Vibraphone dream

Last night I had a really vivid dream, which almost never happens. I was at a show with family at Cox Arena (in San Diego). Some band was playing. I don't remember their name, but I remember thinking that they had a lot in common with Hem (eclectic instrumentation, organic sounds, sweet vocals). We were sitting behind the front of house sound guy, and he had set up a vintage analog board next to the venue's digital board. I remember thinking that it was strange that he wasn't using the digital board.

The main part of my dream revolved around their vibraphone... it was huge! Eric's vibraphone is quite large and rare (4 octaves). This one was at least 6 octaves, maybe more. The resonators were a dark brass color and the whole thing looked stunning. I borrowed a camera from my aunt and kept thinking 'Eric is going to flip when he sees this vibe!' I was talking to their guitar player (probably after the show) and he claimed that he was the one who invented playing guitar with a slide... to which I thought... 'yeah right... this guy's full of it!'

Maybe my 'kinda razor sharp' mind has begun a premature dive into the fun world of senility... Maybe I have a government created nanorobot infection that is ultimately going to make me Hurley from Lost's roommate in the psycho ward... Maybe I'm overreacting, over analyzing, and I just need to go on a bike ride. I'm going with option 3.

T.J.

Rise of the Kinematics

Since my studio is rewired, organized, and back to normal, I have been diving into my latest project. It's music for the opening shindig for an organization called Hume Lake. I've done various musical things for Hume since 2005 and it is always fun to have the opportunity to work with them. In the past, I've composed music for sheep, ninjas, and vikings. This year it's robots, techno and hip hop. I won't be able to post links to the music until after Summer, but when I can, I will.

P.S.- Thanks to everyone who came out to the concerts last weekend. If you haven't already, read Eric's latest blog post and keep Spencer, his friends and family in your prayers

T.J.

Rewiring my studio today... *headache*

Battery meltdown pt 2.

*spoken like a Miss America contestant*: After checking of the interwebs, and calling of the phone for to Apple of the computers, and later of and an appointment made for to the apple store and furthermore of driving to for and going to said appointment... I am the proud new owner of a new, functional (not bloated- see older post from last week) battery for the laptop computer I am currently now presently typing on (as we speak). Let's hope this one stays in its current rectangular shape!

T.J.

Getting ready to play outside. Its gonna be a cold one!!

Chillin' in the green room in santa ana

Just played at spirit west coast and ben is about to try a fried twinkie.

Spirit West Coast Del Mar set time 5pm

Our set time at the festival was changed to 5pm. see you there san diegans!

eric

Motley crue is also playing tonight!

Walking to dinner in pomona

CHANGE OF VENUE for 5-23 show!!!!!

If you are planning on coming to the show tomorrow night (originally at Cal Poly Pomona), read the following notice from the promoter. Hope to see you there!!


CHANGE OF VENUE!!!!!

Due to the possibility of rain, we will be changing the venue to POMONA FIRST BAPTIST. The concert will be in the "B" building located on the corner of Pearl And Garey Ave.

601 N. Garey Ave.
Pomona, CA 91768


Show up at 7:00!



http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=13352593301

What a day...

Ahhh, 'twas a nice day indeed (yesterday). It started out with a bike ride (the picture is from the same place I ride, but on a different day). Mountain biking makes me feel like a kid... it's ridiculously fun. After the ride, my friend Dave and I went to The Future and got some burritos ('El Porvenir'). Then we came back to my studio and mixed some of his songs that we've been working on. I love it when stuff gets done!

T.J.

Trader Joes. I want to eat everything in that store...
Lately I've been eating canned soups every day from there, my favorite being the lentil vegetable soup, then comes the black bean soup. But this will probably be just a phase (lazy phase)-- like my gigantic monster quesadilla phase, wrap phase, yams phase, sloppy sandwich mess phase.
You should probably go there and try the rice pudding. Then the BBQ chicken pizza. Then everything with the word 'avocado' in it...
BYE!
Spencer Kim

Darth Vader: Brita water filter endorser!

The English language doesn't have words to describe photos like this. "LOL" comes pretty dang close though...

T.J.

Velvet Elvis

I just started reading 'Velvet Elvis' by Rob Bell and so far it is really great. He raises tons of questions and challenges the reader to 'repaint' Christian faith.

Rob is a master of analogies, and so far, my favorite is the pool analogy.

"Truth always leads to more... truth. Because truth is insight into God and God is infinite and God has no boundaries or edges. So truth always has layers and depth and texture.

It's like a pool that you dive into, and you start swimming toward the bottom, and soon you discover that no matter how hard and fast you swim downward, the pool keeps getting... deeper. The bottom will always be out of reach." (Velvet Elvis, pg. 33)

This analogy is a cool way of showing the Martin Luther-esque principle of constantly reforming Christian spirituality without ever claiming to have 'arrived.'

T.J.

Flying Machine

Eric let me borrow the Future of Forestry aeroplane for my trip to northern California (see photo). It was nice to have a few days to relax, but I'm anxious to get back to Sandy Eggo and get some stuff done. There is music to be composed, tracks to mix, songs to be written, gigs to play, and the list goes on.

T.J.

Go to the beach.

The water's getting warm, finally... It's trunkable without getting hypothermia!
Spence

Battery meltdown!

Tonight as I was working away on my laptop, I noticed that it wasn't sitting flat on the table. I figured that the table was bowed or something. Just for fun, I flipped the machine over to check out what was going on. Turns out the entire battery was all warped and ballooning out of the battery compartment. I think this happened to my friend Todd, but he's a total 'power user' who knows how to 'put a hurt' on a computer. Either my computer literacy has reached a level that my computer cannot contain, or something went wrong with my battery. I'm going to go with the latter. Ughh...

T.J.

I wish I'd thought of that...

I just stumbled upon this cool website. You order 'something' for $10, and then it shows up at your door. Who knows what it will be? Not I! Being quasi-entrepreneurial, these types of business ideas are the ones that I kick myself and say: "I wish I'd thought of that."

Tempting as it may be to buy something for $10, I gotta say that money for 'something' would be better spent on helping the cyclone survivors (see Spence's post below). Click here to learn more and donate.

T.J.

Spencer's first blogggg.

hey everyone, congratulations on my first blog. WOW! i'm excited half to death!! WOW!!!

So what do people like to read in these things?? About what's going on in our lives?
ok...well, yesterday i have a friend give me a "mullet chomp", AKA a haircut. whenever my hair starts to get too long, the back naturally waves out and wants to become a mullet, but i don't want it to. so that's why it gets the mullet chomp.

something very exciting that is happening in my life is that i'm obsessed with riding my new bike. lately i've been riding to the beach, to the woods, in downtown SD, and wherever else that isn't too far. i don't wear a helmet, so please don't hit any bikers on the 101...

on a different note--
do you have any extra cash sitting around? please donate it to people suffering in myanmar HERE. this organization donates every penny towards what you give; and this $$ will go a long way to benefiting the people suffering there!

spence

Dakota likes food

My folks' perro 'Dakota' sends her regards. She likes Future of Forestry and me, but she loves food more. She told me to say that if anyone sees her around town, she'd love any kind of snack you might have for her. It's hard to know that kibble occupies a higher spot on her list than me, but like my father always says: "Life isn't fair."

Let's Go Band!

Last night, I went to a 5th grade band concert. My mom is a music teacher (an awesome music teacher by the way) and she has been working with this band from the beginning of the school year. It brought back many memories of my first year in school band. I can still remember the thrill of taking my Trumpet home for the first time (and later trading it in for drumsticks... even more thrilling). In a world where music budgets keep getting cut, it is really cool to see that the school band program I went through years ago is pressing on despite the financial obstacles. I believe that music is a gift from our Creator, and I thank God for people like my mom who are in the trenches making sure that kids still get the opportunity to play music!

Piano Practice

So I've been working through 'The Jazz Piano Book' by Mark Levine, and it has been a real kick in the hind quarters. Some of the best musicians I know are Jazz pianists, so I figured it would be good to woodshed some Jazz. The great thing about being in the bay area (away from the hustle and bustle of daily life) is that I can just practice and play music without any kind of ulterior motive. It reminds me why I love playing music. To sit down and get lost in a sea of notes, without thinking about monetization or marketability, is something that I need to do more. That's when the best ideas come. These ideas that seemingly come out of 'the ether' are a natural, musical representation of who you really are, not who you think you should be.

Greetings from sunny Brentwood, CA!

This week, everybody is kind of all over the place. Eric and Tam are 'across the pond,' Spence and Ben are in Southern CA, and I (T.J.) am in the San Francisco Bay area visiting my Family. The city is called Brentwood, but it is not the O.J. Brentwood. It's the smallish city known for its awesome sweet white corn, and famously nightmarish allergy conditions. I went on a nice 20 mile bike ride yesterday and snapped this pic of 'Mt. Diablo.' It's funny because some guy tried to change the name to 'Mt. Angelica' or something like that because he was offended at a mountain called devil. He learned the hard way the concept of picking your battles! The name is still the same.

Kreed Shades

Thanks to Kreed Eyewear for hooking me up with some effective shades! I feel like I need to get a pilot's license to justify wearing such a powerful apparatus on my face!

Go spence

Practicimo es muy fantastico cuando los instrumentes no esta en el refrigerador!

Thats a heavy duty mic stand ben!

Im recording my friends jazz concert tonight. Theyre pretty killer! -T.J.

Cooking and music

To quote The Oneders' first manager in "That Thing You Do:" "A good band is like a stew. All the ingredients come together just right..." Rather than give some kind of stupid and potentially awkward food/music analogy (like Spencer being the foundational chicken broth of the band, etc.) I thought I'd share a fantastic recipe I tried this week. It's a lentil soup with all kinds of healthy stuff in it that ROCKS really, really hard.

While I think everyone should try this recipe, Future of Forestry, (and it's parent and sister companies and subsidiaries) cannot be held responsible for knife injuries, burns, or any other bizarre, painful health anomalies caused by attempting this culinarily artistic activity :-)

One more thing: to make this recipe truly fantastic, leave out the onions. To quote my father, "Onions are a result of the fall." I'm not sure about that, but they do taste rather putrid if you ask me. -T.J.

The recipe video is below (thank you about.com). In case you can't see it click here.

Jackie Chan yo!

Tonight, my friend Jon and I (T.J.) played at the San Diego State University Electro-Acoustic Music Marathon. Our piece was called 'Jackie Chan Live Now Yes.' We logged all the hit points in a Jackie Chan fight scene (from 'Rumble in the Bronx'), set a click track that changed tempo and meter to hit all the points, and then improvised a live film score to it. I've never done anything like that before, but it was a blast. We pretty much tried to hit every punch, block, kick, and elbow jab we could. I was on drums, and Jon was on guitar. In the 2 minute, 45 second scene, we synced up with about 88 things from the fight scene. The image above is the first page of our musical road map. I'd post a video of it, but I didn't bring a camera, and I don't think anyone else was taping. Fun stuff though!

I was having tea and met some cool friends from last time we played at the rock. Small world. Yay san diego!

FOF live in Pomona

We posted a last minute concert date for a May 23rd show in Pomona at Cal Poly U with Lost Ocean.

I just went to a friends dance show. This is the weird post it note dance.

New Youtube Video wowwww!

Yo yo yo, we just put up a new Youtube video about how Future of Forestry soundchecks usually go! Click here.