spcbrass's Xanga

Episode 2 of LOUD Tour TV is now on the air!

Wed, 28 Feb 2007 21:34:27 GMT

Rate my video on YouTube!

Episode 2 is coming!

Tue, 27 Feb 2007 22:52:47 GMT

Episode 2 of LOUD Tour TV that is! In case you missed Episode 1 click here and take a look!

Episode 2 of LOUD Tour TV is bigger and better then Episode 1!

LOUD Tour TV airs every Wednesday. Be sure to check it out!

Check out my slide show!

Tue, 20 Feb 2007 17:21:19 GMT

That's right I am busy pimping my slideshow today! Click the button above and enjoy!

Amateur Photographer?

Thu, 15 Feb 2007 13:20:49 GMT

I have been taking a lot of pictures these days. I post most of my work on Flickr. I have only been there for a little over a month, but people are really taking notice of the work that I am doing. I don't edit my images in photoshop or anything, the most I will do is crop a picture and that is it. Eventually when I do get photoshop I will be doing a lot more really cool editing stuff to make my photos clearer and more artistic, but for now leaving the pictures as they are is more of a purist form of photography. Here is a picture that I took earlier this week.

I have been getting a lot of compliments on my colors, angles, and lighting. For some reason this photography stuff comes very easy to me and I am able to get most of my shots exactly right on the first or second try. If the weather was't so brutal today I would go out and take some pictures of the snow that fell last night. I need to work on my snow pictures a lot because they tend to come out too bright. Click on the picture and it will take you to my Flickr page. Have a look at some of my other photos! Enjoy!

Back to School?

Thu, 08 Feb 2007 19:25:41 GMT

This is a topic that I am debating in my head right now. There are obvious advantages toward going back to school and getting my degree. But if I go back I plan on pursuing a performance degree. I am a musician and a tuba player at heart, and a damn good one in my opinion. I went to school for music right out of high school, but I was 17 years old and it was natural to buck the system. Part of the problem at that time was due to a conflict of interest. I was equally good at running and had a lot of state and regional championships to my name at that time. It was near impossible to balance the schedule, and at the time I paid much more attention to my running then my music. In those days I was a good musician and a great athlete. The table have turned and with some practice and a degree in my hand there is no doubt I could be an excellent musician. I want to be on top of the game and put my talent to work for me. This is what I do, this is who I am.

Other obvious advantages are getting my student visa to be able to live here in Canada more easily while Christine and I plan our future. Having the student visa will give us a great deal more time to really work things out and figure out where we want to be down the road. It will take some of the pressure off as well for other things. The hardest part about this is the money and finding the money to go back to school.

Like I said it is a great topic of debate. We'll see how it ends up eventually.

Temporarily Braindead

Wed, 07 Feb 2007 16:54:03 GMT

So it's Wednesday already and I haven't been able to collect my thoughts at all this week. Last week was a good creative week for me, both writing and taking pictures, this week, not so much. I have had an overall lack of motivation for the entire week. I've had some really good ideas that I wanted to write about, but after five minutes the ideas are gone and replaced by thought's of eating or thoughts of what else to do besides write more stuff on the internet. Hopefully within the next few days I'll actually be able to connect the dots and write something a little more constructive, or at least semi entertaining for all of the people out there in blog land. So until then go and listen to some of my music that I uploaded to my Vox blog.

A Cooler Picture!

Thu, 01 Feb 2007 19:23:25 GMT

I think this picture is much cooler then the one that I posted in my last entry! The news paper print gives it a really cool effect! Just thought I would share!

Tuesday, January 30, 2007

Tue, 30 Jan 2007 20:47:20 GMT

At camp last weekend we had a photographer and a reporter in to do an article about the Syracuse Brigadiers and the beginning of our 2007 season. They took this really nice picture of the contra line and also did a really nice article about how things have changed for our corps over the past several seasons. It is a very good read and for those of you in the drum corps community it will give you a really good idea of just how far the corps has come in just a few short years. Click on the link below to read the article.

Syracuse Brigadiers Article in the Syracuse Post Standard.

I have got to get out more.

Thu, 25 Jan 2007 20:13:27 GMT

I have been spending way too much time inside lately. Now yes I do get out on the weekends. This past weekend I went to Syracuse for drum corps and the weekend before that I went out Friday night with my friend Steph and then Saturday I went to Taco Bell with Christine and Katie before going to hang out with the guys at Steph's place later that night. That is really the only time I go out is on the weekends. I feel like I am housebound sometimes during the week, but that is all my doing. This past week I have been sick so it is important that I stay home and try to rest as much as possible. It could also be the winter weather keeping me in. I don't really like to go and spend a lot of time outside when the temperature is below freezing. I don't drive so for me to get places it involves a lot of walking outside, and when it is cold and windy outside I hate being out in it.

Well there is always this weekend coming up to get a chance to get out for a bit. We already have plans Saturday evening and Sunday morning which will get me out of here. Hopefully I'll feel better and be able to get out during the day or Saturday to do some other things like take more pictures. And hopefully the weather will change for the better next week and I'll be able to spend a few days outside. But we'll see. Until then I am stuck inside recovering from being sick.

My pictures have moved.

Wed, 17 Jan 2007 17:17:44 GMT

After nearly 2 years of using Textamerica I have decided to go with a different site for sharing my pictures online. After looking over a few options and sites that I would like to use I have decided to move my pictures over to Flickr. The other site will remain up for a little while longer while I take the pictures I want from there. After that I will close it down permanently. I had a lot of fun meeintg people over there and posting some really crazy pictures and videos over the past two years, but they want to charge people $100 per year to keep their membership. Flickr only charges 24.95 and offers a lot more features and there are a number of plug ins that you can download that make it even more user friendly.

It also allows you to put a creative commons license on your work. It basically means that your work is your property and if someone wants to use it they have to give you credit. If you are taking lots of artisic photos this is something that should be important to you. You work is your property and should not be distributed without permission. Someone may even be willing to pay you for some of the shots that you have taken provided that your pictures are given enough exposure.

Check out some of my sample pictures below. Click on them for more options.