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New Music, and More

New Music Tuesday, and I'm on a spree of just buying stuff to try. Here's a run-down of today's purchases...

We shall see...

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I found the above artists using Pandora, by the way — a free "song discovery" service I've mentioned before, and highly recommend. If you have an iPhone or iPod that supports the iTunes App Store, you MUST get Pandora installed ASAP! My only gripe about the service is that you can only skip 6 songs per hour.

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I just found out that Ford Models will be using some of my edited images for 3 different magazine spreads. I really, REALLY wish I could post them here — but I can't. However, I'll let you know what magazines they will be in, in the very near future...

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I was bummed when No Depression magazine went out of print, but they've come back with a rapidly growing online presence. Half the music in my library is there because of the wealth of information, reviews, and articles in that magazine — and many of us are doing our part to assist with the online version of this awesome resource.

I recommend all music lovers check out the site and pick up some back issues, then make a contribution to help keeps things growing. There are 3 tiers that let you become a member of the No Depression family, called the Founders Circle: a Contributor, a Benefactor, or a Revelator. Your contribution will not only help expand the online offerings, it will also give you some goodies (CDs, shirts, artwork, etc.) — and you'll even get your name dropped on their Founders Circle web page.

I went full-tilt since I was (am) totally in love with the magazine, so my name will be at the top in the very near future. The coolest thing, though, is that I'll be getting 2 tickets with after-show access to a meet-and-greet with the artist of my choice at their concert. SWEET! I'll coordinate this with the No Depression staff in the coming weeks. I'll also get a painting of No Depression #33 (Lucinda Williams), which will be signed and numbered by Jon Langford. This will go great alongside my signed comic book artwork. =)

Pop over to the No Depression web site and check things out!

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Yesterday's Terminator episode was pretty dadgum awesome in my opinion — even with all the product placement. There's a chance this may be the last season, though, which would totally stink like a monkey's butt.

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We got our replacement refrigerator on Sunday, and I've never loved water and ice more. Ozarka is great and all, but dadgum, it's nice to have ICE and a 'fridge that doesn't smell like a dead rat.

Posted at 3:02pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (1)

Picture Demolition

I've gotten back onto my image demolition kick again, and it seems like the vast majority of clients are liking the "otherworldly" effects, too — even for portrait and posed shots. I still need to write-up my Faux Polaroid technique, but it's so good, I hate to just give it away! Since I'm still no fan of model releases, here are some other recent examples of image demo:

The first and last images use my most requested post processing methods, and they're also my favorite to apply since they're a mic of my Faux Polaroid and good ol' Cross-Processing techniques.

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Oh yeah — a lot of people don't know their iPhone can take screen shots of the active screen (hold the Home button while clicking the Power button). Here's a shot of my 3 main screens:

Posted at 1:44pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (1)

Miscellaneous Monday

I have new pet-peeve that's really, really getting on my nerves — and vying for the Number One position in my list: people that use speaker phones when the dadgum handset is right in front of their face.

HOLY CRAP. There's a person down the hall from me at work, and for some reason, he calls people, then leans over the phone and talks to them via the speaker. WHY OH WHY?!? Why must everyone else in the office have to hear your conversation? PICK UP THE HANDSET!

That said, I don't mind speaker phones in cars as much because it really is safer to not be bothering with a cell phone while steering.

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Speaking of stupid things humans do, this is another one that takes the cake: smoking at MD Anderson Cancer Center. Are you people for real? So you walk out the Hospital's main entrance, you're surrounded with people hooked-up to CVCs or IVs, people hooked-up to oxygen, people in poor general health — and you light-up a cigarette right next to them?! That clicking you hear is God's finger tapping the Smite Button, you know. Thankfully, we're usually inside when one of these buffoons lights-up — but the second someone does while we're out there, there's going to be a "situation."

Humans will never cease to make me feel sorry for us.

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Ike-Stink won over our refrigerator, so we bought a new one. :shakes fist in frustration:

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I wonder when our church will replace the "B" we lost in the hurricane. We've been " razospointe" for a couple of weeks now.

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Jenny Lewis' new album isn't as good as I hoped it would be. She should have dropped about 4 songs and released an EP instead — then she should have come to my house and put on a concert for everyone in town.

Posted at 4:02pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (2)

Wow…

Man, this week has flown. Updates soon...

Posted at 10:10pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (0)

Old Crow Medicine Show: Tennessee Pusher Released

Just a heads-up that Old Crow Medicine Show's latest album, Tennessee Pusher, went on sale today.

Get it now!

Posted at 2:11pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (1)

Ike Redux

Our power came back on late Saturday night, and here's a little story to go with it:

First off, Dad was scheduled for his 4th chemo cycle last Thursday (the 18th), and he was dreading it because he was feeling so bad, and we were 3 hours away from MD Anderson due ot the evacuation. With the previous cycles, after a few days, Dad's breathing would get worse — and even though we have oxygen, we were all concerned about him having some type of breathing issue that would require another visit to the ER — thus, us not loving the idea of being so far away from MD Anderson.

So we drive to the appt, leaving Cedar Creek at around 4:00am, do the blood work, the bandage change, then finally see the Doc. After hearing from and seeing Dad, the Doc says chemo is a no-go for now because he wants to fix this breathing issue. Chemo was to be scheduled next week, which — at that point — was when we were hearing our power would be back on. If the schedules panned-out, Dad would be back home in the security of his own house and with power — and we'd only be 50 minutes from MD Anderson, not 3 hours in case of an emergency.

This was a massive answer to prayer!

Second, Dad's begun to experience neuropathy in his left foot, which is a potential side effect of chemo, and one that can turn out to be quite serious. It's basically nerve damage that could result in loss of feeling in an appendage. When they saw this, they immediately knew what to do (of course), which will be to lower the dose of one of the chemo drugs during the next cycle. And just to be safe, we'll be seeing a neuro-oncologist today for a complete nerve examination to ensure everything will return to normal. So, another answer to prayer regarding Dad's foot, because they seem to know exactly what's causing it — and how to fix it.

Third, our main Doc called-in a favor to MD's top pulmonary Doc, and got Dad a visit with him to get an opinion on his lungs. This Doc feels 100% certain that Dad's breathing issue IS NOT asbestosis or anything new — he feels it's just inflammation from either some kind of virus or a reaction to the chemo drugs. THANK YOU, GOD! This guy thinks the main culprit is the Rituxan, and says that when normal lungs — which have near 100% capacity — get Rituxan, capacity can drop to 85%. BUT, normal lungs don't notice the drop. So you take Dad with his asbestosis scarring and a lung capacity of 45% to 50% and drop him 15% — he's going to feel it big time.

So dadgummit, it looks like we know for sure what's going on — or at least that it's not his asbestosis or something new cropping up. And if this pans-out, his breathing WILL get back to where it was. THANK YOU, THANK YOU, THANK YOU, GOD!!

Lastly, I was crazy worried about us having to go home to no AC or electricity because of Dad's health. All I saw was a Pandora's box of problems waiting to jump out — but we just had to get back to LJ. So, we spent Saturday buying all kinds of stuff — and we even got a couple of window AC units to setup at Mom and Dad's so he'd be able to breath cool air. We had a game plan, I hated it, and all I did was pray and pray that God would let us go home to power. We called all day, but no answering machines ever picked up.

Right before going to bed, at 10:30 Saturday night, I called Mom and Dad's house one last time for the day — and after a few rings, I heard my Mom say "This is the McCown residence, please leave a message after the beep." I called 3 times, then called our house — and our power was restored, too.

This happened just minutes after I stood pleading and crying in the bathroom for God to give us power at Dad's so that he didn't have to deal with all the potential headaches, so that he could go home and relax in his own house, so that he could easily see in the dark without carrying a flashlight while trying to walk on a messed-up foot, so that Mom would have electricity while she watched my sister's baby while all of us were at work, and so on and so on. God answered in perfect timing.

GOD IS GOOD.

We pretty much have everything back to normal. Karen's been busting it doing 10 days worth of laundry and all that fun stuff, and we're both hoping the odor will leave our refrigerator soon so that we can restock it.

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I never shave on vacation, and even though our evacuation wasn't really a vacation — I still didn't shave. That said, I'm growing back the much-maligned beard my wife and Mother hate. Karen mainly hates the growing-in period since, I admit, that intermediate time looks pretty wily. But she'll get used to it eventually...

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For Ike catch-up, I have to build 8 io Super Distortions, 5 TUA Metalcore Distortions, 3 Peach Custom Fuzzes, and 3 PURE Boosts, and 6 Pulse Tap-Tempos. Ugh. I was able to get in touch with all the buyers and explain the situation, and all are cool with the delay. But — I have a feeling I'll be going blind right before I get carpel tunnel syndrome...

Outside of this, I have to reschedule 16 photo shoots, which is going to be a massive pain on all kinds of levels. Some of the clients are wanting to take advantage of debris, though, so that should be cool — and I may have to reinstitute my Model Release so I can post some pics here (or on my Flickr page).

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My Taylor K-14c acoustic cussed me out up one side and down the other for not taking it with me when we evacuated. He's jealous of the Gretsch, since she's so much prettier. Guitars, no?

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I just found out that someone I grew up with is working on the new JJ Abrams show, Fringe. I'm already hitting her up for spoilers, but she may be the type to actually adheres to those pesky NDAs.

Posted at 8:39am CDT | Permalink | Comments (1)

We Give Up

We're throwing in the towel because we have to get back to work, so we're all coming home tomorrow to no power. Yay. I'm still praying that we'll get hooked-up so that Dad doesn't have to deal with no AC, lights, etc., etc., but we'll see.

I have a story to tell, but no time right now — so stay tuned...

Posted at 5:44pm CDT | Permalink | Comments (0)