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Showing posts from September, 2007

Nutrition Bars and Other Silliness

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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

Job

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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

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

3SongNight

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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

What "Crud" Feels Like

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

Lena's (I'm recycling a title)

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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

Bark is Worse...

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