beautiful, funny, sad & true

Tonight two great things happened, and two funny things also happened.

Great Thing #1: Had the first rehearsal for the play that will be performed in April, in which I prominently play the accordion, and may end up even speaking a line. Yes, it’s true. I almost took a few pictures, but I figured it was too early in the process, and it would’ve been too disruptive. We all met in an empty loft-type space (and by loft I mean 1980’s, gray-carpeted loft-type space) to start blocking, and moving around, and trying music, and getting a feel for what works and what doesn’t. Total blast. This production is going to be hilarious and awe-inspiring.

Great Thing #2: The original post-rehearsal plan was to meet at Yoko’s, but as we were driving in our caravan over there, we found out that they weren’t seating people anymore, so we went to Dot’s instead. At first I was disappointed, but once Lindsey and I got our black bean quesadilla, suddenly the clouds parted and the metaphorical sun shone through, and I forgot all about Yoko’s. Yum.

Funny thing #1: As Tossed In (my new favorite nickname for T. Austin) and I walked out the door, he kinda lost his balance on the ramp outside the door. I did fine. Number of drinks he had: zero. Number of drinks I had: two. We continued on, in the direction of our respective vehicles, and when it was time to go our separate ways, we gave each other a hug like we always do. This time was different, though, in that I got an errant knee to the groin in the process. Again; number of drinks he had: zero. Hilarious, and also painful.

Funny thing #2: The second I parked my car in front of my apartment building, Astor Piazzolla (FlutistSusan’s white cat) ran over and jumped up onto the hood of my car, and looked in at me through the windshield. I hadn’t even been there long enough to turn the engine off yet, and he was right there to say hello.

And now it’s time to go to bed.

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

Guess who got a DVD of Metalocalpyse the other night? Thank you, Maddy!

She’s the one who told me about the show, and that I needed to see it. I watched a couple of episodes online, thinking it would be kind of a guilty pleasure, but I got hooked on it and ended up watching every single episode before they got pulled off of WebSiteLikeTV. I’m not going to lie; I love the show. It’s a cartoon about a fictitious heavy metal band called Dethklok. It’s hilarious, and gruesome, and completely brilliant. And now I have the DVD, so I can watch it any time, and share it with friends too. I suppose that by now you’re probably familiar with the function of DVD’s, so maybe that last sentence was superfluous, but enh. . .I stand by my choice. Last night I found used copies of Once and Paris Je T’aime, so that was nice, too, but ohmygosh. Can’t get enough of the trials and tribulations of Dethklok.

Tonight is the play reading group, and tomorrow is a Breanna gig, but what I’m really looking forward to this week is working with Andrea on her CD up in the little town of Welches all weekend. We’re going to attempt to finish all of my instrumental parts. Keep your fingers crossed. Among other things, this will involve loading a ridiculous amount of amps and guitars and keyboards and other things into my little Honda. If it’s really comedic, I’ll be sure to get pictures of it. I wish I had a picture of the back seat of Lara’s car filled with a bunch of my instruments during the Dirty Martini recording sessions. We had to roll down the window, and drive around with the cello case sticking out. That was a classic moment.

Finally, I can share with you one of the new songs that I’ve played on recently.

It’s a beautiful song by Bryn Loosely called “Please”, and it’s from his soon-to-be-released album called “The Wrecker.” I played electric guitar, xylophone (which I just found out the other day is not a xylophone, but is in fact a large glockenspiel), and cello on this particular song.

Check it out!

The weekend was great, but today I’m struggling a bit to keep my head above the metaphorical waterline. I got some troubling news from a friend yesterday, and some even more troubling second-hand news about another friend today. I’m a bit anxious about all of this, and I hope everything turns out okay with both of them.

Both of the gigs this past weekend were fantastic, and very different from each other. Breanna’s was one of the few where I finally felt really good about my cello playing, after doing it for three and a half years now. Crystin’s was really fun because it just felt like coming home again. Everyone who performed was a close friend who I haven’t seen in months, or sometimes even years. The gig was even at the MississippiPizzaPub, which is where Crystin and the band cut our proverbial teeth, and played more than anywhere else. I’ve probably played there with her at least fifty times. One of my friends from Seattle came to the show, and as a surprise she brought some of my other friends from here to the show as well.

In other news, I spent much of yesterday doing some more research for my 80’s Röck series, which is to say I dinked around online for most of the day while I did a few loads of laundry. I think Yacht Rock has got to be one of the funniest things I’ve seen in ages.

I’m looking for a typewriter to use. If you have one, and I can use it, can you please leave me a comment or something? I have an idea for a picture, and it involves the use of a typewriter. Please and thank you!

Had an interesting discussion the other night about introverts vs. extroverts. One guy was saying how he used to be such an extrovert that he couldn’t even relate to introverts. The other guy–who turned out to be a missionary–said that he would never dream of hiring an introvert for a missionary. . .um. . .position. (I swear I didn’t intend to write that!) After thinking about it for a while–I am an introvert, after all–it occurred to me that C.S. Lewis is possibly one of the best-known and best-loved missionaries (of a certain type) of all time, but he certainly wasn’t an extrovert. He just quietly wrote stories and novels that explained his viewpoint, which then sent beautiful ripples throughout the world. So I guess what I’m saying is that there’s room for all types.

Religion–even this tiny bit–is a very rare subject for me to write about here, to be sure. Enjoy it while you can.