12x12x12 Pictures Part 2

Let's just jump right in here - the other 6 pictures of my 121212 for 2014!

Top Left - This was a rough one, but a big "life experience" this year. Life hadn't been going so great, so I worked on this big plan to see some people up in Washington I hadn't seen in ages. Everything started falling apart - people all of a sudden weren't going to be around or just stopped answering me, a guy I was sorta seeing totally bailed on me, it just seemed doomed but I was determined to still go and just enjoy a good weekend. I got up to Seattle and I was leaving my car when I forgot I wanted to grab something from my backpack in my trunk, then just threw it back in the front seat instead of opening my trunk again. I got back a few hours later and... yup. Window smashed in, backpack stolen. There was nothing super important in there (no money/computer/etc) but it was a super shitty feeling and I've never had something like that happen to me before, and it was like bad piled on top of bad. Plus, that was the best backpack I've ever had and I can't find a new one just like it anywhere (and obviously don't remember the name of it). Life lesson, etc etc but it still sucked.

Top Middle - HOME! This was taken when I was able to make a surprise trip home a few months ago. Miss that place. A lot. 

Top Right - Kishi Bashi. I was front row for his show at Wonder and it was SO AMAZING. That guy is so talented and it's been great watching his career grow. He is pretty cool interacting with fans and he just released his own coffee (yes I ordered 2). Read my Kishi Bashi history here (I know I'm sorry, without Facebook all my pictures don't link right I'm sorry). Besides coffee, he releases a lot of cool stuff (fun colored vinyl, handmade stamp post cards) and just always has such a positive vibe. And his music is ridiculously original and fun. 

Bottom Left - Woo boy. Snails Pace Race has made a huge life comeback in 2014. We played the game as kids and randomly later on also, and for some reason I was feeling nostalgic and wanted to play it so I bought it and brought it to some HOBY stuff. Smack talk ensued by the truck-full. Also I enjoy that this picture has Branson's door tag in it because he was a big part of many HOBY shenanigans this year and it was the first time he was able to go to HOBY NYCentral.

Bottom Middle - this is a picture of Multnomah Falls just outside of Portland. I stopped here on my way to Idaho and also brought my mom here when she visited. I'm glad I was able to share this with her, and it makes me remember her and Kevin's trips out here, and how much I love this city.

Bottom Right - I took this at probably the most moving and personal concert I went to all year. This is a picture of Bryan Poole, who played guitar for the longest time in of Montreal and who was always my favorite, playing with Elf Power (Jamie was there too and I kind of flipped out a little). It was amazing to be able to see BP and have him play my favorite guitar (on Everlasting Scream, no less). I was right in front of BP, and after Elf Power, the girl standing next to me said "You just looked so happy during that... you had a smile on your face the whole time and it was so awesome to see... and nice shirt" (Stay Rad). However, the thrilling part is they were opening for Neutral Milk Hotel. Jeff asks that nobody take pictures of his shows, and I respect that, so I don't have any pictures of him during the show (yes I do have one of him crossing the road beforehand...). Being able to actually see NMH live was such an amazing experience, and it's impossible to put into words who this band is and what they mean to so many people and how actually spiritual it feels to stand right in front of Jeff and sing along with Holland, 1945, with hundreds of other people. When he stops playing and just asks us to sing with him... so much of it was completely surreal. AND somehow I snagged a setlist from their first night which is proudly displayed on my wall o' musics in my living room. I cannot wait to see them one more time in Eugene next year before they possibly hang it up for good. 

It was a pretty eventful year. Now if I could only make some 2015 goals...

12x12x12 Pictures Part 1

I enjoy taking pictures and being able to look back on moments, but I try not to get too crazy with it. It really annoys me when I see people at concerts have their phone out the entire show - you gotta experience it! Without experiencing it what good are the pictures?! Anyway, so sometimes I miss cool things, but I'm ok with that. Chelsea posted about a 2014 photo challenge, and I thought it'd be cool to flip back through my photos from the year and reminisce a bit and pick out 12 important photos from the past year. What I liked about the "challenge" especially is this part of the description - "Tell us about your year's greatest lessons, stories, insights, sorrows, and triumphs!" So I picked some pictures that were NOT of happy memories, but are still a part of my 2014 experience. Here we go!

Top Left - the most depressing snowstorm of my LIFE. I'm not a big news/weather watcher, so one morning I took off for Roseburg for an appointment with my electrophysiocardiologist. Slowly, snow started blowing lightly around the highway and kind of out of nowhere traffic just STOPPED. I was checking twitter and the news and there was a really big accident (18 cars + tractor trailer I think) about 30 miles ahead and snow started falling like crazy. I left at 10am I think, made it about 1 hour south by 2pm, turned around and headed back, and got home by about 7 I think. It was TERRIFYING. Roads hadn't been touched and it just kept snowing and traffic basically was not moving. There was one hill where it seriously looked post-apocalyptic - there was one narrow path where you could drive through in a 4 lane highway because cars were just turned every which way, and beyond that barely anybody had been driving so there was snow piled up and ruts everywhere and I am just SO thankful I made it home safe that day. The picture was taken in the original traffic jam where I was questioning all life decisions.

Top Right - HOBY NYCentral, my home! This picture combines a great view of Lake Ontario at Camp Hollis, and the Mattecini twins! We tried convincing the ambassadors that Andrew and "Randrew" were twins with moderate success.

Middle Left - Kevin came to visit this summer and we were able to go to the coast and see some HOBY friends. These are our happy birthday faces.

Middle Right - HOBY Oregon facilitators. Enough said.

Bottom Left - ok so I didn't TAKE this picture but it is one of my favorite for sure of the year. This was taken at MusicFest Northwest (MFNW). A few months beforehand I realized I absolutely love the band Man Man and was determined to see them at MFNW. I actually skipped the band playing at the other stage before them and listened to their soundcheck instead so I could be up front and can I say worth ittttttttt!! First off, Honus Honus is so friggin cute. They started their set and he's jumping on amps and stuff, and before I know it in the middle of the first song he comes over and puts his hand on my head and his head on his hand and is singing like he's praying for me. It was kind of awesome and their whole set was amazing.

Bottom Right - Sometimes I forget that I'm an adult and if I want to do something, I can do it. I was going through a bit of a rough time this fall and of Montreal was coming to town. Obviously I had tickets for the Portland and Seattle shows which I got months beforehand. I had some time off and felt like I needed to get away and be by myself and clear my head... so I drove to Boise to see of Montreal before they came to Portland. It was super spur of the moment and I didn't really discuss it with many people, it just felt so right to do at the time, and I didn't need anybody's permission to do it if I wanted and I felt like I needed it. So I just drove ridiculously far. The show in Boise was... different. Definitely not a Portland show. of Montreal has been such an important band to me the past 10 years and listening to them as I drove through the mountains of eastern Oregon where I can't even tell you how many tumbleweeds rolled by really helped me sort things out in my head. Oh and this is Kevin being Falcon Vein. I love that man. 

Thanks again Chelsea for the idea! I'll be back soon for part 2!

These are a few of my favorite (weird) things

I like some weird, off-beat things, and what better time to share them than Christmas time? I'm always sad when I bring them up and literally nobody has any idea what I'm talking about. I'd like to talk about some things that I really enjoy that you might have never heard of, and if they sound cool, encourage you to check them out.

The Up Series. I think Andy (Randrew to most of you) introduced me to this. This is a series of documentaries following a group of kids in England. They took a bunch of 7 year old kids from totally different parts of the country and lifestyles and income levels in the 60's and interviewed them. All of the kids were ridiculously cute, and they were all interviewed and asked a bunch of questions - What do you do for fun? What do you want to be when you grow up? What do you think of the opposite gender? etc. Then, they check in with them (at least the ones who agree to continue the series) every 7 years. Of course it's trying to make a statement about what kids are born with and where they end up, and it's just really interesting to see them grow up, and compare their "phases" to your own. For example, this one girl went to a boarding school (Q: who will raise your kids when you grow up? A: a nanny) and went on extravagant trips, and when she's 21 she's chain smoking and obviously super rebellious. She reels it back in, but I don't want to spoil it for you! At least the first two movies are on Netflix Instant (7up and 14up), and I think up to 56up is out.

The Kleptones. This is a band I discovered in high school and they've stuck with me. They're a mash-up band (klep-tone - get it? so clever) but unlike Girl Talk (who I also like) they generally just use 2 or 3 different song per track. And they have all of their stuff free to download on their website. I first listened to A Night at the Hip Hopera which is hip hop songs laid on top of Queen songs! LOVE! They did a similar album with The Flaming Lips, and one called 24 Hours, where they had times associated with each song and ideally you listen to that song at that exact time of day. I've always wanted to try actually doing that but never have. They're fun, dancey, original, and did I mention their music was free?? They also have a lot of movie/tv clips (Lebowski, Clerks, Aqua Teen, etc) Here's one of my favorite songs, Stevie Wonder and Jet -

Chicken Wing Pizza. It blew my mind when I moved to Oregon that it seemed like nobody had heard of chicken wing pizza. It's the best thing ever, and the best I ever had was actually in high school and you pretty much bribed the lunch ladies to get a corner piece. It's a ton of cheese, chicken, and hot sauce. Some places put blue cheese on it, but I prefer NOT to and to dip it in ranch dressing. The IGA at home has the 2nd best (usually) and I always get it when I'm home. Sometimes we have to add extra hot sauce to it, but it combines some of the best things in life - pizza and chicken wings.

Infinite Jest. This book (by David Foster Wallace) is one of the most amazing thing I've ever read. It's clever, it's intense, it's difficult, it's long, it's crazy, and it's hilarious. It basically took over my life while I read it, and for month afterwards. There are about a billion characters I could never keep straight with weird names, a crazy tennis-based world domination game scene that's probably my favorite passage in all of literature, and a pretty intense puppet show. It's so hard to even succinctly say what it's about... it's set during a time (modern though, not really "in the future") where the government sells years to companies (for example, it's not 2005, it's The Year of the Trial Sized Dove Bar), Quebec wants to secede, most of the Northeast US and Southeast Canada are covered in toxic waste and left alone, a video tape is so entertaining people who watch it literally cannot stop, there are some people very serious about grammar, and a lot of it takes place in a drug rehab facility or next door at a tennis academy. How these worlds interact and what is left up to your mind to fill in is genius and I just completely love his writing. I laughed so hard at some sections and some are very emotional and personal. I'm not eloquent enough to explain how awesome this book is and all of the really cool literary thing DFW accomplishes and just how off the wall so many of the great parts are. One of my favorite books, and as soon as I have 3 months of my life to waste I will be reading it again.

Decemberists - The Calamity Song - took my favorite scene out of the book. Eschaton goes SACPOP. Friggin Kittenplan. I seriously want to go re-read this scene right now for the 12th time.

I can't explain why, but I really like kids educational songs. Not necessarily to learn anything from them, but they're just great. For example, I really like Schoolhouse Rock songs, especially Schoolhouse Rock Rocks. But even the original ones are fun and catchy and I can't tell you how many times I've sung along in my car about how to write a check (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yiTC4S5FsCg). A lot of bands I love have been on Yo Gabba Gabba, so of course I really like those songs as well. I mean, bands like of Montreal and Apples in Stereo being adorable and singing about brushing your teeth and how bugs can be your friends? I'm in.

I'm pretty sure this is gonna need a part 2 at some point...