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Showing posts from November, 2007

Hosted

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I got to host the open mic/mike at Lena's last night. Firstly, it was quite a wonderful open mic. There were a lot of great performers. It was one of those nights where each performer transitions into the next seamlessly, like you are watching one long performance instead of many little ones. Everyone played and sounded wonderfully; it was a great evening of music. The crowd was rather small, but it was a good crowd of mostly musicians. And it was an appreciative crowd that really listened to each performer. It was a great night. What can I say about my hosting? I opened with a joke (how do you catch an elephant? dig a hole. fill it with ashes. put peas around it. when an elephant comes to take a pea, kick him in the ash hole). I snapped gum in the microphone (unintentionally, of course). I stuttered, sputtered, tripped over my tongue, and showcased various other "talents" of along the same lines. I took some pics of performers: Phil Drum. (who also played with Dave Schef

Gravy

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It doesn't really feel like holiday time to me. It should -- being that today is the Friday after Thanksgiving and many people (though, not me. never in a million...) are shopping. I had a wonderful feast last night that consisted of the usual Thanksgiving food things and took pictures of a mini village (you know, those little porcelain houses that have lights in them and are only seen around the holidays). But, I'm holiday cheerless. I'm fairly certain that this is because all of the holiday traditions that were prominent in my family have diminished up to a few years ago when they simply became no more. True -- new traditions have developed... but there is the lingering melancholy associated with the loss of the old ones. And, this year, I can't break it. I'm looking forward to the weekend before Christmas when my brother and his wife come in from New Hampshire, and we have dinner with my dad and his wife at their place 45 minutes from here, and what is left of ou

Leaves

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Yesterday, I came home from work to find this: (if you require a better description: it is a pile of leaves -- at least three feet high with about a five foot diameter -- in front of my drive way... which meant I parked in the street, got a shovel and a metal rake, spent about an hour shoveling/raking/pushing/pulling leaves to the side, and THEN pulled in my driveway.) I have no idea why the leaves were there. They weren't blown there or accidentally moved there by an unsuspecting driver. They were pushed there on purpose. I called the city and they said that there was no leaf pick up going on in my area. So, it wasn't their fault. The police wondered why I wanted to report it. Figures. I'm baffled. And my back hurts. And whoever did it deserves... well, I'll let you pick their fate. ------- After shoveling/raking/pushing/pulling, I rested for a bit, changed and went to Lena's. It was a wonderful night at open mic. I had a nice conversation with Kyle Carey about how

There and Back Again

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I'm home, now, from a weekend road trip to New Hampshire, where my brother lives with his wife and... ... their dog (George, the cute, sweater-wearing, forget-you-are-a-guest-and-bark-at-you-in-the-middle-of-the-night Bichon). We had a good time (we being Stephanie and I). We were taken to a flea market, which -- and I am ridiculous to mention this -- was the first flea market I had ever been to (at least, that I can remember). We were on an search for beanie babies (long story -- though, I will always think chunky monkey and remember to look for word chunks in long words that I don't know... whenever I see a monkey), which we found, and discovered a few interesting things that I took pictures of: The wall of records... (this picture doesn't really do the place justice -- it was really cool) The Chewbacca mask... (which, I overheard, is one of only a few thousand that were made... and comes with the rest of the... erm, Wookiee) And the sketchy door, located in the basement

Free False Teeth

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No joke; this actually happened. I was at a training today (CPR/First aid -- yes, I learned how to give mouth to mouth and developed a close relationship with "Resuscitation Annie") for my job, and a friend that I had met at previous orientations (see much earlier post) was there as well. For lunch we walked down State Street (Schenectady) to the Muddy Cup. On our way, my friend stopped me to look around for false teeth, which she had seen on an earlier excursion. I was beginning to think that there were no false teeth -- why on earth would a random set of false teeth be laying around on a sidewalk anyway? We didn't find them. But, after lunch on our way back... ... and a close up. (Unfortunately, it's a little blurry. Trust me. They are real false teeth. Not a halloween thing) So, if a friend of yours from CPR training tells you some unbelievable story about false teeth being on the sidewalk... believe them. ------ And a random picture of myself being cold and wearin

Newness

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I, finally, updated the myspace music player. The same four songs had been on it for over a year, and two of those four had been up since much longer... Crayons , for instance, was the first song I ever uploaded. Well, I deleted them all and put up four new recordings. (well, I shouldn't say "new"... I recorded the tracks back in early summer and just mixed them yesterday and a couple days ago). They recordings are okay. Still not stellar. I did them at home and in order for recordings to be great they need to be done in a studio... by someone who knows what they are doing. But, they are the best recordings I've done thus far. And they are all that I've got. ------- I attended Lena's open mic Thursday, as usual. I played In Your Dreams and Road to Nowhere . It was small crowd (the way I like it) and my songs sounded good. At one point, I found myself in the "Lena Room" where Phil Drum and Ray Guigere were sharing oooOOOOOoooooold blues songs that t