...I've got the myspace page I've always wanted: one with a "lot" of tour dates. Has this been my real goal in life, my purpose? Maybe.
But it is kind of unprecedented... in my final week here I will have had a gig with every group I've been playing with in the last year, with the exception of Frankie D. That's right... we're even trying to get a Rob's Chicken and the Mint 400 "show" at Dylan's open mic night in New City next week... we'll see.
Other than that... thunkin' out bass lines in a throw-together, expecting-it-to-be-kind-of-lame-but-ended-up-being-kind-of-fun-especially-because-people-were-dancing gig with IG last night at the indescribable Dharma Disco... final Contraband show tonight + free Mexican food (holla!) downstairs at "Casa del Old" (hehe), although unfortunately Seth won't be joining us on drums, which admittedly has me a little bummed out... Sabrina Stone at the Bitter End the day after Labor Day... and finally, the ultimate send-off, a gig at the intimate Hudson House upstairs lounge with Joe Mamma's the night before I leave.
Is it narcissistic of me to (keep) list(ing) all the gigs I have coming up? ...yeah, probably. Sue me. I'm excited.
Friday, August 29, 2008
Tuesday, August 19, 2008
Trifecta #2
Well... if last summer was the "trifecta" (as my roomies refer to it) of a) quitting my job, b) quitting the band and c) breaking up with my girlfriend (and "d", moving, although technically only next door), then this summer's trifecta looks something like this:
a) Quitting job
b) "Quitting" the bands I've been casually playing with
c) Things ending with my girlfriend
d) Moving... to California.
Why, you ask? Because the kid got into a freakin' school...! Loma Linda, my absolute last chance, accepted me. I had started making plans for... well just read the boring parts of previous entries. No need now. Instead, I've been planning the big move... the road trip(!) Rob and I are taking to get out there, finding an apartment (done), how to buy a car (just bought it today), etcetera. All of which is way better than planning on how to move home to NH and scrounging for internship experience.
So, yes. It's all very exciting. I've been pretty bogged down with the logistics of all of it though and it's kept me from... being excited. Rest assured... once I get my loan(s) taken care of, which is really the last step, I think I will be in a completely different place...
Not with Emma anymore. It ended poorly and it makes me sad to think about it.
On a positive note, I finally got to play with... yes... Joe Mamma's (Fantastic Trio), an instrumental jazz-funk group I saw play when I first moved here and knew I would fit right in with. Unfortunately they had a keyboardist so, I never really got to play with them until recently when their usual guy was on a long vacation. The bassist called me up, and we "raged," as the kids say, at a rehearsal space in Orangeburg for a couple hours, and wished we had recorded it. We really clicked, if I do say so myself, enough that we are playing a gig or two before I leave. It is nice to have finally "won them over" (hehe), I must say, even if my time here is limited.
...ROAD TRIP! So damn excited. We are planning to leave the Friday after Labor Day, take ~5 days to drive out (using approximately the shortest route possible, according to Google Maps, since Rob only has a week off of work), meet up with Tom in Palo Alto and crash there for a little while, explore San Francisco, check out Big Sur, finally drop me off in Loma Linda. Rob will then fly back to NY. We'll camp along the way, to save money, but also because, we like camping. May try and hit some Oregon Trail landmarks, as we'll be driving through those areas of Nebraska/Wyoming ("NERD!" ...I know, I know).
(It's Phil and Bieselin! Hehe... we determined I'm Kermit and Rob's Fozzie, because clearly I'd be the one playing a musical instrument and Rob likes bears/thinks bears are hilarious. Unfortunately we will not have access to a rainbow-colored Studebaker)
It is a summer of change, alright... short of all my exciting exploits, Jeff has secured a one-year internship with the Cleveland Browns in the PR department and just moved out a few weeks ago, and Hogan just got married!
In my last weeks here, I have some gigs (with Contraband & Sabrina Stone) to look forward to but I also need to brush up on my medical terminology, as I'm decidedly lacking in that department. If Loma Linda doesn't approve the online course I found for course credit, then I save $300-600 (a good thing, of course) but I would then have to take the course at Loma Linda during the school year, which would kind of defeat the purpose (I should really know this stuff prior to starting the program) and would be a pain, having an extra class. Either way, I'll have to take some kind of online course in the next month to ensure I'll be ready to learn medical dosimetry and hopefully won't be too distracted with all the other fun stuff that's sure to be happening...
I should mention, by the way, that I am the -only- student in the program...! They usually accept two but this year decided on just me. This obviously has positive and negative implications... a positive one being, the teacher-to-student ratio, a negative one being, this is a very new program (~4 years old) and probably didn't have that many applicants. I decided, however, that this would be better than searching for internship experience, waiting another year, applying again and hoping I got in somewhere else.
Anyway. See what happens when I don't post for 3 months? Maybe I'll be President the next time I post.
a) Quitting job
b) "Quitting" the bands I've been casually playing with
c) Things ending with my girlfriend
d) Moving... to California.
Why, you ask? Because the kid got into a freakin' school...! Loma Linda, my absolute last chance, accepted me. I had started making plans for... well just read the boring parts of previous entries. No need now. Instead, I've been planning the big move... the road trip(!) Rob and I are taking to get out there, finding an apartment (done), how to buy a car (just bought it today), etcetera. All of which is way better than planning on how to move home to NH and scrounging for internship experience.
So, yes. It's all very exciting. I've been pretty bogged down with the logistics of all of it though and it's kept me from... being excited. Rest assured... once I get my loan(s) taken care of, which is really the last step, I think I will be in a completely different place...
Not with Emma anymore. It ended poorly and it makes me sad to think about it.
On a positive note, I finally got to play with... yes... Joe Mamma's (Fantastic Trio), an instrumental jazz-funk group I saw play when I first moved here and knew I would fit right in with. Unfortunately they had a keyboardist so, I never really got to play with them until recently when their usual guy was on a long vacation. The bassist called me up, and we "raged," as the kids say, at a rehearsal space in Orangeburg for a couple hours, and wished we had recorded it. We really clicked, if I do say so myself, enough that we are playing a gig or two before I leave. It is nice to have finally "won them over" (hehe), I must say, even if my time here is limited.
...ROAD TRIP! So damn excited. We are planning to leave the Friday after Labor Day, take ~5 days to drive out (using approximately the shortest route possible, according to Google Maps, since Rob only has a week off of work), meet up with Tom in Palo Alto and crash there for a little while, explore San Francisco, check out Big Sur, finally drop me off in Loma Linda. Rob will then fly back to NY. We'll camp along the way, to save money, but also because, we like camping. May try and hit some Oregon Trail landmarks, as we'll be driving through those areas of Nebraska/Wyoming ("NERD!" ...I know, I know).
(It's Phil and Bieselin! Hehe... we determined I'm Kermit and Rob's Fozzie, because clearly I'd be the one playing a musical instrument and Rob likes bears/thinks bears are hilarious. Unfortunately we will not have access to a rainbow-colored Studebaker)
It is a summer of change, alright... short of all my exciting exploits, Jeff has secured a one-year internship with the Cleveland Browns in the PR department and just moved out a few weeks ago, and Hogan just got married!
In my last weeks here, I have some gigs (with Contraband & Sabrina Stone) to look forward to but I also need to brush up on my medical terminology, as I'm decidedly lacking in that department. If Loma Linda doesn't approve the online course I found for course credit, then I save $300-600 (a good thing, of course) but I would then have to take the course at Loma Linda during the school year, which would kind of defeat the purpose (I should really know this stuff prior to starting the program) and would be a pain, having an extra class. Either way, I'll have to take some kind of online course in the next month to ensure I'll be ready to learn medical dosimetry and hopefully won't be too distracted with all the other fun stuff that's sure to be happening...
I should mention, by the way, that I am the -only- student in the program...! They usually accept two but this year decided on just me. This obviously has positive and negative implications... a positive one being, the teacher-to-student ratio, a negative one being, this is a very new program (~4 years old) and probably didn't have that many applicants. I decided, however, that this would be better than searching for internship experience, waiting another year, applying again and hoping I got in somewhere else.
Anyway. See what happens when I don't post for 3 months? Maybe I'll be President the next time I post.
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