New Year...
... same...
(I think I posted the exact same title/intro last year... except I may have swore then...)
It's been a little bit of a while since I last blogged, which means that Stephanie hasn't learned anything about my life in that time. Or so she'll say. I haven't really been up to much, except celebrating Christmas three times, having parties of which some people have attended, and "celebrating" the New Year by watching Law and Order reruns until 11:59 -- at which point I changed the channel and watched a giant ball of lights slowly descend a very long pole to the counting down of thousands of people in New York City and Dick Clark (who, by the way, makes me want to cry each year when I see him).
I got a lot of cool gifts for Christmas/my birthday (they are the same day, after all). To name a few such gifts: a Neil Gaiman graphic novel, pajamas, the Traveling Wilburys CD/DVD set, a Bob Dylan 3 CD set, a Jeff Tweedy concert on DVD, an indie film called Once on DVD, a delay pedal, an acoustic guitar pre-amp, and a cowbell. I needed more cowbell.
Last night I started messing around with the delay pedal. I'm using it for my vocals when I play live so that I can hear myself better. Usually, the sound coming out of my mouth is cancelled out by the sound coming out of the speakers, which -- besides confusing me -- causes me to lose my place in the song. I found a nice setting for the effect and played a song. Then, I received some negative feedback from Stephanie; so, I'm back to the drawing board. I'm hoping to play with it, and the pre-amp, more today.
We watched Once a couple days ago. I'm not sure where to start. I heard about the film from Kate Blain, a friend and wonderful songwriter from Lena's. Then, I watched a preview of it online and noted that I had heard two of the songs (in the preview) on the radio a few times before. And I loved them! I got very excited about the film, which is about a street musician who meets a girl and they write excellent songs together. And that is what was very cool about Once. However, the acting was... in need of improvement (to use a teacher term). And the script was lame most of the time. They kept saying the same things over and over again. Still, there were a lot of cool scenes (like the guy who steals the street musician's guitar case with change in it and then gets chased down by the street musician). The scenes where they were writing songs or playing songs together were wonderful. They songs, of course, were great and there was a lot of feeling in their faces and it was all very real. But, their sub-par acting made the other scenes lack feeling. Even so, I liked it and I'm glad I watched it and I can't wait to get the CD. Oh... and the actors in the film were actually musicians (I add as an afterthought and, incidentally, completely throw off the flow of the paragraph).
--------
I cleaned out my camera phone (and Stephanie's).
Stephanie took these on the Thursday before Christmas at Lena's. I played Christmas Time by Bryan Adams, and... (I'm drawing a blank) something else. (**Edit: I just re-read an earlier posting. Passenger was the 'something else.')
I took these on the following week, in which I played Road to Nowhere and Endless.
Here is Gary Moon and Kate Blain before open mic working out the New Year's Eve Song (... let all... erm... la, la, la... be forgot... la, laaa, la la, la laaaaaaa):
Maurizio solo:
Maurizio with Dave Scheffel:
Phil Drum and Dave Scheffel working out a tune in the backroom:
In regards to an earlier posting, the following picture is of my friend, Justin, who is wearing a ridiculously gay sweater and a Santa hat (my Christmas tree is in the background):
Absolutely adorable...
-----
I read this today. It's a long article (and you've just read this long-ass blog entry...), but the short version is that independent coffee shops have been benefiting -- yes, benefiting -- from Starbucks opening up nearby. It makes sense. Starbucks converts non-coffee drinkers into coffee drinkers, who venture out and try the indie shops. It's happened to me. While I do prefer Starbucks coffee over the indie places (it's the same everywhere you go; you know what you are getting), I have become a decaf coffee drinker. I mostly go to Starbucks, but now the indie places -- who have never had my business before -- suddenly have this dude stopping by on occasion and buying coffee. There are probably a lot like me who do the same thing, or who have started out at Starbucks and found that they prefer the indie shop's coffee or atmosphere or whatever.
(I think I posted the exact same title/intro last year... except I may have swore then...)
It's been a little bit of a while since I last blogged, which means that Stephanie hasn't learned anything about my life in that time. Or so she'll say. I haven't really been up to much, except celebrating Christmas three times, having parties of which some people have attended, and "celebrating" the New Year by watching Law and Order reruns until 11:59 -- at which point I changed the channel and watched a giant ball of lights slowly descend a very long pole to the counting down of thousands of people in New York City and Dick Clark (who, by the way, makes me want to cry each year when I see him).
I got a lot of cool gifts for Christmas/my birthday (they are the same day, after all). To name a few such gifts: a Neil Gaiman graphic novel, pajamas, the Traveling Wilburys CD/DVD set, a Bob Dylan 3 CD set, a Jeff Tweedy concert on DVD, an indie film called Once on DVD, a delay pedal, an acoustic guitar pre-amp, and a cowbell. I needed more cowbell.
Last night I started messing around with the delay pedal. I'm using it for my vocals when I play live so that I can hear myself better. Usually, the sound coming out of my mouth is cancelled out by the sound coming out of the speakers, which -- besides confusing me -- causes me to lose my place in the song. I found a nice setting for the effect and played a song. Then, I received some negative feedback from Stephanie; so, I'm back to the drawing board. I'm hoping to play with it, and the pre-amp, more today.
We watched Once a couple days ago. I'm not sure where to start. I heard about the film from Kate Blain, a friend and wonderful songwriter from Lena's. Then, I watched a preview of it online and noted that I had heard two of the songs (in the preview) on the radio a few times before. And I loved them! I got very excited about the film, which is about a street musician who meets a girl and they write excellent songs together. And that is what was very cool about Once. However, the acting was... in need of improvement (to use a teacher term). And the script was lame most of the time. They kept saying the same things over and over again. Still, there were a lot of cool scenes (like the guy who steals the street musician's guitar case with change in it and then gets chased down by the street musician). The scenes where they were writing songs or playing songs together were wonderful. They songs, of course, were great and there was a lot of feeling in their faces and it was all very real. But, their sub-par acting made the other scenes lack feeling. Even so, I liked it and I'm glad I watched it and I can't wait to get the CD. Oh... and the actors in the film were actually musicians (I add as an afterthought and, incidentally, completely throw off the flow of the paragraph).
--------
I cleaned out my camera phone (and Stephanie's).
Stephanie took these on the Thursday before Christmas at Lena's. I played Christmas Time by Bryan Adams, and... (I'm drawing a blank) something else. (**Edit: I just re-read an earlier posting. Passenger was the 'something else.')
I took these on the following week, in which I played Road to Nowhere and Endless.
Here is Gary Moon and Kate Blain before open mic working out the New Year's Eve Song (... let all... erm... la, la, la... be forgot... la, laaa, la la, la laaaaaaa):
Maurizio solo:
Maurizio with Dave Scheffel:
Phil Drum and Dave Scheffel working out a tune in the backroom:
In regards to an earlier posting, the following picture is of my friend, Justin, who is wearing a ridiculously gay sweater and a Santa hat (my Christmas tree is in the background):
Absolutely adorable...
-----
I read this today. It's a long article (and you've just read this long-ass blog entry...), but the short version is that independent coffee shops have been benefiting -- yes, benefiting -- from Starbucks opening up nearby. It makes sense. Starbucks converts non-coffee drinkers into coffee drinkers, who venture out and try the indie shops. It's happened to me. While I do prefer Starbucks coffee over the indie places (it's the same everywhere you go; you know what you are getting), I have become a decaf coffee drinker. I mostly go to Starbucks, but now the indie places -- who have never had my business before -- suddenly have this dude stopping by on occasion and buying coffee. There are probably a lot like me who do the same thing, or who have started out at Starbucks and found that they prefer the indie shop's coffee or atmosphere or whatever.