Sheltered Turtle @ Grounds for Music 2011

     A "thank you" to John Hutelmyer for shooting and editing this promo video for last year's Grounds for Music and feature my performance of my piece The Six Years throughout the video. Additional thanks to Greg Layton and Deborah Kates for putting on this event and supporting their local art and music scene!

Cleaning out a Squier

The first guitar in my household was a Squier Strat purchased by my brother.  He ultimately decided that guitar wasn't for him, so he gave it to me.  I played around with it, but I never really did much - I wasn't really interested in guitar at the time.  

Fast forward a decade.  Now I play guitar but never really dabbled in electric.  I stumbled upon the Squier again and decided to give it a good cleaning and restringing.  

The patient.

Dust, rust, and one screw short of a Happy Meal.

It hadn't been strung correctly, so the strings had to be cut.

Ready for the operation.

Open sesame.

What a mess.

After cleaning everything out, I cleaned the grimy fretboard, polished the body, polished the bridge, put everything back together, and restrung it properly.  Now it looks like any ol Fender Squier.  It needs some adjusting still, but it's playable now!

DC Holiday Market, Year III

Playing djembe and keyboards in front of the National Portait Gallery on a brisk December evening with singer/songwriter Evan Polisar (link to his music!).  Thank to Melinda S for the photos!

Photo: Melinda S.

Watch Me Butcher ... #3: Dancing in the Moonlight (King Harvest)

Spring Cleaning ... in Autumn (Part 3)

     Here we are!  Here's my workspace (unfortunately taken from a camera phone).  Instead of getting a new computer, why not divide tasks among old ones?  That's a 2006 Dell behind the Mac (both acquired used).  Old Dell still has a decent video card (more so than the Mac), so it's good for photo editing, burning the Lightscribe CDs, and killing virtual zombies.  The Casio Privia PX-320 is my practice keyboard after being retired from stage abuse; the output jacks no longer function properly.

     Here's the setup used for recording recent videos.  The office chair is one I've had since elementary school.  The cushion's non-existant, but has otherwise held up well over the years.  On the tripod is my trusty Panasonic Lumix used for shooting the videos.  On the floor is my makeshift lighting.

     Aside from tidying up some loose items, the new studio is basically good to go.  Feels great to have the place more streamlined for musicing.  We'll see if it makes me any more productive, haha.