Gray, me and Cole at the ThunderLip show.

Hmm. Sitting at work pretty bored. It’s a little cold and a bit rainy outside which I’m assuming is the reason nobody is out and about. Oh yeah, and it’s Sunday.

The weekend was pretty good. A very solid ThunderLip show on Friday. Royal Thunder opened for them. They were buhdass. Then on Saturday was Who’s Bad? the Michael Jackson tribute band. Very awesome performance. A few people were a bit skeptical at first when learning they had a new Michael. He looks more like him and sounds way more like him. Also, they’re all graduates of UNC, who kicked ass that night.

Sergio was spinning records before and between sets. His english may not be so well, but he sure does turn out some great mixes all night long. Definitely check him out on Friday nights at Odessa. It’s a helluva a party with lots of 60s and 70s garage rock blasting.

Well, it’s the end of March and believe this is my first post of 2008? Wow.

Adalea Filomena

Congratulations to Caleb and Valerie for bringing this wonderful bundle of joy into the world!

Bella, smellin’ up the couch.

It’s been way too long since I’ve updated here. And it’s not like I haven’t had the time. I did just moved to a new city and, at first things were a little hectic but, pretty laid back now. So here’s what I’ve been up to…

Moved to Wilmington, North Carolina, which is about 70 miles from where I was previously staying. I’ve always loved it here. Beautiful town that keeps you busy. There’s a great nightlife, plus the beach is just a hop, skip and a jump away. Some photos of my new apartment can be viewed here.

I was taking some culinary classes but decided to drop due to lack of work hours. Jumped into it kind of fast and didn’t really think of how packed my schedule would be. Oh well. I do plan on going back but not for culinary. They have a pretty good photography program.

Speaking of photography; I’ve barely shot anything since I’ve been here. All of these beautiful historic downtown places and I haven’t done crap. Can we say “lazy?” I have been taking some photos for this east coast zine, Social. Some fun parties and such but no real photo work just yet.

And speaking of work, I got a job at this place downtown called the “Soapbox Laundrolounge.” It’s not always fun but I just try to get my work done and move up as fast as I can. Would love to have my own bar some day so starting at the bottom of a venue this size is probably the best way to learn the business. Everyone I work with is awesome. I couldn’t ask for a better group of people.

So yeah, the move has been great. I don’t mind my roommates at all and I’ve met tons of new people.

Plan on focusing on the site a lot more. I usually get off work sometime around 2-3 in the AM so my sleep schedule is terrible at the moment. Working on it, though.

Moon over the Atlantic

My buddy’s family rented a beach house on Topsail Island for a week. And I do mean the whole family. Everyone was there. The timing couldn’t be any better as a good friend of mine flew in from Colorado. Also got to see his sister’s baby for the first time. She’s moving back to North Carolina from Japan. Also also, she brought back some (sugarless) candy from Japan. I only tried the strawberry Pocky and the grape candies similar to Bonkers. Both were very good.

The two nights I stayed at the beach were great. The weather was perfect. Took quite a bit of photos but have yet to go through them all. Need to get them finished tonight for the folks that want copies. The set is here.

Activities included drinks, eating (slaw, onion, chili and mustard hot dogs), photo takin’ and playing games like Cornhole (which I’d never heard of. Very fun.) Was also introduced to Sudoku, something I’d like to take a another shot at (while sober.) And of course, there was the Wii.

Daddy Long Legs. Spiders terrify me.

Walked around the yard with my little Sony point and shoot today. I haven’t used this camera in quite a while. Should definitely start carrying it with me everywhere. A lot easier than lugging the Canon around. Plus, I don’t have a macro lens yet and the macro setting on the Sony isn’t so bad.

Posted all of the shots I took with it and a couple of others today. They can be viewed here.

Ain’t it cute?

I’ve looked at these before but just now realized that I would really like to own a weeHouse. Placed outside of town on a really large chunk of land. No neighbors, nobody to bother me. I like to be alone and loud when I want.

At about $100k, it’s pretty pricey considering the size. But it looks nice. I currently sell prefab homes for the family and my dad would seriously think I’m insane for wanting to purchase something smaller for way more than what we sell.

Year Long Disaster playing at Hooligans, Jacksonville NC. June 17, 2007

Clutch came to Jacksonville! And even better, they brought some sick-ass bands with them. Year Long Disaster, especially. I wanted them to play another set as soon as they walked off of the stage.

The Tossers are a fun group of guys and a gal. Very surprised that they had such a great response considering where they were at. Usually “different” (meaning not some type of heavy metal or country) bands don’t do so well here. Then again, they are an Irish folk-rock band that plays some excellent Irish drinking songs as drunk as drunk could be.

ASG was supposed to open for everyone else but couldn’t due to the fact that Clutch was finishing up a tour and played a two-hour long (non-stop) set. It was hard getting shots in the crowd and I had to really doctor some of them up. Crowds at Clutch shows can be pretty hectic. I’ve definitely caught an elbow or two to the face without even being in “the pit.”

I didn’t stay for the entire event. I was hungry and my stomach wasn’t feeling so great. Still really glad that I got to see Year Long Disaster. All of their free demos were gone before I could snag one. Hopefully a friend picked one up.

More of the photos here.

And I am in love (Crappy shot, I know. Desk is a mess.)

Now that I’ve finally found a bit of software for it, I am really in love with it. This baby zooms! Photoshop and Lightroom load instantly. Working with RAW images is such a breeze now.

I’m still a little unorganized on it. That should get better with time. This is my first Mac and this is quite a change. Little things bug me but, again, in time I’ll be used to it.

Still amazes me how smooth everything is visually. My PC’s would die trying. Sometimes I go to Dashboard or Front Row just to watch it move. Heh.

20mm through a 50mm at Topsail Beach.

My buddy Jonathan flew down to visit me for a few days this week on Topsail Island. I was fortunate enough to get a beach house at the last minute. The stay consisted mostly of trips to and from Wilmington, a hilarious wet underwear contest, lots of television and way too much pizza (slices at I Love NY, a DiGiorno and a large something from Old Chicago.) The weather was really nice, too.

While in Wilmington, Jonathan decided to get a tattoo of a carbon atom on his arm. It came out really good. Nate at Hardwire Tattoo did it.

Real fun and very relaxing stay at the beach. Here are more photos from our adventures.

Edit: Here are more photos from Jonathan’s Picasa page.

Love.

Went to the two Widespread Panic shows this weekend. I try to go every year and I believe this makes year five or six. They’re so much fun! Everyone around you is extremely nice, it’s like one huge party.

The only bad thing was that Alltel Pavilion has now banned alcohol from the parking lot. Ugh. Cops were everywhere. Especially the first night. Right when we parked there were maybe five searching some kids car for drugs. He ended up getting arrested. D’oh! We just kept our beer in cups, and our liquor in bottles mixed with coke. It was fine. Way more relaxed environment on Saturday than Friday.

Danced my ass off the first night. Thank goodness nobody caught that craziness on camera.

The second night I chilled out. Literally. My feet were freezing. Socks, Jason, socks.

After the second nights show, everyone but me crashed as soon as we got to the hotel (again.) I stayed up and chatted with Chad on the phone while sitting on the balcony, waving to the partying people in the parking lot. They kept going until at least 3:00am. I don’t know, I crashed around then.