I was sitting in bed with my computer on. I was chatting with someone online who had sent me two boxes in the mail. I unwrapped one of the boxes. In it was some sort of leather craft piece. I wasn’t too interested in it and decided to throw it away. I walked into the kitchen to do so. My mom was in the other room and I didn’t want her to know what I was doing. I went back into my room where the packaging was lying on the bed. I opened the other box and there was another leather craft item from this person. I was thinking that maybe I should save them, that they’d be sentimental at some point and was thinking of fishing the other out of the trash but my mom came in and asked who the boxes were from. I was like, oh they’re nothing, wrong address or something and brushed it off. It was kinda like Kirby as well as my mom, it’s hard to tell the difference. Suddenly she (they) are gone and Scot MacDonald sends me a reply to a running IM.
Kirby and I were driving somewhere. I was on the phone with Mel and we were talking. He was saying that he was somewhere going to his mom’s and we were in the country driving away from the sunset in some eastern town in the mountains. It was really beautiful and I was looking behind me trying to see the sunset and thinking that in the eastern part of the US, it was hard to see the sunset from the top of a hill because the hills were laid out in a strange fashion. But we were making this turn and I could slowly see the sun on the building tops in the distance behind us and it was beautiful. We parked outside of a little church and walked in. Mel was there and he said he wanted to show me something. He took me through a little door into a different part of the church. He said normally people weren’t allowed in here. He took me to an alter. It was a woman kneeling. I told Mel that she was suplicating. Kirby came in. Mel was telling me that I could play guitar in this room all day and night because it was a special day. No one would ask me to stop. There was an older woman in the room and was thinking about whether or not I wanted to play. It was a stone church and the acoustics were awesome. I asked Kirby if my guitar was in the back of his car. He looked out the window and said no. I decided I was going to go look and see if there was a guitar I wanted to buy in the local shop. I remember Mel carrying a big book that he was looking in. I also had a book in my hand when I was leaving. I think it was my copy of “The Occult in Art” and as I left, a minister was ushering in a couple of people. I noticed that there were lots of expensive books in the place and as I was leaving, there were two woman that were as well. I saw a very large book on the floor with a price tag of $149. I made it outside and looked at this quaint town wondering if I would find a nice guitar.
I was coming out of some sort of large complex and had had a not so great experience. Apparently, I had been visiting someone and they’d dissed me. I got into a large white van that Kirby was driving and told him what had happened and he got really upset with these people. As we were driving out of the complex, Kirby, rather than wait for the gate to go up, he drove right through it. It was so out of character for him, I was perplexed. As we drove, the sky got darker and I started to notice white objects falling out of the sky very slowly. Suddenly I was not in the van anymore, but standing on the road. The sky was a very dark blue like around twilight, and the things falling from the sky I proposed to be weather veins. There were hundreds of them, just gracefully floating. They were all different shapes and sizes and designs. All were made from some heavy white construction paper and were simply folded like oragami. Each one had some sort of depression that caused it to catch the wind differently and float and a different rate from the sky. I picked one up to examine it. It was probably 3 feet long and 8 inches wide and had the edges curled up and the center was a chamber probably 6 inches deep to catch the air. This one was a fast moving one.
Well, I did the Frescaroma gig last Friday night. It’s only taken a week to write this because I had company for a number of days and work has been hell this week.
I had never been to Frescaroma before and didn’t know what to expect. It turned out to be very small but had a really nice ambiance. I found out about this place via myspace because I somehow ended up on the friend’s list. Previous acts had led me to believe that this was a really up spot and when I sent out email announcing the show, I told everyone that I expected it to be pretty jumping and that I would play mostly uptempo/hi NRG stuff. In fact, what transpired is that I played one of the mellowest shows I think I’ve ever played. I have to say though that I was really on. I was even doing improv stuff that I’d never played before, just going with it. There was a very small crowd of 9 people but they were all really appreciative and really listening to what I was doing. I discussed this with Bill, that I’d rather have a small crowd that was paying attention than a big crowd that wasn’t. It just makes all the difference. Even at the Sofa Lounge, you can have a very small crowd, but they’re so noisy and you really don’t get the feeling that they’re listening. You may as well play to a wall.
Anyhow, any of you musicians out there, I recommend Frescaroma. The owner was really nice. Cosmo is the one who does the booking. I’m not sure of his exact affiliation with the place but if you’re interested, let me know and I give you his contact info.
Last Saturday night was my first gig in Santa Cruz in 4 years. I played at The Ugly Mug in Soquel. There were quite a few people in there studying when I started. My friends started rolling in a little after I started: Andy brought her friend Laura, Jacob and Jen came in, said hi, and ran off to grab a burrito before they both sank into blood sugar comas and came back afterward, and Robin and Bruce wandered in late because they got the time wrong, God bless’m, and of course Kirby was there to show his support even though the poor guy has heard my songs 1,000 times. It was a nice night. I tell ya, it makes all the difference in the world to be playing for friends and family. The audience was very appreciative though and the tips were really good. As a venue,… eh… the seating arrangement is really odd but the vibe is good, and it’s always nice to be in the Cruz. We all went out to dinner afterward at Mobo Sushi and closed the place. It was a great night.
Tonight, I did the featured artist position at Red Rock Coffee’s open mic. That was nice because I hadn’t been in there since the new ownership took over. They put in actual stage!! That was awesome. It also got a much needed paint job. I really liked the new seating arrangement for the open mic and Scott and Steve were just great. I really like it there. It was nice to see some old faces in the crowd too. Autumn and the Fall Guys Chris and Hank were there, along with Andrew whom I haven’t seen in ages. Props to Bill for hooking that up. He gave me Steve’s email addy and I mentioned that Bill gave it too me and he’s like, “Well, if Bill gave this too you, I don’t even need to hear you, I’ll go on Bill’s recommendation.” I’m like, “Damn Bill, got any connections at the IRS?” Bill did the harmonies on Helplessly Hoping with me which seems to be our cursed song. We jacked it up one night at BRS, totally my fault, just couldn’t hear the harmony. Tonight’s catastrophe: Two people sitting in the front of the stage decided to sing along with us. I just kinda fell into a trance listening to them listening too us when suddenly I realized that Bill and I were not singing the same lyrics. The people whom I started following weren’t singing the correct lyrics! It was quite comical but I stopped the song and started over. It’s just too pretty a song to butcher. The second time around was much better.
I’m playing Frescaroma this Friday night. First time there, I haven’t even seen the place before so we’ll see. They’re supposed to have a bit of a hip hop flava to the place so I’ll be playing more uptempo, higher nrg stuff. We’ll see how that goes. I’d sure like a percussionist. Anyone, anyone?
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for October, 2006.
