back... finally

Over the last 4 weeks, I have been home 5 days. All the travelin' seeing family and touring was great but I am happy to be home again... showering in my shower, sleeping in my bed... ahhhh the life.

Just saw this on RVA the other day, we are the dang soundtrack! too cool! This just happens to be from the show where Jana was in town too!

Last Friday - December from RVA TV on Vimeo.

Weekend camping

woah... this weekend we went camping with some good friends. Here is a little hint to where we went and with whom! more pics to come

... also I uploaded a good chunk of the images from the Diamond Center tour to Flickr, check 'em out here!

i miss my kelli P

This is us outside "Little Italy" in Athens, you can tell we are engaged in some thrilling conversation. It was so awesome to hang with her for a couple of days while we were out on tour, but now I just miss her.



Kelli P. showered us with sweet little things every time we saw her (including Jana Jr., which I will have to introduce at at later time) She gave us this little cute raccoon the second day in Decatur, and it came with instructions. It was to be placed in the van and would act as our little good luck charm, and keep us safe on the road. When the tour was over it would go to Kelly G. (you know my most awesome female partner-in-crime/merchandise slinger on tour) The last day of tour we started out in Ft. Worth on our way back up to Lubbock. Kelly G., on the other hand had to go in the exact opposite direction, all the way home to Houston. So we drove her to the bus station, and gave her a sweet goodbye, and the raccoon. Not half an hour later with no Kelly G., and no raccoon... the A/C stopped working in the van. Ouch. Maybe they were both our good luck charms, hmmmm.....

The Diamond Center's 5th and final Tour Blog....

written by yours truly and Mr. K is up over at The Llano Idea... go check it out HERE Again, I am sorry that I am too lazy to post it here too.

Ok, so over the tour, between Kelly and I, we shot over 20 GB of images... which is pretty close to a billion images... I think. I documented many of the bathrooms at the places we visited, especially the bars we played. There is just something that I find incredibly interesting about them, it just tells a lot about the place... what do you think?

New Orleans, Hi-Ho Lounge (Private bathroom for performers.... nice)

home again...

After 17 days, 15 shows, 19 states crossed, 5400 miles driven and countless pizza slices consumed we are finally home! The tour was a success and we had a BLAST. K and I were so fortunate to be traveling and playing with such an awesome group of people who all play in numerous other projects but took  2 weeks to join us in the Diamond Center. Thank you so so so so so very much to Daniel Markham of One Wolf, Alan Brown of My Milliner and founder of 90% death sex, and Sound man/drummer extraordinaire, Tim Falen of Ghost Owl, and of course the lovely Kelly Garcia who was in charge of slingin' the merchandise, and helping me keep up the female presence... we couldn't have made it without each and every one of you. Our 3rd blog post is up over at The Lllano Idea, check it out! Sorry I am too lazy to do one here too! 

This series of images was taken by my man K outside of "Little Italy" in Athens ( which is one of our FAVORITE places) with Tim, Daniel, and two of my very best friends Kelli P and Ryan. It was such a treasure to have some time with their sweet baby hearts.

Tour blog

Alrighty, I have been horrible about posting my images and stories from the road, partially due to lack of internet time, but mostly because we are having too much of a good time at all times ok, that was a tad redundant). I just posted a blog over at the llano idea and Kyle started it out with two before that so, go here and check it out!

lubbock to new orleans

I always attempt to be more diligent with posting when on the road... and I always fail. So here we are almost a week in and this is my first post.... please forgive. 

I have something to make up for it, I have been taking a TON of images so there will be MUCH posting, it might just be a couple days delayed. Here goes Austin to New Orleans (basically day 1 and 2)

We played our first show at the Creekside Lounge in Austin TX. It was a great show and we had LOTS of support from our local friends.  The headline band, Smoke and Feathers, had a "projectionist" which was AWESOME and something that I have seen footage of but never seen in person. Basically it was an analog video/image show straight out of the late 60s.... righteous. Here is Aaron, the projectionist on the left, the outside of the bar on right.

the projectionist

more projectionist and Creekside Live from the outside. We played with 2 other great bands, Alex Dupree and the Trap Door Band, and American Sharks.

I just have to mention here that I love, LOVE shooting in low light situations, especially with my most righteous camera. It captures images and color in such an amazing way.
This, on the left, is what it feels like in the end of the night when the van must be packed. More Creekside on the right.
On Saturday morning we woke up and left Austin by 9am... yea thats right we got out of town by 9am which is a feat to say the least, and headed to New Orleans to make a radio show by 4. Here Jana and Kyle are in the WTUL (Tulane) studio. 
Then... after the radio show in New Orleans, we headed to Frankie & Johnny's, a sweet restaurant a local pointed us to. This is the civilized side of the table... (Alan, Kelly & Jana)
... and the other side. (me, Kyle, Tim & Daniel)
the food was greasy and delicious. On the left here is Kyle's alligator soup, which the waitress referred to as "cup-A-gatar" (like cup-of-gator)... and on the right, Tim, Daniel and Alan grubbin'. (this will be a constant theme, I enjoy taking images of people as they are eating)
On the way from the eatery to the club we were playing we were directed thru a New Orleas neighborhood, and it was incredibly sobering. It has been almost 3 years since Katrina and still the evidence of her wrath is ever-present. 

Here are Tim and Daniel outside of the Hi-Ho Lounge as the sun was setting.

We played with 2 of the MOST amazing bands in New Orleans. One Man Machine opened the show, and I was emotionally moved by their performance... I STRONGLY suggest checking them out. After we played a local band called Silent Cinema played, and even though I have no images of them... they were AMAZING also. I MUST see both of these bands again.

Here is Bernard from One Man Machine, I, again, was moved to tears from his performance.
and the guys backstage before the the show from left to right... Alan, Tim, Daniel, Kyle.
...and Jana. I love, LOVE getting her making funny faces.
this is me. Jana took this one.
This is Kyle talking to our new friend Robin, who has to be one of the sweetest most genuine people that I have EVER met. He played with Bernard and One Man Machine, and he put us up for the night.
backstage at the Hi Ho Lounge.
Sunday was our last day with Jana. She had to return back home to work and away from us. We missed her INSTANTLY. Here she is on the right outside of Robin's house on Sunday morning, before we took her to the jet plane. Jana... next time you MUST be here with us for the whole time, it's not the same without you.

4 days and 1420 miles in....

and already a billion stories to tell. 

For those that are just joining, my band the Diamond Center started our tour on Friday which will take us 12 shows in 14 days starting in our home of Lubbock Tx and lead us all the way to NYC and back. I will be posting a tour blog, with tons of pics thru this whole deal starting this afternoon AND, we, as a band, will be featured word famous The Llano Idea, telling our stories from the road.

I thought I would kick this whole thing off with a couple of images from the preparatory night before we left town. We spent the majority of the evening making tags, rolling shirts, mounting labels, and constructing talismans (that was k's contribution).

and now for the big K surprise... INTRODUCING with no further delay...... (drumroll please)

My Only Companion SALSA! Kyle slaved over 2 batches of his delicious salsa to be able to bring it on the road to sell... and it's been a HIT. You MUST get some if you see us.

This is our buddy and expert t-shirt roller Taylor, who was a HUGE help in our preparation night... Thanks T-no-no, we wouldn't have made it without your mad skills. You can also see t-no-no HERE, although he's not with us for this tour, he's joined us on the road before.

life is a whirlwind... and I am spinning

I have been a bad blogger recently, partially due to the fact that I have SO MANY THINGS TO DO these days. Often when we lay our heads down at night K and I discuss how there just aren't enough hours in the day... I hate this feeling. We are getting ready for the Diamond Center tour which starts next Friday, and the amount of things that have to be in order before leaving for 2 weeks can be a little overwhelming! 

These images are from a shoot I did a couple weeks ago of a family that I have known for years. Their mother was one of the first designers I worked with after finishing my undergrad! These 3 kiddos are adorable... A-dorable! Here are a few of my favorites from the shoot.

bags galore!

In 2 weeks from friday my band The Diamond Center is leaving on a 2 week tour of the East Coast and Midwest... wooo hoooo! 

Trying to think of things that we can sell on the road to generate more cash-flow for the ever-rising gas prices, I came up with the idea to make Diamond Center tote bags! Its been a blast re-connecting with the sewing machine (the last time I used it was when I was in 4-H as a youngster) AND not to mention designing the bags. I decided to use found fabric, so the bags are 99% reclaimed and recycled! (the thread is new)  I debuted the bags at our CD release show here in Lubbock last week and they were a hit! Hopefully the rest of the country will think the same.

K also has something in the works that he is creating to sell... more on that yummy surprise soon!

To see if The Diamond Center will be hitting your neck-of-the-woods, check out our tour schedule at our rockin' new site over HERE.

i am freaking out/my last 3 weekends rocked....literally

I started waaaayyyy back in September, 2008, preparing to apply to grad school. I had it all mapped out in a timely matter to have everything ready for submission early January: research, contacting schools for info, shooting my pieces and arranging my digital portfolio, visiting schools, checking out the schools surrounding community (which is very important to me), filling out applications, writing my "statement of intent" (which I think was harder than birthing a child... although I have never done that so I could not tell you for certain), and finally submitting all the requested materials in the manner requested by each school.... and I told myself in my mapped out calendar that I would submit, and then put it out of my mind... until March, which seemed sooooo far away at the time. WELL IT'S MARCH, AND I'M FREAKING OUT!!!!! I ended up applying to 3 schools, and I have heard from 2, and both places I am on the FREAKING WAIT LIST (which I guess is better than straight up being denied, but doesn't help my rising anxiety) AND my numero uno choice... I haven't heard from yet! EVERY-SINGLE-DAY I anxiously await a call, an e-mail, a letter, I may appear calm on the outside BUT I AM FREAKIN' ON THE INSIDE... hence the capitol letters, ahhhh, I should have told myself April...boo

On another, more interesting side of this post, March has been a-lotta rockin' for the Diamond Center. The first weekend of the month we played a show with our friends from Athens, Georgia, The Visitations... this is the second time that Davey and the crew have been thru Lubbock since we have been here, and I have to say that this is the best things about having transient/musician friends... you never know when they will come see you OR you will randomly run into them (this comes into play later in the post)! The second weekend we played a little mini-tour.  Thurs. we played a Conferette in Denton, the first annual NX35, AND we got to play with some other friends from Athens,  Madeline & the White Flag Band AND Ham 1. This posse included one of k's and I most favorite people in the world, the one and only, mr. Jim Wilson. Friday we played again with Madeline & the Band in Ft. Worth and then all 3 of us back together again in Austin on Sat. night. It was hard to say goodbye to that crew (and yes now I am breaking out in the Boyz II Men song). THEN, this past weekend we went down and played a day show in Austin for SXSW! I have now figured out that THIS is where it's at! Screw those official SXSW shows, the fun and the people are at the day shows. We played at an Ethiopian Resturant, Karibu (owned by our Lubbock friend Akiles' parents) with some of our other friends from Lubbock: The Numerators & La Panza, and some touring acts too... Treasure Mammal & Polka Dot Dot Dot. AND right down the alley was, in my opinion, probably the best outdoor day party, Ms Bea's. A long list of hip bands played there including, but not limited to, Marnie Stern, Mika Miko,  and my fav, The Vivian Girls, who were hanging out there all day. We also ran into several of our friends from Athens, Twin Tigers, and the Dark Meat crew, who we would be hosting for a Lubbock show Sat night. There are pictures to follow so I wont go into the details here BUT we basically squished about 3 days of SXSW into less than 24 hours.... enjoy!

ohhhhh yea, and I thought I would also mention that somehow, thru her magical powers, my sister Jana, drummer of the Diamond Center, convinced Ales Maas, the vocalist of The Black Angels to come to our SXSW show... AND HE DID! ....AND he seemed to really dig it, and came up immediately after we finished our last note and wanted to buy a CD.... AWESOME!

Alrighty, these pics are from the night after we played with the Visitations in Lubbock. A band that Kyle regularly plays in called 90% death sex, opened up for Wovenhand. It was an ultra expanded lineup this night though with me joining them on TAMBOURINE and the Visitations guys on whatever weird sound things they could find. On the right is Kyle and our friend Kate (you might have seen her around this blog before) I mainly wanted to show this pic to showcase K's awesome slick-back-do.

Alan on the left (our newest member  of the Diamond Center) and Madeline, Jeff and Me on the right our first night at Rubber Gloves in Denton. The light in the green room was AWESOME.
I love this series of Jana changing in the Rubber Gloves green room.

HERE is K on the left and mr. Jim Wilson on the right mentally preparing for the show, i'm sure.


WOW... this is the Style Station outside of Waco, Tx. It's an AWESOME vintage shop that I will have to do an entire post on at a later time... this is the sneak peak!

I just had to throw one in of Cotton, what a sweet face!




This series is the alley in Austin that was between home base, Karibu, and party central, Ms. Bea's. 

The Vivian Girls. (I am really no good at shooting live music, sorry.... BECAUSE...

for some reason I am usually taking shots like this. For some reason I think it is very interesting to shoot the feet of people watching music.... who knows!?

Bike-land at Ms. Bea's

Austin sunset. I have also learned that this thing that I like to do where I shoot things out of focus ACTUALLY is called something.... Bokeh... check it out!

Dusk at Ms. Bea's with more feet and buts! Notice the sticker on the garbage says, "No texting on the dance floor" HA

We ran into Chris, Nate, Aaron & Charlie on 6th st. waiting to get into see Thee Oh Seas
We know these guy from Athens, and they all, at some time play in Dark Meat. Chris now lives in Austin, and Nate in Denton... so we actually get to see THEM pretty often.

This must be when Aaron & Charlie decided not to stand in line BUT to.....

come with us and find some pool tables. Here is Aaron showing his signature move... those are skills I tell ya!

We also ran into my friend from high school, Cory to join us on our pool escapades.

Now here are all the guys having some kind of serious conversation although it must be pretty boring because it seems that Cory & Charlie are asleep... hmmmm

Now here is Kyle, Aaron, Charlie and I attempting to walk to the pedestrian bridge to see The Vivian Girls again for a 2am show.... Although we did make it to the bridge....



we didn't make it until show time BUT we found a sweet cab for to take us home.

The end.

livin' for the weekend

I love bloggin'... but I was really bad at it last week, and after a week when I was really on top of it, and with no good excuses either, that and knowing that the weight of the world basically rests on whether I blog or not, I should be ashamed of myself. HA!

We had an awesome AWESOME long weekend and a mini-tour with some of our friends from Athens. My band, the Diamond Center played a couple of shows with Madeline and the White Flag Band, and Ham 1 in Denton, Ft. Worth & Austin.  This included the opportunity to hang out for 3 days with 8 AMAZING & interesting people, including one mr. Jim Wilson who is one of mine and Kyle's favorite people on earth... and play music, I don't think it can get much better than that. Weird fact... there were 6 people (out of 12) with names starting with the letter J with us. (Jeff, Jason, Jana, Jacob, and 2 Jim's!)

I'll have some images of our escapades later BUT here are a couple of weekend selections of random iphone gatherings.