Au revoir Summer
September 22nd, 2010 § Leave a Comment
As I start cracking the books for another semester at AAU, I am looking back at these past summer months with a real sense of accomplishment.
The Shants‘ tour was certainly the most fun, most profitable, most productive tour I’ve been on. For some reason, it seemed less like work this time around, and more like a vacation. Portland, Medford, LA and SF were the definite high points of the trip. I was even able to make some real headway in user research and requirements gathering for my thesis. One thing’s for sure – any app conceived for musicians should bear in mind how little sleep the user operates on. You can read all the updates we posted from the road here, but here’s a selection of photos:
You can view all the photos from the tour on this Flickr set.
Last month I moved in with my lovely lady, Sabrina, in a sleepy neighborhood of San Francisco known as Noe Valley. Tons of dogs & baby strollers, of course… but not much different from the nicest parts of Oakland. It is sad to bid farewell to my adopted home, but I have a feeling we’ll be back before the end of the decade. We’ve been spending a lot of time nesting, grocery shopping, storage-organizing and generally getting comfortable.
Otherwise, I’ve been swamped at work with building low fidelity prototypes for a large health care provider. At school I’ve got an Actionscript class on Thursday nights, which is proving to be quite manageable thanks to our excellent instructor, who is teaching us to code with efficiency and solve problems methodically. As for my thesis work, I’ll be presenting my thesis proposal for the midpoint review committee soon, and hopefully they’ll give me the green light to continue my work. For now, you can read updates on the new blog I’ve started for the project: Road Case.
In a few days, Sabrina and I are heading to France for 2 weeks to explore Paris and visit family in Nice. I’m beyond excited for my first Europe trip, and I’ve been trying to pick up some key French phrases here and there. I downloaded a highly suspect free French Phrasebook app… suspect in that the home screen features a photo of a “sexy French maid”, and the phrases include things like “Those drugs aren’t mine!”. Sacrebleu!
Twenty ten
January 28th, 2010 § Leave a Comment
2010 is off to a pleasant and eventful (if not rainy) start.
Crazy busy at work… which I’ll go into more detail at a later time. Also I’ve narrowed down what my graduate thesis is going to be. All I can say now is that it relates to both mobile devices and music, and unites some of my passions: technology, DIY music, and intuitive organization.
The Shants have been quite busy as well: the little EP that we recorded in November ’09 has been released on High Scores And Records and has been getting lots of warm reviews, we played a handful of shows in Northern California (recap can be found here), and we were named FILTER Magazine’s Undiscovered Artist of the Month. Since school starts for me next week, things will likely quiet down… but I expect we’ll go on a West Coast tour this summer. Stay tuned.
Here’s a few pictures & video from my holiday visit to Louisiana, as well as some shots from the road:
November already? Jeez.
November 13th, 2009 § Leave a Comment
Video: The Shants at House of Shields
I’ve been so swamped with work stuff, school stuff and music that I’ve barely noticed that this year is almost done. Still, I’m planning on taking a few stints of healthy downtime, starting this weekend… I’m heading back to Louisiana for a few days to celebrate my nephew’s birthday, and probably eat myself into oblivion.
Next weekend, The Shants, will be heading up to a Russian River cabin to hang out and record a few demos. Our first show at House of Shields went swimmingly — you can see video of a few songs above. I’m really excited about the sounds we are creating…
To end the year with a bang, Sabrina and I will trekking back to Louisiana for holiday and New Years’ fun. Guess I better start fasting now. Will make a longer “year-end recap” later on, but for now here’s a few images from the last few weeks (including some shots with my new fisheye camera!):
South of Market, SF
Oakland Zoo
Brief visit to Yosemite and Sentinel Dome
mountaineer
Tomales Bay
birthdays
The summer comes undone
September 2nd, 2009 § Leave a Comment
Well, summer is drawing to a close… and school starts for me tomorrow! This will probably be the last summer until I graduate where I don’t take summer school, so I definitely got the most out it, methinks.
The tour with Maggie Morris went pretty well, despite some logistical obstacles. All told, we played 12 shows and covered around 2700 miles. The full story can be found on the tour blog I updated pretty fairly frequently during the 3 week stint: Photograph That City… which is named for one of my favorite of her songs. I also posted TONS of photos, both from my Leica and Holga (I left the Lubitel at home, as its a little bulky). There’s around 10 videos from the road posted here: other bands we played with, animals we encountered, and some of our delirious shenanigans.
This was basically a primer for my camping trip in Yosemite, which starts on Labor Day. I’ll be up there for a week, hiking, biking around, taking photos and probably writing music…. just un-plugging for awhile. I’ll be attempting to re-create some of my father’s photos of Yosemite from September 1968. He visited Yosemite alone for a spell, just after he returned from Vietnam. I’ve done some research on Flickr, trying to nail down some of the locations Dad captured, so we’ll see how it turns out. I’m beyond excited to unplug for awhile, especially after the year I’ve had.
Lots of stuff happening with my own music these days. A lot of writing. Played a few last minute shows during the tour (in Chico, Stockton, Oakland, Sacramento)… sort of road-testing new songs. I’m auditioning for a drummer and a bass player this week (having already formed a new bond with my v-ball pal Sam for pedal steel duties). I think I’ve narrowed it down though, so we’ll probably spend the next few months rehearsing and maybe recording.
PS. the title of this entry comes from one of my favorite Yo La Tengo songs – Yo La Tengo – The Summer (live on KEXP)
