Phil's Blog

Road Trip, Part 2

2008-09-20T17:38:00.045-04:00

So! Here I am. Arrived in Loma Linda two weeks ago, to a semi-full apartment, ate some apple pie and played Catch Phrase with some of my new roommate Marci's friends (after exploring two of the bars in nearby Redlands, a town with an actual kind-of-nightlife, and drinking, among other things, some rather un-manly pear-flavored hard cider). My program started last week... I suppose there's some catching up to do.

For starters: "all" ("most") of the pictures are on Rob's camera and I haven't gotten them yet, so in the meantime, my cell phone pics will have to suffice.

Scenes from Chimney Rock (Nebraska).

Overall, a great road trip. Fun times. Highlights:

I'd like to say we made it across the country without incident, but such was not quite the case. Wyoming proved to be a bit of a problem state for us, as we a) almost ran out of gas ("how long would it even take triple-A to get out here?") and b) got pulled over for speeding. Rob's dad is a state trooper back in NY, which he hesitantly conveyed to the cop, who just kinda... laughed at us. Hehe. No worries though: got off with just a warning. So fine, no "major" incidents.

Really enjoyed the Utah salt flats, near Salt Lake City. There's just this barren stretch of highway, literally no turns for 30+ miles, in the middle of this... nothing. Mountains off in the distance. Apparently they race cars/have speed tests on this thing because it's so damn barren and there's just, nothing around. ...except for this sculpture, very randomly situated alongside I-80, known as the Tree of Utah:

Oh... had a fourth meal involving gravy, at some diner in Wyoming for lunch that day. Count it!

We were planning on camping in Wells, Nevada, but ended up driving a hour further to a lil' town called Elko instead, mostly because, according to the GPS, it sounded like there was actually stuff to do there. And what a night we had. Elko is a tiny "casino town," kind of a D-list Las Vegas, and we tore it up. As much as was possible on a Monday night, I mean. We hit a bunch of bars, a casino (Rob was up $50), inhaled a bunch of cigarette smoke at said bars and casino, sampled some local brews, played a bunch of pool, hit a... gentlemen's club (oy gevalt), and camped on a patch of grass at the Double Dice RV Park, all of which was pretty much on the same two-mile stretch of road. And the camping conditions were much better, nice and dry. Good times.

I probably shouldn't mention we were the only people at this bar.

("How about one to go? No? Nothing?" -Rob tries to convince the owner of the bar at the RV park to stay open, and when told no, stoops to, yes, asking if we can get some beers "to go")

The front of my car got -covered- in dead bugs.

Ate lunch that last day at a place called the Cowpoke Cafe in Nevada, where we were barraged with questions from the local waitstaff about what it was like to be from big ol' New York.

I've never been one to be attached to my material possessions (i.e., to the point of say, naming them... looking in my sister's direction... and Becky and Leah's... hehe), but I have to say, I do feel some sort of attachment to the car that got us across the country. I wasn't 100% convinced we'd make it 3,000+ miles without incident, frankly, but we did, all in my "new" little white Corolla. It's kind of like the LEM in Apollo 13... "she was a good ship." Amen, Tom Hanks. Or whoever said it.

So, with the unavoidable dissolution of RCM400, Rob has "formed" a new project, which will either be named "I Feel Bad For Me" or "Winter Pool Puppies" (the latter originating from a mis-reading of a sign for "winter pool supplies"). One of the charter songs: "Funk Pig." For some reason, the pig in question was, at one point, in possession of some sort of magic watch, but has since misplaced it; Rob's vision was to write a concept, choose-your-own-adventure CD (stay with me here) based solely on that ("if you want Funk Pig to go down the dark alley, skip to track 4. If you want Funk Pig to indulge in a frosty chocolate milkshake instead, skip to track 9" and so forth). Long story short... while on that long stretch of highway in the salt flats, I busted out the guitar (me in the passenger seat, obviously, with barely any room for me and a guitar) and we riffed on some Funk Pig ideas, including a slow blues where I think Funk Pig goes to a bordello or something...?! Anyway. More RCM400-ish craziness. Which I will miss.

Rolled into Palo Alto Tuesday night (and ate some sushi, a welcome respite from all things truck stop) and met up with Tom (and Rick, and Tom's girlfriend Emma). Crashed at his place... explored SF the next day... the wharf, sea lions, Coit Tower, other touristy things, non-touristy things including some Jack Kerouac "hot spots", for Rob, like City Lights bookstore, outside of which we enjoyed some latin jazz... more sampling of local brews, including a very tasty Pyramid ale (think Magic Hat but more apricot-y)... met up with Rob's friend Joe and his wife Kerry who were in town... beautiful weather. The first day, at least. Met up with Emily Sukiennik, from high school, the next day at Golden Gate Park (really the first day Rob and I had a break from each other in about a week)... got some great Indian food in Palo Alto with Tom, Rick, and Emma that night (the lamb rogan josh, a.k.a. "lamb Josh Groban" was even better than ol' Nyack's Spice of India) and then went to a chic Silicon Valley bar for mojitos... all good things. Really enjoyed being in downtown San Fran that first day, in the sun and wind, just, exploring.

Stumbling around San Francisco.

Quick hike in Muir Woods, just north of the Golden Gate.

Two morons at an ATM.

And finally, some "real" camping in Big Sur, on the rugged California coast. Drove down the treacherous Highway 1, with the Pacific Ocean directly on our right and mountains/cliffs on the left. Really something. Secured the last available campsite at Limekiln State Park, which was basically right at the shoreline, and finally got the camping experience we'd been looking for. I loved the contrast between Thursday night and Friday night... upscale Palo Alto and then, in the forest, by a stream, actually succeeding in making a campfire (and subsequently some Jiffy Pop), eating Craisin and beef jerky sandwiches (that's Craisin sandwiches for Rob and beef jerky sandwiches for me, not Craisin-and-beef-jerky sandwiches... although admittedly weird no matter how you cut it... look, we were low on supplies), passing around our last bottle of wine and the obligatory sing-along. Awesome. Also kind of made friends with the guy in the campsite next to us, a real Dylan-looking character named Gary, complete with guitar, who ran a blues-based record label further upstate. I jammed with him a little (I was hoping/assuming he'd be down for playing some covers but he was actually working on originals) and Rob talked politics/Bob Dylan/Rob things with him. Nice dude, gave us a couple of his CDs (and some extra firewood).

Pretty sure this is Bixby Bridge.

(not my pic... but here's Limekiln Park. Our campsite was in the trees, just off to the right in the foreground)

Then the next morning we hiked to the nearby waterfall and, in what was undoubtedly one of the stupidest things we did on the trip, attempted to climb up the side of it, via a precariously placed log resting on the slippery rock face. Definitely one of the most physically demanding things I've done in a while. Barely anything to grab onto and beneath you, just a shallow pool full of big rocks. It was really a full-body workout, as you needed both your arms to pull you up this thing and your legs for constant support/balance, since the log was only maybe a foot wide. Suffice to say, we were both sore the next day. Props to Rob who actually made it all the way up, to dunk his head in the little pool near the top of the falls; I stopped just shy of said pool as, frankly, I just don't have the upper body strength my buddy Rob has. Ahem.

Two morons, about to climb up the side of a waterfall.

Anyway, after that excitement, we dashed back to our campsite, packed up, and made it to Loma Linda that night safe and sound. 3,500 or so miles in the course of a week.

And now I'm in a world where I wear a lab coat to "work," have a pager for some reason, have a very friendly/all-too-willing-to-come-by-and-actually-fix-things landlord, in a town where the mail moves on Sundays instead of Saturdays and there are no bars, and there is hardly a cloud in the sky, and it's always 90+ degrees, and there are palm trees, and beautiful sunsets nearly every night.

Not in Kansas anymore, that's for sure...!

More about school and such later, I suppose, as that could be an entry on its own...

Road Trip, Part 1

2008-09-09T09:01:00.004-04:00

So here I am, holed up in a lil’ motel in Cheyenne, Wyoming (which I now know to pronounce as “shy-ann”). We are three days into our road trip. Two to go.

It’s cold out here…! Last night as early as 8:00 it was in the 40s. Our plan was to find a campsite, set up the tent, find some dinner, then hit some local bar, but… nope. The two campsites nearest to the city were really just for RVs, no great place to set up a tent (mostly rocks and pebbles instead of grass), and it was 43 degrees and lightly raining, and for us it was two hours later and we were pretty wiped from all the driving (we’ve been doing about 10 hours a day, which I’d say translates roughly to a “strenuous” pace in Oregon Trail). So… after a bite at a late-night diner, we dropped $40 on a motel room, which budget-wise is fine because we managed to camp for free last night (sweet!).

It’s been fun so far. Crazy to think we are already halfway across the country. Starting just past Ohio it’s really been nothing but open fields, trees, power lines (sometimes not even that) and the occasional cluster of farm animals, but frankly it’s all been pretty scenic. Having a travel partner makes a –huge- difference, perhaps needless to say… I can see how making this drive on your own would be... ridiculous.

I love maps. Love looking and seeing that we’re in… what?! Nebraska? Wyoming? These Midwest states I’ve never been to? So cool.

Let’s see... other random notes…

Three of my meals since Friday have involved gravy (and one of them was breakfast). This would bother some people; this does not bother me.

Stopped and crashed at Jeff’s place in (er, near) Cleveland Friday night.

My car is packed completely. I wasn’t sure I’d be able to fit, you know, my entire life into a Toyota Corolla, but I made it work. We can’t see out the back window but, it really hasn’t been so bad.

Had a dream about Ellen Page last night and now I kind of want her to be my girlfriend.

In another Oregon Trail reference, yes, we totally stopped at Chimney Rock yesterday in Nebraska. It was pretty cool, I have to say. Took some cool pics.

Mom got me a GPS navigator and it’s been so cool having it. We are quite techno-ed out in the front seat, with our iPods, the Tomtom, FM transmitter, and cell phones. Don’t want to jinx myself but I have felt very prepared for this trip so far.

Have been mostly eating in local diner/truck stop-type places (see comment about gravy above), including one in a town called Snow Shoe (Pennsylvania) and another called the Pine Cone restaurant. …it just feels good to get out here, I guess, away from the Tappan Zee Bridge and work traffic and… yeah. In the middle of nowhere.

The speed limit is 75 for a good chunk of the Midwest (on I-80, a least).

We started the trip with a five-pound bag of gummy bears. It is now approximately a two-pound bag.

Camping is very different when it’s “functional.” I think both Rob and I pictured camping this trip would be something like our New Paltz experience last year, with guitars, a bonfire, and the leisurely imbibing of alcohol, but that first night in Iowa we were just too tired to really indulge in all that, and couldn’t even hang out outside due to the weather, so we barely managed a few RCM 400 tunes and half a bottle of wine inside the tent before going to bed.

After the abovementioned two campsites Tomtom lead us to last night, we tried a third, called “Camp Care Free” which sounded suspiciously like a day camp. …it ended up being a day camp. It’s hard to paint the picture perhaps but, it was 9:30 at night, dark, obviously, cold and a little rainy, and we’re driving on this unpaved road kind of near the highway in this huge field filled just with the ominous shadows of huge turbines which flashed lightning-like bursts of light every twenty seconds or so. Suffice to say: it was really creepy.

Anyway. So, today we head to Wells, Nevada, just over the Utah/Nevada border (how cool is that?! …sorry). Hopefully we’ll have better campsite luck out there. And hopefully it will be dry.

Finally

2008-08-29T10:15:00.004-04:00

...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.

Trifecta #2

2008-08-19T16:06:00.017-04:00

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 (my fault) 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.

Eat more pierogi

2008-05-14T13:51:00.012-04:00

Beautiful spring day here in NY (wherever in NY I may be... currently in Elmsford, shirking work responsibilities). Excited to get into the city tonight and see Emma. We are trying a new Polish restaurant (it's not all we do, I swear). Might also go to Pianos to see a band. ...I guess I really do enjoy being so close to the city. Love being able to do this stuff.

Trying... and succeeding, I'd say... to enjoy life while waiting to hear back from these two other schools, Roswell Park and Loma Linda, of late. The interviews were... good. The Philadelphia one really seemed like a formality... pretty standard school interview questions, most or all of which I was totally prepared for. I am now on the waitlist there and have until mid-September to find out if someone drops out of the program (which has only accepted seven students). Needless to say, not getting my hopes up. Not to mention the fact that they (and the UAMS program) want me to take 2-3 more classes this summer on the off chance a spot will open up. I've put some thought into this one and I think I'm leaning towards not trying to cram classes in by September, because I really doubt either of these waitlists will come through, and if I had the choice I'd want to spread the classes out a bit, not rush to get them done. I -am- slowly warming up to the idea of being here another year (hopefully not more than that) and going full-force into the (currently only loosely developed) "if I don't get in anywhere" scenario(s) described in the last entry, if it comes to that, sure. ...but it's not over yet. Still those two programs to hear back from. And again, still not 100% sure I won't take the classes this summer (for one thing, though, I think if I tried working, taking three classes and having buses and trains be my only means of transportation, I might spontaneously combust).

The Cleveland interview was alright. I met with an entire admissions committee, as opposed to just the one person the day before in Philly, and got a tour of the facility from one of the students (they do, by the way, only accept -three- at this program... eek). I got the impression they were looking for someone with just generally some more hospital experience... I was left wondering what said experience could be, as a physics major (as opposed to a radiation therapist, the candidate some of these programs prefer), and got an answer that made me tug at my collar when the student giving me the tour mentioned he was also a bachelor's degree guy... who had been to medical school. Granted, I'm not implying this is what it would take to get into the program but, worth noting. Still waiting to hear back from these guys as well but again, for all the reasons mentioned above, not getting my hopes up.

Anyway, it was good to go out and do the interviews, get the experience, all that... I feel better prepared for any subsequent ones, knowing what kind of questions they will ask, feeling like the Cleveland experience was perhaps my trial-by-fire. Roswell said they'd be in touch with me soon about "the next phase of our review and selection process" so I am conjecturing that means interview. We'll see. I'll be ready for 'em.

Cool ceiling light-y things at Chicago O'Hare airport.

The trip itself was interesting... surreal at times. Random thoughts/memories:

-I would travel everywhere by train if it weren't as expensive as it was (I took Amtrak from NYC to Philly)... safe, relatively fast, rigid timetables, comfortable seats...
-Lugging around my garment bag (which basically had my entire trip in it) everywhere I went, trying to keep my interview outfit(s) from wrinkling, for the better part of 48 hours, was -not- fun.
-Got guilted out of maybe $7 by (what turned out to be) a homeless guy who offered to show me the way to the Cleveland subway stop I was looking for... guess I'm still a bit of a suburbs kid.
-In the interest of saving some space in my carry-on bag I took the book "Freakonomics" with me in lieu of the Harry Potter-sized hardcover copy of "The World Is Flat" I had been reading and I must say, at only ~30 pages into it, Freakonomics is a really cool book (as many have already figured out).
-Ex-Brandeis-suitemate Leah nicely let me stay at her place in Philly Thursday night. Enjoyed some catching up over Turkish food and watched the movie "Romancing the Stone." So now I get that one Family Guy reference.
-Stayed at the Crowne Plaza in Cleveland, got a kick out of that... 17th floor with a view of Lake Erie and... the Browns' stadium?! Hehe.
-The ten-hour bus ride from Philly to Cleveland really wasn't too bad; aside from some nice phone conversations, I had brought a ton of reading material on dosimetry, radiation therapy, etc. to keep me busy.
-Turns out my apartment-mate Fitz and I were both at Chicago O'Hare airport within a day of each other, me returning from my Phil World Tour and him from a week-long trip to Germany. Aw, romantic!
-O'Hare is really a cool airport (among other things, there was a brontosaurus skeleton in the terminal I was waiting in). Just wish it wasn't so prone to flight delays.

Currently have Stevie Wonder's "I Believe (When I Fall In Love It Will Be Forever)" stuck in my head, thanks to the movie High Fidelity, and would love to try playing/singing it at the piano.

Had our second Taco de Mayo party this past weekend. The Jacobs' guacamole was amazing.

RCM 400 actually had a "practice" last week! Ha! Jacobs, who is famous for bringing over things like beer and/or pizza whenever he stops by, this time brought a plethora of musical instruments for the "band" to try their hands at. We worked on our new song "Real-Sized Boy," which is about a microscopic dog and the real-sized boy who loved him, and also tooled around with an old RCM 400 classic, "Space Baby," funkifying it to near Red Hot Chili Peppers proportions (thanks to Jacobs on bass). All with yours truly on... electric guitar, which was way too much fun.

Oh and, may as well plug Fitz' new blog here. The funny rantings of a recently unemployed twentysomething. Alright, enough yammering. Almost time for Golabki.

The Phil World Tour

2008-04-25T12:06:00.021-04:00

Well... I finally did it. I'm going on tour.

...nah not really. But that's what I'm calling my two-day two-city school interview trek from NY to Philly to Cleveland and back next week. The interviews are both for dosimetry programs (1-year certificate programs); the Philly one is an interview for the program's waitlist (what is that?!) and the Cleveland one is at the all-joking-aside renowned Cleveland Clinic... which, according to jrcert.org (the organization that accredits these kinds of programs), only accepts -three- students, which doesn't sound right, but if that's true then, man, what are my chances?

And, forgot to mention, these are the best responses I've gotten back so far. Didn't get into any of the physics programs, kind of as expected, and as far as the dosimetry programs go: two I have yet to hear back from, one rejection, one it-doesn't-look-good waitlist, one I ended up needing more classes for and thus may not even be considered an applicant to (laaaame), one backup with a really late deadline (September, because the program starts in January), one backup that sounds a little sketchy (hard to explain), and the two interviews mentioned above.

So! Where the heck does that leave me? I'll tell ya where... coming home from work each day checking the mailbox/kitchen counter in hopes I'll find some school-y thing addressed to yours truly. Waiting for something in the mail... sucks. If I had the right book with me, I'd scan a strip or two from that one Calvin & Hobbes story arc where Calvin is waiting for his official Chocolate Frosted Sugar Bombs cereal beanie (with motorized propeller) in the mail and I'd post it here.

(...scratch that... found 'em!)

There are worse problems to have, obviously, but man, this is hard. This is my future I'm waiting to hear about. ...and one doesn't have to read between the lines too much to realize that my chances are dwindling. I just want to know. No, scratch that, I just want to get -in- some place, for crying out loud. The one I'm really waiting on/haven't heard anything yet from, probably because the deadline was only last week, is a program at the Roswell Park Cancer Institute in Buffalo. I honestly, seriously do not care where this "last chance" program is; I don't want another waitlist or interview, I want a fucking YES. ...ahem. So, that's where I'm at. I could know very, very soon. ...argh!

And thus, the question is inevitably there: what if I really don't get in anywhere? :/ Well, again, two backup plans, which would mean, among other things, bothering those professors of mine for more letters of recommendation... oy. Short of that, I don't know. I honestly don't. At this point I'm thinking I would bother and hound any and all admissions committees to find out why I wasn't admitted and, I guess, work that way. Thoughts: more classes? Ick, more money/yet another loan, but I'd consider it if I really thought it would help. Internship? Well, one program I didn't end up applying to required a 40-hour shadowing experience, so I guess I could do that, apply there (U. of Wisconsin) and use that as a resume-booster on applications to other schools. A job more applicable to dosimetry/medical physics than, oh I don't know, an office/data position at a KARAOKE COMPANY? Hehehe. All kidding aside though, this is where I am stumped. Lab tech gig? They seem to be so few and far between. I mean I'd have a lot of time (kind of) to find a new job like that but, mm. Also, may need to buy a car if I really want to find work that's... applicable. Something in a hospital? ...what would that even be?! I have a B.S. in physics, some (physics) lab experience while in college but nothing clinically. So, in the terrible event I really don't get in anywhere, I've got some thinking and planning to do. ...-again-, dammit. I went through "this" last year, the planning, etc., and I would really really rather be -done- with it and in a school for the fall and able to enjoy my summer knowing it's my last in Nyack. ...and there's another question: would I stay here in NY, if no acceptance letters came in? Maybe. Maybe not. I just don't know. Haven't given it too much thought. :/

The thing is: this job just seems to, at this point in my life anyway, make -sense- for me. Physics/science background, not requiring a Ph.D. or even an M.S., working with computers, minimal patient contact... something unique, something that helps people... it just really seems to fit, and be worthwhile. For those that don't care to browse through the archives of the ol' blog (er, or maybe I never really described it), a dosimetrist is part of the radiation oncology "team" comprising themselves, medical physicists, radiation therapists and oncologists. As a dosimetrist I would be designing treatment plans for patients who opted for radiation therapy treatment for their cancers/tumors.

So: here's hoping. Hopefully Roswell (crosses everything possible). In the meantime I'm reading everything the Cleveland Clinic sent me, mostly pamphlets on the equipment they use, hoping it will make a difference next week... trying to think of appropriate questions to ask... booking flights, trains, buses, and hotels (yes, all)... yup...

In more positive "news," I have been seeing someone, Emma. Among other things, she and I seem to be on a quest to sample food from all the Polish restaurants in Brooklyn and, what can I say, it has been a delicious journey thus far.

The music side of things has been somewhat infrequent but definitely fun of late. I have been playing with International Generation, a local reggae band, and man, I feel like I fit right in (musically). I play mostly organ, some clavinet, and I just love it. They play some of the obligatory Marley covers but primarily play originals, most (if not all) of which I am a real fan of.

And, Emma's roommate Isabella is a great jazz singer, a student at the New School, and has asked me to play with her occasionally. We've only played one gig so far, just the two of us, but there appear to be more on the horizon (possibly with some fellow New School chums on bass and drums, apparently, which I really am looking forward to). She has a voice that is reminiscent of Billie Holiday, no joke. Among other things, playing with her has renewed my interest for the classic Bill Evans cut Waltz for Debby. Who knew this tune had lyrics, let alone Swedish ones?!

And even Rob's Chicken and the Mint 400 has been busy! (..."busy.") We have successfully recorded our first song, in the Mac program GarageBand, all on my iBook, in the most low-budget manner you could imagine. We're talking, built-in-computer-mic style. The song is "Dr. Bieselin," a ten-minute(!) epic tale about a doctor who wasn't really a doctor who turned out to maybe be Jesus who really just wanted to scam an unsuspecting town and run off with their money. ...yeah. The lyrics/storyline are the brainchild of the esteemed Rob Bieselin with music by, and I'll use the phrase twice in one blog entry, yours truly.

I have also discovered some very interesting music at work. The company makes really all its money off of the karaoke and instrumental accompaniment CD lines, but back in the day it used to be a jazz label called Inner City, and we are currently re-releasing a bunch of albums under that name. At the suggestion of my boss I checked out "Future Talk," recorded in 1979 by Urszula Dudziak, a Polish (jazz) singer who just, completely does her own thing. She doesn't use words, just, "vocables," sounds, noises, etc. I know, sounds kinda weird... maybe it's more the overall music I'm attracted to, as it is some of the coolest jazz fusion I've heard. A tad Chick Corea/Return to Forever-esque, but also Mahavishnu Orchestra-y as Urszula's husband Michal Urbaniak, a violinst, is also featured on the disc. Some really cool stuff. The bass line on the track "Shenkansen" absolutely floors me.

Oh, also: I successfully resurrected my Nintendo and now have a functioning NES and Power Pad in my room. Jealous? Yeah you are. Who's gonna be in shape -now-?! This kid, with my strict World Class Track Meet training regime. ("...but Phil, don't you have a treadmill in your apartment as well?" "Yes, yes I do. But it doesn't have a video screen with sweet 8-bit graphics now, does it?" "No, I suppose it wouldn't." "Amen.")

It's the end of the world...

2008-01-23T19:37:00.000-05:00

...I am working on my applications, and, my room is a mess.

Something is wrong with this picture!

The Winter of Phil

2007-12-28T11:57:00.001-05:00

...not nearly the ring that "the summer of George" has but, hey. Loosely, it entails (once I complete my grad school applications, hopefully in a couple of weeks) reading more, as I've amassed a modest "to-read" pile in the past year, running (Rob is trading his bureau for a treadmill... thank you, craigslist), delving into some old video games (hey, what can I say)... and less seriously, booking gigs for the side project of all side projects, Rob's Chicken and the Mint 400, Rob's vehicle for musical idiocy.

All joking aside though, I've been playing more with Frankie D. lately, which has been, in the words of Dr. Teeth of Dr. Teeth and the Electric Mayhem, the rock band from the Muppet movies, "so fine and laid back and mellow and profitable." We played at the Pearl River Hotel (which is not a hotel) last weekend and Nyack local Marco (singer/guitarist) sat in with us on a couple tunes including "Fly Like an Eagle" which was more fun for me than it should have been. It was off-the-cuff, unrehearsed, and sounded great, as most of the band already knew the tune... I had a blast playing too much organ on it and hitting 3-part '70s-esque background vocals with Kevin, our drummer. Good times. Anyway. I am booked for New Years with the same band, and have a Contraband "reunion" gig tonight at Casa del Sol, so, that's all cool...

So basically, all I've got obligation-wise lately are these (damn) applications. School is done (and I did real well; we'll see if it helps me or not). I've admittedly been dragging my feet a little, as the personal statement is not coming so easily. ...I hope I can look back on an entry like this months from now when I get accepted somewhere and think "I'm glad that's over" but... not there yet. Short of what I have to do on my end I'm still waiting on some letters of recommendation, actually, from the Brandeis professors, as well as my official GRE scores... once all this is done I can kick up my heels a little (more) and be on a get-home-from-work-and-have-nothing-I-have-to-do schedule similar to that of my apartment-mates... then come spring, if I get in somewhere, I'll have the summer to figure out travel and $ logistics for the fall...

Not much new music in my life, partly due to the loss of my iPod in the accident over Thanksgiving (I think someone must have stolen it)... I've been driving Uncle Ira's car, as he graciously left it to me until March when he'll be back from California, and listening to the few old CDs I have with me on the bumpin' stereo system. There's about 10 on rotation and I'm getting sick of them real fast... I did get a new iPod for Chanukah but I can't use it yet because my iBook only has OS 10.3 on it and the iPod is new enough it needs 10.4. Argh! All I need are the discs that came with any Mac slightly more recent than mine (~2005)... anyone out there got 'em?

The small bit of new music I have been exposed to has included Daft Punk's first album "Homework," their recent live release "Alive" (complements of Rob who reviewed it for work) and a particular Beethoven piano sonata from the Charlie Brown TV special A Boy Named Charlie Brown (the one where he gets to the national spelling bee). Homework is good, although not as happy-party-ish as Discovery; it reminds me more of a Thievery Corporation album. The live one is alright. And the Beethoven sonata (no. 8, "Pathetique") just struck me, I guess... slow, almost jazzy... some nice dissonance... anyway.

Walden Pond

2007-11-03T15:30:00.000-04:00

From our Boston trip a few weeks ago.

I have been listening to...

2007-10-31T16:03:00.000-04:00

Land of Talk. They just put out a 7-song EP and I can't stop listening to it. They've been touring with the Decemberists.

Cloud Cult, the other band we discovered that night. This is the band that tours with live painters. They also happen to write some catchy and unique pop music.

Glint's Lollapalooza contest rivals, Helicopters (if you can't beat 'em, join 'em, I guess). While I wasn't so impressed with them live (no drummer, mostly triggers), their one song "Rotofugi" has become a kind of theme song for my one night in Chicago.

Robert Plant's "new" stuff with the band the Strange Sensation. The music is just so cool... Zeppelin-y but also with some light, very tasteful electronics.

Aaaaand since my iPod doesn't always make it through the 1/2-hour commute to or from work or school, Smashing Pumpkins, because I have an old mix tape kicking around my car. The mellower stuff in particular.

On the more autumn-y days I seem to be "cranking" Vince Guaraldi, too. Maybe it's because some of my favorite tunes by him are associated with Charlie Brown TV specials from around this time of year...

Wond'ring Aloud

2007-10-15T10:29:00.000-04:00

Day-to-day things are fine... classes going well, some fun weekends, the usual apartment goofiness... but I feel an overarching sense of anxiousness. I sit in class... and I wonder if it'll all be good enough. I just don't know. I'm taking such a roundabout path to try and get into grad school. Medical physics and dosimetry are such specific fields, for one thing... then throw in the fact that I've taken off of school for the past two years to play music, bring in my "eh" GPA, and... I just don't know where it leaves me. I will keep going... I'm freaking out about the GRE less and finally started studying this past weekend (I haven't registered for it yet, but as long as I take it by December I should be good for application deadlines, and I think ~6 weeks will be enough time to study)... and will apply to about 20 programs (10 medical physics, 10 dosimetry) this winter as classes at Manhattan and SUNY wind down. And then I'll have to wait until spring to find out if all this was... well, good enough. I sure hope it will have been...

Frankly, I'm just not sure if I'll get into any of the medical physics programs. My grades are only o.k. and sometimes I feel like "that's that." On a recent upswing I looked a little deeper at the admissions policies for all the programs and started feeling a bit more positive about maybe two of them... argh! I just don't know. It's not going to stop me from applying. And I'm wondering if, in the event of only getting accepted to a dosimetry program, I could complete that, find a job shortly thereafter, work -with- a medical physicist as a dosimetrist does, designing treatment plans, for a little while, then possibly re-apply to the physics programs, with (relevant) work experience under my belt and maybe have a better shot at getting in...?

Part of my doubts stem from my questioning the quality of the classes I'm taking now. They're all pertinent to medical physics/dosimetry, whether cited as pre-reqs on the program websites (chemistry, anatomy and physiology, intro to computer science) or more directly applicable like atomic & nuclear physics and radiation biology, but... there are times it's apparent that SUNY Purchase and Manhattan just aren't Brandeis. I guess I shouldn't name names on a public journal like this but I have one teacher who is a bit of a flake. That and, plain and simple, a course of the same title at Brandeis would be more challenging. So I'm sure I'll do fine in the class but I do wish I was getting more out of it. The physics class is good... I like that there's only three people in it, and I like the professor. The first half of the semester will have been mostly review (modern physics, wave mechanics, etc.), which I do feel funny about sometimes, but honestly, I think it will have been good for me, since it has been so long since I've studied that material. The second half will be particle physics which I haven't studied so, I look forward to that. The radiation bio course has more of a straight-ahead feel... 10-question quizzes, a paper due at some point, those kinds of things... although not extremely difficult, I am getting a lot of out it, as it's arguably the class most pertinent to the field I want to get into. I really like the textbook, for one thing. And I am meeting with the teacher on Wednesday to discuss my application plans. I am planning on asking either her or the physics professor to write my third letter of recommendation come application time. ...I am realizing now that this was something I had been worrying about in months prior, enough so that I was considering not even applying to any of the programs, but I have since locked down two recommendations from Brandeis and am, as stated above, now figuring a third from Manhattan should come pretty easily. So... that's good.

With all of this in mind, I can't help but wonder, at times, what would have happened if I had gone to a different school as an undergraduate. If I had gone to a school like Manhattan, which although good, isn't quite a Brandeis, and had gotten a 3.3 GPA, ...? Then what? A big "what if," admittedly (what one isn't?), but it does make me think. My GRE score wouldn't have changed, fine, but I bet I would've felt a lot better about myself and may have applied to graduate schools right away. Hm. The question is, would I actually have been in better shape admissions-wise? Water over the dam, I guess. We'll see if a 3.3 average over just 6 classes, some of which are first-year ones, will impress anyone. Mom seems to think that my "unique story" and the fact that I may be a bit older than the typical applicant ("adult students are better students"...?!) will set me apart/help my case but, and I could've summed up these four paragraphs with just this phrase, I'm just not sure...

I wanted to write a bit more, on music I've been listening to, and recent weekends, and other stuff, but this is long enough as it is so, stay tuned...

A Tale of Two (Univer)sities

2007-09-12T10:10:00.000-04:00

Yup. Three classes at Manhattan (as many as I could take as a part-timer) and one at SUNY Purchase. I'm certainly getting a flavor for different types of colleges... the former small, private, and Roman Catholic affiliated (in stark-enough contrast to my medium-sized, also private and although not officially affiliated decidedly Jewish alma mater), the latter a public state school.

Hm. I'm sitting here realizing that if I had typed this earlier in the week, like I originally wanted to, it would have had a more negative vibe to it... I was bummin' about my physics problem set, freaking out a little about money, and I guess just generally disappointed that I wasn't spending enough time on homework. Truth be told, I haven't had that much so far... the quizzes in Radiation Biology have been pretty easy, we've done most of the "homework" for CoSi in class... but still, there's obviously a lot I could have been doing, like just reading the textbooks, or studying for the GRE, of course, or even more long-term stuff like getting organized to apply to these grad programs...

Anyway... here it is, Friday, and, per the usual, I just feel better. Short of the "yay, the weekend's here!" feeling, I opted not to go see Eureka Gold in the city on Wednesday so I could have a solid night to work on homework (although there was a brief impromptu chili party at Jacobs' up the road in lieu of the concert) and that felt good. I handed in my problem set before heading into work today (I've said it before and I'll say it again: thank god for a flexible boss/work schedule). The problems seemed to get easier as I went along, for the most part, which was deceiving. I could have felt more confident on 3-4 (out of the 14) problems, though. In the coming weeks I'll be able to hit the professor's Thursday office hours, now that Rosh Hashanah has come and gone, so I feel good about that too.

When I moved into Kevin and Rob's, I cleaned out the storage room and made it into a kind of study. I have yet to reattach the door (someone removed it at some point), but even without it I think it's proving to be succesful. All that's in there (other than some storage stuff) is a desk, bookcase, and an only-so-comfortable chair. I -go- to the study, to study... it just seems to work.

The new living sitch is good. Rob and Fitz are my friends, we're all just on the same page more, blah blah etc. Heh. The one last thing to take care of is the fact that my room has no real fourth wall... maybe too hard to explain here but basically what past occupants had used as a "wall" was three large moveable closets, side-by-side, coming just shy of the opposite wall but about three feet short (ha! That was the name of a band we played with once) of the ceiling. I had envisioned a Home Depot-y solution, but haven't had the time to really focus on it... I hope whatever I come up with is feasable/will work (block out noise), and I hope our (thus far pretty lax) landlord won't mind...

The Olive's gigs these past few weeks have been really pretty fun. Just, mostly "on." Good jams... and accurate, energetic versions of the covers. Seth and I have been teasing Pink Floyd's "On the Run" (the fast synth-and-hi-hat track on Dark Side) after our usual "Breathe -> Time -> Breathe" medley. This is a testament to how fast the two of us can play! ...alright enough bragging. Heh.

Last weekend was fun. We discovered two new bands and hit the Village pub crawl for a buddy's bachelor party. At the end of the night we made our way to the Bowery Ballroom (cool venue!) to hear the London Souls and the aforementioned two bands (which we had actually discovered the night before in Ridgewood, NJ at another show), Land of Talk, from Montreal, and Cloud Cult, from Minneapolis. Land of Talk was real indie-sounding and just, cool, very tight... a female-fronted power trio; Cloud Cult took a small page out of the Sigur Ros book, kind of "dreamy" rock/pop, and among other things, have two artists paint live on stage during their shows! Pretty cool.

Sweet?

2007-08-26T10:49:00.000-04:00

The loan stuff went through... school starts tomorrow.

Moving next weekend! Just next door but, still.

Will I be taking too many classes? I'm registered for three at Manhattan, and one of them only meets two days a week (but is somehow still three credits, just like the other classes I'm taking... go figure), so that's not so bad, but I did want to take an anatomy and physiology course at Purchase too. It would fit into my schedule (only meets once a week, on Monday nights) and I really should take it, since it's pretty applicable to medical physics, but... would it be too crazy? Four classes and ~15-20 hours a week of work? I am trying to convince myself no, it wouldn't be too crazy. We'll see. The class doesn't start for two weeks, and is actually full right now (but I wouldn't be surprised if there were some openings during the add/drop period), so I've got time to decide.

I should be on a train going to see Shara in PA today but it turns out she had more family/wedding stuff planned than she thought. I could catch her Wednesday but I'm not sure I should take off of work so last-minute... I'll probably just wait until she's around the area for medical school interviews in October.

The Sabrina Stone gig at the Cutting Room went real well. The audience was much quieter... we -killed- on our two covers (me singing Radiohead's/Jamie Cullum's "High and Dry" and Dylan wailing on the Beatles'/Joe Cocker's "With A Little Help From My Friends" complete with background vocals by the rest of the band)... Chip was there running sound... I had a completely unpredictable encounter with Gila who I had somewhat reluctantly "given permission" to come to the show... and Rob had a pretty unpredictable night himself, which included a) approaching two homeless guys... -and- having a meaningful conversation with them, b) throwing his undershirt out of my car window somewhere on the Upper West Side, c) getting out of the car at a stoplight (shirtless) to ask the guys in the car in front of us what their license plate meant, and d) spending the rest of the ride home hanging outside the window singing god knows what into the wind. ...that's our Rob. Anyway, yeah, overall a great night. One for the books alright.

I -really- should be studying for the GREs and I'm just not. I bought the book... I wanted to get it out of the way before classes started up again... and here I am. :/ Lame. I've taken it before but I just wouldn't mind having my score bumped up even 100 points...

Vicky just left for college yesterday! Crazy!

Stoked to see some friends' bands in September... Eureka Gold is playing at the Cake Shop (may have to miss the first night of Rosh Hashanah for that one) and the ever-rockin' London Souls got a gig at the coveted Bowery Ballroom.

I played a fun gig with Glint last Thursday night. I'll call it a good way to go out (didn't I say that about the Double Door a few weeks ago?)... it was in the Village, at a place called the Crash Mansion. It was put on by Discmakers, the company a lot of aspiring bands go through for CD duplication. Glint and five other bands/artists of varying genres (the show included a classical guitarist as well as a jazz pianist) were picked to compete in an "Independent Music World Series." Long story short, Glint won, and walked away with a whole mess of new gear, studio time, showcase opps... pretty cool for the band, I must say. And me? I snagged a nice Ibanez acoustic guitar and case out of it and went to town on the open bar and free appetizers. I am guessing this was my last gig with the band, as my nutty school/work schedule begins tomorrow after a somewhat lax August.

Chopin

2007-08-20T09:11:00.000-04:00

Not to sound like my esteemed bandmate Dylan but... how dull would life be without music?

Yesterday I was feeling a little down... just a case of the "Sundays" I guess. The past few weekends had been filled with travel, gigs, and family stuff... this weekend, just, not much going on. Rob and Dan were/are on vacation. Fitz, former neighbor Kevin (better known as "Such," an abbreviation of his last name... Suchakowski or something like that) and I went out Saturday night but it wasn't anything special. Bottom line... I was looking for something to do. So I walked over to the Clavinova and decided to try my hand at the Chopin piece I had bought a while ago. It had become just another unfinished project... maybe that's why I chose to sit down and work on it. My point is, I wouldn't call taking a crack at a classical piano piece "productive" or anything, which is what I thought would make me feel better, but it -did- make me feel better, broke the silence of the lonely apartment and provided a "flavor" for an otherwise dull day.

Anyway. So, Manhattan said I could take classes there (yay!). Now to register and hopefully get this loan... if all goes to plan, classes start... in a week! Eesh! Admittedly, I'm kinda tickled at the thought of going school shopping again... ah, new binders... ("NERD!") ...I know. It's true, though.

It's cooled down a bit, and is overcast and a little rainy today... nice. I do like this kind of weather. I'm sure it'll warm up again soon but fall isn't so far away... looking forward to it, for various reasons. Being outside... back in school... moving nextdoor with Fitz and Rob...

And in other news... Shara is visiting the east coast next week. She'll be in PA for a wedding and we haven't worked out whether we'll meet up there or in NY but we'll see each other somehow. It will have been 3.5 years since we last saw each other.

Battle of the Ants

2007-08-14T11:00:00.000-04:00

Eesh. This whole school thing is turning into a bit of a Zelda quest... present an official transcript to the admissions office... wait a week to hear if I got "accepted" or not... obtain the magical Letter of Acceptance and bring to the old man near the river (and by "bring" and "old man near the river" I mean "fax" and "Citizens Bank student loan department")... you get the idea. I'm not even 100% certain it will all work out, truth be told. Bear in mind, I'm talking about just taking a few courses at Manhattan College as a non-matriculated student, just for the fall semester, to prep for grad school applications, not grad school itself. It was perhaps a bit shortsighted of me to assume I could just walk in and take classes at a private college like Manhattan; registering for the chemistry classes at Purchase was a cinch because it's a state/public school.

Alas, 'tis all but a sub-quest anyway... my "Ganon" (ha!) will, of course, be getting accepted to a grad program next fall. Keep on truckin'...

Rob sure is camping-happy with his new tent and outdoor gear... case in point: last night we "camped out" on the roof of our apartment. Kinda fun. It's a big enough roof that no one from any surrounding street could really see us. I'd do it again. Although that air conditioning unit wasn't exactly quiet.

Man, the random stuff you find on Wikipedia... last night after some beer, malt liquor, Ben and Jerry's and stargazing (on a bit of a "f*ck you, Monday" binge), Rob-o and I got to talking about space, the universe, etc., and I was saying how I remembered something about how part of what you see on TV static/"snow" is due to the cosmic microwave background radiation leftover from the big bang... I wasn't sure how correct I was so I Wiki'd it earlier and found that, yes, not only was I right, but that in Sweden that "snow" effect is often referred to as "Myromas Krig," or "Battle of the Ants." If that's not useless knowledge, I don't know what is.

Cautiously Optimistic

2007-08-09T15:17:00.000-04:00

That's been the name of the game. Things have been falling into place, one at a time, but need to continue to do so... more specifically, I found a new job (boy, that month without one sure felt like longer than a month), found out I can keep it part-time in the fall while I take more classes, and got an A and a B in my two semesters of chemistry at SUNY Purchase (yay!) these past two months. ...but... I still need to be approved for this loan I applied for, and to find out if there's even room for me in the classes I want to take this fall (now at Manhattan College, in the Bronx, because they had physics classes), -and- register for, study for, and take the general GRE again. Phew. It's a lot, and it sure feels like a juggling act sometimes, but again, I am checking things off the list.

It feels good to be "here." I am busy and back to playing music for fun. I have also decided to stay in Nyack another year and am looking to move in (nextdoor) with Fitz and Rob. More on that later.

Right. The new job. I work at Music Minus One in Westchester, just over the bridge. They sell/distribute sheet music with accompaniment CDs, instructional DVDs, karaoke CDs, etc. Overall... better than the last job. Still the same kind of office-y stuff but at least the subject matter is more interesting. I am handed any number of tasks during the day... online research, calling music dealers, the obligatory data entry... definitely pretty busy. Do I miss having the down time to take care of my own life/stuff, to write e-mails to my buddies...? Sure, but the day sure goes by quicker with more to do. Bottom line... this, like all my jobs in the past two years, is temporary, and fortunately very flexible, which is just what I need right now.

Kirsten Ketsjer moved back to Denmark (aw!)...

Glint has "hired" me to play a final few gigs with them as they continue their search for a new keyboardist. It's win-win, really... not only are they paying me a bit, but I get to play the cool/bigger gigs I originally wanted to, and they don't have to cancel shows. These recent ones happen to have been at pretty cool venues, truth to tell... we played at the Double Door in Chicago last week in the final round of the "Last Band Standing" contest put on by Lollapalooza, among other things.

The Sabrina Stone group packed the house a couple weeks ago at the Bitter End in the Village, and we're playing again on the 15th at the beloved Cutting Room. Our 4-song EP just came out.

Last weekend Dad, Uncle Sam and I convened on Fire Island for a gig at a private party. Fun stuff.

(I never get a chance to wear that shirt)

Aaand... made a triumphant return to Mohonk/New Paltz last weekend for camping and general outdoor shenanigans, with Rob (of course!), Jacobs and Casey.

(pics comin' soon)

Overall it will have been a great summer, I have to say.

Stormy Monday

2007-06-04T14:18:00.000-04:00

Whoa lord you’d better have mercy on me! …sorry. Does anyone know the Lee Michaels version (of Stormy Monday)? Well, it’s organ-y, and it kills.

Gettin’ some of tropical storm Barry over here in Ramsey…

Last week at work. It just so happens Friday (the 8th) is both my last day here at “the Kon-Min” and my birthday. So I think some of us are hitting drinks afterwards. I am happy to be leaving this job, yes, but I haven’t found a new (part-time) one yet. :/ As of now I don’t even have enough money for all the classes I want to take, so… yeah. Need to figure some shit out.

I rocked a fauxhawk last week at our Memorial Day barbecue (you know, in honor of all our fallen veterans who… had fauxhawks). I’d call it a decent success.

Class starts in a week. Excited to get this ball rolling.

Not a fan of the new Smashing Pumpkins single.

I have, however, discovered a new band… it is always nice when new music comes into my life. They are Kirsten Ketsjer, a band from Denmark that we met one lonely night while playing at the Hook in Brooklyn (our typical Brooklyn gig… sweet up-and-coming venue but not a lot of people in the audience). I liked them immediately… a very original, experimental sound. Two guitars and a drummer. No bassist. No one in the group is named Kirsten but the drummer/lead singer is female, Anja. They’ve been playing a few shows with us… this one tune they played at Club Europa last weekend, “the River,” really got to me.

What do they sound like? From a review on their website: “…ranging from simple acoustic songs to longer compositions in which summer rock, free improvisation, noise, childrens’ song and keyboard confusion succeed eachother in a surprising, sometimes cheeky way.”

Between them and some of the jams I’ve had with Seth, Andy, and Dylan at Olive’s these past few Thursday nights, I have had plenty of decidedly anti-shlock music to enjoy and it’s been wonderful.

http://www.yoyooyoy.dk/kirstenk/kirstenenglish.htm

Back to Boston

2007-05-27T16:07:00.000-04:00

My last Boston gig with Glint, 5/11/07, at the Bulfinch Yacht Club, site of our first gig with Dylan a year ago. Full house... probably the best we've ever sounded (head nod to "our" new sound guy Chip)... then a walking tour of the city the next day.

Harvard.

It's a bear dressed as a lobster!

Perusing the merchandise at Fanueil Hall.

The Esplanade.

Givin' Arthur Fiedler a smooch.

Yellin' in Arthur Fiedler's ear.

Wouldn't be a Selesnick photo album without one of these...

Phil's first Yankee game!

2007-05-27T16:02:00.001-04:00

Taco de Mayo

2007-05-27T15:13:00.000-04:00

No, it doesn't make sense, but it was awesome...

Rob lookin' cool in the Shop Rite parking lot.

The spread.

The festivities begin.

Rob, Fitz, and Steph acting like they know what Andy "Rock" is talking about.

The twins. Unplanned. I'm dating one, guess which?

Ah yes, the "glint" of a margarita in a plastic cup on a hot summer's day...

Steph and I smell Rob's armpits.

Central Park!

2007-05-22T00:32:00.000-04:00

That's right... Glint played on the band shell at Central Park, on 4/20/07. And here's the proof...

Gig site! The band shell, at 72nd St.

Prepping for the gig...

Tebaldi checkin' drums...

...BAM! Is this a sweet photo or what?! Yeah that's right, we had bubble machines.

Smirk.

Whoooa man!

The crowd.

I think this guy liked us.

I forget her real name but her band is called Kirsten Ketsjer and they're pretty cool.

Jacobs, Fitz, Rob, and Steph enjoy the day.

Oh yeah!

Cute one of Mat and Steph on one of those little boats you can rent.

The day draws to a close; Mat looks cool.

Everyone who made the day possible... Luis (merch), Adam (manager), Chip (sound engineer), Vinny (artwork, bubble machines, etc.), Bob (video/roadie), Jonathan (video), Jase (guitar/vox), Mateus (drums/web), Evan (hippie), Dylan (bass), Phil (keys).

All things Sabrina

2007-05-22T00:09:00.000-04:00

"Sabrina Stone and the Ers" (oy)... Phil, Sabrina, Dylan, and Chris, takin' pics for the demo.

Hmm. Provocative.

Our first gig, at the Baggot Inn in the Village, 4/6/07.

Chris makes a ridiculous face...

...Chris makes a slightly less ridiculous face.

"All the pics that are fit to print"

2007-05-21T23:59:00.000-04:00

Well, you asked for it... (or did you?)... here are some random pictures of me a) having a good time, b) looking cool, or c) both having a good time -and- looking cool, over the past month or so. Heh.

...hm. Nope, you know what... I'm going to be more systematic about this (surprised?). First, here are the ones that didn't fit into any category...

At the "Trash Bar" in Williamsburg, 3/30/07, where they served free tater tots every hour on the hour.

I like this one of Dylan...

Rob wearing funny sunglasses on our impromptu Nyack pub crawl.

Phil and Shanna.

Post-pub crawl.

Yup

2007-05-18T16:26:00.000-04:00

Boy, it sure is hard not to title this entry “Changes” or something cliché/flowery like that (hm, when I type “cliché” Word automatically adds the little accent… slick!). Because the times sure are a-changin’!

I have left the band. Several reasons: I was tired of waiting… the negatives had been outweighing the positives, musically… I had just been growing more and more doubtful of things. Yup. It was time. I do think there’s a chance these guys could do some cool shit but, it was just taking too long and I hadn’t been enjoying the ride of late.

I do have my tail between my legs a bit and it’s a tough feeling. I wanted to do more with these guys. In their eyes, we had been making progress these past two years but in my eyes, it was slow progress… they had talked pretty big game from day one, and I wanted to believe I’d at least –start- to see the kind of places and play the kinds of shows they were talking about within a year of joining. For various reasons I chose to stay past that point; I wanted to see what we could do with the album we had been spending so much time and money on. It’s been out for four months now, and yes, in the music industry that’s probably not a very long time, but I had just been losing faith and interest in the music in general. It has been tough to be that honest with myself, but, there it is.

There were some fun times, musical and not… I’ve gotten to play at some pretty cool places all around New York… Central Park, the Knitting Factory… but with only modest success, in my eyes. It’s time to try something else.

So what is next?

I shadowed a medical physicist back in December at Concord Hospital and had been thinking about more school for a while. It was only weeks ago I realized I could get things started sooner than I thought… basically, these programs require or recommend basic chemistry, biology, and computer science, which I really didn’t take at Brandeis, so before applying to any master’s programs, I wanted to take some of those classes at a local SUNY school (where I could now get in-state tuition, having been here for a year). We’re talking, 4-6 classes. I had been planning to give the band until this winter, take these classes over two semesters in 2008, then apply in early 2009 for Fall 2009 admission (to the med physics programs). I wasn’t completely satisfied with the idea… worried about letter-of-rec opportunities drying up, about staying away from school for that much longer, about getting it all started that much later. But then I remembered… ah! Summer semester. So that’s the plan right now. Looking to attend SUNY Purchase, just over the bridge, and take chemistry this summer and bio and cosi in the fall. As we say here at New Street, once again… doin’ it. No, I don’t know if this will all work out, of course, but I want to try before it’s “too late.”

Other changes (some trivial, some not-so)… just got my NY license… my fave (read: “the only”) Indian restaurant in Nyack, Natraz, is –closing-… this was the site of many a Rob-‘n-Phil rant-while-enjoying-the-$10-lunch-buffet session; got a haircut (ooh!); “inherited” a queen-size mattress (about damn time); Jeff is graduating from his five-year program at Emerson, Vicky from high school; Hogan shaved his head(!!!); Andy’s getting married…

And, on the not-so-trivial side, since the summer classes I want to take are only offered in the morning (every weekday), I will need a new job… so. Lots to take care of in the next few weeks. Classes start on June 11th. I told Glint I’d play gigs with them up until that point. In the meantime, I am busy figuring out how to front the $ for these classes, applying for NY residency, trying to find a new part-time gig (oy), keeping any references/etc. “fresh,” are we renewing our lease, or trying to convince our landlord to let us stay on a month-to-month basis if Glint really packs up and heads west? …all that. Craziness.

As for other musical opps… well, there will be plenty. School is out and Sabrina will be returning to NY; Michelle V. is out in LA shopping around her demo (which I played on) and will be home soon as well; Dylan may have secured a weekly Thursday night residence at Olive’s for himself, Andy “Rock,” this great local drummer Seth, and me, playing classic rock, Floyd, Doors, Zeppelin, et al; jazz jam across the street will be happening at least through the end of summer; Frankie D., our local blues/soul guy that I sit in with from time to time; and who knows, maybe I’ll up and join some working cover band that rehearses once a week and plays weddings and bar mitzvahs, ha… all joking aside, I have wondered about that kind of gig… I sure could use the bucks, now that I’ll be a student again.

Bottom line: I surround myself with people who really are “doin’ it,” I mean, doing interesting things, and/or planning for the future, and/or just content with where they are: my brother, my sister, Hogan, Andy, Gila, Tom, Dan, Shara, certainly in some aspects Jase and Adam… and I just want to be part of that “club.” Over the past two years I had felt like, at various times and in various combinations, I was not meeting the “doin’ it” criteria listed above.

Stay tuned for a bunch of pictures!

23

2007-04-05T13:01:00.000-04:00

A lot’s been happening… eh, that’s not really true, it’s just been a little while since I updated. Heh. In a style adopted from a particular Peter Lafontaine e-mail I received years ago during my first weeks as a freshman at Brandeis (if he’s reading this he’s probably thinking, “why on earth would Phil remember this?!”), here are some random highlights/bullet points, as well as some random photos from the ol’ cell phone…

~

Finally hired at work. Got the word today. $30k/year, which isn’t a lot, but at least I can start saving up –some- money.

I will be 24 on June 8th! Eek!

I had a whole paragraph written about my recent confusion with the moral to a certain Aesop fable. In “The Fox and the Lion,” a fox becomes increasingly less frightened by the lion who passes by his house every so often, until eventually the fox inquires about the lion’s family and asks “when he should have the pleasure of seeing him again.” Now the moral to this story was written as “familiarity breeds contempt,” which confuses me because that phrase means “the more you learn about someone, the more fault you see in them,” but that doesn’t seem to quite jive with the positivity of the story…

They’re fixing the speaker above my cubicle…which means I’ll be able to hear all that lame shlock muzak they play through it. Awesome.

I realized last night, after talking to Dad on the phone, that I have played all over New York City. Manhattan, Brooklyn… the Village, Williamsburg, Chelsea, TriBeCa… that’s kinda cool. In fact, I just got word Glint will be playing at the Central Park band shell(!) on April 20th for, yes, you guessed it, 4/20-ness. While I may not “support” all that or whatever, there will probably be a lot of people out, weather-pending, and hey, playing in Central Park?! Come on! I don’t even know quite how we did it, but I guess Adam is a sort of “magic man,” in the words of a certain Heart song I’ve been jammin’ to lately…

I had two very contrasting Passover seders/dinners this year… the first was at a palatial home in Creskill, NJ with 40 people (extended family and friends, including Uncle Sam and the crew from Montclair as well as all the Urbachs, who I hadn’t seen in a while), and the second was in Nanuet with just Shanna and her mom for a vegan-friendly holiday dinner at their place…

After the Glint gig at Opus a couple weeks ago we went out in Nyack and danced and drank until 4 AM… I hadn’t done that in a while, that was nice. Between Shanna and hanging out with a new group of girls from a couple streets over, we’ve had a nice little group to go out (and play Scrabble and watch movies) with of late.

I had “forgotten” how much about me is on the internet… upon arriving to the aforementioned 40-person seder, I was greeted by many different people with an “oh I’ve seen your band’s website/myspace/facebook page” and I thought, “eesh! How much do these people already know about me?!” A little unnerving, admittedly…

Passover shopping could not have been easier this year. Having lived in Concord, NH most of my life, we’ve been forced to drive to Boston to find any decent selection of kosher for Passover food, but now that I live close to NYC, there are plenty of Jewish suburbs where the common Pathmark/Shop Rite/whatever has aisles and aisles dedicated to “k-for-P” goodness. Pesachdik frozen pizza? You’d better believe it!

Lots of side projects going on. First gig with the Sabrina Stone side project tomorrow night in the West Village… our friend Michelle V. wants me to record some keyboard tracks in the next few weeks for her new EP/album… I hit the jazz jam across the street again; the players they have there are all so damn good, both the core group as well as the sit-ins… and I jammed with Frankie D. and his “real band,” finally (as opposed to the ever-shifting open mic night group), at Casa last weekend, and it was so goddamn fun I couldn’t stand it. I sat in for the last hour of the gig and jammed on a bunch of Stevie Wonder and classic funk/soul tunes. Again… rippin’ on the organ. So damn fun. That damn bright red keyboard of mine packs a punch. The drummer and percussionist really liked my playing. The band was real tight and people were dancing. I haven’t played like that in years. Did I really get to jam on the clavinet part to “Superstition?” Come on! Who allowed that?! ;)

Local powerpop duo, our buddies, Frankie and His Fingers at Olives.

...and here they are opening our Opus show.

Yours truly hiding a smile at work.

Aw! Dylan and J relax before our Cutting Room show.

My new little cousin Noah.

I -still- have this much fun with balloons.

A failed attempt at researching lunch.

Rob is the Walrus.

King Rob and his guardian cats. In our apartment.

Eat more kale... or tacos

2007-03-23T11:23:00.000-04:00

Wow… over a month? What the hell have I been doing?!

Well… work is still work… still not f$^#%&g hired yet, thanks (mostly) to a lot of managerial “rearranging…” blech. I also think the company is just plain not doing that well. Come July I will have been here for a year and frankly, I’d like to at least stay until then so I can have something on my resume that’s lasted that long…

I… have a girlfriend. Shanna. From work, actually. We hadn’t talked at all but then she came with some co-workers to our gig at Maxwell’s a couple weeks ago and the rest, as they say, is history. :) I will say this, she is a vegan, which should prove for some interesting dates…

More Glint gigs, all through March, actually, except one weekend where we got snowed out… last night we played at the Knitting Factory. It’s three stories and a pretty cool building, a pretty revered place in NY music, actually. The “Main Space,” anyway. There are two lower floors/venues, the Tap Bar and the Old Office; we played in the latter and it went well, we sounded real good. Hopefully we’ll get asked back for an upper floor and a better night. It’s like the upstairs/downstairs “thing” at the Middle East in Boston. Sandy (a fan and friend of Jase’s/Adam’s parents) was stoked because this was our first gig listed on “ticketweb” or whatever so he ordered a ticket in advance and got one of those green and white legit-looking “general admission, Glint, the Knitting Factory” tickets. Heh. Kinda cool.

And, as promised, Sabrina has booked a gig for us (the side project)… Friday April 6th around 9:00 at her favorite Village venue, the Baggott Inn. Should be sweet. Since the group has only worked up 5 tunes, she’ll play half of the set solo.

Hanging out with Shanna has proved for/mirrored some interesting changes at work… I now have someone to gossip with about work drama/politics. Short of that, though, my group has been taking on more responsibilities recently so I am necessarily working with more people from different departments (including Shanna, actually, in a strange coincidence). I’ve been opening up more to coworkers… maybe it’s because my boss is quitting and I just inherently want to be friendly with more people, maybe it’s the new season… I don’t know. I do think Shanna has something to do with this… having her in the picture makes that which bums me out about work less all-encompassing. I remain level-headed, though, and am still reluctant to get too settled here (at work)… I’ve got ideas about where/what I’d like to be in the coming months and years (finally?), but the logistics need to be honed…

Beautiful (Latin) Love

2007-02-14T11:32:00.000-05:00

Mondays usually fly by for me. It’s true. I come in Monday morning and still “radiate weekend,” or something. A protective aura that shields from me from Monday-ness. What’s weird, though, is that in recent weekends, even if I have done fun things, it’s hard for me at times to get the thought out of my head that “hm, this is really just a short break from work (which although I don’t dread, I certainly don’t enjoy much).” It’s like… the same amount of “fun” that used to really separate weekend and work-week in my head hasn’t quite been doing it for me of late. I spend 37.5 hours a week at work and even though that’s still less than my (waking) time –not- at work, work and the work mindset/certain co-workers popping into my head has been starting to take over. Yet Mondays are no problem for me, pretty consistently. Am I remembering fun things I did on the weekend as better than they may have been? I guess it’s possible. But it does make the day go faster. Hm.

Well, the Olive’s jam a couple weeks ago was fun. The sound there isn’t excellent and sounded a little muddy on the couple tunes we played (L.A. Woman and Comfortably Numb), but we rocked out. I jammed with local Nyack musician and host Frankie D. afterwards into the wee hours of Wednesday morning (well, 2 AM) and had a lot of fun giving my organ chops a spin. That weekend I drove to Worcester to meet my family and celebrate my grandfather’s 85th birthday and my grandparents’ anniversary. Typical family foolishness, out to eat at the wonderful Vinny T’s (on our beloved Route 9, a Glint landmark of sorts), board games and drinking… Shannon joined in the craziness, it was great to hang with her again…

And this past weekend was nice too. Rob and I hit the Natural History Museum Saturday and came away feeling quite overwhelmed. I had been there when I was younger but couldn’t quite appreciate the vast quantity and density of information there. We also watched two good movies, Al Gore’s An Inconvenient Truth and Michel Gondry’s Science of Sleep. I am traditionally a little resistant to watching new movies, but have slowly realized that I do enjoy them once I get into them, which, isn’t hard. “Comfort” movies, although inviting on the surface, sometimes leave me with a bit of an empty feeling.

The best scientific name ever.

Oh yeah!

Rob looking heroic by the brontosauras neck.

Rob thinks bears are hilarious.

...and I like them coming out of my chest, apparently.

And Sunday, ah Sunday… a jazz jam started up in Nyack maybe a couple months ago, right across the street from me in the foyer of the newly-renovated Helen Hayes Theater, and I just hadn’t made my way over there until this past Sunday. I was so glad I did… it was a Latin jazz themed jam, which is really what got me to go… I showed up in the middle of the core group’s set (they play an hour on their own first) and they sounded, great. I had researched a few of the players prior to arriving… Daniel Kelly, the pianist, had played with Lauryn Hill(!), as well as jazz guys like Michael Brecker… all the players were great. NYC music guys, mostly in their 30’s I would guess, doing the professional musician thing. So why wouldn’t they be good?

Anyways, as if I wasn’t amped/slightly nervous enough to sit in with them already, I realized that the woman playing conga drums was none other than Myra from Regina Carter’s group my family had seen at the Newport Jazz Festival! I couldn’t believe it… I have to admit, it was a bit of an emotional experience for me, realizing I was going to get to play with her, someone who had been on a pretty revered stage in the realm of jazz music… and I think if I were to dig a little deeper (read: just admit it), I would say it had something to do with the thought of getting to relate the experience to my parents later on, since they had seen and enjoyed her at the festival years ago as well. Anyways… I sat in on two tunes, Beautiful Love (my call) and then Invitation, and sounded pretty good. I really impressed the bassist Harvie S., who was hosting the event, an accomplished musician himself (creds: Stan Getz, Metheney, Jim Hall… you get the idea). And the drummer William “Beaver” Bausch asked me for my card and wondered if I might be interested in helping teach some of his students montunos (traditional Latin jazz piano patterns), which is funny because my piano teacher Dan Loschen had spent maybe 2-3 lessons on montunos with me years ago… suffice to say, I only know the rudimentary stuff, but I guess I faked my way through it well enough. Like the Paul Scott Goodman rehearsal pianist offers, I'm not sure how realistic it would be for me to do it, for various reasons, but either way, it was –so- fun to jam on that kind of music. I’m sure I’ll be back for other jams.

Yup…

Doin' it...

2007-01-31T09:24:00.000-05:00

I love orange juice. Have I mentioned this? Well, I do.

Sooo… not much going on… no just kidding. It was a pretty unique weekend, I must say, starting on Friday night with… am I really typing this… me making a desk. An explanation, if you’re still reading: my next door neighbor Kevin had bought a desk from Ikea that he never bothered to put together, so Rob offered it to me(?) one day, probably months ago. It sat in my room, in pieces, for quite a while, just taking up space, until after work Friday I said to myself, “screw it, let’s do this.” With only a break for a Glint “family” dinner (J brought over ravioli from Gracie’s in Nyack), a couple hours and some Bud Ice later, I had myself a nice (un-shellacked) corner desk. Oh yes. I’d be lying if I said I wasn’t moderately pleased with myself on that one.

After that excitement, some of us headed downstairs to Casa del Sol to check out this hip-happenin’ hip-hop/funk/jazz group from Brooklyn/Philly called the Cold Hands Collective. There were maybe 7 of these guys (and a female flutist who doubled as go-go dancer and mailing list girl) and they were such a fun group. The two MC’s were really pretty good; everyone looked to be about our age, early 20’s. I recognized a few (hip-hop) covers (The Roots, etc.)… they also jammed on Red Clay at one point. After the show, Dylan proceeded to persuade the band to come hang out with us upstairs while Rob and I convinced this girl Eve that Rob worked at a bowling alley. Right. Anyways, the band came and hung out with us, all 7 of them (and their sound guy), we schmoozed, …good stuff.

I also bumped into a couple of the guys from Joe Mamma’s Fantastic Trio, an instrumental funk group from Congers (local) I heard once at Olives. I’ve been dying to jam with these guys… they are stellar musicians and play music in the vein of Soulive/MMW/Sam Kininger. They did just add a keyboardist (who doubles on sax) to their lineup and he’s pretty good… but I’d still like to just funk it out with them sometime, especially on my own beloved bright red Nord with the sweet vintage sounds. So here’s hoping. I do miss playing that kind of music.

Saturday was Snitch! Our showcase show in Chelsea. There were 4 other bands, mostly of the pop-rock variety, but the band that closed the show was a metal group (one guitarist had a guitar strap made out of [what appeared to be] large bullets). It was a short set, a very strict 35 minutes (we didn’t get to play Boy of the Stars), but we sounded good. There was a last-minute scramble when we realized there was no snare stand at the venue (even though we were told drummers had to use the house kit… you’d figure they’d have the necessary drumset pieces, but apparently not), but we managed a decidedly makeshift solution by taping Mat’s snare onto the case for his bass drum pedal. Heh. The second group to play, FN-CO, was pretty good, and had some tight funky Percy Hill-esque jams (and harmonies)… the group just before us, Whiskey Richard, was from Nashville, and they weren’t bad themselves… we later noticed the singer innocently lighting up a cigarette in the bar, illegal here in NY but indeed, very Nashville-y, reminding us all of our excursion to said city not months ago.

Thanks to Erica, a fellow keyboardist from Nyack, for taking pics...

Surrounded by fans! Oh yeah!

Check Tebaldi's new dreads!

Our video guy Jonathan (and his friend Sabrina) came down to wrap up work on our music videos (which should be posted on youtube by now), check out our show, and apparently also to school Mateus at Guitar Hero… and speaking of getting schooled I got a huge-ass parking ticket ($115!) in NYC after the show... lame. :/

Sunday… Rob and I attempted our latest cooking vision. Well, Rob’s vision, really: Chinese tacos. Long story short, we whipped up some stir fry and put them in taco shells. Pretty good. After that, Bob, our other video guy (from Nyack), invited us to join his informal weekly Sunday night soccer “league,” mostly fellow employees from Wasabi and us Glint guys. I was put on defense, my old position from soccer days of yesteryear, and did alright. At first I caused a few corner kicks (none of which resulted in goals, fortunately), but then stepped it up and had a few nice clears after that.

Tonight my classic rock itch will be scratched… Dylan, Mateus, Andy “Rock” and myself will be playing a few Floyd, Doors, etc. tunes at the Olives open mic. I don’t usually hit this up, mostly because it’s late on a Wednesday, but I just felt like playing L.A. Woman and Comfortably Numb again… doin’ it.

...

The other side of the fence

2007-01-25T14:33:00.000-05:00

Does anyone else have “summer music” and “winter music?” I mean… when it starts to get colder and there’s snow on the ground, I tend to want to listen to say, Jethro Tull more, and when I can finally drive with my windows down, it’s time for Santana. Listening to Tull’s “Heavy Horses” on the way to work this morning… thank god there –is- finally snow on the ground, even if it is just a little bit…

I am remembering a certain winter night in a certain castle-dormitory on a certain college campus where I arrived late to a party and was handed a red Solo cup filled with Malibu, cranberry juice, and a dash of fresh snow from the windowsill…

Hm. Anyways. Nostalgia aside…

Well… the album is OUT! Chances are if you’re at this blog in the first place, you probably already knew that. 1000+ copies are sitting in our apartment… as well as some new merchandise, namely, two kinds of t-shirts (in two colors each!). So… if you haven’t gotten the hint already, go buy the CD! …unless you were involved in making it (Hogan) or lived/put up with us while recording it (ShanNON), in which case, I’ll hit you up with one…

I appear to be in an ellipsis-y mood…

…

Yup. Well, we’ve also gotten half of the Sabrina demo in, which sounds great… still waiting on the other two tracks. Actually, in an interesting bit of news, the producer Paul (whose main gig is writing musicals) called me up and mentioned that a friend of his was looking for a “musical director” for a production of Little Shop of Horrors, and that he was wondering if I’d be interested. To be honest, I’m flattered he thought of me… he’d asked me for my card after the Sabrina sessions and said he liked my playing, but I wasn’t sure if anything would come of it (flattered as I was at that point as well). And even though it sounds like it would pay some decent bucks, I just don’t think I’m cut out for it… even if he just meant “rehearsal pianist,” that’s a big job, and could easily entail, you know, directing the pit orchestra and/or cast on musical numbers. I’d have a “shit ton” of music to learn, and my reading chops just don’t rival my play-by-ear/read-chord-changes chops. Not to mention time commitment to Glint. In conclusion… Libya is a land of contrast. Heh. No. In conclusion… I am encouraged someone like him thought well enough of my playing. And he said if I didn’t want/couldn’t do this gig, he’d keep calling me with other offers, so, who knows… “hey Phil… open date at the Blue Note… just wondering if…” heh.

Rob’s birthday was real fun… in the spirit of “your friends are my friends,” a couple of his local buds, Dan, Joe, and apartment-mate Kevin, met up with us “newbie” friends Dylan and myself for a night of Nyack-based debauchery. And it was debauchery indeed. After dinner at Black Bear (where one of the waiters recognized Dylan and I from the band and bought us both shots), we decided to launch our own Nyack pub crawl, and hit Vertigo, Wasabi, O’Malleys, and finally Bruxelles for some inspired dancing. I’d almost go so far as to say, in our collective inebriated state, we got the dance party –started- in that back room at Bruxelles… oh, and there was a kick-ass traditional Irish band at O’Malleys, a place I usually malign as one where “all you can do is drink.” No where else to really hang or do anything else. Just a bar. But… I hadn’t seen live music there before. Awesome. Quite a scene. Bagpipes, fiddle, the whole bit. After too much partying I decreed “no more Rob’s birthdays for another year.” It was kind of like the Berenstein Bears’ “Too Much Birthday,” except, with alcohol.

So what’s next for Glint? A showcase this Saturday… it’s at a club called Snitch in Manhattan (Chelsea), and will feature 5 bands, performing for indie label guys. As we say here at New Street… doin’ it.

A grand old time

2007-01-12T18:52:00.000-05:00

I, got to play on –two- grand pianos this past week… one at a show and one at a recording session, the former with Glint on Saturday, the latter with Sabrina on Tuesday. Awesome.

Friday the band played at the Cutting Room in Manhattan, a slight departure ambiance-wise from our recent NYC gig scene. Other than the Hook in Brooklyn, this was our first non-Village gig: the club was in Chelsea, co-owned by Chris Noth (Mr. Big from Sex and the City) who wouldn’t let you forget it, with both a modestly-sized Law and Order poster by the men’s bathroom and a less-than-modestly-sized picture of himself extending his hand in greeting above the main performance room… anyway, it was arguably one of the nicer places we’ve played to date. Have I played a rock gig anywhere else with a weekly-tuned Steinway? No, I haven’t. Having a real piano for the piano parts instead of a keyboard piano sound was, amazing… the feel of the instrument has so much to do with “it” (how I play?). So that was cool. We went on super late, around 1 AM, but had a good crowd, and played straight until 2:30… pretty fun. It was kinda nice to have my “fortress of keyboards” back for a night. For any family members in NJ or NY reading this (heh), this is a place I would invite you to see one of our shows (counting on an earlier set time, which shouldn’t be too hard to get since they liked us there).

And Tuesday, the Sabrina Stone group recorded in the city, at a studio usually used for recording musical soundtracks, around 9th and 45th. So damn fun. Dylan and I took off of work (sweet) and met up with Sabrina and Chris that afternoon for practice at Ultrasound rehearsal studios for a couple hours…

Rehearsing at Ultrasound.

Tuning. I think.

Then we met up with Paul, our producer, later that evening. We got basic tracking (bass, piano, and drums) done in about an hour, after setting things up and getting good sounds, which I must say, I was impressed with, even if it was only for four songs. I forgot to mention… we opted to record the band live (everyone playing at once instead of sequential overdubs) which ended up being a pretty smart move. Sabrina recorded her guitar tracks afterwards with little difficulty; Dylan laid down some electric guitar-ness, Chris some percussion, and myself some organ, and we called it a night around midnight. SO FUN! Can’t wait to have these tunes on a CD…

Outside the studio.

Me...

...Chris...

...Sabrina "don't google me" Stone...

...aaaand Dylan.

The Glint album will be here very soon, next week sometime… and then, finally, we will be on the other side of the coin… Adam and J have been preparing t-shirts, stickers, and other merch for the release, and Mat has been overhauling the website…

Paragraph deleted… ah, self-censorship…

Well… tonight we are taking Rob out to Black Bear for his birthday, which was yesterday… 25 years old… doin’ it!

Also… I added some pictures in earlier posts of Octoberfest and our cute cat Stella.

Good enough is good enough

2007-01-02T15:35:00.000-05:00

Well, what’s been up… I spent Christmas with my grandparents, Mom, Dad, and Vicky up in Worcester. Jeff was up in Maine with his girlfriend Kristin. The shadowing experience at the clinic in Concord the next day went well; I made a good contact with the medical physicist who showed me around, Fred(erick) Dube.

The Wasabi gig fell through, unfortunately, before it even started… which sucks. I was really looking forward to having a consistent jazz gig, even if it was only a couple times a month. Adam, one of the managers who was going to bat for me, wanted to add music on nights other than their usual Monday, hence my lil’ Tuesday night “trial” gig a while ago, but, no go… apparently, the owner just didn’t want to shell out the extra bucks for more performers. :/ Too bad. I don’t doubt there are other similar opportunities around Nyack, but that would be a whole separate project, getting some kind of demo CD together, going around and pitching myself…

We did have a fun Chanukah/holiday/whatever party last weekend… Rob and I attempted latkes and after making a huge mess and suffering minor potato-grating and frying-related injuries, churned out some pretty good potato pancakes, which went almost as fast as we were making them. Nice group of people… Yael’s sister Amira showed up, Sabrina and Chris (drummer from the Sabrina project) were there, Jordan (from Brandeis) came up from the city and helped spearhead the Chanukah cookie-making initiative with Yael AND actually got the dance party started… overall a very “warm” vibe.

I’ve been spending too much money… food, alcohol… and not making enough, especially with all these days off (and car repairs). I go full-time/salaried in February though, so at least that’ll be nice…

And where the hell is the snow?! 60 degrees in January? Come on. I remember it taking this long to snow in recent years, but, man…

New Years was alright. We decided to make the aforementioned holiday party the bigger of the two events and opted to stay in for NYE, make tacos, etc. Which was alright, but going out at 11:30 in Nyack was a little… lame. Really not many people at the two bars we hit. I’m not sure what I was expecting… someone to kiss at midnight? ;) I don’t know… at least there was some inspired tattoo-giving (nod to Dylan), a last-minute pinstripe pants/beach theme (you choose), and a drink Rob and I invented called a “Blue Noggermeister…”

Rob, Dylan and I have formed a side project known as “Rob’s Chicken and the Mint 500” with Rob on lead vocals/ranting, myself on acoustic guitar, and Dylan on whatever (instrument) he can get his hands on and “backing vocals.” No dates scheduled yet but we did have our debut performance on our balcony Saturday night…

More seriously though, things have been great and quite satisfying on the Sabrina front. She played at Kenny’s Castaways in the Village on Friday night… Rob, Dylan and I attended and all got shout-outs during the show, the former as a great latke-maker and the latter two as past Sabrina-crushes, heh. She hosted a nice little party afterwards, with more dancing than I could have asked for… and, in regards to the recording, Sabrina opted to go with her friends over Paul’s offered studio musicians, but Paul will stay on board as producer. We practiced yesterday at her place again and it just sounded so good. The one tune I personally felt least good about, “I’m Taking Hold of Me,” got a serious boost with Chris’ new drum beat, and the newest of the four tunes “Good Enough” came together as well… this is a riff that just somehow –sounds- like chilling on a rainy Sunday afternoon, or something… so catchy, beautiful. I can’t wait to have these four songs recorded. Paul sat in on the rehearsal and really seemed to like our playing which was, encouraging. A recording date has been booked, Tuesday the 9th, in the city, and I’m so stoked. There’s a grand piano there and at Paul’s suggestion I am calling the studio today to see if they have a Hammond organ… how fucking fun is this?! Seriously. Awesome. And again, Sabrina is going back to school in a couple weeks, but hopefully this group can play some gigs together, whether they be in NY or Boston, in the future…

Getting out

2006-12-19T14:49:00.000-05:00

J’avais joué beaucoup de musique… I have been playing a lot of music. I don’t know how long these other engagements are going to last, but for the moment, my chops feel “stretched” and it’s a good feeling. I’m exercising my various musical skills for the first time in a while.

Thursday night I finally hit the Pleasantville jazz jam, over the river, like 20 minutes away. It was better than any jazz jam I had been to previously. Instead of only one or two decent players, I’d say there were six or seven (most of the group, really). The drummer was excellent and apparently lives in West Nyack; the bass player played electric bass, not my favorite for jazz, but soloed like a motherfucker; a handful of great trumpet players, “older” guys and probably professionals in areas other than music, reminding me of Dad… there were even –three- guitarists, and usually that means at least two of them are hacks (ha), but –all three- were, outstanding, and on average the younger guys in the group. Unbelievable. No other pianists, so I could just play whenever I wanted. I had such a fun time, just playing jazz standards with such great casual players, and was well received. I’m sure I’ll be back.

Then Friday night, Glint had a gig in Brooklyn. It was a real diamond-in-the-rough venue, “The Hook,” in the Red Hook district, on a decidedly dead/sketchy street. The stage was huge, there was a great lighting set-up… we didn’t bring out a whole lot of people, but we sounded good and made some new friends and fans. We even got to play a little longer than expected, a full hour instead of the usual there’s-bands-on-before-and-after-you 40 minutes, which was nice… and I could –hear- myself, finally! At recent shows, the monitor mixes had the keyboards pretty quiet, which was frustrating; my playing, I think, -sounds- “frustrated” when I have little or no aural confirmation of the notes I’m clearly playing. The moral of the story here is, if you want something done right, you’ve got to do it yourself… I brought an extra amp and “wired” it up so that only keyboards were coming out of it, and placed it right next to my rig, facing up at me so as not to futz with what Dylan, Jase, and Mat were hearing on stage too much. As a result, I felt a lot better about the performance in general, being able to hear a more balanced Glint on stage.

Other randomness: this venue had a creepy downstairs lounge/green room, eerily reminiscent of our beloved Worcester firehouse… Jilly showed up, not even a day finished with school for winter break, to see us… worst/cheapest dinner ever, consisting of 2-packages-for-a-dollar cookies, Lay’s mesquite barbecue potato chips, and one of those Starbucks frappucino drinks. Thank you (but not), cheap Brooklyn bodega. Dylan wouldn’t shut up about the SIX 24-ounce 99-cent Molsons he got there.

In other Glint news… the album has been sent off for duplication! YES! 1000 copies headed to our lil’ Nyack apartment… ETA: January 11th, which is also Rob’s birthday, so if they really do come on that day, I may not be at work on the 12th.

Thanks to Wikipedia I figured out the meter/time signature pattern/whatever to that Radiohead song, Pyramid Song… it reads like some kind of bizarre (and illegal, since there would be too many men on the field) soccer formation: 3-2-3-3-2-3. But even the placement of the chords isn’t consistent (read: I haven’t figured it out yet). I was mildly excited to put that one to rest, though. It would be a challenge to work up with a trio. Part of this challenge would of course be having a trio to even attempt working it up with.

Also watched a lot of movies… Mateus and I watched “Rockstar” in all its 80’s rock glory; quite in contrast to that, I watched Life is Beautiful the day after the gig and, I loved it; Saturday night consisted of an all-star movies-on-TV lineup of Home Alone, Mean Girls (yes Dylan you DID sit through the whole thing), Groundhog Day, and the end of the Matrix, really just to hear that Rage Against the Machine song over the credits.

Sunday was great. My friend Sabrina Stone (see previous entries) is a singer/songwriter from Manhattan, on break from Brandeis, where I met her, to pursue her music career. She is returning to school in the middle of January but before then wanted to jam with Dylan, myself, and a drummer friend of hers and possibly record a demo. Sunday was the day… Dylan and I hopped on down to the Upper East Side in my Volvo and worked on two of Sabrina’s tunes with the drummer Chris. It sounded… so tight! The tunes are acoustic rock in nature but the band provided a rockin’-slightly jazzy “oomph” to them. Chris was great, playing a minimalist set of bass drum, snare, hi-hat and ride cymbal (maybe not even by choice, I didn’t ask), and I got to spend the afternoon playing on a grand piano. The tunes really locked in, and later on a friend of Sabrina and her mom’s named Paul Scott Goodman, a NYC writer/composer/singer from Scotland who is interested in producing Sabrina’s demo, stopped by to hear what we’d been working on. From what I can gather, it will be up to Sabrina how she wants to proceed with the recording, either via Paul and some studio musicians or with her not-quite-professional-musician friends (Dylan, Chris, and myself), but I think the point of Paul’s visit was to see if any or all of us could possibly work with what he had in mind for her musically. So we’ll see. Anyways, I’d always thought some of Sabrina’s music would sound great with a band, and Sunday I finally got to hear it this way.

All topped off with… what else… a taco night. It has become a loose Sunday night tradition to spend the evening in with our neighbors Kevin and Rob, cook something, drink, watch the Matt Groening-Seth McFarlane TV lineup, and be morons. Adam pioneered the sangria-making initiative this time and it too was great, this time with a burgundy wine, apples, oranges, brandy, and triple sec. Another reclaimed Sunday.

Monday, Monday...

2006-12-11T17:52:00.000-05:00

First, some pics from the recent video shoot weekend…

Mateus and I hucking around the frisbee by the Blankfort’s house

Mateus, first up for filming individual shots

Oh, Dylan…

Jase watches the action, Adam watches the monitor

Dylan’s turn!

The band (minus me) gets ready for the group shot

In other news, I “got” the gig at Wasabi… looks like I’ll be playing there every other week, on Tuesday nights. The trial gig went well; employees and patrons alike paid Doug (the bassist I found on craigslist not days prior) and I some real nice compliments. In hindsight, and according to Rob, Kevin, and Dylan, I probably could have handled the gig on my own, and I just may do that on subsequent Tuesdays, but I also like having a group to play with. I realize it would be less money most likely, but I’d love to have a bassist and drummer in there with me at some point. I would also really like to work up the Radiohead tune “Pyramid Song,” spurred on by Adam suggesting I play some pop/rock tunes, in a “jazz” fashion… but first I have to figure out the damn time signature, ha! It is a complicated tune in that regard…

The Glint NYC show at the Lion’s Den went well. The drive… is a bit annoying. Parking… same thing. But that aside, the show went pretty well… lots of familiar faces, made some new fans too… I particularly enjoyed the Corsairs, one of the bands on before us, who sounded a bit like Jet. Pretty tight. We sounded pretty good… played a new song, “In the Underground,” among other things… yup. More shows to come. Brooklyn is next.

Hm, what else… culinarily (ha!) a pretty good weekend… we made hot mulled cider again on Friday night, and this time spiked it with brandy, a better choice than rum… Sunday Rob and I hit Natraz (Indian food, across the street from us) for the $10 lunch buffet, AMAZING… and that night we decided to make everyone’s favorite, tacos. Rob and I decided to try making some sangria and it came out really well… I think we used merlot, lemon juice, limes and oranges, and some of the leftover brandy… quite good.

Got some shopping done at the Palisades on Saturday, too… not quite as crazy as I expected. The Charlie Brown Christmas album was playing in Barnes and Noble… much appreciated.

Yup!

Gentle Rain

2006-12-01T18:16:00.000-05:00

…which apparently will turn into some thunderstorm action later… nice. But seriously, -this- is December weather?! Oy.

Sooo… Glint is indeed making a music video this weekend, ha! Actually, a couple. We met a guy named Jonathan last year in Boston who had some real (music video) chops and until now we really haven’t “used” him for much besides the occasional website clip and filming some live shows. Now, teamed up with Adam’s friend Bob from Wasabi and all his technical expertise (and sweet equipment… why was there a –crane- in my living room last night?!), we will be working through the weekend on videos for “From Me to You” and “One of a Kind.” We’ll probably put them on YouTube once they’re done. I am interested to see how they’ll turn out…

Here is us practicing in the new Orangeburg studio…

Something I think about every now and then… memories, nostalgia. What’s the point? Other than short-term happiness? The value of which I question sometimes? An uncle once advised me to “not fill my head up with memories because otherwise there won’t be room for other things.” I remember not loving the idea upon first hearing it, but over the years I guess(?) it has started to make sense…? I don’t know. I think, on a personal note, sometimes I can get a tad swallowed up in trying to recreate a certain feeling/state of mind based on some old book, movie, place, what have you… so maybe there is some truth to Uncle Ol’s words.

Kind of on a related note… we used to rent this movie when we were little, “The Wizard.” …well I can probably sum this one up without being too wordy: most of the movies I enjoyed as a kid and make a point of watching again as an “adult” just aren’t the same. Exception, off the top of my head: the Ninja Turtles movie –actually- was still pretty awesome. Heh. But seriously, I think it depends on who you watch these kinds of things with, too… I see the movie through the other person’s eyes, in a way, probably since I’ve seen it through mine so many damn times. …I guess the point is I –do- make a point of watching, reading, and going to these movies, (kids) books, and places…

And speaking of memory (this is the last tangent, I swear), tipped off by my visit to the MoMA… I didn’t know the famous Salvador Dali painting was called “Persistence of Memory.” I knew that title as one to an Afro Celt Sound System song I really liked. So now I know who was ripping off who. …anyways. Admittedly, I don’t quite get the title (of the painting)…

I didn’t make it to the jazz jam in Pleasantville last night. :/ It goes from 8:30-11:30 and, I don’t know, it was 8:00, I hadn’t eaten dinner yet, and I just, vegged. This happens a lot. There’s even a keyboard all set up for me there, 88 keys, weighted, the whole bit… I guess I’m just too tired from working all the time, from my usual 6-ish hours of sleep. It sucks because, I could really use the extra bucks (I mean, assuming I can “break into” a local jazz scene and get some gigs out of it). On that note, I –do- have an “audition,” playing at Wasabi on Tuesday night. I’m excited, this could be my chance for a weekly gig. Since we live practically right next to the restaurant, I (with others’ help, no doubt) will bring down the Clavinova piano from our apartment to use. And… a Nyack jazz jam just started up. I think Sundays from 4-7 or something. So now there’s one in my hometown.

We have a mock-up of our liner notes made… I bet the CD will be sent out for duplication shortly after this weekend, when video shooting should be done…

Thanksgiving was alright, lots of family at my house, the usual goofiness and singing-showtunes-and-jazz-standards-around-the-piano… excellent food… the commute is a bit annoying, but at least my car stereo is back to normal (just don’t get me started on how much said car is costing me of late… no, not because of the stereo)…

"What's with 'today' today?"

2006-11-20T22:34:00.000-05:00

(...we watched Empire Records this weekend)

First just let me say… it is frustrating to not be able to post whatever I want here. There are certain things I just can’t/won’t talk about and I guess that’s just inherent to having a public “journal” like this. It feels like 60% of Phil sometimes. But, this won’t stop me from posting, at least for now…

I had a fun weekend… a little expensive, but fun. We’ve been practicing a lot more recently, now that our new studio is set up, and because we are getting more and more NYC/Brooklyn gigs (whoo!). After practice on Friday, I packed up my keyboard in hopes of being able to sit in with our friend Michelle V.’s blues/cover band that night at Casa del Sol (mentioned in many previous posts; the bar/restaurant right below my apartment). Dylan had told me she was playing and if nothing else I wanted to check out some of her set and enjoy a beer at the bar but secretly I was hoping to talk my way into jamming with her. My dad does this kind of thing sometimes, with his trumpet. I wanted to do it, I knew I could, so I prepared for it and showed up, ready to shmooze my way in.

Long story short… it worked, it happened, and it was wicked fun. She does a mix of originals and covers, mostly blues, but also some Alanis, U2, and Sheryl Crow tunes. She’s got a great raspy voice for the more mellow stuff but can also belt it out. Anyways, I sat in on basically the whole last set and got to flex my organ chops on about 5 tunes. Good stuff. It’s what I’d been envisioning all day. Michelle, her friend Tara and I stayed at Casa until closing and then hit Luna, a smoky dive bar for some dancing/chilling before heading back to our apartment to play a rousing game of… charades?! Bed at 4:30… oy. Hardly “rousing,” as Mateus and I were yawning the whole time. Heh.

The next day, Glint had some album art business to take care of… local artist Paul Kostabi is creating artwork for our album and wanted to do some more photos with us. He lives in a tiny little house in Piermont, one town over, and had us… well, I won’t tell you what the photos involved, but they are SO damn cool, and you’ll see them once the album is out. His house was so neat… art, canvases all over the place… a Hammond organ(!) and a bunch of other musical odds and ends (Paul is also a producer and was a founding member of White Zombie!)…

That night, Rob, Dylan, Mat and I decided to have a lil’ barbecue. We picked up one of those Magic Hat “Feast of Fools” variety packs… have I said how much I love Magic Hat? We experimented with this weird charcoal-in-a-box thing that unfortunately yielded some undercooked burgers. Between that, the beer, and Dylan’s almost-White-Russians, it was an… interesting night. At the end of the night (11:30, hehe) I grabbed my guitar and Rob and I began making up songs about Ally Sheedy (the actress from the Breakfast Club who’s not Molly Ringwald)…?! Exactly.

Aaaand Sunday… we decided to hit up the Museum of Modern Art. Thanks to Kevin, Rob’s apartment-mate, we got in for –free- since he works at Chase bank and they have some kind of corporate deal there. Sweeeet. We (Rob, Jase, Adam, Yael and I) hit the Stage Deli afterwards for some ridiculously oversized sandwiches. Everybody finished everything… I was proud of us. On the way back we played a rousing (for real, this time) game of “Rhetorical Answers” (a bit of a misnomer, admittedly), where someone starts by stating an answer and the rest of the group tries to come up with a wacky question to fit. Heh. “Every Friday.” “…Phil, how often do you shower?” You get the idea.

Psyched about Thanksgiving! Heading home to NH!

...huh?

2006-11-16T18:59:00.000-05:00

How did Adam score a free lunch for 15 at his own workplace...?! Hey, free sushi, I'm not complaining... now we just have to convince them (probably some credit card company) that we all work for Rely Records... hehe.

More gigs, already! In the city! Another at Arlene's (they apologized for the door fiasco) and one at the Lion's Den, both in December, both on weekends! Solid. Even though they may prevent me from getting home for Chanukah.

And... I meant to post this last time... I will be shadowing a couple medical physicists at home in NH over the holidays. It's kind of a whole separate "kettle of fish," but suffice to say, I have been feeling a little restless about things and just, if nothing else, would like a "plan B."

Reminiscing about mod 10 days and goofiness with Sam, Becky, and Leah(nardo) my last year in college... good times... playing in the snow, disco-dance underwear(!) parties (fine, just the one, but still)...

Alright, off to practice.

Here's That Rainy Day

2006-11-14T20:30:00.000-05:00

I think there's probably only one person who reads this blog (and I'm not even sure if he does) that gets these jazz standard blog titles I use sometimes.

...I like this weather we’re having. I’ve always liked the rain.

The left side of my car stereo stopped working. It’s a bit annoying, hearing only the right side of mixes for all these songs... maybe one of these days I’ll take some time and investigate. I’ve fixed things in my day.

I had a nice little night to myself last night. Took care of some car stuff, then cooked for myself. I concocted a marinade from some of the wine leftover from the wine and cheese party and some random spices in our cabinet and let the chicken I bought sit in that for a while while I spoke to Roberta, who just returned to Rio, on MSN. Mashed some potatoes... made some green beans (a little overcooked)... not too shabby. And now look who has a sweet homemade lunch at work today. Heh. I also spoke to Shara, who is working at a medical clinic in Brazil herself (in a state in the northern part of the country called Para that my Brazilian-Nyack cohorts laugh/shudder at whenever I mention it... suffice to say, not a nice part of the country), via Skype, and on the phone. Technology is pretty amazing.

The Arlene’s Grocery show went well. I couldn’t really hear myself, which was admittedly pretty annoying, but could tell we sounded pretty good to the audience. I think being a keyboardist, people (sound engineers at clubs) assume I’m playing less important parts or something... ?! I dunno. Anyway, we brought a lot of people out: the Nyack/Wasabi crowd, some old Brandeis peeps now relocated to NYC (Lindsay, Jordan, Nate, and my recent apartment-mate Becky)... I think due to a minor scuff with the door girl about money we may not get asked back to that particular venue (heh), but we made a nice contact on the Tuesday night before the gig that will help us get other NYC/Village gigs.

The Wednesday night big-deal-manager-guy showcase went pretty much how I expected it to. This guy works with Panic! at the Disco in some vein (I think business manager), as well as Warren Haynes/Government Mule, so I went into this hoping we could at least get some sound advice out of this guy. And that’s pretty much what happened. We played 4-5 songs and talked for a while afterwards about signing with a label and how it’s smartest to have a decent following/”buzz” before doing so. He talked about playing out more. I mostly nodded... it all made sense to me. If nothing else, it was good to hear these things reaffirmed by someone like him and cool we brought this guy out at all.

...why on this radio station do they play the –entire- Steve Miller Band “Fly Like an Eagle” intro and outro with all its silly drawn-out synthesizers and NOT the entire Black Magic Woman/Gypsy Queen jam by Santana?! It’s a TRAVESTY

Ahem. Intentionally leaving that without punctuation at the end bothers me. But I’m going to try and let it go.

Tyler called yesterday and told me my old music school in Concord wants our Celtic band to do an alumni concert sometime over winter break... this could be fun.

Our video guy Jonathon is coming down from MA at the end of the month to work on a video with us...

Can you believe they have an energy drink called “Cocaine” on the market?!

Fine, here’s a picture, to change things up a bit... this is Mat, Rob, myself, and Ines at the joint Mat’s birthday/wine-and-cheese party at our apartment last weekend.

Where has he been?

2006-11-02T18:00:00.000-05:00

I’ll tell you where he’s been.

Well… the band has moved studios once again. This will be the fourth one I’ve been in since joining them, first in Boston, then the infamous Worcester firehouse, then the space above the Eisen’s garage in Nyack, and now, adjacent to Adam and Jase’s parents’ house in Orangeburg. This place is like a whole separate mini guest house, where Adam and Jase’s grandmother used to live. We just got a new PA system and things sound really clear through it. And I want to say this is the first studio we’ll have been in without extreme temperature problems… roasting in Boston and Nyack, freezing our asses off (or inhaling propane gas all day long) in Worcester.

Rob and I are going to see this ridiculous concert tonight, check this out… John Medeski, solo, on acoustic piano… and Kid Koala (DJ) on the same bill. I know little about the latter, I’ve only heard one track of his on a compilation disc, but he sounds cool. It sounds like they’ll perform separate sets first and then join for a duet at the end. Medeski is being billed as performing the “music of J.S. Bach and Ornette Coleman.” Heh.

Some noteworthy (pun intended?) events last weekend… I have been guesting with Dylan’s classic rock cover group from around here, Zero Volume Division (how much of a BAND NAME is this?), on some recent gigs. And by gigs I mean an impromptu balcony performance at our neighbors’ apartment (on a Tuesday night, no less) where we played to a crowd of about 30 people below on Main Street before getting cut off four songs in (the police guy came in and literally pulled the plug on us)… and one actual gig this past weekend in New City. The group plays Zeppelin, Doors, and Pink Floyd covers with some other random choice tunes thrown in. I played on Another Brick in the Wall, Comfortably Numb, Peace Frog… L.A. Woman –killed-, I’m sorry. I took the time, I learned the parts (mostly), I found the right sounds, and it really showed on that tune. There weren’t even a whole lot of people there, mostly Nyack-ers we brought with us, but it was just so fun to play with musicians (my age) who take covering songs like that seriously (enough). Andy, the guitarist, is ridiculous… he sounds just like the original recordings. It was a pleasure playing with all of those guys… Dylan, Andy, and Jaime, who is unfortunately returning to Chile very soon. I now have a greater appreciation for that kind of music, which until recently I had only listened sparsely at best… it just ROCKS.

Suffice to say, with a lot of these entries… life day-to-day is pretty good. The long-term freaks me out. Per usual, I guess. Glint has a show coming up next week on the 9th in the Village at Arlene’s Grocery, and is possibly playing a showcase before that for some big-deal manager, so, we’ll see…

Pianos

2006-10-16T10:03:00.000-04:00

Well… Friday was fun. The Non-Commissioned Officers sounded good. It was cool to hear (some of) the movie soundtrack tunes performed. A lot of Lehnings were there… Jordan and Eric on stage, their mom (who guested on vocals on the band’s last song, a Joy Division cover), and Jason who mixed our album. I was impressed with Eric’s vocals… I had met him in Nashville when we were down there for mixing and didn’t take him to be the lead singer type, but he proved me wrong. You just wait… those Lehnings will take over the world someday.

The band they opened for, though, blew me away. “Detachment Kit.” They rocked so hard, and unexpectedly so. The band’s myspace claims they are a “jam band” and I’ll call that quite a misnomer. “That was the hardest I’ve rocked with a turtleneck on.” –Rob. Exactly. The music was “smart,” too, not just rockin’… I don’t really want to try and describe it, but it was pretty innovative. And they really looked the part (I’m sorry but that did add to the show). They had a guy who I would have said was the keyboardist, except he played tambourine for 95% of the show with the keyboard laying untouched in front of him. And by “played tambourine” I mean “totally freaked out on tambourine.” Yeah. Again, adding to the show.

There was also a brief visit with Sabrina outside the club pre-show and some crepes at a hole-in-the-wall joint up the road from Pianos post-show. The music there was way too danceable for a hole-in-the-wall crepe place.

Saturday night I made hot mulled cider that came out a little too sweet… then some of us went out, first to Bruxelle’s and then to the Old Village Inn for a bunch of appetizers and a bunch of discussion about life, jobs, and music… Sunday Rob and I hit Hook Mountain for some picnicking and Philsbeeing (our beloved paper plate frisbee). We watched The Squid and the Whale at night, which Rob built up to be “the lighter side of divorce.” Jeff Daniels was great in it… overall I liked the acting but the subject matter was, maybe needless to say, uncomfortable. …overall it was a pretty low-key weekend, the first in a while, and mostly consisted of apartment-ing and playing with the kitties.

And here I am, back at work on Monday. Exit without looking: PEACE!

Back to the Village

2006-10-12T14:53:00.000-04:00

So looking forward to this: tomorrow night we're going into the city to see a band called The Non-Commissioned Officers at a place called Pianos. Why are we going to see this band? Because it has 2 Lehnings in it (see recent entries), Jordan and Eric. Eric has written/directed and acted in an independent "zombie" movie called Make Out with Violence, and Jordan scored it, and this band will be playing selections from said score. Totally stoked. When we first interviewed Jordan last year he brought in a 9-song demo including some tracks he did for the movie, and I've been listening to it ever since.

Wouldn't it be cool to spend some time in Canada (he said to himself)? Montreal-ish? Toying with the idea of more school in the future and where it would be. The European culture, I could work on my French... I don't know, just musing, but it's a neat thought, living there for a while, having that be a chapter in my life...

Work is work. The band... has finally, FINALLY, received its final mastered copy of the CD. We have been working with local artist Paul Kostabi on album artwork, so once we complete that, along with the liner notes, and send it off for duplication, we should be good to go... in the meantime, we are meeting with our "booking guy" Mike Branning about playing shows around New York (city and state) this fall, branching out from Nyack. Stay tuned...

Make Out with Violence

2006-10-11T14:09:00.000-04:00

Type this into YouTube.com... it's a trailer for Eric Lehning's movie. It looks... way more legit than I imagined it, I have to say. And you can hear Jordan's music in the background.

The autumn leaves...

2006-10-06T14:09:00.000-04:00

Man… I miss a rhythm section. No bassists or drummers to play jazz with around here. I mean, other than posting a couple ads on craigslist, I haven’t really looked, but… eh! We have this legit Clavinova at our increasingly-more-apartment-y apartment (kitties, new kitchen table, restaurant-style pepper mill… heh) and… I’m just jammin’ on it by myself. It’s a travesty, I tell you.

Best idea ever (credit to Rob on this one): a STEERING WHEEL WITH A KEYBOARD IN IT. Picture it… 3 octaves or so, not very long keys obviously, but… you could comp along to your favorite tunes –and- still have your hands on the wheel! Genius.

Lehning madness

2006-10-05T18:32:00.001-04:00

So… a “plug” for two bands I’ve been listening to lately.

Our producer for “Mode to Joy” (the Glint album) was a guy named Jordan Lehning. We met Jordan in Boston last year when we were interviewing potential producers and engineers for the aforementioned album. He came in and totally blew us away with us hip, Beck-meets-Brian Eno original music. He is a multi-instrumentalist to say the least, studied film scoring at Berklee, and comes from a very musical family: his dad Kyle is a well-known producer down in Nashville (where the family is from); his older brother Jason is an “everything man” (Jordan really is too, to be fair) and does producing, runs a mixing studio and has worked with Guster and Alison Krauss in this capacity (he also mixed our album), and plays keyboards; another brother Eric(?) makes movies… bottom line, I’m just a fan. I’ve met the guys, heard the music, and I totally support what they do. I just think they’re great. I was so encouraged, particularly after meeting Jordan and hearing his stuff, that someone our age was creating such intelligent and mature music. I am also in awe of both brothers’ mastery of a certain vintage synthesizer, the Juno 60, most notably used by the Cure, Flock of Seagulls, and the Eurythmics. Both Jordan and Jason very tastefully incorporate it into their music. I bought one months ago and am definitely not (yet?) of Lehning caliber.

Jordan fronts a band called Eureka Gold and Jason plays in a group called The Bees. Both have a bit of a Nashville twang to them but I wouldn’t call either a country act. Alright… one at a time.

The Bees (U.S.) – They have two albums out, “Starry Gazey Pie” and “High Society,” both of which I recently bought, the first of which I’ve been listening to these past few days. It’s pop, sure, but acoustic pop, -smart- pop (ha! …product placement), and without an “I’m-the-shit” lead singer… rather, most of the band sings, and the sound is very reliant on (vocal) harmonies, a big plus in my book. Some critics have compared them to the Beach Boys in this regard. Jason plays acoustic piano as well as the Juno. The guitarist/songwriter Dan primarily plays a 12-string guitar, which is a nice alternative. Fave cuts… “Gravity,” which I’ve been listening to non-stop for the past 48 hours, the slightly Floyd-ish “Sea of Stars,” and “High Society.” (P.S., they added the “(U.S.)” on to their name because there was a band in the U.K. of the same name)

Eureka Gold – A bit more “bombastic.” I’d describe the sound as indie rock and alt-folk-ish, even Beatles-esque at times. Jordan’s group adds an extra guitarist to the lineup, totaling 5 members. They rock more than The Bees but (like his brother’s group) also rely on vocal harmonies, and absolutely know how to mellow out. They’ve got one album out, “When I Was Golder,” and the whole thing is excellent. Very cohesive. Part of the maturity I see in both groups I’m sure comes from the fact that their songs average 3 minutes in length. And not (necessarily) because they’re trying for radio hits, no… because both understand and execute the “less is more” notion. Brevity is the soul of wit, and Jordan is musically a very witty guy. Eureka Gold is like the Mozart of modern rock… I feel smarter listening to them.

“Gooooood stuff!”

Oh, and… last night I went to see my friend Sabrina Stone (-not- the one that comes up on a google search) play at the Bitter End in the Village. She is a guitar-playing singer/songwriter with a real unique voice and some very well-written original material. For those that don’t know, this a pretty famous venue for acoustic music… Bob Dylan used to play there, among others. Sabrina was on after a pretty mediocre chick rock band and really sounded very good. She had gotten a little sick just days before and was forced to alter her setlist to accommodate her limited vocal range, but she definitely rose to the occasion. I think my favorite from last night was “Smurfette,” a tongue-in-cheek blues song about being a 16-year-old white girl living on the upper east side. She had mentioned that she was considering doing a Jamiroquai cover, “Cosmic Girl,” which would have been –killer-, but opted for an Ani DiFranco cover instead (which she totally nailed). Anyways, she brought in a nice crowd and I was glad to be there to support her.

You love cats
And I love ice cream
And since cats like ice cream it’s kinda like you said “I love you”

…heh. Something like that. She’s got some clever lines. She has a newer song with a line like “you’re like that dream that I forgot… but woke up smiling from” and the phrasing of it is just, genius. I have to say.

Look out for these bands/artists in the future… my money is on them.

Oh! Eesh! We have CATS now at our apartment! Heh… really in response to our mouse problem, but cats are cats. They’re little guys… one female who was up for adoption, “Stella,” and one male who was bought as a friend, “Draven(?)”… don’t ask, I missed the naming ceremony. Anyways, they’re freakin’ cute as hell and currently reside in our laundry room.

Stella!

Happy 5767

2006-10-04T00:16:00.001-04:00

Well first a l’shana tovah to anyone celebrating the Jewish new year…

For the past 5 or so years, September has been a particularly busy month for me. School starting, multiple weekend festival gigs with Clan Du, and the High Holidays. Now college is over and Clan Du is on hiatus, but I still attend Rosh Hashanah and Yom Kippur services in some form, somewhere. This year was one of the very few spent away from home (I think I only went to services at Brandeis my first year, and didn’t so much care for them) and to try and sum it all up, while I did miss some aspects of my home temple “scene,” the change was very welcome. A new town and community, a new “service buddy,” my Uncle Sam, a new rabbi and cantor with new things to say. I even got to be glilah yesterday afternoon at services and dressed the Torah. I don’t remember the last time I did that, or if I’ve even done it –ever-, but I had help. It was nice to be even a small part of the services at this temple I had been going to these past 10 days.

Rewind to Friday night… some excellent Indian food at Natraz with Rob. The dance room at Bruxelle’s was –scarily- dead later on when we went out, but at least Rob, Dylan and I got some choice renditions of the Doors’ “Alabama Song” in, wandering around Nyack from bar to bar (as we had been planning… you think I’m joking…).

Saturday we hit an Octoberfest at Bear Mountain Park. The weather wasn’t great, but we made the most of it. It started out as Rob, Mat, Kevin, myself, and Rob and Kevin’s friends Dan and Casey. But then Adam and Yael drove up and joined us, followed by Caroline, her daughter Emma, and Renia. We had a nice time, drinking good beer, eating knockwurst, potato salad and some rather profound WAFFLES, and hucking around the (real) frisbee, thanks to Dan. What else… I must’ve heard the “chicken dance” 5 times throughout the day… Dan got screwed on this contest he entered where you got to jam along with the band on some horn instrument that looked like a long hose with a… well, horn, attached on the end… Rob was the superstar of the afternoon, successfully playing frisbee with us as well as outfielding for a nearby family baseball game… yup. Goodness. We left when it started raining, but the good times kept rolling for me… that night Ines, Mike, Roberta and I hit the Cheesecake Factory for diiiiins. “Really, the only word for it is… mmmmgaaaaahhh.”

Kevin, Dan, Casey, Rob.

Mateus chugs!

And Sunday night to Monday was Yom Kippur. Services and fasting from dinner to dinner. Uncle Sam and I caught the tail end of Kol Nidrei being played by a cellist and violinist prior to Sunday night services, which was nice, especially since this is a tradition at my temple, although the violinist had some slight intonation issues. Monday morning we decided to walk to the temple since it was so damn nice out. The rabbi continued his sermon theme from Rosh Hashanah and this time spoke about the importance of loving the stranger “within.”

Two friends are in a bar, drinking, having a good time. One turns to the other and says, “I love you.” The other looks slightly puzzled and responds “No you don’t. How can you say such a thing when I have not bared my soul to you?"

I’m not going to delve into this any further here, but suffice it to say, this really strikes a chord with me.

And finally… I beat my cousin Josh at ping-pong (albeit “General Grievous”-style… don’t even ask) which means I am now RANKED! Whoo! Number 8 baby!

This entry is a bit like an episode of Scrubs, huh? The abrupt juxtaposition of the fun and the serious? It even throws –me- off a bit… but that’s how it came out of my head.

Arizona smells funny

2006-09-29T10:13:00.000-04:00

And by Arizona I mean Brooklyn (Simpsons reference? Anyone?). I went in to the “city” last night to jam with these guys I found on craigslist. “KEYBOARDIST FROM MARS WANTED” the ad said, so I had to check it out.

After a rousing rooftop photo session with Glint, from which I’m sure you’ll see pictures soon, I hopped into my car and headed to Brooklyn to meet Johnny Mox, a drummer who wanted to jam on some original “soul/punk” music. There was a guitarist as well, whose name I don’t remember, as well as a singer. The music I had heard on Johnny’s myspace reminded me a bit of Bootyjuice, a Boston/NYC band that I saw open for Soulive years ago and fell in love with. I would describe the music as predominantly instrumental, bizarre, and frenetic. Creepy at times. Unison bass/guitar lines… funky yet rocking… fun to play. The guitarist and I locked in on a few choice riffs he and Johnny had written. Johnny is returning to Italy for a couple months but the guitarist and I may get together to jam at some point again while he’s gone. The rehearsal space was cool, a little room on the ground floor of a brownstone.

Friday at work… things are crazy at the end of the month here. Ready to start the weekend. The “crew” may hit an Octoberfest tomorrow a little ways north of here.

Yom Kippur Sunday night and Monday. Back down to Montclair with the extended fams.

…

Autumn in New York

2006-09-26T20:30:00.000-04:00

At one point I considered trying to name every post after a jazz standard, but I realized I wouldn’t get too far before resorting to titles like “Upper Manhattan Medical Group” or “General Mojo’s Well-Laid Plan.” Whether that meant I had actually run out of pertinent song names or I was just trying to weird out any readers. Heh.

Changes at the apartment… two of our guys are moving next door. This will be a good thing.

More antics with the guys from next door… Sunday night Dylan, Rob, and I really wanted to throw the frisbee around but unfortunately said frisbee was nowhere to be found. In desperation, Rob approached me with 10 or so paper plates stacked on top of each other… 5 minutes and some carefully applied duct tape later, we had our very own homemade novelty flying disc that worked so well, none of us believed it. We must have played for 45 minutes. No joke.

Anyways, the Vertigo show Friday went well… what a –crazy- venue! I can see why some residents of Nyack are “scared” of it…it really looks like it was designed by someone on drugs. I am not apt enough with architectural terminology to describe it, but I’ll say this… if Lewis Carroll were to design a restaurant, this is what it would look like. Weird ambiance aside, we sounded pretty good. The stage was wide and not deep, much to Mateus’ dismay, but we managed a decent 4-across setup. There was some –sweet- lighting. And we had a real nice crowd, a lot of people came out, including some old familiar Nyack faces… Michelle V., Tara… even some of Russell Crowe’s(!) “people” showed up (but not Russell himself), since he lives around town, and even partied with us afterwards. Adam had seen them at Wasabi (the Japanese restaurant where he works) earlier that afternoon and invited them to the show.

Raging party afterwards at our place, per usual… 200(!) jell-o shots, among other things… my original plan was to go right to sleep so I could get up at 7:30 to go to Rosh Hashanah services, but I decided to party just for a little while. I’m glad I did, and getting up the next morning proved to be no problem… it was a bit of a trip, walking around in my towel, getting ready for my day while people were still up and partying that early/late, heh…

(There’s currently one jell-o shot left over from the weekend in our fridge… I can’t help but think of the Lorax and truffula trees… “the very last of the jell-o shots…” –sniff-)

Services were really nice. I joined my Uncle Sam and cousin Josh at their temple in Montclair. I was raised going to a reform temple and this was a conservative one, but I was familiar with most of the service. I liked the rabbi… pretty straight-ahead with just enough joking around. The theme of his sermon was “is it possible to love a stranger?” really in reference to American Jews and learning to love and accept the “stranger” land of Israel, using the relationship with his adopted Indian son as a personal example. And the cantor was outstanding. That can really make or break a service and she made it. I did miss the high holiday melodies sung at my temple in Concord though, and harmonizing with dad and Jeff. Anyways, afterwards, uncle, aunt, 3 cousins and Phil all hit brunch, followed by the cousins beating me at ping-pong… again. Apparently there are household rankings, with cousin Ben as the number one seeded player, his brothers and some of his friends beneath him… I was informed I am “unranked.” Heh.

Saturday was a bit of a lost day… Sunday was the most satisfying clean-up day I’ve experienced in a while. The whole damn apartment. Granted, there were jell-o stains everywhere, so something had to be done. Call me a nerd, say what you will, but it just feels so damn good to –clean- like that, have the laundry done, reorganize the room a bit…

Wikipedia… love it. Pointless musing #135… how much does an average Wikipedia browsing “session” look like a Phish setlist? With all the inevitable clicks on links to related articles? For example…

Flat tax, Max Weinberg, Peter Gabriel -> Genesis -> Phil Collins…

(…Wilson, David Bowie, Mike’s Song -> I Am Hydrogen -> Weekapaug Groove…)

…you get the idea. Did you know that the same team of 9 core animators, colloquially referred to by Walt Disney as the “Nine Old Men,” worked on twentysomething animated features in a row? From “Snow White” to “The Rescuers,” spanning almost 40 years?

And last night I discovered you can download sheet music from Amazon.com. I had been wanting to try my classical chops at Chopin’s Nocturne in Eb and had been fooling around with what I could pick out by ear for a while, so I figured, what the hell. $2.75, 6 pages, in .pdf format available for immediate download, printed on neon green paper from Adam’s printer, now sitting on my desk in my room, waiting to be attempted.

Blah blah… bye!

80% Jewish

2006-09-21T09:08:00.000-04:00

Well, I scored an 8 out of 10 on MSN.com's "Jewish holiday quiz." I didn't know the traditional food to eat on Shavuot or that Xerxes 1 had anything to do with Purim. Hm. What are you going to do. Well, at least I passed, I needed a %70 or better to qualify for High Holiday services this year. Phew!

Practices of late have been leaving my ears -ringing.- In an effort to curtail this I tried wearing cover-the-ear headphones last night and it totally worked. Practice was fine (er, except for the out-of-this-world ending jam on Don't Leave Me, which was beyond "fine") and although the headphones were a little tight and made me look like an air traffic controller, I now may not go deaf when I'm 24. Which would be swell.

...Glint @ VERTIGO tomorrow night! 9/22. Main Street in Nyack. 10:00 PM. $10 unless you're cool enough.

The Jew and the Ex-Vegetarian Cook Sausage

2006-09-19T17:51:00.000-04:00

...and if I do say so myself they came out pretty damn well. Rob next door is a writer for a local paper and, in addition to doing music reviews, does food reviews, and gets to go to all these food tasting event-thingys, so after attending a Food Network-sponsored shindig, meeting Emeril, getting free shit, and having risotto cooked for him... he decided he was going to cook (risotto) for us. I volunteered to be his sous-chef, but in a last-minute lineup change, due to the fact that I had cooked before at all, Rob was demoted to sous-chef and I stepped into the spotlight as lead cheftarist. Together in our "e-kitchen of the future" (read: with Rob's laptop set up on the counter so we could google things like "how do you cook sausage?"), we rocked both the risotto -and- the sausage. And since we had/shredded way too much cheese, we ended up having an impromptu wine and (shredded) cheese party while we were cooking. Classy. Except for the shredded part. All this after an exhilarating bike ride to and around the nearby Hook Mountain Park with Mateus. Reclaimed Sunday #455.

"The Jew and the Ex-Vegetarian..." sounds like an Aesop fable... heh...

Man, it would have been a great weekend for camping up in Mohonk... I doubt we'll get to do it now.

The Olive's show was alright. Lots of technical difficulties, but we actually still put on a pretty good show. Decent crowd given that it was raining a lot prior to show time. We've got Vertigo this Friday night, which should be better in the sound equipment field at the very least. The gear there is top-notch. It?s a cool venue... 3 stories high, with only a ceiling on the very top, with the stage jutting out from the 2nd story. It should be quite a party actually... drinks and hors d'oeuvres (seriously)... the kicker is that I'm heading down to Montclair, NJ the next morning, getting up around 7:00(!) to join my Uncle, Aunt, and three cousins for Rosh Hashanah (the Jewish new year) services. I'll be tired. But it'll be good to spend the holiday with the (extended) fams. Phil (uses) too many (parentheses).

Yael bought a live Pink Floyd DVD yesterday at Target, "Pulse," I think from a show in 1987, and we watched some of it last night on our big screen/wall... man. Tom used to call them the "perfect band." I see where he's coming from... everyone gets a say. David Gilmour fucking -kills- on his solos but the drums and thumping bass on "Another Brick" kill as well. And don't get me started on the keyboards. My point (and Tom's) is that it's very much an ensemble cast, performance-wise. They can shred, they can take it slow... they always move you. Pink Floyd. I was just, taken in last night, as I'm sure the other guys were. Nodding my head in disbelief. Maybe some of it was because I hadn't listened to Floyd in a while... you know how that happens, you give that one band or song a little time, then you revisit it and, whoa! I love it! This concert is ridiculous, though... huuuuge stage setup, lights and lasers, backup singers... and none of the band members are showmen. They're making this ridiculous music without breaking a sweat, completely matching the size of the venue, crowd, and show with their sound. Creating something much larger than the sum of the band's parts. The music just speaks for itself. "Shiiiiiiiine on you craaaazy diaaamond..." anyways. Every now and then something hits you.

Being without a cell phone for two weeks... yes, it's been a pain in the ass at times, asking for Dylan's phone to call home or check my messages or order something for dinner... but at the same time, I want to say it's made work a little more tolerable...? When I have my phone next to me on the desk, I'm constantly, constantly checking it for the slight possibility that I may have missed a call or text message or something, even though I know damn well in the back of my mind that I would have heard it vibrate or ring! Without the phone, my hopes rise and fall less.

Fall is coming... there's so much I want to do while the weather's nice. Apple/pumpkin picking, frisbee at Hook Mountain, or soccer, or a picnic... other stuff I can't remember... I like this time of year.

Before I go, some quick product placement: the new french toast Pop Tarts are pretty damn good.

-Phil "New England Slim"

Hi-ho...

2006-09-14T15:31:00.001-04:00

We had a super good practice last night... one of the best I remember. Kro sounded excellent, In This World was real tight... and the jam at the end of Don't Leave Me -killed-. It's hard to have everything "just right" for a good practice like that... the two biggest factors, I would say, are a) attitude and b) being able to hear everything well. That last one may sound like a throw-away statement but it's almost more important than mood and attitude: it has to be there -first-. If everything sounds good, clear and not too loud, nothing wrong with any cables or anything like that, that -allows- a good practice based on a good attitude and focus. If the attitude and focus are there to begin with but the room sounds bad, the latter trumps the former.

Quick weekend update (last weekend)... got into the city with Mateus, Rob, and Kevin. There was a pub crawl in the Village. Fun stuff. I really like those guys from next door. Not to go off on a tangent but I really appreciate them as (guy) friends that I didn't meet through music. I hardly have any of those anymore.

Anyways, yeah... Kevin wanted to watch the Notre Dame/PSU (my school!) game so we hung out at this one bar for a while and nailed some $4 cheeseburgers. I also swung a free Sam Adams and some chicken fingers, so my day was complete. There were 15 bars we could hit and I'd say we hit 6 or 7. Multiple rousing renditions of Journey's "Don't Stop Believing..." a visit to the 80's throwback bar Culture Club... putting our bags down at Alibi and, just -dancing-... heh. Anyways.

Sunday night Jase and Caroline hosted a dinner party at the castle Caroline lives at in Piermont. Yes, a castle. She and her dad live downstairs; an older couple owns the castle and live upstairs. By castle standards it's not that old, about 150 years, but still...! Said couple was gone for a few weeks, so, we took over for a night. This place was... ridiculous. So many damn rooms. It was a bit of a surreal evening. I suppose the surreal cooking had something to do with it.

For those that don't know: gig this Friday at Olive's; gig next Friday at Vertigo.

Staying busy. Bye!

List #1: Significant Songs of the Past Year

2006-09-13T23:20:00.000-04:00

…and my associations with them. Why I’m calling them memorable.

Note: Pretty literally “of the past year:” I started staying at Hogan’s place in Boston September of 2005. I’m calling that a good starting point. Effectively moving out of NH.

In no particular order:

Everybody Wants to Rule the World – Tears for Fears
See last entry.

Sultans of Swing – Dire Straits
Worcester and being downstairs in our lounge at the firehouse; the bar in Nashville; saving me from the mind-numbing oldies at work.

Black Betty – Ram Jam
Being ridiculous with Rob from next door; watching Blow way too many times.

Hollow – Glint (hey, I’m entitled to a little self-indulgence, right?)
A great opening track. Hearing those backgroundish tremolo guitars being recorded on the first part of the song was a real turning point for me. I thought, “wow, we have the potential to record some really moving stuff.”

Now I Know – Glint (so sue me)
I think it’s just my favorite song we currently play.

Don’t You (Forget About Me) – Simple Minds
Walking around a cold, wintery Boston at night… Hogan’s place by Kenmore Square.

Trouble Man – Marvin Gaye
That disturbing movie “Four Brothers” I saw on the plane ride to France; the power of music in a film. I just love the bluesy, slow, soulful feel to this tune.

Kids With Guns – Gorillaz
It’s been with me the whole year.

Glosoli – Sigur Ros
Nailing that interview at EMC. Such a powerful damn tune.

Over Now - Alice in Chains
Moving out of the Boston studio with Glint, laughing about the “yeah we pay our debts sometime” line since we were bailing on the last month’s rent.

Ain’t No Love – Paul Carrack
Am I really putting this one here? One of the many muzak-songs they play at work. I walked in on my first day and heard this song… “they play music over the intercom here? Huh?” Just, the cheesy “come on, let’s go to work!” feeling-high, get-motivated nature of it. Just to be clear: I do -not- like this song. But I am calling it significant.

So that's it. My personal soundtrack for the past year. Sweet.

Everybody wants to rule the world

2006-09-01T11:31:00.000-04:00

:) Oh, this song. It just came on (at work). I've had quite a history with this song.

To me it just, epitomizes the image I have of the 80's and 80's-ness. The "mood" of the song just, saddened me, I remember, when I was little. It had such a specific feeling to it. Emotional, new wave. Suffice to say, I didn't like it.

Sometime in the past year I just wanted to hear that song again. So I downloaded it, liked it, and had my "phase" with it. Looked up the lyrics. Been caught playing it on the piano. I had reclaimed the song.

Then this past spring I was driving to work from Worcester one rainy morning and crashed my car just as this song was ending on my stereo. Needless to say, a bit of a negative association with the song followed, again, albeit a very different kind. I definitely avoided listening to it for a while and even now still avoid it when I'm driving.

And now it comes on KMSR Konica-Minolta Shlock Radio on a rainy Friday morning after a painful and introspective past couple of days and, still taking into account the context in which I'm hearing it (buried amongst what I'll simply call old dumb pop), it's just nice to hear. A song I'm familiar with, a song I've been through a lot with.

Things that will be with me through anything: music, and my family. No matter what.

The fams and the friends

2006-08-29T21:45:00.000-04:00

So much to write about. Alright, well, it was another good weekend, for starters.

We (Glint) were supposed to have our CD release party this past Friday at this big ol’ club called Vertigo here in Nyack, but the booking guy forgot he had booked the last Friday of every month for this DJ, so we got ousted (that and, the CD’s not finished yet… more on that later, maybe). We couldn’t do the next night because Adam was at a wedding, …it just got rescheduled to September 22nd, but the point is, mom and dad were supposed to come down for the gig. I have two uncles in the area that got word of all this and were planning on coming to see the band themselves, so in the end, since we had all blocked off the time anyway, we met up in Manhattan for a swanky dinner. Uncle Sam, Aunt Alex, and cousin Josh came from NJ; Uncle John and Aunt Stacey came from NY, just across the river from me. Just a nice mini-extended family reunion.

And the night before, I showed mom and dad around Nyack. We hit Casa del Sol for dinner (the entrees… eh, not bad… the chips, salsa, and tableside-prepared guacamole… awesome), and were planning on returning there later to rock the open mic night (as much as bossa nova music can rock anything) but it turned out they had scheduled a band instead. No matter... we had a jam session at our apartment instead, featuring dad on trumpet. Ines, Jamie, and some other peeps stopped by so we ended up having a bit of an audience anyway. I think mom and dad had a good time. They got to see my new “stomping grounds” and meet some of my new cronies.

After dinner on Friday we drove back to NJ for the night and the next day I got to hang and be a moron with my cousins, Josh, Ben, and Jordan (age 15, 13, and 10, I think). Highlights…

-Bagels for breakfast
-Walking to get bagels for breakfast (just a nice cool and overcast morning to be walking outside)
-Getting beat by all three cousins at ping-pong (last but not least by ten-year-old cousin Jordan)
-Beating Josh at this Star Wars video game (yes! redemption!)
-Uncle Sam donating a bunch of Stella Artois to me upon our departure

…which leads me to the party Saturday night. It was our friend Jamie’s birthday, so we let her convince us to have a party at our place, especially since she and her friends took care of the keg(s). Overall a fun time. The obligatory jam session started off with some bossa nova… “Wave,” I think… then mutated into some Santana, with yours truly trying to sing above the party banter (until Roberta shoved a microphone at my face, hehe). Oh and some guy was –breakdancing-. To Santana. Yeah. I mean if that’s not a sign of a good party, I don’t know what is.

Sunday:
-Slept wicked late
-Avoided cleaning
-Too much laughing with our neighbors Rob and Kevin
-Ran outside in the rain storm with Rob and Kaley
-Watched “Half-Baked”

…again, am I really allowed to have this kind of fun on a Sunday? I feel like I’ve reclaimed the day as actually just another day in the weekend, not having to do any homework or be at work-work. This newfound freedom is strange.

I’ve had some silly musings, mostly musical, I’ve wanted to write about… but this post, like most of my others, is too long, so, later…

Casa-taco weekend

2006-08-22T23:27:00.000-04:00

Alright, well, I don’t like to brag, but… I think that was pretty much the best weekend ever. I don’t know if they get better than that.

The show went well. We played at this Mexican restaurant/bar, Casa del Sol, right below our apartment on Friday night. I think one of my favorite moments was actually during soundcheck, when we were playing to people that were just finishing their dinner and (I would have guessed) not intending to stick around for this rock band that was about to take the stage. We played “Now I Know,” which is just, a catchy, disco-dance-y head nodder of a tune and, we really got peoples’ attention. They gave us a nice earnest round of applause. Sometimes I get a little down about the fact that we’re playing in the band’s hometown, if even maybe just “for now,” and getting compliments from friends and family, which are nice, but not objective… so this felt pretty good. Anyways, the rest of the show went well. We’d been practicing all week and it showed (except for “Loneliest Motel,” heh).

Raging party afterwards at our apartment…

…I am starting to learn what my criteria for a good party is, and I think at the top of the list is dancing to Jamiroquai with a small group of people. With some MJ thrown in. Hell yeah.

I also did my first keg stand(s).

Sunday, I played tennis for the first time in, years. Beautiful day for it. Adam and I drove down to the courts by the Hudson and played a (wimpy) 45 minutes, then Mateus and I met up with Roberta and Ines later that afternoon at the pool where Ines lifeguards and swam and hung out there until dinner time. We got to talking about tacos, and good beer, and I started preaching the word of Magic Hat #9, and… boom, the idea for a taco night was born. It had been a while since the last one, in Worcester… months!

Playing cards and looking cool... by the pool.

Boats on the Hudson.

Mateus and I went shopping and went right to work when we got back. We had just cleaned the apartment that morning… the girls got dressed up… jazz and salsa music playing… it had a real dinner party vibe to it. Roberta’s impromptu black bean, cheese, and scallion concoction was amazing. And finally I was drinking Magic Hat out of the Magic Hat pint glass and not Natty Ice. I’m still buzzing from it all Monday morning. I felt like, “is this really allowed on a Sunday night?” We hosted a pretty damn nice evening, Mateus and I, if I do say so myself.

Roberta and hippie Phil.

(and for those that know me and my taco-eating history, no, I definitely didn’t break any records)

It feels so good to be making something of my weekends like this. This is a reflection of a few things… being out of school and not having homework, the fact that Nyack is a “cooler” town than Worcester, Waltham, or Concord, but also definitely because of the full time job. If the downside of being the only one in the apartment in such a situation is the clashing of sleep and party schedules, the upside is the contrast I personally get to appreciate between work week and weekend. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m not getting much sleep, but I am having fun. And I’m 23 so that’s o.k. for now. ☺

Also, P.S., just so “everyone” knows, due to my neurotic organizational nature, I’ll be posting some pictures from past shows, the wedding, etc., in the post I originally talked about those events. So uh, keep scrolling down. Cool.

Hm, title...

2006-08-17T08:49:00.000-04:00

“I’m against picketing, but I don’t know how to show it.” – Mitch Hedburg

Hehe.

I’ve become a Wikipedia fan. Good stuff.

I have been busy… good busy, but busy. I got back to Nyack Sunday night after the wedding and we’ve been practicing every night since then for the Casa del Sol show this Friday. –And- having people over after practice a couple of those nights. Crazy. I half-jokingly think of Oregon Trail, when you’re setting a pace for your wagon… “grueling: you go non-stop every day and your health suffers.” Not that my health has been “suffering” per se, but man, I sure could use some more sleep. It reminds me of my lab-by-day, radio-station-by-night summer a few years ago in school. Except everything then was within walking distance. Heh. So goes the life of a… just check my tagline.

Over and out…

Moonlight in VT

2006-08-16T20:30:00.000-04:00

The wedding! Was, awesome. For anyone that doesn’t know, I’m referring to my buddy and former bandmate Myles and his longtime girlfriend Dominique.

A successful canoe ride(!) from the church.

Dylan (bassist from Glint) needed to get to New England that weekend as well, since he had a gig back in Braintree, so we found ourselves scurrying around New York Thursday evening with our respective weekend luggage, trying to make the 8:00 “Fung Wah” Chinatown bus to Boston. I do like any excuse to get into the city... it was a nice day to be outside and nice to have a travel companion to shmooze and take in the city scenery with. We met a yoga instructor on the train from Nyack… if I may make a generalization here, I’ve found that people involved with yoga tend to be very socially comfortable people.

Right. The wedding. It was such a nice change of scenery (and weather… in the 70’s!). It took place in the rural Vermont town of Greensboro, in the northern part of the state, probably only an hour from Canada. We’re talking, don’t-leave-the-water-running-too-long, “take a left down the dirt road and follow that for a mile or so” Vermont. Very pretty, and peaceful… right on a lake. The ceremony took place at the town church, but the rest of the weekend was centered around the Matteson’s summer house, just up the road. This thing was built in 1912 by (I’m guessing) Myles’ great grandfather (maybe great-great?) and is –huge-. The Mattesons will tell you it sleeps 22 people. They had done a lot of work on it since I’d seen it years ago and it looked amazing.

I got a real kick out of being a groomsman. Being part of that “team,” not just a guest. There were –seven- of us (including my brother), more than I’ve ever heard of at a wedding. It was fun being an usher, all spiffed out in my suit, seating aunts and grandmothers. Heh. Myles had asked me to play piano for the processional, a song off of Dominique’s recent album (she is an excellent singer and harpist) and it went off without a hitch. And I don’t think I’ve ever been to a wedding where church bells actually rang after the ceremony. I was kind of tickled at that one.

La famille Selesnick.

It was one of those days where you felt tired before your normal bedtime because of all the activity (er, for those of us going to bed around midnight). Lots of contra dancing… a short-lived but nice Clan Du reunion set… Dad, Jeff, and I played some jazz, again at Myles’ request, amongst all the Celtic and folk music and musicians, which was well received… kegs of Smuttynose beer, a New Hampshire microbrew… some frisbee action… nice to see my family again… don’t try mixing white wine with fruit punch because it’s about as good an idea as mixing Magic Hat #9 beer with vanilla ice cream (what moron and his friend Hogan would do such a thing?)… awesome. At night we had a huge bonfire on the back lawn, complete with a very Wet Hot American Summer/Napoleon Dynamite end-of-the-movie-weird-guy-proving-himself-at-the-talent-show fire dancing exhibition by the day’s token weird kid, backed up by Mike MacNintch, friend of the Mattesons, on bagpipes. It was actually pretty cool, kind of like a raver with glowsticks, except with three-foot long ball-and-chain things on –fire-. Yeah. I was impressed.

The new extended family.

Oh! Heh. And the bachelor party. No, no strippers, nothing like that. The groomsmen and some friends “kidnapped” Myles from an all-too-peaceful Friday evening post-dinner shmooze session, blindfolded him (read: someone threw a t-shirt over his head), threw him in the back of the van, and drove off to a field to have a bonfire and cookout. We toasted and “here-here”-d, told stories and limericks, drank good beer (a nice change of pace from all the PBR and Milwaukee’s Best at the Nyack apartment parties) and ate way too many s’mores and American cheese-topped hot dogs.

Jeff and Ted in the van after successfully kidnapping Myles.

Overall, a great weekend. Congrats to Myles and Dom. And props to the Mattesons for putting on such an affair.

Is it really August?

2006-08-08T09:32:00.000-04:00

(I'm going to throw something at that woman who coughs all the time... stop smoking, hon, do yourself and everyone else a favor... honest to god...)

Ahem. Anyways.

Pretty good weekend. The show went well. We spent almost all of Saturday setting up, moving the Clavinova digital piano (kind of a pain in the ass, admittedly, but worth it in the end sonically), soundchecking, and pimping out the stage with tapestries and candles. Adam wanted to give it the "Alice in Chains Unplugged" vibe (which apparently meant lots of candles) since it was an acoustic show. We even had some sweet lighting, thanks to Evan and Jonathan's help. It was a long and at times stressful afternoon... Jase's guitar was feeding back and he broke a couple strings... I cut myself shaving (who needs to know this?!) and wasn't too thrilled with the outfit I picked out, although it did involve some pretty stylin' pinstripe pants (thanks Vicky)...

...in the end, our patience and persistence paid off. We finally got a nice sound out of everything and rocked the show. The Marilyn Manson(!) cover sounded good, "Coma White," as did Jase's new tune "One of a Kind." Some of our jammier tunes are good, yes, but songs like these last two sound more professional than the others because everyone's parts are more set in stone. We also worked up an older Glint song, "Don't Leave Me," one I've always been a fan of. The local radio guys were impressed and have rebroadcasted the show a couple times since Saturday night. And we were asked back on a monthly basis. I'll try and post some pics when I get them because the stage really looked awesome.

And before all that I had a nice little Saturday morning to myself strolling around sunny Nyack. After the haircut (god it's nice to have short hair again) I hit up one of the thrift stores, got a shirt and some nice bookends (for my growing Dr. Seuss book collection) for $5 total, then hit the library to apply for a card. I've almost finished the book I've been reading for (too embarrassed to say years) and have been amassing a small list of books I want to read in the meantime, so I figured, what the hell. Once I get the Volvo down here in a couple weeks (if I decide it's really worth the extra $$ for gas, etc.), I won't have that reading-on-the-bus-ride-home time anymore, really the only time I -have- been reading, but I'm hoping I will make the time. Besides that, the library has a pretty nice DVD collection, and for those that don't know, we just happen to have a totally sweet projector and large white wall for watching such DVD's with/on at the apartment. Hell yes.

Alright, enough for now. Oh and Jonathan's Nashville documentary rocks. It's 12 minutes long and nicely chronicles our time there (although I wouldn't have minded seeing footage from the bar, eating local "po boy" sandwiches, playing darts, and listening to the all-too-appropriate-sounding for Nashville "Sultans of Swing" by Dire Straits, one of my new favorite tunes, on the jukebox... such a complainer Phil!). We're going to try and post it on the site soon.

Wednesday night I am -finally- going to this jazz session in Orangeburg, 10 minutes away, that I've been hearing about for weeks now but until now couldn't get to because I didn't have a car (I'm borrowing Adam's car this week, since he's in Nashville [yes, again] with Jase mixing the last two songs we added on this past month and mastering the whole album once more). I'm excited to network with local jazz guys, to finally strut my stuff, to play that kind of music again.

There are good things in my life right now. Some neat people and lots of things happening. Our apartment is great, our neighbors are cool guys and Nyack is a cool town. Sometimes it's hard to focus on what's positive because my future is still uncertain and I do have my doubts and frustrations with the band. And the job, the job is alright, it's not excellent. The living situation is a little crazy at times... that's a topic for another day. But I'm sticking with all of this because the bit of "life" I experience here is nice... cooking for myself, open mic nights, being able to go into the city... even the little things like shopping or applying for a library card... and also because I believe -someone- will take notice once this album is out. I can't wait to be on the other side of that fence. Having a CD, a product (and a pretty damn good one at that), will make such a difference.

Bossa nova!

2006-08-04T16:58:00.000-04:00

Well I'll be damned. We open mic'd it last night and, killed. I mean, kind of. It went over well. I'm just surprised we ended up doing it so soon. Roberta sounded more confident on all the tunes in practice, so we made some arrangements and convinced ourselves tonight was the night. Er, last night. Right.

Mateus and I lugged the Clavinova downstairs and in the back door of Casa del Sol... some of the house band musicians joined in, on acoustic guitar and hand drum... everyone was smiling and having a good time.

Our setlist (ha!):

Wave
The Girl from Ipanema
Tarde de Itapoa
Desafinado

These are all bossa nova standards, mostly by a guy named A.C. Jobim.

It feels good to be playing something remotely close to jazz again. I impressed one of the house band guys too, which was cool. Anyways.

Acoustic gig (Glint) this weekend at the Hudson House. Apparently they make a ginger martini there. May have to try it. And I just got word that Jonathan, our video guy, is coming down for the weekend to record the show but also to show us a DVD he made of all the footage we shot in Nashville last April (while we were mixing the album)! Again, stoked. We've been waiting to see this stuff for a while.

This damn muzak...

2006-08-03T08:34:00.000-04:00

Seriously. They pump muzak through the intercom where I work. I'd say I like 1 song for every 20 they play... Sultans of Swing comes on every now and then, Oasis, Sting... but mostly it is SHLOCK (I've really been liking that word lately... shlock!). Would I rather it go away completely, though? Hm. Adult-contempo music or none at all?

Anyways... here I am at work, about to start the day, ...I guess this is when I feel like posting the most, for some reason?

Last night Mateus and I watched "Be Cool" (is this a sequel to something?). I think I liked it, but there was something about it I just couldn't put my finger on... a -tad- bit cheesy, way way too many cameos/big stars... yeah, there was some pretty lame acting. We tried to watch Wayne's World 2 first, but like most of Adam's DVDs (heh), it skipped to high heaven.

Thursday! :) Awesome. Thursday means open mic night at Casa del Sol, right downstairs, and $2 Coronas. I wish it were easier for me to take part in one of these things... I guess all it'll take is keeping the Nord (keyboard) at the apartment instead of the studio, and just bringing it down... I don't know. I don't think I'd want a bunch of other guys playing it, to be honest. But it would be cool to add some ORGAN to some of those Santana/latin jams the house band does...

And before that, Roberta is coming over to jam on our usual 3-4 bossa nova/A.C. Jobim tunes. She is a little shy about singing into a microphone, so I'm not sure if performing at the open mic is in the near future, but we'll see. I was saying to Mateus, I like the "instrumental exclusivity" of our little trio... piano, hand drum, voice. Chords, rhythm, melody. Everyone's got their own "thing." It reminds me of that one gig Tyler, Alissa and I played years ago at one of the Concord auditoriums with Ty on cittern, Alissa on cello, and me on conga drum. Technically an offshoot of Clan Du but the vibe was more Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon (mostly thanks to Alissa). Yeah. Anyways. Alright, time for work.

Three little things

2006-08-02T09:04:00.000-04:00

1) The "Tappan ZEExpress" bus gets me to work faster, giving me 40 extra minutes of sleep in the morning.
2) Haircut this Saturday. This long hair is frustrating. Time to chop it off and look all good for Myles' wedding.
3) Tom says he's recovered some video tapes of the last few Edition shows and is putting them on his computer! I'm really pretty stoked about this. Our last Chum's show, in February... our outdoor Springfest show... awesome. Nothing with dad or Jeff, unfortunately, but hey.

So it begins?

2005-08-14T15:47:00.000-04:00

Do I really want a blog? I'm not sure. I really just started this so I could post on other blogs. So we'll see. :P