Dusk Before the Dawn

From Kabul, Afghanistan, using random quiet time, personal recording equipment bought and scavanged from everywhere, and a strong love of music, my friend Vince and ten of his comrades in arms have recorded an album of simple, heartfelt music.

Fittingly released today, Memorial Day 2011, Tracks in the Dust: Songs from Afghanistan has ten tracks from eleven indie muscians representing five countries. And all the proceeds go to the Wounded Warrior project.

I’ve known Vince for three decades, from when he was a skinny kid that his brother and I used to slide into barely open car windows, to the veteran of tours in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa and many other places that he has become. In a few months, he’ll come home to Texas. In the meantime, he is not only making music, but making a difference.

You can buy it as a CD or MP3 download:

• from CDBaby (CD or MP3)
• from Amazon (see the link to the right)

I first became aware of this music when Vince started posting videos on Facebook of he and a few fellows who would get together at night for impromptu jam sessions. After one such session, they starting talking about an album…could they put such a project together, out in the dust of Afghanistan, with little to no Internet access?

Of course they could. Putting a benefit album together is a helluva lot easier and safer than what they do everyday.

The first track, Dusty Tracks, features all of the artists, and has the sound of a great garage band, lots of energy, ready to hit the clubs.

The next track, Love That I Seek, reminds me of U2 (and the recording quality sounds like it is in a studio, not in a tent in Kabul!).

The two tracks following, Apologize and Help Me Out by Sean O’Brien, have a Jack Johnson sound to them, though I can’t place Sean’s accent.

Stephen Flanagan’s In Your Eyes is a gritty, heartfelt song, reminiscent of Waylon Jennings.

My favorite track (ok, besides my man Vince’s) is It’s Always Been You from Damon Betz, excellent recording and a Steely Dan ring to it. His next track, Things I Miss, bounces out with a Reggae beat.

Childhood Memories (Judy’s song) by Tim Bristow and friends, is a story of what’s missing, things forgotten, very fitting for the time and place.

I’ve heard Vince’s two tracks before. With crystal clear acoustic guitar, Never Alone and Leaving are ballads to and about his family, and the time he spends away from them serving his country. We are looking forward to having you all home in Texas, young man.

Have you bought the album yet?

A list of the artists and links to their biographies is below.

Previous post: Grand Canyon - Lava Falls, the Grand Finale

April 15

We awakened on our last morning in the Canyon with bittersweet feelings. In a few short hours, I’d be able to speak to my wife and kids for the first time in four days, using the “always-on” technology that was not only used by me as a consumer, but was the lifeblood of my business. But frankly, I didn’t miss it. For four days, no email, no Facebook, no phone calls, no instant messaging…it truly was peaceful.

It also meant one last trip to “the Groover”, our porta-john in a tent. Without turning this blog too risque, if you are holding out from camping for hygiene reasons, this is the way to go. This was much cleaner than some of the porta-cans we’ve encountered at Rugby tourneys or running events. And the girlie mags were a nice touch (thanks, Ron; good article on Milla Jovanovich).

We loaded differently this morning, wearing dry clothes, Walker’s promise that we wouldn’t get wet convincing us. Instead of the dry bags, we packed in CRATE duffle bags. We embarked, and once more watched the sunlight creep down the walls of the canyon. (more…)

Previous Post: Grand Canyon - the “Death March” hike

April 14

This was the big day that most of the boys had been waiting for, and had gotten waterproof video cameras for: Lava Falls. Rate 8-10 out of 10 with a 13 foot drop, followed by the Lower Lava Rapid with a 14 foot drop.

Because of the hike, we had 42 miles of river between us and Lava Falls.

The wind the previous night had me tracking down the clothes I had lain out to dry, but the hike led to a good sleep. We awoke to our last full day in the canyon, and watching the sunshine creep down the walls of the canyon was just as amazing as it was the first morning of the trip.

During the fire line to load the bags, I was at the front of the boat, throwing/handing up our bags and supplies to those on the boat. I threw the last personal compression bag up on to the boat, not realizing that John who was catching had his back to me. I saw that it was going into the water, so I dove across the metal front of the boat to try and grab it, but missed. Walker looked at me and calmly said “you’re going to have to go in after it, before it passes the rapids.” after a quick curse, I jumped into to the cold Colorado and retrieved the bag, which ended up being my brother’s. Luckily, only his fleece was damp so he let me live. (more…)

Previous post: Grand Canyon - Elves Chasm and other waterfalls

April 13

Since some of us wanted to do a long hike, Walker (with suggestions from Mike, who had lots of experience in the Canyon) set up options: part of us could raft down the river a bit and do a small hike, and some could do a longer hike. Showing excellent sales and marketing talents, Walker named the optional longer hike “the Death March”. The Death March was an eleven mile hike, lots of climbing, but with Thunder River as one of the highlights. Much discussion ensued the night before over adult beverages concerning who would participate in which adventure. The fact that I had to choose from over 200 pictures for this post shows that choosing the Death March was wise; the scenery was unbelievable.

We were awakened early, this time by Dewey’s coffee call, followed by an enthusiastic “woo hoo”. I am assuming it was enthusiastic because Dewey was not attending the Death March.

We went downriver a few miles, and offloaded myself, Walker, my brother, Ron, John, Mitch and Alex. After bidding a fond farewell to those staying on the boat (and informing them where our wills are), we set off hiking along Tapeats Creek.

The hike immediately turned up, with a series of switchbacks that rapidly got us above the Colorado. We then paralled Tapeats, and eventually dropped back down to the water level, where Alex laid down in the water to cool off. (more…)

Previous Post: Grand Canyon - Bright Angel Trail
April 12

It is hard to describe sleeping and waking up on the banks of the Colorado River inside the Grand Canyon. I awoke a couple of times at night, with a magnificent view of the Big Dipper over the North Rim, something you just don’t see everyday. There were bats swooping down close to my cot, grabbing insects for their morning breakfast (and probably keeping the mosquitoes and flies away).The sun wakes you up, as does Walker’s yell of “Coffee!!” followed a bit later by “Breakfast!!”. The coffee is Cowboy Coffee, brewed in a big pot with the grounds in, poured through a filter. It was tasty, but whoever got the first cup (me twice!) got some extra fiber in their coffee. Breakfast was terrific.

To setup and break camp, we formed a fire line to load and unload our bags. Each camper had two compression bags, one for sleeping supplies (mat, ground cover and sleeping bag) and one for your backpack and clothes. We also each had an ammo can, which was mostly watertight. All three were numbered, mine with lucky number 13.

The rules of the camp are pretty simple:

• Leave nothing behind;22,000 people raft through the Canyon every year (according to our fearless leader) and they all obviously obey this rule;
• Everyone chips in;
• Relieve yourself downstream (an important rule, given the 15 cases of beer);
• Wash your hands to prevent disease;
• Everyone chips in;

We added the following unwritten rules:

• Happy hour starts as soon as camp setup is complete;
• You cannot say that you have been “drinking all day” unless you have a beer with breakfast (with kudos to John for this definition).

(more…)

Previous Post: Grand Canyon - The Start

April 11
It was 13-17 degrees in the morning, causing the snow at the top of the trail to turn to ice. The plan was to leave at 6:30AM, but my brother Terry and I plus our guide Dewey (who was always on the river, so this was his first hike down from the rim) needed “yak tracks”, spiky soles that attached to the bottom of your shoes. The gift shop operator was nice enough to open a bit early, so we got on the trial about 15-20 minutes later that the rest of our group. Being from Texas, I was skeptical about “a little ice”. But for the first couple of miles, it would have been quite dangerous without the “tracks”.

I had my Blackberry (ok, start with the geek jokes, but I was “testing” for a new app we are writing….seriously) and had coverage all the way to Indian Garden. While in the ice, my mom called…then Dewey called his mom. Hiking down one of the natural wonders of the world, through the ice, with yak tracks, talking to our mothers…serious geek bonding there. Dewey had no idea what was in store. (more…)

• Temperatures at 13 degrees at the South Rim of the Grand Canyon;
• Ice on the trail, forcing us to wear “yak tracks” on our shoes;
• A 9 mile hike down to the Colorado Riveriver;
• 100 miles down river on a raft;
• An eleven mile hike called the “Death March”;
• A trip over Lava Falls, with our captain reading from John Wesley Powell’s notes on exploring the Grand Canyon;

Sounds exhausting, doesn’t it? It was.

But it was also a magnificent, once-in-a-lifetime experience.

It could have been a disaster. The U.S. Government, the weather, the people or the equipment, all could have conspired to make this a colossal waste of a week. But none of them could get in our way. (more…)

My wife and I started a publishing and media company a couple of years ago for a variety of reasons, to keep me off the streets, and mainly so that she would humor me as I experimented with eBooks, print books, enhanced eBooks and how those all crossed the lines of software development and design.

Until recently, we’ve only published my books (experiment on your own children, that’s my motto!).

The Judas Conspiracy by Leslie Winfield Williams is our first of two books that JoSara MeDia (and yes, you know where the name came from) is publishing this month. The second I will describe at a later date.

Leslie is a previously published author of fiction and non-fiction, a fellow Trinity University Alum (and fellow former student of Robert Flynn, our other award winning author) and is currently taking and teaching classes at the Yale School of Divinity.

She came up with this great “what if?” idea, which is the genesis of many great stories.

What if…a valuable religious manuscript was discovered in a scholar’s New Haven (where Yale Divinity School is!) collection, that triggered a secret organization to come out of hiding and announce their presence with violence? How and who would track them down? (more…)

Many years (okay, decades) ago, marriages and weddings used to scare me too. Scare and intimidate, and I was loud and vociferous about my objections to them to hide those fears. Every wedding I went to during my days as a young man, I would torment the groom as much as possible with stories of their impending slavery. My tag-line (which I should have made into a t-shirt and sold the rights to Vercie):

“Being married is like having a ring in your nose that your wife can use to pull you around by.”

There were usually some creative curse words embedded in the phrase, but you get the drift.

(more…)

A nice well written “four spider” review of my latest novel, Software by the Kilo, over at Webb Weaver. A bit of it below:

I heartily enjoyed Software By The Kilo, with it’s well thought out and original storyline. The interaction between the techies and the goons was hysterical and a little creepy. Larry Ketchersid also did something I adore in a book… he wove fiction in with historical facts which gave the story that ‘extra something’ I am always looking for. I am not a software geek and get lost in the technical wording and language, but Larry found a way to get me through Software By The Kilo unscathed and even feeling a little bit smarter than when I began reading.

Read the entire review here.