the very first unicorn

I've been thinking recently (surprise, surprise) and determined how the first unicorn ever came into existence. Obviously, at the hands (or forehead, rather) of some malicious flying narwhal. This is why most unicorns are seen in the forest, rather than the vast mongolian plains in which they originated. They've had a staggering aversion to open spaces since the beginning. Coincidentally, though not nearly as interestingly, the particular scene depicted in this cartoon also depicts the very first beluga whale.


Also, I've been doing a lot of research on octopuses. Everything I read about them makes me so much more amazed. Watch this video. The extent of their camouflage ability absolutely blows my mind.

new greenpeace ad

Just found this new advertisement from Greenpeace accusing Nestle of using palm oil (which the use in just about every single product of theirs) from manufacturers who produce it using nonsustainable methods. I don't agree with all of Greenpeace's ways of changing the world, but I find this video particularly wonderful. Sustainability is one of my biggest concerns with the environment, since not practicing it will obviously lead to... duh... no environment, so I'm glad that Greenpeace took the initiative to make this advertisement (or anti-advertisement, I guess). I love how it keeps you guessing what this poor man is actually enjoying until the bitter end. Yum!

header!!

Hey everybody! Look at my awesome new header graphic! I made that!

weekend worrier

First, I want to express my complete dismay regarding the loss of Mark Linkous, and consequently, the end of Sparklehorse. I was blindsided the first time I heard Its a Wonderful Life. It was so dark, so lonely, so magical that I couldn't put it down. The songs and production really spoke to me, and were really helped light the way for The Dust Didn't Clear for Days when I was still in the dark about my sound. I regret that I didn't get a chance to see Sparklehorse in concert, as his shows were few and far between.

On a slightly more positive note, things in my world have been getting done. I finally got all the parts I needed to finish my bass, and although there is still a little more work to do on the electronics, cosmetically my bass is finished. It looks like this:



If you had seen what this thing looked like originally (regretfully, many people did), you'd be a lot more impressed with the end result. I promise. This bass also sounds much better than it originally did. I replaced the pickups with DiMarzio BlaBlaBla-YadaYadas, and they sound really wonderful. I'm having some grounding issues currently, but there are quite a few things I could change to fix that.

Friday, I baked my best apple pie thus far in my life. I'm still experimenting with my apple types and ratios, and this one was pretty wonderful. Six granny smith and two pink ladies did the trick. Here's a picture of the final thing:



And here's the inside after the first slice was removed:



De-lic-ious. Seriously this thing was a monster. A monster that was devoured in two days. If you want a real treat (and enjoy cooked apples), come over when I bake apple pie, and spend the night. The next morning I make pancakes from scratch with a syrupy, sugary topping from the leftover pie apples. This will probably kill you with how good it is.

That's it for now. I'm working up the courage to let people know about this thing. Soon you can read it!

paintings, senryu

I've been excavating in one of my old harddrives, and came across a bunch of my old paintings. Because I'm a complete loser, I photographed them, rather than scanning them in, so what I'm posting are the ones that turned out the best. Lookie:







That's all this blog will let me post for now, but more will come later, I hope.

Something else exciting, is that Senryu's release show for their new record Inkling is tonight. If you happen to be in Knoxville, more specifically the Pilot Light in the Old City, there's a good chance you'll get to see them (assuming you're there at the right time and have paid the $5 cover) I won't be there, because its sort of a long drive for me, but I'm on the guest list in spirit. There's a really great article about it at The Daily Times for you to check out. Here's the art for the title track:



You can find this song, and the other single Obsess Much on bandcamp. Its good, I promise.

new record, old record

I have a new record out today! Yay, I guess. The entire thing has been floating around on the internet for quite awhile, but now its all mastered and artworked and finished. Its funny how much my emotions have been swinging about this record... I loved it when we did it, and listened to and played the songs all the time. Then I hated it when there were band issues, and I threw it in a box and all but forgot about it until a few months ago, when I took it back out and remembered all the wonderful things. It sure is interesting how important the bad things are while they're happening, but its usually the good things that you tend to remember after the embers have cooled.

Anyway, here's the cover:



The record is currently free for download or casual listen on mybandcamp site, though I may affix a price to it fairly soon. So get it while you can! Or something...

Aaaaaaanyyyyywaaaaaaaaaay,

That's it.

north, east, west, south

That's what news is an acronym for. Go figure. Here's the scoop of my life at present.

Stars Regardless is looking for shows in Boston and New York. I don't have a band, though I think I want one pretty soon. Soon I'm hoping to start working on some new additions to my public performance abilities to make my shows a little cooler and representative of my recorded music.

Stars Regardless is also getting pretty close to finished with the first full-length record Whispering Earth. I'm pretty excited about sharing that. It has been such a long time coming, so I can't wait until it is a reality.

Emily and I have been working on a children's book. I'm not going to say too much about it yet, except that its about a vampire boy.

I'm currently working with Zoe of Little Red Lung, lending some production assistance on a few tracks of her upcoming record. You need to check this girl out. Her music is terrifyingly good. Hopefully she'll be touring this record once its finished, so keep on the lookout for that.

What else is there?

Oh yeah, I've made posters for two Emily Peal shows now. They look like this:

And I'm allowed to take pictures of their band now, which I very much enjoy, but am terribly slow at getting those edited. Hopefully in the next few days they'll be somewhere that I can link to. Until then, you don't know that this blog exists, so it doesn't really matter now, does it?

Newtonville is pretty awesome. So many places to see, and there are actual stars at night! So close to Boston, but its almost as if there is nature here. That is the one thing I'm dreading about being in New York, the lack of trees, except for in designated areas. Its wonderful because being here I am far enough away to have an excuse not to go into the city if I don't want to, and can get whatever work I need finished.

I'm tired of thinking about this while I should be doing other things.

so many so many so many things

Hello. I thought this might be a fun thing to do, since eventually I'll get famous and everyone can see that I've already had a blog for a long time. How wonderful! Here is a kitty, to start with. I hope it!