Blue on the outside and all creamy on the interior...yeah!

So you know what's cool?

Jazz, man.

Jazz is weird.

And cool. So is a jazz band.

And what's cooler than a jazz band?

How about three jazz bands.

And, for added coolness, throw in a gospel choir competition.

That's the kick-off for the Black History Month festivities at work tonight, and ooooohhhhhh was it cool. Jazzy, gospely, and I got to take pictures of it all.

Suh-weet. I hope to God that my flash worked out alright.

Now, you'd think, that after almost 5 years of this picture taking stuff, that I'd be able to use my flash and trust that I got it right, especially after taking a class specifically on flash techniques. And yet, I still would rather keep that thing as far away from me as possible.

Which is a reason I kinda like digital: instant preview to see if I'm making a goober. $900...almost there. Let's get those taxes done!

Whoa...did I just say that? No, I guess not. I typed it. So there. Got myself on a technicality.

Speaking of pictures and jazz, mum got the pictures from the wedding, so I'm anxious to see the stuff I ordered. Which leads me to thinking...I've had two friends get married, and three engaged. More to follow, I'm sure. So I wonder when I'll get around to it. I'm not of the mindset that "I must get married NOW," or anything, I just wonder when I'll be a bachelor no more. I suspect I have to find the right person first. Have I? Well....the jury's still out on that. We'll see. I somewhat suspect not, but, you never know (I sure don't, so if it turns out you do, let me know). Which leads to another thought: at my age (22, I think), does one date with the intent of finding someone to marry a few years down the line, or does one just date for the sake of it all?

Hmm. Stuff to ponder. I could go into more detail, but I'm tired and I want to go to bed soon.

I do know this: I want U2 at my wedding. Or a jazz band. Whatever works out, although, after tonight, a jazz band would be extremely bad ass.

You know what was sad? I got home from shooting tonight around 9:30 or so, and by maybe 10:15 or so, I was ready for bed. And I was talking to someone tonight about my back being sore.

Jeezo, I'm getting old....

Ah, well. I'm sure I'm getting wiser along the way.

Now, what was I talking about?

Bed. Right. I'm going.


cheery bye,
Dave

Black or white, we're all gonna meet at the Foot of Canal Street.

First off, condolences to Paul Sanchez and Fred LeBlanc of Cowboy Mouth for the recent losses of their brother and mother, respectively. I imagine it's hard, being on the road, and getting a call like that. And then having to play a show the day after you bury someone. I couldn't imagine ever doing something like that. The guys (and gal) in that band have done a lot for me (and for you, I'm sure), so it's hard, because you wanna do something for them, but the best you can manage is a meager little few words on a forum.

Sigh. Maybe I'll figure it out someday.

interjection from SMOORE

ok, i realize this is unconventional for me to edit-up dave's posts, but i wanted to add something without adding my own post and pushing this one down.

the mouth has indeed done a lot for all their fans and have given us some passionate and wonderful rock and roll. we thank them for it all, and i, too, would like to send out my deepest sympathies to the leblancs and the sanchez's on their losses.

this weblog in general is dedicated, as the mouth would have it, to all the rock 'n roll jesuses in our lives...all those who can grab all the little broken-up, busted pieces of people's frustration and give it back to them bigger than life... that includes you, and it includes our family, and it includes anyone from our respective pasts who have in some way or another changed our lives for the better. i, personally, could make quite a list. thank you, everyone, much love to you all.

this ends smoore's section, back to your regularly scheduled daveness

Anyways.

I'd like to point out that I'm probably the only one that found the "Geordi" bit of the Other One's last post to be damn hilarious. I think it's our new running gag. I'd also like to point out that my hand don't need no more stamping!!!

Heh. So put that in your pipe and smoke it.

So, it's 12:15, and I should be in bed, but I'm not, because we played soccer at 10:30 tonight...last night...whatever. And we lost, but played pretty well. Probably should have had another 3 or 4 goals. But, in my stint as goalie (maybe 12 minutes), I learned a valuable lesson: I can't throw to save my life. Ohhhhhhh boy was it embarassing. But, I played pretty well, and surprised myself by stopping a shot and actually holding on to the ball, to which I said out loud "Hey! I actually caught it!" Apparently, even the OTHER team got a kick out of that.

But if you realized how rare that is for me, you'd understand.

In other news, my carpet in the basement does not smell good. Febreeze, Lysol, and fancy-carpet cleaners are doing me no good. It's going to be unpleasant for awhile.

Stupid basement room. No, wait, I like it.

Stupid no basement bathroom. Yeah, that works.

Weather update: cold.

Car update: I now own a gray car. If anyone manages to find my old green one, I'd appreciate any information on it's whereabouts.

"Dick" Cheney update: has he actually done anything?

U2 update: looks like a September release now.


that's it.


cheery bye,
Dave

Thompson's Gazelle of the Yard? The same!!! Only, MORE violent!!!

Quick!

Take a moment and think of the worst (physical) feeling in the world--kicked in the groin, rock to the head, etc.

Got it? Good.

Now, compare it to throwing up. Which would you rather go through?

Yeah, I'd take a kick to the groin, too. And, to make things even more fun, sleep in the basement, nowhere near the bathroom! Ah yes, good times, good times. Just another excuse to stay home from work.

So I survived 'Icy Death 2004,' and managed to clear off most of the driveway and the car before I got too sick. And, it's apparently going to snow some more! Huzzah! Apparently, the threat is enough to make the library close at 4:30 today. Which is when I would have got off anyways. I hate that. I mean, I'm home as it is, but still. And I think we're opening at 1 tomorrow. Or maybe 10. I can't remember. Maybe we'll be closed all day, I don't know. I think I could live with that.

Yeah, ice sucks. Took me about 30 minutes yesterday to even get to the point where I could chip out the car. Yick. At least the weather people around here can say they were right for a change. I'm sure they're all just extremely smug right now.

I don't have any stories about naked guys. Just cleaning up puke. It's fun!

No, wait. I was thinking of something else.

Stay soft, pink, and oily everybody.

cheery bye,
Dave

So I'm punchin' him and punchin' him...and I says "what do you mean I didn't give you the right change?"

So apparently, we'll probably all die tonight or something.

It's supposed to ice/sleet/hail/snow/molt and whatever, so I'm sure local media is predicting horrible catastrophes for us all. And of course, I need to go to the store.

Ick.

I actually bowled three good games last night. It was fun. My bowling alias for the night was 'JTG,' so I had to bowl a mighty series for a mighty man. I think he would have been proud. And today I got to take pictures of new Marine recruits going through training for boot camp. It reminded me a lot of gym from DeSmet. Cherry pickers and push-ups!! I don't miss them.

One nice thing I gleemed from it all was that the recruits do learn a lot about respect and such-not. Which is something that a lot of people don't really have much of anymore.

Such is life.

Cheery bye,
Dave

Who would you want in YOUR werewolf movie?

Chip Hitler, probably.

Or maybe Ray Liotta.

Wait, no. I forgot: he smells like apples.

So I went to a dual photo/art opening tonight. The photo part was pretty cool, but I just don't 'get' art. I like it, and respect those who can make it and make it look cool, but the significance of it all is lost on me, I guess. I'm used to looking at still images, usually of the journalistic type, and making quick sense of it all. Having to interpret it all in some way can be tricky, and this really abstract stuff is just over me.

Or maybe there IS no meaning, and I can just take what I want from it. That sounds good.

I was driving to said opening, and noticed that the QT at RockRoad and 170 had $8.50 as it's price. Naturally, I did a double take or two.

Turns out the sign was busted or something. Although gas did go up again, alas.

It's always something.

That's all I got.

Cheery bye,
Dave

Earth vs Nougat

I don't actually have anything to say right now, but I just figured I should post something, lest I fall behind as I tend to do. And Lord knows I can't let the other one have all the fun, right?

And besides, I usually think of stuff to post as I go along with these things anyways. The idea being, I guess, that as I type, my brain gets loosened up, and then there's no stopping me.

Case in point: I tried something new last night. I got the stuff I needed done BEFORE I went to bed, not 5 minutes before I was ready to sleep. Shower, making the bed, cleaning litter boxes, etc etc, was all done well before I planned to sleep. And it works great! I got to bed at 11:20 or something like that, instead of 12:00 or whatever. I can see why that kind of thing is popular amongst the more organized.

You know how you see people on TV with those rooms dedicated to a band, or a movie, or their favorite granola bar? Well I was in one on Monday. A room enshrining everyone's favorite band of guys with a lot of makeup: Night Ranger!

No. Wait.

It was a Kiss room! As if they needed anymore enshrining. But that's as may be. It was still a pretty cool room. It's the kind of thing I'd do for Godzilla or U2 or something. Granted, I'd have to get rid of all Steve's stuff to make room, but I'm sure he'd understand. See, the long term goal is to make my current room a darkroom, and move into mom's old room (this will make the folks who think I'm weird by staying in the basement happy). So I'll have to get on that. Anyone wishing to give me lots and lots of money to help is more than welcome to do so.

See? I ramble, I get ideas, and you folks get more to read!

Huzzah!

cheery bye,
Dave

...the hell?

I'd like to try and give the "purple goat" dream a run for its money.

This will teach me not to eat pizza and cookies before I go to bed. A run-down of the dreams I had last night:

-I was at some theatre, watching Return of the King on a big screen, and Gandalf was manning the sound booth.

-switch to the actual movie, as Legolas and Gimli enter into a modern city, apparently trying to gain the city in the fight against Sauron. Legolas sticks a large sword into the ground, which garners the attention of, well, a hooker

-I was also in a Finding Nemo-style dream, but I can't tell if it was in an aquarium or the actual ocean. I think it was just a really big aquarium

-You know those big stone wheel things that in the movies, you always see slave-types pushing around to power something or other? Well I had another dream in which I was trying to rescue a bunch of cats from slavery, which, thankfully, I pulled off. I recall one of them had blue fur

I think that's everything, or at least the really interesting parts.

Weird, weird, weird...


One final Godzilla-related note (for awhile): since I didn't really want to watch the American thing, I decided I'd count product placements, and ended up at around 30 or so, some popping up more than once. And while it's true that one of my favorite movies, Tremors, has an entire store full of product placement, that movie doesn't go out of its way to have a lead character go into a drugstore (that should be closed) just to buy some pregnancy tests.

So there.


cheery bye,
Dave

Fruit loop serenade

Important update on the Godzilla front:

Saturday night saw the viewing of the second annual Godzillathon (although, last year's consisted of one movie, so it wasn't much of a marathon). First on the menu was the (still) insufferable 1998 American version, and it's just as bad as I remember. Don't watch it. Next up was the 2001 Japanese entry, Godzilla, Mothra, King Ghidorah: Giant Monsters All Out Attack. I can recall at least 5 times when one of our new viewers yelled "cool!" out loud, as opposed to NONE for Amer-zilla.

So take that Devlin!

Ha!

So yeah, I have the house to myself again. The cats have graciously allowed me to stay for another year, bless them. I will miss having the wonderful rhythm man of Routine 27 around, but I'll manage.

And I have tickets to see the Mouth in under a month! It's hard to complain about that. And, in even better news, rumor has it the new U2 album may be out in May. This would be extraordinarily good.

And I know I had some other stuff I wanted to say, but for the life of me, I can't remember.

Wait.

I was going to mention how cold it was yesterday.

It was really cold yesterday. And I had to do a shoot outside. On a bridge, where the wind really picks up. Of course, I had no hat. So I lost parts of my face. But I got some good shots! That's all that matters! And I'm half-way to my digital camera!!! Huzzah!

That being said, I'm gonna go eat now.

cheery bye,
Dave

Oh no, there goes Tokyo..

There's a special breed of person out there in this universe of ours.

If you don't mind, I'd like to take a few moments to talk about them.

I'm referring, of course, to Godzilla fans.

It's not an easy thing to live up to, I must admit. I tell someone that, and it's usually followed by a weird look or some stupid comment. Even my own family razzes me about it. I guess I can see where everyone is coming from. After movies like the Lord of the Rings trilogy, with their seemless blending of live action and CGI, watching a movie with model buildings and a guy in a suit can look pretty, well, silly.

And I guess, to a certain extent, it is. But, damn it, there's more to it than that. Now, I love LotR, and CGI can do some amazing stuff, but seeing a Godzilla flick, and knowing that it's all hand-done, well, there's something special about it. I can't quite describe it (and I suspect part of it is due to the fact that I need sleep something terrible). It's like there's more feeling to it or something.

And despite all the (admittedly) silliness over the years, Godzilla still stands for something. 50 years ago, the original Gojira was released in Japan, which was still recovering from the effects of the U.S. atomic bombings, and further off-shore nuclear testing. Yeah, the movie was essentially a monster movie, but it stood for something: the monster was awaken by nuclear testing, and was in itself, a living nuclear weapon. In an age of mostly soulless characters in movies, it's nice to be able to watch something and know it's deeper than it seems.

Okay, so I may have got off-topic a bit. Sorry. Honestly, though, even some of the lesser films are still fun, and as I said before, there's a lot of care that goes into designing the miniatures and the suits. So do yourselves a favor and check out a Godzilla flick in honor of the Big G's fiftieth birthday. If you want, I may even let you borrow my copy of the original.


I got my ticket for Cowboy Mouth today. Huzzah!!! And I'll be ordering another one tomorrow!!! Double huzzah!!! And it's a three day weekend!!! Triple huzzah!!!

And now, I'm gonna go to bed. I'm damned tired.


A heartfelt thanks from the entire MaxRes staff to our esteemed webmaster for getting the site up and running again. It looks damn good.


Cheery bye,
dave

Well I'll be damned...

So I was informed that someone linked to this wonderful site by searching on Yahoo for 'Steve Vai's pierced clavical,' or something like that.

If that don't beat all...

One off the cuff remark, and you get a new reader. If you're still here, I hope you've been enjoying our nonsense and occasional other stuff.

In the redzone.

Twice!

I actually managed to score two goals last night at soccer! Huzzah! But, my falling down/board running into count won 3-2. Figures.

Okay, so we played the worst team in the league, and my goals were #s 5 and 9 in a 9-2 blowout. But still, it's rare when I score ONE goal, so two in one game is quite exciting, no matter what. I had a lot of energy last night, which is quite odd (the rest of the team decided I must have been on speed or something). I think it was the Mountatin Dew I had before we played. Nectar of the gods, I tell you. Or maybe it was playing a team not as good as us that made my play seem better. Or I'm slowly getting good at all this.

Yeah, the drugs seem more likely than that.

I have a ticket to see Cowboy Mouth at Mississippi Nights on February 5! Well, I ordered it, but I will have it soon. So this is good. I'm actually excited about seeing them again, now that they're mixing things up a bit, or at least putting some other songs in with the main set. So it's good news. The band can get back to kicking ass and taking names instead of promoting a new album.

So when you all go out to buy your Pearl Jam live CDs (have you done that yet?), you can go buy a Mouth ticket as well. And if you're feelin really adventurous, you can buy a Mouth ticket for the next night in Columbia at some place called Mojo's. It'll be good. You should all go.

Yeah, I know I'm just rambling. But I feel obligated to post for some reason. So everyone else has to suffer, unless you never read my posts anyway. So then I recommend you start.

With the next post, of course, since this one sucks.

Oh, it's a Goldstar...

Hmm. Yes. Reports of my demise have been greatly exaggerated.

But I'm not going to go and fill out all those surveys. It takes too long. And there are other reasons as well, but it would take a scientist to explain and frankly, I'm just too mad.

You know what's depressing? Being privy to the slow degradation of one of your favorite things. Case in point: the total "what the hell happened" syndrome of KSHE-95. Formerly my favorite radio station. I remember back in high school thinking "I can't go away to college! There's no KSHE anywhere else." It was different, they played real music, they were beyond the commercialized, structured, crap stations around here.

And then, as best I can tell, they got bought out. And slowly but surely, the crap started taking over. For every decent song, there seemed to be two junk songs to take its place. And too much Nickleback for my tastes. The same company that owns KSHE bought out its only competition and turned it into talk radio. So when KSHE said that no one played more AC/DC, well they were right, only because NO ONE ELSE played any.

Now it seems that I hear more of this new "rock" stuff than anything else. I mean come on, who's going to be talking about Cold in 15 years? And I think there are about 10 classic bands that the station plays, and maybe 6 songs by each they rotate. Led Zeppelin is the only band that gets any respect, and that's because they have a special segment everyday. And I don't even like them all that much.

And then there's the God-awfulness of the morning show, which I admit I used to enjoy. Now it's just "how much sex can we talk about without violating the FCC regulations?"

The first thing I heard when I turned took out my CD yesterday?

"I wonder if pig semen smells like human semen?"

Goodbye KSHE.


There are few things as amusing as seeing the director of the library out dancing. And I realize that only makes sense to me, but trust me, it was quite funny. And then my manager gets out on the floor and proceeds to bust out some damn good moves to 'Play That Funky Music.' Yeah, my boss is a far better dancer than I. Whipping out the cell phone was a good move.

Now if he'd only pulled out a Sharpie and signed his shoe or something...

I think you should all do yourselves a favor and go buy something by Pearl Jam. Maybe one of their many live CDs (Tokyo is lovely) or the new B-Sides collection 'Lost Dogs.'

Actually, that should be more of an imperative statement, instead of a request.

In the words of Kelly Sullivan: "doit"


Cheery bye,
dave

Moved by sleight of hand.

So I decided to make an interesting and fun post today.

But first I decided to buy some donuts.

Anyways, a couple things from work.

1.) I filled out my papers for life insurance today, and had to decide how much to take out on myself. So I set it at $30,000. Essentially, then, I assigned myself a monetary "worth". Am I worth that much? More? Less? It's an odd thing, but, it only costs me like $1.80 a month, so it's not a bad deal. I just don't want to die anytime soon. But I digress.

2.) I downloaded a picture from the Google image search for a project I'm working on. The picture dimensions were (and I'm not making this up): pixel dimensions of 800x600, which is quite normal. An overall sixe of 800x600 INCHES, and a resolution of 1. Very odd. Probably only makes sense to Photoshop users, but still.

Other things are happening, but I can't really see much reason to post them, as they really aren't all that exciting.

Well, maybe I'll go on. So there.

I continued my time-honored tradition of being clutzy during soccer last night. I fell AND slammed into the boards at high-speed. Good stuff. We lost, but we lost with most of the core team intact, as opposed to winning with a bunch of free-lancers. So it doesn't bother me much.

Sarah's coming over tonight for dinner. Here's hoping I don't poison her. And she gets to meet Tom tomorrow. Won't that be fun?

Whip it, into shape.

I used to enjoy winter. Yeah, it can get pretty cold around here, but I always thought I could handle it.

Ha!

That was a.) before I started working full time, and b.) before this morning.

I realize that it's been colder than this before, but man was it cold today. I mean, even the Green Hornet had trouble getting started. The forecast in the paper used the word 'frigid' to describe the A.M. temperatures, and for once, I agree. I even wore a hat today. I stuck my head in the freezer to warm up before I left, and I've been making ice cubes outside.

Basically, I'm saying it was cold this morning. It's a bold statement, but I'm gonna stick by it.

You know what I find interesting? The whole 'War on Terror' is, well, silly.

Why?

I have no problem with the government wanting to protect us (even if they seem to be, well, a tad paranoid right now). Problem is, they're going after somethin that doesn't exist.

'Terror' is an abstract noun. you can't hold terror, nor can you shoot it with a gun, missle, etc. It's like saying you want to go bottle love or something. You can't do it. A war on terrorism or terrorists, however, makes much more sense, at least gramatically. If someone can bring be a bag of terror, I'll retract the above statement. Until then, I hold by my campaign to get this nonsense renamed.

I'm such a nerd, I know.

And now...

I'd like to present another case of why I think I may be one of the dumbest people in St. Louis right now.

So a month or two ago, a bunch of the caulking gave way in one of the basement windows during a storm, and I ended up with a soggy carpet. Frequent readers of this site may remember my referring to it. I believe my exact words were something to the effect of "soggy basement," or something like that. Anyways, with the help of mother and Mike, I was able to repair the damage, as best I could (really, I just need new windows).

Jump to maybe sometime in mid-November when I finally got all the leaves taken care of in the backyard. I got the yard and patio done, but never finished the driveway. So, they just sort of sat around and piled up for the past month and a half or so.

Jump to last night/this morning, when we get a hefty storm. I wake up, and, as usual, the basement is leaking a bit, which I expected. I noticed there was some leakage around the recently repaired window. So, I assumed I had simply missed a few spots. I proceed to lay down some old rags, and go about getting ready for church. At some point, I notice it seems to be getting worse, and after awhile, it gets so bad that water is puddling up to some extent on the already soaked towels.

Fun.

So, I figure I'd better go out and see what the deal is.

Now, to fully appreciate what I saw, recall the scene in Jaws, when Roy Scheider first sees the shark, and slowly walks back into the cabin, staring intently at the water (as only Spielberg can do), and says the greatest movie line ever: "You're gonna need a bigger boat."

So, here I am, looking at my driveway, and, to my horror, find that the leaves are acting as a dam, and I have at least an inch of water puddled up in my driveway (really, it was closer to two, i think). And of course, all of this water is poised to spill into my basement if I don't lose it.

So, I grab a snow shovel and proceed to start moving leaves. And thankfully, the dam burst, the water receeded, and the basement survived.

Of course, all this could have been avoided had I simply cleared the leaves out a month ago.

le sigh.

Alas, Sarah may not want to have anything to do with me after the extreme combo of the Leaf Dam and Gas Cap incidents. I wouldn't blame her. I'll probably end up flooding her bathroom or something like that.

keepin' it crunchy.

There was a time, not too long ago (let's call it "Thursday"), when I considered myself a reasonably intelligent human being.

But, I must ask you all to please, consider the following:

A few months ago, I don't recall when, I stopped to get some gas, filled 'er up, and drove off. I think I went to work. So I get to work, or maybe it was guitar lessons. But that's as may be. So I get {there}, and to my horror, discover I have no gas cap. Whoops. So, feeling a bit stupid, I go and buy myself a replacement.

Not too long after that, I was dropping some film off for work, and stopped to get some gas, and promptly drove off without my gas cap AGAIN. Fortunately, I noticed it when I got to the photo store, about one block from the gas station. So I drive back down to the petrol fillery, to find it,and, of course, it's sitting IN THE MIDDLE OF MANCHESTER. So, traffic clears, and I run out to grab it. Lovely.

Now, on Thanksgiving, I stopped at the same gas station on the way down to my mom's to fill up. The other one gets back in the car after buying us some drinks, and I'm telling him about the above story. As we turn onto Manchester, I look out my rear window, and look! My gas cap is SITTING ON MY TRUNK. So I manage to make it off the road without losing it, and we stick it back in.

Yesterday. I stop to fill up, and head off to do some bowling. I forgot my damn gas cap-- AGAIN! So I call home, and ask my wonderful brother to drive down to the gas station to see if he can find it. No go. So I have to go buy yet another gas cap.

Good lord. What's my deal?

Anyways. I had a most enjoyable New Years, which is cool beans. No huge crowds, drunk drivers, damage to my car, and, best of all, pleasant company.

Oh yeah, I officially like that Pirates of the Caribbean, if only for the fact that an actual line of dialogue is "Huzzah!" I mean, the rest of the movie is a hoot and a half, but that one line made it even better.

I have to take the tree down today, so maybe I'll get to that.

stupidly yours...