So I’m dogsitting, and generally bored while my lady is out of town (If you’re reading this, I miss you), so I figure I should pick up the thread of “things that happend to Matt Mills” somewhere, and the best place is probably the punk show I wnet to the night before I flew to SF the last time. I was sitting around watching star wars with a friend, and I get a text message from <a href=”http://twitter.com/jane4oh5”>Kerry</a> that says, “Come to the Speakeasy, bring your camera. Copperheads and Boom Bang.” And then another that says ‘Really, I’ll pay you.’ I was bored with the whole star wars scene, having watched it approxamately 12 bazillion times as a kid, I still remember all the lines. (yes, I’m a nerd). So I ran home and grabbed my camera and went to the show, which hadn’t even started yet. There were some beers. Remember, I’m supposed to get on a plane early in the morning and fly out to meet all my coworkers in San Fransisco; thinking of this and my empty suitcase, I took it easy on the beers. It was a punk show though, which you can’t really attend without a little drinking. But you know that. So, beers are consumed, and then the copperheads come on and rip through their set like it was talking bad about their mothers. Really fun, fast set. I couldn’t understand any of the words, of course, but that’s not what matters, really. What matters is the noise and the speed and the croud being into it, all jammed up right next to the stage, and the lead singer thrashing around and falling to the floor because so much of his energy is going into the song he can’t even stand because there’s nothing left, and the drummer soaked with sweat and exhausted, and the guitar player jumping up and down and playing as fast as he can to keep up with it all. Either that or we were all a bunch of drunk roaring idiots. Then the Boom Bang came on and solidly kicked some more ass; if the Copperheads were a warm up act, the Boom Bang was a bonfire. I know I use a lot of superlatives, and some of you out there are probably wondering if I’m full of shit or what. I think I just happen to go see stuff at rad moments. I vaguely remember these guys from the last Norman Music Fest I was at, and I wasn’t that impressed. the show at the speakeasy was altogether different. They were right on the bleeding edge of good rock and roll that night. And if you don’t believe me, here are the photos: <div class=”center”> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/picking_up_the_thread/716/0001.jpg”><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/picking_up_the_thread/716/0002.jpg”><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/picking_up_the_thread/716/0003.jpg”><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/picking_up_the_thread/716/0004.jpg”><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/picking_up_the_thread/716/0005.jpg”><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/picking_up_the_thread/716/0006.jpg”><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/picking_up_the_thread/716/0007.jpg”><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/picking_up_the_thread/716/0008.jpg”><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/picking_up_the_thread/716/0009.jpg”><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/picking_up_the_thread/716/0010.jpg”><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/picking_up_the_thread/716/0011.jpg”><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/picking_up_the_thread/716/0012.jpg”><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/picking_up_the_thread/716/0013.jpg”><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/picking_up_the_thread/716/0014.jpg”><br /> </div> After all that I went home and threw my shit in a bag (this was one of those times a <a href=”http://notuntitled.com/2010/08/22/the-list.html”>packing list</a> comes in handy) and slept a few hours and got on a plane…
Posted by matt on 2011-11-10T10:48:20Z GMT
So the last two or three months have been a bit of a blur. I turned 27, found a spectacular woman, got situated in my new job, took three trips of a week each (two to san fransisco and one to mexico), decided to start shooting film again, drank, ate, and told stories, and generally lived it up. There are some photos of all this. They are coming soon, I promise.
Posted by matt on 2011-11-10T01:00:00Z GMT
My friends Heather and Kyle got married, oh a month and a half ago now, and I was lucky enough to attend… really beautiful ceremony, in the alley where they had their first beers together. While some of my longtime friends know that I refuse, under any circumstances, to be a wedding photographer, I didn’t take any money for this one, and I would have been there anyway, so in this case I made an exception and took some photos. Besides, they’re really amazing people and I wanted to do something nice for them. <div class=”center”> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/the_wedding/718/0001.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/the_wedding/718/0002.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/the_wedding/718/0003.jpg” alt=”Photos” /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/the_wedding/718/0004.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/the_wedding/718/0005.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/the_wedding/718/0006.jpg” alt=”Photos” /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/the_wedding/718/0007.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/the_wedding/718/0008.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br> </div>
Posted by matt on 2011-09-26T13:28:20Z GMT
Work has been especially worky and my personal life has ben a crazy roller coaster, and that means the blog has been a bit neglected, but I’m trying to catch up. A wedding (not my own), a vacation, two business trips (the first one to vancouver and the other to san fransisco), all that really wears on you. There’s not a ton of energy left to blog. Add that to the fact that when I’m working, I’m actually working now, and it demands my full attention (really, it’s more like a compulsion to fix things that I have a hard time putting down, but I digress). So I just haven’t had the extra capacity, in time or mental bandwidth to get updates out to the world. First of all the new job is great. Engine Yard is easily the best company I’ve ever worked for, the work completely obsesses and consumes me, and the team I’m on has some of the brightest people I’ve ever worked with. Also they’re “hiring”:http://www.engineyard.com/company/careers. The only downside so far is I’ve been so focused on work, especially the last month, that I haven’t had a whole lot of personal time. The reason I’m writing this is to try and make some time for myself. So that’ll be the last you hear from me about work for a while. I went out with my dad one night a couple of weeks ago, drinking good scotch, and the subject of just how lucky I am came up. A lot of very improbable things have happened to me, and that I survived them all with no long term damage (modulo occasional back problems, scars, and a trail of broken hearts) is also pretty remarkable. I lost count at 19, numbering the times I could have legitimately died if things had been just a little different. If I’d spiked a little more fever, or if I’d been hit a little harder by that car, or pavement, or whatever. Or if the right person hadn’t been there at the right moment to save me. So yeah, phenomenally lucky. So yeah. That’s the state of things. Since I have photos queued up and ready to go, expect to see them here sometime in the next week. For now, just a sunset I shot from riding river the other day: <div class=”center”> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/catching_up/719/Screen%20shot%202011-09-24%20at%205.09.14%20AM.png”> </div>
Posted by matt on 2011-09-24T04:28:20Z GMT
the title of this post could have easily been ‘too good bands’. This was “Dr. Pants”:http://www.doctorpants.com and “Student Film”:http://www.myspace.com/studentfilm , which I saw last week at the blue note and the mustache bash, respectively. Fun acts. I wish I had more to say, but I’m getting ready to go to mexico (!!!!) and my head is full logistics and flight details and all the things I need to do… Yeah. Just a couple days to relax and not think about anything. I was thinking about not even taking a laptop. Now, if you’re in either of those bands, pretend this whole paragraph was me saying nice things about you; I had at least that much to say all in my head earlier, but got distracted. Yeah. <div class=”center”> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/two_good_bands/720/0008.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/two_good_bands/720/0009.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/two_good_bands/720/0010.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/two_good_bands/720/0011.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/two_good_bands/720/0012.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/two_good_bands/720/0013.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /> <img src=”https://images.matt.pictures/two_good_bands/720/0014.jpg” alt=”Photos” /><br /> </div>
Posted by matt on 2011-08-15T00:49:20Z GMT
