Afghanistan bound

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 5:18 am

Howdy y'all, been a while. Just wanted to give a heads up that I'll be heading to the sandbox in June, for a six month vacation. Good news is I'll have a guitar, a Zoom H4N (portable stereo mic/4 track recorder), and a laptop. I'd like to produce an album's worth of music while I'm there. Hopefully SF will help inspire me to do this.

I'll also be bringing a pretty extensive video camera rig with me, since that's what Uncle Sam is sending me there for. I'll try to do some kind of videoblog or something. Who knows.

As far as the deployment, I'm not too worried. Neither should you be. Questions?

*For background on what the hell I've been doing the last 2 1/2 years, see here: http://songfight.net/forums/viewtopic.php?f=1&t=6344

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 6:01 am

They'll be better for having you there, Sober. Finally the Americans send their best! Post lots of video and be careful. And write crazy ass music infused with your impressions, OK? (I made that last request into a question, cause that's what you asked for).

Paco Del Stinko · Post by **Paco Del Stinko** » Tue Jan 31, 2012 7:50 am

Safety first. But see if you can't infuse your music with some kind of local flavor. I'm sure you'll be busy and not necessarily able to roam about jamming with locals, but surely there'll be 'something in the air'.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Wed Feb 01, 2012 5:14 pm

I doubt I'll be able to pick up much 'local flavor,' at least not from the Afghans. I do, however, plan on listening to stories from Marines and Soldiers and putting them to music.

At any rate, my video production skills have shot through the roof in the last two years, and I think I'll do some great work over there. Great for the portfolio.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 12:06 pm

Look up this guy.
http://www.worldpressphoto.org/photo/20 ... ategory=50

"Canadian Forces soldier Cpl. Ben Vandandaigue plays the drums on Forward Operating Base Sperwan Ghar in Afghanistan."

Caravan Ray · Post by **Caravan Ray** » Mon Feb 13, 2012 1:43 pm

He must be part of the Drummer Relocation Programme.

One day we'll get all of them over there. It's a beautiful dream.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 6:22 pm

Howdy all,

I'm about three weeks from hitting the ground, and I've spent the last three in various types of training. I've been shooting assloads of video, partly to train myself up on what it'll be like to shoot video when the shit hits the fan. Here's a short example of some nighttime shooting, I've got a pretty badass daytime exercise rendering right now, which I'll post tomorrow.

I have a good idea of where I'm going in Afghanistan, and I will have a reasonable chance of making contact with badguys. I don't have any romantic visions of combat, I've read and lived too much for that. At any rate, I plan on coming back in one piece, with a sound mind and hopefully new perspectives and a bag full of video.

drë · Post by **drë** » Sun Apr 29, 2012 11:32 pm

you're in the airforce ... why can't you just report from a C130 ?

Good luck serviceman.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 1:26 pm

Funny, the only aircraft on which I've done my job is a Navy helicopter. I got some aerial footage of the Japanese coast after the big earthquake.

As promised, here's what we did yesterday. Feeling pretty good about how a lot of this video is coming out.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 1:38 pm

Pretty nice work, Newsman. I can't help thinking how green these kids look. But I know they'll be mixed into various units in experienced hands, as will you. Be safe.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Mon Apr 30, 2012 6:53 pm

roymond wrote:Pretty nice work, Newsman. I can't help thinking how green these kids look. But I know they'll be mixed into various units in experienced hands, as will you. Be safe.

Heh. Some of these guys have deployed 9 times. The thinner white guy (not Steel) is a Lieutenant Colonel. It's a completely mixed bag. But yes, Ping is muy verde.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Mon Jun 18, 2012 12:37 pm

Hey guys, my birthday was a couple weeks ago, and this is what I was doing. What did YOU do on your birthday?

drë · Post by **drë** » Mon Jun 18, 2012 12:59 pm

got to fly and dogfight in a fighter trainer. sucka.

: dogfight.jpg (163.94 KiB) Viewed 3009 times

Hoblit · Post by **Hoblit** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 4:52 am

Sober wrote:Hey guys, my birthday was a couple weeks ago, and this is what I was doing. What did YOU do on your birthday?

Ate at my favorite restaurant in the city and got laid.

Great photograph though.

Hey, all kidding aside, keep up the good work and I hope your tour goes smoothly. I know an Army Ranger that is also set to deploy very shortly to the same sandbox. (Brandon Coquyt)

Hang in there and get back safely.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Fri Jun 22, 2012 10:22 am

Flew a plane today. Marine Corps C-130. $70 million dollar aircraft in my control, nbd. I'll have shitloads of pictures and videos to post soon.

Also, restringing my Martin yesterday so I could do some recording. Strings are already off. Grab the box of strings, and what do I pull out? Oh, you've done that before too? Five fucking strings. Spent $50 on strings on Amazon immediately.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 5:18 am

I call this 'Sunset over Shitscape'

Nevada-size original.

roymond · Post by **roymond** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 6:30 am

Looks like Nevada

Billy's Little Trip · Post by **Billy's Little Trip** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:24 am

Sierra Afghanistan?

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Wed Jul 11, 2012 7:31 pm

roymond wrote:Looks like Nevada

HEEYYYOOO. I don't remember how to resize images in UBB.

fluffy · Post by **fluffy** » Sun Jul 15, 2012 9:31 pm

Good thing this isn't UBB.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Mon Jul 16, 2012 9:06 am

fluffy wrote:Good thing this isn't UBB.

FLUFFFFFFYYYYYYYYYY

*turns out vanilla phpbb doesn't have a 'resize' function, which I swear the dumbrella ubb boards had. Oh well. Redirected above link to a smaller image.

Sober · Post by **Sober** » Wed Jul 25, 2012 12:36 pm

Howdy y'all. Feels like I just got here, but I'm already 1/3rd done with this deployment! I've written some great songs, and I'm having a buddy back home in Japan ship me my audio box and a condenser so I can record.

With all the gear I've acquired out here, I think I'm starting to shoot some pretty high-quality stuff. Here's a story from a pretty tough shoot. Only my third time shooting with my Glidecam, and my second foot patrol outside the wire. I'm wearing armor, a kevlar helmet, carrying an M-4 rifle with 140 rounds, several liters of water, all adding up to around 50 lbs, plus I'm trying to shoot steady, cinematic video without breathing like a walrus. It's over 110F, and, as you can see, the travel is not exactly easy.

I don't say any of this to sound like a badass. I honestly had a very tough time of it, and probably was within an hour of falling out. I say this because I am in awe of the guys who do this every day for 12 months or more, with more gear, and with less accommodating living conditions than I have at the big base.

Anyway, here it is, your tax dollar at work:

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