Yesterday and today have both been great days.

Yesterday i was off from work and pretty much relaxed all day.

• I watched “How I Got Into College” a comedy from 1989.
• I watched “Nobody Knows“. Amazing. Seriously.
• Pulled some weeds around the house.
• Had 1 Sol. Mmmmm.
• Also a turkey sandwich. Which was Mm but not Mmmmm.

I had a meeting today at work, it was nice. Kelly the behaviorist came in to talk about “Positive Reinforcement” and “Active Treatment“. Usually I would be going back into work right now, but I have the night off to play a show in Hollywood.

Telephone & Telegraph is playing with The Prima Donna’s and, Save Ferris’s new band, Victory Season. So if you don’t come to the show you will miss out on a great night!! The show it at the CIA. No kidding The CIA is the weirdest venue you will ever see. So at least come to see how strange it is. I mean really just look at the website, and that should be enough of a hint.

Now I am heading home to do some weedwacking and then get ready for the show. Have a good night, and hope to see some of you there!

ps. I added lots of links on the right! More to come.
adios

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Sometime last year I remember walking around Whole Foods and seeing this new gum. I really don’t enjoy chewing gum, but that is because it is just moving sugar around in my mouth. This new gum said it had no sugar and was actually healthy to chew. Well of course i was skeptic, and so i dismissed it from my mind. But the other day I was reading up on it, and it turns out that it is true! An answer for people like me who hate gum because of it’s sugar content. Sugarless chewing gum with xylitol helps control the germs in your mouth that cause tooth decay! I even found a few websites backing up this information. One is from the Flouride Action Network. The second is the Natural Web Store where you can buy some online! I am going to buy some tomorrow, because I know Whole Foods carries some. EDUCATE!

Also, go post something in the dang forum!!

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This past weekend was a blast!

Saturday i went to work and 3 of the kids and I went on the nature hike I had planned for that day. At first we thought about going on the usual hike around the corner, which ends up near the train tracks and you can watch as trains pass. But this hike is very easy. So we decided to take on a challenge. I have taken a trail before called the Humming Bird Trail. It goes from the the top of Kuenher to Rocky Peak. Altogether it is a 4.6 mile hike round trip. We parked in the dirt area and I briefly told the kids that we could run into some wild animals and what to do if we did. There happened to be another group going at the same time as us. They were nice. So we started up the hill and made it to the top in about an hour and 45 minutes. We took breaks and had pep talks along the way. But i kept telling them how proud and happy they will be once we get to the top. It was certainly more of a hike then they are used to, but honestly they handled it pretty well. Which opens up many more hikes for future saturdays.

I got off work around 3 and headed straight over to the California Boys house. Where I took a shower and sewed a button onto my suit jacket. Which i had been meaning to do for months. I got to Jared and Tamra’s wedding at around 4. I think everyone had a great time. Jared and Tamra looked cute. I’m so excited for them! It was very nice seeing a big group of friends that do not normaly all hangout. The wedding had great punch and carrot cake too.

After the wedding some of us went to Omar’s to relax. We stopped off on the way for coffee. While at Omar’s we played some video games and goofed off all night. Omar and I worked on a forum that i am going to add to my site. It is not completely done yet, but i think i will link to it now. So over to the right there is a new link. I hope the forum is fun for everyone.

Sunday, my cousin and I watched Weather Man. That Nicholas Cage movie. It was alright it had some language I could have gone without hearing. But overall an interesting story. Then we ate cake from his brother Pat’s Bday, and drove around looking for these headphones I want. Chris Andelin had them so I tried them out. They turned out to be terrific! So I returned the Sony ones I bought a week ago and I am on a mission to find these Griffin Ear Thumps. So far nowhere to be found except for online. I will look some more then I will just but them online. They are the same price as the Sony ones I had, 20 dollars. They even block out some outside noise, and they are very comfortable.

Last night we played a show at this place in West Hollywood called the Tempest. It went pretty good I think. We played our new song, long sleeves rolled up. And afterwards everyone loved it! Plus I got alot of compliments on our sound and overall performance. I was pretty happy with the whole night, even though the Tempest was a bit small. I mean really, the only thing on the stage was me and the amps. We played with Polar State, The Top Drawer, Skyscraper Frontier, and Cosio.

Today I watched a movie called Reel Paradise while drinking a glass of water and eating a microwaved chicken burrito. It was about a former indie film “guru” John Pierson who takes his family to Fiji for one year to run the world’s most remote movie theater. I give it 5 out of 5 stars. What a great idea for a movie. I recommend it.

And now it is 2, and I need to shower and leave for work.

Adios.

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Originally uploaded by bradley j.

Wow! this week has been soo great. 2 really incredible things happened.

The recording of Telephone & Telegraphs debut album is done. We sadly said goodbye to Ethan after 6 days of hanging out and recording an amazing and energitic album. Having him there was a great idea. The way he worked flowed very well with our energy and the way we wanted to go about the recording. We got the rough mix tuesday night at 3am, and it sounds so good. Knowing that it is only a rough mix makes me very very excited to hear the final versions of the songs. 11 total. The studio, The Hobby Shop, was perfect for our needs. We found out that the Custom API Based Console, we used to record, was from the 70’s. Also the owner of the studio Mudrock told us that some very legendary albums had been recorded using the same board. Here are just a few…

• The first Foo Fighters record.
• Fleetwood Mac : Rumours.
• The Rolling Stones : Exile to Mainstreet.

If that is not enough to get you excited I don’t know what is. The Fleetwood Mac vinyl of Rumours even has pictures of the board in the albums artwork!! Avenged Sevenfold recorded their newest album at The Hobby Shop too. And although I don’t care for this band very much at all, it is still really neat to know how rad the studio is.

I posted about 100 photos from the recording weekend on my flickr, which there is a link to on the right. I kinda went photo crazy, but i really wanted to capture as much of the weekend as possible. These kind of events are really important to me and I didn’t want to forget a second of it.

So we have 2 shows next week and we are very pumped up and feel more solid as a band. The future looks bright for T & T. Roam the River Records is putting out our album and we have alot to thank them for. Jeremy and Adam had faith enough to let us go in to record 11 songs. We have enjoyed partnering up with them and look forward to the future of T&T and RTR. Plus Jeremy is just such a hip guy, and Adam I mean he has a smile that could stop a train.

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Well it is the ending of the second day of recording, and everything is going great! Here is a list of things we have done up to now.

We arrived at The Hobby Shop studio around 11:15am friday morning. We got aquainted with the studio and loaded all of our equipment in, by around 12:30. Then came the fun part, setting up the drums just right to start placing the mics and get everything finalized with them. I had about 5 snares to choose from, and we ended up using this incredible snare. The shell is a train wheel! It was made in California and weighs a TON. We decided that it had the best sound for what we were going for. So after about 4 hours or so of just switching mics around and warming up, we started the first song. I can’t remember which one we started with, but we did about 4 or 5 songs friday total. That is just the drums tracks though, the guitars and bass were going to go back and redo parts that they felt needed work. So friday was a really good busy day. We all drove home around 12:15 or so. I was really tired on the freeway, i hate that.

So saturday we all got here around 10:45. I even saw Chipper and Ethan on the freeway on the way here, haha. The best part about this morning was that everything was set up already! So we warmed up a bit, and began tracking more drums. We were doing drums until about 6pm. We would play a song until we liked the way I played, and then do another one. Going into the sound booth to hear them was fun. Everything sounds great! lso everyone made fun of me when we would listen to a take with mess ups. So we had to do all the songs at least 3 times. I had to really concentrate on my playing because I knew if I didn’t that random bass drums hits and weird fills would show up, ha. But now that i am done with the drums, I feel comfortable saying that I think they sound good. We took a dinner break after my drums, and then Chipper played some of her bass parts. She has a bit more to do, and they sound killer! I hope everyone enjoys the album when it is finished. I know i speak for all of us when I saw that we are really doing everything we can to make the best sounding, creative, and rocking album we can possibly make. We are really excited to hear what everyone thinks. We feel great about everything.

Working with the Recording Engineer Ethan has been fantastic. He is not only pleasant to be around, but his magical ears and hands have added a huge amount to the sounds we have achieved. His vision and ours combined are really matching up perfectly. The studio is amazing, and we could not have had a better set-up to work with.

Well, I am sure there is more to talk about, but I will have to blog it later. I think we are about to do more bass tracks.

adios

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I wish it would just rain already. I love the rain and lately the weather has been teasing us with it.

I watched “The Handicap-Spot” episode of Seinfeld last night. I had only seen it maybe once before. Because it seems like they never play certain episodes in syndication (re-runs), this being one of them. One interesting fact about this episode is that when it originally aired, in May 13th 1993, Jerry Stiller was not George’s father!! Mr. Costanza was played by John Randolph when it originally aired. Weird.

I have been waiting to tell everyone that my Star Wars site has been updated, big time! I wanted to make sure it looked just how i wanted it. I am happy with it right now, but as always it is constantly changing with my growing knowledge of CSS and HTML. Please leave me a comment to this blog telling me what you think! I have put alot of work into it, and would love to know what you guys think.

I got the sweetest 1982 Van Halen shirt on sunday. It has been moved all the way up to my top 3 shirts of all time. I will take a photo wearing it soon so you can all enjoy the no-sleeve action and my gaint muscles.

I tried watching Paradise Now with my little brother, Scott, but it turned out that I was alot more tired than I thought. I kept falling asleep. I think I will finish it tonight, unless Seinfeld distracts me.

The band I am in, Telephone and Telegraph, starts recording this friday!!!! I have very high hopes for this album. I think it is going to be 11 songs long. And we also found out that we can just camp out and record the entire time we have the studio, which is five full days. So it is time for me to find my sleeping bag! This weekend is going to rule. I am planning on being there for 4 days of recording. I can’t wait to hear how it comes out.

adios

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If you read my blog please comment to this entry.  I would love to know who is reading this.  I could even include more things that i know you guys would want to read about.  Thank you in advance.

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So you know you are in California, when it is raining hard outside but people are still driving 75-80 miles an hour (115-125 kph).  I mean really, is that necessary?  I guess it is if people want to crash.  I stopped once to help this older gentlemen, because his huge Ford truck was upside down on the freeway coming over the hill into Simi from the valley.  He said he was only going about 50 mph.  But his tires just couldn’t hold on anymore.  Doesn’t that show people you should drive slow?

I am in the lab at school now.  It is so quiet in here.  I guess it is supposed to be though.

I just bought some new headphones.  My old Sony ones kinda died.  I had them for like 5 years!  So i tried some Philips brand ones.  They seem good so far.  I get weird about changing things when they have been the same for a long time.  So i am still riding these out.

adios

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Today has been a pretty good day.  I feel a bit sleepy, but that might be because of the weather.  Don’t get me wrong, I really like the rain, alot.

I decided yesterday that I was going to wash my car today.  But when it came time to wash it this morning after work it was already raining!  Well, I didn’t let that stop me.  I just poured the soap in the bucket and started washing.  It was actually kinda nice.  Now my car is super clean, and I didn’t even have to dry it!!

I had a bag of French Onion Sun Chips. mmmmm.

My Burt’s Bees Bay Rum Cologne spilled into the rest of my bathroom bag this morning.  That made me pretty sad, because it is discountinued.  And I only have the two bottles left.  The good thing about cologne is that you barely use any, so that way it lasts a long time.

I got a Nalgene flask yesterday. Finally! I have wanted one for a while, I just never got around to buying one.  So worth it.

 adios

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