track review: "again and again" by the bird and the bee

The latest tune at the top of "my jams" (on the right side) is "Again and Again" by The Bird and The Bee.

Inara George's voice is soft but infectious--sort of bjork-ish but less weird. The song starts with a wurly that sounds equally addictive, and ads other synths, pads, and what not that all groove around a drum machine that makes you stomp your feet.

I've listened to the song 5 times now and I can't say I can remember any of the lyrics other than "again and again" and I can't say that I care. I still want to listen again. This post-rock duo seems to be furthering the minimalist-synthy-dancey-groovy movement (that phrase copyright yours truly, 2007). The sound is somewhere in between the shins and zero 7--and would feel right at home on the Garden State soundtrack.

Give 'em a spin. You promise to listen, and I'll promise to get better at writing reviews. Deal?

This will get posted at rockworms.com

How Funny Is This?

Dirty Vegas.

Hey y'all... I'll be in vegas the 3rd week of april for work, and amy is flying out on thurs. The 18th so we can hang for the weekend. I know vegas isn't the ideal 'hey let's catch up because we haven't seen each other for a while' place, but hey...for those of you in la, we're only 3 hours away and we'd love to see you! ok. That's all i've got. Oh, and i found my phone, which is why you are blessed with tip very attractive picture of yours truly. Love you. -ck

Music Music Music

SXSW (south by southwest) was this weekend in Austin. I really think I want to go to that soon. If not next year, than certainly the year after that. Austin is such a cool town, there is literally live music going on all night every night up and down 6th st (or is it 8th?).

Anywho, the point of this little ditty is to say that I'd like to start blogging about music more. It seems I'm a bit lazy as far as finding new bands, but I'm in "the industry" (laugh), and I call myself a musician...I'm even scheming on a little indie music forum with Kyle F...so why don't I ever talk about it?

So here's a free gift...for those who don't know:

the current (minneapolis)
kexp (seattle)

I stream them both for free...which works out pretty good since they don't have commercials. I'll also give credit to drive 105 fm (minneapolis) even though they're an ABC radio station, they really make it feel indie, and they're not afraid to play new stuff.

Does anyone else have something to share?

Also, check "my jams" over there to your right. I promise to update those at least once a month to show off some new favs.

It's been a while....

I've been told my blog is so "random." Since that's already the case, I figure why change it? So this blog is about as random as it gets.

1) Well we've had some serious drama in our lives over the last week. Amy's wedding ring was stolen at gunpoint! (if you want to know more, you're gonna have to click) So that pretty much sucked.

2) In other news, I was in LA all last week Sun-Sat, for a very good, but very tiring work trip. It was definitely good to see everybody in the office and get re-charged so I don't feel like I'm all alone out here...but I also crammed my schedule about as full as it gets so that at every lunch, dinner, and late night I had to be somewhere to see someone (by the way, it was great to see all of you, and those of you that I didn't see...I beg your pardon, my week was already crazy as it were). I thought I'd write some clever blog while I was there, saying how much I was soaking up the sun and stuff...but alas, I did not.

3) Now onto the real randomness. I decided to take a couple of my paintings out back and snap a pic of them (where's Alan when I need him?) for "posterity"'s sake. So yeah, here they are. I painted these my last year of college, and I'm proud of them. So suck on it.

You can click the pic's for a closer look.Monochrome assignment
Only allowed one color (I chose red) plus black and white for shading.
Acrylic on Paper.

Final Project

This was about a week before I graduated. I already had a job lined up...and I was scared. And yes, I may have embellished a bit on those biceps.
Acrylic on Cardboard (sorry for the glare)

Snow Day: Part Deux

Snow Day!

The backyard:

Amy got to come home early today due to the "Blizzard like" conditions here :). I on the other hand, will still be working the whole day--it would be tough to pull off the "I just don't think it's safe" bit in talking about my commute from the bedroom to the basement.

I snapped some pics and thought I'd share 'em. Those of you who live here are wondering why I would post this--but keep in mind, it's been a while for me.

Those of you who don't live here are thinking how beautiful it is...and how glad you are that you aren't here. And I don't blame you--I don't own a snowblower, and it wasn't fun shoveling the snow so that the bank is now over my head. And it needs it again!

Without further adieu...To the left, to the left...

This was taken a couple hours ago, the snow is now above the picnic bench.

Right side...

Just try and tell me she's not cute--go ahead TRY IT! Alan? Try it!