Perfect Moments

Spalding Gray talked in“Swimming to Cambodia”about always wanting to have a perfect moment everywhere he went while in Thailand during the filming of “The Killing Fields” it took place whilst he was swimming out in the ocean. I have thought back on some of my perfect moments in no particular order for this addition of T.G.S.A of P

Washington D.C at American University specifically Bender Arena on Sunday October 25th 1998 I saw the band Garbage perform. Earlier in the day I had gone to an autograph signing at the tower records in Rockville, MD I got my guitar autographed by the band, instead of taking the whole thing I just took the pick guard Butch Vig thought that I was smart for that but that’s not the perfect moment. The perfect moment was at the show that night. I was front row on the rail and during the song Number 1 Crush Shirley Manson singer for the band and one of the most beautiful women ever, kneels down on stage in front of me and sings the entire second verse of the song to me staring directly in my eyes the entire time. Perfect moment I could have instantly gone into a coma and relived that verse till they pulled the plug and it would have been a good life.

Paignton Beach, England fall of 2004, on this beach there is a point where the rocks are all perfectly smooth and flat from the ocean’s waves. They are the perfect skipping stones, one of my favourite things is skipping a stone it is a simple pleasure the stone jumping across the water, it is a combination of accomplishment for the number of skips and a relaxing pastime. So on this beach are the perfect skipping stones; it was getting towards sunset the tide was out the waves small. Perfect stones and a calm ocean I lost count of the number of skips some stones made as they leapt over what waves the ocean had for me simply paradise. During my stone skipping nirvana a dog ran up to me and hung around just long enough for me to take a photograph; a perfect moment captured on film nothing better.

Edinburgh, Scotland (Home town of Shirley Manson) it was my first trip to Scotland the ancestral lands and it just seemed like home. I woke up early for some reason just prior to sunrise I was in a hotel on Princes Street right next to the Scot Memorial. I looked out the window as the sun rose the sky was a living canvass of reds, yellows, purples and greys the clouds moving swiftly the colours shifting behind the silhouettes of the city spires and the Salisbury Crags in a perfect organic moment of pure visual ecstasy. I shot an entire role of film during this it was easily the most amazing sunrise I’ve ever seen.

This Is A Public Service Anouncement WITH GUITARS

Ok this isn’t a public service announcement with or without guitars but I listened to my first pod cast recently. It was This American Life. www..thislife.org/radio_podcast.aspx
The program was all about not letting go it featured stories about a couple people who were bullied in school; a woman who bought a house with a permanent tenant; another woman who thought of a joke and waited several years to be able to use it. The pod cast was about an hour long and the voices were all rather dry; by dry I mean without much effects being used such as a slight reverb to give the voices a little more depth. So you would think an hour of people talking that would get a little boring and it would have save the small touches of other sounds. Music was used sporadically through the pod cast it broke up the otherwise monotonous voices, it did get a little heavy handed between segments the crescendo of the music went a little to high. In the second story where a writer named John R recalled being thrown into a lake during his school years. (For being an arse a schoolmate reported) . The use of street sounds with the dry voice gives the impression that your walking down the street with him to the site of the alleged lake toss.