Jun

25

Flying with a pedalboard (a.k.a. “Love notes from the TSA”)

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So I concluded my cross-country zig zag trip after playing a number of shows back east with Suspicious Brown. I was pretty excited that the pedalboard that I built just before the trip had held up so well. During each “hop” of the trip I would find a little “love letter” from the TSA stating that they had been inside my case. I suppose to a baggage screener all that wiring and electronics must look pretty darn odd. So to that point, I suppose I should feel some comfort in the fact that they’re paying attention. Well…..all good things come to an end, I suppose. After returning to Denver, when I picked up my pedalboard from baggage claim at DIA I noticed a distinct “rattling” sound coming from the case. Not good. I proceeded to open her up and found this:

TSA Love Letter

My guess is the folks at Newark Liberty International thought my pedalboard required a closer look. I guess its just too much to ask them to put the thing back the way they found it.

In related news, I posted about this issue over on Scott Henderson’s discussion board and he had the great courtesy to turn me onto the world on 3M’s Dual Lock. Apparently people who fly a lot with their gear don’t use velcro. Live and learn!

Jun

19

Life in Colorado requires discipline

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Pete Lacis and Zoe the Pug

My new life in Colorado has been quite the change. Aside from the joys of home ownership (i.e. yard maintenance, cleaning, and all the time it takes), I was not prepared for the discipline that it takes to manage one’s own life. While that last statement may sound odd, take into consideration the fact that for as long as I can remember, I’ve had some sort of external structure in my life. Whether it was my parents, school or work, some external force was dictating where I have to be when, and what I had to do. Now I have to make all these decisions myself and do all the work myself (whereas in the past I could at least delegate some work to other people). In a sense, I had found myself completely overwhelmed with the number of choices to make on a daily basis. Something had to change.

I realized that in the past I had always worked well against deadlines. Now instead of working against external ones, I am now setting them for myself on a daily, weekly, and monthly basis. I schedule when I work on music, business, the house, exercise, and when to relax and spend time with my family. All of these things are very important and time must be made for all of them.

So for now I’m happy to report that things have been going very well. I’m finally getting into the groove of things (literally and figuratively) for I’m making enough time for things, and I’m about to embark on a small tour with the Funk, Groove, R&B Sensation Suspicious Brown back east (actually posting from a friends house in Hoboken!). Stay tuned for more!

BTW - another reason why I ceased posting was that the WordPress template I was using was totally giving me grief and it was last on my list to fix (and blogs suck without pictures)!. That will not stop things again! ;-)