beautiful, funny, sad & true

It was a really nice weekend, but really super busy at the same time.

I took my cello in for Part One of a two-part major overhaul. It’s getting lots of little things fixed and upgraded, and it’s going to get its body re-glued, because the glue’s so old that the thing is barely able to hold itself together anymore. Having that fixed will make a huge improvement in the sound of the instrument, and all the other little fixes will help with its playability. It will sit at the correct height and stay in tune better now; both very important things. Part Two of the overhaul will require major surgery on the fingerboard and neck, and will be much more expensive, so I’ll have to save up a bit for it.

We did more Susie Blue recording with Jason Roark last Saturday. We tracked drums, accordion, and hand claps. After I got home and unloaded my car, Kelly and I went to Urban Outfitters, and I got a cool new pair of pants. Very exciting. I was supposed to go to a show that night, but I was pretty beat after working hard in the studio, so I went back over to Kelly’s, intending to crash, but instead we stayed up really late, drinking chardonnay and watching “Young Frankenstein.” (That’s FRAHNK-en-shteen. . .)

When I got home on Sunday morning, I spent the next two or three hours washing, vacuuming, and detailing my car. Afterwards, I sat in the sun on the front steps of my building to eat lunch, when Kelly arrived. She walked over to Lloyd Center to look for some new clothes, and I met her after my laundry was done and I’d taken a shower. We walked around for a long time, and were both exhausted by the time we got home, so we took a nap while listening to the jazz trio rehearse next door. Pretty dang nice way to spend an afternoon. Then she went home and I went over to rehearse with Stephanie.

Came home all jazzed after having two cups of tea over at Steph’s, so I watched the first episode of the new This American Life TV show. What an amazing program. As a long-time devotee of the radio show, I’m glad they’re doing the television version the ‘right’ way. It has everything I like about the radio version, plus some other elements that just aren’t possible to achieve on the radio. Well done. And as a hopefully interesting aside, did you notice the show’s tag line? ‘Funny, real, surprising, unscripted, true.’ Don’t forget ‘beautiful’ and ‘sad’!

This week is getting a little crazy. (So crazy, in fact, that I can’t seem to keep up with my blog entries!) Rehearsal with Crystin Byrd, CD release with the Young Immortals for the Starbucks compilation, gig with Stephanie Schneiderman, cello back from the repair shop, and rehearsal with Jaime and Becky.

Next week should be a little less crazy. . .

Next time you’re at Starbucks, and you happen to be looking at CD’s, be sure to check out Off The Clock. Cause I’m on it!

No, I don’t work at Starbucks, but the drummer for the Young Immortals does, and when they were taking submissions, he sent in the song “The Fever”. Naturally they loved it, cause it’s an amazing and incredibly catchy song. Jake (the band’s songwriter) and I played all the instruments on the recording. He wrote the song, sang, played drums and most of the rhythm guitar parts, and I played bass, keyboards, piano, organ, and a couple of electric guitar parts, including the solo. It was recorded at my old apartment. When Jake wrote the song, I knew it was golden, because I couldn’t sit still or stop thinking about it from the moment I heard it.

All the guys in the band and I are very excited about this opportunity. It’s huge exposure, for sure, because this CD will be heard all over the world, and help take the Young Immortals to new and greater heights.

It’ll be available on Tuesday, April 3rd. Heck yeah!

Spent a few hours on Saturday playing drums on a couple of songs for the next Susie Blue CD. Total blast. We’re recording with Jason Roark, at his newly completed home studio. Great guy, who’s doing a great job. (Incidentally, that’s the same place where the Pete Krebs Trio is in the process of recording their CD as well. To refresh your memory, go here.) I’m really excited to hear how it all turns out. The most exciting thing of all is that there’s finally going to be new stuff from Susie! This album is going to sound very different from her last one, but I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

Yesterday ended up better than it started. After going to the Gap, Old Navy, Nordstrom Rack, American Eagle, Urban Outfitters, Buffalo Exchange (both locations in town) and Red Light, I did find some cool clothes. Not as many as you’d think, considering all the places I went, but I ended up with some cool green pants from Urban, a long-sleeved black T-shirt from Buffalo, and a really great blue-with-brown-pinstripes button-up shirt from AmEagle. There were a couple other places that I intended to go, but by that time I was starving and out of energy. Came home, ate dinner, and hung out with Susan for a little while, until she left to go see the Pete Krebs Trio.

And speaking of the PK3, this morning I had the opportunity to play accordion with them on a few songs for their upcoming CD. What better way to triumph over a gloomy Saturday than to spend Sunday in the recording studio playing gypsy jazz with some of the best musicians in town? Pretty decent way to spend the day, I have to say.

At one point, KeithTheBassPlayer and I went out to get lunch for everyone, and run an errand to the plumbing place so he could order some new fixtures and stuff for his house. In the middle of the store, they had a full hot tub on display. We were cracking ourselves up imagining that after a particularly stressful day, all these big tough plumber guys would say something to the effect of, “We work hard; we play hard!” strip off and start splashing around in the tub together. Then suddenly they realize, “Hey, wait a minute. We’re all MEN!”, stop for an uncomfortable moment, and then burst out laughing. “Yeah. We’re ALL men.” Then it gets kinda quiet again. “Yup. . .we suuuure are. Men.”

Anyway.

Then we went and got some really frickin’ amazing burritos from. . .uh. . .Super Torta. (? I think that’s it.) I could only eat half of mine, which means that I still have the other half for another time. Woo hoo!

Kelly’s coming back from Seattle pretty soon. I’ll get to meet her long-time friend Barb also, which I’m really looking forward to. Should be a good night.

In case you didn’t know, I grew up in Yakima, Washington. It’s a very isolated town in the middle of Washington. People who live there may tell you that “well, it’s a good place to raise kids” or whatever, but I was a kid growing up there, and I feel like it was a difficult place, particularly compared to the city in which I was born.

It’s long been one of the drug hubs of the entire nation, and that’s especially astounding when you consider that fact per capita. I used to have a little Honda CRX when I lived there, and I’d always leave the doors unlocked, because otherwise the windows would get smashed out by drug addicts looking for things to steal. It used to get rummaged through almost every single night. In fact, I was thrilled on the rare occasions when I’d go outside in the morning and NOT find the glove compartment open, the seats pushed forward, the carpet pulled up, the little storage hatch open, and the hatchback popped open. Very often, I’d find that all of those things had been done. Seriously; Yakima’s a shit-hole (and I don’t normally throw terms like that around, either), and I hated living there.

A friend of mine saw this a couple of days ago, in McSweeney’s, and e-mailed it to me. I had to laugh. I wasn’t at all surprised to learn that Yakima is now the meth capital of Central Washington. It’s been called “Crackima” for ages, since the 80’s, when crack was the Thing to Do. Even the mayor’s son got busted for using and selling it, back in the day.

Can I just say how much life has improved since I moved to Portland? It really feels like I’ve lived two entirely separate lives, even though Portland is (I’ve HEARD) the meth capital of the whole Pacific Northwest. I will always appreciate where I am now, and how much I enjoy life now, because I spent so many years wondering why life was even worth living.

Books saved my life; “The Little Prince” came along just when I needed it. Movies saved my life; “My Dinner With Andre” and “Mindwalk” came along just when I needed them. My piano saved my life. My guitar saved my life.

Glad to be outta there, Yakima. Good riddance.