I usually get the high score at Ms. Pac Man

Not this time... but it's been a long time since I last played.

Calvin Johnson and Kimya Dawson at Backspace

What's missing in this picture? The microphone! Calvin Johnson inexplicably played tonight without going through the PA. This works great for intimate house shows, but for a medium-sized venue like Backspace with over 100 people there, it meant that only the people right next to the stage could hear the band. I was four people back and had a hard time hearing over the regular noise of people talking at the back of the club. That's when punk rock ethos should really give way to practicality. The dude's got some crazy dance moves, though.
Kimya Dawson was great though. I think tonight was the most I'd heard of her music in one sitting and it just got better throughout the set. She's really figured out how to say what needs to be said in a very personal, yet accessible, way.

Found Photo Friday

Photographer unknown
Found by Michael Lease

Last Thursday

I had hoped the picture would speak for itself, but all I had was my phone, so I'll have to interpret. This was a piece at Last Thursday tonight about anonymous posters on internet message boards. The words around the edges say things like "lying" and "arrogant."
Dude, seriously. I need to be showing my pictures. If something like this is up on the wall, surely someone will put up some of my silly self portraits. I mean come on. Come On.

I Filled Out My Census Form

Now I just sit back and wait for the government to use this information to put me in some sort of internment camp.

Free Box

Kids who grow up in Portland must think it's totally normal to repaint old newspaper boxes, move them to residential areas, and leave their extra stuff in them for other people to use.

Found Photo Friday

Photographer Unknown
Found by Michael Lease

More video/song recording

If you'll excuse (or totally expect) the nerd reference, I am putting this thing together the same way they filmed Star Trek the Motion Picture - in that they were still writing that film as it was being shot. Not by choice, I'm just slow and tend to work at the last minute. My song is not completely done yet, so I have to put it together as I record it with just one or two takes for each instrument due to time. Meanwhile, the video project is to document something, so I've got this additional element of having to set up the video camera as well as the mics. And it's due Friday -- it's going to be rough. I'll post it when it's done.

Recording a song and a video for my video class

The Portland Marathon going by at the end of the street

Too lazy to run in it. Too lazy to walk to the end of the block to get a better picture.

Found Photo Friday

Photographer Unknown

Recording

Elizabeth, a fellow student, is including music in her thesis project, so I've been helping her out some with that. Today we went to a little basement studio to record her songs.

Lights, Camera.... Something

I bought this worklight so I wouldn't have to check lights out from school all the time for my video projects. They aren't as powerful as actual video lighting, but they're close enough and they were only thirty bucks!

I'm going to incorporate a song into my next video project

Finally using music with an art project. It will be a new song with a video. But it's due pretty soon. I am going to have to rush putting the song together.

My 30th Birthday

So it's my 30th birthday. I didn't have a party hat, so this cup will have to do. But I didn't have a party or do anything special. I just don't know anyone in Portland to celebrate with. It's lonely and frustrating. That's why the blog doesn't get updated as much anymore - I'm not doing that much. Go to school. Go home. Teach some drum lessons. Go home. This isn't how I hoped Portland would turn out. I don't like posting negative things, so I just don't put anything up at all. But it's my birthday so I should say something. So thanks to the people who said happy birthday on Facebook. It made me feel better. But I'm not happy with how things are here and even less happy that I'm 30 now. I feel like I'm running out of time to turn things around.