U2 Vertigo - The Best iPod Commercial Ever

Funny how I always forget that almost anything is available on YouTube. When this came out a few years ago, I couldn't believe the energy. IMHO it's much better than the "official" Vertigo video, even though it's been abridged. Get some headphones, or crank up the speakers, 'cause this is a treat.

Patience Is A Virtue

Many people have been waiting for years for The Police to get around to touring again. For me, it's a bit of a full-circle experience, and a welcome one.

Their drummer, Stewart Copeland, is probably close to the top of most drummers "drummers who influenced me the most" lists. His style of pattern intricacy combined with his wreckless abandon approach is a wonderful melding of percussive goodness. I have enjoyed studying (read 'ripping-off from') his playing over the years.


To make good things even better, the Foo Fighters have agreed to open the show I'm attending in June. Talk about abandon in style! I'm sure that both Dave Grohl and Taylor Hawkins have both taken pages out of Stewart Copeland's playbook when creating each of their approaches.

Foo Fighters

Being patient has paid off now that The Police are playing again this year. Now, I'll have to just be patient enough again to make it to the show in June. Hope to see you there!

Bored With Your Workout Routine?

Give this workout method a try.



(How many takes do you think it took to get this right?)

Sigur Ros - Glosoli

I have been wanting to share this with you guys for some time now, but have never gotten around to it. I won't describe too much and let you form your own opinion.

Please allow yourself 7 uninterrupted minutes and wear good headphones if possible. (If none are available, then crank it up!) When "the Triibe" played in Spain last year, we used this as our opener.

I am continually inspired by this video.


The Sigur Ros official site

Here is a page you can go to and stream a very good quality version of this video (much better quality than the youtube link too). You can choose high quality Quicktime or Windows Media under the "streaming links" heading. Choose the highest and wait for it to load in - it's worth it. While you're there, you can read the Q&A with the cinematographer, it's very interesting.

Miscellaneous Happenings

As promised, here's some images from recent days.

Chana's parents, Lynn and Glenda celebrated their 50th Wedding Anniversary last month. I did a tribute video made up of old pics and family video footage. It was a lot of fun to see extended family and friends that day.


Sky lost both front teeth on our Christmas trip. When the first one came out, he kissed the chicken strip that knocked it out and yelled "money, money, money!" Apparently, the charm of the Tooth Fairy is held only by her ability to fork over the Washingtons.


theCalling got together right after Christmas for a show. We worked hard to get the old material ready. It was a blast, the crowd went wild - well, they said they liked it.



Finally, last night Chana and I went to "An Evening With Lost" at the Academy of Television Arts and Sciences. Almost the entire cast of the show was there, plus the creators (including J.J. Abrams) and producers, and the event was hosted by late night talk-man Jimmy Kimmel. There were no secrets revealed, but there were some good stories told. Obviously, the little digital camera I took is lame. I also need to talk to the guy who's supposed to clean the lens. (go to the link for more info)

Dominic Monaghan

Matthew Fox


More later...

UPDATE 01-31-07 - Some (MUCH better) pics from the Academy site:

Drumming For A Lifetime, pt.3

One Day, Two Conversations

Most of the time, you don’t realize how pivotal moments are when they happen. This is a story about one of those times.

As I was relating the story to my 13 year-old son of how I got into playing the drums, I thought about the extraordinary circumstances surrounding the events. Not to mention the repercussions.

Setting: Bowie, TX. Population ~5,000 people. Jr.High School.
August, 1978.

All through our 7th Grade year, my friends and I had dreamed of starting a rock band just like “KISS”. (don't ask, but we were into them)

So, the first day of school of my 8th Grade year, I decided to break through the impenetrable barrier from full-time jock to legendary rock-and-roll drumming god… in the school band.

This is where the “two conversations” thing comes in:

Conversation #1

Jr. High Band Hall -
The band was sitting in normal half-circle fashion, rookies (including myself) were sitting along the side while the director, Mr. Gray, was giving short interviews in order to find out what the new members wanted to play.

Mr. Gray: (looking at me like I was lost) “So, what would you like to play?”

Me: “Drums.”

Mr. Gray: (looking over his shoulder at the long row of drummers already in his very small band) “Oh boy… well, it looks like I’m already overloaded with drummers.”

(He thinks for a second, then looks over his other shoulder.)
“I could really use a tuba player though.”

Me: “Um, no thanks, I just want to play the drums.”

Mr. Gray: “I’m sorry Mark, but I just can’t take on anymore drummers right now.”

Bummed, I leave and decide that I will be an 'air-drummer' for the rest of my life.

Conversation #2

At the end of the day, I was running late for the bus, so I was hauling-it down the stairs from my locker to the first floor. Seeing no one in sight, I almost blind-side none other than Mr. Gray walking down the hallway at the bottom of the steps.

Mr. Gray: “Whoa! Hey there Mark.”

Me: “Oh, hi. Uh, sorry.”

He turns.

Me: “Um, Mr. Gray? If any of the drummers quit, will you let me know?”

Mr. Gray: (thinks) “If you want to play that bad, show up tomorrow.”

Our lives are SO linear - in that one experience leads to another, and to another, and so on. And as I told this story to my son, I realized a great many things might not have happened had I not seen Mr. Gray at the end of that day:

1) I might not have ever stuck my neck out again and tried to join a band, therefore I might have never learned the drums.
2) I might not have gone to college and gotten a music degree.
3) I might not have grown in my faith, 'cause I grew as I played drums at church.
4) I might not have met my wife, since we met at a gig where she was opening for the band I was playing in.
5) I might not have had the opportunity to travel to many cool places in the world and play.
6) I might not have opened up a recording studio.
7) I might not have transitioned my career to post-production sound, and eventually moved to California.
8) On and on, etc, etc.

I was so moved by this line of thought, I looked Mr. Gray up, and thanked him for being at the right place at the right time, and for giving me a chance.

Maybe there was more than one road to where I am and what I’m doing today. God only knows that, but I’m glad I almost ran over Mr. Gray that day.

Good Music Stays With You

A good friend of mine named Greg Hyde has a band called Skyblynde. We know each other from Tulsa, but now he's based in Chicago. I got his EP (4 songs) a few months ago and wore it out. The songs are all great - kind of in the style of the Foo Fighters meets, well, lots of other cool bands.

It's refreshing to hear music that uses those 'guitar things' with strings; a rock band that's not trying to blow my mind with licks, low end or technology - just good, timeless, listenable music.

Why am I writing about it now? 'Cause after about a month of not hearing it, I put it in last night and it was as welcome to me as any of my favorite albums of old. Greg is an accomplished writer, and his songs stick with you - in a good way.

You can find it on iTunes or on cdbaby for about five bucks.

You can also visit the official band website here.

I've Got A Fever

This past Friday, the kids had a homeschool park day with an accompanying "Show and Tell". McKenna (8) and Sky (6) were excited, but McKenna was looking for an idea. I suggested that she take some of my hand percussion and talk about some of it as she played it for them. She couldn't think of anything better, so she finally agreed.

I pulled out my big bag of percussion toys and started showing her the techniques behind each instrument in it. She picked up the basics really fast and soon picked out her favorites for the Show and Tell. She chose the claves, triangle and cowbell.

I was pleased that she chose the cowbell, because I knew she could have fun with the ever popular Christopher Walken character Bruce Dickinson's statement "I have a fever, and the only prescription is more cowbell." I taught it to her, she got it down, and everytime she practiced the line, I shot both fists straight into the air in fatherly triumph.

Well, when the time came, she did her turn, said the joke, and no one knew the reference! Now, what kind of society are we living in that 5-12 year-olds don't know a really funny reference from probably the best SNL skit in the last 20 years!! Okay, my kids didn't know it either, and McKenna did it SOLELY to make her Dad happy - but hey, still!

This is why I want to devote a little space to the cowbell here.





And here's McKenna crankin' it up on a large cowbell. Whether they knew it or not, everyone left the park with a 98.6 that day.

Blast From The Past

theCalling is a band I played drums for during the late 80's (man, I'm dating myself with this entry), and Todd Williams, the lead vocalist, has just set up a myspace page for it. You can hear a few songs we recorded there.

It was the cool band that almost was... in that we had some success, some record deal offers, and a thriving regional fan base. Unfortunately, we just weren't meant to be. It was a lot of fun while it lasted though.

Todd, Martin Baird (bass and fearless leader), and Mike Graff (guitarist, and man responsible for the unique sound we had in the day) are all successful men in various careers in Dallas. You can read up on everyone at myspace.

One thing I'm proud of is that it was NOT a hair-band. The music STILL sounds cool in my opinion - a lot of U2, Police, XTC, The Smiths - type of sounds all rolled into one. Check it out.

Traveling With The Triibe

I'm going to Spain on Thursday with a percussion troupe I've played with on-and-off for about 5 years now. It's called The Triibe. It formed in a prayer room at our church in Tulsa just before my family moved to Cali.

It's kind of 'stomp' meets 'blue man' meets God. My chops are feeling rusty, so I've gotten out the pad. I have been playing on a semi-regular basis, but this gig is very intense. I hope I'm ready.

The Triibe usually consists of a guy on a normal drum kit, then 2-3 other guys on percussion set-ups with instrumentation varying from conventional hand percussion to stuff we find in the trash. (usually the trash sounds better, don't ask me why!!) Then there's a guy or two on mics for spoken word (one whom was raised in Spain, so we're good on the language barrier), a guy with a sampler rolling loops (who doubles on perc), and if we're lucky enough to snag one, a DJ.

I don't get to play with them often, 'cause my schedule is crazy, and they don't usually have the budget to fly me in anyway. But the bigger gigs usually pay them enough to fly me in.

About a year and a half ago, I produced their "Raw" CD from recordings they made at local gigs without me. It IS raw sounding, but it's cool. They've talked to me about producing a studio album in the future. We'll see. The thing is, it's usually such a spontaneous vibe with this group, it would probably be hard to pull it off in the studio. Maybe we'll just make some concerted effort to record a few upcoming gigs REALLY well. That might capture the spirit better I think.

In Spain we're playing at the Contra Corriente conference. It's the largest youth conference in Spain and is celebrating it's 10th anniversary. They deal with the same teen issues our American teens deal with. The point of the conference is to empower them to overcome today's obstacles by relying on the help and power of Jesus to make better choices.

I'll be back in a week to report details and stuff. If I get a chance to step into an internet cafe, maybe then. Adios!