I just recently came across some graphics I did for an outdoor concert series I ran for a summer here in Escondido, CA. The Community Reformed Church of Escondido’s courtyard was setup like a mini amphitheater and it was a great setting to bring in some local artists to play shows on Saturday night.

The story behind how I became involved with this short-lived music venue is that of a tragic one.

Being a musician, I used to communicate with a lot of local musicians on myspace, and one day I was messaged by the “backyard” venue letting me know there was a new outdoor music venue and sending an invitation to check it out.

The first Saturday night I attended, I had gotten the wrong time and had arrived an hour early. The guy who was running the sound board asked me if I would help him set some stuff up, not even knowing that I knew what I was doing. So I agreed and found out he was the one running the show.

It was the first time I met David Mathieu, and would be the last. I received a message on myspace 4 days later that David had fallen from the top of a slope which was ironically in his backyard. A member of the church recognized my picture when she was browsing the friends list on the backyard’s myspace page, and remembered me helping with setting up the sound. Since they had a show that Saturday night they were hoping I would be able to help out again.

So I did, and from that moment on, not only was I running sound, I was put in charge of the whole thing, and ran with it for the next 4 months.

Here are some graphical ads I created for the myspace page. I decided to add them to this posts as a reminder of all the great acts we had at the backyard the summer of 2007.

I met some really great people at the backyard, but unfortunately when it started getting colder we had to close it down since it was an outdoor venue.  I had wanted to get it started up again the following summer, but one thing led to another and the church pulled the plug because of changes that were going on with the church itself.

Now that I’m back in Escondido I’m thinking about maybe getting it going again eventually.  The Backyard was a great little music venue for North San Diego County, which there are very few of, and I would definitely like to see change.

A friend asked me to help him make a short film for his Spanish class project…

green screen footage I shot + downloaded video clips from Godzilla movies I got off youtube + a few sound effects from various web sites = a very cheezy short film…

Just 5 fun facts about yours truly…

Rantings about the day I went to see Speed Racer when it was released in theaters.

I lost ALL my blog posts last night when something happened to the database file that stored all the information of the posts and was on the phone with GoDaddy for a few hours until I came to the conclusion I’m better off on my own. So now I’m working hard to get everything back up and running again. Thank God for Google’s caching system that I’ll be able to retrieve my posts and recreate them. Luckily I’ve only been blogging since earlier this year, so I don’t have an unmanageable amount of content to re post…it’s enough that it’s going to take some time, but hopefully I should get everything back to normal in a few days…

Well I going to be starting a new project for the church utilizing my AutoCAD skills…

The stage is constantly being rearranged. Sometimes it’s only once a sermon series, which could be a couple months long, and sometimes even from week to week. They change where each musician is located and props (if ever needed) to give the worship service a new flavor in a certain period of time.

So in a recent conversation with my friend who is the production director at the church, we came up with this idea that I could take the plans of the stage area and recreate them, since the architect will most likely have an strong grip on the CAD files. It’s really not that complicated and I could probably recreate it in about an hour anyway, which is probably quicker than tracking down the files in the first place.

So basically what I’ll be doing is using the floorplan as a template and creating some blocks of things like the piano and drum set and a few other relevant items that can be used. And then dimension the spacing so it will be a lot easier to set up things such as the lighting and where the people speaking are actually supposed to stand.

First I’ll just go the plan route to see if it’s all that’s needed, then maybe down the road I may try to implement some 3d so the design committee, or whatever it is that meets can actually visualize how the stage is going to look during the worship service. And maybe down the line I’ll get fancy and put some people in the renderings as well. Well there I am getting carried away again. I guess I should just start with step one first…

In exactly one week from today, I’m turning 32, and as I said in a recent chat session with a friend, “I’m still trying to get used to the idea of being 31″.

For awhile I had a running gag saying on my birthday when someone asked me how it felt to be the age I had just turned. I would smile with this reply: “It’s just like [the previous age] only with a bit more gas.”

I’ve always kinda of been the practical joker, because it would make people laugh and hide what my true feelings were… I was not happy.

For the better part of my life I’ve been very negative and pessamistic. I would constantly beat myself up over things that were beyond my control because I believed somehow I could change things. The problem was it was I who needed to change. And because I was too stubborn to see it, I fell into a huge depression that not only hurt myself, but hurt people who I cared about and who truly wanted the best for me.

I came to the realization, I was not happy in my own skin… I looked to relationships and objects to make me happy, and when they failed me, I realized I was alone. And for long time I was addicted to my own self pitty.

But now, I’m starting to see things in a new light. For the fist time in my life, I feel free. I’m happy. Not perfect, but happy. I’m starting to like the person I’m becoming. I’m sure I’ll have days where I feel differently, but today I feel good, and that’s what matters. I guess it’s just one day at a time…

Today I didn’t make it to the gym because I had an appointment to see a doctor at some clinic for my depression. They had sent me some paperwork in the mail to fill out beforehand, so I did and took it with me to the clinic.

When I got up to the front desk to sign in, the receptionist asked me the normal questions of what I was doing there and I told her I had an appointment at 1:00 to see the doctor. So she asked me my name and looked up my info in the computer.

After about a minute she looked up and said, “that appointment was canceled back on the 13th”. I’m thinking “Oh great. It figures.” So she leaves for a second to ask someone about it, and the whole time I’m thinking, “what a great clinic…they’re on top of things”. Of course I was using one of the sarcastic voices in my head (there’s actually quite a few).

A few minutes later she came back and said “it’s ok”, and then gave me more paperwork to fill out. Why did they send me paperwork in the mail if they had more for me to fill out when I got there? So I stood up at the counter and filled out the form, and even before I was finished, someone actually called my name.

I’m thinking, “Wow! If I was back in Escondido, this little mess up would have cost me the rest of the day. Especially with the amount of illegal aliens that would be over-crowding the place. So I looked over at the medical assistant (I guess that’s what you would call him; I’m not very knowledgeable on the different medical positions) and I said, “I’m still filling this form out”, and he said, “Take your time, and when you’re done just come back to this room”. He pointed to the third door down the hall.

And I started thinking to myself: ”What’s wrong with the rest of the country?” Here the medical professionals are actually nice and courteous… NOT in California! Or at least the one’s I’ve run into. So I finish the form and go back to the room, and he takes my blood pressure and all that fun stuff, and then takes me to the examining room to wait for the doctor.

Then I was thinking: “Here’s where the fun parts going to be; waiting on the doctor.” I kid you not, it was only about a minute, from the time the guy who took my blood pressure left to the time the actual doctor showed up. I was blown away. And then she asked me all these questions and 10 minutes later I had my prescription and was out the door, and it only cost me $15, and I didn’t even have insurance. All I can say is wow. Of course the medication cost more than the visit, but the drug companies always got to make their money…I guess that doesn’t change no matter where you go, but I can deal with $30 a month if it makes me feel better.

And all this time I’ve been saying how much I miss California, but now I can say there’s at least one thing that I don’t miss. I used to hate going to doctors, but after today I don’t mind it so much. Who knows, maybe this medication the doctor put me on will make me see more things I like about this place, and more things I really don’t miss about Southern California…but who knows…It’s only day 1.

To be continued…

Now that I’m in Indiana, there’s just no good mexican food out here. It’s just really bland. It’s of no fault of anyone here, they just think that’s the way mexican food is supposed to be, and have not experienced the goodness of baja style mexican food.

It’s sad really what they’re missing out on, but it’s even sadder that I know what I’m missing out on, and there’s really nothing I can do about it at the moment.

I wish my favorite place “Mariachi’s” would just move here so I can get those awesome rolled tacos with extra guacamole, and bean and cheese burritos, and carne asada fries…nobody knows what carne asada is out here. I think I’m going to cry.

I need to learn how to make some of this stuff for myself and maybe I’ll just start up my own restaurant, so the people out here can have a taste of real mexican food. I think I’d call it the “California Burrito”.