beautiful, funny, sad & true

Sunday, after my gig down in Gleneden Beach with Susie Blue, I drove the hundred-mile trip up curvy Highway 101 to Cannon Beach, where my mom, stepdad, brother, sister-in-law, niece and baby nephew were. As soon as I arrived, I made dinner for everybody. Mom made a delicious salad, and my stepdad made an amazing dessert.

After all that, we walked down to the beach. The house they rented was directly in line with Haystack Rock, so it couldn’t have been easier to get there. After driving two and a half hours to the gig, playing the gig, driving a little bit and then stopping at the factory outlet stores in Lincoln City (where–among other things–I got a new blue hoodie to replace the one I left in Salem a couple of weeks ago), then driving four more hours up the coast (stopping to take a few pictures along the way), it was an exhausting day, but completely worth it. It was great to see everybody, and here are some pictures:

Even I am amazed at the amount of stuff I crammed into one day. Here’s what today consisted of:

1) got up at 8:00 and sold my oak bookcase (you know, the one that was in my living room), then helped the buyer load it into his truck

2) did three loads of laundry

3) washed the dishes

4) took out the trash and recycling

5) transferred the files I needed from my old computer onto my new computer

6) went to Fred Meyer and bought a dining table and chairs for the kitchen, and food for the trip to Cannon Beach tomorrow

7) assembled the table and almost finished one of the chairs

8) vacuumed the living room floor and did SpiderWebRemoval along the ceiling and corners with the vacuum throughout the entire apartment

9) swept the kitchen floor

10) disassembled the old table that was in my kitchen, and took it to the basement

11) disassembled the new table because it wouldn’t fit through the hallway to get to the kitchen (Grrrr!)

12) reassembled the new table in the kitchen

13) took a shower

14) loaded my instruments in the car and made the hour-long drive down to Salem for a two-hour gig with Breanna Paletta. It was a blast, by the way. I played cello mostly, but also accordion and a little bit of acoustic guitar. My favorite songs were the ones with Breanna singing and playing guitar, her friend Karli playing violin, and me playing cello. Seriously amazing combination.

15) drove the hour-long drive home and unpacked all the instruments from the car

16) wrote this blog entry

17) probably see who’s on Austin City Limits and have a glass of wine. Words cannot express how tired and sore I am right now.

18) go to bed and sleep like an effin’ baby

Wow. This week has been such a blur that I can’t possibly explain it all–and I don’t even want to try–but here are the high points:

WEDNESDAY – After two rehearsals, Steph and the two new band members played our first show together. It was fun, as usual. DrummerDrew and BassistMichael both felt a little overwhelmed by all the new songs they had to learn, but they are both true champions and great players, and playing with them is a blast.

THURSDAY – I met up with my friend John to go see two different shows in one night. The first was John Vecchiarelli over at the White Eagle. In the interest of full disclosure, I used to play accordion with John three or four years ago. As usual, he sounded great, and it was really good to see him again. Jaime and Becky–with whom I play cello on the rare occasions that they perform–with were there to watch too. They joined us at our table, and Jaime told us that she’s leaving on Tuesday to go to Georgia for grad school. After that, John and I went to Dante’s to see Casey Neill and his all-star band play. We stuck around for about an hour, then had to call it a night.

FRIDAY – I took the day off from work because I had a gig in Salem with Steph and the band. We played outside at the Salem Art Fair. It was a rough gig for all of us. I spent the entire time wondering how to play the guitar. The sound on stage was very loud and strange, and Steph was having difficulty too. BassistMichael and DrummerDrew were frustrated with themselves, because they thought they didn’t do a very good job. I’m here to tell you, however, that they did a great job, especially since we’d all played together only three times before. Oh, and I realized after I got home that I left my blue hoodie sitting on a chair down in Salem. Crap.

Later that night, Kelly and I hung out for the first time in weeks. We started at the Mock Crest Tavern to see her friend’s instrumental jazz fusion band play. The Mock Crest is a tiny and not particularly nice place, but I’ll always have a warm spot in my heart for it since it’s the place where Jacob Ray and I met. They have a computer set up along the wall there, so Kelly and I got online and played some word games while we listened to the band. After we paid and got up to leave, I went to the restroom. As I walked in, there was already a guy in there standing at the urinal. He turned to me and said, “How’s your night going, man?”

I chose to ignore him, and walked directly into the stall. I shut the door behind me, and it slammed a little harder than I intended. The guy tried again. “Night’s going that bad, huh?”

“Nah, it’s fine,” I replied.

He took a minute, then said, “You sit around and play games on a date?” I didn’t even consider responding to that. From inside the stall, I heard him finish up, go to the sink, wash his hands, then just as he was leaving he said, “Loser.” I suddenly felt like I’d had the wind knocked out of me, and that put me in a funk for the rest of the night.

After that, Kelly and I went to Pi-Rem to watch the bellydance troupe Gypsy Caravan. We’ve seen them many times before, but Pi-Rem is the sort of place that lends itself perfectly to performances like that. We had a good time, despite the fact that I still couldn’t get that guy’s words out of my head.

SATURDAY – Woke up at 6:00 a.m. to meet Steph, DrummerDrew, and BassistWill to drive six hours to Clarkston, Washington. We played the Rockin’ the River festival. I had a blast, and this time it really felt like we clicked as a band. Steph was again frustrated by the sound on stage, so she was a little bummed about that. We also had some difficulty getting fed the way we were promised by the show’s sponsors. After the show was over, we decided to drive straight back to Portland. DrummerDrew had been singing the praises of a certain soul food restaurant in the tiny town of Waitsburg, Washington, so after a bit of hemming and hawing, we decided to stop and eat there. It turned out to the high point of the trip for all of us, and it was one of the best meals I’ve had in my entire life. After spending two hours there, we headed back to Portland, arriving at 3:00 in the morning. The two most memorable inside jokes were:

1) doppelganger:
“Is there a band called Doppelganger?”
“I’m pretty sure there is.”
“Is there a band that looks JUST LIKE them that’s also called Doppelganger?”

2) CD’s:
“These nuts aren’t gonna lick themselves.” (Don’t even ask–it was the end of an argument described by DrummerDrew.)
“Hey, do you like CD’s?”
“Yeah. . .?”
“You like ta SEE DEEZ NUTZ?”

Anyway.

SUNDAY (today) – I got up at 10:00 and went in to work, to find that there was hardly work, so I turned around and went back home. I needed to buy a guitar effect pedal that I needed for Gig #4 with Steph and the band this evening. I went to TradeUp Music, where they had a used one that looked like it was in really good condition. I bought it without even trying it until I put it through its paces when I got home. Luckily, it sounded awesome and worked perfectly, so it is now incorporated into my pedalboard setup.

I’d only been home for a little while when YoungerBrotherScott arrived. We went to brunch at Equinox, and caught up on the things that have been happening in our lives. It’s his and SisterInLawTina’s seven-year anniversary today, so they’re going out to Veritable Quandary tonight to celebrate. (In fact, they may very well be there as I’m writing this.) We went to a bookstore, then a flower shop, when he had to leave to pick up Tina. I had a couple of hours to kill, so I came home and took a nap before heading to my gig with Steph. It was a benefit show for autism research, and I wish I had more to tell you about it. We pretty much just set up, rocked, tore down, and left. I was dying to eat dinner and finish up some laundry, and now I’ve done both.

Wow. This turned into a rather lengthy post. What a weekend; it feels like a month. My bed is going to feel particularly good tonight.

Here are some pictures of Alyssa’s last night in town, just before she drove off in the opposite direction from the sunset. Thank you, Todd Sabel, for the great pictures!

As part of my plan to help elevate my music career to the so-called ‘next’ level, I started doing a bunch of research into upgrading my recording software. Everything I looked at told me that my current computer either wasn’t compatible, or wasn’t supported, or was ‘not recommended’ for the upgrades of the software that I’ve been using. I couldn’t even load the software onto my old computer, because a DVD drive was required. If I went and got a DVD drive, I still wouldn’t be able to run the software because the computer was too slow.

Yeesh.

So I bit the bullet and headed down to Fry’s to get a new iMac today. I got the one with the Intel DuoCore chip and the 20-inch monitor. It’s really incredible, the way everything’s so self-contained, linked and even wireless. Computers–especially Macs–have come a long way in the last four years.

Summer’s the best time for biting metaphorical bullets, since there are more gigs (and more money), so I figured the time was right. Part Two of this process will involve taking advantage of Digidesign’s hardware trade-up policy to get new software and a new recording interface thingy.

Oh, and I should mention that the iMacs are SILENT. The G4 PowerMacs have notoriously loud fans. There are tons of web sites about how to replace or modify them. Mac users raised enough of a stink about them that eventually Apple sold these replacement fan kits that you could buy for twenty dollars and install yourself. At the time, however, I wasn’t in that kind of financial league, so I’ve been living with the loud fans this whole time. It’s funny to think about how much life can be improved by the systematic removal of annoyances.

Here’s to the removal of more!