March 2003

And become a creature of the night with me!

If so, CLEAN UP AFTER IT! There is a reason we don't have pets, and I'm really tired of finding pile after pile of doggie waste by-product on our lawn. We live in an apartment complex where people seem to think it's perfectly OK to walk your dog, and just let it drop it's steaming little presents wherever it wants. Today I printed out a sign that says "Please keep your dogs and their waste by-products OFF our lawn. Thank you" and posted it up outside our apartment. If I find out who is doing, I am going to go crap on their lawn.

Yes, a TMI post. Why is it that as you get older there is more and more unwanted hair you must deal with? I probably should be happy that the hair on my head shows no signs of leaving, but I could really do without most of the rest of the hair on my body. As the years pass I find myself clipping, trimming, or plucking more and more. It's quite annoying. Well at least Jess loves me in all my furry splendor.

So I'm quite losing the battle to get fit. Food just tempts me so, while exercise seems to have disappeared. I really want to get in shape and yet I refuse to make myself miserable while doing it so I try to at least strike a happy balance, and try to eat healthy at least half the time but yet not deny my cravings. I'm seriously considering trying to workout at lunch or when I get home from work. While it's not as effective as working out in the mornings, it's still an improvement. Ahh, food, why can I not resist your luscious temptation. What sucks is that I cant resist the cravings, but then I feel guilty about it afterward because I REALLY want to get in good shape. It's a never ending battle.

This entry is extremely boring, but I'm making a concerted effort to try and write something every day. Sometimes that obviously doesn't happen. Sometimes you get boring stuff like this.

So the intense run of gigs went well, but unfortunately the Saturday gigs got cancelled because of rain. It was a bummer because my cover band was going to play and then we were going to do another Craig Davis gig immediately after since the band that was supposed to go on after us had cancelled (however when we arrived at the gig we found out that they may have un-cancelled, so we weren't sure what would happen anyway). I took the opportunity to look into having my cell phone repaired since it had been having major problems making, receiving, or staying connected to calls, thus making it more of paper weight that you could occasionally use as a phone. I ended up getting a slightly better "refurbished" cell phone for $20! Woohoo! Then on Monday we got up at "stupid o'clock" as Jess calls it to drive to Houston to get her Employment Authorization Card. One and a half hours there, 5 minutes to get her card, one and a half hours back home. I feel sorry for anyone going through this process who doesn't happen to live only one and a half hours away from the service center.

In other news, I think we should follow Valerie's tactics in dealing with her own battlefront. We should just set "Saddam Traps" in strategic places.

This update just in:

Sources are fairly positive that that the initial strike against Iraq very possibly destroyed the majority of Saddam's wardrobe. Special operatives claim to be fairly positive that his favorite shirt was obliterated. Satellite imagery has shown evidence of him being quite irritated. A secret source who is friends with a guy who knows a special operative is nearly fairly yet adequately semi-certain that they heard a customer at a convenience store saying something in a foreign language that could have maybe been translated as "Oh man, Saddam is really pissed! Like throwing staplers pissed!" However the translation was also very close to "I'll have a snickers bar and a slurpee", so further investigation is being conducted.

And I don't mean Robert Preston. Much musical...(looking for a word that I can't find; something like shenanigans, tom foolery, skullduggery, damn it's just not coming)...stuff on the horizon. Tonight we have a full band practice for the Craig Davis gig tomorrow at the Northgate Music Festival.

Sidenote here: Every year there is a nationally renowned music festival called South By Southwest held in Austin. It's huge thing where hundreds of bands fill every club and venue, and people are there scouting new talent and such. Here in College Station they started having "North By Northgate" music festival the week after SXSW. Northgate is an area near the college where there's a strip of bars restaurants and such. It's the main hangout type area for nightlife. Well SXSW actually threatened to sue NXNG if they didn't change their name. The organizers didn't want to deal with it so they changed it to Northgate Music Festival. However we all agree that SXSW really wouldn't have had a leg to stand on with that lawsuit. We figured next they would start suing anyone who used the terms "south" or "southwest". From now on, you can not go south, you can only go anti-north. Anyway, back to the main post...

Thursday we do acoustic sets for a live radio performance, and for an in store appearance at a local record store, then we have the main show Thursday night. Friday, I just picked up a 2 man acoustic gig with one of the guys in my cover band for a small unplugged gig outside a restaurant. Saturday, the cover band plays at the Northgate Music Festival at the primo time of 11am. Somewhere this weekend we need to do laundry, and then Monday we'll probably get up at like 5am to drive to Houston for the big INS trip to get Jess's Employment Authorization Card. I kind of like being busy. Makes me feel like I have a life!

I didn't really have much to say today, but in an effort to update more frequently, I thought I would at least chronicle a few random thoughts:

This weekend I was recounting how it's strange, the things we think are just so utterly cool as children. My example was this plastic robot hand I had. It was a plastic robot looking hand on the end of a stick a few feet long. You would hold the handle on the other end of the stick and when you squeezed it, the hand would close and grip. I thought this thing was so cool. Oooh! Look! My arm is not 3 feet longer with a grippy robot hand! Woooo!

A few weeks ago, also on a trip to Austin, I was practicing with Craig in the living room of my cousin's house, while my cousin played video games and Jess watched. As practice was winding down we were talking about writing some new songs, and anything that anyone said from that point on was subject to possibly being a song. At one point we were urging my cousin on in his video game endeavors and we shouted "jump up and shoot!" Craig then immediately started singing "Jump up and shoot! grab the loot!" The thing is, it was kind of catchy and has stuck in my head, and against my will has continued to write itself in my brain. I already have some of the lyrics, a chord structure, and some more ideas. Ahh the stories we'll have to tell on VH1 Storytellers.

I've been feeling kind of crappy since we got back from Austin. Crappy as in slightly ill. Very run down and headachey and stuff. I went to bed way early last night, and will probably do the same tonight since the next 2 nights are band practice, and then a gig. I feel bad going to bed at like 8:00 since Jess has a total aversion to going to bed before 11 or 12.

I'm trying to figure out what to do about working out now, also. I just absolutely can not get up at 6am to work out unless I'm asleep by about 10. Now as I mentioned, Jess going to bed by 10 is near impossible most of the time, and unfortunately I also don't really "sleep" all that well until she comes to bed too, so I've been contemplating maybe working out at lunch or something, but that would require coming home getting undressed, showering afterward and all that, so it has it's own set of problems. Maybe I should just forget about it and accept my fate as a fat bastard.

I think that about concludes today's randomness.

So the weekend was fun as usual when we go to Austin. The 2 gigs were underwhelming, unfortunately. Very small little outdoor things with pretty much no one there. The studio was quite fun however. Craig ended up singing the lead vocal and one harmony part at the end, but aside form those he left it entirely in my hands. I programmed the drums, played bass, all guitars, and sang the rest of the vocals. It still needs some work, but things are looking good!

Delle left me a comment, and therefore her request for a new entry shall be granted. Now you must realize that I hardly ever get any comments at all and therefore assume that there is very little stalking going on, which then leads to lack of updates because the enthusiasm to update wanes greatly when you think no one is reading your drivel anyway. So for Delle, a haiku:

Everyone loves Delle
Blue fluffy inner children
She loves a giraffe

We're off for a weekend in Austin filled with gigs, studio recording (both of which are detailed in a previous entry), gamecubing, and a movie at The Alamo Drafthouse, that cool movie house where you can order food and drinks. It rules. If the weather is right we might try and fly our cool new kite that I bought. It's a big dragon with a 6 foot wingspan and the wind goes in his mouth and inflates his body so it's a full 3D kite. We may also watch my limited edition "Memento" DVD with commentary, or the option where you can watch the movie in chronological order. All in all, looks to be a fun weekend!

I laughed heartily. I chortled. Possibly even guffawed.

So next weekend I have 2 gigs in Austin as a duo with a Craig Davis. One at some South Austin Arts Festival which is supposedly some big Woodstock type thing with tons of bands and food and crafts and such, and then a songwriters showcase at a club later that day. They're supposedly going to record one of our sets for possible inclusion on a later compilation CD. Then, on Sunday, Craig and I are going into the studio for 3 hours to record one of his new songs. I'll be playing guitar, bass, singing harmony, and possibly programming the drums in my drum machine. It's all quite exciting. The week after that, We're doing our first full band Craig Davis gig since the initial (and only) one which is how this whole wacky thing started. It's for the Northgate Music Festival which is sort of a smaller "South by Southwest" music festival. I made a set list, burned CD's of the set list in order, and distributed them to the band guys to learn by March 20th. Also on that day we are doing a live radio appearance and possibly an in store performance at the local record store. The 22nd, my cover band is playing is also playing the same festival. This is all quite exciting for me! It will be fun to be back in the studio and end up with a recording of our efforts. Craig and I work really well together, and I really think this could go somewhere, especially when we move to Austin and it will be much easier to actually get together to write, record, and play. He has a woman managing him who is absolutely awesome too. She really busts her ass and gets all these things happening. Exciting things are cooking, gentle readers!

So after the great weekend, I find out today that UPS left $300 worth of new video cards for our computers laying on our doorstep last night at about 9 pm. This package then apparently disappeared between that time and 11:45 pm when we got home. My neighbors said they saw the package, and then saw that it was gone later. Then in the midst of my frustration over this issue, I notice that apparently at some point during the weekend, my cousin's cat decided to use the back of my leather jacket as a scratching post. There's now several small little chunks out of the surface leather. I just want to go to bed now.

Mine was pretty damn good! We went to Austin on Friday, and spent the weekend with my cousin. There was much video game playing and eating. However the reason for the trip was to make some musical appearances on Monday. As many of you may know, I've been playing with Craig Davis, a musician out of Austin. Monday morning I woke up at the ungodly hour of 5:30 am (an hour which just shouldn't even exist, honestly), to go perform on the Fox-7 morning show. It was quite cool being in a TV studio watching them do the live show and preparing for our appearance. We did 2 little 15 second teasers as they went to commercial, then performed one full song. We then played about 30 seconds at the end of the show too. It was quite a cool experience indeed. That night we did a 4 song set at a club where there they were doing an open mic night combined with featured artists (which we were one of the 3). I think we blew the roof off the joint. up until that point it had been a very folky, coffee house type vibe with performers to match. We got up and did some rockin' pop songs with strong harmonies. It was quite a contrast, but we were very well received and it took me a while to actually get out of the place since I was stopped by someone every 10 feet to tell us we were great. I also had many inquiries as to my kick ass new guitar which stunned several people since it looks like an electric guitar but yet was producing perfect acoustic guitar sounds. All in all it was a cool weekend, and I think things with Craig are really starting to get rolling. I'm going back in 2 weeks for another set at the same club during "South by Southwest" a HUGE music festival that takes place annually in Austin. Check out some clips of Craig's music on www.cdbaby.com