a free form jazz odyssey in front of a festival crowd

My occasional friend Sara Q Robinson (occasional when she’s not ditching us for Fugitive Accountants) once told me “I like your blog, its self deprecating” and I took that as a compliment. What I’ve tried to accomplish with this little sight is…well, not really anything. But my hope is to not come off like those xanga people who go “OH My God, Nooo oNe UnnnderStAnDs MeeEe” or like “wow you guys, you will NEVER guess what I did last night!!!” Ok, enough of that, on we go.

Ed, my employer, leaves tomorrow for 3 weeks, leaving me in charge. My goal for these 3 weeks is twofold.
1. Complete the State Prison Surprise EP mix, a long and tedious process in the post work hours
2. Record some acoustic guitar. We have some great mics, pre amps, all sorts of things, something needs to be done with it.

Tonight is Medeski Martin Wood’s triumphant return to New York. I’ve never seen them in brooklyn, I wonder if they’ve even played there? My worship of the Martin is well documented in these pages, so I’ll save some of that for tomorrow if I can bring myself to scribble some words.

Dio’s Holy Diver is stuck in my head. I want to sing it at the top of my lungs.

Well Meg White, more power to you, girl. Thats all I have to say about that.

Rarely do we ever touch on Politics here, but the UN meeting messed up my practice space move commute yesterday, so its valid to bring it up.
Imagine if Mahmoud Ahmadinejad, during his Columbia University speech today, instead of talking about Iran not having nuclear weapons, or not wanting to destroy the US, just got up and played a few tunes for the crowd? These are the things I would do as a diplomat. I mean, protesters are upset Columbia is giving him a forum, but what if he just wanted the forum for something else? Like he was a struggling singer/songwriter before his political career, and really just wants to get back to his roots, do a few Bowie covers, maybe talk to some girls after the show….Just a thought.

In the wake of the Hillsdale NJ Water Heater Explosion Flood, my family rented a dumpster to clean out the mess. My first action was to move all of the drums to my room, which now has a nice cozy percussive feel to it. I made sure to enjoy throwing old pieces of technology into a giant metal dumpster as well, and made sure to enjoy every sound, as I did not have a recording device with me. But let me say, many wonderful crashes, bangs, and Ka-Pow’s were made.

Back just a moment, why does the UN need to close the entire FDR drive for a week? I just don’t get it. Its a few dudes, talking about some stuff, they’re not going to accomplish anything, they probably just want to go to that expensive Sushi place over by all the embassy’s.

Oh the Rilo Kiley. What can I say that has not already been said so many times before? Well. There’s this. No one in that band other than Jenny Lewis is ever going to get any attention. They could have the resurrected Beatles behind her, and no one would be able to tell you what John was wearing, after the show.

Tonight was my first time seeing the Ri-Ki (yes, thats what they want to be called) and it was a very nice experience. First off, the crowd was wonderful. A good percent of short girls, which is nice at a standing show, I had a great view as a 5′11 male. 2 extra musicians were in the band, on keys/guitar and percussion. But really, they could have had a 40 piece orchestra, no one would have watched them.

Jenny Lewis is kind of like the Mona Lisa. Wherever you stand in the room, you feel like she’s looking at you. I mean, I was dead center, so maybe we made like 1 second of awesome eye contact, but I’m pretty sure the other 1000 people there felt the same way. To be fair to the rest of the band, they all sounded great. Blake even tore up some vocals, where as kind of weak on the recordings, he did the songs way more justice live. Their Will Ferrell-ish looking guitar player covered bass as well on some tunes, with great tastefulness. And the drums were holding down a concrete foundation of time.

But now, lets get down to business.

I had a big debate over this with my friend Monica who also attended. The stage outfits were all wrong. Now, I am not one to criticize miss Lewis on any fashion choice. BUT, she sang one song with her Boyfriend/opening band (yeah, exactly) and looked cute as hell in a dress/hat combo. Like DAY-UM. But then, shes got some sparkly tights/leotard type of getup for the show…it looked like she was going to Gymnastics class to jump in the foam pit. But still, she was the hottest gymnast I’ve seen in my day, and I’ve seen a lot of gymnasts. And the pipes, those are some serious pipes happening. She hit all the notes, and has the entire room hanging on her every word. That young lady is going places.

Its 2am, and I just returned home, So I’m thinking of sleeping.

My guitar player just told me he just got married and his wife is pregnant. Thats quite a thing to hear. I’m going to save that for another day to discuss.

I also have a few wonderful pics from the show, perhaps web master T Bone can help me figure out how the hell to post them??

Yes yes, quite a week it has been.

Its getting warm again all of a sudden, I don’t know what thats about. You know how strange things happen at strange times? I feel like it has been a big transition period for everyone. Those come from time to time. Last time that happened, I can recall the exact moment. I was in Ohio, I believe it was Dayton. I was on a terrible, terrible, documentary crew, and our flight got delayed. I knew everything was going down hill from there. It extended not only over the very strange state of Ohio, but I believe nearly every aspect of my life changed along with it. The flight got canceled, and things freaked out all around.

I’ve felt like something crazy is coming on again, I can’t really explain it. Then today, out of nowhere, I got a call to work on a documentary and the first trip would be to…yeah. Its like whatever mystical power up there is going to strand me in Ohio for a few days to plan out the next move. That must be my Purgatory.

Well, in other news, I attended 3 shows this week. None of which were particularly mind blowing or terrible. Monday I saw the Hold Steady and Old 97’s. This was my first 97’s show, 3rd Rhett Miller show. They didn’t really do anything special for me, maybe its because their set was short and outdoors. The Steady was not as compelling as the Brooklyn show.

M Ward on tuesday was a pleasant surprise, I didnt expect much. He had 2 drummers, very well put together.

Last night was Nick Lowe, solo acoustic. He did fairly well, Peace Love and Understanding was nice to hear, but my mind was definitely elsewhere for most of the set.

We got a new rehearsal space. It was necessary after more than 2 years in the previous location. The bad vibes had just filled it up, and sometimes there is nowhere else to go. I once tried to re-ignite the good vibes to my room in my parents house just post college, by tearing up the carpet and painting the walls bright red. Needless to say, it didnt work, and my dad still tells me to re-paint it.

I might buy a dog. Or a classical guitar. Or a lot of wine. One or all of those might help to figure out the various situations. Perhaps I need a vacation.

Its a gloomy day in North Jersey. This could go one of several ways. You could sit inside, trying to accomplish something, or go out and brave the gloom. Yes, it is quite a sight to behold.

I need to buy a classical guitar. This is something I never thought I would own. From time to time, I will save up some money, and designate that towards a fun purchase. This time, I was hoping to do the awesome combo of a Swart 1×8 5 watt awesome tweed amp and a Barney Kessel Eastwood Signature electric. Some serious business right there. I can still hopefully get one of these others, if i purchase an entry level classical. This is the eternal dilemma. At one point, we are all entry level, right? So you dont want to spend $1500 on something you might not stick with. BUT, if you spend $350 on something, then need to upgrade because you outgrow it, you should have just gone for the better one to begin with. Such a dilemma. The answer might be in the middle ground, but who knows. Man, I’m sick of this BS, just give me like $75,000 and i’ll be all set.

I’m not getting greedy, asking for millions, or even hundreds of thousands. Just enough to pay off my Student Loans, my Badass Honda, and buy a few guitars and perhaps a computer or two. I’ll take care of my own savings, and if there is any cash leftover, I’ll just take everyone I know out to Steak dinners until its all gone. I feel like this is a fair proposition, lets call up some investment bankers and make it happen.

Let me just say that the band I share a rehearsal space with is a bunch of dicks. Well, not all. It consists of 4 people, 2 of them have been nothing but nice to me, one I have never met, and the other is a complete tool. So, not technically a bunch. Its like a roommate. When you get your first place with some roommates you don’t know, its a delicate situation. You never know what could happen. You could find a machete under the mattress left in your room, one roommate could discover bedbugs in his room, and the other could be 40 yrs old and have nothing in his room but a 6ft high pile of dirty clothes. (sadly, that is all 100% true)

As we all get a little older, our position on accepting BS from people becomes more and more clear. I feel as though I must accept less. I was never a confrontational person in my younger years, nor am I now, but in some cases you must draw the line. My boss told me when he reached a certain age, he adapted a policy of “No BS” in his dating life. I would like to extend this policy into my musical as well as casual acquaintance life. If something is not worth it, its time to move.