i felt like, for a little while i was getting into a good creative writing memoir thing here with the blog, but then i just fell into “i’m did this, then i did that” etc. then i thought at least i’m not putting up quizzes about myself yet. that was five minutes ago. since then i just now went and took a few quizzes to see if they would be funny to put up here. not really.
one was called “Can you draw Manga”. i scored a 20%. that i guess means there is a 20% chance that i can draw manga. some questions included “do you know what manga or anime is???” which seemed very relevant. other good questions included “do you draw at all???” and “4. do you like to draw manga/anime??? yes, no, or what is it again??”

so even before the results were tallied, i was learning about myself and my propensity for drawing manga. i almost felt, at the end of the quiz that i didn’t even need to see the results. this is the power of self-discovery through blogging.

other quizes i considered taking or actually took included:

Are u a great bf?

How New Jersey Are You?

are you smarter than a fifth grader? (which i think is rigged)

and my favorite and most depressing,
do you have a place in this world?

i scored a 42%

i recently won a billboard/slogan contest for Cincinnati radio station 94.9 The Sound! Here is the design i submitted:

and here are a couple in the wild:

thanks to my drummer and friend dan for tipping me off about these two. there are about 100 more of these up all around the cincy area. let me know if you see one and where you saw it (or better yet take a picture!)
looks like they went with my design exactly, and even added “created by Joe Hedges” in the bottom left corner. yay! i’ll take whatever exposure i can get: http://www.949thesound.com/?sid=423&nid=47

some photos taken by our friend shay z. on the way to cleveland

last weekend we played a great set in cleveland. one of our best in a little while despite a couple hiccups. that was a good practice set for this weekend’s showcase. this weekend we are going to atlanta for the atlanta music conference. it’s a huge event featuring lots and lots of bands. there will most likely be a couple record label people at our show. that doesn’t really mean anything though. we’ve probably played showcases for 100 different people at record labels, and only had one legitimate record deal. on the other hand if the odds are 1 in 50 i must be getting really close to number 2. i think though, that’s a gambler’s fallacy. gotta know your fallacies.

now here is some good news:

i shaved my mustache. if you come to a show and say hi to me, you’ll need a different icebreaker. although definitely one of my favorites, “hey it’s the much-blogged-about mustache!” won’t work anymore. instead let me suggest: “do you like gummi worms?”

i finally got a mac. it’s a black mac book. i bought it cuz stephen colbert has one. he’s my latest obsession and i’m trying to be like him. it is really not like me to get involved with a TV show. as a sort-of rule i just don’t watch a lot of TV or get into a series. but i just think this guy is about the funniest, quickest person on TV right now or in a long time and i can’t get enough. help me i’m watching TV.

i won a big graphic design/ad slogan contest. more later.

school at nku is going very well. i am getting smarter every day, which is the goal. i got recognized which was fun. if you have spent some of your life trying to be famous and somebody recognizes you it’s very exciting and affirming. although i know it appeals to all the worst parts of me but i just can’t help enjoying it slightly. anyway i was buying a parking pass and somebody says “are you joe hedges?” and it went from there. if you’re familiar with my music and you’ve seen me at school, go ahead and make a big scene of it and i’ll pay you five dollars. just wait until we’re in a really crowded place and then say “oh my god!” and whip out a CD or something. (i’m just kidding actually. i’ll pay you not to do that!)

but it is weird being a student. i don’t even talk about music at all. it’s hard to tell people about it without sounding sort of like an idiot. (in a stoner voice: “yeah dude, i’m in a killer band.”) so despite its being the biggest part of my identity i will divert from it at times and play up the other aspects of my life like art and graphic design or any interest really like (i swear this is true) old ghost rider comic books. not sure if that really saved me from looking like a nerd there. but see the problem is that the second the band thing comes up i feel a really intense need to justify it and say something like “yeah i had a record deal for a few years” or something that is obviously just begging for affirmation. it really would be better to say “my band is killer.” as you may have guessed by now, sometimes i don’t do well in social situations so i mostly walk to and from my places in my own world. but i am slowly making friends and acquaintances and all the people are very nice. i participate in class when i can and all my teachers have learned my name and smile at me passing in the hall. and most importantly i’m drawing some killer skulls. now i use the word killer with utmost seriousness. i can’t wait to show you my drawings.

we have been working on new songs in practice. a few that we feel are very good.

if you are counting, that’s five pieces of good news! and counting! at least, good news to me. i hope your world is in good shape.

i just got back from a weekend vacation with my girlfriend to gatlinburg tennessee. it was fun. if you’ve never been there and are thinking about visiting, i’ll let you in on some things i’ve learned. let this be a warning, this post may start out being somewhat entertaining but takes a deep dark turn for the cerebral. turn back now. okay now the things i learned over the weekend:

the mustache is extremely popular. i counted in a room once–about 9 our of 10 dudes. no joke. i included myself.

even the salads and potatoes have meat in them or on them or carefully surrounding them. getting bacon bits on a milkshake would not have been too surprising.

there are two radio stations, christian and country.

there are bears!

real, live ones out in the woods of the smokies. i know that’s obvious but you don’t realize it fully until you see it. i saw a small black bear with my own eyes, scurrying up a mountain from a stream. i was riding a horse. this is a true story. it was not scary though. exciting maybe. when i am outside and i see a special animal or insect i often feel privileged that nature or fate or god has chosen me to experience the creature in that way at that time. i don’t get that feeling very often but i do in nature, a sense of wonder and satisfaction, sometimes from the simplest of things. if there is a god it lives in the woods and in the sea.

the smoky mountains are truly beautiful and awe-inspiring. i swear i didn’t scan these from a nature calendar.

another highlight was the aquarium. there were very kind stingrays that you could pet. they are the nicest creatures! they were curious about me like cats are.

also in the aquarium they had this huge (unexpected) mars exhibit, where i read as much as i could about the water on mars. this has always been interesting to me, and i’ve been hearing more and more about it. i was reminded that the boiling and freezing temperature of water on earth is different than that on other planets. i don’t know the specifics but it’s something about the pressure. the atmosphere on mars is much thinner, so water cannot become liquid. it changes tragically right from ice to vapor. however, in the future if we need another planet to slowly destroy, we could release large amounts of greenhouse gases into the martian atmosphere. this would heat up the planet enough to provide the right kind of atmosphere to make lakes and rivers possible. at the aquarium was the first time i have heard of scientists suggesting this. while it appeals to my sense of science fiction curiosity it kind of begs the questions, “why don’t we fix the planet we already live on?” although i suppose this is the same kind of capitalist spirit that drives us to purchase new cars and new toasters and sunglasses when our old ones no longer gleam. especially in the case of the VCR, it’s easier just to buy a new one.

i also learned that dale earnhardt, the late race car driver, is on the fast track to diety status. no pun intended. i like to read about buddha and his quick transformation from man into a god-figure by the indus valley people. remarkably, preserved in his teachings are specific warnings against this, things like “work out your own salvation”. because of this i think buddha is the best example of the unstoppable temptation to elevate celebrities and leaders to saintlike or godlike status. happens everyday. it’s through studying buddhism that i started thinking objectively about dale earnhardt.

in contrast to ancient civilizations like the romans who diefied (often by force) their political and religious leaders, today’s recently deceased saints include secular, nonpolitical, nonreligious, nonphilosophical figures from pop culture, people like kurt kobain, tupac, and dale earnhardt. it is no stretch to say dale earnhardt sacrificed his life so that others may have…entertainment. self-sacrifice, i think, is a big step toward divinity. in our culture entertainment is one of the most valuable commodities. also on the shortlist are money, celebrity, worldly success, and machismo. so it is no wonder that a guy like dale earnhardt who had tons of money, was very famous, had an excellent record of winning and success, and who lived fast and dangerously to entertain others has been so quickly deified–he embodies a lot of american ideals. where i’m from in Trenton ohio, i see a whole lot more winged number 3 window stickers than presidential campaign stickers. and i’ve seen little to no decrease in the amount of these stickers since his untimely death in 2001. if anything, they’re getting bigger and more prominent, often occupying the entire surface of a rear view window or side door. it is not uncommon to see an enormous winged 3 on the back of a vehicle filled with a family of people wearing hats and jackets with winged 3’s on them. the wings are of course to suggest his angelic life after death. it is my prediction then, that the outright worship of dale earnhardt as a god could be in the not so distant future, if only in isolated pockets of america like trenton and gatlinburg tennessee. there may be forces at work which could prevent him from becoming a full scale god, such as the fickle nature of pop culture, but it’s important to remember that sports fans are extremely faithful. and dale earnhardt is probably as close of a model of american ideals as buddha was of the hindu ideals in india in 500BC. in india it only took a few hundred years, if that, before buddha began showing up in art with indra and vishnu and other existing gods. dale earnhardt depicted next to jesus? if it sounds preposterous to you, you’ve never been to gatlinburg. it’s not only a very real possibility–it’s happening already. now i’m not saying this is good or bad and i’m sure he was a great guy, but it is a reflection of the type of things we value as a culture.

anyway those were my thoughts in gatlinburg. with the exception of the weekend, since going back to school i have been nonstop. come to think of it even the vacation was pretty nonstop activity. and now it really is an indulgence even to write a blog, as i always have so much to do between music, reading and studying for school, and work. but i like writing them. they are fun to write, clear my mind and organize my thoughts and always elicit a few fun or interesting responses from you.

the next five weekends we are traveling doing shows, cleveland, columbus, cincy, atlanta, LA, etc. that’s insane. i am considering taking november off completely from shows. that could give me at least one weekend to truly relax or at least catch up. that’s a ways off though. for now, we are looking forward to this weekend in cleveland!

thanks and love always, joe

MUSTACHE UPDATE: i may be one of two people at the entire school wearing a mustache. there is one other guy who is finally on the bandwagon. he’s a little older though, maybe about fifty. so clearly this trend is catching on among the young and old alike. billy corgan looks like he may be beginning a mustache in the new smashing pumpkins video. we have a few fans that are wearing them. i have had a lot of encouragement from the mustachioed community. i’ve now reached a crossroads: do i fully embrace the mustache and get used to it, or is this something that’s just a novelty and it’s entertainment value has faded?

on a more serious note, the folks over at MVPSupport.com stumbled across our video for “Mitral Valve Prolapse”. this started a dialog and they kindly put some info about me on their site. if you are interested in learning more about MVP syndrome MVPSupport.com would be a great place to start.

PRESS UPDATE: CityBeat, Cincinnati’s premier independent entertainment paper, recently called Curvature “a cross between Sting’s atmospheric Jazz/Rock, The Samples’ Folk/Jam/Pop vibe and Radiohead’s sonic texturalism”. Read the whole article here.

we played two shows friday and saturday, one in cincinnati and one in dayton. our friends smalltown sleeper just returned from a tour with daughtry, that american idol guy, so they are really firing on all cylinders and we had a lot of fun. yesterday i went canoeing with friends. it was amazing. i love canoeing.

school has been an enormous adjustment for me. i love it though. the very best thing is my intermediate drawing class. it’s an anatomy class. for six hours a week, i sit in a room and draw naked people, skulls and skeletons. it’s just like being in high school, only now i’m supposed to sit there and not pay attention to anything else and draw that stuff. it’s really amazing. i’m keeping a sketchbook now too, something i haven’t done in a long while. i’ve been rediscovering drawing in general as most of my art has been about paint oil crayon and collage lately. maybe at the end of the semester i will put up some sketches somewhere.

i am having an art show in Covington KY for their first Friday gallery Hop in November. that’s a ways off so i’ll get some info about it up eventually. but enough about me.

AMY HEDGES UPDATE: my sister Amy Hedges has returned from her year-long tour of duty in Americorp, which included mucking out houses destroyed by flood in new orleans, fighting forest fires in montana, and sleeping in church basements and in tents. she is now embarking on a two month long hike of the Appalachian trail. when she returns, we will start writing together and fleshing out a great adventure we can have together. the adventure will take place in summer 2008 and will combine environmentalism and our music, writing, and art, making use of Amy’s survival skills. stay tuned.

BLUMPY UPDATE: my old friend and producer of Curvature, Blumpy, is out on tour with Nine Inch Nails helping with midi sequencing of the sound and lights or something. they’re in germany and israel now but they’ve been all over europe. here is a picture of him with trent reznor, or it’s a picture of two guys who have the same clothes and build as blumpy and trent reznor, but i will never know since i can’t see the faces. i take him at his word though.