LonnyGomes.com

Auto-tune, it’s all the craze now a days. Just in case you don’t know what it is, it’s an audio plugin that makes T-Pain sound like he can sing. Who knows, maybe he can sing without it but I’ve never seen it. And I guess that’s the point, Auto-tune corrects your voice so it sounds like you’re completely on pitch. With Auto-tune you don’t have to be dead on to sound good.

The use of Auto-tune is a controversial subject. Some music purist believe there is not place for it. Some use it purely for the vocal effect while still others use it because without it they would sound horrible. One thing to note is that for Auto-tune to work correctly you do have to be able to carry a tune to a certain degree, you just don’t have to be perfect.

I recently put out a mix tape. I wanted to include a “diss” of a fellow DJ but I wanted to do it in a creative way. I ended up recording a song using Auto-tune, singing a “parody” of Snoop Dog’s “Sensual Seduction” track. I figured if he could sound good with Auto-tune, me a former Jackson 5 could have been should be able pull it off as well! Check out the final results below. I think I just may have Snoop beat! Well … maybe

On the night of Friday, December 18th, 2009 it began to snow in the DC metro area. The snow for the entire next day and didn’t stop until night fall. In some areas, more than 20 inches of snow was recorded. At the end of it’s furry, this storm set the record for most snowfall for December in the District of Columbia.

I had the “pleasure” of experiencing this historic event by effectively being snowed in my neighborhood. The buses were down and the Metro soon came afterward and already having 2 incidents with my car in the snow I definitely wasn’t going to be driving! Being that I did most of my growing up in a middle-class New England town where there never was a shortage of snow come winter time, experiencing winter snow storms in the city is truly a unique experience. I had a similar experience in 2003 where I was stuck in New York City in a huge snow storm and one thing I noticed both in DC and NYC is that when the snow starts to fall in the city, so do people’s inhibitions. People forget about their age, about their differences or social standing and all come together to make snowman, slide down hills on improvised sleds, and have snowball fights.

With the advent of social networking and smart phones, collaboration is much easier to achieve. Some people organized a snowball fight to take place on 14th & U. I wasn’t aware of this plan but I happened to be walking on U Street and heard people laughing and screaming in the distance as I approached 14th street. It was actually quite a site and I took part in one “battle” for a bit which was timed based off of the red lights. About 10 or so minutes after I left the scene, a few of the “snowballers” threw a snowball (or two) at a hummer driving by. The driver got out of the car and proceeded to show his gun. He didn’t point it at anyone but the gesture definitely was an abuse of his power.

The one thing I do feel that many people haven’t been saying in regards to this situation is that the kids really shouldn’t have been throwing snowballs at moving traffic. The cop’s reaction was unprofessional and although it may fly in the hood, it’s not gonna work with the U Street crowd who are armed with iPhones and youtube accounts! Below is footage from the incident. After the detective pulls out his gun there is a kid that still nails him in the face with a perfectly placed ball of snow!

Despite the snowball fight incident, it was beautifully refreshing to see DC covered in generous layers of white fluffy stuff. For that one day, the snow covered the harsh realities of life and for a moment brought joy to an otherwise politically charged and divided city. Below I captured some images and video of the snow storm, or as it was referred to on Twitter, the #snowpocalypse of ‘09.

It’s sad really … www.lonnygomes.com has sat dormant for quite a while.  Since my last post I  have gotten side tracked with moving, getting my car stolen, getting locked out, having my apartment flooded … the list goes on.

In the midst of all the drama I have gotten a few things done.  I’ve made a mix tape, done some demo recordings and started research in developing applications for the iPhone.  I’m going to work at being better with updating my site with upcoming projects so stay tuned!

It is almost 2 AM and my friend Jerald and I are ready to brave the cold and the estimated crowd of 2 million to experience the Inauguration of our 44th President.

The plan is to head to DCA (Reagan National Airport) to pick up out other friend Ethan.  This is a start of what will be a long day.  By the end of it, our patience will be tried and as well as our endurance to the elements.

I will be making periodic updated throughout the day and I will also be trying to capture much of the experience on video.

Today I watched the Martin Luther King Jr. “I have a Dream” speech.  The King foundation allowed CNN to rebroadcast the speech at noon today.  I never actually saw the footage in it’s entirety, and I found it very interesting.  Much of the b-roll footage showed the diverse crowd of people who were in attendance, and in the background the weathered visage of honest Abe looked on.

I’ve been to the Lincoln Memorial several times — often playing tour guide to those visiting DC — but never really stopped long enough to think of all the history that has taken place on it’s steps.  Yesterday, we were watching the free pre-inauguration show, which took place on the same very same steps.  

Some of the biggest names in politics and entertainment were sharing the steps that King did 46 years before.  It definitely brings another perspective to the monument and the man it remembers.

Today, Soledad O’Brien interviewed a few people who were in town for the inauguration who were also in town August 28th, 1963 to hear Dr. King speak.  Some say, King was the Moses and Obama is Joshua generation.  Continuing with the bible reference, some have even said from the death of King to the election of Obama represented 40 years of walking in the wilderness and it now is time to see the promise land.  I’m not sure if I’m ready to go *that* for with it, but one thing is for sure, I will be in DC tomorrow to share in the experience of history.

A couple years ago, I made a “tribute” mix to MLK … it’s actually more a commentary on freedom.  It’s a bit long (about 10 minutes), but check it out when you get the chance.

I haven’t made many posts since I’ve gotten back from the Caribbean.  Between that time, I’ve gotten input and suggestions from more experienced bloggers in efforts to improve my site.

I will be making updates within the next couple weeks, including my inauguration experience so stay tune!

First, I will have to say that I’ve been really bad lately about getting things done. I think I’m still suffering from the lingering effects of PVLS (Post Vacation Laziness Syndrome). I’ll get back into the swing of things hopefully by the end of this week!

Anyway, my parents found some old video footage of us from way back in the day and my dad got this little video camera for Christmas. So putting the two together, some of this footage ended up on you tube! Below is raw footage of my short-lived career as a child rock star. We were it back then, but then my brother and I started to have creative differences and the pressure got to me … I gave it all up!

With the advent of websites like www.webmd.com, it has become increasingly easier to self diagnose oneself. By no means am I a hypochondriac, however I self diagnose myself all the time.

There was one particular instance where I was having a chest pain and after I entered my symptoms in webmd I was told that I may have a heart attack and that I should see a doctor ASAP!!! I went to the doctor’s office and they did x-rays and even one of those AKG thingies that monitor your heart and they came up with nothing. It could have just been a strain in the pectorals.

I’ve also self-diagnosed myself as having ADD … it makes it easier to explain my constant absent mindedness!! There is another “disease” that I have which isn’t even documented in webmd so I had to come up with a name for it myself. It is called the Post Vacation Laziness Syndrome or PVLS for short. It’s really a serious condition in which the victim becomes extremely unmotivated to do *ANYTHING* after coming back from “Holiday”. This usually can last anywhere from 1 to 7 days and in extreme cases the victim may never recover!!!

The important thing to note is that it doesn’t matter what the person was doing during vacation, it’s more the fact that they were away from the daily routine. For instance, sometimes my vacations are pretty busy … often I don’t really ever just rest and relax but that’s all I want to do when I get back from vacation. The cruise that I just went on was different in that I did a lot of laying around on the beaches and chilling in the hot tub but yet I the symptoms of PVLS were still exhibited on my return.

I’ve been so lazy that I meant to type this up yesterday and am just now getting to it. I have to setup a website for my family to upload pictures to and I still haven’t even gone through my pictures to upload yet!!! It’s a shame really. With all my “research” I’ve found no cure. What usually happens I get so tired of being a bum that I finally snap back into reality. The perpetual fear is that one day I may never snap back!

in puerto rico
enjoying winter in shorts
all comes to an end

Well, that tittle sounds worst then what it really is. I actually have yet to make it to El Yunque. In fact I’m approximately 2 miles away. I probably should have learned by now that cheaper isn’t always better.

Estela helped me get a bus to go to “El Yunque” (it’s a rain forest in Puerto Rico) and I had two options. One guy offered to take me there for $40. There was another guy who had a group of people and was going that way. He said he would do it for $3. Without getting the details, I went with the $3 deal. I mean one guy is saying $40 and another is saying $3, what would you do?

It took about 40 or so minutes … To be honest, I wasn’t really sure how long it took because I was actually dozing off! Someone had to wake me when my stop came up. The driver just tells me to take a road and follow it straight up the mountain. Well, I start walking and the neighborhood is a little shady from the get go. As I walked farther, the sidewalks became more narrow and poluted with trash and dried weeds. It seemed as if this path wasn’t walked much.

I finally got to a point where the sidewalk on stopped both sides. Around that point I passed a section of the path where a snake had shed their skin. And this snake looked HUGE! And as if it was scripted, it started to rain!

I took this all as a sign that I saw enough of the rain forest today! I walked back to the road where the driver dropped me off and I walked across the street to a souvenir shop. It was there where the lady told me that there are no taxi’s in this area!! That’s gonna complicate things when I try to head back to Rio Piedras!

Right now I’m in a restaurant called Don Pepe’s. Apparently, it used to be owned by Mexicans. Anyway, I ordered this arepa … It’s good, but it’s not like the ones on Queens Blvd in Jackson Heights! After I ate about half of it, I decided to take a pic of it.

A Puerto Rican Arepa