Finally on the plane home. 20 hrs later. -Spence

Futurequest 2008

We just played Futurequest in El Cajon, and it was great. We played music, talked about bird sounds, tickling babies and worship! Many thanks to all the nice people in the audience and the staff. We'll put up live pictures as soon as we get a hold of them. For now, we'll just make due with a soundcheck pic and a nice shot of Ben doing some bass maintenance (let's call it 'basstenance'). Tomorrow, we're off to the East Coast where we will update the blog as long as there is wi-fi!

FOFlying

Travel these days is getting interesting. Airlines are enforcing all kinds of new rules and baggage fees because of gas prices. It is a unique challenge to figure out how to get what you need to a gig while keeping within the guidelines. Most airlines seem to have a standard size/weight policy. No checked item can exceed 62" total length (Length + width + height) and must be under 50 lbs. How do you fly across the country with a four octave behemoth vibraphone, you ask? How do you deal with TSA peeps rifling through a carefully organized case, only to throw everything back without regard to safe transport? With a scale in one hand, and a tape measure in the other... these are the things we have to figure out.

Computer friends

The other day, my friend Jon and I were hanging out, and our computers became friends. My computer and I were heartbroken when we tried to use bluetooth to send a picture to Jon and his machine, only to find out that it didn't work because we were using two different versions of mac osx. My computer and I haven't upgraded to 'Leopard' (mac OS) yet because Protools LE is not compatible as of now (come on Digidesign... get on the ball!). We like to go around and record little things with an old mbox, so upgrading to Leopard would effectively kill that.

If my blogs keep going this direction, then I'll be headed back to the white padded room with the nice people who help me put on the 'give yourself a big hug!' jacket.

T.J.

Hume pt. 3

Last night was the first opener and it went well. I'm sure a few things will be tweaked, but all in all everyone seemed to dig it. I'm driving back to San Diego tonight to the soundtrack of Mindy Smith, Dave Barnes, Ben Folds, Imogen Heap, Jon Foreman, Punch Brothers, and Sean Watkins.

T.J.

Tree Derived Music

I'm a big fan of trees. I like to stare at them. I love the sound a cool, peaceful wind makes as it wisps through the needles and multiplies a bajillion times to create a distant whisper. In musical terms, I would call this the 'pad' that provides a sonic canvas for the rest of the instruments. I could listen to that pine needle pad all day and night and marvel at it's infinite subtle complexity. (Tangent... over)

A few years back, I was at Hume Lake on a similar mission (to finish writing music) and came up with a plan to derive a melody from the contour of the treetops against the evening sky. The trees in the picture are actually the very same ones that got me thinking about this. I happened to be outside with my camera at the right time tonight to get a nice shot.

When I look at this picture, I see a series of ascending sixteenth notes winding their way up in pitch... a little higher each time until the last group, which fall back down.

It is interesting to think that perhaps somewhere, there is a treeline that contains a melody from a song I've written. If I ever find such a treeline, I'll take that as a not so subtle hint that I was meant to build a phat treehouse in that grove and subsequently hang out there for at least a fortnight, if not less. I feel bad for the poor trees in the David Hasselhoff 'La Isla Bonita' grove. If I ever find that one, I'll personally transplant all the trees to a different grove, thus saving them from paying many hundreds of years of indelible homage to a piece of embarrassingly awkward, and (let's be honest) just plain bad music.

T.J.

Hume Lake

Well, I'm up at Hume Lake putting the final touches on their 'Opener' (Big theatrical production to kick off each weeks's festivities). It is absolutely beautiful up here as usual (see picture... I took it right as the 'alpineglow' was kicking in). Things are also crazy as usual for their first weekend, but spirits are high, and everybody involved is really putting in 333%.

T.J.