NAMM Day 2,3,4

So it really just became a wash between the days at the convention between the neon flashy showroom lights, blaring sounds from all directions, giving the same spiel over and over, aching tired feet, and wannabe rockers looking for give-aways. After the long hard day, there is only one thing to do though... start partying! Work hard, play harder is pretty much what NAMM is all about. Which is probably the most unhealthy thing you can make your body endure. Oh wait, until you add a red-eye flight on top of all of that. Yes, I am hurting right now, pretty bad. But there were many highlights including:

- taking pics of Roger with Tony Levin
- David Torn stopping by the booth
- Seeing my buddy Victor Wooten again (yes I have his cell number in my contacts, honestly one of the nicest guys ever!)
- Seeing Dread Zeppelin perform - hilarious, I mean reggae zeppelin tunes with Elvis frontman, you can't beat that!
- Vitamin T
- Partying with Fuzz and Carrie and the rest of the Caravan of Thieves
- other fun stuff that I don't remember now because I didn't post right away, sorry...

NAMM Day 1

I forgot how much feet can hurt after standing in a convention showroom floor from 10am-6pm! It was a good day though... I got to show off some of the new MIDI hothand keys stuff for an editor at Keyboard Magazine which was pretty cool. Hopefully they will be reviewing the new MIDI controller soon. You can read the review here of the original wah and phaser/flanger product.

Rock On!

NAMM Day 0

Hello from sunny Anaheim! It feels so nice to be out of the tundra which is Boston right now. Today I had the pleasure of attending the Pre-NAMM Artist Training Day. Basically you know you've made it when you get to kick it with the keyboardist for Molly Cyrus... life is big out here! Anyhow it was the first day of demos and lots of talking and trying to get artists big and small alike to learn more about Source Audio and the rockin technologies we have with motion controlled effects. Oh yea, and remember that band from the highschool era, Everlast? Though I did not get to meet the frontman himself, guitarist and keyboardist were present. These "pre-NAMM Artist training" days are sort of a mixed bag wash of music director/producer/engineer/artists who you can't really tell if they're a big deal or not (most likely... not) But you don't know and thats the thing, you just gotta do it because you never know. [Yes, you never know that you are going to run into crazy healer dude, who reaches out to my arm and starts massaging it because he wants to cure my tendonitis and tells me that the brace I'm wearing is no good and I need to breath and take herbs and blah blah blah]

Tomorrow things get more interesting as we move down to the actual convention center and NAMM officially opens up... should be a good time!

I KNEW THIS WOULD HAPPEN

It's like when I start a diary... I am so ambitious and believe in myself to continue it, and then I forget, get bored, etc. and leave pages abandoned to collect dust, occupy valuable bookshelf space, and leave college-ruled lines empty. Argh... Oh vast empty internet bytes! Ok, I could say its a new years resolution to start contributing more regularly to this blog, but I'd again be like one of those newbs arriving at healthworks to fervently work out for a month and drop it like its hot for a hot cinnamon bun. Anyhow, exciting news is that I am 2 days away from going to NAMM which will no doubt include many fun stories, pics, encounters with rockstars and what not. Unfortunately this will be a more tame NAMM than past years since I have to be resting/preppin for my half marathon in Miami at the end of this month. Who am I kidding though, I can't say no to rock 'n roll and Vitamin T... Rog, what have you done to me?!?!

The New Deal

No, not the FDR shit. And no not that "new-new-Obama-please-get-us-out-of-this-dump-of-an-economy-deal" either. I am talking about the Toronto based band that will get you up and dancing with your glo-sticks and pulsating electronic craziness that will have you thinking this MUST be a DJ mix, but no, this is actually live music created by 3 rocking individuals. I got to meet Dan, Jamie, and Darren last night during sound check for their show at the Middle East. Dan got totally into the bass distortion and flanger effects and got them set-up in his rig to use right away that night in the show. It's rare when an artist decides to jump in right away and use the effects night-of show, but its pretty sweet when it happens. Dan got it right away and was coming up with some mind blowing sound emanating out of his bass through all his rocking pedal sounds. (he also uses moogerfooger pedals to the max). Even though electronic dance music isn't always the first thing on my iTunes playlist, the New Deal has something special going on, and they were a lot of fun to listen and dance to. The show was sold-out and we got a great vantage point from "backstage" to see Dan work the magic with the hothand pedals and the rest of his rig.

Sometimes I am lucky...

Like today, when I was awoken this morning by a cop ringing the doorbell at 7:30am. Oops... apparently I parked in front of a driveway last night when coming back to my apt. Now see, I am normally not this absent minded, but I will blame the dark and the rain. Also, this "driveway" was really a closed off fence leading to a boat hanging out in someones yard, so in my defense it could have passed as normal sidewalk area. Regardless, the cop, decided to come ring my doorbell and ask me to move my car rather than tow it... Merry Christmas!

Also, I would like to thank all the residents on my street for the night of Dec 5th when my band had a gig that night out in Boston. Apparently when I drove home from the gig, I left my car unlocked with all my gear (don't want to admit how expensive) inside. It was completely intact the next morning.

One day this luck is going to run out and it will suck tremendously!

Kickin' It Old School

While at home over thanksgiving I perused the closet in my old room. Among the hidden treasures of my youth, I found my High School letter jacket, awkward middle school photos, secret notes from note-passing days, and my sambas!!!! Yes, my actual Adidas Sambas which I proudly wore on and off the indoor field because they were (excuse me, are) soooo awesome. I forgot that I still had them and you better believe they came back with me to Boston and I am currently wearing them as I type this post. Now here's the thing, the sambas came into popularity during my 6th grade year (ish). I remember pleading with my parents laying my case for needing these shoes for indoor soccer. However, I somehow got stuck with black and neon green Mitre indoor shoes. Not cool. It took a couple years later in my high school days to finally earn the real deal shoes. So you can imagine my excitement when I found them again and am now proudly wearing my tan gumsole shoes while I "throw threes up".

Little Known Fact

My former boss is a rockstar. Perhaps that's why she left the company I work for in pursuit of bigger things.
Benefits include:
- no more corporate America (Oh Canada!)
- no more 9-5
- no more cube-land, cube-politics, cube-jokes
(did ya hear that one about...)
- face-melting on a regular basis

She pretty much kicks ass at life, and while I miss her not being around... I think the picture tells an awesome story of how things are going for her.