Tall J

Newgazer

2009-11-24T20:31:00.000-08:00

I've said it before, and I will undoubtedly say it about a million times again, but I always hated Nirvana. I have always blamed them and the scruffy flannel wearing lot that followed in their musical wake for the death of shoegazer music. Blurry new-romantic inspired music from outfits like Ride are the soundtrack of my high school days. When the music was buried by anybody and everybody who wanted to pretend they were from Seattle, I was bitter to say the least.

I'm thrilled that there are a number of new bands coming out that seem to pick up right where the Rides, and the Lushes, and the Chapterhouses of the early 90s left off. The track posted here in the youtube vid is one of my favorites from the new batch of shoegazers. Road Meets Sky by The Fauns.

A month or so ago I had a very cool thing happen in my life. It was too much to go into here, but I will say it was one of those moments where I knew everything would be OK. Like, I really knew it. This song came on. It was one of those perfect moments forever associated with an obscure pop gem. For a moment I felt like I did when I was overcome by that rare optimism only teenagers seem able to muster. It was a great moment.

A Measure Of Life

2009-11-22T14:00:00.000-08:00

I have more music by The Cure than any other band in my iTunes library by a long shot and in many instances I have more music by The Cure than I have of some entire genres combined. Sometimes that's not too hard. For example, my hip-hop collection is fairly small. That being said my northern soul collection is fairly large and I still have more Cure stuff than I have northern soul. (Keep the faith, indeed.)

Whenever I get in the mood to listen to The Cure the mood lasts for weeks on end. After all I have a lot of stuff, right? Of all of it though, none of their music is as important to me as the stuff they were doing around the time the band released Seventeen Seconds.

For me, this time period really begins in late 1979. Simon Gallup had joined the band on bass and Mathieu Hartley came on as the band's first keyboard player. Early, unfinished versions of tunes like Play For Today and A Forest were showing up in live sets. Even though the new material hadn't completely evolved the songs showed there was a lot more to the band than was apparent from their album Three Imaginary Boys.

Pink Fred Perry

2009-11-18T20:12:00.000-08:00

Doesn't my daughter look cute in her mom's Fred Perry? Granted, it's a little on the big side. It is still way cute though.

Lillian and the Wiggle Chair

2009-10-19T15:06:00.000-07:00

This is my little girl in her wiggle chair. She loves to be in it and nap or play.

The song is one of mine. The vocals are performed by a few friends.

I love my daughter!

Old favorite

2009-08-26T18:12:00.001-07:00

I've been feeling nostalgic lately and have spent a fair amount of time going through old photos. This one from five years ago is a favorite of mine. I had gone to a seldom visited part of Utah Lake with some friends for a day of lounging around we started hitting golf balls along the shore of the lake. I've known the guy in this picture for more than 20 years. Note where the ball is. That's the best part of the photo.

Scooter Rally Weekend

2009-08-23T18:08:00.000-07:00

Today was the last day of the Last Days of Summer scooter rally in Salt Lake City. A great time was had by all. This is my friend Joe on a Rally 200 as a group of about 40 of us did a 60 mile ride into the mountains just to the east of the city.

40 Hours

2009-08-12T17:22:00.001-07:00

I made this picture yesterday at the hospital after my wife had been awake for more than 40 hours. A little more than five hours earlier she had given birth to our first child, a little girl named Lillian. My wife had been in labor for a very long time and after the baby came there was just no way she could sleep with all the nurses and doctors and pediatricians coming around for whatever it is they have to come around for. I went out to look for somebody to ask them something, I don't really remember what, and when I came back to the room my wife had pulled the covers on her bed over her head and was fast asleep.