Beard

Sans Beard

*Only three people have ever cut my hair that I can recall. My Grandfather (once), My Father (until I was 16), and Myself.

it. was. phenomenal.

We had decided to participate in Mutemath’s budding VIP experience (Free t-shirts, albums, first-in-line passes, etc…), and one of the perks allowed me to acquire a photographer’s pass to the show. The VIP tickets also let us into the venue 30 minutes before doors opened. As a result, we got awesome spots up front.

Now back to the phenomenal part; Mutemath puts on an incredible performance. It’s a team of very talented musicians, sound and lighting engineers, stage hands, and event coordinators working together to put on a show that’s nothing short of cinematic. As a musician, I can attest to the practically perfect performance (yea alliteration); the few errors that did occur were seamless and handled with creativity.

Below are some of my favorite photographs from the show. If you want to see the full set, check them out on Flickr.

Here are my photographs from our last day in Hawaii on the island of Kaua’i.

The last two days of the cruise where spent at the island of Kaua’i. Of all the days and locations on the trip, I enjoyed Kaua’i the most. If you ever decide to take a trip to Hawaii, I would highly recommend Marriott’s Kaua’i Beach Club. It’s located on the beach of a beautiful cove with access to great surfing, and a smattering of fun shops and vendors.

The main reason I appreciated Kaua’i was the dynamic terrain. A tropical mountain island with a large canyon branching out through the center. Dusty ridges accompanied by jungle valleys. Waterfalls, beaches, cliffs, and winding roads. Lots to see in such a small place.

Here are some photographs of our trek around the island.

On the 5th day of our trip we docked in the port of Kona. At Kona, a friend of a friend of a friend of my father’s had boat and took us out to find dolphins and go snorkeling.

This species of dolphins are called Spinners because they tend to do lots of acrobatic displays when they jump out of the water. Despite the fact that they did this often, it proved difficult to photograph, as the jump only lasted 1 second, and it was hard to predict where and when they would leap from the water. Here’s my best effort.

We’ve found sand! We had to walk a mile from the ship to get to this beach.

First morning in Hawaii. I was still used to central standard time (-6:00 GMT), so by 4:30am in Hawai’ian time (-10:00 GMT) I could no longer sleep and got out of bed; the sun didn’t rise until about 5:50am.

My brother Merritt thinks it’s early…

This past June, my grandparents took my family, my aunts and uncles, my cousins – and themselves – on a cruise around the islands of Hawaii. The occasion of this trip was their 50 years of marriage, and all of us were very excited to celebrate with them (who wouldn’t?).

This first set of pictures was taken as we landed at the Honolulu Airport and boarded the ship.

My Brother, Skylar.

My Mother.

My Uncle.

This year has been filled with many events and responsibilities – Full-time employment, school, graduation, trip to Hawaii, marriage, moving – all of these are great; and all of these have helped contribute to a backlog of several thousand, unsorted, unedited, unblogged photographs. Over the last month I have removed the un’s from the aforementioned photographs, resulting in over one hundred that I’d like to show to you. These photographs are of my trip to Hawaii, my marriage, honeymoon, and various other things that I have seen during the last 6 months.

Starting with this post, I am going to begin posting several photographs every day; making up for all the posts I should have made earlier this year.

Don’t be shy – I welcome your thoughts, critique, and compliments – I’d love for you to comment.

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Now, enough of the shameless advertising. Here’s one more photograph…

This is my friend Joe Derse, and his mother; he graduated this May.

Also… It’s spring now. *grin*

Maudlin

Good Luck and Godspeed

http://radar.oreilly.com/2009/03/the-sizzling-sound-of-music.html

Berger then said that he tests his incoming students each year in a similar way. He has them listen to a variety of recordings which use different formats from MP3 to ones of much higher quality. He described the results with some disappointment and frustration, as a music lover might, that each year the preference for music in MP3 format rises. In other words, students prefer the quality of that kind of sound over the sound of music of much higher quality. He said that they seemed to prefer “sizzle sounds” that MP3s bring to music. It is a sound they are familiar with.

That “sizzling” has always driven me nuts in the lower quality stuff.

I remember wondering what audiophiles were up to, buying extremely expensive home audio systems to play old vinyl records. They put turntables in sand-filled enclosures with elaborate cabling schemes. I wondered what they heard in that music that I didn’t. Someone explained to me that audiophiles liked the sound artifacts of vinyl records — the crackles of that format. It was familiar and comfortable to them, and maybe those affects became a fetish. Is it now becoming the same with iPod lovers?

I can’t totally subscribe to this hypothesis. Because vinyl records are analog, they play a continuous audio wave that includes a bit of warm fuzz and crackle. Whereas digital audio is a mashup of samples from the audio wave; the sizzle and hiss created from the gaps between the samples. You may get a little noise with vinyl, but at least cymbals will sound like they do in real life.

(via: Daring Fireball)