Singing to Friends and Family

Will Modified ever get AC? Those were my first thoughts as I waited for Bishop Allen to finish their sound check. Once that was out of the way they took the stage in what I heard from a young girl behind me say, "See! Look how cool they look. They look like everyday people." And yes, they did. Very modest looking band. The two creators, Justin (lead singer) and Christian (lead guitarist), stood side by side up on stage. You get a sense of comfort from them. Felt like I could walk right up to Justin or Christian, shake their hand and ask them if they wanted to grab a drink after the show. More or less like a friend would.

At the first song the crowd was instantly enthralled. Feet moving, hands clapping, people singing along. That night inside Modified everyone was truly Bishop Allen fans. Justin has these gestures of a southern gospel preacher. Parts of his songs he would let his guitar hang around his neck and point to the sky or hold his palms out like what he was saying was a message to his fans. Along side of that was the sheer interaction of the crowd. Click, Click, Click was a collaboration of half the crowd clapping all in sync (clap clap clap). Empire City, everyone threw out a WAAY-OH! on mark. That is just a fraction of it all. Lets not forget about the sweet voice of Darbie Rice singing Butterfly Nets. It was a nice way to slow things down during the set.

This was a perfect example of a intimate show. Small venue, check. Engaging crowd, check. A fun band, check. All the elements were there. One interesting thought crossed my mind as I stood there waiting for the crowd to herd themselves out the door was the crowd didn't feel like a crowd at all. It felt like Bishop Allen was signing to friends and family. I don't know if you get what I'm saying but It was one of those nights where everyone shared one common interest, the love for Bishop Allen.




www.bishopallen.com
www.modified.org

My First HDR Photograph

My First HDR Photograph
Originally uploaded by Michael Shawn79

So I gave HDR a try when I was in Sedona for my birthday. Much harder then I imagine. It's easy to over do it.

Mad Men Dinners

I haven't wrote an entry for a long time so what better entry to write then Mad Men Dinners. Christina and I have been dressing up, cooking dinner and watching Mad Men on Wednesday. Yes Mad Men are on Sundays but work has been pretty busy and Wednesdays have been my only free time. So here are the pictures I have been taking of the night.

See Pictures Here.

Kings of Last Call

Couple of my Fender buddies play in a band called Kings of Last Call. This past weekend they played a benefit show at Hard Rock Cafe in Phoenix for Ear Candy. Guess what part of the line up they were? I bought myself a new lens so this was a perfect time to try it out. It's a Canon 50mm 1.4. I love it! Shoots pretty well in low light. I still don't have the focusing down in low light. Auto does not work very fast with my 20D so I try manual. Anyways I was pretty satisfied with my pictures. You can take a look at them on my flickr account. Kings of Last Call photos

Chihuly Exhibit at the Desert Botanical Garden

This was so very unreal looking. My friend Angela came down from Flagstaff for the weekend and we decided to go see the Chihuly exhibit. Here are pictures I took of the experience.
Chihuly Exhibit

My Yawning Series.

I thought I lost these pictures years ago due to a hard drive crash. Well I found 'em. Did a little editing to them. The people in these images are very good friends of mine. Good friends I have to let me take ridiculous pictures of them yawning.

The Yawning Series

$60.60 at Stinkweeds

Since I was sick for two weeks I saved up some extra spending money. So what did I do with it? I spent it at Stinkweeds. What else would I do with extra spending money? So here is what I bought. This time around I am going to try to give a little review. Not very good a reviewing but I'm going to give it a shot. Very brief review.

M Ward - Hold Time
Yeah, this is a M Ward album. Even when produced this big he still keeps his voice lo-fi. Few covers in here including Rave On (nicely done) and Oh Lonsome Me with Lucinda Williams, witch felt a little out of placed. Overall it's a solid album. Still does not compare to Transfiguration Of Vincent but I like it for the most part. Found my self keep going back to the song Epistemology. Such a great song.





Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
This album seemed to have sneaked up on most of my friends. I was real excited for this album. I felt like all her other albums she took her voice as far as she could go so this one would be different and it is. It feels like she started to experiment with her voice more with Middle Cyclone in how she sings her songs. This album features a great group of musicians and signers including Jon Rauhouse, Joey Burns, Kelly Hogan Carl Newman and M Ward.




Beirut - March of the Zapotec and Realpeople Holland
I don't really know much about Beirut but this album made me very intrigued. A 19-piece band performing Mexican funeral marches on the first disk and then odd synths on the other. The first disk sounded like it was unfinished but I did really enjoyed the second disk.






Vetiver - Tight Knit
I'm fairly new to Vetiver but I really enjoyed their last album, To Find Me Gone. Vetiver has a dream-like indie tast to them with some folk in the mix. This is one of those "Best band you never heard" bands. Remeber Mission of Burma? Yeah a lot of people don't and if you do it's a lot like that. This album just sounds so, well so nicely tight knitted. I can't say anything bad about this albums. It can be on of those albums you just play in the background or play it for friends while drinking a few beers.



So there it is, my first quick reviews. Hope it was not too painful.