twistedsun.net blog

Announcing, a new begining.

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-12-31T02:37:14-05:00

Five and a half hours by my count, and with this new year I have something to announce. FINALLY after all the talk and ideas and time I am launching my next step into the web which is in the form of a brand new site called fifty foot shadows. ...Thats right, this marks the end of an era. 8+ years of twistedsun will be coming to a close with this new year. ... Time and time again I have wondered what I should do with the site and time and time again I have found myself disappointed in some way with the result. ...I feel that everything around me is changing in my life and so I found it appropriate to start completely fresh this year. ... It came to me earlier this year while traveling out west and I think it is just what I was looking for. At one point I really wanted to turn it into a community of desktop posters I find that I just can not devote the time into moderating such a site. My focus this year is in taking big steps forward and changing the way I live it. ... It will be staying as it is in its current state for the foreseeable future so everyone can get at all the desktops and posts from the past. ...So with that said, I invite you all to come step into my new home on the web here, at www.fiftyfootshadows.net

Alive

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-12-24T22:38:24-05:00

I am alive and well and have been trying to get a post out forever now it seems. ... The trip shook me up and I have been buried in thought since my return. The reason for the non posting is because my laptop decided to stop working for me half way through my trip and although I have this computer I am writing on now (mac mini) I am still not all the way settled into this and probably wont be as I see myself getting another laptop early next year after we see what macworld may bring us. In other quick news, I have decided that twistedsun.net will be going through some changes in the new year. ... Ok, not that different but more simplistic for me to use and post to. The goal is to make it as effortless as possible to post new desktops and news and musings on life. It will most likely take the form of a new site all together which I had other plans for but have decided to simplify for the sake of getting something new rolling along. Don't worry, I have countless images for desktops and when the new site is functional you will hear all about it here and hopefully the transition will go as smoothly as possible and the future is bright. Thats all I have to mention here in this post, just a quick hello and see you soon. In the mean time you can check out my flickr page, or my photo blog, or my twitter, or my tumblr blog.

Pieces

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-10-25T22:35:28-04:00

Still exploring this never ending city. You can see many other photos on my flickr page which I might update nightly assuming I have internet access in other places I visit. I will expand sometime soon on my thoughts and whatnot for those interested so it tight!

Here we come around again.

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-10-25T22:35:28-04:00

Its been three nights here in London now and waking up today I could be excited. ... Im not really sure what it is that is stirring in my mind but I am getting ready to head out to central london again to see what I can find today. The last two days have been filled with people, art, and sound as I walked and walked... and walked around the city in various areas. ... I figure with all the trains around its hard to really get lost because I can always catch one back somewhere familiar. London has been interesting, familiar but distant when I choose to really pay attention to the people around me. ... I feel like I have always existed here and I am simply walking though some distant, forgotten memory. Im curious to see what kind of differences I come across as I visit other countries and break away from the comfort of everyone around me speaking english. ...Anyway, as time goes on and the jetlag finally leaves my blurry mind I will try and write more here in this space as well as get some desktops up perhaps. I just have not had the free time to commit to doing it. I am traveling so all I have is free time but I feel like I should be using that time for exploring and doing what I came to do which is to get lost in the flutter of local life.

Going....Going...Gone.

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-10-21T22:35:27-04:00

There has been a serious lack of activity here on the site and Im sorry for that, I have just been that busy this month. ... Im just sitting here surrounded by all of the things I am taking which turned out to be a surprisingly small amount of stuff. ...I will be starting in London/England (arriving on the 23rd) and I will be leaving on the 31st for Paris where I will stay for 6 nights. After Paris I will be heading south to Italy to a village called Vernazza which is part of the Cinque Terre and I will stay in that area for 6 nights. After this I will head to Nice/Menton for a couple of days hopefully but this depends on weather or not I can arrange a night train from Nice to my next destination, Barcelona. ... At the moment I am booked there for two nights in an amazing little B&B and I may extend my time there depending on how I like it. From here I will head to Granada or somewhere in that area of Spain and then make my way up to Madrid on the 21st and fly out of Madrid on the 22nd. ...If you are in any of the areas I will be traveling feel free to send along an email and maybe we can get together. ...I will post photos on flickr (and here some) the occasional text message to twitter (the hi-fi to the right) and maybe a photo from my phone on my tumblr page when I find hot spots around which I have no idea what to expect really. So wish me luck and the next time you hear from me I will hopefully be safe and sound in London!

The tumble

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-10-09T00:32:09-04:00

A few days ago I came across a really interesting blog service and jumped right on in. I have been looking for something like it for quite some time. A simple interface to allow me to catch images and links in a really quick and basic way. Images that somehow stop me from scrolling for a minute and get me to imagine, think, or whatever else. ... Its a basic blogging service with a slick little javascipt that allows you to catch an image within a page and quickly add it to your tumblr blog along with a link to where it came from. It's great really and will give me a place to come back to look over found images for inspiration and whatnot. I think I will eventually tweak the CSS and get settled in a bit more but for the time being its perfect for my needs. I would recommend this to anyone and everyone. If you do start one up please add the link to the comments here so I can follow it. My tumblr page is www.tsun.tumblr.com

Strawberry Bridge

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-09-22T00:00:50-04:00

A handful of new desktops have been added to the desktop page for your desktop needs. I know I have not been posting as much lately and that is mostly because I have been spending so much time getting my head around this trip to Europe I have been planing. I have narrowed it down to a handful of countries and now I just have to pick a few places to travel to along the way. I will most likely post more on that as it develops. THANK YOU to those who have helped out with their suggestions so far, they have helped me get some key ideas in place which has been important. Please, by all means, keep them coming.

So I'm going to Europe

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-09-16T19:54:00-04:00

Im not sure how it happened but the time of the year that I promised myself I would travel in is quickly approaching and I am starting to get a bit more serious about plans for the trip. I have been trying to get used to the idea that I will be throwing myself in an area I don't know much of anything about. ... I am working on making it work financially and logistically and so I am writing here for a call on advice/ suggestions. I know there are plenty of readers around europe or have traveled there in the past and it would be greatly appreciated if you could take a moment and suggest some places to visit, and maybe just some general advice about traveling there. At the moment I am thinking of starting off in Spain or somewhere in southern France, heading up through France, and ending up over in England. ... It will be just me and my backpack for the most part and I hope to do a good amount of camping to save on money spent on Inn's. In fact, thats the number one concern is working out what I can expect as far as where to sleep and how much its going to cost to do so. I hope to have the overall layout of places to travel to before I leave so I can work out train tickets and transportation while I am there. Hopefully I will be able to pull something off and enjoy myself, meet some new people, take a few zillion photos and have a great time exploring the area. Feel free to mail me at john(at)twistedsun.net or leave a comment here on this post with suggestions, advice, or lend a floor to sleep on or just tell me I am crazy for trying to toss together a trip like this in under a month on a shoestring budget.

New favorite...

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-09-03T21:59:06-04:00

I have stumbled across a couple of things I thought I would share here just for the sake of sharing great things. Both are software and both are free to you so you have no reason not to check them out. ...I know that sometimes flashy oooooohhhhh and aaaahhhhhh type screen savers can be fun but I find them distracting recently. There will always be a place on my screen for the ever wonderful and unpredictable hotel gadget but for now this handy little saver has taken the top place on my screens downtime. Its called simply A 3M1T and you can find it here. (mac or PC) I just cant resist the font used for the numbers. ... The site also holds some wonderful fonts that you should check out as well. And to offset all of that simplistic thinking I present something quite the opposite. ... Its pretty fun to put on during casual music listening or for a break from the usual email and work you usually might see on your screen. There is not much I can say about the visualizer other than that it is amazing and you should head over to the developers site and download it or at least watch the video which you can find here. ...:-) Also, I've heard this new Devendra Banhart album and its amazing... ah music. love.

Take a trip

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-08-21T01:05:43-04:00

...to the beach with a couple of new desktops. Find them HERE.

New projects coming

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-08-02T16:21:48-04:00

OK OK, I know I have been talking about a couple of new projects for a long long time now but I think I have just settled on a way to bring these to life. I am still a ways off from bringing these to life but I am starting to see the light at the end of the tunnel. For those of you who may not know one idea is a new desktop site which will feature a handful of photographers from around the world all posting to one blog which I think will create a really solid desktop site to share with the world. All I need for this is to find a few photographers to help me get started in the process and get some initial content going and I will be approaching a few people that I have seen online and find to have a somewhat like minded approach to photography. I hope for the site to include stories from time to time and feature some great photography and hopefully grow to be something really unique over time. Part of me is considering letting it become multi-lingual and inviting people to post in their native language if they would prefer. ...For this I would also like to gather a small group of posters from various point in the world that have the capability to record high quality field recordings of various places in their life. ... The goal would be to have the recordings be from 15-30 minutes in length and not have any commentary during the recordings other than perhaps an opening tag line or something. This idea is not as well thought out as the desktop page but its been running around in my head for quite some time now as well and I think If i were to get the right people involved that it could be something really interesting. So I am posting this to get any ideas that any of you readers may have for these projects or even any help any of you think you may be able to give in getting these going.

Announcing a new point of view.... point

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-07-31T03:21:42-04:00

As many of you know I recently took up a new project site simply titled light.twistedsun.net which is a photoblog for images that may not fit in as desktops or other such uses. Images that I may have never done anything with had I not made a little site to share them with the world. Well I would like to introduce another photoblog which is poking its head out into the web called 'point of view point'. The web address is simple and could be memorized easily should you be so inclined and reads as follows: www.pointofviewpoint.net. Here you will find new photos posted by my next of kin, James. Surely you could find out more simply by heading over and checking out what he has going on, the about page is a good place to start as far as information about his artists statement behind the new site and should you be interested in learning more about any particular image you can follow the comments link which will take you to a description of the shown photograph. So if you don't get enough of a photo fix staring at twistedsun desktops all day then by all means click on over to pointofviewpoint.net

ts hi-fi#11

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-07-26T16:03:06-04:00

Because there is so much I will hi-light my favorite recent albums as well as list a few others that have made their way into my head as of late. (You could always check out my twitter feed which I use to post songs that I may be listening to that catch me at that given moment as being a standout.) ...I actually heard this music before his other releases and I am happy that I did because I did not really like other things I have heard from him. ...With this release I have found an album full of songs that I keep coming back to and it has quickly become my go to album over the past couple of weeks. ...I fell for Ryan adams first album, heartbreaker, a couple years ago and since then have been searching for music from him that hit me in the same way but have yet to find that spark in his more recent albums. From time to time I have found newer songs by him that pulled me in but nothing ever really stuck with me the way his first album did. ... My favorite releases from him since Heartbreaker would have to be when he got together with The Cardinals for a couple of albums and while they were not as intimate as his solo work I did find that the collaboration produced some great music. ...I tried getting into their other albums but they never really hit me in the same way as their first until I heard the song Icky thump. ...There are other releases that I have been listening to as well as of late, and for the sake of saving some time I am going to list what else I have been listening to below, the links will either take you to iTunes or to the artists website... ...Skeletons and The Kings of all Cities - Lucas / wild experimenting indie pop like album that takes you places you may not have been while listening to music, really solid album

Quick Note

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-07-25T12:43:14-04:00

Three new desktops have been posted and a Hi-Fi post should be coming later today for those of you who enjoy those.

Work

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-07-24T01:19:13-04:00

The audio engineer with one of the bands wanted a TON of low end so i brought out some extra subs and he did not really seem to know what he was doing and still could not get what he wanted out of the mix so it was kind of a mess for a while. ... I wont get into it here because im sure there are not to many people reading the blog here that would care or know what I am talking about and me rambling on to much about it would probably bore 90 percent of you to tears. ...On saturday, however, I skipped out of a show which was just south of DC and drove up there to perform at a show in the city with my friend matt as A Drop In Silence, the electronic music group I am involved in. ... Well the show was all about art really and there were three graphic designers (as you can see in the bottom blurry part of the photo above) which were sitting there designing a poster for the event and all of their work was being projected onto the wall to the right there so anyone could watch the thought process behind their designing. ... I felt that the musicians performing were up there and just kind of faded into the circus of media which in retrospect was pretty fun in a way to be part of this machine that was supposed to be fueled by all of the other creative things happening around the room. ...But dont get me wrong, we had a great time performing, it was a really amazing event all in all and I am really happy that we were asked to play. ... During our long long long TWO HOUR set we had a constant stream of photographers and video cameras right there behind us nearly the whole time which I did my best to ignore and just do what I do when performing. We ended up playing mostly improvised music for the bulk of the night which was a lot of fun and something we have not done very often live and although the curators encouraged us to keep the music low key we did end up cranking up the volume and getting pretty crazy for a couple songs which they were clearly a little aggravated by but its something that we do and we were performing a show after all and want to represent who we are as artists just the same as everyone else so getting a little crazy here and there is something that is bound to happen. ...It was great to see them perform as always and a nice way to end the evening with some glitch beat madness from Doofgoblin which performed one of the best sets I have ever heard him perform actually, and MachineDrums non stop dance party set that never disappoints. After a couple of hours sleep we made the 6 hour drive back home so I could work another show on sunday which nearly killed me after all the other work and performing and driving and whew.... quite a weekend.

Trapped in the Drive Thru

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-07-23T22:26:17-04:00

Feeling

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-07-18T02:43:17-04:00

It's been a busy month in my life and the site is feeling it. I have plans on posting some info on my new lens and the iphone if I can ever get my act together and sit down to make a write up and take some photos for it. Its just so hard to find free moments for these simple things. C'est la vie. Anyways, should I make this image into a desktop? What do you think? I also have been posting images pretty regularly over on my new photoblog light.twistedsun.net which has kind of a busted rss feed at the moment but I hope to remedy that as soon as I get a chance to have a chat with my personal coding geek helper over in the Netherlands. (ahem... dave, are you listening?) Speaking of code, Id like to get this little twitter updater script to NOT add those stupid looking tabbed over dots and just get it more list like. Any suggestions? Hope to get back to regular posting one of these days, thanks for being patient!

Good to be alive

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-07-03T20:48:27-04:00

New desktops, ripe for the picking over on the desktop page. Get em while they're hot.

Giant Photo

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-06-23T15:30:57-04:00

How cool it this? a group of photographers got together and used an aircraft hangar as a GIANT pinhole camera to create the worlds largest black and white photograph. I would love to see this in person, so cool! heres a link

Light.

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-06-23T03:04:28-04:00

I have launched a new mini-site and I was going to wait a few more days to announce it officially but I have decided that I want to go ahead and get it out there and make it known to everyone here. ... The time of day that I actually get around to posting will change depending on my day so don't try and set your clock to the update cycle or anything but I do hope to get a new photo up each day. ...Something for those shots I mentioned a moment ago, the everyday ones that I may not want to devote a whole post to here or may not want to post as a desktop for whatever reason. in the new site you will hopefully see mostly recent photos but I will throw in the occasional older photo if I don't have something new to share. I am using a great bit of web software called pixel post to organize and do all the thinking for me so all I have to do to post is press a couple of buttons and type out a description. ...For instance, if you see an image that you are just dying to see made into a desktop then please speak up and leave a comment and I will see what I can do. The navigation is very simple I think, there is the home page with the newest photo and on each photo page you can click either the comments link above the image of the "photo info & comments link below the image to call forth the image description and comment field. There is a link there below the image notes to close that area should you not want to post anything but would like to read what I have written about a photo. ... There is also a browse page link at the top where you can see thumbnails of all photos posted and an about page which im sure you can figure out. ...I have two more in the pipeline that I can not wait to announce and get moving on but you will just have to wait for that time to come.

It's not me, it's you

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-06-20T12:57:46-04:00

I think its best to look at it as a post where I can talk about what I have been up to as of late. Well, I have been busy working shows for a long while but this week has slowed quite a bit and has given me a chance to get caught up with a couple of things that I needed to do like some other web projects and relaxing a bit and other such lonely escapades. Any of you remember that trip I took out to Utah and the South Western US? ... Well, the insurance money has finally come in from that stolen camera gear, camping equipment, clothing, and plenty of other things that I miss having around. So I am in the process of buying back a couple of camera things and camping stuff that I will post about sometime because I like to share the things that I get because I put so much time researching products before I buy them that It makes sense to share what I have learned through all that research. Anyways, it will be good to have some of my stolen things back in place in my life. ...Well I have been cameraless for a couple of weeks after letting my brother borrow my 5d for a trip to an island somewhere in the Gulf of Mexico but its back in my hands and ready to shoot for me again. ... So I will start shooting again here soon and get some new desktops up. ... Something I started to do a while back for friends and family but I think that this time I am going to make it public. ... And then there is the other web project I still have all the intentions in the world of getting on its feet one of these days so who knows when that might pop into existence.

FOOD

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-06-20T12:25:58-04:00

Here is something I have been wanting to post about for quite some time now and I am finally just now getting around to making a couple of minutes to get it out of my head and onto the blog here. I wanted to post about a new(ish) project by Yongfook, an english guy living in Japan working on web development. Its called Open Source Food and it is his personal side project outside of his paying work because he loves food and cooking. Well, I like to think that I like to cook as well and I have found plenty of good recipes and ideas while digging through the site. It takes the whole web 2.0 idea of an online application and asks users to post recipes to share with the world. It all works in a wonderfully organized way and the site is really easy to navigate. ... Here are a couple of recipes that I have come across today that looked good to me...

Am I crazy for wanting to be on this show?

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-06-12T21:51:12-04:00

All about Podcasts

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-06-09T22:52:06-04:00

At this point the term podcast and the idea behind it has safely settled into most internet users vocabulary but I am wondering how many people put them to use or even know how many great shows there are out there. I set off to do a little research for this write up and find some good music podcasts for you guys to check out that I listen to but ended up finding a lot more worth mentioning as well. ...So here are a few recommended channels to look through and give a shot... (please note that some links point to itunes. also, the links at the ti) ...This is a seattle based radio station that has a wonderful set of podcasts available featuring great new music and in studio performances from a great list of musicians. Their Song of the Day (iTunes link) podcast is a great way to discover new artists in a totally legal way and the in studio performance podcast (itunes link) has a really impressive list of performers! ...This is another college radio station that has made many of their radio shows available as downloadable podcasts. They feature many different news shows as well as one of my recent favorites, Morning Becomes Eclectic which is a great music show. ...The National Public Radio network has a huge amount of shows available as podcasts these days and hosts a show I like to listen to from time to time This American Life (iTunes link) ...Misadventures in Taiwan - Always manages to make me laugh in some way or another, I can't remember how I found it... ...There are many others around and maybe from time to time I will post something about other shows ive been listening to, I think I mostly just wanted to post about these few recent favorite places to go for news and music so hopefully some of you found some interesting shows to check out!

On the Hi-Fi #10

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-06-01T10:42:22-04:00

At the time I listened to music but did not really know of this world of music below the surface of the magazines and TV, well, not aside from They Might Be Giants but thats a whole different story all together. XO ended up being my gateway drug to a long standing addiction of seeking out the the best music I could find and through the years I have learned so much and heard so many wonderful songs. ... Well, years go by and I end up buying and listening to all the music by him that I could find and even had the chance to see him live a couple of times before the dreadful day that he took his own life in a way I still have trouble imagining happening, stabbing himself in the chest... Before he passed he had been working on an album which was finished and released and many wondered if that was the last they would ever hear of his music. ... This album is a collection of unreleased music and alternate versions of songs that many people have been wishing for for the past couple of years. ...On first listen I didn't really like it at all but after my friend Val mentioned to me that she liked it and thought it was good I decided to give it another go and listened from start to finnish and found that I loved it from start to finnish. ... I would write a "for fans of" thing or something here but I hate those things, good music is good music and does not need to be compared to other things. ...After getting into Mather Dears other project, Audion, these past months I noticed a new album by Matthew Dear appear on the iTunes store and thought I would give it a go so I did what any person with plenty of money lying around that he knows he shouldn't be spending (trying to get to europe this year) should do, I bought the album. At first I did not know what to make of it, It seemed kind of empty and half way finished but I gave it more of a chance and there were a couple of songs that sank in and opened the whole album up for me. ... My only complaint is that some of the songs feel bit short and at least a couple have fade outs which is a pet peeve of mine, I just think its a cheep way to end a track.

WUAG 103.1fm

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-06-01T10:10:20-04:00

Surely most of you know that I love music and some of you may know that I host a radio show on a local collage station and I thought I would give it a little write up here for anyone interested. My show is on Tuesdays from 1-3pm Eastern US Time, not sure which time zone that is technically is but post in the comments if you know. You can access the radio stations live stream by visiting www.wuag.net or just click here to download the stream file to your streaming radio app of choice... It is a standard rotation show which means I choose 8 songs each hour from a pre selected group of about 100 new cds that get regularly played during the daytime hours at the station. So 8 songs an hour I am a bit restricted but it gets more fun when I break away from those boundaries a bit and play some things I bring along with me to play. If you do listen in to hear me make a silly fool of myself on the radio leave a comment here and let me know what you thought!

Everywhere but here

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-05-31T10:22:48-04:00

I went ahead and stuck a 100gb 7200 speed drive in here to replace the tiny 60gb drive that came in it and filled out the ram to a full 2 gb as well. ... I am running the full version of the new rapidweaver without any serious issues to speak of, I will just have to keep messing with it to see how these neat new features work. In other news, the reason I have not been posting much is because, as always these days, I have been so busy with work and travel. Last week i was in nashville for a couple days working sound at a show featuring an elvis impersonator which was pretty interesting to say the least. ...It feels like I have been anywhere but here updating for all of you loyal readers and I hope to see that change as, once again, I am streamlining the site to try and make updates go easier and quicker for me. ... I just have not had time to get them put together and released and its just sitting there dead in the water so until I have time again to put them together I am putting that on hold and removing it from the site. ... Eventually I am going to re-brand the show and start it up again under a new name but until then just browse through and check out the 10 zillion or so other ones out there. I dont want to go on for to long here seeing as there are only a handful of you really interested in any of this kind of personal blah blah blah. So I will hopefully get this site moving along better again but how many times have I made THAT promise on these pages? ...also, what do you think of the new slight design changes like bigger text here, a darker outer shell, archive by year, and new header.

Repair time

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-05-16T23:22:11-04:00

Well, after waiting till the last possible minute to do it, I finally took my macbook in for repairs. There were a bunch of odd little things wrong with it that have needed attention for quite some time now and although it will be nice to get it fixed up, I am now without my laptop which has stealthy become a vital part of my everyday life. It was my communication, my PDA, my music, my tool for everything I do so it wil be missed while it is off to the repair shop. Meanwhile I will be here on a mac mini that I have set up as my temporary home, I have all the basics up and going so I can still get along well enough. Just chained to this desk is all, no more late night computing in bed.. ha, maybe thats a good thing right?! right. Not to sure why I am posting about this although im sure there must be some of you out there at least mildly interested. So wish my macbook good luck on its trip to the repair shop...

New Weaver

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-05-13T21:23:49-04:00

I have been messing with a beta version of the new rapidweaver for a few weeks now it seems in the little holes of time i could find to mess around with it and there are a few new welcome features that i could use. Mainly that it works faster and is less or a resource hog. I will find out as soon as I hit the publish button in a minute here. For those of you who dont know, I have been using some mac software called rapidweaver for over a year now to maintain the site. Why this and not wordpress or something else? Well, simply because I like having everything from my site right here with me at all times to work on with or without internet connections. This and I like the way it functions and if they keep making the nice little changes that they have been making then im sure it will just get better and better as time goes on. Hopefully this will work a bit smoother in the uploading dept. which will lead to me being able to make posts more often if it is less time consuming. So as an added bonus to the post I will throw in a photo from my flicker page that people seem to be enjoying on that side of my web existence...

its about time

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-05-06T00:07:17-04:00

New desktops have arrived safe and sound over in the desktop section. here is a preview... enjoy!

twistedsun hi-fi #9

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-05-05T18:34:42-04:00

This is one that has been out for a while now but I just recently got my hands on it and Im glad that I did. It is full to the brim with great minimal ambient works that hide subtle melodies, field recordings, and the occasional rhythym if you are looking in the right places for it. ...I have talked about lusine in the past somewhere on this site I am here again to talk about his newest release which is a remix album. The idea of a remix album is so fascinating to me because electronic music is often already remixes of sounds and the idea that musicians get together and rework each others music is a testament to the community that surrounds the genera. I guess you cant go around covering aphex twins songs but what you can do it take the music and add your own subtle touches and feeling to the music. ... At any rate, this is a great album, very relaxed danceable music that would fit in all sorts of places in your life and if you are looking to get an extra bounce in your step during your day then check out this album. (eesh, again with the odd reviews.. maybe iI should just stick with a basic run down of albums, what do you think.. maybe next time) ...You will find yourself listening to a lovely piano like piece and then be left with a nobukazu takemura like glithch ambient piece and then get cought up inbetween these things. I found myself in many different places while listening to this record but most of all I found myself loving the smooth sound and relazing approach to the music. I know these words dont even really describe the music all that well but thats all ive got so follow the link below to find out more. ...(oh, and i got my hands on an advance copy of the new/old Elliott Smith album New Moon and it is really wonderful, more on this after its oficial release...)

neither here nor there

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-05-05T18:20:43-04:00

I wanted to say thanks to all of you who have stuck around through this period of less activity around here. I find that I have many nice looking photos that I would love to get posted as desktops but I never seem to be near my photo drive when I am posting something here. Maybe tonight I will try and get a couple of new ones going for everyone. ... Im working off debt on my credit card that I found while on that trip out west adn then I will imediatly start saving for a trip to europe. ... Nothing to specific planned yet, just putting the information out there and you can do what you will with it. As always, in the back of my mind I have full intentions of getting some more prints for sale on the site here and as always I am looking to get my new desktop site project underway in the future. I think I may have the money to spare to get it up and running sometime shortly but I cant promise anything! I just know that when it does manage to poke its head out into the light of the day that its going to be a lot of fun for anyone that loves photography and the world around you. Sometimes I wish this blog was more personal so I could rant on and on about my life but I dont feel that its the place to do that. ... In other news, I do have some music for a podcast and maybe sometime soon I will put another one out.

Signal

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-04-30T13:26:04-04:00

Wow, what a weekend. 3 days of very little sleep, lots of heavy lifting, and performing wore me out! I know a few different people took photos of when I was performing so I will try and get some up sometime for anyone curious. Im not sure what else to say without writing a long elaborate story about each night. I just wanted to hop on and mention it was a great time and post a few photos from the show. Enjoy! On a side note, i have a few desktops that I am getting ready to post, finally!

the split

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-04-25T13:43:30-04:00

The CD's are in after a month of work and they are looking and sounding great. For those of you who don't know I am half of an electronic music duo called A Drop In Silence. About a month ago we decided to work on a split release with a frind of ours Doofgoblin and release it at a festival that we will be performing at this weekend in Chapel Hill, NC called Signal Festival. The cd's will be officially available at the show and then online afer that. We only made 250 copies for sale on this first limited edition run so get 'em while they are hot. Im sure some of you are wondering, what does it sound like? Well... thats a good question and it is often hard to explain to people. Some of it is danceable, some of it is somewhat agressive, some of it is more relaxed. It's sound, its music, what more do you need to know? We will be putting together an ep sampler mix with a little from each song soon and I will try and remember to link to it here for those interested.

afternoon

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-04-21T17:38:13-04:00

(null)

Where have you been!?

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-04-16T19:36:34-04:00

Good question! I think I have gotten a bit pre occupied with my life recently and have not had as much time to post to the site. I hope to have a handful of new desktops up in the coming week for all of you craving some new desktops (and I know you are out there) In other news I will be doing some maintenance/server clearing to the site soon so you may see a day of downtime at some point in the next week or two. Also, thanks to all of my visitors to the site. I noticed that my numbers are right around 18,000 visits a month these days which is strange to think about that many people coming to the site but its fun and I hope you all enjoy it! Also, I am still craving donations to help get my new desktop project underway. MANY thanks to David and Fabian, a couple regulars around here for their help in this department. Well, thats all for now so until next time, have a good one... Au Revoir.

Kaos

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-04-16T19:24:53-04:00

Remember a while back I posted about a cool new product from korg, the Kaos Pad 3? ... Actually, I bought one of these as well as a Microkontrol midi controller for all of my midi controlling needs. I was already familiar with the microkontrol so the real surprise here is the KP3... ... I have it set up so this is chained together with my older KP2 so I can layer effects and cuts and samples together with them both and now that I have started to get the hang of it I have been having a lot of fun messing with it. I will record something to give you an idea of what i am doing with it. Mostly chopping up songs and pretty much remixing them on the fly. The new KP3 sounds much better than the older ones, has much nicer sampling capabilities, has a higher resolution of control on the touch pad, and many other great improvements. I can not wait to take this thing out to play life sometime! the day can not come soon enough... actually its not to far away, my next show is at this years Signal Festival in the Chapel Hill area in NC. Here is a link for more info, if you are in the area and you enjoy dance, idm, hip-hop, electro, indie rock, or pretty much any other genera that involves electronic music then you should some out to the festival, its going to be GREAT...

twistedsun hi-fi #8

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-04-04T12:50:18-04:00

Starting off with a new song by the Cinematic Orchestra which is a total departure from their earlier work but I think its a great song all the same, very quiet and peaceful like a perfect sunrise or something of the sort. The Panda Bear song is a crazy droning song that seems to stick in my head any time I hear it and reminds people of the beach boys when i play it for them. ... Amon Tobins new album, Foley room is a really moody album that I felt could have been better than it was but it does sound pretty amazing when heard through a nice set of headphones or speakers. The Gordon Lightfoot song and the John Frusciante song are from a soundtrack to a film by Vincent Gallo that I have heard pretty strange things about but the music is just amazing on the sountrack, really lo-fi acoustic songs as well as some great jazz cuts thrown in. ... Speaking of soundtracks, the song from Nat King Cole and the one from Michael Glasso are on the soundtrack from the movie In the Mood For Love which was a really beautifully shot film that I hear was shot without much of a script at all. ... Japan remix is a pretty typical Casino vs track but I really enjoy it all the same and wanted to include it because i keep playing that song from the Marumari remix album it is on. ... Then there is the Surgeon song that Autechre remixed which is a really straightforward dance track but there is something about it that I really like, not sure what it is though. ... Last but not least is a song from a Tim Koch album that I really enjoy, its a great record that seems to go pretty un noticed in the places I read about or hear about recent electronic music releases. So that was a bunch of type all squished together and maybe that was not really the best way to do it but I wanted to try and do something different all the same. ... Some are itunes links some are bleep.com links and one i think is an amazon link... (ppsst... email me and convince me well enough and i might send the mix to you but you would have to promise me you would buy anything you really like from it if you can to support t he music)

Come Wander With Me

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-03-27T17:39:00-04:00

For those of you who follow this page rather than the desktop page (which I prefer because then I know my rambling gets read by at least someone), there is a new desktop up that you can see above of the stairs. ... In other news I never do this and try to remain pretty low key about it usually but Id like to open up the floor for donations. Any extra money I can get right now will go straight into my new desktop site project which will be a collective of like minded photographers The will be posting desktops via a blog with stories/thoughts about the photos. I am looking to get people involved from all around the world so it should be fun for everyone that loves a good desktop and good quality photography. I just need to gather 100 or so dollars for the hosting to get all se up and then within a week or two I hope to have it up and running in its early stages of existence. Frequent readers know that I have been planing this for quite some time now and I am all set to get it up and running so every little bit helps! So THANK YOU for your consideration and even if you cant give anything right know you can look forward to the new site in the next month or two. It should be a lot of fun. Also, I have jumped on board with the Twitter phenomenon and I am working out the kinks but you will notice the latest update on the side bar there and I will be using it as a way to share what I have been listening to in a quick and easy way. Anyways, thanks for reading and ill talk to you again soon.

My brush with stardom

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-03-24T16:47:10-04:00

When I was younger my grandmother owned a farm and on that farm there was a nice big barn and in that barn a scene was filmed in a movie called Billy Bathgate. So during the filming I was to young to really remember much of anything but I do have a couple of photos I thought I would share here just for the heck of it. Kinda funny if you ask me! First up we have Dustin Hoffman, my mom, my brother (in Dustin's arm) and myself (looking really pissed off for some reason?) And then we have the funny one here which is a photo of my brother and I sitting in the doorway of a trailer but look who is holding the door open for us.. friggin Steve Buscemi! Maybe this is only funny to me, who knows...

a drop in silence

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-03-23T02:58:01-04:00

The past couple of days have been full of piecing together songs for a split release with another musician. For those of you who may not know, I am one half of an electronic music group called 'a drop in silence' and we have been playing together for nearly 6 or so years now. The other artist on this cd is a super nice guy and a great musician named Doofgoblin. It will be released at the end of april and I am really excited about it. Im sure I will share more details when there are more to share but for now, here is a press shot we took yesterday because we have nothing for press use. Also, a new hi-fi is about half done and will be posted soon, some great music on it to check out so look here again soon for that. Till then have a good one everyone!

Mailer Deamon

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-03-14T23:24:20-04:00

(or Daemon... whatever) Tell me, am I the only one that imagines a little red deamon sitting in some cave somewhere with mail piled up to the celieng around him when I get a mail bounced back to me from an address that does not exist? I cant help but imagine this deamon endlessly going through mail that has no home to go to and typing up these replies to everyone. Always a little different but always unusually personal and nice in the way they were written. Maybe my head is on the moon today or something, who knows.

après-midi au lac

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-03-13T00:54:40-04:00

No, I don't know french. Just putting my translation widget to use and soemtimes english gets old. So anyway, I spent a few hours out at a lake today and took some photos for the first time in a while. It was nice to break out the camera again. I need to get back into the swing of the shutter. There is something really calming about that click. So anyways, enjoy these shots and the couple of desktops from the afternoon. these can also be found on my flickr page...

South of the Border, West of the Sun

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-03-09T18:27:11-05:00

Well, working all I can work on a few web projects, working on audio installs around town, getting ready for a busy spring of audio production/ shows. outside of work I am getting ready for a few performances with A Drop In Silence in april as well as getting together music to put out an EP with that project which is going to be a lot of fun and I am sure I will write more about that sometime soon. I have almost gotten all of my notes together for my new web project and will be buying up some new server space and domain name for that soon which is exciting to me. It will be a desktop/ photography blog that will (if all goes according to plan) feature photographers from around the world. I have talked about doing this for a long long time now so it is nice to be so close to announcing it officially! ...The title of this post is the name of a book that I just read by a japanese author by the name Haruki Murakami that I just finished reading. All in all its one of the best books I have read in a long long time. ... It is a very simple story of a mans life, more specifically, the romantic side of this life from birth to 'current day' when the narrator is telling the story. ... I just really admired the simplicity in the writing and would recommend it to anyone looking for a good read. Also, I have recently read another book by the same author called "The Wind Up Bird Chronicle " which was much longer and much more involved and brought in some fantasy like elements into the story but was also a great read. I think the next book I will be reading is one that I have read before but it has been years and years since I have read it so I have decided to revisit it, its called 'The Solitaire Mystery'.

Hotel Gadget

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-03-06T22:48:13-05:00

One of my favorite screen savers ever has been updated to a new version after years of sitting there. Who knows, maybe this is old news but it sure has got me excited. This endlessly beautiful, thought provoking, haunting (insert whatever other adjective you might find appropriate here) screen saver is not to be missed. The only reason I found that there was a new version was out was because someone on digg pointed to a page by the same artist where he had a bunch of random quartz composer screen savers for download which are nice and all but nothing can beat the wonder of Hotel Gadget. The only catch is that is is mac only as far as I know so sorry to the PC users out there. Here is a link to the site where you can get yourself a copy. Well... what are you waiting for, get over there and download, then lost in the hotel...

Rotate

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-03-05T16:59:12-05:00

I have added a nice little php code to rotate the title photo above and threw a few photos into the folder so visitors can expect it to change aorund a bit from now on. It will be really easy for me to use new iamges in the title and I would like to eventually build a nice big library of images to randomly grab as the header. It is a really handy trick that I have been wanted to get going for a while now. Also, im sure some of you are wondering about desktops and no worries. I should have a couple of new ones posted soon. Till then...

The White Rabbits Hole

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-03-04T13:03:54-05:00

(null)

A Trip to the Atlantic

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-02-25T20:22:16-05:00

A day at the beach for FBD version 3.0

Ok..

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-02-23T02:08:08-05:00

The body text is now a little bigger here on the blog, just a quick change for now. What do you think, does it need to be bigger than this even? I will also be adding either a rotating image on the top of the page or a user selectable image with 4 or so choices. Just depends on what I can get to work. I am not exactly a coding geek or anything but I get by. At any rate, there are still changes yet to come around here so keep an eye out as always... I will leave you with a photo of the best soda on the planet. Its called AppleBeer and it is non-alcoholic and I have no idea why beer is even in the name. Anyways, it can only really be found around Utah so whenever I am out there I buy up a bunch of it because it is much cheeper than mail order. till next time then...

So what do you think?

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-02-21T01:27:19-05:00

I was getting tired of all that darkness and was looking to freshen up the site so I have decided to go ahead and give it a facelift for the zillionth time. I am really liking this one and I may make a couple little tweaks here and there before I am totally happy with it but I wanted to go ahead and get things moving with the new design. It is just the beginning of the changes coming around here. That new project I keep talking about is getting closer and closer to seeing the light of day and I am getting more and more excited about it. But in the mean time I thought I would give twistedsun.net a fresh coat of paint. There are a few things that I wish I could make possible with the design but due to the shortcomings of the software I am using to run it there is only so much I can do with it at the moment so heres hoping that future versions allow for greater flexibility in some areas! ...So tell me, what do you think? ... Is there anything you, as the readers, would like to see more of around here? More personal stories and blogging? ... Suggestions are always welcome and I am always looking to make this site as interesting as possible to you guys so please, let me know!

Staying busy

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-02-18T00:26:59-05:00

Well I have been back home for a good couple of weeks now and looking back on my recent trip really does feel like looking back on a story that I read. ... One of them is my upcoming desktop site which will not only have my new desktops but other photographers as well. I will be drawing up invites and working out the details in the coming month and hopefully be online by the end of March. ...I have posted a couple of random desktops that I have been meaning to post for a while now so you can head over and check those out if you are interested. ... It would be nice to know that some of you read them and check out the artists I talk about. ... But I'm sure I have already mentioned this a thousand or so times before so I apologize for sounding like a broken record on the matter. ...I saw it for the second time today and I find it to be such a fascinating movie. Really really violent which was interesting because I cant remember seeing a fantasy film like this one that was so violent. I thought that the time period that it took place in with the civil war and whatnot added a lot to the violence but the director made it work so well within the movie. I usually don't have all that high of a tolerance for really violent movies but I think that as long as it it is in place to invoke something in you to relate to the characters and story line then I can stand to watch.

Herro

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-02-16T19:47:35-05:00

A while back I wrote about the apparent demise of my favorite podcast, Herro Flom Japan. He remained inactive for a long long time but recently has slowly started to pick up the mic again and start doing some new shows. I just wanted to mention this here because it is my favorite podcast after all. The host, Rich Pav, always seem to ramble on about something that is somehow accidentally really interesting to me, its just an honest look into the life of one foreigner living in Japan. Simple and very stripped of any fancy production but this is why I enjoy it so much. At any rate, I know some of the readers here used to listen to the show and I thought I would mention its return into the podcasting world, lets see if it sticks shall we? P.S - Kyoto Podcast has a new video episode as well and his video work has come a long way, great job Tim!

New Moon

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-02-14T13:51:22-05:00

So I just caught wind that there will be an album released on Kill Rock Stars released in May featuring Elliott Smith rarities! A two disc set that is filled with songs from back in his Either/Or days. Looking through the tracklist I find that I have heard many of these songs before that I have found on various websites or anywhere I could find music of his like this but it will be nice to have an official release with decent sounding recordings because most of the odd mp3s of these songs that I have come across are all of terrible quality. So I am really happy to see this getting released and I just had to write up a quick post to let you guys know because Elliott Smith is one of my very favorite musicians and I really miss seeing new releases from him. Here is a link to the original article on Pitchfork

twistedsun hi-fi #7

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-02-14T13:51:19-05:00

The more I listen to it the more I find hiding inside the amazing compositions they have crafted with this release and I have found myself enjoying this even more than their first album which was hard to beat as much as I loved it back when it came out a couple years ago. ...Eesh, what a disappointment... anyway, If you enjoy music then you owe it to yourself to at least give this great album a listen and if you do end up buying it I would suggest picking up a copy of the album with the physical cd artwork which is really wonderful and puts a really creative use to die cuts in the printing and illustration. ...It is like IDM Pop music or something like that. a Genera that I'm sure has some sort of other name but thats what I call it and it seems to be Ghostly International's favorite new thing to release which I welcome with open arms. ...I wrote about this once before while I was on my trip at the end of one of my posts, it is an album full of what I can best describe as lullabies. ...I picked up this on vinyl because the track list seemed good and Sofia Capolla's movies have all had great OST's in the past so I took a chance and was very happy that I did. ...His releases span from calm ambient music to more noise based ambient and I prefer when there is less of the guitar noise simply because I feel that I have heard that plenty of times before and there is not a whole lot you can do with it to make it any more interesting to me. ...The next track is by Manhunter and its ok but I find myself passing over it for some reason, it just does not fir with the other tracks on here all to well and its a solid enough song but I'm not usually in the mood to sit through it. Last but certainly not least is a track by Benoit Pioulard which I had not heard until now but after hearing this song I went and picked up his full length release which was released on Kranky last year I believe. ...This one reaches way back to my younger days and brings back memories of when I was listening to mostly heavy rock music/ hardcore/ metal, whatever you want to call it, just as long as it was loud and distorted I was listening with the volume all to loud and my head nodding this way and that. I think the electronic genera called breakcore which has been pioneered by artists such as Squarepusher, Venetian Snares, and The Flashbulb filled that hole in my music listening and took it to a newer more exiting level because it went beyond what you could do with a traditional band and took sound and break beats and chopped them into songs flowing at breakneck speeds.

I Heart Korg (!!!)

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-02-09T00:52:53-05:00

Korg recently released a handfull of new products including... ... a mini Kaos Pad! How cool is this!? I simply must have one of these little things... ...and check out this crazy looking digital mixer/audio interface, could be just what I was looking for in an audio interface... ..that is all, just had to share my excitement, even if this means nothing to many of you...

The Weight Is A Gift

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-02-07T15:25:09-05:00

Its feels like each day I was on my trip felt so long and full and wonderful and complete but in retrospect I feel as though the whole experience was nothing but a book I read or a collection of memories to wonderful to be my own. ... Then I look back over the hundreds of photos I took along the way to mark the journey, to offer some sort of proof that it really happened and the feelings come dripping back into my mind as though making a pot of drip coffee. ..."...chasing the sun rising this morning i could not help but be reminded of sun set with its layers of light taking over the earth in front of me. i felt as though i was driving time backwards like my car and myself were sitting still in the universe yet the earth spun backwards around me like i was winding it up for night to arrive all over again through another beautiful sunset but then the sun was not fading into night, it was welcoming me to a new day..." ...I looked up into the sky and noticed birds migrating, hundreds of them almost filling the morning sky with V shaped patterns of birds soaring through the sky like a huge magic carpet. I couldnt help but feel a connection to their travels and I think that was the point in which I realized that I had to keep traveling. ...This lead my mind to think of being home and all of the work I needed to catch up on and how many projects I want to get going and I felt both excited for the future and a little nervous and I felt my life at home weighing down onto my shoulders and I felt the weight of my life coming back to me. ...So at any rate, I'm back home in one piece and I am getting my thoughts together for the next few months of my life. I have a number of web projects to work on, audio production work to get back into, music to be written and played with matt and A Drop In Silence (my 'band'), stories to read, things to clean, insurance claims to be filed (from the robbery), prints to finally mail (from my christmas contest), photos to go through, a life to get back in the swing of living, and countless other odds and ends of things to jump into the middle of. As for this site, I will get back to my regular postings and desktop additions, after all of these stories and things I am thinking I may continue to write about life and living from time to time because it has been nice writing like this. I will also be getting my new site rolling in a month or so when I get all of the details worked out.

Hello

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-02-03T17:35:01-05:00

I have posted three new desktops for anyone interested and I will be posting again here soon when I gather my thoughts a bit. I am currently in Memphis, TN where my brother is attending school and will be back home in a few days. What a trip it has been, I will leave it at that for now and talk to you again soon!

Of Arches, Needles, and Islands..

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-28T23:50:53-05:00

Here are some more photos so you guys can get your fix. Today I am starting my long winding journey back home and I will write more about this sometime soon. Don't forget to read down into the previous posts, there are a couple good stories down there... Arches... (there is a person down there in front of delicate arch to give it some perspective) Canyonlands, Needles District... (morning from my car windows point of view just after waking up) Canyonlands, Island In The Sky... (why buy bags of ice for you cooler when there is all of this snow around?) (yes, these last couple here were taken at night... just wait for the desktop, its amazing...)

Great Ghosts

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-28T18:57:50-05:00

Bit by bit each layer of this wonderful place began to be overtaken by shadow and every peak lit itself up as if taking one las nice big stretch before climbing into bed and the canyons all seemed so peaceful at that moment. ...Even darker shadows began to take over areas and then looking toward where the sun once was I could see that last gasp of orange light stretching its self across the horizon and finally moved onto wake the eastern world from its slumber. ...Also as the sun set, the last of the other visitors left and went along on their way and from what the rangers told me earlier in the day I was the only person staying the night out there in the park and this left me to realize that I had this whole island to myself. ... I started to feel lonely and as time went by I came to find that I could not remember a time in my life when I had felt so alone in the world. ...And in that moment I felt so alive it was hard to bare, in that moment of total awareness and in the black cold of a winters night I felt free and ready to move on and discover the rest of my life somehow transformed by the great unknown of this land as it spoke to me and in this moment I felt peace. ...Then moments later the sound came again and again I shone my light over in the direction of the sound and I found that flicker of light again and again I saw eyes and this time it was obvious. ...So I gathered my camera and my book and stepped back to the trail when once again I heard the sound of whatever animal was out there creeping around in the shadows of the moon, calling out into the void only this time the sound was closer to me and I turned my flashlight back on and once again locked into a staring match with those two yellow eyes. This time I found that they were obviously right there on the path of the trail that I had to take to get out of there and to the right of me was a huge cliff and to the left of me was another cliff of sorts that I could not get around easily. ... I decided that I had to keep moving so I figured I needed to try and scare whatever this thing was off so first I flickered my flashlight in its direction and made some sort of odd sound to try and spook it. ...Funny thing was while this was happening to me, all the while something repeated in my head that I had heard from a silly little campfire story time type thing led by a ranger the last time I was out in this area.

Island in the Sky

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-28T16:30:03-05:00

How could you not feel humbled to the point where your heart aches and your eyes sting while looking out into this beautiful landscape? You cant help but want to throw your arms out into the air like a birds wings, get a good running start, kick off the ledge of the cliff and soar through the landscape like one of these lucky crows that seem to be everywhere I go. It's hard to believe that some people come through here, get out of their cars, walk the hundred or so feet to the overlook only to turn back around not 1 minute later to hop back in their car and drive off. I hear them say things like, "oh honey, this is just like a grand canyon type overlook, thats all... hm... ok well lets go, I want to get to arches before the end of the day..." Oddly enough, this happened at around 4pm which was only a bout an hour before sunset and arches was a good 30 minute drive at least... I think Edward Abbey, a well known writer from this area said it right when he said these words about this area in the introduction to his book Desert Solitare... "Do not jump into your automobile next June and rush out to the Canyon country hoping to see some of that which I have attempted to evoke in these pages. In the first place you can't see anything from a car; you've got to get out of the goddamned contraption and walk, better yet crawl, on hands and knees, over the sandstone and through the thornbush and cactus. ...I can't say that even I have seen this place as he describes it but I like to get as close to that description as I can and I can only hope that I will be back here again to crawl through these rocks and canyons. ... At any rate, walking up to the edge of the rim of the huge outermost shell of these canyons I welcomed myself to this Island in the Sky...

Canyonlands

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-27T18:58:22-05:00

My legs are just starting to calm themselves down and stop aching now that I have had a chance to set up camp and eat some dinner. I went on a long 12ish mile hike today which was wonderful and as I mentioned before, this place is simply amazing to hike through. The fact that it was covered in snow in a lot of places was the icing on the cake (kind of almost literally if you think about it...). Although some of the passes between canyons were a little more difficult to traverse while covered in slippery snow or some of the straight ways sticky with thick mud, I still found the hike to be wonderful. ... I was jealous of another hiker that I came across a few times in the past couple days which turns out was also from NC. ... For years it seems I have dreamed of coming out here during the winter when the crowds were gone and I always hoped that I would see these beautiful canyons covered in a blanket of snow. ... Although I am here a couple weeks after the snow fall there was still an ample amount of snow covering the more shadowy areas of the canyon. ...Tomorrow will be the last morning spent in this area, after this I will be heading north to the northern part of Canyonlands National Park, The Island In The Sky. ... The towering view of the whole of the area is nothing short of stunning and I can't wait to get up there. ...(I will post this entry and the one previous in the morning on my way through Moab but I am afraid you will have to wait another day or so for photos because I want to get a move on, my trip is drawing to its last few days which is both exciting and really depressing but I will get to that another day...)

By the moonlight

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-26T21:48:28-05:00

I believe I spoke of just how dense the blanket of stars can be at night but now the moon has come out as well and it is like an entire different world out here when the moon is out. ... It is easy to walk about with no flashlight and everything has a beautiful subtlety to it that is like being on another world all together. ...I was hoping to be out backpacking while here in Canyonlands which is where I am at the moment but due to the break in and me loosing most of my camping gear I have been prevented from doing so. I had plans to set up the camera while out in the canyons and take some photos of the canyon lit by the moonlight but there is only so much I can do from here in this campground. I did take a couple of nice shots that I will share sometime soon so you can see how beautiful it can be and I hope for the moon to be out and more full while I am up in the Island in the Sky district of Canyonlands so maybe I will be able to get some nice landscape shots at night. It has been something I have fascinated me for some time, taking photos by the light of the moon that is. While Im at it I just want to throw in how incredibly happy I am to be here in Canyonlands right now. ... It is just so remote and beautiful and the trails are all so challenging in the way they weave in and out of the canyons. ... One day I will get out here with a 4WD vehicle and dig into the deep backcountry of the park but who knows when that will be. ... Tomorrow I have a nice long 12ish mile hike planned out which is going to take me right into the heart of this area and I cant wait.

Delicate

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-26T10:02:19-05:00

RIght, so my goal was to see the arch at sunset because that is the classic time to go visit the thing and so I left around 1:30 in the afternoon to hike down (or up I should say) a short mile and a half trail. ...After a while I knew that I had a few hours to kill so I found a nice spot in the sun and sat down with the book I am reading. Other hikers came here and there and it was fascinating to me that I cold hear them coming a good half mile away at least and always had fair warning. ... It is so true. existing somewhere as quiet as this area in the winter really does magnify sound and you can hear everything around you so clearly. ...A few hours pass and a few chapters pass and time was drawing near sunset and this is when I had a small handful of people show up all at once which was kind of nice in a way because it can get pretty lonely sitting around alone and to see this arch at sunset really is unlike anything you could imagine. ... I did snap a couple of photos but there are so many hundreds of THOUSANDS of photos exactly like the ones I was taking in existence that I honestly did not take to terribly many. ...So after the sun was fully set and most hikers were well on their way it was just me there to walk back in the amazing afterglow of the suns setting. ... The cool air of the evening crept up and without the sun around the moisture from the land started to creep up into my nostrils filling my lungs with a fresh cool feeling as I hiked on. ...Right now It is already 8 AM and I really want to get down to Canyonlands as soon as I can, I woke up late at 7:30 this morning after a bout with the night not letting me fall asleep. ... Until then, stay warm, stay calm, and take a moment the next time you are outside at dusk to close your eyes, take a deep breath, calm yourself, open your eyes and realize how great it is to exist.

12 New Desktops

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-25T02:13:02-05:00

Yes, you read that right, you now have twelve new desktops to choose from in the desktop section. They are from the past week and I hope you enjoy them. Please feel free to leave a comment with your favorite image, id love to know what you readers think. Sorry the descriptions are a little short this time around, I decided to spend less time writing descriptions and more time getting more images online for you guys to enjoy so have at it! By the way I have quite the story to tell from today and I will get that up tomorrow I think...

Moab

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-23T15:31:41-05:00

It's funny how things you remember in your memory from your past differ from how things really are or were at the time you remembered them. The way I remember things is very visual, like moments are all frames of a movie and sometimes I remember these little clips and these clips all tie themselves together according to relevance and make up the story of my life in my mind. Sometimes I will remember very specific things and other times there will be a somewhat foggy image lurking somewhere deeper in my mind that can only be found when I stumble across the right collection of memories. Take Moab, UT and the surrounding area for instance. I have very distinct memories of this area yet now that I am here, a little older and on my own I find things feeling a little out of place in my mind. It's like the images of my memory have gotten a little mixed up somehow and things are in a slightly different place than they should be. Then again things do change with time and maybe this is the case with this area. It is not exactly the quaint little community that I once remembered it to be. It has grown to be much more a service town than I remember but this is how it goes within communities like this...

Photo Update

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-23T12:32:12-05:00

Here we go again, another round of photos... desktops soon...

Grand Staircase, Part 2

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-21T21:03:52-05:00

I decided that I didnt want to pass up the opportunity to see the sun rise over the canyons below me from my wonderful camp spot so I braved the bitter cold of the morning air, crawled out of my sleeping bag, and made my way over to the cliffs edge while rubbing my eyes. ...It ended up just being an exciting 2 mile drive down a fairly rugged dirt road where I found myself wondering if I was going to get myself stuck somewhere along the way but at this point I was simply bound and determined to continue along and get to where I was going. ...Eventually I came to a point where the walls were only 1-2 feet across and So I stashed my bag in a little alcove in the rock, grabbed my camera and crammed myself through the skinniest passage yet which I had to push and pull my body through to make it. ...I ended up at an awkward point where I had to kind of do a half split with my legs and bend my head down underneath some debris that were stuck in between the canyon walls and about 10 or 20 feet later I found that I simply could not go on because the slot made a pretty sharp ascent up a little dry waterfall and it was just to narrow for me to climb up it to continue. ...So at this point I hiked back up to my car and it was only 1 in the afternoon and so I had a whole afternoon ahead of me so I made the decision to drive on down the highway because I did not want to put my car through anymore rough dirt roads after that little check engine light came into my life. ... It wound around and made its way up through canyons and all the way up to the peak of one range and made its way along the top edge of this canyon/mountain range leaving a really really amazing view to one side of me as I drove. ... Eventually I was driving on snow through this windy mountain pass and I stopped when I noticed a sign that said peak elevation or something like that and I found that I was 9600 feet above sea level and when I stepped out of my car to snap a couple of photos I was nearly blown over the wind was gusting so much. ... I made my way further into the mountain and the snow started to pile up on the highway and my speed started so slow as it was getting pretty hazardous to be driving on a road I didnt know, alone, in a mini blizzard all while night was creeping up right behind me. So that was all well and exciting to drive through snow like that and as I was driving across the peak I noticed the markers on the side of the road had long orange poles on them sticking up a good 15 feet into the air and I realized that this was so that snow plows could make their way down the road if they could not see the road. pretty smart I thought to myself and I found that I was not looking to be inside that snow pile that the plow came plowing through so I kept on moving along down the road. ...On a last note before I wrap up another to long post, I found that this camp is right next to a stable with horses roaming a field and so I walked up to the fence and had the chance to say hello to a horse and pet its warm snout before climbing back in here for the night.

The Grand Staircase

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-20T17:54:17-05:00

I hear from the locals that there has been a good amount of trouble stirred up by the government sweeping in and declaring all of this land to be a National Monument. ...At the moment I am sitting in my car/tent at the end of a short dirt road that appears to be a nice place to park for the night. In ths area there are hundreds of roads to explore and probably 99 percent of them are dirt roads many of which can not be accessed without 4 Wheel drive capabilities on your vehicle and my car is far from 4 wheel drive. At least I have a new set of tires on it because I spent the last hour or so driving around and down some roads that probably were not meant for little cars like mine. ...I think a lot of this trip so far I have found myself in positions where I will be hiking or driving and I find that I can't stop myself from going just a little further, then just a little further, then just a little further. Sometimes this takes me places that put me at risk like up a hill that is just a little to steep to feel totally comfortable climbing, or scrambling up a canyon with a steep floor of loose rock causing the occasional slip down a few inches but quick glance back down to the bottom always gets me to slow down. ... It has taken me to a few places that I may never see again in the way that I have seen them so I don't regret a minute of it. ...I am keeping a pretty tight eye on my money because after buying back enough gear to make this trip work I found myself with just enough to get around a select amount of places and not every single place I may have wanted to go. ... Even places I have seen before feel new with a coat of snow and without all of the tourism and flocks of people you might find in the area during the peek traveling season out here. ...It has woken my desire to see all I can see in the world and It has reminded me just how much I miss being out hiking and camping, if thats what you can call this strange in car camping trip.

A couple of new desktops

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-19T11:07:24-05:00

Are up in the desktop page, I will get more up sometime soon when I get some more time. And just a bit of an update, I am leaving zion today and driving somewhere else down the road. I have a vague idea of where but not exactly yet. Also on a side note, I would like to recommend a place of business here in Springdale which is right outside of Zion National Park here that has been really nice to me and helpful the last few days. It is called Cafe Soliel and they have everything from breakfast to lunch to coffe/ espresso and smoothies. All of which are quite good I might say, well of what I have had here. So I give my thanks to Eddie here as I leave this amazing area for the next step of my adventure...

Photos from the past few days..

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-18T13:30:58-05:00

This is the first time in a while that I have sat down to go through my photos and eesh, there are so many that I know that I cant manage to post them all. I could also probably write a whole post for each one of them but I want to get back out there and get a hike in today. So I hope that you enjoy this little sampler of photos and I will try and get a couple desktops up next time k? ...(from near las vegas. can anyone guess which casino that light is coming from? ...(sorry this is so dark and blurry, this is zion at night) (part of the trail leading up to angels landing) ...(a peak down next to the trail) ...Well that is the abridged version, I hope that you can get an idea of the area from these shots, talk to you again sometime soon! p.s - song of the moment: "13 Angels Standing Guard 'Round The Side Of Your Bed" by a band called 'A Silver Mt. Zion' ... easily one of the most beautiful songs in existence and perfect for this place...

Zion and the Angels Landing

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-16T21:43:55-05:00

I wove around to a place called Red Rock Canyon to find a camp for the night and the next day I got my first good hike in which helped remind me why I came out here. ...It brought back all sorts of feelings and memories from past visits and seeing the area covered in snow was something that was really unique seeing as the other times I have been were in the summer months when this area is hot hot hot. I talked to a park ranger to check on trail closings from the winter weather and was pleased to find that only a couple were closed but I was told to watch my step on any of the hikes because snow and ice while walking near the edge of some 1000 odd feet drop is not all that safe with your eyes closed. ...It is actually a lot of fun in the summer, its just you, the rock, the chain, and you glance to your side to look over the edge of a cliff that drops off hundreds of feet below you. ... I found that its best to kind of grip the chain and pull yourself with your arms and use your body weight as leverage to keep all of your weight on your feet which are standing on those slick little pockets of snow as you climb up. ...The climb back down proved a bit more difficult and required me to kind of repel down some of the more slippery slopey areas using the chain as my rope and kind of half slide my way down to safety. ...I ended up hiking more along the canyons rim on another trail that splintered off from Angels Landing which was great because I had a chance to hike down some truly snow covered trail. ... Really truly a beautiful experience all around and although my body is crying right now from that exhausting hike I am planning to go on an even longer one tomorrow with an earlier start to give myself plenty of time. ... Then after that I will most likely spend one more day and go on an even longer hike all the way down and around the east rim of the canyon but that is all just in my plans, well see how my body holds up. So that is all for now, I took plenty of photos although I will have to admit that taking pictures was not really what I was focused on while I was up there.

Back on the road

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-14T13:20:54-05:00

song of the moment that you must listen to... now. Jamie Lidell - "The City" (seriously, this is the song right now to be heard to understand) song of the moment version 2.0... Nada Surf - "Do it Again"

Broken

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-12T21:29:04-05:00

You find yourself at Macworld in the city and you buy a new toy, a battery pack for your iPod so you will always have music with you on a trip you are on. ... So after a few days in the city and a couple days exploring Macworld it comes to the last day of Macworld and you have to get over there before it closes because part of the battery that you bought is missing from the packaging. ... You would think something as simple as a clip for an iPod accessory would not have the ability to break someone down but today, this day, it just so happened that it can... hang on a second, let me take a step back, rewind. ...As you leave the apartment you were staying at you walk down the street thinking of the amazing places you are going to see, you close your eyes, feel a breeze and imagine you are there atop the edge of a canyon in the middle of no where. ...You feel all sorts of things, betrayal from the open road for letting something like this happen, you wonder what kind of person did this, you picture a blurry figure in the night going through your things, and you feel overwhelmed by what the hell you are going to do now. ...One of two bags of clothing which appeared to have been gone through and a new pair of pants which were insulated for cold weather, a pair of fancy fleece long underwear, 2 new long sleeve fleece shirts, a towel, a stick of deodorant, and another long sleeve shirt or two (pretty much all of my cold weather clothes for camping). ... A small box containing misc. tech things like batteries, a cable or two, an M-Audio Trigger Finger Midi drum pad controller for making music while out on the road, a set of folding iPod speakers, and an iPod car charger along with a special cup holder that was used as an iPod mount. ... Thankfully I had my 5d, my 35mm 1.4L lens, 3 of 4 2gb cards, and two batteries with me but... along with my camera bag (a great bag which was a gift to me recently) went a Canon 50mm 1.4 lens, a Canon 50mm 1.8 lens, a Canon 28-105mm 3.5-4.5 USM lens, a Sigma 80-300mm lens, a couple of lens filters, lens/camera cleaning equipment, an older Canon EOS film camera body, the manuel to the 5d, 2 battery chargers, misc cables, and also a pair of 200 dollar sennheiser HD 25 Headphones, which I really miss... ...I can have some sympathy for those in the world that are at rock bottom and have to turn to these sorts of tricks to get by but only a little, im still pretty upset about this whole thing... ...I cant help but feel grateful because of the support I have seen from people around me both strangers and family, friends and so from that I find myself making sure to treat others as nicely and gratefully as I can and I suggest you do the same, pass it on.

San Francisco

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-11T12:16:04-05:00

The city has been fun to explore and I will be spending one more day here in the city before moving on to browner pastures (desert). Not sure what I am going to do today though. Eat more good Japanese food while its around, wander the streets, maybe head back to macworld for a bit. who knows. So anyways, this is an amazing city and I hate to leave it but it is not the focus of my trip now is it? next up will be either the Redwood Forest, The Sequoias, or Zion Nation Park in Utah, not sure which yet so we will see. Anyways, I may not talk to you guys here for a few days, I'm not sure. Thats why I have posted a handful of new desktops for you guys to enjoy and some photos from the past couple of days. Anyways, I hope to talk to you again sometime soon and until then, try to find a little adventure in your own everyday lives if you are not traveling yourself. You know, try something unexpected for a change... till next time then..

Snapshots from San Francisco's Japanese Tea Garden

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-11T12:11:01-05:00

(i think that sugar was invented for these to come into existence)

So I saw the iphone

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-11T11:45:24-05:00

And it was amazing... there are a couple other shots from macworld down there too...

West in photos #1

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-08T23:10:14-05:00

I have decided to simply make posts with photos from the trip when I can and this is the first batch for everyone to see. Yes, this is just a tiny little taste of the images I have taken so far and yes, I am holding back some choice photos for now. I will hopefully get some desktops up as soon as I can because I'm sure some of you are anxious to share in the trip. Anyways, here are a few shots from the first few days traveling...

San Francisco

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-08T22:55:23-05:00

I drove until there was no more road to drive on and the ocean sits in front of me spanning out into infinity and I look out wondering if or when I will overcome that obstacle and travel overseas again. ...It is always strange to drive at night when there is no city around because you are just driving into the black and when that happens you could imagine yourself being anywhere in the world traveling down a dark deserted road. Whenever morning comes around the sun wakes me in my tent and I get to head outside and see the place that I traveled to for the first time. ... Its like when you get a gift and the person giving the gift says, "close your eyes and put out your hands". At night my eyes are closed as a drive into a camp and in the morning I can open my eyes to see the gift of a new landscape awaiting me. I spent my first day without a destination exploring a beautiful area north of San Francisco which was a mountain area right on the edge of the ocean. This allowed me to see the whole bay area around here and I felt like it was a perfect place to really start my trip. I ended up driving through the area with no map or any real idea of where I was going which was great. When I came to a fork in the road I pretty much just picked the direction that seemed like it would lead me somewhere nice and somehow every turn that I took was perfect and I ended up down on a rocky beach next to the ocean. ...So now here I am, in the dark once again, at another new camp writing this just to get caught up a bit with the site and I am going to head into my tent here in a minute, close my eyes, and wait until morning brings me the next day of this journey.

Still on the road..

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-06T23:14:06-05:00

Well, I have been driving for a few days now and im starting to feel the burn of being in the same spot inside a car for 2061 miles acording to my GPS unit that I have been keeping track of things with. ... Last night I camped out in the snow which was really nice actually all bundled up in my tent in the middle of nowhere with the faint sound of snowflakes falling down onto the roof of my tent. ...Its hypnotic, the road and you have to be careful driving late at night after a day of staring and singing along to music and thinking and scratching down notes while speeding along down the interstate. I think I am locked into a state of excitement and I don't think that I will feel settled until I see the Pacific ocean at my feet. ... Once I feel a bit more settled I think I will try and write out more of a journal and upload a couple of photos of my progress so sit tight, I will be back soon, promise. There is a guy singing over in the corner with his guitar, i love this song, I think I will record with my little built in mic for a few minutes and post that here with the post if it comes out at all. ...So at any rate, (holds up drink and shouts quietly to the masses with his keys) heres to safe travels, plenty of good stories and photos and memories to last and drive me to a new beginning of some sort. ...p.s - The recording came out terrible and I'm to lazy to break out my mics right now so just picture yourself in a little coffee shop in a town you have never been too late one night and a guy is playing his guitar and singing over in the corner. p.s.s... - song of the day: Woke Up New by The Mountain Goats... look it up, buy it, whatever you need to do, just go listen. I think I will have a new song every post on this trip for you to listen to that somehow reflects something somehow of what I am thinking about.

Heading West

john@twistedsun.net — 2007-01-02T00:46:28-05:00

Show after show of work, holiday activities, a few issues that I can't go into here which involve one of the biggest ass's ever to walk the earth and in between all of what life has thrown my way over the past week or so I have been trying to scramble together my things for a 6+ week road trip across the U.S. Speaking of my trip, I mentioned it in the podcast once but I don't believe I have officially let readers in on what is going on with it. ... My main destinations are mostly in the Colorado Plateau (four corners) area in the southwest and hiking/backpacking my way through all of the beautiful canyons of the area in the chilly solitude of the winter. I am planning on camping in a tent the majority of my time on the road but I'm sure an occasional hotel will be thrown in for a shower and some warmth here and there. I am also considering heading all the way out towards California to San Francisco and crashing the Mac-World Expo but we will just have to wait and see about that. The southwestern US is an area that I have visited 4 times now I believe but never have I been there but certainly not in the winter like this. ...So this said, I'm sure you must realize that I will not be able to access the internet all that often to post updates here on the site but when I do stumble upon a random hi-fi spot you can expect updates and plenty of photos here on the site from my trip. I am hoping that I will have some stories and photos that will make up for the infrequency of my posts during the trip. ... It should be quite an adventure and I hope to let you guys in on it as much as I can. So If you don't see posts all to often don't think I am closing up shop, I will simply be out in the remote areas of the Southwestern United States.

Gorgeous..

john@twistedsun.net — 2006-12-29T10:31:35-05:00

New desktop in the friends section straight from one of my more consistent twistedsun.net friend posters Fabian. Click the image below to head over and check it out.

t.s. slowdown

john@twistedsun.net — 2006-12-28T08:27:13-05:00

Some of you may have noticed slowdowns in traffic in the past day or so. This is most likely because of earthquakes in asia that have caused some serious damage to lines connecting them to the rest of the world. My host is in Hong Kong at the moment which would explain the slowdown. Sorry for any delays in accessing the site. Things seem to be moving along a little better than before so thats good to see. It's frightening to think that this great network that now holds so much of the worlds communications together is so fragile when it comes to natural disasters and the like. Read more here.

Winner

john@twistedsun.net — 2006-12-26T12:44:43-05:00

(Sorry for getting this up later than I wanted to guys!) So the contest is now over and a winner has been drawn from a tiny bowl and I made a video of the big moment. I am looking a little ragged because I just woke up and because I am in a rush to get going because I woke up late. So pardon my rough appearances and somewhat terse message to you all but here it is, the winner is.... (sorry, the audio came out really quiet for some reason or another...) Congratulations to Michu of Germany I believe and your valiant struggle to become the winner of my simple little contest! I will be in touch to get you your winnings. ...Because I am feeling for those of you who did not make it out of that tiny bowl alive I decided yesterday to give everyone who entered a gift for showing support of the site here by entering. You all will get a 5x7 print of your favorite desktop image! I will get to mailing all of those who entered as soon as I have the chance to talk with you about the little details and whatnot so be on the lookout for an email from me soon. Thanks to everyone once again and have a great day/night.

Something is happening... (Christmas Giveaway)

john@twistedsun.net — 2006-12-22T22:42:05-05:00

By the way, Happy Christmas, Joyeux Noël, vrolijke Kerstmis, frohe Weihnachten, メリークリスマス, 즐거운 성탄, Feliz Navidad, веселое рождество, 圣诞快乐, Buon Natale, God jul, Mutlu noeller... ! ...It's nearly christmas and people all around the world celebrate the holiday in their own way and I have decided to celebrate the holidays by giving something away. As most of you regulars here know, I love music and I love to share it with others almost as much as I enjoy listening to it myself. ... Im not sure how it works if I give one to someone outside of the states but I will make it work somehow. (I wish that bleep.com, warpmart, or boomkat had gift certificates because I would like to give you an option but iTunes is simply the easiest way to go music wise. ...I was thinking of some way to make this fair and give everyone a chance so I am going to put the comment system to use. ... Just leave the name of your favorite as the comment and whatever holiday wishes you care to make to the world. Make sure your name is entered properly as well as your email (the email will not be seen by the public) I will take all of the names, put them in a hat (or something of the sort) and draw the winner. ...*note that the term big is relative and the winings may or may not live up to the expectations found when you thing of something that is "big" PS - I've decided to add another option to the prize, Now you can choose between the gift certificate or a print of your choice from those available on my store page.

MacSanta is here

john@twistedsun.net — 2006-12-22T21:38:59-05:00

A lot of great shareware is out there and this holiday developers are all pooling together and giving 20 percent discounts to lots and lots of software, its a great idea and its amazing how many developers have jumped in on the holiday savings game, so if there was ever an app you had your eye on check here and you just might find it at a discounted price. There is a lot of software here that I didnt even know existed and ive had fun discovering new apps out there. Anyways, check it out! Heres a link