This Yellow Taxi Cab In Which I Ride

Jitters has an open mic on Wednesdays and the most wonderful cafe food ever. I went to the open mic to play and to eat... but mostly to eat. I had a quesadilla, which was quite tasty. I took a picture of Ryan Jenson singing his heart out; he always sings his heart out. I played Jessie by Joshua Kadison, Road to Nowhere , and Passenger On Thursday, I went to Lena's. I worked the door because Stephanie was in NYC for a conference. Gary Moon hosted (as he did at Jitters as well). He played Galileo by the Indigo Girls and did an excellent job of it. I sang along. Phil Drum was awesome and handed out some CDs of home recordings (which I am listening to now and sounds really good). Dave Scheffel had some... erm, fun with Gail Sparlin's piano flashlight... thingy... I took a picture of the list of names and a random cookie, which I later learned belonged to someone and, yet, disappeared before that someone was able to eat it. Bummer. I played Ring of Fire by Johnny Cash and Behold...

The Great Escape... I used to go quite a bit when I was little. It's only a little over an hour away from my house, after all. But, the price of admission has increased rapidly over the past twelve years or so -- pretty much since Six Flags acquired it. I vaguely remember admission being twenty dollars -- what I consider to be a fair price even now. I don't think it's worth forty plus dollars per person with a ten dollar parking fee. But, if you win tickets, you go. Stephanie and I won tickets. We used them on Saturday. It was cold, very cold; but, it wasn't crowded. In October, Great Escape is only open on weekends and the park is decorated with Halloween-esque stuff. They call it "Fright Fest." I have been to the Great Escape often enough to not need to ride any of the rides ever again. They are old, the rides. And quite harsh. We started with the Comet (a long wooden roller coaster -- I think it came from Coney Island...). As we were jerked around each turn...

I am the part-time, unofficial, sometimes unavailable, always unpaid sound man for a blue grass cover band called Durrey (Durey? Durry?) Creek. The banjo player is Stephanie's dad, so I some times play with his band and occasionally help them out with their sound at various gigs. Last night, they played at a library in Gloversville. It was a free show, and the library was packed to beyond capacity. The auditorium upstairs that fit 90 people comfortably was unused because there is no elevator in the library and some of the attendees could not walk up the stairs. This was unfortunate because they packed the crowd of 75+ into a small side room downstairs. Because the room was smaller, they decided not to plug in leaving me with nothing to do. Still, it was great to see the band attract such a decently sized crowd. I ended up standing outside of the room in which they played, because there was no room for me. In fact, as more people came and needed a place to stand, I continually inche...

The other day, I was alone for a few hours and quite bored; though, I was uncharacteristically energetic and in need of doing something. So, I picked up my guitar and set up my mic stand and put on a full out concert of about 10 songs. There was an imaginary back up band (playing in my head), as well as, other imaginary things such as stage lights. The audience was numerous posters and pictures and some stuffed animals. They didn't really clap or cheer, but I could see in their plastic eyes that they were truly happy; some were excited, even. I'm not going to post a set list, because -- hell, let's face it -- it wasn't a real concert. In the future, however, you should consider attending... -------- I have been doing some training for my new job and having a blast with some of the other trainees (actually, it was orientation; does that make us orintatees?), but the training ended, and we parted ways, and we may never see each other again (we all work in different depart...

Last night, some Lena's friends played a show at... er, Lena's. Kate Blain and Gary Moon, who play together quite often and harmonize on each other's songs, have been playing with Phil Henry for a year in support of their songwriter trio project called Detour. The Lena's show was their farewell performance as a group (though, I suggested they should have a reunion show every year). Firstly, they sounded amazing! (Time Out: I am afraid that I am beginning to sound like a critic reviewing the show... I don't want to do that. So, I'm going to attempt to not write a review... wish me luck) Some highlights for me: Gary Moon's version of Phil Henry's Broken . Kate Blain's performance of Gary's How to Forgive . Gary's Loser Town , which is a song that I love on his CD, but have never heard him do live. A more rock version of Kate's song The Good Life . The trio's version of America by Simon and Garfunkel. ... and now I'm drawing a blank...

I started a new job today. I, like, just got home from it -- my first day. Wow. So far, so good! Although, I was a little worried when I reported to where I was supposed to report at 8:30 this morning and at 8:35 took this picture of myself... ..because there was no one else there at the time, and I was definitely wondering if I wrote down the wrong day, time, or place. Then, just as I was putting my phone away, the training people came in. "Sorry, we're late!" they said. ------- Yesterday, my pilot dad took Stephanie and I up for an aerial look at the foliage. We really weren't expecting to see much color, as it is still quite early for fall foliage, but... ...there was actually some beginnings of reds and oranges. Though, there was not much yellow. The sun was in the eyes of co-pilot -- or something. Before we took off, Stephanie was quite entertained by the helicopter that was practicing landing. ------- I found out recently that Robert Jordan (author of a particul...

Last night, some friends came over and we played Balderdash , a very fun and funny game where you have to fool people by making up fake descriptions of things. All I have to say now is: a death ray was created to stop the marauding green space chimpanzees who often release killer bees on Rose Wilder during torrential blizzards. Such a description did not succeed at fooling people, though it did succeed at making everyone laugh. A week ago, some of the same friends and I were looking for something to do, so we decided to play Scotland Yard . Wicked fun. I used to play this game all the time when I was younger. Although, we always used to argue, because we all wanted to be Mr. X. This time, there was no argument as my friends had never played it before. Thus, I was Mr. X. Next time -- if there is a next time -- there will probably be an argument. Yesterday, I took a walk (instead of a drive) to do some errands -- well, mostly one errand. Then, I stopped off at the park to read. Reading o...

Last night at Lena's open mic, the list was short. Which meant: it was a very rare three song night! Wowweee. Whenever the list is short enough and the host (who was Gary Moon this past week) makes a judgement call, performers get to play three songs instead of two. However, this rare phenomena can garner strange results. For example, some people see fifteen minutes as a huge amount of time. I can understand, when I get up there on a three song night, I feel like it's more of my own show. I can say more in between songs (because there are more songs so there is also more in between songs). Some people, then, tell their life stories and the host can sometimes feel that he made a bad judgement call. Still, last night went fairly well, and most people stuck to their fifteen minutes. I snapped a few camera phone pics of Bob Redman, Phil Drum, and Dave Scheffel -- who went on before me, which meant I had to play after a band, which can suck when you are a solo person. Let's face...

I feel like crud -- which isn't something that you really want to feel like. My allergies have been on the unbearably itchy and painful side, so I have been taking Benadryl at night and Allegra in the morning. Benadryl works wonders on allergies, but it destroys my energy. I am just so tired, I can barely make coherent thoughts. This exhaustedness has caused a couple of funny moments for myself. For example, the other night at Lena's (I don't know why I didn't mention this on the other entry), I sang the last verse of Road to Nowhere when I should have sung the second verse. Then, when I actually got to the last verse, I thought: "This really sounds familiar... like, 30-seconds-ago familiar... ." I laughed at myself with the hope that I was the only one. Still, I am in a really bad mood about this Benadryl induced stupor, in which I find myself. And it's cruddy. ------ It is official -- barring failure of the background check -- I have a new job. I won...

I attended open mic night last night. I played Endless and Road to Nowhere . It was a good night overall, as everyone played great songs. I had a little bit of fun experimenting with my new Razr (which is a cell phone and has picture and video capabilities). Here I am in the side room. The Caffé Lena "house" guitar is behind me. These next ones are of the backroom when I was warming up (the camera has a timer on it and if you lean the phone up against something, then you can take a picture of yourself). Phil Drum solo. Another of Phil; this one with Stephanie in a close up. And Bob Redman, with Phil Drum, Dave Scheffel, and Willie the Moak. Then, this one is of Rik Kent from last week. I forgot I had taken it. I took some video last night, too. But I am unable to post it yet, as the phone takes video in some weird format that nothing else can read. At least, nothing else on my computer can read it. I have to get something that can change the format to an mpeg. Then, I'll...

I haven't been doing much on the music front lately. I have certainly had other things to attend to. Still, I am glad for the break. If you do something for too long without taking a break than it becomes work-like, which is definitely not what I want music to become. Even so, last night I attended open mic at Caffé Lena. It was a slow night as far as attendance goes, but sometimes slow nights are nice. It is more intimate. When I got there, I wasn't sure if I was going to play or not, as I have been -- and still am -- suffering from some major allergy issues. I decided to play, however, and I did Sink or Swim and Rainy Day , which I had not done in what seems like forever. To help me sing -- because my allergy issues were coming from my throat -- I bought Slippery Elm from the Four Seasons health food store on Phila Street. I have had the stuff before and I remember it being quite soothing to the sore throat sufferer. Now, when you read the name "Slippery Elm," do ...

I am finally home after being on a honeymoon for a week. I had a great time, though the camera has vanished. I am positive it will turn up, however, because if I were to find a lost camera I would do everything I could to find the owner and return it to him or her. Anyways, before I went away I put another video up on YouTube, but I didn't have time to post it here. It is a cover of "Jessie" by Joshua Kadison. Someone already watched it and rated it. It got two stars, which isn't too good.

I saw Stardust . I am still unsure of what to think. I enjoyed the movie -- I can certainly say that. I hope that others go to see it because I think they will enjoy it too. It was silly at times. The humor was definately not typical comedy humor. It was more that it was so absurd and so random that it took you by suprise. There was also the subtle love story. It was by no means a dumb romatic comedy. The romance part of it was totally acceptable (there are plenty of movies that contain unacceptable amounts of romance -- these movies should be destroyed). There was also a whole lot of adventurous aspects to the story, which was pretty cool. Overall, it was a really good movie. Stephanie, who is not an over the top Neil Gaiman fan like me, loved the movie. I, of course, am more than familiar with the story of Stardust as I have read the book at least four times. Thus, the changes made for the movie version pre-occuppied me every once in a while. I tried to ignore it and just enjoy the ...

Tonight, I'm going to see Stardust ! I'm pretty excited about it because the movie Stardust is created from the book Stardust , which was written by Neil Gaiman, who is my favorite author ever. I'm quite prepared for the movie to not reach the same expectations that the book did, so as not to be let down. Still, I think it will be a pretty great movie. Also, if the movie as a whole isn't just-like-the-book, some of it will be. Those parts will be exciting to watch, to say the least. On another note, I'll be doing some cell phone shopping. I'm hoping to upgrade to something that has mp3 capabilities -- not because I'm a tech savvy cell phone geek, rather, I simply want to listen to music at random times and I don't want to carry around a cell phone and an mp3 player. Finally, I need to get a pair of shorts for the cruise that I'll be leaving for next weekend. It's a honeymoon. Wow. I'm getting married in a week!

I attended Caffé Lena's open mic night on Thursday -- time out: is it mic? or mike? the debate rages on. You see, to spell it as m-i-c would be a slap in the face to the English language (which, if you ask me would be fair, as the English language constantly slaps its users in the face with ridiculous rules that make very little sense to anyone aside from those who study it and, thus, accept it). M-i-k-e should be the proper spelling, as is so eloquently described by Samuel Bayer , a warrior in what I can only say is the most pointless war since the Iraq one (Yeah, I said it). Many open mic goers prefer m-i-c because it looks right, being that "microphone" is first spelled m-i-c, not m-i-k, and "mic" is short for microphone after all. I tend to side with the m-i-c people, because as ridiculous as this debate is, I need something to blog about. Also, the first time I saw it spelled out, it was spelled m-i-c, not to mention the fact that "Mike" is a dude...

I put another video up on YouTube. I had intended on uploading "Endless", however the length of the video is five minutes and two seconds -- which, YouTube tells me, is two seconds too much. So, I'm going to have to cut it a little to fit it in. Of course, that will take a little time, and I just don't feel like taking that time right now. Instead, I uploaded "The Road to Nowhere." ----------- On another note, I just spent the last two and a half hours listening to new age Celtic music. I'm trying to find a really dynamic and modern representation of traditional Celtic music. Why? Long story. Trust me, don't get me started. At any rate, do you think I could find a decent collection? Just one? No. There is a lot -- I mean, A LOT -- of new age Celtic music out there, but it all seems so compressed and repressed. It's all too "nice." What I've listened to is mostly on the verge of elevator music. There are no highs and lows; it's a...

Insomnia -- I have not been sleeping too well. Pretty much since I started teaching summer school, I have been over anxious and my typically high level of anxiety has skyrocketed. Basically, this is caused by uncertainty -- something that I often write about in songs. I'm uncertain as to if I will succeed as a teacher. I'm afraid to do the wrong thing -- an unfounded fear, as I have been well trained to teach and I, for the most part, know what I'm doing. But, for some reason, I think that I don't know what I'm doing. Which, if you think about it, is quite rediculous. I should just get some confidence and stop worrying... but, I can't. It's 12:03am -- which is just after midnight in case you are one of those people who can't figure out if 12:00am is midnight or noon -- and I'm at my computer because I'm not tired. Even if I was tired, I know I wouldn't fall asleep for at least an hour if not more. I got home from Lena's about 15 minutes ...

Last Thursday was a great open mic night at Lena's. Some friends, whom I have not seen in quite some time, were there. We shared songs and stories and got caught up. It was really cool. One such friend suggested forming a songwriter "super group," in which I replied, "Like the Eagles?" I'm not sure if the group will ever be more than just a dream, but I'm hoping to at least rehearse some songs and play them randomly at each other's solo gigs. I have been kind of stale -- as far as song writing goes -- for a while now. I'm not sure of what my deal is, but I'm trying not to worry about it. I went through a similar stint of what might be considered writer's block a year or so ago. I was afraid, at the time, that I was at the end of my inspiration and that I might not be able to write anymore. However, I eventually broke out of it and wrote a pretty decent song. Anyway, I'm looking forward to branching out a bit (for example: playing in ...

I have finally had some good fortune in the realm of music. It may be not seem like a big deal, but after all of the failures that I have been having, it's good to at least accomplish something. A few weeks ago I took some video of a few songs. The sound was bad for some reason, and the picture was quite dark. I tried again yesterday. The video turned out well quality-wise; however, the beginnings and endings needed to be clipped (I had to turn the video camera on and off myself, and before singing I took a deep breath and cleared my throat -- something potential viewers didn't need to see). This caused a problem when I tried using MovieMaker. For some reason the sound became distorted when I imported the file. I thought this was going to be another failure for me. Luckily, however, I was able to import the files back into the camera and clip them appropriately. The only thing that is mildly disappointing is that it doesn't fade in and out, and there are no titles or credit...

I decided to make some updates on my website. Some of them are quite obvious to the keen observer; most of them, however, are behind-the-scenes type updates that are going to make my life much easier should I need to make any major changes to the site. First, and probably most obvious, is the home page. I changed the layout a little and added a little journal/blog entry teaser. I got the idea for it from neilgaiman.com -- the webpage of my favorite author. He has a pretty famous journal, which many of his fans read often. It is quite entertaining. Anyway, I liked how his home page reveals a few sentences of his journal as a teaser. I tried so hard to replicate it for my own site, but was failing miserably. I couldn't get the right code to work with the set up that I had. A lot of the code that I was finding was way more involved than I needed it to be and, thus, quite cumbersome to figure out. So, I decided to email Neil's site administrator to see what they used. The next day...