Category: Music

Slick

Installed a new Canon printer/scanner/copier this morning – everything worked slick once I figured out where to put the ink cartridges.  The first picture I printed was Katie’s beautiful grad photo.  Thanks Paul for enabling this purchase to happen.  We had a LOVELY time eating dinner on the back deck at Planet Bachelor last night and stopped over briefly at Suzanne’s to admire her gorgeous new apartment in New West.

I am doing something I have never done at work since the day I started here.

I am sleeveless. 

I have found a videographer to do my Youtube video.  Oh, I guess I didn’t mention that.  I guess I’m in planning stages, but the Tapioca Song belongs to the world – and Youtube is the world.

Got to get over to Paul’s today

and email myself all of my songs….  I have a request for one of my tunes from one of the guys out at Jericho so I need to scrape them off the hard drive and send them over to myself.  I thought I had actually backed them up, but I was wrong.

Tonight, Thai food with Keith & rest of famille.

Today, arranging books.  I have figured out how I’m going to do that now; it only took me nine weeks.

Keith’s B-day tomorrow – Robert Anson Heinlein’s today

The four of us are planning to get together for his birthday. I already bought his present but it will probably arrive next week.

Had the folks over for beers last night; in attendance, Melissa, Ryan, Brian C, Jarmo and Rob of Nine, who was, unfortunately, not able to massage my printer into compliance as there is no driver for it. Drat.

After they all left, Swampy came over for a beer and told me that things are going much more smoothly than he anticipated and it was just really pleasant to have him here – and we discussed a couple of books, including Focusing and The Dosadi Experiment (which is basically a fast forward through Dune without the religion and with a kickass courtroom scene at the end). Then at nine my date came over. We sat outside next to the fountain until about the fourth time he slapped a mosquito (imagine that… a guy who gets bit by mosquitoes more than I do!?) at which point I said that I found it unconscionably inhospitable to contribute to his discomfort so, and besides, there was beer and a bathroom back at my place…

So I guess I’ve had a very sociable weekend already and it ain’t even noon on Saturday yet.

Today is the 100th centenary of Heinlein’s birth. How I wished he could have become a blogger. Okay, I don’t but it makes me laugh to think about how he would have talked about the last three or four sets of American governments.

I talked to Kira on the phone today.  She was purring.  Zeek!, thank heaven, is back to his old self and the bloody spot under his chin has cleared up.  His bloodwork came back okay so the 1200 vet bill Paul and I were looking at turned out not to be necessary.

Keith will come by today before work with more Aubrey/Maturin for me.  (more, more more!) and some other media for me to peruse (hopefully Fables III and IV).

I watched Denis Leary’s music video of Asshole last night.  I always liked the song, but the video was brilliant, IMO.

Facebook is extremely amusing, and I’m having loads o’ fun with it.  Mostly poking people.  I’ve gotten into a poking contest with two people; I know that sounds rude, but it’s harmless virtual primate fun.

Here’s a cool “matrix style” domestic argument, from Japanese TV.

Seagull

The last song I wrote on the guitar was Lady of Komarr – getting on for a year ago!  So when I finally broke down and unlimbered the Seagull last night, expecting, after all the muffled ahems it had been making while snugged up in its bag, for it to diss me most cru-ell-y, it merely said, “All is forgiven, write a song.”  The song I wrote last night came out in about 20 minutes.

I have no idea what I was dreaming about last night but I woke up with a smile on my face.

brief report

Tonight I:

Spoke for the first time to the best prospect from Craigslist. He reads SF (including my litmus novel, Frank Herbert’s the Dosadi Experiment)! He’s a union man! He sings bass! He has long hair and a beard! He made me laugh my ass off! I am meeting him Friday night!

Arranged in my own mind – okay, started spade work with the CUC – to work on a social justice refresher course for my church (welcoming gays, lesbians, transgendered and gender rebellious people of all stripes.)

Spoke to my mother on the phone. Spoke (briefly) to my Kitty Kate on the phone.

Hung with one of my fave exinlaws. Being Swampy.

Sat in a brilliantly sunny patio and watched the world go by while so doing.

Pondered how to put a retraction in my blog about beer. Okay, deep breath, here goes. I like beer. It’s staying.

Wrote a song:

Give me five, give me ten
give me round the bend again
you will know when I blow through your town
Give me five, give me ten
give me round the bend again
As I impart the wisdom I have found

You may stray…. so far away
you may go where only God can follow
But your mind will find a thousand ways to shine
and your heart may ache and never yet be hollow

chorus

You may wait … for an important date
And find that life has gone by in the meantime
But it’s one short breath between your birth and death
so you might as well enjoy yourself between time

Chorus.

I need another voice, (verse!), but I’m quite happy as things stand. It amazes me how much I can do when I am happy.

Tim Readman at Jericho Folk

I got to the door too late to get into the open stage (sigh…) but the open stage folk and the headliner were awesome.  Tim closed the show with Blackleg Miner which is an old favourite of Dr. Filk’s.  He also sang his own songs mixed very well and in a very smooth, entertaining fashion, with old favourites, a capella, etc.  He also has that English accent that makes a girl melt.
It was a beautiful evening.  As is my custom when I go to Jericho, I ordered a Raven on tap, thinking about the other times I’ve consumed it, and walked to the edge of the patio and watched the sun go down.  Damn, but this is beautiful country.

Paul has very kindly provided pics of the grad but I’ll be posting them later… stay tuned.

Click here, scroll down until you see Eli

Then contemplate the dog’s face for a while.  All hail the beedogs!

Eli’s expression perfectly matches how I feel right now.

From the Be Careful What You Wish For Department, I had a tremendous urge to hear a Cars tune or two a couple of nights ago, and last night I got about an hour’s worth at Elly’s.  I now have the crunching opening guitar riff of Good Times Roll jammed in my head.

Also listened to Alice in Chains Jar of Flies.  It is an annoying, and yet somehow deeply satisfying album.  ALSO and this was the big win of the evening in terms of auralstim, the EP from around the same time called Sap.  Wonderful harmonies, tunes like a drunk tripping downstairs in terms of structure, and oh, the crunchy, crunchy guitars.  How I like the sound, even if the lyrics are uninspired.  Can’t have everything.  I mean, I write a mean tune, but can I sing it?  Which reminds me, time to pick the mando up again. A mandolin can’t tell you to shut up, unless, of course, somebody else is trying to beat your head in with it.

Missed the Meenies

I was supposed to go yesterday to see the Blue Meenies at the John B Pub in Coquitlam, but somehow I got really antisocial and didn’t go.  Yesterday was a day remarkably unproductive of forward progress with any activities except that today I am feeling better than I have in ages, my bills are all paid, the garbage is out, I’ve finished the 5th O’Brian book (The Fortune of War) and I ate at home twice – remarkably, because there’s no denying I’ve been eating out a lot.

Mike was over and loaded the computer up with goodies and ate dinner here; we had planned to go to the B but he jammed and homework called him home.  I know it’s really anti-social, but I’m to the point that I’m really preferring interacting with people in real-time one on one.  I just feel overwhelmed, except at work, that seems to be a different case.  Any rate, Mike’s out of his place in Burnaby due to the elderly plumbing at his apartment, so he’s back with his folks.  This just means that every evening he has three dogs and a cat to take for a walk, because Winky walks right around the block with his dogs…. I have posted the best pic ever of animal companions previously, showing Winky, Tasha, Spud and Mila all basking in the sunshine in Mike’s folk’s front yard.
I now have access to a really remarkable internet radio station.  The music on it was so good that I literally slept on the living room sofa so I could continue to listen to it in my sleep…. then I realized that this was not too intelligent on a number of levels and crawled back into bed long about 3:45 am.  Now it’s off to get my hairs cut.

Food & Drink

So we said goodbye to Burnt yesterday.  Alas, poor Burnt, having to move with his new bride to San Francisco.  What a chore!  Obviously I envy him.

Yesterday was a hang with the kids and install software kind of a day.

Katie did two more of the outstanding projects yesterday.

I watched a documentary called the Great American Songbook.  I’m going to go out on a limb and aver that it was put together by gay men; there are four or five Garland clips and only two of Sinatra, and one of the Sinatra clips makes him look like he’s singing a love song for the ages to Jimmy Durante, who’s quite spectacularly ugly, and the narrator makes the point of outlining the orientation of every songwriter along the way.  Am I being politically incorrect?  I hope so.  It was a pretty good compilation though.

Jericho Beach Folk Music

Every Tuesday in the summer one of the upper rooms at the Jericho Sailing Club turns into a Celtic jamfest with one of the highest quality open stages in history (and I’m not saying that because I was there last night). Here’s the link…

Anyway, Linda Allen played her deceptively simple folk tunes, most of which could be Unitarian hymns, such are the sentiments expressed. She writes labour friendly songs, too, which made me wish Dr Filk could be there, as well as a certain co-worker who once worked for a certain aircraft company in Washington state. There was a song about the two feminists who lobbied to get women the vote in Washington state as well, which was perfectly charming and which she performed for Christine Gregoire (current governator of WA).
I performed Buy me a Beer and Wish That I Knew Why. Rick Keating is coming by next week and I represented for Lady Miss Banjola when I innocently remarked “Trouble come by here?” to which Lynn responded with feeling, “Oh trouble will be right in this room,” which made me smirk.

At one point Linda needed a music stand, so I flounced up to the front and became “Allegra, the amazing human music stand,” to the appreciation of the performer and the amusement of the crowd. Linda then sang a song that was irresistably funny, so I had to Zen out and try to keep my shoulders from shaking with suppressed laughter.

Later in the show she had another song that she needed her music for so I reprised my role, this time taking the weight of her music book on my knees which made life a lot easier, and it was a much sadder song, so staying steady wasn’t so hard. I was moved to tears half a dozen times last night. Those looking for mad guitar skills or a strong voice are encouraged to go see another performer though. I’m glad I sat up front.

It took me almost two hours to get there by bus from SFU, and I took the wrong bus as it turns out so I did a LOT of walking. So I was very happy to get my hands on Raven Cream Ale on tap – a brew I was introduced to me by LTGW at the Brickhouse earlier this year. The weather on the deck was glorious and I watched kids and dogs and boats and sunset with a feeling of layered contentment. And a very civilized woman named Jane gave me a lift to Burrard Station, which meant I got home at midnight instead of one.