Washington D.C.

I spent a good amount of time living in our nation's capitol and looked forward to heading back to Georgetown for a week for work. My co-workers and I try to do something "fun" during these events and we actually rallied for a Monuments by Moonlight tour. I've seen most of the monuments before, but it was a great experience to check them out at night and actually receive some commentary about them. The one thing I did not miss about the east coast... the humidity. We arrived for a hot, hazy and humid streak and I forgot how miserable that can be. Someone said that i must be used to it. Absolutely not... I may be familiar with it, but NO ONE gets used to it.

Ethan Hawke's "The Hottest State"

Finishing up with the local farmer's market the other weekend, I walked into a used bookstore for something to read. I had a couple of particular author's in mind, but the pickings were slim. Somehow, someway, a novel by the thespian Ethan Hawke jumped out at me. It's a short and easy read... telling the story of a young actor in NYC and his head over heels romance (if you can call it that) over one particular summer. Apparently, Ethan also wrote, directed, and acted in the movie (2006).

Tuolomne Meadows, Yosemite, California

This past weekend I had the great fortune of bouldering in Tuolomne Meadows. It's been about eight years or so since I've been there and was looking forward to being there again. It was a short two-day trip with Ngoc and Dave Sotelo, but we were psyched with the a surprise visit from Adrian Ballinger. We don't get to hang out much since he's out of the country guiding most of the time, so it was awesome to chill, hang out in the sun, and climb rocks. Not surprisingly, my favorite place was "The Gunks', which had three really great lines that all finished with the same top-out. Cellulite Eliminator (v7) is an exceptional line... probably in my top five list of boulder problems (in the US, at least). We've got some footage of the trip, so we'll see how it edits.

JULIAN PLENTI... is Skyscraper

Interpol's frontman Paul Banks has just released a solo album under the alter-ego of Julian Plenti. Plenti was started before Interpol became more widely know, as an artistic outlet for Banks. Apparently, Banks personally laid tracks to all in the sounds in Julian Plenti... is Skyscraper as a solo effort. The album starts off strong with "Only if You Run" (embedded here) and has a familiar Interpol vibe. But it continues, Paul, er, Julian, heads down his own road. Available on iTunes.