Money For Nothing
I'm at work. Not really, though. I am getting paid to hang around at home this weekend and have the phone near me. I'm on-call. I've had a few "calls" but I don't have to do anything about them except assess the severity of the situation, call my supervisor for her assessment of the severity of the situation, and maybe make a note or two. Then, if there are enough calls, I go out and do work.
It's a great way to get paid. I'm currently watching The Who in concert on the High Def music channel. They are playing My Generation right now.
I've got quite a bit to post this week. There are pictures and what-not. Firstly, however, I am incredibly excited about July 7th. The Wallflowers are touring and will playing in Clifton Park that night. It's a Tuesday, and Wednesday is a work day, and Clifton Park is rather a good distance to travel from Johnstown. I am trying to work things out with work so that I can have Wednesday off (at least the morning off) so that I can go to the concert, have a blast, and try desperately hard to meet the band after the show. I'm a huge fan of The Wallflowers. I have been a fan since their second album -- no, it wasn't their first -- Bringing Down the Horse was released in '96. That collection of songs helped me immensely with my life. I graduated from High School, had no idea what the hell I was supposed to do next, fell ridiculously in love, had my heart ridiculously broken, my parents got divorced and dragged me along with them through the worst of it, and I decided to learn how to play guitar.
oooh. Teenage Wasteland.
Anyway, to make a long boring story about my depressing life shorter and less boring, I borrowed a little bit of Jakob Dylan's persona. I couldn't find my own. I was a little bit devoid of anything if you will. I grew a short goatee, began cutting my own hair, and bought a fedora. (You'll notice I still wear the fedora). I also starting wearing black at that time (See, I'm not ripping off Johnny Cash -- I'm ripping off Jakob Dylan).
Wow. Pinball Wizard right after Teenage Wasteland. And I'm glad to see that Roger Daltry is still flinging the microphone around.
I saw The Wallflowers play in '97 at the Palace Theater. I saw them again later that year (or was it the year after?) when they toured with Counting Crows. I've bought all of their albums in the coming years -- usually on the days that they were released. There was always an excitement with buying a new Wallflowers album. They remind me of that uncertain time in my life.
Unfortunately, the band hasn't toured too close to me since the 90's. They have come to NYC and Boston and Buffalo and I've always considered road trips, but the date would always interfere with something else -- a family gathering, a weekend where I couldn't get out of work, no one to go with, etc. Some of The Wallflowers left the band. I learned to deal. Then, their organ player left. Rami Jaffe. I was quite disturbed at that news, because The Wallflowers weren't going to be The Wallflowers without Rami's sound. I thought I'd never get a chance to see/hear the band the way I saw/heard them the back in the 90's. And I really wanted to.
Then this tour was announced. And Rami's return for the tour was announced. And I nearly cried with excitement. Nearly.
July 7th is going to be an exciting day.
-----
This past Thursday at open mic was the Third Thursday of the month, which means that I hosted it. I drew fun pictures on the list of performers:
And took a picture of myself:
I played Road to Nowhere to open and decided not to play anything at the end of the night, because it was rather late. It was a good night. There were some impressive performances.
I found this picture on my cell phone from a previous open mic. I can't remember if I posted it before or not. It's Stephanie, reluctantly wearing the Saratoga Acoustic Blues Society (SABS) cap:
A couple weeks ago, I went to a friend's house. This is a picture of his living room wall. I'm jealous.
My electric guitar is in its bag in a corner in the spare bedroom. My acoustic is in its case in the computer room, which is actually a nice place for it to be.
-----
Friday night, I did something that I really like to do. My friends came over and we ate pizza. Then, we played bocce ball (my friend, Bill, really likes bocce ball; I don't mind it). When it started to grow dark, we got a fire going in my fire pit and hung out. After a while, I grabbed my guitar and handed Bill my camera. He filmed while I played Lonely 'Ol Night by John Mellencamp. I tend to begin to disappear in parts of the video when the fire dies down. In the beginning of the video, my friend, Justin, built the fire up pretty high for more light. You can see the look on my face, which is kind of funny, as I'm preoccupied with the size of the fire.
And here is a picture that Bill took accidently when he thought he was taking video:
In hindsight, I wish I had warmed up before being filmed. My voice is a little bit awful at times. Even so, I love doing this sort of thing -- playing by the fire. So, I thought I'd post it for the world to see. I hope you enjoy it.
It's a great way to get paid. I'm currently watching The Who in concert on the High Def music channel. They are playing My Generation right now.
I've got quite a bit to post this week. There are pictures and what-not. Firstly, however, I am incredibly excited about July 7th. The Wallflowers are touring and will playing in Clifton Park that night. It's a Tuesday, and Wednesday is a work day, and Clifton Park is rather a good distance to travel from Johnstown. I am trying to work things out with work so that I can have Wednesday off (at least the morning off) so that I can go to the concert, have a blast, and try desperately hard to meet the band after the show. I'm a huge fan of The Wallflowers. I have been a fan since their second album -- no, it wasn't their first -- Bringing Down the Horse was released in '96. That collection of songs helped me immensely with my life. I graduated from High School, had no idea what the hell I was supposed to do next, fell ridiculously in love, had my heart ridiculously broken, my parents got divorced and dragged me along with them through the worst of it, and I decided to learn how to play guitar.
oooh. Teenage Wasteland.
Anyway, to make a long boring story about my depressing life shorter and less boring, I borrowed a little bit of Jakob Dylan's persona. I couldn't find my own. I was a little bit devoid of anything if you will. I grew a short goatee, began cutting my own hair, and bought a fedora. (You'll notice I still wear the fedora). I also starting wearing black at that time (See, I'm not ripping off Johnny Cash -- I'm ripping off Jakob Dylan).
Wow. Pinball Wizard right after Teenage Wasteland. And I'm glad to see that Roger Daltry is still flinging the microphone around.
I saw The Wallflowers play in '97 at the Palace Theater. I saw them again later that year (or was it the year after?) when they toured with Counting Crows. I've bought all of their albums in the coming years -- usually on the days that they were released. There was always an excitement with buying a new Wallflowers album. They remind me of that uncertain time in my life.
Unfortunately, the band hasn't toured too close to me since the 90's. They have come to NYC and Boston and Buffalo and I've always considered road trips, but the date would always interfere with something else -- a family gathering, a weekend where I couldn't get out of work, no one to go with, etc. Some of The Wallflowers left the band. I learned to deal. Then, their organ player left. Rami Jaffe. I was quite disturbed at that news, because The Wallflowers weren't going to be The Wallflowers without Rami's sound. I thought I'd never get a chance to see/hear the band the way I saw/heard them the back in the 90's. And I really wanted to.
Then this tour was announced. And Rami's return for the tour was announced. And I nearly cried with excitement. Nearly.
July 7th is going to be an exciting day.
-----
This past Thursday at open mic was the Third Thursday of the month, which means that I hosted it. I drew fun pictures on the list of performers:
And took a picture of myself:
I played Road to Nowhere to open and decided not to play anything at the end of the night, because it was rather late. It was a good night. There were some impressive performances.
I found this picture on my cell phone from a previous open mic. I can't remember if I posted it before or not. It's Stephanie, reluctantly wearing the Saratoga Acoustic Blues Society (SABS) cap:
A couple weeks ago, I went to a friend's house. This is a picture of his living room wall. I'm jealous.
My electric guitar is in its bag in a corner in the spare bedroom. My acoustic is in its case in the computer room, which is actually a nice place for it to be.
-----
Friday night, I did something that I really like to do. My friends came over and we ate pizza. Then, we played bocce ball (my friend, Bill, really likes bocce ball; I don't mind it). When it started to grow dark, we got a fire going in my fire pit and hung out. After a while, I grabbed my guitar and handed Bill my camera. He filmed while I played Lonely 'Ol Night by John Mellencamp. I tend to begin to disappear in parts of the video when the fire dies down. In the beginning of the video, my friend, Justin, built the fire up pretty high for more light. You can see the look on my face, which is kind of funny, as I'm preoccupied with the size of the fire.
And here is a picture that Bill took accidently when he thought he was taking video:
In hindsight, I wish I had warmed up before being filmed. My voice is a little bit awful at times. Even so, I love doing this sort of thing -- playing by the fire. So, I thought I'd post it for the world to see. I hope you enjoy it.