shawn avery

i played my last show (for a long time) at the nick. the stage was burning up. someone removed some gels from the lights. i was up from 7am friday until 4am late friday / early saturday. hung out with ashby/houston etc. talked to elgin about recording. slept most of sat. birmingham is slowly sinking under rainfall. edited some drums. i rented mallrats. it was the only kevin smith film i hadn't seen. actually i had seen it on cable but couldn't remember it. shannen dougherty was hotter than i remembered, although her eyes were more lopsided. i like brunettes. ben affleck played a goon. great movie. monday - rain - shocker!

the issue : i've been following the terri schiavo drama like everyone else and i'm shocked that the controversy has made it's way to the supreme court and the white house. even stirring dubya from his compound. nevermind the hypocrisy of a president, who as governor of texas encouraged - and passed - legislation allowing people with no cognitive future to be let go... then alarming even those on the far right with his intrusive right-to life arrogance. the bush tag team in florida and the white has been shot down consistently by the courts. nevermind the opportunism of a government - run almost entirely by a conservative majority - bent on turning terri's tragedy into a photo opp. aren't conservatives supposed to be oppsed to an intrusive government that tries to dictate the perfectly legal and just process of a husband attending to his wife's likely wishes? if it were clinton doing this, there would already be impeachment hearings. just think about that. clinto...

i prepared a makeshift vocal booth for singers brittany painter, natalie byrd and stacy byrd : collectively known as long story short. i worked on and off all week getting the gear together that was going to be required to record three vocalists at the same time. after staring at walls for quite some time - the vocal booth took a few hours to construct and ended up being kinda posh compared to what we have been using. mid week i was still busy storing boxes from a move the week before. friday night i went out for a bit after getting all of my hair chopped off and made it back home in two hours. long story short made it into town from oxford about 1pm. we went to a homemade burger joint and pigged out then made it to the house about 1:45. ashby, having a birthday the next day and some college friends in town hung around for the first few hours and had to split, but not before getting his mind thouroughly blown by the harmonies. i tried to record some of their candid moments, like them s...

friday.atlantakiller.wind.roughmixes.brothers. longstoryshort.harmonies.nataliechat.elusivebeer. cordova.loudset.deadmonitors. bandchats.drivethru.sat.goodbye#a9.tina... newcds.foodhunt.waiting. chinese.actionmovies.saltypopcorn.ambulanceltd. textmessaging. myzero7moment.jesse.aaron.amber.al's. ambulanceltdchat.lesnuby. theverbenalyric.jodynelson.sun.furniture.largepaintings. longkristinchat... detroit.karanews.julyplans.ashby's.newmix. brothersvideo.sleep.

michael jackson , a 46 year old black man, from a fairly big boned background... how does that quote go? "only in america can you be born a poor black boy, and end up as a filthy rich white woman." the wig is killing me. i've got one word: ::pre-op:: i think i see where this is going... michael get's jailed for molestation, albeit the prosecution's case has so many holes, a relatively short sentence is handed down. several months into his sentence, michael's health declines. he pulls a richard speck and undergoes a sexual re-assignment operation in prison. upon leaving the hospital he/she announces to the press that she has changed her religion from jehovah's witness to scientologist. his/her health begins to improve and michael, now michelle becomes inspired and begins working on groove oriented pop-rock demos while still incarcerated. post-op she gives an interview with barbara walters during prime-time. after phsychological evaluation and a slew of batt...

what a weekend. friday night ashby and i completely deconstructed the lyrics for a song tentatively titled "beautiful." it's probably the most technical and hard to pin-down track on the album. i may end up re-recording half the damn thing. we had a quite a bit of fun sitting there in his study. got home late friday and watched a hunter s. thompson dvd i had ordered the night he popped a cap in his own ass. it is a documentary called - breakfast with hunter. i suggest anyone with an interest in writing, thinking, shooting, talking and dreaming to order it. the footage is so candid, that by the end of the film, i felt like i had stayed the weekend at owl farm. saturday i moved some of my stuff to storage then hopped in the truck with jesse to play a free radio benefit in jacksonville, alabama - where the women are strong and the sheep are scared. after getting there in plenty of time for soundcheck and then tolerating an inept kid running sound, i was approached by some re...

see if you can sit through this entire video . whereas many regulated industries at least attempt to give animals a humane death, i.e. cattle and other necessary livestock that are used for both meat and clothing. the fur trade, globally - is a pretty satanic enterprise. example? open fur trade markets are often in such a hurry to get the fur to the buyer, that the animal isn't even killed. yup. skinned alive. imagine having your skin pulled off of your body and over your head. then sit there looking around, alive - wondering where your body went. on a lighter note : tonight ashby and i will finish the vocals for the songs that have been recorded thus far. later in the month, the women of long story short will lend their southern harmonies. then it's off to final drum tracking for some new songs that we just put in the oven. we're getting there...

through the sparks - most likely my favorite band in town, are releasing their first ep on skubucket records sometime in the next several weeks. most people locally will remember this as the band that reformed john paul keith's band stateside for about two years. apparently, the number one song in the u.s. the week i was born was - barry white, i can't get enough of your love baby . yep. i'm a virgo.

"i guess i need to get some songs on the station while there's still a station? the thought of having only one rock station - 107.7 "the x" is frightening. their local show is constantly in gridlock, and their programming could not be more corporate rock. they are the epitamy of what is wrong with programming ." that was an entry i made on january 5th. like everything else this century, the worst case scenario is in play. the company that owns 107.7 wrax has bought z100.5 wanz. appaarently the "x" is going to be broadcast on both frequencies - at least for now. say goodbye to bham's music scene - as we knew it. not that z100 was keeping it alive, but there was a noticable difference in programming and attitude. thankfully i'm an old man and i don't listen to rock radio anymore.

more gig dates: 03.05.05 | saturday | 8:00pm wljs radio benefit: 92 j brothers jacksonville, al 03.11.05 | friday | 10:00pm brothers jacksonville, al 03.25.05 | friday | 11:00pm the nick birmingham, al 04.20.05 | wednesday | 8:45am musical guest wbrc fox 6 | good day alabama birmingham, al the show airs 7:00am-9:00am 04.20.05 | wednesday | 8:00pm workplay theatre birmingham, al FREE FIONA ... fiona apple's third album, extraordinary machine, has been held captive by sony/epic for over a year now. get behind the eccentric movement that was created to free her album from the clutches of the "evil doers." about half of the album in roughly mixed form has been leaked online. maybe we have a wilco / yankee hotel situation again? we'll see. one thing is for sure, whether the album sells or not (it will likely be released fairly soon) - fiona is crazy, beautiful and writes some mesmerizing words. it is written in biblical scripture that the music in heaven is more beau...