3.31.2002
Food Report: The shao lung bao of Taipei are absolutely killer. I had a variety today, and it was the crab egg and pork ones that were my favorite. The restaurant itself was a bit of a celebrity -- it's so popular with locals and Japanese visitors for these gingery, steamed dumplings that it gets its picture taken several times a minute!
Sad to sacrifice Easter to the International Dateline. But I'm settled in here now, and glad I had Good Friday.
Sad to sacrifice Easter to the International Dateline. But I'm settled in here now, and glad I had Good Friday.
3.28.2002
Yes, we're off to rock Davis tonight. Bliss and folly, I'm gonna gig with my new compressor first and decide if I like it later. Like jumping in the swimming pool or something.
Then I'm gone on a trip to far away this weekend and next week. But who knows, I might write in anyways. It's a wired, wired world...
Thai Food Mystery: Cha-Am in Berkeley is good. Cha-Am South of Market in the city is good. Cha-Am Express on Kearny isn't very good. Hmm.
Then I'm gone on a trip to far away this weekend and next week. But who knows, I might write in anyways. It's a wired, wired world...
Thai Food Mystery: Cha-Am in Berkeley is good. Cha-Am South of Market in the city is good. Cha-Am Express on Kearny isn't very good. Hmm.
3.21.2002
The burger problem is now behind us, solved handily with a MacArthur Park Niman Ranch, medium rare. Yeah, baby.
(Now, of course I went and tried to order the Fish and Chips first. And then the bartender steered me right.)
(Now, of course I went and tried to order the Fish and Chips first. And then the bartender steered me right.)
3.16.2002
I had a hot dog at Barney's Burgers last night. And today, a ham and cheese at Nation's. My friend JK can tell you why guys like me tend to find ourselves burgerless in the land of burgers -- we simply insist on ordering from the bottom of the menu. The bottom of the menu is where the Other Stuff lives, the stuff that almost didn't make the cut. You're supposed to order from the top, silly. The top, where the Proud Food lives.
Good practice today. Back to my standard set-up for the Plough gig. Looking forward to Davis, too. That should be nice and relaxed. (Noone'll know the songs.) Maybe take some more risks. (Play bad jazz.) Rock out. (Turn up too loud.) Be cool. (Stay up late.)
Good practice today. Back to my standard set-up for the Plough gig. Looking forward to Davis, too. That should be nice and relaxed. (Noone'll know the songs.) Maybe take some more risks. (Play bad jazz.) Rock out. (Turn up too loud.) Be cool. (Stay up late.)
3.13.2002
OK. Coming clean under duress from gentle reader R.W.:
I solemnly testify that "Silly Girl" (this little ditty I wrote when I was like nine years old) was indeed performed by the Poser crew on Saturday night. It has been performed live only twice: once in the Stanford Campus Coffee House (Gear: gnarly "public" spinet piano); and now it has seen the light again at Alvarado Square in San Pablo (Gear: e-bow, delay, Mike P. on lead vocal.) On average, it seems to get performed about every eleven years. So hope against hope and hang on to that old cassette, R.W.. Next time I'll invite ya.
I solemnly testify that "Silly Girl" (this little ditty I wrote when I was like nine years old) was indeed performed by the Poser crew on Saturday night. It has been performed live only twice: once in the Stanford Campus Coffee House (Gear: gnarly "public" spinet piano); and now it has seen the light again at Alvarado Square in San Pablo (Gear: e-bow, delay, Mike P. on lead vocal.) On average, it seems to get performed about every eleven years. So hope against hope and hang on to that old cassette, R.W.. Next time I'll invite ya.
3.11.2002
Monday morning, hi there. Fun show in the city at Canvas Cafe on Friday. Twist my arm, I had fun! (What IS that foreign feeling...?!) Did it remind me of the good old days? A little. Maybe. But what do you with the good old days, anyway?
Whatever. It felt relaxed and I was happy with the setlist and new songs, and I frequently had the sensation of rolling and floating musically. It is what it is.
(Gear Dork Sez: Breedlove through big amp for the first time ever -- it worked fine. Food Dork Sez: Mike and I sampled the Canvas kitchen, enjoying some Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, babaganoush/pita and veggie pizza. All very good.)
Lots of friendly people in the place, including Andy Z. of the other band playing, Tinman. Thank you, friendly people...
Saturday night with Poser was fun. I switched to the big amp at the last minute, which turned out to be a good move. I dumped a lot of bass out of the settings and still had plenty of low-end ring and feedback. Guitar parts worked OK, though I was more conservative than I'd hoped to be. Typical me. Vocal parts worked better than rehearsal. Wearing a blue scarf while playing a black guitar may or may not have worked... but I can live with the consequences.
Had a Sprite, with Lymon. Watched the other acts. Wheeled amps out to the lot. Home to bed. Good night. Zzz.
Whatever. It felt relaxed and I was happy with the setlist and new songs, and I frequently had the sensation of rolling and floating musically. It is what it is.
(Gear Dork Sez: Breedlove through big amp for the first time ever -- it worked fine. Food Dork Sez: Mike and I sampled the Canvas kitchen, enjoying some Sierra Nevada Pale Ale, babaganoush/pita and veggie pizza. All very good.)
Lots of friendly people in the place, including Andy Z. of the other band playing, Tinman. Thank you, friendly people...
Saturday night with Poser was fun. I switched to the big amp at the last minute, which turned out to be a good move. I dumped a lot of bass out of the settings and still had plenty of low-end ring and feedback. Guitar parts worked OK, though I was more conservative than I'd hoped to be. Typical me. Vocal parts worked better than rehearsal. Wearing a blue scarf while playing a black guitar may or may not have worked... but I can live with the consequences.
Had a Sprite, with Lymon. Watched the other acts. Wheeled amps out to the lot. Home to bed. Good night. Zzz.
3.05.2002
Rehearsed with Poser (Mike and Ed plus Tyler too) last night. (Cooking with Tones Tip: If you're playing with sequenced tracks -- which I don't do much of these days -- I'm learning that compression on the clean tones helps to much better marry the parts to the tracks. It's a good thing.) After doing the final run-throughs of everything, I think I'm going to stick with the low-powered POD/Champ rig; it's easy on the back and feeds back controllably.
Mike says for the event coming up on Saturday, we players ought to dig through our dresser drawers and put together little Slightly Gothy Black outfits for ourselves. Hmm. I'm thinking about making a plastic shirt out of an old T-shirt and some electrical tape. And then not wearing it.
Tonight most of the ME Band sits on the couch to do a little low-volume prep for our Friday night show at Canvas Café in San Francisco.
Mike says for the event coming up on Saturday, we players ought to dig through our dresser drawers and put together little Slightly Gothy Black outfits for ourselves. Hmm. I'm thinking about making a plastic shirt out of an old T-shirt and some electrical tape. And then not wearing it.
Tonight most of the ME Band sits on the couch to do a little low-volume prep for our Friday night show at Canvas Café in San Francisco.
3.04.2002
A beautiful weekend. Dinner with K at Lo Coco's on Friday and got not one but two Solano walks in...
Saturday rehearsal went well. I feel like the group is continuing to go deeper musically. (Gear Report: Pepperidge Farm Spicy Cheddar Goldfish; Starbucks Frappucino in a Bottle; Peet's XL Coffee; Acme Challah; Acme Ham and Cheese Turnovers; Safeway Orange Juice; Breedlove acoustic into Fender Twin (house amp); Mike with hot rods and Slingerland kit (house drums); Paul with small rig; Tyler with the purple Kurzweil, Jazz Chorus amp, circa 1985 Digitech PDS2000 Delay/Sampler. Bob D., our host, was hitting the Spicy Goldfish fairly hard considering it was only 10 in the morning, but whatever works...)
The place we go is the personal garage studio of Bob, an older country bass player gentleman. The rest is a secret -- rehearsal space in the Bay Area is just a little too precious and this place is a little too wonderful...
Saturday, Michael S. from Know-It-All Records in Tacoma called to start finalizing a record deal. They are a couple of wonderful guys with a passion for music. Michael has been really supportive of me and my music over the past three years, so it is a thrill to finally begin working together. (He is a recovering music journalist while I am a recovering nose-thumbing sassy indie-rock crank.)
Sunday Gear Report: K and I registered at Babys R Us. That's right. Read between the lines and send me a congratulations email! (Graco Pack N' Play, Graco MetroLite LE, Diaper Genie, Avent Starter Kit and Bottle Warmer, In-N-Out Cheeseburgers.)
That was me working the cool portable UPC scanner.
Saturday rehearsal went well. I feel like the group is continuing to go deeper musically. (Gear Report: Pepperidge Farm Spicy Cheddar Goldfish; Starbucks Frappucino in a Bottle; Peet's XL Coffee; Acme Challah; Acme Ham and Cheese Turnovers; Safeway Orange Juice; Breedlove acoustic into Fender Twin (house amp); Mike with hot rods and Slingerland kit (house drums); Paul with small rig; Tyler with the purple Kurzweil, Jazz Chorus amp, circa 1985 Digitech PDS2000 Delay/Sampler. Bob D., our host, was hitting the Spicy Goldfish fairly hard considering it was only 10 in the morning, but whatever works...)
The place we go is the personal garage studio of Bob, an older country bass player gentleman. The rest is a secret -- rehearsal space in the Bay Area is just a little too precious and this place is a little too wonderful...
Saturday, Michael S. from Know-It-All Records in Tacoma called to start finalizing a record deal. They are a couple of wonderful guys with a passion for music. Michael has been really supportive of me and my music over the past three years, so it is a thrill to finally begin working together. (He is a recovering music journalist while I am a recovering nose-thumbing sassy indie-rock crank.)
Sunday Gear Report: K and I registered at Babys R Us. That's right. Read between the lines and send me a congratulations email! (Graco Pack N' Play, Graco MetroLite LE, Diaper Genie, Avent Starter Kit and Bottle Warmer, In-N-Out Cheeseburgers.)
That was me working the cool portable UPC scanner.
3.01.2002
Welcome to Stupor Mundi. Stupor Mundi thinks it means Wonder of the World, but it also sounds kind of stupid.
And that about sums it up.
If you are reading this, you are one of my first and only readers. And I likely will never earn more, because I am a Web Presence Loser and particularly terrible about providing changing content to my website. Will this be any different?
Um, well you try to tune in, and I'm gonna try to stop blogging about blogging.
It's been a good week in music all around. Monday I practiced with my old friend (and drummer) Mike's group, Poser, where I get to do the hired gun guitar-slinger thing. The music is kind of classic pop songwriting with an electronic/semi-industrial bed of sound, lots of loops and blips, humming bass lines, but also big, rock drum sounds. Instead of the typical sadsack, echoey strumming and finger-picking you've come to expect from me, I'm playing some real lead guitar and sounding a bit nastier. [Gear Dork Alert: Telecaster, Line 6 POD (compressor->delay->"Marshall Plexi"), Silverface Champ, Extra Large Domino's Pizza.]
During mornings this week I've been strumming through the completion of a new song. Working title, to be scrapped: "Harry Broken Arrow". It's kind of a composite featuring a little bit of me and my brother, my friend, and Harry Potter. After strumming to get the song well into my head, I'm out the door, onto the bus, and revising lyrics on my palm pilot on the way to work. [GDA: Peet's Top Blend, Gibson LG-0, capo 4, AC Transit.]
Last night I caught Single (formerly Blue Sky Roadster -- and I may never kick the habit of calling them that...) at Starry Plough. They sounded great, as usual, and they threw down some new songs. I was particularly into how good Howard sounded; he's got a truly personal lead guitar voice. Rare. [GDA: Humbuckered Tele, 27 pedals you can't afford, Twin Reverb into Marshall 4x12, common sense/abandon in balance, soul. By the way, that was me in the back of the Plough shredding on a take-out panna cotta from Locando Olmo with a plastic fork, thanks to Tyler.]
Today is Friday -- dinner with my honey and downtime tonight. Good. Tomorrow morning is my band's rehearsal. Good. Hopefully that new song will be ready to hatch by the show we're playing at Canvas Cafe next Friday...
That's about it for me. Send me some hate mail or something, will ya?
And that about sums it up.
If you are reading this, you are one of my first and only readers. And I likely will never earn more, because I am a Web Presence Loser and particularly terrible about providing changing content to my website. Will this be any different?
Um, well you try to tune in, and I'm gonna try to stop blogging about blogging.
It's been a good week in music all around. Monday I practiced with my old friend (and drummer) Mike's group, Poser, where I get to do the hired gun guitar-slinger thing. The music is kind of classic pop songwriting with an electronic/semi-industrial bed of sound, lots of loops and blips, humming bass lines, but also big, rock drum sounds. Instead of the typical sadsack, echoey strumming and finger-picking you've come to expect from me, I'm playing some real lead guitar and sounding a bit nastier. [Gear Dork Alert: Telecaster, Line 6 POD (compressor->delay->"Marshall Plexi"), Silverface Champ, Extra Large Domino's Pizza.]
During mornings this week I've been strumming through the completion of a new song. Working title, to be scrapped: "Harry Broken Arrow". It's kind of a composite featuring a little bit of me and my brother, my friend, and Harry Potter. After strumming to get the song well into my head, I'm out the door, onto the bus, and revising lyrics on my palm pilot on the way to work. [GDA: Peet's Top Blend, Gibson LG-0, capo 4, AC Transit.]
Last night I caught Single (formerly Blue Sky Roadster -- and I may never kick the habit of calling them that...) at Starry Plough. They sounded great, as usual, and they threw down some new songs. I was particularly into how good Howard sounded; he's got a truly personal lead guitar voice. Rare. [GDA: Humbuckered Tele, 27 pedals you can't afford, Twin Reverb into Marshall 4x12, common sense/abandon in balance, soul. By the way, that was me in the back of the Plough shredding on a take-out panna cotta from Locando Olmo with a plastic fork, thanks to Tyler.]
Today is Friday -- dinner with my honey and downtime tonight. Good. Tomorrow morning is my band's rehearsal. Good. Hopefully that new song will be ready to hatch by the show we're playing at Canvas Cafe next Friday...
That's about it for me. Send me some hate mail or something, will ya?
