STEVE

In an earlier post I talked about something that Tiff and I are very excited about. One night next week we will be traveling to Troy, Alabama to pick up our first dog. His name shall be STEVE, and he will rule. Tiff and I have wanted a dog for a long time, and we've just never thought we were ready, but now, friends, we are. I've always wanted a pure-bred dog and now I have one - I rule.

He's a chocolate lab from a champion bloodline.

"That's right dude, an effing show dog...with effing papers."

Here's a picture of him from (guessing) a couple of weekago.

Led Bluegrass

Tiffany and I got free tix to the Robert Plant - Alison Krauss concert tonight. We just got home, and I'm trying to process the experience. I'll first start off by saying that Mrs. Krauss has the voice of an angel. You already knew that. For those of you who aren't exactly sure who Robert Plant is, he's the lead singer from Led Zepplin. If you don't know Led Zepplin...I don't know what to tell you. The two released an album some months ago, and it's great. Go buy it.

Two greats coming together to do a show. However, the show was mediocre at best. You could teach a graduate level class on rock-n-roll and only study Led Zepplin - and Alison Krauss is one of the few good things that country music's got going for it (1, 2, 3) But neither of them shined. 

Here's how I think it all came to be. Robert Plant saw Oh Brother Where Art Thou, and thought the music was awesome, rightly so. He dug a little deeper into who made the music. This led him to Alison Krauss. Obviously, he fell in love with her voice and music, as anyone would. He began sniffing around to see if there was any way he could get involved with that good ol' country stuff. His manager called T Bone Burnett and they decided that it'd be awesome to make an album. The album happened. Somebody said, "Hey you should take this on the road." Not knowing Robert Plant, Alison Krauss' posse said, "Sure." And next thing you know - they've got a tour of the world scheduled. 

They should have stopped with the album. Robert Plant never rocked out, as he should be expected to do, and meek little Alison Krauss couldn't do her deal cause Robert Plant wouldn't give up the lime-light. Alison was obviously embarrassed, and Robert Plant didn't act like a rock star. 

Talk about a weird crowd. Led heads and blue-grass fans everywhere. The sad thing is that neither group got to see what they paid good money for. As for the set list, boresville. All the Led Zepplin songs were slowed down, and all the bluegrass had Robert Plant singing. As for the covers and the stuff they sang off the album, it was good, but no body on the stage seemed to be that into it.

Two or three times over the course of the night, little moments of magic started to happen. Alison Krauss stepped out of her comfort zone and sang like a rock star - while Plant's famous voice reared it's head and reminded the die-hards what he used to be like. But they never committed. Oh how I wish they would have, it could have been great. As for Plant stepping into the blue-grass world - not a chance. 

It became very clear that Robert Plant was all about Robert Plant, and he wasn't about to share the spot light with anyone - even if she did have the voice of an angel. He even tried to sing as one of the 3 part harmony voices while Alison Krauss sang I Went Down To The River To Pray. He and the other two shared a single mic, and he butchered it. He didn't sing the harmony, he just sang an octave lower than her. The other two, who are blue-grass wizards, you couldn't hear cause he was yelling. 

Tiff said, "It was totally worth everything just to get to hear Alison Krauss sing the couple of songs she got by herself." and I agree. And seeing Robert Plant wasn't that bad.

Right Now

YES!!!

I finally figured out how to make this freaking column wider. Before I was posting pictures and videos only to have them shrunk or cropped poorly. But now, victory is mine. Doesn't all this space feel good?

On another note:

Is it just me, or does everybody seem more restless than usual right now? I know I am, and it seems that Tiffany is too. I'm laying on the couch right now, and the top of my foot itches. I cannot scratch it hard enough. No matter how much I scratch it, or rub it on the bottom of the coffee table, the itch holds. It's like that. Don't really have any answers, or questions for that matter, for it. Just restless. 

On that same note, kindof:

Recently I've been asked, "Are you ok?" or "Are you mad about something?" I'm not mad about anything, and yes I'm fine. I wonder what I'm doing to provoke these questions?

Perhaps the reason people think something's wrong with me is because I've been trying to be quieter lately. I've started getting really annoyed with people who run their mouths all the time. You can talk. You can talk alot even, but listen some too. Oh yeah, and, uhhh, nobody cares.

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On a completely separate note: Jonathan Richman

Bike Messengers

This video is mesmerizing. These guys are crazy.

Samurai Satan

Click on the pic for full size. Photo by Eric.

Today we shot our first video that actually features Lucifer. Using our artistic license, we decided that he should be a samurai. Your's truly got to play the part. The video was written by Kinsley and directed by George.  T5, Kinsley, and Erin helped with the makeup and hair.

Photo by Kinsley

PPV 1

I have decided to start posting about the things that I really like in the "short subject video" category. These post will be limited to things that are professionally produced. I won't bore you will silly, homemade videos. All of the videos featured in the Proper Pro Video (PPV) post will be under 10 minutes long - and well worth your time. 

I'll try to remind you of things you should remember - and also show you some stuff maybe you haven't seen. We

Here we go.

First off, you should remember the Gun's N Roses video to November Rain. It's great. If you don't/didn't like GNR it's cause you're not my age. Any kid who grew up in the 90s, that graduated from highschool anywhere between 93 and 01 likes GNR. If they don't it's only cause their parents didn't let them listen to it. Here's the video. If you're short on time - skip ahead to around 3:45 - just before the guitar solo. That's the best part - helicopter shots, Slash, a little fake church in the middle of the desert. 

The next is a commercial produced back in 1999 for Guinness. It's my favorite commercial, and it needs no explination.

I've got a buddy from high school and college named Matt. Matt's in the "creative producion/advertising/music video/what ever you call it" industry. He started a company a few years ago, and it's doing very good. Check out his website here.

Anyways, here's a clip from one of the shorts he produced while in film school at UT in Austin. It's a funny clip, I actually think this "Arts In Austin" was the first thing he produced at UT. I think the clip is funny.

This next one's a commercial for a video game called Rachet and Clank. This is my kind of video.

And last but not least, this one is one of my favorites from the recent past. It's kind of cheesy, but it's great. Commercial for monster.com.

Please comment on anything you like or do not like.

Excitement...

Tiffany and I are very excited about a new and up coming thing for us...More details in about a month. 

No, Tiffany is not preggo. I promise, at least not right now, no promises for the upcoming month though. However, if she does become preggo in the next 4 weeks you won't hear about if for quite a bit more time, but that's not what this post is about. 

In one month something awesome is going to happen. Get excited! Prepare your self for extreme jealousy.

I got a new book tonight, the title is a secret cause if you knew what the title was then you'd know what's happening in a month. I'm tearing through it, which is abnormal for me.

Alot of people who read this blog already know what I'm talking about, you guys please help me keep it on the DL. 

Now that I've got you chompin' at the bit, I'll give you this to hold you over.

Poetry

I was listening to A Prairie Home Companion this past weekend, and I realized something about my self. Either I don't get modern poetry, or modern poetry sucks. Now I understand the broad sweeping generalization I just made, and I'm happy to stand by it. You just need to let me explain. Garrison Keillor loves poetry.

I'm talking about the nothing rhymes, on and on and on, where are we going, kind of poetry. Google T.S. Elliot's "The Wasteland" and give it a read. If you like it - good for you. For me, no thanks. Every so often you get a hint as to where the poem is leading, then you're plunged back into a deep ocean of nonsense. 

Please, if you can, comment to this post with the reasons you like modern (or post modern, or post, post modern) poetry. Please don't give me anything about song lyrics, or old Shel Silverstein - I like that poetry. Including Shakespeare in your argument will not help.

I will end this post with two of my favorite poems.

Pointy Birds

Pointy birds

Pointy, pointy

Anoint my head

Anointy, nointy

From the Steve Martin movie - The Man With Two Brains

Hat - Shel Silverstein

Teddy said it was a hat

So I put it on.

Now dad is saying,

"Where the heck's

the toilet plunger gone?"

Compassion Trip

I was logging the footage from our trip to Philippines and threw this together. By no means is this even close to the final version of the video. Just wanted to get some of it out there for people to see.

fickelness...

I am now about to do a test…A competition if you will…between blogger.com and wordpress.com…

The competition will only have a few categories, and they will be as follows:

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Picture Uploading Capabilities - 20 points available
There’s really only one thing that matters for this category - mass uploading. If a blog hosting website can NOT upload multiple pictures at once this will be considered a major deficiency and the site will be penalized accordingly. —Blogger 20 - Wordpress 0 (bloggers got the bulk, wordpress only the “one-at-a-timin-it)

Blogroll Update Emails - 5 points available
Blog providers will be judged on their ability to keep me up to date with the people in my blogroll. Updates from other users of the same provider should be simple and easy to manage. However, the ability for a provider to provide updates from users on different providers will be considered a extra bonus and awarded accordingly. For example: If Jon has a blogger blog, and blogger sends him updates from his friend Jack’s blog which is a wordpress blog - major bonus points. — Blogger 0 - Wordpress 0 (the search to find answers for this category got old real quick, plus I just learned how to subscribe to RSS)

Customizable Look and Feel - 15 points available
In this crazy, hectic world people everywhere are looking for ways to stand out and be unique. This rings true in the blog world. Blog providers will be judged on the customizability of their blogs. — Blogger 14 - Wordpress 9 - (blogger came out on top cause it’s customizability is just easier to do and figure out. The both only have just a few templates to work from, but with blogger you can change alot more of the elements in the template)

Mobile Upload and Update Capability - 5 points available + 5 bonus
Sooner or later everyone in the world will have an iPhone. Blog providers will be judged on weather or not blogs can be updated and uploaded to via the iPhone. The more capabilities a blog has the better. — Blogger 7 (update via email from iPhone) - Wordpress 2 (possible, but alot of steps)

User Friendliness - 15 points available
Blogs should be easy to use, update, and get around. Each blog provider will be judged on it’s user friendliness. The judging of this category is strictly up to the administer’s opinion. — Blogger 12 - Wordpress 8 - (they both are friendly, but not as friendly as some other sites in the areas of navigation, terminology, and ease - blogger came out on top I think because it’s run by google)

60 points available - with the possibility of an additional 5 bonus points

Final Results: Blogger 33 - Wordpress 19

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The results of my test will be posted here, and if my findings conclude that blogger.com is better than wordpress.com - a change will be made.

Xanga will not be considered.

If you can think of any other categories that should be added to this competition, please list them here as soon as possible.