Family Christmas card 2009

Just in the St. Nick of time! The 2009 Family Christmas card! Let me know what you think of it!

SNOW DAY!

Today school was canceled due to lots of fluffy white snow. My wife set up Muppetts Christmas on her laptop and all the kids crowed onto the couch for a fun morning off!

Pics with Mom and sibs 11-26-09

A9 and Andy came to visit us for Thanksgiving weekend. I SO love hanging out with my sibs. We skated. We jamed. We ROCKED! it was fun. We snapped a few pictures and A9 snapped his board. SNAP! Good thing I have a stock pile of yard sale decks from last summer.

Happy Thanksgiving from Martinellis!

This is how we do! "A wine glass of Martinellis? Don't think so fool! I drink it strait from the bottle YO!"

Every thanksgiving we have several bottles of Martinellis Sparkling apple juice left over. In years past I have just poured it down the drain. I assumed it was full of high fructose corn syrup and other poison. This year I happened to read the ingredients...100% apple juice... and carbonation of course. The carbonation is real bad but finding out that its just apple juice was enough to make me refrain from wasting the excess. After a bottle the room was spinning... "Crap! Did this @#$% ferment???"


Don't worry Ma, it's just apple juice! ;)


Today, I put down a bottle of Martinellis and skated without pads. Livin on the edge SON!

Hail The Sound album cover

In the face of economic down turn...
With a newborn a wife and three other kiddos counting on me to put food on the table...

I have decided there is no better time then the present to try [once again] to "make it" as a performing songwriter. 0% talent 100% PASSION!© I also make weird combinations with my musical gear, take pictures of myself and pretend to be a graphic artist. Oh brother! Here is my subtly offensive album cover.

Facebook notes vol 1

I have decided to included some of my facebook musings here on my blog. Facebook notes vol 1:

11-18-09 10:34am
Shea is vocal training me and it is working!  But I have a long way to go still. I can hit notes real well but holding them is tuff. I over correct and over correct. Vox really are just like any instrument: takes tons of practice. Thoughts? Advice?


11-18-09 10:20am
I think I want to get a piano for the living room.... maybe.

11-17-09 6:07pm
Ladies and gentlemen, please welcome Rory Grace! Eight pounds two ounces! She is a princess! :)

11-17-09 9:02am
...working on my 2009 album. (narrowing it down from around 50 songs. What will make the cut?) ...waiting for a new baby. ... wishing it would warm up so I could skate. ...wishing it would snow (in the mtns) so we could shred (after the new baby comes). My thankfulness increeses exponentially.

11-16-09 11:16pm
Kevin Decker is.

11-14-09 10:02pm
Working on my songs! Wrote two this week. stoked. Over the past few years I have developed a thing for orchestration.

11-13-09 11:44pm
I always want to do everything at the same time.

Hail the Sound

I purchased the Adobe production premium software bundle. My pockets are empty but I have this killer software. Don't know if I will get the full benifit of this powerful platforme but for now I am delighting in the camera raw update that comes with photoshop CS4. It has enabled me to open a few ".cr2" photos that were taken at the best ever Hail the Sound gig. Me, my sister, brother and cousin had the opertunity to rock together. We're a family band! At least we were, for one shining moment! Now the sibs have gone off to collage and my cuz has been consumed by the City. Cuz is a 911 dispatcher and for the moment has no life outside of the PD. "crrrk we have a 411 on the nothing is blog... over. crrrk". "crrk rodger that. crrk". Side note: one of our other friends on the force was bass player and co conspiritor in ,SMA. SMA was a killer band that I was in some years back the likes of wich the world will never see again. Liten to SMA Here. End side journy. Hail the sound is now pretty much just me, doing my Trent Reznor thing wrighting tons of music and wondering if the world will ever care. At the front part of 2009 Hail had the opertunity to open for Autumns Chase another cool band in which I loved playing drums. End second side note. Here are some cool pics taken by my friend Seth from Hoptocopter at the infamous Hail show earlier this year.

Rocktober 09

October 2009
In a effort to get back on board with my blog I have prepared a little October 2009 recap. This is how it all went down... at least this is the way I remember it. The names are the same because no one is innocent. Bam! October started with the fall 7 days self portrait shoot out. & days is a photo group I belong to over on flick-r. here are my entries:

This was my day pic. Flikr actually used this pic as a "feature pic" what ever that means. All I know is it got a lot of extra hits as a result.



This was my day two pic. People in the group said this pic scared them.


I missed day three this was day four. I wanted a silhouette with the soft box in the shot... well there ya go.


I missed day five and seven here is day six. Long exposure at dusk, cell phone... yep.








October 09 continued on. The leaves turned and then fell. I did a few photo shoots fro friends and did a ton of local Television commercial production. As usual I started a few musical compositions and practiced electric guitar like a mad man. It was much of what you would expect from a Kvon October. What I did not see coming was a 24 hour stomach bug and the uh.. swine flu!?!? These inconvenient illnesses hit me one week apart, each put me on my back with less than enough strength to move and BOTH had their low point on Saturday. I have a gig every saturday playing guitar at a church that has about 3000 members. yep, I played two gigs totally sick as a dog, I learned first hand the true meaning of "The Show MUST go on". On top of all that my whole family got hit with said illnesses. No fun... no fun at all! Since we were sick we stayed in on Halloween and watched "It's the Great Pumpkin Charlie Brown". We are over the sick stuff now. Hopefully we have the immune system of super heros!

The boys are very talented, they draw and create all kinds of lego masterpieces. The other night when I was tucking B in he informed me that he is "a genius" to which I replied " yes, yes You are"

I purchased a line 6 M9 in October and love it. If you play guitar, get one... or two.
I still have a weak spot for Gibson les paul standard guitars. I have been watching ebay and saving my money.

I organized my garage and my studio.

I have a plan to tear down my ramp and build a full on vert backyarder!

D is doing very well at his new school.

Mommy is going into labor any day now.

We got hooked on Battle Star Galactica and then I got mad at it and for now I have very little interest in watching it any more.

I met some cool producers here in Happy valley.

I watched my Kook friends awesome coverage of their awesome trip to Cali to skate with Cab.

I decided persons on Social security are not allowed to send spam emails bad mouthing other government systems. I don't believe in government, I just believe in me.

I learned that the simple rebellious saying "Shut up and skate" is profound and may be the answer to 48.6 percent of the worlds problems.

So that was my October 09. It came to pass and pass it did... with the joy and fragrance of a good flatulation and ya know what... MAN do I feel better! :)

10,839 feet above sea level! Color Sunday 2009

My kiddos.



Princess S.



The kids with Grandma (my mom).



Smile boys!



They were disipointed to find out we had no plans to take this boat out on the lake.



The D man.



Two boys and a boat.



Big B.



Big B.
"I told you so" ... that's what she said. She in this case is my sweet wife. She told me I would be sorry I did not bring my 5d mark II on our little expidition. Color Sunday is sure to be a photo op. I decided to bring our old camera, it's lighter and smaller but not up to the level of the 5d mark II. In the end the sb800 flash saved the day. Here are a few pics of my family!

"well, what do ya know!?"

That's what my son D said tonight when I found his Game Boy advance charger right where he had left it. For our purposes the expression means "Well what do ya know, an actual blog post". Yes, I have been away from the blog for quite some time now. I have been busy playing and writing music, being a Dad and even skateboarding. It has been a whirl wind summer. In June 2009 I was skateboarding about three to six hours per day, playing music two to four hours per day. In July I began to notice several growing injuries so I dialed my skating back a bit and started practicing Guitar two to ten hours per day. I got a regular gig playing guitar out at a local church. I have met some great people. This gig has given me a reason to progress. I hope to have solid guitar skillz by this time next year. I am still skating, just about every day. I will never quit. I love it. There is just no need to push it too hard. Skate, get stoked and then rest! More posts to come SOON!

V6 Flyer returns from Infamy!

It was 1992 (or there about) I was playing in a band called "V6" with skater / musician friends; Captain Payne and Jason Larson. We were a mix of Primus, Red Hot Chilli Peppers, Fishbone, Janes Addiction and Rage Against the Machine. Early on we played a gig at the now razed Liff Auditorium. Liff was on the campus of Mesa State College. It was a small, poor sounding venue with nothing going for it. If you had a local band in those days, Liff was the only place to throw a show. I had butter flies. Half the time I was scared stiff to go on stage. Some how I made it through. Over the years I played Liff shows with many different bands. Now I get depressed if a week goes buy without being on stage... any stage.. anywhere. I just love to rock. Any instrument any kind of music. V6 was my first band to make a unified sound. Most groups just make noise, but a "sound", now that is a beautiful thing!

The other day my cousin showed up to Hail practice with this old V6 flyer. We had a few laughs over the content. Thinking back, I took that picture into a mirror then we photocopied the pic to enlarge and scribbled all the info. Now I have a career in marketing and production... ironic.

Thanks for the flyer Big Wolfe.

Birth-Day-Sesh!

"Girl you know I,I,I.."
"Girl you know I,I,I.."
"I've been feenin"
"wake up in the late night... dreamin' about your lovin"

"Birthday sesh"
"Birthday sesh"

What? Isn't that the way the song goes?

Well the first line of the song is:

"It's your birthday so I know
"You want to Riide out"

As far as I can tell its a song about a Skate session!
I took the songs advice and had a birthday session of my own in Aspen Colorado. The Vert bowl gave me a little too much lovin... I still feel it. A9 captured a few slams and makes on vid. They hurt a lot worse than they look. At the end of the day I landed six inverts on the 9' with vert. I am stoked! The featured backing track to the vid is my new song "The saboteur"

You're never too old for a lil Birthday Sesh!
"Riide out!"

Birthday Sesh. Aspen CO July 2009 from kvon on Vimeo.

WARNING! AWESOMELY BAD VIDEO CONTENT... on the way to the skatepark.

My brother and I took a lil skate trip up to Snowmass and Aspen, old news, I know... but here's something new: On the way we rolled 32 gigs of binary code. I sent the footy with my lil bro A9 to edit. What he sent back makes Dumb and Dumber look Genius. omg. Four video shorts so far. Get out your lap top and have a seat on the throne because this is "The Bathroom youtuber!"

Flashback to June 2009

It took me a while to start cutting footage from my Spring skate voyage. Here is a fun mellow vid from X-court Skate park in Glendale AZ. This was the last day of our trip. We had a blast. A thousand "thank yous" go out to everyone who helped make that vacation the perfect way to start the 2009 summer!

X-court June 2009 from kvon on Vimeo.

Aspen /Snowmass Colorado. The 4th of JULY!

Up AT the crack of dawn. Drive for 2+ hours. Skate. Drive. Skate. Drive! It was a fun filled 4th, and that was just the morning! My brother "A9" and I pulled off a sneak attack on the crete at Aspen and Snowmass yesterday morning! It was a good, no.. it was a GREAT time! I will do it again FO-SHO! Here are some shots to document our celebration for INDEPENDENTs!


A9 Drops at Snowmass . This pool simulation bowl was so RAD! The shallow end was real tight but still ride-able! The waterfall was steep! This bowl was challenging in all the right ways. It gave us nothing for free! I would like to ride this thing every day and get good on it.


Snowmass is just around the corner from Aspen. This park was built by Dreamland Skateparks. It truly is a dream to ride. But watch out for the water from the sprinkling system. It leaches in through the concrete cracks and can turn this dream into a nightmare! The city of Snowmass should seriously check into this before it becomes a problem.


Snowmass skatepark. View #2


Snowmass skatepark. "B.F.B."Big fun Bowl


I would love to have this in my back yard!


I took it easy. The bigger bowl was a bit intemidating. I wanted to keep it fun and that means NOT getting hurt! I threw a few micro backside airs and called it good!



Another BS air in the bigger bowl.



Kvon Pivot in the bigger bowl at Snowmass.



Victory! "The hairy pit old man hath skated The and walketh away to skate another day!"


Commonly miss-referred to as "Butt-pencil" THIS, is a little place called Aspen COLORADO!
Colorado Combi! Two 6'+ rounds and a 9' or 10' square! OH-SO-SMOOTH! I love this Bowl!



Kvon back side Carve.


Shot of the park surroundings.



I love this town!


4' to 6' area. Tons of lines! THe Locals kill it, and you will too!


The big tile extension.



A9 with a cool fly-out!


This little bowl is RAD for beginners. It just ROCKS!


We returned home tired and happy, ready to light some fire works! I hang out with my wonderful family then we grilled steaks with our good friends Jim, Allie, Honor and Eden. We lit fire works in the street in front of our house then walked down to the community overlook to watch the city burn some $. It was a good day!