This Yellow Taxi Cab In Which I Ride

I love my camera. It takes good pictures in dark places -- like where there are concerts. Last night, Stephanie and I went to the Egg in Albany to see Shawn Mullins and Dar Williams. (I'm a huge fan of Shawn Mullins and seeing him play solo is haunting and inspirational). Before the concert, we had dinner at the Melting Pot -- which just opened at the Crossgates Mall a few months ago. I tried explaining what eating at the Melting Pot is like to my dad earlier today and I found that I just couldn't put it into words. It's... quite different and incredibly expensive (imagine the most expensive meal you've ever had and then eat at the Melting Pot -- you'll have a new most expensive meal you've ever had). Still, it might just be worth it for the different experience now and again. The Egg is quite a cool place to see a concert. It's relatively small compared to most concert places and it creates an intimacy that you can't get at larger venues. I wrote ab...

I'm going to see Shawn Mullins tonight at the Egg. Dar Williams is also playing. Mostly, I'm excited about Shawn Mullins. If you'll remember, I saw him at the Linda back in March, I think. (I'd have to scroll through the blog to find out the exact date; I could probably also include a link to the entry that I wrote about the concert and meeting Shawn, but I'm not going to be that thorough right now). I'm not sure if the concert is going to be a full band show or a solo thing or what. Either way it will cool, I'm sure. Hopefully, I'll get some pictures. ------ A little while ago, I shooed a bird out of my basement. Somehow it had come down the chimney and was making scuttering noises inside of the little metal door that opens in my basement, which alerted the cat, who in turn alerted Stephanie, who -- of course -- alerted me. I checked it out with a flashlight and confirmed that it was indeed a bird. I closed the metal door, found some gloves, grabbed a b...

Last night I went to Red Square in Albany for the first time. The place has a pretty cool atmosphere. I like it a lot. I saw Matt Durfee , Katie Haverly and her band , and Alta Mira . It was a great show. Matt was excellent, as always -- his arrangements are incredible and his fingers are so fast. Katie Haverly is someone who I have not seen before, but have heard on myspace. Her band sounded pretty good. Her live sound was a little off, though, compared to her recordings -- maybe not her fault. Alta Mira rocked! I had heard them plenty of times at Lena's playing acoustic. This time they were electric and their drummer had a full kit. There was just so much sound coming from their instruments and the Joe, the singer. It was just an incredible wall of sound. And it was great. It was good to see some old friends that I haven't seen in a while, too: Maurizio and Nick of Turtle Writing. I didn't want to leave when it was all over. ---- A little while ago, I finished reading Ela...

Hay Fever. I am on three different types of allergy medicines and my eyes still itch incessantly. The only relief I get is when I take benadryl on top of the allegra, flonase, and claritin. But, benadryl puts me to sleep and makes me groggy for hours after I wake up. I am currently in a state of grogginess even though I took the benadryl over thirteen hours ago. Even so, my eyes aren't itching (they do feel like they could itch if I'm not careful and accidently rub them or instinctively itch them) for the time being. There's not a whole lot to blog about. I'll just quickly recap Lena's last night and probably go read until the grogginess puts me to sleep again. Okay. The recap: It was an incredibly slow night at open mic. There were about 17 performers and, no joke, five non-performers. Four of the 17 dropped off and/or left before playing because, well, there just wasn't enough audience. I played tenth, which is not typically late, but there were only about sev...

If someone were to ask: What is one of the coolest experiences you've ever had? You might say, "Meeting Aimee Mann and having her put her arm around you when posing for a picture." Then again, you might say what I experienced last night. I had some friends over and we had a fire in our fire pit. We sat around the fire and I played guitar a little bit. We talked, made fun of each other, argued about ridiculous things -- the usual. We also roasted marshmallows and made s'mores. One of my friends had brought his work laptop and played some CDs when I wasn't playing my guitar. Then, he pronounced that he could also play DVDs and asked what movies I had. I named a couple and then explained that I also have seasons 1-4 of Scrubs . So, the sitting around the fire late at night roasting marshmallows turned into: sitting around the fire late at night roasting marshmallows while watching Scrubs . And that was a very cool experience. Not to mention, one of the episodes that ...

I came home last night after being out late at Lena's to find Mimmy, the cat that some times sleeps in my guitar case, playing with a cricket in the driveway. This was quite odd, due to the fact that Mimmy is an indoor cat and isn't allowed outside without a harness and a leash and a person keeping watch on her. Stephanie has lost cats in the past to the cruel world and we are taking precautions to make sure that the same fate does not befall the current cat. Which is why I was very confused to see Mimmy outside. "Hey, Mimmy," I said. "Watcha doin'?" I unlocked the back door and put my guitar, etc. inside and watched as the cat pounced on the cricket, let it go, pounced on it again, and repeated. I walked back down the back steps and crouched a few feet away from her. She had "escaped" a few times before and so I know how much she doesn't like to be "caught." You have to be sneaky. I was waiting for the right moment to... er, poun...

Yo. It's Friday and it's almost lunch time. I'm in my PJs still and I have been doing a lot of nothing for the past few hours. Although, I did lay down in my bed and listen to the radio while a slight breeze washed in through the open window. It was a nice, relaxing experience. And I needed it. A lot. I plan on doing more nice, relaxing things today. And tomorrow. And Sunday. Because I need to. A lot. I did attend Lena's open mic last night, but I didn't interview anyone for Inside the Open Mic . (I did receive an advertisement for the series on www.rkstar.com -- a local music 'zine -- which is pretty cool). I played Passenger and Endless at Lena's. Afterwards, Emily Smith told me that she sang along to Endless . I invited her to sing it on stage with me some time. She's a great singer. Some people have been asking when I'll feature myself in one of my Inside the Open Mic s. I don't know. I like doing the interviews. I suppose I could have Ste...

This past Thursday at Lena's was a little overwhelming, and as such, I did not interview anyone for Inside the Open Mic . I did receive some nice compliments on my editing of Episode 8, which features Gail Sparlin. That video, as well as the others, can be viewed from the following link: www.jamesfrederick.net/inside.shtml . I played Falling Slowly by The Swell Season and Walking; Standing Still , which is one of my own. I played Walking; Standing Still at a faster more rock-based tempo than I usually do. I also changed some of the words around to help it fit better with the tempo. I like the changes and I may play that version of that song more often. In fact, I played that version for a (very critical of my music) friend last night and, when the song finished, he asked, "Who is that by?" Which I take to be a compliment. Currently, my thoughts are kind of jumbled... and I feel a little bit out-of-touch, which -- when combined -- makes it difficult for me to come up wit...

I slept last night. I know I slept because when my alarm went off this morning, I opened my eyes and I was awake. However, it didn't feel like sleep. I had a couple of very vivid dreams and, what's worse, they had an effect on me that I'm still reeling from. One of the dreams -- the frightening one -- was about me and, more specifically, me dying from brain cancer. This dream was most likely caused by my having read an article (in Glamour magazine of all places -- long story how I ended up with that) written by a person who took care of her terminally ill sister, who had brain cancer. I like real life stories like that... I'm a little morbid... and it usually doesn't effect me very much. I feel sad about the article and I think, "Oh. That's sad" and I some times write a song about it, but I usually move on. Typically, dreams of my own demise (of which I have had many in the thirty plus years of my existence) have the same effect. Which is why, this tim...

Last night, we had some friends over and grilled hot dogs and had s'mores -- we roasted marshmallows over our new fire pit table. It was a perfect night to sit around a fire with friends. I took my guitar out for a little bit and played some potential sing-a-longs. Ring of Fire went over particularly well. I played at the Farmer's Market in Gloversville today. Things weren't going so well at first, but it turned out to be a very nice gig. Not to mention, I left the market with a bag of corn and a bag of bread that I didn't have previously and that I earned just from playing some songs. You've gotta love playing at Farmer's Markets. I also learned an important lesson this time around: Check the power supply before setting up all your PA gear. I had my entire thing set up and ready to go. All I had to do was turn it on. When I did, nothing happened. We later determined that the electricians must not have known that we needed the power and didn't hook some wir...

I met Aimee Mann last night. I still can't believe how excellent the concert was and how extremely excellent meeting one of my favorite songwriters turned out to be. Earlier today I basked in the excitement of it all and hand-wrote over four pages (front and back) of potential blog about it. I have since decided that the whole story is unnecessarily long and overly detailed. Plus, I really don't need people thinking that I am a 10 year old girl who met Justin Timber-something (or whatever); because, I'm not... but I sort of come across that way when I tell the story. And, I've told the story a lot already. Instead, here are some photographs that I took: Aimee was absolutely awesome live! I love her songs and I can listen to her music for hours. It's mellow and her words are biting at times. It's often melancholy-ish, which I love. She is also quite sarcastic and cynical. Being so close to her, watching her sing and play, was exciting and inspirational. S...

THRRRRRRBBBBBPFFFFFFFFF (that's the sound you make when you stick your tongue in between your lips and blow air into your cheeks; often you make this sound when you've become completely frustrated with life and everything that comes along with it) It is Thursday and it is 7:32pm, which means that at Caffe Lena, Kate Blain (who is hosting tonight) is explaining how the drawing of names for the sign up works just before she begins drawing names from the big shiny bowl. The fact that I am writing this in a blog means one of two things: a) I am sitting at Caffe Lena and I have a laptop computer with wireless internet capabilities, which would mean I could afford such a thing or I stole one... or b) I am home and not at Lena's at all. 'b' of course, is the right answer, and I'm not happy about it. Although, I am FINALLY starting to feel a little better. The last few days have been awful, just awful. Wicked sinus infection (the doctor agreed and prescribed antibiotics...

Not quite sure where to start for this one... It's Sunday and it's partly between morning and noon. I am insanely congested and I have that distant, balloon-head/Sudafed feeling. I have no idea where this (probably, but not yet diagnosed) sinus infection came from. I began to notice it yesterday when I woke up at 1 in the afternoon after sleeping off the morphine that I was given during my three hour visit to the emergency room. Allow me to further explain: Last Sunday, when we were coming home from the trip to Connecticut, I began to suffer a slightly intense pain in my lower abdomen area. When we stopped off at a gas station, I tried to go twoseys (thinking the pain was from my stomach; gas, maybe?) but nothing happened and the pain grew from slightly intense to incredibly intense. I writhed in pain, doubled over in the back seat for half an hour before I was put in the front seat, where I would have more leg room, and given some Tylenol. After another 30 minutes or so, the p...

I have a short few moments of free time before I have to go and get ready to leave for a road trip to Connecticut. The destination is Stephanie's brother's place and the purpose is a party-thing. Mostly, we are going to see the nephew. We can't enough of other people's babies here at the Frederick residence... Anyways, this was an uneventful week music-news-wise, as there was no open mic. This, of course, means that there is no Inside the Open Mic . Still, if one were so inclined, one could visit the Inside the Open Mic page and watch all the videos again... I'm just sayin'. I did spend a lot of time practicing this week. I've been learning a bunch of new songs to cover and so I've been needing to practice them. Some of them are getting better quicker than others. I'm also trying to actually learn some songs that I've liked to play in the past, but never took the time to practice them. I added a few new pictures to the photos page of my site. I...

There are a lot of topics to chose from for this blog posting. For example, I could write about the 4th of July barbecue that was held at my house and how the grill ran out of gas, but not a second before the food finished cooking. Or I could write about the incredibly late night that I had on Saturday, in which I hung out in Saratoga and watched Phil Drum, Dave Scheffel, and Bob Redmond and their band, Bluesology, play an intensely rocking show for a huge crowd as part of Bands on Broadway. But, I'm not. Instead, I'm going to write about my Thursday at the open mic. Actually, I must start with before the open mic, in which I went to SPAC (Saratoga Performing Arts Center) with my dad to see the Doobie Brothers. You know how you may have a few favorite bands for various reasons, but there is always that one band that no matter what and for whatever reason, you just love and probably will always love? For my dad, that band is the Doobie Brothers. He asked me to get him tickets a ...

I just got back from the mall/movies. I opened the bag from H&M (I am a stylish dresser, what can I say?) and took out three shirts and a pair of pants. I proceeded to remove the tags and discard them in the trash. Shirt number two did not survive the tag pulling. Instead of the little pop that you hear when that little plastic thingy breaks, I heard a rrrrrripppp that reminded me of the Hulk busting through his clothes. I hope to be able to return the shirt... Anyway, the ripping of the shirt was the perfecting ending to a horrid day, which began with Stephanie finding out that she didn't get a job that she should have gotten. Which is why we went to the mall and the movies -- to get our minds off of it (I told some friends that Stephanie and I needed some time to reassess things and decide if life is worth it enough to continue or just throw in the towel all together -- jokingly, of course). We saw Get Smart , which -- seriously -- turned out to be an incredibly funny movie ...

On the street where I live, the houses are mostly dark in the incredibly ungodly hour of 12:30am. From the window of one house, blue light spills onto the front yard. The blue light is from the TV and the window belongs to my living room. I shut the TV off three minutes ago and wandered blindly through familiar rooms to the computer. I don't know why I am still up. I haven't been able to sleep for the past three nights. I yawn like a tired person would yawn, but I don't fall asleep. Actually, that is a lie. I came home from work today and barely made it to my bed before I completely passed out. It was a short nap, but it pretty much sealed my fate for tonight. In the last two nights that I couldn't sleep, I eventually did fall asleep shortly after midnight. Tonight, I don't feel the least bit tired. One good thing that comes from sleep deprivation is song writing. Monday night, I came down stairs and lyrics hit me like an ocean wave when you're facing the beach....

The following is Episode 4 of Inside the Open Mic (my video documentary project/experiment/thing). Gary moon was interviewed and it came out really well. I'm getting better at the editing and the whole process of making the video took less time this time around, which is awesome. I'm also getting more comfortable with my computer being slow while using Movie Maker. Some times I move a clip with my mouse and then get up and get a glass of juice. When I return, I put text over the clip then get up and make some toast while my computer gets ready to play it. My late night rambling two nights ago (see previous posting, which is below this one) has thrown me off today. I'm not sure what I'm supposed to write about now. I'll quickly throw down what I played at open mic: Dying on the Outside (the new one) and Wildflowers by Tom Petty, which I screwed up due to thinking when I should have been playing. Speaking of thinking when I should have been playing. A friend of mine...

It's late at night and I feel like writing. Not exactly sure why... there is a lot on my mind, I guess. A lot has been going this past week. On Monday I had to go to a conference in Lake Placid for my work. Overall, it was okay. I learned new stuff for work. I bonded with my bosses. I made some new friends. But, I didn't want to go in the first place; so, all the good that came of it just sort of evened out my overall feelings instead of boosting them. While at the conference, I had a rock star experience. I had my guitar with me and I played for a large group of conference attendees. They were drinking and some or most of them might have been wasted. After playing a song and receiving an intense round of applause, I found the hooded sweatshirt that I was wearing on top of a long sleeve polo shirt to be too much. So, I took it off... and, in dramatic fashion, tossed it into the center of the group. The act caused much excitement and they clapped and were generally noisy when I ...

I just logged into blogger for the first time since posting my 100th posting and there beneath This Yellow Taxi Cab In Which I Ride was 100 Posts . Exciting stuff. What's also exciting is that this past Thursday at Caffé Lena I got to say, Today is, no joke, five years to the day since my first performance at Caffé Lena's open mic night. And it felt pretty cool to say it. I referred to the performance as my Lena-versary and I played the same two songs that I played for my first ever performance: Crayons and Saving the World . Saving the World was quite different when I played it five years ago. I decided -- not long after playing it for people -- that I hated the song and so I re-wrote it... twice. The current version of the song is definitely the best version and sometimes I like it. I received some nice compliments on it, which must mean it's not as bad as I sometimes think it is. Stephanie took a few pictures outside of Lena's to commemorate the anniversary. I th...