North Beach Jazz Fest

We encountered a major setback on Saturday when Stina woke up to find that her back was all messed up. This was weird since Friday was an off day (meaning her one day of non-exercise) and it wasn't bothering her when she went to bed. I was rather surprised to see her still at home when I crawled out of bed at 8 to go the bathroom, fully expecting to sleep off my hangover for another couple hours. Thus, Saturday was not the greatest - Stina incapacitated on the couch and I was totally wrecked from the night before.

We were planning on seeing ALO (Animal Liberation Orchestra) at the North Beach Jazz Festival on Sunday. Stina had been really looking forward to it, and no amount of chastising from me would deter her from her goal. So we split up - I got a sweet motorcycle ride from Dave SG and she got in a cab. I learned how much faster it is to get around on in the city on a bike, though I already knew how much more fun it is. Stina left 5 minutes before we did, and we totally caught up with her cab half way there, and blew past it. I LOVE getting rides from Dave SG. Total bliss.

It was an atypically beautiful day in SF, and it was a perfect day for the festival. We met up with a bunch of friends and did some boogieing and relaxing. ALO set just the right tone – their trademark happy, bouncy vibes and some choice lyrics were spot on. I wasn’t exactly pleased with their setlist though – now that I’ve been listening to them a bunch on archive.org, I had a nice wish list of songs that I fully anticipated to hear. We also caught some of Jon Cleary & the Absolute Monster Gentlemen, who brought some big New Orleans swing to the festival. He’s an incredible rag time piano player/singer.

Natalie and Jeff hosted a post Festy BBQ at their place, which is never an event to miss. Those guys bring hosting to a new level. They are extremely generous, always providing a wide assortment of food and beverage. So we ate well and watched some of their Maui wedding DVD. We were very fortunate to be at that first wedding in Maui (they did three back to back weddings in three different locations). That was a trip of a lifetime, since we are able to spend half the week with our friends Gail and Dan and then spend the rest of our time at crazy resort with all the insane wedding guests. If I ever get around to retrospective blogging posts, I could do a long one about that trip. Needless to say, the tropical wedding in paradise lived up to its promise.

Anyways, Stina seems to be on the mend. She did two swims today and is moving around much more then yesterday. Hopefully this won’t impact her training too much.

Looking for Action

I've had a really good week, if not a little tiring. As I've been working on a bunch of tunes, it dawned upon me that this new album is starting to come together. Very little could put me in a better mood then that thought. I have maybe 6 songs that are compositionally complete, but will need more work until they are finished. A lot of them have parts composed for other instruments, so its all about finding musicians who are willing to come in to my studio and contribute. Another 3 are maybe half way done.

One of these songs has a three part flute harmony, so I began searching for a flutist, as referenced in earlier posts. My friend Hawk came over and recorded the parts. I learned a lot through the process. For example, I need to take into consideration long sequences of notes that have no break, as my sampler never runs out of breath. Anyway, after revisiting the recording session, I found that the material wasn't really what I was looking for. The notes were all there, but the dynamics and tone were not. Hawk's a great flute player, but more geared toward improvisational/jazz music. Stina suggested contacting Sarah Holzman. Sarah is the sister of my long time friend Jess. They both went to Oberlin. I had forgotten that Sarah studied flute at the Conservatory. So, I asked Sarah, and fortunately for me, she was willing to give it a go. She came over on Thursday. I said we'd need 3-4 hours to get through the material. We were done in an hour and a half. I had to scrape my jaw off the floor. It turns out she's a full time flutist, and deservedly so. It was one of those recording sessions where I felt the magic. It was a lot of fun, to say the least.

So I was riding the best high when I woke up on Friday. I checked the recorded material - it was as good as I hoped it was. After spending most of the week cooped up my office/studio I was itching to go out for the night. Stina's not much of a night person these days, what with the tri training. So I call around, no one really seems to have any plans, or at least, any plans that I can intrude upon. I talk to Matty, and he's down to meet somewhere downtown for drinks on the way home from work. Since its nice and early still, Stina rallys and we meet up at my favorite chi-chi bar, Cosmo's. Its one of the only places I'll order a Mohito at. Its like 8 bucks, and its fantastic. So Matty, Amanda, Caryn, Stina and I have some fabulous drinks and some food. Stina takes off, and soon after everyones ready to head home, around 8ish. I call my buddy Adam, and he's with a couple friends at wine party, so thats my new destination. Matty and Amanda even give me a lift over.

Now, the irony here is, I don't enjoy wine. I think I might be allergic to sulfites or something. So, I'm now I'm heading over to a random wine party, where everyone was supposed to bring a bottle from a specific french vinyard. So I roll in, and everyone seems to be on their way to drunksville. This makes it very easy to interact with anybody, which I'm prone to do. I discover that a lot of people are here from some yahoo wine list, so they don't know anyone else. After a couple longish random interactions, I decide I'd like something drink. Turns out there's a corner store 15 feet away, and I pick up a bottle of Chimay. In the kitchen, I ask one of the hosts for a wine glass. Seems like they're all out - could I use this beer mug? He has no idea I just came in with my Chimay. I feel that a higher power approves of what I'm doing, and now I'm the one dude in 40 people drinking beer, out of my beer mug, no less. I'm having a great time. I finally have a chance to catch up with Jesse.

Jesse is a friend for college who I played in a band with, along with Jason Parmar, who's also at the party. When I think of my peak times in high school, I think of my high school band "Lunch". Similarly, a lot of the best times were with our band "Harvest". We were the 'it' jamband my senior year. We played a lot of parties, and a lot of good times ensued. I also took Economics with Jesse, and for some reason I had a natural aptitude for the subject. He struggled some, and I was happy to work with him. This is where I learned about his incredible focus. We would work for 45 mins, and I would be like, we should play video games or something. He would want to work for another hour or so. Despite his hippie-ish mannerisms, the man has discipline, and it willing to work hard to succeed. So for the last 6 years, he's been working his ass off for a world beat label in San Francisco called six-degrees. In parallel, he's started his own band, which is self named as JP Cutler. In the last couple months, he's been transitioning out his job, and starting up his own publicity business. This is the first month where he's finally working for himself. All his hard work, and bringing his A game to all the publicity and tour management he's done is now paying off in dividends. He now has a bunch of choice projects, and amazingly enough the financial side of things are looking good as well. This is unbelievable for someone just starting out, but this is how you do it right. Building up a network of people, slowly over time, and proving yourself again and again. Now these people turn to Jesse, and actively recommend other people to use him. I'm so proud of him, and it so amazing to watch this happen. So we're both there riding on incredible waves of positivity, getting rather drunk. Good fucking times.

There's no music going on, and though I might not know whose apartment I'm in, I stopped caring a while ago. Adam, Jesse, Jason and I spring in action. Suddenly Dark Star is coming out of the living room stereo. I find the area where itunes controls the music, and quickly General Fuzz fills the other end of the party. I love it. I drink my beer, gaze at the expensive empty wines bottles strewn all over everywhere, and really soak in the randomness of it all.

We clean out the party. They want to go see Spearhead @ Mezzanine. Its midnight. I don't really care for Micheal Franti (lead singer for Spearhead) - I feel like he hasn't progressed his show at all since the first time I saw him. It's a $25 dollar show. Whatever, I'll cruise along with this crew and I can easily get home from Mezzanine when we get there. We park, and pass a fine pizza eatery on the way to the venue. Perfect. We show up, and I guess its late enough, cause they're like, "it's a benifit, and there's a bowl for donations over there." Awesome. We catch the last 25 minutes of Spearhead.

I don't get to spend a lot of time with those guys, and its often special when I do. I had such a great night, and so glad I was able to connect with all of them. You can hear tracks which I collaborated with Jesse and Jason with. A track that I did with Adam is done and slated for the new album.

Most amusing distraction I've run across in a while

The anonymous message server

Woogers

I am very fortunate to have a job which allows me to work from home quite a bit. On the otherhand, I'm a social person by nature, so I do get a bit lonely. I also have a tendency to talk/sing a lot, especially when no one's around. Yesterday I talked with a french accent for like 4 hours. So instead of letting all this brilliant dialog go to waste, I have two pet rats which soak it all up: Whitey and Fimo. I often just refer to them as woogers. It works as both a singular and plural reference. Sometimes I call them kitten. Dave finds this amusing since he sometimes calls his cats monkey. Circle of life.

So, through the brilliance of digital camera's and the WWW, I bring you a couple of shorts:

Here's Fimo getting a little air:




Here's Whitey grabbing BIG air (notice she actively enjoys this as she comes tearing back to me):



This is how I've trained them to come to me:



They're real cute when they eat.

The Raconteurs

San Francisco was blessed with another gorgeous day yesterday, so we headed into GG park for a BBQ in the afternoon. Around 5ish, when many of the BBQs had already wrapped up, a four piece cover band randomly setup across the field from us and provided ample entertainment. It was like a testament to San Francisco in the 60's, where the music was as free as the love. Then again, since I paid $40 to see the Raconteurs later in the evening, I don't want to conjecture what love will cost me. Which brings an excellent tangent to mind:

Jason Haber and I were present together when we saw a commercial for the new urban comedy: Love Don't Cost a Thang. It looked like a such a rip off of Can't Buy Me Love that we thought it would be fun to see them back to back. Low and behold, I ran across the urban remake in the video store and an evening plan was formed. What we didn't know is that the same screen writer did both movies - so it wasn't just a rip off - it was a modernized remake of the exact same film. This actually made our watching experience so much better, since a lot of scenes were duplicated but modernized. We could do a scene by scene analysis. It was most amusing. No question - the original is much better.

I was turned on to the Raconteurs by Mike Ducey while I was home in Boston. It's Jack White's new band apart from the White Strips. I believe they are old high school friends that all play music for a living. They recently put out their debut album. It has a huge 70's Led Zeppelin feel to it, and the song writing is superb. Its gets in your head. I like it very much.

So, I headed out to the Warfield with pizza and FattyT in my stomach, a little worn from all the shows and intensity of the past week. The crowd was absolutely generic and sort of unclassifiable. It was a bunch of white folks who were happy to shell out $40 to see a show. While I totally fit that profile, I miss my hippie brethren. All the shows the week were devoid of the hippies - with one surprising exception. At almost all the hippie shows I go to, there is a larger, older, Jerry Garcia looking dude. And I mean every hippie show. Even though I'm a friendly guy, quick to make banal conversation with whomever's near me, I consciously decided not to interact with this guy, simply because I like the mystery. It's comforting to see him at the shows. It gives me hope that I can become that guy in my later years. Anyhow, I was totally shocked and bemused to spot him at the Thievery Corporation show, amongst the trend setters and upscale raver community.

I've never seen the White Stripes. In fact, I'm not such of fan of the minimal music, though I do respect the song writing. Therefore, I've never seen Jack White perform before. He's freaking awesome. An absolute monster. He has complete control of his guitar and voice, and has such a rock star flair to him. He's someone you want to see now, while he's young and in his prime. Seeing the Raconteurs was reminiscent of seeing the Black Crows on one of their early tours - they're young, a little crazy, and just on top of their game. I did see the Crow's recently at the Fillmore - a great show with incredible musicians - but they don't have the frenetic energy that you have when you are young and really starting to make it big.

I felt like seeing The Raconteurs was as close as I'll ever get to seeing a young Led Zeppelin. They all rock hard, and the songs are written in that 70's style. Great rhythmic change ups and hooks. No melodic surprises, but I don't feel like they were trying to break new ground. It was like they were extending upon an era which has kinda slipped away. Everything was hit with precision and intensity. Solo's were brief but fierce. Vocals were spot on. Jack White is the alpha male, and I fully endorse that. They played all the songs off their album and were done. The album is mebbe 45 mins long and they played about 80 mins. This was all fine with me - it was Sunday and I had a great 80 mins. Definitely looking forward to more albums from these guys.

Karma balance

Well, this weekend has been a little bit of karma balancing in my universe. Exhausted as I was on Friday, I somehow found inner motivation to go out to see Raw Deluxe play sets inbetween some chocolate syrup wrestling in a posh SoMA club.

I arrived at the club at 10, since I knew Raw Deluxe was playing their first set around 10:30. They took my money. Then the said I couldn't see the show till midnight, unless I was eating my $70 per person supper. Fuck that. After the door man and I exchanged some not so light banter, I took off, exhausted and a little pissed. On the bright side, I have now passed initiation and may join ranks with Dave, with such postings as:

http://pvisionblog.blogspot.com/2006/07/lame-stalker.html
http://pvisionblog.blogspot.com/2006/06/botched-bela.html

I wandered around SoMA (south of Market) for a bit to take in the scene. A lot of limos, and people really dressed up waiting in lines to get into clubs/bars. Sounds like my kind of fun, only you'd have the replace the lines with water slides, and club/bars with a giant chocolate syrup pool full of scantily clad ladies playing "ball tag" with the supper club door man.

Its been unreasonably beautiful outside this whole week. Normally summer in the sunset = intense fog, and maybe that will be the case soon. Rachel and I wandered down to the annual Fat Tire bike festival in GG park yesterday. Caught some fun aphrodesia. Had a fantastic cold FattyT. Rachel's friend had a great dane who literally liked sit in peoples laps.

Then, another friend had a dog that barfed up lunch (looked like snausages). Seemed like the right time to depart.

Last night I went to see the Album Leaf @ Cafe Du Nord. Haber turned me on to them. I'm a big fan - very serene, sparse, composed music, where a rhodes (electric piano) is often the lead. The drummer often overlayed bigger beats on top of their music during their live show, and I thought about how to apply that approach when I might play chill general fuzz tracks. I also really like Cafe Du Nord cause they have Murphy's Irish Stout on tap. Yum. Unfortunately it was really muggy in the club and Album Leaf didn't take the stage til almost midnight. I lasted till 1.

Thievery Corporation

So . . after attempting to use the blogging medium as a form of therapy, Stina returned from her daily torture. We talk and she came up with a couple other things that might be contributing to my lack of sleeping. Then I frantically make dinner, eat a little, and Sarah swings by in her cute red bug mobile. We pick up a bunch of folks and have a the worlds smallest caravan consisting of said bug and a motorcycle down to the Concourse. This is my first time there. And hopefully my last (but unlikely - I go where the shows are). It was a long hanger like warehouse space where the top and walls were all medal and the ground was thin rug. That's means the acoustics were crap, especially because the insane bass levels they started out with. Credit to the sound duder - he did eventually reign in the bass. Ooh, that's a good album name: reign in the bass.

The crowd was unlike anything I had ever seen. There was at least 3500 people there, and there were probably slightly more women then men. A lot of these women were totally done up - in tight expensive dresses, heels, the whole package. Nothing wrong with that, but it definitely felt like I part of a "scene". Where the hell did these women come from? The marina? They clearly effectively marketed this show to the right people - because they showed up in force.

I had thirst, so I took a page out of the book of Stina. Her dad is the most observant person I've ever met, and he's passed a lot of his wisdom down to his daughter. A simple fact is that crowds are predictable. The bars were on the sides, which you had to walk up stairs to get to. When you go up the stairs, you walk to the bar. There's a shitload of people. What I learned to do is walk past the bar and keep going. There's usually a second bar. I went half way down the second bar and got in line in the middle. My hand achieves beer 2 minutes later. Thus endith the lesson.

I'm not sure I can objectively judge the show. I had some angst to burn so I fucking got down. I was groovin all night pretty hard. I've seen them once before - this was a far better show. They have a full band going along with the DJ. They have a cast of singers - a couple ladies who wowed me, and some reggae duders who effectively pumped up the crowd. I knew a bunch of the songs they played. When I listen to TC in the car its mostly background music. I was somewhat amused to be shakin my thang to the same tunes. Their music is less repetitive live - they change it up and take advantage of the 5-6 band members. It not nearly as sparse as it on the albums - but some of that is the bass in your face in the crowd.

Right when I was starting to fade, they finished up their set. Perfect. It wasn't even midnight. I'm old. I'm ok with that.

Unrest

Well, I'm kind of a mess right now. I haven't been sleeping or eating much this week, and I'm not sure why. I feel like I started this week on such a high from last weeks shows. I do have sleep issues which rear their ugly head fairly regularly. I think a lot of my insomniac tendencies arise from underlying emotional issues that I'm not confronting. I have a weird mind - I don't always face all that’s going on inside, but it always comes back to haunt me. I’m probably not unique in this way.

I had a tough time when I was growing up. My absolute lack of eye hand coordination coupled with my learning disabilities meant I was never going to fit in. I didn't really start to hit my stride till late high school, where I started forming an identity with some amount of self confidence. At Oberlin I was able to flourish, finally relieved from the bonds of my adolescent peers. I was actually dating Stina (my now wife) when I went to Oberlin. She was a year younger, and joined me the following year. Things did not bode well for us after our first semester together, and the breakup was truly the low point in my life. It was fucking terrible. It dragged on and took a heavy toll. That was the first time I seriously faced insomnia, although I haven't been the best sleeper all my life. I eventually dealt with that breakup by shutting down a lot of my emotional self as a kind of self defense mechanism. It was really that bad.
Now I feel you should have an understanding of how Stina and I ended up married. We didn't communicate with each other for over 2 years after that. We had a lot of growing up to do, and we definitely needed to cut ties to accomplish that. We both entered and exited several relationships during that time. We ended up living in the same dorm my Senior year. During that year we were able to slowly reconstruct the underlying friendship that initially brought us together. After I graduated and my current relationship ended, we discovered that we still had strong feelings for each other. So we kinda got back together and then six years or so later we got married. That was a good time.

Anyways, I was an emotional wreck growing up, and very emotional at that. As I started becoming comfortable with myself, I started reining in some of those emotions. Again, I imagine that’s not so uncommon. Yet, turning off a lot of that emotion after our initial breakup those wasn't so healthy. I've really struggled to be more self aware in last 5 years. I actually have to stop everything I’m doing and really take an objective look at whats going on. I’m always doing stuff. When I’m not, I want to be entertained by TV, books, etc.

Usually my insomnia is triggered by unpleasant emotional issues that I'm not consciously dealing with. Thus, I unconsciously deal with it with physical unrest. On the other hand, I'm not always able to understand the motivation behind my insomnia many times. After a couple nights of shitty sleep, I take the cue and try to figure out what’s bothering me. Like now. And I'm not really sure what it is.

One thing that has been bothering me more is environmental issues. This is really atypical. I don't really think about "issues". They are too huge in scope and often not tangible enough for me to really focus on. War sucks. I know. But I'm don't spend a lot of mental cycles worrying about it. Nor Politics. I focus my energies on the community of people I know. Those are the people I want to help out and actively attempt to create a positive environment with. For some reason, global warming started entering my stratosphere of caring 6 months ago. Probably from all the media attention it’s gotten. Then I move on to trash and how wasteful we are, and where all this trash goes. Erin did a nice blog posting on plastics, and so I learned more about how awful plastic is. It’s not like I'm radically changing my lifestyle so that I'm totally environmental friendly. Far from it. But I'm aware of how often I throw shit out. I'm trying to recycle/reuse more, but I could do much much more. I probably won't, mostly because of how difficult it is to do so.

Another thing is age. I'm not so sad about getting older. I don't see 30 as this terrifying thing. In fact, there's a lot I like about it. Along with me getting is older is my folks getting older. Stina's folks getting older. Thats harder. I also feel like there's a ticking clock until babies start entering my life. That terrifies me in a lot of ways. I'm blessed that Stina and I are on the same page in terms of wanting them. That is to say: not now, but eventually. Probably. Almost certainly, really.

I'm so selfish in how I want to spend my time. I love having a good time, and am very proactive about making it happen. I also derive so much satisifaction from creating music. Its way more then a hobby - its a passion. It would be so hard to give that up. I know I don't have to give it up completely, but unless I'm doing it as profession, it’s gonna take a serious back seat for a long long time with children in my life. Doing it as a profession is not really that realistic. I'm a software engineer by day, and that really helps pay the bills. Not to mention that I do like the whole computer programming thing. I'm pretty good at it. There's some interesting/fun challenges in there. But in no way am I passionate about it. And then there's the whole moving back east for children, which I'm also not feeling so good about. I think I posted about this earlier.

On the otherhand, shouldn't this all spur me on to enjoy my life right now ever more? Push me to take advantage of all that I've got? I'm not a terribly motivated person - I tend to surf life more then push myself to the limits and see what I'm capible of. I think I'm ok with that. Mebbe I need to do more. Who's to say.

I'm unsure of what’s going on inside my head right now, but I figure it’s gotta be a healthy thing to write this out. Anyways, this is good prep for going to see Theivery Corperation in an hour . . :) Another 3 show weekend for Jimmy. You can read all about it as it unfolds. I like the blog. I'm glad I got started. Thanks for motivation, my blogging friends. You rock.

Tropozone

Last night I cruised up to Sausalito to take in Tropozone. It is a collection of musicians which blend electronic and organic elements to take the listener on little journeys through the mind. Or, at least that’s what I took away from it.

The show was at the Cobalt Sun gallery, which is a smallish warehouse space transformed into a performance/art space by Lynn Augstein. As I walked in, I was smacked across the head with tranquility. It was like a cartoon, where outside is a big warehouse and inside is the secret garden of serenity. People talked very quietly with each other as ambient music breezed around the room. I was feeling good. People were friendly. There was a definite sense of community – a lot of these people knew each other. I had enough entry points in to that community that I felt like I belonged there, even though I’d never been there before.

Tropozone materialized. There were 7 – 8 of them, using instruments such as didgeridoos, percussion instruments, pan flute, and a huge hollow wooden round guitar. These were nestled next to folks with synthesizers. One guy used a guitar to control a synthesizer. Dwight Loop, who is the founder of Tropozone, had a couple keyboards and a laptop, which he used to sort of conduct the ensemble. He uses Live, the same software I use to compose my tracks. This is a great demonstration of how versatile a tool Live is – it can be used in both a performance and studio setting.

Each song seemed like an improvisation on top of a bed of sound. It was chill to the extreme. I felt like I was sinking into the ground a couple times. It never got too busy with all the musicians on stage – there was a lot of listening going on. Every once in a while someone would read a poem or a chant. Occationally there was singing/breathing.

Something I haven’t mentioned is that all these performers were male. During the second song, Sara (or Stara, her performance name) joined the ensemble. This was no a small occurrence.

A little background on Sara: I was blessed to hear her perform @ Spectraball with Tropozone. I have been looking for a vocalist like her to collaborate with for many years. Fortunately for me, she was willing to do so. We have been working on an track together for the last couple months. It’s getting near done, and its a stellar track. So it’s been great fun working with her and getting to know her. An incredible lady.

Sara comes out in an insane red dress. She’s wearing a long feather out of one ear. She looks absolutely stunning. And she does her thing, along with everyone else. It sounds fantastic. I sink deeper into the ground. I’m starting to grasp the notion of sacred space – because that’s what I feel is being created. Time has no meaning. I’m able to do a lot of great thinking. I keep coming back to the idea that it would sweet to collaborate with these performers.

After the performance, I start talking with folks. I’m introduced to a violinist who’s looking to branch out. I talk to the guy who brought 20 didgeridoos with him. That how he rolls. The fact that I’m working with Sara gives me a lot of street cred with these folks. I get all inspired and excited. A fantastic Sunday, by all accounts.

We’ll see what pans out. All I know is: right now, my life is all about music, and it feels. Good. It feels so good. (I’ve been listening to Jamaroquoi’s "A Funk Odyssey" a bunch lately. You should too.) JJ came over and played some bass on Friday. Hawk brought his flute over on Sunday afternoon. I’m seriously working on 3 songs right now.

I even saw Pearl Jam and Sonic Youth on Saturday. You don’t see a big write up about that show – because it was exactly what you think it was. A huge rock show. Everyone can still sing/play. I strangely enjoyed listening to Dave SG poorly sing “alive” over and over again in the stairwell.

I can now contrast the PJ ($50) show with the Everyone Orchestra (a benifit show- $20 donation) and Tropozone ($12). The biggest difference is how you feel as an audience member. At both Everyone Orchestra and Tropozone I felt like I was experiencing something special. Something exciting. Everyone went on a journey together, sink or swim. The emotions that were evoked were more genuine – because the feelings were a direct reflection of how the artists were feeling. PJ was more about going to a big rock show – pure entertainment, which I absolutely enjoy as well. I simply don’t walk away inspired from PJ though.

It was also amazing to see two groups that had so much in common a couple days apart. The type of music created and the methodology was completely different, but the idea of organized improvised spaces were the same.

The Everyone Orchestra

Last night Rachel and I went to go check out the Everyone Orchestra @ the Independent. I wanted to go for 2 reasons:

1. Tia, who I assume is the tour manager, is someone Stina recently worked with on an Artsfest event @ city hall. Tia rocks. She knows her shit. She radiates energy. She took Stina under her wing, and it was cool to watch Stina just soak up as much knowledge as possible. She's tight with Matt Butler (the conductor of said Orchestra) and has spoken very highly about the group.

2. Asher is playing keyboards in the Orchestra. He plays keys and laptop in the live electronic duo "Surrounded by Ninjas" amongst other projects. I first ran into him a year ago @ High Sierra Music Fest because my friend Noah highly recommended I check out their set. I'm glad I did - it was the highlight of my festival experience. I stuck around as they were breaking down and they seemed like really nice guys. I recently saw them for a second time at Jupiter (a great Berkeley brewery), and was again really impressed with his mad keyboard skills. I'm hoping to convince him to come into my studio sometime when he's in SF and have him throw down on a track or two. It would be sick.

So off we went, knowing virtually nothing about the ensemble. What we learned is that it is a constantly rotating cast of characters - all super competent musicians who are well versed in the art of listening. It could be completely different players every time you see them, except for the conductor. So there were maybe 11 musicians on the stage. Guitars, bass, drums, vocals, horns, etc. There was a cool looking electric harp (and rather beautiful harpist). One dude would whip out his sax every once in while to great effect, or use his looper to build interesting vocal ensembles. Every song was completely improvised. The styles ranged from jazz to funk to dancehall and everywhere in between.

This rendition of the orchestra featured Steve Kimock on guitar. Kimock is a musician's musican. He has the capacity to totally blow my mind. Fortunetly, he did that a couple times last night. I often find myself closing my eyes when he's playing.

Matt Bulter stands in the middle of everyone and uses his entire body to conduct the musicians. He has a bunch of place cards which he holds up as well a white board which he writes instructions on. Like "Speed up". Or "AHH . . . ". Then everyone ahh'd. And much like you'd expect, the results are totally varied. Sometimes amazing, sometimes a train wreck. More often then not, its fairly exciting to see whats going to happen. Matt gave lots of space for Kimock to shine, which made the whole thing often awe inspiring. The best thing is that when Kimock is really finding his groove, he has his eyes shut. So every once in while Matt would be frantically trying to get his attention. Humor.

I was also fairly honed into Asher, since I hadn't seen him play in other ensembles and was interested to see a different side to his musicality. Once again I was really impressed, but not so surprised to be so. The whole thing was a lot of fun, and I'm very glad I went. I even picked up a sweet poster.

So, at one point during set 1, I headed to the pisser. It was deserted. As I leave said deserted pisser, I run into Hawk walking in. Hawk is a flute player whom I'm going to start working with on a new general fuzz track. In fact, I'm going to start working with him on Sunday. So, that’s kinda random. Oh, and his girl friend manages Surrounded by Ninjas. Also, apparently Asher has worked with Tia many times in the past. So now there is one circle that I have weird multiple entry points into.

Unrelatedly, I just made up a new word. You just read it. It also allows me to transition to Jordan's tastefully posh birthday party on Wednesday. Jordon's former band mate Ben, who was in attendance, is the bass player for New Monsoon. Ben's wife Carolyn, also in attendance, grew up in Newton. We learned that we were in the same high school class, although she went to South, I went to North. It turns out her Aunt Lynn is Dwight Loops partner up in Marin. Dwight Loop performed with his troupe Tropozone @ Spectraball (another artsfest event) in the same room that I did. Recently, I've been working with Sara, who does vocals in Tropozone, on a couple tracks. Now there is yet another random connection into the Cobalt Sun posse. I'm going up there for the first time on Sunday to see Tropozone perform.

It really feels like my world is getting smaller, and I like it.

My Married to List

A wonderous gift that my parents gave me for my 30ths birthday were custom earplugs. These things are freaking amazing. They do a completely flat cut of sound - I currently have filters that do a 25 decible reduction. I'm in love with them. Enough that Stina made me come up with a list of things I'm married to:

1. Stina
2. My computer
3. Touchy touchy
4. My custom earplugs

Anywho, I went to see Dinasaur Jr. at the Great American Music Hall a while back and of course I had my trusty earplugs. The openers were good. When Dinasaur Jr. took the stage it was so punishingly loud, I could only take 40 mins of it. I find that insane if I'm wearing my lovely lovely earplugs. Not to mention that I was sad that I couldn't enjoy the late 80's grunge rock that had such an impact on my late teenage mind. I just ran across a blog entry in the San Francisco Guardian that gave me some perspective. Apparently they were so loud that they broke the GAMH sound system. So I believe my claims of too loud are now justified.

The Top 10

As I was jamming out to a recording of the Phil and Friends show on the way home from work, I started thinking about some of the stellar concerts I've been to. Now that I have this sweet personal outlet to the world (aka blog), I figured this would be an excellent time to attempt to write a top ten concert list. So, without further ado:

10. Crystal Method @ the Warfield, maybe '01. I didn't really 'get it' until I saw them live. It wasn't so much about the live show - I mean how cool do you look triggering samples? - but about the energy of their music. Excessive yelling and sweat dripping with Pat McCartin (my old concert buddy). I miss you Pat.

9. Jon Butler Trio @ the Fillmore '06, exactly one week before my 30th birthday. It was a beautiful set by an incredibly talented performer. I find that I often do a lot of thinking at concerts. At this one I ended up having a bunch of surprisingly powerful insights which totally primed myself for turning 30. I'm still dwelling on some of those thoughts.

8. Spin Doctors and Phish @ the Boston Garden '92. The first concert I ever attended. Dave Patry was responsible for this one. Having never heard of the Spin Doctors before (this was just before they really blew up), they came out and totally annihilated the Garden. It was amazing. I was hooked - concerts for life. Phish was not memorable at all, except for the long congo line with all the ladies. Hey, I was 16. Ironically I would go on to see Phish probably another 80 times, and I only recently saw the Spin Doctors for the 2nd time at a small club in SF called the independent. There were maybe 200 people there, but it was still really fun. I told the Bass player that story and he smiled - "The Garden - That was a good show!"

7. Trey shows @ the Warfield '03. Trey was feeling good during his Phish hiatus. These shows were ridiculously high energy. The second night Santana stopped by to play almost the entire show with him. It was unreal. The first night they played their instruments off the stage and through the audience. Trey stopped to talk with the people standing immediately infront of me. It was a nice ending to the evening.

6. Galactic @ the Warfield '00. They really brought the heat this night. I was floored. The second set Jon Harper (from Blues traveler) came out and played most of the set with them. The set ended around 1:30, and then the sax dude came out to say that there were going to play a third set with the dirty dozen brass band. The show got out at 3:30. I was going to collapse. Then Ian played Chicane (Beyond the Sun) on the car ride home and changed my life forever.

5. Tea Leaf Green @ our engagement party '04. I really wanted to have a live band play our wedding. Stina said it would alienate too many people. We compromised by having a blow out engagement party at a space called the Werepad. We came early to set up. We put out all the food we brought and two plates of pot brownies. Before any guests showed up, one plate was empty. All the staff and band hit the brownies hard. It was hysterical. The person running the door had no idea how many people came. One lady bartender ended up sitting down and let people go back behind the bar to make their own drinks. Tea Leaf Green brought the heat even though it was a private party. I got to sit in for a song, as did Andy Hatch. I later drunkenly beat boxed on stage, which was embarrassing to hear on the tape. Of note - General Fuzz made his first public performance opening for TLG.

4. Poison @ Shoreline '02. Yes, Poison, in '02 no less. It was a Thursday and I was at work. Kelly called to let me know Kerry Jo just inherited 15 free tickets to Poison. I was in. I called Stina to inform her what we were doing that evening. Kelly and Kerry Jo had a couple female friends in town and they all took the Cal Train to Mountain View. Stiners and I drove, and got a frantic call from the Cal Train - they had no way to get from the Cal Train stop to the venue. No problem. We swing by the Cal Train stop, everyone crams in the car and off we go. The ushers show off the huge stacks of tickets they have to give away. We get up on the lawn, and have it entirely to ourselves. We had waaaay too much fun that night. Ceci Deville played a song called "I Hate Every Bone In Your Body But Mine". It was like listening to a greatest hits cd, only with huge columns of flames.

3. Vegas Phish, many years. There's nothing like seeing Phish in Vegas. The entire city gets overrun by hippies. All the little hotel bars where any kind of live music is occurring is filled with dreadlocked crunchy people trying to soak in the free entertainment. The hotels are less then pleased. You walk down the strip, and you hear passerbys say "buds." Buffet after Buffet. The limo rides to the Thomas and Mack center. The first time I ever went was with Matty, and its was just ridiculous. We stayed at the Stardust, which was at the farthest end of the strip away from the venue. After the 3 set Halloween show (where 2nd set was the entirety of Velvet Underground's Loaded) we walked back to our hotel, probably 6-8 miles. We totally fell apart at 4am in a cafe when a drunk lady came up to me and demanded that I take off my crazy afro wig. Then there was the time that Kid Rock came out to sing a bunch of songs. A lot of those shows kinda blur together as just an over the top party. The energy level in Vegas was unlike anything I've ever experienced at a Phish show.

2. Orbital @ the Avalon '96. Sharon (my girl friend at the time, who now runs live sound for huge rock stars) took me. Electronic music never seemed that interesting, mostly because all I ever heard was techno. Thump thump thump thump. This show split my mind open. Their music was revolutionary to me, and inspired me to become the musician that I am today. I was completely sober but hallucinating. These guys had lasers coming out of their glasses, so as then nodded along to their music, lasers moved to the beat. They did their famous remix where they play "shot through the heart" and "ooh heaven is a place on earth" ontop of "Halcyon + On + On". I was forever changed from that show.

1. The Phil and Friends run @ the Warfield '99. Phil had just recovered from having his liver transplant, and wanted to celebrate with a short run of shows. His friends: Trey and Page from Phish, Steve Kimock, and John Molo. Fortunately, Seth was working at Ticketmaster at the time, and was able to get everyone tickets. It was the first time the Dead/Phish gap had ever been bridged and everyone was up in arms about it. They practiced for two days, then played three shows where they didn't repeat a single song. The shows were unbelievable. Sure, there were flubs and miscues, but the music was unlike anything I've ever experienced. Everyone wanted to rise to the occasion, and they totally did. I still get chills thinking about those shows. I still think Trey took one of the best solos I've ever heard when they played "Down with Disease". These tapes are widely circulated - I'd bet you can download them off archive.org, and I'd actively encourage you to do so.

Shows that almost made the list: Oysterhead @ the Greek '01, Chevelle @ the Fillmore '05, Def Lepord @ Greatwoods '96, Aerosmith @ Boston Garden '93, Black Crows '93, and Particle @ High Sierra Music Fest '01. Surely some others that I'm not recalling. That's what happens when you go to a lot of concerts.

Also, Greatest rock and roll moment: A tie between Scorpions @ Concord Pavilion '02 and Ten Mile Tide (opening for Tea Leaf Green on my birthday) @ Great American Music Hall '02. The drummer for the Scorpions is the closest I've ever seen to an actual incarnation of the muppet Animal. He was all over that set. At one point, the band gave him space to take a massive drum solo. As he brought the solo to a close, he picked up his bottle of beer and smashed it over his head. It was epic. Similarly, as Ten Mile Tide played the last note of their opening set, the fiddle player took his fiddle and smashed it over his knee. There was a shocked silence after that followed by massive cheering. ROCK AND FUCKING ROLL!

ShotBot

This is Anthony's "ShotBot" ver 1 in action. The video doesn't do it justice, but you get the idea if you tilt your head while watching.

Blogging about talking about Blogging at a party

I just came back from a party @ Ft. Funston. It was a good time. There was much discussion if what I was wearing was a tee-shirt or a dress. The place was pretty bumpin'. The automated assembly line lego robot shot dispenser ('shot-bot') was pretty fucking amazing. Everyone was duly impressed.

I was talking with Seth, and he asked me about the Phil and Friends show in CT. I told him he should read my blog. And then he (and Matt) began his tirade against that statement. Eventually it came to: "We should be blogging about this converstation" he says.

He's so right.

So that motherfucker better start reading my blog. Not that I don't love you. I do. Its a wierd kinda "I have no clue who you are" love. Unless you're Seth. Then I know exactly who you are. I know where you live.

I will eat your soul.

Peak of Summer

Its definetly the peak of summer when I see two outdoor shows on both sides of this continent in one week. Last night Stiners and I went over to Berkeley to see Widespread Panic at the Greek. Its probably my favorite outdoor venue in the world. I've seen some absolutely incredible shows there. The last time we were there was to see the 6 hour "Here comes a time" Jerry Garcia tribute show. That was pretty special.

Stina headed over early in the car to get her replacement bike and I took the BART in. This means I got to meander a bit through downtown Berkeley to get to the show. There's nothing like Berkeley in the summertime. Everyone's looking real good. By everyone, I mean the ladies. Oh man. Hard to be a bad mood walking through Berkeley in the summer time.

The show started at 7ish. The greek (capacity about 8000) was maybe a third full. The band came out, the sun was still shining, and every single person fired up a bowl. Which was a pleasant contrast to the east coast show we saw earlier this week. A nice, mellow first set. The brought the heat during the second set. Stina needed to take off in the middle of the second set, since she had to get up in like 8 hours and do some sort of torturous exercise in the early morning. I was having a good time - said goodbye and continued to rock for another 2 minutes. Then I swiftly burst into action, and caught up to Stina for a nice ride home.

This whole episode made me realize how I always justify my actions to myself. When Stina left I was thinking - oh, I'm having a great time, I will definetly stay. This is why I come to these shows. The vibe was great. Then I started thinking about the long journey home. About the fact that the train I normally take home was not running since some sort of construction was going on. I thought how tired I was, and the fact that I hadn't yet adjusted to west coast time. So I figured it would be nice to get a lift home. As soon as I did that, I start coming up with more reasons why it was a good idea.

Stiners and I are used to spending lots of time together. Now thats she's training for the tri, we don't see each other so much. A ride home would give us more time together.

If I got a ride home, I would have some time to work on music while freshly inspired from the concert. And so on.

I started thinking about how I always am able to justify my decisions. If I hadn't gone home, I could have easily justified why I stayed, and most certainly would have. It would've be a fun adventure getting home. Etc, etc. I found it interesting that I always justify my actions. Why its ok for me to buy this software, eat at this restaurant, indulge in whatever I'm what to do. I can generally come up with a couple reasons. I don't really think of any counter arguments to what it is that I want to do. Not that I'm going anywhere with this train of thought - just found it interesting to catch myself in one of my behavioral patterns.

The other thing I was thinking about was how lucky I am that Stina enjoys live music as much as she does. She didn't used to. Years and years of dragging to her Phish shows has payed off in dividends. Now we can go to shows and really enjoy them together. It makes me so happy to be able to share that kind of joy with my life partner. When we were at the Phil and Friends show ealier this week, it was an absolutely amazing moment in musical enjoyment. I'm so grateful that we were able to share that and be overwhelmed with joy together.

Rootin Tootin, Lets go Newton

Well, our excursion home has come to a close. We had a lovely time on the 4th, attempting to watch the extensive Boston fireworks from my Brothers apt, which is on the 32 floor. His deck looked right out at the barge. Unfortunately the winds picked up the massive amount of smoke from the fireworks and pushed it right at us. So the view was often blocked. But Doug made us hot dogs in his Foreman grill, and all was good. Except for Steven Tyler, who tried to sing along with the Boston Pops. I think it might be retirement time at this point. Or a decade ago. Then again, I haven't really been following. Mmmm. . . hot dogs. . . .

I ate lots of sea food. It was really tasty. I got to hang with good high school friends, and their respective girl friends. I ran the full spectrum gambit with my folks, which is usual. There was even some time for introspection. As we get older, it turns out our folks do too. Its good to take step outside, and see how your parental relationship shifts as time goes on. Those relationships are terribly complicated, full of love and headaches. And now with the marriage, we see each of our parents accept both of us as family. Especially since we are their only hope (right now) for offspring.

There is this long standing agreement that when children enter our lives, we will head back east where both sets of parents will be around to partake in the child rearing. The thing is, until I left the east coast, I had no idea there is an option to totally skip winter. And I forgot about the summer humidity. Boston as a city doesn't have much appeal. People are much gruffer. Most of the bars are sports bars. I love San Francisco. I love the people, the music, the energy, the vibe. We have such a fantastic community for friends out here. So I guess, what I will do, is continue to enjoy it to my maximum capacity - and not take it for granted. For now, it really feels like home. And its good to be home.

Also, our pets rats really missed me. I can tell.

2nd Wedding Anniversary

A couple months ago we decided to head back east for the celebration of our 2nd wedding anniversary (July 3rd). Two days after we booked our tickets home, a couple of bands booked a tour that we really wanted to see. It was only happening on the east coast. And the only show we could possibly see was the July 3rd date in Hardfort, CT. Fantastic. We bought us some shiny lawn tickets.

When we travel back to Newton from Cali , we always stay at our respective parent's house. We've been doing this for a long time. At least 7 years. Two years ago we get married. Both our respective parents put kings size beds in our rooms. Now everyone expects us to sleep over. We (or at least I) find that pretty silly - the fact we got married didn't change a whole lot in our relationship. We've slept in the same bed in Cali for 7 years. I like sleeping in my own bed in Newton. But, as our anniversary is imminent, Stina decides to break our streak and sleeps over on the night of the 1st. She wants to wake up together. Ok. I understand. This will greatly improve the odds that I'll get laid. Too bad she decided to do this after the hottest, most humid day of the week. Not the most successful night of sleep. Or sex for that matter. But at least we wake up together. And gripe about how uncomfertable we are.

Stina decided we should go out to a fancy lunch on our anniversary. She did a bunch of research. Found that many places were closed on Monday, especially on the holiday weekend. We eventually decide on some Malaysian place. After running some concert related errands (food and drink) we say f the Malaysian place and go to Jonny's Lunchenette. We both have coffee milkshakes. Life is good. It's even better with bacon - which I fully indulged in.

We get on the road. By the time we are getting close to Hartford, we see some streak lightning. Not the best sign. We park the car in a sweet spot in a $10 lot (yup - look at me - paying for convenience) and begin to meander through the 'lot scene'. Not the greatest, but not the worst either. Its starts to pour for about 15 minutes. Stina buys a $3 parker. Through our wandering, we run across some people selling tickets. Some dude is selling pavilion seats (which he claims are really good) at face. We buy them, and sell our lawn seats to the dude next to him. Aww yeah, trade up. Rain stops - we do some shopping. Lots of bumper stickers. An example of Stina thinking: she knows that our current car won't last more then a couple more years, so she has us buy multiple sets of stickers, so we'll be prepared for our new ride. I would of never thought of that - but I love it. Who knows when our next east coast lot scene will be?

We've traveled the lot - time to head in. The lawn is emptyish and inviting, so we setup camp there. Phil and Friends are first on the bill. Phil is Phil Lesh, bassist for the Grateful Dead. He puts together a somewhat different band for most of his tours. They play a mellow 55 minute set, full of tunes I don’t know. I sit on the lawn, take in the eye candy, and have a nice smile on my face. This is what summer is all about. Chillin on the lawn, taking in the good vibes. Then they take a short set break. I guess the slide guitar guy (Barry Sleiss I think) has some technical difficulties. It starts to Rain. The band starts to come out. No problem, lets head to our seats. Which turn out to be like 10th row! First song they start with: Shakedown Street. We used to live in a house named Shakedown Street - this song, which is pretty bumpin', has sentimental meaning to us. We are elated. It seems especially rockin - why? Holy shit. Trey Anastasio (guitarist for Phish, and for the next band on the bill) has come out, to replace the slide guitarist. And he's in complete control of the 7 or so piece band. He totally dominates, pushing the band in all sorts of new directions for the entire set. He's having a blast. I'm having a blast. Everyone's having a blast. This kicks total ass. Waaaaay higher energy second set. And we're taking this in from the 10th row. This is what we live for. Totally unexpected. After 1 hr 20 min set, its over. Phil is beaming. Hugs all around on the stage - they all know that was pretty special.

Another set change. The band coming up is called G.R.A.B - its a band called the duo, with Mike Gordan (bass player from Phish) and Trey. So what we have here is the basic formation of Phish - guitar, bass (both actually from Phish), keys and drums. They play a bunch of Trey songs. We'll I'll be damned, its sounds a lot like Phish. They do some phishesque jams. They play some G.R.A.B originals and covers. You can sometimes hear the duo influenced sound, but sometimes they just sound like a jam band. Which happens to be very phishy in nature. Whatever - its fun. They can all really play. And they do. And we soak it in. From the 10th row.

Then it’s all over. We head back to the car. Right through the little shakedown that's setup. Stina buys some fresh french bread pepperoni pizza. Its too crunchy she says. I'm delighted to be gifted with a pepperoni french bread pizza. She finds a chicken pita something that makes her happy. My pizza has disappeared. Oh wait, I ate it. Before we got to the car. It was so good. We are both feeling like we had a fantastic 2nd anniversary.

I have a great amount of photo documentary of this day. But I'm 3000 miles away from the cable that I need. So maybe I'll update later with some pics. I will also be scouring the net when I return to SF for the show. I saw 15-20 tapers setup on the lawn. That second set from Phil and Friends was freaking amazing. Highly recommended.

Extreme Pool

Last night, we continued the several day celebration which is our second wedding anniversary (which is actually July 3rd). I'm psyched that my brother has moved back to Boston. It enabled both familys in their entirety to go out for Dinner together last night.

I was able to eat more seafood. I was shocked when my brother ordered a shrimp appetizer. As far I knew, nor him nor my wife ate seafood. Nor, I say. Twice. He pointed out that there was lots of garlic on his plate, which I surmised acts as a prime enabler for him. I pointed out that the garlic was dwarfed by the enormous pieces of shrimp. In the end, I was happy to eat some. Which is neither here nor there. Yes, be prepared for serious digression. Welcome to stream of thoughtville. Population: you. Or: me. Its unclear.

Anyhow, post dinner everyone went back to their suburb. Except me, because I can now hang with my Brother in Boston. Which I don't think I've ever really done. Sadly, growing up in a suburb 10 mins for Boston, I've never really went in to Boston for an evening out. So here we are, in the middle of the North End, which is rockin', and I suggest we go shoot pool. We amble over to "Racks" near Faneuil Hall. There's a 5 dollar cover. In the interests of instant gratification and the fact that we are already there, we pay 5 dollars. Turns out to be a bit more then a pool hall - its a club. Their distinction from other clubs is that they have maybe 15 pool tables. We ask for table. Their all full. I want to be put on a list. There is no list. You just have to hang out and wait. Fine. I get some drinks, go to the bathroom. On the way back from the shitter I see someone about to return their balls. Thats right, I said balls. So I follow said duder, and speak with the lady about getting a table. No problem. Then she asks me to sign this waiver: so if a celebrity comes by, they have the right to knock us off the table. Okaaaaaaay. Whatever. I want to shoot pool.

We get this table which is near a bunch of upscale booths. They are playing some loud ass R & B. Thankfully, I have my magical ear plugs. At one end of the table, you look directly towards the dance floor. Which has a fancy light setup, complete with strobes and spinning lights, rendering me somewhat blind. As I continue to shoot some of the worst pool of my life, people start to fill up theses booths. Then people gather near the booth people on the floor. Right in the way of our pool game. My brother thinks people are checking me out - I look so out of place in this club, that people figure I must be a celebrity.

Two drinks later, we are absolutely done. We return our balls, and the lady gives my brother back his credit card. She says she didn't charge him. Wow. That was unexpected, and made the whole experience much more worth while.