" Watch your thoughts; they become words.

" Watch your thoughts; they become words. Watch your words; they become actions. Watch your actions; they become habits. Watch your habits, they become character. Watch your character; it becomes your destiny.

Love this guy

When you’re a teenage music geek—trust me, I speak from experience here—you have two goals in life: to get your hands on as many good records as your allowance will afford you, and to share them with anyone who will give you five minutes of their time.
These goals are, obviously, a lot easier to put into practice in our super-connected age. In the time it takes to read this sentence, you could have set up your own MP3 blog and racked up 300 hits.
But music geeks in the early ’80s really had only one recourse: starting a fanzine. And in 1984, Mike McGonigal did just that. Using an early Apple computer and a pocketful of money he earned from mowing lawns, the young Floridian published the first issue of Chemical Imbalance at 15 years old.
Like so many protean publications of its time, Imbalance grew into a full-fledged magazine over the course of a decade. As it grew, issues boasted submissions by the likes of Greil Marcus, Art Spiegelman, Matt Groening and Nick Tosches—and free 7-inches featuring rare music by artists ranging from Sonic Youth and Pavement to Sun Ra and Faust.
It’s quite a legacy, but one that McGonigal, now one of the country’s foremost music critics and a Portland resident of 11 years, is matter-of-fact about: “I just had a lot of enthusiasm and was able to get good shit from people. And I got people to at least pretend to take me seriously.”
No one needs to pretend with the 40-year-old writer and publisher any longer. Especially after flipping through the pages of Yeti, the thick, irregularly published arts journal he has overseen for the past nine years: “Someone captured the tone of Yeti so perfectly in a review. They called it ‘a general interest magazine for people with marginal interests.’”
This means, in any given issue, you might find an article on a long-lost gospel singer, a tour diary written by Okkervil River’s Will Sheff, or a collection of rare Australian crime-scene photography. And, of course, each issue comes with a CD of related songs and material curated and sequenced by McGonigal (his favorite part of the job). Yeti isn’t a moneymaking venture, McGonigal says, but it tends to break even, and even in the much-ballyhood “end of the print era,” advertising goals have been met as of late.

Moving forward in dressage

• locate exercises from books and magazines --laminate and put into a binder or put into plastic folders
• continue to build complexity into the training -- exercises to do when he comes out slugguish, exercises to do when he comes out strong

Elements that need work for competition:

• straight lines -centre lines w-t halt
• 20 metre circles -- more accuracy and symettery
• **downward transitions are not sharp -- especially canter to trot on the right.

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Ah the warm air of Austin, Texas in March. Forget the bands and the free drinks, it’s the early taste of summer that keeps me coming back each year. So that’s where I found myself again last week, checking out a few acts from NYC nearly a 1,700 miles drive from venues I could have caught them at a few weeks/months before in their native or perhaps adopted land.
Highlights from this years experience would have to be spending time at the unofficial non-SXSW sanctioned 3rd annual Mess With Texas festival in Waterloo Park and an amazing set from Those Darlins, natives of Murfreesboro, TN. I was sad to have missed stopping by Ms. Bea’s for the incredible Todd P party(s) (aka any other odd day long picnic at The Yard back home). A low point would certainly be waking up on Friday morning with a splitting headache not more than a half an hour before a scheduled breakfast meeting. All in all I didn’t get to catch too much new as far as bands go. I was actually down there for work more so than play (full-disclosure, the author is a music publicist in the states, but you won’t find him promoting his bands here), but it didn’t stop me from taking in Bird of Youth for the first time.
Bird Of Youth is a band fronted by Beth Wawerna, whom I originally became aware of via a friend pointing me towards MySpace, where you can check out some of the early recordings from a forthcoming debut LP. The best I can describe the music is the Empire Records sound track (early 90s college rock) meets modern day indie rock with a little alt country twang thrown in. The young lady is well connected, counting many in the Brooklyn music community friends. Finding herself surrounded by such successful musicians, who could blame her for being a bit fearful of stepping on the stage herself and trying to live up to her peers. Let’s be thankful she finally did, and also that she keeps such good company. On the record she draws from a indie rock superstar cast that features the likes of Charles Bissell of The Wrens, Matthew Cawes of Nada Surf, Bryan Devendorf of The National and Will Sheff of Okkervil River, whom is also producing the record.
I caught up with Bird Of Youth early on Saturday (3/21) at The Parish, where a not too sparse crowd (considering the early time slot) was watching Wawerna and company do their thing. One of the first aspects I listen for when checking out an artist for the first time after having heard them on record is whether or not the vocals are up to snuff live. There’s nothing more disappointing than not having those expectations met. Happily Wawerna’s full and breathy pipes were doing well to live up to mine. Being a young band that hasn’t yet played together very much it wasn’t surprising to find them a little rough around the edges, but what they lacked in polish they generally made up for with enthusiasm, running through favorites of mine like ‘The Great Defender’ and ‘Stop Staring’. I’d only been privy to 4 or so songs recorded, so it was also great to hear a lot of new (to me) material. One number I particularly enjoyed and can’t wait to hear again was ‘Wings Hit The Shed’, which somebody in the audience managed to capture on YouTube here. For the final song Will Sheff surprised the audience and got up on stage to join the band.
SXSW 2009 was another fun festival experience in Austin, capped off later that night by a steamy make out session with a horrible slice of what Texans might mistake for a pizza. I should have stuck to the tacos. Catch you next week!

The Perfect Schooling Session

walk warm up (2- 5 minutes):

• walk on long rein to get legs moving and stretch over the back;
• work on diagonals and quarter lines, don't go deep into corners yet;
• most important- walk in a swinging, free walk but don't nag with the leg to get it.

trot warm up and pick up the reins (3-10 minutes):

• pick up trot, ask for MORE at first get the action coming forward using diagonals and straignt lines;
• pick up the reins slowly .

Begin bending (5-10 minutes):

• Shallow loops
• three loop serpentine.
• 20 and 15 metre circles.

Core training / New material:

• working on sharpeneing "the aids" w-t-w-t transitions in quick sucession for the purpose of getting Dom very quick off the leg.
• More complex work such as 10 metre cirlces.
• spiral in and spiral out on the circles.
• transitions with in the gait -- collect then extend. extend across the diagonal.
• medium to working to collected canter.
• lateral work
• see books and magazines for more complex exercises.

Cool down and walk out:

• End with an easy and confirmed exercise.
• finish with walk on a long rein.

Dressage / DD issues

Need to work on straight lines:

• Work off the rail, especially on the warm-up. Practice centre line and quarter line doing the halt through walk transition. Also work off the rail and halting at the canter.
• Make straight line work a part of each ride.

Canter transitions:

• Continue to work on c-t-c-t transitions along with the equitation issues. Work very hard to keep the hip angle open and the body back along with the calfs forward.
• work on new and interesting trot and canter patterns to keep interest and to build carrying power. Keep reviewing books and magazines to find new patterns.
• Continue to work on transitions within the gait - especially to the rigtht.
• Work on hacking and hill work to build the back end.
• Use quiet and simple aids to to from working to medium canter.

Warm up and Show ring strategies:

• Find exercises and strategies that will work in a busy show ring to bring attention back to me, and that will lower the head and get working in the proper frame. Very good exercise to lower the neck- flex to the inside for a few steps, then half halt and put both legs on to go forward.
• Good exercise for a busy warm up ring- do a few strides of leg yeild to the inside and then just a few strides to the outside.
• on the circle - counterflex to the outside and do a slight leg yeild in- then straighten and do a true flex. can do this at canter and trot espeically to sharpen him on the outside rein as it is harder to do lateral work in a crowded warm up.

General fitness:

• Conditioning hacks - - do the hill work circuit outside -- trot and canter up hills and walk down them.
• Need to work on longer and longer rides to get into shape.

Riding notes - April 2009

Equitation issues and solutions:

calfs legs still too far back:

• need to keep the leg long, the key here is to push the thighs down and push the calf forward with every stride;
• Use the upper calf to give the aids, not the heels to give the leg aid;
• Start the warm up with the legs long and proactive using the calf not heel from the outset.

Need to sit and stay connected through the trot -canter transitions:

• continue to work on the sitting trot;
• continue to work on sitting through trot canter.

is there anybody out there like me?

http://www.falklands-nature.demon.co.uk/wildlife/species_reports/caracara.html

2005-2006

Jonathan Meiburg

The biogeography of Striated Caracaras Phalcoboenus australis. MA thesis (Doughty, May)

https://webspace.utexas.edu/gwk/graduate/masters00s.html

Ask a Local: Jonathan Meiburg of Shearwater
Courtesy Annie RayThis winter, Austinist wanted to take some time to check in with some of our favorite local performers, artists and musicians to see what they enjoyed in 2008. Our request was simple: give us a few things that you enjoyed listening to this year, and feel free to include releases that might not have been released in 2008, but that found their way onto your turntable anyhow. We'll be sharing our own list too, but be patient and hear what some of our favorite folks thought was worthwhile in '08.

Today we're checking in with Shearwater's Jonathan Meiburg. Meiburg had a very busy year with his band's latest, Rook (Matador), as well as a digital EP (The Snow Leopard) and extensive touring in the U.S. and abroad. The new year will find Meiburg & Co. in the studio again, but until then we're thankful that he was able to squeeze in some time for us. Here's what he recommends:

1. Pekos/Yoro Diallo (from Yalla Yalla Records). This gritty, ecstatic recording, made on a boombox in a village somewhere in Mali, is one of the most mesmerizing musical documents I’ve ever heard, and all the more beguiling because it appears to spring from a place where performances like this are ordinary.

2. Mt Eerie Lost Wisdom. Sad, beautiful, and strangely addictive. I couldn’t stop listening to this deceptively modest record of songs about grief and loss for days after I bought it.

3. Clinic Do It!. I love that this band burrows further into their own menacing (but oddly whimsical) musical world with every album. There’s a nearly religious fervor to this fuzzed-out collection of danceable psych-dirges. Guaranteed to put an evil grin on your face.

4. Nina Simone Emergency Ward/It Is Finished/Black Gold (German reissue). Three lesser-known live albums packaged together, including her amazing 20-minute version of "My Sweet Lord," Exuma's haunting "Dambala," and "Aint Got No (I Got Life)" that puts the studio recording to shame, and many other shiver-inducing moments. This set explores her incredible musical and emotional range, from exultant to exhausted, as well as any I've heard.

5. Arthur Russell Love Is Overtaking Me. This year's Wild Combination film about Russell's life and art changed the way I thought about his music, and this collection, which pulls songs from a massive store of previously unreleased recordings, made me love him. It's sequenced thoughtfully and gracefully, filling in the gaps between his previously available albums, and revealing their scattered lights as parts of an elaborate and lovely constellation.

Write me Stories- JM of shearwater

http://writemestories.blogspot.com/

Shearwater- Jonathan MeiburgRough Trade East, September 18th 2008

Jonathan was another strange willing story writer- saying yes straight away, and just checking if he had to write about anything in particular. & then he goes and writes quickly and continuously on two sides this story about an Argenine airplane. I also have to say that he seemed like a very nice chap!