New York

My good friend Shannon and I assaulted New York with poetic prowess in September, gathering all we could possibly see in 3 days including Wicked the musical, a Yankees:Boston baseball game, the Rockefellar Center, The Met, the Amerika Woche parade, the subway, the rain, Times Square, Central Park, an impromptu cab switch in the middle of Harlem, Alice's Tea Cup, Serendipity, and the list goes on.



We left our mark mightily on the subway crowd on the return trip from the game. Mightily. Got some laughs.

This is me, 30 nanoseconds from total berzerker mode. Luckily, I have incredible self-control. Otherwise, it wouldn't have been pretty.

New York. We shall meet again.

Tonicus at Redfish Lake

The weekend of Labor Day was most triumphant with the recording of yet another successful Tonicus reunion jam, not to mention the completion of many goals including (but not limited to) the conquering of several local choice eateries, the slaying of many old Toni-tunes, and a voyage to Redfish lake during a most potent overhead blanket of forest fire ash and smoke, mixed with impending precipitous doom. Note in the picture that we, the Toni-dudes, have no fear. Nein. Keine. You get the picture. Me on the left, John in the middle, Colin on the right.

Paragliding footage on YouTube

Check out my footage of the Paragliding Championships by clicking on the following links:

http://www.youtube.com/v/dqxIipw3ps4
http://www.youtube.com/v/_pD8HOuy4NU

More Paragliding pictures

Here's a shot of what you saw up in the sky above the launch site. I count 16 only in this snapshot. It was impossible to capture all 115 of them. These pictures just wouldn't load when I previously posted about the Championships, so here they are. If anyone knows how to post Movie clips, I have some awesome take-off footage to share, including a take-off almost gone wrong. Spooky.

Here are some low-flying pilots trying to catch some lift before the competition.

U.S. National Paragliding Championships 2006, Bald Mountain

The U.S. National Paragliding Championships 2006 were held on top of Bald Mountain this week. Several of the competition days were cancelled due to inclement weather--mostly high winds and complications with local forest fire smoke. This weekend, however, provided the perfect conditions for competition. I grabbed the River Run chairlift to the top, brought my camera and snapped some photos and video clips of several pilot take-offs. Seeing one glider pilot take-off is a great sight to behold. But I saw some 115 pilots take off in preparation for the competition. It was amazing. Pilots were launching from about 6 locations on Bald Mountain summit, and before you knew it, the sky was full of paragliders! Awesome!

If you've never seen a paraglider launch, here's the launch sequence:




Paragliding competition often involves the completion of tasks, like navigating a predetermined race course mapped on GPS equipment. Every pilot carries--among other things--a GPS locator, a hydration system, a safety parachute, a helmet, extra oxygen, and a short wave radio. One of the pilots had a battery operated radio he was using to listen to rave music before take-off. Hey, whatever floats your...glider! The competetion has a start time that proceeds all of the pilot take-offs so everyone can get up high enough in time. When 2:00PM came around, the race began--a race from Bald Mountain to Galena Summit and back, an out-and-back distance of about 60 miles, I think. Awesome!

To learn more about paragliding, visit www.flysunvalley.com.

Das Studio

For my entire life, I have dreamed of having a recording studio in my house--a dream ever thwarted by parents, roommates, and musically inept neighbors. But now, being in a house by myself with distant neighbors, I can now live the dream! These are some photos of Das Studio, my home recording space. Here is where I sketch and record my ideas for posterity and to share with friends. I've never taken advantage of this setup's fullest capabilities, but will someday assemble what you might call a finished album of some of my music. The tentative name for the project is "A Business of Weasels", a moniker created by one who will be referred to herein secretly as....Aris.

This is my drumkit, a beast who has been growing in size and complexity since December 2005. It's a Mapex M Birch kit that consists of the following:

• 18 x 22 inch kick drum
• DW 7000 double kick pedal
• Pork Pie 13 x 7 inch acrylic snare
• 8, 10, 12, 14 and 16 inch rack toms
• LP mini timbales
• PDP 10x6 inch maple side snare
• tamborine
• crasher
• 7 inch and 12 inch Sabian HHX splashes
• 10 inch Zildjian A custom splash
• 6 inch Zildjian cup chime
• Zildjian A 14 inch New Beat Hi hats
• Zildjian A 14 inch Fast Crash
• Zildjian A 16 inch Medium Thin Crash
• Zildjian K 20 inch Custom Dry ride
• Zildjian A 20 inch Ping Ride
• Zildjian A Custom 20 inch Medium Crash
• Zildjian ZXT Trashformer stacked to a Planet Z 13 inch top hat
• Wuhan 20 inch China
• Mapex and Pearl drum hardware and stands
• CAD, AKG and Shure condenser and dynamic microphones---12 total

Suffice it to say, there are a pantload of things to hit on this kit. And I can't think of a better way to have it. Miraculous.

And in line with our un-ending tradition, my good friends and high school bandmates--Colin (a.k.a. Stack, Prof, The Duke) and John (a.k.a. Dex, Burroughs)--will be arriving in 48 hours to reunite once again for our bi-annual Tōnicus Reunion Jam. This weekend will be our first ever band reunion in Sun Valley and in Das Studio, and I'm very excited. Can't wait!

The SVDG logo has arrived!...in beta form.

Here's a look at the prototype logo for my office. We've been pouring over many designs for months and have finally found one that will work. The "dental group" portion will probably be enlarged on the final, but overall I think it's looking good. We plan on using it in several ways, including a custom team soft shell jacket for all doctors and staff from Marmot. Can't wait for those to roll out! They'll likely be embroidered versions of one or more of the following:

The logo colors will be changed depending on which color scheme we select, but I'm rooting for red, or possibly black. We'll likely have a seperate doctor's and staff versions, which will be great.

This is for Jane, and anyone else who has never brought the finest root beer in all of creation to their lips. It is not Souix City, it is not IBC, nor anywhere close to the banal weakness of Henry Weinhardt's!!! (Honestly, I have Henrys in the fridge, like, daily.) It is VIRGIL'S who reigns supreme over all other incomplete brews!

And for those in search of the ideal ginger beer, I am again full of answers. "Bundaberg"--from Australia--is the finest ginger beer in the universe. I'm beginning to think that if a beverage is sold in a 4-pack and is NOT a wine cooler, it's going to be pretty darn good.

I believe both of these can be found at either Cost Plus or Trader Joes markets. Enjoy!!!

If you can see this picture, that means I've figured out how to post photos. Be on the lookout for future visual chronology of ViperDoc in the MIX!!!

This is a test. A voyage into an uncharted realm. Mission: to know the unknown, to find the unfindable, to listen to the silence...in a sea of noise.