Good Friends

the past few days have been really rough around here. but tonight i took the time to be around some friends and they completely made me feel better. they didn't know anything was wrong, they were just being themselves but i really appreciate them in my life. i'm not sure who i would be without them.

La Bella Del Sur

It's been 37 months since i returned from from mission to Argentina. i miss it a lot. the people there are absolutely crazy but i love them because they are the kindest people i have ever met. here are a few pictures of my mission.

This is "Capital Federal". Buenos Aires is a province but also is the name for the city located within the province. kinda like the whole New York , New York thing. it's the capital and by far the largest city in the country. i heard it's the largest city in the southern hemisphere, i believe it too. it's HUGE. there were about 60 missionaries or so just in the big city covering millions and millions of residents. it's way crowded. a lot of the tall buildings you see here are not businesses but apartments.

The tower you see is called "El Obelisco" it's a monument they stuck in the middle of the city. the avenue leading into it is La Avenida 9 de Julio. it's the widest avenue in the world. it's a pain the butt trying to cross it.

These colorful buildings belong to what is called "El Caminito". it' s probably the biggest tourist attraction in the city. it has an interesting story. it's a village located in a port. back in the day this was an area full of prostitutes and transvestites... gross! but now because of the colorful buildings it's turned into a tourist attraction. the tranis and whores have moved a little further inland since then. on a normal day the streets are full of vendors, artists, musicians, and tango dancers. it's actually pretty nice.

Rio Grande, Tierra de Fuego, Argentina. this is about 500 miles from Antarctica. Tierra de Fuego is an island located on the very southern tip of Argentina. this was one of my favorite areas just because it was a completely new culture to me. i would love love love to go back and visit here someday.i chose this picture of apartments because the majority of the people in my area lived in apartments like these. these things are all over town so it's easy to get lost. the end. sorry if this isn't interesting.

BOOO!!!!!

i was reading through my blog and i noticed that there aren't very many entries at all and the entries i do have all usually tend to theme on music. i'm a music freak. it's my passion and i love it. but just because i'm crazy and it's the day before halloween i decided to do a halloween blog.

here's some memories of past halloweens and what it means to me.

1. when i was a kid i LOVED halloween mostly because of the free candy

2. i grew to hate halloween when i was a teenager because i was a scrooge but i love it again. mostly because of the free candy

3. my favorite costume i ever had was when i was like 4 or 5. i was the easter bunny. and i looked awesome

4. my least favorite costume of all time is the year i was obsessed with the Mighty Ducks and i went as a hockey player. i made the costume myself out of my soccer uniform. no one got it and i was scared to go down hills in my roller blades so i went home very upset, changed my costume to a soccer player and grudgingly walked around town in my cleats.

5. my favorite memory of halloween revolves around food (i'm chubby). when we were young my brother and sister would take me out to get candy with my mom and my dad would stay home and make hamburgers and homemade fries and pass out candy to the kids. his burgers always tasted best on halloween. one year we had a small party in my house and my uncle gordon was wearing a scary mask and i cried and cried cried. he was really scary that night.

6. my least favorite memory of halloween takes place when i was a senior in high school. i was 17 and i was stricken with appendicitis. i had my appendix removed about a week before halloween but also had an infection due to the surgery. i was released from the hospital just a few days before halloween. my brother and sister were already out of the house because they're older than me and my parents went somewhere else for halloween. i was confined to the couch and couldn't walk. so i turned off the lights and laid on the couch by myself staring at the ceiling listening to kids having fun. it sucked.

7. i LOVE haunted houses. i think they're so much fun. when i was like 8 or so we had a "haunted house" in my den. i don't remember if it was scaring or not but i kinda want to work in a haunted house next year. it'll be fun to scare the kids.

8. this year i'm dressing as a boat....? i'm not sure why. i have no idea where the idea came from but i just wanted to be something big. i need to build it sometime today but i'm kinda nervous about how to go about building a boat. noah had the same problem.

Everybody's Gonna Run To Him

This summer i made a trip back home to Salado, Texas to visit my family. i planned the whole trip around a certain concert. this concert...

John Mellencamp was great. Willie Nelson blew me away and Bob Dylan left me in awe. i ended up going by myself but i didn't mind. i was left with a smile on my face the entire drive home. Dylan plays a very important role in music for me. everyone i listen to credits him as a huge influence. i honestly believe the reason the shape of popular music is the way it is today (whether that be good or bad) is because of this man. some of my fondest memories growing up are of my dad taking me on a drive in his truck listening to Dylan and referring to the lyrics. great visuals. not many people in my generation like Dylan but i do. that's all that matters. Bob Dylan, thanks for coming to Central Texas. it was truly a pinnacle moment in my life.

Rediscovering The Beatles

Any one who knows me knows that as a little kid i was the biggest Beatles fan ever. i remember  skating (yes, roller skating) around listening to them. they were the first band i really discovered for myself. it was their early stuff that hit me the hardest. i'm not sure exactly what happened the first time i heard them but it was like before that moment i had been asleep or at least deaf. when i first payed attention to their music all of my senses came into full effect. it was so happy (haha perfect roller skating music), so fresh, so full, so true, so good. my life soon changed thereafter. the first cd i owned was of the Beatles. i spent my time watching Help and A Hard Day's Night and Beatles documentaries. i even had the haircut. my nights consisted of me sitting in front of my dad's stereo listening to his Beatles records. the bug bit me big time. Ringo Starr was my favorite. so i decided i needed to play drums and that's how i got into music. anyone who knows me also knows that music is a big part of my life. the Beatles single-handedly got me into music. some time passed and one night i went to a campout at a friend's house. we all brought different music to listen to on his CD player. i brought the Beatles and when i put it on they turned it off within the first 10 seconds and made fun of me. then they put on TLC. for some reason that really affected me and i soon started losing interest. i still really liked them and when i heard their songs i always knew the words but i never listened to them by myself. until today. i was cleaning my room. i had my itunes on shuffle and the Beatles popped up and that same feeling i had when i first heard them came back. i feel alive. i feel good. 

Help

THE SHOW

Manchester Orchestra (Top) played with Fun (Middle) and the Audrye Sessions (Bottom). it was a really fun show and i def needed to get out of Idaho for awhile. this was my second time to see Manchester Orchestra and it was as good as the first and in some ways better.

Business

Today i opened a lemonade stand in the park across the street with my room mate Johnny. we broke even and got free lemonade. as we were attempting to sell our lemonade we discovered that there are quite a few rude people in this town who don't appreciate us. but on the other hand there are a lot of good friends who came out to the park specifically to support us. thanks friends. you're the best. we're hoping to do it next week too. just for fun.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK

ALBUM OF THE WEEK

(1968) The Dock of the Bay- Otis Redding. Released posthumously after his death in December 1967 which was brought about by a plane crash in Wisconsin. the title track is probably Otis' most famous song. his voice will make you relearn how to feel and the energy of his band will make you think you know how to dance.

ABOUT A GIRL

what do you do when there's someone you admire from afar and every time you get close you wish you were further away? -not far away in a bad way. just far enough so she would never know how inadequate you are. 

TEEN WOLF

For the first time in like 12 years i watched this movie. it was cool when i was a little kid but i think it's safe to say that this film has not lost any of it's appeal. 80's movies set in high schools are always so dramatic. this particular one involves Michael J. Fox suddenly discovering that he inherited a gene pool with a spooky past. he becomes a werewolf and is immediately accepted by his peers when he unleashes his werewolf strength during his high school basketball games. the real trouble comes when he starts to evaluate who he really is and how he wants to be remembered. This movie is way funny although i don't think it was meant to be. i'm super glad i watched it tonight. you should too.

Get Well Soon

LAVERNE (my car) is sick. recently i had the tran$mi$$ion replaced, but now i think something is wrong with the fuel system. hopefully it will be a quick, easy, cheap fix. i try to take car of my car but its always one thing or another. i just want her to be healthy again.

ALBUM OF THE WEEK

(2002) Perfecting Loneliness by Jets to Brazil. Blake Schwarzenbach (the ex-frontman of the punk band Jawbreaker and who is currently heading the NYC-based band The Thorns of Life) offers awesome lyric driven rock. Blake's lyrics are so detail-oriented that the entire album feels like it was personally written for you by an old friend, not to mention that the music is incredible. Probably Blake's poppiest yet most complex release. This is one of those albums that is impossible to fall asleep to. It immediately grabs you and leaves you thinking about the music for days after. ENJOY!!!

Longest Posting Ever

this is my first posting in years... actually, its only been a few months but it feels a lot longer than that. i've been pretty busy lately. here's a synopsis of the last few months:

DECEMBER

Time Management

i saw the effect of working 50+ hours a week (on the sound crew for the university i attend) as well as pretending to be a full-time student. a word to the wise, this is not easy to do. in fact it's so not easy to do that i failed a couple of classes and ended up getting kicked out of school (academic suspension).

Academic Excellence

since i got kicked out of school i also lost my job since only students can work there. also, i lost my apartment. only students can live in the apartment complex i was living in at the time. so yeah, i got kicked out of school, lost my job, and lost my apartment all in the same day. plus the transmission in my car was shot and in the shop in Rexburg, Idaho... poop. my parents were not thrilled to hear that their youngest son had accomplished all this in such a short amount of time (especially since there two other offspring are lawyers), but like good McGregors they weren't rash at all. they were more concerned and supportive. i love them. Christmas was awkward because of my stupidity.

JANUARY

What to do?

the time came for me to decide what to do with the rest of my life. since my car was still stuck in the shop i kinda had to return to Idaho even though i had no real life or prospects. i went to retrieve Laverne (my car). it was not ready of course so i ended up bunking with a friend of mine until it was ready. some background on the car: i put her in the shop in November it was now January and the car was still not ready. i was mad. my original plan was to pick up the car and return to Texas to live with my parents and attend a recording school until i got back on my feet.

Hell

seeing as how i was stuck in Idaho, i needed something to do with my time. i needed a job. so i started working at a phone center by the name of Western Watts. it was a telephone survey company. not my cup of tea. but i needed the dollars. i worked there for a month until my car was finished. i normally have a very strong work ethic but this place sucked. i would find ways to skip out as much as i could.

I Am The Law

since my car was in the shop for 3 months my brother Joseph (who gets what he wants, thus, qualifying him to be a lawyer) decided it would be good to take legal action against the shop where my car was held captive. he gave me some advice and i took the advice to the owner of the shop and was promptly given my repaired car at a discounted price. Thanks Joe.

Intervention

My very good friend Jeff told me a tale of a kid who was in my very predicament and how his problem was resolved and was allowed admission back into school. i was pretty set on leaving Idaho, returning to Texas and attending a recording school and just accepting the fact that i would not be a college graduate. but then i started thinking sensibly and i took the advice and appealed the suspension. i took the petition to the admissions office and the girl told me it would take 2-4 weeks to file it. i had to write an essay for the petition and i felt really good about it. the very next day i was notified that i was re-admitted. thus earning my job back immediately. thanks Jeff.

February

i worked and signed up for a few classes to stimulate my brain. things were good. i love Texas and i really wanted to return but i was also glad that i could stay and maybe someday be a college graduate. also i had an awesome group of friends that i didn't want to leave behind.

March

some pretty good shows and the discovery of some new good music as well as a pilgrimage to the far away land of aaron's past music explorations: Jet's to Brazil, Mineral, Sunny Day Real Estate, BRAID, Texas Is The Reason, Samiam, Pavement, Promise Ring, Vitreous Humor, The Replacements, and others. the mid 90's as well as late 80's were good to music (even though Jets to Brazil was late 90's early 00's).

April

I got a promotion (kinda) i got moved from doing live audio which i love into the Recording Studio here on campus. this was a huge blessing considering i wanted to go to a recording school. Free Knowledge is great!!! also, we're revamping the entire studio soon so that's even better for educational purposes.

2 Great Upcoming Shows

Conor Oberst (from Bright Eyes) and the Mystic Valley Band are really good. they decided to play a b-day concert for me on Saturday June 20th, 2009 in SLC. thanks Conor! so i will totally attend. also, tonight i was inspired to look on Bob Dylan's website and i learned that he will play a show in Texas right when i was planning to visit. Aug 4th. with....... john mellencamp..... and Willie Nelson. tickets are kinda expensive but it's Dylan and Willie in Austin. so that brings us up to date. good night.