NEW PROJECT!!!

Hey, Ya'll! Got the landing page up for the new project I am working on, Naarah Black. Really stoked with how its going! Be in the studio for the next few months working on it but check out the single!!

http://www.naarahblack.com

thanks

greg.

Sorry folks what can I say.... life happens. We are still alive, we have not fled the country or been forced to go into hiding. (Not yet anyways.)

Rather than try to captivate you with verbal ramblings describing the events and happenings of the Downs household over the last several months I've decided to bombard you with imagery (infused with captions when necessary) otherwise no one will make it to the end of this blog, myself included.

A few highlights if you will....


The family at opening night at my exhibition at Gallery UAF... Sid's favorite part was the refreshments! Thanks everybody who came!

For Simon's birthday the whole Downs crew went to Hogle Zoo...

Road trip to Zion with my sis...









The tree was something we found on a back road
outside Zion and had to stop and photograph it.




Making friends along the way!


Standing at the Lower Emerald pools.








Lot's of Rocking out! Greg's has had ton's of gig's lately!

Greg at Addicted Cafe...
I know it's hard to see, but it was
so packed that night this was
as close as me and Sid could get,
so we had to cheer from the back.



And of course when your a kid what is summer without parades?













Fort Douglas...













Downs reunion at Bear Lake, a family favorite!

The bunk-room! Sid was really excited to sleep on the top bunk!

Playing a little one on one baseball.









Heading to the opera with my sis....













More art shows! Pieces exhibited at the Gittin's gallery and the Pickle Company...













We've stayed super busy lately! Greg's new album is out, you can find it on i-tunes. He's also been experimenting with orchestration for film scoring and is starting up a new project with his old drummer Clay, which he's really excited about. Sid has been way into baseball this summer, reading the Hobbit, and playing Age of Mythology. I'm almost done with the semester for the summer (yeah!) and just finished up a new series in the darkroom.

Hopefully that catches us up a wee bit!

Wow!  We are doing good... a new post!!!

On Friday Greg played at Addicted Cafe.  Sid and I decided to go out on the town, it being Friday night, and went down to join in the festivities.  It was a lot of fun!  Greg had a great turn out and the wonderful baristas supplied Sid and myself with free drinks and bags of kettle chips throughout the night.  Greg of course sounded amazing and had good time playing.  We always love it when he plays the cafe's because it means the whole family can go and Sid gets a real kick out seeing Greg play.  He also makes a great roadie and feels pretty cool helping Greg load up the car after the show. 

We were planning on escaping to Moab for the weekend for a little family get away, however thanks to the wonderful winter-like weather we decided to post pone the trip.  But, we couldn't be content not going somewhere so Saturday afternoon we spontaneously opted to take a "Down's Roadtrip."  For the most part "Down's Roadtrips" consist of  choosing a destination full of possible photographic adventures, strange side roads and of course treats for the car.  Needless to say 5 camera's, 10 rolls of film, 2 laptops, 1 tripod, an assortment of cables, a small overnight bag, 1 child, 2 adults, an assortment of cd's and TREATS we found ourselves headed west on the good ol' I-80.  After only one strange side road photo journey, and a philosophical discourse on mirages in the desert we arrived at the Salt Flats.  It was Sid's first time to the flats and he thought it was pretty strange.  After running around and taking strange photographs we decided we might as well head onto Wendover, (why not?)  Needless to say we all agreed Wendover was stranger than the Salt Flats.  After exploring the old airforce base we decided we had most likely seen the best of Wendover and headed home.  It was an excellent Saturday adventure.  We got home just as the snow was really hitting and settled in for dinner around the fireplace.  

This week has been nice.  Thank goodness for Spring Break!!!  I've enjoyed getting some extra sleep, drawing castles with Sid, and working on projects I haven't had time for lately.  Sid's Spring Break started today.  He say's he's going to miss his friends, but he's really excited to get in some extra pokemon battles, going to see Grandma Tana and Grandpa Joel and of course the upcoming infamous Johnson Easter extravaganza!  My Grandpa is renowned for his overly challenging Easter egg hunt.  It usually involves scaling rooftops and climbed extremely tall pine trees.  Sid looks forward to it every year!

That's all for the Down's Posse.  Hope you all have a great Easter weekend! 

THE DOWNS FAMILY SYNOPSIS....

I know we suck!  But in an attempt to make amends for our horrible blogging habits I am now giving you the highlights of the Downs family since our last blog (I know December was a long time ago!)

I know this may be hard to imagine but, we have been busier than our usual busy self’s. December ended with a bang, Christmas was awesome and it was so nice for all of us to be home together for a few days relaxing.  This year Sidney was at his dad’s for Christmas Eve so Greg and I opted to have a nice evening at home around the fire instead of our usual visiting marathon.  We had my cousin Bruce over for dinner and had a great night.

January was incredibly busy for us!  It usually is so we try and gear up for it.  Sidney turned 7 and had an awesome party with his buddies from school!  I don’t think my house had ever been so crazy… but it was a fun time!  After his awesome karate tournament in December he received a belt promotion.  He is now a high blue belt! He’s is so funny, he is desperately trying to teach Greg and I his moves, but is always disappointed with our lack of flawless execution.  

I started another semester at the U.  This semester I have a 3D design studio, a 2D color theory studio and a Photographic studio class.  Auuugghhh!  (That is the sound of exhaustion!) So needless to say the last couple of months I have been simultaneously working on three major pieces at a time and preparing for an upcoming exhibit (I have an opening in March with some fellow photo dorks.)  It’s a good thing I have such a supportive little family.  Greg and Sid sure help out!  Sid is awesome at always going to the studio with me and helping me with various shoots.  He likes to make suggestions... it's pretty funny.

Sundance time came again!  Every year Greg is contracted to go make musicians of all walks of life sound amazing!  It makes for a really long week and a half.  He’s gone everyday from about 9am until about 4am for the whole festival.  No one get’s much sleep at our house for about 10 days. However, it’s a small price to pay for being married to such a talented guy!  This year Greg was pretty excited to guitar tech for Slash.  I guess it’s not everyday that you get to play Slash’s guitar!  Sid now has his guitar pick and treasures it!  He plans on making it into a necklace.  The other day he used it to play his guitar and was so worried that he was going to damage it.  For myself the highlight of Sundance this year was hanging out with Neil Young.  It was the coolest musical moment I’ve had so far.  I’m such a dork!  I didn’t dare say anything to him… I just knew whatever I said it would come out wrong.  It is slightly intimidating standing next to a rock legend.  So instead I just hung out side stage with him and the rest of C.S.N.Y. and participated in a sing a long of “Keep on Rockin’ in a Free World.”  It was most certainly some of the coolest 30 minutes of my humble existence. We sang, bumped elbows, smiled at each other and just rocked out!  I know I probably sound like a nerd… but after all it was Neil Young.  I’m sure Cody knows exactly what I mean when I say that.

February came…  and about a week before Valentines Day I noticed Sid was making an extra effort to look nice for school… (soooo out of character).  I figured something had to be up.  I finally got him to fess up and sure enough he had a girlfriend at school named Olivia.  (Don’t tell him I told you! It’s a pretty touchy subject, even though he has informed me that he is definitely turning into a “Lady’s Man” just like Greg) Anyways, it was pretty serious until about 2 days before V-Day  when he informed me they had broken up because he told her he wasn’t ready to get married!  THANK GOODNESS!!!!  I told him it was okay to wait until 30 to get married and for now he is in agreement with me.  We had a nice quiet Valentines Day at home!  We have what we call family date night for Valentines.  We get take-out, have a fire and watch movies… it’s awesome! 

In February Sid also got his first very own guitar amp!  Greg’s so cute he stopped at the infamous Guitar Center on his way home from work and totally surprised Sid.  Of course it resulted in a family rock fest.  It’s so fun watching the two of them rock out and write songs together.   

Greg had a show in Park City at Mulligans on the 15^th.  It was nice to take a break and go up with him for the night and watch him play.  The last several weeks of endless school projects has been slightly stressful.  It happened to be just what I needed. 

To finish off February Greg had a song writing convention in Santa Barbara for 4 days.  So he did a marathon road trip out to California for that.  He had a really great time!  This year he was one of the showcasing songwriters!  And had a TON of really great compliments and feed back from the good old industry people there.   He also had time to meet up with Joel, one of his new friends he made at Sundance this year.  He’s a fellow guitar player so they have a lot in common.  On his way home he also stopped and saw his old friend “Stick” in L.A. They hadn’t seen each other for years!  All in all he had a lot of fun! 

Wow!!!  And now it’s March!  I can’t believe how fast time goes.  This month has been filled with head colds and trips to the dentist. Shortly after Greg got home from Santa Barbara he ended up having to have two teeth pulled!  No fun!  Of course as Greg has taught me over the years, chocolate ice cream can make anything better!

 This last week we think we’ve decided on the cover for his new album, now he just has to finish it.  He’s hoping to have it done by summer.  I must say the new tunes on this album are AWESOME!   Greg is super busy performing this month.  He played again at Mulligans in Park City again on the 8^th.  He'll being playing at Addicted Café on the 14^th, again on the 22^nd down in Lehi and on the 28^th at Celsius up in Park City.   I’ll post all the times incase anybody is down this way and feels like listening to some good tunes.  It’s always a good time!

Sidney’s excited for the warmer weather.  Tonight he went skateboarding with Greg in the church parking lot behind our house.  

Today it’s official!  All my pieces for my show are finished!  Tonight I had to go deliver all my work along with a signed contract.  I was so glad to have it finished that I had to line them all up in the living room before Greg loaded them into the car for me.  Now I can just be ridiculously nervous until opening night and dwell on all the little imperfections I know are hiding in each one!  I feel like I just packed up all my kids and sent them out into the big scary world.  Hopefully the critics aren’t to mean.  Needless to say though it well be nice to have a bit more time again (hence the blog update).

Well now we are officially up to date!  If you actually made it through all this you are a patient and dedicated individual.  Hopefully this blog is the first step in us doing better at keeping everybody up to date!  

Thanksgiving-O-Rama

Cute Couple huh?

Sid man Bowlin!

We Got Dumped on Today!!!

Karate Tournament

Sid had is first karate tournament today. 2 medals!