inspiration moves on

I just learned of Bill Barber's passing.

He was a super talented tuba player who did a great deal of work in the jazz realm. Possibly his most notable performances were with Miles Davis on The Birth of the Cool.

The tuba world, and musicians and people, lost a great talent.

another comfest in the books

Another year, another ComFest.
Some highlights:
- Running into old friends
- Running into new friends
- Seeing someone with a pet goat
- Sitting in the park on a sunny afternoon, listening to great music and enjoying a giant mug of beer.
- Watching people dance with abandon to whatever style of music happens to be playing on the stage
- Seeing my friends rock out in their various bands
- Waking up every morning with sore, stiff muscles because I spent the previous day wandering about in the hot sun drinking beer, and eagerly heading out for another equally great day

Tom has some of his ComFest artwork posted, and his own highlights here.

Did I mention all of the bands I saw? There were 6 stages, running shows about 45 minutes to an hour in length, from 12 noon until 10 or 11 pm every day. And this is without the Blues Garage this year.

I didn't take many photos this year - intentionally opting to soak in the experiences rather than document them. But lots of other folks have already begun posting their photos on flickr.

I missed having Charlotte around this year, although I did wear the hemp bracelet she made me all weekend so a part of her could ComFest with the rest of us. If only every day was a ComFest day, the world would be a damn happy place.

misc. notes on my life at this very moment

Some notes:

1. I have 845 new emails in my yahoo box. Since I checked yesterday. I'll bet less than 10 are not spam.

2. I just had to turn down a gig with one of my bands. I have another commitment with a group I volunteer with. This is a group that I'm passionate about, and have been involved with for several years. This past year, however, I've felt less than enthusiastic about my required involvement. I love the people. I love the organization. But I hate turning down fun, paying gigs doing what I love more than anything else. I'm not sure if my apathy is just a little burnout, or a legitimate sign that I should find other ways to work for the group.

3. STB was in a wedding last weekend, where I took a lot of photos. I still have over 100 photos to sort through and clean up in photoshop. In 2 weeks my stepsister is getting hitched, so I'll have even more photos, so I need to get on it.

6. I want to clean up my itunes. I'm rather picky about some things, but there are a few things that I've let go, and now my OCD is taking over. I'm just not sure where I want to start.

5. Did I already mention ...

IT'S COMFEST WEEKEND!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

If you're in town, I hope to run into you ComFest'ing it up in Goodale Park. Happy ComFest everyone!

Only one more day before ComFest!

I'm taking a little mini-vacation for the event this year: Friday - Monday. Charlotte is maybe coming into town for the World's Best Festival, and to celebrate her recent birthday.

Time for the best weekend of the year!

new bag + it's contents

I found a great bag at Old Navy this week. I've been sort-of looking around for something like it for awhile.

Here it is with all of the Monday morning contents (click the photo for descriptions if you want):

photoshop

I'm waiting on a guy to call me back and hopefully change my brake pads tonight. So while I wait I'm toying around with photoshop. I took a couple really almost great photos of Nayson the other day.

Here's a little comparison of what I have so far:


This was my original photo, with a medium amount of Photoshop color correction:



This is the photo with more Photoshop color correction:



I like the richness of the first photo, but find it way too red and a little too dark. I think the second photo is too washed out from the brightness.