Gregg Davis Dot Com

Recent Umphrey's McGee set

2008-07-14T13:43:07Z

Umphrey's McGee played a recent set opening for STS9. Here's a good recording, along with a show review.

CLICK HERE to listen from the web page on the Internet Archive.

Here's the review from that page:

Reviewer: hockeygrossman - - July 14, 2008
Subject: umphrey's takes the cake on this one

First of all, this is excellent sound quality, and many thanks for getting this on-line so fast.
Not to bring down the mood, but being a big UM fan, I was disappointed to hear that they were opening up for sts9 instead of the opposite.
That being said, I was EXTREMELY impressed with the UM set, it was the best I'd seen them play in over a year (granted, I only saw them 4 times in this last year).
I thought they would be a lot more tranced out because of spending so much time with bisco and sts9, and I could hear kris trying to bring in the trance drum beats really heavy, but the rest of the band didn't let it get too far. And even when they did drop the dance beat for a while there was plenty of amazing guitar work to keep it from getting stale. This show was a rock show, hands down, and I wouldn't have had it any other way.
Every single song flowed well. Nothing Too Fancy was brilliantly executed sandwich-style, Jake tore it up from the beginning and I knew it was going to be a sweet performance. Breathe from Dub Side of The Moon reminded me that UM covers pink floyd better than anybody else, and it really floated the crowd into the warm world of psychedelic beauty. Rocker continued Jake's shredding, and brought a taste of the metal flavor that was to come. Jimmy Stewart was heavy and solid, don't remember too much about the jam but it was good. Mail Package was a treat, almost thought it was zappa for a minute. White Man's Moccasins progressively rocked my face off (side note, as one of my friends said: I think Jake might be a robot). Nemo and The Floor were really weird songs to end the set with, but then again I didn't want their set to end either, and they played them well, so I'm not gonna complain.
Overall it was just great, any and all real UM fans will enjoy this thoroughly.

Images of Kauai - family fun in 2008

2008-06-04T17:31:22Z

After Jason and Shannon's wedding, we went over to the island of Kauai, for a week on the north side of the island, in Princeville. Near to Hanalei Bay, we had a great time with some hiking, hanging out on the beach, and touring the Na Pali coast vis the hiking trail as well as from the water. It was great to get together as a family for a period of time. We were striving to avoid Jason and Shannon because they were on their honeymoon, right in the same area. We did see them once on the beach, and then we made a plan and had dinner together at a nice Hanalei restaurant on our last night. Take a look at the photo gallery below.

CLICK HERE FOR THE WEB GALLERY
[click slideshow for a full screen display]

Jason and Shannon's wedding pics Oahu 2008

2008-05-29T02:35:03Z

I'm in Hawaii for Jason and Shannon's wedding. Jason has been my best friend for more than 25 years. Now we live in Breckenridge, and can still hang out! Wow!

I have a web gallery with all the following pictures available at full size (almost), located here:

click the link here for the Jason and Shannon Web Gallery

[then click "slideshow" for a full screen presentation]

]]> You can click the thumbnails below to enlarge, then use your back button to return:

Mother's Day 2008

2008-05-15T18:04:28Z

The four of us met in Fort Collins for an excursion day for Mother's Day. We went hiking at Horsetoth Park, and then had a great dinner downtown.

You can see the full size images at my picasa gallery, here: http://picasaweb.google.com/greggsdavis/MotherSDay2008

AASI National Team Tryouts

2008-05-14T00:36:53Z

Mammoth Mountain, California April 27 - May 3, 2008

The American Association of Snowboard Instructors chooses it's National Team for the 2008 to 2012 Term.

[For now, you can use my snowboarding site at MySnowPro.com to see more photos]

From the drive out to the last days at Mammoth, the trip was super-fun. I made the team! Having a great time on this trip helped me to perform at my best and get on the team. It was awesome riding with that group of people - from the selectors representing a history of snowboarding to the candidates, all amazing riders and teachers. I wouldn't have wanted to be a selector; they had a hard job.

April 23, 2008. My half-birthday. I arrived at Mammoth around 1pm, called Cam and Oliver on the way up the hill, ate my last travel sandwich out of the cooler, got my boots on and walked up to the Broadway lift. I had already bought my $10 lift tickets for the pre-selection days Thursday, Friday, Saturday and Sunday. Cam and D.O. were already on the hill, just finishing lunch. The sun was out and the snow was soft. Rider Rally was going on, so I knew I'd see some friends I haven't seen in a while. National Team members KC Gandee, Chad Frost, and coach J. Randy Price were on my list of friends to see. I knew they were all on the hill.

Now, this was a full four days before the actual tryouts started. I had come early to ride, check out the snow conditions, get used to the layout of the mountain, meet up with old friends, and warm up for tryouts. I also had no worries with extra lodging expense for the days because our director at Breckenridge, John Buhler had donated his Dad's house in Mammoth Lakes for us to stay for the week. The four Breckenridge skiers and riders going for the National Teams and staying at the house were myself, Cameron Hunter, David Oliver, and Chuck Creen. Oliver and Chuck aere going for the Alpine Team. Patti Banks, not staying with us but also from Breck, stayed elsewhere with her husband and our Training Coordinator Tommy Banks.Patii was trying out for the Nordic Team.

The "Breck House," as it came to be called, was one of the best perks of the trip. It was invaluable to have a house to keep stuff, store food, and provided a base camp that helped us to remain focused during tryouts. We were able to connect around some common ground: all being from Breck. John came and stayed also, and his parents, Louie and Dina were there over the weekend before tryouts. Thanks John, and especially Louie and Dina, for allowing us to use your place for free during the week. The house was just right at the bottom of the hill, a five minute drive from the mountain.

I shot my first video clip with my little camera on the lift ride. "Here's the first video" I said to the camera as I rolled up the Broadway lift to meet Oliver and Cam. The weather was sunny and beautiful, maybe 50 degrees, the snow soft and springlike. The air smelled like pine and the mountains were shining and jutting in the sun. From Mammoth, you can almost always see the Minarets, and Banner and Ritter Peaks, to the north towards Yopsemite National Park. They are dramatic, rugged and pointy peaks among the sharp Sierras. These mountains are certainly newer in their evolution than Colorado Mountains. They're just not as worn down and rounded as a lot of mountains in the Rockies. Especially the Tenmile Range around Breck, which is pretty rounded off - there's been more time for the weather to erode them.

Ok, so now I had three more days of riding - Friday, Saturday and Sunday. I got to ride with a lot of friends from Colorado, and some friends from around the country too. This event brings a lot of riding talent to one place for two weeks or so every four years. The two days of riding were super-fun, and at one point we had a posse of nine of us, mostly from Colorado, but some others too, and we were all riding like it was another fun day with our friends at home. But we were all looking towards Sunday evening too, when we would start with a little get together with announcements and plans to begin a five day tryout process.

We met with our riding groups for the next day, and the selectors rotated to each group to discuss the plans and schedule for the first riding day. It was three groups riding with two selectors each, for one-hour slots, three in the morning and three in the afternoon. The groups would repeat their three "stations" in the same order from morning to afternoon. The riding stations were Park & Pipe, On-Piste (groomed terrain, tasks), and Off-Piste (steeps, ungroomed). Each rider would get to show their skills during two different times of the day. This meant that each piece of terrain would have very different snow conditions from morning to afternoon. The snow ranged from frozen coral, and slippery groom, to mashed potatoes a foot deep in the late afternoon, with everything in between.

On monday morning the "Cutters" (my group) grouped at the top of the Broadway lift on their way to Park & Pipe to start the day. Since the park and pipe were rock-hard for our first hour, we were glad to know that we would get the park section first thing after lunch, when it was just softening up but fast and not too deep yet.

The second riding day it was our crew in two groups alternating tasks on the upper mountain in the morning, and the park and pipe after lunch. The mountain closed early because of high winds and we missed our last run in the park and pipe. We did get two warm up, unscored runs after lunch though. We were lucky to get our morning runs finished using the gondola, which could have stranded or delayed us with the high winds the entire day. We ended the day a little early and looked towards the cut that evening.

Doug Radefeld, John Casson and I went to the skatepark to roll around and skate for a couple hours; it was a really fun session. I think there are a few pics at MySnowPro.com/greggdavis.

Want to email me?

2008-05-06T19:08:51Z

Translate the following code into my email address to contact me:

gregg [at] greggdavis.com

By placing the email address in the format above, I'm preventing robots from scraping my email address off this site and using it for sending spam ads to my email address. Please substitute an "@" symbol for my "[at]" formatting, and you'll have my email address. It's easy to fool robots, isn't it?

--Gregg

Snowboarding!

2008-02-09T14:17:51Z

Click the image or the link below to visit my snowboarding site:

MySnowPro.com/greggdavis

Rinspeed amphibious car

2008-02-08T19:49:02Z

Here's a new concept car for 2008 - from Switzerland's Rinspeed:

Pink Floyd Concert

2008-01-30T21:22:02Z

I think this was 93-94. I saw them in Denver during this tour. Excellent video.

Check out these MTV Tapes 1983

2008-01-30T15:59:58Z

Part One:

Old VHS recording of MTV from 1983 (Mark Goodman as VJ) including commercials. Some of the music videos include:

Night Ranger - Don't ... all » Tell Me You Love Me Huey Lewis & The News - Heart & Soul The Tubes - Monkey Time Price - Little Red Corvette George Thorogood & The Destroyers - Bad To The Bone The Police - Synchronicity II Sammy Hagar - Your Love Is Driving Me Crazy Steve Miller Band - Jet Airliner Kansas - Fight Fire With Fire Michael Bolton - Fool's Game Quiet Riot - Cum On Feel The Noize Bow Wow Wow - Do You Wanna Hold Me? The Who - You Better You Bet The Motels - Suddenly Last Summer Madness - Our House Nick Heyward - Whistle Down The Wind

Part Two:

ZZ Top - Sharp Dressed ... all » Man Garland Jeffreys - 96 Tears Stevie Nicks - If Anyone Falls Elton John - I'm Still Standing The Thompson Twins - Lies Billy Idol - Dancing With Myself Men At Work - It's A Mistake Paul McCartney & Michael Jackson - Say, Say, Say Quarterflash - Take Another Picture David Bowie - Modern Love Billy Squier - Lonely is the Night INXS - The One Thing The Romantics - Talking In Your Sleep Jefferson Starship - Be My Lady Robert Plant - Burning Down One Side Talking Heads - Burning Down The House Split Enz - One Step Ahead The Fixx - Red Skies The Pretenders - Back On The Chain Gang Joe Walsh - I Can Play That Rock N' Roll

Post-It

2007-12-13T02:49:17Z

Motorcycling Canon City and Royal Gorge

2007-09-18T23:42:12Z

Baker and I rode lots of dirt today. Shelf Road, and Phantom Canyon. Check out the pics.

iPhone blogging

2007-07-07T18:41:33Z

I'm writing this using my iPhone out by the pool. The typing is pretty fast and easy.

Adventure Motorcycle Research

2007-07-04T16:39:33Z

5 bike comparison

Craigslist Denver Search : KLR

2008 KLR 650 review

DualStar Accessories for KLR 650

EBay Search: KLR under motorcycles

Adventure Ride to Moab

Art Links - Artists that I like

2007-06-14T14:39:53Z

Juxtapoz Magazine
Limited Addiction Forum
Greg Simkins
Naoto Hattori
Glenn Barr
Jeff Soto
Josh Keyes
Mark Ryden, especially the latest: Wondertoonel
Lineage Art Gallery

Mark Ryden Artist Statement that speaks to me:

Artist Statement - "Anima Mundi" - September 2001
I still remember the joy I got out of drawing, painting and building a world of my own when I was a child. I was free. I try to recapture that feeling I had making art as a child and to believe in magic, to play, to dream. Children see things and feel things that adults don't.

As an adult, there are many barriers to being in this creative state of mind. I feel constantly challenged by these barriers. It is very difficut to let go of responsibilities and enter a creative fantasyland. It's hard to stop looking at the clock and our bills. It's hard not to drown in relationship problems and all the negative thoughts that deflate our motivation to create. If you can summon the strength to get past all these things and trust your heart, creativity can be miraculous. You can be transported to another existence.

There are two very different parts to the brain. There is the logical side and the creative side. To make art you have to stop thinking in a linear way. You have to bring to life the part of your brain that finds mystical wonder in life and nature. There is a part of your soul that can spend hours admiring the subtle colors and shapes in an old raccoon skull. You have to find the particular things that bring out your spirit. It may be to get up at the crack of dawn to explore the flea market in search of treasure. Perhaps light incense and listen to music that would embarrass you if anyone knew about, and wonder about alchemy, astrology and the secrets of the universe. It is the part of your spirit that still feels like a kid, and is awe-inspired and fascinated by the world.

My goal in art is to get past literal conscious thought and try to let my uninhibited subconscious mind make my art. I can feel it when this is working. I have heard many artists describe the same feeling. Some think it is the hand of God using them as an instrument of creation. Some describe it as the creative energizing force that permeates all nature creating through them. It is like being helped by some unknown mysterious force, Anima Mundi, the Spirit of the Universe.

You must trust your subconscious and the unknown sources it can tap into. There is so much for our minds to sort out. Millions of images and thoughts spinning around. If it were all there right the front of your conscious thinking your head would explode. My subconscious mysteriously sorts through this sea of thoughts and images and somehow synthesizes pieces from here and there and brings together paintings. They are the exclusive product of my unique mind. There is only one of each of us and our visions are the special product of our experiences and special unique thoughts.

I am drawn towards certain images and icons with a strong instinct. I feel I just have to paint certain things. I try not to question that. I can get just as much inspiration from a classical painting by Jacques-Louis David as a comic book cover by Daniel Clowes. I try to not judge one to be more legitimate than the other. The mystified gaze of a Keane girl can provide as much inspiration as the penetrating stare of a Rembrandt portrait.

I find it so much easier to be creatively free at night. Daytime is for sleeping. Nighttime is the best time for making art. The later at night it gets the further into another world you go. A few years ago while working very late one night, the distinct smell walnuts in the air broke my concentration. It was very quiet. A strange breeze gently blew through my studio. I suddenly became aware of something on my shoulder. Surprisingly, I was not startled to find a wee Abraham Lincoln sitting right there on my shoulder. We looked at each other for just a moment. Then he very softly whispered in my ear "paint meat."

-- Mark Ryden, 2001