Pool/Ping Pong Table

Well today my dad and I went down to Orem to pick up this sweet new pool table with a ping pong table top. The slate was a beast to carry in, so I'm glad I didn't have to take the bulk of that. So now we have a lot more fun ahead of us!

iOS Essentials #1

For all of you that have iPod touches, iPhones, and iPads, here are some app and game suggestions for you. I'll be posting one of these every so often when I find enough new stuff to post.

Top 15 Games:

15- 4 Pics 1 Word: Trivia game, free.

14- Topple 2: Stack objects to make a huge tower, $1.

13- Flow Free: connect the pipes of matching colors.

12- Line Birds: fly through obstacles and unlock new birds, free.

11- Temple Run 2: run, jump, duck, and turn to collect coins and get as far as you can, free.

10- Tiny Heroes: tower defense game where you defend treasure, free.

9- Doodle Jump: bounce off platforms and avoid monsters, $1.

8- Fix It Felix: wreck it Ralph game, free.

7- Are You Smarter Than a 5th Grader Free: just like the game show.

6- Impossible Test: try it and you'll see, free.

5- Jetpack Joyride: avoid obstacles and collect coins whil flying, free.

4- Fieldrunners: the best tower defense game, $3 I think, but possibly less.

3- Plants vs. Zombies: defend your yard! $1 

2- Family Feud and Friends: just like the show, free.

1- Fieldrunners 2: the best tower defense game taken to the next level with 4 scenarios and all sorts of layouts, $3.


Top 10 Apps:

10- AFV: Watch all the funniest videos on your iOS, free.

9- Mematic: Make your own memes, free.

8- Action Movie: Take a video and add awesome effects to it right on the spot, free.

7- Amazon: Browse products easily, free.

6- Bump: Share photos easily between iOS devices, free.

5- YouTube Capture: Record and upload videos to YouTube, free.

4- Food Network: Watch your favorite Food Network on iOS, free.

3- CamWow: The easiest photo editor, free.

2- Pandora: Discover new music and listen to your favorites, free.

1- VDownloader: Download YouTube and other videos right to your camera roll, free.

In my opinion, all of these games and apps make your iOS device more enjoyable and more useful. 

Back on Vlogging

So we figured that sometimes it would be easier and more fun to do vlogs instead of posts. Since it doesn't let us post videos straight to here, many of you know we have unlisted YouTube videos of our vlogs. Here's the first one:

Reed's Vlog #1

Youth Conference Trail Run

Read all about our trail run experience here:

http://orangetrailmonkeys.blogspot.com/2013/06/summer-trail-series-215-youth.html

My Basic Philosophy on Music Pt. 1

So this is where some debate is going to jump into my posts on music. As I've mentioned before, I've developed a strong passion for music from playing music mostly. The main music era I listen to right now is the 70's to late 90's and early 2000's, and the main genres are progressive rock and progressive metal. A lot of the progressive metal bands I listen to are completely underground because they are newer. These are bands such as Angra, Symphony X, Excalion, Masterplan, Nocturnal Rites, Kamelot, Circus Maximus, Thunderstone, Silent Force, and last of all: Dream Theater. I thought to myself why these bands are underground. It didn't take me long to realize that they are because all of the modern "music" that mostly solo artists are putting out. I don't think this is fair at all. People who push buttons, talk into a microphone and "play" instruments are getting more fame than these bands who put out what music was from the beginning. This isn't the way it used to be, so why did it change? I guess people just go for attractive artists and catchy riffs in order to be considered "good music". I'm not saying that every single mainstream artist and band these days fits this category, but 90% of them do. I really can't put into words how I totally feel about this subject, because it's so unreal that people with no musical experience or talent can make money by simply buying a guitar and trying to play it. I'll get more into this general topic later, but the next topic I want to go to is something that draws a lot of controversy: Screamo music. A lot of people are seeming to love it nowadays, and I really can't understand why. Does it relieve stress to some people? I don't see how it could. A lot of these bands do have a fair amount of musical talent, but throw it in the trash when the vocalist with no distinguishable vocals comes out. I really don't have much else to say about this topic, so we'll jump to the next: The evolution of heavy metal. I guess you could say that heavy metal was started (or at least influenced) by Led Zeppelin, who passed it on the Iron Maiden. They started bringing out some power metal in their music, which has influenced all sorts of bands from all sorts of genres to this day. Some of Iron Maiden's "sons" were Fates Warning, Metallica, Megadeth, Slayer, Black Sabbath/Ozzy (the oldest), and many many more. This is where heavy metal hit its peak in my opinion. Remember that progressive metal is not included in this particular topic. As is progressed through the 90's, you started to get branches off of heavy, power, and thrash metal of the 80's which we all enjoy. You started to get bands like Slipknot Lamb of God, and Witchery. These three branches are known as speed metal, death metal, and black metal. That's where metal should have stopped. Death metal is pretty much screamo 10 octaves lower, speed metal is just a knock off of thrash metal, and black metal is just pure evil. You can even tell in the band's names. All though there are some bits and pieces of bands that are alright, are they really worth looking for. Fighting through growling, evil lyrics, and profanity is not what I'm looking for to discover new music. I don't see why so many people throw the 80's greats under the bus to make room for the new death metal musicians on board. Yes, they do have musical talent. No, they didn't choose the right path to take that talent, which results in straight up noise, and nothing else. Well that's it for today, but I will definitely touch up on these topics more as time goes on. Thanks for reading, and I hope you enjoyed this.

John's top 10

Alright here are my top 10 favorite songs from the month of June (not really in any order)

10: Metallica- The Four Horsemen- a nice heavy song with awesome dual guitars and solos

9: Iron Maiden- Fear of the Dark- a classic metal tune with VERY catchy riffs and solos

8: Symphony X- Domination- a very heavy song with lots of awesome stuff going on! It blows my mind that Michael Romeo (guitarist) can do that all by himself!

7: Megadeth- Symphony of Destruction- A simple but awesome main riff!

6: Iron Maiden- The Wicker Man- not too heavy but nonetheless another classic and awesome one by Maiden!

5: Metallica- Creeping Death- awesome riffs and solos and awesome the way that they made a bible story into a metal masterpiece (Moses and the Israelites)

4: Megadeth- Hangar 18- one of their most loved songs.  I love it for the precise guitar riffs and solos often found in Megadeth songs.

3: Tool- Lateralus- starts off calm and builds up to an awesome main riff!  Then has 7 more minutes of pure greatness!

2: Metallica- One- a classic metal ballad by Metallica that I never bothered to listen to very much until this month.  My favorite part is pretty much when the singing stops and the heavy kicks in. Great song.

1: Dragonforce- Through the Fire and the Flames- to start off, I appreciate this song much more than the average person who only knows of this song from Guitar Hero.  I also appreciate it much more than I used to!  I decided to bring it back this month and I never loved the super fast instrumentation as much as I do now.  I am definitely gonna check out more of their stuff.

Reed's Top 10

Here is a list of my top 10 favorite songs from the month of June, 2013.

10: The Glass Prison- Dream Theater

A great heavy song which calls for extreme talent.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SSX86zPnUkY

9: For Whom the Bell Tolls Live in Mexico City- Metallica

Personally I think the studio version drags a bit, so the live version takes care of that.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fpbulTaJXhM

8: Kick the Chair- Megadeth

A nice smooth power metal song with great guitar solos.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kY8psvAB7wY

7: Universal Mind- Liquid Tension Experiment

I wouldn't call this song heavy, but its flow is so great matched with great orchestration.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rEZC0ZJ1AW8

6: A Nightmare to Remember- Dream Theater

16 minutes of heavy to soft and back to heavy.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ADX9DdURn8o

5: Through the Fire and Flames- Dragonforce

I had heard this song many times years ago, but at that time I didn't enjoy music like I enjoy it now.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rdiKAa0_Ay4

4: Set the World on Fire- Symphony X

A nice and heavy song with a deep grungy voice which I like in this case.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1LusBXwf74E

3: Wounds- Masterplan

A new band I discovered this month which I totally love.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sfx9_sBnG18

2: Still Alive- Nocturnal Rites

Another band I discovered this month which has a little more Dream Theater to them than Masterplan.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XoKTYucxtAo

1: Paradise Lost- Symphony X

A very soothing song with great vocals and instrumentation.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oyvOJlX4ZkE

Youth Conference 2013

Well this past week was youth conference on Thursday, Friday, and Saturday. It was my favorite youth conference so far, because we had the perfect balance of relaxation and activities. We saw the Manti Pageant and beforehand had their hosted dinner consisting of barbecued turkey and mashed potatoes. We played a lot of games, and slept a lot (four hours for John and I.) We went on a trail run the next day for 8 miles up to the summit of the Manti M mountain. We were going for 3 miles up and 3 miles back, which would've taken a little under 2 hours. Instead we decided to summit and reach about 4.1 miles down and back, which took just shy of 3 hours. This is the sorest I can remember ever being, because of the killer uphills rather than the distance. I now hold the trails and mountains in higher respect, I would be kicking myself if I didn't go, even though it was very tough. I was dehydrated after, so I drank plenty of water and got feeling better by the time we went swimming and a local pool in Manti. I loved this year's trip and hope next year's raises the bar!

Major Influences as a Musician

Hey guys, it's Reed again, and I just want to make some lists of my major influences as a musician and why they are my influences.

Bands:
Dream Theater/LTE: Dream Theater is arguably overall the most talented band of all time, in competition with others such as Rush. The pure essence of musicality goes straight to these guys. Crazy time signatures, rhythms, and outstanding musicians make it this way. 90% of guitarists, bassists, drummers, and keyboardists with over 2 years of experience have heard of Dream Theater.

Rush: A threepiece who blew everyone away. Neil, Alex, and Geddy can really put up a show even now when they are clear out of their prime. Rush is also very influential to bands like Dream Theater, so they definitely deserve credit for that.

U2: My all time favorite band. I grew up with these guys, and I'll never forget it. I saw them on May 24, 2011 during their 360 tour, which totally blew me away. They were my beginning inspiration for music.

Symphony X: A newer progressive metal band influenced mainly by Dream Theater and Apocolyptica. The great orchestration of Apocolyptica matched with the extreme talent and instrumentation by Dream Theater makes for one great sounding band.

Progressive Metal: In my opinion the overall best solid genre ever, even though it is completely underground. Even though all of the bands aren't super famous, they get my vote for making genuine instruments sound so good.

Drummers:

Gavin Harrison: My favorite drummer, mainly because of his outstanding techniques and playing styles, matched with one of the best sounding setups of all time.

Marco Minnemann: An extreme drummer, not in the spectrum of blasting and speed, but insane techniques incorporated with his creativity.

Mike Portnoy: Dream Theater's old drummer. He did so much for the band and wrote great drum parts to songs. Most people would be happy being half as good as him.

Buddy Rich: In my opinion the greatest drummer of all time. He was the pioneer of drumming. As a jazz drummer who played traditional style, he did more on three drums what most people today do one 7+.

So those are my main influences, and if I forgot any, I'll definitely post them later on.

My Experiences as a Musician

Hey everyone. This is Reed, and I'm going to try to post more often starting now. One of the big subjects will be music. As a musician, it's natural to develop a passion for music, obviously, so I guess I'll start with my experience as a musician. In my very early years, my parents bought two hand drums, as well as a beater drum set. I would always be drumming, because I loved it. Well, school started and I didn't really keep that up, but I would still listen to a lot of music. I'll get more into my influential music in later posts. When I was about 7 or 8 years old, I started taking piano lessons. I learned how to read sheet music fairly well and I was able to play pretty decent stuff. After maybe 3 or 4 years, my teacher moved and I wasn't able to continue taking lessons. In fifth grade, I started band class by playing clarinet, which I continued in sixth grade as well as seventh. Toward the end of the year in seventh grade, I tried out the bass clarinet, which I ended up playing for 8th grade and some of 9th. There was one other event that happened at the end of 7th grade which has really influenced me up to this day as far as music goes. After the last concert, we didn't really have much to do during band class, so my friends and I would all just mess around. One day, I decided to just go jam on the school drum set for a bit, so I started playing some of our jazz band songs that we had played that year by ear since I heard them over and over many times. The school drummer and a good friend of mine (Zach) was pretty surprised that I could do that without any formal practice or lesson prior to that. He taught me some basics, and then I was off. I purchased a drum set that year oh July 4th, 2011, and have since made major and minor upgrades to it. I'm now planning to buy a new drum set made out of higher quality wood, which will sound a lot better. I'm also planning to perform at school next year for the talent show or whenever I can with whoever wants me to be their backbone. The reason why I like the drums so much is that it is explainable when you are just jamming with your best friends, either doing covers, or just playing improv. You just can't beat that.