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Posts tagged as “Awesome”

This guy lived a cooler life than you ever will.

August 30, 2010 |

Thoughts

Oh, you’ve been to Europe? Boring. Do you want to read the intro paragraph for the most killer obituary I’ve ever read?

Sure you do.

At 17, he was living with natives in the South American jungle and, like them, wore a loincloth, got traditional tattoos, ate monkey and danced with the gods. He fell in love with a beautiful young woman, Mina, who reciprocated. They married. She soon died of malaria, and the young man pondered suicide.

Right? That makes all your vacations to warm places seem utterly banal, doesn’t it?

Read the rest of the obituary on The New York Times. This guy was epic.

> Continue reading...This guy lived a cooler life than you ever will.

My utterly stressful day.

June 30, 2010 |

Thoughts

I know you have all missed my banter so much while I’ve been in California, but you don’t have to long anymore now that I am back in Brooklyn. I intend to recommence posting at the same semi-regular clip I maintained in the past. That is, 15 music videos to 1 post with any content. Deal.

Anywayyyyyy, I had a super stressful day today and thought I’d share it with you. Here’s what I done.

  • I woke up, discovered a job I thought was supposed to start today got killed, and went back to sleep.
  • I woke up a second time, much later. I won’t tell you when, but Europeans would call it 14 o’clock.
  • I showered.
  • I shaved.
  • I realized I left my toothbrush and toothpaste in the shower in California, but then I found I had an extra tube of toothpaste and an extra toothbrush. Score!
  • I went to the bank and deposited a check.
  • I walked down Manhattan Avenue to Bedford to the N7th L train stop and boarded the train.
  • At Union Square I transferred to a downtown 6.
  • I got off at Spring Street, dropped off my rent check and the stupid parking ticket I got in Durango, and went into Smoke & Mirrors.
  • I met S&M’s pretty new receptionist, picked up Chip Chip, and left. Total time for that errand: 5 minutes.
  • I sauntered up Broadway since it was beautiful out and got back on the train at Union Square.
  • I got off at Beford again, walked down to get a burrito.
  • They didn’t have pork, so I got the steak. O! life’s hardships.
  • Burrito in hand, I found my spot in McCarren Park and laid in the grass for maybe an hour and a half enjoying the sun and the breeze.
  • Satiated with my burrito and entertained by the inane conversation the two teenaged girls playing badminton next to me had, I went home.
  • I played my old Gibson for a little bit.
  • I came online to download some scale tabs to practice my fingering. GET YOUR MIND OUT OF THE GUTTER, MISTER.
  • I reapplied for my leftover funemployment benefits. Booyah!
  • I wrote this.
  • I am going to turn on yesterday’s baseball game and play my guitar.

Isn’t my life hard? Don’t you all wish you were coming to visit me on my summer vacation? It’s so great.

> Continue reading...My utterly stressful day.

Telluride Bluegrass and Country Music Festival 6/17/2010

June 23, 2010 |

Galleries and Photography

JJ and I drove into Colorado on a semi-whim to attend this year’s Bluegrass and Country Music Festival. We arrived on the 17th (my birthday) and drove on out of there Monday the 21st. We logged 2400 miles of driving over the course of 4 days, all of which I did. It was absolutely epic.

The festival itself was totally amazing. Of course, I took photos the whole time. I only hit about 330, which is low for me, but I was doing a lot of partying and hanging out and whatever that got in the way of my efficient photo taking. Oh well. I had a blast.

On the way back, we had to take a detour around the Grand Canyon because of a fire raging outside Flagstaff. We’d seen the beginning of the fire on our way through the first time, but it has gotten so out of hand that they closed off 13 miles of highway just a few days later. Smartly, we stopped and got out to sight-see at the Grand Canyon and we lucky enough to experience it completely filled with smoke from the nearby fire at sunset. Pretty god damned awesome.

Here are a few of my favorites.

Check out the whole gallery here:

Telluride Bluegrass and Country Music Festival Gallery

As far as thoughts on technique, I decided to shoot with only primes. Seeing these dudes walking around with their huge zooms and crap gave me a delightfully smug shudder of pleasure knowing that I was probably taking nicer looking photos than they were. But I might just be an arrogant prick. Whatevs.

My beloved 85 f/1.8 performed as amazingly as ever. The 28 f/1.8, though harder to use, worked nicely as well. But the poor 50 f/1.8 really had trouble nailing focus. Enough so that it ruined a bunch of photos that would otherwise have been just fine. Looking through the first two days of pictures today, I regretted sticking with the 50 both days because of the sheer number of just-out-of-focus photos. It made me angry. I will be purchasing the 50 f/1.4 as soon as I can not for it’s slightly faster aperture, but for its improved autofocus. I refuse to let a shoddy, cheap shit lens, ruin another photo. If my photos are going to be ruined, I want the fault to be my own.

Either way, I think there are some good photos in the set. Enjoy.

> Continue reading...Telluride Bluegrass and Country Music Festival 6/17/2010

Hello, Invisible Oranges readers!

June 1, 2010 |

About Music and Music

If you’re reading this, you’ve clicked the link on the post about me winning the Ryan Lipynsky Guitar World cover contest. Pretty sweet.

Here’s the winning entry for those of you who don’t read Invisible Oranges but have come here on your own.

I think my favorite part of the whole thing was picking the songs to be tabs. Regular readers will also recognize the claw I used as a bullet as the same from The Black Laser’s Seal of Approval. It’s my hand throwing what I call the metal claw, but which Cosmo Lee at Invisible Oranges called invisible oranges. Get it? I know you do.

Anyway, it was fun and I’m psyched to have won the record. The more metal, the better, I think.

And because harmonized growls WILL fuck your shit up, here’s an example of one of my favorites.

You’ll notice, too, that the tab for this song is included in my issue of Guitar World.

> Continue reading...Hello, Invisible Oranges readers!

Meet my friend Tessie, who I hope to be able to address as my Tony Award Winning friend Tessie soon.

May 4, 2010 |

Thoughts

This is my friend Tessie.

Tessie and I went to high school together in California and reconnected a couple years ago here in New York when we discovered we both lived and worked here. She is a costume designer working on Broadway in various musicals and theatrical productions. She works hard and has done well for herself. I am constantly impressed. Currently she’s working on a show called Lend Me A Tenor. Sweet pun.

So, upon hearing of her Tony Nomination this morning, I felt tremendous pride in my friend. For those of you who don’t know what the Tony Awards are—and, really, what the hell?—they are the theatre’s equivalent of the Academy Awards. It’s a big deal to be nominated for a Tony Award.

Here’s a screencap of the nomination.

See her show there? I know you do. So do I. Great, right?

The awards aren’t until June, so we’ll all have to wait until we find out that they won for Best Costume Design. Not “if”, mind you. That.

Good job, Tessie!

> Continue reading...Meet my friend Tessie, who I hope to be able to address as my Tony Award Winning friend Tessie soon.