Here are a few pictures from the play reading the other night.
The guy with the beard is the playwright.
The guy with the accordion and no beard is me.
This is Todd Sabel, the director. In the world of The Theatah, however, he’s known as T. Austin Sabel.
These readings are great fun, and I’m tremendously honored to have the privilege of attending them. Thank you, Todd, for giving me the opportunity!
Normally I don’t post second-hand things here, but as soon as I saw this picture, I knew it was an instant classic.
This and about a zillion others like it can be found here.
Enjoy!
Wow, what a weekend. FINALLY I have a few minutes to fill you in.
Friday’s gig at the Blue Pepper in Salem with Breanna was great, of course. It was just me and her, and I played cello. Mark (the guy who books shows at the venue) joined us on acoustic guitar for a few songs. It was really nice to see our Salem friends again. Say what you will about Salem’s drug problems and crime problems, but all I know of the town is the Blue Pepper. Love it love it.
Saturday I sorta dinked around in the morning, doing laundry and stuff like that, until 5:00, when I had to get to the Doug Fir for TheStephBand’s soundcheck. We waited until almost 6:00, while the main band did their soundcheck, then we finally got to do ours. The show didn’t start until 9:00, so we all went our separate ways afterwards. I went home and relaxed for a while, had some sushi and took my time heading back. The show was great; quite possibly one of our best this year. Everything sounded awesome, and all our shows lately have made us really comfortable playing together. DrummerDrew and BassistWill are really becoming familiar with Steph’s music by now, and it’s nice to see them both stretching out inside the songs. Another fun thing about the show was that I got to meet a blogging friend for the first time. Elizabeth (you know her from Lizzy Dishes Portland fame) was there, and it was really nice to meet her in person. (Hey, Elizabeth!) Saussha and Conny came too, and so did Shelby. Good times were had by everybody, but I think I had the best time of all.
Sunday morning, Saussha and Conny and I went on a little picture expedition. We started down in Southeast Portland, looking for urban decay. There was plenty of urban, but not so much in the way of decay, so we headed up toward the industrial part of town underneath the Fremont Bridge. We each got quite a few pictures, but I haven’t uploaded mine from my camera yet–I’m doing that today–so I’ll have to share some with you as soon as I do. Saussha was talking about making a Flickr page, so you may get a real treat, and be able to see pictures taken by all three of us.
We spent a good amount of time out there, then started to get hungry, so we drove back across the railroad tracks to have a wee bit o’ lunch at the Widmer brewery. I wouldn’t say it was spectacular, but it was decent enough. Then I had to get to the Mississippi Pizza Pub for another cello gig with Breanna. This time ViolinistKarli was there, and that alone catapulted us to the Next Level, for sure. When she would do melodies, that freed me up to do nice counterpoint bass lines and harmonies, in an improvised classical style. The thing I love most about playing in Breanna’s band is that not only are we an amazing and textured rock band, but we can then turn on a dime (“I’ll give you nine cents change.”) and play in a classical ‘chamber pop’ style, and have even more fun because that’s such an unusual thing. LOVEITLOVEITLOVEITLOVEITLOVEIT.
Wayne (who produced her CD) was there last night too, and he joined us on glockenspiel and harmony vocals for a handful of the songs. So nice to see him and his wife Meg again. It’s the first time I’ve gotten to see Meg since all of us were in Yakima to play with Chad Bault two or three months ago. We (Breanna, her friend Jeff, me, Wayne, Meg, and Cris and Manda from the other band who played with us) went to the Crow Bar afterwards to talk until the wee hours. And yes, I brought my cello inside the bar with me. No way I’m leaving it in the car to be stolen.
Incidentally, that thing about stopping on a dime (“I’ll give you nine cents change”) is a reference I slipped in here for Alyssa’s benefit. If you too are wise to the ways of the Cos, feel free to leave a comment.
Today I have NOTHING to do, and I’m very happy about that. All I know is that at this moment I have nowhere that I need to be, and I can spend the entire day at my leisure. After so many days in a row of gigs and driving and trips and conversations and cars full of instruments, it’s nice to just sit here on a sunny day and read. Or write. Or listen to CryingNeighborBaby. Or best of all, I could just sit and reminisce about how fun this five-day weekend has been.
Just for fun, I thought I’d post my list of musical instruments. What would be even more ridiculous is to put them all in the room with me and take a picture of them, but I’m not sure that’s even possible. The room’s not big enough to hold all of them, and have them out at the same time. Man, do I need a studio space!
[edit: I’m in the process of editing this entry, since it didn’t translate well when I made the switch from Blogger. Stay tuned for pictures and links.]
KEYBOARDS:
Kurzweil K2500XS synthesizer – Truly the king of beasts
Roland XP-50 synthesizer
Roland JX-3P synthesizer
Ensoniq ESQ-1 synthesizer
Yamaha DX7 synthesizer
Yamaha PS-20 synthesizer – these are so rare that there’s almost no info online.
Siel MK-610 synthesizer – I’d never even seen or heard of another one, ever.
Yamaha SHS-10 ‘keytar’ synthesizer
Casio SK-1 synthesizer
Casio SA-38 synthesizer
Casio SA-35 synthesizer
Suzuki Omnichord synthesizer – Such a little treasure, and surprisingly sophisticated too!
Mattel Synsonics drum machine
Korg X5DR synth module
E-mu Proteus FX synth module
Yamaha TX7 synth module
Sharper Image electronic surf/rain sound machine
Jaymar toy piano
GUITARS, AMPS, AND EFFECTS
1961 Guild Starfire III – there’s only one Elaine in all the world!
2005 Fender American Standard Telecaster
2001 Gibson Les Paul Studio
2003 Takamine EG-334SC acoustic/electric guitar
1996 Tobias Model T 5-string bass
2007 Hofner Colorama electric guitar
1962 Magnatone Custom 460 2×12 combo amp
1965 Silvertone 1482 1×12 combo amp
1994 Fender Blues Deluxe (tweed) 1×12 combo amp
Crate GX-15R 1×8 combo amp
Smokey mini-amplifier
1989 Fender M-80 1×12 combo amp
Ibanez TS9 Tube Screamer overdrive pedal – with 808 ‘brown’ modification
Boss SD-1 Super Overdrive pedal
Electro-Harmonix Big Muff distortion pedal – one of the really old ones
Boss OS-1 overdrive/distortion pedal
Boss CS-3 compression/sustainer pedal
Line 6 DM-4 Delay Modeler
Vox U847 wah pedal
Danelectro Hash Browns phaser pedal
Ebow Plus
Ernie Ball volume pedal
ART SGX-2000 multi-effects and X-15 pedalboard
ACOUSTIC INSTRUMENTS:
Crucianelli accordion, early ’60s
Ernst Heinrich Roth cello, 1963
Tama Rockstar 5-piece drum set
various percussion instruments (shakers, claves, tambourines, etc.)
Elburn piano
autoharp
Angel mini glockenspiel
Ludwig professional glockenspiel
handmade African djembe
Dream #1 – The Inept, Peeing Caregiver
In this dream, I found myself in the role of a caregiver, for a middle-aged woman in a hospital room. I discover pretty quickly that I’m not up to the job, but for some reason I keep trying, and end up completely sacrificing my own needs for that of this other person. I don’t so much as go to the restroom, eat or sleep all day. Finally I decide to take a break, and so I go to the toilet in the corner of the room to urinate–for a really long time–when suddenly the nurse walks in the room. I’m embarrassed, but I’m still peeing, so I smile and give her a well-what’re-ya-gonna-do look and turn away. She does too. The person I’m caretaking walks into the room next–she’s been asleep in the other room–and I continue to pee. The toilet has disappeared by now, and I’m just peeing all over the floor. I’m barefoot, standing in a puddle about four inches deep. Completely disgusted and humiliated, I grab toilet paper and try to dab it up. Obviously it’s impossible, so I grab two paper towels, crumple them up and start dabbing. This is no good either. I think, “Maybe I should get a real towel.”
Gosh. I wonder what this dream was about.
* * *
Dream #2 – Almost the Feel-Good Movie of the Year
Audrey Tautou and a guy are a good-looking young couple. They’re driving home from a date, smiling and laughing, and the car flips over. It continues to speed along, upside down, and both of them are trapped underneath it. We see their hands get trapped and mangled. When we see them next, the two of them are in a hospital room, and their heads are bald, bulbous and completely swollen, like that of the Elephant Man, or Mon Mothma (from Star Wars, dontcha know). They both consider suicide, but decide that they want to live, and even to keep dating, despite their deformities. There’s a shot of them making love–a blue blanket pulled completely over them–with his head bobbing up and down underneath the blanket. I predict that this movie would give The Feel-Good Movie of the Year a serious run for its money. It’s got everything; love, tragedy, human drama, but most of all, it’s a story about the triumph of the human spirit.
* * *
P.S. I can’t decide if I want the name of my autobiography to be “The Inept, Peeing Caregiver” or “Bald, Bulbous and Completely Swollen.”
Maybe you can help me decide? Thanks!
