Awww Wednesday

Stina really wanted to make a lamb stew from out fabulous new cookbook "The Big Book of Soups and Stews". We made plans for peeps to come over and enjoy it with us. That fell through. So, just as we embarked on our cooking excursion, Amanda called to ask if we wanted to join them at Kezars. We flipped it around and asked if they wanted to enjoy stew with us. It turned out, they did. So Matt and Amanda came over for some very tasty dinner. This cookbook is now three for three.

Earlier in the week I went to the Great American Music Hall website to see about tickets for the JGB on Friday. I noticed on their calender that the Everyone Orchestra was playing there on Wednesday, hosted by some .com party associated with Mac World. I emailed the conductor of the EO to see how I could attend. He asked my name, and BAM, I was on the guest list. Turned out he had 200 spots. Nice. So after dinner was finished, I headed down to the GAMH.

I've been hanging around in the hippie jamband circles long enough that I'm starting to know a bunch of people who circulate in that scene. I ran into a lot of the pleasure pad crew. The old dude who I see all the time was there. Rachel and Aaron came along. The opening band was Von Iva and they were great. An all female crew who fully captivated my attention and ear drums. The drummer was kick ass. The front lady had the undefinable "it" - looks, stage presence, and one hell of a voice. I totally dug them, to my surprise.

For some reason I had been really looking forward to the EO show all day long. I was feeling the urge to see some good live music and shake my thang. Fortunately, they didn't disappoint. The line-up, as always, was stellar, chalk full of top caliber musicians. Its always great to see Asher on keys. That guy can fucking rip. Eric McFadden played some mean guitar. I went right up front, so I could see everyone and read what Matt Butler (conductor) was writing on his white board. They did a SLAMMING version of Sledgehammer, which Asher sang and played lead on. The energy was pretty high all night. Matt really did a good job of keeping the music interesting and varied. I couldn't wipe the smile off my face.

I was dancing almost all night, through both bands. I'm pretty much broken today. It was immeasurably good for my soul. There was maybe 200 people there, tops. The upstairs was the "VIP" bar (you needed a wristband), which was amusing since there was nobody at the downstairs bar. I ran into Ben Berstein (former bass player for New Monsoon), and he's going to school right now learning about electronic music production. Funny, I have a background in that. Maybe we'll do some collaboration. Maybe not. Who's to say. My cousin Alan, who is the manager for Tea Leaf Green, was there. He's was fresh off the jam cruise, which was allegedly off the hook. It was cool to introduce him to Tia, who is an event planner extraordinaire and currently works with Mickey Hart. It was fun to feel like I help make a connection in the San Francisco music scene. I was there, man. I was there.