Photos!

Check it: Thanksgiving in Maine.

Turkey Day break...

Arghhh it was a good Turkey Day and I should really be doing homework for VisComm, but I'm at Emily's and it just feels like vacation. So of course I can't bring myself to actually work on things.

I checked out a little digital camera from the ER, so I've been taking lots of pictures. It's pretty sweet - I feel this need to document my life and I never really have before. Also, I'm learning a bit about photography - exposure and ISO and that sort of thing. I need a frickin' tripod, cause with all the longer exposure pics I'm taking, everything ends up slightly blurred cause my hand moves. Damn it.

There was a little open-mic in Boston, Tuesday night, that Emily and I attended. I say little because there were 5 other people there, one of whom was also playing. So it was just Emily, Shira, and I, playing two songs apiece and switching for like an hour and a half. Fun! Cosy! I got some really good pics and video, too! Some of which I will doubtless put on my new Flickr account when I get around to it.

Wednesday night, Emily and I went to this dude's little home studio, where he recorded three of Em's songs. Just guitar parts, but they sounded pretty good. The guy was really nice, and he kind of knew what he was doing. The only part that bothered me was that his software couldn't punch in (or he didn't know how to do it), and that he was terrible about talking to the talent (Emily). There would be loooooong pauses after takes, which you gotta fill in, cause the talent is just hanging and waiting for you to say something about the take, or ask how they felt about it. If you let the pause go, then they feel like you're not really paying attention, and that's not good. I guess the realization of that need to talk comes from watching pros work...of which I've had very little experience. Just watching Steve Malott, and he's very good at talking to people. One of the quickest thinkers I've met in my life. But the point is, this guy has never watched a pro.

Anyway, I wanna record more. I really enjoy it and I wanna get good at it! So it kinda sucks that I've set it aside for a while. At least I know I can pick it back up again.

Emily and I had a nice long conversation while looking at the stars last night in the hot tub. It's strange for us to be around each other, because we have this mental picture of who the other person is, compiled through phone calls...but it's not accurate to how we act around people. At the same time, we're totally comfortable with each other, more so than anyone else in our lives. So it's confusing.

Gonna go to a dance party! Bye!

Beauty.

This song is amazing. Go here and listen to Heartbeats. (sound quality on there is terrible, but what can you do). Apparently it's a cover of some Swedish band, The Knife. Either way, it's beautiful, and I just bought the guy's album off of iTunes.

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José González - Veneer

This weekend

was pretty damn cool. On Saturday, I attended this crazy capoeira fundraiser/dance party in NYC - big thanks to Pezinho for the ride and fat beats at the party! We helped set up, and it was pretty dead at first, but I went for a walk with some of the guys from my class and when we came back, things were a little better. Finally, the lights went out and everyone got on the dance floor. I must have danced for three hours, with breaks to let my ears rest - that shit was LOUD! I was wishing Emily was there so she could tear it up on the floor. I ended up dancing in a circle with the folks that came down from RPI and this woman Vaquera, who I later found out gave Furacao a place to stay when he was bumming it in Brazil. But I'm getting ahead of myself.

The last 45 minutes or so of the party was a giant roda, which is when everyone gets in a circle, claps, and sings capoeira songs, while two people "fight" in the middle, or, as we say, play the game of capoeira. It was INTENSE. First of all, the roda was huge - there must have been about a hundred people in the circle, with about half actually capoeiras. Second of all, most of the people there were really good. I guess the group in NYC trains harder or more often or something, cause everyone there seems to be ripped and better than us. Could be they've just been around longer.

Anyway, capoeira's speed is dictated by the music - in a roda, there is at least one person playing the berimbau, and maybe drums and such - this roda had two berimbaus, a conga drum, and an agogo (cowbells). Furacao, who is the leader of NYC Abada, was playing the berimbau and singing, along with our instructor Pezinho and some of Fura's friends. He had a mic, which was needed, cause when we sang the responses (capoeira songs are call and response), we were a force to be heard!

I was gonna go in while it was slow, in the beginning, but I was too intimidated. My friend Zaid went in, and got kicked in the jaw cause he wasn't watching the other guy (or maybe girl - can't remember). The tempo sped up in segments - the first 15 minutes were mid-tempo, then the next faster, and so on - until it was sao bento grande, which is the fastest variety of capoeira. It's also the flashiest, cause all that speed converts into lots of momentum. I thought it was intimidating before, but I had never seen a game of sao bento grande - there were guys pulling back handsprings to backflips, and kicks were flying so fast it was crazy.

Furacao finally called a halt, and then talked a bit. It's the third annual fundraiser, and he sincerely thanked his friends and family, one by one, for coming and putting the thing together, and gave bits of background on the people who we had seen in the roda and on the dance floor. We cheered and clapped for everyone he named, and I felt the warmth and energy from the group. So much goodwill comes from capoeira! Plus amazing sociopolitical mixing - I wouldn't have been hanging out with some of those people if it hadn't been for capoeira, and it was awesome! I am inspired to train harder now, and get deeper into the culture. Seems like it sucks you in, but I think it's a good thing to be sucked into - some great opportunities here and a deep meaning and community that seems to be lacking in most of the U.S. today.

Gotta run to class now - catch y'all on the flip side! If you wanna find out more about capoeira, you can check out the Abada NY page, or just Google capoeira - there's lots of info out there! I know there's a few capoeira groups in Seattle, for those of you reading back home who wanna get involved. Totally sweet!

p.s. thanks to Marc and Steph, I have discovered this BRILLIANT webcomic - Perry Bible Fellowship. Here's a taste:

The beauty of it is the extreme diversity of illustration styles, plus the fresh and twisted humor. Check it.

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Dig:

Boards of Canada - Music Has The Right To Children

Live music.

OK, so in the past three days, I've seen two incredible shows, both with my friend Lis, who is awesome. The first was on Wednesday - Opeth and Nevermore. Nevermore was solid, but I still don't really like their singer, and their music is a little cheesy for me, or something. I was headbanging for most of their set, though. Opeth, on the other hand, are a very unique band, and one of my favorites. They sound fucking HUGE live! The singer was being a dick in a hilarious way, cause some people in the audience were being assholes. I like him a lot - he reminds me of Jason Webley, for some reason.

Anyway, they closed with Deliverance and Blackwater Park, which are two of my favorite songs, and I nearly broke my freakin' neck. I love the band because their music combines the really heavy shit with haunting melodies, GREAT guitar riffs, and killer solos. Plus, the singer sounds like a lion when he screams, and has an awesome regular voice as well! They all give the vibe that they really love what they play, and that's just awesome to watch.


Tonight, I saw Converge, Darkest Hour, and The Red Chord. Aaron Kennedy got me into Converge about six months ago, probly, and they always get me totally amped whenever I listen to their recorded stuff, and they sure as hell don't disappoint live! Lis and I were at the very front of the pit, pressed against the stage, so close to the band that I hit my head on the singer's knee at one point, and had him crouching or standing about two inches away from us too many times to count. They are INTENSE! I love their drummer - he looks completely insane the entire time he's playing - he's got this manic grin on his face, and evil eyebrows - gotta love it!

Jacob Bannon (singer) has a lot of interesting things to say - he writes great lyrics (although they're not actually intelligible when he sings them) and he was really sincere about thanking us for coming out, supporting them, supporting the scene. In fact, the whole night I was watching people in the pit clap each other on the back and be really friendly. It was awesome! I've never been to any hardcore shows in Seattle, so I don't know if it's like that back home, but it was really cool. Jacob lost the mic in the crowd a bunch of times during the night, but always reeled it back in just in time for the next verse. Rad! I bought a t-shirt with the Jane Doe face on it for $10 - very reasonable compared to the $30 Opeth shirts (what the fuck!?). After the show, we were starving, so Lis and I headed to Bombers for some delicious burrito goodness.


My brain was bouncing around in my skull a lot tonight, so I think I'm gonna give it a rest and hit the sack, but it's been a great couple of days!

p.s. quote from Lis, while in her room listening to Otep: "If I were sexually assaulted, I could sing like that."

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Converge - Jane Doe