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October 14, 2007 Well hello there… Now I really haven’t updated this site in quite some time. I’ve been trying to throw updates on the Ameted.com blog and the corresponding Ameted MySpace page. I have been quite happily immersed in my newfound role as father. Words can’t quite describe the feeling of looking into my son’s eyes, the first time, or just a few minutes ago during bath time… it is a wonderful and marvelous experience. My wife and I are at once exhilarated and exhausted with this new phase of life—parenthood. In my last update I spoke of a journey regarding my career and am happy to say I’m back on the faculty at the community college and really enjoying it. I’m busy helping students with research, maintaining the library ILS system, and teaching a course that is for the most part a nature-writing course. In my recent post to the Ameted blog I tried to convey the fact that the new album, States, is basically complete. I hope to spend some evenings this week polishing up some backing vocals (after bath time, of course) and then complete the task of mixing. The album art is well in the hands of Scott with final layout work to be completed soon. With so much excitement over the new material and a great sense of hope in the prospects of sharing it with all of you, it really is in a new light for me… I am just awestruck and stand in amazement here in the dawn of a new world of fatherhood. Victor is pretty much the cutest baby in the world.
‘til soon, BTJ May 30, 2007 So this isn’t exactly a blog. I mean it’s not like I’m writing much here. It did occur to me that I ought to put something down. This web space comes in fits and spurts for me. I hope to update the photography section soon; I’m glad I at least have one. This new year has been wonderful so far (my last post, a bit pessimistic, is a bit of a year-end retrospective on 2006, so I thought I’d just say 2007 is far superior). My wife and I are expecting our first child—a son. I am feeling so proud. I only wish my father were here to see him, and yet in many ways he is. We also just celebrated our 10th wedding anniversary. Life is good. Scott and I are so incredibly close to completing the new Ameted album. Most of the tracking is complete and it sounds hot. There are just a few more overdubs here and there to tend to and then the task of mixing and mastering lies ahead. I hope to produce a better sounding record this time around. We were novices with TOC—but as one reviewer said, “Prog Garage Rock Done Right,” and “they make rock and rock 'n' roll the only way it SHOULD be made: exuberantly.” I hope we’ll make good on this our sophomore effort, always a testing ground for bands. It’s probably good we’re not in the “big time.” On the employment front this is an exciting time. It seems so odd to me that this time last year I was debating giving up that which I now most covet. Everything about being a faculty librarian at the community college is everything I could hope for in a “day job.” Firstly, how can one argue with working a nine-month contract and still make a decent living wage? Geography, mostly, is what lead me to a new job close to home—at a four year college, as a non-faculty librarian. And while this job is not terrible, I felt such great accomplishment at the community college helping students of such varied backgrounds, abilities, and interests. So it is that I am to return. It turns out they missed me as much as I missed working for them. I will be returning to commuting as well, but on some days to the satellite campus closer to home than the main campus further away. This will provide for both a more satisfying working experience as well as more free time, time for art, but more importantly, time for family. --BTJ December 16, 2006 But first... I have added the first of what I hope will be a series to the new photography page. In this case I have chosen to present photographs from an early November weekend spent in Hickory Run State Park, Carbon County Pennsylvania. With the peak of the autumn foliage past, it was a time to enjoy more of the subtleties of the season before the coming winter. Jill and I spent the weekend with our good friends Adam and Dottie. We covered a good bit of ground including some forays into Lehigh Gorge State Park and the Francis Walter Damn. We stayed at their small cabin on the outskirts of HRSP near Albrightsville and enjoyed a lot of Dottie's home cooking. Blues: I feel like Charlie Brown in his classic Christmas special. The holidays are upon us and I'm not too jazzed up about them. As far as I'm concerned 2006 sucked. I lost my dad to cancer. Cancer sucks. I know I'm not looking forward to the holidays in part because I won't see my dad. And just last Christmas he was there, fresh off of treatments and a good prognosis. By New Year's Eve he was already declining. By March he was gone. The months following brought a few more deaths in the family. And at the present time Jill's dear grandmother is in the hospital and not at all well. Her family's big Christmas gathering is cancelled outright. So we're both kind of blue. These family hurts on top of an already difficult time for us in two respects: Jill's academic career and my new employment. She's not so sure she even wants to be in the program any more; I think I made a capital error in leaving my old job. Highs: And yet, many good things occurred as well. My brother and his wife gave birth to their firstborn, our beautiful niece Ximena. Jill and I continue to find our strength in one another, and we ourselves... well... we'll be sharing some good news with the family before too long. Scott and I continue to press on with the new Ameted album. And we've started jamming with a new and very talented guitarist named Robb. Check out the photography page when you get a chance. And thanks for stopping by. --BTJ September 4, 2006 Night Train On Montana Rail Link's 4th Subdivision lies a particularly scenic 22 mile stretch, Clark Fork cut-off, between St. Regis and Paradise. This is former Northern Pacific railroad which MRL acquired from Burlington Northern (NP's successor) in 1987. Much of this line is within the Lolo National Forest. Bald Eagles abound along with many other kinds of wildlife in this truly spectacular place. It was here where Mike and I spent a night in our recent cross-country voyage. It was here, late at night, camped under Bridge 208 that I was able to capture the night train. Just one of perhaps any number of freights crisscrossing the country through the hours best spent asleep for most. But for me the thrill of finally seeing this train kept me up another couple of hours before I could finally rest.
How'd I do that? This image, unlike the previously posted shots from the west has been manipulated. It was shot using an Olympus Evolt E-300. But it is actually two images. A 30 second exposure while the train passed overhead produced the streak of headlights. I couldn't help but notice that as a late night car traversed nearby route 135, high-beams would illuminate the bridge. So, another 30 second exposure was made at the sound of the next passing vehicle (few and far between at that hour). In Photoshop I merged the two images. I did not take the time to correct the many tiny dots in the dark areas... most of which are the result of dust in the camera. The west is dusty in the summer. Dust is the bane of digital cameras. This is yet another reason why I have not "gone digital" but rather added digital to my repertoire. My handy Pentax K-1000 and several rolls of Fujichrome accompanied me out west as well. --BTJ August 22, 2006 New Things Today I write to tell you all I have begun a new day job. It is much closer to home which will hopefully allow for more time with family and to work on projects, specifically Ameted. I'm not entirely sure I ever mentioned my 'day job' in this virtual forum before: I am a librarian. More specifically, I am a systems librarian working for a small private college. I run the data systems which keep our databases and library software running as well as maintain our website. Additionally I assist students with research needs. It's pretty cool. Today in fact I was chatting with a student about all things metal--and two of his favorite bands DragonForce and Symphony X. The West At the end of July I ventured off on a cross country trip with my good friend Mike. He and I used to work together and quickly learned of a shared interest in nature and backpacking. He now owns a place about two hours north of Spokane, WA and makes a yearly cross country excursion to seek respite in this hinterland. Some favorite sites for me include: the many grain elevators of the midwest, Iowa in particular; the vastness of a place like the middle of South Dakota and the uneasy feeling it gives me; the prairies of Wyoming, the amazing sunset after the storm, and the myriad pronghorn, deer, and coyote that made their presence known; Gillette, WY and the Powder River Basin coal traffic; Montana--all of it, most especially Montana Rail Link in Livingston with the beautiful Absaroka Mountains, the Clark Fork River between St. Regis and Paradise, the bald eagles that soared above the river, the Rockies, the wildness; Colville, WA if not for the town itself, but for the notion that this is where to stock up before heading up to Mike's place, the climb to the top of Mt. Abercrombie, the coyote that hunted in the meadow in clear site, the northern lights, the cow moose and her calf, the stars... but then back to reality... in fact no time to accompany Mike on the return drive; no, for me I made haste to catch a red eye out of Seattle, via Spokane, to Chicago, and then a local flight back east. But then again it is so good to be home. I remember a friend saying he enjoyed three distinct phases of a vacation: the anticipation, the experience, and the reminiscing. Home, for me, is the best place for the reminiscing. --BTJ
June 4, 2006 Silence. I have been silent in this online forum for the past several months. Let me first say I am doing well. In the last several weeks since my father’s passing I have spent time with family and friends reminiscing and just remembering a good man. It seems death has come to my family an inordinate number of times in the past few months. After my father died Mrs. Cooker died. She was the grandmother of my step sibs and she too died of cancer. Three days after her funeral the husband of a long-time family friend died in a horrific highway crash followed by another extremely emotional funeral. That makes three funerals in three months—too much. I’d like to thank all of my friends and family for sticking together and staying strong through this difficult time. But life does go on. I have found satisfaction in work, volunteering, gardening, and making music. I’ve written a new tune called ‘Line’ dedicated to my pop. Scott has given it a thumbs-up for inclusion on the next Ameted CD—I’m mulling it over. Speaking of Ameted, TOC has been doing fairly well and we’ve enjoyed the little bit of attention it has received. We originally released a demo version of it in 2003 and then began writing new material. Since the official 2005 production release of TOC we have undertaken the new project in earnest. ‘States of’ is under full production and we hope to have it out before the end of the year. We recently completed the title track ‘State of Grace’ and are extremely pleased with it. I’m looking forward to working more on the album as well as updating this space more. Thank you for visiting. Feel free to use the contact form on the Ameted page to communicate with me. --BTJ March 20, 2006 In Loving Memory "Suddenly you were gone from all the lives you left your mark upon."
Photography One of the main features of this web space that I plan to develop is the showcasing of my photography. Technically an amateur, as I have no real formal photography training—save for some art classes in school and the guiding hand of Aunt Karen, A.K.A. A.K.—I feel I have developed a knack for certain genre within the field. The two primary foci of interest are diverse, perhaps disparate; they are nature and railroads. I am both a film photographer (primarily 35mm transparency) and a digital photographer (well, at least quite recently). Two examples of my work have recently been published, so here’s my bragging about them: First, an image entitled “Lehigh Gorge Surprise” featuring a Norfolk Southern Railroad maintenance-of-way crane appeared in the February 2006 issue of Railpace Newsmagazine. Second, a photograph depicting the former Central Railroad of New Jersey station in Jim Thorpe, PA, appears in the March/April 2006 issue of Pennsylvania Magazine. These two both happen to be railroad related. As you can see from the site, I’m also interested in wildlife, as well as scenes along the trail. I’ll be sharing more images with you here. --BTJ P.S. Dad is doing ok. Two Posts (Wildlife at Home and Dad) So I’m thinking of my pop these days. He’s pretty sick but holding on and keeping his spirits up. That’s all I can really post on the subject due to the high emotional aspect of the situation. I love you dad. Following is the post I began last week. I decided to start keeping a log of wildlife observed at home. This comes to mind after observing several hundred Snow Geese flying overhead today, Sunday February 12, 2006. The entire Atlantic Seaboard had just received a massive Nor’easter snowstorm. I had spent much of the day clearing the foot-plus heavy wet snow and, after having first heard the smaller-than-a-Canada-Goose honk in the morning announcing well over a hundred of the black-tipped-winged birds, saw another, smaller, group while snowshoeing across the yard. Equally memorable was an evening when a Great Blue Heron was observed flying, low, overhead across the property from roughly northeast to southwest. It was not too long after moving in to the property and Scott was over for a jam weekend. I spotted the large body moving majestically across the evening sky and, awe struck, relayed the coming of the bird to Scott. He, before seeing the bird, sarcastically said, “What’s so great about it?” Then the feeling of awe swept over my friend upon his seeing the bird as he simply said, “Oh.” We had had a very mild end of December 2005 (even though the beginning of that month brought us a couple of snow storms including one that dropped about ten inches in our region) and January 2006. Jill and I had gotten into the habit of making hot tea and going for an evening walk. On the second time around the property we noticed several deer in Mr. Landis’ Field. We watched for a while, content to have spotted them. We decided to go around once more. Then we heard the ‘hoot-hoo-hoo-hoot’ of a Great Horned Owl. We approached the Black Walnut where the sound originated. We saw the grand bird silhouetted against the dusk. She then took flight and flew along the hedge line and into the night. I will post this list in the coming weeks. --BTJ New Web Site: February 4, 2006 Well, hello there. Where's the picture of Nick and Zakk bearing middle fingers to all imploring a heavy metal grunt? It's still around, but I thought it was time to start a real website for myself. The Ameted site is finally coming along and I thought I'd take some time to begin creating a template for my own space--similar to the efforts Scott has put into his site. This space is being revamped. In an effort to finally have something more meaningful on this site I have begun a site redesign. It will serve as a place for me to share photographs, thoughts, and information. There’s no set time frame as this is purely for grins and laughter. --BTJ
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