Ionrock Dot Org

I have created a quick blog to build an Atom Publishing Protocol implementation. Being as I am an avid fan of Emacs, I am using trying to the one true editor as my blogging client. In addition to Emacs, I am also a big fan of reStructuredText. It is similar to something like Markdown with biggest difference being that RST is a bit more robust and natively supported by Python.

My goal here is to allow me to create a couple tools in Emacs to help me blog while never leaving the comforts of my editor. This will hopefully give me a good reason to really learn Lisp and get a handle on functional programming while making a slick tool. Worst case scenario is I will do the grunt work in Python and leave the Lisp for a convenient keybinding.

To relate all this back to things like work, I am really hoping to find a strong link between blogging and writing documentation. This is a somewhat obvious link for open source projects since most docs stem from blogs before getting codified (if they do at all) in some sort of Wiki or docutils systems. What I would love to see is documentation writers using ePublisher as a tool that lets people blog in something like FrameMaker and publish it to blogs and eventually migrate the same documents to a public wiki or knowledge base.

I am not sure any of it will fly, but it is fun to play with and I have been learning a lot so that is always good.

I have been programming a bit with Pylons and it has been a lot of fun. One aspect that I am enjoying is how simple it is to take a library and create a service of sorts. I am also realizing that I need to practice these sorts of things more. In taking my myspace parser to the web, it has been a challenge to design the application how I would like. A good deal of my frustration is just my lack of experience making Pylons apps and knowing the more subtle aspects. With that said, I have found that I am getting much more productive with it and that definitely makes things fun.

I would also like to see what I can do with dojo. I am not sure what I would want to do with it just yet but I would like to see how the storage tool works. I would also like to make some sort of a client to a service/resource based pylons app. At this point I don't have a good idea for an application but hopefully I can think of something cool to play with.

Last year at CMJ Lauren and I saw them play a rather quiet set and it was amazing. It was the first time in a very long time that we had seen a band that totally blew us away. Since then we have wanted to play with them and have kept in contact. When Lauren was setting up some of the tour shows they were able to put together a show in Chapel Hill where they are from.

The show was absolutely amazing. As a band they play together as though they read each other's thoughts. Their music is expressive and rich. Beyond the music, they are kind and helpful friends that I am proud to know.

Normally when I watch bands play, there is a part of me that is comparing my own performances with the band playing. I am not trying to be critical or competative in doing it. I am just comparing notes. With Bellafea that melts away and I am just a fan. This is a great feeling. If you enjoy music at all, check out Bellafea.

Tonight we played with Aloke at Niagara. It is a bar in NOHO that let us play in its "tiki" room, which is essentially a basement. Walking into the show, Aloke mentioned they had to get things wrapped up by midnight because they had to turn off the music. This made me a bit nervous since rock shows traditionally do run late. I had to park the van, so I was a bit late catching the last song of the first band, Dogme 95. The Americans were next and started a bit late. They were pretty cool. It was a rock sound that reminded me of Sonic Youth without the noisy/art aspect. We were up next and tried our best to make things quick. There were a ton of people, so getting setup was a bit slow. Aloke rocked out afterward but despite our attention to the time they did get cut off. That was lame, but Aloke was a good sport about everything. What was really crazy was the guy that played Kurt Cobain in Last Days was hanging out. We found out that he was friends with Aloke and had our CD before the show. All in all a great night. Thanks to Aloke for setting up the great show.

Last night was the Pretty Activity Records showcase. The show was great but I was feeling a bit sick. The van had gotten broken into at our show in Brooklyn, which was a pain. Fortunately, nothing was taken and insurance is taking care of the damages. The downside is I had to sleep in the van with the equipment and take care of the window in the morning. The result was little to no sleep and me passing out in the van before we played.

What I did see of the show was really good. The Subjects rocked pretty hard and there was a singer/songwriter guy that had a really great voice. Vague Angels played with a full band, which was really cool. I really like Chris Leo with a band because it brings out more in the songs. When I listen to his records the sounds are very interesting, so it is good to hear all the sounds live instead of just an acoustic set.

Tonight we ware playing with Aloke at Niagara. It should be fun and it gets done somewhat early, which is nice because we have a long drive tomorrow. We are playing with one of my favorite bands, Bella Fea. They are absolutely amazing, so I am very excited about it.

So, Ume is one tour at the moment. We are NYC having fun with friends and playing shows. It has been a really great tour so far and we are excited about the rest of the shows. The fans coming out to the shows have really been amazing. This is one of the first times we have had folks at our shows that seem to like us how we like bands. I am not sure if that makes a ton of sense, but if you imagine a band you love and how you watch them play and then imagine youself being in the band watching yourself. Well, hopefully that gives some idea of what I mean. A big thanks goes out to everyone coming out to see us and have a good time.