To read Dave's past journal entries click here: Old Journal. Otherwise, read the new ones below. And be sure to post comments!
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I usually stay away from political rants...mainly because I don't like to tread on anyone's belief's, but a little because I don't officially know what I'm talking about. I don't think anyone really does though if you really think about it.
I mean, you may know what the candidate SAYS that he stands for, but do you really know what they are going to do once elected? Every President ever in the history of Presidents has probably never done 10% of what they promised. That's a total guess...by the way.
I'm so seriously jaded toward the whole process now that the only reason I really vote is because a lot of people died to give me the right to do so. Not voting would be a big disrespect to all those lives lost...that's my opinion anyways.
So I do my best to try and stay up to date with Obama and McCain, and it is the biggest clusterfuck ever. So much bashing and back and forth on things...no one knows what to believe...One day it's this, the other day it's that...zero consitency.
I can't say enough how weird everything is. I mean, everyone knows how much Bush has raped our country...but no one really ever did anything about it. Yea, some of us musicians traveled around the country speaking out a little...upper level musicians threw protest concerts...but nothing really happened.
No reason to go on and on about him...he's done here soon. I just still can't believe that guy man...
Hope you all are having an easier time...haha.
Is huge. Or maybe he's just huge. I don't know. Actually I do. He's about 20 pounds and 30 inches long at this point and he just hit the 4 month mark.
I know that isn't so out of the ordinary, but he looks big to me.
Plus, lately he's been lifting his head up, rolling around, trying to crawl, trying to talk...it's literally blowing my mind.
And one thing I really underestimated when I decided to release this album, is how much time I really wanted to spend with the little guy. I thought, "Oh, nothing will change...no big deal..." But I seriously want to be around him every second....except for when he's screaming bloody murder of course :)
Howie Huffman. Haha...still can't believe it.
dave
So...I got this new phone and I'm using it to write this blog. It's actually the Sprint version of the iPhone. I imagine the iphone is much better, but this one is still pretty sweet.
Something Fantastic fest is this weekend...gonna be some fun times.
Oh, Derek and I started a fitness contest about 6 weeks ago and he's killing me. I'll keep you posted
In our house. He loves it. This morning, Shawnda woke up, went downstairs to make Howie a bottle, and all I heard was "Oh my god..."
All over our favorite rug, and for some reason it was splattered on the fridge. Well, it's because he hiked his damn leg up and let it go on our fridge.
It's Howie's bedtime and I just bathed him and did the whole bedtime routine and I just heard him break out into full scream which means none of it worked.
Hold on...
Ok, I think I got it.
Wait, nevermind...he's screaming again.
Now I have him bouncing on my lap to the new cd.
I don't think he's going to bed.
What age are you supposed to stop swaddling? It's starting to look ridiculous, because he's longer than the blanket now, so his feet hang out of the bottom of it. But it still seems to work well...My mom told me the other day that I shouldn't be doing it anymore...but it seems that everyone has a different way.
We were told by some family to start giving him cereal in his bottles last month, but the doctor almost shot me when I asked him if that was ok. He said your supposed to wait until they're 6 months or else they could develop skin problems, etc.
Holy crap...Minor Keys really are sad. Demons was just playing and about 30 seconds in, Howie broke into full on cry...either that or he thinks it sucks :)
The other day, a lady with her son saw Howie and said "Awww, he's so cute...how old is he 8 or 9 months? He's so cute! Mine is 7 months!"
Shawnda looked at the person, confused because Howie was twice the size of the other baby, and said "He just turned 3 months..."
He's so big that I've been holding him up on his legs because I think he's going to stand up and just walk off.
It really does go fast.
And, he's sleeping :)
Sweet.
-dave
We're gonna miss him...but he has to back out for a little while (hopefuly) until he can get some things straightened out, mainly with work and school.
We used to make a really good living with music only, but they were mostly what we called "side-gigs." Where we'd go play a bar or something for money and play mostly cover songs...in one instance, we traveled the country playing for a chain called The Lodge Bar. From that experience, I felt exactly what it's like to be a whore on the street. It's mind numbing bullshit...horrible horrible experience.
Getting paid to do something you really don't want to do, that probably feels kind of good at first, but after awhile you're like "alright, let's get this over with," before every trick.
They literally gave us a list of songs to play, that they called their "Homerun Songs." And I bet you can guess what they were...EVERY SINGLE BAND PLAYED THE EXACT SAME SONGS...Bon Jovi, Poison, Journey, etc.
That paid my mortage and car payment for a year and a half...then my concious started to fight back and I quit...Bobby eventually followed suit.
So...we've put way more concentration into Jakob Freely & the MTB, but that doesn't always make much money, you do a lot of things for exposure, etc. And Bobby's not really in a position right now to take any sort of paycut.
So come say a temporary goodbye to him either July 25th (Nino's in Findlay, OH) or July 26th (the House of Crave in Columbus, OH) and go HERE to our YouTube page and watch a couple of videos starring him.
So we have another dog. Yes, the dogfarm is growing.
His name is Rusty and he's a huge ass Golden Retriever. Probably at least twice the size of Louie. He's every bit of 130 lbs. HUGE Ass dog.
He snores really super loud and he has really bad arthritis. But, he's a great dog. We're only watching him for the Summer, by the way. Shawnda ran across an Ad for someone who was recently divorced and the ex-husband backed out on the dog care duties, so she had no where to turn.
So, Shawnda to the rescue!
Now, I know for sure that I don't want three dogs. Especially, three big ass dogs. Jeez...they are always following us around, right on our heels...I've almost tripped over them a hundred times.
Boring blog, I know. But I thought you'd be interested to know that I actually do write about things that happen to me. We really do have a growing Dogfarm :)
-dave
Maybe. I don't even know when the last blog was. Let's see if I can do one every other day for the next month.
Before I go any further, I need to share this with you because I think it's hilarious:
I posted this picture to our Myspace page and captioned it as our encore. It looks as though we have found the portal to the 5th dimension and rocketed ourselves into the future.
My friends and I always used to joke about doing something like that if you were caught in a compromising situation, like masturbating or something. We would tell the story, but we were the only ones that thought it was funny, so it'd make for an awkward few seconds.
Imagine how confused someone would be in this scenario:
They walk in to your room, you're whacking off or something to some real crazy sick stuff, and you get up buck naked and run through a super bright lighted portal (like the one above in the picture) that opens in your closet and escape right in front of their eyes.
Shawnda will yell at me and call me weird for posting that, but I don't care, I've been laughing about it all day. Maybe it's because I'm slap happy...plus, I'm kind of weird myself.
So Howie's getting pretty big. I've been making him try and stand on his own two feet lately...the quicker I can get him to walk, the earlier I can stop mowing the lawn and doing stuff around the house.
My parents had me mowing the yard at 7 years old. And it was an old ass 80's push mower...that shit weighed like 2 tons and I had to mow straight uphill. Ok, maybe not that dramatic...but it was tough.
And Howie will be doing the same thing.
Doing dishes, laundry, I think I even cooked dinner around 8 years old or so...
Well, unless Shawnda disagrees, then I guess I'll still be doing it. But it would be good for him :)
So anyways, Cd Release show coming up on July 26th in Columbus, OH at the House of Crave. If you've already purchased the cd, you get a FREE ticket...so be sure to message me and I'll send you one.
If you haven't purchased the album, you can get a ticket for $5 and when you get to the show, you can get the album for $5. How's that sound?
Love,
David
So, if you haven't noticed, I've been pretty bad about keeping the site updated for the last month or so. It's been much easier for me to log into Myspace and throw some updates on there. But I'll be better about it. If I can get the office cleaned before Howie wakes up, I'll throw another song up on the Bedroom Demos page in the next couple of days.
I'm starting to enter into what our Producer/friend Josh Antonuccio calls "The Marathon Season." And no, I'm not training for the Boston Marathon or some 5K or something. I'm talking about with raising a child. He explained it that a marathon is much to far for our bodies to run, but people finish them all the time because at a certain point, your mind just takes over and keeps your body running.
Every once in awhile you'll see someone just tumble over because their legs finally say "Fuck Off!" and stop running. But I digress.
Since I work from home, I take the night shift with Howie. So I haven't really slept in a month or so. An hour here, two hours there, zero hours every once in awhile. It's slowly starting to chip away at my sanity.
Which will do a couple things for me: 1. Turn me into an asshole and 2. I'll churn out a few good songs here pretty soon.
I've already turned into an asshole...Shawnda will tell you that. But I haven't churned out any songs. I almost did yesterday, then the Howster broke out into full cry.
I'm slowly getting it under control though. I've become a master at swaddling. I could swaddle an elephant to sleep. And if I can even get 4 good hours of sleep, I've become more productive in a shorter amount of time. So it's definitely an adjustment to say the least.
We took him to the doctor this morning and he was 11 lbs 2 oz and 23 inches long. I think his head has gotten 10 times bigger as well.
Anyways, enough of that.
I just got the pre-masters back from the album and they sound great. We're thinking of giving Dogfarm away as a free download. With hopes that you'll spread it all over and get new people out to shows and on the Freely train.
And Freelyfest is coming up...you really don't want to miss it.
If you're in Columbus, OH maybe you can come out to our House of Crave show on May 23rd. Tickets are only $5.
love,
david
Shawnda and I were so proud of ourselves for about a week. Well, I guess I can't speak for her, but I was. Chest all out...walking around, "Hahaha...I've got this baby thing all figured out!" We had a great system for maximum sleep.
Shawnda would feed him at 9pm. Since I have a harder time getting to sleep, I would feed him at midnight. Then Shawnda would get up and feed him at 3:00 a.m. By then, She had already gotten 5-6 hours of good sleep.
Then I would follow and feed him at 6:00 a.m. Which gave me a good 6 hours or so. And Shawnda would sleep until around 7:00 a.m. or so.
Then the monster developed a reverse schedule. He sleeps all day anyways...I guess all newborns do. But for some reason, lately, he's been getting increasingly agitated at night.
So I think last night we both got a couple hours of sleep...last night, I was in and out and up by 4:00 a.m. Which is kind of cool, I like to be up super early. Makes me feel like I'm kicking ass. But, it's kind of leveled out by the fact that I probably only slept 3-4 hours last night.
We're so edgy and irritable around each other, that we don't even answer one another's questions half the time. I asked her a question yesterday. She looked me straight in the face with zero life in her eyes...then held that for a couple seconds and looked away. It was chilling. I just put my hands up and then remembered I did the same thing to her earlier in the day. Except for I probably ripped her ass about something that I did wrong.
Like the other day when she was on the phone with our insurance agent and needed to make a payment. I couldn't find my wallet and she needed it. So she started ripping my ass with the person on the phone...."I just don't understand how you cannot know where your wallet is!" "You need to be more organized....etc." Then, we found the wallet in the diaper bag where SHE last put it.
Again...I don't know off hand, but I consistently rip her ass in the same ignorant manner. She's better at defending herself than I am though. I always completely forget what I'm going to say...Dane Cook does a really awesome bit about couple fights. It's hilarious.
So, I think Howie is pooping again. He is squirming and whincing behind me...my dad got some cool pictures of Howie's face yesterday while he was trying hard to pinch a loaf. He looks exactly like an adult when he does it too...funny as hell. And it smells like 8 different kinds of hell too...
Pray for us...We're about 5 minutes from turning into zombies.
Funny how it's worth it though.
-dave
p.s. The album hits the mastering house in about 2 weeks....it's taken way longer than I anticipated, but I think it's going to pay off....maybe.
Howie started squirming and making faces today...grunting a bit, here and there. He hasn't pooped in a couple days so we got pretty excited, anticipating a loaded diaper.
So, I got him up on the changing table. Much to my dismay, it was just a ton of number one.
Then I did what I should never do again.
I let my guard down.
He shit all over the place, bare assed with no diaper underneath. It was more shit than I've seen most adults unload. Oh my god, and it was all yellow and baby poopy.
Some of it landed on my hands. I eventually got it under control and got him changed, and as soon as I was finished...grunt, grunt...more poop. Yes, I called the "shit" poop. Same amount, same tenacity and strength.
About an hour later Shawnda is callling for me, saying she needs my help. I can't even get out "What's wrong..." before she rounds the corner dry heaving because Howie just unleashed the beast again.
It blows me away that this little guy can produce things like that. Luckily, they don't smell yet. They just look weird.
More to come...
dave
Last Monday, April 7th, my son Howie Wayne Huffman was born. Pretty crazy day. Shawnda and I got to the hospital around 7:00 a.m and he was born right at 7:44 pm. All 8 pounds 14 ounces of him. He's a hair over 21 inches long.
I predicted he would have a beard upon delivery, because I thought he was in the womb forever...I was wrong. I did, however, almost scream thinking he was born without a face, but the nurse reminded me that they are born facedown...so I was looking at the back of his head when it emerged.
Shawnda is a complete bad ass...I gotta say. She pushed him out in like 28 minutes and it didn't even seem like a problem for her. They told us that she'd would be pushing for like 2 hours...they were wrong. The doc barely even made it.
So we're home with him now. I've taken a couple weeks off to kind of settle into a routine with him. We're up every 2-3 hours throughout the night, feeding/changing him. But other than that, I'd say we've been pretty lucky thus far.
Today, I played him some songs while Shawnda fed him. I think he likes acoustic Radiohead covers...he went right to sleep during a rendition of "Fake Plastic Trees."
Other ones I tried are "Amsterdam," and "Ramona," by Guster and "Lunacy" by none other than Jakob Freely.
He's lying right in the middle of us in bed right now. I'm typing on my laptop...I think his feeding time is growing nearer. Yep, 30 minutes away.
Anyways, I'm super scatter brained right now...so this blog is all over the place I'm sure. I'll check back in, in a day or two. I have some video from the delivery room...not the gross stuff. Just some early labor bantor between Shawnda and I.
We have some tickets available for a show at the House of Crave in Columbus, OH on May 23rd. It's an all ages show again and the tickets are only $5. Purchase one for my son's future. Oh man, I'm going low on that one...
-dave
I was working in the office yesterday and Shawnda yells "Daaaaaaaaaaaaavid!" then again "Daaaaaavid!" So I yell back a loud "Whaaaaaaat!?" Thinking my son was on his way. Then she said "There's a god damn Owl on our back fence!" I immediately picture the typical picture of an owl and ran down stairs.
But it was some kind of Hawk. It didn't look anything like an Owl! Not even close. So I opened the window to take a shot at it...I mean a picture of it and it took the biggest bird dump I've ever seen, looked at me, flew off, dumped again, and disappeared into the grey.
It was a big ass bird though. Hey, maybe it was a new version of the Stork...he was just stopping by to signal that my son would be here in a couple of days.
Speaking of that, Shawnda and I went to the hospital Monday night because she was having some pains. I feel bad for her man...she waddles around like an injured duck and she doesn't hardly complain at all. She doesn't sleep, eats every 15 minutes, and goes "Ow, ow, ow, ow!" every so often from these Braxton Hicks contraction things. Well, maybe not that often, but it seems like it.
We were in line at Kroger the other day and the lady said, "When are you due?" And Shawnda pulled the old "What do you mean?" And it got real uncomfortable for a minute and the lady's face got super red...then Shawnda went "Gotcha Bitch!" Well, close...she just laughed. And mentioned about how she'd never thought she'd have Cankles...and now she has them or something. I don't think she has Cankles...but if you ask her, she thinks she has some mean ass cankles.
Shawnda's pretty good at messing with people. One time we were at a hotel and we got on the elevator and hit floor 12. Some drunk black dude went "Oooooh, white girl gets the penthouse sweet! I wish the brotha could get the penthouse sweet!" And Shawnda looked him straight in the eye and said "No, white girl has a handicapped sister and floor 12 was the only one with handicap access..."
Oh man, I thought I smelled poop from him shitting his pants. That was the best I'd ever seen. He seriously apologized and turned away. It was fantastic.
Anyways, back to Howie, today the doctor said Shawnda is "dialated 2 cm" and "effaced at about 80%." So we're going to do some things to help speed along the process. If you've had children, you know what those are. If you haven't, I'm not going to tell you.
I'm also really close to being balls deep in a rain puddle. It's been raining here for like a week straight. And of course, you know that means Louie is ready to start going outside and making trouble. He does it on purpose.
I will fill up his water bowl and he will drink the entire thing and like 15 minutes later, bark at me and run to the door. And he has water all day! I swear he drinks a ton of it because he knows that it'll make him have to piss and he'll be let out because I won't have a choice.
Then he runs back in, tongue and tail wagging happily with mud clear up to his chest. One time he slipped passed me and ran all over the house...oh my god, I almost shit myself. I thought I had it all cleaned up before Shawnda saw it...but that one little spot always gets me.
Anyways, I hope you guys are all doing well. We've been trying our best to lay low before the album comes out so we don't wear out our welcome...but it's close. The big initial round of mixes should be done Thursday. After that we'll do sort of a "proof read" type of listen then it's off to the mastering house.
In June you should be able to purchase them at a pre-sale price. Anyone who buys one will get access to immediately download the album....then the physical copy will arrive in the mail a month later.
See you soon!
dave
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