3OH!3 is band from Boulder (303 area code - duh) that my daughter and I have been listening to for a couple years. They are starting to blow up on the national scene so if you haven’t heard their “Helen Keller” song on the radio yet… you will.

Alex and I went to their show in Fort Collins a few weeks ago and the opening act was two dudes from Denver named The Pirate Signal. Yonnas (the MC) was absolutely incredible live and I’ve never seen a MC and DJ control a crowd like they did. Both Yonnas and DJ Awhat where really nice guys who hung out after the show, talked with all of their fans and signed a few things for Alex.

Joel’s work is getting shot for a tattoo book at the end of October and we’re hoping I’ll be done in time for it. I need to give my arm a couple weeks to heal before the shoot so we’ve been stepping up my sessions in order to get it done. Last week we did 3 days in a row which as you can imagine… it sucked pretty bad. The progress was significant but I barely got out of bed on Sunday because my body pretty much shut down. Good thing I’m not Yakuza… they kill members for showing any pain or weakness while getting their full body suits..

One of the big summer projects at our house was cutting down a huge 20 foot pine tree in order to make room for an above ground pool. The good news is we got the tree down without destroying the neighbors house - the bad news is the used pool I bought off Craigs List had a few leaks that turned ½ the backyard into a mud pit.  The new pool just arrived yesterday but before I set it up I decided to let Josh take a romp in the mud. Where are drunk chicks in bikini’s when you need them!

The highlight of Caleb’s summer was taking him to see the Broncos play the Cowboys at Mile High. It was only a pre-season game but these are his 2 favorite teams in the NFL and I was able to score us tickets on the 50 yard line - 20 rows up.

Joel continues to make me bleed once a week. Recently he colored one of the flowers and started shading all of the dragons scales.

So a little over a month ago the company I worked for (Texture Media) was bought by the advertising juggernaut Crispin, Porter + Bogusky.

Even if you havn’t heard their name, you’ve probably seen their work: Volkswagen, Domino’s Pizza, Coca Cola and yes, the creepy yet totally awesome Burger King guy.

This coming weekend we’ll finally be moving from the old Texture office on Pearl Street over to the main CP+B Boulder office in Gun Barrel. The work is incredible, the people are passionate (all 800 of them) and the office is as far from a corporate cube farm as you can get.

Now that I have a visible tattoo I’m amazed at how many people ask me “did it hurt?”. People in line at the store, the window workers at Burger King… almost every person I talk to about it asks about the pain. It’s as if most people feel that NASA has secretly gotten involved to create the painless tattoo and they just haven’t heard about it yet. There’s a very good reason why drunken bikers are the main people you see having full sleeves. It hurts like hell. Period.

Exhibit A:

And that was only from a 2 hour session to fill in all of my leaves :o)

It’s a long story about how I got hooked up with TCM so for now, I’ll give you the Cliff notes version. Back in 2001 I was pretty much a straight designer and Lingo programmer but started to teach myself more about animation and motion graphics. One of the first pieces I did was some random stuff timed to a track from TCM’s tweekend album. Somehow (nobody can remember) it made its way to Ken Jordan and a week later I was on their tour bus in Albuquerque New Mexico. Ever since then I’ve been honored with designing and maintaining their web site but more importantly, Scott and Ken have become dear friends of mine.

One of my prized possessions is a gift they gave me from the 2004 Legion of Boom Tour:
 

So this past weekend TCM where in town playing at club Beta. Whenever they are in town it’s pretty exciting because I get to ride on their coat tails and experience the rock-star lifestyle for a night. I usually bring a couple friends along just in case I forget some details of the evening and for this particular trip Jorge-Ivan and Jerimy where the lucky/unlucky souls. As you can see, Jerimy didn’t fare to well:

On Sunday I stumbled home around noon and although tired, I felt fairly good (all things considered). It was when I went to throw something away in the trash that I was presented with this stunning ketchup Jesus. For a little while I questioned if I was sober enough to drive home but that fear was quickly replaced with thoughts of eBay.

This show was Jorge-Ivan’s first time seeing TCM so that alone was pretty exciting for him. Getting to stand in the DJ booth with them and drink their VIP bottle service… Jorge was a tad giddy. Monday back at work he tells me this weird story about how he was talking with a friend back in Tijuana (his home town) and telling him about the show, meeting TCM and the insanity that ensued. It was then that his friend started talking about some dude who’s web site he has followed for 7 years and how that guy made these crazy computers, loved TCM, blah blah blah. I think the comedian Steven Wright put it best - “It’s a small world, but I wouldn’t want to paint it”.

A few hours after the previous post… Joshie’s third tooth in as many weeks fell out.

But apparently they do because I’ve gotten a couple gentle emails the past few days on my recent lack of postings. Things have been crazy busy as of late so here are a couple quick pics to tide you over.

Caleb’s in town for his summer vacation and we’ve gotten to spend a little time up in the mountains as well as take a tour of Bronco stadium for his birthday.

Josh lost another tooth and by the looks of things, a third one is on the way.

Fourth of July was a success - we blew things up and everyone still has all of their digits.

Joel finished up all of my shading and started on the color last week.

I drove back home to Kansas this past weekend to get Caleb for his summer break. While there I drove over to the small town of Chapman which is about 5 miles from my parents home/business. Chapman was leveled by a tornado a few weeks ago and the devastation was something I simply can’t put into words. It was a weird and sobering feeling driving around knowing that you are looking at peoples lives in their front yards.

Josh lost his first tooth - I’ve been getting some more shading done - we’ve all been trying to get out of the house more and do some hiking up in the mountains.