Easter came and went.

I had my family over to my house for a little Easter get together... three days before Easter. We all have crazy schedules, but it was nice to get everybody together. I made sandwiches (fifteen too many apparently) and bought cupcakes. We hid eggs and the kids played. Good times.


The show on Saturday night went very well. For any that came out, or couldn't but still wished me well, thank you very much. Whew, it was a long time to play though. I am lucky I could still talk, much less sing by the time it was over. I played about 40 songs or so, of course some of those were repeats. I will have some video for you later this week.

Blogging has been harder here lately. I have a feeling it has met its match with micro-blogging... ie twitter and facebook. What are we headed towards in terms of communication as a whole? Texting, twittering, communicating with each other instaneously in 140 characters or less. Is this a step in a good direction, or a bad one? I myself don't know yet. I see the pros and the cons.

I just signed on to do about 35 illustrations for a historical fiction novel. So, I will have to shift a lot of my creative focus from my music to my art. I picture my creativity as a giant light in a tower. It takes a lot of work to move from one part of the sky to the other. Usually once I move it, it has to stay at one spot for a while. The beam is not bright enough to illuminate all of the sky all at once. If I try moving it all over the place, from writing, to music, to design, to illustrating, it kind of hurts... literally.

Progress

Last week I blogged about the steps I am taking for my music and website. I can report back that I have made some progress on my mini-studio. Nathan and I were able to install my green screen. And we even did a quick test, with me shrinking him from 6 ft 5 to a lil under 4 ft tall.



I have another show coming up this weekend for any locals following. I will be playing at the Courthouse Cafe from 8 to 12pm this Saturday night. I am going to try to grab some video from the show to share on my site. I have engineered a very interesting drum set; it allows me to play standing up. How fun.

My Engagement pictures

Step 1:
Find a picture on google images by searching: engagement pic.

Step 2:
Snap a picture of myself in order to place myself in the picture.

Step 3:
Do a little Photoshop magic: convert image to black and white so that it is easier to match skin tone, put my head in place of the other guy's, take out original logo and add in my friend Stephanie Simpson's logo. Viola!

Step 4:
Email my friend Stephanie and tell her about my diabolical plan; send the picture as an attachment. She does a blog post about it on her wedding and engagement photo blog.

Step 5:
Update my myspace and facebook so that appears that I have recently been engaged.

Step 6:
April Fools!

Blog Agenda

I've got a new plan for my blog, I'm getting closer to my original vision. Some of you may be aware of Jonathan Coulton. Shortly after I started my blog a friend of mine told me about what he had started. He would write and record a song each week of the year. I believe he called it 'The Thing of the Week.' Instead of a live video version, he presents his in mp3 version. He does a good job at recording and mixing it all himself. You can check him out at www.jonathancoulton.com.

Inspired by this, I have tried writing a new song each week. So far I have missed a few weeks here and there, but overall I am not as intimidated about producing a song each week. I am slowly training myself to be able to write on command. That is something at one point I thought was impossible, it use to seem to me that I had to be inspired in order to write.

While all that is good for me, I really want to give something to my potential fans. Additionally I would like to present myself and my songs in a more professional manner. So... here is the plan:

1. Going to convert my music room into both a small studio for film and audio. I have everything I need already (even including the green screen backdrop) I just have to put all the pieces together.
2. Going to do a better job with the visuals: better backdrop image, better lighting, etc.
3. Going to have a higher quality audio by recording my instruments onto recording software, as opposed to just getting the audio from the video camera.
4. From time to time I will have Jimmy (aka the singing baptist) and his cello play live with me, and other musicians.
5. The end result will be a much better looking and sounding video. Additionally, I will offer up the audio from the live songs as downloadable mp3's. Some of them will be free, and some you will have to pay for.

I really like this concept a lot, and it is where I would like to be professionally in this industry. I can continue to bring fans new online live shows each month, and I would constantly have new songs coming up. It would play into my strengths based on my lifestyle and talents. What do you guys think about this plan?

Live in the Lyrics

I wrote a poem this morning. I thought I would share it. It sounds like most of my other poetry, but at least I am consistent. The best way to market the redundancy in my writing is by calling it 'my style.' It's all about branding :)

Live in the Lyrics

we live in the lyrics
breathe in the midst of
a memory
become more than we
could ever be
our epitaph
written before we
were born

the eulogy of
our clandestine love
spoken in the absence of
your touch
and in the presence of
my lust

I am the mire of your disgust
made from flesh you can not trust
you fling me over every rail
and if passion won't prevail
if what I cleave to only busts

I'll only fall until I'm dust
I'll only grow when I can tell
the shadows from the light
the truth in all my lies
the face beyond the veil

Seven Nation Army

My video this week is a cover song, here is Jimmy and I doing our version of White Stripes' Seven Nation Army live for some of Jimmy's students. Not too many songs out there played with just cello and drums. Enjoy.

A Messy Room and a Missing Juice Cup

It has been way too long since I have blogged about my little angels. I know a lot of you find their stories absolutely adorable. Since you are not lucky enough to experience them on a daily basis like me, I should be a better friend to my blog readers and keep you up to date with their journeys.

I have two stories for you today. The first is a picture that illustrates though they are the cutest things in the world, they also can destroy like little midget godzillas. The picture below is what their room looked like after I ate breakfast, took a shower, and got ready. Keep in mind their room was perfectly clean the night before, and the amount of time they did this in was approximately 20 minutes.


Wow! Right? Is it like this with little boys?

My second story is very sweet. I need to tell you some back story about Ms. Ava before I tell you the next story. Ava is very simple to take care of, she is more like a cat than like a dog if you will. She doesn't require a lot of attention, she just likes doing her own thing, but the one thing she must always have is her juice cup. If she plays in her room then it will be in there with her, when she sleeps at night it stays on her nightstand. If she is in the car it is sitting in her lap. Think of it as her version of Lionus's blanket.

I think it was about 9:30 at night, Ava had been asleep for about an hour when she burst into my room balling her little eyes out. She had a dream that someone had stolen her juice cup. As sweet as this was, and as comforting as I had to be, it was one of those moments when I just couldn't help but laugh to myself. Most kid's nightmares consist of big dogs, monsters, dragons, etc, but for Ava the scariest thing anyone can do is take her juice cup.