lol! cat!

Tuesday, May 29 2007
24:05

Graduated from college ten years ago yesterday.

Gorgeous day today. In the 80s. Had a dentist appointment, the usual routine – yes, I floss, etc. And an appointment in two weeks to get a small cavity filled. So far, laying off the soda has helped my overall physique, but nothing specific in terms of teeth yet.

Yesterday, did end up working from home. A reasonably well-attended show, given the holiday. It was fairly nice yesterday too. My playing was rough, I was struggling through a few things that weren't like that in previous weeks. Oh well. The lighting has gone up a notch with the addition of more lights, and some materials hung to catch them in interesting ways.

music: Opeth, Pixies, Sonic Youth

Daniel Day-Lewis is the Best Actor Ever

Sunday, May 27 2007
25:29

Mostly caught up on sleep. Later, over to Issaquah for Dunkle's wedding. It was overcast and a bit chilly, but they still had the ceremony outside. Nice place, "Pickering Barn". Not quite "rustic" but very low-key. The ceremony was fairly short, with a nice "light" feel to it. Back inside for food and more drinks. The food was tasty. Then toasts, and the cake-cutting. Hung out for a little bit after that, then headed up to Travgor's for a movie night: Gangs of New York. Absolutely an amazing movie. Bob and Jaxie hadn't seen it before. Had some nachos at the halfway-point, then later some cookies. Mmm. Also a bottle of Malbec that I'd picked up on the way out, that was pretty good.

The plan is to go in to work tomorrow, but maybe that will turn in to a half day, working from home. Sleeping in is sounding pretty attractive.

music: Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny Group

zz

Saturday, May 26 2007
24:59

So sleepy. . .practice today was also somewhat of a performance, with someone from a local public radio station in attendance, recording, observing, and occasionally interviewing. Lunch at Zesto's w/ Igor – got the "bucket o' fish and chips". Tasty – greasy, but fresh. The weather couldn't quite decide if it was going to be sunny or not.

Later – up to Folklife for a bit. First, a father-son duo playing some gypsy blues (guitar and violin, respectively), apparently a friend of the Wilsons I think? Then Lost Pedro at the Impromptu Café stage. They did well. A pretty large audience, a really nice venue actually for a Folklife gig. The sound had issues – they panned the three pretty severely, and since the speakers were aimed out pretty wide, that meant that most people got a pretty bad mix. Howard's channel was too low too, so basically we could barely hear him on the right side of things. Out to the Hi-Life after that for some drinks and chow.

Yesterday: started off a bit weird, the young woman driving the car in front of me while merging onto I5 decided to turn around (in her seat) and scream at me for a bit. Really don't know why. Later – got scanner-happy and scanned in all the various ticket stubs I had sitting around in a little box here. There's a large chunk of them – most concerts I went to before around 1998 - that are in a safe-deposit box (which I'm constantly amused by, I got it for one document and figured, while I'm at it, might as well put all my old concert ticket stubs in there). I'll be closing that box before I move, so I'll scan those in too.

music: Skinny Puppy - Too Dark Park; Soundgarden - Superunknown; Gordian Knot - Emergent; Res - How I Do; Meshuggah - Catch 33; Miles Davis - On the Corner

blog

Thursday, May 24 2007
24:36

The concert was pretty close to sold-out. My seat turned out for the better, on the "near the center" side of the left are. And the Moore is pretty small too, so even the far-left ones weren't that bad there (row D). I enjoyed the show. With two encores, it went about two hours, which did try my attention span a bit. There were some really interesting pieces I hadn't heard before, a couple w/ some decently funky beats even. An interesting arrangement of The Host of Seraphim (though without the bleating low organ notes, which I missed), and one from the first album/EP. The "band" was a pianist and a keyboard player, the former also w/ a little keyboard and maybe a drum machine. The pianist did background vox on a couple songs, along with an old friend of hers that came out from backstage. Lisa has a strange stage manner. At times I would almost have guessed that she was really, really high, but I don't think that was it. The crowd was effusively appreciative, and only slightly clueless (flash pictures coming from a young woman near me; somebody somewhere was toking up).

There's a movie about here that is premiering at SIFF tomorrow night, I guess she'll be there. It's at 7, I think I'll be working then though.

music: New Order - Power, Corruption, and Lies

Wednesday

Wednesday, May 23 2007
25:44

Late night. Socialized a bit longer after rehearsal than usual. Igor decided to break out a bottle of some pretty nice wine, that had been given to him by friends when he left SF. This was after we'd already finished off the pretty so-so wine we just got from the store, but it was still good. Lots of discussion about some of the personal dynamics in the group, including guitarists and non-guitarists. Rehearsal before that focused entirely on Kashmir and Onyx.

Lisa Gerrard tomorrow night, at 8 at the Moore. I'm still not sure if my seat – seat 1, Left section – is near the center or on the way far left. Hopefully the former.

music: Failure - Magnified; Lisa Gerrard and Peter Bourke - Duality

Drizzly, Bare

Monday, May 21 2007
24:54

Debut of the new, longer set tonight. Didn't really feel longer to me. The air was very humid, and sound seemed to stop dead about a foot in front of my guitar. It was also pouring rain outside. Was kinda nice around mid-day though.

music: The Cure - Kiss Me Kiss Me Kiss Me; Trey Gunn Band - The Joy of Molybdenum; Bela Fleck and the Flecktones - Three Flew Over the Cuckoo's Nest

TEH

Sunday, May 20 2007
24:37

I think I've read about two-thirds of all the Questionable Content strips this weekend. Lots that had me laughing.

Went up to Travgor's this evening to watch Vampire's Kiss. What a great, and absolutely ridiculous, movie. Travis called just as I sat down to eat, so I packed up my sushi and took it up there. Igor made some yummy ravioli. Oh yeah, and cookies. Curt came over too, and Jaxie joined us for the movie.

Plugged in to the out-loud amp for a bit yesterday. It was cutting out here and there. What? The thing's hardly been used, and it was barely on, not enough to cause any auto-protection. Turns out to be an iffy connection on the top speakon jack on the power amp. Lame. And I start getting angry just thinking about thinking about the pain I went through getting that amp from the stupid Ebay sellers. grumble. What good is an under-used 3000-watt power amp if it's got a bad speaker connector? The other channel works fine, but no stereo then. Though it is still fun to watch the lights dim when I turn it on.

Decided to skip going to a coworker's birthday party last night. The theme was "80s glam rock". Coulda been fun, but I didn't feel like going out.

music: Quicksand, Pat Metheny Group, Cocteau Twins, Jonathan Kane

whee

Friday, May 18 2007
24:13

Hmm, more of the same? My diary entry from one year ago says "Finding I'm not too enthused about typing this lately".

music: Mudvayne - The End of All Things to Come; Revolting Cocks - Linger Ficken' Good

Already used that Pluto joke, eh

Wednesday, May 16 2007
24:40

The warm weather was too good to last. Or something. Still fairly sunny today.

The set for next Monday's show will be an expanded one. Same as this week, but with three more pieces shoved in the middle. Some old, some new. Worked tonight mostly on those three, and mostly with the metronome.

music: Steve Reich - Sextet / Six Marimbas; Holst - The Planets

lrn 2 post

Tuesday, May 15 2007
24:33

Got up to 82 degrees today. Oh, it was nice.

Driving on 520 yesterday, I passed a disabled car – a VW w/ the hood up and steam coming from the engine. As I passed, I looked in the mirror just in time to see one of the young men who'd been standing in front of it reach into the engine compartment, then recoil back about 6 feet as a plume of steam shot up a few feet in the air where his arm had been.

music: Japan - In Vogue; XTC - Drums and Wires

Monday

Monday, May 14 2007
24:11

A good-sized audience tonight, including a bunch of new folks, including a couple people from work which was a nice surprise. Same set as last week, but with the full team of 9 this time. I think it was a good show. Who knows though.

Sunny and chilly today. A fairly brisk wind blowing during mid-day. Made the mistake of not being very clear about what I was ordering at lunch today – I said, "The halibut, please", thinking of the lunch special. Got the dinner plate, which was eight bucks more (and apparently a larger portion, though it must have been a slight difference; everything else was mostly the same). Anyway, when I brought it up they were very quick to just charge me for the lunch item. I figure the waiter also probably learned to make sure to ask for specifics from now on.

music: Failure - Fantastic Planet; Dead Can Dance - A Passage in Time; Res - How I Do

Sunday

Sunday, May 13 2007
23:28

OK, Blogger is having some difficulties. Posting works if I use www2.blogger.com but not www.blogger.com (the posts get created but the contents are empty).

Drove down to Tacoma today to meet my new nephew. Sister and her husband both tired but in pretty good shape. Labor was 40 hours, but she did get an epidural. Seems to be a healthy little kid.

Mother's Day kind of got bumped by all the new kid stuff, so maybe we'll have to do something for that next weekend, or maybe combine it w/ Father's Day.

Mostly overcast today.

musi: Res - How I do; Tom McCarthy - Spark and Luminance

Fuck me, Blogger is borked again

Expecting Mother's Day Any Time Now

Saturday, May 12 2007

Hay, I'm an uncle now! Again, sort of.

Calisthenics: inchworming arpeggios again. C major, then A harmonic minor, which was great. Some really weird stuff; also some insight into "that Philip Glass sound". Practice/Rehearsal – spent an hour w/ Diana again this week on some dance / guitar interactions. Then, mostly work on Onyx. Bob and Jaxie out of town, so just seven of us. A little clean-up work on the space for the last half hour or so.

Home for a couple hours. Had a snack, cut my hair.

Dinner w/ Christina at Burrito Loco. My second time there; not bad. Got the enchiladas verdes this time. Then over to Travis and Igor's, to carpool down to UW for the show at Meany. Interesting. The first piece. . .I dunno. I kind of hope it was ironic. Voice-overs of the dancers talking about themselves, but like they had filled out a questionnaire ("Cookies make me happy. Human suffering makes me sad". Blech – really had a "Miss America / Playboy Centerfold" feel to it, felt sorry for the dancers because it generally all came across as really inane), while they danced around. But it seemed sincere. Anyway, the second was more abstract but very nice. Was confused for a bit because of the program layout and the announcement beforehand about shuffling the order; thought for a bit that this one was Diana's piece. Nope. Diana's was a film, that's right they filmed it in Eastern WA a few weeks ago. I was really, really distracted by the quality of the filming. Very hard to focus on the dance / choreography when it's being presented as a shaky, low-quality video that was very roughly edited. Meanwhile, Chris had gone out to use the restroom quickly and they didn't let her back in; so she missed the whole film. The three pieces after the intermission were all great. One really strange and funny; the other not quite as much so but also a bit more interesting (scenes from the Iliad done as breakdance battles, teams with Autobot and Decepticon icons on their t-shirts!). That one also had music composed by Andrew that was interesting when I listened specifically to it, but worked very well and didn't draw attention to itself. The final one more abstract but also beautiful.

Back to Travgor's for a bit after that, then home.

music: Sonic Youth - Sonic Nurse; Tom McCarthy - Spark and Luminance; Brand X - Moroccan Roll

Friday

Friday, May 11 2007
24:14

Another day of mostly playing games. A different one this time, though one I'd played before. Numerous changes since then. Spent some time fiddling with a graph (of the "nodes and edges" sort) generator after that, with less than stellar results.

Sending good wishes to a family member who's in the hospital right now, though in a good way.

music: King Crimson - Elektrik; The Minus Five – s/t

Blogger is broke? Actual blog post contents not getting posted or stored...

(so now, Friday night, it is working again).

Limited Public Image

Thursday, May 10 2007
24:08

More of the same. Diary enthusiasm, gone. Beautiful weather.

music: Herbie Hancock - Headhunters; Tool - 10,000 Days; a bunch of PiL vids on YouTube

Echoes

Wednesday, May 9 2007
25:05

Mostly work on Onyx, My Precious Dream, and In My Room at rehearsal. Over to Travgor's afterward for some pizza, watched a little "Pink Floyd in Pompeii" – interesting stuff on that, a bit of a mixed bag overall w/ some dorky "new" computer graphics (reconstructions of the old city) thrown in at times.

Before that. . . another gorgeous day. Got to spend about 10 minutes out there I think.

music: Nine Inch Nails - The Downward Spiral; Rush - Power Windows

Heck2

Heck2
Originally uploaded by abosco.

Mellonella

Tuesday, May 8 2007
24:37

More sun. Windy later on.

music: Boo Radleys - Giant Steps; Cocteau Twins - Box Set stuff

Life During Wartime

Monday, May 7 2007
24:07

Ah, sunny day. Ate lunch outside. A little chilly with the breeze and some clouds. Larger audience tonight, something like sixteen? Some ups and downs to the show, from my seat. Two weeks in a row now that Batracho has been really tight. It's so easy for us to get used to things, but the show opening has a real effect on people who are new to it; it was readily apparent on some faces tonight. Andrew was missed tonight.

One the way to lunch today, one of the group mentioned that the high temperature forecast for today was 22 degrees Celsius, saying "I don't know what that is in Fahrenheit". Before he finished the sentence, some guy that was walking near us on the sidewalk said, "Seventy-two". It took me 10 or 20 seconds to do the math on my own and find out that, yes, he was answering Alfred's question more or less instantaneously. Figured wow, this must be one of those people that can calculate things instantly like that.

So, after the gig tonight, I mention this – and IgorK nods his head and says, "Yeah, 22 Celsius is 72 Fahrenheit". Turns out that cars w/ climate control systems in them are often set for that temperature, and apparently display both, so if you drive one enough you get those two numbers burnt into your head. Huh. Still not sure if that's what was up today.

car music: Cynic - Focus; Talking Heads - Stop Making Sense

K_Nurk2006_02_48_print

K_Nurk2006_02_48_print
Originally uploaded by Kaarel Nurk.

0.285714285714

Sunday, May 6 2007
23:57

Not quite sure why I picked the May 6 2001 entry to quote on Thursday. I think I planned on quoting the same date, but I guess I got confused at some point.

Saturday – Five hours of practice / rehearsal. Was the first one to show for calisthenics, so I began w/ an accent-picking exercise across multiple strings (Second Primary in triplets, d-u-d-d u-d-d-u d-d-u-d picking). Curt extended it to the top five strings eventually, and then with various D minor intervals on the top two strings. Nobody else noticed the accent picking though, so I was alone there. The tempo was middling but with that aspect it made it pretty challenging for me.

SandraP is in town visiting, so she came to listen to rehearsal. Went out for some pho with her, Travis, bobandjax and Eve after that. Oh, first stopping by a potential new space up on 70th and 15th. I'm pretty sure the consensus is "way too noisy" with all the traffic on 15th there. We'd essentially have to cover up all the front windows, then why bother. Or, replace them all with double-pane sound insulated glass. That would take a good chunk of change.

Napped in the afternoon for a couple hours. Went down to Georgetown to see EC play at the Christoff. A fairly tiny little place. Not many there but it couldn't hold many more. A good show, they are trying some new things (eg, actual pre-arranged structure), with mixed results (but that's pretty good for such a big change). The sound there worked very well, it was a really live room so the guitar sounds pretty much just filled it up completely.

The band after them was some avant-skronk noisefest thing, "the loudest thing we've ever had in the gallery". We mostly stood outside and talked, it was loud enough to hear out there. After a bit, headed to the 9 Pound Hammer for some drinks. One of the bartenders there looked almost exactly like Mariana S. – if she had dreadlocks! And a bit taller. Well next time I see her, if she happens to be considering growing dreadlocks, I'll say that it would probably look OK.

Finally, a run up to Dick's in Wallingford for some burgers. The place was crawling with teenagers. Some in formal outfits – oh, I guess it was prom night somewhere. Seems a strange place to take your prom date. Then again, instead of going to prom I went to try to see His Name Is Alive at RCKCNDY, they wouldn't let us in so we sat on the sidewalk the whole time, then went around back and got free t-shirts from the band afterwards. I think we went to the Hurricane afterward? (was it still the Dog House then?).

Today – not much. Played around with the Echoplex some more. I'm pretty sure it's only got 1MB of RAM, not 2MB as advertised. It's about a $5 difference these days, so I don't think I'll bother complaining to Greg. Grocery-store sushi for dinner. Watched some TV, played bass. Put new strings on the Ovation.

music: Dead Can Dance - Into the Labyrinth

star light

Friday, May 4 2007
25:14

I'll have to beware of parking in the garage at Kerry Hall from now on. They apparently close the gate at some non-predetermined time each evening. Knocking on the door by security will apparently work, except when security isn't there. And they apparently leave at 12:15, though they were gone by 12 tonight. Oh, and student swipe-cards don't let you in any of the doors past this point either? Andrew finally got someone on the phone who drove down to the building to let us in and get my car out.

This was after AB's junior recital at Cornish. It was good, I don't think I'd ever actually heard Andrew play electric before. The sax and piano players with him were really great. Went out to the Summit for a few drinks afterward.

music: Snatch soundtrack; Pat Metheny Group - The Way Up; Rush - Signals

Ho Hum

Thursday, May 3 2007
24:46

What new(s) today. . . ? A pretty good day, I just don't feel much like expounding on it. Let's fill the space with the entry from Sunday, May 6, 2001:

22:46 -
Friday night: stayed up late watching Reality Bites and bits of Talk Radio. Don't know if it was just because of the late hour, but I kept seeing face similarities: Ethan Hawke -> Beau Bridges; Winona Ryder -> my friend Tizzy; Steve Zahn -> Gary Burghoff ("Radar" O'Reilly, had to look him up); Eric Bogosian -> Bill Rieflin. There was another one, but I've forgotten it. I'm somewhat fascinated by the phenomenon -- when you realize that someone looks just like so-and-so, but not all the time, and you've never noticed before.
Saturday: slept in waay too late (rather surprised when I looked at the clock). Grocery shopping, laundry, TV, computered, explored the bassline to "Schism" a little bit (some of the time in 5+7/8, some of the time in 6+7/8, the difference is fairly subtle. Getting each down with the metronome wasn't so bad, alternating between the two sans gnome was OK, the hard part was switching between the two with the metronome), more TV.
Sunday: bike ride around Alki and back (first one in about a year, not bad for 12 miles), then lunch, clothes shopping (why am I proud of the fact that I can walk into the store, try on three pairs of jeans until I get the right size, grab three shirts, and be done within fifteen minutes? Oh yeah, it's because I grew up with a sister), nap (??), tv / snack, shower, diary.
car music today: Mer de Noms
- 22:59
P.S. synchronicity for the weekend: listening to Kate Bush snippets online (put The Hounds of Love and The Sensual World on my to-buy list), I noticed that Mick Karn plays on at least one track. Later, I put Steve Reich's Drumming on, and as I munch my snack read the liner notes. Recognized one of the players' names, Glen Velez, who played on Mick's Bestial Cluster.

music: Res - How I Do; Miles Davis - Bitches Brew

zzz

Wednesday, May 2 2007
26:33

More spring-ish-but-cold schizo weather today. Shorthanded practice tonight, only six there. Afterwards, low-key get together for Igor A's birthday. Two cakes and various amber-and-non-colored beverages aplenty, including one Georgian specialty with a name like a Star Wars character that came in a leather pouch.

music: Mick Karn - The Tooth Mother; Meshuggah - Catch 33; Siouxsie and the Banshees - Juju

skinnytrees

skinnytrees
Originally uploaded by Taylor Sherman.

MOnday

Monday, April 30, 2007
24:10

Yet another show tonight where my experience had seemingly very little to do with what the audience experienced. But it made a sort of sense after hearing feedback from Bill and some comments from Travis. The good news is that it was apparently a pretty good show. Small audience though. The weirdest part for me was the beginning of Bloed Spoed. It felt like slow motion. I don't think it was slow, it wasn't super fast but it was a good tempo. But my hands were more or less moving by themselves and it seemed like they had very little to do.

It was nice and sunny this morning and early afternoon. Then it clouded over and rained off and on. Had that "spring rain" smell to it. Fairly chilly by late tonight.

Downtown Bellevue, in the area around the mall, is gradually becoming a sort of cross between Metropolis and the inside of department store.

music: Public Image Ltd - 9; Orbital - In Sides