This Yellow Taxi Cab In Which I Ride

I finished reading the last book in the Harry Potter series today. Wow. What a long strange journey it's been. I started reading in August and have been immersed in it ever since. Somewhere in the midst of book 4 or 5 I was beginning to wish that I hadn't decided to read the entire series straight through. But, because I had started, I couldn't finish. Now that I finished, I feel like I need to take some time to take it all in. I mean, I didn't stop in between books to discuss or relax or read something else. When I finished book six at eleven o'clock one night, I instantly went to the book shelf and exchanged it for book seven. And I started reading. Now I'm overwhelmed. I have seven books worth of adventures and things going through my head. I'm sad because a lot of good characters died (unnecessarily, at times). I'm also sad because it's all over (book separation anxiety -- if it's not a real term, then I totally invented it, because it is tot

This past week at open mic, I hosted... um... adequately. I received compliments on my hosting... so, it couldn't have been that bad... even though, it felt like I was doing a terrible job. Still, the night as a whole was definitely out of the ordinary. This is true for a variety of reasons. Firstly, I was hosting. Secondly, we had drunks in the audience (one of which started to yell at another for no apparent reason). Thirdly, I broke my capo (right when I went to put it on my guitar while on stage). The list: My broken capo: ------ On Friday, my friends and I went cruising for chicks (for my friend, Bill). We drove to Saratoga and ate at Panera Bread, which was quite funny because normally we are pizza and wings guys on Friday Nights. We referred to ourselves as 'civilized.' Actually, we did a lot of things that I typically do when I leave the house, but don't usually do with my friends. First, however, we went to downtown Saratoga and walked to Backstreet Billiards (

Last night, Stephanie and I saw Simple Theory (Maurizio and Brittany) at Mochablend. Wow. Firstly, they have a great sound set up. I'm envious. Secondly, Brittany has an absolutely awesome voice. Thirdly, they were more entertaining than a typical coffee house/cafe performer typically is (typical/typically -- I did that on purpose). I've always thought of Maurizio as being better than most; he's quite captivating. Now that he is playing with Brittany... they are just on the next level. Here are some pictures: I tried to take an artsy-ish picture by getting the candle light in the shot... it didn't really work out... (ps-that is a root beer bottle on the right) Unfortunately, the lights were low for ambiance, which is not good for Razr camera phones. This is a hot chocolate. I love the cup, and the foam is incredibly awesome! The great sound set up, and being at Mochablend, has prompted me to *gasp* actually work on my own sound. I have been at it for an hour or so and I

I played Lena's open mic this past Thursday, as usual. I played a new song called, Frozen . I've talked about it before. I had to cheat (as in: bring a sheet of paper with the words on it up to the stage with me). I tried to look away from the sheet as often as possible, because I do know most of the words... but when you debut a song, you need that safety net. Or, at least, I do. I also played Passenger . It was a fairly big crowd of newbies, or non-regulars, which was cool. ----- I have gotten back into reading. I left off half way through the 6th Harry Potter book some time in December. I was sick and so I stopped. Then, it was the holiday and I was busy. It feels good to be reading again. I did three chapters last night. So, to recap: I've written a song, I'm reading, I have a gig coming up in February... life seems to be rather typical at the moment. Which isn't to say that life has been untypical. It's just that some times I get caught up in other things a

My friend, Justin, received a Playstation 3 for Christmas. He brought it over last night and we basked in all of its glorious graphic clarity. Although, there aren't a lot of multi-player games, which -- for me -- makes the thing worthless, because I pretty much only play video games nowadays when friends are around. True, Assassin's Creed -- one of the games Justin brought -- was so life-like and so endearing that I could have just sat there and watched him play it for hours. We did play a fighter pilot game that was two players. To move your plane, you had to tilt the controller. I flat-out sucked (but, then I have never been able to get a handle on plane flying games). Here is a picture of my friend, Bill, tilting and exhibiting pure concentration. -------- Caffe Lena on Thursday (in pictures): Chris O'Brien, who comes to open mic when he is home from school, and has a wonderful voice and very contemporary style. Ray Pashoukos, who was the host for the night. Frank and

... 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