Utilize GMail Labels and Filters

I’ve been using GMail for a long time now and I’m always trying to figure out ways to make my inbox more manageable. One way of doing this is with Labels and Filters. This is the setup that I use to quickly find messages from my most contacted people (friends, family, amazon…).

First, we’ll create a new label.

• Click “Settings” in the GMail window.
• Click on “Labels” in the Settings tab.
• Create a new label for a group of contacts. (i.e. “Friends”, “Work”, “Family”, etc.)
• Click “Create”.

Now we’ve got a new label that we can start adding emails to. Let’s set up a new Filter for this label.

• From the Settings page, select the “Filters” tab.
• Click “Create a new filter” at the bottom of the page.
• From here, there a few different options. You can set up filters for emails from or to a certain person, emails that have the same subject line, or emails that include/exclude certain words. Let’s make one for emails from “Joe Smith”. So we type joe.smith@somedomain.com in the “From” text box.
• Click “Next”.
• Now we can select a label for Joe. Check the “Apply the label: ” box and select the label to apply to this contact.
• I also like to check the “Also apply filter to n conversations below” box.
• Now click “Create Filter”.

And that’s it! I find this really useful and it helps me group all of my emails into easily manageable sections. I recommend creating labels and filters whenever you can!

Recording new music!

Head over to: http://www.myspace.com/markheathershawmusic to listen to some recordings I’ve done! (Song 3 being the newest.)

This basically sums up the music I want to play

Who’s with me?

Never forget the roots!

I think it’s important to remember what influenced me as far as the music I play/listen to. I also think it’s important to know who’s who when it comes to my instrument (guitar, drums). Don’t get me wrong, I listen to and love all kinds of newer stuff but I also know where my roots are.

It’s just that I’ve met people who don’t know who Eddie Van Halen is. Or Angus Young, Stevie Ray Vaughan, Eric Johnson, or Steve Vai… Drummers who’ve never heard of Buddy Rich, Gene Kruppa, John Bonham, Keith Moon, or Dave Weckl.

Now I can understand if you’re just not into AC/DC, Led Zeppelin, The Who… but I do think it’s important to know who these people are! To know how they’ve affected music. Even if you’re not a musician, there’s a good chance that these people have had a big influence on bands that you’re currently listening to!

Who were some of my influences? You’re dying to know, so here’s a couple:

Stevie Ray Vaughan – Probably the best guitarist in my book. When he was 17, he would match solos with Albert King note for note live!

AC/DC (Angus Young) - Angus Young is an amazing performer and (along with brother Malcolm) has been responsible for some of the most influential rock riffs (try playing “Back in Black” or “Thunderstruck” with out someone knowing what it is…).

Nirvana (Kurt Cobain) - Along with Van Halen and Bush, Nirvana was one of my first rock bands. I think Kurt Cobain, while not being the most technical guitarist, was very inventive. I think he brought an interesting perspective to rock music.

That’s the end of my rant for now…  Just remember your roots!

Amgen Tour of California

Today, the Amgen Tour of California – Stage 1 started in my home town of Davis. I’ve been really excited to check it out, mostly because I’ve never seen an epic bike race up close.

We wanted to head into town to check out the festivities, but the weather was horrible! It was fairly cold, windy, and pouring rain. What a way for the riders to start the first stage of the tour! We ended up just walking about a block to the end of our street. After standing in the wind and rain for about ten minutes, we finally started seeing the procession. Guys on motorcycles and police cars mostly for the first minute or so. Then, we heard the cheers coming from down the street.

Here they come!

Here they are!

And... There they go.

This all occurred within about 10 seconds. Still awesome!

I’m jamming with a new band

I’ve been searching around craigslist for the last month or so looking for possible music opportunities. After sifting through the mounds of junk (“80’s hair band needs double bass drummer!”), I came across one that actually sounded pretty good. I don’t have the post anymore, but it was something to the extent of: “Band seeking drummer for covers and eventually originals”.

Sounds good! I emailed the guy (who turned out to be the singer) and we set up a time for me to come try out. That was this last Tuesday. I spent the 3-4 days before that downloading and listening to songs like: “Shine” by Collective Soul, “Funk #49″ by Joe Walsh, “Riot” by Three Days Grace, “White Room” by Cream, and more.

I didn’t really know what to expect when I was driving down to Dixon for practice on Tuesday. I didn’t really have much information on the guys in the band, so I was a little nervous about meeting them for the first time. I pull up to this house and the singer, Don, meets me in the driveway and asks if I want any help bringing my drums in. Nice relief, he’s willing to help. So I meet the rest of the guys and they all seem pretty down to earth. After I get my drums set up, we go right into the first song: “Mississippi Queen” by Mountain. I totally missed the first fill! Either way I ended up coming in and getting through the song.

The rest of the songs went better. About half way through the practice, I started getting more comfortable and feeling good about my playing. After practice, the guys went out in the garage for all of four seconds and one of the guitarists came in and told me if I wanted the spot I could have it.

Well, I accepted and I’m pretty excited to see where it goes!

My Current Set Up

Here’s a listing of the current equipment that I am using:

Guitar:

Fender ‘72 Telecaster Thinline Reissue
Peavey Vypyr 30w
Electro Harmonix Memory Man w/ Hazari

Drums:

Gretsch Catalina Club Mod
22×20 Kick
12×8 Tom
16×14 Floor Tom
14×7 Snare
Random Mix of Sabian/Paiste Cymbals

Stay tuned for an in depth review of my guitar/amp/delay pedal!

Incubus – Good Memories

I’ve forgotten how much I like Incubus. I’ve recently acquired all of their records, and I’m really enjoying them again. A lot of the music off of S.C.I.E.N.C.E (1997) and Fungus Amongus (1995) reminds me of all the stuff I used to do with my friends during high school when I lived in Southern California. In fact, one of the first drum parts that I came up was really similar to the intro to ‘The Answer’ off of Fungus Amongus (remember Desolate?? I can’t remember the name of the song now!)

Yes, I listen to a lot of music. I DO take a break from heavy metal quite often. Right now, it’s to listen to Incubus.

WYL: Meshuggah – obZen

Meshuggah is the heaviest band I have ever heard. Ever. I’ve been into them since I first heard ‘Humiliative’ off of the record Contradictions Collapse and None (1991) in high school. I’m a huge fan of their rhythmic complexity. I’ve seen the change through the years with Nothing (2002), I (2005), and now obZen (2008).

Guitars: As usual, Mårten Hagström and Fredrik Thordendal come together to provide a complex and brutal assault throughout the entire record. The parts are very heavy and, in typical Meshuggah fashion, rhythmically complex.

Drums: Tomas Haake is an amazing drummer. He’s always able to fit difficult drum parts into the songs without being over the top. The most obvious example on this record is the song ‘Bleed’. Hakke is right on with every accent, and his fills are minimal but fitting.

Vocals: Vocalist Jens Kidman hasn’t changed much throughout the years, and this record doesn’t change that. He’s a straight ahead vocalist whose sound doesn’t stray from his “norm” often. However, he’s always been able to weave the vocals into the music well. On a side note, he has an awesome stage presence live. (See Meshuggah live, like as soon as possible.)

Meshuggah is a band that I recommend, and while this might not be the record that I would show to first timers, I think it is an incredible album to add to anybody’s metal collection.

mheathershaw certified: Worth Your Listening.

Time to get back to it

If any of you know me, you know how sporadic my updates can be. I tend to get really excited about the “blog” concept, write a few posts, and then forget that it even exists. I think part of it is I don’t really make time to write (which I think everybody should allot more time for), and I end up trying too hard to make myself write. Time to be more natural. After all, it’s me writing.

Things have been going great musically for me lately. I finally purchased an amp (Peavey Vypyr 30w), and I love it. I’ll probably write up a little review on it as soon as I get a little more time on it. I’ve been writing more, and I really want to get more into recording my own things as soon as I can get a hardware interface for my computer.

Speaking of… I got a new computer! I picked up a Dell XPS M1330. This marks the first time that I’ve actually had a computer that is up to date. All throughout school, I had IBM R series laptops, and while those may have been good for the early 2000s… well yea let’s just say that thing was ready to be replaced.

More to come!