Woo Blog

That beautiful photo above is of Ryan May and Betsy Berger, following the wedding of the young couple that took place in Canada. Ryan, by the way, works for Lifeyo.com. Betsy is a college graduate who now spends her time with her new husband in Orange County while also working on the Ben Fong-Torres documentary.

I had to not only share this photo on my blog (talk about capturing a moment!), but also wanted to share Betsy’s new blog (made with Lifeyo), RazorBlonde!

Check out RazorBlonde.com, all about fashion with an edge!

By the look of the patterns and trends of plantations, genetics and technology, and viruses, are we headed toward a “Banana Apocalypse”?

For those of you anti-banana-arians (you don’t like the mushiness, the sound people make when eating it, being left with a floppy yellow peel…), this may not matter to you.

But either way, check out this site, ByeByeBananas.com for the latest articles and videos about bananas:

Below is a list of various apps I have downloaded or came across now (inspired by stumbling upon C64, the previous post on this blog before this one) that I find addicting. Enjoy!

1. BOXED IN – $FREE

When I first saw the above icon, I knew right away what this game was. So excited! It’s FREE, for a limited time, so get it on your iPhone/iPod Touch! This game brings me back to when I was playing old PC games on my dad’s computer, one being this similar box game. I just downloaded it and am looking forward to reliving childhood memories.

2. RACING LIVE - $FREE

This game totally captures my attention when I need to kill time, until I run out of fuel. It is a racing game, but involves no actual gas-and-go, steer-and-turn racing. Instead, you choose a race to enter. It tells you if you won money or not. You collect money to buy car parts and new cars, to become eligible for races with larger loot. You can also buy property/businesses so when you’re not playing the game, you are gaining more money to spend later. Put it in the bank, join a crew with your friends, and race against other team of friends. It is addicting and so much fun for me because I enjoy watching numbers and counting money!

3. CRASH BANDICOOT NITRO KART 3D – $2.99

I grew up with an older brother who loved his video games. Ones he bought for me to play were Crash Bandicoot. I loved the adventures, the Mario-Kart-like racing games, the characters – it was all a lot of fun. Although I am cheap and love free things, I knew right away after buying the iPhone this year that I wanted Crash on my phone. After getting the hang of it, yes, it is fun stuff. It is now only $2.99.

4. BOMBBLOCKS – $FREE

A friend of mine told me about this app, something he designed for the creator of BombBlocks. After getting into it, it is another addicting and fun game. Reminds me of Tetris, but with blocks instead of lines.

The Lifeyo glasses are goin’ around! Lifeyo.com launches September 9th.

I can’t talk about coffee houses and a coffee tour and not mention Cafe Du Monde. This was probably the number one place I ever had coffee.

Besides the fact that they are known for their long-standing coffee stand, chicory coffee, and beignets, they are located in the heart of New Orleans, Louisiana. I remember that I chose to not drink coffee on this trip, but gave in when we got to New Orleans. I couldn’t resist. It was raining that day (also was the 2-year anniversary of Katrina). The seating area inside, under the roof, is also open to the outside street.

So we were seated under the roof, eating beignets and I was having a cup of black chicory coffee, and rain was wetting the streets near us and sliding down the roof. I don’t really know how to describe it that well. All I know is that with those donuts, coffee, the rain, the French Quarters, the liveliness of the people there, it was the ultimate coffee experience so far and I have been wanting to go back ever since to sit at Cafe Du Monde and drink a cup of coffee.

I recall a group of Du Monde employees gathering around some tables, looking like they were having the time of their lives. They were laughing, being so animated and jubilant, and dancing so merrily that for a second I felt like I was witnessing a celebration of family and good friends. It pretty well reflected the whole pleasant and sociable atmosphere we felt all around New Orleans. The energy was felt all around, at least in the downtown and French Quarters area. I can’t speak for outside the populated area, only that I knew not to venture out with the high crime rates and deserted areas.

I think I heard about Du Monde before, but didn’t realize really that I was at THE place. We were looking up places to eat at in New Orleans (Mother’s is another highly recommended place for sweet potato pie, po-boys, and gumbo), and I came across this Cafe Du Monde online. We had a taxi take us to Decatur (which wasn’t really that far at all from where we were staying). I wrongly pronounced it “Deck-etter” at first, which is probably why I remember what street Du Monde was on.

I think that’s about everything I remember. It’s been two years. All the places around Du Monde are also worth checking out, taking a walk in. I miss the southern riverfront jazz music. I will definitely go back someday, hopefully soon. 

The Original French Market Coffee Stand: see their web site here.

In the midst of this hot Californian summer, Sarah (my sister) and Mike went to East Asia for a couple weeks.

They set up a Lifeyo blog, Slow Hoof, to document and share their travels. But apparently they have been having too much fun that we only see one blog post! But they have posted many pictures already in the photos page! The two lucky ducks got amazing deals with Singapore Air, visited places like Singapore, Bangkok, and Chiang Mai, and have been eating great food, meeting up with old friends, and getting to know new ones. Mike’s also been getting a lot of surfing in.

See the blog here: http://slowhoof.lifeyo.com/blog/

An awesome band and good friends, Fairlane, are throwing an epic house show this weekend. This is as indie and low-budget as you get. I think it’s safe to say that we’ve all learned some pretty useful DIY tips in rigging and hooking up everything in Dan’s living room.

Of course, even with low-key shows you do at home, you still want to approach it with a great amount of professionalism. Keep safety in mind, predict any kind of accident, think of traffic ways, and make sure you won’t blow out your breaker. Rooms in houses won’t have the kind of amperage and easy hookups as music venues would have.

One thing I’ll share in this post is how to work safely with cables running amok on wooden floors. Because this show is designed to not only put on a full performance for friends and family but also for our cameras for DVD recordings, we’ve got cables from lights as well as from the instruments and gears.

The room has a lot of white walls, so light easily bounces off. Luckily this enables us to work with just three lights in the front and one in the back, and Christmas lights around.

You’ve gotta always be careful with working on wood/wood-like floors. I’ve worked on many productions where the floors are too easily disregarded and end up getting ripped from the surface because of gaff tape.

Another important thing to worry about is amperage. In a house, you normally have about 1500 to 2000 amps. Check your breaker to see what your room can handle. I believe even with all our amps, monitors, lights, etc., we are under 1K amps.

The electrical items on the stage right run across the room to plug into outlets toward stage left. These items are a flood lamp, monitor, and a speaker. The photos below show the process of how to tape them down.

STEP ONE:

You definitely won’t want to put gaff tape over the cords right on the hard floors. That kind of tape is still strong enough to rip up the surface or cause splinters. To avoid this, place paper tape on the ground, underneath where the cords will be (and if needed, be sure to sweep up underneath before, since paper tape isn’t that sticky). Paper tape is very thin, thinner than masking tape, and can come in various colors. We had blue painter’s tape on hand, so I placed three long stripes of it straight across the room underneath where the cords would be lying.

STEP TWO:

I know this sounds anal, but you’ve gotta be OCD about these things, whether it’s a house show or a big theatre, to save you time later from worrying or having to re-tape things. You want to lay out your cords side-by-side, like in the photo, and make sure they’re not running on top of each other. Remember we’re just using tape here, so if it’s stepped on, you won’t want one cord being pressed onto another. Unless you have cable protectors, you’ll want to keep these side-by-side. MAKE SURE that you give enough slack at the ends. If someone steps on a cable at the end of your wonderful taped work, you want to make sure it won’t knock something over or unplug anything. Giving it slack for the cable to be rested on the floor up until it reaches the wall or electrical object will ensure even more safety.
 

STEP THREE: 

Now I can lay down the gaffer’s tape over the paper tape and cables. Chose a 2-inch black, of course, to hide the blue and make it not so noticeable during the show. Before you lay down long strips of the black gaff, place short strips across the cables (leaving slack at the ends) first. This not only makes it easier to place down long horizontal strips, but this is also commonly done to avoid messy clean-up. If you only place horizontal long strips on the cables, imagine pulling up the cable during wrap-up and the tape getting wrapped around the cable, stuck to itself. It SUCKS to try to pull off. So this is a very necessary step especially for taping down just one cable (see below).

STEP FOUR:

Now tape away with your long horizontal strips of black gaff! Not that important, but I just placed one long strip to cover the first half of cables, and then another long strip for the other half, and then did a couple more to cover the blue edges. See the end results below!

 DEALING WITH ONE CORD:

You would treat this the same as with doing multiple cords. One useful thing I’ve learned is to make an X with two short strips for a single cord, and then place the long horizontal strip over. Remember that ugly annoying thing I mentioned that happens when you have a long horizontal strip get stuck to itself around a cord? Making X’s will help avoid that and easier to clean up.

Now just tape down as usual!

Check out a couple more pics from our setup! The show will take place end of this week, so I will be sure to post up more pics and share some video from our awesome DIY house show!

You don't have to be a big signed touring band to have a lighting tech! Lights are hooked to household dimmers that someone will be dimming/switching on and off to synch lights with the music.

Velcro is your best friend (along with gaff tape, rope, and clamps). If other things won't work, velcro can help rig or attach something, like this lamp to a small light stand. With a little screwing of a bolt to keep the lamp angle in place and some tight velcro wrapping, the lamp is now steady and ready.

9pm, Saturday – July 11, 2009

It was one of those weekends where I tell myself, “I live in LA, I need to see more shows.” It’s been a year, and I’ve yet to visit the Largo, a venue at the Coronet in West Hollywood infamous for the local likes of musicians such as Jon Brion, comedians, and intimate shows. Luckily a friend was in town, Audri. My concert buddy, fellow groupie, we’ve been singing together, going to see musicians together, and sharing our eclectic interests in music for probably ten years. Now I had no excuse, I could check out a venue I’ve yet to visit and I wouldn’t be alone, nor alone in the choice of venue and artist.

So after a long day of good Asian food, watching This American Life, coffee, and driving around, some time after 8pm we scrambled online through LAWeekly.com to find a random live show to check out. We came upon Colin Devlin at the Largo. Simple enough, small intimate room, affordable tickets, sure, we’ll go.

The atmosphere in The Little Room, it was usual for what you would expect from a small-scale venue that holds 60 (with a bar!). In the bathroom, to my left was Bruno. I look up, and B.B. King is deep in tune on a giant poster. The room was dim, the candles were lit, and a slight smell of incense traveled through the air. In the corner, a piano, some acoustic guitars, and electrics. Not knowing what kinda show we were in for, we studied the stage. Audri noticed that Colin was a fellow lefty by the looks of the guitars.

Everything that followed was what you would hope for in a mellow evening. Good jovial crowd, nice service, Colin humbly played and sang his tunes. Next thing we learned, he’s Irish (by a fairly obvious audible hint and his taste for Guinness). And turns out, this “random” artist we decided to explore that night wasn’t so random at all. Colin Devlin is of “The Devlins”, a brothers duo whose music you’ve probably heard in films and TV shows. Before performing “World Outside”, Colin made reference to the movie, “Closer”. We recognized the dark melodic tune immediately. All songs were played on guitar, except one on the piano. Something about Colin is that he appears timid. Timid in approaching the mic, and especially with the piano. Guitar being more of his forte, Colin still willingly played one song on the piano, promising he wouldn’t “fuck it up” like last time. Holding the soft pedal down throughout the song, he was being safe, but still held his voice high and clear, without a mic to sing into. As soon as the song ended, Colin almost jumped away, as if relieved that it was finally over with. He did admit that he is not much of a piano player but he still took on the challenge and did it well. Back to the guitars, his endings to the rest of the songs that night weren’t as abrupt and held more riffs and tunes. Toward the end, Colin announced the song, “Waiting”. I heard a cheer from my right, from Audri. I asked, “Do you know this song?” Audri: “Yes.” Me: “Is this a cover?” Audri: “No.” This is when she realized that Colin Devlin was of The Devlins, and she had heard “Waiting” from Six Feet Under, a show she enthusiastically talks about and that I’ve sadly yet to see.

I guess the show was more than we expected, more than just a guy with a guitar and people sitting near votive candles lit inside glass jars. Colin, more than just a singer/songwriter, has made his way into lending music for films and shows, into collaborating with name artists and producers, and probably feels most comfortable in the acoustic moody selection he’s chosen. After all, this is the Largo. And anyone that plays at the Largo isn’t just anybody.

So this is it for the first blog about a local show. They may be few, but this will perhaps encourage us (Audri and me) to see more shows, as I am already a poor excuse for not exploring LA enough. And I am just remembering that I will be missing out on a Ray LaMontagne concert at the Hollywood Bowl tonight. If any of you get to see him, he is also delightful, as Audri and I just discovered last Friday when we went to the Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien. Audri and I ended the night jamming together with my only one guitar and set of drumsticks, reminiscing jr. high and high school, playing some Bob Dylan, Radiohead, Travis, Juanes, Rocco DeLuca, and many more until 4am.

Cheers to good venues, good friends, good musicians, good crowds, and good times.

Two forces combined (Anna and me) equal one large BBQ group!

Here is my notebook grill being started off for the evening! It was a good enough size for cooking some hotdogs for friends. I think I already mentioned the pro’s and con’s in an earlier post. But overall, I love it and think I should keep this in the back of my car for spontaneous road trips. Steinbeck had his coffee maker in his camper, and I’ll have my notebook grill. He’ll have his Charley, I’ll have my Stephen (DVX100B), in my cross-country road trip I’m still dreaming about.

The next photo is of a string of Flower Lights! The leaves come from pipal trees (renamed the “Buddha” tree, or “Bodhi”, “Enlightenment”). They’re never picked off, but rather only fallen off. The trees are also never cut down to make these Flower Lights. The maker of these lights claims that their “special treatment process strengthens the leaves so that they are durable and translucent”, dyed to give this beautiful red color. All I know is that they don’t turn brown and they self-”bloom”. The lights came packaged tightly, with the leaves closed up. Soon after putting them up in the backyard, they opened up! The leaves just need water sprayed on them every now and then.

So there it is! The notebook grill put into action. I also did receive those Victoria’s Secret heels in the mail and they fit fantastically. That’s for a later post.

the notebook grill, cleaned the next day and resting in the LA sun

on Suzanne’s upcoming LEED exam
Mike: “You’re lucky that you’re not in law school and hating it”
Suzanne: “I DID do law school and I DID hate it!”

—

Russell: “You’re going out East?! What for?”
Mike: “Take a vacation.”
Russell: “You’re already on vacation!”

—

Conan: “NBC may be in trouble. Heidi Montag and Spencer Pratt are threatening to sue NBC cause they say during the taping of ‘I’m a Celebrity, Get Me Out Of Here’, they were tortured and almost died. Meanwhile, the rest of the world is going to sue NBC for not finishing the job.”