Live music is amazing. I'm sure all of you out there in blog land have a favorite artist or band or two and wear their CDs out. And I'm sure that you'll agree with me that a CD just doesn't quite compare to hearing them live and in person.
Last night Patrick and I traveled to Charlottesville to hear Edwin McCain play at the Jefferson Theater. The trip came off without incident (though Patrick missed a turn and we didn't realize it until 23 miles later). The Jefferson is a fully restored theater with state of the art sound systems, ventilation, food and, most importantly, no smoking. We met up with Robert at The Mall and walked our way to the theater, where he roamed around enough to find the acoustical sweet spot (he has an ear for these things).
After the opening act, Edwin came on stage at 9 p.m. and played for right around two solid hours with barely a break in the set. He opened up acoustically, jammed with his full band and then polished off the night with a two song acoustic set that was amazing. We were about twenty feet from the stage and near the middle of the room (though at the rear of the crowd) and he jumped down off the stage and ran over to where we were and finished a song, which was pretty cool.
He didn't play a lot of my personal favorites, but he played some new stuff we hadn't heard and some great stuff in between. He wrapped up the show with a solo performance of 3 a.m., which is one of my favorite songs. He hasn't played it live for about 7 years now and he's just playing it again since it's on his greatest hits album. Getting to hear that live was worth the trip.
Whenever I go to concerts, I go for the music. I even imagine how much fun it would be to be the one up the stage putting on the show (though chances are that's not in my future). But when I look at the people around me, I smile a little and think about my Mom.
See, Mom's the kind of person that enjoys that music but also enjoys watching people have a good time. She likes seeing people dancing and enjoying life. Well, there was one guy there last night she probably rarely would have taken her eyes off of.
This guy was huge. He probably could have been a bouncer if he'd applied for the job. Goatee, shaved head and was so muscular and so big he looked like he could've eaten a weight bench if he'd set his mind to the task. He was right up against the stage, even drumming on it (you can stand right against the stage at The Jefferson). And the dude was dancing his butt off, singing every lyric to every song. I looked closely a few times and never saw a drink in his hand. I don't know if he'd taken a nip or two before the show but he was dancing and shaking his butt for everything he was worth. As much as I enjoyed the concert, I don't think that I came close to enjoying it like he did.
World's full of interesting people, isn't it?
Friday, April 30, 2010
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Books
It's been one of those weeks that make me wish I could be a kid again. I'm not going in to details. I'm tired of details and I haven't even been the one dealing with the hardest parts.
Instead, I'm going to reminisce about being a kid. I learned to read when I was little, I think about the kindergarten or the first grade. I remember hating the reading assignment we took home one night. Something about a bear and a grasshopper. I don't know, but I remember hating having to do it.
I was blessed with parents who, while they probably didn't understand my love for the written word, loved me enough to keep books coming my way. They didn't read and for the most part still don't, so instead of handing me their own favorite novels they helped me go out and find my own.
To this day, I'm not a fan of school. Never have been and never will be. But I can remember three distinct books that I discovered at Sharon Elementary that I might not have found otherwise. The first is C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. A true classic that my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Carroll, read out loud to us. I won't ever forget her reading that. I've never even re-read it myself, much preferring to savor that experience instead.
The second of these novels was The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. Mrs. Carter read this to us at the end of the year way back in seventh grade and committed the cardinal sin of not finishing the book before school let out. Naturally, I had to finish it myself and answer the question of "whodunit?" It's a classic puzzle mystery that even won a Newbury Award.
Next up on the list is my first true sci-fi novel, also discovered in Mrs. Carter's class, 2010: Odyssey Two. Written by Arthur C. Clarke, the grandmaster of sci-fi, I was riveted to its pages even though it never left the solar system. The book was filled with so much mystery, so much wonder, that I can even remember reading it in the back seat of my parents' old van on the way to Grandma's house in a raging thunderstorm as we neared the exit.
While we're discussing school, I should mention one of the few bright spots of being trapped inside those walls: Scholastic Book Orders. I think these have probably gone the way of the dodo in today's high tech world, but back then before Amazon and eBay these were a great way to find great books for kids. They were filled with Newbury award winners and the type of literary fiction that should teach children to love to read. They were about four pages long and came out every few weeks. Somehow I always managed to talk Mom out of a book.
It was in the pages of one of these book orders that I first met Calvin & Hobbes. When Revenge of the Baby-Sat came to my attention, I immediately begged Mom for it. I can't remember what it was that made me want it, but it looked interesting. I was already a fan of Garfield. It didn't seem like a stretch for me to enjoy another comic strip.
Boy, was I right. Calvin & Hobbes became a staple of my reading from then on. Not a year goes by that I don't read at least half of the collection. I even get a strip in my e-mail each day. Calvin firmly lodged me in a world of enjoying newspaper comic strips and offered a little backhanded and unexpected food for thought.
It wasn't really until my senior year of high school and freshman year of college that I came to enjoy works of fantasy. My senior year was the year that Harry Potter gained national and Hollywood attention and The Lord of the Rings regained the notoriety it so richly deserves. The Harry Potter series was magical enough that I was hooked on the first read and spend the next few weeks chasing down copies of the books (ah, the days before Amazon became an option for my go-to book source). The Lord of the Rings was a bit confusing and deep for a fantasy newbie, but it didn't take long for me to appreciate the depth of Middle Earth and the beauty of Tolkien's creation.
It was Devan who finally came around with the book that would hook me into fantasy. When he came back from boot camp he went digging for a book he'd started reading there and didn't get to finish...Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind. That novel is everything a fantasy novel should be, smartly written, multi-layered and full of high adventure and philosophical meandering. We spent the summer reading that series, The Sword of Truth. We'd make trips to Mountain Book Company and order them two at a time. When we picked up one order, we ordered the next and we were generally waiting to read them by the time they came in.
From there I moved on to the world of Dragonlance and Robert Jordan's impressive Wheel of Time series. I spent an entire summer reading the Dragonlance core novels and an entire semester, from January all the way to graduation, reading The Wheel of Time. These books heavily inspired our work on The Chaos Chronicles and are, to this day, the reason that I sometimes get in the mood to spend months reading an entire series in one go.
There are books and then there are Books. Books have scenes and characters in them that stick with you your entire life. I've touched on a few Books in this post. Next time I think I'll talk about them a little more.
Instead, I'm going to reminisce about being a kid. I learned to read when I was little, I think about the kindergarten or the first grade. I remember hating the reading assignment we took home one night. Something about a bear and a grasshopper. I don't know, but I remember hating having to do it.
I was blessed with parents who, while they probably didn't understand my love for the written word, loved me enough to keep books coming my way. They didn't read and for the most part still don't, so instead of handing me their own favorite novels they helped me go out and find my own.
To this day, I'm not a fan of school. Never have been and never will be. But I can remember three distinct books that I discovered at Sharon Elementary that I might not have found otherwise. The first is C.S. Lewis' The Lion, The Witch & The Wardrobe. A true classic that my fifth grade teacher, Mrs. Carroll, read out loud to us. I won't ever forget her reading that. I've never even re-read it myself, much preferring to savor that experience instead.
The second of these novels was The Westing Game by Ellen Raskin. Mrs. Carter read this to us at the end of the year way back in seventh grade and committed the cardinal sin of not finishing the book before school let out. Naturally, I had to finish it myself and answer the question of "whodunit?" It's a classic puzzle mystery that even won a Newbury Award.
Next up on the list is my first true sci-fi novel, also discovered in Mrs. Carter's class, 2010: Odyssey Two. Written by Arthur C. Clarke, the grandmaster of sci-fi, I was riveted to its pages even though it never left the solar system. The book was filled with so much mystery, so much wonder, that I can even remember reading it in the back seat of my parents' old van on the way to Grandma's house in a raging thunderstorm as we neared the exit.
While we're discussing school, I should mention one of the few bright spots of being trapped inside those walls: Scholastic Book Orders. I think these have probably gone the way of the dodo in today's high tech world, but back then before Amazon and eBay these were a great way to find great books for kids. They were filled with Newbury award winners and the type of literary fiction that should teach children to love to read. They were about four pages long and came out every few weeks. Somehow I always managed to talk Mom out of a book.
It was in the pages of one of these book orders that I first met Calvin & Hobbes. When Revenge of the Baby-Sat came to my attention, I immediately begged Mom for it. I can't remember what it was that made me want it, but it looked interesting. I was already a fan of Garfield. It didn't seem like a stretch for me to enjoy another comic strip.
Boy, was I right. Calvin & Hobbes became a staple of my reading from then on. Not a year goes by that I don't read at least half of the collection. I even get a strip in my e-mail each day. Calvin firmly lodged me in a world of enjoying newspaper comic strips and offered a little backhanded and unexpected food for thought.
It wasn't really until my senior year of high school and freshman year of college that I came to enjoy works of fantasy. My senior year was the year that Harry Potter gained national and Hollywood attention and The Lord of the Rings regained the notoriety it so richly deserves. The Harry Potter series was magical enough that I was hooked on the first read and spend the next few weeks chasing down copies of the books (ah, the days before Amazon became an option for my go-to book source). The Lord of the Rings was a bit confusing and deep for a fantasy newbie, but it didn't take long for me to appreciate the depth of Middle Earth and the beauty of Tolkien's creation.
It was Devan who finally came around with the book that would hook me into fantasy. When he came back from boot camp he went digging for a book he'd started reading there and didn't get to finish...Wizard's First Rule by Terry Goodkind. That novel is everything a fantasy novel should be, smartly written, multi-layered and full of high adventure and philosophical meandering. We spent the summer reading that series, The Sword of Truth. We'd make trips to Mountain Book Company and order them two at a time. When we picked up one order, we ordered the next and we were generally waiting to read them by the time they came in.
From there I moved on to the world of Dragonlance and Robert Jordan's impressive Wheel of Time series. I spent an entire summer reading the Dragonlance core novels and an entire semester, from January all the way to graduation, reading The Wheel of Time. These books heavily inspired our work on The Chaos Chronicles and are, to this day, the reason that I sometimes get in the mood to spend months reading an entire series in one go.
There are books and then there are Books. Books have scenes and characters in them that stick with you your entire life. I've touched on a few Books in this post. Next time I think I'll talk about them a little more.
Monday, April 19, 2010
Panoramic Falls
The weekend was completely taken up by Bethany's birthday and the week with various other chores. However, I did manage to make it to the base of Falling Spring Falls Monday afternoon.
The image you see posted above is a composite of three photographs, stitched together and cropped into a panoramic 12x36. The file size was huge, so I had to save it for use on the Internet. That option degrades the quality a bit, so if it seems a little fuzzy that's why.
Interestingly enough, the mist coming off the falls gave a nice, soft focus affect to the shot without me having to add it on in Photoshop. I plan on offering some of these for sale in the future, which is why it has a border and my name on it. Hopefully I'll be back on the regular blogging schedule this week.
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Irony, Edits & Visions
How's this for irony?
Devan and I lived less than 10 minutes apart for most of our lives. When was engaged he lived in Lexington, 30 minutes away from my home. When he entered a state of wedded bliss, he moved to Roanoke, roughly 50 minutes away. Now, he's in Iraq, which is literally half a world a way and in a different hemisphere. And in the past few days we've managed to make more progress on The Sixth Sword than we have in over a year.
The Sixth Sword is turning into a much more collaborative effort that Chaos Reborn. Which is a good thing. Devan and I are now working to merge our separate visions of the end of our original story into one. This book will complete our original idea that we came up with in elementary school and began working on in high school. Chaos Reborn was published in fall of 2006 and The Sixth Sword will likely see a 2011 release. Chaos Reborn will be under contract until 2013, at which point we'll regain all the publishing rights to the novel. At that point we'll do a little tweaking, clean up some errors and make our debut novel as clean as it should have been to begin with. We may actually merge the two into a collector's edition single volume, but that remains to be seen.
Interestingly enough, this will be another change in what I've been writing. It's been a long time since I've written true fantasy and even longer since I've read it. I'll have to dive back into that world for a while to find my feet again. I'll also have to dig up Breaking Benjamin's Phobia, the album that was the soundtrack for writing The Sixth Sword.
The Crownless King is the best thing I've written to date. Neither Chaos Reborn or The Sixth Sword can compete with that, in my mind (even though The Sixth Sword is pretty good, if I do say so myself). Yet I believe in what Devan and I are creating here. I think that someday we'll have a legitimate shot at the big time with these novels. It's just a matter of staying true to what we want to write and continuing to have fun with it.
Devan has dreams of a much longer series than we originally intended (especially considering that we only planned one book). I'm on board for that. Now we're weaving in the threads that will lead to that longer series. I can't wait to see how it all plays out.
Devan and I lived less than 10 minutes apart for most of our lives. When was engaged he lived in Lexington, 30 minutes away from my home. When he entered a state of wedded bliss, he moved to Roanoke, roughly 50 minutes away. Now, he's in Iraq, which is literally half a world a way and in a different hemisphere. And in the past few days we've managed to make more progress on The Sixth Sword than we have in over a year.
The Sixth Sword is turning into a much more collaborative effort that Chaos Reborn. Which is a good thing. Devan and I are now working to merge our separate visions of the end of our original story into one. This book will complete our original idea that we came up with in elementary school and began working on in high school. Chaos Reborn was published in fall of 2006 and The Sixth Sword will likely see a 2011 release. Chaos Reborn will be under contract until 2013, at which point we'll regain all the publishing rights to the novel. At that point we'll do a little tweaking, clean up some errors and make our debut novel as clean as it should have been to begin with. We may actually merge the two into a collector's edition single volume, but that remains to be seen.
Interestingly enough, this will be another change in what I've been writing. It's been a long time since I've written true fantasy and even longer since I've read it. I'll have to dive back into that world for a while to find my feet again. I'll also have to dig up Breaking Benjamin's Phobia, the album that was the soundtrack for writing The Sixth Sword.
The Crownless King is the best thing I've written to date. Neither Chaos Reborn or The Sixth Sword can compete with that, in my mind (even though The Sixth Sword is pretty good, if I do say so myself). Yet I believe in what Devan and I are creating here. I think that someday we'll have a legitimate shot at the big time with these novels. It's just a matter of staying true to what we want to write and continuing to have fun with it.
Devan has dreams of a much longer series than we originally intended (especially considering that we only planned one book). I'm on board for that. Now we're weaving in the threads that will lead to that longer series. I can't wait to see how it all plays out.
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