WE ARE THE CHAMPIONS.........

*UPDATE*

So last post I told you how we won our heat of the Velour Battle of the Bands and made it to the finals which were played last Saturday, December 8th. As you have probably guessed by the title of this post we totally took first place for the whole thing. This is pretty big news for us considering Velour is a super well-respected venue here and it will hopefully give us the recognition we need to start making a name for ourselves here in the local scene and outside of Utah as well. Pics will be posted soon and a little bit more info. YEAH!!!!!!!

Maple Grove WHAT WHAT!!!!!

So my band Maple Grove played this past Monday (Dec. 3) in the opening round of the Velour Battle of the Bands. We faced some decent competition and we really sucked our set up, so I was a little surprised when we were announced as the winners of the Monday night round. But as I have thought more about it, it is more and more evident in my mind that we were the clear cut winners. I am just super stoked that we overcame a few trials on Monday to get the win. First of all during the sound test I turned off the snare on my snare drum so it wouldn't buzz into the mic, Well I forgot to turn it back on for the first song, so we started off a little on the wrong foot. Then on the third song Seth's guitar pedal went out. And finally during the whole set John's low E string kept slipping off the neck. But it turned out okay and now we are in the finals on sat.

I just want to thank everyone for coming out and supporting us that night and I expect a lot more people to show up on sat night. We have a few surprises in store for our fans and ready to freaking start the party. See you all Saturday (Dec 8) night, here's the deets:

VELOUR BATTLE OF THE BANDS - FINALS

VELOUR LIVE MUSIC GALLERY
SATURDAY DECEMBER 8
DOORS AT 730PM, SHOW STARTS PROMPTLY AT 8PM
$5


BE THERE!!!!!!!!!!

HOV'S A LIVING LEGEND, CAUSE EVERYBODY WANNA BE HIM BUT HOV'S STILL ALIVE

Seriously the greatest rapper alive. If you don't believe me then check the vid.

VELOUR LIVE MUSIC GALLERY

So Stoked!!!!! The other weekend I was hanging out with Natalie and we decided to go check out Mathematics Et Cetera at Velour. I am really glad I went because after the show I was able to talk with Corey Fox and he asked if we wanted to play the Velour battle of the bands. We had been trying for about a month to get a show at Velour but nothing was panning out, so we were elated to be asked by Corey to play the battle of the bands. We are playing Mon Dec. 3 in the third time slot and if we do well hopefully we will be in the finals on Sat. the 8th. Thanks for everyone who came out to our last shows at the Muse battle of the bands and supported us, please come out and support us at Velour. The cost is only $5 and you are sure to have a great time. Plus its an easy F.H.E. idea for all you mormons out there, ha.

Gobble Gobble

It's been a while since I have posted something on here but I am giving myself a little slack and chalking it up to the Holidays.

Speaking of Holidays--Thanksgiving was absolutely wonderful. I woke my butt up at 5am to go to work that morning and was planning on running down to Best Buy after work to get in line for Black Friday. I checked out of work at 11am and drove down to the Orem Best Buy only to find about 30 people already in line. I was blown away. Black Friday has become a spectacle. I decided to call Levi (my roommate) and let him know the situation. I then decided that freezing my ass off in the cold to only make a few hundred bucks off of the sale just wasn't worth it. So I cruised back home and helped get the house ready for Thanksgiving dinner. Well I didn't really help cook that much, in fact I mostly took a nap. But I did clean up the kitchen and put all the food away so its not like I didn't do anything to help out.

It was a great day spent with some great people and I was stoked not to be freezing my nuts off on a sleeping pad inside a sleeping bag at Best Buy but rather snuggling up into my nice bed and warm sheets.

Battle Of The Bands Pics

LET MYSELF FIND ME

This past weekend my band Maple Grove competed in the Muse Music Battle of the Bands here in Provo for our first couple of shows in over 2 and a half years. We were able to win our heat out of 4 bands on Friday night which got us to the finals on Saturday night where we competed against 4 other bands (5 total); The Elizabethan Report, Flashburnt Shapes, The Skinny Mice, After Midnight, and Maple Grove (us.)

We decided to change up our set on Saturday night so that we didn't play the same songs in the same order as we did on Friday, you know to provide a little differentiation in our set. I don't know what it was but our set on Saturday night was so tight and went so well. I was a little sketched out at playing last because I was afraid that many of the people at the show would leave due to the fact that they had already been at the show for like three hours. But a ton of people stuck around and made the night so so rad.

We ended up taking 2nd place overall which was way rad considering our competition and our lack of awareness over the last 2 years. I'm not going to lie I was a little disappointed that we didn't take first place because although The Elizabethan Report is a rad band and I have the utmost respect for them, I felt our show went just a little better but MAD PROPS to them for stepping it up and taking the gold. Regardless we got hooked up for 2nd place with $100 and 5 hours of recording time. So we are going to go into the studio soon and lay down this new track we have been working on which is oh so good. I think we are going to spend the $100 on t-shirts so we can start generating some revenue so that we can buy a van for our tour coming up this spring/summer.

I just want to say thanks to all of the bands we played with and all of the fans who came out and lent their support. Be on the lookout for upcoming Maple Grove shows, you don't want to miss the next party!

PS - pics coming soon

Introducing......

So I don't know what it is but I have really been getting into the graffiti artist Neckface lately. I think it's mainly because his stuff is not super elaborate and crazy, it's just hilarious. Whenever he tags his name it always looks like really crappy handwriting and I really
like that. Here are some photos of his stuff:

MAPLE GROVE

So I am getting really stoked on playing this Friday at the Muse Music Battle of the Bands. This is our first show in over two and a half years and my mind and body are getting hella A.D.D. about the whole thing. We have been hitting the practice room really hard lately and have a couple surprises for our fans both old and new. We have retooled our old stuff and written some new stuff that I feel is simply amazing. I hope everyone can come out on Friday and support us. The winners from each night are selected by audience vote and then given a chance to play on sat night in the finals for some cash and recording time.

BEST EVER

In my humble opinion I would have to say that I think Sell My Clothes, I'm Off To Heaven by Saves The Day is one of the best songs ever written. I just thought I would post that little tidbit. Seriously, Saves The Day is probably my favorite band of all time. Chris Conley's vocal lines and lyrics are simply amazing.

Summer of Shenanigans Continued.....

Thought I would add some more pics from my time with LeadAmerica this past summer. These ones are from DC. While I was there we were able to visit all of the tourist spots as well as a few other places not usually hit by the tourists. DC was so rad, I mean I'm not a huge history buff but it was amazing to be encompassed by the history of our country. I was able to do a lot of reflecting on the sacrifices made so that we would/could have abundant opportunities available. I am truly grateful for and have a lot more respect for the history of this country. Oh and mad props to Danny and Amanda for putting up with me while I was there, you guys made me feel like family.

Crank Dat Soulja Boy

Haha, so I found this hilarious video of me and my cohorts this summer rockin the soulja boy dance at our final LeadAmerica conference at Stanford University. Check it:

Summer of Shenanigans v2 - NYC: CSI

These pics are from my Lead America stint in NYC. I was actually working a CSI conference instead of LeadU. Eric, Mr. B, J-Will, Jon, D.C., Sarah, Mary, Jessica, Ben, and Jacinda; you guys are not missed, HOLLA!

Summer of Shenanigans v2 - Stanford

Here are a bunch of pics from my Lead America experience this past summer at Stanford University. It was so rad. LEAD WHAT, LEAD U!

Summer of Shenanigans

I spent this past summer teaching and leading high school kids from across the country as a Team Leader for the Lead America organization. It was one of the greatest experiences of my life and the people I met will always be remembered. I was reminded of just how close I became with my co-workers this morning when I woke up to find a text from my buddy Mike Hilty which mentioned that because of hearing a certain song he wished he was with his fellow LeadUr's. It is amazing to me the type of bonds we can form with others over such a short period of time. What is it about our nature that allows us to become so personal with a complete stranger in a matter of minutes.

I find this all the time

when working up at Sundance. Part of my job in the deli is to meet and greet customers. I love it. I love being able to just talk to people and find out where they are from, why they are visiting Utah, and what they do. It completely fascinates me. But what is most interesting is that we, myself included, are willing to share certain information about ourselves with others whom we have not previously met.
Alright back on track, didn't mean to hit a tangent there, I guess I will save that for another blog. Anyway, back to the summer of shenanigans. So I read this text this morning and I just thought how grateful I am to have been a part of LeadU this past summer. I am often asked "What did you do?" or "Where were you this past summer, I haven't seen you in a while?" When I tell people that I was teaching high school kids across the country they are always intrigued and I want to believe they are thinking 'Why would someone so young be teaching high schoolers and what could he possibly be teaching them?' The question that quickly follows after I answer their first question is generally "What did you teach them?" And my reply is always an emphatic "TO BE AWESOME!" That always gets a few laughs, but then I explain to them that I really was teaching and helping these students to be awesome. It all really depends on your definition of what awesome is. I had the opportunity to help these students further develop the leadership skills they already possessed and discover some skills they might not have known existed in them. So in essence (and in my opinion) I was teaching and helping them to be awesome.

I guess I just can't really explain in words my feelings about the whole experience. It's one of those things where you really have to experience it for yourself to grasp the amazing motivational and inspirational power of what transpired. I love and respect my LeadU co-workers and students more than they will ever know. I can't tell them thank you enough and I know I don't keep in great contact with them but their images are forever burned in my heart. I will always remember you all.

Don't Stop, Can't Stop

So I got my hands on the new Saves the Day album, Under the Boards, this week (it doesn't drop until Tues the 30th, yeah I got my connections) and all I can say is AMAZING! Seriously I cannot stop listening to it. I think it has been the only thing playing on my iPod, in my car, and on my comp for the last 72 hours. I highly recommend everyone going and picking up this album or snagging it online somewhere when it comes out next Tuesday.

Moonlight Lifties

So Natalie and I made a trip up to Sundance the other week to hit up the moonlight lift ride, it was SSIIIICCCKKKK!!!!! It was hella cold but Natalie was gracious enough to cook us up some Wassail which was oh so delicious. I don't know if anyone has been up to Sundance but the view is extremely beautiful with Mt. Timpanogos in the background. The full moon provided enough light to see the beauty surrounding The Sundance Resort. The lift ride took about 45 minutes and afterward I kept cracking jokes about me and Natalie hooking up while we were on the lift. It was so funny. I kept saying aloud "Oh man that was such a good sesh. I highly recommend everyone seshing on the lift ride like we did." Although Natalie was laughing quite a bit, she kept saying "Shut up!" but laughing the whole time. After all was said and done it was close to midnight so we packed up and cruised back down to the valley. All in all it was a great night and I couldn't have asked to spend it with anyone better than one of my best friends.

Tales from the Dirty Dirty

I'm back in full effect after a great trip to North Carolina, a la the title to this blog. North Carolina was extremely beautiful and I am stoked that my first trip to the South left me wanting more. Although it was a little rough and tumble at the start of the trip the final outcome was well worth it.

We had it all planned out. Travel to SLC and pickup a boatload of iPhones that Levi had sold on ebay, ship them out, then hop on a plane to NC for Wyatt and Becca's wedding. It should have smoothed over like butter, but as with most of my plans there were some complications. So Levi and I get up to the Apple store in SLC and go to buy about 50 iPhones. Earlier in the week Levi had made several trips to purchase similar large orders of iPhones and had run into no problems. When we got to the Apple store a manager kindly informed us that they could no longer sell such a large quantity of iPhones. Well the crap really hit the fan for Levi (and indirectly myself) after that. Levi had already sold the iPhones on ebay and just needed to pick them up and ship them. So the manager let each of us buy 5 (10 total) which was only 20% of what we needed. With only an hour and a half until our plane took off we rushed to properly package the phones and shipped them out. We arrived at the airport and boarded our plane no problem, but how, where and when was Levi going to get the other phones.

We land in Raleigh, NC at approximately midnight and cop a motel room. The plan was to pick up the rental car at 8:30 the next morning and make the 3 hour drive to Sunset Beach where we could relax and enjoy the sights and smells of the ocean. Yeah, didn't happen. I woke up early and caught a shuttle to pick up the rental car. It was actually a decent car for a fairly good price, that is until I added the insurance which doubled the price of the rental, but whatever. I'd rather pay a little extra now than have a major blow to my debt department if anything were to happen. I got back to the room and Levi was still asleep so I decide to hit the zzz's a little bit as well. Ten o'clock rolled around and we both got up, showered and then discussed the day ahead of us. "Dude, there are two Apple stores in Raleigh. Let's go to them and get as many phones as we can so I can ship them out," Levi says to me. I'm thinking 'alright you can handle that, take a couple of hours and get this done for him.' 4 to 5 hours later we were finally on our way out of Raleigh. All I'm saying is that this trip was supposed to be a vacation for me, a little weekend getaway if you will. I didn't expect to be haulin' my butt all over Raleigh to get a few phones shipped out.

I won't go too much further into it. As I stated before, it all turned out good in the end. We pulled into Sunset Beach, where Becca's family has a beach house, right as the catering guys were setting up dinner. After such a long day and a pretty good drive, my hunger was in full force. I'm not a vegetarian but I usually try to avoid pork and red meat for health reasons, well that ideal flew out the window that night. Becca's dad had Carolina BBQ catered in for everyone. It was so so sooooooooo good. I mean my mouth is salivating at this instant just thinking about it.

We were only at the beach house for a couple of hours when we decided to join most of the wedding party in heading over to Bald Head Island, NC for the night. Bald Head is accessible by fairy and is one of the most beautiful places I think I have been. There lies a resort on the island with a ton of beach houses, a golf course, a couple of club houses, and not to mention miles and miles of beach. Becca's dad had rented out a couple of beach houses for everyone to stay at and a few golf carts to rally around the island with. It was great! Friday night we all just hung out and had a good time enjoying one another's company.

Saturday came with a pleasant sleeping in session. I think it was the latest I have slept in about two years, it was 11:30 when I woke up. But I guess that is 9:30 Utah time so it wasn't relatively too late. After the sleep sesh, we hit up the beach with Wyatt and some other doads.

Before we left Utah I totally spaced packing my swim trunks, so Levi hooked me up with a pair of super short, cream colored trunks that looked like they had been around the block a few times. When we arrived at the beach I immediately jumped in and started swimming around. It wasn't until I decided to get out of the water that I realized not only was the inner mesh lining of the trunks extremely stretched out, but the trunks were practically see through. Anything, and I mean ANYTHING, that the trunks stuck to could be seen through the outer material. So here I am on a beach in NC just relaxing when I look down and discover that my manhood was being exposed to the world. The worst part is that there were family's in the general vicinity of where we were swimming. I quickly re-entered the water and learned my lesson. Never trust Levi when he offers you a pair of swimming shorts, hahaha.

After the beach Levi and I attended the wedding. It was super hot and muggy and being in a shirt and tie didn't help. The ceremony was quick and beautiful, which allowed us to make a mad dash for the shaded tent. Dinner was served and then Levi and I decided to round up a few peeps and rally the carts around the island.

After some good rallying, which at one point involved me being dragged behind a golf cart for a bit and the crashing of another wedding (my name is Bobby O'Shea hahahaha), Levi and I settled up and started our drive back to Raleigh. Our flight left Sunday morning at 6am and we didn't want to miss it.

We finally get back to Raleigh after I almost went off the road when falling asleep at the wheel. After the point where we almost died Levi drove the rest of the way, I don't think he was too happy but I told him "Dude, would you rather have me fall asleep and kill us?" With a couple hours to spare before our flight we tried to catch some z's in the car.

the plane from Raleigh departed and all I remember is landing in Dallas for about an hour and then landing in SLC. I was hella hella tired and ready to get back in my nice warm bed.

I'm stoked that Becca and Wyatt invited us out for the wedding and that I was able to go somewhere I've never been, the SOUTH aka the dirty dirty.

Master of My Domain

Yeah that's right, I now have my own blog. I really am Master of My Domain. I'll keep this first post short and simple. I hope this finds all of you well and I'll speak at you soon.