The Second Annual BreakFest!

Hey, all. Well, on Saturday we held the second annual BreakFest music shindig in Rossmoor, California. It was awesome. Definitely one of the highlights of my year (Pavement/Northern California still takes the cake). Still, just from that combination of events, this has been my best summer on record, which really means a lot seeing as the last few years have really just sucked. Still, I have to register for classes, which I can’t do until tomorrow due to my indecisiveness on which school to apply. Right now it’s looking like Golden West College in Huntington Beach, which means I’ll either be commuting to Orange County from Los Angeles county regularly or I’ll be taking online classes. Ugh.

Anyway, BreakFest was fantastic. I was dragged on to a surprise reunion of my first band’s classic line-up, which was awkward but funny (and bad). Afterwords a mix of acts played: Nahneen Kula from Los Angeles; Foil Licker, which has now become a member-confused noise band; and Nick Houghtaling, a good friend of mine and the bassist of my current band, christened Ralph Travis (although I’m seriously considering changing the name). Following Nick, said band performed, which went over very well, despite our unfortunate technical difficulties (the microphones were far too quiet and Alex’s guitar cables broke, rendering his guitar playing silent). Still, it was a fairly solid performance.

Yes, we’re awesome.

Following us were our good friends Sammy Rothman, Kyle Crawford, and Chris Fountain in their previously mentioned (in other posts) band, Tubby Boots. They put on an extremely solid set, as usual. After they finished headlining the event, the Aquarium Club took the stage, bringing the lulz in gratuitous doses. Most people left during the set, which I’m attributing to most folk’s basic lack of understanding when it comes to the subject of lulz. Of course, this didn’t really bother us. Our set was fucking awesome (and hilarious). Anyway, when we concluded our performance, we all got together on stage an jammed out a few songs before calling it a day. The whole thing lasted from 1:30pm to 7:30pm, which I would call a success. It was awesome.

Anyway, I recorded the audio for the whole event, and as of this morning it has been made public on it’s own Bandcamp page. So, please, take a look at it. Also, feel free to listen to a little preview of my new band. Tata for now!

Just in case you’re interested in how I’ve been spending my days…

This horribly (yet charmingly) filmed ditty was created by my good friend Steven Wittenberg, a member, along with myself and two more of my friends, of the Aquarium Club, a side project of mine. If you have not taken a gander at our videos, which mostly consist of covers, I suggest you do. However, don’t expect to find any actual beautiful music. We are in the business of lulz, after all.

Summer is the worst time of the year

Days like these remind me of the exact reasons for why I feel summer is the worst time of the year. Of course, I suppose I should specify what qualities any given summer day as being a day like this one. Well, for starters, it’s one-hundred fucking degrees outside, which would be (barely) bearable if it was not for the increased humidity of living near the mountains. I know the mountains, no matter where you may reside, tend to be drier on average than non-mountainous regions. However, the San Gabriel Mountains are hate puppies and happiness and decided to not only be hotter than the rest of the Los Angeles basin, but also far more humid. It’s ridiculous.

Second, I have a runny nose. I must point out that this is far from being a rare circumstance of my day, even on non-summer days, as  my sinuses are permanently clogged. However, on summer days the clogged nature of said sinuses becomes far more apparent than usual, thanks to the increased temperature of my environment. The sun heats the sinuses, thus allowing them to run freely (like mustangs, except with a lack of appreciation).

Third, I have yard work I am expected to complete by Friday, which is totally not going to happen, as you might have guessed from the very existence of this blog post during sunlight hours. Yeah, seeing as it’s been so incredibly hot today (it did break one-hundred degrees, but right now things are cooling down… to one-hundred straight) and my sinuses have been yelling at me for the past few hours, I’ve only been able to accomplish so much. Specifically, I was able to rake up enough leaves to fill one garbage bag. In order to give you an accurate example of how little work this is, last week, on my least productive day, I was able to fill five bags with leaves and dirt and I was able to remove twelve strips of sod. It’s almost as if I have done nothing today.

Of course, I can’t even make myself feel better through food (no ice cream, or anything cold for that manner, since we just got a fridge). I would resort to reading, and, incidentally, that’s actually what I have been doing. However, right now I’m on Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets, which happens to be the worst Harry Potter novel. I mean, I found this one difficult to finish when I was a kid, but holy crap, nothing happens in this whole fucking book. I really want to skip it, but now that I’ve read all seven books, half the fun of rereading them is piecing together the references to the other works in the series. So, skipping is out of the question.

Anyway, I have my MacBook all set up at a friend’s house, seeing as I can’t use it here since we do not possess a monitor. So, I’m being forced to use my aunt’s crappy Dell laptop, and I’m not just calling it crappy out of Apple loyalty or anything, especially since I’m really not one for arguing that one brand is truly better than the other. No, I call this computer crappy because, well, it really is a genuine piece of crap. It’s slow as hell, it can barely multi-task, and it has a hard-drive of only 100GB. Crap.

Alright, that’s enough ranting for today. God, I hate summer.

First band practice

So, the first band practice has, well, happened, and although it wasn’t necessarily too eventful, it was still pretty great. We practiced two songs (in two hours, which really is pretty good) and both went quite well. More practice tomorrow (today?). Anyway, we’re still unsettled on a name (most of us are leaning away from Foil Licker, although that would be an awesome side project). Still, this is turning out to be very promising.

Anyway, I’m tired as hell. I don’t know why I chose to post this at this hour. Jesus, I need sleep.

Oh, happy America day, everybody… Yeah.

An insider’s documentation of the Northern California trip from which I just returned

As filmed by Kyle Crawford, the guitarist/singer of Long Beach band Tubby Boots, who I mentioned in my previous post. Enjoy.

Northern California trip status: complete

Hello, everybody. Sorry I haven’t posted in some time; I’ve been in Northern California. I just returned (well, a few days ago) from a series of Pavement shows in the San Francisco Bay area, and I have to admit that this trip probably constituted the best time I’ve had in years. Really, it’s exactly the kind of thing I moved back to California to do. I was accompanied on the excursion by my friends Sammy Rothman and Kyle Crawford (both of the band Tubby Boots, who I highly suggest you check out) and my cousin Alex, who is joining me in my new band.

Anyway, the Pavement shows were incredible, with the second being the best show to which I’ve ever been. I cannot stress how fucking incredible it was. Everything about it was perfect.

By the way, the view of San Francisco from Oakland is astounding. I really wish we had time to swing by the former, but alas, it was not to be. Maybe another time (hopefully soon!)

So, onwards to developments. I’ve been staying in Pasadena since I arrived back in California, and it’s been great, but it really is out of the way from where I wish to be. So, I’ll probably still be heading to Long Beach at least by the end of summer, although if need be I can remain here until the time is right. On the music front, there have been two important developments this last week. First, the band which I am starting is now going by the name Foil Licker. I’m not exactly sold on the name, although I did come up with it, but I do like how, well, “punk” it sounds. It just kind of sounds badass. We’ll see if it sticks. Second, I’m pleased to announce that Alex, Sammy, and I are forming a record label. This label, christened Pancakes House Records, will be releasing all future releases by me (and will be reissuing a few of my past releases, specifically The Memories of Another Life EP and The City of Fallen Angels). I’m really excited about this whole record label venture, and I shall link to our website soon enough (but not yet, since we’re in the middle of developing the site itself. Still, it shouldn’t be long).

Alright, so that’s everything for now. I’ll update a lot more frequently starting soon, so talk to you all later.

Back in California

Well, I’m truly back as of three days ago, and I’ve even found a place to stay, at least for the summer. So now I’m living in Altadena, which is at the northern tip of Los Angeles County, and a bit out of the way, but hey, it’s shelter. It’s actually a really awesome location.

Anyway, I’m preparing things for the outdoor concert I’m throwing next month, BreakFest. I have to work out sets and practice with three different bands, which is a lot to do in only a month’s time, but it should be fun. Also, now that I’m back in California, very soon I’ll be able to update this website with all kinds of creative content. Should be awesome.

Alright, that’s enough for now. Tootles.

Another train trip?

Yeah, I’m getting ready to return to the West Coast, which means another three or so days of transferring between trains. This time I’ll be stopping at each extended-stay stop for much longer than on the trip to the East Coast, which means I’ll have much more time to explore and document this adventure (of sorts. Really, I’ll just be on a train most of the time…). Anyway, for your viewing pleasure, an overview of the extent of this journey:

I even took the time to subdivide the map into geopolitical spheres.

On the initial trip to this coast, I was unable to explore Chicago, a city I’ve wished to visit for a pretty long time. Luckily, I’ll be there for quite a few hours on the return trip, which means I finally can step outside the fucking train station. Also, I’ll have more time to explore Washington, D.C., although, judging from the humidity I experienced when I first arrived there and throughout my stay here in North Carolina, I’m not sure being outside for the entire length of time in which I’m in the nation’s capital would be an actual good idea.

I imagine I’ll be spending most of my trip studying German, doodling, and working on my board game. Still, it’d be nice to pick up a novel or two so that I might not completely lose my sanity. Here’s hoping those train station book stores are well stocked!

Sleep schedules are for the weak

Having stated that, I really do need to develop an actual sleep schedule. I’ve been going to bed at random times between 4:30AM and 6:00AM (Eastern Time, mind you), and waking up around 3:30PM. This is not healthy, although it all seems much better if I try to convince myself that I’m just still used to Pacific Time. Of course, this isn’t really the case as I’ve never really been used to Pacific Time. Anyway, it’d be nice to actually see the sunlight from outside at some point this week, especially since I’m leaving on Wednesday night.

I’ll be back in California on the 13th, which is exactly a week from now. I’ll be up in Pasadena, which means I’ll be taking the Metro line through Los Angeles County in order to visit Long Beach and Orange County, but it’s worth it. Hopefully. Either way I need to get ready to enroll in school, which means getting my transfer papers ready and all that jazz. Also, need to start really planning out my class schedule (I really don’t want to complete my general education requirements, but oh well).

Just finished watching Kill Bill for probably the tenth time in my life. I’m not sure why I haven’t seen that movie more times. I’ve probably dedicated a combined total of a year’s worth of time to the Star Wars movies, and probably about a month’s worth to the Lord of the Rings films, but Tarantino probably hasn’t even reached more than two days. This should change. Of course, I have other pressing matters to which I must attend before I can revisit my love of film.

I’ve been working almost constantly on crafting songs, having recently written my longest song yet (which isn’t what I was going for, necessarily, but is still an accomplishment). These songs all continue to grow more complex, and should be really fucking awesome with the band in which I’ll be performing (soon!!). I’m also stringing these songs into a presentable album format. My cousin and I have discussed the possibility of starting a really small independent label through which we could distribute our material and maybe that of other acts. Who knows if we’ll really follow through with that, but seeing as production is one of my favorite hobbies, this really could be an awesome project. We’ll see?

Also, still considering expanding the website. I won’t go through with the expansion until after I’m reunited with my external harddrive, on which my prose and other materials are located. Again, we’ll see?

Revamping my computer

Well, mostly upgrading all of my software and switching from Mozilla Firefox to Google Chrome. It already feels like I’m using a much more professional machine than before (although I have yet to have my screen fixed. That seriously needs to happen. Soon). Anyway, all of this upgrading and such has made me really want to update this website in a big way. Maybe I’ll expand from just posting a few random musings and mostly focusing on my music by branching out to opinion pieces (only occasionally, of course) and more of my creations, specifically prose.

Another source of inspiration for this comes from the blog of my friend Lillian and her brother, Elliott, who both attend the University of Puget Sound (from which I recently transfered). Their blog is highly entertaining, focusing mainly on comics and lists of various natures. They also collaborate with a third party. Anyway, I highly suggest checking them out if you have a minute.