Apr
29
2011

Coolest Show Flier Ever?

(Add / View Comments) (0)Friday, April 29, 2011 - 11:53:33 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music)
Photobox ImageAs I was about to walk into Teakwoods tonight I was greeted by this. The boys make some great fliers, but this is a whole 'nother thing all together. It had to be mine, and it looks great framed in our living room if I may say so myself.
Apr
23
2011

The Persuaders @ Sky Bar

As Opposed To "Sky Box"

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSaturday, April 23, 2011 - 11:22:59 pm
(Posted Under: Tempe Music Scene Tempe Music Scene, Music Music, Live Shows)
What's the worst thing you can do after traveling to Tucson to see a band? Go to the wrong bar at show time. [wink] Well, maybe there are worse things to do, but still, it's not a great thing to do.

After leaving Zia's, it was somewhat concerning driving out to Skybox, which seemed really reminiscent of driving to Eltham [wink] especially since I FELT like this place should be somewhere near 4th Ave. Or at least somewhere that looked like 4th Ave more than East Jesus Tucson. And even more concerning when we got there, right on 9, but there was not a familiar face to be found! But this HAD to be the place, right? Right?!? [smile] Or were we confused with the place in Gilbert that the Black Moods play? After sitting around and having a smoke for 10 minutes, we decided use the downstairs library's free wi-fi to confirm we were at the right place. As it turns out, the Skybox is where the Black Moods play, and they happen to have one in Tucson also. And it wasn't where The Persuaders were playing tonight. That was the Sky Bar, as I'd thought, on 4th Avenue. Damn you Josh Kennedy! [wink]

Thankfully, rock never actually starts at 9pm, and tonight was no exception, which completely saved our bacon. It was a good 25 minutes to get down to 4th Avenue, and we didn't leave Sky Box until at least 9:15. I noticed tonight another thing about Tucson that is more like Melbourne than Phoenix - the drivers. They're not lunatics! However, in our desperate attempts to get to Sky Bar, I think I bitched out everyone on the road like I that would have made any Phoenician proud. [smile] My sincerest apologies to Tucson drivers. You should all be applauded, and I would have done as much in any other situation that the one we were in. [lol] We happened to pull up at the bar at 9:45 to find the band only just finishing setting up. Phew. It's times like these that I really appreciate the fact that rock never really starts at 9pm!

The guys put on a great, and quite long set which really made it even more worth the trip down. As to appreciated that we didn't actually miss any of it! It was certainly the longest single set we've seen, so it was cool to get the entire catalog, including One Soul (which we haven't seen in a while) and a couple of covers.

This afternoon's photo shooting had left me with virtually no space left (yes, on and 8GB card - shooting RAW at full res will do that to you), but I was amazingly able to shoot one video before completely running out of space. Given how dark the stage was, I could barely see what I was shooting, and am kind of amazed that I managed to keep everyone mostly in frame.



Given that later start and long set, Silverbell didn't go on until a little before midnight. Halfway through The Persuader's set we both realized that it was going to be pushing it to stay for all of Silverbell, which was a shame as we had gone down to see them as much as the Persuaders. We did however manage to get in 5 songs before agreeing that it was time to hit the I-10, at least if we wanted to get back to Tempe alive. It seemed like a lot of our favorite Silverbell songs were played in that first five, which at least made the unfortunate reality of having to bail a bit easier.

After doing the rounds out the back we were back out on the road, with a short diversion to find a fast food restaurant that was open, since we'd had nothing to eat all day. As much as we pride ourselves on being hard core, there is an argument that we probably should start making our rock n' roll road trips to Tucson an overnight stay. While that's true, we managed to make it back to Tempe in one piece, and by 2:20am, which was pretty impressive.
Apr
23
2011

Sunset @ San Xavier Mission

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSaturday, April 23, 2011 - 05:21:19 pm
(Posted Under: Photography)
Funnily enough it was a year ago this week that a year ago this week we were in Tucson for the Sand Rubies 25th Anniversary. And today to catch the Persuaders. And both times, the sunset hours were spent at San Xavier Mission.

It's one of my favorite things to do in Tucson - go down to San Xavier, and wait for sunset. Actually, y'know, just going down to San Xavier is enough. The place is just absolutely amazing. Thanks to my wife for entertaining me with yet another trip to the Mission - while it's actually only our third time down there, it feels like we do it every time we go to Tucson. Given the new camera, the was no question in my mind about wanting to go down there again. And I wasn't wrong in my thinking, shooting with that today was absolutely different experience than shooting with my old camera last year.

I managed to get a bunch of amazing photos during the sunset, most of which make all the photos I took last year look like they were done for amateur hour. The difference in what I took today is nothing short of amazing. And of course, not only were the results incredibly better, but were also incredibly easier to achieve than with the old camera.

The first two are the best wide angle shots. This is arguably my favorite part of a sunset, a vibrant orange along the horizon, with a deep blue sky. While the early afternoon had been kinda shitty and almost overcast, by the time we got to San Xavier the clouds had broken up into great expanses of puffy clouds. By this time they'd kinda dissipated, but the sky had remained that deep blue, and there were enough clouds around to add detail to the sky. I love that shit.

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Most of the shots are from Grotto Hill to the east of the mission, but I did briefly go down in front of the mission once the sunset was in full swing. As is always true with the most spectacular part of a sunset, the moments slip by ever so fast, and almost immediate I wanted to be on the hill to not miss anything from up there. But it was worth it, I love this photo I shot of the mission bells of the building to the west. Before making a dash back to Grotto Hill.

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Tonight also proved a good time for playing with different metering for different effects. Control over that is absolutely wonderful, allowing for extremes like this photo below. I can't say how much I appreciate being able to get sunset shots without the sun "bleeding" due to matrix metering.

Though, in hindsight, I do regret not packing my tripod this morning. While the silhouette of the mission is really cool, I'm really intrigued with the idea of what this could have looked like with a bit of HDR treatment. Not with the intent of usual HDR usage, but more so just to get some forefront detail while preserving that exposure of the sun in the background.

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And yet another photo that I would have had no hope of getting in the past was this one of the San Xavier Plaza at dusk. Absolutely love both of these. And was happy with the result, given I'd completely neglected to even think about bringing the tripod.

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Photobox ImageAnother thing that is amazing at sunset is the Catalina Mountains. Ironically enough, as great as this photo is, it doesn't actually do the scene justice in comparison to being there. With that said, it's still a great photo. What I particularly like about is that because of the zoom factor of the shot (200mm), the mountain range doesn't seem that big - until you look at city of Tucson down below. [wink] I'd love the say that I most purposely going for this effect - but it was actually a fluke.

Photobox ImageOf course, this would all imply that you need a sunset to enjoy San Xavier and the surrounding area, and that is anything but true. The whole place is absolutely amazing, and there is hardly part of it that doesn't exemplify what I love about the southwest. This afternoon the plaza was opened, so we were finally able to go and check it outside which was pretty cool.

Photobox ImageSurprisingly I've never noticed the area and courtyard to the west of the main building, which was pretty amazing. By all accounts it looks like a small chapel, filled with candles - which were lit after dusk, which looked pretty amazing. The desert garden lying between it and the main building was equally amazing. I have no idea why I've never noticed it before.

The following photos are some more great examples of why I love going down to the mission, and speak to that south west and Spanish influence architecture that I just love. Combined with the beautiful cactus gardens, I just love this place, and honestly, always find it hard to leave. Without a doubt, if I had millions of dollars, there are many aspects of the architecture I'd want to replicate for our house. This is true of both the mission and the plaza to the south. The millions of dollars (I can't even guess just how many) is really the stumbling block though. [smile]

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So it was a great afternoon and a beautiful sunset. Without even realizing it, I managed to blow through around 700 exposures. With an 8GB SD card, I don't even give any thought to such things these days. And since I was conscious of wanting to have the opportunity to blow up any perfect shots I happened to get, on arriving at San Xavier I had turned the camera on to full size, fine quality JPEG + RAW. So I was completely taken off guard when I got back to the car and discovered I only had 12 exposures left! It completely makes sense, but I was surprised by both the number of shots I'd taken and the fact that I'd filled up an 8GB card, effectively in a few hours.

Though, I have managed to reduce that 700+ figure down to 90 or so shots worth keeping. [smile]
Now Playing: The Persuaders - Drove It All Away
Apr
23
2011

Photo Fun @ Picacho Peak

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSaturday, April 23, 2011 - 03:20:12 pm
(Posted Under: This Desert Life This Desert Life, Photography)
Some photo fun on the way to Tucson at Pichaco Peak...

Photobox ImageI feel like I put a lot of thought into photos that I want to come out a certain way. It's uncanny how often the candid off the cuff shots come out much better. What's the line? You look so good when you don't care? Uh huh.



Photobox ImageThis wasn't really what I was going for. But still, it's kinda cool in a Ralph Stedman sort of way...



The Picacho Peak Travel Plaza always delays our arrival time into Tucson. Today was no different. [smile] Picked up a bunch of cool stuff, and this time around stopped for Diary Queen and photos, and spent way too much time doing all of it. Such is our life. Hopefully we'll make it to Tucson before nightfall.
Apr
19
2011

In Times Like These

(Add / View Comments) (0)Tuesday, April 19, 2011 - 12:00:45 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music)
There was once a time when particular artists provided the perfect soundtrack to vent and release frustration at the world and life.

These days it's a soundtrack to vent and release frustration at sed artists.
Now Playing: Gin Blossoms - Cajun Song
Apr
18
2011

Shooting The Moon

(Add / View Comments) (0)Monday, April 18, 2011 - 09:49:31 pm
(Posted Under: Photography)
The moon over for the past few nights have been ridiculously awesome.

And that there moon has been something that I've wanted to be able to photograph better and was looking forward to doing with the new camera. And while I can't say that my attempts since getting it haven't been better, but still they've been far from the sort of results I've wanted and haven't been able to nail.

So the impressive displays the moon has put on over the last few nights has been a good opportunity to get some practice in. Finally tonight I've finally gotten it down with adding spot metering into the settings mix. Nice!

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Of course, that's at least a 60% crop on the image. But the lighting is right. And given the 10 grand for a 600mm lens (which may or may not actually zoom enough anyway), I'm more than happy to be content with getting the lighting / exposure down.
Apr
16
2011

Photos

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSaturday, April 16, 2011 - 07:30:21 pm
(Posted Under: This Desert Life This Desert Life, Photography)
Had some fun shooting this afternoon at Tempe Town Lake after the weiner dog races, as that bad crazy sun was going down.

Photobox ImageI don't know whether this is a testimant to how good my zoom lens, or how low planes fly over Tempe coming into Sky Harbor. Y'know, probably both.



Photobox ImageThis is a killer photo, especially since I didn't have a tripod handy. With a bit of darkening I really love it.



Photobox ImageThat good 'ol aforementioned bad crazy sun. I almost went completely bind shooting this one. The camera's auto focus was feeling my pain on that. Yet another time that I love having manual focus capability. Interestingly, not shooting this out of focus also came out cool.



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Now Playing: The Pistoleros - Southbound Train
Apr
16
2011

Record Store Day

(Add / View Comments) (0)Saturday, April 16, 2011 - 12:57:47 pm
(Posted Under: Music Music)
Despite the late one we had last night, we were up at 9 this morning for Record Store Day. After missing out on t-shirts last year, we'd learned our lesson and weren't going to wait to long to go down to Zia. With that said, we hadn't heard anything about RSD t-shirts this year, but I was going to be surprised if Zia didn't have any this year.

We got there about 9:45. Which was too late for most Record Store Day exclusives (which was fine, the only thing we were half interested in was the Foo Fighter's Rare Meat release), but thankfully not for the Zia Records Super Pack - which let's face it, was 95% of the reason we were there. Although, I hadn't seen that advertised. Including Zia's Record Store Day 2011 t-shirt, 30th Anniversary Glass and You Heard Us Back When...Vol 5 - for $5! Hello! We'll have two please! Given that we'd brought one of the glasses a while back for $3 - $4 and eventually found at least Katie a Record Store Day 2010 t-shirt (in Tucson) for $8, this was a bargain. For $5 bucks for all of that, we were totally both getting t-shirts this year. We ended up with a whole bunch of Zia stash thrown in the bag. Love you Zia.

In addition to the Record Store Day stash, we picked up Wasting Light. Seemed fitting to pick that up today at Zia. And proves that the White Limo thing was a great marketing idea. [wink]

Once leaving the Tempe store on University we headed down to the Chandler store, just to check on whether they had any copies of Rare Meat. No such luck, but that was fine. We were down there closer to noon, and by all accounts it's seemed like they were out of the Super Pack. So we were glad we didn't screw around and got down to the Tempe store nice and early.

The trip down to Chandler proved worthwhile, as I found an original pressing of Satellite's Drive. Yet another nice find down at the Chandler store.
Apr
07
2011

Cactus Woes

McStabby Is Going To Be The Death Of Me

(Add / View Comments) (0)Thursday, April 7, 2011 - 12:16:06 pm
(Posted Under: This Desert Life This Desert Life)
I thought we were out of the woods with our Blue Candle. Apparently not.

The quick rundown is this - over Christmas, we brought it inside, as it doubles as our Christmas tree. We noticed some spots on the truck, which was suggested to be rot. The cause was suggested to be the soil that the nursery sold us. Basically he stayed inside from December through til mid March, and we didn't water at all. It was winter, for all extents and purposes was dormant, and didn't seem that much worse for wear. Once we got to March, he still looked fine, maybe a little thirsty, but pretty much fine.

Close to a month ago (March 14th), we repotted. New mix of 1 part fine garden soil (all bits of bark and moisture holding material removed) and 2 parts pumice. Pea rocks were added to both the bottom and top of the pot for drainage - all done to avoid any root and stem rot problems. Everything was looking good. Waited the two weeks after re-potting before watering. Once we did water, we did so sparingly to avoid over watering and any further rot, until we'd confirmed that the new soil mix was draining adequately.

Photobox ImageAll was well until one of the arms started to wither at the tip, about 5 days ago, as pictured to the left. The withering has actually been pretty rapid over the 5 days.

By all accounts, it would seem to be to be thirst related. Although we've been doing frequent waters, they have been a sparing amount. So I am at a lost of what to do. Do we give him a really decent soaking and risk rot problems, or do we not and risk having him die of thirst?

Photobox ImageFor a reference, here's the tip of another arm, which is looking healthy - which is what the withering arm looked like a week ago.



And an overall shot of the cactus. Note that the blue-ish part of the top of the trunk is new growth from pre winter and not the same grey color of the withering arm.

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Ugh! I almost want to stick an IV drip in the withering arm! Do they make IV's for cactii? [wink] They should.

In all seriousness, any advice on how much to water McStabby is welcome!
Now Playing: The Persuaders - Just The Same
Apr
03
2011

Let's Go To Maricopa For Lunch

Road Trippin', Teaks & Other Stuff

(Add / View Comments) (0)PhotosSunday, April 3, 2011 - 05:59:44 pm
(Posted Under: This Desert Life This Desert Life)
It's been a slow weekend. There were a few music endeavors we considered, none of which ended up happening, for different reasons. It's also been one of those rare weekends where we didn't have a gazillion things to do. That's been nice admittedly. Not something we're overly used to though.

It made my wife somewhat stir crazy today. Around midday the following conversation happened...

"I know this is ridiculous and we don't have to do it, but we should go to Teakwoods and split some nachos".

"You mean as opposed to any other aspect of our life that isn't ridiculous?".

She should know better. As rational and financially conscious as I am, it doesn't take much to sell me on anything involving Teakwoods. The weather this weekend has been really nice. Getting out in it, driving through the desert and then eating at Teakwoods sounded awesome to me.

Since Friday afternoon I've also been working on some updates to Hitter to support track and album metadata, at the moment particular to support marking songs as radio singles, for automatic generation of "singles" playlists accordingly. Over the past 15 years, trying to maintain and keep up to date a playlist of singles, well, just hasn't worked that great. So driving down the I-10 also made for a perfect opportunity to give my new definitive kick ass 'singles' playlist a try out.

Photobox ImageThe drive down to Maricopa was really nice. The wind was out in full force today, which made it a great day for dust devils out in the desert between Tempe and Maricopa. The trip down south was the selling point of the Maricopa location over Gilbert. Both were the same in terms of traveling time, but today was a day that called for getting out into the desert. Windows down, stereo up out on the open road.

Photobox ImageMaricopa Teakwoods was sweet and worth the trip down there. Just like Phoenix and Chandler locations, with it's own charm. The best aspects of this Teakwoods location: smaller two person booths, and free wi-fi. Yes, free wi-fi. Oh how I'd love both in Phoenix. Katie did suggest that if Phoenix had free wi-fi, I'd probably never leave. She has a point. Additionally, a cool feature of this Teakwoods were the candle chandeliers. I think that's something we need when we buy a house.

Photobox ImageOrdering had the usual Teakwoods problems. That is, being faced with having to choose one out of the five different things you want to eat. [biggrin] Teakwoods food is so awesome, we always want more to order than both our wallets and stomachs can handle. And as such, we probably hold the record for the couple that takes the longest to order there. Hey, it's how we roll. [wink] Y'know, we probably won't put half as much thought into where to send our kids to school as we do what to order at Teakwoods. (The scary reality is that that's actually not true, and we'd probably be better off if it was. I shudder to imagine how much of our lives we're going to loose when we cross that bridge!) I finally narrowed done my choice, and on the third time out server came to the booth, I went ahead and made Katie's mind up for her. I'm sure everyone involved appreciated it.

Before leaving we checked out the patio out the back. Again, a very cool setup. Cool bar and chimenia out there. Actually, just as inside had elements we'd want to replicate in our house, outside had quite a few too. Based on the good setup that both the Phoenix and Chandler locations have, I shouldn't be surprised at how cool the Maricopa one was, but I kinda was anyway.

After finishing what we came to Maricopa to do [wink], we stopped at the near by Fry's to look at their planter selection. This has been an ongoing task over at least the last month, if not longer, to find pots for our Madagascan Ocotillo and Totem Pole cactii. So it was pretty amazing that we easily found pots for each today. Quickly and painlessly. Which made for quite a productive trip down to Maricopa.

Rather than heading back north, we continued south to check out the extent of Maricopa. Not to suggest that there is that much past where Teakwoods is situated though. On the outskirts of town, I was hit with something, that I am often. Even after having lived here for an extended amount of time. The southwest is fucking amazing. It just is, plain and simple. Not everyone "gets" it. I can't even really make a guess at what percentage of people do. But I know that I'm one of them. The dusty outskirts of a small rural town, a beaten up adobe taco shack, a huge saguaro standing tall under an old faded metal sign. It's just damn cool, and I love it. There are certain places, and I'm sure there are many of them, that haven't been gentrified, and haven't been redeveloped by people wanting to have the midwest out here in the desert. The true southwest. Whenever you stumble across it, it takes absolutely no imagination whatsoever to be transported to 100 years ago and the wild west that is glorified in countless movies. Not in the usual "theme park" sort of way. But in a way where you feel that everything you see in the movies probably actually went down right where you are. Because, let's face it, it probably did. It's one thing to see it carefully constructed and romanticized about on the big screen. It's another to be out there, and it be a half an hour's drive from where you live. The moments when you get that, it really drives home that great B. Babb line: "the world is much wider than I was lead to believe". It sure is.

It's one of the reason why it doesn't take me much convincing to basically drive 30 mins and 25 miles just to go to lunch. When it comes to getting out in the desert, and excuse will do. Particularly if it means heading south. But more on that at a later date.

Heading back towards the valley, it was interesting noticing Camelback Mountain from that far south of Phoenix. I've come into Phoenix from the 10 plenty of times. This was certainly true when we were here looking for apartments, coming up from Casa Grande every day for a week. However, I've never really noticed Camelback from any further back that Guadalupe or Warner. From that far south, it was quite a sight. And emphasized how distinctive Camelback is. Even with Estrella and South Mountain on the horizon in the foreground, they can't really compete with Camelback, which commands the focus of your eye. It was also something seeing Camelback on the horizon like that. From back there, you couldn't tell that there was a big ass city in front of it. If you didn't know better, you wouldn't assume there was. That was pretty cool. The camera was on the back seat and I didn't feel like putting the effort in to fish it out from back there, but next time we're down that way that is a photo worth snapping.

All in all, I've got to say this has been a pretty good day.

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