This Yellow Taxi Cab In Which I Ride

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...

Happy one-hundredth posting, to you... happy one-hundredth posting, to you... happy one-hundredth posting, oh, blo-og... happy one-hun -- ok, this has to stop. Yes. I've reached one hundred postings here in blog-blog land. WHOOOOOPIDY DOOOO! To celebrate, I decided to spend the day in front of my computer trying to figure out why Windows Movie Maker wasn't making the movie that I asked it to. Not that I'm complaining, mind you. It's muggy and in the 90s outside and there is air conditioning in the computer room, here. I did mow the lawn earlier, which finally looks green (although, it's mostly weeds -- but that's a thought for another blog posting), but I've done nothing else since. This past Thursday at open mic, I interviewed Willie the Moak for my documentary series, Inside the Open Mic . I spent about 4 hours, yesterday, editing the video. Then, I clicked on "save movie" and waited the usual 30-35 minutes for it to actually make the movie. When...

This is the ninety-ninth posting on this blog. I haven't decided what to do for the 100th posting yet. It will probably be nothing... or I'll do some creative editing on a picture in photoshop and post that or something. But, it will probably be nothing. What is also exciting is that in two weeks, 6/12, I'll play at Caffe Lena's open mic (as usual) and it will be the five-year (to the day) anniversary of the first time I played at the open mic. Which is to say, that it is the five-year anniversary of the first time that I ever played for strangers. And that is a pretty cool five-year anniversary to have, I think. It's pretty amazing to see how far I've come in five-years. I have a video taken from my first ever performance. I'll never show it to anyone, though. It's that bad. ----- This past Thursday, there was no open mic at Lena's and so I didn't get to record another interview/performance for Inside the Open Mic. I'll do it this coming Thu...

This is the ninety-eighth posting and, as reported in the ninety-seventh posting, this posting is simply me posting the video -- Episode 1 of Inside the Open Mic .

This is the 97th blog posting that I've done here on this particular blog. At the 100th, which will no doubt occur in three weeks or less, I should do something special. Not sure what, or if, that will be. Thursday was open mic as usual. I played Falling Slowly by Glenn Hansard from the film Once , and... something else that has completely slipped my mind at the moment. Stephanie took a couple pictures. Here is a nice one with Ray Pashoukos who snuck up on me. Jennifer Holmes attended the open mic for the last time (hopefully not ever , though). She is leaving for New Hampshire next week and there is no open mic at Lena's. She also played a song from Once . I decided a few weeks ago that I would like to make mini-documentaries that profile open mic regulars and their songs. I decided to do this for a few reasons: one is that I have a camera and I'm dying to use it. I made my first one this past week and used Jennifer Holmes as my guinea pig. It worked! And came out quite w...

I have decided that I am quite certain that the world is out to get me -- not in the looking-over-your-shoulder-every-five-seconds-jumping-ten-feet-in-the-air-at-loud-noises sense, however. Rather, I have slowly developed the conclusion after 30 + years of careful study and precise testing. And, as such, there is really no reason to be denying it any longer.

I love (sarcasm) all those common sayings that people use when things go wrong. (ie: when it rains, it pours . When life gives you lemons, you must suck ). Well, Stephanie just found out what she is going to be doing with her economic stimulus check. A tire. Weeks after buying her new car, she ran over a nail. And it can't be patched due to the damage that the nail caused and the potential for a blow out after patching it. So, she has to buy a new tire, which is just great (sarcasm again) because this car has expensive tires. And this comes just after I fixed my car up for 700+ dollars. And my at work fish (Jaws) is dying. So, it's pouring right now... and sucking.