Hello Seattle

So I got an early birthday present, a microKorg synth! Heres a little jam along to Hello Seattle Remix by Owl City, enjoy! >:D

Hello Seattle from Gerry Mayer on Vimeo.

How I Painted My Keyboard Coldplay Style

So there it is, my most recent pride and joy. The first real artistic endeavor on my part, at least with paint and paint brush in hand. I just want to take a few moments to explain a little about what the images that you were just bombarded with. I promise that the video was not meant to be like some crazy musical brainwashing, I just had tons of pictures from that told a pretty good story from start to finish. Since the piano in the music video for Coldplay's song "Christmas Lights" has a worn, distressed look about it I tried to think of ways to make a white plastic piano seem like it was not as such.

First I took the bad boy apart, something that as my parents can attest to, I have enjoyed immensely since an early age. It is however, in my more recent years that I have also enjoyed making sure I put said disassembled object back together again with an added bonus of it still working when I'm through. After that, I performed some surgery and removed the electronics from the 3 main parts that I wanted to paint. Then, I went to my local friendly art supply store which will remain nameless for just the sake of being more mysterious this way. You're probably thinking, WHAT WAS IT?! AC MOORE, JO ANN FABRICS, PERHAPS THE ENDLESS STOCKED SHELVES OF WALMART?!?! THE SUSPENCE IS KILLING ME!! AAARRHHGHGGGG!!!!!

*ahem* Allow me to now regain control of this blog.

I bought paints, both spray and a small army of colorful acrylics. I needed to spray prime everything I was going to paint so I started painting everything with a white primer spray paint. After many added coats of paint, and many subtracted braincells from paint fumes, it was time to spray paint it with brown so when I wore away the acrylic paints applied to the top coat, a woody worn and torn look would be accomplished. Finally, I was ready to put some color in the mix and added some green acrylic to the top and bottom. Following that, I dove in to what would be the most difficult part of the project; painting the keys. This was a challenge because I followed a picture of the piano from the video key for key. I had to match the color and then also apply varying degrees of simulated wear to each key. It took a while but after all the hard work I was really pleased with how it came out. I realized that I needed to apply a blue top coat to the top and bottom to pull of the look I was going for and did so. After all that was done I had to add some clear coats to protect the finished product with some spray clear matte paint before I put it all together. Finally, after all the painting was through, I put it all together and it still worked! Bonus added.

Thank you Nostalgia, I won't soon forget you.

On one lazy Saturday night about a week ago I was hanging out with two good friends when we stumbled upon the trailer for the new Winnie the Pooh movie that is coming out this July. Then... WHAM! It hit me like a grand piano falling from a crane, 8 floors up above the sidewalk on to my unassuming self with headphones on probably listening to Coldplay. I heard the voices from Winnie the Pooh, Rabbit and Tigger. Voices that I have not heard for 10 or more years. Familiar voices, ones that I grew up with. Evoking fond memories that sent me back to a time of unconditional feelings of comfort and safety. My childhood. Something more forgotten in some ways then I would like to admit. This quote inspired me to write this post:

"If ever there is a tomorrow when we’re not together, there is something you must always remember. You are braver than you believe, stronger than you seem, and smarter than you think. But the most important thing is, even if we’re apart, I’ll always be with you.”
-Winnie the Pooh

The only time I have ever had this same familiar feeling is when I remember watching family videos of my grandparents all of which I lost at a very young age except for my very vivacious 88 year old Grandmom. I feel like the memories of people you lose always stay relatively vivid whereas, their voices are something we can not help but forget. They are as unique as snowflakes and we don't even realize we forget the sound of their voices until we go back and hear them again. Hearing their voices again is almost haunting, but in a Casper the Friendly Ghost kind of way. As soon as you process this strange yet recognizable sound, memories of them rush back into your head and freeze in your mind like the first breath of cold winter air you take when you step outside. If you have gone through this then you'll know what I'm talking about. With Thanksgiving past and this holiday season coming up, make sure to take videos with your loved ones. Pictures might be worth a thousand words but videos are worth the rest of what you can't fully dare to describe with words and maybe more; in the case of loved ones that have died, a little taste of heaven borrowed and brought back down earth.

Even if you're apart, They will always be with you.

Friday Sessions

Last week was a Perfect Storm of mindless work and late nights yet through all the dark rain clouds a light appeared on the horizon, it was Friday, a lighthouse, tangible yet so out of reach. My weekly reminder to trudge through another mundane work week. As expected it turned out Friday was awesome. But I'm not telling you why. Ok, ok, I'll give you 3 clues:






Alright so maybe that last clue wasn't relevant, just awesome.. anyway. Last Friday I was attached to my desk/studio wannabe for several hours because as you can probably guess, something musical is in the works. It really amazes me that recording a 3 minute song can take so many hours. I'm not done with it quite yet but everything is coming together pretty nicely and I'm really excited to show it to you. So thats what I've been working on lately, at least when I'm not giving my trusty TI-83 a workout.

So before I forget, I wanted to show you all our apartment's EPIC Halloween decoration.

Since our window in our living room faces half of West Campus and being that this is a Catholic University, we decided to paint a big jack-o-lantern in honor of the great Patron Saint Halloween, made famous for tricking and treating... and cavities. It was really cool at night because we turned on the lights in our room behind it our pumpkin pal would glow just like the real thing. Except bigger..a lot bigger. You should know that it was SO cool that I completely forgot to take a picture from the outside. Ahhhh, I hate when that happens! Since we're on the topic, for Halloween this year I decided to wear a bathing suit,a lei, flip flops, and boxing gloves and went as Hawaiian Punch. What were you? Let me know in a comment below! I promise it doesn't hurt that much. Alright, it will only pinch a little.

The Blog is Back!

Wait, people actually read this? And ENJOY IT?! This little exchange of exclamatory expressions have been forced from your truly ever since I have gotten back from Paris oh so many months ago. Dozens of people have come up to me saying they loved the blog, something I can't believe haha. So I guess in a way that has inspired me to continue. I've realized that I really enjoyed writing these blogs and want to get back to them. But here's a few more reasons why I decided to bring the blog back from its well deserved summer to fall vacation.

There is something valuable about putting your thoughts down on paper, or blogspot paper to reflect on. In the slump of classes it helps me see some progress from week to week from a perspective that is less focused on academics and more focused on my actual life. There actually is life going on besides classes, I know I know, it's hard to believe.

Another reason is that it keeps me motivated to keep my life bumpin' and interesting enough to have stuff that is worth while to post on here!

So this is just an intro and welcome back, or maybe even a welcome for the first time post, but I have lots of interesting stuff to write about that has been going on lately so I'm not going to limit updating this blog to just a certain day of the week that I'll be posting, I'm just going to wing it and go with the flow. Speaking of flow, try this on for size:

While my posts are definitely going to be random in nature, I'm thinking of focusing of a few main topics:

Numero Uno, my music.
If you know me, you know I'm all about it. Listening to it, playing it, making it. I love it and I hope to be sharing some of it with you on here very soon.

Numero Dos?(I didn't take spanish...the truth finally comes out!)
Service Projects
Habitat and such as well as a new project called Power Up Gambia I'll be telling you about soon.

I love fishes cause their so delicious,
-G

Provence Bourgogne: Dijon and Beaune

So 2 weekends ago, we went to the Bourgogne Provence of France. More specifically the towns Dijon and Beaune. We took the TGV (très grand vite or in english: very big fast!!) high speed train to get there. The TGV goes 300+ kilometers per hour or about 186 miles per hour. It was really cool to whiz through the beautiful country side of France. First, we walked around Dijon and one of the teachers at CIEE, our school here, gave us a big tour all around the town. We went to an open air market which was bumpin' on a saturday afternoon. It was also like 100 degrees which was not so fun. However we got to see a bunch of old historical buildings and churches. Also, mustard was obviously purchased. Chris and I ate lunch at McDonald's and it was so so good. I had a Big Mac and you better believe I 'had it my way' which coincidentally, is how they make it normally. Luckily for them I had it my way and we didn't have any beef, except that of which was between 3 buns. But I digress, Dijon was nice. We stayed in a really charming old hotel, so charming that I forgot to take pictures. So Dijon, it's worth a visit.


Also I took this picture in a church we visited in Dijon, I think its my favorite church picture so far, I really like the candles that are lit in the churches here. Très classe.


The next day we went to Beaune. Beaune is famous for 2 things, its colorfully tiled rooves, and its wine. We visited an old medieval chateau in the town pictured above, with very colorful tiles on its roof. After we toured around the town, which I think was nicer than Dijon, we went to a wine tasting. It was an interesting experience but I can't really say I know what is good wine and what isn't. That essentially wraps up my weekend trip. There were two main themes, extreme heat and very charming towns.

Sorry I'm going to update soon!

In the meantime enjoy this lovely sunset in the Marais section of Paris.