So, I have decided to try and keep a running blog of my move to Los Angeles so everyone would know how it was going. Right now all of my furniture is already packed up and on the way to California, I have but to follow it. At the moment the plan is to get up at about 3:30 tomorrow morning, pack everything up into the car, give the cat her sedative, then do a final walk through of the house before going to pick up Kaitlyn who has graciously offered to be my co-pilot for this trip and didn't even complain about the ungodly hour of departure. So, if all goes according to plan, here's our route:
Day 1: Detroit, Michigan to Tulsa, OK - 960 miles, 16 hours. Just past Tulsa there's a string of hotels, surely one of them will have a vacancy...right?
Day 2: Tulsa, OK to Albuquerque, NM - 650 miles, 10 hours. End of the first leg of the journey. Here we meet up with my friends in Albuquerque and give the poor cat a few days to relax and detox.
Day 3: Albuquerque, NM to Hollywood, CA - 794 miles, 12 hours. By this time I hope to have coordinated with my landlord to determine a time that I can meet up with her, finalize paperwork, and get keys to the apartment. My furniture is slated to arrive several days after I do.
My biggest concern about this drive is my cat. The drive, mind you, not the move as a whole. I have far different concerns regarding that. I worry about the cat because she hates being in the car, and I would really prefer to avoid sedating her if at all possible. However, if past experience is anything to judge by (particularly coming home from the vet earlier this week), she NEEDS to be sedated while we're driving otherwise she'll be stressed out and miserable. So, although it's not how I would prefer to go about things, tomorrow morning I'm going to get up and give her a pill to knock her out, and hopefully she'll be asleep or at least relaxed for most of the day. We will see how things go.
Thursday, August 26, 2010
Tuesday, October 6, 2009
Holy Everloving Crap!
I completely forgot that I had a blog! Man alive, people, I deeply apologize for the lack of news coming from the Dave contingent. Here's the deal - we filmed a video, I started a podcast with some of my oldest friends (davedaveanddave.com), and EVERYTHING IS AWESOME. I will get back to you soon. Promise.
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
In Which I Flagellate Myself for Procrastination
It has been an inexcusably long time since I have posted to this blog. However, I assure you that it is not for lack of things to say! Instead, my time has been spent continually rushing from place to place, from task to task, from irreplaceable chunk of a rapidly passing and finite lifetime to irreplaceable...well, I think you get the idea.
I think that I may be too nice for my own good. Allow me to give you an example: I am an outspoken and dedicated atheist. I describe myself as a scientific atheist, meaning that I value observation and empirical evidence over other arguments but I am open to new findings and discussions, but that is besides the point. The reason that I say that I am too nice for my own good is that when my friend Shannon told me that the drummer for her church band was moving away and asked me to fill in temporarily, I said, "Sure!"
It seems that "temporarily" is a subjective term. It has been months since I took over the position of house drummer, and there is no clear end in sight. And although I have been offered time and time again the opportunity to back out with grace, I have so far declined to do so. The reason being I would feel guilty leaving them in the lurch. This congregation thrives on its music. This is a church that gets on its feet and sings, approaches the altar with humility and openly weeps during the more moving choruses. ("With drums?" I hear you ask. Yes. With drums.) Even though my personal beliefs are not hinged upon the success of this particular Sunday morning event, I would feel personally responsible if I left them disadvantaged.
To add to the discomfort, the fact that I am an atheist seems to have gotten out through the grapevine, and recently I have had a few people come up to me after service and ask if they could pray over me to help me find Jesus. Now, I don't want to sit through this. It's uncomfortable and I find myself feeling embarrassed for the person doing the praying for the sheer absurdity of the concept that by laying a hand on my head and muttering some words I might have a sudden and overwhelming change of heart. However, I can't refuse! And the reason is, as mentioned before, I am too nice for my own good. These people aren't trying to make me uncomfortable or make me feel unwelcome or substandard - in fact, it is the exact opposite. These are good people, and they genuinely feel that what they are doing is going to help me. They like me and they want me to share in this passion of theirs that has brought them joy. I can't deny them the right to make a kind gesture to someone, that would be like reacting to a proffered hand by spitting in it. On the other hand, if I were to arrive at church one day with free copies of The God Delusion for everyone, they would all be offended because I would be "attacking their beliefs." It's an unfair double standard, but at the end of the day I'm too nice to do anything about it.
I suppose that in the long run being the nice guy is the best policy. In the short run, however, it does feel like I have to bend over backwards a lot.
Tuesday, September 2, 2008
Wednesday, August 20, 2008
Broken Dreams Bands
There is a creature that frequently inhabits local bars on Friday and Saturday nights. These strange animals have several distinguishing characteristics, and are quite unfortunately no where near the brink of extinction.
The animal of which I speak is, of course, the Broken Dreams band. A Broken Dreams band is a group of normally middle-aged guys with careers, all of whom are now living out there long abandoned fantasies of rock and roll stardom by playing (poorly) old rehashed covers at dive bars on weekend nights. You can tell right away when you are dealing with a Broken Dreams band - they traditionally have top level professional equipment, but do not possess the skills necessary to validate the amount of money sunk in to said equipment. They all play the same songs, and the invariably take themselves way to seriously.
My feelings towards these bands is a strange mix of derision and pity. They piss me off because they obviously earn more money than they need in their real job, which is why they are playing American made Stratocasters through Marshall half-stacks and Yamaha Stage Custom drums, all of which cost thousands and thousands of dollars. They also obviously have always wanted to be a musician. However, they were never willing to put in the time, dedication, and sacrifice necessary to actually make a career out of music. Instead they got themselves a respectable, "normal" career, and just brought out music as a way through their midlife crisis. In and of itself that wouldn't be too bad, but they stereotypically act like they are the cat's fucking ass, as though somehow being on stage lent them a grandeur that only money can buy. Also, I can say from experience that the writing of music is the absolute hardest aspect of the art. Anybody under the sun can practice something that another person has already played - if you aren't writing it yourself, you don't have a whole lot to brag about. At the same time, though, I do feel sorry for these fools. Not everyone can make their living from music, and I understand that. Also, there is a kind of desperate melancholy in the way they so ardently play music written by other people.
So, next time you see one of these groups, feel free to make fun of them. Just, you know, quietly. To yourself.
The animal of which I speak is, of course, the Broken Dreams band. A Broken Dreams band is a group of normally middle-aged guys with careers, all of whom are now living out there long abandoned fantasies of rock and roll stardom by playing (poorly) old rehashed covers at dive bars on weekend nights. You can tell right away when you are dealing with a Broken Dreams band - they traditionally have top level professional equipment, but do not possess the skills necessary to validate the amount of money sunk in to said equipment. They all play the same songs, and the invariably take themselves way to seriously.
My feelings towards these bands is a strange mix of derision and pity. They piss me off because they obviously earn more money than they need in their real job, which is why they are playing American made Stratocasters through Marshall half-stacks and Yamaha Stage Custom drums, all of which cost thousands and thousands of dollars. They also obviously have always wanted to be a musician. However, they were never willing to put in the time, dedication, and sacrifice necessary to actually make a career out of music. Instead they got themselves a respectable, "normal" career, and just brought out music as a way through their midlife crisis. In and of itself that wouldn't be too bad, but they stereotypically act like they are the cat's fucking ass, as though somehow being on stage lent them a grandeur that only money can buy. Also, I can say from experience that the writing of music is the absolute hardest aspect of the art. Anybody under the sun can practice something that another person has already played - if you aren't writing it yourself, you don't have a whole lot to brag about. At the same time, though, I do feel sorry for these fools. Not everyone can make their living from music, and I understand that. Also, there is a kind of desperate melancholy in the way they so ardently play music written by other people.
So, next time you see one of these groups, feel free to make fun of them. Just, you know, quietly. To yourself.
Webcomics
I am a nerd.
I say this without shame or hesitation. Nowadays there seems to be much less denigration associated with the word - perhaps it is because there are simply so many of us, the word no longer symbolizes an outcast.
To be more specific, I am an internet nerd. The more time one spends perusing the world wide web, the more one becomes aware of a distinct internet culture. This goes beyond the cliched AIM abbreviations and L337speak - there is a brand of humor that is consistent amongst the things favored by internet nerds. I would liken it to an accent - a particular style of expression that is common amongst people with a similar background. Also, there is an astonishingly close communal feel amongst participants of these favored tracts of internet, the speed of which seemingly defies all logic.
Allow me to explain - perhaps the most accessible example of an online community are the millions of readers of webcomics. There are countless webcomics out there, but there are a group of about thirty or so that everyone who is interesting in webcomics is familiar with. These comics rose to the top not because of clever marketing or national syndication - people were drawn to them because of their quality, which prompted them to tell their friends, who told their friends, ad nauseum. It's the ultimate grassroots support, facilitated by instant information exchange. What this eventually creates is a sort of hyper-meme: it's almost as though as soon as one person in the crowd discovers something, or tries something new, everyone else discovers it simultaneously. This is facilitated by the artists of these comics, too. Let's say that a couple guys start making a comic, or podcast, or series of online videos, and it just happens to be hilarious. All it takes is for one person to discover it - they post it on Digg or Stumbleupon or Reddit, then a bunch of other people link it - maybe some of the artists of the top tier comics mention it in their newspost. Overnight, something can leap from obscurity to thousands of hits per day.
It's very interesting as well to see the spiderweb of influences that these things can have. For example, I remember being brought to an article on Cracked.com after seeing it mentioned on Fark.com. Later, I heard that same article being mentioned in Downloadable Content, the podcast that Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade make. Who know how many other sites mentioned the article or linked it directly, but it seemed like as soon as it was published, everyone knew about it simultaneously. This particular article was on 7 commandments that should be instituted for video game makers. Several weeks after the fact a friend emailed it to me like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and I got the opportunity to act all haughty and condescending for having already read it. I rarely get the opportunity to act like that because I don't own an Apple computer.
Anyways, if you're interested, here are some of the most popular webcomics out there:
http://www.questionablecontent.net/
http://www.penny-arcade.com/
http://www.achewood.com/
http://www.samandfuzzy.com/
http://www.xkcd.com/
http://www.wigu.com/
http://www.pvponline.com/
http://www.cad-comic.com/
http://www.applegeeks.com/
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/
http://www.drmcninja.com/
http://www.starslipcrisis.com/
In addition, the path to true internet nerdom is paved with the following websites:
http://www.digg.com/
http://www.fark.com/
http://www.cracked.com/
http://www.break.com/
http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/
http://www.failblog.org/
http://www.jonathancoulton.com/
And for the truly adventurous:
http://www.hourofknowledge.com/
http://www.thewebcomiclist.com/
http://www.kotaku.com/
I say this without shame or hesitation. Nowadays there seems to be much less denigration associated with the word - perhaps it is because there are simply so many of us, the word no longer symbolizes an outcast.
To be more specific, I am an internet nerd. The more time one spends perusing the world wide web, the more one becomes aware of a distinct internet culture. This goes beyond the cliched AIM abbreviations and L337speak - there is a brand of humor that is consistent amongst the things favored by internet nerds. I would liken it to an accent - a particular style of expression that is common amongst people with a similar background. Also, there is an astonishingly close communal feel amongst participants of these favored tracts of internet, the speed of which seemingly defies all logic.
Allow me to explain - perhaps the most accessible example of an online community are the millions of readers of webcomics. There are countless webcomics out there, but there are a group of about thirty or so that everyone who is interesting in webcomics is familiar with. These comics rose to the top not because of clever marketing or national syndication - people were drawn to them because of their quality, which prompted them to tell their friends, who told their friends, ad nauseum. It's the ultimate grassroots support, facilitated by instant information exchange. What this eventually creates is a sort of hyper-meme: it's almost as though as soon as one person in the crowd discovers something, or tries something new, everyone else discovers it simultaneously. This is facilitated by the artists of these comics, too. Let's say that a couple guys start making a comic, or podcast, or series of online videos, and it just happens to be hilarious. All it takes is for one person to discover it - they post it on Digg or Stumbleupon or Reddit, then a bunch of other people link it - maybe some of the artists of the top tier comics mention it in their newspost. Overnight, something can leap from obscurity to thousands of hits per day.
It's very interesting as well to see the spiderweb of influences that these things can have. For example, I remember being brought to an article on Cracked.com after seeing it mentioned on Fark.com. Later, I heard that same article being mentioned in Downloadable Content, the podcast that Gabe and Tycho from Penny Arcade make. Who know how many other sites mentioned the article or linked it directly, but it seemed like as soon as it was published, everyone knew about it simultaneously. This particular article was on 7 commandments that should be instituted for video game makers. Several weeks after the fact a friend emailed it to me like it was the greatest thing since sliced bread, and I got the opportunity to act all haughty and condescending for having already read it. I rarely get the opportunity to act like that because I don't own an Apple computer.
Anyways, if you're interested, here are some of the most popular webcomics out there:
http://www.questionablecontent.net/
http://www.penny-arcade.com/
http://www.achewood.com/
http://www.samandfuzzy.com/
http://www.xkcd.com/
http://www.wigu.com/
http://www.pvponline.com/
http://www.cad-comic.com/
http://www.applegeeks.com/
http://www.dominic-deegan.com/
http://www.drmcninja.com/
http://www.starslipcrisis.com/
In addition, the path to true internet nerdom is paved with the following websites:
http://www.digg.com/
http://www.fark.com/
http://www.cracked.com/
http://www.break.com/
http://www.icanhascheezburger.com/
http://www.failblog.org/
http://www.jonathancoulton.com/
And for the truly adventurous:
http://www.hourofknowledge.com/
http://www.thewebcomiclist.com/
http://www.kotaku.com/
Thursday, July 10, 2008
Precision Drums!
This is very exciting news for me! I have been endorsed by Precision Drums. I spent forever figuring out what I wanted in a drum set and hashing out the design, then the built it for me and let me tell you - it sounds great. There are pictures of it at http://precisiondrum.com/html/endorsers.html, and I'm reposting the testimonial that I wrote for them here. If you're a drummer I highly recommend thinking about getting a snare drum or a whole drum set made by Precision - they can do anything you can imagine, and playing a drum that is a product of your own imagination is a thoroughly fulfilling experience.
Here's the blurb I wrote for Precision:
Let’s start with a simple statement of fact: Precision Drums are awesome. My set is the most responsive, beautiful sounding, and beautiful looking kit that I have ever played. The finish is striking and masterfully done. In fact, as soon as I have them out of the cases, I have people coming up to ask me who made them.
As to the details of the construction of the drums, I selected a 20 ply maple snare (4x14).This is the first time that I have used such thick wood on a snare, and the extra plys have an interesting effect on the tone. Tuned tightly, it produces a strong, wood-tinged pop with dark edges, and the tone is strong enough that it can clearly cut through other instruments on stage without needing to be cranked to marching-snare level tightness. Hitting near the edge of the head causes the higher frequencies of the wood to respond, so the result is a startlingly different ringing snap. Also, in part due to the thicker shells, rim clicks from this drum are positively deafening.
The toms (9x12, 13x16 – Maple, 8 ply) ring out loud and clear. They can also handle different types of heads and different muffling styles, so you can suit them to the situation easily. The tone is both warm and vibrant, and the wood responds well to even light pressure.
The bass drum (18x22, Maple, 8-ply) is definitely a professional’s instrument. It produces tons of sound, and the there are many options as to how to shape and direct that sound. The shell of the bass is very responsive, so it will ring strongly without having to pound the drum as hard as you can (although I still tend to do that anyways). I use a muffled batter side head to balance the sound with the other instruments, but that does not detract from the satisfying THOOMP you get out of it. It’s basically a made-to-order producer of awesome.
The whole process of designing the kit was greatly facilitated by Gary and the rest of the team at Precision Drum Company. They were able to take my half-baked ideas and turn them into something tangible, and could answer every question I had with an amazing wealth of knowledge. This drum set is going to last years, and is one of the best that you’ll be able to find anywhere.
Here's the blurb I wrote for Precision:
Let’s start with a simple statement of fact: Precision Drums are awesome. My set is the most responsive, beautiful sounding, and beautiful looking kit that I have ever played. The finish is striking and masterfully done. In fact, as soon as I have them out of the cases, I have people coming up to ask me who made them.
As to the details of the construction of the drums, I selected a 20 ply maple snare (4x14).This is the first time that I have used such thick wood on a snare, and the extra plys have an interesting effect on the tone. Tuned tightly, it produces a strong, wood-tinged pop with dark edges, and the tone is strong enough that it can clearly cut through other instruments on stage without needing to be cranked to marching-snare level tightness. Hitting near the edge of the head causes the higher frequencies of the wood to respond, so the result is a startlingly different ringing snap. Also, in part due to the thicker shells, rim clicks from this drum are positively deafening.
The toms (9x12, 13x16 – Maple, 8 ply) ring out loud and clear. They can also handle different types of heads and different muffling styles, so you can suit them to the situation easily. The tone is both warm and vibrant, and the wood responds well to even light pressure.
The bass drum (18x22, Maple, 8-ply) is definitely a professional’s instrument. It produces tons of sound, and the there are many options as to how to shape and direct that sound. The shell of the bass is very responsive, so it will ring strongly without having to pound the drum as hard as you can (although I still tend to do that anyways). I use a muffled batter side head to balance the sound with the other instruments, but that does not detract from the satisfying THOOMP you get out of it. It’s basically a made-to-order producer of awesome.
The whole process of designing the kit was greatly facilitated by Gary and the rest of the team at Precision Drum Company. They were able to take my half-baked ideas and turn them into something tangible, and could answer every question I had with an amazing wealth of knowledge. This drum set is going to last years, and is one of the best that you’ll be able to find anywhere.
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