New blog

If you are into musical instruments, check out a new blog I just started. Go Here: www.guitargearhead.blogspot.com.

Recording Session 11/22

Last Saturday my band went into the studio to record a demo cd. I love recording. It's such a different dimension of music. We've played these songs hundreds of times, but when you record them for the first time, you hear things you've never heard before. For those of you who don't know how the recording process works, I'll briefly explain it. First you record what is called a scratch track. A scratch track is when everyone plays live together and you get the song roughly recorded. None of this recording is used in the final product, so it doesn't have to be perfect. It only has to be on time. Once the scratch track is recorded, the drummer goes back and records his actual drum line by himself. The scratch track is used so he can play along with something. He wears headphones to hear it, while everyone on the outside can only hear the drum line by itself. This process is repeated with each instrument. It allows the recording engineer to be able to edit each instrument independently of the rest of the song. The point I was trying to make, is it's amazing everything you realize you have never heard when you listen to the drummer or the bass player isolated. I constantly was doing double takes thinking, "What did he just play? Does he always do that?" Below are some pictures I shot.


Jonathan Burkett... what a stud

Dan Telvock and Dan Fong ready to rock.

Fong in the engineering room.

The studio mascot. Myrtle the turtle.

This is our recording engineer, George Jr. He's like 16, but he's freaking awesome. He's been doing this stuff since he was 11.

Sometimes Fong acts like he is 11.

Sometimes I do too.

You wouldn't know it from looking at the pictures of the sound and audio rooms, but this is actually a home studio. The family room off to the side made for a comfortable lounging area between tracks. The guy on the left is George Sr. He's kind of like the PR guy, and his son is the recording guy.

In this picture he kind of looks like Don Vito from Viva La Bam

Dan getting ready to lay down the bass track.

The studio wasn't huge, but it did the job. You really don't need millions of dollars of equipment to make a good recording. It's all in the personal touch.

Recording is a strange feeling actually. When you are playing a show, or at practice you don't pay so much attention to perfection. Plus, there is a lot of emotion that goes into performing, which adds to the song. When you sit down to record your part, you are all stiff and up tight. You want to get it right the first time. You are paying attention to everything except the emotion that goes into the song. The finished product really has to speak for itself.

This is the amp I used. It's a Gibson G105 2x12 solid state amp. It's like 30 years old. I got it for free! It still sounds great. Who says you need expensive equipment. I heard a saying one time that I really love, "What does a really crappy guitar player who plays really good equipment sound like? He sounds like a really crappy guitar player who plays really good equipment." That's how I make myself feel better anyway.

Fong setting up.

Jonathan and Dan chillin'

Band logo poll

I realize that my band isn't quite to the selling merchandise stage yet, but I figure it's always good to look ahead. If you notice off to the right hand side of your screen there is a poll you can take. I would appreciate your input. These are all first drafts. The end product may not look anything like these ones. If you have any additional comments, please let me know.

In related news, we are beginning work on a demo cd tomorrow. Be sure to look for that soon. And as always you can keep track of us on myspace.

My Saturday night

I stayed home last Saturday night and ordered the UFC ppv fights. Chandler and Layla weren't particularly interested in the fights. As you can see here, they sacked out pretty early.


Chandler eventually waited out Layla for prime position on my lap.

It's almost here

Something very exciting is going to happen this Sunday night at 8pm eastern standard time. It is something very important in my life. It is something I am looking forward to very much. It is the two hour season premier of 24, Redemption. If you forget when it's on don't worry, I have you covered. Just come to my page and check out my clock to the right. I'm here for you.

The Great Debate

For those of you who don't know, I am in a band called The Great Debate. If you'd like to keep track of us, visit our myspace page at: www.myspace.com/thegreatdebateband. Please try not to judge us too harshly on the videos posted right now. That was a while ago, and we are much better now. Plus we've added another guitarist. We'll be going into the studio soon to record a demo cd, so stay tuned for that.

This is from our Halloween show at a pool hall downtown. Yeah, I admit it. We played at a pool hall. It's all about the Benjamins!

Here we are at the Loft. One of Fredericksburg premier venues for local music.

With Mr Dan Fong on guitar. We just call him Fong.

Dan Telvock on bass.

Jonathan Burkett keepin' time

And yours truly behind the mic and guitar.

Mountain Biking 11/10 & 11/11

I had Monday and Tuesday off work for veterans day. What did I do? I rode some trails of course. Monday I went out to a network of trails here in town for the first time at Lodi Farm, and Tuesday I explored a new part of the Rappahannock river trail. Before I get into those pictures, here are a few pictures of trails that are on my "trail wish list" at www.singletracks.com. Begin drooling now:

Maah Daah Hey, North Dakota

Rim Trail, New Mexico

North Umpqua, Oregon

Copper Triangle, Colorado

The entry to the trails at Lodi Farm

Lodi Farm is open to the public, but it's private property. It costs $5 a day, or you can get a yearly pass. They were really fun trails to ride, but for $5 I think I think I'll find some free land in the future. Besides, they have all of this legal stuff.

Plenty of cool things to keep you alert.

Especially when there is a 5 foot drop-off.

Obviously in November pretty much all of the leaves have fallen. This made traction hard to keep. What was worse than that though, I had an even harder time keeping track of the trail. At this spot I literally had to get off my bike and survey the area to figure out where the path went.

In my element.

Only one way across!

One particular trail ran through what seemed to be a dumping area with a bunch of scrap metal and this gutted Dodge van.

...Redneck bike ramp. I'm not saying I have never made something like this, but c'mon I was 8!

The trail eventually loops around to where you started. It was a beautiful day.

These next pictures are from the trails on Tuesday. This "bridge" is not sagging. It was built on a horizontal slope. This picture does not do it justice, but it was quite intimidating. I did not ride over it. I wouldn't even know how.

Remember the picture of the tunnel I posted a few weeks ago? The one I was too freaked out to go through. I finally faced my fear and rode through it. You will all be happy to know there are no bums living in there waiting to murder unsuspecting victims. However, if you're not careful, you'll find yourself a little wet at the end. This is a picture on the other side as you come out.

This is what you see as you come out.

It was nice they put this inconspicuous warning sign at the very end of the tunnel. Someone might want to think about moving it to the beginning... before you are going too fast to stop.

Here is another shot looking back through it. It's a lot more difficult than you might think to ride in a straight line in the dark. You just have to try to keep that light in the middle of your path. If you really do see a light at the end of the tunnel when you die, I'm now fully prepared to tackle that challenge.

I'll never understand how trees this size get uprooted.

It's as if the finger of God came down and knocked it over. We go cow tipping, God goes tree tipping.

To all my fellow conservative friends...

For God's sake, pull yourselves together!! You're acting like this is the first democratic president this country has ever had. It's not. You will be fine. We will be fine. America will be fine. Stop crying and acting like it is the end of the free world. Your melo-drama is really annoying. Do you remember when Bush won his second term and Alec Baldwin said he was going to move to England? You are acting just as crazy. Our country is not a dictatorship. Our country is a democracy. Barack Obama does not have supreme authority to do as he pleases. He is not a terrorist. He is not trying to run the country into the ground. Stop listening to Sean Hannity and Rush Limbaugh and think rationally for yourselves. Quit your whining and get over it. Let's move on. There is something you can do. You can make a difference in your country. For starters you can stop building these divisive walls, and start working with people as opposed to alienating them.

I don't care who the president is, even if I didn't vote for him. My hope does not lie in him. My hope lies in God first, then the American people. We will be fine.

Our tax system explained in terms of a beer tab

I got this e-mail today and thought it was an interesting perspective on how our tax system works:

Suppose that every day, ten men go out for beer and the bill for all ten
comes to $100.

If they paid their bill the way we pay our taxes, it would go something
like this:
The first four men (the poorest) would pay nothing.
The fifth would pay $1
The sixth would pay $3.
The seventh would pay $7.
The eighth would pay $12.
The ninth would pay $18.
The tenth man (the richest) would pay $59.

So, that's what they decided to do. The ten men drank in the bar every
day and seemed quite happy with the arrangement, until one day, the
owner threw them a curve. 'Since you are all such good customers,' he
said, 'I'm going to reduce the cost of your daily beer by $20. 'Drinks
for the ten now cost just $80.The group still wanted to pay their bill
the way we pay our taxes so the first four men were unaffected. They
would still drink for free. But what about the other six men - the
paying customers?

How could they divide the $20 windfall so that everyone would get his
'fair share?' They realized that $20 divided by six is $3.33. But if
they subtracted that from every body's share, then the fifth man and the
sixth man would each end up being paid to drink his beer. So, the bar
owner suggested that it would be fair to reduce each man's bill by
roughly the same amount, and he proceeded to work out the amounts each
should pay.

And so the fifth man, like the first four, now paid nothing
(100% savings).
The sixth now paid $2 instead of $3 (33%savings).
The seventh now pay $5 instead of $7 (28%savings).
The eighth now paid $9 instead of $12 (25% savings).
The ninth now paid $14 instead of $18 ( 22% savings).
The tenth now paid $49 instead of $59 (16% savings).

Each of the six was better off than before. And the first four continued
to drink for free. But once outside the restaurant, the men began to
compare their savings.

"I only got a dollar out of the $20," declared the sixth man.
He pointed to the tenth man, "but he got $10!"

"Yeah, that's right," exclaimed the fifth man.

"I only saved a dollar, too.. It's unfair that he got ten times
more than I"!

"That's true!!" shouted the seventh man. "Why should he get $10
back when I got only two?"

"The wealthy get all the breaks!"

"Wait a minute," yelled the first four men in unison. "We didn't
get anything at all. The system exploits the poor!"

"The nine men surrounded the tenth and beat him up. The next
night the tenth man (the richest) didn't show up for drinks, so the nine
sat down and had beers without him. But when it came time to pay the
bill, they discovered something important. They didn't have enough money
between all of them for even half of the bill!

And that, boys and girls, journalists and college professors, is
how our tax system works. The people who pay the highest taxes get the
most benefit from a tax reduction. Tax them too much, attack them for
being wealthy, and they just may not show up anymore. In fact, they
might start drinking overseas where the atmosphere is somewhat
friendlier.

David R. Kamerschen, Ph.D.Professor of Economics University of Georgia

For those who understand, no explanation is needed.

For those who do not understand, no explanation is possible.

The Best Day at Work

You know how when people have an awesome day at work and they are trying to make an analogy to explain it to someone else and they say, "Imagine if the President of the United States came and visited you at work." Well, my day was kind of like that... actually it was exactly like that. President Bush has been traveling a lot to say goodbye to people on his way out of office. Today he came to my squadron to thank us for eight years of successful take-offs and landings in his helicopter.

I have a really cool job, I can't lie. I have been very blessed to be able to do the things I do, and experience things I have experienced. Most of the cool things I have done, I am not at liberty to tell people. So it's really awesome when I do things I can share.

It was pretty surreal. I have been attached to this unit for about 2 1/2 years. I've been "working for" this man all of this time, but before today I have only seen him twice from a distance. When we travel to a trip site, we are usually there days more than the President is. And for the short time he is on deck, we are usually tucked away in the corner of a hanger out of sight while he is conducting his business. It was nice to be his business for once. We were like star struck idiots straining for a handshake, stretching for a picture or, if you were lucky, pushing for a photo with him. I wasn't able to get a picture with him, but I did get a hand shake. My thoughts? - Soft hands. Below are some pictures I got.

Our commanding officer, Col L'Heureux, introducing our Commander in Chief.

(L-R) XO of HMX-1 LtCol Braman, President Bush, CO of HMX-1 Col L'Heureux and Sgt Major of HMX-1 SgtMaj Nowak

We presented him with a few gifts. In addition to that hat, we gave him this picture. The frame was made out of the actual window from HMX-1.

If you didn't know, President Bush is also a big mountain biker. We also gave him this bike helmet which is modeled after Marine One. It was custom designed and painted by the Marine to his left.

These are my friends Cpl Bebeau and Cpl Polk... lucky devil dogs.