The Artist's Later Years

In Chris’ later periods it became apparent that his personal health was deteriorating. Shunning the advice of his old dear friends he continued to drink unhealthy amounts of cheep beer and consisted mainly on a diet of over seasoned (red)meat balls. Even after the second tummy tuck his waist line continued to increase as his jowls become more and more pronounced. He showed signs of regret only sparingly and they were usually reactionary to letters he received from his college buddy matt, who now lived on a tropical beach and raised his own food.

Of course the tragedy of Chris’ death is unparalleled. Even with due warning, when the wave of sludge finally hit New York Chris was not healthy enough to make the quick departure. His last words hold epic appeal to both his critics and his champions. He was seen, from the ferry, lumbering down 27th street while holding a tube of Huckelberry Orange and yelling, “I have found the perfect color!!!” 3 seconds later the sludge, moving at .3 miles per hour, engulfed Chris. Some of his religious followers say he had visions of palm trees in his eyes as he perished.

Don't really need to say much. I love him and his vibe. He has something special going on. We should all dance more. Girl Talk.

Tour De Fat

On Saturday the 13th of October the New Belgium Brewing Company came through town with their Tour De Fat. This event is already a classic. Costumes, custom bikes, the environment, music and beer all get to play a part in a great traveling party as New Belgium pedals from town to town. Adam, Flex and I attempted to get a crew together a couple of days in advance but when it was finally Saturday morning it was just us three getting ready for the event.

Of course the whole thing went wrong from the beginning. As Kristina and I tend to be rather lazy on Friday nights we hadn't done any preparation for the next day. In turn we were installing pedals, changing flat tires, creating our costumes and trying to get to the rally point for the parade bike ride. By the time we left we had missed the parade, were using various styles of pedals, gone through two new bike tubes (one blew up about 3 inches from my face due to my impatient handling) and were a couple of beers deep. At least we were looking good. Dressed in running of the bulls attire we all wore white and flaunted red sashes and red bandanas as we cruised to the party.

We made it down to the show and spent the afternoon taking in all the crazy bikes and beer guzzling environmentalists. It was a great scene, reminding me in many ways of something you would see in Oregon; similar to the Oregon Country Fair on a much smaller scale. We met some friends drank too much good beer and I ended up taking a spill on the way home. It's now two weeks later and my hand still looks like this. It hurts.

Lame Friends

MackenZie is no longer welcome to read this. Go drink some Haterade.

I'm confused, I thought this show would be special. What are you hearing Thom? Well, I probably could have guessed it, I don't like Deerhoof either. LCD and Liars are off the chain but whatever. The show was ok, the venue is the worst I've been to and the crowd was weak. Who the hell books the Brickhouse as one of four US shows. Lame.

"There are bands I look up to... the Black Keys, I'm really excited about Deerhoof, Liars, LCD Soundsystem. Modeselektor. Modeselektor are genius." - Thom Yorke

Lost music

So I'm into some mix up mash up music recently. Well for like the last 4 years, however I am just now getting a handle on how much I like some of it. Obviously in the most recent future there has been Girl Talk, a mastermind dancefloor junkie who has been labeled with underground phenom success by putting out a brilliant lap top album without licensing. Cool. Prior to this, and dealing with more of the funk element, was Brainfreeze and Product Placement by Dj Shadow and Cut Chemist; Nice, brilliant, eloquent. I can't believe they jacked up those classic, hard to find vinyl for those cuts; but i am so happy they did. I have heard product placement a couple of times through friends record collections and I have had my hands on a Brainfreeze bootleg since well, about 2001. Since I have only a limited number of ears-on experiences with Product Placement I will focus more on my comfort with Brain Freeze.

I'm soon having a joint Halloween party with my homie Adam and his girl. In the heat of the night I want to throw this on and thrust everyone on the dance floor into the oven. I can imagine a sinful and raucous dance party as individuals clad in cheap costumes and heavy make up groove the night right into the floor boards while dripping sweat and drinking cheep beer. At one point someone will ask, “who the hell is this?” The response: this is that good old soul, this is Brainfreeze by Dj Shadow and Cut Chemist, and this is what this music was made for. I'm left wondering what the Brainfreeze recording session was like. Shadow and chemist mixing live off of 45s as the spin wildly. Each of them sipping 40's while cheering each others crossfade and puffing away at rollies. A true mad dash into joy with beats falling all over each other and rich voices caressing the baseline while mixed hands work faster than music. As I listen to the album it's almost like I'm there, nodding my head while lounging on a couch. Unfortunately it looks like I will never be there. Shadow is putting out more and more mainstream stuff and doing less collaborative work and I don’t keep that up on what the Chemist is up to. But that’s all cool as long as I have the albums to listen to.

In the mean time I can look forward to the stylings of some more contemporary cats in their limelight. Although it is a different kind of mix with Greg tapping and grinding away at his laptop the out come is remarkably attractive. I'm trying to figure out just exactly what kind of a program he uses or if it is a mix of programs and simply his mind that allows him to throw 8 to 12 songs together in seamless crunching harmonies. I haven’t hit one of his live shows as most of his sets are thrown down on the east coast but I hear that they are amazing. Girl Talk hits the stage here in Tempe this coming Saturday and although I am questionable about the venue I'm not going to miss it. Also, Mode Selktor is in town just two days prior to that. I'm not as familiar with these guys but it sounds like they are a couple of German Techno Pop cats who sample a bunch of different noise and like to play with French DJ beats. On their most recent album you might hear Thom York wailing away in the background... I am going to dance my ass off this week.

This was the Grand Canyon

So as this is my first entry (that’s how all of these start) I will just see how it goes... This last weekend I visited the Grand Canyon for the second time during my stay in Arizona. The first visit consisted of true tourist activates with my special lady and her parents. It was a great time and briefly showcased some of the views and elements presented by the Grand Canyon; it was also limited to one day. On this most recent trip I had the good fortune to fall in with my buddy (and his very fit mom and friends) for a hike across the canyon from South to North rim and then back again, all along the South Kibab trail. It was beautiful, brutal, anguishing and amazing.

I got off of work a little early and we hit the road for the canyon around 1:30pm. We arrived after a four hour drive and headed straight down the trail for Phantom Horse Ranch (fantasy horse ranch). Within an hour the views were starting to drown in the shadows. Fifteen minutes later it was pitch black. With headlamps on we blazed down the trail, Ben and I leaving his Mom and David behind while we ran down unseen inclines and jumped boulders in the dark, making it down the 7 mile trail in just under 2 hours. We then sipped Tecate at the fantasy horse ranch before bunking up with old guys in whitey tighties at 9pm.

Wake up call for breakfast was at 4:30am. It was actually kind of a pleasant event. A nice sounding young woman opens the door and softly yells "breakfast in 30". I think that might be a good way to wake up every morning. Regardless, we rolled out of our bunks and enjoyed oatmeal and eggs (grill was broken) before heading across the canyon floor and up the north rim. I hated that day and I'm not going to talk about it. Much. After hiking with Ben's 69 year old grandma we stopped at Ribbon Falls to take a break.

After about an hour and a half we decided to try and catch up with her again as she had continued walking. The views on the trial were stellar but I never did catch up with her and Ben ditched me. I made it out of the North Rim a couple minutes after they had finished. Beers were had, we hit the lodge, found our bunk house and chilled out for the rest of the day and all day Sunday. Had good food with good people and enjoyed conversations throughout our break.

On Monday morning at 3:30am we were up and out the door for the hike back. We hit the trail hard and made it down the North Rim in about 4 hours. We then met up with Extreme Lila and trail ran our way back to fantasy horse ranch in intervals. After a quick break for water and food we started up the South Kibab and made it out 8 and a half hours after our start. It was a gift to be included on this trip. Totals: 44 miles. 22,000 in elevation change. About 20 hours of travel.


Ben your a man of my heart.

View of the North Rim Trail

The North Lodge

Our bunk House

Canyon perspectives

One of the locals

To see more pictures head to http://picasaweb.google.com/msevenj/TheGrandCanyon.