Musically Speaking

Grugrux King

Dave — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 03:54:36 +0000

“I am not a king, no
not a hero,
not a fool,

I am only flesh and bones
and I am
exactly what you need”

Heaven, Live

Dave — Mon, 02 Mar 2009 02:56:11 +0000

I have always enjoyed this band and this song, however after hearing it tonight for the first time in quite a while I realized how true the lyrics are, especially the chorus, now that I have a daughter of my own.

“I don’t need no one
to tell me ’bout Heaven
I look at my daughter
and I believe.

I don’t need no proof
when it comes to god and truth
I can see the sunset
and I believe. “

Right now I am in full music mode again, contemplating how to best get myself motivated enough to really get serious and pick up my guitar and actually learn how to play the thing.

I guess watching the Dave Matthews Band: Live in Central Park DVD for the umpteenth time has that effect on me. That band always inspires me musically, so it isn’t surprising to me that I am feeling that itch again.

As luck would have it

Dave — Wed, 25 Feb 2009 22:36:43 +0000

It turns out that just about 2 hours after I wrote my last post talking about how in a few more days I would officially be a Dad, Omega woke up with contractions and we wound up in the hospital by 2:30am. By afternoon on the 16th of February, I was able to welcome my brand new daughter, Emma Ryan, to our family!

I haven’t had much of a chance to write since then as things have been a bit of a whirlwind around here with visitors and all that, on top of just trying to get into a routine.

It has been truly amazing and I feel very sad that I have to go back to work so soon, only 4 days of vacation left before it is back to the rat race. Oh well, I suppose I have to go back to work sometime, but I wish I had another full week to spend at home. That’s ok, only about a month and I will get a nice 3 day weekend photo trip with Derek. That should be a lot of fun and I am really looking forward to it.

Just a bit more…

Dave — Mon, 16 Feb 2009 04:41:06 +0000

I can’t believe how crazy it seems that in just a few more days I will officially be a Dad! Even though we have been waiting for this time to come, it seems odd to think that there is such a short amount of time left before the little one is here!

It kind of makes me realize all the little things that still need to be done before it arrives, which has me really questioning if I should maybe take the day off of work tomorrow to get it all done. Have to wait and see what happens I suppose.

My new phrase, “anticipation exhilaration” is a good description of my mood right now so what music to listen to before bed tonight?

Guess I’ll have to wing it as nothing comes to mind immediately.

Feeling photographic

Dave — Mon, 26 Jan 2009 04:33:59 +0000

Today was pretty much all photography related, almost all day long. After church this morning I picked up a friend and we spent the afternoon photographing the rural Hibbing frozen landscapes. Overall I am fairly pleased with the results from today’s shoot, with a good handful of “keepers” to work with in a few of my projects as well as some pleasant surprises that came from a couple of off hand experiments.

Once I got home I went through my shots from the day, editing a couple real quick and then posting them up to my flickr account so you can enjoy them there. After finishing with that I set up my shiny new digital photo frame that I received from my wife for christmas. I know, I know, I have been slacking in getting it set up, but now that it is there I just added everything I have up on flickr to the frame and have been enjoying it ever since!

It pretty much totally rocks!

Anyhow, no real music related thoughts tonight, besides the fact that I was able to add a few more of my cd’s to my Zune so I have even more variety to choose from, including a bunch more Dave Matthews Band and a couple of new playlists set up for future use.

Till next time…

Facebook is killing my writing…

Dave — Sun, 25 Jan 2009 04:20:21 +0000

So basically, even though I have not been very active there either, I have decided to blame Facebook for my lack of writing and upkeep on any of my blogs. The only place I have been fairly consistent is on my flickr account.

Reality is that with everything going on lately, I just haven’t made the time to sit down and just write, which I am desperately needing to remedy.

So the quick update is that most of my free time lately has been spent on photography and getting ready for the new addition to our family, which should be happening any day now! I just hate this feeling of being “on-call” waiting for the baby to decide to come!

Musically, what’s been happening lately, not a whole lot. Been enjoying Metallica’s “Death Magnetic” still, although I have not listened to it in some time. Played my final gig with my band, Attaboy, over the New Year Weekend up at The Landing on Lake Vermilion. Well, it wasn’t the “final” gig, just the last one for a little while as I am taking a little time off from the band so I can spend my weekends with my new baby, whenever it comes! I should be back laying down the beats by about May, just in time for a big Memorial Day Weekend, hopefully!

One last musical note to touch on, no pun intended, is that I have been enjoying a little revisit of the Dave Matthews Band “Live in Central Park” album. I have been working my way through the 3 discs of greatness each night as I settle in for bed. I can’t believe how amazing those guys are, such command over the music with such a natural feeling. Nothing ever feels forced and even with all of the “jam band” characteristics they have when performing live, think Phish, they are still so tight that you wouldn’t know that they did not have every note planned out to a “T”.

With that I think I will leave and take a look through the cd collection to see what music I can add to the Zune and listen to as I drift off to sleep tonight.

Hopefully all has been well for you and with luck I will stay determined enough to sit down and actually write, rather than just stutter out short comments on twitter and facebook occasionally!

New Metallica Lyrics Sum up my feelings of work lately

Dave — Thu, 23 Oct 2008 03:58:07 +0000

“This day drifts on inside a fog
it’s thick and suffocating”

~The Unforgiven III-Metallica-Death Magnetic

An old poem

Dave — Mon, 13 Oct 2008 00:20:47 +0000

Branches-04/27/08

the branches that hung
each bending so low
from a fierce mid-spring storm
and the ice and the snow
are now lifted up
restored to their glory
by the late evening sun
and it’s soul warming story.

Observations from today

Dave — Tue, 07 Oct 2008 02:32:01 +0000

So here are a couple of things that stuck in my mind from today.

#1- At 6:40am this morning when the alarm went off and I rolled over to look out the window, welcomed by the site of…well the site of a pitch dark night, I officially kicked of my day by thinking that my alarm clock was set to the wrong time because it was way too dark still to be almost 7:00am.

#2- The current economic situation in the world today has people scared out of their minds about what will happen and has the average person handling their finances 2-3 times more conservatively than they normally would. Personally, while I struggle with these same issues, feel that it is actually a good and very much needed trend. Hopefully we can all look back at this time as the turning point that may help deflate the current and absurd inflation on the price of everything. *this is me trying to find the silver lining in the storm cloud*

#3- The fall weather was strange today. Being so overcast that it seemed like the sun just never really came up all the way, yet still bright enough that it didn’t feel like it was late evening at high noon. There was a lot of wind that had that mischievous feeling that it could just be speeding a little snow our way soon.

#4- The local Wal-Mart did not fail to produce the usual “interesting” encounters. This evenings trip highlighted by a young man being “walked” by a young woman. Yes, this is complete with him wearing the collar and leash, with her controlling him by maintaining a tight reign on said leash.

#5- As I watch the Vikings play on Monday Night Football I am experiencing a contradiction of emotion. On one hand I really want them to win as I am a lifelong fan of our Vikings, yet by winning it is causing me to lose what was a very, very close match-up this week in my fantasy football league. In the end I wanted the Vikings to win, but needed their defense to have a horrible game in order to pull out the win.

#6- I am 100% sick of hearing about the upcoming election. Period.

Halftime is almost over! Go Vikes!

So what’s new world?

Dave — Mon, 06 Oct 2008 02:46:00 +0000

After a dismal summer of writing for me I suppose I should start getting back into practice.

Most of my free time the last few months has been spent at weddings, band gigs and working on my photography. I am currently working hard trying to capitalize on the amazing fall colors and great weather, as well as getting more of my shots ready for print-through my upcoming website and through another book project or two. The website project is a little ways out-probably within a year if all goes well-but I hope to get it up and running so that I can share my passion for photography with all of you.

In more important news than my boring hobbies, things are going great in the baby department! I can say that because as the father-to-be, I haven’t had to deal with any of the miserable stuff, like sickness, being overly exhausted, etc… My amazing wife has been a trooper and even while feeling sick and all of that fun stuff, I know that she is super excited also. For those of you that know me, you will know that saying I am pretty laid back and patient is an understatement, but the wait to meet my very first child is really pushing my limits with being patient. It feels like it is such a long wait, but at the same time we are already about half way there!

The best part, so far, is that I was finally able to feel the baby move. Even though I wasn’t sure that I actually felt what I did when it happened. We were laying in bed the other morning and I just had my hand resting on my wife’s stomach and all of a sudden, while dozing away, I thought I felt a little bit of a flutter under my hand. While light and quick, it was still really cool. Now I am just waiting for my wife to start showing more, then I can start getting some of those cliche, yet memorable photographs to share with some of you!

Anyhow, I know it isn’t much of an update in terms of length but that is about all I have been up to lately. Time to go work on another image or two and then get to bed for another exciting week in the world of banking. As you can imagine it has been “just terrific”, what with all the recent goings on in the financial world right now. I shouldn’t complain though, the pay is decent and my job as of right now seems to be secure, which is a good thing.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot. As you all know the new Metallica album was released a couple weeks ago and I am happy to say that after a handful of complete listens through I do enjoy it quite a bit. Much better than the last outing from the guys. So far I think some of my favorite tunes come from the middle of the album, tracks 4 through 7 or 8, but the rest is very good as well.

Take care until next time we meet…