Thanks for visiting tennisandtunes.com! This is where I talk about two of my passions, tennis and music, and any other thing I decide to rant about. Sit back, give a listen, have a laugh, and thanks again for stopping by.
I use a program called EZdrummer by Toontrack to program my drums. Since I ain’t no drummer, I had to find an easier way of putting together my drum lines instead of ‘painting’ my drum parts sample by sample and beat by beat (that’s how I did it for Life In A Paper Bag…what a nightmare!). The first song I did with EZdrummer was Terra…wow…what a difference. Not only did my drum lines sound better, but it was soo easy to put the part together…get it…easy…EZ…eh…eh The program is expandable as well. You can purchase different drum kits so that you can incorporate different styles and sounds into your recording.
Anyway, they’ve come out with a new program called EZmix. It allows the user to dial up quick presets that are specifically EQ’d for the part you are using it for, be it guitar, bass, drums, vocals…seems really sweet. One of the things that is cool about new music tech is that you no longer need big studios to make a great sounding CD…you can do it right at home.
This post was in no way a commercial for Toontrack, however if they see it that way and want to send me some free software…I certainly wouldn’t argue
So, following in the wife’s footsteps, I decided to give the vlog a go. For the noobs, a vlog is a video blog, and it adds content with a bit of perspective…I’m actually talking, not typing. I was a little nervous at first, but it was fun.
We played Southlake today, a really good team in our division. Marc and I lost our match, but the team won…so…that’s awesome! We coulda played better fo sho and the doubles team we played were just more consistent today, and consistency wins. One of our opponents had the most bizarre service motion I have ever seen. Think Harry Potter…he tossed the ball, waved his ‘wand’ then hit the ball…very strange…nice guy though. Both of our opponents were very cool…very complimentary.
And now, on with the show. If you like them, please leave a comment and let me know.
No animals or tennis rackets were harmed in the making of these videos…enjoy!
We have a channel that’s part of our cable subscription called HDNet. A cool thing that this channel offers is every month, they premier a movie before it hits theaters. These are obviously NOT blockbusters, but sometimes you will stumble upon a cool flick…like The Great Buck Howard. We would have never seen this flick, but we heard about it and watched it cuz of HDNet. Anywho, the movie they showed in March was an Irish flick called The Eclipse.
Now, I like checking out art from other cultures. It’s interesting to see what other folks find interesting. With that in mind, I’ll offer my thoughts on this film. It was…ok. It was like a little bit of love story mixed in with a ghost story sprinkled with some adultery. It was a snapshot of a couple of days of three folks lives. As a piece of art, it was cool…nice shot composition, lighting, etc…but as a story…I dunno…it didn’t go anywhere. It was just some events that we watched. Weird.
I’m glad I watched it…you know…being open to new things and all, but it wasn’t great. It made me wonder how a movie like that would do in Ireland, where it was produced. Like if that kind of movie would do well compared to here in the US.
Next up is a Chinese flick called The Warlords. We’ll see how this one goes.
Against my better judgment, I jump in my ride and head out to see a midnight showing of Clash of The Titans in 3D. Brian and Derrick are heading out as well and we agree to meet up at a place called Love and War in Texas for some pre-movie grub. If you haven’t been there before, it’s a trippy place that clearly has an affinity for the state of Texas. That explains the Love part in the name…now the War…I dunno. Maybe the war is the internal struggle you find in yourself when you realize your in a place such as this. Both the fellas were like WTF is this place??? I lost count of the number of Texas flags hanging in the place and I swear I heard someone yell YEEEHAW!!! Not that there is anything wrong with that
Anywho, we ordered up some deep fried green beans…NOM! Actually, I think everything on the menu either is or can be deep fried and may or may not be slathered in cream gravy. That being the case, all three of us ordered the chicken fried chicken. Brian was ‘lucky’ and they brought him chicken fried steak instead of what he ordered. Derrick and I received our chicken fried chicken as ordered but Derrick opted out of the smoked corn on the cob, which was awesome, and doubled up on what they call fries…in reality they were closer to skillet potatoes. As we chowed on our dinner, we found time to make fun of our surroundings, the people, and ourselves of course. For some reason, Brian had an extra flap of fried something attached to his steak which he happily chomped…he did however develop the ‘meat sweats’….HA!…a condition neither Derrick nor I had ever heard of. With his double order, Derrick consumed about 12 cups of potatoes. As for me, I tried to ignore the bits of pig parts in my gravy…no small task since I don’t dig on swine!
With VERY full bellies, the Three Nerd-sketeers had some time to kill, so we decided to crash a Bar Mitzvah at Gameworks which was already in full force. I know I’ve never seen so many yamakas in my life! We walked around checking out the old school arcade games and tried not to think of germ infested layer of funk that undoubtedly covered all the controls, plastic guitars, plastic guns, dance pads, and air hockey paddles…ugh…disgusting! As for the video games…it’s crazy to see how far they have come.
The time came for us to mosey on over to the theater and assume our place in line for the movie…and yes…there was a line! There were also A LOT more kids that I prefer to have around. We passed the time people watching and making fun of all the nerds who were all hopped up on red bull and acting goofy. Now, we three obviously have nerd tendencies or else we wouldn’t be there…BUT…we hid it well as we were clearly the coolest cats there.
The time arrived for the all powerful ushers to command the masses to move into the theater to find our seats. Derrick used his 4.5 speed to fly into the theater and grab our spots. Brian blocked any nerds that got in the way. I took my time, looking cool, and made my way in…just kiddin I moved as fast as my creaky knees would allow…hehe. We get seated, 3D glasses in hand, ready to be wowed.
They fire up the coming attractions, and this is where things start to get a little testy. The ‘movie projector technician’ is having difficulty getting the 3D part of the flick going. In the 3D films that I have seen, many of the previews are in 3D, giving the techs time to fine tune the technology to ensure that the audience is set to go once the film starts…this didn’t happen. As bright neon pinks and greens flash across the screen and assault our eyeballs, I get the feeling that this is what a bad LSD trip is like. Everyone is groaning and complaining…”ow…it hurts!” And it did! Really uncomfy to see. The movie starts and the 3D is definitely NOT in effect. The mass of tired, red bull and hot pocket hyped nerds (present company excluded cuz we are too cool to freak out) start expressing their displeasure. Things were being thrown, boos rained down, and folks either started leaving or went to report this issue to theater management. The first ten minutes of film were a psychedelic blur as they tried to get things fixed…it didn’t happen. Eventually, they let the 3D side go and just played the movie in ‘normal’ mode. A few people clung to the dream that they were watching in 3D by keeping their glasses on…the majority knew better.
About two hours later, the lights come up and we start piling out of the theater, listening to the complaints and pissy attitudes was pretty great at 2:00am. They did rectify the situation by giving everyone who stayed two movie passes, but someone SHOULD have came into the theater and told the crowd what was up and what they planned to do. Once they survived the initial onslaught of attitude, folks would’ve calmed down and acted accordingly…or so I hope.
So…an interesting evening/morning to say the least. My review of the movie…a big ol MEH! 1.5 out of 5 stars! I might have given it a 2 out of 5 if the 3D worked. I AM pretty hard to please when it comes to movies though. The best part? The company…a solid 5 out of 5 stars !!!
Well, the time is finally here…behold my new site design!
I’ve been mentioning it over the last several weeks and some of you may have caught a glimpse as I was working on it…sorry to spoil the surprise. There are a couple of things I would like to mention regarding the new design and layout. First of all…the header. Lola, the girl whose family we met and stayed with in the summer of 2009, drew this awesome cartoon of me. When I had the idea for tennisandtunes.com, I told her what I imagined and she drew it perfectly…I love it and you can find more of her work here…she’s super talented!
So, why change the name? I came to the realization that I was taking A LOT of things way too seriously…namely myself. On previous versions of my site, the color choices I made, the design elements, etc., failed to reflect a side of me that I wanted people to see…the goofy side…and that’s a big part of who I am. I have also recaptured a part of myself that I lost a long time ago…the tennis part! I played back in the day. I loved it, but gave it up since I was spending so much time playing and writing music. Of course now it’s like all I do is talk about tennis and not much about music, but I hope to balance that out in the days to come.
Speaking of music, that’s something that I am trying to work out. I write everything on acoustic guitar then lay down all the goodies that go with it…electric guitars, bass, drums, keys..etc. Now, what I am thinking about is…maybe I should try something that is a little more…’unproduced’. Maybe keep the songs simple and let my voice (yikes!) be more of a focus. It’s only within the past few years that I have really tried to learn how to sing (thanks Kels *mwah*), but it’s hard for me cuz I have always been a guitar player first…so there’s that.
On the tennis side of things, I want to talk about stuff that happens in my matches…in my head and on the court. I will do my best to let my sarcastic side out…that won’t be too hard!
I’m not gonna limit tennisandtunes.com to just tennis and tunes. I wanna talk about things that happen, things that I experience, things that I’m thinking about…hope it makes for interesting reading.
Anywho…I will be adding things and changing things while I get everything fine tuned. Bear with me while I get the kinks worked out…and thanks for stopping by!
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The program is expandable as well. You can purchase different drum kits so that you can incorporate different styles and sounds into your recording.
