beautiful, funny, sad & true

Starting tomorrow, one of my New Year’s resolutions is coming true.

It’s the private one, so don’t expect me to elaborate too much, but I will say that it’s a big one, and that it’s something I’ve done before, and that it changed my life dramatically. Now if I could only get the puddle of water off the floor of my car, I’d be very happy indeed.

I never did shake off that dream yesterday. I came home, watched “Boogie Nights”, and then called my brother’s wife. Both of their kids were asleep, so we were able to talk for about an hour, which was really nice. We haven’t had that kind of luxury for quite a while.

When I did finally go to sleep, I had another dream–too short to warrant an entire entry of its own–in which BoringFish and I were together, and we decided to get married. (“Not right now, but–y’know–in the future.“) Isn’t that funny? Two dreams about the same person, two nights in a row.

This afternoon was rehearsal with Susie Blue and GuitaristJason. I played accordion and cello. We have a few shows coming up in January and February–at great venues like the Doug Fir and Mississippi Studios–and it’s been ages since we played together. Sounded great and felt great, and I’m really excited for this round of gigs.

Tonight is SSF’s birthday party. A bunch of us are going to get sushi at her favorite sushi restaurant, Kappaya, and then we’re going bowling. It promises to be a blast.

I’ll keep you posted as some of the other resolutions are met. Right now, though, I’d better ‘motor’ (remember the movie Heathers?) if I’m gonna make it to the sushi place on time.

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.]

Just had to share that I had the best drum recording session ever yesterday. It was for a new project that Sarah is doing before she moves to Austin. We spent hours placing the microphones, and tuning all of the drums well–sweating all the details–and it really made a huge difference. When everything sounds great, you tend to play great, and I felt confident and able to contribute some drum tracks that are interesting and appropriate to the songs. I can’t wait to be able to share the fruits of our labor with you.

I can, however, share a picture.

Today’s session is going to be the bass tracks, and possibly some keyboard tracks too.

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!