"Beards are better."

So after i was done working at some college festival I came home and started to unwind but to realize that it was the same night that Crippled Black Phoenix was playing at the soapbox. It was actually when i saw one of my friends status posts on the book of faces that i realized this. (who knew the internet could be useful?) I've never really heard much of their stuff, but knew that one of the guitarists from Mogwai was playing bass for this band. Still rank as shit from working all day, i head down there to find out that both of the opening acts didn't play for some reason.

Telescreen was going to be the opener, but by the time i got there i would have missed them play anyway. But i also kinda wished that they would have played just so other people could have witnessed their awesomeness. they have a sound that is very similar to Sigur Ros. they also play with a semi transparent screen in front of them that has lots of cool visuals that are synced with their set. I remember the time i saw them they had a fore ground, i guess you would call it, that made them look like they were playing underwater. bubbles, water, fish, very cool stuff. If any of you get the chance to see them you should.

But anyway I got there halfway into CBP's set. They were really tight together. And having 8 people in the band made that fact all the more impressive. A lot of the stuff i had the chance to hear had a more down-tempo feel to it. definitely a post-rock kinda feel to it, whatever that means to you. I think their set up was something like: drums, bass, 2 electric guitars, acoustic guitar, cello, 2 keyboards, synthesizer, and like 3 or 4 vocal mics, Although at one point everyone was singing a-cappella without sound reinforcement.

After their set i had to say something to the synth player, and tell him what a great beard he had. he then proceeded to tell me that he had actually cut alot of it off recently, but he still had about a good 3 inches of solid beard. I really wish i got a picture with him. sometimes i feel really silly about how excited beards make me feel. But i do get really pumped when other beards i run into share that same excitement. one thing he said to me really that really resonated with me was "...yea man, beards are better." I couldn't agree more.

All My Fuzzy Faced Filled Dreams Came True...Well Almost

So my beard vacation was AWESOME! I had to work about 3 hours away from wilmington the day before i had to leave so i ended up staying there that night and then got on the road early the next morning. The audiobook i had was World War Z
by Max Brooks and it was pretty sweet. I did not read the book, but i feel that the audiobook would be better than the book for the reason that each character had a real distinct personality to them that really made their stories have emotion and impact.
The drive wasn't all that bad really, either way. Didn't master the harmonica, but i did yet a little dizzy gettin into it at one point. Luckily i was stopped in a traffic jam at the time.
I had a great time seeing all my friends that i haven't seen in a while. I am greatly looking forward to being with them again.
At the championship i was surrounded by a lot of great beards. Some of them i have see pictures of on the interwebs. Seeing them in person was an experience i will never forget.
I want to thank Tim, Alicia, Ryan, and Dan for coming out for such a fuzzy cause.

Lines around the block

Beardzzz (the beard behind it all)

World Champion Jack Passion

Founder of Beard Team USA Phil Olson

World Champion Burke Kenny

I wish I had a ring then

My pick for beard freestyle. He was robbed.

My cheerleaders

He didn't get to compete but he did have some sweet glasses.

Goatee Competition

Full Beard Freestyle Competition

Winner

Beard Brothers?

Womens Competition

This dude was serious about beards. So serious he had an entourage of hype men.

Full Beard Competition

Winner

Decisions Decisions

So I am on my way to the NYC Beard and Moustache Championships tomorrow and couldn't be any more stoked. Not too stoked about the drive tho but i got tunes an audio book and a couple harmonicas to pass the time. I have been trying out different variations of beard styles for the contest and i have found that the right wax makes all the difference in what you can do to those marvelous beard hairs. I just got some Wacky Tacky Firehouse Wax and this is the best holding wax I've ever tried. Granted, I've only tried a handful of products, but this stuff is great. I could never do this style without this stuff:

I'm now trying to figure out what style i am going to choose to look like for the contest. Curly or straight? I don't know but i gota choose soon.

Baby Beards And The Behemoths They Hope To Be.

I've been slacking a little bit in the blog department, so I'm going to make up for it now since I have a bunch of time to kill at work and there's wireless.

Looking back to when i first started growing my beard, i wish i would have done things differently. Like not trimming at all. For the first 5 months or so i trimmed my neck line until my beard got to a point where it became long enough to let my neck hairs merge with the rest of my beard. I guess i didn't want to look anymore homeless than i already do. haha, I trimmed my cheek line also only for the fact that i don't have a straight line across. I wish I had the patience to not trim my moustache. I had a pretty sweet push broom stash for a little bit about a year ago. I had to get rid of it tho because of the pain of constantly accidentally eating and pulling out my moustache hairs during meals. This is especially a problem with sandwiches. I have since received some advice from my fellow bearded friend Joseph, who had mentioned that he went through the same anguish as I have and started cutting up his sandwiches and eating them with knife and fork. He also said that you can even dip the sandwich pieces in condiments instead of putting them on in the beginning. Great advise. I have started cutting my sandwiches into sandwich sticks. (one sandwich = four sticks) and this has helped say goodbye to my old stache chompin days.

For those who are keeping track.


















10 1/2 months


















11 months!

2009 NYC Beard & Moustache Championships

So i am going to the NYCBMC on March 14th. This is probably going to be one of the best things i've done in a really long time, most likely ever. I am going to compete in the freestyle category. I feel that i have more of a chance of placing in beard freestyle than full beard natural. I really wanted to enter in the full beard natural category but i dont feel that my beard is up to snuff (yet) to be among the great beards that will be there. When i found out about Jack Passion going to the contest, my beard wanted to crawl into a hole and die. Check this guy out. Yea, im a little baby. So im not really sure if im going to place at all, but i definitly want this to be something that i can look back on and just laugh on how ridiculous this all was. I am going through some different ideas on what style to wear my beard in. That picture over there, i think, is very close to what im going to look like for the contest. Please, comments are encouraged, and suggestions will be looked into.

beard days of winter

So the past couple of days have been very eventful for me and my beard. Friday i went to the soapbox to see what bands were playing that night and to see Sarah on her last night bar-tending. Oh yea, i forgot to mention i took the extra 20 minutes out of my 0 minute routine of "getting ready" to make myself...well...

As i was walking around i got the usual looks and giggles. A photographer that was taking pictures for the show came up to me and asked if she could take my picture. So i obliged with probably an overenthusiastic smile like most pictures that i am in that i'm try to ruin (I dislike posed photos immensely). She said that she works with concert photography and that the picture should be up on her web site in a couple weeks and gave me her card. She then proceeded to tell me that her... husband i think... is really into mustaches and introduced me to him. I did forget his name, like usual, but we did talk for a little bit. He said that he wanted to grow his mustache out but his job made him trim it back.

I have heard this a lot from suppressed beard lovers. Its a real shame that society has made beards into such a negative attribute of men. Men + Time = Beards. Thats it. If you have the time and patience, YOU TOO CAN GROW A BEARD! And for those of you that shave because it itches, I am here to tell you that it goes away. You just have to keep growing, and be patient. However I do understand the fact that people have to look a certain way for certain jobs. I guess im just glad that im a sound guy and that im usually behind the scenes anyway so there's quite a few sound guys that have large amounts of hair on both ends of their heads.

Ok so i sidetracked a little bit, but i guess thats going to happen a lot. Ya know the whole stream of consciousness thing.