by admin on July 28, 2010
Spencer Griffin is a 22-year-old Aspie who not only writes a weekly blog reviewing indie music but he also writes poetry, composes his own songs and is studying linguistics at a local JC. He’s planning on recording a CD on his original songs this summer.
3 Quick Questions with Spencer Griffin:
What made you want to start your blog?
“I just figured people might want to know about songs I really like, since only a handful of people seem to already be aware of these songs. This way I can give more exposure to music I feel deserves a slightly bigger audience. The songs I review are relatively new to the airwaves but performed by mostly established artists. Through writing my reviews I hope to engage the reader to seek out and listen.”
When did you start getting interested in indie music?
“It’s a little hard to say…I’ve been listening to Bruce Springsteen, Bonnie Raitt and Rickie Lee Jones since I was in first grade. Typically these artists are not classified as indie however, one day in middle school I discovered a station that played not only their music but others that had that folk-rocky, singer/songwriter-ish sound, and through that I developed a love of indie music.”
If you could spend 1 hour with any musical artist – living or dead – who would it be and why?
“Hooo-boy! That’s a difficult one!!! (long thoughtful pause) Probably John Lennon.”
Why?
“Because I feel like he comes from the same background as I did – being a musician who has poetic, creative ideas, yet doesn’t quite manage to understand people the way a typical musician of his time would.”
What’s Spencer’s latest indie music pick? Read his blog, Spencer Griffin’s New Music Wednesdays. Watch Spencer at an L.A. area poetry slam via YouTube.
by Clayton McComas on May 13, 2010
You probably wonder what that phrase in the title means especially since I use it as a signature on all my texts, emails and on Facebook. It’s a phrase used by our scuba instructor to get us to always breathe underwater, because as he says if you’re not bubbling you’re either sucking in oxygen or holding your breath. The latter can be very bad to do because you can get this thing called an air-embolism, and if it’s bad enough, you can die. Anyway, that’s not the only reason I’m writing this. I was asked to write a little on why my Dad and I dive.
One reason is I had to take a P.E. class for college. My Mom saw a scuba class and asked if I wanted to try it, and of course I said yes! Anyway my Mom signed my Dad up so he would be able take me home, and he didn’t know that at the time.
So we went to the classes and we passed the lecture and lab classes and got certified as beginner divers. About a week after we got our certification card we went to Hawaii for Christmas with our family. We got to dive one day, it was better than some ways than California because the water WAS WARM!!!
And it also had a wide variety of animals. For example: we found a cave with sea turtles, and since it was a shallow cave we each took turns going in, taking pictures, since it’s illegal to touch them intentionally, however they can touch you, which is good because when I went into the cave, one of them hit me on the shoulder! At the time I thought it was my Dad trying to get my attention, but when I looked around I saw a turtle face in my face, and I guess you can say I jumped, or rather since you’re weightless, vibrated a little.
I also swam with a turtle that came from the surface and swam over the back of it, and took a picture of it like I was riding piggy-back on it! From the cave we then swam along a wall with tons of different corral and fish. My favorite ones looked like a unicorn; actually their nickname was The Unicorn Fish! 
The last thing I want to say is, the other great thing about scuba diving, other than it’s another world, is its soooo quiet. Anyway, I hope I gave you a reason to look into diving because it’s so fun!
