It’s Been a While . . .

Mon, 03 Nov 2008 07:59:27 +0000

It has been a long time since I last posted. I have no excuse, but considering that this blog was new to begin with, I doubt I’ve really let anyone down. And to be honest, this post won’t really count either since 1) I’m tired, 2) I’m having trouble converting my thoughts into words at the moment, and 3) There is no 3.

I haven’t been doing nothing, mind you. I started a couple of months ago with an excellent new company and I love my work. It’s been a long time since I’ve never felt this passionate or empowered by my professional endeavors. More on that later.

In addition to work and not-blogging, I have been trying to write and record some new music lately which takes up most of my ‘downtime’. But I enjoy blogging, so I consulted K (wifey wife) on my dilemma. “Hey K,” I said, “I’d really like to write a blog post, but as you know, my mind is mush at the end of the day since I now spend at least 97% of my workday actually working.” She replied, “Why yes, J, I have noticed how useless, inept, and sloth-like you seem at the end of a workday. In fact, it pushes my tolerance to new limits. But, to answer your question: maybe since you spend so much time writing music, you could just post some of it. Plus, then people besides me would actually hear it.”

Aha. She did it again. That’s why I love my wife: she thinks up the ideas that my brain won’t. So per her suggestion, here’s a short clip of a new song I’m writing called ‘Imagining Home’. It’s a bit of a departure from the material I’ve been collaborating on with friends, so I welcome your comments!

Found a Job

Thu, 11 Sep 2008 06:06:12 +0000

So, I’ve been looking for a job since I went ahead and got sacked a few weeks ago. Well, today is a happy day. I found a job. So to celebrate, here’s a song fit for the occasion. It’s called ‘Found a Job’. Please click the cassette tape to visit my Sound Journal. Happy hump day everyone!

Don’t Blame it on Gio . . .

Fri, 29 Aug 2008 02:37:00 +0000

For the most part I’m sort of a positive, good-natured guy. As such, I consider hate to be a generally destructive emotion. But a recent email conversation I had with a friend reminded me that there are a few things in life that I do, so truly and passionately, hate. I was reminded of two things specifically: 1) Acqua di Gio cologne and 2) the song ‘Take My Picture’ by Filter. Curiously, the cologne smells really good and the song’s actually pretty cool too. I’ll explain. . .

Almost a decade ago, I held a job as General Manger of an Einstein’s bagel shop. At first, I thought it would be a very cool gig– kind of a ‘hip’ place, good bagels, decent coffee, laid-back atmosphere, etc. But over a short period of time, I came to detest my job at Einstein’s. The feelings escape accurate description.

We used to listen to a lot of X96 (a fine alternative radio station in SLC) in the kitchen when we were baking. At the time, ‘Take My Picture’ had just been released, so they played it no less than 87 times a day. Naturally, I came to detest it.

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We had this thing in the kitchen called a proofer. It looked like a big stainless steel refrigerator, and was basically a low-temperature steam oven. All of our bagels were shipped to us frozen and pre-shaped. At night, we would take the frozen bagels, place them on baking sheets, and then place the sheets in 6′ tall baking racks. Each rack held about 20 sheets, about 300 bagels in all. We’d roll the baking racks into the walk-in cooler to thaw slowly overnight– a process known as ‘slacking’.

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Each day at around 3:30 am, my baker would usually call me from either the county jail or a ‘kegger’ telling me he wouldn’t be in that day. On those days, I’d show up for work by myself to bake fresh bagels for the morning rush. I’s take the racks out of the cooler and begin applying toppings (e.g. cinnamon/sugar, garlic, minced onion, sesame seeds, etc) to the bagels as necessary. Once the bagels were topped, I would roll the rack into the proofer (big steamer fridge-looking thing) to bring the dough up to a consistent internal temperature and proper level of humidity. (please note: The pre-baking temperature and humidity of the dough are essential for ensuring the bagels will have that delightful, chewy texture. If the dough isn’t wet enough, the bagels will have a dry and bread-like consistency and no one wants that. If you wanted to eat bagel-shaped bread, you’d buy your bagels from a supermarket. If the bagel dough is warmer on the surface than in the center, or if the center is still partially frozen when you put them into bake, the bagels just turn into crap. Thanks)

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Sorry, I got side-tracked again for a minute there. To the point: The smell of raw bagel dough is not in and of itself a bad thing; nor are garlic, caraway seeds, cinnamon, or asiago cheese in any way offensive by themselves. But when you open that proofer door to retrieve the rack of raw, multi-flavored, fully-topped bagels from their hot steam bath . . .man oh man . .. the aromatic assault of humid, toe jam-esque funk is nauseating beyond description. (Imagine combining the smells of sweaty gym socks, cinnamon, garlic, chocolate chips, and yeast, and you might kind of get the idea.) And since I’m not a morning person to start with, I already began each day with a stomach ache. To make matters worse, I would down something like 11 or 12 espressos throughout the morning to keep me awake.

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I started my job at the bagel shop right after New Year’s. Everyone who knows me knows that I love cologne and K had given me a bottle of Armani’s Acqua di Gio that year for Christmas. It’s a light, clean, almost soapy smelling cologne and I LOVED it. So like anything I get excited about, I went totally overboard and wore WAY too much of it everyday. For weeks on end. But after a month or two of waking for work in the middle of the night, getting kicked in the nostrils every morning with that warm cinnagarlic-footonion-dough smell, and drinking myself sick with espresso, the cologne started to make me gag. Every time I put it on, all I could think of was asiago cheese. It was like a $60 bottle of cologne and I had to give it away to K’s brother because I couldn’t stand it anymore.

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Hearing that Filter song has almost exactly the same effect. That song actually SMELLS bad to me. I still gag every time I’m near someone who’s wearing Acqua di Gio. I lasted at Einstein’s for all of about 8 months. I don’t hate the company, though I do blame them for causing me to know what it is to really, really hate something. And I don’t hate the guys from Filter for writing that song, and I don’t hate Giorgio Armani. But I bet NONE of them ever has ever baked a single bagel.

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So now you know. . .

Please, don’t hate.

Free Spirit

Wed, 27 Aug 2008 18:45:33 +0000

Monday Mosaic

Tue, 26 Aug 2008 04:31:49 +0000

This is a fun thing. This mosaic will provide you insights about me in an engaging and colorful way! Thanks to my wife, the lovely and talented Kspin, for turning me on to this ‘meme’. (please note: answers will make most sense if read from left to right, starting at the top)

1. What is your first name?
2. What is your favorite food?
3. What high school did you go to?
4. What is your favorite color?
5. Who is your celebrity crush?
6. Favorite drink?
7. Dream vacation?
8. Favorite dessert?
9. What you want to be when you grow up?
10. What do you love most in life?
11. One Word to describe you.
12. Your flickr name. (kid ‘j’ version: favorite animal?)

1. Jake the Crab, 2. Abita beer, bbq ribs, sweet potato fries, Acme hot sauce, 3. that side, 4. Orange mood, 5. Colbie Caillat, 6. Uros Petrovic – Good Morning!, 7. Cheese Burger in Paradise Lahaina, 8. coffee and chocolate mousse cake, 9. ABANDONED CLASSROOM, 10. Love is all around…, 11. Dizzy, 12. Vanity

There’s Nothing Here Yet

Fri, 15 Aug 2008 19:58:19 +0000

This is my blog. There is nothing here yet, but there will be. Oh yes, there will be. Please check back soon.