Rock and Roll Love Song

These are some photos that Kristine, Jeremy's girlfriend, took of our set at the Norman Music Festival 2011. We had just cut 4 songs at Bell Labs about a week before the festival and we were on for our set at the Opolis outdoor stage. It was cool, Junebug Spade, The Boom Bang, and Rainbows are Free played afterwards, and it was a great day of loud rock music, just like the festival this past year.

Summer Fun and Bubblegum

We finally had a chance to have a summer vacation after 5 years, and went to San Diego to visit my family and hangout at the beach. We kinda prepared Spencer for beach time by taking him to the Lincoln spray park at Trego Park to get him ready for the sand and surf. Mr. Socks, his stuffed animal, is the new "in-toy" this summer and has also joined us for every excursion. Although the waves pretty much sucked in San Diego, the weather was great and the waves big enough to bust out my 10' "Commie Stick," as I call my longboard. I bought it specifically because it is red, and also a classic 60s longboard template, with a square tail, by East Coast shaper Ashton, and picked it up in Ocean City, MD.

This is the public splash park at Trego park, and we hit this up during the 90-100 degree weather in late June/early July. The Lincoln public pools cost too much and have limited after work hours. We need to pay more taxes to keep the pools open!

I have one of my longboards here in Lincoln, and I used to take Spencer out paddling in Norman, OK at Lake Thunderbird on this 10' beast. It was cool, since all the Shawnee kids wondered what it was, I said "a surfboard." I let them take it out for a paddle. Surfing native kids, go figure. This is backyard tube riding, we set up the sprinkler and session "under the curl." 

This is my niece Kate's birthday party in Coronado, and the photos that follow are days at the beach. It was cool to surf and build sandcastles for two weeks.

The kids thought it would be fun to bury their Uncle Phil in the sand. What's a beach day without burying an adult in the sand, anyway?

July, Or Infernal Days on the Southern Plains

Zombie vs. Shark at the Free Tulsa Music Festival 2012, at the Dust Bowl Lanes/Dilly Deli Stage. It was cool being back in Tulsa, since I hadn't been there in 3 years. Used to go there often when I lived in Stillwater. It was only 108 degrees when we played at 7pm. Kudos to Joey Powell, of Shitty/Awesome, for snapping the pics for us!

Robert, Jay, and Ron at the Tulsa Free Music Festival 2012.

Downtown Tulsa and the pre-scene for the Music Festival. The crowds crawled out around  sundown, as one often does in the summer in Oklahoma. Beers and water bottles abounded, since heat kills the weak...

We blew the power when we played, and had to flip the breakers, so we had a hiatus during our set.  We drank a lot of water and tuned up! 

There were little colored houses all around....

The Rude Amps rocked it, rude and amped!

This is Sonic Violence at the Free Tulsa Music Festival 2012, who ruled. If you like The Swirlies and MBV, you'll like them. 

This CHUD at the Free Tulsa Music Festival 2012, who are like Drive Like Jehu reincarnated. Do not miss them if they are in your town!!

Sassing at the practice space, Downtown Sound. Socialism rules, so start your own art/music collective and save it all from the maw of corporations.

Spring

It's been awhile since I posted anything, and these are the spring travel highlights. This is Spencer and me at the carnival at the Norman Music Festival. It was pretty fun, and he had not been to a carnival, so we played a lot of the games and he went on a couple kid rides.  

This was the giant alligator ride.

This is uncle Ron with Spencer. Ron was shelling out the cash for games of chance, of which we won once.

This is Downtown Sound, our practice space in Norman. It's a cooperative of musicians and bands , and we run events like art shows and literary/educations readings as well as it serving as a practice space. Strength in numbers!

I was in Philly for work before the Norman Music Festival. We had dinner with Mike and Ellie and baby  Irina, with Chris and Elizabeth. 

Paulie sans suit.

We decided to do some Easter egg hunting this year, so we had to color the eggs first. 

The kids next door came over for a jam session in Spencer's man cave. This is Ophelia and Raciel rocking out.

Gustavo on the kit, Spencer dancing.

We hit the Lincoln bike race when my brother was here, it was near the Capitol.

This was near the Omaha airport, when we were picking up his grandma during her visit.

Spencer in the Chesapeake.