Photo Requiem for a Musician

After seven years of losing your hair, and losing weight, and blood tests, and IVs, and hospital food, and vomiting, and insomnia, and fear, and pain, and coughing, I hope you have finally found some peace, James. Here are some of the old band photos -- in them, you look happy and strong, the way I will remember you.

Guitar Cast IV

Beautiful Mess by Jason Mraz
Still working on this one, but I like it...

GuitarCast III: Let That Be Enough

A little Switchfoot for you this chilly October morning...



I'm a plane in the sunset
With nowhere to land

GuitarCast II

I have one little sister. As far as siblings go, she's fairly cool and reasonably easy to get along with for the following reasons:

1) She's young enough that we don't typically compete for friends, boys, or our parents' affection but old enough that we operate on more or less the same plane of existence.

2) She did her BA in US history, so she knows all sorts of things I don't, making her an invaluable resource if I ever end up on Who Wants to be a Millionaire?

3) Her extensive vocabulary and firm command of English grammar mean that I am never ashamed of her at social gatherings -- i.e. she never says "nuculer" in front of my friends.

4) Her feet are not the same size as mine; hence, she has never ever stolen a pair of my shoes.

5) She can do harmonies.



Because she can do harmonies, we like to rock out. And by "rock out" I mostly mean crack ourselves up. We even have a band. Well, we have a band name. We don't know any songs or play any instruments, but we do have the name. I'd tell you, but if you stole it for your own band, got famous, and made a bazillion dollars, I'd be pissed, so for now, the name's a secret.

We do often sit down and attempt to write "songs" for our "band" to "perform," but Sister always has to get critical and make a remark about how every song I write sounds like an Adam Sandler song. This makes perfect sense, since every song I write has the same chord progression as "The Hanukkah Song," but it annoys me that she acts like that's a bad thing.

So in honor of Adam Sandler's kickass song-writing skillz, here's a little video of me singing "I Wanna Grow Old with You." Sister, I know you read this blog even though you feign ignorance, so this one's goin' out to you. Rock on, little sis. Rock on.

GuitarCast

Now that I'm home for the school year, I'm having adventures of a more domestic nature. Here's the story of my day today:



And the song...

Summer Film Review

While everyone's going batty over "The Dark Knight," make sure you don't miss "Mamma Mia!" Meryl Streep is a diva! She dominates the screen throughout and delivers a particularly heart-rending performance of "The Winner Takes It All." The adorable Amanda Seyfried sparkles as Sophie, bringing a fresh face and powerful voice to the hopelessly starry-eyed role. Packed with humor, charm, and a fantastic score, this film is so wonderfully well-done, you won't even mind that Pierce Brosnon was cast for his ability to act the aging heart-throb and not for his singing voice. ★★★★★

Astor Victoria

In a move I can only describe as "rash", I Googled the hostel where S and I will be staying in London. I got this:



Let's hope these folks have moved on by the time we get there...

:-)

Wild Nights on the Town

My youngest cousin, who just turned 20, got married this weekend. Then yesterday, my brother turned 30. Things like this make me start to feel like I'm getting a little old. In order to wage war on this unpleasant sensation, I've been actively spending wasting less time working and more time going out with my friends. (I've also been playing a lot of MarioKart on the Wii, but that's a story for another post.)

In our recent adventures, the gang and I have been playing some Beerball when the weather's nice and getting out of town when it's not. Last week we were quite fortunate to score tickets to a Flight of the Conchords gig in Ann Arbor, which evolved into a pretty epic night. Really, anything that involves a parking garage just screams: "High jinx on the horizon!" Throw a couple of the most creative people I know in the car, reunite some long lost buddies, add a dash of sexual tension, and let the good times roll! I've found that most evenings I spend in Ann Arbor end up this way and have resolved to get over there more frequently, especially with the summer coming up.

I'd hardly heard any Conchords' songs before we went to the show and just sort of went along because my friends wanted to go, but I found the boys pretty damn entertaining. Here's a taste, in case you haven't seen much of them yet:



"You could be a part-time model..."

So the Conchords are a new love of mine. An old love of mine is comedian Eddie Izzard, whom I finally had the opportunity to see live last night at the Detroit Opera House. There was also a Tigers game on, so we ended up having to park several blocks away and walk, which adds flavor to any evening in downtown Detroit, but once we got to the theater, all was well. We laughed 'til our guts hurt. I love Eddie Izzard because he's clever, which is my favorite trait in any human being, and he's especially clever when it comes to matters of language. Last night he did this bit about Latin and how complicated it must have been even for the Romans. I won't tell you the details -- particularly because I know my little sis is going to see him in Nashville in a few weeks, and she'd murder me if I spoiled any of it -- but I will tell you that it's awesome and well worth getting out to see. No good videos of his new stuff are out yet, so here's an old classic: