Up to speed

I have decided that the best way to get up to speed is to speed up that process.

I am in a "mood" today. Don't know why, I just am. And I that mood is telling me to get up to the present so that I can keep moving forward.
So we need to cover March, April, May, June and July in the briefest way possible.

March. JTNL came to me. In Roanoke. It was a big deal. And there was some personal drama going on too. But remember, I don't talk about that here (yet...)

Here is a video from that night:



An important point here is that I did not tape this, I just edited it and put it online. Regardless, it was an interesting night. I was really glad JTNL made it to my home turf and really glad they had a decent turn out for it.

During March and April I was also stage managing a local musical, which kept me pretty damn busy. And my "real job" is basically hell during March and April. My life was in personal craziness during March and April.

So. This is the part where I talk about and NOT talk about things at the same time. My personal life took a drastic shift around this time, which is all I am saying. And my outlet that was hovering at about 60% of my preoccupation at the time became about 95% very quickly.

One weekend in particular.

Remember back in the February/Nashville part of this tale where I met The Movement fellas? And we discussed them being in my neck of the woods in April.
That was Easter weekend. I was taking a 72 hour hiatus from my life that weekend.
I took my camera and myself and a completely fucked up mind to their show in Salem....

I watched with a friend for a while, and then they left and I was alone. This is a trend folks. A trend that at times I love and other times I curse till I am blue in the face.

Regardless, I ended up with this, finally, a video of The Movement:



And after the show, chatted it up as usual and the short version is this - I ended up going to their show the next day in Columbia, SC. Outdoors, wings, beer and music all sounded perfect to me right then. And I was going to be able to help out a new friend in the process, which is always a bonus for me. I probably "help" to a fault, actually...

There is a long version. From about 1am on April 11 to 4am on April 13, is a really long version. And a fucking awesome story at that. But you won't get that version here. Sorry.

You will get to see the video from that day though:



This was show 3. April 11th. (And it actually just dawned on me that it was an 11...those bitches always pop up in my life. I am having a throwdown to the largest extent on 11/11/11. I am not kidding. Anyway...I digress...)

To say I got (am??) a little caught up is an understatement.

Let's just put it this way, and the important people already know this...I am not heavily medicated right now because of this band and the people I have met associated with this band.
I do this thing, when I am in transition from anything, where it all has to be NEW and different. Well, mission accomplished. And I will leave it at that.

I have been to 13 more shows since then. As of this past weekend, actually.
I can honestly say that each show has had a dual purpose - the first being the music.
It is always about the music.
And I am not going to talk about the other purposes.

Which is how I get to now. Leave that stuff in the past and move forward.
And I don't want you to gleam from this that it is (all) scandalous and negative. It isn't.
Actually, I can only think of 3 specific times where it was negative. Everything else was awesome and positive and I am exactly where I want to be right now because of it.

Sometimes it takes a shift in point of view. Sometimes everyone needs to do that, and I have found that we all help each other do that. We just have to be open to it. Things are not always what they seem, and sometimes they are exactly that.

This past weekend, I went to see The Movement and another band I have taken to since then (because of them...you are probably starting to see a pattern here...lol) called Villanova. They played together. I took the "day off" for Villanova, I had not seen them with their drummer, so I wanted to get the full effect before I started staring at them from Behind the Lens.

But I did tape The Movement.

I had seen some footage of Silversun Pickups recently (another blog topic, folks..stay tuned) where one of the camera angles was from behind the band - specifically behind the drummer. And it was cool as hell.
Well at this past show, I tried that out. I was able to get up on the stage and get about 20 minutes of footage, from great angles, that one included. I am using it all for the larger "Habit" project (Winter 2009 folks...)

But I did get this, which is a song called "Another Man's Shoes" and is essentially about perspective. Or at least, that is what it is about to me. I thought it was appropriate, seeing as I shot this show from a different perspective - physically and emotionally...
So this video is a little symbolic. Plus has a few "experimental" things in it, for my learning purposes. It is uncut, but touched up a bit.
And it is a favorite of mine now, for sure: