beautiful, funny, sad & true

I have a cat staying with me for a few days. Her name is Zooey.

After all the stress and craziness in seemingly all aspects of life lately, not to mention the heavy subject matter (and arguments) here on El Blog-o lately, there’s nothing like a cute wittle kitteh to make you forget about all of it.

I came home from work yesterday to find her curled up asleep in the bathroom sink. Oh, how I wish I had a picture of that. She jumped down immediately and started rubbing on me. Cutest thing ever. After dinner, we both curled up on the sofa and watched Rock School. Hilarious documentary about a quasi-megalomaniac who teaches kids not just how to play instruments, but how to be rock stars. And no, he doesn’t hold back at all.

More good news; I’m going on tour with Breanna this summer, and we’re gallivanting all around the western U.S., the highlight of which will be a festival in Utah. ‘V. exciting,’ as Bridget Jones would say.

After a sick day I had not too long ago, when I stayed home and spent endless hours watching videos on WebSiteLikeTV, I mentioned my idea of doing a series of entries about 80’s rock, and some of the bands I used to like back in the day. I have to confess that I don’t exactly know where to start with all of this; the natural place would be at the beginning, but since rock music is a bit of a continuum, I guess I’ll jump in by starting with the music that I came across first.

I didn’t grow up in a major metropolitan city, I grew up in an isolated little town in the middle of Washington state. No cable TV, no live music or touring bands to speak of. I’ve played piano since I was three years old, so I grew up listening to classical music, and then a little bit of stuff from my friends, but not much. The majority of my musical childhood was spent listening to whatever my parents had in their record collections. My dad had a sizable collection that was all classical. My mom had about 50 records, including some Simon & Garfunkel and Beatles, and some classical, and some folk, but nothing really earth-shaking.

I’ve always hated 70’s arena rock and all that boring blues-based stuff. I’ve always hated that wispy 70’s folk that was the antithesis of arena rock. I didn’t discover rock music that I actually liked until I was about ten or eleven years old, but that was pretty much just whatever was on the radio at the time. Nothing particularly earth-shaking there either.

When I was twelve or thirteen, my parents had been divorced for a couple of years, and my dad moved to the Portland, Oregon area. That was when I finally got to hear some new and different music. Portland had two whole radio stations devoted to classical music. They had jazz, all kinds of different pop music and dance music, as well as hard rock, which was what I took a particular interest in. My dad also had cable TV, which included the still-fledgling MTV, which was just beginning to have a huge effect on popular music. I will never forget some of those exciting, innovative and strange early videos. Here’s the obvious choice to show first, the Buggles’ “Video Killed the Radio Star.”

Lots of things were happening in the early 80’s that affected music greatly. Cable TV, particularly MTV, led the way in creating a new look and style for the changing times. Technology was changing daily as well, which meant that computers, synthesizers, camcorders, VCR’s, cassette recorders were all inexpensive and readily available, which meant that almost anyone could create things at home that could be seen by lots of people, relatively easily and cheaply.

That, combined with the all-pervasive ‘bigger than life’ ethic that exemplified the 80’s made for some interesting music and videos. Duran Duran were one of the biggest bands of the time, and deservedly so. They combined intelligent, catchy songwriting with youthful good looks, and the ‘exoticism’ of being English. Here’s “New Moon on Monday.”

And it wasn’t all new groups, either. More, um, seasoned bands like Yes and Kiss breathed new life into their careers by ushering in new members and taking advantage of the new technology to update their sound and look.

Here’s “I Love It Loud” by Kiss, and “Owner of a Lonely Heart” by Yes.

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This was also the decade of the widening “generation gap” between adults and their kids. Unlike the “My Generation” kids of the 1960’s and 70’s, kids of the 80’s seemed to have a completely separate existence that was entirely their own. Times were changing at a breakneck pace, and many parents seemingly had no other choice but to abdicate.

This seems like a good start, and there’s plenty more to come.

It’s 11:30 p.m., and it’s a very stormy night.

Nights like tonight are the nights that I really miss my old Taylor House apartment. You know, the one on the third floor of the hundred-year-old mansion. The one with the beautiful views of the city from three different directions. The one that I could watch fireworks downtown during the Rose Festival, the Starlight Parade, and on Independence Day. The one from which I watched almost every single sunset. The one that I called the Rock Star Factory. The one in which I learned how to play the accordion and the cello. The one in which I learned how to become a recording engineer and producer. The one in which I went from being a regular guy with a crappy job to a really talented guy doing what he was meant to do with his life. Basically, it was the place I lived when I learned how to do (and to be) all of the things that I’m doing (and becoming) now.

On stormy nights like tonight, the wind would beat the rain against all of the windows, and threaten to blow the roof off of the building, and I loved every minute of it. In fact, the more the wind howled, the more I enjoyed it. I would crack the window open, turn off all of the lights, turn off all of the music, light a candle or two, and just listen to the wind. I’d sit at the window and look out over the lights of downtown, or, on the warmer stormy nights, I’d stand outside on the fire escape, drinking a glass of wine, daring the wind to blow me down.

I wish I would’ve had a camera back then, because the sunsets alone were priceless. But then there are the countless memories of Katrina Petrovisky-Mouskewicz (the best cat ever), Amber and her fearless blind cat Kati and her mischievous rat Hannah, Craig, Kevin, Jeri, Meechai, Pelsang and the constantly rotating crowd of Tibetans, Erika, Daniel and the constantly rotating crowd of Brazilians, Henry, Morgan, Kristi, Amanda and Simon; the house parties until 4:00 a.m., Decemberists sing-alongs until the wee hours, mix CD’s which I still cherish and enjoy to this day, Jake and Skip flicking cigarettes from the fire escape to the street below, endless hours of recording my parts for Crystin Byrd’s “My Silence” CD, S.S. Flint and her pencil drawing, Jaime and Becky’s “Bus Song” and “12 Step”, rolling up the rug and recording the sound of Laurena the flamenco dancer weaving her magic spell, playing the cello badly while Andrea played the piano beautifully, climbing onto the roof for no reason at all, reading in the sun on the fire escape, seeing BoringFish again, walking with my guitars to the recording sessions at Jackpot, and a myriad of other things.

Here are some pictures of the apartment and me at the time. I have more, but they’re not on this computer. The best ones of all are the ones in my mind, anyway. The two gables on the right (top floor) are that apartment. Yes, I had a fireplace. And yes, I used it often.

I lived there for three and a half years, from when I was 30 and change to when I was 34. Moving out of there, while it wasn’t easy, was the right thing to do at the time. Sure was sad, though. It was by far my favorite place that I’ve ever lived, and I fully appreciated it the whole time I was there. I look back on it fondly as the place that I lived during the biggest changes of my entire life.

LoveItLoveItLoveItMissItLoveIt.

[edit: Incidentally, my gesture in the bottom picture has prompted a few questions. Since Crystin Byrd is the one who took that picture, I was doing an imitation of something our bass player and his girlfriend at the time used to do, which was to randomly make that face and gesture, and at the same time make the sound of a hissing cobra. It was very funny, and they would do it all the time. They might sneak up on each other in the kitchen, or it could be just as likely to happen when they were sitting and watching a movie. They could do it in a romantic and funny way too.

So there you have it. Not that it’s going to make any more sense, but at least you know the context, and that it’s not a “Hey, baby, lemme grab ya” expression or anything.]

Wow. . .I don’t know where this week went. How can it have been four days since I wrote last? Well, I suppose it hasn’t been a very eventful week. I’ve been enjoying a few days of relaxation before next week’s craziness starts.

My favorite incarnation of all the groups I play with had a gig on Thursday night. It was the Breanna/cello/violin trio, with Justin singing harmonies. It’s very exciting to be part of such an eclectic and wonderful group, doing our own particular blend of music that incorporates elements of folk, rock, classical and country, seamlessly and beautifully.

Last night I went to see two different shows. The first was a band called Thunder Flea. They were bass/drums/melodica/ukelele, and then electric guitar. The electric guitar was supposed to be a ukelele, but apparently the ukelele wasn’t working, so he had to bring the guitar. They were something of a ‘supergroup’, made up of people who are all in other bands, some of which are quite well-known. Very fun. BoringFish and a couple of her friends were there, too, which made it even more fun.

The second show was a tour kick-off show for a group called the Dimes. Haven’t seen them play in a couple of years, but they’ve been around for probably five or six years now. When Crystin Byrd still had her electric band, we played with them a time or two, and they were really great. They’ve stripped down their sound a little since then, and I think it suits them. They’re just as melodic as ever, but they kinda rock a little harder now. Really a good show. I met up with Shelby and Brian, who had been there since the early part of the evening, and then afterwards we went up the hill to Crush for some hummus.

Speaking of Crystin Byrd, today is going to be a rehearsal for an upcoming show, in which she’s going to be too pregnant to hold her guitar, so she asked if I’d like to play guitar or piano or something, and she would just sing. I agreed, but stipulated that it will probably be best if we do her older songs, instead of the newer ones that I’m not as familiar with. So today’s the day we pull the old songs out of their leather cases, blow the dust off, and then decide which ones to perform. I’m really excited about this.

The rest of the weekend should be pretty low-key, which I could certainly use. Next week I’m busy every night from Tuesday clear through until Saturday. I found the DVD of After Life yesterday, which I’ve been trying to find for years. Excellent and beautiful movie.

Oh, and you’ll be glad to know that there are no Hitler references in this entry, and no mention of chronic or terminal diseases either. Oh wait. . .I think I may have inadvertently slipped one in. Oops.

And for the record, the title ‘red star’ has nothing to do with anything. I needed a name for this entry, and for some reason, that’s what popped into my head. So there it is. What do you think it means? Come on, all you Jungians!

It seems that I’m not alone; these last couple of weeks have been extremely strange and emotional for almost everyone. Unfortunately, the things that have been happening are not subjects that are appropriate for me to write about here, especially not with a certain someone slithering around. Family issues, friend issues, money issues…all seem to be par for the course at the same time. I suppose you know what they say about rain.

Let’s hope the worst is over.

Here’s a short list of some statistics for the week, though. It certainly ain’t all bad, either, by any stretch of the imagination:

• number of distressing phone calls from close friends in tears: 3
• number of best-in-my-whole-life drum recording sessions: 2
  
• number of cockroaches seen in my building: 1
• number of cockroaches seen in my apartment: ZERO
• number of days home sick from work last week: 2
• number of excellent Wes Anderson movies seen in the theater: 1
• number of excellent new anime’s I’ve watched online, for free: 4
• number of nights in which I got fewer than three hours of sleep: 3
• number of interesting and deep phone conversations, today alone: 3
• number of hilarious conversations today involving Hitler’s love life: 1

Clearly, if I’m able to incorporate Hitler–let alone his love life–back into my humor lexicon, I’m starting to feel like my usual self. I mean (with all due respect), the subjects of brain cancer and full-blown AIDS can almost always provide good fodder for comedy, but I generally have to be feeling at my tippy top in order to find humor in Hitler.

So. Moving on.

I’ve finally been feeling like writing again lately, and by that I mean writing about real and important subjects. Six months or so ago, I was poking around online, trying to find out information about all my old favorite guitarists and bands from the 80’s. I spent many hours sitting here alone, laughing out loud at the ridiculous clothes and videos, and of course, the music. But at the same time, it was a little more complicated than that, because I could still see and hear what I liked about them back in the day. Ever since that night, I’ve had the thought in the back of my mind that it would be fun to write a series of blog entries about some of those people and what my thoughts about them were, both then and now. Naturally, I would put up whatever videos I could find, so that you too could get in on the fun.

I’ve also needed to create a music-related e-mail list for a while now, so that people who are interested can keep up with my gigging and recording schedule, and this seems like the perfect time to do it.

But definitely check back here for the Eighties Röck Blög or whatever I end up calling it. I think that’ll be a fun project.