So tired.

Where's the Band?!

2009-01-23T16:37:00.003-05:00

Last night, Kate and I went to the MSU Union's Ballroom to catch the Where's the Band? Tour; featuring Anthony Raneri, Chris Conley, Matt Pryor and Dustin Kensrue. I ended up shooting off a few photos while we were there, I wish I could have gotten more angles... :(

There were strict rules that no one was allowed to be on the stage (my main way of transporting back and forth to different locations) and the room was PACKED with like 600 people. So, that made it impossible to shoot from different locations; I was forced to stay in a shitty location as far as shooting goes. By the time I had set my camera equipment up in the back the spots that I had wanted were already being stood in and I didn't feel like asking people to move.

All in all, it was a good show. Matt pryor kind of bummed me out though, I really wanted to hear more than one Get Up Kids song. His acoustic stuff is good, but I was hoping he'd do what Chris did. Which was just come on stage and say "Alright, what songs do you want to hear?".

I Like The Way This Guy Thinks...

2009-01-21T14:46:00.000-05:00

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama's first public act in office Wednesday was to institute new limits on lobbyists in his White House and to freeze the salaries of high-paid aides, in a nod to the country's economic turmoil.

Announcing the moves while attending a ceremony in the Eisenhower Executive Office Building to swear in his staff, Obama said the steps "represent a clean break from business as usual."
The pay freeze, first reported by The Associated Press, would hold salaries at their current levels for the roughly 100 White House employees who make over $100,000 a year. "Families are tightening their belts, and so should Washington," said the new president, taking office amid startlingly bad economic times that many fear will grow worse.

Those affected by the freeze include the high-profile jobs of White House chief of staff, national security adviser and press secretary. Other aides who work in relative anonymity also would fit into that cap if Obama follows a structure similar to the one George W. Bush set up.

Obama's new lobbying rules will not only ban aides from trying to influence the administration when they leave his staff. Those already hired will be banned from working on matters they have previously lobbied on, or to approach agencies that they once targeted.

The rules also ban lobbyists from giving gifts of any size to any member of his administration. It wasn't immediately clear whether the ban would include the traditional "previous relationships" clause, allowing gifts from friends or associates with which an employee comes in with strong ties.

The new rules also require that anyone who leaves his administration is not allowed to try to influence former friends and colleagues for at least two years. Obama is requiring all staff to attend to an ethics briefing like one he said he attended last week.

Obama called the rules tighter "than under any other administration in history." They followed pledges during his campaign to be strict about the influence of lobbyist in his White House.
"The new rules on lobbying alone, no matter how tough, are not enough to fix a broken system in Washington," he said. "That's why I'm also setting rules that govern not just lobbyists but all those who have been selected to serve in my administration."

In an attempt to deliver on pledges of a transparent government, Obama said he would change the way the federal government interprets the Freedom of Information Act. He said he was directing agencies that vet requests for information to err on the side of making information public — not to look for reasons to legally withhold it — an alteration to the traditional standard of evaluation.

Just because a government agency has the legal power to keep information private does not mean that it should, Obama said. Reporters and public-interest groups often make use of the law to explore how and why government decisions were made; they are often stymied as agencies claim legal exemptions to the law.

"For a long time now, there's been too much secrecy in this city," Obama said.
He said the orders he was issuing Wednesday will not "make government as honest and transparent as it needs to be" nor go as far as he would like.

"But these historic measures do mark the beginning of a new era of openness in our country," Obama said. "And I will, I hope, do something to make government trustworthy in the eyes of the American people, in the days and weeks, months and years to come."

I Need to Get Out of Michigan

2009-01-20T22:43:00.002-05:00

I need to get out for a few months, not for forever though. I miss being out on the road; maybe it's just the cold weather but I am getting real antsy for the summer to get here. Empty Orchestra plans on being out for a good chunk of the summer which makes me real happy. That means hopefully we will do a nice west coast run, over to California and back. I love California, well, I love L.A. Mostly because of Amoeba Records, it is the best record shop ever created. It's almost the size of a Best Buy or something and it is just filled with music, new and used.

Holga 120s

2009-01-13T23:21:00.003-05:00

Today I was able to score one of these suckers for $10 from my photo professor; awesome. Be prepared for me to post lots of Holga pictures. If you don't know what these are you should run a search for them on Flickr or something.

Make Me Young!...Make Me Young!...

2009-01-10T20:49:00.011-05:00

I finished reading Breakfast of Champions last night when I got back from our show; what a good book. I really like Kurt Vonnegut, so far. I've only read that book and Cat's Cradle so far, but I borrowed a copy of Galapagos from Stephen a long while back. I think I'll start on that one soon.

Ever since I have finished that book I find myself wanting to use "and" all the time and draw shitty little cartoons of the stuff I am trying to make people see. If I did something like that it would look like this.

. . .

Listen: Since I have read that book and there was all the talks about creators of the universe and stuff like that, it got me wondering. If you read the book and remembered, I guess you'd understand this a little more.

Now, I'm not crazy like Dwayne Hoover or anything, but: What if instead of there being one creator of the universe and working machines and lazy machines and fucking machines and criminal machines; we were all creators of our own universe, in a way. What if we were programmed to dream and create new universes and characters and creatures. And what if that's what life was, a dream? Dreams are sort of like our own entertainment in a way. I love dreaming. I love day dreaming, dreaming while I sleep, don't you?

A lot of the time when I dream, I dream about creatures and people and worlds that I have never been to before of seen before. So what if I was secretly creating life and watching it for entertainment while I "rested".

The universal symbol for dreams looks like this:

. . .

I think I'm going to go wash my hands now, there are a lot of sick machines coughing and hacking at the diner I'm in right now. I might order cheese fries too, only after I was my hands and take a look into their leak.

Chickpeas!

2009-01-07T23:42:00.003-05:00

I love cooking vegan, tonight I made chickpea noodle soup, it was yummy and real healthy and real low on sodium. Unfortunately, this wasn't my recipe though, I stole it from the ppk. But I'll be damned if I didn't do as good of a job as Isa.

Now I'm eating cherry cordial Hershey Kisses for desert, they are the best. I love the soft, melty cherry center they have. I feel fat now, so much soup and so much candy! I need to stop eating so much, I have been overeating this whole break and playing too many video games and reading too much. I haven't been active at all, oh well, that'll start back up when I go to Lansing. I think I'm going to get a membership to the YMCA so I can do some running on the treadmills during the winter time.

Black and White

2009-01-06T23:58:00.011-05:00

I really like black and white photography, it's good stuff and I barely ever use it. I think I concentrate on vibrance and colors way too much. From here on out I am going to try and dig my way into black and white a little more.

I shot the photo up top at the Flint reunion, the few people in the shot are part of the Lingua Franca. Lingua Franca was an incredible indie band from Flint, who unfortunately parted ways. I shot a few other photos that night too, but I decided to edit those in full color. I feel like the style of the music just needed to be shown in color to display the intensity, energy and emotion.

Life's a Bummer.

2009-01-05T21:59:00.005-05:00

I am just never content with what I do in life and it sucks. I hate the way I sing, the way I play guitar, I hate that I go to school for something that I have no clue as to what I'm going to do with. And that when people ask me what I am going to do with my degree, I usually just bullshit my way around the question, or come up with something off the top of my head.

All I want is happiness. And I want for some things in life to start falling into place.

It'd be great to play in a band as my "job", I feel like life would make more sense to me then. But I just don't feel like sucking on a proverbial cock, for a lack of better terms, for the rest of my life. It's all about who you know and who you fucked to get to the top, don't tell me any different. $$$.

I took some pictures at a local show the other night, it was the Flint reunion show. I had a lot of fun while I was there, it was the most bitter sweet time of my life, I think. A cross of nostalgia, depression and cheerfulness hung in there with me all night.

I used to be part of such a strong community of bands, artists, friends and fans. Now it has gone to waste. There isn't a strong community here anymore, everyone moved away and found peace of mind somewhere else. And the city, the city fucked the kids. They played a big roll in taking away one of the only things we believed in week to week. I used to hate everything about myself as a teenager; I hated the sports I was forced to play, the people I went to school with and the values that were being shoved down my throat Monday-Friday at NLHS. Come the weekend, there was a light at the end of the tunnel. I had a place to work, grow, express myself as an individual, be who I fucking wanted to be. Without restraints.

There are some images from that Flint reunion show here:

www.flickr.com/photos/lancenelson

Fresh Start

2008-12-24T00:57:00.003-05:00

I think I am sick of LiveJournal, its interface sucks and looks really sloppy. So, I feel like it's time for a change; it's almost a new year, why not? I probably won't get many people reading this one because I doubt many of my friends use Blogspot. Oh well though. I just need a good space to get some thoughts out, I think.

Lately, my head has been filled with way too much anger. I'm on break for Christ's sake, I should be relaxing! That's way easier said than done though, and I'm sure many of you know that feeling. I always get super anxious and shitty right before Christmas Eve, basically because of what I have to go through then. A shitty party, with some people who aren't really my relatives that I have no sense of place with. I feel like a huge dick by tossing that out there, but how else am I supposed to go about it?

I thought I had a great escape planned by going out on Christmas Eve with Kate's family, but that failed today. This bitchy weather decided to make me re-evaluate my plans. I don't think it's a real good idea to be driving all the way out to Rochester when they are calling for freezing rain tomorrow.