Lost Time

I don't think I'll be able to finish Season 3 (see below remaining episodes) before tonight's season premier. D'oh!

No Kidding

Been on hold for over 3 hours now. No answer. I'm just waiting for Holly's phone to give out and then I'll call it over. Can anyone else not believe this is happening?

A Day For Holding

I was on the phone for 55 minutes before my website host finally picked up. After they answered, they took down my info, ask me what I needed and then "submitted a ticket" because they themselves are not tech support, even though that's the number I pressed on the automated system.

Now I'm on hold with BlueCross of CA. Actually, Holly and I have been passing the phone back and forth now for 1 hour and 50 minutes. Still no one has answered. But the music is great.

Oh, and Paxton is birthing his last of his 1-year molars.

Peace and Tranquility in this house, I tell ya.

New Shows and New Songs

So, Russell shares some live versions of our new tunes on his latest podcast. He also offers some interesting insight...as usual.

Also, we're going to be in Sacramento this weekend (Sat, Sun, Mon) for 3 nights of shows and hang-time. Check it. And we've already set up several other Bay Area shows, DC shows, Pacific NW shows, and CA shows for Winter/Spring '08. Check that as well.

OMS! (Oh MySpace!)

...is back up here. Whew. Thank God...and whatever other powers-that-be.

Whew. That was bummin' me out.

Aw yee.

My Newest Purchase

Dates to Spare

We have a few openings in some different cities this spring. If you'd like to host The Cobalt Season for a concert or as part of your weekly get-together, please let me know. It'd be nice to find some university connections, so if you know of any in the corresponding areas, please let me know.

Dates available...

Wed, Feb 27 - Southern Oregon
Sun, March 2 - Seattle, WA (AM and/or PM)
Mon, March 3 - Portland, Oregon
Tues, March 4 - Portland or Southern Oregon

Sun, March 9 - Northern Virginia / DC (PM)

April 20 - Bay Area (AM)
April 21 - Central Coast CA
April 28 - Southern CA
April 29 - Central CA

Holy MySpace!

Seriously.

Laci emailed me this morning to alert me that I not longer had a MySpace account. Um, that's kind of a big deal. I guess someone perhaps deleted it or something? MySpace is "looking into it".

Going to an accupuncturist for

Going to an accupuncturist for the first time.

WTF?!? When will we be

WTF?!? When will we be off this mountain?

In Mammoth. Cold and snowy.

In Mammoth. Cold and snowy. Pax woke @ 4.45 today...ouch. Hoping the pass will be clear by afternoon.

Russell's Excellent Podcast

Russell just completed a nice podcast that features The Cobalt Season's latest SoCha show. He does some good transitional pontificating as well. Check it out here.

Ducks In A Row

Slowly, but surely, I'm getting my ducks in a row for 2008. Actually, some ducks I'm asking to be in a row, some fall right into place magically, and some I'm having more of a problem syncing with the others...but generally, they're in a row.

With regards to SharpSeven, we're finally an S-Corp, getting our tax and accounting shite straight. That's huge. Now we're looking for people to work for us.

With regards to The Cobalt Season's forthcoming EP, the songs are written, the demos are made, the schedule is set for recording. Pretty exciting to have Charlie Wilson back on the team again for mixing and mastering. Got our duplicator set up and he's local. That's swell. Daley's going to be joining us for this recording and that should be fun.

With regards to The Cobalt Season's forthcoming DVD (did you know?), some amazing stuff is falling into place. Travis Reed (of THE WORK OF THE PEOPLE and HIGHWAY fame) is flying from Houston out to SF for a couple days to capture the recording experience (remember, we're recording this entire thing live!). He'll also be articulating and curating the deeper stories. Beautiful.

With regards to tours / traveling / and whatnot, we have some dates lined up for all across the West Coast in Spring '08. Also flying to DC to participate in a peace rally / protest / art installation piece. And we just lined up the Portrero Hill Neighborhood House (with one of the most fantastic views in the City) for our April 18th Album Release Party.

With regards to life, I think I'm taking slightly deeper breaths and spending more time where I'd like to spend it. That's good stuff.

Oh Mendocino

Thanks to Dan and Bethany's Christmas gift to us, we'll be heading up north to Mendocino tomorrow. We'll then stay the night (after a day of wine tasting) and then come back on Tuesday. This will be our first night sans hijo. I'm relieved and nervous all at the same time, as probably any parent would understand.

But Holly's been on it, doing her homework for the trip. She has the map marked for Zins. Mmm.

Looking For a Small PA

Anyone have one of these that they're looking to unload? Small, easy-to-travel, with PHANTOM POWER?

The Cobalt Season is in the market, yo.

Johnny-Come-Lately-Turned-Maven?

I know, I know. Really, I am one when it comes to music. I've said this before. Were it not for the likes of Ashdown, Rick Bennett, Troy Bronsink, Daley Hake or Craig Burnett, I'd be hopeless.

But last night at our show (which was really fun), a guy named Brian said we reminded him of HEM. Heard of them? I hadn't. But they're quite good. We just purchased their newest record on iTunes. Good stuff. Check out their MySpace.

If I'm one of the first to hear about them, perhaps I am turning into a maven. Yes. Finally.

Small States Are Just Weird

The other day I told my sister (and a couple others) that I was certain that Obama had the presidency. I also remember going to sleep almost 4 years ago, certain that Kerry would get the presidency.

Well, last night was a bit of a surprise to me (who knows little to nothing about politics, but knows a thing or two about social movements and groups and whatnot). I didn't expect this.

I love San Francisco's response to the news (see photo of "survey" on right)...and I love that SF Gate gave us such options.

No More Fear

My friend Ryan blogged a link to this video under the header POLITICS OF FEAR.



He and I (and many others) are so fed up with this kind of bullshit. It is just so hyperbolic and ethnocentric and just plain sad. The drums of war are still being beaten. And you know why? Because for so many, it is so damn compelling.

I heard Obama, Edwards, and Clinton speak against this ADMINISTRATION OF FEAR. Yip. I'm with 'em. I'm tired of it all too.

But as I began to think about how pessimistic I would be if another Republican (or Hillary) was in office, I began to ask myself questions about fear. Do I attempt to motivate people by fear? Do I talk about the "other" in language that isn't helpful? Even if the "other" is the person I used to be? What about my own life? Is my search for significance fear-driven? All this talk of vocation really just the same nasty thing the politicians are a part of?

I do hope that I am not purely acting out of fear, but I was reminded for a moment of how powerful fear can be. I was also reminded that if we are to ask our world to move beyond fear with regards to national and international issues, we must also ask ourselves to move beyond fear. And that might just be the rub.

No More Creditors

Those who knew me in college knew that I got myself into a bit of debt...nothing too ridiculous, but 4-5 accounts that were closed or charged-off or whatever...amounts between a few hundred and a couple thousand.

Well, today, a creditor called me about an outstanding debt. Who knew? I thought I had paid them all. But I hadn't, I guess. Luckily today's was a settlement for only $254 (half of what I owed).

But I asked them if there were any others. There weren't. Thank God. As of January of this year, all debts are gone except for about half of our student loans. Big deal, but not nearly as big as it used to be.

TCS Updates

Wanted to let you know what's going on in the world of The Cobalt Season...

I've been writing for a new album since we've been home off the road. I'm really excited about this album...we're thinking that we'll keep it as an EP...just 6-7 songs total. And we're going to record it live in our house here in SF. This place is really vibey. We'll begin recording some time in the middle of February sometime.

In the meantime, we have a Jan 11th show @ SoCha (again) and then 3 shows in Sacramento at the end of January.

Then we're planning a couple tours this spring...a Pacific Northwest tour in late Feb / early March and a California (@ Arizona?) tour in April sometime. If you'd be interested in having us out for a house show or to perform at a venue or church, please email me.

We talk about another nationwide trip in 2008 sometime, but not sure when...either late summer or perhaps early fall...we'll see. Honestly, we're still recovering from the last one.

A Slow Start

I have been slowly transitioning into 2008. It feels like I still had some 2007 stuff to wrap up. I nearly forget to uphold the tradition of the Sharp family (at least tradition for the last 4 years or so) to come up with 3 words to describe 2007 and 3 words I would hope to describe 2008. It's something we normally do on New Year's Eve. Bacchus kept my mind in jail. No big, I'll just do it now as it's always been something that's always been helpful on the journey. Kind of a way to check in with myself.

This morning, Jenn reminded me to do this.

So, as a reflection first...

The worlds I wrote a year ago, hoping to define 2007:
HUMILITY (without hostility)
CLARITY (without certainty)
STABILITY (without security)

I think that I lived into each of these...and they lived into me...at least on some level.

My words in retrospect to define 2007:
Experimental
Disappointment
Hard-Working

I don't want to spend too much time unpacking those words, so I'll just say a little about each.

We moved to SF as an experiment. We really invested into our art (music and painting) as an experiment. We opened ourselves up to a communal voice as an experiment. We traveled as an experiment. We tried new diets/foods/worldviews as an experiment. We moved in with another family as an experiment. We continue to push ourselves into new places with new hypotheses about how the world could work.

It was also a year of disappointment...coming up against limitations. It was a year of realizing that idealistic dreams are seldom sustainable in the real world as they are in my head. And that's okay...it doesn't mean we shouldn't dream or try to live into God's Future. It simply means that everything costs something. I was also disappointed in people, myself, God (again), the government, the weather, Paxton, Holly, myself, myself, myself. Disappointment can reveal unfair expectations, judgment, and other such things. It can also help make the future more sustainable. Limitations can be so freeing.

I am a hard-worker about some things. I am a lazy fool about others. This year I tried really hard to be just former...a hard-worker. We checked into counseling to work on our marriage. I wanted to be a present father, so we worked half days. I incorporated our business. I made several batches of beer and other libations to share with friends and strangers. We hosted people we did not know. We tried to shape the community as we were being shaped by it. We hired freelancers. I produced an amazing record and Holly an amazing art series. We did a 12k mile tour with a 1-year-old. We worked hard. And there were many fruits from our labor.

Okay, that was hardly "a couple words", but there it is.

And (dun, dun, dun, dah!) my words for 2008:
Breath - I want to learn to be in the now
Health - I want to be healed mentally, physically, socially and spiritually
New Chapter - This year I enter my 30s (not really...as I turn 31 in Feb) and I want my 30s to be a decade free of debt (hoping to squelch the rest of college debt this year) and full of solidification in my life-direction.

Now into 2008 we go...

No power for 8 hours

No power for 8 hours now...

I Just Don't Know How To Feel

I jotted down some thoughts on last night and then erased them. Perhaps that discussion around the dinner table was all I needed, and it wouldn't translate into a blog post.

Obama is my horse, and I am happy to see that he won the first caucus. But my views on politics have changed over the last 8 years, and I wonder if a person of real virtue and compassion can make it all the way to the Emperor's Throne (as a friend put it). I watch the below video and say, "Yes!" I do want an end to this futile war of profit and swagger. Yes, we need change in the healthcare system. Yes, we do need to move into the future...new categories, new hopes, new dreams.

But can a politician actually deliver (in any way) on these proposed things? This is not the same old "I distrust politicians" sentiment. This is me asking if a person can play clean, act honorably, and rise to the top of a system that rewards greed and violence. It's like asking if you can get rich off lending Kiva loans?

Mustache Party 2007...8

New Years Eve was fun. A tad out of control at times, but all in all, quite fun. Holly did her best to take photos throughout the evening. I was preoccupied with Bacchus.

So, here goes...some pics...


Huh? Whudya say?


Pax had a milk/yogurt mustache and Holly had a glitter 'stache.


Crafting folks mustaches...


Fancy kids...


















Aw yeah.


Scandrette creativity was rockin' that night.

Moustache Party