Digital Screams

Well, Hello there!

Fri, 09 Mar 2012 22:46:17 GMT

Hmmm. Just read Tempest's(meddevi) post and she mentioned that it seemed like people here on LJ were just doing quick updates lately. I actually check on my LJ friends posts almost everyday, but I've been way to lax with actually posting. I blame Twitter and Facebook. It used to be, I'd come here to do a quick update and wind up typing a novel. You can't really do that on Twitter. But I am going to follow Krysztof's(charmed_art) example and try to actually blog like I used to. I know, I know. No breath holding going on I'm sure. But I still think LJ is the 1st and best of the social media sites. Just have to set aside the time.

Guitar Lessons...

Thu, 14 Jul 2011 09:43:41 GMT

I'm actually thinking of taking guitar lessons. I took about 6 lessons when I first started playing and two more about 5 years later. Everything else I know about guitar is self taught. I always say I know just enough music theory to get me into and out of trouble.

I like the fact that I'm mostly self taught because it's given me a unique sound and perspective, but I'm finding that there's stuff out there I hear that I like but I'm having a hard time figuring out how to do it. I can hear what's being done and how it should go easily enough. I guess I've always had a gift that way. But ergonomically, some things aren't happening the way I want them too. I asked Joshy Goering if he'd be willing to help me out. I've known of him for a long time as the former guitar player for Abney Park. And we actually used to talk quite a bit here on LJ until he got rid of his account. But we became friends when Civita played a show with his current band Xanther. It was actually their CD release party. We bonded over the fact that Civita covered a Tool song.

So yeah, I think I may do the unthinkable and actually learn how to play the instrument I've been playing for 25 years now. What a concept.

Here's Joshy rehearsing for the last Abney Park show. They had him back for the last show so that Nathan(nathan_fhtagn ) could play his other instruments and not loose the guitar sound.

Joshy's Back On A Stage!

Mon, 04 Jul 2011 20:01:21 GMT

I'm looking rather forward to Abney Park's Seattle show coming up on the 9th. Joshy Georing is going to be playing guitar and Nathan(nathan_fhtagn) is going to be playing everything else. Joshy used to be in Abney Park and recorded the "From Dreams Or Angels" album along with Rachel(theblackdeer). He is one of the best guitar players I've ever heard! Civita did a gig with his band Xanther awhile back and we bonded over Civita's Tool cover. I can't wait to see him play!

Tempest

Fri, 27 May 2011 09:27:59 GMT

Here is Laura aka Tempest(meddevi) performing to two of the songs we in The Nathaniel Johnstone Band have made. Paul Mercer from The Ghosts Project and The Changelings plays some violin on the 1st song. I love watching all my dancer friends performing to our music. I feel honored that they like it enough to want to work with the songs. All of you wonderful dancers out there that have worked with us, you know who you are, I love you all! Thanks for making our music that much more beautiful!

Ok everybody, Off to work on new tunes actually. I hope you enjoy the music and Tempest's performance!

My Weekends

Tue, 29 Mar 2011 12:29:09 GMT

Man, I'm feeling so satisfied/tired. Had a couple of great weekends and now I'm looking forward to some down time. What made them so great? Why great friends and great music of course! Here's the lowdown.

Started out by driving from Tacoma to San Francisco with Nathaniel Johnstone(nathan_fhtagn) to play a show down there. I like road trips so I was excited. Plus we stopped off in Eugene Or. to pick up our friend Ann(rhiannon76) who just moved from Indiana. She's a fantastic belly dancer and she performed with us. Nathan and I got to check out her new place, which is quirky and neat, and we got to catch up a bit. I hadn't seen Ann since I dropped her off at the airport like at least a year ago maybe? She's a really cool person. So easy to hang out with and talk to. Which is good since we were stuck in a van together for miles upon miles.

The drive couldn't have been better until we crossed the Oregon/California boarder. Then we got hailed on in biblical proportions. I mean holy CRAP! I was afraid it was going to smash our windshield in! The road got slick with it and several vehicles had slid off the road. It cleared up after a bit but when we reached the Bay area, it was back! violent hail, wind, lightning, thunder. It was total wrath of God type weather. I was so happy when we reached our destination.

Our destination was a really cool house on the Oakland/Berkley boarder where Nathan's girlfriend and her roommates live. They're all a bunch of scientists so it was fun to break out my rather rudimentary micro-biology knowledge. I hung out for a bit then went back out into the storm to pick up Mel(instantkarmma), Libby(carpe_jugulum), and Jes who flew down. Had no problem picking them up, but lost the van for a bit in the rat maze that is the SFO airport parking garage. But we found it and went back to the house du science. They were so awesome there! They had this meal of from scratch homemade mac n cheese waiting for us. Along with wine and great conversations. Perfect way to end a 12 hour road trip.

Jes and Nathan stayed there but I drove Mel, Ann, Libby and myself over to our friends Molly and Jason's place where we were staying. Molly is also a transplant from Indiana living in the Bay area now. She is also an amazing belly dancer and she performed with us. She's performed with us before actually. Twice in fact. At Maker Faire in San Mateo two years in a row. Our friend Jenni(crowgrl13) shot video of her at Maker Faire, so you can see what she does

So Libby, Mel, Ann and I were all crashing out at Molly and Jason's place which used to be a warehouse. For grain if I remember right. It is the coolest place! It's two levels, All open space with monster high ceilings and plenty of room for anyone with an artistic bent. Molly has all of her sowing stuff down stairs and the bedroom and dance studio is upstairs. It's hard to describe how cool the place is so I'm not going to try at the moment. But I loved it there. Very warm hosts. Here's a picture of us rehearsing before the show so you get an idea of the upstairs studio.

So the next day we head back to pick up Nathan and Jes and are greeted by a gourmet breakfast! Homemade waffles, omlettes, roasted potatoes, bacon...the works! One of the roommates, Joey, loves to cook and is of chef quality. He says he won't buy food at the store unless it speaks to him on some spiritual level. That's how serious he is about it. OMG it was SOOO good!

After sitting around digesting for a while we went to the venue. It was in a somewhat sketchy part of town, but the actual place was beautiful. And the staff were very accommodating. We unloaded the gear and got to hang out with Nathan's old college buddy Matt and his wife Lindsay. I really like those two. I'd like to just go down there and hang out sometime with them when nothing's going on. Just to chill. Matt is an artist and did the cover of our live album Live At The Columbia City Theater. He's a talented guy for sure. Erica Mulkey aka unwoman was performing as well so I FINALLY got to talk to her in person as opposed to various online mediums. She's one of those people that I kind of knew from online, and am a huge fan of, but I'd never had the chance to meet in person. She's 8.72 times more awesome in person! I love that girl. So talented and so sweet! I was impressed with her because she was getting over the flu but she still sang wonderfully! She uses a headset mic so she can play her cello and sing at the same time, so it was interesting to hear her sing these beautiful songs and then hack her lungs out right after. She owned it!

But I'm jumping the gun! Before Erica went on, they had a swing dance class. I went through the class and danced with a lot of people. It was pretty fun but I think I learned more from Alyssa, Nathan's girl than I did from the instructor. She's been doing it for awhile. At the end of the night the instructor guy was dancing with this woman and tripped over his own feet. Landed on his ass and broke a glass. Oh, the irony! LOL!

So yeah, after the dance class Erica performed and she was amazing. Then we performed. I don't remember what we called ourselves that night. We're always Nathaniel Johnstone and the blah blah blah. It changes every show. I forget what we were this time. I think we played great! One of my great joys in life is listening to my wife Mel sing. She is beyond talented. She can sing in many styles and genres and even languages. Anyone that has never seen Civita or The Nathaniel Johnstone band play is missing a treat. Oh, and the rest of us instrument players ain't too bad either. The real highlight for me though was watching the lovely dancers of Standfire Collective along with Ann Shaffer perform with us! Standfire Collective is what Molly's doing now with our friend Predislava(Slava) and as I understand it, a rotating band of dancers. I don't know if anyone got video of the show(I hope so,) but here's more Maker Faire video of Molly(green hair) and Slava(long red hair) doing their thanng while we do our thannng

After our set this girl came up and asked me to tab out one of the basslines to one of the songs we did. She said she plays as well. I had danced with her a few times earlier in the night. I just grabbed a piece of paper and scribbled it out for her and thought nothing of it. Mel had to tell me I was being hit on. She found it endlessly amusing. I'm usually oblivious to that kind of thing.

After the show the next morning we all went out to breakfast in San Francisco at this cool little hole in the wall that I can't even remember the name of. A friend of Libby's and Molly's suggested we meet up there. Had the best chicken and waffles of my life! ZOMG! Soooo good. They put maybe just a touch too much cheese on it but otherwise, YUM! All the performers and various other friends showed up for that. Including Jill Tracy! She's one of my favorite people. Just a really classy lady and an wonderful performer. You can check Jill out

I took Mel, Libby and Jes to the airport after hanging with Jill and everyone for a bit more and when I got back into town from that, I met up with Nathan, Alyssa, Molly, Jason and Jill in the Haight / Ashbury district. We went shopping in all the cool stores in the area and basically got to hang out as friends. As opposed to friends getting ready for a show. I'm always grateful for those chances to connect with other performers that I love and respect so much. It can sometimes be hard in a show environment where we have to be "on" the whole time. But I realize how incredibly lucky I am to have the life I have and the people I have in it. I don't take it for granted because who knows when something might change?

So after shopping Ann, Molly, Jason and I were getting ready to go back to home. But I was in such a hurry to get back to everybody after I dropped the guys off at the airport that I just parked and ran down the hill to the Haight. I knew what street I parked the van on, and remember the general direction, but wasn't quite sure EXACTLY where I parked it. We'd done A LOT of walking around while shopping and I don't know San Francisco THAT well. So we climbed up and down those famous San Francisco hills while looking for my van, and to be quite honest, it was rather fun! Ann got some cool pictures of the local architecture and views and it was a really nice day out. It's been quite a few days in a row of rain here at home so it was nice to be outside. And it didn't really take very long to find the van. I have a good sense of direction and had a pretty good idea where to go.

Once we found the van and got back to Jason and Molly's we were pretty wiped out. Nathan and Alyssa wanted us to make the drive out to there place to order pizza, but it was like a 20min drive and we also thought they might want some down time for themselves. So we stayed in and ordered Thai food. It was pretty good too! No where near as good as the Asian food you can get in the Seattle area. I haven't found anything to compare in the U.S. Kind of like you can only get good Mexican food in Mexico, California or Texas. But it was quite tasty. Then we went up to the dance studio and threw pillows and blankets on the floor to watch movies projected on the huge wall. Got a nice buzz off of home made mead as well. It was delicious! Not as sickeningly sweet as the store bought stuff. A lot drier. We watched "American Werewolf In London." I'd never seen it and everyone thought that needed to be rectified. I loved it. But I love 'B' movies anyway. The acting and dialog was awesomely late '70's. That was the perfect way to end the trip.

The next morning Ann and I drove out to pick up Nathan. We packed up the gear and dropped Alyssa off at her laboratory so she could do her mad experiments. Then we drove Ann back to Eugene and finally stopped back at my house in Tacoma. It was just a fantastic weekend.

I was debating writing about the two shows we did out in New Hampshire just this last weekend, but I'll do that in another post I think. It's 5:30am. should probably sleep sometime.

Tue, 15 Mar 2011 09:12:25 GMT

I was feeling nostalgic earlier and was listening to some My Scarlet Life. Great Chicago band that broke up in the '90s. They shaped a lot of what I do with music. When I first started switching over to bass from guitar, I learned pretty much every Sky Cries Mary song, since their bass player was my teacher. And then I learned almost every My Scarlet Life song because I just effing LOVED the music. Here's some of both. The SCM one is a good example of what I tend to do on bass. Which is play very melodically. You can thank Juano for that.

SCM

Here's My Scarlet Life. Three songs from three different shows. Let me know what you think of them!

R.I.P. Mike Starr

Wed, 09 Mar 2011 10:56:47 GMT

Mike Starr's dead

Stay off the smack kids, that's all I have to say. R.I.P. Mike. No matter what, you were a fantastic bass player.

Evil Stig

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 11:16:53 GMT

I never knew about this film. I got into the Gits because of Kurt Cobain believe it or not. I was hanging out at the bus stop by the Daily Olympian newspaper and the old Olympia community center, which was by Kurt's place at the time I think. Or maybe he'd moved by then, I don't remember. But I saw him on the street and he filled me in on them. I fell in love with their shows. Back then everybody still went to live shows. Not uncommon to just walk into a place and hope a good band was playing. So I checked out the Gits and started going to all their shows. I Met Mia Zapata maybe 4 or 5 times at shows. Really cool, friendly, down to earth chick. Still makes me sad to think of how she was killed. Anyway I went to the fundraiser concert the Gits did with Joan Jett and I can spot myself in the crowd. This was at the RCKNDY and I was in my usual spot in that venue. Right up front center stage where a hole in the stage gave me a hand hold and people couldn't push me from up front. I was right in front of Joan Jett's mic. I can still remember her perfume.

Viva Zapata!

Maker Space

Sat, 29 Jan 2011 21:39:32 GMT

If there's anyone out there that needs space for projects, I'd like to suggest my friend Willow's place on 1st Hill. It's called Jigsaw Renaissance. Maker spaces are popping up in cities all over the country and Willow is the director of the biggest one in Seattle.

The space is for anyone that needs room for projects. Live in a tiny appartment and have knitting yarn all over the place? Or solder and circuit boards? Or art and painting supplies? Just move it all to a maker space and you can have your living space back. That's the idea. Get your science experiments started or your inventions built with out keeping your house mates up at all hours of the night. You get the idea. Plus Willow is just too adorable. Here she is explaining the place.

Beast Mode!

Sun, 09 Jan 2011 05:50:11 GMT

Marshawn Lynch! U DUH MANE!

So, So, FUNNY!

Wed, 05 Jan 2011 12:40:46 GMT

Just because I love this guy!

Music We Do.

Fri, 03 Dec 2010 10:00:18 GMT

I've posted this on Facebook and Twitter before, but here ya go. If you want to hear the music my wife Mel(instantkarmma) and I make, follow the links below and then please, tell me what you think. We play in two bands. Civita and a side project with Nathaniel Johnstone(nathan_fhtagn)

Here's Civita's 1st release called "Act VII." The title is an anagram of Civita. We recorded it in just 2 days with Dave Filburn(tarnationsauce) as engineer.
Act VII - Civita

Here's Civita's 2nd release. We jammed these songs out at my house with the recorder running. Hence the live/demo feel. It was really fun recording that way. I'd never done it like that before. It's called "No Time For Love Dr. Jones."
No Time For Love Doctor Jones

Here's what Mel and I do with Nathaniel Johnstone in his band band. I met Nathan when he joined Abney Park and I was already a member. We did a show at the Columbia City Theater in Seattle and recorded it. which is why it's called "Live At The Columbia City Theater." Original, no?
Live At The Columbia City Theater - Nathaniel Johnstone & The Brazilian Surf Mafia

LJ In The Twitter Generation

Sun, 28 Nov 2010 08:36:39 GMT

Mel(instantkarmma) and I were having dinner with Nathaniel Johnstone(nathan_fhtagn) and Libby Bulloff(carpe_jugulum) and talking about LJ. It seems Twitter and Facebook have trained us to want instant gratification. If a thought can't be expressed in 140 characters, we don't have the attention span to process it. I'm as guilty as anyone else, but it's kind of sad really. I rather miss coming online and actually getting comprehensive reports of what's going on with my friends. Or updates substance about all the creative endeavors people have going on. I need to start using LJ more again. I just wonder if anyone is still here to listen to my ramblings.

Family Tree.

Tue, 05 Oct 2010 04:08:22 GMT

I've posted this before, but I can't remember when. Here is my family history.

Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer was born in La Rochelle, France on the 12th of March in 1744. His father was Baptiste Nicolas Francois Metoyer, born in the parish of St. Denis de Rheims, France. The story goes that Pierre's father had planned to migrate to the United States and in that effort, had moved to the port city of La Rochelle, where his son's were born. There is no evidence that Nicolas Metoyer ever made the trip to America. But his son, possibly two sons arrived, probably in New Orleans as young men. They then made their way up the Mississippi to the military post in Natchitoches (pron. NACK-eh-tosh) where Pierre, (us descendants just take the Claude Thomas part of his name off), met Marie-Terese CoinCoin. (Pron. KO-kwe)

When Pierre met Marie-Terese, she was serving as a slave in the household of the commandant of the Natchitoches post, Sieur Louis Juchereau de St. Denis. Marie-Terese's parents were born in the Gold Coast (Togo) region of Africa and were brought to America as slaves. They married in Natchitoches on January 8, 1736. Pierre and Marie-Terese had ten kids, and their descendants might possibly be all of the known Creole Metoyers in the United States. Marie-Therese CoinCoin Metoyer was one of the most successful business women in colonial America. There's a Washington Post story that gives her details. Check out all 4 pages. It's very interesting. Though I've heard the story for years while hanging with my grandparents and great aunts and uncles.

So here's how I trace my blood line back almost 300 years to France and Africa.

Francois(unknown) & Francoise(unknown) (both from Togo, their owners weren't to original with their names)
Marie-Terese CoinCoin

Claude Thomas Pierre Metoyer(1744-1815)& Marie Terese CoinCoin(1742-1816)
Augustin Metoyer

Augustin Metoyer(1768-1856) & Agnes Dupre(unknown)
Pompile Metoyer

Pompile Metoyer(unknown) & Rosa rocque(unknown)
Ernest Avner Metoyer

Ernest Avner Metoyer(1866-1939) & Harmina Marie Ballenger(1880-1965)
Dorothy Metoyer

Charles Roy Mayden(1903-1988) & Dorothy Metoyer(1915-2003)
Pierre Mayden

Pierre Mayden(1943-...) & Adele Suzanne Nickerson(1947-2003)
Jean-Paul Andre Mayden(1965-...)<~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~C'est Moi! (that's me!)

Of course this is the direct line just to me and my two brothers and my sister. I have a vast amount of cousins, aunts and uncles obviously. The last official family reunion I went to (back in the 80's) had over 300 people there. I really had to brush up on my French! It's a good feeling to know where you come from, and it's a good feeling to know that my family had a hand in freeing so many slaves. And the ones they had were treated well.

Surgery...

Wed, 11 Aug 2010 13:31:07 GMT

Mel(instantkarmma) and I are at the hospital and they're checking Mel in for her surgery. I'm nervous!

Interesting...

Wed, 04 Aug 2010 09:32:47 GMT

On the way home today my iPod decided to play a song called "On Ice" from a band called Josette's Eye. And then right after that it played a song called "R.E.M." from Civita. The interesting part about this is musically, it's exactly the same song. Josette's Eye was my first REAL band. I had jammed off and on with a lot of different bands, just because I was friends with the members, but Josette's Eye was the first time I was officially a true part of it. I wrote the music for "On Ice" while jamming with my friend Juano from Sky Cries Mary up in his bedroom. This was about six months, maybe a full year before joining Josette's Eye. JE never got around to finishing up the album it was going to appear on, so when Mel(instantkarmma) heard me playing around with it, she put her own lyrics and vocal melody to it and we called it R.E.M. For me it's quite interesting to hear what the two versions became because I play the guitar parts exactly the same for both songs, note for note. But they sound completely different. It's because the members of both bands put their own parts to it. I even have a live version of "On Ice" that has Esther's(katecrust) clarinet on it. I'd have to ask the JE peeps if they mind me posting an "On Ice" version, but the Civita version is at http://civita.bandcamp.com/track/r-e-m if you're curious. Krysztof(charmed_art) is probably the only non band member here that can claim to hear both versions, since we debuted "On Ice" while playing with his old band Sinforosa. As I recall that show, it was plagued with technical difficulties, but we had fun because we were all huge Sinfo. fans.

And on that note, everyone check out Krysztof's current band called The Latenight Callers! They are Fan-freakin-tastic! I may even like them a bit more than Sinforosa...if possible. Only because it's easier to make out the lyrics. Traci has a phenomenal voice, but her diction can be hard to make out. With The Latenight Callers, I can hear every word. Check them out. You won't be sorry!

Funny!

Fri, 30 Jul 2010 19:51:13 GMT

Just Because...

My Job Is Crazier Than Your Job

Wed, 14 Jul 2010 07:28:41 GMT

Ok, my temp position working on the Alaska Airlines Website is up so I'm back working at the airport now. And now, for your perusal, I give you the run down of my day today.

I was working out at the North Satellite instead of the main terminal and you have to take a subway train to get out there. Well, I head that way to go pull a jetbridge up to an incoming plane only to discover that the trains are not operating. Some kind of malfunction. Of course the aircraft is due at the gate in about 15 minutes. I called out there to see if someone else could meet the plane and that I didn't know when I'd be able to get out there. There were about 100 people standing at the train doors trying to get to their flights and I'm sure much more than that out at the N-gates that flew in and want to get the hell out of the airport. All of us stranded. They were able to get the trains going intermittently about once every 20 minutes or so. But keep in mind, the trains usually run every 2 minutes and sometimes that's barely often enough to keep up with the passengers.

I get out to the N-gates finally after about 45 minutes only to discover that the flight I was supposed to work has been swapped to the D-gates in the main terminal and now I have to hope they get the trains running again in time for me to get this plane out on time. Screw that noise, I went down one of the jetway stairs onto the tarmac and appropriated a van to drive over the main terminal. Then went up the other jetway stairs to do the flight.

While working the flight, some people tried to board and it was discovered that Delta had delayed them and booked them on Alaska, but didn't give them the Flight Interruption Manifests(ie. tickets) they would need to travel on us. It's not legal to travel with out some form of ticket so that we can make sure we're not putting our terrorist friends on the plane with no way to track them. Somehow it becomes my fault that Delta didn't give them the documents they need to travel and this lady gets pretty much hysterical. I let her vent for awhile but when she starts attacking me I said, in these exact words, "I'm rapidly loosing interest in you." She shuts up, blinking at me in confusion for a bit, giving me time to explain that I'm the only person there that can do anything to help her. And since she's was treating me like crap, I was feeling more and more inclined to let her and her family stay the night at the airport and figure it out for themselves how to get to Ketchikan. She said she couldn't believe I would talk to a costumer like that and I said I couldn't believe she'd talk to another human being like she was talking to me. I said I'm off work at 830pm no matter if she gets to Alaska or not. So it makes no difference to me. And since I'm the only one that might be able to help her, it might be prudent to quit whining and let someone who knows something about the situation advise her on what to do. I got her to go to the Delta counter and show ID so they would give her new FIM's and then they could leave. They had to run for it, which they wouldn't have if she would have let me tell them what to do in the first place.

By then the trains were fixed and I went back to the N-gates, just in time for an agent out there to run up to me frantic that a 10 year old unaccompanied minor had wandered off. When a minor gets to the airport, the flight attendants working the flight are supposed to hand the person meeting the plane paperwork for the guardian meeting the child to sign. This paperwork is filled out by the guardian dropping the child off at the beginning of the trip. The person meeting the plane verifies the pick up person's ID and has them sign the paperwork before delivering the child so that we aren't handing the little darlings off to the nice chi-moe man and his ice cream van. Well, the flight attendants gave the paperwork to the meeting agent and let everyone off the plane without pointing out who the kid was to the agent. There's no way the agent is going to know what the kid looks like so it's up to the flight attendant to make sure the agent collects the kid. The child has a sticker on their clothes but sometimes that can be missed. Once everyone was off the plane and there's still no minor the agent panics and starts hunting the kid down while the flight attendants are calmly walking to the employee bus to go home. Oh, hell no. A supervisor and I stop them and say they're not going anywhere until we find this kid. They get all pissy and say no they're going home. I tell them they can go home, but they can stay home for good because they won't have a job if they come back. I then pull the flight attendant manual out of one of their bags and show them that until the agent or guardian has the kid, it's the flight attendants responsibility for that child's safety. Not until they get to the airport, as they were trying to say, until the kid is safely transferred. Then I paged the kid over the intercom and she eventually came back. Luckily for the flight attendants the kids mother wasn't at the gate yet or I'm sure she would have carved them all new assholes.

The next flight that came in was from Boston. There were two minor sisters on board that apparently fought the whole time. Like actual fists flying type of fighting. They also cussed out the flight attendants, ran up and down the aisle, screamed, yelled, and created a huge safety hazard. The captain radioed ahead to have supervisors there to meet the plane. The girls were 8 and 10 and when they saw all these adults there to meet them, they tried to be complete little angels. They were transferring to go to Hawaii, but everyone was reluctant to let them go. There is no way we'd normally let anyone posing such a huge safety problem board a flight, no matter how old they are. There's 160 other people to worry about so if we have to give two brats to CPS or put them in a holding cell we will. Those were pretty much our options since there was no guardian in Seattle as they were just changing planes. When the girls were told of how their actions had probably made it so they couldn't go and that they were in trouble, of the them told the flight attendant, "you're the one in trouble! I'm going to say that you hit me and then you'll be in trouble!" Of course the mother was called and we all decided that since it was 5 hours back to Boston, or 5 hours to Hawaii, we'd send them back to Boston because they lived there. That way we could ban them from flying on us again and we wouldn't have to fly them home. We had to have someone from the company fly with them since they were willing to lie about being hit. Don't need any lawsuits on our hands. So now we have a volunteer stuck overnight in Boston. The mother is looking at ten's of thousands of dollars in fines because the kids disrupted a flight in operation. Not sure if the company or the FAA will impose that though since the mother wasn't flying and didn't have direct control of her kids. I think the law should allow the flight attendants to physically restrain kids, or anyone for that matter that poses a safety risk. Like I said, there are over a hundred other people on board that would like to not die just because it's not currently PC to man-handle other peoples kids.

Next, a flight came in from Hawaii and one of the passengers was dead on arrival. Which means I get to deal with the freaked out passengers that got to ride about 3 hours sitting next to a dead lady. She had cancer I guess and her time ran out. About an hour later another flight comes in and this old couple walks off the plane. The guy sits down in one of the chairs in the waiting area and promptly dies. His wife, takes it creepily well, though some of the passengers are freaked. The Port Of Seattle fire department carted both bodies away.

The day's not quite over yet. After one of the flights left, the pushback tug that pushes the airplanes out into the taxiway, comes back to it's spot at the gate and immediately bursts into flames. The guy driving the tug runs for it. We all see it looking out the airport windows. About three supervisors are looking out the window when my friend Alyssa and I yell "CALL 911" We ran down the jetway and down the stairs, all the while people are yelling for us to come back. Alyssa runs out on the tarmac and grabs a fire extinguisher off the side of the building and puts the fire out.

By this time it's almost time to go home so I check my messages on my phone and find out that my garage door opener is fixed. It hadn't been working. So YaY! End it on a high note. Can't wait to do it again tomorrow!

Missed Ya LJ!

Tue, 11 May 2010 07:23:17 GMT

Hello LJ...It's been a while. I've missed talking here on Livejournal, but I'm not sure how many are still paying attention here. I guess it really shouldn't matter though. the beauty of LJ has always been that there's room and resources to do a proper blog and fully express thoughts. It seems most peoples busy lives are better suited for the quick snipets of Facebook or the even smaller pieces of thought afforded by Twitter. I do use both of those, but LJ will always be my favorite. Even if I haven't been posting here lately. I suppose I'm just as busy as everyone else. But I'm going to try to get back here more often, because here, there's room to breathe, express a full thought or feeling, and actually say something of substance that can be followed through to the end. And I can still use it for quick updates on my bands or fast random thoughts.

Speaking of band updates, both Mel(instantkarmma) and I will be performing in with Civita and Nathaniel Johnstone at this years Maker Faire down in San Mateo(near San Francisco) California. The festival is May 22,23 but I don't know yet what day or time either project is playing yet. Two weeks after that on June 7th, Civita is playing down in Chehalis Wa. at The Matrix Coffeehouse. Moon is working there again and contacted us to play. We love Moon and his family and we love the Matrix! I used to play there all the time when I was in Josette's Eye. Lot's of good memories there. The cool thing about that show is Nathan's(nathan_fhtagn) mom's are coming out for that gig! Good people! We just had Dim Sum with them. If anyone can come out to either(or both) of those shows, hope to see ya there! here's samples of both projects, like I always do when we have shows.

Here's Civita performing "Happy Accident" at the Shipwreck.

And here's Nathaniel Johnstone and his Band Of Miscreants while we were performing at Maker Faire last year:

Gothla...

Thu, 18 Feb 2010 09:15:53 GMT

If you're in the L.A. area, you need to come out and see Mel(instantkarmma), Nathan(nathan_fhtagn), Jes and me performing at this years Gothla! It's Saturday March 6th. http://www.gothla.com/home.html has the information. We go on pretty early. Four pm. But we're the last act of the day so come say hi, and if we're able, maybe we'll get to hang out after.

Plus! Our live CD that we recorded when we played with Blackbird Orchestra, Finn Von Claret and The Red King at the Columbia City Theater is all mixed and ready to go! Artwork is finished and the CD's should be pressing as we speak. We should have CD's for your grubby little hands at this show so really, this is not one to miss! Here's a taste of what we do:

Just Because

Sun, 31 Jan 2010 21:05:18 GMT

Also, here's two drummers playing in my band Civita. It illustrates how the drummer can totally change the feel of a song because we play it note for note in both cases but the drummers are quite different guys. You can really hear the difference toward the end of the song. I don't think drums get enough credit in influencing music. They're the most important part in a lot of ways.

We Aren't In A New Decade Yet.

Fri, 01 Jan 2010 21:36:47 GMT

Not to be a party pooper, but I'm going to be a party pooper. The calender we use started at year one. Not Zero. And since a decade is a full 10 years, a new one would start on a year ending in one. Not zero. The new decade starts in 2011 and the new millennium started in 2001.

Fried Lemon's Here I Come!

Tue, 15 Dec 2009 03:36:22 GMT

So, we're not playing with them this time, but everyone should come out to Neumos's on Saturday to see my friends Sky Cries Mary play! They do a great live show. Here's an example of them and also of us playing with them, just cuz we won't be playing for awhile and I don't want anyone to forget about us. First SCM and then Us. And seriously, the next time we DO play live, someone get some more footage of, us. We're soooo much better now!

A Reminder!

Sat, 28 Nov 2009 21:33:30 GMT

This is tonight people! You do NOT want to miss this. Civita is opening up the CD release party show for Blackbird Orchestra! It's really going to be an amazing show. Blackbird just competed a really awesome sounding CD. You can get a sneek peek at blackbird orchestra.com if you haven't heard them yet. Also, here's what we in Civita do, and after that is a flyer with the details. Enjoy!

Ransom - Live @ Neumos. By Civita

civita | MySpace Music Videos

Here's the flyer. You can click it for venue address and info:

Show This Saturday!

Tue, 24 Nov 2009 07:42:30 GMT

I do believe that the last time Mel(instantkarmma) and I played with Blackbird Orchestra, I was playing bass with Nathaniel Johnstone.(nathan_fhtagn) Well, Blackbird Orchestra is having their CD release party and this time, I'll be playing guitar with my band Civita for support. I'm really looking forward to this because not only do I love all the people in Blackbird Orchestra, but their songs are fantastic! I think everyone that can possibly make this should do it. Not only are Blackbird Orchestra releasing some great music, but Civita ain't no slouch either and we'll have music and stuff you can pick up as well. And we're going to put on a great show! Plus, it's so much fun to hang with all of our friends and fans at gigs! Click the flyer for venue contact info: