Originally uploaded by billonahill

Yesterday the winds were howling at Alameda. I was stoked to get on the water, but had some gear issues. I was able to demo an 08 Naish Colt (which was an amazing kite) for about half and hour. After that though, I was left sidelined watching the airfest unfold in front of me. I had my camera with me though, so I managed to snap some pics.

Sonic Love Tonic spent the weekend in the studio laying down three demo tracks. We recorded at Get Reel Productions at San Francisco’s Secret Studios.

Saturday was spent laying down drums, bass, rhythm guitar, lead guitar, vocals, keyboards and trumpet. After a solid 10 hours of laying tracks we returned refreshed for another 10 hours of mixing on Sunday. After all was said and done, we emerged with three tunes:

• Essence Is Precious
• Ants and Plants
• Cowboy

Big thanks to Robert from Get Reel who kept us on track. His wizardry behind he glass was amazing to watch. Thanks to Sam Adato from Sam’s Drums in SF for making my drums sound like new. Now I know the trick to getting a good sound is to just stand on the heads…

Here’s a shot of Robert trying to get just a little more out of us. More pics can been seen on flickr.

I’ve never been much of a gadget guy. I mean I use and own the basic must-have gadgets, like a cell phone and an iPod, but I’m not the first one in line to get the new thingamabob with the fancy dohicky on it. So when Bluetooth first hit the scene I thought “ok, sounds gool, but I can live without it.” Now I’m living with it and it’s awesome!

About six months ago my embarrassingly old Nokia 1600 was dying a slow death. After looking around for a decent mp3/camera phone I chose the Sony Ericsson W810i, which has been great. It came with Bluetooth. Ok, great.

Then the face plate of my car stereo got lost (it wasn’t me, really) and I needed a new stereo. I looked around a bit and and decided to get the Sony MEX-BT5000. The sales guy pointed out that it had Bluetooth, so I bit. Bluetooth, ok great.

After installing it I spent about 4 minutes reading the manual and the next thing I knew my phone and my stereo had become one:

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Now whenever I get in the car the stereo detects it. When the phone rings the music cuts out and the it rings on the stereo. A push of the volume dial and I’m talking on speaker phone through a mic in the stereo face. I can use the stereo to switch between phone and speaker mode, as well as redial. If I’m on the phone when I start the car, it automagically cuts to the stereo. It’s so cool! Complex technology made simple that just works. I love it.
I now have seen the Bluetooth light! How’d I ever live without it?

Last weekend I tried once again to make it to the Benson hut and once again I got shut out. The hut is located midway between Sugarbowl and Squaw Valley on the pacific crest trail. With such a dismal Tahoe snow season we were worried that we wouldn’t have enough snow up there this late in the year. Instead the weather forecast called for 60 mph gusts along the ridges and 6-12″ inches of snow. When my buddies and I met at Sugarbowl’s Mount Judah parking lot, it was dumping and the visibility was horrible. The hut’s hard to find in the summer on a clear day, so with a storm like this one we decided cancel the trip.

We went to our buddy Nate’s place in Tahoe Donner and hung out for a few hours before noticing that the storm outside had subsided. A quick check of the online forecast showed that we might actually have a window of relatively clear weather. We ran out of the place like firemen from a firehouse to give it a go.

By the time we made it back to the lot it was snowing again, this time with a little better visibility. We geared up and hitched a ride part way up the mountain on one of the lifts. After a few hours we were at the summit on Mount Lincoln. At around 2:00 we headed out onto the ridge.

It was cold and slow moving, due to the poor visibility. We knew we could hike for a while and still make it back to the parking lot by dark if need be so we pushed on. After going about a mile down the ridge we lost the trail and went a few hundred yards before realizing it. With another mile and a half to go and with the day getting late, we realized that we no longer had room for mistakes like that one. Plus my buddy Patrick had just lost one of his skins. We decided to turn and head back. At least we had about 5″ of fresh powder on the ride down Sugarbowl.

A few years ago we reserved the hut and had to cancel the trip at the last minute when a 14″ snow storm rolled in. Next year we’ll get it…

Here are a few shots taken on the ridge on our way back to Sugarbowl.