Tiny Apartment

Today we realized, again, how small our place really is. We went shopping for some new furniture, bought a few things and now have no idea where to put it.

Enjoy this random video. (I love youtube)

"new" blog

I've decided to limit my music discourses to my other rarely used blog and keep this one more about things that would be of greater interest to the entire family.

If you want to check out what I have to say about this band or that band or whatever (complete with mp3's!) just go here.

raw food

ive been reading a new book about eating raw foods. in the book- its actually called "eating for beauty"- it talks about all the properties of foods that are raw vs. cooked foods. i knew that cooked foods do not contain even half the minerals, good fats, antioxidants ect. than raw, but reading the book just made it even more clear . well after vegas, which was about 3-4 weeks ago, i wanted to do a detox and decided eating lots more raw foods was how i was going to do it. it did not work that well for maybe a week. i mean i was not trying hard. then i really started to try and have been eating probably around 70 - 80% raw everyday. really hard. but very worth it. yesterday i was at work all day, then stayed after for a "jean" party ( really expensive jeans for cheap- i got really cute jeans that retailed for $258!!) and of course there was treats. well i ate 2 cookies and 2 cheesecake bars and not much else all day because i forgot my lunch. i got so sick that while driving home i actually think i got kinda lost my head was so foggy and i could not think! i know it was because of the crap i ate. my body did not know what to do with it!! ewwwww! next time you want to eat cow pusmilk or chemical cookies , think again.

Go Mod!

My friend Megan and I are going to start dj'ing a mod night at a local record store soon. I'm excited. The idea is to play old soul, reggae and garage stuff. Throw in a little french ye-ye and when people show up on scooters and you've got the makings of a great night.

It's difficult to explain what this old music does to me but just watch this video. It's a group called The Flirtations. First off, that's a great name for a girl group. Second off, the painful lyrics set over the finger-poppin-soul-scorchin tempo is perfect. How can something be cooler than this? This one will certainly get played when I'm in the dj booth.

Man, they don't make music like this anymore.

Basketball

Every so often I still get to go shoot some pictures for work. Typically the things I shoot are assignments that are incredibly convenient for me to shoot. Like studio stuff. It's not to much different than my last job where the majority of the stuff I shot was in the studio. Since the Jazz play right across the street, shooting their games is convenient. I only get to do it when there really isn't anybody else available to shoot the games which is fine. It's how it should be. My job is different now and it's only fair to the people I work with. But I have to admit I am pretty happy when I get to sneak away for a little while and shoot. Tonight was one of those nights. I love shooting basketball. I was never much of a sports fan, but I love being at the games. I love being in the press room laughing with the other photographers before the start of a game. Tonight one of the local shooters was complaining about the asparagus served with the pre-game meal. Apparently he makes it better himself. The Jazz killed the Nuggets tonight. The score was ridiculous. 132-105.

I work odd hours

It's nearly 2 a.m. and I'm just getting home from the office. Amanda and I don't have nearly as much time to spend with each other as we used to and it's been pretty hard. I don't like it. She works days and I work nights. We both have Sunday and Monday off so at least we get to spend those two days together, but the rest of the week I really miss her.

RPM '08

This year I participated in the RPM Challenge. The "challenge" is to write, record and produce an entire album's worth of material in one month. Naturally, they pick the shortest month of the year for the challenge. Home recorder folks all over the globe participate in the challenge and since I didn't do it last year, I really wanted to do it this time around. Plus, since it's leap year. I got an extra day.

If you want to hear it, just click here. There is a little audio player on my page. Start at the song February and let it play through. (The name on the page is Henry because I was in a band in high school called Henry, and when I first signed up for the site it was a bit embarrassing to have my own name up there. So Henry it is,)

Anyway, I mailed my album off yesterday. Writing it was pretty hard. I have never in my life tried to crank out so many songs in such a short amount of time. I'm really happy with some of them, but some of the others are, let's say, sub par. I got off to a really good start. The second song I wrote last month is called Reunion. I am really happy with it. I wrote it shortly after we learned that we're going to be able to get sealed. So it's a happy love song. I was also thinking about the passing of President Hinckley and how cool it must be for him to be back with his wife. What's better than that right?

The other one I'm really proud of is the song Again. I think it's probably one of the stronger songs I've ever written. When I first put it up on MacIdol I got a few comparisons to Brian Eno, which is one of the biggest compliments I've ever gotten regarding my music. I know he's an obscure musician, but he's been so influential on so much of the best pop music out there that when his name came up in regards to my songs, I was thrilled.

I think the most interesting thing I learned from this is that I can force myself to write music. It doesn't mean the music will be good, but I can do it. I usually only wrote this stuff when "the mood" hits me, but with the pressure of the deadline to finish an album's worth of material I was able to sit and just crank out some songs. Granted, there are a few tracks I want to go back and work on A LOT more. But that's fine. These songs wouldn't exist at all had I not participated in the challenge.