leftovers

This is our Halloween video!  We had a ton of fun filming it with Marky Make Up at Jarod's mansion in the hills.

The annual Retro Futura tour, previously known as the Regeneration tour, is something I've been aware of for awhile, and have been to on at least one occasion when Human League was part of it.  Though I was disappointed a year or two ago when Human League were again announced to be on the tour, but then ended up not being on it, I was very intrigued this year when they made the announcement that Tom Bailey, the musical force behind my first favorite band, The Thompson Twins, was coming out of "pop retirement" to headline the tour. At first, in my busy cocoon of a life, it was hard to muster much excitement.  After all, I wasn't initially too impressed with the rest of the lineup, and I was of course disappointed that Allanah and Joe (the other two "twins") would not be taking part.  But my friend Marc's enthusiasm rubbed off on me and I was texting with him while we were waiting for the minute that tickets would go on sale, so we could both get tickets...

This is going to be a bit long winded so bear with me!  I'm just super excited because this song is coming out on Tuesday next week and I want to tell the story of how it came to be. First off, this is a huge milestone for me as this is the first song to be released from the full band Devin Tait & The Traitors.  My last output was solo material, my album "It's Never The Way You Imagine It," which I produced mostly by myself, with a lot of help from my brother Brandon, and some superb contributions from Hoagie Hill and Dolly Dagger.  After I had recorded the album, the band came together mainly for the purposes of playing the songs live, but after a couple of years and some lineup changes, the Traitors came into their own and we are now a five-piece rehearsing, recording and performing entity! The song itself was basically born at G.A.Y. Late in London.  I was dancing with my friend David at this club where all the guys looked like members of One Direction,...

This was a really fun show right in our local park where I used to do boot camp in the mornings with Robin.  It was nice to return to the park and be able to perform with such a talented and artistic bunch of people (thanks to Apt. 3F, Planet Queer and the City of West Hollywood)!  My band was the first band to play since I had to be done early enough to make it to Ryan and Creighton's wedding later that afternoon.  Liana was also out of town for a wedding, so my friend Cindy Sciacca, who's currently starring in Bronies: The Musical , and spent most of last year on tour with I Love Lucy Live On Stage , was gracious enough to fill in for her! We did 5 songs: 1. Winnipeg Beach (revived per Cindy's request!) 2. Too Late Anyway (Jarod sang this song from the musical Nightshriek ) 3. Now I Know What I Want (our next single - coming soon to iTunes!) 4. Sunglasses at Night / Sweet Dreams 5. To Be Young & On Downers Here's a video of that last one:

I'm so excited because in less than a week I will be in Kansas City meeting my brand new baby niece, Eva Rho Joyner, who is my sister Adrienne's daughter with her husband Drew.  She is the first member of the next generation of our family and I am so excited to see her, to see my sister as a mother for the first time, and to see my parents as grandparents! It's a busy time of year and I will have been out-of-town for three consecutive weekends.  Last weekend, Dylan and I went to Long Beach on Saturday to spend some time with friends down there for Long Beach Gay Pride, and the next day I traveled by train to San Diego with my co-workers for the West Coast Urban District Forum, a collaboration between IDA (International Downtown Association) and CDA (California Downtown Association), which we are members of both organizations.  It was a great conference, fun to see the city through the lens of business improvement districts, and to be reunited with our friend Carlee who ...

I'm addicted to my smart phone.  I'll be the first to admit it, and how embarrassed I am by that fact.  I remember when there were artists, and there was an audience.  Now, everyone is the artist.  Everyone wants their own audience, and have developed the ability to imagine that audience exists when it doesn't.  We take photos of ourselves constantly.  Even when someone else is nearby who could take a better photo, we'd prefer to take our own photo.  It's not enough to just be in the photo, we want to shoot the photo also.  Then we want people to "like" it. I remember when there was an exciting intersection between art and commerce.  An artist would create a work, and then a company would market that work to the people they hoped it would appeal to.  Collections of songs were sold as albums.  Scenes, written on paper, were acted out and filmed, and turned into movies.  Now, everyone wants their "reality" to be considered ar...

I've always been curious about the LA Marathon, and admired those who commit to running that entire distance through LA's beautiful neighborhoods - but I have to admit that, until this year, I had never even actually seen the race.  That is mainly due to the fact that it happens really early on a weekend, and I usually sleep in on weekends.  However, this year, my band was selected to perform at Mile 5 (approximately), at Echo Park Lake, so I finally got to be a part of it - and I didn't even have to run.  Leading up to the event, there were several things I had to do to prepare.  First, I decided upon a set list that contained all up-beat songs, and lots of cover songs, because I know people like to hear songs they are already familiar with.  So in addition to some tunes we had already played, we worked up a brand new cover, "I Ran," by Flock of Seagulls, to tie in with the whole running theme. I also wanted to make sure the runners and spectators could eas...

2013 has been a weird year for me.  It's been a dry year, meaning I haven't drank any alcohol, which is, in and of itself, very different from most any other year in recent memories.  Did I gain a sense of clarity, or a sense of detoxification?  Not really, I just realized that there have definitely been times where I have drank too much when I didn't need to.  But that's beside the point, as the point is the top 10 songs of the year!  In the absence of many new releases from my old favorites, there are a lot of new artists represented in this year's list. First - Honorable mentions: "Back Together" - Annie; "Broken Record" - Little Boots; "For Once in My Life" - Mel B (although it was a huge bummer when we went to see her promoting this new single by simply 'appearing' at a nightclub without actually performing or doing a meet-and-greet or anything else that would have made standing around waiting for hours seem worth it); ...

Hays Has It. It's Happening in Hays. Those were slogans for the city of Hays, Kansas, that I remember from my childhood.  We used to make fun of them a lot, but when I was really young, I did think that Hays had "it," whatever it was.  I think the first thing I remember about Hays is that once upon a time I actually couldn't distinguish it from Russell, Kansas.  Both were cities off of I-70, where my parents used to take us to shop or run errands, and I just knew they both were what I considered "big towns" but I couldn't tell them apart.  That must have been when I was 4 or so, because soon I realized many of the differences between the two.  Hays was much larger, had a college, a mall, a Wal-Mart - basically all the exciting things I grew to love throughout my childhood. My earliest memories of Hays were of being impressed by the size of it.  I spent most of my time on our farm, and when I was lucky enough to "go to town," it was...

I've never been a big "car person."  Some people LOVE cars, love driving them, fixing them, learning about them, talking about them, etc... not me.  Growing up in the place and time that I did, cars have been an important part of our culture, but for the most part I've never given too much thought to what I was driving, as long as it got me from point A to point B.  However, I do appreciate a nice car and at times in my life I've been pretty happy with my wheels.  I recently made a major purchase and bought a new (to me) car, a bright red Kia Soul +!  It got me thinking about all my past cars and what they have meant to me.  I want to say right off the bat that I am grateful that I can even say I've been able to drive and own a car since I was in high school, which truly is a blessing.  And thank you to my parents, who have gone WAY above and beyond in helping me with the costs of the vehicles over the years.  Without further ado, here are the car...

At my brother's suggestion, I've decided to write a blog about "Out in the Sandpile," which was a game (of sorts) that my siblings and I would play out in the yard east of our house on the farm.  It was sort of like a 3D version of "Monopoly" with army guys, barbie dolls, houses, cars, and "money."  Apparently, I was somewhat of a dictator and often threatened my siblings with physical violence if they did not play for a long enough period of time.  Suffice to say, I was very into this game! THE EARLY YEARS In the beginning, the game started in our actual sandpile, hence the name.  My dad had made us a small sandbox, probably about 6'x6', with four big wooden planks set out in a square, filled about 6" deep with sand.  The first two "characters" were Kitty Kiffeneigh (my guy), and John Chesney (Brandon's guy).  We had toy horse trailers that we flipped upside down for our "houses."  Aside from the fact tha...