beautiful, funny, sad & true

Yesterday was just. . .a great day. I can’t remember the last time I’ve been able to say that.

I took the day off from work, and slept in until ten-thirty. Around eleven, Breanna and the other two band members came to my place to rehearse. We sounded great and had fun, as per usual, so we drove down to Wilsonville to do the radio show. I was expecting a little pod-cast out of someone’s house, but boy, was I in for a surprise.

It was in a house, it’s true, but once we got inside and went upstairs, we were in a professional radio studio. Couches, chairs, two computers, a satellite uplink, a mixing board, speakers everywhere, and one huge desk. The host, Mitchell, was sixteen years old.

If you didn’t see him, you’d never know that he’s sixteen. He sounds forty. Really deep voice, with complete confidence; he’s a total pro. He told us he’s been doing the show professionally since he was ten. Ten! AND he’s had some of the biggest-name people in country music on his show. It’s not some cheesy little show, either; he’s on XM, and lots of NPR affiliates and commercial stations all across the country. Crazy!

Their house, coincidentally enough, was in the same subdivision of Wilsonville where MostRecentExGirlfriend’s uncle and aunt–who I’m still friends with, and who actually read this blog (Hi, TFG & 9!)–live, so I went over there afterwards. Her uncle was at work, but aunt and I drank tea and talked for almost two hours, and had a tremendous time.

I came home long enough to change my clothes, and then I had to get over to the southeast part of town for one of the play readings. Instead of getting stuck in horrible rush-hour traffic, which is what usually happens, I took a different way, and finally figured out how to avoid all of the busy streets and sneak down through Reed College from the north. Brilliant!

I brought my cello, expecting to play that, but since there was a shortage of guys last night, I actually got invited to read one of the parts. It was SO much fun! The play had excellent dialogue, and it was about three friends who’ve grown up together in Boise. (There were even a few scenes set in a club called Neurolux–where I’ve been and played!–so that was particularly interesting.) One of the friends falls on hard times, and the relationship between the three guys is tested to its core. Very well-written and fun to be a part of. I played the part of the stoner musician. Typecasting, no? Well, minus the stoner part, anyway.

After that, it was time to relax and watch another fine episode of Mushi-shi–one of these days, I’m going to post one of the episodes up here, so you can see it for yourself–and then I went to bed, satisfied from having one of the best days I’ve had in the last few months. I genuinely enjoyed every minute of it.

“Don’t look back; always look ahead.”

Hm. Particularly apropos lately. Even my dream the other day seemed to be saying something similar; if you’re going to go back the way you came, watch out. Trouble awaits you there.

Tomorrow I’m taking the day off from work to play an internet radio show with Breanna. No, I don’t know what the name of it is yet, but Breanna was very excited when she heard about it, so it sounds like it could be a great opportunity. I’ll keep you posted or take some pictures or something.

[EDIT: I should’ve waited until later to write. I got a call from DrummerAdam this afternoon, saying that he came across an ad on ListNamedAfterOneMan about a Portland band with a style similar to that of Arcade Fire and the Decemberists who are looking for a tasteful lead guitarist and drummer. He responded, and gave them our names so they can look into our musical resumés. I’m definitely intrigued. I can’t wait to find out who they are, so we can see whether or not we’re interested.]

As part of the ‘best of 2007’ series–the pictures will follow sometime soon–here are some of the highlights of the year from BFS&T. It was fun to go back and revisit some of these again, although if I had a nickel for every entry that I titled ‘crazy week’ or ‘super busy’ or ‘phew’ or something like that, I’d have. . .a total of. . .well, actually, I don’t know how much money I’d have. But I did learn at some point that I needed to work on my titles.

Anyway, here’s the list:

* * * * *

December – third grade memories
There are also a few good dreams to be found in December’s archive.

November – taking my blog back
That was a very strange month. I got a fun new hobby, and had some very unusual life experiences too, which–as a nice side effect–hopefully makes for interesting reading.

October – birthday week
October was busy and interesting, and this was the obvious entry choice for the month. Lots of other good entries, though.

September – five-day weekend
The beginning of the month was a whirlwind like August was, but pretty much the rest of it was spent recovering from the huge heartbreak and the whirlwind gigging and traveling schedule of July and August.

August – Nevada trip
Boy, August was brutal. September was, too. It was tough to decide which entry to use as the commemoration, so I chose the most memorable and positive one. I guess if you’re interested, you can go back and check out the other stuff. There’s plenty. I wrote more in August than I did in any other month.

July – week in review
This month was quite possibly the busiest one of my entire life. Tons of interesting gigs, my amazing friend and partner in crime moved away, a family beach vacation. . .this was another tough month to decide which entry to choose.

June – Yakima trip
First genuinely good time I’ve had in Yakima for as long as I can remember, so it is worthy of special mention here. For as busy as July was, and as dark as August was, I have to say that June was pretty great.

May – Mount St. Helens Day
This one is going to get mentioned, too, because it’s a classic:
glad I wasn’t a girl that day
I also went to Seattle, and there’s a good entry about that too. And pictures!

April – a month, disguised as a week
(See also: a week, disguised as a day)
Started out good, then I got blasted open in the middle of the month. After August, this was the craziest month of the year. I also had one of the best gigs of my entire life. Lots of good pictures for you to enjoy.

March – I’ve got ‘The Fever’, Off the Clock
Young Immortals song makes it onto a Starbucks CD. Woo hoo! Lots of pictures and fun times that month, too.

February – OK, All You Dream Interpreters, Vol. III
February was a bit of a roller coaster, with lots of sorta random writing. Although I never write about this subject, work was particularly terrible and stressful back then, and I was out with Then-Girlfriend-Now-Ex a lot, so that didn’t leave as much time for writing. But this dream is one of the most interesting I’ve ever had.

January – Iron Horse
My first band, while I was in high school and a little bit into college. Other than this, January was much like February as far as blog content is concerned. Lots of good pictures, though.

* * * * *

I hope this is fun and/or interesting to read. It was fun to make, so there you go. I also want to let you know that I really appreciate you reading BFS&T, and I hope you have a happy, lucky, prosperous and fulfilling New Year.

This year has mercifully come to a close. It was a mess for me in so many ways. Lots of memorable good times, to be sure, but for the most part I look back on 2007 as being a year of utter confusion. I, for one, am glad it’s over.

My first resolution for 2008 is to get the huge puddle of water off the floor of my car.

My second resolution is to be a better person.

My third resolution is to produce a CD with at least one new person of my choosing.

My third resolution is that I will finally learn something from all of the fucking mistakes I seem to keep making over and over again.

My fourth resolution is private.

My fifth resolution is semi-private, but I will say that it involves love.

My sixth resolution is to cook more.

My seventh resolution is to get my dang bike fixed already.

There are others, of course, but this is a good start.

p.s. – I hope we all have a Happy New Year, and a great 2008.

Between hanging out and playing with BT and his band last weekend, and hanging out with Maddy, Heather and Jeff–and certainly not to forget Kelly, her dad, Nancy, and Joan–at my gig last night, it’s been quite the week for reconnecting with old friends.

Went to see the movie “Walk Hard” with my friend John a couple of nights ago. We both loved it, but I think we would both say that it’s not for the faint of heart. If you haven’t heard of it, it’s sort of a send-up of a lot of rockumentaries like “Walk the Line.” The main character is based primarily on Johnny Cash, but there are plenty of other allusions too, like Brian Wilson, Ray Charles, and many others.

Tonight I have a cello gig down in Salem, and this whole weekend will be spent playing drums and electric bass for a new recording project that I’m working on.

I have to confess that the wind has been out of my sails this week where blogging is concerned. You can always tell when I post things like videos instead of writing actual entries. Not only have I been super busy this week, but I spent the afternoon and evening of Christmas Eve in an online argument–see the comments at the bottom of this entry, if you care to–and that’s why I’ve been a bit more scarce than usual.

After tonight, I have no gigs until after the New Year, which I’m very happy about. Glad to have the opportunity to just be with friends or go out instead of having to be somewhere and play.

Hopefully your week and holidays are going well!