beautiful, funny, sad & true

String arrangement – written

“Once” – seen. It was very good, very touching, very ‘real’, and the music is great.

The gig with Steph was really fun. It was at a middle school, to celebrate their last day before summer. We played two half-hour sets, took a short break, then played a third set. It was very unlike most of the other shows we’ve played, for lots of reasons. It was in a gymnasium, we had a whole corner of it to ourselves, so we (did I say ‘we’? Cause I meant ‘I’. ha ha) had plenty of room to run around. Another fun thing about it was that playing in a gym is very different from playing in a jazz club, and you get to play louder and act weirder. DrummerCharlie was having a blast getting to play in a way that he rarely gets a chance to, and I walked all over the ‘stage’ (really it was a corner blocked off by wrestling mats) like one of the Rolling Stones or something. BassPlayerKeith played with us for the first time. You may know him from being in Dirty Martini at the same time I was. It was really great to see him and play with him again; he’s just an all-around great guy. The kids were amazing. I think the second set of the three was the most fun. We signed T-shirts and yearbooks and somewhat surprisingly, even gave a few hugs. There was a group of boys who asked their teacher if they could dance. She said, “Of COURSE you can, that’d be great.” They replied, “No no, we want to dance with HER.” Meaning Steph. It was hilarious. We left the gig completely exhausted, with ringing ears from all the screams and cheers.

After that, I drove home to unload my instruments, then raced back downtown to the DMV to get new license plates. After having the car for six months, everything is finally legal and accounted for. Emissions test passed, registration in my name, Oregon license plates. Relief.

Crystin’s song – e-mailed. Now I’m just waiting for the verdict on the mix to see what she and the filmmaker think of the new-and-improved version.

This morning I’m going to take my cello in for Part Two of the repairs that it needs. It’s going to get the neck wedged up a little bit, because for some reason it’s not at the standard cello neck height. At the same time, it’ll get a new bridge, which is the little wooden tower-shaped thingy that the strings rest on. I’m also going to get a ‘wolf’ eliminator installed (it’s too complicated to explain what that is), and last but not least, I’m getting a new set of strings, because it’s time for that too. All these repairs are going to make my cello easier to play and stay in tune, make the sound ‘ring out’ better, but most of all it will make me a much better cellist. I’m going to have to un-learn a lot of weird habits that I’ve acquired, because of playing such a non-standard instrument for so long, but I’m very ready for that. I guess If I wasn’t, none of this would matter. I’ve improved a lot as a player, and I keep finding myself limited by my instrument, which is unacceptable. So off it goes to the shop, to get what it needs.

It’s time to go do that. I need to get off the computer, get into the shower, and start the day. And of course, some coffee would be good too; hmmm.

TONIGHT:
1) write out string arrangement for one of Andrea’s songs
2) see the movie “Once” with Andrea

FRIDAY:
1) gig with Stephanie from 11:00-1:30 during the day
2) go to DMV to get new license plates
3) go to the bank
4) pay rent (yeah yeah, I know. I was too busy with all the car stuff and forgot)
5) send mix of Crystin’s movie song for her approval and suggestions

SATURDAY:
1) make changes, if any, on Crystin’s song
2) take cello in for the rest of the repairs it needs (Yay!)
3) laundry? cleaning?
4) gig with Steph
5) Saussha’s graduation party, if I can make it/if it’s still going

SUNDAY:
1) go to frickin’ work for a while, which is LAME.
2) meet a new friend for coffee
3) buy desk and shelf from Alyssa, and hang out
4) laundry? cleaning? rearranging furniture? all of the above?

I actually printed out this list while I was at work, because I have so much to remember. Don’t want to forget anything!

At work today, I came across a woman whose first name was Rosetta. I said to the lady who sits across from me, “This lady’s first name is Rosetta. Wouldn’t it be funny if her last name was Stone?”

“…?”

“You know, like the Rosetta Stone.”

“…?”

“It’s that stone with all the writing on it that shows how to translate Egyptian hieroglyphs into ancient Greek or whatever.”

“Oh. I’ve never heard of that.”

“You’d know it if you saw it. Here.” I sent her an e-mail with some pics from a quick Google search. “Look familiar?”

“No.”

“Uhh, okay.”

* * * * * * * *

[edit:] After reading this blog entry, Crystin reminded me of a conversation I had at a different job, a bunch of years ago:

Me, to Person 1:

“Ohmygosh, I went to the Chinese Garden for the first time today. It was amazing. Have you been there?”
“No. What is it?”
“Uhhhh. . .it’s a garden, built in the classical Chinese style. With the stone walls and the teahouse and the pond and all that. Beautiful.”
“Oh. Well, my kids did this funny thing today–”

Me, to person 2:

“Hey, I went to the Chinese Garden today.”
“What’s that?”
“You know, downtown. It’s been in the paper for months. . .? Just opened up. . .? Anyway, it’s awesome; I recommend it.”
“Hunh. I never heard of that.”
“Oh, okay.”

Me, to person 3:

“Hey, I went to the Chinese Garden today.”
“Oh, I don’t like sushi.”
“No, it’s not a restaurant, it’s a garden. THE Chinese Garden. Downtown.”
“Oh, I don’t know about that.”
“Well, it’s kinda new. Anyway, it’s a classical-style Chinese garden, built in Suzhou then taken apart by hand and shipped over here and put back together. Really beautiful and amazing.”
“I never heard of that.”

Me, to person 4 :

“Sure is busy today, huh?”

I don’t know quite how to put everything into words, but I’ve been feeling things shift lately. After a very hard couple of months, it seems like I’ve finally come out of that metaphorical tunnel. You know, the one with the seemingly unreachable light at the end of it.

I’m not quite ready to start jumping for joy just yet, but things are definitely looking up lately, and for the last week or so, I’ve almost been feeling like my ‘unstoppable’ (John Vecchiarelli’s immortal description) self again.

I even consulted the I Ching today, for the first time in ages, and this is what I got:

———
The Hexagram:

#43 – Kuai / Break-through (Resoluteness)

Above – TUI / THE JOYOUS, LAKE
Below – CH’IEN / THE CREATIVE, HEAVEN

This hexagram signifies on the one hand a breakthrough after a long accumulation of tension, as a swollen river breaks through its dikes, or in the manner of a cloudburst. . .a change in conditions occurs, a breakthrough.
––––––––

I edited it heavily; there’s much more interesting interpretation at that link. This isn’t the same version as the book I have, either, but I had to have something to share with you.

This weekend I’m finishing up the mixing for the new Crystin Byrd song, spending some time with a really sweet friend of Alyssa’s who is visiting from Florida, looking at antiques with Saussha and a friend of hers, and I’m even meeting a new friend in person for the first time. It promises to be a good weekend. Oh, and I’m also going to take my car to Midas (again!) so it can get the adjustments it needs to hopefully pass DEQ this time. I was in and out of both places on Thursday, so keep your fingers crossed that it will be fixed relatively easily and cheaply. I wanna be legal, yo.

I feel like something big and great is about to happen, and I’d just like to say to whoever’s listening (or reading) that I hereby declare myself open to whatever that may be.

But like I said before, I may not be quite ready to start jumping for joy just yet, but I’m feeling much better, and I’m trying to simply ‘relax and pay attention’, as my friend Susan would say.

I bet you never thought you’d hear me say this, but I had a great time in Yakima this weekend.

It’s true.

If you didn’t happen to see my previous post, I went up to play two gigs with Chad Bault, a singer-songwriter and friend who used to live here in Portland, but recently moved back temporarily.

DrummerAdam and I drove up there on Friday night after work, stopping only for milkshakes and prophylactics–his girlfriend lives up there–and we ended up at SongwriterChad’s house at 11:00. BassPlayerWayne and HisWifeMeg had arrived minutes before us, and Adam’sGirlfriend showed up a little later. We all had pizza and beer and talked until the wee hours, and then Adam and I went to his parents’ house to sleep.

Their house is amazing. It’s a large-ish house on the top of a hill, and the view is amazing.

My eyes popped open at 7:00, so I decided to get up and take a shower, then I went to the back yard and read in the cool morning air. After a while, Adam’s mom came and asked if I’d like some coffee and orange juice, which I dutifully accepted. I went inside and we talked for a really long time, until Adam and Adam’sGirlfriend left to go up to the lake, and Adam loaned me his Honda Element so I could explore Yakima on my own.

I went to get my hair cut and then headed out to make All The Rounds. I went to my old houses and schools. My grade school and junior high school look almost exactly the same. The high school looks mostly the same as it has for fifteen years, but it’s different than it was when I went there. There’s a hilarious new mural that involves a rock band featuring Mr. T as a heavy metal drummer (?), with a sign on the top that says something like, “The Word of T, ‘I Pity The Foo.’ ” Weirdest mural I’ve ever seen. Yes, I took pictures. I’ll have to post some in a separate blog entry. The apartment I lived in (for four years!) was a dump when I lived there fifteen years ago, and it’s only gotten worse with age.

The house I grew up in is very different. The subsequent owners have removed all the fences and almost all the trees from the yard, but the brick front steps that I rebuilt with my ten-year-old hands are still there. The house my mom lives in now–which we moved into when I was in high school–looks great. They’ve completely redone the inside, and now they’re starting to work on the outside as well.

After making The Rounds, I drove over to see my stepdad before having to pack up and head over to Songwriter Chad’s for rehearsal.

The show that night was great, except for the other guitarist who joined us. The Plan was that he was going to play pedal steel (it’s that twangy-sounding instrument that you’ll know primarily from country music), but he showed up with a regular electric guitar because his pedal steel was broken. So we all decided that since he hadn’t rehearsed with us, I would be the main lead guitarist, and he would play sparse slide guitar parts around what Chad and I were doing. But as it turned out, he kept jumping in and taking solos on every single song, and he cluttered up the whole sound of the band. I actually had to walk over and ask him to ‘please lay low on this one?’, and when we took a break, I asked Chad to have a word with him because he was totally stepping on what I was trying to do. That’s the very diplomatic way of saying it; I was about to throw my water glass at his head. So when we came back from the break, I turned up my little amp, and BassistWayne and I just played as if he wasn’t even there, which worked really well, from what I heard later. We had a blast, and the place was packed like it’s apparently never been packed before.

We went home, ate dinner, drank beer, and talked until even later into the wee hours. Adam and his girlfriend went home at 1:00 a.m., but Chad, Wayne, Meg and I stayed up to talk, so I didn’t drive over to Adam’s parents’ house to go to bed until around 3:00 a.m.

The next morning, we had a gig at 10:00 at a raise-money-for-cancer-research walk at Eisenhower High School’s football stadium. Ironically, the band I was in in high school, Iron Horse, had played the exact same event many years before. The sound guy was telling us what we could expect from the sound and from the audience, and he punctuated that by saying, “I’ve been working this fundraiser for twenty years.” I said, “Really? That’s amazing, because I played here eighteen years ago.” He asked which band I played with, so I told him, and he actually (said that he) remembered us. Riiiiight. But it was still a cool and hilarious moment, and he did say that Chad’s band was by far the best band that they’d had at the fundraiser this year, and a few of the nearby volunteers chimed in to agree with him, so that was nice.

After that, we went our own ways, I gave Chad, Wayne and Meg a hug and went to my mom’s house for the afternoon, which was really nice. We talked a lot while I rested and did a load of laundry. I found some hilarious old pictures of myself that I’ll have to post here soon, because you’ll totally crack up. For years I either had a mullet and/or huge glasses, and I looked really gay, except that I didn’t dress well. Gosh, I wonder why I didn’t have a girlfriend for years.

Anyway.

The trip was a blast. A huge thank you to everyone involved in making it the best time I’ve had in Yakima for as long as I can remember.