beautiful, funny, sad & true

Tonight I spent an hour on the phone with a great friend who took a very big and gutsy step recently. I choose to say no more about it, but it took great courage to step up and do what he did, and I for one appreciate it whole-heartedly.

What a day this has been. After such a winter-storm-filled weekend, the weather was beautiful, so I didn’t really notice how stressful the day at work was. Went to lunch at CheapGoodMexicanRestaurant with a co-worker friend, and ran into the guy who engineered one of my recent drum recording sessions with Sarah. Not ShinsEngineer, but the other guy. Really nice guy, and since I hadn’t seen him since we did the recording session, it was really great to run into him again.

Sorry if this entry seems a bit cryptic, but I did just want to check in before I head out to rehearse for the play. Incidentally, here’s the flyer for said play:

I know I’ve said it before, but I’m incredibly honored to be a part of this production. It’s hilarious and touching and strange, and I just love it. I’m completely impressed with the people who are creating it, and at the same time, I’m glad to be able to be a part of it, too.

If you’d like to be there, contact me by any means necessary, and I’ll put you in touch with the people you need to be in touch with to get a ticket. They’re a mere ten dollars each. I try not to invite people to every single thing I do, but this one is so unusual–and so great–that if you enjoy what I do, and certainly if you’re a friend of mine, I can pretty much guarantee you that you will have a great time at this show.

This won’t be the last time you’ll hear about it. You will be reminded.

Oh yeah. . .just this second, I remembered that it was April Fools’ Day.

Hunh.

Well.

I don’t know what else to say about that, except that I didn’t get tricked today, and I also have to leave for rehearsal right now. Talk to you soon!

On the drive back from my dad’s house yesterday morning, I took the opportunity–and the big detour–to go down to the shoreline near the mouth of the Columbia river to take some more pictures of the scene I stumbled onto last year.

The thing about the Columbia River is that it’s freakin’ huge.

The other thing about it is that the weather at its mouth is notoriously crappy. It was pretty sunny and bright when I first got there, but the winter storms were moving in quickly, so I ran around all over, trying to capture what I like so much about this remote place, before the weather took a turn for the worse. And it did, too. Just when I had gotten back into my car and decided I’d better high-tail it out of there, the rain and hail started.

But wow. The light changes so often that you could take millions of pictures, and each would be very different from all of the others. Not to mention the fact that the river level changes constantly. Because of all the recent rainstorms, it was much higher this time than the last time I was there. I’d like to camp (meaning, sleep in my car) there sometime during the summer, and wake up to take pictures as the sun rises. I want to be able to capture the spirit of this ghost town before the area gets developed and destroyed forever, but I have to say that it seems pretty unlikely to happen for a while, for the simple fact that it’s just so incredibly remote. There’s only one road in, and it’s an impossibly windy, steep eleven-mile dead end (this section is about six miles in) that narrows to only one lane just beyond the area these pictures were taken, with no shoulder or guard rail, and a steep incline that drops down into the thick forest and on down to the river. It’s not a place to be taken lightly.

I’m definitely going back again, when I have more time to devote to shooting pictures and climbing around a lot more. I also desperately need to get myself a tripod.

Okay, so here’s the music I was talking about the other day. The songs are now posted on MySpace, so they’re fair game to share with you too.

The band is called SistersBrother, and I played the drums and the bass on all of the songs.

On the song “Knickers” I also played the pseudo-ukelele part in the verses. On “Danger Boots”, I also played electric guitar in the middle section. On “Vampires”, I used tympani mallets for the first two-thirds of the song, then switched to sticks and rocked out for the last part of the song. On “Swallows’ Nest” I also played the glockenspiel and the flute-y keyboard parts that show up at various points throughout the song. This was the hardest song, as far as the drums were concerned. It’s almost like two songs in one, in that it alternates between a Beatle-esque feel and a pseudo-reggae feel, which are very difficult to transition between. The ‘hiccup’ drum parts during the ending section of this song are surprisingly difficult, and they’re the parts that I’m particularly proud of.

I’m really honored to be involved with Sarah and Jimmy’s project, and I’m glad that I’m finally able to share some songs with you.

My head hurts from laughing so hard.

Just got home from rehearsal for the plays. I say ‘plays’ because in about a month, we’re going to be having a night of six short plays, for your pleasure.

I say ‘we’ because I will actually be playing accordion and piano (and maybe cello or something) as incidental music between the acts, actual music for one of the actual plays, and I’m actually playing the actual accordion in one of the actual plays (in which I even have an actual speaking line!).

I say ‘pleasure’ because that is the feeling you will be overwhelmed by if you come to see this show. Allow me to elucidate.

There are six plays in this particular show:

One–written by a member of the reading group–involves a writer’s struggle to create; one explores the nature of how much information is too much to share with a new love; one is a touching story of a father and a son; one–written by another member of the reading group–explores the nature of predator and prey, and involves both goldfish and marijuana; one is the story of the hijinks that ensue when staunchly feminist Amazon women encounter a handsome male ‘diplomat’ in the jungle; and the play I’m in is the story of a girl who wears a coat that’s made out of meat.

If all of this doesn’t sound enticing to you, then gawd help you. I’m honored and thrilled to be a part of this production. I’m going to go out on a limb here, and say that this is Theatah At Its Finest. The show will be on April 12th, and costs a mere ten dollars. Contact me by any means necessary if you’d like to come. If you leave a comment here on BFST, I’ll have your e-mail address.

And now I’m home, eating dinner and enjoying what I like to call a Crash Day, where I stay home and completely unwind after an insanely busy couple of weeks of work, rehearsals, gigs, and socializing. Special thanks to Maddy for making the trek down from Seattle to come to the awesome Stephanie gig last night, and for bringing me some DVD’s of a show I’ve been wanting to see for a year.

And now it’s time to start watching said DVD’s of said show. The Crash begins now.

Oh, and hey. . .here’s the first actual incarnation of OneYearAgo!

Well, this weekend surely was an amazing one. Here are the stats:

Number of great friends I spent time with: 3

Number of songs I recorded parts for: 3 (On Song #4, we all decided that it already sounded great.)

Number of instruments crammed into my car: 12

Number of instruments that weighed over 100 pounds: 1

Number of pieces of gear that were also crammed into my car: 8

Number of sleeping bags and pillows crammed into my car: 1 each

Number of Spinal Tap quotes inscribed on the studio wall with a Sharpie: 1 (“Have a good time, ALL the time.”)

Number of brilliant Miles Davis DVD’s viewed: 1

Number of creaky sofas attempted to sleep on and then abandoned: 1

Number of birds named Lucy who didn’t keep me awake because I moved my sleeping bag upstairs: 1

Number of floors slept on, and number of drum sets slept next to: 1 each

Number of amazing meals eaten: 3

Number of offers to work there in the future: 2

Number of frickin’ awesome albums I’m very excited to co-produce this year: 1; Andrea’s.

Number of great memories and experiences accrued: a multitude