indiana jones, Dallas, CC and moving

indiana jones... i just have to say it... i was disappointed for the most part.  while the ten year old boy in me who's favorite movies are and forever will be  'raiders of the lost ark', 'star wars,' 'rad' and 'the goonies' was absolutely satiated... the older, more mature (and more cynical i must admit) 20-something person i am today, who much more prefers watching 'films' than 'movies' felt like i was watching an older and greyer harrison ford star in a B level parody film poking fun at the movies that the 10 year old in me loved so much in the 80's.  anyway... bradley and i discussed this on the van ride to and from Corpus Christi this past weekend and we came to agree... you just can't make those kinds of movies anymore.  that kind of humor... that kind of campy action and general style of film making that was acceptable and flourished in the 80's... well... it just doesn't work anymore.  audiences are conditioned for different things.  while we can watch movies from the elder 'vintage' and enjoy them as they were then... its difficult to enjoy a new movie with that same motif (and oh ya... an obnoxious amount of CGI) in the same way.  you just can't.  same thing with why the newer 'star wars' films just didn't hold up... same idea... and oh ya, Jar Jar Binx was the most annoying character in the history of film.  that didn't help those films.  people said that the Ewoks in the original star wars trilogy were annoying (i beg to differ actually), but it can't be argued that Jar Jar Binx was exponentially more aggravating of a character... i almost walked out of the theatre on that one.  wow ya.  so ok... indiana jones wasnt THAT bad, but i was a bit let down regardless.  

ok the shows... 

Acoustic show in Dallas... just Bradley and I made the trek for this one... very intimate, very interactive... we had a lot of fun.  I think someone posted a few clips on youtube... search out if you're interested.  went down a day early to spend an evening with my parents... two of the absolute best people on the planet hands down... i wish i got to spend more time with them.  I missed my now florida dwelling older brother by a day as he was in town for a golfing expedition earlier in the week... he's the one who introduced me to led zeppelin, pink floyd, the beatles and this whole rock and roll thing... so you could say he's to blame for all the things i do :)  haha

Coprus Christi... flag day celebration.  Good to get back out with the electric guitars and turn our amps up... which we did.  it was loud and raucous and just completely enjoyable.  got a write up in the Corpus Christi Caller as we found out when we got there and a handful of folks said that made it out to the show because of the paper... pleasant suprise for us!  Bradley got a new case for a lot of his gear... it cuts his stage set up time in half, but required to design an entire new trailer pack for all our our road cases... which wouldn't have been so bad if it hadn't been 110 degrees while we were doing it.  2 hours playing human sized tetris on a 6x12 trailer with a few other guys is not my definition of fun... but we did it, got all of our gear to Corpus and I have to say... this new pack (even with the addition of the new case) is actually a better pack than the old.  What strange things I find satisfaction in these days.  

Drove home after CC... short weekend of shows... made it back to home base around 7am just as folks were heading out to their sunday morning church services.  We pulled in to the SUR house driveway, parked the van and were exhaustedly stumbling towards our beds just as our neighbor Bernie (a super nice fella actually) was walking out to the street to get his sunday paper... i think we startled him for a second... but our neighbors know what we do... they know the hours we keep and actually are really great about being accepting of us, watching the house when we're on tour and keeping an eye out on everything when we're away.  Our house is in a very 'family oriented' neighborhood in Austin and I think when we moved in many of the neighbors were afraid that we were going to be throwing wild parties in to the wee hours ever night of the week and i'm sure they put the police on speed dial the moment they heard what we do for a living... but the truth is, we're actually quite tame when we're at home... we are home so infrequently that when we're here we just want to rest... quietly write songs and enjoy a little life outside of the dingy rock club... however much we do love them... when we're home is nice to kind of turn that off for a bit.  i actually think the neighbors like us now to be completely honest... we even get invited to neighborhood events and have notes put in our mailbox that generally begin with something like, "Dear Band Guys... you are cordially invited to..." its actually quite amusing.  

ok so tonight marked the next to last rehearsal we are going to have in our current rehearsal space... its actually quite sad... this little 12x18 room has been good to us... its gotten us ready for tours, its helped us write a great many songs and its helped us grow as a band in more ways that we could have ever imagined... its been the place that we've spent almost every waking hour of our lives when we're not on the road... yet its time to change the scenery... mix things up a little bit and see if a new environment will spawn some new creativity and tell us some new and interesting... so goodbye room 62... you have been the good to us.

alright... san antonio this weekend and actually a webcast interview on sunday with our good friends at Open Labs who make an amazing product called the 'miko' which we own and are soon to integrate in to our live show... if you're in to checking it out visit www.openlabs.com  -alright thats all for now... 4am and i need to try and sleep.  we shall see if it actually happens or not.