snowy bike ride

I had my first snowy bike commute today.

Actually, when I road in it was pretty dry - most of the early morning snow had melted. On the way home I got a bit of snow, but that let up maybe 1/2 way through my ride.

I was bundled in:
two pairs of socks
tennis shoes
track pants
jeans over the track pants
a thermal long sleeve shirt
a t-shirt
a fleece pullover
a medium weight hoodie
medium weight gloves
wool bike cap (from Octopus Inc. - I *heart* this thing already).
bike helmet

On the way in I also had a fleece scarf to cover my face and ears. My glasses kept fogging up. So on the way home I pulled up the hoodie and did without the scarf.

I actually got a little toasty on both rides. I didn't completely hate it, and actually think it's probably easier to get around in crappy weather by bike. I still prefer summer, though.

Thanks 2 Kristin for sharing this. And remember *Your local elections are just as important. Do your research, get educated, and VOTE on EVERYTHING*.

the photos

As promised, some of the photos from the Brazen Brass DIY photoshoot.




My favorite group shot:



Some of me:








Our trombone player has a sweet camera + acquired a bunch of stage lights that she was able to set up for a makeshift studio. For the group shots, we used a self-timer. She shot the individuals of us. I shot the individuals of her. (A couple of which I think are ultra dope. So when I get copies I will post them).

++++++++++++++++++++++++++

Also, tonight's bike ride was AMAZING.

Come see my ultra-geeky-rockster friends tonight!

The Wet Darlings will be @ Rumba Cafe TONITE!

(No, I don't know why they can't come up with better band names.)

new bass...no toenail

So on Tuesday STB + I were moving a couch. And my entire big toenail was ripped off in a giant, painful, bloody mess. OUCH. It still hurts. And the generic vicodin-looking pain meds aren't really helping much. Although it's better than it was Tuesday. And I have some antibiotics to keep it from getting all infected. Currently my toe is just exposed muscle tissue. The x-ray tech couldn't even look at it because she was so disgusted. I'm hoping I can make the Sunday Nite Ladies Ride tomorrow without it bothering my toe too much. Especially since I don't have to work Monday and can enjoy a late night.

Now on to the really important stuff. My new bass arrived Thursday! It's a (very slightly used) G+L Tribute. It's louder than my Ibanez SR400. The reach is just a bit longer. It's a lot more "live" sounding, and maybe a bit brighter. I'm happy that they have 2 different sounds so I can justify keeping both of them. It's also a subtle sparkly red. I'm gonna go play him in a few minutes after I finish watching Obama's speech on YouTube.

Here's some pics. And I felt like my other instruments were getting a little jealous, so I took photos of everything except my tuba. I'll have to do that later this week.

The new G+L:



My guitar family: G+L Tribute bass, Nameless Acoustic guitar, Ibanez SR400 bass:



The bodhrans: an 18" cheapy + a small Vignoles + a handful of tippers (many also from Michael Vignoles):

waiting...

I'm waiting on STB so we can head out to one of our favorite parks & enjoy an evening of grilling food and hanging out.

I thought I'd post a few updates...

On the biking thing.... I've put just under 80 miles on my bike in the span of about 1 month. My longest ride was probably about 5 or 6 miles - so that's lots & lots of little rides. It also means that I reduced the mileage on my car by ~80 miles. Yay!

Only very minor updates on the music stuff... Brazen Brass will be performing @ the Clintonville Farmer's Market on Saturday, June 21. Ain't Misbehavin' has a private party gig this Saturday.

On job stuff...ugh, I'm so ready for a new job. But am still being choosy over where I apply. I've added to my criteria that it must be within biking distance of my residence. So my options are even more limited. I have a list of jobs to look through, just need to find the time to do that & then apply.

Alternate Transportation

I've been trying to incorporate my biking into everyday activities as much as possible. My goal is to make the bike my primary method of transportation. (I may will almost definitely wuss out come winter, but I'll cross that bridge when I come to it). I want to relegate the car to trips 10 or 15+ miles, events that require instruments, events where I can carpool, or as a back-up for really nasty weather. Right now I'm comfortable biking up to 8 miles roundtrip in a short period of time.

I have 4 reasons for this new way of thinking:

1. To save a little money on fuel



2. To be a little 'greener' in my everyday living

3. To get some exercise - I actually enjoy the gym, but I really love being outside in nice weather

4. I just enjoy riding a bike

I think #1 is going to become a huge issue for a lot of people over the next few months. What will be interesting is to watch how the majority of Americans change their lifestyles to adjust.

The first way of change would be to see more + more people using alternative fuels, hybrid or electric vehicles, walking, biking, using public transportation, etc. All positive changes to reduce our overall footprint, get more involved in local living (a byproduct of limiting your fuel consumption seems to be that you travel less for everything), and in many cases be a little healthier.

The second way of change would be to see people adjust to paying more for fuel by reducing their other expenses. While reducing your expenses is never a bad thing individually (it's typically a great thing!), it will affect the economy as large chunks of people stop spending money on entertainment and "extras". And/or use even more credit for purchases, which they then can't afford to pay off. And it will continue to deplete a limited resource, feed into the oil industry's grasp on our economy, limit research into alternative fuels, and drive up the cost of petroleum-based products EVEN MORE.

Sadly, I think it is more likely to go the way of the second option. It's promising to see a lot of people are starting to think 'green'. But Americans in general seem to be really, really in love with their big, gas guzzling vehicles. Usually with only 1 person in them.

I didn't intend this to turn into a rant, rather just a "I'm trying to bike more + more" post. So to lighten the mood: random comics to make you think about fuel consumption.

And a side note on the subject of being green: I am attending a BBQ later today (who isn't?) and checked Google Maps for directions. I was given the option of "driving directions" or "public transportation directions". Incredibly awesome. I was actually considering pushing myself to bike to the BBQ (10.6 miles each way) but I'm also going to be hauling at least 1 instrument and it's probably going to be nasty thunderstorms later. C'est la vie. Maybe the rain will pass tonight and I can bike to work all week.

storm watch '08

Our local news directors must be the happiest people on the planet right now. Nothing gets people's attention like the biggest blizzard to hit EVER. Even if the forecast is sunny, 68 degrees, with zero chance of rain - the weather is the big news story around here.

That's right, we got between 12-20" of snow throughout central Ohio from Friday-Saturday. So we topped records for the amount of snow and the speed at which it accumulated. I know - you're impressed.

Of course, STB & I found ourselves out driving in the snow briefly on both Saturday and Sunday. On Saturday it took about 30 minutes and the help of a neighbor to dig our car out of its parking spot, and then manage to get it into the alley behind our house, so we could go drive on Level 2 condition roads. We made it to the store okay.

Our big highlight @ the store was seeing a man in the checkout line holding his skiis. That's right, he skiid to the grocery store. As we left, we spotted a different man skiing down the road, amidst the few cars, the many walkers, and probably other skiiers, on his own mission.

There were quite a few people walking in the middle of the road. It was kind of like one of those post-apopolyptic movies where the worst of the attack has ended and people begin emerging from their homes, searching for loved ones. Except these people were searching for an open pizza shop.

We turned down a side road, and immediately realized our mistake. After about another 20 minutes, and the help of strangers, we made it back to the main street and safely home.

Sunday's trip was eventful, also. As soon as we pulled out of our parking spot, a giant SUV/Truck thing pulled out and got stuck in front of us. Out we hopped to help a stranger get on the road. We ran our errand, and on the way home saw a couple kids stuck on the side of the street. These are streets where people regularly park, and the snow plows just bury any cars left there during the storm. We stopped to help, and the girl that leaped out of the car recognized us - she works @ our gym. So after we determined the car was good and stuck, we gave her a ride to work (back from where we just came). We did see a city bus get stuck in snow. Exciting!

When we returned, her boyfriend was still out trying to move his car. We borrowed our neighbor's shovel and went back to help, and another stranger showed up with a metal shovel, and we got him out finally.

We're now back in our only sort-of warm house nice and safe.

I really, really hate snow

random ramblings

Wow. 4 weeks since my last post. I find that I log in just long enough to skim over my blogroll, maybe comment once or twice, and then it's off to the next thing.

But I have managed to squeeze in some cool real life fun, at least:

1. I'm working on a couple submissions to the Great Crayon Experience. I'll have to drop my finished pieces in the mail by Monday. (Bonus: The exhibit is on my birthday). Yay Art!

2. I finally was able to rejoin my flickr meetup group for an event today. We toured the Southern Theatre. I have 95 photos to go through - I'll probably find about 5 worth posting.

3. My quintet has a couple weddings on the horizon for 2008 already, and we're talking about a demo by the end of March *fingers crossed*. My dixieland combo has a gig in a couple weeks which may include live recording. Yay Music!

4. Flogging Molly concert the day after my birthday - in a few short weeks

I'm off to see The Spikedrivers @ Rumba Cafe tonight - come out and join us!

information overload

The problem with not updated regularly is that when I finally sit down to write something, my thoughts are all over the place.

I'll start with today. I decided at about 11 am to attend the Ohio Folk Life Festival. I primarily went to hear a bit of folk music and attend the bodhrán workshop. It was a beginners workshop, and started out with a decent turnout (especially considering no one really advertised the festival). Most of the people filtered out after 30 minutes, although a couple new faces showed up towards the end. I learned a bit, and got to play a few different drums. The workshop was led by Tim O'Neill, the bodranii who plays in Knot Fibb'n. He was a really easy-going guy, and you would never suspect how much he can rock on stage.

Thursday night I attended Bardic Circle, a local Irish music session. I was invited by a bodranii on one my music geek sites. There were ~10-12 other people there. Everyone was friendly and I had a great time. Thursday is often reserved for quintet rehearsals, but I'm going to try and attend more sessions in the future. Best way to learn is playing with others.

I've been doing a bit of bike riding lately. Here's the new bike:



You can see even more photos here. Holly and I have been trying to master the bike path at Sharon Woods Metropark. There are two hills, and one kills us every time. Well, the two or three times we've been there it's killed us.

We're heading out Sunday morning with 1 or 2 other bike newbies to see if we're finally able to conquer the whole trail.

I think that's enough of an update for one day...

Holy ASDFG@#$%^!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So here I am in Columbus, Ohio. And who do I randomly get to meet today?

George Schwindt.

Ok... if you don't listen to celtic punk rock, he's the drummer of the amazing band Flogging Molly.

Most of the time my brain was going OMG It's George from Flogging Molly. No F'in Way!. He was a really nice guy. Surprisingly soft-spoken considering how hard he rocks on stage. Very down to earth.

I'm going to be a geek and post a copy of my autograph once I scan it. So probably tomorrow. I also went ahead and treated myself to their iTunes EP to celebrate.

I'm still a little in shock and completely elated at my luck.

my life as i know it

I've had a busy couple of weeks in real life.

STB was in a wedding, and then was the reception DJ. I've got some wedding photos posted. Most I think are pretty average, although there are a handful of shots I really like.

I also had another photo included on schmap.com
Aside: When I went to visit Boston Tony, I insisted that one of the very important destinations I needed to see was an authentic Boston Irish Pub. He had to go looking for them, as he didn't frequent any himself. In BOSTON. Of course, he discovered 3 or 4 within walking distance from his apartment.

I finally got around to getting some very basic maintenance done on my tuba, something I had been putting off for over a year because I never had the time to give my horn up for a week +. My tuba sounds great again, and I am very happy to have found a good repair guy.

I was also asked if I teach lessons, and a manager asked me to bring my resume by. I have zero time to devote to teaching right now. But I also really think I would enjoy it, and have really been trying to immerse myself more and more back into music.

So I'm working on my music resume right now, along with trying to figure out how many students I can reasonably handle.

This comes at a time when I am rethinking a lot of my career-life-self. I don't hate my job. There are parts of my job that I really enjoy very much, and could imagine doing for many years to come. There are parts of my job that I really do not enjoy, and those are the parts of the job that are expanding, and the things that increase as my position increases (paperwork, more bosses, more meaningless meetings, all of those management things I don't like).

I also happened to pick up a book from the library, Conquering Your Quarter Life Crises. I first read about this phenomenon in Douglas Coupland's Generation X - yes that book. The one that coined the phrase "Gen X", and led all of the baby boomers to label my generation as whiny slackers. Coupland referred to a "mid-twenties breakdown" long before John Mayer crooned the words "quarter-life crises".

Even though I'm 30 now (I can't believe it, and certainly don't feel 30), I still find the magic years of your 20s intriguing. And I've always enjoyed cultural studies, including (and recently, especially) generational differences.

So branching out and maybe teaching, and continuing to play, and network with other local musicians, that may just be what I need. Maybe in the future as my career, or maybe just as that one thing I'm passionate about no matter what.

Oh, and I attended my step sister's wedding yesterday (yep, one of those 7-7-07 weddings). I'll post photos some time this week, although I didn't get very many good ones.

lame

This is just one of those lame posts to say "hey I'm too busy to blog!".

I've had some really interesting conversations about quality of life and charity and all kinds of interesting things I'd love to write about on my little weblog. Maybe someday I'll get a chance to do that.

But right now it's almost time for the Heroes finale.

obligatory update

It's amazing that a month ago I was updating every day, and I now I can't find time to update more than once a week. I offer some excuses:

Work is crazy busy. No - for real - my office is #1 in our company for our division.

Music stuff is getting busy. This is for real, too. For some reason warm weather = more playing. Not saying I mind. Just stating the facts. I've had gigs with both groups lately, and we're adding stuff all the time.

Sunshine! I love great weather. I've been outside every day. Walking, cooking out, photo-taking, etc. soaking up every bit of sunshine I can. When you live in Ohio you have to take advantage of the sun. It could start snowing at any minute.

And when I am on the computer lately it's for three reasons:

Coordinating band gigs, practices, myspace updates, etc.

Downloading even more music to my favorite toy, my ipod.

Obsessively making icons. Seriously, why do I find icon making so pleasing all of a sudden?


Also, I am in love with this:

fuzzy

Last week was weird - it was sort of like being on vacation and sort of completely overwhelming and exhausting and sort of surreal all at the same time. My brain feels a little fuzzy.

I put in 10+ hour days at work, and didn't really mind too much.

The weather was surprisingly gorgeous all week.

Charlotte, one of my BFFs, was in town all week, so I spent a lot of time playing with her.

I didn't really like the new episode of House all that much (relative to other episodes of House).

I finally ate at a Cameron Mitchell restaurant. I enjoyed it; it was a little different, the service was good, and the food was quite good.

My brass quintet confirmed our first gig. It's a volunteer thing and it's in front of a lot of people. So we really do need to decided on a name so we can use the opportunity to promote the heck out of ourselves.

Saturday Charlotte and I went to play in the apple store. My intention was to drool over the macbooks. I walked out with a 5th generation 30g ipod. Then 3 hours later I realized that I forgot I get a corporate discount. So maybe next week I'll go back and see if they'll apply it.

Saturday night we went to Mac's, one of our favorite local pubs, with some friends. Then Charlotte had a tattoo appointment (her second one - to celebrate turning 30 this year). We went to Fate Tattoo. Her artist was named Shannon. Her tattoo is an Innuit moon on her shoulder blade. (Her first tattoo was/is a sun). The tattoo is beautiful. The artist was super nice and funny and talented. The prices were reasonable. I know where I'm going to get my tattoo.

I'll probably see Charlotte off sometime this early afternoon. Then I have quintet rehearsal. Then it's back to life as normal. I think.

you know - stuff

So my new office opens Monday. Five (5!!!!!)days from today. My shortest work day this week was 10 hours. But we're all excited.

The brass quintet probably has it's first gig - we just need to confirm we can all make it. It's a big fundraiser, so we're looking at playing to potentially over 2,000 people . Kind of an intimidating first gig. Can you say "exposure".

I actually took some photos - mostly on St. Patrick's Day. Now I just need to post them.

Have been doing lots of music stuff lately and am absolutely soaking it up.

My current state of being in three words: happy, busy, tired

why do middle class kids get such esoteric degrees?

Helen posted a great comment on one of my recent posts about life.

I decided to just make a new post in response, because there's some good stuff in there.

So, "Why do middle class kids get such esoteric degrees?"

I think that was obvious - because that's what we were supposed to do. Especially my particular age bracket (I'm 30). Those of us from lower-middle-class families (there used to be such a thing) saw the future. And the future was with your degree. Our parents were stuck in jobs that paid the mortgage, but they couldn't move up in life because they lacked that magic degree. It didn't matter what the degree was in, it mattered that they (didn't) have one.

We didn't see the market flooding with other kids with degrees with little practical application. We didn't see the recession. We didn't see that we might actually have to pay our own mortgage someday.

Beyond that, I think there's something ingrained in Americans that makes us all dreamers some level. The most logical, realistic people I know still have dreams of doing exactly what they want in life, even when those things are "be a rock star" or "save the world", and they are 40 years old.

I also think this is why so many people have "mid-life-crisis". They have a hard time accepting that their life is as middle-class and mundane as their parents.

I read a line in a Douglas Coupland novel that talked about how middle-class people are doomed to be forgotten by history. If you're rich and/or famous you get to write history. If you're poor you will at least be discussed in history, and you have the opportunity to do something outrageous to change your situation.

When I talk about a day job (or night job, as the case often is), I'm not necessarily looking at it as "I'd rather make money playing music". I have played music as long as I can remember, and I will always play music. I'm looking at the day job sucking time away that I would rather be doing music. 40-50 hours a week at work I can't be practicing or performing. Plus all of those hours outside of work that still get spent thinking about work, instead of thinking about music. It's unintentional, but sometimes you just think "oh, crap, I forgot I have to do this tomorrow". You can replace "music" with whatever your real passion is in life. For my friend Helen, it's art (and she's damn good). For you it might be photography or cooking or skateboarding. I have the growing desire to spend much more of my time doing music than I am currently able to spend.

Ultimately, I believe that people are essentially the same people all of their lives. They say people don't change - and this is mostly true. Sure, you might have a life changing event, a religious experience, an epiphany, something that makes you look at life differently, or be nicer to people, or change some behaviors. But who you were at 5 years old - that's the real you.

At 5 I was fiddling around on the piano, just starting to get into music, I loved playing with friends, I was adventerous, and I didn't have much use for practical matters. At 30, I'm fiddling around with bodhrán, I'm playing music in a couple groups, I seek out opportunities for adventure, and I still hate dealing with most of the practical aspects of life.

We're all just trying to balance the reality of needing the day job with the drive to do what we love. Lately I've just been having more drive and less acceptance of reality.

full day

This is what today looked like:

Took STB to get bloodwork done

Showed up at work, where I did lots of work-things, including training, supervising, managing, and driving around

Came home and cooked dinner from a Betty Crocker box and it sucked. So we made sandwiches instead.

4 minutes before I was supposed to leave for quintet rehearsal, our horn player called to ask if I wanted to bring my bodhrán over for after-rehearsal jamming.

Went to quintet rehearsal, where I played not too great and my lips decided to act like they could only play 3 notes all night.

We then hijacked our trombone player & a bottle of her wine, went to the horn players house, made a fire, drank wine, jammed on bodhrán & fiddle, roasted marshmallows, talked about music, music school, religions, and parapsychology.

My brain is too mushy to think of anything interesting to post tonight.

living life

I met up with friends on St. Patrick's Day - and one them was actually just some guy that went to college with me, and was a few years behind me, and we never really knew each other except to say "oh, yeah, you were a (instrument) player".

(Although now we have spent several hours together, and will probably get together for music stuff in the near future thanks to our mutual friend).

I didn't just go to college - I went to a conservatory of music. I started playing tuba at age 12, and around age 14 started getting a little serious about music, and by age 15 I knew exactly what I wanted to do with life, and I fully expected that by this time (age 30) I would be a performing, sometimes-teaching, tuba-playing fool.

As the Smithwick's and our conversation flowed on St. Paddy's day, we talked about how our particular conservatoy of music (and probably lots of others) kill something in your musical creativity and development. So many students drop out completely, or transfer away, or at least change their major. (We call ourselves "ex-cons". I changed my major for these very reasons).

It can take several years to find yourself happy with playing music again, in situations you enjoy and find at least a little lucratively satisfying as well.

As you wind down this life path, you find yourself with some weird day job that you may or may not care much about - the steady paycheck and health benefits keep you there; that day job allows you to play music.

I realized that we all tell ourselves this- we are all on some level accepting of the reality that it's just easier and in several ways smarter to have a day job and benefits. But we are all also kidding ourselves when we think that we're okay with it - that we will be happy doing it for 40 years while we just do some music on the side.

I wonder at what point I'll finally break, and have to just take a giant plunge, and dedicate myself 100% to music. I know that when I do that, I'll be happier than ever, and probably poorer than ever, and I'll wonder why the hell I waited so long. Maybe I'll hold out until retirement, and have enough in my 401(k) to have made the waiting worthwhile.

marketing 101

Today I'm working on marketing to prospective clients. I have a list of 7000+ businesses. The company that provided the list was kind enough to break out what they think are the top 200. Now I'm trying to narrow down my top 100 and then top 50.

So the first stop is Ye' Old Internet, where Google is your friend. I actually started Googling these companies last week.

If you're going into business, or maybe you're already in business, I have some advice:

Before you name your company, no matter how clever or catchy or original you think your name is, Google it. If you got an entire first page with other companies bearing that same name, think of something else. Be original. Stand out. Let people actually be able to find you.

Then, get a web presence. I don't care who you cater to, what you sell, whatever, you need a web site. People want to research you on the web. They don't want to have to talk to other people or look you up in journals or magazines or books. If they can't find you online, they probably won't try too hard to find you.

So my top 100 and top 50 potential clients aren't the top 100 from my list - they are the top 100 from my list with web sites I could find. And they are getting cool little gifts that probably have no bearing on whether or not they actually do business with me.