Brian and Leah's Weblog

NEW SITE! BIG NEWS!! BIG CHANGES!!!

2007-03-31T09:56:00.000-07:00

After many years of being a faithful blogger.com member (5 years) the time has come to leave it in the dust. They made some changes that I didn't like - and I have since discovered a better service... wordpress. We have a new site and some HUGE news... so if you're a faithful wearethemanleys.com viewer - CLICK THE BIG ORANGE ORB ABOVE to be transported to the new and improved wearethemanleys.com. Clean new look - same great tase!

TUMBLR

2007-03-27T11:19:00.000-07:00

My web design buddy told me about one of the coolest web 2.0 apps online. It's the most streamlined blog that you never have to log into to update. you can emall, phone, text or just bookmark in content. i love it. check it.

File Under: Things I want

2007-03-21T12:13:00.000-07:00

link

mas photografias

2007-03-17T10:17:00.001-07:00

This past week I had the honor of driving to Fountain Hills,AZ to chill with the Cronin family... and I finally got to meet Mr. Jonah Cronin. So...I posted a lot of new photos from my LOMO as well as from the Cronin trip. Jonah is so stinkin' awesome! dig it!

out of the office

2007-03-13T00:13:00.001-07:00

This is my new office. (click above image for larger image) I like it. Its quiet, messy, whatever i make it. Its in our house... and for the past week i've been sitting at this desk seemingly non stop. With one week of being with out a 'real' job under my belt - I get to leave this new office for a few days - and go visit my buddy Chad in Phoenix,AZ.

There's a lot more to write/blog about. Lots of new photos and stories. (especially ones about why working at a disfunctional church may be the stupidest thing any human can do) I just have to pencil in some "blog" time into my daytimer so i can write. I'll talk to you all when I get back.

(oh..upon further look at the photo on my desk - there's a lot going on here - so in the comments, if you want, leave a post on your favorite item found in my office. Maybe you have a question about something... like the pink Jesus... ask away. Also - see if you can find the popular late 80's football player with the same last name as us)

VENOM!!

2007-03-06T17:51:00.000-08:00

NBC had a sneak preview of some clips from spider-man 3 - so i had to watch it. I did. And at the very end for a third of a second you see this! I was so thrilled and jazzed - because finaly we get to see the first glimpes of Venom for the new movie. I AM SO EXCITED! (for those of you not familiar with Venom - here's the Wikipedia entry for him)

alive and jobless

2007-03-05T11:09:00.000-08:00

Leah and I made it back from winter camp alive - and now I start today jobless. Its weird. It's also planned and also liberating. I do have a pile of design work in my inbox - so its not like I'm laying around in my pajams surfing the net... um... wait... I am. Well..i'm taking today as a recovery day.

So...we'll talk more about this later - but in the mean time I am gonna try to get with the year 1999 and get back up on the instant messaging horse - so if you do that sorta IM'n thing - lets chat. I'm available on AOLIM as: musicismath78 . lets say "hi".

Also to I getting back to the year 2003 and trying to check my myspace from time to time. So if you do that - hit me up. myspace.com/funwithrobots

Explosions in the Sky on Conan

2007-02-23T19:57:00.000-08:00

If you didn't get a chance to TIVO Conan on Tuesday, you missed Explosions in the Sky perform and blow peoples minds. I can't quite put into words how great their new record is, but its right up there with Sigur Ros's "Takk" and Godspeed You Black Emperor's "Lift Yr Skinny Fists..." It puts a smile on my face and a tear in my eye. This is the kind of indie stuff I know I can get my Dad to listen to. ( i bet he never thought i'd be listening to this stuff too... considering all the Slayer and hardcore I listened to while growing up) Getting older and more mature is fun. Sniff sniff.

Big News...

2007-02-21T12:27:00.001-08:00

If you haven't noticed, there has not been many posts in the past few weeks. There is good reason for that. Leah and I have been really swamped with life and work...and decisions. So, here's the big deal (or at least to us it is) I quit my job. I'll be gone from the Cathedral as of March 5. This decision was a long time coming - God really revealed to us that it was time to jump ship. (and the ship analogy works really well in this instance - think large ocean liner that was made into a hit movie) I can write more on this later - as I start to separate myself from the Cathedral. (lets hope they don't make me sign some sort of NDA)

So the next question everyone has is "what will you be doing now?" That part is sort of secret - but I will be doing freelance graphic design from home for while and out of a friend's studio in Orange,CA.

This is a real step of faith for us, but it seems so divinely inspired that it also feels really good. We would love your prayers as we embark on a new journey together. It will be rad.

Post # 400

2007-02-10T09:49:00.000-08:00

Life is a little busy and crazy around the Manley compound lately... so in the meantime - take a at a few photos I've recently taken with our Lomographic cameras. Here is the web gallery. (and yes, i know, some shots are blurry. duh...it's 35mm film and not an exact science like digital. I'm working on perfecting good shots)

Aqua Teen Terror Force

2007-02-01T10:06:00.000-08:00

This whole "Boston terror attack by Mooninites" is stupid to me. I think the art form is cool...but the way media and the po-po are over reacting isn't. Someone can tag racist/hate bull crap on a overpass...and it stays up until some ex-con needs community service and paints over it. Put a blinking image of a square giving you the finger...it's a possible terror threat. I don't know... I feel that its just a really modern marketing campaign that has now gone sideways.

I'm also thinking that our so called "Homeland Security" is really jacked up. These LED adverts have been up for nearly 3 weeks in all major cities with no incident and no report. What if they really were bombs? We'd all be screwed.

Anyway...learn how to make these elements of terror, er...uh... glorified Lite Brites: {here} and {here} I also want this T-shirt now.

Also...I think the real terrorist is on the left. This story is ridiculous.

Umbrellas + Grey's anatomy 2Nite

2007-01-25T09:18:00.000-08:00

Tonight on Grey's Anatomy they will using the Umbrellas song "Ships" during the episode. Watch it, Tivo it... do what you gotta do. "Ships" is a beautifully sad song so that means death,sadness or one of the usual Greys Anotomy tricks to make me cry.

Metal-Tastic Bear-iffic weekend!

2007-01-22T09:22:00.000-08:00

Ever since I got back from the Dominican Republic I really haven't felt 'normal'. Right as I got back from the DR I picked up that lovely virus that's attacking everyone in the world where you feel like dying but the virus won't let you. So it took me a few days to recover from that but I still wasn't feeling 100%. That is until this weekend.

On Friday after a lunch meeting I was walking through our outdoor mall called The Block and as I'm talking to Leah on the phone, I just stopped talking to her. I was star struck. Not by anyone mega-famous, but by Chris Adler. Who is Chris Adler you may ask? He's the drummer from Lamb of God, one of my favorite guilty pleasures in music. (see...there's this little thing that goes off in your head that says "maybe this is a bad idea" when you're a pastor and you love and listen to a 'non-Christian' metal band called 'Lamb of God') He is one of my 'heroes of drumming' guys and is truly amazing. To see him walking around my mall was weird. I just stopped talking to Leah and let him walk by. I really wanted to say HI but I also didn't want to be "that guy"...so I we never made contact. I was definitely throwing up the metal hands in the air. (in my mind though)

Then on Sunday the Bears won. That was amazing. Ever since we moved to California I have struggled with finding a local team to love and root for. In baseball it was easy. We lived in Anaheim...so root for the Angels. But So Cal football is pretty lame. Not really into the Chargers and especially not the Raiders, so I made the choice 5 years ago to still follow the Browns and the Bears. I loved them as a kid and I'm sure they'd make something of themselves one of these days. Well, the Browns have been sucking it up for years...but finally the Bears are on the right path. So after years, a Super Bowl I can really get into.

Also on Sunday, Leah and I had to go to the Catherdal's evening service to share with people about our Dominican trip. Leah and I were sitting near the back and half way through the first hymn I noticed a large blond hair mass across the aisle in the corner of my eye. We both saw it and looked at the same time... sure enough... CeCe DeVille! The same CeCe DeVille from Poison and now that VH1 Celebreality crap. He was sitting right across the aisle from me and was looking pretty rough. It was cool though, I think he was with his mom. Sadly, all I could think while looking at him, given the venue, was the Poison song "Look What the Cat Dragged In." Does that make me a bad person?

analog technology & old friends

2007-01-20T09:19:00.000-08:00

Brian and I [mostly Brian] have been having fun with our new cameras. Recently Brian has had a fixation on analog and manual SLR cameras. I bought him a fish-eye camera [manual = real film]for his birthday, he used his birthday money to acquire a Holga brand [again manual]camera and then we bought an old Russian Lomo

Thursday night we had a visit from an old friend from Brian's college days. I guess they could be considered my college days too - although when I was at the now Huntington University it was as faculty. Regardless our friend Nate Reed and his adorable girlfriend Sharon were vacationing in CA for a week and so we were able to connect and grab some grub. Nate is the one who created the painting in our dinning room. Most of our friends refer to it as either "the big red circle" or "the red solar system." It's actually a paining of the inside of a wooden flute done in hues of reds, blacks and light ivory and red combos. Anyway, we love and I think Nate was happy to see that a] we are still loving it as much as the first day we bought it from him and b] it was still in one piece after all of our moves.

so, good times!

Back from the DR

2007-01-11T11:46:00.000-08:00

I made it back from the Dominican in one piece. I'm still trying to get my life back to a state of organization. In the meantime you can take a look at some photos I took while in the DR.

Holiday Happiness & Happenings

2007-01-05T11:27:00.000-08:00

Well this post is much overdue. When Brian left for the Dominican on 12/26 for 10 days I thought, wow I'll have so much time to post updates as to not find myself bored. And somehow the time has flown by and Brian returns today. So, I figured I'd post a Christmas Update before he returns and the posts are focused on his trip and photos.

As you may have read or guessed we did take a trip back East to visit family in Michigan & Ohio. Although rivals on the football field, they are welcoming and house the digs where we grew up.

We flew into Detroit on Monday night 12/18 and visited with my parents, Sarah, David & Elizabeth for a few days. It was so nice to connect with them, catch up and have a nice visit. On Thursday we drove down to Ohio for the Manley family Christmas party. We had a great visit with Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and their kiddos. We hadn't been to the party in 3 years and couldn't believe how the kids had grown. Joy is driving and 17 and Annika, the baby is now 5 and asking us to play Uno. It's hard to believe how time flys by. And of course there were new additions too that we had never met before. So it was a great time!

While we were in Ohio we also visited Brian's grandparents, which was great. Grandpa had just recently come home from the hospital and surgery and wasn't feeling well, so we were glad we were able to visit with them. We had expected a really short visit, but were thrilled to be able to go out to lunch and then visit at their house, exchange presents and talk for another three hours. It was so wonderful and during the visit Grandpa and Grandma were telling stories about how they met, their crazy neighbors and pulling out old photos. And Grandpa gave Brian one of his painting, which is now one of our most prized possessions! We really looking forward to framing and hanging it in the house.

More on New Years to come as soon as I download the photos!

Merry Christmas!

2006-12-26T08:31:00.000-08:00

Merry Christmas! Brian and I are back from our trip back East visiting family and are excited to share pictures and stories. So, while Brian is off to the Dominican for 10 days, I'll attempt to blog everything with pics! Stay tuned for more goodies. I'll also keep you updated on his adventures too.

* * * * * * * * *

2006-12-17T15:53:00.000-08:00

Thanksgiving trip

2006-12-05T09:36:00.000-08:00

It's been a while since a post. We've both been slammed busy with life and work. The cool part to our lives lately was taking a trip to Charlotte,NC to visit with my parents for Thanksgiving. The weather was great, the visiting with family was great. All was good. My parents moved recently to some new digs we had not seen yet, so we got to chill there for a few days. It's amazing... even though it's not the home I grew up in, it still kinda feels like home. Maybe it's the people in it along with the familiar furniture, but it felt like home.

Leah and I also had the opportunity to drive up north a bit to visit with Sarah, Leah's sister, and her family. Sarah and her husband David have a new baby (new to me anyway) that I had not met yet. It was crazy to meet Elizabeth for the first time. As you can see..Leah and I are in love with her. We get to see her again at Christmas time too. I'm so excited!

It was great trip. We took lots of photos. Check em out.

Happy Thanxgiving

2006-11-23T06:47:00.000-08:00

Happy thanksgiving! We're in Charlotte,NC with my parents and brother for this holiday. It's so nice to be away and relaxing in my pajama pants watching the Macy's thanksgiving day parade.
I'm thankful for:
- My beautiful and amazing wife
- great friends & family
- video ipods at 30000 feet
- my mom's cooking
- the new Killswitch Engage cd
- Gap jeans

Introducing...

2006-11-20T10:02:00.000-08:00

Those of you who know us probably know our good friends Chad and Jenny Cronin. They are 2 of the coolest people that reside in the sate of Arizona. (come to think of it...I don't know anyone cooler in that state) And on Saturday, November 18th, the day of the Ohio State v. Michigan Game, Jenny gave birth to Jonah Oliver Cronin. Don't ask me the weight and size, all I know is that this kid is beautiful and totally healthy. If you feel the need, send Chad and Jenny some email love.

Why Buckeys are better...

2006-11-14T15:43:00.000-08:00

This story made Leah and I smile today. I think this goes to show that Buckeyes (people from Ohio) are better people. Some may ask..."Your lovely wife Leah is from Michigan, why would you say that?" Well... I talked to pastor Andy Sikora and he said that in the book of First Opinions in the Bible it states that when a man and woman wed, they woman takes on the state affiliation of the man. See...it's Biblical.

(*all of the above is crap... I am just amped on Starbucks coffee with too little sleep)

Be a true American...

2006-11-10T16:22:00.000-08:00

Support capitalism and get all of your Christmas shopping done before December first. Black Friday advertisement leak sites can be found HERE and HERE. Enjoy!

x

2006-11-07T11:38:00.000-08:00

Vote Brandtson!

2006-11-02T08:32:00.000-08:00

Brandtson needs your help! Here's the scoop from their site...

See a little bit back we filmed this new show for MTV2. It will air in a few weeks, but you can start voting now. It's a sort of battle of the bands type thing. It was so much fun to have the chance to do something like this- but... we really want to go back for the second round. In order for that to happen- we need your votes.

So go vote for them! I voted around 300 times before I got tired. Beat that Dusty!

DMCA email

2006-10-30T09:11:00.001-08:00

As you might imagine, we (our youth ministry) make videos to promote special events, illustrate points, and just to be silly. October was our 'outreach' month and we focused on making every night a theme night from different eras. (50s,60s,70s,80s) I made this stupid commercial/advertisement for our "Retrober" month using a Pee Wee Herman PSA I stole off some website. The video is below.RETROBER PSA

I posted this on our church myspace site as well as our youtube site. I noticed that most of our Youtube videos recieved like 15-50 views per video but for some reason this Pee Wee Herman one was getting like 1000-5000 views. I couldn't figure it out. Anyway... I recieved this email last week which made me smile.

I thought this was more cool than anything. My favorite part of the whole email is this...

Let that be a lesson to you. Don't post any 20+ year old video of Paul Reubens telling kids not to do drugs. He gets offended and sends the DMCA after you.

Jesus Camp

2006-10-25T23:27:00.000-07:00

Leah and I cought this trailer from a friend. Leah's words: "Yikes!" Jesus Camp Trailer .

The Real Terrorists

2006-10-24T07:48:00.000-07:00

Leah and I cought this last night on Countdown with Keith Olbermann. We thought that it was one of the most coherent and well thought out comments on recent events and the president. Check it out here.

Too busy to post. Not too busy to cruise.

2006-10-10T09:15:00.000-07:00

We're too busy to post anything of worth, so instead look at some photos of The Pearson & Manley Bike Gang. Watch out... we cary knives and chains.
(you can see more at my moblog)

Chips Ahoy

2006-09-30T10:10:00.000-07:00

One of my favorite records from last year was The Hold Steady's "Seperation Sunday". It was this great spoken word-ish concept record about a girl trying to figure God out in her world of drugs and booze. (my translation) Anyway.... their new record comes out next week and you can stream the whole record here. It sounds like it could be one of the best records of this year too. For old Get Up Kids fans (andy, dusty, etc)...the song 'Chips Ahoy' has Matt Pryor on it. Great stuff.

return of the frog queen

2006-09-22T16:03:00.000-07:00

Jeremy Enigk did an amazing live set at the AOL studios and released it as a podcast (mp3). It's live stuff + an interview. Amazing. Gret for this cloudy southern California day.

He's also releasing a new solo album on October 12. i am very excited.

Data Dump...

2006-09-16T11:47:00.000-07:00

Recently I did a layout for this event at the Cathedral called "Faith Forward" Here is one of the adverts I created for Christianity Today. Next month's issues should be a 2 page ad. Kinds sweet to see it in print.

Here are some of the screens Leah and I used to make the one-off Vans slip-on shoes for this store in San Fransisco. I'm not sure if they will be chosen...but it was fun working on them. I was not happy how they turned out...but some times you win, sometimes you loose.

Here is a close-up of the Vans Slipons with the hand screened patches sown on the shoe.

The other Night Leah and I along with Chad,Candy and nearly the entire TMG crew went and saw Denison Witmer play at a bookstore in Long Beach. It was very relaxing and chill. I snaped this 12 second video of my fav song on the new record.

Full Screen Video iPod true?????

2006-09-11T09:04:00.000-07:00

Check out this banner set up for the Apple conference/announcement tomorrow morning. Sure looks like a full screen iPod to me. I don't know how or who would take such a 'sneek' photo, but it looks legit(but you can also photoshop yourself into reality too). I sure hope this is true, probably fake though. You can follow all the morning's events at Engadget tomorrow.

still number one

2006-09-09T20:44:00.000-07:00

geeze... seriously...its so good to see the Buckeyes keep their rep and keep it strong. They are definately worthy of being #1. (at least for right now) Bring on Cincinasty next week! GO BUCKS!! WOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO....

O-H-I-O-!

2006-09-08T15:20:00.000-07:00

I am beyond excited for the OSU v Texas game tomorrow. Anyone who wants to yell at me as the game goes on...call me. GO BUCKS!!!

Ticketmaster of Puppets

2006-09-04T22:00:00.000-07:00

Make your own Ticket stubs, cassettes and LPs. Same people who did the church sign generator. Way too much fun.

Pushover

2006-08-24T09:25:00.000-07:00

John Roderick, aka The Long Winters, acousticaly does one of the best songs on the new record.

Alive: check. Tired: check.

2006-08-22T14:39:00.000-07:00

It seems that our friends check our blog as if to check our pulse to see if Leah and I are alive. The answer is Yes. (thanks for your concern) I was gone all last week at our High School/Junior High Summer camp about 300 miles from home. We were at lake Nacimento camping for 5 days and nights. It was a great trip cos I hired out Mr. Andy Sikora to be our high school speaker for the week... so in between kids yelling for my attention, Andy and I had a great chance to catch up.

We had this deal with our kids that if they lost track of thier camp books and someone else found it, they would have to roll this die that I found a target a few months back. The different sides of the die would have things like "Truth or Dare", "tell your most embarasing moment" etc. So...this photo is of one of our students
who landed "truth or dare" and had to eat 2 roasted jalapeno peppers. He was in misery for the rest of the day.

(photo 2)This is the same student taking a swan dive off a clif 20 feet off the water. Crazy. (yes..Andy and I both jumped off this clif)

(photo 3)Here is Andy and I chillin with some students by the clifs on a sand bar. The kid in the front, Dylan, is Andy's new favorite person in the world.

(photo 4)Finally: this is the crew from the week. All the High Schoolers, Junior Highers, volunteers, cooks, and stressed-out leaders. (click to enlarge)

Now its time to go play my freshly purchased MADDEN 2007. bye.

new wheels...

2006-08-08T20:53:00.000-07:00

What you're looking at is our new car. yeah...we caved to the American dream and bought a car we couldn't afford. Not really... actually, my old black 2004 Nissan Altima requred more money to get California Smog legal than it was worth, so we bit the bullet and got new wheels. So..it's a 2004 Subaru Forester.

We're really excited about it... but the bummer for me was not having a iPod connection to the stereo. So... this past Saturday I spent all day figuring out how to hack a Monster iCarPlay FM transmitter to work in Southern California's frequency filled airwaves. The hack: increase the antenna by about 6 feet and create an FM frequency that can recieved within 30 feet. Translation: anyone who pulls up next to me at an intersection tuned to anything near 88.7 will now hear what ever I'm listening to. I hope they enjoy tech podcasts and heavy metal.

who cares...

2006-07-28T09:33:00.000-07:00

for Jeff:

records to buy tomorrow//new tooth

2006-07-24T16:57:00.000-07:00

Everyone, I mean everyone, needs to go buy these 2 records tomorrow. You can leave your thanks to me in the coments section.

The Long Winters - Putting The Days to Bed : maybe the best record of the year for me.

Umbrellas - Illuminare : I'm sure you all pre-oreded it from TMG with my Tshirt- but if not run to a record store and pick it up.

In non-related news: I have a new fake front tooth. Yep. I went and got some bling for my face. Nice diamond inlay over white gold. It's quite tasteful. Uh...just kidding. Acutally...the white gold part is true, but I guess the gold is used as a base or something... the tooth is really 'natural' colored.
Here's the quick and dirty of it all: Years ago, when in high school, I was "pitting it up" at some punk show (probably MXPX) and got punched in the face pretty good. About a year later at my dentist check-up, the doctor noticed that the tooth was dead and he gave me a root canal on it. So over the years that tooth started turning brown and gross. I thought it was cause of my large coffee consumption, but turns out dead teeth turn brown after time. So on Leah and I's recent visit to the money-loving dentists, the doctor thought I should get it capped. So I agreed to go along with it.

All things were a go for the capping - then I, in my curiousness, asked the doctor how the procedure worked. He told me that he will grind down my tooth to less than half it's size and glue a fake tooth over top. I immediatley started sweating. A nice cold sweat that comes from a complete freakout and loss of control.
In life you can take a lot of stuff back. Tattoos even, seemingly one of the most permanent things in life, can be removed with enough money and lazers. Your teeth on the other hand...not so much. Once it's gone it's gone. I had tried to make it my life goal to keep my real teeth as long as I am alive and now I thought I was selling my self out. Lets just say that the feeling of having nearly no front tooth is one of the most disturbing things you'll ever rub your tongue against. I bet Ben Rothlesburger knows what I'm talking about.

Fast forward to today: I had been living for 2 weeks with a temp tooth as this lovely Asian man crafted my new fake in some ghetto shop in Anaheim. The doctor cracked off the temp (which is very disturbing) and then nicely glued on my new fake. Then the doctor started taking the Lord's name in vain. "Oh my _od!" "Je_us!" Um...then I saw him smiling and askign other assistants and doctors to come over and look at me. My first thought was "Ha ha...take a look at this..I just put this kid's tooth on backwards!" But to my amazement, the doctor was glowing with excitement because he wanted others to see how good it looked. He told me that this was the best color-match he had ever seen. Others came by and saw me/it and were really pleased.

All this to say that when Leah and I first went to the dentist and were told how much $ we'd have to pay to be fixed up - I wanted to cry...but now I realize that these doctors might actually know what the heck they're doing and might actually have our best interest in mind. So... I really do have a white gold tooth, covered with this stuff that looks like a realy tooth and that the doctor says is so strong and hard it can nealry stop a bullet. Good to know.

black widdow spiders, killer bees...

2006-07-17T13:17:00.000-07:00

This past weekend the Brandtson guys were in town. We had the lovely oportunity to hang out with them a few times over the weekend, but our time together on Friday night was quite ironic.

Brandtson's new record is really stinkin' good. They even got a single on the OC before Marisa was killed off. Beacuse of the OC, their song 'Earthquakes and Sharks" is quite popular. Down in San Diego the song is played all the time on the local alternative station. The song's lyrics are fun and silly...

Earthquakes and sharks to start us off,
If Chupacabras ain't enough,
Black widow spiders and killer bees,
There ain't no shade, there ain't no trees.
Hot desert heat, polluted air,
And traffic jams beyond compare.
That's all I got to warn ya 'bout Mexico and California.

So...the guys came over to our hood in Tustin to just chill( because it was blazing hot and we have central air). We decided to walk down to a local watering hole and kill some time. On the walk down to the Swinging Door, in a 'mother's arm flinging out to help hold you in a car at a quick stop' sorta way, I smacked Jared in chest telling him to stop. I had seen a small black dot out of the cornor of my eye and immediately halted. I looked down and across our path was a big 'ol black widdow spider dangling from it's giant web. I was 2 feet from walking into it, so was Jared and the rest of the guys. We stared at it for a while then tried to figure out a way to kill it. Myk became the spider-slayer and killed it good. Just seing that thing made all of us get a bit itchy and freaked out on the rest of the walk. Then on a historic street sign in downtown Tustin Myk saw another black widdow. We went into the Swinging Door and had a good laugh about it.

What are the chances that Leah and I would be with some guys who have a song partly about Black Widdows in California...and then we ran into 2 of em. It was fun but it gave me the willies all night.

Through boring hot deserts...

2006-07-08T17:29:00.001-07:00

This past week I got the heck out of dodge. I bailed on youth group and drove to Fountain Hills, AZ to hang and chill with Mr. Chad Cronin. We both needed some time to hang out, talk through all of the world's problems and then try to fix them. We at least accomplished the 'hanging out' part.

With living in California I rarely ever drive more than 1 hour anywhere. And 1 hour is a long drive. So getting up at 4:30 am to drive to Arizona was exciting as well as a foreign to me. Back in the Ohio/Indiana days a 5 hour drive was nothing. I would drive that just to get to play a show for 100 smelly guys in some crappy VFW hall. Driving to Arizona is something I only did once a year and always with Leah.

Being alone in a car for 5+ hours is good for people. Your mind thinks of really weird stuff as you drive...stuff you nomrally wouldn't think about day to day. I'm now convinced that truck drives must be closet genius/philosphers as they drive their Wal-Mart trucks across the country. I got to think,listen to old music and and listen to all the weird content that ends up on my iPod.

My time with Chad and Jenny was great. Chad and I drank lots of coffe and talked alot about how to stay fresh in ministry as well as all the new music we've been rockin' lately. Hanging out with Chad feels like we never missed a day, we just cut out the months in between visits and go from there. Chillin' with Chad was very thereaputic adn relaxing, despite the 110 degree heat. We got to see Superman in this great theater in Phoenix, eat lots of mexican food and buy new records at Zia. It was great.

On the drive home I ran throgh this cool thunderstorm while listening to a Donald Miller sermon from Mars Hill Chruch in Michigan. That message was very timly as I wrestle with the stupid religious stuff of American Christianity.

I raced home on Friday to make it home in time to hit the OC fair where friends of ours bought us tickets to see Lit and Switchfoot. Needless to say, Lit was one of the worst things I've ever seen in concert. Switchfoot was brillant and quite engaging for the 3000 seat venue. Leah and I had a good time seing them, but better than watching the band was watching Jeff's kids enjoy their first ever rock show. I tought Noah the rock fist and he was rockin' it all night. (nearly punching the guy behind him)It was cool.You can see more photos in our Flickr site.

God's Gonna Cut You Down

2006-07-02T18:57:00.000-07:00

Finally. Leah and I are on vacation and digging it! We're not traveling anywhere together, just laying back for a few days and hanging loose. Eating some good meat, drinking some good drinks and not sweatin' work. I also am heading to Phoenix,AZ (just outside PHX) to hang out with the Cronins, namely Chad. (though Jenny rules and is nice enough to let me steal her husband for a couple of days). Right now Chad and I are both in a place where we're nearly burnt out and struggling with some stuff, so we thought it would be thereaputic to get together, hike, talk and play some basketball (though I don't know how much b-ball you can play in 115 degree heat without dying). So... I'm excited to drive the car solo for a few hours with my iPod, coffee and the open road. I'm really hoping God and I can get some stuff worked out over the trip.
Also listening to the new Johnny Cash record on his myspace. Boy... that's some sad, tear-jerking stuff there. He wrote the record right after June Carter died. It seems a bit tough to listen to but there is some strong wisdom and emotion on that recording. "God's Gonna Cut You Down" is simply amazing. I can't wait to pick it up on Tuesday.

Happy 4th of July everyone!

NEW BLOG RE-DESIGN!

2006-06-25T20:34:00.000-07:00

So finally... the new blog re-design is up and as you can see, it's a bit different. I've been wanting to re-design the site for a while and just didn't have the time to do so. I'd been tinkering around with the code of it for a while, and this weekend i was feeling kinda crummy...so I started working on it. And with Leah's new found love of posting, I thought it was the right time to make the change.

You can now subscribe to the RSS feed of our blog as well as our Flickr site. If you don't know what RSS is, don't worry about it. The middle section will be for random junk Leah and I find on our daily journey traveling throughout the ever-expanding and ever-mind numbing inter-web. Then on the far right....tons of good ol' uesless stuff about us.

And to celebrate the blog re-design Leah and I have created our SUMMER MIX 06 and posted it online for your piracy pleasure. There's 2 zip files full of jams. One with 'day' music to help remind me of driving around Northwest Ohio with Chad, Andy and the gang and being so flippin' excitede that the summer was here. The second one is 'night' music for those drives in the dark of night where you're just needing to calm down a bit.

I hope you enjoy the site and the jams!

Tallulah - she's mine all mine, I mean ours!

2006-06-21T23:54:00.000-07:00

Tallulah, yes I am one of those weirdos who names their car. I'm not sure why or how, it simply happened as soon as I bought her and the rest is history. For the record, this is the only inanimate object I have named and or have plans of naming. Tallulah, my 99 Toyota Camry for those who do not know is my baby, the first car I officially bought and paid for on my own.

I officially mailed my last car payment yesterday which means that she is finally paid for, paid off and OURS! What a fantastic feeling!!! She is still in great shape both inside and out and I'm excited about many, many more miles and adventures with her. There are only about 106K miles currently and so I'm sure she has a minimum of 50K more, but I'm hopeful for 100K. It may be wishful thinking, but I think it could happen. It's a Toyota afterall and a girl can dream. The thought of driving her into the ground literally without a car payment sounds like my own little piece of financial heaven! And besides, something had to give so we could pay the stupid dentist.

Brian gave a talk tonight to the kids at youth group about the concept of being rich and showed an incredible Rob Bell video that gave great perspective on what it really means to be rich, especially in America. All things I had heard before, but in light of the events this week, both momentous and annoying it seemed as if it was the first time I was hearing any of it. I guess the mood and timing were key. The film was very convicting and cemented the fact that Brian and I are rich. We have each other, our friends and families and have yet to go without a hot meal or a roof over our heads and so that my friends is more than the majority of the people in the world have.

So in the end I simply say dentist, smentist - it could be worse.

Dentist or Devil - you decide

2006-06-21T23:31:00.000-07:00

I know the previous post stated that I would attempt to start backwards and bring into the current happenings of the Manleys, but since then I've decided to skip around like a silly little school girl and do what I must to catch up.

So here goes...Monday, a day like any other until dun, dun duuuunn - we made our way into our new dentists office at approximately 8:55 am, five minutes early for our appointments-phfew. To our surprise the office was very close to home, about five minutes and very impressive. The decor was comtemporary, yet relaxing and there were several fish tanks throughout the main office and a flat screen tv with CNN giving us our daily dose of doom. So, overall very relaxing. We thought we'd get some xrays, a thorough cleaning and be on our merry way. First impression of our dentists were both very knowledgeable and reasonably gentle.

Things could not have been going better until after a dozen or so xray shots, the verdict dun, dun, duuunnnn - the prognosis. By the look on my dentists face I could tell she was not ready to simply hand me off to the technician for a cleaning, new tooth brush and a cut little card with a cartoon tooth cheerily "saying" my next appointment time in six months. Instead I was greeted with, "Mrs. Manley, you have a cavity." [ok, I thought, I've had worse and so no cause for concern]Unfortunately the voice in my head kicked in prior to her finishing her statement. She continued,"and it's not just any cavity, it's underneath one that's already been filled in and the tooth next to it has lost part of it's cavity." [I had been unusually sensitive to cold - no wonder]"So what we are going to need to do to ensure the remainder of the tooth stays healthy is immediately begin a ROOT CANAL and put a crown on top." And that's exactly what they did - YIKES!

Brian meanwhile was in the other room receiving his own "not-so-fabulous" news that the in fact also had two cavitys and needed a crown as well. Before all of this "excitement" could begin they needed us to complete some more paperwork. And at that exact moment we had an adult life lesson appear before our very eyes...the bill! Needless to say the work and pain that was about to ensue would not only physically impare us, but financially as well. Who knew that they could actually bill you for thousands of dollars and simultaneously inflict needles, drills and lockjaw all in one "simple" dentist visit.

So to make a very long story end quickly, I was in the chair for four hours and Brian about three. I missed a day of work the next day and also tried Vicadin for the first time - wow is that stuff good! I can easily say now that I understand a fraction of why people become additicted to prescribed pain medication and also a fraction of what it might be like to take speed. For most people, let's say 80%, Vicadin's effects slowly creep up on them similar to the feeling after you've had a few glasses of wine with dinner, leaves you feeling good, content and ultimately sleepy. Well I now know that I am amoung the other 10% that it makes wired and ready to spring into action cleaning the entire house, doing all of the bills, emptying the sink of all dirty dishes and finishing the laundry in a single bound only to lay wide-eyed in bed all night, never to sleep for more than an hour. WOW!

So there you have it, a simple trip to the dentist ;0)

Starting Backwards

2006-06-21T14:13:00.000-07:00

Ok, so Brian's blog made me feel guilty about not posting recently and so I'm posting a quick update about our Memorial Day weeken and will work my way forward to the present, so you could say I'm starting backwards.

Memorial Day weekend - only 3 weeks ago, yet somehow it feels like 3 months. Regardless, it was great. Brian and I had both been busy leading up to the weekend and had attempted to visit his parents in NC, but to no avail. So we were thinking of simply having some friends over for a barbeque and calling it a lazy weekend. Then, we received a call from our dear friends Chad & Jenny or as our friends in CA know them as our Arizona friends. After learning their exciting news - THEY'RE PREGNANT and expeciting a bouncing baby boy near Thanksgiving time!! Of course we were so excited and with no concrete plans for the weekend, we decided to go, visit and celebrate with them. What a GREAT IDEA! and they were gracious enough to accept our own invitation out to see them. :0) The weekend went by so quickly, but well worth every moment. What great friends we have in them! We've decided that we need to visit each other more often since it's only a 5 hour drive to not take advantage of Cronin/Manley quality time.

The drive through the desert some would say is terrible, but Brian and I enjoy it. There is something very cathardic about driving through nature, no cememnt! and enjoying all the shades of tans, browns against the blue sky. It's a nice break to slow down and take in the clean air and slower pace of life. We took some great shots of the turbines near Palm Springs
(Brian will have to update and add these in - thanks buddy)

So, all of this to say that 1]I'm long-winded and 2]Memorial Day Weekend although planned to be laid back and uneventful turned out to be a wonderful weekend!! Hip, hip, hooray for great friends!

More to come...I promise, to wet your appetite....

Exciting topics to come in no particular order:
1. update & photos on my niece Elizabeth, she's huge & adorable
2. dentist visit from hell, no photos, phew!
3. Product review: Eureka new Swift Vaccuum - viola four stars!! possible photo b/c it is pretty stylish for a vaccuum and isn't that we really want out of vac? The great debate, style v. suction
4. O Brother Where Art Thou? Stu's visit to Ca and the fun adventures we had
5. HS All Nighter & Hard Core Circle Pit Dancing - it's all the rage, or is it?
6. Movie Review: "Free Nachos" or to our Latino friends Nacho Libre! Muy Bien!
7. actually, I think I better stop while I'm ahead and get these done first....see you soon.

Under Construction

2006-06-21T10:57:00.000-07:00

So...my dad was all up in my business about the blog not updating. (he actually just called to make sure we weren't dead) So...anyway... Posts have been thin cos Leah and I have been pretty busy lately as well as not in the mood to update stuff. She has a ton of good stuff to update with, but I don't know when that will be. cool?

I'm also working on a new blog design for the site...so we'll see when that gets up. until then...go read a book and get off the internet.

The phone number of the beast...

2006-06-06T09:16:00.000-07:00

"Why should the devil have all the good music?" good question. Better question might be "Why should the devil get all this credit for the 6th day in June?" Well....6/6/06 is upon us. The news outlets are loving this. (here hereRemember the 'national day of slayer' post a few weeks back; that day is here too. Lock up your dogs. Even the folks in HELL, Michigan are 'gearing up."
Luckily for all of us Theologians and scientists say we have nothing to worry about. Whew. I was about to sell all of my worldly possessions and wait for the apocalypse.
So..in honor of this silly deal I will listen to a LOT of metal today. Here's my "powering through 6/6/o6 Mix"

Zao - Savannah
Unearth - Endless
The Sword - Baraels Blade
Living Sacrifice - In Christ
Demon Hunter - Undying
In Flames - Take This Life
As I Lay Dying - Through Struggle
At The Gates - Slaughter of the Soul
The Agony Scene - Judas
Becoming the Archtype - Into Oblivion
Children of Bodom - Are you Dead yet

Umbrellas 'illuminare' pre-order

2006-05-23T09:31:00.000-07:00

One of Leah and I's favorite people, Scott from the Umbrellas, is releasing an amazing new album in August. The pre-order is up on the militia group site with a T-shirt I designed.

Apple Store NYC

2006-05-19T13:44:00.000-07:00

If only ALL stores made shopping look this good. (click here for a great set of photos from the opening of the NYC apple store)

national day of slayer

2006-05-16T20:41:00.000-07:00

"Reign in Blood" may be the best metal song ever written. It also was written by a 'satanic' metal band Slayer. Sadly...I've seen slayer in concert. Lets just say it was the scariest show I've ever been to. Walking in I saw guys with '666' tattooed on their foreheads. That was intense.

Well... to honor Slayer some people (maybe guys who work at video game stores,movie rental stores and play World of Warcraft all day long) have created the "national day of slayer" which will be on, of all dates, June 6, 2006. (6/6/06) Clever eh? My favorite part of their site is the requirements for the festive day:

Listen to Slayer at full blast in your car.
Listen to Slayer at full blast in your home.
Listen to Slayer at full blast at your place of employment.
Listen to Slayer at full blast in any public place you prefer.

Couldn't it have been easier to just say "Listen to Slayer everwhere at full blast"?

Ok...to put some icing on this cake...they reqest that we "kill the neighbors dog" too. If you live near a metalhead, bring your dogs in that night, but chances are these dudes are gonna be working late at Blockbuster that night.

When indie Pop goes Radio Disney...

2006-05-06T10:42:00.000-07:00

I found this online today. Thought it was interesting. It's a letter from a mom regarding a Fall Out Boy Concert.

"I took my daughters to your concert in Charlotte, NC last night and was
very dissappointed in the show. The ticket said "ALL AGES". F & L and your
band was very foul mouthed and anti-morals. Who do you think finances the
sale of CDs and Tickets, Hello - Parents...
Charlotte is not the
demoralized city that liberal San Fransico and other cities across the North and West are. I am going to contact the local and
national news media, and the arenas that you are touring in the future and
do my best to be a thorn in your side. I had looked forward to this concert with my girls for months. I didnt spend over $200.00 for tickets,
gas, food, and unforturnately shirts that I purchased for them before the
concerts, for you to give your own personal political testimony, cursing
anyone who disagreed. This was a concert, not some liberal homosexual
rally. I predict that you have lost a lot of financial support in the last
24 hours. I am not the only parent with morals that had children at this
concert. That is what is so upsetting - your band's biggest audience is
CHILDREN 10 and up. Your responsibility was to sing your songs. The music wasnt that bad, but when you opened your mouth to talk, you blew it.
Here's to your band being just another "Spice
Girls" looking back and remembering the good times and 15 minutes of fame, because you underated who pays your bills. By the way, my children will not be a part of your sick idea of family."

Boy... this is interesting. Fall Out Boy, an indie pop/emo/rock/whatever band who was on an indie label, now huge with the little ones via Radio Disney. What went wrong here? I feel bad for Fall Out Boy. Sure, maybe they wanted fame and $$ but probably not at the expense of selling their soul for kids music. Hey, if you write a hooky song, everyone and their cousins should love it. That's how pop music works. But there is pop music for different age groups and genres. I think Fall Out Boy's appeal bled over into the younger world and now they're getting grief like this.
I knew this day would come when my buddy Jeff told me his Daugheter was all into FOB. Crazy. I remember when the FOB's drummer was in this pseudo-satanic metal band called "kill the slavemaster." So...all this to say... I'm not surprised that FOB curses and gets crazy on stage. (when they were on SNL I think the bassist was drunk as a skunk). What we need more than censorship for FOB is parents getting their acts together to figure these groups out. Enjoy the CD with your kids but do your homework on the band and the live show.

"Truthiness"

2006-04-30T10:06:00.000-07:00

Steven Colbert roasts President Bush. Parts one, two, and three. (via Airbag Industries)

Gnarles Barkley

2006-04-29T10:50:00.000-07:00

I've been rockin' a bootleg of this group called Gnarles Barkley lately. They are R&B artist Cee-Lo and DJ Danger Mouse. I really dig anything that Danger Mouse does (Dangerdoom, Gorillaz, the Grey Album). The music is great, but even better than the songs are the promo photos. rock on.

Earthquakes and Sharks

2006-04-26T13:11:00.000-07:00

Our lovely friends in Brandtson have a great new record coming on on May 2, but in the mean time... this cool bit of info came across my desk....

Brandtson's absolutely spectacular new song "Earthquakes and Sharks" will be on Fox's "The O.C." this Thursday 4/27! How fitting, a song about California, Earthquakes, and Sharks on The O.C.

Check it out tomorrow night! I've got it all DVR'd Up!
Also: The artwork for "Hello, Control" is awesome, done up by the lovely Randall Jenkins.

Happy Easter

2006-04-16T20:40:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have been pretty busy for us and both of our jobs have been a bit stressful to say the least. And so I thought Easter Weekend might be a good time for Brian and I to get away from the daily grind. As a surprise to him, I planned a getaway that started off Saturday with massages at the Burke Williams Spa in South Bay just north of where we live, a great dinner at a local-owned steak house with a table by their salt water fish tank and a overnight stay at a hotel on the beach in Seal Beach. Then today we went on the Hornblower Easter Brunch Cruise in Marina del Rey, our harbor near LAX Airport. With free flowing mimosas, great food and views all the way to Santa Monica pier, it was a great time. Then we walked around Fisherman's Village, where the yacht docks and took some photos. For those of you who are Arrested Development fans, Fisherman's Village is where they do most of the filming that is supposed to be on Balboa Island.

At any rate, we had a wonderful weekend and a much needed break from the daily grind. I think we both feel refreshed and have decided that we need to take little trips more often.

I met this lady at the spa and she really inspired me to do things for us more often. Either frequenting the spa more often or trying something new, whether it be restaurants or places.

We both work so much that by the time the weekend comes we're so tired that it's hard to get out and about. But after this weekend, we've seen how refreshing and relaxing it can be and are going to try and do little trips more often for our mental health and with the weather getting nicer, we have no excuse.

I'll have Brian add some photos of our little adventures soon. (already up...at flickr site)
-Leah

Powdered Swords

2006-04-11T11:04:00.000-07:00

The funniest free podcast anywhere. You know it's good when you're nearly laughing so hard you loose your breath... and no one is around to enjoy it with you. (or to save your live when you pass out) Do yourself a favor and CHECK IT OUT NOW.

Link Dump...April 1

2006-04-01T16:47:00.000-08:00

I have nothing new,pressing or really all that great to offer the world of blog...so here's some cool junk I found while traversing the interweb.

Prank Phone Calling - this is sorta evil...but great at the same time. Enter two phone numbers and Jajah.com calls them both and links the calls together. If I were still in college, I thik I'd be doing this all day long.

Vlad Studio - really fun and creative wallpapers to make your computer cooler.

B Fleischman - The Humbucking Coil. File under Electronic/Ambient. If Godspeed You Black Emperor or Mogwai were all electronic and made on a laptop. Really great reading music.

5inch - Custom black CDs and cases - reall really cool blank media to burn all those mix CDs onto.

Today is Apple Computer's 30 birthday. Here's a walk down memory lane from Engadget.(I vaguely remember my dad rockin' the Newton back in the day)

They Come In Peace- Google Earth Apirl Fool's Joke. Check it out before they remove it.

half a pack of cigarettes, it's dark and we're wearing sunglasses...

2006-03-20T17:40:00.000-08:00

I spent the last few days in Chicago,IL. Gosh... i love that city. Well....actually i wasn't in "Chicago" as much as i spent most of the time in or near a Radison hotel in Schaumburg. But... it's the "Chicagoland" area as much as I live in LA. Anyway.... it was a great time. We got some good snow the first day, it was cold, and i got to rock my old winter clothes that have been collecting dust since 2002. good times.

Before I left, a great family in the church purchased a couple of these plastic guitars with a video game called "Guitar Hero". Thought... "cool...should be fun...the kids will enjoy it". I brought it home to test out...and HOLY COW, that game is amazing! Full on rock-and-roll dream magic! I never was very good at guitar, but now I am a metal shredder on a 5 button plastic mini-guitar. Great songs on the game too. Some Black Sabbath, Motorhead, Ozzy, and even some Stevie Ray Vaught for good measure. The kids at youth group were fighting over it, AND... I got Leah hooked on it too.

In other things I care about... Don Caballero has an ECARD up for their new record, which I could not be more excited about.

The new Ben Harper record is gonna be great. I can't wait to pick it up!
And the new Appleseed Cast record is great....get that too. actually...get that instead of Ben Harper.

Oh..here's a funny little story. After youth group on Wednesday (and keep in mind I was playing Guitar Hero with Bobby Schuller until 10:15pm) - I came home, started packing for the Chicago trip, and wanted to copy some records to my iPod for the flight. At 11pm, as i was transfering Unearth's "the oncoming storm" my computer froze up. As my powerbook re-booted, I tried to access my iPod, and there was nothing on it. The computer couldn't even recognize it. It was jacked. SO... at 12:30 at night I had to re-instal all of my music back to my iPod. By the Grace of God I had a backup of my old iPod songs from January on my external hard drive. But the bummer was that i had A TON of video content that was gone forever. I really wanted to catch up on old episodes of Arested Development and watch a bootleged copy of King Kong while flying. SO...now my computer is once agian converting episodes of Arested Development to my iPod. Oh well.

funwithrobots.com two point oh

2006-03-14T21:10:00.000-08:00

FINALLY: funwithrobots.com, my graphc design, has been updated/changed/re-vamped/and overhauled to make it something simple, yet showing off the design work I can do. Go check it out and let me know if there's anything I can/need to fix.

c'mon...give me a break

2006-03-14T08:36:00.000-08:00

Leah and I are huge 24 fans. Then again,if you watch 24, you either love it or hate it. (it involves lots of investment) (after all...if you wake up in the morning it's cos of Jack Bauer) Anyway...last night's episode of 24 was so crazy and silly and far-fetched that I might need to put my boot down and just give up on the show entirely. Even on Fox's 24 message boards, kids/people are contemplating along with me to pull the plug on an ex - great show. How far is too far? Seriously... this is what qualifies for TV? I think the only way I'll stick this out is if this season starts picking up speed and ends with complete apocalyptic world destruction.

On a lighter note, a new and improved funwithrobots.com will be up by tomorrow. (crossing fingers)

Lazy Muncie

2006-03-01T11:31:00.000-08:00

This is great. A midwest response to SNL's 'Lazy Sunday'. Dusty...this one is for you.... LAZY MUNCIE. Best- priceless.

great iPod Fake...

2006-02-26T16:58:00.000-08:00

A few days ago, this photo was all over the web as the 'leaked iPod video'. Amazingly enough, this came out 1 day after Apple announced that on Feb. 28 they would have a little press conference. Everyone swore it was real. Well...sorta. If you want a good read, read all of these threads. BUT....today.... the guy posted this video on You Tube showing how he Photoshoped the whole thing. GENIUS!

The Wild Ponies

2006-02-25T09:10:00.000-08:00

Upon great demand, I have created Tshirts for The Wild Ponies. You may feast your eyes on them here. enjoy.

Also, I'm trying to work out a tour with us and my new favorite band, The Sword. I seriously can't stop listening to them.

If you wake up in the morning, it's cause Jack Bauer spared your life.

2006-02-22T09:39:00.000-08:00

Last night was a great night. We got to go see our friend Scotty Windsor, who flew in from Oklahoma yesterday to play a show at the Chain Reaction with one of our favorite singer/songwriters, Rocky Votolato. Scotty slayed and played some old Lindsay Diaries songs as well as accoustic versions of Umbrellas songs. Rocky rocked-out as well and opened up with my favorite Rocky V song. I was a happy boy. If you don't already have the new Rocky Votolato record "makers", go get it now. You'll be happy you did and then remember that time when you read something about Rocky on my blog and now U2 opens up for him.

Also making this week great... 24. this week's episode was wicked cool. Also...got this newspaper clipping from my parents. I dig it.

If you wake up in the morning, it's cause Jack Bauer Spared your life.

Finally - last week at High School youth group we had a Talent Night. Some kids sang, danced, made silly videos. It was a great night. Greg, one of my students, and I decided to play a song... and Iron Maiden song with just drums and bass. The result...The Wild Ponies. Check it out here.

Oh Baby!

2006-02-11T18:06:00.000-08:00

It's been so long since my last post and I did think about a new year's resolution to blog at least once a month. However, January has come and gone and so I've decided to blog before February slips away too! And, not to mention, I have the best reason EVER to post - I'M AN AUNT! My sister had her baby on Wednesday, 2/9 - she had a healthy little girl weighing in a 7 lbs, 4 oz and 21" long. My new niece's name is Elizabeth Merritt. Merritt was my grandpa's name, on my mom's side. He passed away when we were both young and so it's a wonderful tribute to him and the amazing man we knew and our mom has told us stories about.

Speaking of photos, Brian is teaching me how to put photos from my camera phone onto the mac and then upload them to our website. It's amazing how much you forget when you don't do techy stuff on a daily basis, like some people....aaahhhem, ugghemm > brian :0)~

Anyway, now that I know how to load pictures the one above is taken about three miles from our house on my drive home. For anyone who has visited, we've probably taken you to the Tustin Marketplace Shopping Center and that mountain range is about five miles from our house, so this was the closest fire yet. Thankfully they were able to get it under control quickly. But in the meantime the air and our house smelled like smoke and it was raining ashes - yuck! I'm fighting a bit of a cold/sinus thing and I'm blaming the fires for it!

Although the fires were raging so close, the tree outside our house was in full bloom. It's it just beautiful?! It almost looks like a Japanese Cherry Blossom Tree, he little white and pink blooms are so pretty and when the wind blows they fall from the tree like snow. Excuse my little emo moment, but it really is so pretty and peaceful to look at. I really enjoy taking it in every morning on the way to my car before my crazy drive to work.

That's all for now, and it feels good to be back. And for the most faithful two visitors, Paul & Dusty.....you're welcome....and yes I'll try not to wait so long next time.

Sigur Ros on Conan

2006-02-11T10:49:00.000-08:00

Did anyone catch Sigur Ros on Conan this week? Well...I missed it too, but I found it floating around on the old interweb. (download it here from me if you'd like)(50mb) I heard they were gonna be on, and the one thought that comes to mind is "how can they play any of their songs on TV?" because their songs are so quiet, chill and long. Any way...they chose "Heysátan" and it was amazing! Not their most slammin' song, but to choose a song like they did, a really quiet, light, and minimal song, they played it masterfuly and in such a way that you couldn't help but be fixed on what they were doing.

Like I said, dowload the quicktime video here and enjoy. Also for your viewing pleasure, I found a lovely batch of Sigur Ros videos over at YouTube.com (search sigur ros). enjoy

the Unfolding:Heroes

2006-02-09T18:27:00.000-08:00

A few months ago I was comishioned to help design the CD artwork for a lovely mid-west metal core band, the Unfolding, featuring some old friends back in Indiana. I haven't seen the final product yet, but I'm pretty pleased how it turned out. (even though they had me scrap the first/best idea half way into it) So...valentines day is the day in which their record "heroes" drops. As of right now it's number 3 on the Lumberjack online store and it's not even out yet! GO PICK IT UP! SUPPORT THE NORTHERN INDIANA SCENE! (one which embraced all my old bands) Check out their myspace and listen to their jamz! OH...if you live in the Norther Indiana area, go to their CD release show this weekend in Goshen!

The Unfolding's Myspace
Their Lumberjack Site
Future Destination Records

Mr.Pibb + Redvines = Crazy Delicious

2006-01-23T15:18:00.000-08:00

I was talking to my brother today who seems to think that Saturday Night Live has been suckin' eggs this year. I pretty much agree with him, but there seems to be this glimmer of hope... Andy Samberg. Every skit that he is in...I actually laugh. He's probably best known for rapping about the "Chronicles" with Chris Parnell, and this weekend he did this jem... a tribute to young Chuck Norris.

Guys this funny don't just come out of nowhere, so in my great Googling tallent, I checked out his story and discoverd that he and his friends created some of the funniest online/tv skits with their group The Lonely Island. (check out the pilot for thier show "Awesometown." absolutely awesome!)

So...The Lonley Island got their fanbase from the ol' internets and it ended up landing them all a job with SNL. It seems like many other really tallented film makers/funny guys are following suit. I stumbled upon channel101.com and I think it's the future of TV. The beauty of the internet, and especially high speed internet, is that it is a unfiltered,raw and indie medium. A perfect example of this is the creatively edgy "Yacht Rock";making fun of the smooth sounds of Hall & Oats, Michael McDonald, and Kenny loggins. This creative show was made with verry little money yet has tons of fans that support it. Immagine if it had the dolars a network show had? Take the money from that 'Four Kings' crap and give it to these guys.

Here's another SNL jem from Andy Samber, and again from SNL this weekend -"Pirate Convention".

got it going on - like donkey kong

2006-01-20T11:10:00.000-08:00

A few weeks ago I was channel surfing and I ran across something on CMT (Country Music Television) that shocked me. I thought it was some sort of hip hop/sexploitation video that you would run into on MTV. But the chourus of the song shocked me even more. It was "that honkeytonk Badonkadonk". It was a country music star singing a horrible song about the butts of skanky honkytonk bar women and my immediate thought was "the end of the world is near."

It's so hard not to stare
At that honky tonk badonkadonk
Keepin' perfect rhythm
Make ya wanna swing along
Got it goin' on
Like Donkey Kong
And whoo-wee
Shut my mouth, slap your grandma
There outta be a law
Get the Sheriff on the phone
Lord have mercy, how's she even get them britches on
That honky tonk badonkadonk

I never thought I'd see the day when country music and hip-hop culture mergegd in such a terrible way. (now I know about cowboy Troy...he doesn't count) Surely Jesus must be coming back soon after witnessing this filth. Then...on my routine check of boingboing.net, I ran into this post "Honkytonk bedonkadon-proof the end times are upon us"

I just find that weird and distrubring. Now sure... the post is about faulty code...but come on....Jesus is coming back in 2006. Don't believe me...watch the video and you will.

Rough weekend...

2006-01-09T13:11:00.000-08:00

This past weekend was a bit rough. Friday I started having major back pain....and it kept getting worse all weekend. I think the back pain came from the rain storm we had a few days earlier. Not in the "my joints hurt from the storm" but a "I shouldn't lift a 20 gallon bucket of rain water to dump it out so our back yard doesn't flood every hour". I didn't know back pain could come 3 days later.

Then on Saturday, while watching bootlegged copies of LOST, I got crazy sick and just started puking my guts out. Lucky for me I had just finished a lovely pasta dinner. And in the process of throwing up my pasta, I started to puke so hard...I blew an eye gasket. (aka blood vessel) I didn't know I had jacked up my eye until Sunday on the way to church when I got in the car and looked at the rear view mirror. yikes! (my students thought it was cool though!)

Now Leah is making fun of me...partly for the "old man" back but mostly for the "freaky eye." Cool story eh?

In actually cool news...Future Destination Records has put The Unfolding's CD "heroes" up for pre-order on their site. (I did the album layout and art).

Spiritual Warfare

2006-01-06T09:14:00.000-08:00

This is cool: One of my students is a budding computer programmer and he brought me this. This being: a simple homemade game of pong. The cool twist is that it's JESUS vs. SATAN pong. Donwload it, play it, enjoy it. But here's the SUPER COOL part--> when you log in to play, type in Brian Manley (it's case sensitive) and... check out the surprise. enjoy. (oh,it's PC only)

Happy New Year!

2005-12-31T15:55:00.000-08:00

Happy new year everyone! Hope you all had a safe and fun new years eve! So...with every new year comes warmly inflated "resolutions" that barely make it to February. So...this year... with the blog I resolve to update the blog more often for my parents and Dusty. :) And i'll try to get Leah to post at least once a month. ROCK ON!

Merry Christmas and stuff...

2005-12-19T09:39:00.000-08:00

Howdy & Merry Christmas 'yall! Right about now you're traveling, working, closing up shop, freezing, wrapping, shopping, shipping, or some other form of craziness that is this lovely Christmas time. Well...Blessings to you from Leah and I. We know how crazy this time of the year is and it doesn't seem to get an easier.
This year we've opted to stay home for Christmas instead of traveling all over God's green...er...white earth. Too many family and friends in all parts east of the Mississippi river. We're really bummed that we won't get to see most of you, but it's all part of the deal living on the other side of the country. Our hope is to try to make a trip back east when things thaw out a bit. Maybe a mid-west tour via a rent-a-car.

Not to rub it in or anything... the weather report for Christmas day here has been elevated to threat level awesome! They are forecasting "sunny & 72". if that happens...I'm sorry to you folks hanging out with your family in sub zero temps. (this previous rant has been brought to you by Brian's jealousy about not being with family and friends over Christmas)

So in the spirit of Giving - I give you a Santa you can manipulate! (my mom sent this to me, so if she's into it, it's gotta be good) Just type in any command and make Santa work for you...oh wait...he already does. Well... type some of my favs: "punch the elf", "breakdance", "smell shoe", and "back flip". (thanks mom)

All in all - have a rad Christmas and a rockin' new year!

Ricky Gervais Podcast

2005-12-13T11:21:00.000-08:00

How many times to do I have to mention my/our love for Ricky Gervais and Steve Merchant? Who are they? They wrote the TV show "the Office (uk)","Extras" and "the Office (us)." They are insanely funny and comical and they used to do a radio show on BBC radio that I used to steal bootlegs of the show off of the net. NOW...they are back with a podcast. I know some people are "afraid" of podcasts, but this one is out of control funny. Do yourself a favor, if you like British humor, the craziness of "the office" or are bored to tears on your commute to work...check this one out.

The Old Man in California

2005-12-10T07:20:00.000-08:00

Dad (Paul) got upset at us the other day. He said we've not posted anything since the "Beavis and Butthead thing" and our blog is how he stays in touch with us. So....here we go! Mr. Manley, the man, the myth, the legend was in our home for the past 36 hours. He was in Mexico for business, I picked him up in San Diego, and brought him home to chill for a few hours. We traversed all over south Orange County, visited Leah at her new job, and Dad excitedly watched all the Newport sports cars speed down PCH while sipping a late at Starbucks. ( it's a hard life in the OC)

We visited our friends Faith & Brady's home, hours before the surprise "Dirty Thirty" party for Brady. While there, Dad met the amazing Rubitron! (aka. Ruby Clark) Dad was smitten (photo says it all). I think he was trying to say something to Leah and I.

Who's the big winner here tonight?

2005-11-21T11:26:00.000-08:00

Only in America! Of the sites I check daily, buzzgrinder.com is one of my favs. I just really like Seth and his take on music, etc. So...there was this contest to win the Beavis & Butthead DVDs - all you gotta do is send an email to Seth with "Beavis" as the subject. Leah was refusing to buy the DVDs for my birthday so I thought...well maybe santa will bring em., Sure enough, on buzzgrinder yesterday and I see the above image. HOW GREAT! Go to buzzgrinder.com to see my name on the site. HA HA to leah and her "that show is stipid" attitude. To Quote a great film (replace 'Brian' with 'Mikey") " Who's the big winner here tongiht? Huh? Mikey, that's who. Mikey's the big winner. Mikey wins."

Sigur Ros Video

2005-11-15T10:17:00.000-08:00

The new Sigur Ros record is just simply amazing. I think i've made that pretty clear on the blog, but the new video for "Glosoli" is so stinkin' beautiful, it brought me to tears again. If you're up for being overwhelmed with beauty, check it out.

Sufjan Christmas

2005-11-15T08:50:00.000-08:00

Thanks to Buzzgrinder posting the link:
I was talking to Ty Brynneman a few weeks ago and he told me of all these Sufjan Stevens Christmas recordings. Most of you Sufjan fans probably have em...but if not... here is a lovely person hosting all 3 records! MERRY CHRISTMAS TO ME!

Worst Record Covers

2005-11-14T09:48:00.000-08:00

Pitchfork has a great list of the "worst record covers of all time" here. Always good for a laugh. (warning : some are a bit on the "edgy" side. be warned)

We are alive...We promise

2005-11-11T13:15:00.000-08:00

So I made it back on Monday and had no desire to write or post or whatever you call it. But here I am on Friday ready to do so.

The trip Jeff and I took to the Dominican Republic was great. We had a safe, productive and exciting time on that lovely island. We met some great people, saw some cool sites and I can't wait to go back.

check out our Flickr site to see some more photos.

I used to think that Ohio was humid. Thought that maybe Florida was a bit more humid than Ohio. Now I know that the DR is more humid that both. I was sweating like a whore in church nearly the whole time. I was sweating 2 minutes off the plane.

I don't fly a ton, but I fly enough to know that the airlines are seeminlgy stealing more leg room ever time I fly. I get fidgety and adgitated every time I take to the skies. So... the offer is made to sit in an exit row! HECK FRIGGIN YES! Exit rows = more leg room. What they didn't tell me was that my seat doesn't recline at all. In fact your seat is so veritical that it just sucks you into it. Thanks FAA.

Jeff and I went to the DR for 2 reasons. A. To check out some facilities for an upcoming missions trip with high schoolers. B. To train/teach to youth workers in the Dominican. We met both of our goals and had a great time doing it. We even got to do a bit of site seeing. We went the very first cathedral in the Americas. We saw Christopher Columbus' son's house and an old fort the French tried to storm a few times.

One thing that was interesting was being thrown into a radio show on our first full day there. Our friends Fausto and Jean had a radio show at this huge secular radio station, talking about youth and youth culture. Jeff and I got 2 sentences in each. The female host of the show was talking like it was her last 30 minutes on earth. But she did hit on me during the show, so that made me feel special. :)

A lot more stuff happenened than I really want to / have time to write down now. I was blessed to have an iPod on this trip, which put me to sleep at night, and kept me from complete boredom at other times.

These records helped me have a rad trip:

The Mountain Goats - The Sunset Tree

Imogene Heap - speak for yourself

The Constantines - tournament of hearts

Fielding - fielding

Sigur Ros - Taak...

Doomriders

Rogue Wave - decended like vultures

smashmyipod.com

2005-10-20T09:23:00.000-07:00

This makes me cry... but for some reason I want to contribute...
(from Buzzgrinder)
If you call it a “social experiment” you can get away with anything. This includes accepting over $400 in donations, then walking into an Apple store, purchasing an iPod, and smashing it while still in the store. Oh, and taping the whole thing, of course. SMASHMYIPOD.COM - as John Stossel from 20/20 would say in a whiney teenage voice "Give me a break!"

Dangerdoom

2005-10-09T08:04:00.000-07:00

I'm heading out on a retreat today to Lake Mead. It's just outside of Vegas. (say it... "vegas baby! Vegas!") So... I get to unplug and chill for a few days, recharging my bateries. Anyhoo...that's my world.

Oh...the lovely Tyler Brennaman (sp?) got married this weekend!!!! YEAH!!!!

I'm really looking forward to this Dangerdoom Record that comes out while I'm gone. MF Doom & Dangermouse + Cartoon samples = Cartoon Nerd Awesomeness. I'm in. Go listen to it here.

May the force be with you.

2005-10-06T14:47:00.000-07:00

I want this shirt!

The Great IL

2005-09-23T12:10:00.000-07:00

Joel @ joelblane.com used his lovely hacked CVS camera to take some fun video of a recent show with Sufjan Stevens. Being that Leah and I love Sufjan and the great state of Illinios... I thought this would be fun. enjoy! The videos are on his site.

Buying music you can't use

2005-09-21T10:53:00.000-07:00

I'm noticing on a lot of new CDs lately that they have this lovely new logo on them. It says "content protected" and seems to be turning into the "don't buy me" logo. The new Switchfoot, Acceptance and Bad Plus records have this beautiful logo and content protection, so much you can't really use your cds for your purposes. for example: your ipod/mp3 player...no go anymore if you have a PC. A lot of these indie artist turned major label band are killing their fans. I recently ran across a post from Tim Foreman of Switchfoot addressing the situation. And then last night I saw the problem showing up on The Bad Plus's website. There has got to be a better way. The artists seem angry and the fans are getting even more upset. I'm not sure what is it, but if the industry wants people to enjoy and BUY records and not bootleg them of the ol internet, they need to figure something out quick.

I, having a Mac, have no probem getting the jamz on my iPod, but for the other 95% of the world with PCs, I guess you'll have to rage against the machine, and HACK the cd.

aural equivalent of those glistening intricate patterns of frost that form on the windowpanes of old houses

2005-09-20T13:57:00.000-07:00

The weather around here has been perfect for this lately, it's been raining. Out of nowhere we're getting wet. This is perfect for the new Sigur Ros record, "Takk". Since I picked up the record last week, every time I play it, I cry. Yes, I cry. For some reason this record strikes some sort of chord with me and I loose it. I think it's the beauty in the music that pushes me over my edge. Takk seems to make me realize all that I have, all that I love and puts me in a state of euphoria. I can't remember another time when I was moved so much by a CD. Go find the beauty in this record and go pick it up!

Infection Smection

2005-09-15T12:52:00.000-07:00

As Brian has already mentioned, I'm sicker than a dog right now. I'm battling a sinus infection and so far it's winning. I've never had one before like this. The funny thing is that the "ask a nurse" phone line you call reccommends you take DayQuil. They claim it's the same thing as the prescription. I'm beginning to wonder about that.

Anyway, I'm home sick today, day 2 this week. I was out Monday, but then of course pushed myself back on Tues. & Wed. because I had a lot of meetings, etc. and now have decided to be smart and take it easy. I've realized I'm never going to get over this unless I slow down.

Just wanted to chime in. Brian is so good about posting. I have a lot to tell, and promise to catch up soon.

So, those of you who haven't heard from me or received returned e-mails in awhile or in some cases, A LONG time. Please hang in there, I promise to catch up soon.

xo-

Fun With Robots Strikes again!

2005-09-13T21:23:00.000-07:00

The Milita Group has put up 2 new tshirt designs, designed by yours truly. Check out the TMG Store and the tshirts. I did up the TMG "Digital Skulls" and The Umbrellas "drums" tshirt. GO BUY EM!!!

Pastor of Muppets

2005-09-12T21:21:00.000-07:00

The lovely people that brought you "Monster Garage" & "Moster House" are doing a new series on the Learning Channel called "Pulpit Masters." read on...

There is a casting call for PULPIT MASTERS, a new television series set to air on the TLC Network in December. The 10-part series will follow a group of 10 aspiring preachers and motivational speakers as they embark upon a variety of challenges - from counseling, impromptu preaching, speaking and relating to others on a myriad of topics - where one castmate will ultimately become "America's Next Inspired Spiritual Leader." The open audition for PULPIT MASTERS welcomes EVERYONE from established preachers, new-age gurus, priests, shamans, Rabbis - come one, come all (and they have been!).

Original Productions (Biker Build-Off, Monster Garage and others) has been touring the country (Dallas, St. Louis, Atlanta) with hundreds of would-be inspired leaders impressing the casting panel with 2-3 minutes of their best preaching skills. In each city, the major daily papers and news networks have come out to capture what is sure to be a most-talked about reality show to hit the broadcast airwaves this winter!

Read even more here.

(Andy this is all you bro...go for it!)

I heard it straight from the horse's mouth that a close friend of mine is a judge for the show. hmmmmmmmmmmmm...?

My thinking is this... it's American Idol for decent communicators...and if you present the Gospel...good for you. You can see the clientel for the show in the picture above --> Guys with big guts who desperately wish to be Rick Warren. Good luck.

everybody's working through the weekend

2005-09-12T19:58:00.000-07:00

So...Leah is pretty sick today and I'm starting to feel it too. That didn't stop us from hitting 3 birthday parties this weekend. Actually... the score was Brian 3, Leah 2, but she had to work on Saturday, so she wins.

On a nerdy note: this site is cool. You can check modern websites and see how they'd look on old web bowsers from the 90's. I personaly like (and fondly remember) the Internet Explorer 1 and Netscape Navigator. Don't forget the "http://" !!

nano

2005-09-07T12:56:00.000-07:00

The design on this is sick. How do they make these so stinkin' small?

make you feel good...

2005-09-04T16:13:00.000-07:00

I know I've been posting a lot lately. Well, with the newly launched www.wearethemanleys.com and amazing world events, there is a lot to cover. In order to lighten the load on us all, I've got some music videos that make me happy. The first one you should check out is Matisyahu, a hacidic Jew / Reggae super star. This song is so good I just downloaded it from iTunes.

The second video for your enjoyment is a song/video I just can't get out of my head. It's by Clutch and the song is "Burning Beard". enjoy.

"George Bush doesn't care about black people"

2005-09-03T20:45:00.000-07:00

From Stereogum.com
It began, fittingly enough, with jazz from New Orleans natives Harry Connick Jr. and Wynton Marsalis.
But "A Concert for Hurricane Relief," a heartfelt and dignified benefit aired on NBC and other networks Friday night, took an unexpected turn thanks to the outspoken rapper Kanye West. Appearing two-thirds through the program, he claimed "George Bush doesn't care about black people" and said America is set up "to help the poor, the black people, the less well-off as slow as possible."

The show, simulcast from New York on NBC, MSNBC, CNBC and Pax, was aired live to the East Coast, enabling the Grammy-winning rapper's outburst to go out uncensored.

Comedian Mike Myers was paired with West for a 90-second segment that began with Myers speaking of Katrina's devastation. Then, to Myers' evident surprise, West began a rant by saying, "I hate the way they portray us in the media. If you see a black family, it says they're looting. See a white family, it says they're looking for food."

While allowing that "the Red Cross is doing everything they can," West — who delivered an emotional outburst at the American Music Awards after he was snubbed for an award — declared that government authorities are intentionally dragging their feet on aid to the Gulf Coast. Without getting specific, he added, "They've given them permission to go down and shoot us."

After he stated, "George Bush doesn't care about black people. Please call —" the camera cut away to comedian Chris Tucker.

Concluding the hour a few minutes later, (host Matt) Lauer noted that "emotions in this country right now are running very high. Sometimes that emotion is translated into inspiration, sometimes into criticism. We've heard some of that tonight. But it's still part of the American way of life."

Then the entire ensemble performed "When the Saints Go Marching In."

--> video of this moment can be found here.

And while wer'e on this topic...check out what someone found over at boingboing.net. 2 AP stories with photos. Next to the black person it says "looting" and next to the white couple says "finding".Interesting. Good eye.

wearethemanleys.com

2005-09-03T13:49:00.000-07:00

Our blog can now be reached through www.wearethemanleys.com !! We picked up the domain name yesterday for no other reason than it was cheap and it makes it more fun. Along with the domain name, I thought I'd change the blog format and look a bit. Hopefully this site will run even quicker and cleaner. You can still get us through www.brianandleah.blogspot.com but the dot com is way cooler!

Give him a Buckeye

2005-09-03T13:42:00.000-07:00

Today was a glorius day. I woke up, turned on the TV, and there it was, the OSU vs. Miami football game on ABC. I am generally cursed with only getting one Buckeye game a year (the Michigan game), but I'm hoping that this is a sign of things to come. To have 2 teams from Ohio as the nationaly televised game...that's heaven. I usually get stuck listening to the game online from the AM station in C-bus. I got sort of misty eyed thinking about old Columbus town on a beautiful fall day. That is one thing California can never relpace. There is no other game I'd rather watch than the Buckeyes playing football on any given Saturday. God Bless college football.

ROKR

2005-08-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

I love gossip. Not the kind that ruins lives and gets Jesus mad at you, but the kind that gets secrets out before they happen. I guess someone is squealing...so next Wednesday, Apple and Motoroa will unveil a iTunes cellphone. Just one more reminder that Leah and I should have purchaased Apple stock a few years ago when we talked about it. Read more here. Also there are dirty rumors of a new line of flash based iPod minis. sweet! (yes, I realize I a huge nerd)

FUN WITH ROBOTS dot COM FINALLY UP!

2005-08-22T09:34:00.000-07:00

So... FINALLY www.funwithrobots.com is finally up and live! This site is a sort of online portfolio for the grahpic design that I do. I'm very excited to have it up...so go check it out!

*Brian and Leah's Weblog*