A good start to music in 2015.

A collection of the songs and music I have shared in a friend's music thread, La Musica de Campeones III, since the start of 2015 (unabridged from emails):

Monday, Jan. 5

Love that motto for 2015, Matt.  Good song, too.
Here is Milky Chance's Unknown Song feat. Paulina Esienberg.   Catchy and fun, and here are two more: Stolen Dance and Babe I'm Yours. Stolen Dance sounds familiar - perhaps previously shared? Nevertheless - not to be confused with Whilk & Misky. 

Wednesday, Jan. 7

Here is Australia by Conner Youngblood (for all you Bon Iver fans).  
Can we JUST get another Bon Iver album? 

Thursday, Jan. 22

Yo, that Mamacita bumps. So gangsta. Thanks Sarah!

Speaking of gangstas, Lil Weezy dropped a new album. 

Haven't listened to it yet - any good songs?

Also, am in an Usher kinda mindset lately:

You Got It Bad: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o3IWTfcks4k

Confessions Part II: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5Sy19X0xxrM

Nice & Slow: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DIpQ4AZSAf8

U Remind Me: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bxau9B3jOHM

Saturday, Jan. 24

New FRANK OCEAN:

http://www.hillydilly.com/2015/01/frank-ocean-you-are-luhh/

Countdown til his new album drops.

Monday, Jan. 26

I'm pretty sure Theophilus London has been shared, but not sure if anything from his newest album, VIBES (released Oct. 27, 2014).  Here is a superb song: "Can't Stop feat. Kanye West" 

He'll be in DC Feb 15 at U Street Music Hall.

Thursday, Jan. 29

This song is soo damnnn smooooth:  "Things Are Changing" by Gary Clark, Jr.

Thursday, Jan. 29

Some of that brand new shit (for your dance parties, Tina Nigro):

Meek Mill - B Boy ft. Big Sean and ASAP Ferg

Tuesday, Feb. 3

Rihanna and Kanye went straight country on "FourFiveSeconds" (with licks by Sir Paul McCartney): https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kt0g4dWxEBo

Tuesday, Feb. 3

Yo yo yo, that new Chris Brown and Tyga in "AYO" (with special guest appearance and a fellow Hoosier, MR. MIKE EPPS):

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zKCrSN9oXgQ

Wednesday, Feb. 4

For those having Alt-J withdrawals, here is Alt-J's front-man (guitarist and vocalist) Joe Newman on Portico's new song, "101."

Basically sounds like an Alt-J song, but of course, you can take it or leave it.

Thursday, Feb. 5

"All Day" by Yeezy

Friday, Feb. 6

Alright, enough Yeezy until he releases his Adidas...

Here's a little different sounding track to my typ shares:

Madeon - You're On ft. Kyan (Gramatik Remix)

Saturday, Feb. 7

Happy Saturday. 

I'm adding a second friend, Ms. Kat, to La Musica de Campeones III.

Her very brief background: 

Kat resides in BK but has roots in the 303. 

She's wise beyond her ears, I mean years.

And her eclectic taste in music is bar none. 

Please join me in giving Kat and her future music shares with the group a warm welcome.

Kat - thanks for that last song share, which will work well to set the stage for your entrance:

From the guys who brought you ILYSB, here is LANY's newest track, "Bad, Bad, Bad."

Enjoy.

Monday, Feb. 9

Kendrick Lamar's new song, The Blacker The Berry: http://youtu.be/6AhXSoKa8xw 

He won big for "i" last night.  way to go, K.

Tuesday, Feb. 10

Thanks, Matt.  It's all thanks to Twitter I stay on top of the new drops.

Another new one (big ups to Dags for turning me onto Passion Pit back in the day) - here is Madeon's new song "Pay No Mind ft. Passion Pit." And it's fucking lovely.  Their new album, Kindred, drops in April this year.  Definitely doing their 930 Club show again.

Wednesday, Feb. 18

Passion Pit have two new songs out (released Feb 16 and Feb 17):

Where the Sky Hangs: http://youtu.be/SDuwmU1a1kY

Lifted Up (1985): http://youtu.be/YeINWQDg7zg

Friday, Feb. 20

TGIF.

This remix is blowing my mind:

Notorious BIG - Old Thing Back feat. JA RULE and Ralph Tresvant (Matoma Remix)

Wednesday, Feb. 25

Damn these Matoma remixes are pulling my heart strings:

Ice Cube & The Notorious B.I.G. - Hello vs. Party & Bullshit (Matoma Remix)

Wednesday, Feb. 25

Not a fan of the new Drake.  Seems disjointed, and to me, Drake raps too much through his nasal passage.  Drake should sing more and be a featured artist.  Like Akon, Chris Brown, et al.  I'll give it to him, though, he gets people singing his songs, cause they catchy, but I swear to God that fool is a zero on the Gangstr Scale.  Oh, he's Canadian?  Explains way too much IMO.

On that Drake tip, here is song from a rarely-shared-but-very-talented rap artist for you all this evening:

Nick Minaj - Only (FEAT Drizzy, Weezy and Chris Breezy) 

Love the new Big Sean, tho. Especially that Ye verse at the end.  

Wednesday, Feb. 25

Also - leading RapGenius contributor had this to say about "Only" in his review of Nicki Minaj's Pink Project album:

"Only is a disgusting romp that sounds like the ultimate break up party smash, with Drake and Wayne explaining their various carnal thoughts about Nicki and what they'd do to her when she is no longer spoken for." via http://www.bensbigblog.com.au/ via http://genius.com/Theonlydjorkaeff

Love that analysis.

Wednesday, Feb. 25

TGIF, Kat.  Birds of a feather.

After geekin out for over an hour and pouring over rap lyrics on Genius.com to Kanye's "All Day," and a splattering of other songs, I came across this beautiful gem to get your Friday night tipped in the right direction:

ROC BOYS - Jay Z featuring a voice cameo from Kanye, which as you'll hear comes through as "we in the house," and is a saying derived from the notion of lighter skinned slaves being allowed in the house. A lyric from ALL DAY reminded me of this fact.

Typical Friday.  Party.

Sunday, Mar. 1

So many good songs discovered from the weekend (in no specific order):

I Luv U by demo taped - from Soundcloud's summary: "Effervescent electronic soul enhanced by soft vocals to emulate the feeling of love"

White Iverson by Post Malone - what seems like effortless music with a hypnotic hook

Home feat. Dev Hynes / Blood Orange by Heems - witty lyrics with deconstructed beats

Big League Chew by Action Bronson - those rhymes are unstoppable, not to mention that late 90s rap rhythm (like a mellow P Diddy beat)

Lisa Sawyer by Leon Bridges - the swoon, Leon, giving ole Frank a run for his money (different genres, but still)

Pressure by Milk and Bone - reminds me of a silkier, sultrier, slower Feist

Enjoy.

The year, 2014, in music.

I am a member of two music share email groups.  One I founded (Music Share Wednesday), and one that I was invited to join (La Música de Campeones III). Since their beginnings, my knowledge of new -- and good -- music, artists, bands, genres, and uses of instruments and vocals has brilliantly expanded.

As a small humblebrag, I put together a recap of the year's music on my own terms: 

How I heard music throughout 2014.  
The trends I observed.  
Reflection on mostly a personal level.  
Artists and musicians that heightened my excitement and interests. Some things to look out for in 2015.
Things like that.

Granted, it could use more work, be fleshed out, and with an hour or so of additional research, it could be worthy of publication, but I think the recap is unique in its rawest form and without corrections to the context:

It was a great year of Music Share Wednesday. Thanks to you all for sharing great tracks, albums, and concert ideas throughout the year.  

Without a doubt, 2014 was dominated by major releases by some of the most talented women in the industry (read: Beyoncé, Nicki Minaj, Lana Del Rey, Iggy Azalea, FKA Twigs, Sharon Jones, and Ariana Grande to name a few), but let us not forget 2014 also consisted of a new album by Pharrell Williams (as well as the near global takeover with "Happy"), a new single from Kendrick Lamar ("i" - likely receiving more controversy than radio play), the long awaited sophomore album by Alt-J, the first D’Angelo album in 15 years, and the beautiful amazingness that is Hozier.

My top song for 2014?  Well, that's tough, so I have to preface my choice by saying that I've been listening the most to lyrically-driven songs in the last 12 months (read: Asgeir, The Weeknd, London Grammar, St. Paul and the Broken Bones, Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings, and This Is All Yours by Alt-J), so l have to go with one I discovered earlier this year:

Jack Garratt - Worry:  https://soundcloud.com/jackgarratt/worry-1. This song was also on the NoonPacific Best in the Universe playlist, so it's getting some traction!

Looking ahead in 2015, I'm mostly excited about some new projects/albums by a number of artists - especially Frank Ocean and Miguel, hopefully Kendrick Lamar, and honestly, Modest Mouse (more on that album drop and first single here: "Lampshades on Fire").  Something about the familiarity of the Modest Mouse sound and the time in my early 20s when they blew up recalls memories I don't mind revisiting to new songs/sounds in 2015.  Another to look forward is The Harpoons.

ALSO – Washington, DC native Nick Hakim (listen to “The Light” or “Cold” or “I Don’t Know” or “Sleep”) is coming to U Street Music Hall on Saturday, January 24.  Tickets are $15 (a STEAL, I bought two): http://www.ticketfly.com/event/745823-nick-hakim-washington/. Nick Hakim’s bio here: http://www.interviewmagazine.com/music/discovery-nick-hakim#_
Anyone have a top album release in 2015 (along with their top 2014 song/album)?

Have a good New Year’s Eve and a happy New Year everyone!

Trevor 

So there you have it;
And with that, I wish you all a healthy and happy 2015.
So much to look forward to.
Live your life.

Of Interest:

Think back to the first interesting comment you overheard from someone. It can be hard to remember, indeed, but if you think back, it was perhaps the most raw and truthful first impression of that person because it penetrated power, prestige, money, looks, clothes, accents, or any of that---and it connected you to that person on a different and new level.

So just for fun and for the sake of this Dandygram (plus, who doesn't like a new word?), let's call this interesting comment the "intrement" (interesting + comment, pronounced: EN'tre'ment).

An intrement might not work its way into the first, or even the second conversation, but it will certainly be spontaneous, unprompted, and will ultimately find its way into common conversation, such as the stories about someone's past, a previous job, their passion, how one might approach a problem, answer a question, or provide their genuine opinion.  These are just a few examples.

In DC, however, there are high expectations from others to be interesting because DC is an epicenter of the world.  DC is not a financial epicenter (h/t New York City), a fashion epicenter (h/t anywhere else, Earth) or even an emotional epicenter (h/t Middle East, India, et. al), but DC does possess worldly and legitimate recognition as an epicenter of the interesting and intellectual.

So perhaps, DC has a higher rate of intrement per capita than other cities in the United States, and one might argue this because of how Washingtonians engage with other intellectuals in the city in most initial conversations.  For instance, Washingtonians:

Fein for intrement of others. Draw intrements out from others. And naturally seek intrement in others.

Though DC is not financially rich (Congress is broke), fashionably inclined (read: "Ugly Hollywood"), or emotionally sound (these shortcomings abound!), DC will always have a lot of interesting people.

I'm not gushing, nor am I bragging about DC, but in my three years in DC, there have been numerous intrements around the following topics (I'm surely missing a few):

wars
murder
death
cancer
life
failure
birth
resurrection
survival
love
peril
loss
amazement
trauma
humor
serenity
epiphany
serenity
finality

At the end of the day, whatever the noun or adjective used, an intrement will strike when least expected. And when it does, you will hopefully find an unsolicited and unprompted interest in what was said, and a newfound interest in that person.

Open letter to Washington Apartments in Washington, D.C.

Dear R******* and team:

Thank you in advance for reading this email. I want to kindly circle back to my concern about a faulty HVAC unit in the row of apartments (#101, #201, #301, or perhaps, #401) in  the building of 1*** *th Street NW.  I've expressed this concern to M***** in person in your office about a month ago, to M****** T******* in follow-up to my request for assistance over the phone about two weeks later, and then over the phone to R******* (you may recall this conversation on a Friday afternoon?), to whom I then told, for a fourth time (because I had to tell M***** twice) the problem that is occurring.

My concern has been quite explicit each time I've told it to the various people listed above, and with nothing being done or changing to the current condition of the noise coming from one of the units (it has to be one that is close to ours - or perhaps it is ours?), along with the noise being more cumbersome as time goes on, my concern has grown to disappointment and frustration.

Let me explain why:

Each evening, as I have prepared for bed, the noise from one of the HVAC units has been vibrating the wall that my bed is situated against, which is accompanied by a constant noise and can be felt on the wall of my kitchen if you put both your ear or your hand up to it, as well as any other place in or near the kitchen where our HVAC unit is located.  This is occurring regardless if our air conditioner or the heater is running, and this noise and vibration through the wall has prevented me from falling asleep numerous nights to the point where I lay in bed thinking, "Is this considered a noise complaint?  Should I call the authorities?" But I then think, "No, my apartment management office is clearly looking into this and the situation will be resolved soon and the unit fixed, or if need be, replaced/upgraded."

This clearly has not happened, and now, over month after my original request to M***** asking to have maintenance look at it the situation in our building, which he had no recollection of my request when I had to call to follow up over a week later (therefore telling him again, but with no follow up or concern for this matter), I feel that I am fully justified with my feelings of true disappointment and frustration in this entire matter.

In addition to this, we dealt with MONTHS of ongoing construction right outside of our window for a project that we were told would conclude in September but did not finish until three or four months later.  In this instance, what accompanied standard construction procedures, which I was fine with given the renovations and new management office, was loud shouting and arguing, start times much earlier than the building permit allows, and all around frustration for nearly 6 months of work, which impacted my sleep, my roommate's sleep as well as those of our neighbors whom we spoke with time and again about these noises.

This simply seems unfair--not only to me with the faulty HVAC unit, but also to deal with such an ongoing issue without restitution.  I don't expect for things to be done immediately or overnight, but what I think is reasonable to expect, and for what we pay, as well as bringing numerous tenants into these apartments as our friends (and your business) is a level of respect that matches ours for where we live.  We are respective of our apartment, of our neighbors and of people's privacy, time and livelihoods.  This is matched by our neighbors.  Is it too much to ask for this to be reciprocated and have this issue dealt with?

I don't need to be contacted about this matter directly, but if you'd need to know whether entrance into our apartment would be acceptable to fix this issue, I welcome your maintenance team and staff to come by anytime to see what your tenants have dealt with for over a month.

Additionally, I'd like an official service request created with these concerns and the issue very explicitly indicated so if they decide to resolve it, I would like to know what they did in case it is not fixed.

Best regards,

Trevor Sparks

Trumped by Ben Affleck

Kudos to Ben Affleck for stepping up to a similar challenge that I did in February and for a great cause.

Details here:

http://www.foxnews.com/entertainment/2013/04/23/ben-affleck-vows-to-live-on-150-for-one-day/

Trevor

Living on $100 for 10 days: DAYS #5/6/7 (Weekend Recap)

After an exhaustive week at work, which included early mornings, late nights and an inadequate, unbalanced diet, I woke up up sick Friday morning (day #5).  This was probably the best-worst thing that could have happened at the start of the full weekend in my 10 day challenge.  I took a sick day at work and started the weekend on Friday by sleeping in until 11am.  My goodness did I need it.

Sneeze!

It is now Sunday afternoon and day #7 of my challenge.  I am still not feeling well, but in the midst of my challenge to live on $100 for 10 days, I am okay with not feeling well.  Being sick meant that I did not go out with friends.  I did not go out to eat.  I did not have the urge to go for any groceries (thank you leftover pasta, Cheerios and orange juice).  I did not even feel like leaving my apartment.  But I did.  Twice.

The first time I left was Saturday afternoon and to get two bottles of wine.  The second time I left was for a short walk over to the building next to mine where I helped to warm my friend Allison's new apartment with a bottle of wine.  Spending some of my remaining money was cause for this friend and celebrating her new place (not to mention a reason to get dressed and get away from my paintings for a bit).  I am now down to $39.45 for the remaining three days of my challenge.

Let me back up and recap the weekend, which was almost entirely spent here:

DAY #5

Once I came around Friday morning and felt like getting out of bed, I started with a light bowl of Honey Nut Cheerios and coffee.  I think I have two or three servings of coffee left......I then spent the rest of the day painting.  Shortly after an awesome lunch (since I was home, I made a roast beef and swiss cheese PANINI), I finished my big canvas ahead of schedule!  Here are a few shots of the last few steps in the progress, and a shot of the finished piece.  I plan to hang it above my couch later today:

I am incredibly proud with this painting.  It was quite the undertaking.  I have never painted a canvas this large before, and it is not likely that I will paint one this big again anytime soon (except my friend Liz now wants one, so maybe).  It was also very hard to work with the size of the canvas when trying to maneuver it around and paint the black and white squares (over 180 total!).  I don't even want to think about how much a frame would cost for this painting...

As a side note, I have not signed any of my paintings.  I think it is because I cannot decide on whether to put my full name (i.e. "Trevor Sparks 2013"), my first name and date, or just my last name and date.  The reason I haven't yet decided is because I discovered a unique aspect of my fist name, which kind of gave birth to this whole style.

It was the summer of 2009 when I discovered that if you take the e, v and o of my first name, you can turn them into three shapes, which are now dominant in most of my paintings.  The e can become a square, the v into a triangle, and the o would, of course, be a circle.  So, if I can just come around to making my decision, it would likely be my first name with those three shapes and the year the painting was finished.

With Friday dedicated to painting, and not feeling up for doing anything else, I reheated some of my leftover pasta and watched Waste Land, an amazing documentary from 2010, which documents two years of work of Brazilian contemporary modern artist,Vik Munoz, who created art with the cooperation of scavengers of recyclables working in Jardim Gramacho, one of the world's largest landfills, serving the metropolis of Rio de Janeiro in Brazil.  Highly recommended.

DAY #6

I woke up Saturday morning feeling a bit better, so I made homestyle potatoes, scrambled with eggs, spinach and onions for breakfast, and then for the six hours that followed, I began working on a new painting:

Note the circles drawn with graphite on top of the triangles below.  I am trying to create a second layer with a different shape and additional blue hues.

It was at this point where I took a break to get out of my apartment and collect my ideas away from the painting.  I ran to get some wine for warming my friend Allison's new apartment as well as for the rest of my evening (leftover pasta dinner + more painting + SNL with host Justin Bieber).

Here's the progress I made after a few heavy pours of wine:

As you'll see in the last two pictures, I introduced some watered down gesso to lighten it up and create another layer, although the first of triangles is still transparent.  Then, I painted a series of white circles on top of a third layer of triangles.  The picture, unfortunately, does not do the painting justice since all of the original layers and shapes are still visible.

Nevertheless, it was starting to get a bit messy and confusing, so I stopped here, watched SNL (which was just okay), and then turned in for the night.

DAY #7

Now Sunday afternoon, I am into the last stretch.  I have less than $40 for the last three full days.  I am also running low on milk, lunch food, and most importantly, coffee.  However, I have decided to finish my challenge by not spending any of my remaining money and instead be as resourceful as possible, so stay tuned for the last three days as well as more painting!

Happy Sunday!!

Living on $100 for 10 days: DAYS #3/4

Day three and four of my ten day challenge were basically one long and blurry day.  As I mentioned in my last post, we held our annual conference at work this week.  On Wednesday (day three) and Thursday (day four), over 300 afterschool leaders from every state in the country came to DC to participate in sessions, workshops and plenaries where they learned about the state of afterschool in the nation, how to advocate for resources and support for afterschool, and then on the second day, they stormed Capitol Hill to participate in nearly 220 meetings with their Members of Congress (or their staffers).  Both days were early mornings and late nights, and thankfully, they were also filled with a lot of complimentary food!!

I managed to not spend any of my (remaining) $95 the entire third day of my challenge, and it wasn't until last night (Day #4), after I got back home, that I miraculously caught a second wind to cook a fantastic meal and enjoy a few beers with some painting and NBC's Thursday night line-up.  As best as I can remember and through the blur of our conference at work, here is a short recap for how day three and four of my ten day challenge went:

DAY #3

Breakfast

I had a very hefty bowl of cheerios and some very strong coffee, of course!  I almost had a second bowl since I knew the day was going to be long, and when you work a national conference, the timing of lunches and dinners can be unpredictable.  Nevertheless, the hefty bowl and a lot of milk kept my hunger subsided until I managed to sneak away for a lunch.

Lunch

Around 1:30pm, I was able to grab a box lunch (roast beef sandwich with chips, a soda and some cookies) from the buffet tables.  It was filling, and it was free!  I had two sandwiches, actually...

Happy Hour / Dinner

Oddly enough, my happy hour was my dinner.  For the evening reception at our conference, we held a private screening of Brooklyn Castle for our participants and special guests.  Starting at 7pm and for the 45 minutes that followed before the film, we had an open bar and light hors d'oeuvres (read: cheese, crackers, veggies and dip, and dessert items).  I filled my small plate with as much as it could fit--skipping the deserts entirely.  I stayed through the first half of the film (in my defense, I had watched it four times already).  Brooklyn Castle is an incredibly moving film about the most winning chess team, which is an afterschool program in a Brooklyn public school.  If you haven't seen it, I highly, highly recommend it.

About half way into the film, a few of my coworkers and I finished our drinks and packed up the things we needed to return to the office.  Once we were back and unloaded, I thought I was going to fall asleep standing up, so I walked home in an effort to save my $95 for another day (I should have cabbed home).  This only managed to wear me out even further to the point where I unabashedly tucked myself in bed at 9:15pm.  The only thing on my mind at that point in the night was the 5:30am wake I had the next morning for our second full day of the conference on Capitol Hill.  Alas, no painting occurred on day three..

DAY #4

Breakfast

I skipped my morning routine and instead settled with as much sleep as possible before I needed to be at the hotel by 7am.  No pressure, really, but I was responsible to make sure all of our 300+ conference participants made it on one of the five buses we chartered to schlep them to the Hill for our Breakfast of Champions.  Thankfully, they all made it on a bus by 7:45am, which gave us all enough time to arrive early, grab a small breakfast and some coffee at the Breakfast, and settle into a seat before it kicked off at 8:30am. 

Lunch

Lunch did not happen until 1:30pm, which was an incredibly long stretch from the 7:45am breakfast consisting of an egg sandwich, a few pieces of fruit and some coffee.  I managed to save myself from going into my pocket for this particular lunch and instead used some of the petty cash I was provided for the conference.  Had I spent my money, it would have been $6.87 for a small cup of chili, a side salad and a Fresca.  That's a pretty good deal, and thankfully, we didn't go far to get it or wait long.  

We concluded our events that day around 4pm, and by then, I was exhausted and had been on five Hill visits with the team from the Utah Afterschool Network.  We had some great conversations with Hill staffers from both Senator's offices and three Congressmen's offices.  The team of four from Utah informed a lot of the Hill staff we met with, but it was a tough set of visits (four out of five were Republicans), AND in this political economy, it's incredibly difficult to ask for level (not even increased) funding for afterschool programs - regardless of the Member being Democrat or Republican.  Alas, Utah has a few Members of Congress who support afterschool programs in their state, and the group ended the day of visits on a very positive note with their strongest supporter from the Utah delegation.

Happy Hour / Dinner

I left Capitol Hill and headed home to enjoy a relaxing night.  At this point, the $95 was burning a hole in my pocket because I was craving a well-cooked and nourishing meal, a few beers to celebrate a long week and NBC's Thursday night line-up.  Since I started this challenge, I had eaten simple breakfasts, okay lunches and dinners on the go (or hardly at all).  I think I deserved going into my pocket a little bit for some groceries and beer.

Once home, I immediately shed my suit and tie and headed to the store for what I needed to make dinner.  For the entire afternoon, I had been thinking about the leftover ground beef from when I made the Seven Layer Dip for Super Bowl Sunday, and since I am on a tight budget in this challenge (or at least, that's the challenge), I thought it best to utilize what I had already, so my mind was lazer focused on making meatballs and homemade pasta sauce to also go with a box of whole wheat penne pasta I had in my pantry.

I used a fairly simple recipe for the meatballs, which for the most part, called for ingredients I already had on hand.  I just needed to pick up a few additional things to make the sauce, some beer and a couple other items for the rest of the weekend and the following week.  Of course, I forgot to buy coffee, so alas, there is another visit to the store in my near future.  Here's how I did: 

After this trip to the store, I am down to $62.84, and not to get too optimistic, I am nearly half way finished with my ten day challenge!  Not too bad, but I have not yet started my weekend, and I still have a full work week ahead (read: pressures of Happy Hours, seeing friends, dinners, etc).  After making some of the best meatballs I have ever made or had (following this recipe), I inhaled a huge plate of penne pasta covered in my homemade tomato sauce topped with three of the massive meatballs.  I'd like to point out that making this meal was also very purposeful since it has left me with two or three dinner leftovers.

After a few beers while cooking, I was ready to get in some painting before shifting to my couch to watch The Office, so here's the (small) progress I made as well as a sneak peak of the canvas I am painting for Christa--my bestie from another testie:

As you can see, this week did not allow for much progress on my painting, and to be sure, I fell asleep about halfway through The Office (at about 9:15pm).  I woke up this morning (it is now 4pm on Friday - Day #5!) with a terribly sore throat and aching joints.  I attribute this to the previous two days of a lot of talking, walking, time on my feet, and just generally, being dehydrated from all the go-go-go of our conference, so I took a legitimate sick day, stayed home, rested and rehydrated.

By about 10am, I felt good enough to get up and get my day started.  Although I am still feeling under the weather, I felt okay to paint and made a lot of progress, which will be shared in a post this evening recapping Day #5 of my challenge!