Posts from — December 2007

This retro-soul group kicks. Their most recent album is very good – check out “100 Days, 100 Nights”.

I love doors.

What a great track. I never met these guys when I was working around the Texas music scene, but I would love to see them live sometime. They are from Austin.  http://www.spoontheband.com/

I got lucky with this one. It was my first trip to Yosemite in 2002 and the whole valley was covered in a snowstorm all morning. I decided to leave, and on my way out the clouds cleared and valley opened up. I must admit, it was awe inspiring. I’ve been back many times since, but the first trip still stands out.

If you time it right you can get rainbow shots from most of the waterfalls visible from the valley floor.  This was taken around 7:45 AM on a winter morning.  For reference, the waterfall is almost 1800 feet high, so the rainbow is a few hundred feet tall and long I would think.  I was all the way across the valley when I took this.

Well I wouldn’t ordinarily find a mollusk this interesting, but after a hard rain in California this little critter showed up on my front sidewalk.  I got as close as I could while still being able to focus. 

My wife and I took a trip to Monterrey one summer to see the whales, and boy was it COOOOOOLD.  But I got some fun pictures (alas, not too many whale pics).  As we were heading out of the bay, I snapped these birds.  It was an overcast day hence the low contrast.

This was taken just south of San Francisco and north of Half Moon Bay.  If you’ve never taken this drive, you should – it’s awesome.  I know lots of people that have done Highway One south of HMB and north of the GGB, but still haven’t made this leg of the journey.

Her album Back To Black may have been a bit prophetic, but that still doesn’t change that it is a DAMN good record. This is always on rotation in my collection. “You Know I’m No Good” is a good cut, but the whole album is pretty awesome. Let’s hope she doesn’t go off the deep end and off herself before she gets a few more albums out [warning! dark humor].

Scot Cloud, Brandon Bumpas and Neill Schnell – three of the best Texas has to offer. This cover band is super popular around the DFW music scene. Every time I get back to Texas I make it a point to go see these guys. The readers of FW Weekly voted these guys best cover band in 2004, 2005 and 2007. They’ve all played in many bands around the years, like New Brazil, Daddy’s Soul Donut, and more. I hear there’s a DSD regrouping in the works!

www.velvetlovebox.com VLB on myspace