Hammers and Strings

Music. Hmm. Lately I have been playing a lot of it. I guess I shouldn't really say lately because I always am playing. I guess I could say lately I have been playing music in different avenues. I am still playing with Canoes (obvi, that would be like saying I wake up every morning. Kinda pointless), at my current church (Journey), and recently at another church called Rivers Crossings Community Church. In addition I have played twice for their worship leader's group, Brandon Gilliam. 
It's been a ton of fun, I really enjoy taking a backseat. I don't schedule practice, I don't text everyone, I don't cancel practice, I don't drive people, I don't pay people, I don't stress, I just play. I have been branching out and working on playing full midi with my Yamaha cp33, MacBook, Logic, and Focusrite scarlet. I am still learning, but I am getting comfortable every day. 
While all this is great, I will make a statement: I will not be completely happy with my music (mostly Canoes) until I can play a real piano. Whether thats a grand, an upright, a cp70/80 it doesn't matter. I need hammers hitting strings. Let the quest begin. 

Saturday night I played with Brandon Gilliam at The Underground in Forest Park. 

Doyle and Robbie in the green room pre show.

Robbie, Lauren, Brandon, Doyle. Joe is hiding by the snare. 

The Gang Drinks Coffee

And just like that, the beard is gone. I was playing an indoor session on Sunday night and I saw a guy with a stupid looking beard and I thought to myself "if I even look half that bad, that would suck". So I took it all the way down to my "normal" scruff. Oddly enough, not many people said anything at work yesterday. I feel like I look way different, by face looks like an egg or something. Oh well.

Yesterday was a good day at the shop. We were steady through the morning and most of "the gang" was in. We had a good time sitting around, drinking coffee and talking about everything you can imagine.

L to R. Michael, Chris, Brian, Jason

This morning I am drinking a cup of Columbia San Sebastian roasted by Madcap out of Grand Rapids, MI. I picked it up from my friends at Collective Espresso in OTR. I made it this morning via a Hario V60 and it is delightful.

They buy in bulk and then repackage to sell to customers. 

Beard Life

Since early October I have been growing out my facial hair. It started out like it always does; being somewhat lazy, then realizing I have a decent amount of growth, followed by careful trimming to look somewhat presentable. This time around it was aided by my barber Josh using a straight razor and giving me some really defined lines and edges. It really made it look like I had a legit beard. So I kept it going. It got as long as I have ever had it before I trimmed it back a little in late December. Since then I have not taken off any length and it is getting back out there in length. I have days where I really want to cut it off, but most of the time I love it and so I think I will continue to grow it out through the rest of the winter.

I took this picture for someone that started a parody account for my beard. 

5 in 10

On November 9, I was on my way to to see my old friend Aaron Eberly. We had a weekend of hanging out all planned Pittsburgh out. 

On my way out, I pit stopped in Columbus, Ohio to get my haircut (and beard trimmed) as well as to grab a pour over from one of my favorite shops up there, One Line Coffee.

As I was making my way to get back on the highway I stopped at a stop sign to let cars merge from the left. While I was stopped, a car came from behind and slammed into the back of my car. This was very unfortunate. My coffee exploded out of my hand, covering my clothes and my car. After hours of waiting for the cops etc my good friend Brett came and picked me up and I stayed at his place for the night. Saturday AM I obtained a rental and drove to Pittsburg and had a grand time with my buddy Aaron.

I drove the rental for 20 days, and after that borrowed a car from a friend for a week.

Then after much searching, the greatest thing happened. A car fell in my lap. Not literally, that would be terribly uncomfortable. 

A lady that comes into the shop, Jan Campasano, told me her neighbor, Barbara Moorfield was selling her 1994 Acura Integra. It was a 4 door, 5 speed manual. Her late husband Bill had purchased it in November of 1994 brand new from the dealer. She told me how it was Bill's favorite car by far he had ever driven. It had been driven 7,000 miles in the last 6 years, and none at all in the last year. It had under 50,000 miles on. It had been garaged for the life of the car. They regularly took it to the repair shop, the same one since they purchased it. 

I bought it for $3600. Since buying it Barbara has come into the shop with Jan and we have talked. She is the sweetest lady ever, and in tribute to her and Bill, I have named the car Moorfield. This makes the 5th car I have driven in my illustrious 10 year driving career. I believe this is my favorite so far. 

For Myself and Kevin

Is it because I am bored? I don't know, I suppose so. I probably won't post anything about this on Facebook, then again maybe I will. 
It's 2013 kids. I am not going to start off the year by lying on here, it feels good, like having a clean slate. One day you are bogged down by the troubles of the year, the next, you feel invincible!
I have a lot of ideas about things I would like to do in 2013. 
Make more strides as a band, as a barista, as a christian, and as a human in general. 
So far so good. 
Canoes is about to release a new single. 
I am growing as barista everyday learning new things and improving my craft.
I have "traveled" two weekends out of the month so far, and am moving towards a lot fo good things with my relationship with Christ. 
Maybe I won't spew out every detail of every day on here, but hopefully I'll throw stuff up here pretty often. 
This is essentially for you Kevin.