Cherry Stems
I always thought that tying a knot in a cherry stem using only your tongue was an incredibly difficult thing to do that only a select percentage of the human population was able to accomplish. As it turns out, mediocre songwriters -- like myself -- are also able to do this feat.
I discovered that I can, in fact, tie a knot in cherry stem with my tongue this past Thursday at open mic. Here is how it happened:
Willie the Moak's wife baked brownies and brought them to the open mic. Willie turned them into brownie sundaes (which were incredibly delicious, I must say) with cherry's on top. I ate my sundae (after I advertised it to the crowd -- I was hosting) and found myself with an empty bowl except for a lone cherry stem. I put it in my mouth.
I don't know why it occurred to me at that particular time to try and tie it in a knot with my tongue. I guess when I saw the lonely, boringly-straight stem, my mind instantly thought "knot." Or, I simply remembered the feat of tying the stem in one's mouth as being something that only really special people can do and decided that I wanted to be special too.
I see being able to tie a cherry stem into a knot with your tongue as being a sweet party trick... like solving a Rubik's Cube (there is one way to solve any Rubik's Cube and if you train yourself to do this task, then you can solve any one's messed up Rubik's Cube and impress everyone around you)... or put your entire fist into your mouth... or make a Rock-The-Cradle with a yo-yo. Things to impress your friends with at parties.
I worked at tying the cherry stem for two performers (about twenty minutes) with no luck. I decided to ask the audience if any of them could do it. Seven or so people raised their hands or said "I can." I asked, "what's the trick." Someone said that you can tighten the knot by pulling one end of the cherry stem out of your mouth and holding on to the other end with your teeth. I went back and tried again.
While standing off to the side in the back of the Caffe, I made funny faces with my lips as I moved the stem around with my tongue. My forehead was creased with concentration. I bent the stem and flipped it over and moved it this and that (at least that is what I suspect I was doing -- I couldn't actually see what was happening).
Suddenly, I felt that the stem was in the shape of a pretzel. Had I gotten it to a point where I could pull it out and tighten it? My eyebrows jumped up. I was about to succeed... or screw it up again. I reached in between my lips and took one end of the pretzel shaped stem in between my thumb and index finger. I slowly pulled on it and bit down on the other end. I pulled it tight and let go of the end that was in my teeth. BOOM! Knot.
I was so impressed with myself, I showed everyone around me. Mostly, people gave me looks like, "What the hell is the matter with you?"
I went up to the stage to introduce the next performer and showed everyone my success. I got a round of applause.
Here I am with an incredibly goofy look on my face and a knotted cherry stem in my bony skeletal-like hand:
And a close up of the stem:
And here is the list from the night:
It turned out to be a really great open mic. I was definitely in the hosting zone (whatever that is). The audience was responsive and the performers were wonderful.
I opened the night up with Road to Nowhere and decided not to play a closing song because it was rather late.
------
This weekend, I helped Stephanie work on the house. She scraped and I helped paint some of the areas where paint was pealing on the front of the house. Then, we hung shutters that used to be hung, but were in storage for years. Stephanie painted those this past week. We also took down the old front lights that were there and missing the glass that normally protects the light bulbs. Then, we put up new lights. All of the changes add character to the otherwise boring look of our house. We have a lot of work that we still want to do. However, that mostly entails having siding put on the outside... and that won't happen until we save up for that.
Earlier today, I got together with two co-workers/friends and we practiced some songs to play at dinner-thing for work. The songs we worked on today were all covers, but they are sounding really good! We only have a week and a half left to get everything together, but I am confident that we are going to be able to hammer down the last few details that we need to fix.
We aren't really a band. It's just me on guitar/vocals, a vocalist, and a lead guitarist. Plus, we have only learned about 5 cover songs. We are also going to do some of my own songs, with a little lead guitar backing me up. We could be a band eventually. I'm actually hoping that we will be. I'm also hoping that we'll call ourselves: James Frederick and the Likely Stories. Although, I will settle for: the Likely Stories. We shall see.
------
Some Randomness to round out today's posting:
For my job, I got to take a couple kids to the playground. We played hide and seek (and I got paid for it!!). One kid showed me this perfect hiding space which was up inside a tower's steeple. I climbed up inside and precariously wedged myself in. It was a great hiding spot except for the whole getting down thing, which was kind of scary -- I thought was going to end up on my head at one point. Here is a picture I took holding the cell phone directly below me, which means you are looking up at my hiding spot:
I was overly excited about my lunch at work this past Tuesday and went around proclaiming that it was the "best day ever" thanks to phenomena which had occurred. This is a picture of my lunch. I ordered a six piece chicken mcnuggets. Count the mcnuggets to see why I was so excited:
And, finally: I took a picture after one of my co-workers threw her telephone in the trash. She stated that she had two things in her hands, one of which she intended to throw away. The other was the telephone:
I discovered that I can, in fact, tie a knot in cherry stem with my tongue this past Thursday at open mic. Here is how it happened:
Willie the Moak's wife baked brownies and brought them to the open mic. Willie turned them into brownie sundaes (which were incredibly delicious, I must say) with cherry's on top. I ate my sundae (after I advertised it to the crowd -- I was hosting) and found myself with an empty bowl except for a lone cherry stem. I put it in my mouth.
I don't know why it occurred to me at that particular time to try and tie it in a knot with my tongue. I guess when I saw the lonely, boringly-straight stem, my mind instantly thought "knot." Or, I simply remembered the feat of tying the stem in one's mouth as being something that only really special people can do and decided that I wanted to be special too.
I see being able to tie a cherry stem into a knot with your tongue as being a sweet party trick... like solving a Rubik's Cube (there is one way to solve any Rubik's Cube and if you train yourself to do this task, then you can solve any one's messed up Rubik's Cube and impress everyone around you)... or put your entire fist into your mouth... or make a Rock-The-Cradle with a yo-yo. Things to impress your friends with at parties.
I worked at tying the cherry stem for two performers (about twenty minutes) with no luck. I decided to ask the audience if any of them could do it. Seven or so people raised their hands or said "I can." I asked, "what's the trick." Someone said that you can tighten the knot by pulling one end of the cherry stem out of your mouth and holding on to the other end with your teeth. I went back and tried again.
While standing off to the side in the back of the Caffe, I made funny faces with my lips as I moved the stem around with my tongue. My forehead was creased with concentration. I bent the stem and flipped it over and moved it this and that (at least that is what I suspect I was doing -- I couldn't actually see what was happening).
Suddenly, I felt that the stem was in the shape of a pretzel. Had I gotten it to a point where I could pull it out and tighten it? My eyebrows jumped up. I was about to succeed... or screw it up again. I reached in between my lips and took one end of the pretzel shaped stem in between my thumb and index finger. I slowly pulled on it and bit down on the other end. I pulled it tight and let go of the end that was in my teeth. BOOM! Knot.
I was so impressed with myself, I showed everyone around me. Mostly, people gave me looks like, "What the hell is the matter with you?"
I went up to the stage to introduce the next performer and showed everyone my success. I got a round of applause.
Here I am with an incredibly goofy look on my face and a knotted cherry stem in my bony skeletal-like hand:
And a close up of the stem:
And here is the list from the night:
It turned out to be a really great open mic. I was definitely in the hosting zone (whatever that is). The audience was responsive and the performers were wonderful.
I opened the night up with Road to Nowhere and decided not to play a closing song because it was rather late.
------
This weekend, I helped Stephanie work on the house. She scraped and I helped paint some of the areas where paint was pealing on the front of the house. Then, we hung shutters that used to be hung, but were in storage for years. Stephanie painted those this past week. We also took down the old front lights that were there and missing the glass that normally protects the light bulbs. Then, we put up new lights. All of the changes add character to the otherwise boring look of our house. We have a lot of work that we still want to do. However, that mostly entails having siding put on the outside... and that won't happen until we save up for that.
Earlier today, I got together with two co-workers/friends and we practiced some songs to play at dinner-thing for work. The songs we worked on today were all covers, but they are sounding really good! We only have a week and a half left to get everything together, but I am confident that we are going to be able to hammer down the last few details that we need to fix.
We aren't really a band. It's just me on guitar/vocals, a vocalist, and a lead guitarist. Plus, we have only learned about 5 cover songs. We are also going to do some of my own songs, with a little lead guitar backing me up. We could be a band eventually. I'm actually hoping that we will be. I'm also hoping that we'll call ourselves: James Frederick and the Likely Stories. Although, I will settle for: the Likely Stories. We shall see.
------
Some Randomness to round out today's posting:
For my job, I got to take a couple kids to the playground. We played hide and seek (and I got paid for it!!). One kid showed me this perfect hiding space which was up inside a tower's steeple. I climbed up inside and precariously wedged myself in. It was a great hiding spot except for the whole getting down thing, which was kind of scary -- I thought was going to end up on my head at one point. Here is a picture I took holding the cell phone directly below me, which means you are looking up at my hiding spot:
I was overly excited about my lunch at work this past Tuesday and went around proclaiming that it was the "best day ever" thanks to phenomena which had occurred. This is a picture of my lunch. I ordered a six piece chicken mcnuggets. Count the mcnuggets to see why I was so excited:
And, finally: I took a picture after one of my co-workers threw her telephone in the trash. She stated that she had two things in her hands, one of which she intended to throw away. The other was the telephone:
