The Roads That Changes Take

2010-08-27T11:06:00.001-04:00

things have been going quite a bit better the last few days. we took an awesome little trip to yellow springs and did some leisurely hiking and even just sitting in the woods. also i got some stones & amber got some feathers and things there too. last night we went to a friends house for their birthday party and it was pretty chilly so we had a fire in the fire pit and chatted for a little while. today ambers getting ready to go to her internship at wosu (pbs) downtown. im probably going to do some reading, writing, drawing, and maybe take a trip to the library.

i kind of miss our cat and i want to go pick her back up from amber's mom's house where she took a vacation while we were in chicago. also i think we have been wanting to get ambers sister to come down and stay with us for a little while. i think that would be nice for all of us really. last time she came down here we had a really positive time.

it has also been quite a bit cooler here the last few days and that's been nice. it makes it so we are actually able to do things outside or around the house without getting our energy drained out by the heat.ive been thinking a lot about portland and san fransisco again. i think that sf has the most perfect weather, never above 85 never below 45, pretty much always between 55 and 75. portlands weather is a little more like ours here in ohio but much milder, not as cold in the winter and not as hot in the summer, generally. im thinking i want to go back out west and explore it out there some more. im really just feeling the west coast vibe right now and especially after being in chicago for a weekend, i'd like to be somewhere where people are a little nicer. not sure if thats the case in sf but portland seemed to have some super nice people. well anyhow im really enjoying the chill in the air and the renewed sense of energy i have from it not being 95 degrees or more. i think im really looking forward to autumn, and ive got a feeling of excitement for all the things im going to do soon.

2010-08-24T01:52:00.000-04:00

well it seems that this has been quite a rough summer so far. things are sure just becoming more confusing and even when i think things will be turning around they seem to go into an even deeper negativity. people everywhere seem to be acting unkind towards one another, and unfortunately im finding myself on the receiving end of that unkindness quite often. its even as if every instance of good i try to put out there is met with a barrage of bad. the futility of the situation is rather strange.

chicago did not go so well. even though we were perfectly capable and planning on walking downtown to the bus, a friend offered to pick us up and drop us off. they did not show up, and by the time we realized they were not coming, we had only 12 minutes. we had to run with our heavy bags through the village and the park, sweating in the heat and looking crazy to all of the rude bystanders. we made the bus, but just barely. then began a weekend of being treated poorly by others, being broke, and amber having a sprained ankle from the run (that we initially thought might have been a fracture). it was a rough weekend.

things have changed since then, but it appears as if we are in some kind of rut. even really good things that come along seem to be turning bad a few moments later.not sure whats going on. i know that mercury just entered retrograde, and it has been brought to our attention a few times that this will be affecting everyone until mid-september. im gonna try to keep my head on straight. im gonna try to get some positive energy going for both amber and i, and just deal with everything one day at a time.

2010-08-05T02:02:00.000-04:00

its been a strange summer so far. its been a little bit lonely for me, and im much too far overworked. luckily, amber and i will be going to good old chicago, to lollapalooza. we leave tomorrow at 10:40 on the megabus, and we'll be staying at a little hotel right downtown. we will not have much money with us to spend, but i think we will be just fine. we are both good at having a really good time really cheap-ly. anyhow, now that we have returned from the laundrymat, it is 2am and we still have packing to do! perhaps we will go to sleep and pack in the morning. anyway, i'm totally stoked for adventure!!

2010-07-11T20:10:00.000-04:00

last night we went to an art exhibition at junctionview studios. they called it 'biggie smalls' and had only really big or really small pieces. also there were several bands playing and it was byob. all of our old upstairs neighbors were there: chris, and the rest in one of the bands, blake, jay, and curt. also some school friends were there. joe was running about taking photographs for tristans band that did the after party music, at which time we were dancin crazy. after the music ended we went out back and sat on these giant wooden spools that were five feet tall when on their sides. they were stacked every which way and we climbed and sat and talked drunk in the warm summer night air. some people tipped a few up so they would roll and then climbed atop to walk on it like a barrel in the water. as we were leaving amber slipped trying to climb down from the top of the stack. she hit her side pretty bad on the way down, but luckily she's okay. we thought at first she may have hit her head or fractured a rib, so we rushed her to the car and abandoned my bike chained up to a pole, me jumping in the back seat of the car and amber's good friend driving us home. after some worry, we decided she was okay, just bruised up a bit and shaken up a bit, too. it was a really super fun night with that exception. makes me feel like we should all be more careful when we are being wild, or better yet just be more chill than wild.

so we are supposed to be going to lollapalooza in 1 month. we have the tickets, and we have a hotel room. we don't have our bus tickets, any spending money saved up, or a credit card to use as a deposit for the room (which is apparently common practice in hotels in cities). we also don't have any money for next months rent yet, it being only the 11th, but we really must start making some serious money if we are going to make it happen. we have considered not going and just selling our tickets so that we can enjoy doing some other things this summer. plus we each would like to purchase a few things while school isnt weighing us down. i want a photo enlarger, a vintage record player from the antique store, some art supplies, a haircut, and a vintage nintendo system. she wants new bike wheels and tires, a haricut, a tatoo, the record player (also), and im sure some sort of musical instrument such as a 12 string or a harmonium, the latter both of which sadaruchie owns and plays with much skill. oh also, she probably still wants her own projector so she can stop renting one from the school.

so we'll see. we could relax and probably get a few things that we each want and enjoy the summer, or we can bust our asses working all month and then go to chicago for an awesome weekend. it would really be great if we could have the best of both, but we just dont make that kind of money.

i do get to stretch my ears another size tomorrow. im super excited. theyre getting bigger. cant wait to get them up closer to an inch. well i think im gonna go do some drawing and whatnot.

summer summer changes fun whoa

2010-06-29T00:39:00.002-04:00

so schools out yeah!
we went to bonnaroo a few weekends ago. it was amazing. for me it was much less music centric than it was vibe-centric... but the music was also awesome. we spent a lot of time at the troo music lounge... a smaller stage for lesser known artists. we saw warpaint, the middle east, and everst there which were all great shows. the watson twins dropped in for everest to sing backup which was sweet. also tori amos was in the crowd like standing right behind us. it was all very energetic. also, we saw some great shows at the bigger stages. mumford & sons was a favorite of ambers and also of mine. we caught they might be giants which was super fun. for me the flaing lips was just soooooo out there and transcendental. they had lasers in the sky and there was confetti and the music!!! they played some of their material, of which yoshiumi was magical, by the way... and then after a short break they came back and played dark side of the moon from start to finish and it was just mind blowing. a girl next to me described it as "soooo mesmorizing". well it was. and we also hit up the late night shows. i can hardly remember where we ended up or which tent ew were at and when, but i do know that we saw thievery corporation for a bit. amber ran up to get on stage and ended up getting sidetracked with a newly found friend. i rambled over to the nwe lunar stage where they were playing some dance music, and after a short stint there, i went to catch the end of deadmau5. amber texted me to meet her at the ferris wheel, where i had met her the night before so that she could take a contemplative ride alone only for her to have been bombarded with people wanting to ride with her and offer her anticdotes over any of her situations. anyways when i met her at the ferris this time, she had lost her rolling friend, sadly, and after a while of searching, we decided that she must have gotten confused and headed back to her camp. we went to the silent disco and danced until the wee hours of the morning, at which time we returned to the lunar stage, which was still blasting dance music and we danced unrestrained until the sun came up and sat up on the ledge of the sky and they finally stopped the music around 7am.

we made it back on nickles and dimes in the gas tank because i thought that my wallet containing my card had been stolen, but when we actually did return home i found it hiding well, safe and sound. a misadventure, yes, but not quite as stressful as the worry of the overheating car in the bonnaroo traffic. all of it worth it.

we have been much more social throughout the spring and especially this summer. weve both been much less self protective. we had a great time this weekend at comfest. because of some kind of drama last year, they had the music ending much ealier, which made no sense and seemed unrealted, but whatever kind pr move they pulled let them at least have the festival so i can't complain too much. its only that in addition to ending so early, many of the good acts were in the 94 degree heat of the day instead of later, into the evening. so once again, not so much with the music, but lots with the good vibes. i felt like we knew everyone at the festival this weekend. we ran into sooo many people, and hung out kind of all over the place. we saw tristan's show on friday night and it was awesome. he had lasers and video art and he was spinning with a full band. defeintely the best show of the weekend. then saturday there was some typical musc at the offramp stage so we chilled around and drank some beer and ran into lots of people. amber ran off with charity to talk and they had some sort of tiff, but seemed to get resolved the next day. on the way home, though it thunderstormed on us, and we ran home in the hard pouring rain and then chaged closthes and went up to tristans show at thedrgonafly neo-v gallery a few blocks from our place. we ended up getting in a tiff of our own, probably an extention of her and charity's, and when we got there, already drunk from all of the comfest beer, and some wine at home, tristan was djing and we got some top shelf drinks, me gin and tonic, her some vodka concoction, and chiled on this white couch for a few minutes. when the music was on a break, we ran out behind the nieghboring beer mart in the back alley wth our drinks to smoke and sat on this slab of concrete with the brick alley to our side. soon people had the same idea and a few groups came and went, the final group containing some old friends from like 5 years ago. joe had known amber from working at the coffee shop, he was a video artist and after moving to chicago and studying at the institute there, he is now a filmmaker. his friend sam laid out on the concrete slab amazed at the stars and a laid back guy named miles jumped merrily between conversations and smoked joe and sam up. also 3 years ago sam had once come to our house with joe when we lived downstairs and we had all gotten too smoked and tried to watch jan svankmeijer's alice and had these vintage xmas lights blinking and we all got a little tricked out by the whole thing and had to stop it and run into the kitchen. anyhow on sunday at comfest we ran into even more people we knew and there was no buzzing about in the air as much, as everyone had receded mostly to sitting on blankets in the grass and floating about in that way, so we blanket surfed between groups of people we knew. we picked up a few rice krispy treats from jacob and had a good conversation with him, talked to some school friends and some old coffee shop friends, and so forth.

we we got home we ate some rice krispy on empty stomachs and got kind of lost in the hallways and ended up with an ordered pizza in the front room on the floor while it stormed out the window magnificently. amber fell asleep after adding some triple fermented beer to the mix, which i declined knowing my own personal limits, and i stayed by her having thoghts and visions, falling in and out of sleep and eventually retiring to the airconditioned bedroom.

today, we decided a big breakfast for recovery was needed so after some sleeping in, we took a trip to the grocer and ran into sadaruchie, who told us about his crazy time at comfest and the after party he went to, and also about how he really wants us to come to his friday night party this week and he has a stage set up in the yard with lighting and video projection and such. laso he invited us to a meditation / swimming / vegan dinner tonight at a friends house at the quarry, so naturally this sounded great... and it was! it was a gated community and we had to use a code to get in, and then we arrived to people in kayaks and sailboats and rafts and swimming. we sat on the dock for a while with our feet in the water talking, and before long, it was dinner time, all vegan food. we did a sunset meditation, facing the water, and then sadaruchie and frank, whose place it was, got out the guitars, and there were people with flutes and such and it was very positive. someone told me that it looked like i was really focused on breathing in the colors of the sunset. i was.

also, after breakfast, but before the trip to the quarry, i rode m,y bike up to evolved and streched up a size, and i got some nice yellow glass plugs. they are more subtle, maybe not as noticable from a distance as my stainless steel 0g's but no matter because i love the way they look up close, and i got anpther pair for the next size up, too so in 2 weeks i'll move up to those. the timing seems right for these trasistions.

okay well, other than working hard for rent money this week, we have quite a few things that we have been invited to attend, so it is going to be soooo busy and lovely. peace

2010-06-01T01:49:00.002-04:00

... strangest two months. i don't know what to say. it seems as if the structures are folding and clearing room for something new. i've been doing so much writing and meditating... i feel like i'm so much in my head and i feel like a new person but its like the outside world isn't yet choosing to recognize it. i think i need a new environment again; maybe something as simple as a new job and some new friends and such. its so impossible by traditional logic that something can be so slow and so quick at the same time. well right now my thoughts are my guide and all i can do is pay attention to all of synchronicities. oddly, i have an incredibly positive feeling almost constantly, but every6thing is going a bit awry and out of control. perhaps the distinction between the internal world and the external is supposed to be telling me something also. well, enough of this vagueness. i'm off to do some journal writing.

2010-05-18T11:25:00.002-04:00

more unexpected turns of events, too numerous and too strange to be communicated with any sort of rational writing.

2010-04-25T23:12:00.003-04:00

so far everything has been pretty hectic, trying to get all our supplies for classes, and trying to keep up with the work for our photography class especially. it all seems a little bit administrative up to now, since we have pretty much one big project for each class this quarter instead of like 5 small ones for each class. we've been doing technical assignments and working out our ideas for our projects. i'm most excited about the photo project at this point. i'm sure the new media interactive video sculpture will end up appearing to be the most impressive to others, and perhaps the video art piece will as well, but i think i'm feeling the strongest connection to the photo piece. i'm doing some research on santiago sierra, as i was already feeling very influenced by his work as well as eleanor antin's work. anyhow i'm thinking about the piece as being largely performative in a save the world kind of way.

we got a really nice tax return, our biggest ever (thanks obama). of course its pretty much all gone now. we decided to buy art supplies, some new clothes (mine were getting quite worn), and tickets to bonnaroo and lollapalooza. also, we booked a hotel in chicago for lollapalooza, arriving an extra day early before the fest starts to explore the city a bit. i think this is going to be a great summer. i can't wait to roam the blue-noise streets of chicago, wander the late night shakedown buzz after dark lights of bonnaroo, get lost hiking in the labyrinth of glen helen in yellow springs, and especially feel the chill night air in columbus on a late night walk and the warm yellow flower breakfast walks through the victorian village... oh yes.

we're going to be up late tonight. amber is doing a stop motion / flash movie for our video class tomorrow, and i'm chilling on the couch in her studio beside her. ive got my video pretty resolved, although i'm a little worried parts of it may make people have motion sickness. it's kind of okay if it has that effect, so long as it isn't so dominant that it is distracting. i have to lay down the audio for it, also.

hmmm.... we were talking about how we used to always romanticize staying up all night making art, and how when someone else sort of requires you to do it it can be a little less fun. perhaps it is also less fun when you still have somewhere to be early in the morning, per someone else's requirement. a little sleeping in after a long crazy nights artistry was always a good feeling. but really its all okay because its kind of one of those things where even when you are tired and stressed and it sucks, its still really awesome in its own way. much better than working some silly job somewhere or doing nothing at all. i am kind of excited for when we get out of school and we can completely sort of self govern ourselves as artists. still, i'm enjoying what i've got while ive got it and really trying to get the most out of this experience, because after all it has been very positive and enlightening time for both of us. i feel like we are not the same people at all that we were even a year ago, let alone a few years ago. we've done a lot of growing.

anyways, i'm gonna stop all of this typing and see if i can help amber wrap up her video for the night. i'm tired! i'll bet she is too!

2010-03-22T13:38:00.004-04:00

spring break is here! it is such a relief to not have to worry about all kinds of deadlines and things for a week. the thing that is sort of bumming is that it is only a week. i don't know if we are going to get to go anywhere or do anything much. amber is going to get work done on her sleeve tomorrow. i'm pretty excited for her. shes getting an image from her own artwork on her arm and i think its going to be really fantastic and expressive. i need to probably go in and have them check out my ears as well. my left one looks pretty much like its healed normally, but the right one is still a little swollen around the piercing. i wanted to move up a size like a month ago, but i feel like ill be lucky if i don't have to go down a size in my right ear in order for it to heal properly. i guess i simply need to be very patient. anyhow also this week we are going to go over and hang out with jason and jenn and see their new place. theyve got a house down around the german village. and i think we are gonna try and go to yellow springs on whatever nice, sunny day there is to do some hiking. we don't have a lot of money so we might have to make some food to bring and skip the dinner and drinks at the tavern there. we spent maybe a bit too much last friday going out with the print dept at st. james in the italian village nearby here. we both had quite a few la fin du mondes, and everyone was a little drunk and laughing and howling about and such things. so i suppose it was worth it to have a pretty good time like that- i know i certainly needed it after this past quarter, it being as hard as it was, and with me pulling consecutive all nighters, literally not sleeping for three days in a row working on prints like a madman, only pausing to go work a shift at logans, then coming back to do more, then to that 10 hour critique where i tried to talk about my work in a state of confusion and exhaustion, along with a few others. let's not even get into the grad level art history class and all of the paper writing and attempts at studying, and the battles with one of the holography teachers over my freedoms in art making. also poor amber with her math class and her geology / meteorology scientific class and her only art class being that holography class. when i think about it all, i feel that much more relieved! ah. its good to be done with all of that, and i know that i'm ready to start something new soon, i just wish we had two weeks of resting and recentering before, but i will take what i can get, i'll take it as it comes.

spent all night last night watching the live feed of the house of rep. debating on the health care bill and voting on it. thankfully they passed it and going to the doctor will become something of a right and not just a privilege reserved for only all of the tidy white fence white collar 9 to 5 to the grave- ers, while the rest of us went years without even getting checkups or neglecting getting care for things that are wrong. too bad they couldn't get the public option but maybe sometime later, this is definitely a move in the right direction.

and so after a spot of reading some jack kerouac this morning and a nice extra long shower, and all of this after some nice well deserved sleeping in, i'm ready to go make a nice early afternoon breakfast with amber and listen to some nice music while the birds chirp out on the wet roofs outside of our windows. we're going to make the most of our time off this week.

2010-02-15T00:34:00.003-05:00

as of late ive been neglecting this blog. this is mostly for two reasons. the first is that i tend to like to fill this space with items that exist on a more magical level. sometimes i stick trivial things in as well, but likely because they are meaningful indicators into other things. i don't get to do a lot of traveling when i'm in school. although i could, i choose not to write about my art here, or mostly anywhere for that matter. etc etc etc. the second reason is that ive taken to writing mostly in a notebook, in stream of consciousness style. this would be writing that is not only much more inclusive and personal, but also of little interest to others, especially considering that it would be difficult to understand. i think that i often have the intention of writing everything there and then structuring certain parts of it together to put here. it hasn't happened that way yet. i'll let it be for now and if i write here, then i write here. if not then there is mystery, and i suppose the day-to-day crap will go on facebook. except now that i'm here i feel like writing a bit, so...

this quarter i'm taking a very interesting 20th century american art history course, but it is a grad level course and it's kicking my ass! i've also got a holography class with amber, in which the lectures are sort of fun, but the critiques are faring pretty primitive, much too literal, and ultimately useless. my real attention lies in my serigraphy class. it's a hard class, being a printmaking class. the critiques are absolutely the best you can find, though. i'm making work that i really love, and my latest piece seems to have been the result of years of evolution of my working with certain methods. i'm pretty excited to see where i take it from here.

next quarter we'll be taking 3 studios together again, just like the old days :) they are video art, bw photo ii, and new media (sort of interactive sculture).

can't wait for spring time, i want to see flowers everywhere!!
anyhow, peace.

holiday stuff

2009-12-29T13:08:00.003-05:00

christmas went well this year, so did winter solstice. looking forward to new years eve. i think we are gonna run around town a bit in the evening, maybe go to the ravari room and then end up at andrew from mas bagua's house party. i think amber originally wanted to get a cabin or go somewhere secluded in the woods or far away but we can probably do that when we have the means- in the mean time i'm happy just going out here in columbus.

just before winter solstice i had some epiphanies- i've been writing a lot lately and i've been pretty introspective and i think that i've sort of entered a new level of something. i'm still sort of meditating and reflecting on it all and what it means-- but i'm also not waiting until i 'figure it out' completely to let it affect me... anyhow i think that it's a really positive thing.

okay, well guess that's it for now,

the bfa and other good things

2009-11-14T01:36:00.005-05:00

yay so we got into the bfa program. i mean they tried to make it seem all intimidating and competitive saying they had way too many people applying and they can only take the very best. i don't know how true any of that was but i'm really happy that we both got accepted! amber's work has taken off drastically. she's been doing video installations and such and they've just really been top notch work. her mountains literally put me back west, and her dream machine was crazy. i liked my latest, as well. it was a mystical relic, a piece of alchemy working through the law of contagion. it produces introspection and individuation in the viewer- i think quite successfully. the critique for it went really well.

the french lit class has been good for us both. reading a lot of very inspiring and influential things, and also learning more about the origins of things that i already found inspiring, such as michel gondry's work, jean-pierre jeunet's le fabuleux destin d'amélie poulain, most certainly all of wes anderson's masterful work, as well as much more about the bohemian movements and the nasty bourgeois. my favorites so far have been arthur rambaud's poetry in illuminations and some of verlaine's poems. i also liked kate chopin's the awakening, although this was american french creole lit, but still interacting with the french literary movements.

next quarter i'm taking holography and an art history course. also, i'm taking another print class next quarter :S !! i don't know if it's a good idea or not, its serigraphy, so it shouldn't be too bad. it's with ian again. i just don't want the money, time, and life drained out of me again, but either way i know i'll make good work if i take it, so i'm going to. think it'll just be me and 3 print majors in the class so i'll be the odd one out. no one else in their right mind would probably volunteer for torture unless required.

so it was my birthday a few days ago. amber got me a trip to evolved which i haven't cashed in yet. don't know if i'm going to get another tattoo or stretch my earlobes, but i'm leaning toward doing the ears this time round. it was a good birthday, and i got a lot of good wishes from friends and such. you are only as old as you feel, so i decided for my birthday to turn 24 ;)

we got a pair of computers (laptops). one is a macbook, the other a dell. i'm hacking up the dell to turn it into a mac. actually it is hopefully going to run both windows and mac. i'm not very good at this kind of thing anymore, so we'll see what happens.

we went to yellow springs the other day and hiked. during we got sort of an idea for a gathering. i think we wanna do a winter solstice gathering in our place. our place is really conducive to that sort of energy and i think whether we have a lot of people or only a few it'll be really cool. haven't really developed any solid plans for that yet, but i'm kinda stoked.

i'm gonna finish messing with installing mac os on this dell for the night- i get a little further on it everyday only to hit another roadblock. i think i'm gonna go in the bedroom and do some sketches before sleep.

fall so far

2009-10-16T02:24:00.006-04:00

so far fall quarter has been okay. we've both got a sculpture class and a french lit class together. she has a basic math class and i have a physical anthropology class. we are doing our portfolio reviews this quarter also. that's a little stressfull. if we pass, we get to move on into taking mostly studio classes and if not then they kind of either recommend a different emphasis or kick you out or something. i don't know if i quite have enough work that i feel like i want to use for it. money is of course an issue keeping me from getting some more work done between now and then. also our computers are not doing great, they are getting old and each has different quirks and problems.

it is nice each having our own art studio here at home. mine kinda still looks like i just moved in, but i'll get to working on the room after the review. amber's studio looks awesome of course, it is super comfy in there and a nice place to chill. our nice little front rooms is currently serving as a tool and supply room, while the attic loft is a giant living room / dining room / play space. hopefully the front room will get transformed into something more comfy or useful and we can figure something out in part of the upstairs.

i've been playing music again in the last couple of days. singing too. it's nice, as i haven't really done much of it for a while, certainly not acoustic and most certainly no singing. amber's been playing a lot all summer and fall. i've been playing with her on occasion. i started playing on my own again after a really inspiring dream that i had. i don't have dreams of playing and singing on a stage ever, really, so it definitely stuck out to me as important.

i'm so glad we went on our journey this summer. so much has changed. its like i just know everything is gonna be okay- even that it's all gonna be great. it was certainly one of the best things we have ever done we both agree. i have some journal writings / scribblings from the road and from just thereafter that i will sort of go back and post into their proper time/date as best as my memory serves.

i want to go see monsters of folk somewhere this fall. jim james and conor oberst are both major influences and inspirations for me and i just think a quick trip to new york (or philadelphia) would be worth it. i actually would be okay with going to philadelphia to see them and then trying to go to new york and spend a week in december. i suppose it will be cold there but i'm sure that it is best i know such things. portland is just the same. sf will be warm and sunny, but right now i'm more interested in the other two and besides it is beyond our means, but then again so is everything. saw the flaming lips a few weeks ago down the street here at promowest. we got right up front of the stage, and wayne made such a magical show for us all. i'm glad we went. hopefully we can get on the road again soon and pay an overdue visit to some friends in west virginia. our car is getting a little old to be making the trip, but as long as it isn't winter, it will probably do ok. i miss some of our old friends and wish it were easier for us all to get together. i also want to go hiking before all of the trees undress. we'll probably have to skip class one day to go, but i think it is only fair- we should be allowed to go to yellow springs and enjoy some of the autumn-- well it has been pretty grey and rainy as of late, so perhaps by the time we can go it will get nicer.

well off to bed. i've got quite a bit of plaster sculpting to do tomorrow, plus a printmakers exhibit-opening night and then a party at a friends house.

portland

2009-08-28T03:00:00.000-04:00

2 nights ago slept in nm, then last night in so. cal. we barely made it. everything has just been so incredibly surreal, beyond words. tonight we gotta camp, tomorrow we'll come back into portland to explore.

late night ramblings from the road

2009-08-25T06:14:00.000-04:00

taken from a notebook:

we're driving through Arkansas right now. I drive all the way from Columbus to Nashville yesterday. Amber took over after Nashville but we got tired about an hour before Memphis. we slept a little while (sort of) at a pilot travle center but we both were a little too restless and amber ended up taking us off around 5 or 5:30. same truckers followed us out of the gas station and literally ran us off the road, into a construction zone. The one kept trying to hit us from behind while the one in front blocked our way. He passed us and he was driving a 'covenent transport' truck- one of those crazy christian trucking co.'s -- fucker! whatever- anyways we were worried b/c he was got in front of us and then ducked right back off into a rest area, so we thought he was trying to get back behind us. we were worried to pull back over anywhere to try to sleep some more so we just jetted hoping to lose him, and we flew the hell right out of retched tennesee. a rest area in arkansas was really nice with a little flower garden and a giant spider, the sun risingm the mist settling, and the cuteness / pleasantness of everything here (minus the hair in my egg mcmuffin) makes for a really good morning :) hoping to be near or in California by tonight to sleep.

back on the road tomorrow

2009-08-23T19:24:00.002-04:00

yes! we are leaving tomorrow morning, hitting the road. it seems so unreal still, but we are gathering up all of our money and packing a few changes of clothes, 2 pillows, 2 guitars, and peanut butter and jelly. we haven't gotten any music together for the trip as of yet, but that'll be on the todo list for tonite.

a journey

2009-08-20T10:27:00.002-04:00

we are trying really hard to go on a very important journey. we both feel strongly that we must go on a vision quest to portland to see natasha khan, someone we both consider to be a sort of shaman. we've really been struggling to come up with enough money to make this happen, and we've been working our asses off. if we can make the money that we need, we will not be sleeping in hotels or eating even fast food. we are going to leave with just enough money to pay for gas. we'll sleep in the car: in the desert on the way there and outside the city when we get there. not sure what we will eat yet. we'll only have three days to get there and three to get back. we are truthfully not even sure that it is possible, but it seems that no matter how much it looks like it isn't going to work out, it still somehow seems like we are meant to go.

yellow springs, the spell

2009-07-29T14:17:00.002-04:00

went to yellow springs yesterday and hiked and stuff. it was quite wonderful. got lost in the woods on the changing trails (as always) and found the edge of the fabled pine forest. we also found an enchanted looking tree. it was unlike all of the other trees, and was at the center of a ring of trees. upon finding our way out of the woods, we both felt our minds clearing. just like what connie said once about untagling wind chimes. i spotted a pretty large snake, as i seem to have an affinity for doing. walked the town in the sunset, had pizza and beer at the tavern, then went to peaches for an open mic. we haven't been to an open mic in a long time, particularly since the demise of vics. pretty sure it isn't quite the scene for us anymore, but there was a lot of good energy floating about the place, which was really good.

last night when we got back home i felt a lot of clarity, and i felt really inspired and motivated. i wanted to jump up today out of bed and get right to work on some art. when i got up today, i found myself getting overwhelmed with everything, everytime i tried to start on something. i have all the energy for it, but i seem to just keep jumping from thing to thing and spinning my wheels never really even getting a good start. this has been happening a lot lately. i think coming out of that intense quarter really has me overthinking everything that i approach to the point of paralysis. this makes it difficult to just begin doing anything, without much careful consideration... and probably an externally enforced deadline. i don't mind working like that from time to time, but i need to regain my spontaneity and just allow my self to be in the state of creation. the fact that i'm having trouble reaching this pure zen-like state makes the need for it to happen even greater. i must combat the spell that is upon me.

2009-07-25T09:24:00.001-04:00

going to see the dead weather tonight!! its gonna be awesome.

oh no

2009-07-22T01:30:00.002-04:00

they plowed over our backyard garden today. they cut almost everything down. they took the 12ft tall sunflowers, the morning glories, the day lillies, the moon flowers, the dianthus, tomato plants, a baby maple tree, a baby oak tree, etc etc etc. it looks like a vacant lot back there now. there is just a big open yard of dirt. they even tore down our lattice archway with the morning glories climbing around it. luckily, they left our bench swing, red chair, firepit, and lavender and clayomes (but only because we caught them in time and asked them to). i suppose it is at least a little more okay because i hadn't put as much into it this year as i had been the last couple of years, and we have some nice things growing out front as well. it's still pretty upsetting, though. they did it because we moved upstairs and some people are moving in downstairs and apparently they thought we 'didn't want any of that stuff back there anymore'. whatever. i guess we can plant some new stuff. it is rough seeing it like this though.

2009-07-14T02:39:00.002-04:00

we're starting to get more settled in to our new place, trying to finish unpacking and rearranging. we're both pretty stoked about it all. things are kinda sprawling along on a different level. we're trying to do all kinds of things this summer, and maybe even take another trip. we're looking at sf, portland, or chicago. amber really wants to see bat for lashes.

tomorrow we're going to get our car back and hang out with my family for a bit, then amber's family for the afternoon / evening. i hope her mom's feeling better. she is deathly allergic to onions and accidentally ate something with a small amount of them today at a restaurant. i guess she got quite sick and her face swelled up but it wasn't bad enough to need to go to the hospital. i'm excited, though to hang out with her parents. we don't get to see them very often, and they've just recently bought a house and moved over to bucyrus. it's very nice and i think they really like having people over.

also tomorrow night the new harry potter movie will be coming out. i'm so super excited about it.

ooh off to bed for me, have to get up early.

the universe always says yes

2009-06-19T10:34:00.002-04:00

wow
so we've been through some really hard times this spring. printmaking took all of our time even our sleep. we were pulling like 3-4 all nighters a week by the end and sleeping only a couple hours the remaining days. everywhere i looked somebody seemed to be saying something cynical, pessimistic, or offensive toward me. people around me seemed to have given up on their dreams, shrugging at their own unhappiness apathetically. everything seemed to be crashing down.

then i felt this really strong magical connection to this apartment upstairs and had a sort of vision of it. it became clear to me that we needed to let go of some things that were no longer working for us. amber wasn't so sure, but we did a reading and it was pretty clear there too, and we visited it again and she opened up to it. then just as i called to rent it out, someone else had put in an application on it, so it was reserved for them. we waited all weekend to see if the application would be denied or something. it was approved, so the people were going in to sign the lease that week... and we believe them to be frat boy types, throwing obnoxious football parties, shouting things like "yeah bro!", and drinking cheap domestic beer all over the lawn. bah! i was so confused as to why i would have such a feeling / vision. why would our reading even say specific things about it? why would we be presented with an opprotunity and then have the universe retract it??

in the midst of all this, i think we both felt pushed to a breaking point with the working and sleep deprivation. instead of a message of empowerment, i drew on my lithography plate a question of
'who is winning / losing' in a battle between me and the cynics (giant jagged rocks with mean faces, falling on my head). i tried to make it so that it was unclear whether i had some hidden internal superpower that would break the rocks or if they would simply crush me. i used sharpie. during the longh chemical process, something went awry and my image washed out considerably. the way it washed out, though was of particular interest. the image of me was almost completely gone, and the jagged edges of the rocks were no longer visible as dangerous things, but the faces in the rocks remained pretty clear. it was like a metaphor for my entire life at that point: the amswer to my question, i was losing. i was dissapearing. i printed it anyways, deciding that this was what was meant to show up, and deciding that the true expression had manifested itself onto the prints instead of my intended image.

as printmaking took more of our money, and it seemed almost impossible for the quarter to end, our financial state began to overshadow our bonnaroo plans. we wasted a few dollars on some lottery cards, hoping for a small sum. we had an impossible amount of work to do in a short time, no money, and we were both exhausted to the point of almost becoming ill. the sleep deprivation began producing hallucinations. the final critique for printmaking could also, we learned, not be moved as we had hoped and was scheduled for thursday morning from 10-6. we normally try to leave for bonnaroo wednesday night. we couldn't move it up even if everyone would have agreed on it, because there was so much work to be done, that moving it up even to wednesday would make all of this work completely impossible. we had to cancel our trip to west virginia, which we had been looking forward to. then, the week before finals week when we began trying to focus on the prize of bonnaroo, the transmission on our car went out. we were broke and barely had enough for the rent. we wouldn't have had much spending money as it was! we tried playing the scratch off lottery a few more times, hoping for just $500, to no avail.

we just kept our noses to the ground and worked on our final pieces and reflected, as suddenl;y, we felt really good about the artwork that we had made. amber and i really attained some new level of enlightenment about our own art through this whole experience! it feels so different!! suddenly it was like the sky opened up. the quarter ended, we somehow got all of our work done, and the mgmt for the apartment called us and said that those guys never came in and signed the lease- they strung them along for like 3 weeks, and then blew it off. we made arrangements to move there! :) everything seemed to be turning into this really positive thing! then, finally, money for bonnaroo did also fall out of the sky! i got a $1000 check in the mail from the accounting dept at the school because i had overpaid like a long time ago! we immediately rented a car and packed our things!

intuition says yes but the universe says no?

2009-05-15T19:17:00.002-04:00

what the fuck
i'm lost
we'll find out for sure

2009-05-13T01:43:00.002-04:00

almost done with school for the quarter. this one has been extremely rough- pulling 2 all nighters a week and only getting 3 hours of sleep the other nights... we've been really working hard. somehow no matter how much i want to complain about this, i feel this growing sense of accomplishment and that it will all be worth it. i feel like i've grown as an artist considerably and i think there is a new level that has been reached.

chris moved out from upstairs and we went up to roam about the empty space. i felt this strong, immediate connection with the energy there and i feel like i just want to move up there and leave this place behind. i think that as much as i love this apartment it doesn't work for me anymore. i talked to the property mgr and basically we wouldn't get charged an app fee or a deposit, and since we have a strong love for the magical back garden and porch and kitchen (which is really the ONLY thing that really works in this place for us), i feel like we can rent the whole house out for the summer, then let the downstairs go in late summer before school starts. i don't think amber is really eeling the same way about it, i think she doesn't want to let go of the back porch and kitchen at all, because she feels like she won't have anywhere to be- which is oddly how i feel now (especially with her need for isolation when she is making artwork or writing). there are sooooo many reasons why i think that the space would be more beneficial to us, both practical and metaphysical. i'm anxious, though, that the place will get rented out before we really have a chance to think about it or something and i'll have missed out on this opprotunity to make this major change (which i feel at this point is pretty necessary).

i've been trying to remember to post some of the work i've been doing on newroadcalling.com, but i've been so busy that i've only really posted the web art stuff i've done and nothing that amber has done. the summer will be good for getting all of this kind of stuff together, and also both of our portfolios, of course- both the ones for the BFA review we are doing in the fall as well as our personal portfolios.

this has been a really crazy month in particular, and i guess i don't really see it getting any easier. in fact i think i'm going to try and work as much as possible in th efree time left over, so that we'll have money for bonnaroo and potentially for rent on both apartments, should things work out that way. i think i can do it all- i've recently gained new confidence and understanding of what i'm capable of.

almost 5 in the morning

2009-04-30T04:43:00.002-04:00

its nearly 5 in the morning and ive just arrived home from the studio at the school... again. this is getting insane i do not know when we will ever get some sleep. it is like week after week after week, just project after project. we pulled a genuine all nighter for our last printmaking project, working for 29 straight hours and then returning home at 10 AM to shower and go straight back up to class for the critique. this one seems worse because we've already stayed up this late tonight, and we've each got a tremendous amount of work to go. the crit is friday at 1130am. i have not even mixed inks yet let alone put any colors down, and weve got drawing project and sketchbooks due for our drawing class at 530pm today(thurs). since we have stayed up so late working tonight i don't know if i will have the steam to do the same tomorrow (although i must). and then we must work hard this weekend b/c we are short on the rent, and then we have a critique next wednesday for our web art class. too much... not cool.

sp qtr

2009-03-31T11:07:00.003-04:00

we have studio classes every week day this quarter until 830pm except fri we get off at like 230. apparently our printmaking class is both extremely expensive and extremely time consuming. we are supposed to spend an extra 15-20 hrs a week outside of class working in the printmaking studios (not sure when we'll have time for that since we are basically in class all day every day but whatever). i guess we have some time on tuesday and thursday mornings to work on stuff. i'm excited about that class though, as we'll be learning tons of stuff like papermaking, lithography, screenprinting, etc etc etc. also we have a class that is sort of like web design combined with conceptual art. we are using the web as a medium for creating conceptual art, so for example interactive flash stuff, etc. tonite we have a life drawing class... you know the stereotypical nude figure drawing art school class. it'll be good as i've never been super great at drawing figures any other way than gesturally. plus i know amber will benefit because it'll be easier for her to sketch out her fashion and clothing designs. all of our classes are pretty exciting & definitely all going to be a lot of work. i got some more freelance work doing promo and live photos for a band. good to see that my portfolio is impressive to somebody. actually i think that i do a damn good job, and i don't have any trouble getting work when someone actually loks at my stuff, but perhaps i just am no good at networking - i don't know all of the right people like some folks. perhaps i need to learn how to be more sociable and charismatic. i don't know. i'm working on it. oh, we also found a model who needs promo photos done as well, and she'll probably be good to use in concept projects and such. she seems allright, has alternative / eclectic style, likes costume, and is not prudish. should work out just fine.

my mom is already asking me about grad school after this. i think she's worried we will be taking off too far away. she suggested cincinatti, but i know that we will not be staying in ohio. we havent really looked into a specific school but we're pretty much decided on where we are going. we haven't really gotten in to explaining this to our families or anything yet, because i'm not sure they would really understand at this point. amber's family thinks that columbus is too big a city and that we will be moving back to where they live when we are done with school here. i don't know why. my family thinks that we will stay here in columbus and get reasonable paying / somewhat-art-related jobs. i don't know why. i'm sure they would all be quick to point out that bigger cities cost a lot and that we already just scrape by here and that we will be far away from everyone, etc etc. we need to go where our careers/futures are both existant and respected, though. even in columbus people don't look at art (or music) as a real career. they think it is a hobby. so many people here just don't seem to care about anything. there are a few who do, but no matter how cool or amazing of a thing anyone does here, no one cares and everyone is super broke and defeated and they want to just sit and watch television and do what is comfortable. people outside of the village and campus are intolerant, prejudiced, and narrow minded- and we often forget that. columbus is cool but it's still ohio, i guess. anyway-

i'm getting new contacts and a pair of glasses on thursday. this is quite excellent because i havent been able to see properly now for a few months, having lost my glasses in abner the stationwagon years ago shortly before moving to canada, and also having just used up my last pair of contact lenses in december until they were not usable any longer and began scratching my eyes. since i am getting new glasses, i will be cutting my hair off a few weeks earlier than i usually would have. but it is okay. it is time anyway. speaking of hair, amber had me comb out most of the reat of her dreads the other night. we have been combing them out for a few weeks now (it is a long, difficult, painful process), but i just did the 9 on top this weekend. she has all straight hair except for three or four hiding underneath. i'm going to dye her roots for her today. i think she is pretty upset that she went ahead and took the top dreads out and wants me to put them back in. she does not want to look plain and she really liked having mostly straight hair around underneath and then the dreads around over top. ...... well she just kind of came bounding in and told me she's embracing her straight hair. she's trying on hats in the other room and playing with her hair and seems to be having a good time taking photos and such. she hasn't cried about her dreads at all today either. i guess we will see what she does ;)

ok that is all

finals

2009-03-18T11:41:00.003-04:00

we have another final this afternoon and one tomorrow morning. we are not used to this since we are used to having studio work and finishing projects for critiques. studying is boring! i'm not good at memorization either, but we're almost through it all, and tomorrow night we celebrate!

almost spring

2009-03-12T17:21:00.004-04:00

yayy- almost spring
wow a couple of weeks ago i felt like I was being stirred around by a giant supernatural spoon. now i think i'm definitely feeling the earth move beneath me. of course this is not necessarily bad- certainly changes are beginning- and changes are always good unless you try and fight them.

dreadful winter is finally over with and spring is starting to peek out. i want to enjoy all of the time we have left here in columbus, and i'm glad that we probably only have one or two more of these ohio winters before we are out of here. spring summer and fall we can deal with just fine, but winter is i'm trying not to get too anxious and live in the future or anything but i'm super excited about new york. i also know that we're not quite ready for it probably yet anyways, as we hardly utilize whats in the city around us, but hopefully we'll be doing more of that- i think were doing more of it already this year. anyways its still wonderful to think about and inspiring for me to enjoy the now as well.

i think maybe were going to skullys tonite and ravari on sat for the clampdown which was pretty cool last time. i've been wondering about going to ravari like next week b/c jacob and phil (& 2 others) are doing a weezer tribute show which will undoubtedly be awesome as everything they do is, but im still not sure what i think about it- guess ill just feel it out.

anyways glad this qtr is pretty much over. too much academic stuff! i'll be glad to get back to doing studio work :) and its getting to be much more fun and interesting and beneficial for us b/c we are getting so much deeper into the program that we are now into the more advanced classes and whatnot.

anyways im feeling pretty cheerful

at skullys the other night

2009-02-21T22:28:00.001-05:00

80s music rules

2009-02-02T17:19:00.003-05:00

so were about a month into the new year. i wanted really for some things to change this year. i wanted that last year too, and they did, although maybe not in the same ways i hoped or expected. this past year was really pretty full of surprises. many of the good, some bad, many interesting (but hard to say whether good or bad- maybe both).

got new phones

2009-01-07T20:40:00.001-05:00

We got new fones after like 5 years of having these old dinosaurs. I'm posting this from my phone to see how well it works.

break

2008-12-12T22:57:00.004-05:00

time for winter break. classes are over. this quarter was quite enjoyable. if only they could all be. next quarter may be a bit of a drag = no art classes. we couldnt sign up for classes because i hadnt paid all my tuition still (technically amber could have signed up but she waited for me). so now we are stuck taking some of our general eds. spring quater is gonna be the bomb tho. well do the opposite and take all art studio classes. were gonna try to get in a painting class with rob who we had for color theory this time.

Tonight.

2008-11-05T01:09:00.002-05:00

Joy. I'm completely taken aback. As I watched him speak to a crowd of a million people I knew this was one of the most significant moments in my life. I have ever been as proud of my country as I am tonight. Watching Barack Obama speak I knew that he really was someone I could believe in- and I truly do- not just as a politician- but as a person who I believe cares about people- everyone including myself, my wife, my neighbors, my family, everyone I'll ever meet, everyone. I watched him speak strongly and eloquently about unity, and my streaming tears spoke as loudly as my smile, and still I couldnt speak a word.

I'm so happy that our country can now take a new direction, to move on past the divisive, hurting society that Amber and I have had to live in for our entire adult lives. This is the dawning of a new hope for this country.

I'm so proud of my country and of people everywhere. This moment has inspired me greatly- not just because he won, but because the people all around me have stood up and made it happen. I am proud of my peers, my elders, and all of the youth out there especially. Their voices and their minds and their hearts have opened and shed light on a dark time, filling it with a new hope. When we act with love, we truly can do anything.

"Yes we can."

psocial

2008-08-23T16:40:00.003-04:00

going to a psocial tonite that andrew of mas bagua is putting on. its going to be on north campus. theyve got the aha collective and mas bagua playing and there is going to be raw food and oh man. we've got some chocolates from the deej. gonna be a crazy night

...reading and nervousness

2008-08-06T02:18:00.002-04:00

holy shit man another show tonite! oh man when the thing started it was crazy- the cat that went up before us was real mellow and kinda like jack johnson-ish or maybe whats his name [ john mayer ] anyways i felt like we were gonna go up there and blast everyones ears compared t o him because everyone was chillin listening to his mellow accoustic groove and we were gonna be all loud. neither of us were nervous before hand. setting up the gear, i plugged everything in and since there wasn't a sound guy (pete was busy in the back cooking) the board had the vocal all the way up from the last dude- the mellow soft spoken one, but amber's pedal board was set too loud for it and it SCREEECH fed back like crazy! i freaked and ripped the cord out and was actually so embarrassed for the 1st couple songs that i almost couldn't hardly play. about halfway into the set, pete came out and fixed the monitors and the levels so we could hear what the hell we were doing, and i chilled out a little more and started playin better and not staring at my shoes :) anyways i thought the last 1/2 of the set sounded great. we got someone offering to play bass (& maybe his friend to drum) for us. i think he was experienced enough a listener to hear what was put into the music - also we had anne trippin to our stuff which was fucking cool. another mission accomplished.

2008-07-27T02:41:00.002-04:00

hrmm so what to do with my life? everything seems to be falling into place right now and the usual hopeful but deep-down-disbelieving self seems to have given way once things have given that reassuring glimmer of hope that i have been waiting for and working for- for so long. i feel a sort of long-time-coming change has happened, but it seems to have happened less gradually than it maybe 'realistically' would- but after so much supression.
i feel like i've grown. i have a different perspective- seemingly everywhere- eyes, ears, mind, etc. it's exciting but also relieving. and i know that all the hard stuff isn't over. but i've got a reflection of progress as a faith booster/ i feel like i'm leaving finally on a journey that i've been planning for years and it's a bit scary but in a good way- the way it feels to start a new book, a new relationship, a new journey, a new road in life.
peace

happen

2008-07-26T02:35:00.000-04:00

its all happening! so exhilarating- our efforts have not been for nothing- we are really doing it. now. we have not and will not take no for an answer, we wont back down and those seven swords can eat our fucking wand dust because we will stand and fight.

flow of things for now

2008-07-09T00:30:00.002-04:00

hrmmm
been reading some u. s. anderson lately... interesting stuff from 1954. also finally getting around to the newer chuck klosterman that ive been meaning to get at for like a year. amber and i are both having trouble with the concepts of work and poverty manifesting into these obstacles for us. i wish i could say it's easy to be impoverished all of time, for even though we handle it with grace and even romanticize it for our bohemian selves, that doesn't mean it doesn't suck sometimes. we are having so many equipment related issues lately. we need so much music equipment, and most expensively a new com puter. we decided not to waste out money on another cheap pc, so were going to try to save up for an imac that will at least not physically crumble in our hands after a fortnight. weve also been having issues with managing our time in between periods working lots and then not working much. aaaand were trying to find ways to enrich and express co-existingly on our independent levels as well as collectively (as we have become so accustomed to). we have been reading more, writing more, trying to do more. i think we have been just waiting for this day to come when we can just wake up and have the place and all the stuff we need to do our art and music and writing and reading and expressing and impressing and etc etc. but if we keep putting that into the future, we'd be no different than any one else who does such things. i think we need to try to be the people we want to be / the people we already are - everyday. i think the lacking of materials and equipment is just getting used as an excuse for not doing this stuff, and i think its something we just have to overcome in what ever way necessary. we have access to computers at the school, or we have access to picking up shifts at work so we can save up for this shit. i decided that i'm going to do a day in the life of me. not what i do or what i have or who i have to be for anyone else, blah blah blah. i mean the person / spirit within me that i see and dream about. the person that i want to become outwardly that i already am inwardly. i don't need to save myself or any of my ideas for the future. those things are all brilliantly eternal and repleneshing and growing anew every moment. i won't spend myself. so, a day in the life of me. i want to start today, tomorrow, immediately, but i realizer that such an effort will wasted if not done whole heartedly, which could be hard when i'm serving tables for about half of the day. therefore i'm going to plan this on a full day off. i want to see what a day in the life of me is really like. until then weve been making an effort to make sure we are going out and supporting alot of local bands playin around and chattin it up with everyone in the scene. there are so many cool places at our disposal here in this city and we just don't utilize them enough, plus its good karma (vastly better put than networking, i think), and it's good inspiration.
whew! such a strange point in time for us! we are being tested and challenged in a big way, and though we have been hoping all along for everything to just break through and get a little easier, our intuition has told us that it will not happen this way. we have been overwhelmed and challenged by like seven fucking piercing swords but instead of running away even when we see no easy sailing, we pull out the magic fucking wands. ((just like the W.A.N.D.)) here's to us knowing what we are doing.

pirate

2008-07-05T02:51:00.002-04:00

saw pirate tonite at skully's. the two bands that opened for them were ok. both seemed a little josh-y (our code for christians in disguise). were actually quite good at spotting them, and havent been wrong yet. pirate was good, people had pirate flags as well as flags for random countries that were being tossed about. they are doing a free show at the newport and shooting it for a music video next saturday that i think were going to go to. also ran into jake - just being himself as always. we might go check out the event he's promoting tomorrow night; after party following the gallery hop at high five. maybe.

sound

2008-07-04T18:54:00.002-04:00

weve been so busy lately and luckily weve still been able to throw some practice time in there. we made some great progress with a couple songs the other nite and will try to continue doing so. kind of at the point where we want to expand into a full band so that we can start playing gigs as much as possible, but:

A. its so difficult to find a decent drummer or bassist. we dont even need someone who is extremely skilled as much as we need someone we feel connects with us and the music. Everyone who is available seems to be either a middle aged suburbanite looking to kill time or a metalhead just out of high school still too young to get into bars. No one weve noticed yet seems to fit even the genre of the music let alone shows promise as someone who shares a vision about music or art. The drummer is becoming extremely necessary at this point.

B. Our material is still too much of a folk-rock hybrid, and isn't yet exactly what we want it to become. We've started working on this, and seem to be doing some cool things- it actually sounds the way it was intended.

so what to do? we have had an intuitive feeling that the drummer we need will just be around and we should be observant and look for signs / keep the feelers out / the awareness up, rather than picking one out of a craigslist ad or rushing to find someone who isn't right. of coarse we've been needing one for a while now and it is becoming difficult to progress! so, what to do?!

last nite

2008-07-04T18:39:00.004-04:00

went to see brainbow, lions, and russian circles last nite.. doing a write up of that. brainbow and russian circles were awesome. lions... well they worked hard but i just dont think anybody was feeling it. they even tried crowd pleasing tricks like saying 'columbus, ohio' and 'ohio state university', and they kept trying to compensate for the lack of energy by having the sound guy turn shit up, but that just kinda made everyone plug their ears a little.

anyways, brainbow was fantastic! they were like 5 meditating spirits up there! russian circles (also all instrumental, but with only 3 members to brainbow's 5) were crazy- one change after another.. so much so that it was hard to tell where anything was ending or beginning. also it was good to see such a crowd for a late show here in columbus (and in the summer, no less!)- as the condos and valet barricaded bourgeous restaurants push all the real art and music out into the streets to be impounded every first and third thursday for street cleaning, thank the universe that there are still music-related gatherings in town involving more than just the bands and a handful of regulars.

going to see pirate tonite at skullys.

fri nite comfest

2008-06-28T02:24:00.003-04:00

brainow was awesome, we sat in the grass and just chilled on the vibe.

mas bagua blew our minds! andrew was crazy awesome and the whole band was wild. crazy pete and another guitarist (rob?) went mad up there. i thinmk pete was tripping !! then there was a time when andrews table leg gave way and all of his mixers, synthesizers, samplers, mics, bell and whisteles, etc went sliding, sliding, sliding off the way that spaghetti slides off a plate and there everytrhing was just spilling onto the stage, but just as it happened the band was quick and the drummer took off and took pete and rob and the bassist along. rob and pete almost immediately launched into some crazy backwards virtuoso psychedelia solos and everyone was jumping twice as high. it was like they floored it and they never missed a beat! andrew got the table back up all his gear back on it and smoothed back into the groove. amazing!

hookah

2008-06-05T00:08:00.002-04:00

we went friday nite to hookah and after standing and waiting in line for like 6 hours and missing the entire night's worth of music we left and drove back home for the night. there was certainly something else, though. we both strongly felt as if we shouldn't be there, and it definitely seemed a lot more shady than any other fest. we had been to. everyone seemed pretty damned intent on either getting fucked up, or selling stuff to people to make money. The next day we still had a lingering feeling of distrust for the whole thing (particularly me), but after squabbling over it all day and purchasing our brand new fender amp for our show the next friday. we decided we had enough money left over and the tickets were cheaper now, so we went. saturday night was pretty wild, but we were both pretty exhausted and i had some anxiety so we watched some of the music and headed back to the tent where we viewed the rest.

sunday was wonderful. we bummed around the camp sites and shops in the morning, and i accidentally haggled my way into getting 3 glass pieces for $15 when they were supposed to be like 10 or 15 a piece. thats including a bubbler that would sell for like 50+ at the import house. i felt a little bad because i was just trying to avoid spending too much so we had some money for food, so i talked them down to 2 for $18, was digging in my wallet for ones, to make $18 but at that point didn't want to use a $20 since i had already talked them down. all i else i could find was a ten and some straggling folded up ones stuck in between random papers and receipts in there so they felt for us as if that was all i had and gave me the 2 pieces we picked plus another for $15. after we walked away i even had amber fooled (accidentally) into thinking that we had spent everything on those. 'so we don't have anything for food tonite?' she asked sticking her bottom lip out and jokingly pouting. 'i still have over $40!" i whispered. that was the only time i'd ever really successfully haggled and felt guilty afterwards.

we saw the ragbirds who amber just loved, as well as ekoostik hookah who were freakin great. hookah has a very underworld glowy party type of atmosphere. there were also candles and campfires glowing everywhere (open fires allowed!) it was quite beautiful / magical at night.

first electric show!

2008-06-02T17:14:00.002-04:00

finally! it'd been a long time coming, but we did it! opened for two bands from new york and l.a.; gangi and electric tickle machine, as well as local mas bagua. the guys just left from d.c. the night before and this was their first stop on tour.

our set went well, and we were relatively calm / not too nervous / not freaking out. with the loss of our recent crate amp (blew tubes?) we had to hook both guitars into the fender amp, which was ok for some of the cleaner material, but when we both had a little drive or i was using an edgier effect, it seemed to blend the signals kinda funny. it was fun, though and sorta like jumpin in a pool or ripping off a bandaid, or something, now it feels like a giant weight has been lifted. its like we can actually focus on doing this stuff instead of having all of this blockage. we are considering trying to bring more bands in and open for them / put them up for the night. There seemed to be a good response from everyone and greg kept the bar open like an hour or two later than ive ever seen him do.

the guys took a while to get setup after us, probably because vics house sound isnt very good, and crazy pete wasn't helping too much. i think they had so much stuff plugged in that vic's mixer overheated and they had to put a fan on it to cool it down before they could play! meanwhile the house kept getting more and more packed... all turned out pretty well though. we collected donations (instead of cover) for the touring acts for gas $$ and they sold some cds. we were all up till like 5 in the morning chilling and whatnot in the backyard. they all crashed in various rooms- greg made us all free breakfast in the morning. ;)

well anyways i guess nows the time to start doing and being, and stop being so afraid of people / our own dreams / everything

feeling wonderful

hot energy balloon

2008-05-16T00:07:00.002-04:00

wow! had a great practice tonight. was starting to get worried there for a minute. we have a show coming up in like 2 weeks and things were coming along but not coming together... we had a couple discouraging practices where it seemed hard to make it through any of our material- even stuff we werent having problems with before...

but tonite we threw so much positive energy into it that we ran all the way through the set a few times and it sounded fantastic like never before! awesome.

oh man

2008-05-09T00:20:00.002-04:00

oh man did we ever do some good practicing today. we are all mad here is starting to sound great. it went from getting bumped from the setlist to probably the opening spot. funny how things work like that. we are making so much progress! amber is getting super smart and attentive musically!

try to remember baby try try try try try try try try

riding the good vibe

2008-05-02T18:38:00.002-04:00

been on a real good vibe lately. recently got the old hair cut, and amber made me a new necklace. i feel renewed, bolder, more open. it feels easier to be myself and likewise, im no longer afraid to do so. this seems to be going double for amber. actually i think the change in her inspired the change in me. im really proud of both of us, but especially her. it feels good to let go of all of that extra weight. its really exhaustive being self protective, self conscious, overly sensitive, socially anxious, defensive, secretive, and closed off (that all even sounds like an awful lot of work!!)

also our studies of modern music have been contributing much to our music. listening is good.

weve finally gotten a song recorded and uploaded to our myspace. we have recordings of some of our other material, but we are still reworking a lot of our stuff. we have a gig at vics on the 31st. we need a few pieces of new equipment before then, our current equipment not being very reliable / existent. weve been considering enlisting the contribution of a drummer as an addition to the band. we both agree that well find someone when were meant to, so were on the lookout for any signs for that to be happening.

anyway its all very exciting and feels like a new time

*light is faster than sound*

sunny

2008-04-23T10:52:00.002-04:00

wow its been so sunny and beautiful out lately. all the trees have flowers / blossoms on them. the city appears a happy place! our own garden is coming along slowly. we probably need to go buy some top soil and get some more done, but its already looking great.

spring quarter

2008-03-30T23:37:00.003-04:00

as we emerge from winter, amber and i find ourselves in the midst of a bunch of mass lecture classes. it's definitely nice to give ourselves a break from studio classes, especially since we always load ourselves up with too many at once. this gives us more time to work on our portfolios for the review in late may, but more importantly it gives us time to work on our own personal stuff, and most importantly our much neglected music.

also very exciting, we are taking a modern rock art/music history class much of which involves music theory, styles, etc of rock and its roots in blues and jazz.

amber is serving tables now over at the restaurant with me and we are doing a lot better financially. sure working at vics was cool for her in some ways but it just wasnt paying. literally. anyways its pretty cool actually having enough money to do things again. we've been hardly able to pay the rent&bills for nearly a year, so to actually have a little left over after paying stuff is pretty cool.

been doing a lot of summer planning. we have some cool stuff mapped out for ourselves- all pretty ambitious, but if it all works, it will be great as can be. also been missing wv and our friends there, especially after our recent visit to yellow springs...

all for now

blizzard

2008-03-09T19:53:00.004-04:00

our car, stella, just after the blizzard :O

Hurray!

2008-02-25T20:50:00.005-05:00

Up at the lab now workin on one of my final projects. It's gonna be sweet. Spent today & last night helping amber dread her hair. She started it once but we didn't get the dread wax in time, so she took 'em out and started over. That's okay though, because we ordered some good products online rather than getting some stuff at walmart, so they'll turn out nicely. We are gonna finish the back-combing when we get home ;)

The quarters almost over! This quarter was pretty fun. We got to dig into all kindsa stuff. Pretty excited about where we can go from here...

Artist Statement

2008-02-18T13:45:00.002-05:00

Had to write an artist statement for a project I'm working on at OSU. After I wrote it, I realized that I kind of like it. Anyway, here it is:

As an artist, I want to communicate to people all of the freedoms which they already posses. I wish to use my art to help other people discover things about themselves, and to help them initiate self growth and self creation. The material world is full of distractions and self-manifested restrictions. I want to convince people that they do not need to live in fear, letting imaginary rules and imaginary boundaries rule their lives.

I want to share the joy that I have experienced in my own self-liberation, because all of this is what creating both art and music does for me. It is a channel of expression, a communication between others and myself, and between myself and myself. It is also one of the most important elements of my relationship with my wife, and this is why we work together as a single, powerful entity on all of our personal projects. It is a way of life for us, and concerns about our future are only that we will always be continuing to better ourselves, our communication with ourselves, with each other, with other people, our connection to everything; the entire universe.

Lastly, I completely believe in the revolution (call it underground, indie, whatever) that is happening all around us in which the people are rejecting the commercial crap that we are being force-fed, and starting to create our own world to live in. No institution, no corporation, no industry, no structure should be stealing away the waking lives of living, breathing people. Artists do not need to be a special group of 'gifted' or 'talented' people who have been filtered by some established and trusted system. We are all the artists, and I'm going to TELL EVERYONE.

School, Music, etc

2008-01-15T13:29:00.000-05:00

We're learning quite a bit from our classes this quarter, and being pretty productive with all of it already. It's so nice to have some art/tech courses instead of just fine arts. I think we got ALOT out of all the fine art stuff last quarter, but we definitely have more of a connection with all the possibilities technology has to offer.

We've been fine tuning some new music, wanting to play some shows around. A few local bands have been offering to let us open for them at some of their shows, so we are trying to prepare for that. Still haven't done any recording but we are both okay with that, as we are making so much progress with the songwriting and practices.

Anyhow, I have more work to do, so back to it.

New Year

2008-01-02T23:46:00.000-05:00

Yeaaah

This is going to be a very auspicious year...
I'm ecstatic!

(dancing)

holidays

2007-12-27T12:21:00.001-05:00

this year, amber and i went on a walk on the night of winter solstice. it was unseasonably warm that night but very windy, and there were parties going on around the village. we walked by one house that had a giant peace sign formed from xmas lights and little paper bags with tea lights lining the porch steps and walkway. as we cut down the narrow brick alleyway, we saw a fenced in yard out back complete with party noises that included: laughing, guitar playing, drumming, chatting, howling, etc. this put us in the mindset even further so after completing our walk, we returned home with some wine and had our own little shindig with music and discussions about the light beginning to defeat the darkness. anyways it was really nice.

christmas, seeming not so exciting as it approached, actually turned out to be really nice this year. there were no bad energies and no drama from either of our families. we (and amber's mom too) did kind of get 'busted' by amber's younger sister, but nothing conclusive enough to accuse- i'm sure she'll figure us out some day, but she'll have to get over it. other than that, everyone was really fun to hang out with. even my sister and her husband were pretty jolly.

amber and i, upon buying gifts for everyone else could not afford to get each other anything, so we decided to move our gift exchanging back a week to new years eve, which i think we both agree is better in some ways anyways. i think we both agree that new years has a lot of magical and symbolic properties about it that are very important to us. not sure what we are doing as of yet for new years eve. cowboy hillbilly hippie folk band is playing at vics or ekoostik hookah is playing at the newport. not sure if i have to work new years day or not.

i sort of wanted to be free from this corporate bullshit job by the end of this year, i guess it's too bad i don't have something better lined up to start in january because i could just leave my current job and have new years off completely. i'm gonna have to change jobs anyways: serving tables in jan, feb, and march at this place is pretty worthless. i am getting some portfolios together- going to apply to shoot for the lantern, and try to find some design work around town.

school is starting on the 3rd and even though i know we wish we had a longer break, we are both pretty excited about this quarter. last quarter was like a fine-art-foundation-boot camp or something, but this one will be all art-tech and we will be doing some pretty cool stuff :)

we're also both really excited about this new year coming up. we feel a lot of good things coming, and we are really happy with our personal and spiritual progress for this year. we both feel wiser and we've done so much growing. we are both more ourselves now than ever. also: all the work that we have been putting in to our art and music (and all the struggle we've faced as a result of it) is finally starting to show results, so with a sigh of relief, we know that we've been doing the right thing for us all along and it will all work out for us.

all for now :)

.....

2007-12-17T14:40:00.000-05:00

....
the barricaded
speak fortress, sanctuary
while forces battle
....

Free!

2007-12-07T11:44:00.000-05:00

ha! on break from school!
oh! the things we will do!

2 1/3 more days of school

2007-11-27T11:37:00.000-05:00

wednesday, friday, small part of monday!
we are greatly looking forward to taking a much needed break!

whew!

maybe this ohio winter won't be so bad

2007-11-13T13:44:00.000-05:00

went to an old friends house last night downtown and we watched the concert for george. also we listened to george harrison's second studio album- living in the material world- on vinyl. our friend has a pretty extensive record collection. anyways it was cool to hang with someone who isn't preachy or weepy or completely self-absorbed (it's kind of been a while). also ran into someone i used to work with who used to be a firefighter, now a journalist, and traveling. he seems pretty happy and its pretty cool to see some personal evolution taking place there.

we're doing better with school projects not kicking our ass. we seem to be through the worst. did a new tarot card reading recently that also seems to agree with this. still no money, but we have food and house, so who cares?
today is a good day. beautiful colors in the leaves and warm sun beams all about.

peace to all.

goin on...

2007-11-04T21:38:00.000-05:00

just goin on...

fighting back

2007-10-30T12:28:00.000-04:00

the past couple of days have been interesting for me. things are kind of coming to a boiling point, and people are moving into positions to try and break us with their imaginary weapons. sunday, i started fighting back. two days in a row i have had to be backed into a corner where i had no choice but to defend myself, and i've had flex my metaphysical muscles a little. why do people think that because we are young, that this means we are ignorant or inexperienced or what have you... ? everyone mistakes my silence for ignorance, but i am being humble. i listen to people tell me how to be an artist, how to make money, how to be spiritual, how to do this and that,.. all from people who can't get it together themselves. they are talking for their own sake, not mine. and i'm listening for their sake. you can tell that the thought never occurs to them that i might actually have something to say at all, let alone something that is more meaningful than their petty shit. anyone who needs to boost their own ego or maybe reassure themselves of something need not use me right now. i'm running out of much normally ample patience, and i'm tired of being used.

i've figured something out, though. people are bitter toward us because they cannot work out in their head how we get away with living outside of society's rules. they think we don't suffer any consequences for our choices, but they are wrong. the consequences are actually created by the bitter bystanders themselves. they have been treated unfairly for breaking out of societies boundaries, so when they see someone else do it, they say 'well if i couldn't do it you can't either'. what they do not understand is that we do not live in fear of consequence as they do, and therefore we do not let imaginary rules and imaginary boundaries rule our lives. sure, we take crap for our lifestyles, and sometimes things get hard, but this is nothing compared with the benefits that we receive: benefits which are infinite, transcending time, space, matter, rules, observations, etc etc etc. we have been given so many wonderful gifts that are infinitely more powerful than any rule, any fear or anger, any insecurity, and certainly any asshole with some false material-given sense of power.

these people and their rules have no real power over us. we are ALL as free as we believe we are.

thank you to wayne coyne (and the w.a.n.d) for teaching me this. i aspire to spread such beautiful messages of hope and love.

feeling weary

2007-10-28T00:43:00.000-04:00

mean people suck
glad i'm not one of them

experiment in time travel #2

2007-10-20T17:46:00.001-04:00

thursday night well after midnight, we had been working on school work since the minute we got up in the morning, and we still had not even started another project that was due the next day. amber was recovering from a cold, i was falling ill with one, we were tired and essentially ran out of food in the house. upset and discouraged (starting to freak out), we decided to go hang out with some friends in the back yard for a bit to clear our minds. after spending a wonderful hour outside, it was now even later and we decided to make coffee and get back to work. after coming inside, we completed about 8 hours worth of work in roughly ten minutes. we were still up late enough to only get about 3 or 4 hours of sleep, but the next day we both were recovered from our colds (i never even fully got one) and all the anxiety we felt about school had been lifted. we had a great day :) we're lucky that amber is a genius and has mystical powers. this is our second time travel, the first being at a may day festival in west virginia. yes, one can transcend time and space if the mindset is right.

more projects

2007-10-17T18:28:00.000-04:00

have about 20 hours worth of work to do in the next 36 hours. worn down. ambers sick and i'm getting there.

90 degrees, 70 degrees, 40 degrees; ohio

2007-10-12T18:26:00.000-04:00

so after a long spell of 93 degree days, we are instantly zapped down to the 40s and 50s. this seems to have made everyone either tired or sick. luckily, amber and i are just tired. classes are rolling along much smoother now. haven't pulled any all nighters this week :)

now that connie has moved out, our secret garden is all that remains outside the cafe. the vibe is changing around here a bit, not necessarily for better or worse, but incomparably different. there are still lots of good folks around and now (hopefully) some of the drama has subsided. there have been an alarming number of disturbances since the end of summer involving so many good people. we are so fortunate to be a part of this family. i can only hope that harmony can be restored for everyone. amber and i are trying to keep the community at peace. the consciousness of this place and these people is so powerful, and capable of doing so much good.

anyways, having a fire tonight out back. hoping to do some chillin outside.

wire

2007-10-05T01:51:00.000-04:00

ugh. its late. still sculpting. amber too. my hands are blistering from this wire. i gotta just relax- we are doing much too much work here.

anniversary

2007-09-27T12:50:00.000-04:00

10 years together! 4 of them we've been married!

how to melt your brain

2007-09-26T17:16:00.000-04:00

spend all your time in studio classes. no books, lectures, or reading; just work, work and more (art)work. : ]

School, bike, etc

2007-09-23T21:46:00.000-04:00

Well, this week was our first week of school. We have 3 nine hour days. The other 2 days we pretty much are using to work on our art projects for those classes. It's all pretty demanding. We've been pretty rushed the last week and already had to pull one all-nighter to finish a project- mostly because we spent that whole day running around town to different art stores looking for supplies on foot- our car is unusable. We took it for some repairs and were without it all week. Upon its return we learned that the rear tires were concealing some pretty bad wear on the insides. The steel belts were coming through and the tires were separating. Needless to say it's much too dangerous to continue driving, hence all the running around on foot. It would have been nice to have my bike for all this; too bad some asshole had to steal it. I've seen the guy wondering around out back and trying to get into our basement doors to sleep. He steals other peoples' bikes, so I would assume he stole mine. Well he's an asshole and he's aggressive, too, and although I'm not a violent person, I can't have him trying to get in the house. If I see him back there trying to open those doors, I'm gonna kick his ass hard.

Now that all the venting is over, hopefully this next week will be a little more chill. Whew. Our cat misses us. OOh, but I AM getting a new bike this week, and it is new, but I'm going to cover that shiny new paint with a few layers of a vintage matte color. Not only will it look cooler, but also (and more importantly) it will look crappier. This makes it more desirable to me and less desirable to others. I'm keeping it indoors. So fuck off, neon ron.

Anyways, its now tetris and tea time ;)

west virginia

2007-09-15T01:14:00.000-04:00

(transferred from a notebook)
on the road again.
yes, it feels good.

we are stopped at a rest area a little ways outside of charleston. we had planned on arriving at the festival early this evening and setting up camp there, but we had some car trouble that caused us delays. lucky for us, it didn't stop us from coming altogether, but the problem is not resolved, so there are some negative possibilities regarding our return to columbus. this is our first return back to west virginia since we left over a year ago. this rest area is a comfort and has welcomed us in with good vibrations all the way from the highway. we considered driving all night, but for some reason, despite all of my nervous energy, it felt right to stop and join our friends in the morning bright and early. there is something about sleeping in the car that feels like home to me (both of us, really). who needs hotels? the car is like a warm fire or going to grandma's house; yes what a comfort.

amber and i had a lot of time to talk on the way down. we expressed a lo of things regarding not only the present situation, but also many other things back home: school, sanctuary, wise men, self defense, the bus book, the perverted taoist, the mentally challenged intellectual nietzsche reader, momma's boys, our van, metaphysical roads, and tarot card readings. we have both learned much from this summers divine agenda, just as we learned much from our springtime. strong connections have been made which will produce fruits of good energy.

Life creates life.

yesterday / next week

2007-09-08T11:07:00.001-04:00

there was some kind of weird energy in columbus yesterday. both amber and i felt it. not quite sure what the source was, but it has moved on.

on the lighter side, next week will be a time of great changes. we are planning to revisit our brothers and sisters in wv and and enjoy the festivities at their festival, all of which could not come at a better time; a prelude to a new quarter at school, which starts 2 days later.

lunar eclipse

2007-08-28T17:13:00.000-04:00

this morning at 5:30 or so, amber and i got up and went outside to watch the total lunar eclipse. about halfway through, the sun began drawing close to our side of the horizon and it faded, but the reddish beauty against the ink-blue sky was still amazing.

travelers

2007-08-28T00:25:00.000-04:00

the other night, two young men appeared around here. evidently, one was from new york and left for california because he said that god told him to. the other was from somewhere in the midwest headed for new york, where he planned to fly to isreal- because god told him to. I guess they just met at the peace rally downtown and connie brought them back here. they both left on the same day and said they were told not to bring anything. they weren't quite sure what it meant that they ran into each other, so they spent the last half of the week at connie's house and around outside. I think connie offered them meals like mac and cheese and such. they hung around talking to everyone and tried to figure out if they were supposed to join up and go somewhere together. one of them seemed very interested in talking with us and made an instant connection. eventually, they decided that they each needed to fulfill their own part of the task or plan, and last night or early this morning, with much emotion all around, they each left on their journeys. so here is to adam and jim. we hope you find happiness and enlightenment on your journeys.

the back-back-forty

2007-08-21T17:18:00.000-04:00

our secret garden...

kitchens are cool

2007-08-15T00:17:00.000-04:00

There is nothing really quite like hanging out in the kitchen. I feel like this is sort of true no matter where you go. You could have a huge living space, and a closet for a kitchen, and everyone would still want to cram in there.

:)

influences + inspiration

2007-08-11T00:45:00.000-04:00

Our cd collection is growing rapidly, and we are really learning a lot. We are spending the summer surrounding ourselves with things and people that are teaching us new things. Plus it kind of feels like Colin Meloy, Wayne Coyne, Meg White, Jimmy Page, and Jim James have kinda been sharing some secrets from afar. We got rid of the cable in June, and I'm kinda glad. Visual endevours have been kinda mystic/trippy lately: Star Wars, Tetris, Almost Famous, anime, Documentaries, 70's and 80's cartoons.

Our back yard is like the new central hub-hangout area for the Victorians folk. There are like 2-10 people out back at any given time. Many of them have a lot of things to say that we could learn from, but even just the experience of hanging out with them is really wonderful.

landlords and recordings

2007-08-08T18:06:00.000-04:00

Our favorite neighbor (and green-thumb / earth mother) Connie, is being removed from her apartment because the new owner wants to rent exclusively to med students (and apparently NOT to hippies). Landlords suck. I guess amber and i will have to host the backyard hangout all the time now, and with 1/2 the space. Well, I guess we've got to defend our scene here. Amber bartending at Victorians now is great for that, because she can help initiate things.

Oh, but we jammed into some wicked recordings late last night :) We keep trying to get some good recordings of what we have but every time we try, we end up writing new material and jamming on that all night. Anyways, I know its easy to become anxious, but if its time to write now, then rite we must, and I guess the time will come later to finally go and lay down some nice, clean recordings.

Recently

2007-07-16T18:38:00.000-04:00

Saturday afternoon Amber and I went on a photo shoot. We each took some shots. Amber is an amazing photographer. Also later that night had an interesting time at a dinner party. Wine and sparklers are always a good time.

Sunday we wondered around at some antique stores in Clintonville- Also picked up a pretty bad-ass autumn jacket for amber. At the Antique Mall (I know antique mall sounds lame, but it's pretty sweet; it's a century old building filled with retro furniture and vintage clothing from basement to loft - anyways -) we found some Rainbow Bright playing cards printed in 1983 with which we will adorn a wall or something.

I finally laid down a sub-flooring in the basement and soon we'll be able to lay the wood for the floor. We have been carefully gathering vintage furniture, and scrap wood for the bar and stage. It will be completely fantastic... well, it'll be at the least both charming and insane. I can only hope.

Lollapalooza is coming up very shortly, and we are gonna try to come up with the funds to go to it. Luckily, we already have someone's apartment in downtown Chicago to stay at, and we'll probably take the bus, we just need tickets.

Off to a veggie cook out now and later maybe a nice nightly walk around the city and some website work or some recording.

July Third

2007-07-03T21:19:00.000-04:00

Amber and I got a gig playing a benefit for (three) tigers and (two) lions. Looking forward to that. Its July third and they're doing the fireworks here in Columbus. I'm sitting at the coffee shop, amber's working behind the counter. I'm working on some art and website stuff in photoshop. It's nice outside; good night for a walk about town. Anyways, nothing else, really.

bonnaroo here we come!

2007-06-13T14:06:00.000-04:00

flaming lips are sure to blow everyone away...
were also looking forward to the decemberists quite a bit
shooting with a digital slr this year instead of film so i can get more shots, better shots
plus both of us being photographers now, we'll get a lot of crazy cool stuff.
oh man, its so hot. no a/c in the car- cant wait to get on the road, though.
love to all

Bonnaroooo in 3 days

2007-06-11T11:38:00.000-04:00

Super excited. Time for inspiration, time for meeting old friends.
I feel very balanced.

Gallery Showing

2007-05-31T19:33:00.000-04:00

Tonight was the opening night of our gallery exhibition. Both Amber and I have pieces showing, and our art was selected out of quite a large group. I'm pretty excited about it- I think it's indicative of where we are headed and all. It was great to see our stuff actually in a gallery and watch people wandering in and looking. It's certainly gratifying to see the fruits of the labors. Also now we each have something to add to the CV and pieces for portfolios.

Cirque du soleil last night was sweet; a relaxing distraction; a celebration upon learning our artwork got accepted in the gallery; an inspiring, rejuvenating experience ;)

Also excited for summer; replacing school time with music time; hanging out; hiking and related etcs.

Also: Amber is a genius.

That is all :)

:P

2007-05-27T11:58:00.000-04:00

Sweet bonnaroo in 17 days! The schedule is out and we've been mapping out our plans which we will probably only loosely follow- exciting!

We are we submitting our artwork to be juried for a gallery on wednesday! Then wednesday night after thats stress is lifted, cirque du soleil!

Still have a photo project to complete. 2 more days of actual classes. 6 if you count finals. oh stress be gone! :)

Electric Yikes

2007-05-09T00:01:00.000-04:00

Quickly working our way through this quarter! We are now preparing for our final projects for photography, photoshop, and acting. Kind of a lot of work all at once... It's cool though, we're pulling through (and not working much at our jobs ;) ) Soon it will be time to submit our work for the juried exhibition and I think that's when the pressure will start to cook us. Still, I think we know where we're headed 'for real' now.

We've got so much stuff packed into everyday. We have more art projects than humanly possible going simultaneously between school and stuff we are privately working on and our music, etc. One of these days I'll catch up on everything. I'm stayin up late just to vent all this out. I gotta say, though, I love staying busy like this. It may feel like there's not enough time for everything, but that's cause a lot is getting done. It's pretty satisfying.

I'm so proud of amber, too. The artwork she's been producing is amazing. She's really learning a lot and she's finding out a lot of new things about how she likes to create that art. I think she's surprised herself. It's a really cool time for her.

We have a ton of shows to go to in just the next month alone. And lots of theatre: thursday the childrens' hour, next thursday mary stuart, next next wednesday cirque de soleil, and THAT shall be the grandest!

Just after finals are over we are packing up for the grandest event of the year: bonnaroo!

-thats not all, but all i have energy for-

May Day

2007-05-02T00:46:00.000-04:00

,.-~'(_mayday_)'~-.,

A magical adventure, and a time for fond remembering :)

Beautiful day today, and we closed the night by doing some recording with our new equipment which I must say is quite 'pimp'. I think that means sweet. Anyways class tomorrow and then we're gonna blow some money probably. Haha.

Happy Spring

2007-04-27T23:25:00.000-04:00

Everything is going so well!

P.S.
websites are almost up for evolumusic and newroadcallling... finally!

First Show!

2007-04-16T00:14:00.000-04:00

We had our first show on thursday! I guess it was a long time coming, too. We played mostly new material. Since it was at a coffee shop on campus, there were people reading and whatnot, but luckily we had a great group of folks who came and listened and supported us ;) We were both kind of nervous, and I felt like a sort of robot/ape playing the lead part for the first song: stiff and clumsy, but amber's vocals began coming out more and I loosened up and we got a pretty good flow going. People loved it. Amber sang beautifully. We did a 45 min set of originals, and then a jam complete with dulcimer, didgeridoo, drums, and various percussive instruments. I think someone has pictures of the whole set.

Afterwards we went to a party and everyone was so super cool to us. They all said they really dug it and they want to come see us next time we play out. They even went on about how they loved the lyrics, which is awesome. I love that some people really listen! We couldn't have hoped for a better reaction.

Afterwards, it seemed (just as I knew it would) so much easier than it had been. We put a lot of work and a lot of time into our music, but always behind closed doors. We were always too afraid to share it. We pushed ourselves in the direction so many times, but something always stood in our way. Now it really seems like the seal has been broken and all that fear is conquered. I'm sure we'll still get nervous sometimes, but nothing as overwhelming as the first time.

A bit of symbolism here: We got tattoos about 2 weeks ago partially for this occasion and Amber's tattoo was pretty scabbed over and looked crazy (not normal). She was afraid that she had a reaction to the thicker pigments or something and that it would be scarred underneath. She simultaneously began freaking out nervous about the show. As the tattoo healed, her attitude became more positive. The entire tattoo was revealed, however, when the final piece of scab was ripped off about 5 minutes before our set when she reached in a bag to get out a setlist or something. I told her it was sort of like a band aid, or jumping in a pool. Now she can move on past the fear and express her true self.

Also, our projects for photography and digital were due this week. I'm pretty proud of mine; especially my digital project. It was very well received and I have a feeling I may be chosen to take this one to the gallery exhibition in May. Way too soon to tell, though.

I'm just so glad that everything is taking off. It feels wonderful for us both to be doing all of these amazing things.

Tattoo Week

2007-03-31T23:48:00.000-04:00

Yes this week was the first week of school and I must say I feel so invigorated! My energy level is really through the roof! Oddly enough I ended up becoming "theatre people", oh yes I have declared a major in theatre and at a later time I will probably double it up with communications and stick in a minor in vis comm design.

Other than chilling out, freaking out, and getting super emotional all at the same time, amber and I went to evolved and got tattoos together. They look sweet and I think they will serve to remind and inspire us :) They aren't quite healed yet so maybe pictures of them later.

Have some design projects to work on today. But oh how the rent sneaks up on you. Well maybe I will empty my thoughts tonight after I've done my work and gone to work.

Warm Weather, Good News

2007-03-09T21:32:00.000-05:00

It was in the 70's outside today: freakishly warm! Everyone was out and about walking, laying on their roof, etc. It put everyone in summer mode. Too bad it's still early March and I'm pretty sure we wont get out of the month without more snow. Ran into an old friend while out walking on High St. and we talked about Bonnaroo and a couple other festivals this summer.

Anyways, on to the best news: I'm starting back to school in roughly two weeks. I am super-stoked. I'm going to try to take the same classes as Amber this quarter; an acting class, a dig media class and a dig photography class.

Our 1st show is also coming up in about a month. We decided to play all originals, and we don't quite have enough material to fill the set yet, but we're writing quite a bit. It would be nice to have enough material to be somewhat selective and still fill the 2 hours. I think we are doing a really good job managing ourselves and planning things for the band, but right now time is so tight that the practicing is a bit too scarce for our taste. Once I start back to school, I won't be working 50 hr weeks anymore and we will have almost every night to work on things.

Artist Steev Richter is soon coming back to Ohio and we plan on running back to Mansfield to catch a show. Steev was one of my original inspirations for becoming a musician.

The Walkmen are playing at Little Brothers tomorrow night and it will be awesome. Its a small enough venue to make the show a bit more personal.

Still haven't got the Evolu website up. Feb is always our poorest month, with Jan at a close second. Soon we'll pay all those looming gas bills off and we'll be back on track (meaning we will still have no money, but it will be a more flexible state of poverty) and we will be getting things done. A change of priority is in order and this summer, we will have to live humbly so that we can travel and put both time and resource into our music and art. It will also help to get those student aid refund checks back from the school. Yeah, those are great. Anyways, website, myspace, sonicbids, etc. will hopefully all be done before our show. We are also eye-ing a new mixer and some better mics for recording. There is a slim chance of getting a PA for touring this summer, but this may prove to be both unattainable and unnecessary. We are also anticipating the arrival of our screen printer and we've got a good source for clothing.

Amber and I seem to be getting a better idea about where we really want to go with our schooling and are starting to compile some long term goals. Seems like everything is a lot more within our reach and we seem to be making the right contacts and advancing. We don't feel so much like outsiders in the scene and we aren't in anyone's shadow. It feels good and hopeful.

Freezing

2007-02-06T21:34:00.000-05:00

It is crazy cold outside. It's been single digits by day and less by night and in our apartment it has been getting down to like 62. It's kind of blizzardy outside at the moment. I'm actually sitting in the coffee shop where amber works because its much warmer and more comfy here than at home. I'm listening through headphones to a long and inspiring recording of a jam that we held the other night. We kind of locked ourselves in this weekend and played, etc. We set up the living room as the studio and wrote some new material, jammed, basically just had an all together agreeable and enjoyable time. Listening closely to these recordings, makes me want to go back and replay some of this crazy stuff in sobriety.

Oh other news- we've got a gig in April (acoustic) so we have focused our energy on writing new (and revising old) acoustic material. We're building up a 2-3 set comprised of nearly if not all originals. We are probably bringing back some material we wrote in Toronto and maybe one written in West Virginia, but the bulk of the set will be new stuff (yay!)

Anyways, were still 'on the verge' of getting the website up. Really the whole thing has been designed It just needs like more words, and oh yeah we need to pay for it (money issues always getting in the way).

Also more good news- I've found myself a lot more centered lately and much less bitter about things that have come and gone. Much cooler to not have anger directed toward an entire subculture, especially one that I used to be a very devoted member of. I know now (I've known all along) that I really need to embrace ALL things that are a part of me. Good things developing all the time :)

Tired enough to have spelling problems

2007-01-25T01:35:00.000-05:00

The other night Amber and I stayed up all night listening to all of our old lo-fi recordings from Toronto, which were of the first songs we had written together. We were delighted and inspired and upon all of this I think we are really beginning to lose the resentment we hold toward West Virginia, hippyism, and the way we used to be in general. I think that even though our style has evolved considerably we are once again seeing the value and wisdom in the people we once were.

Amber's birthday came and I bought her a vintage Fender Telecaster so that she may rock out on it instead of on her teleacoustic or folking on her full body acoustic. Amber also wrote a song yesterday and it was quite a bit like our earlier stuff, very folky and bright with a kind of carefree sound. We sat in the living room and jammed on it all afternoon.

I finished reading Kerouac's the Dharma Bums. I started out pretty indifferent toward it, but about halfway through I got in to it. There was a particular part near the end that referenced an old Chinese fable as depicted visually on several panels. Here's the gist of the fable: A young man leaving town, going out into the wild mountains, taming a bull and riding it, leaving the bull to meditate, then there is a blank panel, a panel with blossoms, and finally the man is old, fat and has returned from the mountains to town to drink and be merry. So he is actually leaving society to tame / ride his own mind and does so successfully, but upon doing so realizes he doesn't need to feel anxious, look for himself externally... he really doesn't need to do anything. He obtains 'nothing', and the blossoms come and he is happy and wise and old. I think this really stuck out to me because it reminded me quite a bit of the adventure Amber and I had with going to the mountains. I think really the beast to be tamed was our own anxiousness. We certainly came back with nothing, and I've been down some for the last couple months because I felt like I was just working all the time and not creating any, but I think the healing process is beginning and just as spring is coming I think the blossoms will come and Amber and I will be able to recognize the good that came out of the situation on all levels. I'm glad that we are finally finding peace with things again. :)

Tired now and must go to sleep. Peace to all.

New School

2007-01-06T00:05:00.000-05:00

So, a new year and new ambitions. Amber is attending school and hopefully I will soon be doing the same. We've been working on some original material and getting a set together to start playing live with. I'm also super stoked about getting into doing house concerts. Glad to see a lot of hard work really taking shape. We've been putting a lot of planning and work in and it's really going somewhere. I notice that we're really meshing musically, and Amber is really coming forward with the lead vocals. I think we will have the website up in the next week or two :) Super exciting stuff!

Ooh: also getting a screen printer, so I can start printing some of my designs on a variety of surfaces; mainly t-shirts and bags. Between Amber and I we'll be able to design our entire wardrobes.

Anyways happy new year! Here's to all things new!

And A Good Day To You, Sir

2006-11-09T02:31:00.000-05:00

So since july i got second job at a coffee shop, we went to new york, then i quit the second job and now we are both going to attend OSU in january for film studies.

Our trip to new york was fantastic. Not very relaxing, but full of excitement. We stayed at a pretty nice hotel near washington square park. we kind of hung out in greenwich village; coffee shop hopped; bar hopped. It was an awesome and inspiring time.

I think we are getting pretty super serious about all of our goals, I think we are tired of all the talk and anxious for the pursuit. Musically, we do have a show of our own lined up and so we are working madly on that. Our music has also undergone a major style change and so we are reworking a lot of things at the moment. all wonderful and exciting, and also sometime soon we will get a number of websites up, one for each of our artistic endaevors. the first up, more than likely to be for Evolu.

Also exciting: an awesome election day for us this year. everything from the local issues and races up to the senate, house, and governers went our way.

Well that's all for now.

Closing July

2006-07-27T21:48:00.000-04:00

So July is closing up and our place is coming along quite nicely. We've been painting and creating so the place will have a real vintage victorian feel. We still are not quite settled in yet, so we haven't really been creating much lately, especially musically. That's actually ok though, because we have a lot of ideas, and we want to spend some time setting our place up to be a space for creating in. Somehow I couldn't figure out how to word that last sentence any better so I'll just leave it like that.

Home Sweet Home

2006-07-10T00:50:00.000-04:00

Signed a lease Wednesday and now we are the proud new renters of an apartment not far from the one we left a year ago! We have the first floor and basement of an old victorian house- a step up from the attic of a victorian house! We are going to paint this coming week before we get any stuff moved in. I think we are only going to bring in a few things that we have used in the past: couch, stereo, kitchen appliances. We are going to try to get new stuff for a new start. Stuff that more accurately represents our personalities and styles now.

Bonnaroo 2006! Almost!!

2006-06-14T12:20:00.000-04:00

So there is only one day left until we leave for bonnaroo! Bonnarooooo! We will be traveling in our (only) car of choice: Stella, the 196,000-mile-old '95 Avenger. We love you Stella!

Shows I'm most stoked about:

Bright Eyes
My Morning Jacket
Death Cab For Cutie
Radiohead
Blues Traveler
moe.
Be Your Own Pet
Artvandalay

...and also I'm very much looking forward to the Masquerade Ball.

Well, time to pack toilet paper and bottled water. We will be writing reviews of bonnaroo and I will photographing the happenings there as well. Check back here soon (shortly after we return) for lots of good stuff about bonnaroo, as well as the link to our review site where there will be not just lots of good stuff, but TONS of good stuff about bonnaroo!! (if you're NOT going this is your chance to get in on the excitement (and find out why you should go next year). If you ARE going, then check back and look for yourself in pictures of the crowd, read about our experience, and share yours! The forecast says it's going to be a hot hot weekend (about 90 everyday with little chance of rain!)

I think Bonnaroo is the perfect way to reset our lives into this new mode and I'm glad that we pulled it off this year. When we return, we will be hunting apartments in Columbus, OH just like last year after bonnaroo, but I think this year we will actually decide to take one. ;)

Waking Up

2006-06-08T02:04:00.000-04:00

After another strange adventure with an abrupt end, we have landed back in Columbus, where we ran from almost a year ago. Some of the things we have seen and done were so surreal I almost wonder if they ever happened at all. No apartment yet, but we are both probably going right back to work where we were. It's sort of like we never left, but are waking up from a year long dream. Our journey taught us so much about ourselves and we've both done so much growing. I think we are ready to just stop roaming and start creating, at least for a while.

You know, it's strange to me to think that most people CANNOT pack up all of their belongings into a small car and change the entire direction of their life at the drop of a hat. That's kind of how we have become accustomed to living. It took maybe 3 hours to pack up all of our possessions into that car. It only took us about 2 minutes to reach the decision to, with not a lot of serious talk leading up to it. Sure, moments such as these are quite serious, but I think romanticizing them helps us get through. I suppose it's kind of my way of seeing the humor in it... Kind of.

So back to the good. We need to take all that we've learned and seen and experienced and use it! There are a lot of ideas zipping around between us, and I think that our band, Evolu is just about ready to work its way into the scene.

Best of all, our new chapter will sort of be kicked off with a trip to Bonnaroo! Despite the sudden change of residence/plans and the worse-than-typical poverty, we have managed to secure our most sacred holiday, and we will return from this one inspired, and ready, and glowing brighter than the sun does on the horizon. We are young and we are more motivated and more confident than ever, and our devotion to art and bohemian ideals is a mountain of its own. And of coarse, the world is a beautiful place!!

Down, Out and Up (a mountain)

2006-05-31T02:10:00.000-04:00

Well after a good hike today amber and i are both feeling pretty depressed. It seems as though we are destined to be travellers for the rest of our days. Our restless souls cannot be tied to one place for too long. Whats worse? We really thought this time we found a place to call home- a place to stick around for a while, and some friends close enough to call a family. It may sound sudden, but it is certainly not. We have been supressing our unhappiness for a little while and trying to stay positive. Once the cracks in the illusion began to split though, we realized that we were merely outsiders and all of this time we have been supporting someone elses dream. I think that we really have a battle ahead of us, but how do we flee without burning this bridge?

Lately there has been some unspoken tension between us all and Lori confronted us about it all tonite. We explained that we've been feeling very homesick and that we also don't feel that we fit in well here. As much as we love the outdoors, camping, hiking, and nature, we are city people. We love the multicultural mix of people, the liberal ideas, the diversity in the city. We love taking long walks, chilling at coffee shops, being in the music and art scene. At first she seemed to understand, but by the end of the conversation I think she seemed more frustrated and defensive.

I guess the cards play out how they do no matter what you try to do to avoid it. I just hope its in the cards to survive this one and keep our friendships, because after all of the misadventures we've been through, it would at least be nice to take something with us, especially something as meaningful as a friendship. But it looks like it is out of our hands now. We can only be honest in saying that we belong in a city, not on a mountain, and if the people who asked us here cannot understand why we are not happy being here, then i don't suppose there is much we can do to make them understand.

Forget Smilefest, Go Bonnaroo!

2006-05-30T17:56:00.000-04:00

Well our Smilefest photo and press passes eluded us so we are focusing all of our resources on Bonnaroo tickets. Bonnaroo is more our style anyways. We are still just a tad short on getting two tickets and without a steady source of income, we cannot guarantee that it will happen at all.

So far we have sold necklaces, shirts, and purses that Amber made, and homemade bumper stickers that I made, AND cleaned dorms at the folklife center to make the money we have. It is kind of cool knowing that selling artwork we created may get us such a cool experience. Better than it going to pay bills.

The mailout day for the tickets is june first. Thats two days from now, and we are 85 dollars short. After the 1st of June, they will continue to take orders until they sell out. I suspect they may sell out almost immediately. Bonnaroo is kind of like christmas to us, and i do believe our sanity may be at stake, so we are spending down to our last penny to get there. Last year's Bonnaroo was such a magical experience and I just can't imagine missing it this time around. We need some inspiration, and we REALLY need a reminder of who we are, especially right now.

Therefore it is absolutely of up-most importance that we find a way to Bonnaroo. Wish us luck. :)

Coffee and Cocoapuffs

2006-05-26T13:21:00.000-04:00

Amber and I have been working quite a bit on our music the last couple days. We are in the process of writing 2 new songs and I think we are evolving quite a bit. We seem to be moving in the direction from our folkie soft-spoken coffee house songs to some more rythmic alternative stuff. Did a tarot card reading the other night. Interesting stuff, and always so right too. Well all the while, I thnk we know exactly what to do and how to do it. I think we need to start stepping up to the plate with our music, too. The plate is, after all, right in front of us.