Mixes

Back in the day, I used to be pretty proud of my mix making abilities. I mean, I thought it was one of the things that I was really good at. Since then, I have lost touch a bit with what is going on in music, and stopped making them altogether. And you know what, I have been kind of sad about that.

I recently found 8tracks.com and I love it. You can put a mix together from music that you upload or from stuff that has already been uploaded to the site. Plus you can listen to other peoples music all day while you are at work in a way similar to pandora and not get totally bored with your "Album Leaf radio".

I have made 3 mixes thus far, and here is my latest. I think everyone should go make one and send me the link. Then we can be pals on another internet site. Hooray!!

Best New Sub-Genre

The Lisztomania Tribute video.

The original:



Awesome

The Tribute:



Even more awesome.

The Tribute to the Tribute:



Super Awesome!!!

Jer3miah

Oh wow, I haven't written on this blog in so long. Lately the blog has pretty much turned into video clips from things that I think are cool -- so I decided I will continue along that thread with the current blog post.

The Book of Jer3miah is awesome. It is an online show co-created by a former student of mine (Jared, can I say that? You were in my Doc history class.) at BYU. From what I have seen and read, the purpose of the show was to play around with narrative texts and the means by which they are told. Initially, clues about the show were scattered around BYU campus and even placed in episodes themselves. I, however have self-diagnosed ADD and can't be bothered looking for clues, so instead I just got hooked into the narrative that the show has to offer. It has a great feel like LOST meets 24 meets The Phone Call ("How are the Oranges in California?")

At first the show was just a curiosity to me, but as the episodes wore on and on I became enveloped into the storyline and by the Season finale I was patiently waiting for episodes to appear.

The show is well made considering that it is made as a class project -- if only I could get my students to make something so intricate and involved. And I applaud Jared for running with an idea and being totally successful at it.

I would highly recommend that you all go and watch it. It is one of the most interesting things to happen in Mormon cinema, and I am glad to hear that it is getting recognition outside of the school (I wonder if it is getting more recognition outside of the school than in).

Here is a sample episode:

03: DETOUR from The Book of Jer3miah on Vimeo.

The whole season can be watched here

Sorry

but I won't join your Facebook group that is calling for the boycott of HBO because they are showing Temple stuff on Big Love.

I never know how to feel about situations like this...does it mean that I am apathetic?

But I do like the answer that the Church's PR machine has churned out:

http://newsroom.lds.org/ldsnewsroom/eng/commentary/the-publicity-dilemma

My favorite part about working til 7...

...Actually, I don't like it that much. But I do get to listen to this great radio show on the way home. It's called "TBTL", which is short for Too Beautiful to Live. It is called so because it is a show mostly about Pop Culture and it runs against Delilah, and it's on Mormon-owned KIRO FM, so it is bound to get cancelled one of these days. Anyway, you should take a listen. It grows on you. At first I was wondering when they were going to get to the meat of the show -- I always think they are taking tangents, but soon I realized that the whole show is 3 hours of tangents.

http://www.mynorthwest.com/tbtl

Oh Conan

I haven't watched you religiously in 10 years.  But I hope you will still do classics like this:

I really think

So what if my personal blog has become a repository for videos of random bands playing good music.

I really think that Vincent Moon is doing some of the most exciting things happening in Music/Film. I feel that this is further evidenced in his latest video with Fleet Foxes.

I mean the sound! Geez, I think they are all wearing lavs, and yet they mix it to catch that incredible space! I miss playing music.


Fleet Foxes - A Take Away Show from La Blogotheque on Vimeo.

i also like juan's basement

a short film that I like

Jobs and Such

Yo Peeps. As if getting married recently wasn't enough excitement in my life (it is!), I recently quit another job. Here is the story behind it:

Ever since I graduated from school, I have wanted to get back into it. Seriously, the time that I spent at BYU was so awesome, and the jobs that I had as a graduate student were the best ever. I loved teaching -- and despite the fact that I am not the greatest at it, I wanted to get back into it.

When I moved to Seattle, I was desperately looking for a job. I looked for teaching spots, but there are relatively few community colleges in the area that have any course of study that I would be an expert on (Mass Comm, Video/Film, Saved by the Bell), and the ones that did really didn't have any openings.

But randomly, before the wedding, I found a job posting for a teaching position at a Technical College in Kirkland. It was in the Video Production department -- I really didn't have any intention of leaving my current job, but decided to apply just for the heck of it (putting my resume together the night before the wedding while watching "Metallica: Some Kind of Monster" with James). After all, there are a few teaching jobs that I could take, so this would be the perfect opportunity to get in and get some experience at the community college/technical college level.

I got a call while on my honeymoon for an interview.

At my first interview I talked too much and didn't think I did very well. But I got another interview -- apparently they liked me and offered me the job. I am the newest Full Time Faculty in the Multimedia Design and Production Department at Lake Washington Technical College.

So now I am taking another road that I didn't anticipate, but that I have always wanted. Today is day number two (I start teaching Monday) and I am scared out of my mind. There are so many unknowns, so many areas where I don't have a clue, but this time I am determined to not let that scare me away.

Wish me luck!

Married

Check out my married blog for updates on my married life. Peace!!

http://roblovessteph.blogspot.com

Two Days!

I am so excited!!!

Now if only stupid work didn't keep me from having fun. urgggh.

Our new blog

So I don't know if everyone knows this, but Steph and I started a new blog for our wedding and/or our future life together.  Use it to figure out how to get to our reception, learn about me and Steph, or send us a wedding gift via the internet.

Our wedding is from the future.  Check it out at http://roblovessteph.blogspot.com

3 more weeks!!!

muxtape

Before I became all domesticated, I used to pride myself on an ability to make a mean mix CD.  This was back when I still kept up with music and stuff, and I would enjoy giving these CDs to friends as birthday presents.  To try and keep sharing music in this digital age, I started a music blog which turned into a podcast.  And while that is fun and all, I still don't have the chance to share a shiny disc full of music with anyone.

Enter muxtape.com.  I read about it on Wired this week.  And the site is pretty cool.  You can upload 12 songs and anyone can go listen to them like a complete mix CD.  I made my first tonight and maybe I will try to update in the future.  However, this means that I may actually have to try and find some new music.

Enjoy.

http://gentlerob.muxtape.com

Lay off me, I'm starving!!

Hey dudes -- sorry it's been so long since I've last posted, but I figured I'd better give any remaining blog readers out there an update on my life.

Some of you may have heard, but Nathaniel, Jane, and I got booted out of our house. It was sad, and only now do I fully realize how good I had it there. Anyway, I ditched Seattle and moved to Kirkland to be closer to work. I moved in with James for a few months before I have to dish out money and get an apartment for me and the lady. Meanwhile, here is my basement abode:


It's pretty cool, but not too cool that I am not excited to ditch this place and move in with a lady (only 2 plus months til the wedding!)

Oh, and while I was moving over here to Kirkland, my old faithful blue Honda shot out some nasty smoke and gave its final breath. It was a sad day, because that car had served me for 230,000+ miles and had seen some pretty awesome times. These are some highlights in the old blue Honda:

1) Road tripping with Jared Clark to San Francisco to see the Notwist and hang out with those dudes out there, before they were all married
2) Amanda cracking the windshield with her foot in the middle of our break up
3) Road trip to Jenn Nations mission farewell -- Suzanne, Nathaniel and I at Las Vegas Casinos at 3 am. Also the same night as Suzanne's infamous mustard sandwich at Carl's Jr.

That's all I can think of right now. Feel free to give your memories and pay your respects in the comments below.

But with death brings new life. And this car was brought into mine:

It's a 2008 Honda Civic (high rollin, I know!) The ride is pretty dope and futuristic. So futuristic that it has a digital speedometer ("why yes officer, I can tell you the exact speed that I was going"). I figure it will be a handy car to have around when gas gets up to 1 firstborn/gallon.

Well that's it for my update. I will try to be better about updating this.

Oh, and now is a good time to buy your plane tickets for the wedding. Remember Aug 16th! We already have one confirmed guest: Mike Nations -- so that should be enough to get anyone up here.

Peace

Matters of Ward Business

I've been meaning to update this for a while with the various happenings of my life. I would like to do this with pictures, but I always forget to bring my camera around with me.

1. My 1991 Honda Accord died this weekend after 17 years of faithful service. It began doing weird things last week while I was moving and this past weekend I drove it home to have my dad look at it. It was at this point that it gave up the ghost. I am convinced that it wanted to go home to die. So now I get to buy a new car...which shouldn't be difficult, but I rarely think about cars so I have no idea what to get.

2. I was booted out of my house in Seattle and I now live with James. He is a cool roommate who has fun things at his house like ball pits, and randomly buys sewing machines and bread makers....and I am constantly finding out totally random stuff about him -- like last night he told me that he was a stock broker for a year.

3. Stephanie and I moved our wedding date to August 16th!!! Save this date and come visit me in Seattle -- I can probably find you a floor to sleep on.

Okay, I think that's it for now.

On Getting Hitched and Stuff

On Friday night I asked this girl

to marry me.  Even though the whole process kind of freaked me out, and I got many good suggestions on how to do it (putting the ring in various forms of food, skydiving, etc).  I opted for the old fashioned approach of taking her to a dive of a chinese restaurant in the international district (really good dumplings and homemade noodles).  Following which, I took her on a tour of notable sites in our relationship, ending up in Matthews Park out towards the end of Sand Point.  It was dark, rainy, and real cold.  I tried to make it seem like I wasn't about to propose marriage, but there was no way around it, and thankfully, she said yes.

I consider myself pretty lucky.  Wedding details will be forthcoming, but we are thinking the end of the summer -- as if you needed another reason to visit the great northwest.

ummmm....awesome

over the hills

Good Good Friday!!

Hey dudes-

While all of you suckers were slaving away at your jobs. I was having the best Good Friday you could ever imagine. You see the thing with my job is that my company is based out of Dallas, and I guess good Friday is a big deal down there, and as a result, I didn't have to work.

So it started out with me getting a new job -- which was pretty awesome. I guess I won't get to enjoy any more Good Fridays off -- oh well, at least I won't hate my life that much.

Stephanie decided that I could do whatever I wanted, considering that it was my day off (she is so nice, she just finished her last day of school yesterday as well, but she wanted the holiday to be all mine). I jokingly said that I wanted breakfast in bed -- so she brought me hot chocolate and the peanut butter and jelly donut from Winchell's that I've been eyeing for months. She is pretty much the bomb dot com.


Then we went to Ikea and we bought a bunch of nick nacks that we didn't need. However, I did decide that I needed this organizer (it like I, was temporarily oversold):


Then, we went to eat lunch at the Australian Pie company. They are this fantastic place in Burien that makes Australian Meat Pies. After my mission I would wake up in the middle of the night craving these things.
Look at all those choices -- how is someone supposed to decide?

I got the beef, potato, and cheese pie. I was not disappointed:

We got a sausage roll for nostalgic purposes -- just as bad as I remember.

It makes me happy that Steph is into them:

After Burien, we went into the city and went to the Columbia Center, which is the tallest tower in Seattle.

The view from the bottom:
The view from the top:
Good Friday pretty much rules.

Happy St. Patty's

a classic: