Excitement in Bellevue

Robot
Originally uploaded by TheQ!.

What seemed to be a bank robbery, followed by a bomb scare, at the WaMu next to the office shut down downtown Bellevue for several hours today.

Sunday

Sunday, May 22 2006
24:04

About done for the weekend. Saturday: rehearsal, this time with Diana going through a few ideas to integrate the music and the dancing. After that, a brief SC board meeting at Curt's, the "annual meeting" really. Took stock of things, some open questions still afterwards but a few other things resolved. Stopped for pho on the way home, then worked up a quick look at the current SC finances and mailed it to the team. Got some much-needed housework done.

Today – slept in, a slow morning. Fired off a credit-card application for SC, the reason for getting one mostly to get PayPal to fully enable our account. Our first transaction on that account today, a fee for the TTA At-a-Distance course. In the evening, a housewarming party at IgorK's. Nice place up just off Aurora – a nicer neighborhood than I'd imagine, given its proximity to the aforementioned highway. A pretty laid-back party, lots of good food and drink.

car music: The Cure - Pornography (remaster)

Welcome back

Wednesday, May 18 2006
25:48

Ten days since the last entry. Finding I'm not too enthused about typing this lately.

It's summer in Seattle, at least weather-wise. At 9 PM, the sun may not be shining but the sky is still blue. Got up into the 90s the past couple days.

Got the replacement scanner Friday night. It does the same thing. Saturday afternoon the support email indicated I'd be getting a call about how to proceed further (apparently, replacing that one too – my POV was: how many do I have to go through before I get my money back? the reply was: it is 1 in 1000 that you got two bad units, we have very rigorous standards here at HP). No call yet. Emailed last night, reply was that they'd had technical problems and I'd get a call "with a couple of days". I can't remember how long I have until they charge my credit card because I didn't send back the original. If it happens before anybody calls to tell me what's up I'm going to freak out.

car music: Steve Reich, Cocteau Twins, Massive Attack

Monday

Monday, May 8 2006
25:17

Listening to the final applause in the recording of last week's show. It was a long show after all, an hour total. Plus 15 minutes of pre-show. The spatial resolution of the mic setup is pretty good – when the car alarm goes off at the beginning of 49 it sounds outside (using headphones). Then, at the end, as the door buzzer does its little warbly thing, I got really confused for a second – thinking that the phone had rung and so I should answer the door. Then I remembered.

Low energy show tonight. Everybody felt it.

Backtracking . . . Sunday: Slept in. Drove to Home Depot and True Value, looking for a screw for my high-G tuner. No luck. HD had nothing smaller than 4mm, TV nothing less than 3mm. And it would appear to be a 2.5mm diameter screw. So, came home and ordered some replacement tuner knobs from Stew-Mac – they come with screws, and they're pearloid which I think will look good and will actually be a decent amount lighter (I wouldn't have believed it until I held one of the knobs in my hand, it's a fairly heavy chunk of metal). The price was "almost cheap", too. Then, up to my folks' place for Easter / Cinco de Mayo dinner. Mexican food followed by an Easter egg hunt, what more could you ask for. Chipotle brownies with vanilla ice cream? OK. Caught up with them and my Sister and her husband. Got my Dad signed up for Flickr so they could see the pictures that I only flagged visible to friends and family.

Saturday: Sitting and rehearsal in the morning, with a bit of logistics involving a handful of battery-powered amps. One Pignose had flown up to HOG heaven (haha), never to be recharged. But we had enough for the show. Then a huge burrito at Tacos Guaymas w/ Igor and Travis. A quick stop at American Music to see what was new (I'm interested in almost everything they have, except the basses). Then home for some quiet time before the show. Met up at Curt's at 5:30, got to the Showbox at 10 to 6 or so. Scoped out three locations for the guitarists, three at each. Quick "sound check", the big space doesn't eat up the sound nearly as much as I expected. Still, no audience to absorb the sound. Had about an hour to kill at that point. Some people headed out for a snack. I stuck around, then practiced, standing at the space where our trio would be, to help guide the folks setting up the tables and chairs towards the fact that we'd be there, occupying space. They were very accommodating. Put the guitar away at 8, as doors opened. Recognized about 75% of the faces coming by for the first 20 minutes or so. At 8:30, we quietly got our guitars, plugged in, and began doing the "A# Harmonic Minor thing", albeit in A harmonic minor. Still seemed to sound pretty good. Feedback later was that it was loud enough to be audible, but still almost sounded acoustic. I could barely hear the group to our left, but couldn't hear the group on our right at all. The Slow Music team took the stage right about at 9, mostly droning in A for about 5 minutes. Then as they picked up steam we quietly turned off, unplugged, and took our gear backstage. I watched the first set from there (stage left), an interesting vantage. The sound was loud enough to have some force behind it, but not too loud. During the quiet passages I could hear the acoustic "plink" of Robert's guitar, from some 30 feet away. Went out to the main hall for the intermission and the second set. Talked a little bit to some curious folks who asked about us and Guitar Craft, etc. Enjoyed the show. There were some fun moments as Fred and Matt basically had some duet time. Then a build-up to the end, the sound taking on life in three dimensions for me, harmonics hovering over and slightly in front of the stage. Then it was over. Spent about 20? minutes there, coordinating carpooling (which had changed since the trip into town) and later plans. Ended up at McMenamin's with Igor, Igor, Curt, Travis, and Howard. Everybody got bacon cheeseburgers. Home at something like 12:30, to bed not long after.

car music: Tool 10,000 Days (growing on me a bit, still unsure about lots of it); some Gamelan Gong Kebyar.

Back to work

Thursday, May 4 2006
25:09

Gorgeousness abounded outside today. Blue skies, a slight breeze, somewhere in the 60s. Generally tired from the two days of work and play. From my seat, the performance on Monday was OK. Feedback from the audience that it was too long, having a couple extra pieces in the set this time. Very long day on Tuesday, 8 AM to 11 PM. I was House Manager for the show, but still had a couple hours here and there to take a break. Good work during the day. The show went very smoothly, I was grateful for that. The last of the audients arrived just in time, so our Man At the Door, IgorA, was able to come up and enjoy the show. The sound in the space was, overall, very good I think, though for those in the corners not quite so much. The performance ended around 8:45; and even with about 30 minutes of socializing after that, the space was cleared and prepared for the following morning by 10:15.

Yesterday was not as long, though lack of sleep caught up with me by mid-day. The workshop ended mid-day, and after lunch (Indian buffet, pretty good) and coffee with some of the folks, I came home to nap. After two hours of that I felt more sleepy than I was before. Luckily a splash of cold water and a little time cleared that away. Back up to Ballard for some further practice and a TTA rehearsal – a little different than usual. Then out to the High Life for pizza and drinks.

Currently doing a dance with HP tech support to get the new scanner replaced, as it has some sort of fault which results in poor quality with dark pictures. On Saturday, email support asked for my shipping info and phone number, and said "someone will call you with further information". OK. So, someone left a message on Monday, giving no return phone number. Then, that was it. Tonight I emailed asking how long I would have to wait, and the phone range not 10 minutes later. The fellow on the other end had a strong Indian accent, so I had a very difficult time understanding him. And he had a lot to say. Each sentence was a paragraph, with a long prologue going over the details of my claim (yes, I know, I was there), and why they had to call me (they require you give them a credit card number before they ship out the replacement, or you can opt to return yours now and they'll ship the replacement once they get it). Fifteen? minutes later, everything was arranged, and the replacement should be here in two weeks.

The new Tool album arrived today. On first listen, a couple tracks interest me. Quite a few sound strangely like leftovers from the Aenima sessions. Overall, a general sense of aimlessness. They do get extra special bonus points for creating a case that has stereoscopic lenses built in, such that they can be used to view the (correspondingly stereoscopic) liner note pictures.

car music: Swans - Various Failures (been pondering the lyrics to "Better than You" for a while now); Arcadia - So Red the Rose

Sunday

Sunday, April 30 2006
24:07

Yahoo's mail servers are having fits right now, can't download any mail. Well, Mailwasher can get the headers and the first page of the messages with no problem. But I'm having no luck accessing them via Outlook or their web mail service. So at least I know nothing urgent is sitting waiting.

Long day yesterday – early sitting/practice due to some major goings-on at the church. Good practice. Brief meeting w/ the House Management team afterwards. Then home, with a stop at Than bros. on the way. The time passed pretty quickly during the middle of the day, next thing I knew it was 7 and time to head out for the Lost Pedro show. Good music, good company, good food. There was a strangely small amount of moussaka in my doggy bag when I left though. From there, to Howard and Diana's for a birthday celebration for CG. Wine, chocolate, Scotch, music old and new. Turns out one of the songs on the Gtrrstrfe CD was something that the Rep Circle worked on long, long ago. Ended up staying until very late, to sleep as soon as I got home. Still slept until 2.

Quick breakfast this morning, then up to the space for cleaning and (p)re-arrangement. Much to do, but lots of people on hand. I'm a bit apprehensive about what will need to be done following the performance tomorrow to ready the space for the following day's work. But things seem to be coming together. Left there about 6:30, stopped at Tacos Guaymas on the way home for a monster burrito, essentially my food for the day. Then home to practice, watch some TV, and attempt to read email.