I'm having a big backyard BBQ party this coming Saturday, and the housemates and I have been doing some prep-work, to make sure the party goes smoothly.  The backyard is looking great, and we even replaced the old grill with something newer, and more dependable.  Though the dog kennel isn't totally finished yet (the final piece of the puzzle) the ( Read more... )

First things first. Dagny and Juliana --- you can skip today's post, if you haven't already.

Sorry bout that, but some people just hate Tom Waits, and he's got a new album coming out, so I wanted to let everyone know.

It's slated to come out at the end of October, still months away, but he's got a long history of allowing sneak-preview private ( Read more... )

Since my mum is spending the summer in England, she decided to leave me  with her car until she returns.  It's a wonderful piece of a machinery, a Toyota Avalon which, aside from its considerable mileage, shows little  signs of aging.  It accelerates nicely off the line and feels good in
the curves -- it's certainly a world apart from my 1990 ( Read more... )

A friend of mine recently turned me onto a website called Turntable.fm. It's essentially a little animated chat room, with a group of people up front who select the music.  Each room generally has a different genre, as a way to put similar minded people together.  I spent quite a while in a room called "Jazz! the real good stuff" and chatted about ( Read more... )

I don't often have suggestions for music for children -- it's just not something that often comes up on my musical radar.

However, it just so happens that I DO have a passion for geology, and my online  searches occasionally do return more child oriented educational results.  As far as I remember, however, they have never exposed me to a hip-hop ( Read more... )

It's amazing what missing a week's worth of work seems to do to me.  It throws my rhythms off.  Last night, I was a real mess.

For one thing, I lost my oft-repeated speech about our various beers.  I  have a tendency to say the same thing a lot, as a reaction to people's
questions about our beer, but because I hadn't worked in over a week, I seemed ( Read more... )

Yesterday I spent a wonderful day around the house, doing yard work with my lady. After 7 days on the road, which we split between Los Angeles, Yosemite, Lassen Volcanic National Park, and the Lava Beds National Monument  (plus other unlikely and unusual destinations along those many roads) we were happy to finally get home Wednesday night.  Though ( Read more... )

I just got back into Portland last night, but rather than try to deal with writing the Fix, I wanted to spend the final hours of Wednesday celebrating my 3rd anniversary with my lovely lady.  Luckily, my buddy Cody Hoesly wrote a Guest Fix about a song which seems appropriately sweet.

( Guest Fixer: Cody Hoesly )

I'm happy to turn to my good friend Mason Hunter for assistance.  Mason was instrumental in the creation of the Daily Music Fix.  Back in 2007, when we were living together, he suggested the idea of me sending out a song ever day to a group of friends --- he even came up with the name. Thanks buddy.

( Guest Fixer: Mason Hunter )

Yesterday, Erika and I took on the treacherous Tioga Pass, trekked to the titanic Tuolumne Grove (of giant sequoia), and taunted the troubled tourists of Yosemite valley, before finishing our day with a tremendous tour of the historic California gold rush towns along hwy 49.

Getting ready for more fun at Lassen volcanic national park and Lava Beds ( Read more... )