can get your fat ass out of your rusted piece of shit. Instead of taking your
fat ass to Red Robin why don’t you try taking that steamer trunk to
a fitness club and putting in a few hundred miles on the tread mill.......
I especially like the fact that I was sitting in my car as rotundamama was
using it as a door stop and she didn’t even give me the “oh I’m
sorry I hit your car cause my ass is too fat to get out of my rusted piece
of crap without taking up two parking spots” look.
I’d say a a few hundred thousand laser zappings of a-holes will change
mankind's way-of-thinking for the better. It’s a price that I’m
willing to have other people pay so life can be better for the masses.........
Not getting it....
A quick fashion note from DDP- What the hell is with people wearing rings
on their thumb? Especially guys.
Maybe I just don’t get the whole “fashion” thing, I never
got letting your pants hang down below your ass. I never got wearing coats
three sizes to big, neon colored shoes, fat chicks wearing half shirts and
writing across the ass of sweat pants. Pierced ears I get. Lips, tongues,
nipples, belly buttons and anything lower I don’t.
Anyway, can someone explain to me how wearing a ring on your thumb is fashionable,
cool, necessary or any other possible reason for it to be?
Maybe I’m just an old stiff who doesn’t get it, but if I’m
going to get noticed it’s going to be because of me not because of a
fashion statement I’m following. Not because I wear what everybody else
wears or because I act like everybody else. The more you follow the pack the
less you stick out. If people really want to be different they’d just
be themselves- that you can’t buy at the mall along with everyone else......
Then again, if me as a person doesn’t stick out maybe that’s the
way it should be. Anonymity has it’s advantages........ Just google
“mullet” and look at all those fashion following fools of the
80’s.......
DDP goes to the movies....
So it’s been nearly 10 years since DDP went to a movie theater. I think
I paid 6 bucks to go to the last movie I saw in a big public box with hundreds
of other people.
Christmas night saw my hinny in a theater seat with hundreds of others who
make christmas night at the movies a ritual. The movie sucked but the theater
was bad ass. I find myself critiquing movies more so now a days since I’ve
spent countless hours editing my own crappy little projects and this movie
suffered from many of the same issues my own film making suffers from but
on a much larger scale.
Anyway, it’s a new mega-theater and it was pretty damn impressive. Unfortunately
just like the audio business, everyone thinks louder-is-better and everything
happened on “11”. The other thing that bugs me a bit is the new
styled “curved” screen. I’m sure there’s a reason
for it but to me it feels like I’m watching a movie from inside an egg.
Anyway yet again, last night I hit another movie. Again the theater was nice
but the movie tacky. I sat there with hundreds of other gnomes watching a
huge curved screen and audio at extreme levels. Others seemed to be far more
entertained with the predictable dialog and the stupidly unrealistic plot/scenarios
then myself but that’s why we live in America right?
The thing is even though both movies weren’t really worth 10 bucks a
pop, the experience of seeing them in a new movie theater with hundred of
other people I didn’t know was. Don’t get me wrong, watching a
good movie on my 58 inch plasma from the comfort of my huge bean bag chair
is awesome, but there’s something about sitting in a movie theater that
adds a bit of magical “something” to the experience that makes
even a shitty movie worth watching.
I guess dick head and the butt lickers wouldn’t be such an issue if
it weren't for the fact that I can see in my head exactly what I want in the
footage. If I were just shooting to see what we got it would be different,
but when I’ve already seen it in my head before we shoot it it makes
it kind of suck-ass to not end up with the video I’ve already watched
mentally. Make sense?
Ok, if I view it like it’s a joke I guess I don’t take is as seriously.
Maybe it was my inner activist coming out.
Cleaning time.....
I guess with the hustle and bustle of the holidays out of the way I now feel
the need to clean up the abode. Not really sure why since the mess I’m
preparing to clean up had nothing to do with the holidays. My place goes through
various states uncleanliness and it’s more clutter then dirt. Though
I’d really like to know where all the freakin’ dust comes from.
And that string stuff that looks like spider web material yet there aren’t
any spiders to be found and they usually don’t run just one line of
string to try and catch anything. I mean what the hell can you catch with
one stretch of string? I guess that would be a monoweb?
Anyway, being a bachelor and all, things usually just stay in the spot where
I came to the conclusion I no longer needed to use them. I opened a christmas
present on the kitchen table a week ago, it was a box of junk food, and it’s
still there today since I didn’t feel the need to move it anywhere else.
If/when I feel the need for a cinnamon roll or a muffin, I’ll know where
to find it. It’ll save me having to open a cupboard looking for it,
it’ll save me the energy of having to put it away and when it’s
time to throw out what ever goes bad it’ll save me the time of having
to put it in the trash since it’s still in the box it came in. It’s
that exact logic that females just don’t seem to get. Really I’m
saving a lot of time and energy by just leaving it on the kitchen table where
I opened it. Plus it’s there in plain sight to remind me that there’s
a bunch of junk food in there waiting for me to eat. If I put it away I’d
forget about it and it would all be spoiled by the time I ran across it again
and therefore it'll all need to be thrown out. By leaving it where I can see
it I’ll eat more of it therefore keeping me from wasting perfectly good
junk food.
Guys get this, chicks don’t.....
Speaking of junk food.....
So I pigged out for three straight days, missed two days of working out at
the club and pretty much made myself a couch potato for the past few days.
I hit the club this afternoon preparing for a few extra pounds on the scale
and what happens? I lost three freakin’ pounds. OK, explain this to
me- I work out six days a week for three months and don’t lose a pound.
I spend three days gorging myself on junk food and mondo meals and I lose
three.
Maybe God is a woman....... just don’t tell that to the feminists...........
12/25/07 B
Another one for history......
Well it’s pushing 12/26/07 so that means another holiday season is history.
That means that’s one less Christmas we all have to go until we won’t
be here for Christmas anymore- every day you live is one day closer to the
end. It’s just how it goes.
Anyway, for a lot of reasons this was an exceptional holiday season for me-
best in recent memory. Not because of the material things I received, of which
I received far more then I deserve and am beyond thankful for the thought
that went behind every present, regardless of monetary value. It was a great
holiday season because so many of the issues of the past weren’t issues
this year. Things seem to flow smoothly and there was a calmness, a solitude
if you will, over this Christmas. The attitude throughout this Christmas season
seemed to border on what Christmas is all about, and that hasn’t happened
around here for a long arse time......
Add in the fact that is snowed today and it was damn near Rockwell-ian.
The only negative I can think of for this holiday season is that I’m
sure I put on at least a few pounds if not more. Now that would normally be
an issue but not this year. In years past those few extra pounds would have
just been the “new weight”, but this year I head into the day
after Christmas knowing that a week in the gym will cure me of my holiday
overindulgence. I’m willing to put the extra time in the gym next week
for the guilty pleasure of all the good cooking I got to splurge on over the
last few days.
Life is about balance and sometimes you’ve got to be naughty to make
yourself feel good about being good....... There’s a certain satisfaction
you get when you have to go the extra mile to make up for your sin.
12/25/07
How cool is that.....
So here I lay on the big bean bag chair on christmas day, wood stove blazing
away, cats purring by my side and I’m staring out the window as the
snow comes falling down.
It just started up a few minutes ago and it’s cooler then cool. I’m
tucked away in my little slice of heaven, it’s peaceful, there’s
no rush to be anywhere and all the holiday festivities are over for yet another
year. It doesn’t really get much better then this right here. I’m
living the moment right now that makes the entire holiday season worth it.
I hope when I get old I remember this minute right here.
12/22/07
The weather sucks.........and that’s totally cool.
There’s some extreme rain pouring down around my little hunk of dirt
that they charge me taxes to call my own. I’m sure something is flooding
somewhere, and that sucks for someone but that someone isn’t me so I’m
totally OK with the excess precipitation falling down.
I’m also not one of the millions heading out to do some last minute
Christmas shopping right now. Hurrah for me, hurrah for being a bachelor....
The video shoot.....
So Harley Dave, Hawaii Day, Half Zaftig Yogi and yours truly hit a slimy club
in Seattle last night to tape the Charlie Drown show that features Lizzy the
bass player and Pete the drummer.
Like life in general, nothing goes as planned. The lighting really suck, the
club was smaller then I thought, the lesbian looking watchdog girl manning
the ID check counter to the balcony was a real bitch and the TV crew that
was there to also tape the show did exactly everything I asked them not to.
I can’t blame the whole crew for that, just the fat ass bald guy manning
the jib camera.
Here’s the deal people- It’s really not that hard to work with
people. It’s really not that hard to be pleasant and all work together
and everyone get what they want. Problem is it takes both sides of the party
to be civil and when one side of the party is a total c$%* sucker, well that’s
where the problem starts isn’t it. The funny thing is the guy being
the c$%* sucker is always the guy who has no right being the c%* sucker.
Take the lesbian bitch- she’s an ID checker, for minimum wage in a crap
hole rock club in a crap part of a shitty city. At 21 years old her only claim
to fame is she’s got two studs pierced in her lip.
Now that’s not so say I’m any better, but I’m not any worse.
Why do I have to have an attitude from this stank? We all have a job to do
and with a hint of common sense we can work together and all be happy.
How about the jib guy- fat, bald and doofy. He’s old, and obviously
not to bright. He acts like he’s gonna be a good guy then precedes to
prove he’s full of shit by doing everything he said he wouldn’t
do. Here’s the common sense deal people- he’s a camera man for
a guy who owns the cameras. I show up owning a bunch of my own cameras. He’s
talking directly to the guy who owns cameras and is filming the same show
he’s film but I’m filming for DVD and he’s filming for cable
TV. We’re in the same “business” and we’re doing pretty
much the same thing. He’s a camera man, I’m a camera owner.......
I show up with 5 expensive cameras that I own, he works one camera for a guy
who also owns some fairly expensive cameras. He’s on a “crew”
and I bring a “crew”...... am I the only one that’s seeing
the obvious here?
Ok, let’s make this picture a little brighter- say you want to buy a
car. You’re at a party for one of your friends who works at a car lot
and you get to talking to one of the other guest. You mention that you are
in fact looking for a new car, maybe a Toyota maybe not, even though you yourself
work for a used KIA dealership. Then the guy you’re talking to says
“oh I happen to own a Toyota dealership”. Are you following people?
Would you then spend the rest of the night pissing off this guy? Are we getting
closer to my point? It’s called networking people. It’s called
keeping your option open. It’s called opportunity. It’s called
common sense. You never know when the guy you just pissed off is going to
be the paramedic that comes to your house when you have a heart attack and
call 911.
