so, i've become less active on this invisible blog/journal thing. that's cool, it happens. over the past year or so, i've finally warmed up to the ever changing interface of facebook. actually the newest update looks horrid, but whatever.
in an effort to streamline my overall online-ness, and in order to keep my adult add oriented musings to a minimum on facebook, i've decided to use a more appropriate means of frequent, random blurbs posts. i'm going to the dark side. twitter. i'm not totally excited about it, but just as i think people should act and dress their age, i think people should use the right means of communication for the job.
i find myself constantly deleting posts from facebook, in an effort to not overwhelm folks on my friends list. i'd also like to be able to post something and know that i can just leave it there for further reference, be it a video, a link, a phrase, an idea, etc.
so, i'll be starting a twitter account on 01.01.11. my friends on facebook will notice a drop off in activity and i think that's a good thing.
in other news. even though i'm technically in 4 bands, i spent most of the year working with through the sparks and rubys. both bands spent 2010 recording, rehearsing and playing a long string of solid shows. through the sparks spent the year recording, or finishing, a single every month which eventually included a single cover design, video promos, and now a complete record of 12 singles, for which i'm doing the album art.
rubys recorded an ep at the beginning of the year, but as the year progressed, rubys became somewhat of a power trio, and now plans are getting underway for the completion of a record by the first half of 2011.
i did a few interesting design pieces this year, most of which i'm posting below. there were a few projects i worked on, where i thought i could have done a better design, but i'm sure that happens to everybody. although my poster design has matured somewhat, its obviously time to branch out into more indesign/illustrator type projects. i need to put more emphasis on output and formatting. i've been doing the 11x17 thing for too many years. of all the designs i did in 2010, i'd have to say that the band of skulls/workplay poster is the most interesting.
i recently set up a hybrid music production / graphic design space and i finally got around to framing and hanging about 16 posters. they had been sitting for years in a flat box. the only truly bummer thing that happened was accidently deleting my most popular poster's hi-res file. i had to print out a low res version, scan it, and somewhat recreate the original version so i could print it. it looks like crap, but i plan on properly recreating the poster sometime soon.
i had a lot of fun designing several through the sparks singles covers, and i think it helped me get a bit better at basic cover design.
i might add more to this as i remember stuff from during the year...
these are the shows i played during 2010:
AL 01.22.10 - electroliner @ thrbottletree w/ jesse payne
AL 02.05.10 - through the sparks @ the independent
AL 03.04.10 - rubys @ rojo sxsw benefit
AL 03.11.10 - electroliner @ workplay
AL 03.12.10 - rubys @ the nick
AL 03.12.10 - through the sparks @ the nick
AL 04.17.10 - the spots @ parkside - farewell show
AL 05.14.10 - electroliner @ good people brewery benefit
AL 07.10.10 - the greenleaves @ urban standard
AL 07.31.10 - the greenleaves @ speakeasy w/ vasa
AL 08.03.10 - the greenleaves @ bottletree (w/ jon black)
AL 08.21.10 - the greenleaves @ workplay / baam fest
AL 08.21.10 - through the sparks @ rogue tavern - showcase / baam fest
AL 09.24.10 - through the sparks @ bottletree w/ taylor hollingsworth
AL 10.07.10 - rubys @ bottletree w/ avi buffalo
AL 10.22.10 - electroliner @ bottletree w/ duquette johnston & roomtone
AL 11.20.10 - the greenleaves @ speakeasy + the upwelling
AL 11.27.10 - through the sparks @ bottletree - wmw cd release w/ ssb
AL 11.27.10 - rubys @bottletree - wmw cd release w/ ssb
AL 12.04.10 - through the sparks @ the blind mule
AL 01.22.10 - electroliner @ thrbottletree w/ jesse payne
AL 02.05.10 - through the sparks @ the independent
AL 03.04.10 - rubys @ rojo sxsw benefit
AL 03.11.10 - electroliner @ workplay
AL 03.12.10 - rubys @ the nick
AL 03.12.10 - through the sparks @ the nick
AL 04.17.10 - the spots @ parkside - farewell show
AL 05.14.10 - electroliner @ good people brewery benefit
AL 07.10.10 - the greenleaves @ urban standard
AL 07.31.10 - the greenleaves @ speakeasy w/ vasa
AL 08.03.10 - the greenleaves @ bottletree (w/ jon black)
AL 08.21.10 - the greenleaves @ workplay / baam fest
AL 08.21.10 - through the sparks @ rogue tavern - showcase / baam fest
AL 09.24.10 - through the sparks @ bottletree w/ taylor hollingsworth
AL 10.07.10 - rubys @ bottletree w/ avi buffalo
AL 10.22.10 - electroliner @ bottletree w/ duquette johnston & roomtone
AL 11.20.10 - the greenleaves @ speakeasy + the upwelling
AL 11.27.10 - through the sparks @ bottletree - wmw cd release w/ ssb
AL 11.27.10 - rubys @bottletree - wmw cd release w/ ssb
AL 12.04.10 - through the sparks @ the blind mule
other miscellaneous stuff: i finished my "once in a lifetime" photo series set in various supermarkets around town, sans people. the link to the set, and the accompanying lyrics can be found here.
i sold a lot of stuff this year. did a lot of downsizing, organizing, and reduction of music gear. i spent most of the year playing drums, but did manage to play some shows on bass with the greenleaves and bought a new electric bass, which is quite nice.
i started scanning old family photos, which i'll hopefully finish in a month or so. then i'm going to finish digitizing all of my vcr tapes, which i started doing in 2007, but abandoned halfway through. this time around, instead of burning directly to medium res dvds, i'll be importing directly to hard drive, which will also set me up for some odd material to edit for a video/audio project i've been wanting to do for a while.
what else... my mom bought yet another house, and started renovating a giant garage. alison won every race she ran this year. i finally won the battle against anxiety courtesy of modern science - next i'll try to win the war against dopamine deficiency / executive function paralysis.
we got quite a bit of snow this year. beginning in february, when it snowed for two days, and then again this past week when it snowed for a few days, including xmas day. pretty cool for the deep south. snow day photos
in july we went camping again, this time at oak mountain park. in august, a new music festival (baam!) debuted in birmingham and seemed to go quite well, considering its late promotion.
i received some praise for one of my poster designs, and happened to end up right beside my favorite graphic designer on this site below. that was more encouraging than anything i did musically this year.
although i'm glad i got the chance to do a lot of recording, and performing, the rehearsal process began to irritate me late in the year, and because of this, i continue to find more creative satisfaction in projects i do by myself, mainly design and image related projects. i'm ending the year in 4 bands. by the end of next year, i plan on reducing it down to 1 or 2. whomever wants me to play needs to make it worth my effort.
i'm not getting any younger. the spots played a farewell show in april, and shortly after, two members moved to brooklyn and atlanta. shortly after that, i joined clint wells' new project, the greenleaves.
some random stuff: as i've mentioned a few times on this blog, this year i got really into the ghostly international record label and via the iso50 blog, i discovered the band phantogram and the producer known as com truise. also, i got into ra ra riot. oddly, all of these artists are from either upstate new york or new jersey. pretty cool. here's my blog post about phantogram from this past april.
unfortunately, my saab decided to break down twice within a month, the first time being 5 minutes before i was supposed to drive to atlanta to see phantogram play. i was pretty bummed i missed them. here is my post about the end of the spots, and a mention of some new projects.
i sold a lot of stuff this year. did a lot of downsizing, organizing, and reduction of music gear. i spent most of the year playing drums, but did manage to play some shows on bass with the greenleaves and bought a new electric bass, which is quite nice.
i started scanning old family photos, which i'll hopefully finish in a month or so. then i'm going to finish digitizing all of my vcr tapes, which i started doing in 2007, but abandoned halfway through. this time around, instead of burning directly to medium res dvds, i'll be importing directly to hard drive, which will also set me up for some odd material to edit for a video/audio project i've been wanting to do for a while.
what else... my mom bought yet another house, and started renovating a giant garage. alison won every race she ran this year. i finally won the battle against anxiety courtesy of modern science - next i'll try to win the war against dopamine deficiency / executive function paralysis.
we got quite a bit of snow this year. beginning in february, when it snowed for two days, and then again this past week when it snowed for a few days, including xmas day. pretty cool for the deep south. snow day photos
in july we went camping again, this time at oak mountain park. in august, a new music festival (baam!) debuted in birmingham and seemed to go quite well, considering its late promotion.
i received some praise for one of my poster designs, and happened to end up right beside my favorite graphic designer on this site below. that was more encouraging than anything i did musically this year.
although i'm glad i got the chance to do a lot of recording, and performing, the rehearsal process began to irritate me late in the year, and because of this, i continue to find more creative satisfaction in projects i do by myself, mainly design and image related projects. i'm ending the year in 4 bands. by the end of next year, i plan on reducing it down to 1 or 2. whomever wants me to play needs to make it worth my effort.
i'm not getting any younger. the spots played a farewell show in april, and shortly after, two members moved to brooklyn and atlanta. shortly after that, i joined clint wells' new project, the greenleaves.
some random stuff: as i've mentioned a few times on this blog, this year i got really into the ghostly international record label and via the iso50 blog, i discovered the band phantogram and the producer known as com truise. also, i got into ra ra riot. oddly, all of these artists are from either upstate new york or new jersey. pretty cool. here's my blog post about phantogram from this past april.
unfortunately, my saab decided to break down twice within a month, the first time being 5 minutes before i was supposed to drive to atlanta to see phantogram play. i was pretty bummed i missed them. here is my post about the end of the spots, and a mention of some new projects.