beautiful, funny, sad & true

This afternoon, I took a nap for all of twenty minutes, but that was just enough time for me to have a really strange dream.

I was the cellist in a rock band, and one of the band members was buying me a monitor speaker so that I could hear myself over the band better.

We had found the speaker on Craigslist, and it was offered at a great price.  We were very excited about the deal we were getting, but we weren’t nearly as excited once we found out that the seller was a member of the Aryan Nation (I have no idea where THAT little tidbit came from, by the way).   The speaker was painted blue and red, and I thought, ‘Crap, how am I going to repaint this thing?’

As my bandmate and I were loading the speaker into the car, the seller thanked us, and BandMate said, “Hey. . .anything to help the cause!”  Once he and I were in the car, I said to BandMate, “That was a weird thing to say.  He probably thinks we’re down with the Aryan Nation now.”  BandMate replied, “Well, it was a good deal.  I didn’t want to blow it. . .”

That’s when I woke up.  TOTALLY WEIRD DREAM.

For the record, I couldn’t be less of a fan of the Aryan Nation.  Just so you know.

This afternoon, at rehearsal, I cracked my good cello bow.  It happened while I was gesturing to the drummer to play something that was different from what he was playing.  The guitarist didn’t see me doing that, and he turned around a little bit, which is when my bow smacked into the neck of his electric guitar.   Here’s the result:

You can see how close it came to being a fatal break.  I’m fairly sure that it can be glued, but if for some reason it can’t be, you’re going to be reading about a very unhappy Todd, very soon.  Luckily, I do still have my old backup bow, but it isn’t nearly as responsive or as high-quality as this one is.

This really blows.

I could use a glass of wine, a hug, and an influx of cash.

Today I was supposed to record with IrishBand, but Singer was sick and losing his voice, so he had to cancel.  That left me with a couple of hours to kill before our band meeting tonight, so I took the opportunity to enjoy this beautiful fall day and went for a hike in Macleay Park.

I thought about taking my camera, because after a few months out of the habit, I’ve started taking it everywhere with me again.  The reason I didn’t today is because I didn’t want to carry it on the hike, and I’ve taken it to Macleay before, and while the park is supremely beautiful, the pictures have never been compelling.  So I left it at home, much to my later dismay.

When I arrived at the park, there was a guy who was practicing his sword and staff skills, which was surprisingly cool to watch.  I’ve never been into it myself, but I’m fascinated with all that SCA stuff.  There was a guy I knew in Yakima who used to make his own huge swords and armor and everything, and go out into Randall Park and practice fighting.  He was a little too into it, as a matter of fact, and he was a little bit scary.   The guy I saw today just looked cool, and was doing parries and lunges.  He was just finishing up as I was walking by, though.

I hiked a mile or so up the trail, to the dilapidated Stone House, and when I got there, a family was shooting a movie with their little digital video camera.  I sat on a log and watched them for about twenty minutes, while they filmed the last few scenes.  They were in full costume; the princess, the witch, the adventurer, the sorcerer, and the two ghouls.  I arrived just in time to see the ghouls and the witch get killed by two different spells, like this:  “Abracadabra is what I say, and I want you to go away!”  The little princess was about four years old, and when she yelled, “Save me!  Save me!  Save me!” I have to admit that it was pretty dang cute.  The best part, however, was watching the dad be a director for the kids.  It seemed like he had some sort of video experience, or at least he was acting as if he did.  It was really a fun thing to see.  I had my phone with me, so I was able to take a couple of pictures, but they both suck.

See what I mean?  Oh, how I wish I had brought my camera.  I learned my lesson, that’s for sure.  After they finished filming, I thanked the guy for letting us all hang out and watch them (because a handful of other people joined me on the log), and asked him if this film had a name.  “Indiana Johnson and the Princess in Peril,” he replied.  Sounds awesome, and hopefully it’ll be coming soon to a YouTube near you.   Let’s keep our eyes open.

Tonight is a meeting with IrishBand, followed by a happy hour at Kell’s, where they have an open Irish music jam session that Singer and I have been to see a time or two before, and it’s really great.  It would be fun to bring my cello down there sometime, but space is at such a premium in there, and the cello would make it pretty cramped.  There are lots of violinists, and mandolinists, and flutists, and even an accordionist who played for a little while.  Cello would totally rule with a group like that.  Who knows, I may bring it in at some point.

Anyway. . .signing off.

Too busy to post again lately.  What have I been up to?  By way of an answer, I’ll show you a few pictures, and give you the quick run-down.

I played one of the best and most memorable shows I’ve ever had. . .

. . .I went to see some friends play a very cool night of cello music, and might have come away with a new instructor (it doesn’t hurt that she’s incredibly cute, too!). . .

. . .I made a new friend, who’s a friend of friend.  My friend in question told me that she is “Japanese, and a pianist, and she’s looking for new musical friends.  I thought of you.”  She came to the IrishBand show in StateCapitol last Wednesday, and then came up here to Portland on Saturday night.  No pics of her yet, unfortunately. . .

. . .IrishBand’s Violinist and I played our first wedding, and had a blast during the extra-curricular activities as well. . .

. . .I got me a good ol’ 4-track cassette recorder for archiving FirstBand’s tapes. . .

. . .I recorded some new tracks (using the computer, not the 4-track!) on IrishBand’s theme song. . .

. . .I created a fairly esoteric (but fun!) new blog, which you probably wouldn’t be interested in, and which I will not be posting a link to. . .

. . .and I went out for dinner, a walk, and coffee with a friend who I haven’t seen in months, and took some nice pictures along the way.

Times have been good, overall, I’d say.

Tonight, I think a friend and I are going to hit the Last Thursday art ‘scene’ on Alberta Street.  I haven’t had the chance to do that in ages, because I always seem to have gigs on both First AND Last Thursdays.

So there you go; you’re all caught up now, and I feel much better too.

Last night I was dinking around on one of those social networking sites – randomly, no friends in common or anything – and I came across this particular woman’s page.  I liked her picture and the way she described herself, so I clicked over to look through her photo albums.   She’s done some work on movie sets, and had some interesting experiences.   Then I saw an album called ‘Portland Spirit’, which is a cruise ship that goes up and down the Willamette River and has afternoon and evening cruises.  I’ve played on it a couple or three times, and it’s a total blast.

So anyway, I clicked on that album and after a few pictures, I came to this one, and just about fell out of my chair.  Check out who’s sitting there playing cello, on the left side of the picture.

ISN’T THAT WEIRD?  Pretty fortuitous, too, I have to say.  Naturally, I wrote to her to tell her about all of this, so we’ll see if anything comes of it.

Awwww, yeah.  I love it when that kind of synchronicity happens.