This Yellow Taxi Cab In Which I Ride

I haven't done a good blogging in a couple of weeks. I have been sick, you see, and so there hasn't been much music-making going on. Today, I went to a friend's house and tried out his drums (I suck -- although, I sucked a lot less after four songs than I did when I started) and played his guitar. We were having trouble getting anything going, but really had a rock-out moment with Lonely 'Ol Night by John Mellencamp. Playing a friend's instruments made me miss my own and so after coming home from the friend's house, I played my guitar for a little while. I actually started writing a song, until -- after singing and rhyming about the garage sale we had last weekend -- I realized that I didn't have anything to write about. So, I stopped playing. While at the friend's house I got to watch some of the video of me and my friend and another friend playing for the banquet/dinner thing that I was talking about a few posts back. We looked and sounded good. Howeve...

I still feel sick. Although, my sinuses are not as congested as they have been and I can actually talk. I just watched The Hunt for Gollum , a 40-minute fan film created by and for Lord of the Rings nuts like myself. It was good. It follows Aragorn as he searches for Gollum and it takes place in between The Hobbit and Lord of the Rings . It wasn't a great movie, by any means, but it was pretty cool. I think the most impressive thing about it, however, was how much the dude who played Aragorn looked like Viggo Mortensen (spelling?) -- the dude who played Aragorn in The Lord of the Rings . More about the film and the film itself can be found here at www.thehuntforgollum.com . After watching the film, I was directed by the internet to another video, which was advertised as a song by Gollum. I was intrigued and checked it out. It was this: Gollum's Song - I will follow you into Mount Doom Uploaded by Advent_Creative And I laughed very much out loud. ----- I have things I need to ...

Home. Ill. High on Sudafed, etc. Not swine flu (I hope). I woke up feeling kinda crappy, yesterday. By the time I got home from work, I was totally spent and laid on the couch until it was late enough to take NyQuil -- except that we didn't have NyQuil and I took Sudafed and Tylenol PM, which when put together almost equals NyQuil, instead. I woke up this morning feeling much, much worse than yesterday. Called in sick. Went back to sleep. It's noon now and I have been out of bed twice. Once to go to the bathroom, have a vitamin, and get more juice. The second time contained all of the same things that the first one did, except I also had some toast and decided to sit down at my laptop for a little bit. Right now, my head feels a little bit like a balloon. And I'm sort of worried that if I let go of it, it will float away and never be reunited with my body, which is too tired right now to chase after the floating head balloon. Being ill means I can't go to Lena's ton...

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...

This has been a perfect weekend for taking naps. I napped for a few good hours yesterday (Saturday) from about 2 oclock to 4. Then I napped today on the back porch futon from 1 to 3. Midday napping is a wonderful thing. I feel as though proper napping is an art form. Perhaps it could be turned into an Olympic event some day (Yoga is...). I would train to be an Olympic napper. I think I'd have a chance at a gold medal. Anyway, I am in bed now and it is the end of Sunday. (Typing in bed isn't easy...). I feel as if I could have been more productive today. For instance, I could have worked on Inside the Open Mic . I have two episodes in post production -- one of which is nearly completed. I also could have done some recording. Specifically, I need to record my parts of a few songs that a friend of mine and I are going to play at an upcoming event. He'll need to learn and practice the lead parts. My parts are pretty easy since most of them are my songs or songs that I cover fre...

I played at Jitters Cafe last night. Actually, I played in the evening. Oh -- I'm not dead, by the way. It was a full day of music from noon to nine and I played at about 5:30. It really was quite a great time and I was very excited about it. Firstly, I like Jitters. The food is awesome and so are the drinks. It's very colorful inside. The only downfall to Jitters is that it's cramped. Which is fine when there are 10 people there. When there are 20 or 25 people there, it is not fine. I'm a little claustrophobic when it comes to being in cramped spaces with lots of people. Even so, the music was great. I felt really good about being on the list of performers for the event. Gary Moon played. Kyle Blackowl organized the event and played. Lisa Every Month (which is easier to remember and spell than her last name). There were also some musicians whom I've heard via tracks on their myspace pages, but had never really seen or spoken to in person. Hannah Imbesi, for example...

James Frederick died silently and peacefully in his home on April 1st. The cause of his death is unknown, but multiple prescription bottles were found around his bed and an intentional overdose is suspected. The password to James' blog was easy enough to figure out: the title of one of his songs. It took me three tries to get in here. I have not, however been able to get into his myspace or his regular website or his email. Most likely, this will be the only way I can post more info about his life and unfortunately his death. Some people may claim to have seen James around (at open mic, perhaps) on April 2nd or at work or playing at Jitters Cafe later today. That is most likely the ghost of James Frederick who his quite high on prescription medications and unable to actually realize that he is dead. Who knows how long he will continue to materialize at musical events. It may take a while for the drugs to wear off. If you see the ghost of James Frederick playing and singing, don...

The last few nights were lame. I didn't go to open mic. I didn't play Rock Band on Friday. Today, however, I have all to myself. The whole day. After I hit "Publish Post" I'm going to commence the usual morning activities -- breakfast, shower, read interesting news, watch stupid YouTube videos. Then, I'm going set the microphone, play some guitar and sing. By the end of the day, I should have some rough, but nice, demos to put on Myspace and CDs. Wish me luck.

I have had a rather busy day today. I woke up and had some Fruity Pebbles. Then, my dad came over and I helped him move a whole bunch of stuff that is his and his wife's from my house to the Uhaul that he rented. He drove off and I moved a couple things around to make use of the new space in my house. Then I did some recording! Yeah. Things seem to be working pretty well with the new mic. My voice sounds froggy today and so the demos I did are not going to be heard by anyone but me. Still, I feel good about what I can do with the mic and the software and I'll be working at it again soon enough. After the recording, I took a nap. Now, I'm typing a quick blog before dinner and doing-nothing-until-bed-time. Here is a scan of the list of performers from this past open mic. I hosted. It was a longish list, so I kind of went fast and tried to keep the long-winded jokes to a minimum. It was a great night and there were a lot of great performances. Mike Gowans, for instance, is inc...

Thursday I went to the Best Buy where I had gotten my USB condenser mic. I returned the $!*#&$ thing because the recordings were coming out distorted. I attempted the tech support thing and was getting nowhere, so it went back to the store. I couldn't get my money back. They gave me store credit. I bought the one other USB condenser mic that they sell there. It's a Samson. It came with Cakewalk Sonar LE. It seems to be working. What I'm disappointed about, however, is that the Sessions software that had come with M-Audio mic that I returned had had some nice presets for reverb and compression -- two things that I cannot figure out which way to dial the nobs for to get the sound I want. Which is why I liked the presets in Sessions. The presets in the new software are not so great. I'll have to play around with them (which sucks because I just don't have the amount of time I'd like to have to be able to fool around with things that I don't really know what...

An interesting situation I was involved in tonight. Driving back from somewhere (I had gotten there by Stephanie's directions; being that it was in the middle of nowhere, I had no idea what the town was, what the place we were was called, etc.), we came across four police cars -- two on each side of the street -- and six or seven police officers standing in the middle of the road. They were stopping cars. Checking registration stickers, breath, etc. I stopped the car, rolled down the window. "Hello." I said. The officer leaned in close through the window, shinning his flashlight. "Where are coming from tonight?" Oh f**k, I thought, I don't even know. It's going to look so bad when I say, "Err... somewhere back that way." I looked at Stephanie and she answered for me. "something, something, senior center," she said. Then I explained to the police officer that we had come from a rehearsal for a scholarship pageant and that he should buy...

This has been a rather taxing week. I have been going to Albany each day for training for my job, which adds about 45 minutes to my commute. Thus, I have been having to get up an entire hour earlier, which after a week takes it toll. Of course, I stayed up late for open mic on Thursday, which made Friday seem even longer. And, since I had been at training all week and returned to my actual job in the afternoon, I had a whole load of work that had piled up and included a few important phone calls that I needed to make ASAP. Which was stressful. Friday night was another late night with Rock Band, which was a great way to release the stress of the week, but lead to me being incredibly tired and quite cranky today. So cranky, in fact, that I'm going to vent a little and probably wish in a few days -- once I'm no longer cranky from lack of sleep -- that I hadn't written what I'm going to write. Inside the Open Mic is the first topic of my vent. I posted an episode on YouTub...

Last night some friends of Stephanie came over to make sushi and tempura and eat it. I have had sushi before, of course, but have never made it myself. It proved to be fun -- five people around a table cutting vegetables, fish, and such, telling stories and making jokes. Particularly, jokes about the possible pronunciation of the wine that we were going to drink. Here is a picture: Friday night was Rock Band 2 (as always). I decided to use some colored light bulbs to make stage lights. I also set up this neon guitar light that I have to add to the ambiance. Some might consider this to be a bit ridiculous. I don't. And Thursday was quite possibly one of the best open mics ever! There was a very long list: 29 performers. I had to make the call that it was a one-song night, but I added that if people stuck around, I would go through the list again and let people play an additional song. There were a lot of great performances throughout the night and about seven or so performers stayed...

This is a very blurry-crappy-cell-phone picture of two people who went to see Coraline in 3D yesterday. The one that looks like me wearing really huge, goofy-looking 3D glasses is, actually, me wearing really huge, goofy-looking 3D glasses. The one that looks like Stephanie not wearing her 3D glasses, is -- actually -- Stephanie refusing to put her 3D glasses on until she is in the dark movie theater where no one can see her wearing 3D glasses because they are rather huge and goofy-looking. We decided that we really enjoyed the movie and, especially, the 3D-ness of it, which surprised me because the last time I saw a 3D movie, I was given paper glasses with one blue "lens" and one red one and I became kind of dizzy watching the movie, trying to balance the focus of my two eyes (if you balance too much on the left eye then there is too much red and the 3D doesn't work right and if you balance too much on the right eye then there is too much blue and the 3D doesn't wor...

The guy who works at the garage where I take my car when it's broken is a nice guy. I can never remember his name (Bill? John?) because every time he calls me and says, "This is ________ from Warren Tire..." my mind always shifts to: don't be too much, don't be too much -- and so I miss his name. Still, he's a good guy and has given me a break on things and offered alternatives and whatnot. I have been taking my car to him for years after being screwed over by the last place that I was going to, so we have developed a rapport and I trust him. Anyway, I left my car at the garage last night because the muffler is falling off. First thing this morning (about 10 minutes after I finally stopped hitting the snooze button and rolled out of bed), he called. Again, I missed his name as I braced for "how much." 400 plus. I need new tires in the front. I knew I was going to need new tires and an alignment. My car seems to lose it's alignment easily. I coul...

There wasn't enough milk this morning for both a bowl of cereal and a hot chocolate. I had a difficult decision to make. On the one hand, hot chocolate is smooth and warm and tasty. Plus you get to sip hot chocolate and you don't have to use a spoon (except for the initial stirring, of course). On the other hand, Fruity Pebbles (yes, I eat a kid's cereal) have a great texture and, obviously, taste "fruity." I opted for the hot chocolate and it was a good decision. I am sipping the warm, smooth drink in between typing and watching the Foo Fighters concert that I DVRd from the High Def music channel. I also DVRd an Oasis concert will most likely watch that tomorrow. I don't know why, but the Foo Fighters have steadily crept up into the fictional top ten list of favorite bands that I pretend I have. Since late last year, I haven't been able to escape the band. The radio stations that I like have played a few of their newer songs and I couldn't help but lo...

I said last time that I would post photos of my dining room if the painting job came out good. The painting did come out good, but the room isn't quite photo-ready yet. We purchased the wrong size blinds for one of the windows (three windows in the room -- two different sizes... go figure), and the curtains need to be shortened (we found great curtains for the room at Bed, Bath, and Beyond and they were on sale and too long). I will post photos. The room really looks a hell of a lot better. Currently, I am in bed. I am enjoying the heated mattress pad, which is on the second level of heating. I believe there are nine or ten levels. I am feeling quite cozily warm on level two and can't imagine what it would feel like if I cranked it up to the highest level. I'm sure it would burn the house down. I'm listening to WEXT 97.7 . Right now, Echoes is on. It's a mellow, mostly instrumental segment. It's very relaxing and, as it turns out, great to blog to. So, is the h...

I'm taking a break from painting (the dining room -- I'll post pictures if it comes out good...). The house smells disgusting... I also smell disgusting. Anyway, there is an article in the Leader Herald (Fulton County's local newspaper) about me and Inside the Open Mic. I know it. Two articles in one month! Craziness. Here is the link: article . I feel like there was something else I was going to say, but what that something else is, I cannot recall. So, I guess that is all for now. Oh -- open mic night. Yes, I often blog about open mic night at Lena's. I have the list of performers folded up right here next to my laptop. The paint fumes must be getting to me (we do have a window open, and a fan going, but not all fumes get sent outside). Well, I will blog about open mic later. Now, I must get back to painting.

Normally on a Saturday (or Sunday as it happens to be), I would be typing away, much like I am now, about my Thursday night at Lena's -- what I played, anything interesting from the night, etc. Unfortunately, however, I didn't attend open mic this past week, because I received a phone call from my dad just as I was about to grab my guitar case and start the car. It was one of those phone calls that stop you from doing whatever it is you were planning on doing and go to see your dad instead. You see, he told me that my uncle Bill had died earlier that day. He was 51 and had a heart attack. My uncle, like most of my dad's side of the family, lived in Florida for much of the time that I knew him. He came to visit often when I was younger and less so as I grew older. We visited him and all Florida family on occasion. The last time I saw him was when he was up with his wife for a ski-trip. That was at least five years ago, if not more. The time that I saw him before that was bac...

It's New Year's Day. And this posting is going to be a predictable thinking-about-the-past-year type of posting. It can't be helped. I just re-read my posting on this day last year . I was surprised by what I read. I really wasn't expecting to find any differences between my current self and my last-year self, but I did. I grew, in certain ways. And that is promising. For starters, I was having a lot of trouble last year with my live sound (PA system, reverb, etc.). I had received some pedals for my birthday and I absolutely could not get them to sound right at all. Recently, however, I have had no trouble setting up my live sounds for gigs and, in fact, have been quite pleased and confident with the way my live sound turns out. It feels good to know that I've grown in the past year and am moving in the right direction. Getting better at things is definitely promising. 2008 was a pretty good year for me overall. I worked steadily for the entire year, which is someth...