shawn avery

this morning, for no real reason, i woke up with an overwhelming urge to read up on the bio of gram parsons. electroliner plays a cover of " that's all it took " in our set... a duet for two of our singers doing gram's and emmylou's parts... so maybe that was bouncing around in my brain's pop-cultural lobe. anyway... upon reading his wiki entry , i've discovered the following facts. gram was born in winter haven, florida (basically my home town) in november, 1946, about a month before my dad was born, 8 miles away. gram grew up in winter haven (and later winter park), attended winter haven high school (i used to rehearse there) and played in cover bands around winter haven as a teen. his mother's family (the snively's) owned a lot of citris property in polk county, including the land that cypress gardens was built upon. the snively's and the adam's were two of the major grower families decades ago. i grew up in these orange groves. gram g...

i don't go on rock binges much anymore. my last big one was probably fleetwood mac about 4 years ago... and probably my ongoing nin binge. lately i've been fixated on the 90125 era version of the british prog band, yes. they have one of the most confusing line-ups in rock. ironically, the most controversial line-up (some fans thought they were too mainstream) was also the most successful and the most stable. this line-up was in tact from 1983 to around 1995. yes made 4 albums with this line-up - 90125 , big generator , union , & talk . the union album was a combination of the 70's and 80 's band members. notable hits from the 90125 era include: owner of a lonely heart , leave it , changes , it can happen, hold on , rhythm of love , love will find a way , shoot high/aim low , lift me up , & walls . i've been perusing youtube for some particular songs and performances from this line-up, most notably, the yes union tour and some mid '80's 90125 era vi...

we went to nyc for the third year in a row. this was the most laid back of the three trips. alison ran the marathon again and shaved 5 minutes off of her time from last year. she came in first for her age group in alabama, and she made the first page of the runner listing in the new york times. not too shabby. this year, unlike last year, we opted to attend the pre-race dinner and fireworks in central park. it rained a little, but it was pretty cool, considering the amount of people they had to accommodate. we hung out with the same folks, and spent half of our time in manhattan, staying in midtown and half of our time in brooklyn. i worked out the day we got there (oct 30th) and i haven't worked out since! i got some catching up to do. meanwhile, ida is blasting the south with a year's worth of rain at the moment. meh. tonight, electroliner rehearsal, and trying out some new drum gear. if only i could find a good drum wrap reseller, i'd be set. alas... photos, most of whic...

it has... and not necessarily for the better. by John F. Harris @ Politico In the year since he was elected president , Barack Obama has revealed himself as one of the boldest leaders to occupy the Oval Office in the modern era. In that same year, Obama also has revealed himself to be an innately self-protective, constantly calibrating and, in some surprising ways, supremely conventional politician. So who is Barack Obama ? The drama of this presidency — in sharp relief with Wednesday’s one-year anniversary of his 2008 triumph — revolves around how Obama navigates his own contradictions. Obama turns out not to be a Bill Clinton-style centrist or a Paul Wellstone -style liberal. His plans for health care and his trillion-plus dollars in new spending have earned the ire of Rush Limbaugh for being too grandiose and of Arianna Huffington for not being grandiose enough. Obama is the president as grand improvisationali...

City Council President Carole Smitherman is the Interim Mayor. She represented my mom in a small claims case in 2006 and kicked ass. She's inheriting a big bag of shit. Good luck. Below is photo of Larry waiting (apparently he didn't have to wait long) for the jury to decide his fate. The news blurb below is from the al.com blog and the birmingham news. Larry Langford, Birmingham's mayor and a former Jefferson County commissioner, has been found guilty in his federal bribery trial. Langford, who is 61 or 63 , was found guilty of taking about $236,000 in cash and gifts from Montgomery investment banker Bill Blount and lobbyist Al LaPierre. Both pleaded guilty in the case and testified they made cash payments to Langford while he was the president of the Jefferson County Commission to ensure business for Blount's investment bank, Blount Parrish & Co. "We all have our trials, this too will pass," Langford said as he walked from the courtroom followed close...

the past week or so: rehearsing with electroliner - learning a ton of 80's cover songs, a few honkey tonk tunes, etc. we are trying to get about 20 or so in our set, so we can be ready for whatever gig comes our way. apparently we got offered a spot at sxsw10, but we declined because we won't have any material ready by then. on a side note... i finally have a drum kit for shows. i've been playing it for a while, but i recently got exactly the pieces i wanted, so i guess i'm ready to rawk. i sold my previous kit in the spring of 1999. this past weekend, through the sparks shot a video for the first song on the new rekkerd. the song is called hot rock constellations . it is a surreal video to say the least. we made doppelganger masks of our own faces and shot on and off for about 5 or 6 hours. adam wingard ( ibdb ) from team bloodjet shot the video, and i expect nothing but brilliance form that guy. he's easily my favorite film maker in town. he released a full-len...