tag:www.redshifter.org,2008://1 2007-01-02T18:55:13Z Movable Type 3.31 tag:www.redshifter.org,2007://1.628 2007-01-02T18:11:05Z 2007-01-02T18:55:13Z

Well, it was a roller-coaster year. I started 2006 energized by music, flying coast-to-coast to play shows, and basically working whatever freelance gigs necessary to pay the bills while spending night after night in rehearsal and recording. We opened for...

Well, it was a roller-coaster year. I started 2006 energized by music, flying coast-to-coast to play shows, and basically working whatever freelance gigs necessary to pay the bills while spending night after night in rehearsal and recording. We opened for Wolfmother at the mighty Noise Pop, we played the Shoreline Amphitheatre and rubbed tattooed elbows with the big shots. A few times, I turned on the radio and heard my band playing. Then, our drummer Eric quit the band and we slowly death-spiraled. It's ironic that a guy who literally never wears shoes left such large ones to fill. Just when the ball got rolling, no less. But so it goes. We're all pals. And on the highest of points, Kelsey and I got engaged. It takes the most steadfast and strong woman to chip through my many emotional walls, and she's the one that was able to do it. We're in the process of planning the zillions of things that have to happen between now and August. And, just as the ups and downs of the freelance life started to wear me out, I lucked out with a steady contract job at Electronic Arts that turned into employment. I'm doing more design and not sitting here looking at lines of arcane code all day, which is a huge plus. Also, the people here are great and hey -- we're sitting here looking at freakin' video games. Can't argue with that. tag:www.redshifter.org,2006://1.627 2006-12-12T23:21:51Z 2006-12-12T23:51:00Z

J. Robbins is one of my all-time rock heroes. His approach to music has been a massive influence on my own musical outlook, and it's fair to say that hard guitar-driven indie rock would not sound as it does today...

Please hold them in your thoughts this holiday season.]]> tag:www.redshifter.org,2006://1.626 2006-11-27T20:55:40Z 2006-11-27T21:20:52Z

I owned a Wii for about 48 hours... we bought one, thinking that it would be a hit at the Thanksgiving dinner we hosted at our place, but we just couldn't get into it. I really admire Nintendo's ability to...

Wii for about 48 hours... we bought one, thinking that it would be a hit at the Thanksgiving dinner we hosted at our place, but we just couldn't get into it. I really admire Nintendo's ability to innovate, and maybe in a few months the Wii will fill out its potential, but for now I'd rather have an XBox 360 or PS3. Luckily I was able to sell it on eBay for a small profit. On the flipside of eBay experiences, I had a horrible time selling my old laptop. No need to get into the details here, but in the end I got negative feedback that I didn't deserve. I learned some valuable lessons, though: 1. Don't get into potentially hairy negotiations with people (a) fresh off a large cup of high-octane coffee, and (b) without taking the proper time to think the issue through. 2. As cold and impersonal as it may look, it's really not a bad idea to include some legal-ese in your eBay auction to cover your ass.]]> tag:www.redshifter.org,2006://1.625 2006-11-15T19:33:35Z 2006-11-15T19:43:26Z

The Ramones do "Blitzkrieg Bop" at CBGB in '77. No other band was so great and so terrible. Check out Tommy Ramone just tapping the drums. I honestly think that I could play better than that. Conversely, Johnny Ramone's double...

The Ramones do "Blitzkrieg Bop" at CBGB in '77. No other band was so great and so terrible. Check out Tommy Ramone just tapping the drums. I honestly think that I could play better than that. Conversely, Johnny Ramone's double Marshall stack is like porn for gear geeks.]]> tag:www.redshifter.org,2006://1.624 2006-10-25T01:06:56Z 2006-10-25T01:08:35Z

OMGWTF I am a happy guy....

OMGWTF I am a happy guy.]]> tag:www.redshifter.org,2006://1.623 2006-10-16T15:45:02Z 2006-10-16T16:03:04Z

Messed up news (be sure to catch all those video clips) about that Two Gallants show that ended up a near-riot. I realize the details are pretty sketchy, but I'm inclined to say that that cop was way the...

Messed up news (be sure to catch all those video clips) about that Two Gallants show that ended up a near-riot. I realize the details are pretty sketchy, but I'm inclined to say that that cop was way the hell out of line and is going to face some repercussions. Two Gallants have some major-league industry firepower behind them. My nutshell opinion? The cop picked the wrong method to address a noise complaint at a show (i.e., walking onto the stage and trying to grab a guy's guitar out of his hands -- turn down the board, if anything, and if they turn it back up, turn it off). Grabbing at an artist without telling him what's going on is assault, if you ask me. People (drinking booze) in the club react with understandable confusion (officer is being a dick, what a shock), and the cop suddenly realizes that he's created a real problem for himself. So, he panics a little and resorts to force. Ends up tasering Adam, their tour manager and a fourteen year-old kid. He blew it, not the people attending the show. Unfortunately for him, Two Gallants are a sensation right now and there are several videos and photos of the event on the Internet now. Interesting to see how it'll turn out. And in non-dumbass cop news, Kelsey and I bought a car to replace my beloved VW GTI that got wrecked last year. What'd we buy? Oh, a VW GTI. They make 'em pretty sweet these days.]]> tag:www.redshifter.org,2006://1.622 2006-10-09T16:58:01Z 2006-10-09T17:34:51Z

As much as I love Apple's cleanly-designed Safari, it's just not quite up to snuff for me anymore. I've taken to using Gmail to manage all my email activity -- easier to check on the road, seamless handling of multiple...

Safari, it's just not quite up to snuff for me anymore. I've taken to using Gmail to manage all my email activity -- easier to check on the road, seamless handling of multiple accounts (I have at least 4), and a near-total elimination of spam. Google sends Safari a slightly dumbed-down version of Gmail due to that browser's poopy JavaScript performance, so with mixed emotions, I defaulted over to Firefox RC2, moved my bookmarks over, and that was that. Firefox 2 has fixed a lot of the things that I used to dislike it for: clunky-looking fonts, ugly browser chrome... I think Firefox used to be a clear product of an engineering-driven effort: great standards-compliance, performance and security, but not much in the way of consumer fluffiness. I think it's mostly overcome that. There are still a few things I miss about Safari, particularly its integration with the OS (such as dragging an image out of the browser, onto the dock and into Photoshop), but I can work around those issues. Firefox's overall performance is a lot faster. In addition to Gmail, I've started using a few other web-based apps in my daily routine: Harvest to track my hours, and Blinksale to manage all my invoicing. Like many professional service-oriented industries (design, law, etc), everything revolves around the hourly rate and tracking and reporting one's hours is essential. I've seen all kinds of methods, and Harvest blows them all away. Super clean and easy. It's nicely designed on many levels, and if I were still working at an agency, I would encourage them to use the enterprise level of the app. On the billing end, Blinksale does what it's supposed to do, although I really wish that Harvest would build a billing interface into its system (I'd pay more for it), which I believe would make it the killer app for freelancers and contractors such as myself.]]> tag:www.redshifter.org,2006://1.621 2006-09-26T19:28:48Z 2006-09-26T20:19:26Z

Between work and the band, I've hardly had a second to do much of anything else in the last few weeks, but over the past couple days I've made up for it: Factotum: As a fan of Bukowski, I was...

Factotum: As a fan of Bukowski, I was a bit let down by this adaptation. Matt Dillon was a very good Chinaski, but maybe a little too "pretty." They shot the movie not in a gritty 1970s Los Angeles, but in modern day Minneapolis, of all settings. I could overlook those nitpicks, but for me the killing blow for the movie was its failure to capture Bukowski's wit -- the boozing and women are pretty easy to get across on film, but Buk's knack for simple, offhand humor just didn't surface for me. Oh well. Get it on Netflix when it comes out. Jackass 2: I haven't laughed so hard in a theater since the first one. Mastodon: Holy shit, they are good. I don't think I'll ever see them top their Bottom of the Hill show from a few years ago, but that was largely a product of the intimacy of the smaller venue. They were certainly better than the last time I saw them at Slim's, without the dumb stage banners and bad sound holding them back. The house mix was way better (maybe they tour with a sound person now?), and those dudes can play the shit out of their instruments. It was reassuring for me to see that they still suffer the same problems that we mere mortal bands do, though -- they actually got completely lost during their finale rock-out and their drummer had to break out of his insane off-time beat to get them back on track, which is exactly what we do when we get in the same situation. I don't think most people in the audience noticed.]]> tag:www.redshifter.org,2006://1.620 2006-09-18T19:50:56Z 2006-09-18T20:17:33Z

Whoa, Ampeg is re-issuing the bass head that started it all. For $2000. Daaaaaaaamn. As far as I'm concerned, the only amps that compare are the SVT-CL (the modern version of the classic SVT head, which I have, and love)...

bass head that started it all. For $2000. Daaaaaaaamn. As far as I'm concerned, the only amps that compare are the SVT-CL (the modern version of the classic SVT head, which I have, and love) and the Mesa/Boogie Bass 400+.]]> tag:www.redshifter.org,2006://1.618 2006-09-12T14:49:08Z 2006-09-12T15:13:05Z

I'm astounded at this article about the so-called "struggle" of the US auto salesperson amidst consumer empowerment in the Internet age. Auto salespeople are sharks, straight up. And they whine now that people have the power of information to know...

so-called "struggle" of the US auto salesperson amidst consumer empowerment in the Internet age. Auto salespeople are sharks, straight up. And they whine now that people have the power of information to know how much the car is really worth? My only experience with buying a new car, in December of 2001, is a good example. I researched the VW GTI online, discovered the price that the dealer pays VW for the car, and offered them 4% over that. I thought that was a fair profit margin for the dealer and wouldn't budge. I think it was about a grand under their sticker price. My sales guy, who had previously acted like my best buddy, all excited about VWs and everything, now turned bitter and high-pressure. It took a lot of nerve for me to hold my ground and it was actually quite stressful. In the end, they got their 4% and they got me for financing charges, so it's not like I drove out of there with the deal of the century. The tactics that they used were textbook, but still uncool in my opinion: "what can we do to get you in this car today?" then making me sweat it out alone in a little room while he brusquely leaves to "talk to his boss about your offer," etc. It's a scummy business, old-school as can be. It makes me realize that a lot people were getting taken to the cleaners in the pre-Internet era. I'll probably be buying another car in the next year or so, and I don't look forward to the process. That says a lot about an industry that needs to change.]]> tag:www.redshifter.org,2006://1.616 2006-09-05T23:08:55Z 2006-09-05T23:10:18Z

I'm listening to Crooked Fingers while clipping NBA players out of photos, over and over....

Crooked Fingers while clipping NBA players out of photos, over and over.]]> tag:www.redshifter.org,2006://1.612 2006-08-21T15:48:43Z 2006-08-21T16:11:27Z

The Appleseed Cast, Peregrine -- Good shit. Nice default Movable Type web site, heh. Playing Bimbo's. We couldn't hear ourselves at all on stage, but apparently we sounded great in the house. Why have I never mentioned Roma 79...

The Appleseed Cast, Peregrine -- Good shit. Nice default Movable Type web site, heh.

Playing Bimbo's. We couldn't hear ourselves at all on stage, but apparently we sounded great in the house.

Why have I never mentioned Roma 79 here? Man they are good.

I need to find the new LP from The 101.

... and I got engaged.

]]> tag:www.redshifter.org,2006://1.608 2006-08-15T06:26:33Z 2006-08-15T06:43:08Z

Been working a contract on-site at a video game company on the Peninsula. Doing a lot of Zipcar driving, as my back doesn't take too well to lugging 20 pounds of computer gear for 45 minutes on the Triumph. Zipcars...

Zipcar driving, as my back doesn't take too well to lugging 20 pounds of computer gear for 45 minutes on the Triumph. Zipcars aren't super-cheap, but whatever. It's a write-off. My usual ride is a four-door Mazda 3, which is a solid semi-econo ride. This week I switched to a Toyota Prius, which I don't love. The mileage is great, but that doesn't matter to me as gas is included in the daily fee. The car is pretty weird-looking, but any time you drive a car with a corporate logo on the side, you can pretty much leave your cool factor back home. I could pretty much be driving a 911 Turbo with a Zipcar logo on the side and still feel like a heel. Well, maybe not. If anyone has a logo-covered 911 Turbo that they'd like me to take for a spin, my contact info is over there in the half-finished sidebar. My gripe about the Prius is that I just don't fit in it very well. It's roomy, but it's just not well-proportioned to someone of my height, which is strange. Most cars these days are pretty accommodating to tall guys like myself. The Prius seats are just too high and I can't look out the right side of the windshield without my view being blocked by the rearview mirror. Maybe the seats are so tall because there's a bunch of high-voltage batteries stuffed under them, or something.]]> tag:www.redshifter.org,2006://1.606 2006-08-11T01:37:56Z 2006-08-11T01:49:56Z

This morning while driving to a client, I listened to the NPR News description of new airport security measures. I heard descriptions of large red bins full of liquids that Homeland Security inspectors made people pour out before boarding their...

BoingBoing notes that other people thought the same thing. Not to be overly dicky about it or anything. I realize that security is trying to figure out how to deal with it on the fly, but I mean come on. Seems like the current solution is a little dumb. ]]> tag:www.redshifter.org,2006://1.603 2006-08-07T21:31:15Z 2006-08-08T23:53:41Z

I'm updating the templates to my new design, so things are going to look a bit half-baked for a little while. Update: Lots of work still to be done. I'm not super-keen on the "soft launch" thing as opposed to...

Update: Lots of work still to be done. I'm not super-keen on the "soft launch" thing as opposed to just unveiling it all at once, but building it all again from scratch is a fair amount of work. I'd rather get something custom up here sooner than later. If it's your thing, you can geek out and watch the work in progress, though.]]>