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This article is about Biometrics used by the South African government to combat fraud and corruption and to increase the efficiency of service delivery to the public.

The South African government started biometric identification systems in the departments of agriculture, correctional services, home affairs, police services, and social assistance.

Department of Agriculture

The Department of Agriculture Head Office in Pretoria identified a need to implement more stringent system control mechanisms, including the financial system, logging onto secure applications and logging onto staff members' personal workstations.
The Department applied a strict password management policy, but it had different systems for finance, Persal (the Government standard salary payment system), leave and performance management etc. The regulated constant changing of passwords resulted in forgotten passwords, lock-outs and employees sitting next to each other having access to one another's passwords.

This resulted in downtime, an administrative burden on IT staff who had more pressing concerns, and increased opportunity costs.  It was also noticed that unauthorized individuals had after-hours access to the facilities.

The Agriculture Department then implemented a fingerprint biometric reader to computers, which eliminated passwords altogether. Furthermore, the readers were also installed at key access control points which meant that staff couldn't log on to machines if they didn't first gain access at these control points. This also meant that staff could be regulated as to which hours they were supposed to be working or were allowed to work.  The system automatically logged you off of a computer when you 'clocked out' of the work area, which meant less wastage and stricter security.

Thus the implementation of the biometric system ensures superior security measures, ease of use, a centralized databank of access control information, and the fact that staff didn't need to carry any access control instruments to work except for their fingers.

Department of Correctional Services

As part of its attempts to increase security and reduce corruption within its facilities, the Department of Correctional Services launched its Biometric Security System in August 2006. The system included fingerprint access, closed circuit television systems and turnstile gates.

The Department recognized that the system on its own would not be effective and that staff members would have to be fully committed to and well-trained in operating the system. This included being proactive in monitoring any form of risk as well as acting promptly should a breach of security take place.

The system was grounded in the principle of fail-over and in case of power loss or other unforeseen circumstances would switch over to a fully functioning secondary site.

Future foreseen improvements to the system include closed circuit television monitoring of each individual cell, amongst others.

Department of Home Affairs

South Africa has approximately 48 million citizens, and each one of them requires a government-issued, official identification booklet, as proof of identity. This document is not only needed for public services, but also everyday actions such as renting a DVD or opening a bank or store account. This document is based on the most secure form of identification, being the individual's fingerprint. The need is undeniable; the process is time-consuming and paper-based and resulted in government archives that contain over 45 million paper files.

The Home Affairs National Identification System Project, known as HANIS, was implemented to move away from the paper system. Not only would HANIS replace the existing system with a world class digital database, but it will also ensure real time processing, verification and accessibility for every new and existing fingerprint.

NEC's Automatic Fingerprint Identification System or AFIS was selected for the contract  Their fingerprint recognition technologies host an accuracy rate of more than 99.9%.  The system handles 70,000 searches in one day. It allows HANIS to produce the largest citizen identification database in the world.

The Department of Home Affairs however faced quite a number of challenges to ensure successful and complete implementation of the project.

The data integrity is compromised by duplicated and/or missing data elements and data inconsistency; a lack of security around the data stores has led to fraud and corruption, which furthers contaminated data integrity; relational linkages are not formalised between different data-stores (NPR, HANIS, EDMS) and shows little relational integrity; Immigration data stores are based on expired light-weight PC based technologies; The immigration and visitor data shows no integrated and cohesive structure, and are in segmented data stores such as Refugees and Deportation, Asylum Seekers, Visitors and Visas and Movement Control. The department is working to address these issues.

The benefits in sight, however, will be a paperless environment with shorter queues, a reduction in bureaucratic delays and the accuracy of the system will dramatically reduce the possibility of identity theft and fraud.

South African Police Service

The South African Police Service (SAPS) implemented a biometric system in 2001 to secure the Integrated Justice System (IJS). Finger- and palm prints of convicted criminals have been captured in their Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS)  – this database is used for Identity Management (IDM) and is used to monitor criminals as well as to track down wanted criminals. Portable readers (powered by Sagem's MorphoTouch and RapID technology) are used at roadblocks around the country to identify wanted criminals and bring them to justice.

The AFIS was implemented by the Ideco Group, who also completed the HANIS system discussed above.

Additional uses of biometrics in the police services are fingerprint readers (with fake fingerprint detection functionality) for access control in departments with secure and sensitive information (e.g. forensic laboratories, stolen vehicle departments etc.).

Fingerprints are also being used as the sole method for doing criminal record background checks for commercial purposes – as the use of a name, surname or identification number has too much potential for abuse, and this system failure has led to much fraud. A full set of fingerprints is required for a criminal record check to be done on an individual. Companies who want to make use of this service (called AFISwitch) have to be enrolled with AFIS. This service has a significantly faster turnaround time (48 hours as opposed to weeks) than the traditional system for checking criminal records.

SASSA

South Africa's Social Assistance Program is the government's largest poverty alleviation intervention.  It has a budget allocation of approximately R100 billion, and provides social grants to 15,8 million beneficiaries to reduce their levels of deprivation and enable them to participate in the economy.

In her budget vote speech on 2 May 2012, the Minister of Social Development, Bathabile Dlamini, conceded that the South African Social Security Agency ("SASSA") has incomplete information on beneficiary details, and that the social grant system is prone to fraud and misappropriation of funds.  In a country where social assistance touches such a high proportion of citizens and incorporates dealing with enormous monetary amounts, such fraud and misappropriation of funds is a slap in the face of those truly in need, and cannot be tolerated.

As part of its strategy to address this problem SASSA has announced that all social assistance beneficiaries will be re-registered through a biometric enrollment system. Following enrollment, a biometric system will analyse physical or behavioural traits, such as fingerprints, iris, face, voice and hand geometry, to verify the identity of a beneficiary.  This system will allow for effective authentication of beneficiaries, and drastically reduce the opportunities for fraud. SASSA is in the process of implementing this system, with Phase 1 having already been completed.

Biometric identification systems are, however, not foolproof.  Accurately functioning systems rely on two fundamental premises – the permanence and uniqueness of the relevant biometric trait, both of which are not certain.  Furthermore, there may be problems with extracting the biometric traits – for example system or environmental problems.  In recent years there has been significant growth in biometric research, and this has resulted in advancements in the field.  More accurate, cost-effective, secure and robust biometric systems have been developed – it is hoped that this will allow for an effective implementation of a system by SASSA.

Conclusion

The main reasons for implementing a biometrics system by the South African government seem to be the eradication of crime and corruption, and enhancing service delivery to the citizens of the country. The problems faced are to be expected, being poor infrastructure and a lack of funds.

See also
 National Forensic DNA Database of South Africa
 South African passport (not biometric)
 Automated fingerprint identification
 Countries applying biometrics
 Fingerprint recognition

References

Law enforcement in South Africa
Databases in South Africa
Biometrics
Forensic databases
Biological databases
Law enforcement databases


It is a given that email marketing, i.e. newsletters via emails, remains relevant in the world of online advertising and marketing today despite the fact that all other advertising mediums are facing a threat from mobile marketing.
People are increasingly impatient and demanding and would veer towards faster information and more convenient access. For example, when reading a magazine and seeing advertisements in magazines or a newspapers, the advertisement that gave them instant info would be the winner. Therefore, advertisers are quick to adopt any way at all that they can find (without breaking their budgets) to present the information to their consumers. The aim is now to capture audiences' attention and drive sales.
How is email marketing going to keep up to the game? Very simply, they can generate their own QR Codes and attach it to the emails that they send out regularly to their customers, of course!
Traditionally, email marketers would create links to promotional sites or pages in their newsletter in their effort to drive sales up. But in order to make things a little bit more interesting and innovative, QR Codes can be used as well. Considering the fact that more than ninety percent of people in the United States said that they kept their mobile phones, be it smart phone or the more traditional phone-calls-only types of cell phone, close by twenty four hours, this is an apt move. The stat was pulled out by a study done by the Mobile Marketing Association and conducted by Morgan Stanley and Jupiter Research.
QR Codes is merely a new way to create consumer touch points whereby they are rewarded with free shipping, discounts, feedback and other incentives to make a purchase. The point is to give them a reason to click on the link or scan the QR Code. The fact is that most of us have our phones with us, within reach, most times of the day and when we get an email, let's admit it, we have very short attention span. You either capture our attention within the first few seconds or it is bye-bye-baby. Advertisers are trying very hard not to be the latter.
Emails are great in a sense that they bring us information but they are static and old. With a QR Code, it adds a new twist, a new touch whereby consumers can get the information that they want right there and then…no fuss, no fight. Plus, it acts as a very effective call to action which is what is missing in email marketing.
What is even more intriguing is that these codes are very trackable which bridges the gap between medias. Many email marketers do not have a way to gauge whether their emails are being read or are canned the very moment their target reads it. That does not have to be the case anymore.


Having now experienced a C-section at both hospitals in Mahasarakham, my wife and I spent today comparing them and we've come to a conclusion: The government hospital is better for childbirth, and in a couple years (when construction of the new children's wing is supposed to be completed) will probably be on par with anything Khon Kaen can offer with the exception of Khon Kaen Ram (which is on a different level than other hospitals in the region in many aspects, because of much deeper pockets).
Background: Our first baby, Max, was born a month early and as a breech baby, which necessitated a C-section (In Thailand, a Caesarean is called a "Caesar." I personally prefer "Caesarean" to the Americanized version, "Cesarean," because of the root origin.). We had been contemplating having the baby at one of the two hospitals in Khon Kaen mentioned above, but we hadn't checked them out yet and when we got in the car, my wife didn't want to endure the 45 minute drive to Khon Kaen. So we decided on the government hospital (Mahasarakham Hospital), mainly because Nam has good nurse friends there. We'd actually checked it out the day before and were apprehensive because (A) the facilities were old and dirty and (b) being a government hospital, there are masses of sick people lining the hallways (also, up here in the country, patients are often accompanied by entire families who lay out straw mats in the hallways for eating, waiting, and staying over). One thing that worked out in our favor was that while the natural childbirth rooms were appalling (three cots per room, no partitions, no air con, cobwebs and dirty acoustic ceiling tiles paired with ceiling fans, etc.), the surgical facilities were clean and modern.
The main problem with the government hospital, however, is overcrowding. There's nothing like carrying your newborn through throngs of dirty and diseased to make you crave a clean environment… And that's the main reason we decided to have shrieking child prodigy #2 at the private hospital, down the road behind SermThai department store, in downtown Maha Sarakham.
At first, it seemed like we had made the best choice, but a variety of factors proved this to be wrong. This hospital has just started a process of rebranding as Thai Inter Hospital Mahasarakham, which basically means that they have new letterhead and a new logo, and plenty of neato blueprints and design concepts posted around, but as of right now, it's just a semi-old private hospital with a new name (as a side note, there was a poster in our room saying they have ties with this facility in Koh Samui). The first big problem was directly related to this rebranding process – they were completely redoing the room directly above the ICU with sledges, hammer drills, tile saws, the whole bit. This was a bit disconcerting, to say the least… I briefly entertained the idea of wheeling Nam and the baby out of the hospital and up the street to the public hospital. It was pretty bad. Luckily, the nurses let me take the baby up to our private room and Nam followed an hour later when she got cleared from the ICU. This problem is a temporary one, but there were other problems that were rooted deeper in the system.
The nurses were mostly inexperienced. Some were young and inexperienced, other were inexperienced with newborns. This is a big problem in a maternity ward. Luckily, this was our second time, so we could recognize shaky decisions and when to question them.
The only pediatricians on staff (1 or 2) were part time and visited only once a day.
Overall, doctor visits were too few and seemingly meaningless. Random doctors would wander in, glance at the baby, comment on the musical teddy bear we'd brought to sit next to her (thanks, mom!), and as we later found out, bill us for their presence.
The sheets and hospital gowns were old, cheap, worn out, and worst of all, poorly designed and ill-fitting. We were willing to pay extra for better service than could be had at the government facilities, so we wanted better basics.
The FREE! WIRELESS!! INTERNET!!! was broken and nobody knew how to fix it…nobody even understood what was broken… I immediately recognized this situation as hopeless and subscribed to DTAC internet service on my mobile (200 baht for 100 hours/month) and tethered it to my notebook.
Billing problems… even the hospital administrator in charge of our account eventually admitted to irregularities and cut 30% off our bill. We had to work for it, though. The basic problem was that they tried to get us to pay for extraneous items, be they things like a (seemingly complementary) bag of cheap toiletries at 10 or 20 times markup, or meaningless services like official doctor visits where the doctor gets a cut for just being in the room for a minute… and It's not like we aren't aware that this is standard practice elsewhere, it's just that we are unwilling to accept it. So we pulled our ace and simply stated that if they insisted on unfairly charging us, we'd let everyone at both our universities know about it. So yeah, they cut down the bill three times and it eventually came to 30% of the original amount… But the very fact that they started out at such an overinflated figure hints at an endemic problem.
It's good to see you posting again. Dad had a dream this morning about Max who was playing with his cousins, Ty (4 yrs.) and Kai (3 yrs.) Then he wanted coconut-macadamia pancakes for breakfast.
I hope you sing to the babies to soothe them. You know, sing in a "nice" voice. Or not.
You can use the EFT tapping to clear and calm yourself from feelings of frustration, fatigue, anxiety, overwhelm, etc., so that they can then settle down. This is great surrogate work. My clients are given this homework as an experiment and all of them report that it really helped a lot!
Have you taken any more videos of Mina? We're waiting patiently!


The current video landscape is being transformed by the confluence of technological innovation and consumer behavior shifts. This new media landscape created by the TV-video shift is increasingly automated, data-driven, addressable, and accountable, where audience is as important as content and context. The perceived dichotomies of television vs. video, broadcast vs. cable, and desktop vs. mobile are breaking down under the pressure of an accelerated convergence of technologies and markets. In a world of endless choices, accessibility, quality content and user experiences are key.
The 2017 Practical Guide to Digital Video Advertising was developed by the Digital Video Committee, a working group of the IAB Digital Video Center of Excellence, primary forum for discussing and addressing the challenges that arise from delivering video content and advertising.
This comprehensive, practical guide to the current state of digital video is the centerpiece of the working group's educational mission.
See more on the topic here.


On Twitter, someone recently asked, "If you could drop everything to read one book right now, which would it be?" My answer is undoubtedly The Dark Forest, the second in Cixin Liu's Three-Body Trilogy. Since finishing The Three-Body Problem two weeks ago, I've been hungry for the next book to get here, whetting my appetite by constantly recommending the first book to my sci-fi loving family and friends.
The Three-Body Problem is some of the most imaginative fiction I've ever read, so much so that I've had to think long and hard what plot details I can reveal in good conscience. Really, it would be much better if you would just take my word for it, check the book out right now, and discover its magic for yourself. But I understand if I haven't convinced you yet.
The novel opens against the backdrop of China's cultural revolution as Ye Wenjie watches militant student revolutionaries interrogate and kill her professor father. While the full impact of this formative experience remains unclear until near the end of the book, the immediate aftermath finds Wenjie searching for her place in a new China, unsure of who she is or whom to trust.
When an abrupt new chapter opens on Wenjie's future, the book shifts into the present day, following the perspective of Wang Miao, a nanomaterials researcher caught up in the aftermath of a suicide spree among physicists. His research leads him into contact with an international government investigation, a cultish peer group called the Frontiers of Science, and a mysterious virtual reality game where players struggle to understand and defeat a world where our laws of physics appear to be moot.
The Three-Body Problem was recently awarded the Hugo award for best novel, as controversial and surprising a winner as it was deserving. Readers who already enjoy sci-fi should be completely at home in this excellent and unique book. On the other hand, I am reminded of why sci-fi can be viewed as a niche genre by outsiders. The Three-Body Problem was obviously thoroughly researched, but the saturation of scientific terms can be alienating to those without a scientific background. Personally, I was pleased to learn tidbits about both Chinese history and astrophysics, but I found myself turning to Wikipedia more than once while reading.
As I finish this blog post, The Dark Forest has a comparatively short wait list. Waste no time in adding your name, though I am bracing myself for a long wait in the aftermath: Death's End, the trilogy's final chapter, is not due for English release until April 2016.
If you're looking for more engrossing science fiction books, but would like something a touch more accessible, try Andy Weir's The Martian. I dare you not to read this book in a day, and as a special treat, the much-anticipated movie adaptation opens this weekend!


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Adam Nurre Drums & Percussion
Remote Tracking & Production
Media Music
Charts & Transcription
Bio & Resume
West TX w/ Garner Sloan + Sally Ride's Maiden Voyage
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3/24 - High Sierra, Terlingua TX
3/25 - Starlight Theatre, Terlingua TX
3/26 - Planet Marfa, Marfa TX
3/27 - Eve's Garden, Marathon TX
"No Snow In February" Tour w/ Carson McHone
Let's tour the midwest in the middle of winter, they said. What could possibly go wrong, they said.
Nah, it was fine. Fine and snowy as fuck. Started the tour off with a great local show with Mike & the Moonpies, doing the Sun Radio showcase at Guero's in south Austin. All of the above were fantastic -- the Oak Garden at Guero's is a sweet little venue, and of course M&tMP's are great friends of ours. So much so, that they even stopped in Denton the next night (on their way to a gig in OK) to hang out with us. Rad dudes, and Dan's Silver Leaf was a great venue. What's the name of the taco place across the block? Top-notch. The Colony has a god-awful PA system, but at least Kierston White was amazing. Our friendly neighborhood CouchSurfer Jay was a righteous old fella who treated us to a great dinner and some beers (along with his great record collection and super-sweet pup Bonnie). Wesport Saloon is always fantastic, and even our Super-Bowl-Sunday show in Des Moines turned out to be OK.
Driving from KC to DSM: Carson is sleeping in the back of the van, suddenly awakens and exclaims: "SNOW!". Note: Austin native laying eyes on a light dusting. Awww, cute. We're joined by our good buddy Jeremy Pinnell for the next week of tour. Jeremy is a boss country music songwriter, so much so that we even instituted a "Jeremy Jar" for band members to place their loose change whenever they repeat Jeremy's lyrics to excess. Local awesome dude Stutterin' Jimmy opened the show with his Tom Waits-esque delivery (which was awesome, in spite of his loop-pedal-using sidekick). Highlight of the show: we have all our gear backlined, and Jimmy wants Sam (Carson's steel player) to sit in for a tune. His initial request is politely turned down, then they start into a rendition of Leonard Cohen's "Hallelujah".... complete with personalized lines such as: "I heard there was a secret chord that Sam would play and it pleased the Lord, but you don't really care for our music, do ya?". Sam stayed strong, refusing to sit in, and was thus assaulted with a chorus of "Hallelujah... Sam, Hallelujah". It was great.
Chicago show is quite decent, although snowy as all hell. Warren, husband of super-fan Marka came out, and we made some other new friends as well. Daytrotter session in the afternoon is also a great time. We stayed with Daphne and Russ, who were a real sweetheart of a CouchSurfer couple and made sure we were very well taken care of. Cincinnati show is great and very well attended for a Wednesday night. I don't know if I've mentioned yet, but one of the huge job perks within my chosen career field is getting paid to visit your hometown and drink with your buddies. Hard life, right? My dear sweet mother was kind enough to host the band for a few days (as she has many times before), and it's honestly the best thing ever to be home while being on the road. We also got to shoot some video at CandyLand Studios in Bellvue KY, courtesy of SofaBurn Records in Cincinnati.
Tour continued on to Lexington, where we played with some OK locals but managed to find some extra-decent tacos down the street. Folks in Sylva were nice, and Mary and Shoprag took care of the band. I got an extra-jumbo-supreme case of the grumpy-asshole-fuckoffs (an unfortunate by-product of everyone else in the house staying up to socialize loudly while one is trying to sleep), but I managed to stop being pissed off at the rest of the band sometime around noon the next day. WDVX was a really great experience, mostly because I bought a copy of "Smile All Day" by local kids music artist Bill Crosby, but also because we had a great set for an appreciative audience of quite-a-few in studio and who-knows-how-many listening on the air.
That evening, we were hosted at the Dirty South House by the super-extra-fantastic Goodall Family. Not only did they provide an excellent venue for Carson & Jeremy for the evening's show, they were also super sweet and accommodating, and have a couple of rad kids -- i.e. daughter wearing a Ray Wylie Hubbard t-shirt, son expressing fondness for the new Jason Isbell record, and general feeling of "these kids are gonna be OK". Added bonus: somewhere, floating out there in internet land, there's a video of me playing pedal steel (poorly) while Sam plays drums (also poorly, obviously). This all stemmed from the Goodall kids wanting pointers on how to play our instruments after we loaded-in during the afternoon. Further proof that they may be the raddest family in all of TN.
Douglas Corner is such a great venue in Nashville (as evidenced by pictures of Townes on the walls behind their bar). No regrets: we ate at three hot chicken joints in two days. Verdict: Hattie B's is pretty goddamn great, though Prince's and Harold's are no slouches either. The first time I went to Harold's (june '15), we ordered the medium and I swear to christ they were fucking with us -- food was stupid hot (dig it) and as the four of us are sitting there sweating all over our chicken (seasoning), the chef even leans out of the kitchen window and says "you boys wanted it hot, didn't ya?".
Blue Canoe is a rad venue with some history -- if you ever get to play there, read the wall behind the stage: Alabama Shakes, American Aquarium, etc. They also had a really great ghost pepper sauce to along with their "crack fries". Had a guy invite us out back to smoke a joint, then ask us where the joint was once we got out there. "I'm starting to think you guys might not even smoke weed" was the quote of the day. Hannah and Jessie put us up for the night, and were awesome gals with awesome dogs.
Little Rock, Ft Worth, and Austin were all killer shows. Duh. It's always nice to get to play some of your favorite venues with you favorite folks in attendance. Also, no snow.
2/2 Banger's, Austin TX
2/3 Sun Radio Benefit @ Guero's, Austin TX
2/4 Dan's Silver Leaf, Denton TX
2/5 The Colony, Tulsa OK
2/6 Westport Saloon, Kansas City MO
2/7 Lefty's, Des Moines IA
2/8 Daytrotter Session, Rock Island IL (12pm)
2/8 Uncommon Ground, Chicago IL (8pm)
2/10 MOTR Pub, Cincinnati OH
2/11 The Green Lantern, Lexington KY
2/12 No Name Pub, Sylva NC
2/13 WDVX Blue Plate Special, Knoxville TN (11am)
2/13 Dirty South House, Knoxville TN (8pm)
2/15 Douglas Corner Cafe, Nashville TN
2/17 Blue Canoe, Tupelo MS
2/18 Whitewater Tavern, Little Rock AR
2/19 Fred's TX Cafe, Ft Worth TX
2/20 The White Horse, Austin TX
CES 2016 and Intel 360 w/ Yago de Quay
So this was a trip. Mitchell and I were fortunate to
be hired by Yago de Quay, a musician/artist based out of Austin who incorporates interactive tech into his musical performances. Yago was commissioned by Intel to put together a show for the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas just after New Years 2016 (video below), and it went over so well that we were called back for a repeat performance in Anaheim CA for the Intel 360 Conference. Long story short: Yago needed a backing band, somehow we managed to stumble our way into this awesome experience, and played a couple shows for a couple thousand people.
Short story long: I notice a post in a local musician's forum from a guy looking for a rhythm section for an interactive tech-heavy performance in Vegas. I inquire, find out the dates he's looking at, see that we'll be unavailable/on tour, and think "damn. oh well, better luck next time". Turns out, Mitchell also finds out about said gig, and apparently our mutual friend Shreddy Eddie knows this fellow and has recommended Mitchell and I to audition as his rhythm section. Fine, let's do it. What's the worst that could happen?
Worst/Most Impressive Audition Story: We schedule a time at a rehearsal studio in Austin. We get an email containing two items: 1) a link to a past performance (to get a feel for the style of music he's going for) and 2) a link to the actual tune we're supposed to learn for the audition. Guess who didn't read the entire email carefully? We show up to the audition and meet Yago, talk for a bit while we're setting up, then as he starts the backing track over the PA system.. we realize we've made a huge mistake. OF COURSE WE LEARNED THE WRONG SONG FOR THE AUDITION FOR A BIG CORPORATE GIG THAT PAYS REALLY WELL. Ooooops... So we sheepishly explain.apologize for our error, and instead of throwing us out on our non-thoroughly-email-reading asses, Yago is cool about it and gives us a few minutes to learn his track on the spot. Somehow (and when I say "somehow" I mean "because we're goddamn professionals most of the time"), we get a moderate handle on the track, play our "prepared piece" (which was a bass/drum duet by Les Claypool), and break down our gear/run away with our collective tails between our collective legs.
Fast forward a week or so. Obviously, we assumed we blew it. Not only did we show up with the wrong song learned, we also had a few scheduling conflicts around the projected rehearsal dates due to some pre-existing tour commitments. Some how, some way, I got the call in late October that we had landed the gig, and here are the revised rehearsal dates to fit our schedule. Praise the flying spaghetti monster, how the shit did that just happen? Awesome. Turns out we have some flights to book, and our next couple months looked like this: Tour with Garner, fly out early AM after the last show to Evansville for rehearsals, fly back to Austin just in time to leave for tour with Jackie's band, fly out KCMO after her last show for rehearsals in Vegas, fly home for one day then go our separate ways for holiday family fun time, reconvene in Austin for New Years Eve gigs, fly out to Vegas early on New Years Day for a couple final rehearsals and the CES gig. I just got tired all over again by typing all of that out.
The show itself was an interactive 4-minute audio-visual funk-jazz meltdown that included crazy bass/drum jams, performers behind a giant screen triggering interactive visuals, and the centerpiece of the whole thing was the Intel Curie/RealSense technology (which we later found out was used for everything from tracking stats of X-Games athletes to controlling household robots) that enabled us to put on some hi-tech wristbands, wave our mitts around, and create some amazing sounds and visual effects. Musically, it was absolutely a challenge to learn the material, and I remember when we first met Zack (the composer) his first words to us were "You guys, I'm sorry about all that". We spent the first rehearsal session ironing out the musical parts and mapping the Curie wristbands to a set of gestures that each triggered it's own unique sound (i.e. left hand down = bass drop wub wub wub, right hand chop to the right = dry metallic snare sound, etc). One of the coolest things about this tech is that the possibilities are virtually limitless when it comes to programming movement to trigger sounds.
The scale of the whole thing was mind-boggling. The rehearsal sites in Evansville and Las Vegas each had a reproduction of the huge performance space where we'd be doing the actual gig, including full gear backline and the giant scrim and multiple projectors. In addition to the band (Mitchell, Yago, and I) we had the dancers (Reema and Shoko), the composer (Zack), the costume designer (Kelsey), and a whole team of tech guys from Intel and NameTheMachine running the Ableton rigs and projection software.
Turns out Evansville is just as boring as you'd think, though we managed to find a really nice CouchSurfer fellow named Alex who lived just a couple blocks from the rehearsal space and took us in for a few days, and also a decent dive bar down the street. The first Vegas rehearsals were at a studio behind the Palms, so you can guess where we all stayed. I learned how to play craps during that week of rehearsals, and also discovered that "breakfast craps" before rehearsal each day were the best time to hit the tables. Buffet = total letdown, bowling alley across the street = jackpot.
The final week of rehearsals had us all staying at Treasure Island, and somehow Mitchell got upgraded to the goddamn presidential suite. Kirsten also flew out to hang out for a few days, and I had one severely inebriated night where I struggled with the basic concept of blackjack hand signals (bringing shame to myself and everyone around me). Fremont Street is a great exercise in "is this real life?". We also took a drive out into the NV desert, found a disappointing cave, bought booze candy, and found a secluded spot where people just shoot shit with whatever firearms they happen to have upon their person. I gotta move to the desert someday, but maybe the less shoot-y part.
The gig itself was fantastic. I heard there were around 3,000 people there, and there was a part of the show where the entire audience used the same interactive wristbands that we were using. Also, Kelsey had the great idea to use blacklight paint in my beard, so y'know, life goal achieved. The thing went off without a hitch and was very well received (one tech-blogger described it as the "apocalyptically loud soundtrack to a mega man final boss"), and then we heard Intel's CEO talk about crazy robot things for an hour.
Fly home, decompress, play a few local gigs, then we get the call -- Intel wants a reprise of the performance at their upcoming sales conference in Anaheim. Done and done. We get the whole crew back together (on impressively short notice, I might add), and fly everyone out to California. The time scale is polar opposite for this show -- the Vegas gig was a ton of rehearsal time for a 4-minute show, this is maybe 3 or 4 runs of the show before the actual gig. Doesn't matter, nailed it. Great show for another 3- or 4-thousand folks, this time it's all Intel employees in a big arena right across from Disneyland.
Skip Disneyland because it's like $100 a day, find a rad bowling alley instead and discover complimentary bathrobes in our hotel room closets. Cue #RobeLyfe, free booze happy hour in the top floor guest lounge, watching the Disney fireworks every night from the hotel balcony, and hitting up the free breakfast every morning in our robes (much to the chagrin of the various families chasing the Disney dream vacation). Also, we got to hang out with Uncle Craig, Mitchell's traveling rad dude of an uncle.
Long story short (again): we were so very fortunate to be a part of this experience with Yago and his crew. They've got some big plans for this year and I hope we're able to be a part of it all over again.
CES 2016 -- Intel Keynote Preshow (our part starts at ~3:40)
12/6-9 - Rehearsals, Evansville IN
12/14-19 - Rehearsals, Las Vegas NV
1/1-4 - Rehearsals, Las Vegas NV
1/5 - Intel CES Keynote Presentation, The Venetian, Las Vegas NV
1/29-31 - Rehearsals, Anaheim CA
2/1 - Intel 360 Performance, Anheim Convention Center Arena, Anaheim CA
Tour de Southwest w/ Garner Sloan
Oh my god, you guys, I was home FOR TEN DAYS! ...and now it's December. I'm writing this from a rehearsal in Evansville, IN, but more on that later.
"Tour de Southwest" aka "The Beat, The Bass & The Garner" aka "Homemade Vanilla Tour"... call it whatever, this tour was pretty damn fun. After a busy week at home, it was time to get the hell back in the van. Set out with Texas-born-and-raised songwriter and leviathan of lexicon Garner Sloan, who aside from only owning one pair of pants, is a hell of a songwriter and doing pretty well for himself, considering he just picked up a guitar for the first time only a few years ago. But still, only one pair of pants.
After a 'sendoff' show in Austin, we started out the run in Garner's hometown of sunny, beautiful Coleman TX, at the legendary Buggy Wheel. This is the same venue where, during my first gig there a year or so ago, I witnessed a middle-aged drunk couple stumble out of the back entrance while embracing passionately. The man, ever the charmer (and not noticing a few of us standing nearby), then says to his lady in his best good-ol-boy-west-TX accent: "baby, get up on the hood of that Mustang and lemme eat your pussy". Go ahead, try saying it out loud without cracking up, I dare you. So anyway, the Buggy Wheel gets weird sometimes, but at least they've got shuffleboard. Also, Garner's parents loaded us up with sandwiches and road snacks.
Spent the next week or so winding through tiny towns in west Texas and New Mexico. Alpine was great, Marfa was better - rolled into town without a confirmed gig (long story..) and no place to play. After wandering around for a spell, Garner decided to go chat up a group of old Mexican guys drinking beer and watching football under an awning in a vacant lot. Best decision of the day. They called themselves the 'woman haters club' ("we actually love women, we just wanna get away from our wives. don't tell our wives that"), gave us some beers and food, and THEN... when we found out the gig we thought we had was canceled, one of their crew got us hooked up with a small beergarden venues across the street, AND offered us a place to stay. (For those of you playing along at home, that's going from no gig and homeless to having a gig and a place to stay within about an hour. The kindness of strangers is never more apparent than when one is on tour.)
Terlingua was amazing, as always. I think that's all I need to say about that. Hiked through Big Bend on our day off, found a hot springs, Mitchell and Garner swam to Mexico across the Rio Grande (which was actually quite un-Grande). Followed a few days later by a few-days stay in my other favorite middle-of-nowhere drunken-hippie-weirdo town, Madrid NM (what's that?! Touring to 2 of my favorite spots twice in one month? They call that living the dream, folks). Great show at Mineshaft, very drunken day off which included an hour show on Madrid's new indie radio station WMRD, and a hike up to the creepy awesome graveyard and scenic overlook.
The next week took us up to Colorado, starting with a badass luxury suite in Breckenridge (too bad the gig was lame... actually, nah, the cool digs were worth the lame gig. 10/10 would do again) and ending up with a few shows in Ft Collins. The great thing about playing Ft Collins is that Mitchell's family always shows up in droves, and they're all rad people. Such was the case on Wednesday at the Tap & Handle, and again on Friday at Swing Station. The other good thing about playing Ft Collins around Thanksgiving is getting a fantastic Thanksgiving feast with Mitchell's folks. The only real downside was Mitchell's decision to take his old-timey bike out on the ice/snow around 3am, which I guess is all relative to how your scale of 'bad idea' to 'adventure' is calibrated. At least he got a bitchin' purple leg bruise out of it. Oh, also.. snow. AHHHHH snow is the worst, and there was lots of it.
Heading back east, we enjoyed a Saturday night at the luxurious Ambassador Hotel in Salina, Kansas. Never heard of Salina, Kansas? That's right, you haven't. The weather was gross and no one came out to the show, BUT, at least there were no DUI checkpoints on the walk to our rooms from our gig in the hotel lobby bar. Fun game for the night - table of 4 was seated right up front, already hammered as we were loading in. So, we made it our goal to get those folks to buy enough drinks to make up for the bar was spending on the band. We figured that way, everyone wins. Well, almost made it... the venue was paying us $300-something for night, and their bar tab came out to $280. I'd say that'll work, and we got a ton of free drinks in the process. See? Win-Win. Headed eastward to hit our old favorite The Westport Saloon in KC, including all the standard rowdiness that we've come to know and love from that venue, plus a Monday off (bowling, haircuts, and the usual day-off activities ensued). We then had our buddies the Haymakers on the bill in Wichita, and also managed a lifetime first of being cut off at a sushi bar (from food, not booze) before the show. It was the first and only time I've had a waitress deliver our (admittedly gargantuan) meal, then return a while later with nothing else to say aside from "Holy shit, you guys are cut off". Maximum fattitude, achieved.
Finished the tour out with shows in OK and DFW. Killer bahn mi at a food truck in Tulsa, and I totally dominated (and spent all my quarters) on the WWF Royal Rumble arcade game. I know you're jealous, and listen, why don't you grow up? Our friend and local fiddle legend Kirsten joined the band for the last two shows in Dallas which was a welcome addition to our surly/smelly trio of road-worn dudes. During the final set of the final show, Adairs Saloon was overrun by a Holiday Pub Crawl - 30 drunken santas, quite a few attractive elf ladies, several suits made of christmas lights, and one amazing duo with some pretty accurate 'Wet Bandits' costumes. Couldn't think of a better way to wrap things up.
After the last show, Mitchell and I had about 4 hours downtime before we had to catch a flight to Indiana, but more on that in a future post. Cheers!
11/11 - Hard Luck Lounge, Austin TX
11/13 - The Buggy Wheel, Coleman TX
11/14 - Railroad Blues, Alpine TX
11/15 - Planet Marfa Biergarten, Marfa TX
11/16 - High Sierra, Terlingua TX
11/18 - Stalight Theatre, Terlingua TX
11/19 - Si Italiano Bistro, Las Cruces NM
11/21 - Mineshaft Tavern, Madrid NM
11/24 - Beaver Run Resort, Breckenridge CO
11/25 - Tap & Handle, Ft Collins CO
11/27 - Swing Station, La Porte CO
11/28 - O'Malley's, Salina KS
11/29 - Westport Saloon, Kansas City MO
12/01 - Barleycorn's, Wichita KS
12/02 - The Fur Shop, Tulsa OK
12/03 - Red Brick Tavern, Norman OK
12/04 - All Good Cafe, Dallas TX
12/05 - Adair's Saloon, Dallas TX
Halloween Weekend Run w/ Jackie Myers Band
So, after touring for the majority of the summer, I finally found myself home in Austin (for more than two weeks at a time) in late September/early October. It was nice to rest for a bit and get back to some sense of normalcy, but even nicer to get back out of town for a bit.
Jackie's band went out for a short run across west TX and NM, including my two favorite derelict hippie towns, Terlingua and Madrid. First of all, west Texas is massive and mostly empty, and for the last 45 minutes or so of the drive in to Terlingua, there's nothing on either side of the road but hills and bushes and shit. Just nothing. Love it. The Starlight is a really great venue, and we were greeted by a crowd of 30 or so teenage German camper tourists who stayed throughout the first set and bought a lot of merch. While the crowd thinned out a bit after that (rain storm + dirt roads = people get the fuck home), those who stayed were receptive and appreciative, which is, y'know, pleasant. We stayed in a one-room cabin on the outskirts of town, with no electricity or running water, which I initially thought was going to be god-awful but ended up being OK. Sat outside for a minute before going to bed, as big open clear night sky out there is one of my favorite things to stare at. Woke up in the middle of the night because Jackie went outside to pee and I saw her shadow through the window and was convinced she was a murderous bear or something. I don't sleep well in general, especially in foreign settings, so it's not uncommon for me to find myself in that weird half-sleep-half-awake state imagining all manner of strange shit. Anyway, no murderous bears after all, as is often the case.
Abilene was... well, it sure was. It's always/never reassuring to roll in to a 'jazz club' to find the sound guy blasting metal music over the PA (I mean, I dig it, but it doesn't bode well for the venue). There was one nice couple that sat near the front all night and really dug the music, along with a few regulars/townies and a fellow dressed as Jesus for an early Halloween celebration. Got some decent dinner comped from a food truck out back and called it a night... until there were these asshole kids at our hotel, running around the walkways all night banging on windows and shit. These kids today, with their hula hoops and their rap music, I tell ya. Get off my lawn.
Halloween show in Cloudcroft was better. First off, we played a festival in Cloudcroft last year and it's SUCH a pretty landscape. I didn't know there were trees in New Mexico until we hit Cloudcroft. Awesome mountain/forest-y scenery made my short list of places to crawl in the wilderness and die when the time comes. The Western is a decent little dive, and when we were hard-pressed to figure out costumes before the show, Mitchell and I came through in the clutch with Dollar General bedsheets aka 'ghost costumes'. Jackie, ever the artist, was a bit more creative, donning a truck-stop-bought parrot hat and calling the costume a 'parroty of herself'. Get it? There were some weirdos in the crowd, but most stuck around and dug the show... I hear there was an older-middle-aged lesbian couple flashing boobs during the set break costume contest, but I was outside at that point. Always missing the good stuff.
Madrid is a rad little town of, like, 200 people maybe, and I've been there several times with Jackie's band over the last couple years. Seeing as it was a Sunday night, and the day after the entire town had partied their collective face off for Halloween, attendance was a little light, but everyone in the room was great. Had a guest guitar player sit in for the last set who was also kind enough to loan us his house for the evening.
One last thing worth mentioning is that Jackie finally broke down and upgraded her tour vehicle. Since I started playing with her band in 2013, we'd traveled in her tiny SUV, but alas, no more -- now we were hitting the road in glorious GMC conversion van style. More than enough room for the trio, however, the van's maiden voyage was marred by a flat tire in New Mexico (manly stuff, changing tires, nailed it.) and hitting a deer on the drive home through middle-of-nowhere west Texas. The latter resulted in a thoroughly dented front end and demolished grill, but on the plus side, a kindly stranger stopped to help us out with our bent bumper, hooking a chain to his truck and bending that sumbitch right back out so it wouldn't fuck up the tire it had previously been mashed into. Deer are dicks.
10/29 Starlight Theatre, Terlingua TX
10/30 Neon Parrot Lounge, Abilene TX
10/31 Western Saloon, Cloudcroft NM
11/1 Mineshaft Tavern, Madrid NM
Flannel & Doom Tour w/ Porter
I've known Chris Porter for a little bit now, was one of his roommates over the summer, and started drumming for him just before we left of this tour. His music is so much fun to play... it's based in Americana/Roots songwriting, but with the perfect amount of weirdness and balls-to-walls rocking to keep things interesting. Highlight of the tour (which was affectionately and appropriately dubbed "Flannel and Doom") was buying all manner of majestic wolf-themed stage accessories at every truck stop we could find... including a large wolf dreamcatcher, two small wolf statues (which doubled as our own Americana Music Awards for 'lifetime excellence in turquoise and denim' and 'only Scottish chick playing a Moog in Nashville'), and a wolf lamp with matching wolf print lampshade. It's all about presentation, folks.
Porter shares a rhythm section with Carson's band, so after the Ft Worth show, Mitchell and I just hung around the DFW area and met up with Porter and Bethany to start his tour. Since we had only had a couple rehearsals and played one show before the tour, the first few gigs were a little interesting. However, I've always been a fan of shows with that small element of 'everything could fall apart at any given moment', so no worries. The Dallas show was a nice paid rehearsal, meaning that the bar we played had a super friendly staff that took care of us and fed us well, but A) that venue just isn't meant for live music and B) outside of the few friends we brought, it was fairly empty. Take all of that into consideration with a shitty PA set up by one of the bar staff, and you get a so-so night that was good for working out the kinks with a new band.
Houston was markedly better, as Cottonwood is a big venue with pro sound and consistently good crowds, and our buddy Garner came out from Austin to open the show. Mitchell and I play with him as well (you'll notice a common theme developing, here), so we got to rock double duty that night. After the Houston show, we got to go home for about 12 hours to play an ACL Live show with Carson at the Moody Theater in Austin, opening for Jerry Jeff Walker... after which we hit the road again to drive through the night to Waverly AL. Maybe not the smartest tour routing, but SO VERY GODDAMN worth it for the incredible opportunity to play the Moody Theater. Somewhere around 3 or 4am, Porter and I got weird and pulled up all the 90's metal we could think of on Spotify, much to the chagrin of the sleeping bass and synth players in the back of the van. At Standard Deluxe, we met up with Caleb Caudle and his band, old friends of Porter's who split the bill with us. Such a cool venue... print shop by day, with two stages to host live music from time to time. We played the smaller room, which was like a tiny house that had been gutted and filled with a stage and seating, and it was packed. Shared some whiskey by the fire during Caleb's set, then headed over to Birmingham where we met Helen. She and Porter go way back, and she's an absolute sweetheart and great musician. Put us up for a few days and played with us at The Nick (and later in the week in Nashville). Man, shit got dark at the Nick... it's now joined my short list of favorite dive bars in the country (along with Sudsy Malone's in Cincinnati, and the White Horse in Austin, among others), but things definitely got dark that night. Without divulging too much detail, let's leave it as booze leading to personnel issues leading to a few awkward days following. It happens. On the bright side, Porter and I got weird again and listened to old school hip-hop for the majority of the drive out of Alabama.
The first Nashville show was great, the band actually got the night off while Porter played a song backed by a bunch of Nashville pros at an AMA showcase. Also got to see some rad songwriters like Aaron Lee Tasjan and Brian Wright do their thing. Back in Alabama, we learned the proper usage of the phrase 'Roll Tide', met up and shared a bill with Caleb's band again, AND managed to not come in last place at bar trivia before the show. Athens and Atlanta were both fun sets, but plagued by the dreaded curse of 'local openers that don't draw anyone to help out the touring band'... oh well. Plus side, we got to crash with Mitchell's Aunt and Cousin in Atlanta, who have put us up with other bands before and are always way too nice to us on the road.
The second Nashville show was OK, could have been awesome, but we were caught working with a 'sound tech' (aka bartender who happened to be available to set up mics and sit behind the board) who had been taking advantage of the free PBR's for one too many hours during the showcase. The Basement is a really cool little tiny venue, and the crowd was great, but bad sound led to a less-than-awesome show. Also, it took Domino's over TWO HOURS to get food delivered to us before the set, because, I don't know, directions are hard I guess. In Memphis, we met another touring band called Stoned Pony, and realized upon arrival that the club had booked three touring bands on it's two stages, with no local support. We ended up hanging out with the other band most of the night, played several rounds of Briscola, and generally made a shitty night into a great time. Stayed with a nice gal who turned out to be a crazy cat lady (upon entering her house, she warned -- "please be quiet, I have several elderly cats"), but she cooked us a rad dinner and we went bowling the next morning, so, y'know, good with the bad.
The last show of the tour was a great time, with our buddy Carson meeting up with us (she had been on her own solo run to Nashville for the AMA's) to open the show solo. Whitewater Tavern is such a great venue, I've been there a couple times this year and never had a bad show. By the end of the tour, only one of the wolf statues had been broken, and the wolf dreamcatcher and wolf lamp (with matching shade!!) ended up gracing our home back in Austin.
9/10 Common Table, Dallas TX
9/11 Cottonwood, Houston TX
9/13 Standard Deluxe, Waverly AL
9/14 The Nick, Birmingham AL
9/15 The Basement East, Nashville TN
9/16 Egan's Bar, Tuscaloosa AL
9/17 Caledonia Lounge, Athens GA
9/18 Red Light Cafe, Atlanta GA
9/19 AMA Showcase @ The Basement, Nashville TN
9/20 The Hi-Tone, Memphis TN
West Coast Tour w/ Carson McHone
Good lord, the west coast is so great. I've visited a few times in the past, and toured to the left once before, but this run was so much fun. Funner than the most funnest fun, even.
This was Carson's third tour this year, and we had some slightly different personnel on board for this one. Because we hired a new lead player two days before hitting the road (Kirsten, who is a fine fiddle-ist and a goddamn sweetheart of a human being), some of the shows were a bit rough around the edges. So it goes. There were plenty of great shows, too, and the performance quality only got better as the tour progressed. Hood River and Fort Collins stand out as my favorite stops -- both well-attended with appreciative/rowdy crowds. The weather was near-perfect for the duration of the run, which broke our previous tradition of having rain every damn day on the road with Carson. Also, the scenery out west is fucking gorgeous, and it's such a trip to see several different landscapes over the course of one drive. For instance, driving into southern CA, you've got Mars-looking desert, mountains, then all this cool greenery, then you're at the beach. The northwest was especially beautiful (even though part of it was on fire), and I distinctly remember waking up on the drive across Washington to find us surrounded by forest which was all draped in the heavy fog. I'll never get over seeing all that empty space in the western states, it fascinates me every time. It's not at all uncommon to drive for 30 or 45 minutes (or more) without seeing a single sign of civilization. My favorite part -- driving through some empty landscape, when all of a sudden you see one random house up on a hill or out in the middle of nowhere, no neighbors in sight and far from anything that's not a tree or a bear or something. Those people know what's up with their housing choices.
One of the highlights of this tour was doing SO. MANY. ACTIVITIES. All too often, working on the road consists of: drive, show, sleep, drive, repeat. If you're lucky, there's a day off or short drive in there somewhere, leaving time (aside from the hour or two between load-in and downbeat) to get out and do stuff in the city you find yourself in for the day. So, we had a few days with short drives, and we did some rad shit. First, science'd it up at the McDonald Observatory in Ft Davis TX (thanks Maragaret!). Giant telescopes, and apparently one of the darkest skies in the country. Second, a tour/tasting at Fall Brewing in San Diego CA. Old friends of our bass player went and started a brewery, and were kind enough to let us sample tasty beers, hooked us up with shirts and shit, and filled up a few growlers for the road. Third, a tour of the DW Drums factory in Ventura CA. Brought to us courtesy of the boyfriend of a high school buddy of mine, we spent the afternoon nerding out (well, me at least) over seeing how drums are made and meeting some of the employees.. all of whom were so damned friendly and super-stoked on sharing their craft with us. Finally, a trip to the Humboldt University Marine Biology lab, courtesy of Mitchell's cousin. Saw some creepy sea critters, made friends with a starfish, and walked down to the beautiful northern CA coastline. Honorable mention: multiple bowling trips in Tucson and Denver.
The other equally-best part of our west coast trip was the friends and family we caught up with along the way. It's one of the perks of touring, getting to crash on your buddy's/uncle's/mom's couch and catch up, but this tour in particular was packed with family/friend times. We use the CouchSurfing website pretty regularly on tour, and have met some rad folks in the past that were kind enough to take us in, put us up, and show us a good time while on tour. However, between Mitchell, Carson and I, we had friends/family to stay with on all but 5 nights of the tour. That's pretty great. Started off with a beach trip with Mitchell's cousin in San Diego, the staying/hanging out with some of his Tacoma buddies after show (the brewery guys, above). They brought a few folks out to the show on a Monday night, and we found ourselves a fine dive bar and apartment rooftop patio to finish out the night. LA brought me a chance to catch up with my friend Lauren, who I haven't seen in probably ten years, and she's killing it as an actress out there. We also met up with Megan, one of my old HS band nerd friends, who hooked up a place to stay with her buddy Spivey at his sweet hilltop hut in Ventura. We met Mitchell's cousin in northern CA, and stayed with a great CouchSurfer fellow named Jesse, who was also a percussionist and music teacher. Oregon and Tacoma were a shitshow, and I mean that in the best way possible. Mitchell spent a few years in the area, and therefore had a ton of friends who came out to the shows and housed us for the weekend. Highlight of the Pacific Northwest was the Ashtray, a flophouse in Tacoma. We stayed two nights, and I never did figure out exactly how many people lived there. They share my affinity for whiskey, so we all got on just fine. Notable sights included Mitchell waking up in a french maid costume, and our friend Travis meeting us at a Korean BBQ joint wearing a gorilla costume. In Utah, we stayed with a friend of a friend named Shane, who helped us book the show there and shared his couches with us. Visited a few bars after the show, and met a Native American who bought me a drink because he liked my beard, was convinced that aliens exist, and left us with the great tour quote - "I'm not drunk, I'm homo erectus". The Colorado portion of the run had us hanging out in Mitchell's hometown, including a set at his brother's wedding. Got to take the 'whiskey tour' with Mitchell's dad, and all was right with the world. In Santa Fe, a fan of Carson's saw a facebook post mentioning that we needed a place to stay, and hooked us up with hotel where her husband was the manager. That night, I spent 4 dollars in a faulty vending machine trying to get one goddamn bag of Cheez-Its. Worth it? Finished out the run staying with Kirsten's folks in Dallas, they were nice enough to let us hang out for a few days, drink their beers and swim in their pool.
I keep telling people that you should never be nice to musicians, otherwise we'll keep coming back, or worse, never leave.
Finished out the run in Ft Worth, Carson and Kirsten left for Austin while Mitchell and I stayed behind to meet up with another band, but that's another story for another post. Cheers!
8/19 - Hard Luck Lounge, Austin TX
8/23 - Monterey Court, Tucson AZ
8/24 - Tin Roof, San Diego CA
8/25 - Cinema Bar, Los Angeles CA
8/26 - Hotel Utah, San Fransisco CA
8/27 - Six Rivers Brewing Co, McKinleyville CA
8/28 - Trillium Cafe, Hood River OR
8/29 - Parkway Tavern IPA Fest, Tacoma WA
8/30 - North Pacific Coffee Co, Tacoma WA
8/31 - Great Pacific, Pendleton OR
9/2 - The Garage, Salt Lake City UT
9/3 - Cruisers Bar, Grand Junction CO
9/4 - Appaloosa Grill, Denver CO
9/5 - Tap and Handle, Ft Collins CO
9/6 - Private Party, Ft Collins CO
9/7 - Boxcar, Santa Fe NM
9/9 - Magnolia Motor Lounge, Ft Worth TX
Intro!
Oh, hello!
For some time now, I've been meaning to start a written chronicle of my days at 'work' as a professional touring musician. Tour Blogs are fun to read, right? I've always thought so. Who knows, maybe a few folks will find similar interest/enjoyment in my stories that I've always found in following the adventures of my favorite bands.
I'm fortunate to be able to call playing music my day job. It's silly... traveling around the country, playing gigs and hanging out with some of my best friends, and that's my career. I try my best to keep that previous sentence in mind on the rough days, and suddenly the drive isn't so long, the venue isn't so shitty, and so on. Perspective!
So, bit of background - I've worked, to varying degrees, as a professional musician for the entirety of my adult life. In 2012 I relocated from Cincinnati, OH, to Austin, TX, for a teaching job. I'd always wanted to teach music in Texas (and the time I spent in public schools here was absolutely fantastic), though a pleasant side-effect of the move was getting in on the wealth of performance opportunities that Austin had to offer. Within a couple years, I got so busy playing that I was able to take a break from teaching work and support myself with music as a career. Don't worry kids, I still teach a little when I'm in town, and am sure that I'll return to the profession full-time at some point down the road.
2015 has been the best/busiest year yet as far as gigs go -- by the end of the year, I'll have played just over 200 shows, with around 150 of those being on the road. Had some really incredible opportunities to play big shows like Auditorium Shores during SXSW (in the rain...), a run of theater shows opening for Shakey Graves, and opening an ACL show for Jerry Jeff Walker at The Moody Theater. The various bands that I tour with have visited 34 states and 2 Canadian provinces (eh!), and the upcoming new year isn't shaping up to be any different. I love it.
It's my goal to update this blog during/after every tour for the upcoming infinite while. Hope you enjoy reading about this stuff as much as I've enjoyed living it. Cheers!
PS - If you're curious, here are links to the bands/songwriters who hired me to go on the road this year. They're all fantastic, you should like them and give them lots of money.
Jackie Myers Band
Garner Sloan
Chronicling the adventures of a professional touring musician from Austin TX.

redpajama_set_name: RedPajamaCommonCrawl


Sep 9, 2018 · Follow. Nick led, I followed with Jim and Tom.
Sep 9, 2018 · Follow. Nick led, I followed with Jim and Tom. Fell once right before crux on second pitch.
Sep 8, 2018 · Lead / Onsight. Is this really a 5.7?
Aug 2, 2018 · Lead / Redpoint.


Best Paint Colors With Wood Trim – Choosing the color of the exterior house can be a challenge in itself. Often it takes years of experience to learn what colors and materials will work together. The average person has never done this before and certainly has no training or professional experience. And choosing the wrong color paint or material can be a very costly mistake so you may have to accept for years (or spend a lot of money to fix). Here are some tips to help you make the right choice.
We will provide a reference on best paint colors with wood trim. The most common mistake I see in choosing the exterior home color is the color is too light. The sun will clear the color outside, so choosing a bright color will look like white. When choosing colors, remember that they usually have to be more gray or brown than you think. For example, a gray with a green in it will be greener than you would think when painting throughout the house. If you choose a color and can say 'now the green', you may have chosen too 'green'. Major exceptions to this rule will be in more tropical locations such as Florida or other locations where lighter colors are more reflective of the desire to keep homes cool. Here pastel and bright colors can work very well.
If you are having trouble choosing to the side and trimming colors, keep them in touch with each other, like the creamy creams and darker creams on the same strip of paint chips. Then add accent colors like deep eggplant color. Many homes have vinyl windows that are usually white. White vinyl painting with the dark paint can be a disaster because of the expansion of vinyl in the sun. Dark colors will cause the vinyl to dilate more than usual, causing paint and possible windows failure. If you have a trim around a white vinyl window, it often works best to paint with white as well. That would tend to make the vinyl window blend more, and look more like a traditional wooden window. Whatever it is, use best paint colors with wood trim.
If you choose a new window and you want to paint your home in a darker color, consider choosing a cream or almond window. Bright white windows in very dark house colors generally have too much contrast. If you choose a cream or almond window, and coarse color coordinating paint, this will work better with a darker paint scheme. There are several manufacturers of gray vinyl products that can work well with more modern homes or homes with iron boards or even bricks. Generally, I do not care about the white vinyl in a brick house, unless the house is very traditional. That's the article about best paint colors with wood trim.


Pick some fresh peonies from your garden or buy them from the store to dress up a basic cake and turn it into a beautiful peony cake for your next party.
I love the frilly Peony flowers. There are currently 4 planted in my garden and each spring I look forward to the bountiful blooms that they provide. I wish that the cut flowers lasted longer, but alas, they are only good for about five days before they start fading. My house is filled with them for a few days each year and I just can't get enough of their sweet smell and beautiful shades of pink. Adding Peonies to a cake is nothing new, but each cake and flower are different and special and that's what makes each Peony Cake unique.
Spring is finally here and I've got about 4 inches of the Peony plants poking up through the mulch. This is always an exciting time of year for me. I'll take a walk through the yard to see what plants have started to bud and reawaken to the warmer days.
Spring is a time of rebirth, a time for rediscovery, a time to take a deep breath and embrace all that is and all that is going to be.
The Robins are out in full force as they look for a mate and start making new nests. I usually have two to three different nests around the house and I can't wait to see the babies each spring grow and flourish.
I have three different types of Peony Flowers in my garden: Sarah Bernhardt, Sorbet, and an Imperial Red.
The ones used on this cake are the Sarah Bernhardt ones that you can most commonly find in stores and florists. It's important to keep the flowers as fresh as possible before placing them on the cake.
Peony flowers are 100% edible – toss them into a spring salad for a pretty pop of color. Keep in mind any edible flower that may have been sprayed with a pesticide. You don't want to be ingesting that. I don't spray my spring flowers, but I always wash them. The sweet fragrance of the flower attracts ants and bugs and that's just no good for a cake.
No pesticides for 30 days if you are going to eat the flowers.
Don't cut the flowers too soon. You can cut when the buds are soft and keep them in water for a few days. Or cut the flower in full bloom and use within 24 hours.
Keep the flowers in water until ready to serve. They don't last long once removed from the water.
Cut the stem SHORT! Don't be poking the end of the stem into the cake. Simply lay it on top of the cake. If you want to have them up the side of the cake, best practice is to wrap the stem in some florist tape or plastic wrap to protect the cake.
The Peony Cake is done!It's perfect for your spring party and all the guests are going to love it!
I love using fresh flowers in my desserts. Check out a few more Cake Recipes.
A delicious 8-inch chocolate cake that is adorned with pink Peonies. This Peony Cake will be the talk of the party.
Prepare two 8-inch round cake pans with non-stick spray and flour and bake even strips.
Melt the butter and let it cool. Sift the flour, cocoa, baking soda and baking powder. To it add the sugar, eggs, milk and coffee. Beat until mixes and smooth.
Divide the batter between the two pans and bake 30 -35 minutes.
Cool the cakes in the pan for 15 minutes before turning them out on to a wire cooling rack.
Break up the chocolate candy and melt the chocolate in the microwave for 20 seconds at 70% power. Stir it smooth and set aside to cool to room temperature.
Beat the butter until light and creamy. Add in 1½ cup of powdered sugar and cocoa slowly until evenly blended. Mix in the melted chocolate and vanilla. Add in the coffee a little at a time until you've reached the frosting consistency. If your frosting is too thin, add more powdered sugar and if the frosting is too thick add bit more of the coffee.
Frost the cake and keep refrigerated until ready to decorate.
Wash and dry your flowers. Shake off any excess water that may be inside the folds of the petals. Cut the stems off and lay the flower on top of the cake. Your choice of positioning, but I liked them off center covering about a third of the cake. Wrap the stems in plastic or florist tape if you are going to poke the stem into the cake. Use extra greens if desired.


text:
Ahead of third Ashes test, Australia rule out bouncer battle despite Steve Smith blow
PTI Leeds | Updated on August 21, 2019 Published on August 21, 2019
Australia's Steve Smith during nets - Reuters
Australia coach Justin Langer has told his side to avoid being drawn into a bouncer battle after Steve Smith was ruled out of the third Ashes Test against England.
Star batsman Smith suffered delayed concussion symptoms after being hit on his neck by a 92 mph bouncer from England fast bowler Jofra Archer during the drawn second Test at Lord's.
His absence from the third Test at Headingley starting Thursday leaves Australia with a huge hole to fill.
Smith marked his return to Test cricket after a 12-month ball-tampering ban with innings of 144 and 142 during Australia's 251-run win in the first Test at Edgbaston that put his side 1-0 up in the five-match series.
He also made 92, having retired hurt after being hit when on 80, at Lord's where Marnus Labuschagne, Test cricket's first concussion substitute, made a brave fifty in the second innings after being hit flush on the grille of his helmet by Archer.
File photo of Australia's Steve Smith is hit on the neck by a ball from England's Jofra Archer - Reuters
World Cup-winning fast bowler Archer struck several telling blows on a Test debut that yielded five wickets.
Australia also have plenty of fast-bowling firepower at their disposal in Pat Cummins, Josh Hazlewood and Mitchell Starc.
But Langer insisted his side would not be sidetracked from their goal of becoming the first Australia side in 18 years to win an Ashes series in England.
"We know what our plans are to beat England," Langer told reporters at Headingley, where the third Test starts on Thursday.
"It's not an ego game," the former Australia opening batsman insisted.
"We're here to win the Test match, not to see how many bruises we can give. That's not winning Test matches, trust me. You can't get out with a bruise on your arm.
"I'm sure the bouncer will still be part of every bowler's armoury, if it helps us get batsmen out then we'll use it, otherwise we'll keep sticking to the plan."
'Unfillable shoes'
England are still without James Anderson after their all-time leading wicket-taker broke down with a calf injury after bowling just four overs at Edgbaston.
"It's not unlike England losing James Anderson, he's arguably their best bowler," said Langer.
"If you take your best players out it always has an impact so we have got to make sure that all the other guys, our senior players and our younger players, all step up and fill what are almost unfillable shoes as he is almost the best player in the world."
Smith and England opener Rory Burns apart, both top-orders have struggled in the face of some quality fast bowling.
But England have stuck by Jason Roy, even though the World Cup-winning opener averages just 10 in four innings this series.
Roy, however, has mainly been a middle-order batsman in first-class cricket with Surrey. England coach Trevor Bayliss hinted at a reshuffle in the batting line-up, if not in personnel.
"We think we've got the best seven batters available to us at the moment in England... whether we can change it round and make that (order) any better, I'm not sure, but we'll certainly have a discussion about it," he said.
"There's one or two batting spots in the wrong positions but we're trying to do the right thing by the team," England's Australian coach added.
Now the question is can England, who had Australia 122-8 in their first innings at Edgbaston only for Smith to steer his side to 284, take advantage of his absence? England will look for more heroics from Archer and hope that, with Ben Stokes fresh from an unbeaten century at Lord's, someone can give their attack enough runs to play with.


I am writing this from the backseat of our campervan. With in the drivers seat my friend Amine, working his way through French traffic. Behind us, the coolest office on wheels you can imagine. The KantoorKaravaan caravan. We are on our way back to the Netherlands, after a rural coworking tour through Spain. With my hiking shoes still dirty from walking around in the country side all over Spain, it is slowly dawning on me that we will back into the city soon.
What started as a wild idea to take the office on a tour down south, resulted in a very inspiring trip all around rural Spain. Full of exciting experiences, encounters and learnings that I would like to share with you here.
Our gear for the trip. A campervan by Camper Experience and our shiny KantoorKaravaan office on wheels.
The tour through Spain was a collaboration with Pandorahub. The aim of founder Diana is to bring life back into rural areas. Urbanization is a real problem in Spain. Young people are leaving their hometowns to go work and live in cities. Rural areas are momentarily not offering the jobs and lifestyles that younger people are looking for.
One way that Pandorahub is sparking life in towns, is by bringing digital nomads to the countryside. In collaboration with locals, they show them the possibilities for remote working all around Spain. Places to find peace of mind, inspiration, and meaningful interactions with locals. This will stimulate local economy and hopefully initiate collaborations between both groups, in order to make rural life attractive again for younger- and future generations.
With a small and changing group of people, we visited different places in the countryside. Besides working from the caravan and other spots, most important was connecting with our local hosts.
Xavi showing us around Masia Castelló, explaining about the history of the walls.
Our first stop was Masia Castelló. After the last inhabitant left Castelló in 1940, nature soon took over. For about fifty years the village was abandoned. Until in the late nineties, a group of people from surrounding villages got together and decided to restore Masia Castelló in all its glory. And beyond. At this moment, eleven of the houses have been restored. All of the work is done voluntarily, mostly in weekends. In order to raise building money, the association organizes a yearly festival and rents out spaces for weddings and band practices.
During our two days here, we had an extensive tour of the property and its surroundings by Xavi. Who also made us his specialty paella with self picked mushrooms from the mountains around. He told us about the way they are working together as an association in order to restore the village. We were the first group to have stayed in the new guesthouse.
In the future the association would like to attract more digital nomads, or even find a partner to create a permanent coliving space with.
At the attic office with Filippo and Iñaki.
In San Mateu we spent two nights in the hacker home of Filippo and Iñaki. This was the place where I learned a lot more about blockchain and bitcoin. During our dinners and coffee breaks, we talked about the huge potential for decentralization that blockchain offers. Taking away thick layers of bureaucracy, making self organization way easier. As a co-founder of the Blockchain Education Network Italia, Filippo is an amazing source of information and inspiration in this field.
Entropy Factory is another place where they put this potential into action. It is a rural coliving home and startup incubator, where some of the startups working with blockchain and bitcoin. Inside techies are typing away lines of code, while outside the sheep and their shepherd are walking by on their way home from the fields. It is great location to build on startups with a social mission.
For a small monthly fee you can move in, have your food prepared, and roam the hills when work is done.
On a hike with a group of digital nomads that were staying at Sun and Co.
With their picture perfect coliving home, Sun and Co is a great example of making a smaller town attractive for digital nomads. They organize all kinds of activities and mastermind sessions in order to build group spirit and have people enjoy the town and its surroundings. The house used to belong to Edu his grandmother. As an architect, he put his soul into the remodeling of the house. In May this year I had my first stay at Sun and Co. This time I was welcomed back with open arms. A home away from home.
Besides working from the main house, we loved working at the beach from our KantoorKaravaan office. Edu and Jon even arranged for their friend Juan to shoot some pictures during this great working day. It is at Sun and Co that you get to meet many location independent workers and entrepreneurs. To hear about the different things people do that allow them to live and work around the globe. "Where are you from?" is not a simple question here. Many of them have a home address at their parents place, just as a formality.
Go and meet them at Sun and Co. Stays go for minimum seven days, because Jon and Edu believe it takes some time to really connect with each other. In the end, almost everyone overstays their initial booking period. Not seldom for months at a time.
A visit to the garden during a tour of Sunseed.
With around thirty people living and working at Sunseed, it is the largest (eco) community we visited on our tour. As they put it, Sunseed is a: "hands-on practical centre for low-impact living and environmental education". What is interesting about Sunseed is that there is not just one founder leading the project. It is run by the group. People stay here from a week up to maximum one year, so its energy and team are ever changing. Since the community is located in a very dry region, one of their specialties is desert technology.
While I was spending some quality time with our campervan because of a flue, the rest of the crew got a tour of the place. The gardens, sanitary systems, solar energy station. Together with their neighbor David, the team is fighting against ecocide. The area of El Rio de Aguas is facing a complete drought in around three years, because of unethical water stealing practices by a large scale olive oil producer upstream.
Against a small weekly fee, you can stay and volunteer at Sunseed, to learn about low-impact living.
At around forty minutes by car through a breathtaking landscape lays Molino de Guadalmesí. A small eco community, situated in a valley and surrounded by windmills. Its founders, Johnny and Alicia, are both working as facilitators. Johnny shared some of his knowledge and unique worldview with us during a workshop. The 360º Sustainable Business Workshop at Molino took us from "Eco No Mia" to "Eco Si Nuestra". A collaborative economy, based on synergy and with a holistic approach. All that we have learned needs a blogpost on its own, but if there is something I can recommend you: dive into the world of spiral dynamics. Besides having the workshop, we briefly experienced what it means to be living in a small community like theirs. We had communal meals, went to milk and herd the goats, learned about wet- and dry toilets, relaxed in the yogaroom/library. We also got to experience what i means to have a week of pretty much only rain, and the impact this has when you depend on your energy to come from the sun. It means you really have to think about which usage is truly necessary. You can't have all the lights on and charge six laptops at the same time. It puts your energy use into perspective.
We also went into Tarifa. Both our first and our last night we spent at digital nomad hostel La Cocotera. A great place to host another event. It was here that we watched the livestream of the meetup about Blockchain backed governance systems (DAOs etc.), hosted by the Barcelona Bitcoin Community. Before we started the livestream, Johnny hosted an open space about bitcoin at Tarifa EcoCenter.
Keep an eye on the interesting events and workshops that are being hosted at Molino de Guadalmesí. For example their yearly twenty-eight days program for reconnecting to yourself and nature. Payments go through conscious economy, a way of giving back that is based on costs, value and possibility of giving.
On a tour through Arroyomolinos with Juan-José of AlmaNatura.
As the first B-Corp in Spain, Alma Natura has a business philosophy we enjoyed hearing about. (B Corps are for-profit companies certified by the nonprofit B Lab to meet rigorous standards of social and environmental performance, accountability, and transparency.) They build partnerships with public- and private parties in order to develop rural communities. One of their local partners, Tomates Felices, presented their project and took us, together with AlmaNatura's Juan-José, on a field trip. The goal of Tomates Felices is to give people with mental health problems something to get up for in the morning: growing food in their local vegetable gardens. The money that is made from the produce covers part of the project costs. In the future there will be more hectares of land, so that the project can be fully self-sufficient.
Another day, with Juan José's brother Israel, we visited Quesería Artesana Mamá Cabra. Owners Carmen and Dani make award winning handcrafted organic cheeses with milk from their own goats. Before going into the small cheese factory, we went to visit the animals. My favorite moment was when Dani called his goats, who were grazing all over the hills, and after his lure came running towards us. After having learned more about the milking process, we went for a tour and cheese tasting in the small factory.
AlmaNatura has good insights in the opportunities of different rural areas. Get in touch with them if you're interested in collaborating.
David explaining the meaning of the Las Indias flag to me.
Our only non-rural visit during the tour was to Las Indias in Madrid. Las Indias Club is a non-profit association that uses free software and distributed structures in order to create spaces for learning, debate and knowledge. Besides initiating their own projects, they are often hired as a think tank for businesses and governmental institutions. The core group of Las Indias does not only work together, they live together as a community as well. Based on total egalitarianism, the group shares everything from duties, incomes and recourses. They welcome us with open arms, inviting us for dinner and to stay the night.
During a very long and late night the team explained us a lot about the way they work and the type of projects they are working on. True activism mixed with a business mindset. Also, David showed us the extensive art collection on community living. Amongst them some original photos of the first Kibboets in Israel.
When you're interested in learning more about Las Indias' view on communities, you can download their free ebook 'El libro de la Comunidad' here.
Although it is not easy to summarize so many encounters and experiences, here are some learnings that are sticking with me.
– We use the word coworking nowadays for any space that offers seats and wifi. Usually I think 'working alone together' might be a more accurate term to describe what is going on. During our trip, true coworking happened at the times that our laptops were closed and we were involved in deep discussions and plan making.
– Rural areas offer an incredible amount of business opportunities. There are so many empty buildings, gaps in the market, and very willing communities that are welcoming entrepreneurs with open arms. Especially with the possibilities of working location independent, rural settlements can offer great work/life balance. All it takes are some eager people who put their creative ideas into action.
– Technology is really going to change things around in the coming years. Education and governance will not be the same anymore, because of factors like the use of blockchain and cryptocurrencies, decreasing costs of solar panels, and more people getting acces to internet. All great developments for a movement back to rural areas.
– We have to step up our game regarding the protection of our water and land. In rural Spain, especially down south, the effects of climate change and desertification are very tangible and already a real problem.
Goats were a returning theme during our tour.
I hope you enjoyed reading this blogpost. For me personally, it was yet another confirmation that rural life can be amazing and freeing. I can't wait to go back into the fields to run with the goats and get my shoes freshly dirty. If you have any questions about the locations we've visited, want to collaborate or share something else, you can reach me at manon@kantoorkaravaan.nl .
At last I want to shout out a big thank you for our amazing hosts during this trip. You opened up your homes, hearts and way of seeing the world. Thank you!
And another huge thank you for everyone who helped make this happen: Seats2Meet, Seats4Silence, KantoorKaravaan,Pandorahub, Ecotechnomads, and CamperExperience.
I am an ecotechnomad. A digital nomad who uses technology to help businesses grow that are working on improving life for people, animals and planet. By getting their story straight. And translating this into sustainable business results. Through analysis, actionable steps and storytelling. Let's collaborate. Together we can create a world in which the economy is circular, collaborative, and where wealth means wellbeing for everyone. I believe in the power of business for good.
Was soooo great to have you here!
Please come back whenever you like!
Perfect post Manon. I like to hear more from you and see if we can help those places to give them access to our ecosystem and software.
What a nice pictures. You definitely have a good holiday!


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