beautiful, funny, sad & true

First, I’d like to say thank you to everyone who’s written, called or lent an ear these last few days. I reallyreally appreciate it. It’s been tremendously heartening and touching, especially in such a difficult and crazy week. Actually, I think this week might have been a month cleverly disguised as a week. I’ve been running on adrenaline, wine and coffee (and lots of water too, don’t worry!) and had three incredible shows so far this week.

Yesterday’s Gig Number One was the one with Stephanie Schneiderman. Total blast, and a very unusual show in that it was just me and her. Usually we play as a trio or as a full band, but this time it was just us, so I got the opportunity to pull out all the stops and play acoustic guitar, accordion, piano, and cello. Practically every song was different, and it was really fun. Sometime soon, I’ll have to write about why playing with Steph means so much to me. It’s a pretty good story, actually.

So. . .on with the story at hand. The minute that show ended, I had to pack up my car and race over to Mississippi Studios for Gig Number Two with Susie Blue. It was spitting rain on the drive over, and parking was nightmarish, but it was a great show. The instrumentation was Susie playing guitar and singing, Skip on cello, Jen on harmony vocals, and I played accordion. Very intimate, but it still definitely rocks when we play that way. The other nice and unexpected thing about that show was that I ended up just sitting around talking with the owner of the studio about production, and I wouldn’t be surprised if I get a phone call before too long.

Then tonight, Gig Number Three was the CD release show (at Mississippi Studios again!) for Breanna Paletta’s new solo album. I think this was quite possibly one of the best shows of my entire life. Here are some pictures:

If you’ve got any pictures from the Stephanie or Susie shows, please let me know. For some reason, they never seem to make their way to me, so if you’re sitting on a goldmine, please. . .help a brother out? Thank you. :)

The moral of the story is that when you’re feeling sad, it’s really nice to have amazing friends to talk with, stellar music to play, and a busy, fun life to fall back on.

But then there are the quiet times. . .

For Easter, Kelly and I met up with her aunt, uncle and mom at her auntnuncle’s house. We all learned how to make crepes (oh my GOD they were good!) and then we dyed Easter eggs. Somehow I managed to hardly take any pictures at all; must’ve been having too much of a good time!

Since it was the last working day pre-Easter, we all chipped in and had a potluck. Which was fine, but the real fun came when one lady brought in Peep candles. We suddenly regressed to being a bunch of five-year-olds, and this was the result.

Oh, and today was my Yearly Performance Review. It consisted of my former supervisor, my new supervisor, the head honcho boss, and me. It went well. We all agreed that I’m intelligent, resourceful, resilient, open-minded, likeable, communicative, slightly unmotivated, and I could use my time more efficiently. And considering the changes I’ve been put through this year (three new positions in the last five months), everyone agreed that I’ve handled things surprisingly well, all things considered.

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.

[edit]
In response to a couple of questions I’ve gotten about the lake picture, that’s York Lake, up in Washington, on the way to Mount St. Helens. It’s really more of a ‘reservoir’ than a lake, cause it’s man-made, from all the dams. Quite frankly, I think the picture makes it look more beautiful than it really is. In person, it’s not very ‘exciting’ as far as lakes go, so it took a while to frame a nice picture. There’s an abandoned boat ramp section, which I imagine is usually underwater, and that’s where I walked to get that shot. Where I WANTED to go, but couldn’t get there because of the way the lake is shaped, is a little further down, where there was an exposed bit of the lake bed with rows of tree stumps sticking up. Really stark and beautiful. Alas.

Not the most exciting trip I’ve ever taken, by the way. The views from the road are really tantalizing, but there are hardly any places to pull over and get down to the lakes you pass along the way. I kept wanting to get out and look around, but the road’s so narrow and windy that stopping is impossible. There are only a handful of places that are worth stopping at, let alone taking pictures, and they’re mostly man-made anyway, so I wouldn’t really recommend this as a day trip. I ended up coming up and over the hill (where there’s still plenty of snow) through the little town of Carson, and back up the Columbia Gorge. Yawn.

Oh well, that’s the spirit of exploration, eh? If I’d never done it, I wouldn’t know. Now I know. And sure; I’ve had plenty of exciting trips, like the little island and lighthouse trip. They can’t all be that successful. And I can’t complain too much, because I did get a couple good pics to show for this trip. But overall. . .enh.

Making sushi was a blast, though. First time Kelly or I had ever done that.