Early Morning Blues Threepeat

Does this make me a groupie yet? I think per one definition you're supposed to sleep with the band which is so not the case so maybe not. Still, 3 trips to Boston to see these guys play has got to count for something. Since I never seem to have real time on these trips, I took the red eye out of Seattle trying to get to Atlanta in time to fly to Boston that AM. First flight out and I touched down gunning on about 4 hours of sleep totally for two days. I was in rare form. There was a fun moment explaining the T to a non-Boston native on the airport shuttle. I think I'm here too much now hmm? Rana grabbed me and there was a trek to get our tattoos done and then off to the show. We met up with Victoria there (who I think needed my coaxing...

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Black & Blue, Bruised & Broken

With my lyrics in hand and the sketch of my stitched heart it was just a matter of finding a place in Boston to get the tattoos done. Rana picked me up from the T and after a quick shower we were off trying to find somewhere that could take two walk ins for the afternoon. There was traffic fighting but eventually we wound up at the Painted Bird and Tony there was put to the task of inking up my skin. When he got my Georgia license he was a little surprised, asking about when I got into town and such. Turns out I found one of the only tattoo artists in Boston who also used to work in Atlanta. That was just some sort of fitting irony. There was another EMB fan there, Olivia, who I recognized, but Rana actually knew. She was getting hers...

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Tattoo #6 - The Set Up

I've been in love with this giant phrase from Early Morning Blue's "Chapter One" since…well since Bryan posted it on the EMB twitter before the song was even out. That long. Can I bring my black and blue, bruised, broken body back to you / to mend for me / 'cause I have seen the ugly truth of the world Obviously that's an entire paragraph and there's no where on my body that it's going to fit, which is a bummer but at the same time I get it. I've spent the past few months trying to break it down to something smaller to take pieces of it without ruining it and I wound up just completely lifting from it to just two lines black & blue bruised & broken I like the way it hints at the lyrics, where I'd have to explain the whole phrase...

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Tattoo Ideas: Take Flight

It looks like when it's all said and done I'm likely to wind up with at least three tattoos that have to do with flight or flying. This obviously leads to the idea that I've yet to get an airplane tattoo. What would I be without an airplane? I studied them in school, I grew up on movies and television shows about them and I've spent half a decade working with them, to the point where I claim an entire airplane's worth of of aircraft as my own. I figure after three years of getting down and dirty in them fixing them I've earned the right to call them mine. I've yet to nail down a full concrete idea on this one yet, but it's constantly there, planning in the back of my mind. There are a few options that I've tossed around of course though,...

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Tattoo ideas: Wingless No More

A friend of mine asked me a long time ago if I could get a tattoo done anywhere, at someone else's expense, and all I had to do was be part of an art gallery or something. I didn't even have to think about telling him I'd get the wings on my back I wanted. It was about then that I realized there was no point in not getting them. I keep wanting them, keep talking about them, but I kept saying "no I'm not gonna do it." I was coming up with other ideas for what to put on my back, trees, flowers a million other things Wings on my upper back before 30. I've started nailing down the details as well. I originally had hoped for just standard bird type wings across by back, but with all my ideas for my tattoos they wind up evolving. As i started planning it out, looking at pictures I realized that...

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Cage the Elephant Gets Nommed for a VMA

This is beyond exciting. My friends from high school and rock stars, Cage the Elephant were nominated for an MTV VMA for "Best Rock Video"! I can't even begin to wrap my head around it but this is HUGE. HUGE. I watched these guys play in the first incarnation of their band as Perfect Confusion at the Java House in high school and now they are nominated for a VMA. Though I find everything that MTV stands for and does a total joke, the VMAs have the potential to be the last decent thing they have going on. Here's the video: You can vote for it HER...

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Tattoo Ideas: Believe

I've shared my favorite Boys Like Girls song before, but I can't resist sharing it again since it's pertinent. This version is an acoustic one Martin (the lead singer) did and it's stunning. It's my favorite version of the song I think. I've loved the lyrics from the first time I heard it, finding that kind of hauntingly beautiful that comes with words that ring so true. They are the gut wrenching, but at the same time a wonderful bit of advice for getting through the things in your life that hold you back, that keep you from moving on. There's one line though, one that's gotten me from the first time I heard the song: believe your body can mend The whole verse is lovely, but that's the part that I like the best. Self harm comes in different forms I've learned over the years and...

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Tattoo Ideas: For the Birds

I've been tossing around plenty ideas for my next tattoo. Enough that I'm probably going to do a series of the next few posts dedicated to what I want to get next. When I get it done you'll see what it is I end up with. I'll post that too and try to take real photos of the whole experience. My memoirs which have been started but not finished talk about my tattoos and I feel like the whole experiences have been interesting in it of themselves. Everything should come with a tale right? That said, I've been tossing around the idea of birds. I love the silhouette and the idea of birds flying off in to the distance. Being an airplane geek, flight is always amazing and of course there's tons of other representations of what it could mean....

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Review – Early Morning Blues “Newest Versions”

I’ve written how many posts about going to see Early Morning Blues play, and I’ve babbled about how amazing they are, but I haven’t every actually explained just what it is about the EP that they released that is so awesome. I should point out that I am a little biased here. This is my favorite band (edging out over The Goo Goo Dolls as they’ve grown up before I have and though I still love them I can’t bring myself to call a band that’s firmly in the Adult Contemporary genre my favorite band). I’ve seen them play live twice, watched a million videos and have a ridiculous playcount of their music on my iPod. I was interested, possibly in love with this EP, when all there was were was a melody of snippets posted on Bryan’s (the lead singer)...

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The Return of Music Midtown

Everyone in Atlanta remembers the death of Music Midtown. For college students (like I was at the time) it was a blow to music freedom (or something equally ridiculous in our heads). We'd just had 'On the Bricks' taken away (which made sense as a series of free concerts in the summer at Centennial Olympic Park probably wasn't a good idea) and for me the death came the first year I might have actually be around to go to the shows. But in 2005 the living, breathing, wannabe Warped Tour bordering on a potential disaster that was Music Midtown was killed. It was for the best really. Ten years was a good run for such a show and face it, Atlanta isn't Manchester, TN which has shocked the world with being able to host Bonaroo every year. (I should...

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Tim and Beth Save the Date Photos

Tim, Champ's brother, and his fiance, Beth, have an engagement photo session planned, but they are getting closer to when they wanted to send the Save the Date cards out and were wondering if while we were at the beach for the Fourth if I could take a few shots, see what comes out and maybe give them some fodder for the cards. I have to say, I'm pretty proud with how some of these came out. This one is my favorite. I think it's very them. This one isn't right because he wasn't supposed to be holding his cup (he wasn't going out there without a drink), but I snapped it anyway and just really love it. They live near Tybee Island and are beachgoers, so for me, I think this is about as candid as it gets. (how romantic!) Beth...

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