Memory Box Photography

My friend Austin Walker is quite the photographer. Don't let photographers ever tell you "well I've been doing this for a few years now, so I'm pretty good". I'd say it's the complete opposite. Austin has been shooting less than a year, and he's already twice the photographer I'll ever be.

For Aubrey's birthday, I wanted her to have some professional photos taken. I could do it, but that spoils the specialty. I called Austin, and we managed to get his schedule open for about 30mins of shooting. Purrrrfect.

Aubrey was already dressed up, (girls do that on their birthdays I guess) so a photoshoot was natural. Austin met us out at the tracks, and pulled quite a few solid images out of about 25mins of shooting.

Austin will shoot pretty much anything that moves, and some stuff that doesn't. He's a busy man, and he's not free, but he's a heck of a photographer, and could most likely push a button for anything you need done.

Here is his blog:
http://memoryboxphoto.blogspot.com

Here is Aubrey's post:
http://memoryboxphoto.blogspot.com/2009/04/happy-birthday.html

Great job on her photos, buddy.

I love You, LORD!

I am not a singer. That being said, this old song hit me this morning and pushed me through my entire day with a smile. I have been humming it alone all day. I had do something with it. I couldn't find the music for it, so I put this rendition together.

I love You, LORD, and I lift my voice! I have no business singing, but to worship You, my soul rejoices! Take joy, my King, in what you hear! Whether it's good or not, may it be a sweet, sweet sound, in Your ear! I love you LORD!

Musician's Friend

It's settled, MusiciansFriend.com is officially my favorite place to get music gear. If I'm about to buy something, and they sell it, I'll drop it and go buy through them. Here's why:

The "MAP" on my Gretsch drumkit is $650. "MAP" is a term kind of like "retail", it's the going rate on stuff. So, even though my kit technically "retails" at $1000, everywhere sells it for $650. Retail is irrelevant, MAP is the new retail.

The only way to find anything cheaper than MAP is to buy used, or get something on sale. Or find some lunatic place that is really trying to move some drums. Herkimer Music out of NYC is a group of lunatics really trying to move some drums. They had my kit priced at $599, on sale for $499, and a promo going for free shipping.

I know, that's what I said. It IS ridiculous.

I called them, and their lunatic prices had attracted too much business, and were waiting for more Catalina kits to arrive. In June. JUNE? *(I try to be a patient person, but dang)*

So, then I called MusiciansFriend. Last night, at 8pm on a Sunday. Who is open at that hour? I'll tell you who: people who want to sell drums, who AREN'T lunatics.

I spoke with a girl who managed to work some magic for me. I asked her to open up the internet and go look at Herkimer Music's site. She saw their insanely low price, and went to work. After getting it approved with her supervisors, she sold me the exact same kit (the one I've had my eye on) for $499. Then she shipped it for free. Oh, and the best part is, Musician's Friend's prices are not lunatic prices, they are MAP. This is a good thing, for once, because they did not blow out their supply of these drums. They still had a few in the warehouse.

So, in review, I got my kit from a company that prices at MAP. Because of these prices, they had my kit in stock. However, through some price-match voodoo, I got this MAP kit delivered to my door for $499 instead of $650. No tax. No shipping.

Praise the LORD. Have a great day, I. AM. PUMPED.

My Drumkit

Over the past few months, I have been slowly building my drumkit. With patience, I am trying to take it slow and wait for deals on each individual piece of gear. There is A LOT of stuff to piece together to build a kit, and my only goal was just to have it playable when I get to Bentonville rewarding the end of my first semester in college.

In no particular order, I began buying pieces of equipment as I found them available. I'm not sure how most guys do it, but I'm sure some people just get on Music123.com or something and order EVERYTHING at once. I have no interest in dropping over $3,000 in one shopping cart, so I nixed that direction.

Instead, I watched the NWA newspaper, Craigslist.org, and eBay.com for drum gear. Most guys buy everything brand new, but I don't have a problem with a little second-hand stuff. Sure, I want the new cymbals and shells (the actual drum pieces), but what's the difference in a used snare stand and a new one? Unless the guy was an animal and tossed it in the lake every weekend for his boat anchor, why not save $50?

If you remember the color post, you might be wondering the final call on the color choice. I ended up settling on Natural Satin.

Well, I finally ordered the shell pack last night, leaving me pretty much done. Expect a barrage of drum posts for a while. To the non-drumming reading out there, I apologize. I'll mix it up a bit to keep ya'll around. thanks for reading!

Sleep Danger Supermarket

Sleep Danger Supermarket is a local band from here in Arkadelphia. The Oracle was doing a story on them, and instead of printing a photo from practice, the guys agreed to give me 20mins of their time for a portrait.

We found a stump in an empty lot. The guys hopped up there for us to get this one. I like that everybody has one foot in and one foot out. Hokey Pokey. Ambient light here. The guys were working hard to keep their balance on that stump, so I needed to work quick. Being outdoors, the flash was at 1/1pwr, and would have taken about 5secs between each shot to recycle. I figured that was going to be too inconvenient for the guys to have to maintain, so we went natural here.

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For this image, my pick of the litter, we went to an abandoned Hardee's parking lot here in Arkadelphia. The guys lined up facing the drive-thru menu while I climbed on top of the sign to shoot down. Managed to step in an anthill on my way up, to keep things interesting. The wind was blowing pretty hard too so I didn't hold my gargoil stance for too long. Aubrey provided light for this image, she was holding an LP120 into an umbrella JUST out of frame to camera left.

Thank you, Sleep Danger Supermarket, for giving me the 20mins to get these two images. I appreciate your willingness to comply to my schedule. You can find these images, as well as basically every other image you seen on the blog, at my Flickr. thanks for reading!