Shot Out The Holiday Cannon

OK, OK, OK, I got the lights up here and at my folks house! And at my friend/client Tom's as well. Actually I got my folks lights up in October...they're a lot more work and more elaborate, I should just leave them up all year. Cyn and I will go and get a tree today from our good friend Duke, who drives his trees down from his farm up north and lives for a month in his Airstream trailer up on Washtenaw Avenue purveying them, making most of his cash for the year that way.

This holiday stuff is a little much sometimes, as I wind up having to shift things around with the cleaning biz (everybody's schedule changes at once), and lots of my friend's bands seem to have emergencies where I do sub gigs (I have two this weekend). Plus friends and family descending on us at unexpected times, social obligations popping up like mushrooms on a muggy day, Cyn's got the most crazy busy time of the year for her jewelry business, and there's a general frenzy in the stores. That said, I love this time of year...I love the lights on people's yards, the music, the sense of excitement that I feel everywhere, and maybe there's a little aura of spiritual energy that comes from having the central yearly celebration for at least three major religions happening at once. Plus, there's pie. It's cool.

Another cool thing going on is that I seem to be in another band! The Mobsters have made me an offer I couldn't refuse...looks like I'll be doing the Front Man/Lead Singer/Lead Guitarist duties for this Swing/Funk/Roots ensemble. Sounds like fun to me! They've assured me that I can have full control of the schedule, so I can keep doing my primary caregiver thing with my folks, and I'm hoping that works out well. They're a cool bunch, and I think I can help make it happen with them...I'll keep you posted!

Speaking of my caregiver functions, I'm back and forth this next two weeks (adding another layer into the holiday complexities) driving my Dad back and forth to the hospital for a battery of tests. His mental acuity seems to have taken a dive, and he's had some strange hallucinations. Talking to people who aren't in the room occasionally is kind of disturbing. He's also gotten confused later at night when he goes to bed...the other morning my Mom woke up and found the dishwasher sitting in the bedroom! Somehow he must of confused it with his walker. I asked him if he remembered doing it and he said "No, but I sort of remember thinking 'Man, this thing is hard to push around!'". So we've been off to the neurologists to see what there is to do, if anything, about that. So far the doc has ruled out Alzheimer's, thank God. He said it may be something as simple to address as a vitamin deficiency...so hence the tests. Hopefully he'll be right in that, and Dad won't have to lug that darn dishwasher around.

Anyhow, I'm looking forward to having everybody around this Xmastime...it was nice to see my bros on Thanksgiving, and everybody should be here for the December fiesta as well. I'm lucky that everybody can make it and be in reasonable health, we're a pretty close family, even though we're often pretty far away from each other(me on tour in Germany, Aaron out in Poland, Stu working in Chile, etc.). This should be a good time for all! And I hope, for you all as well.

A Difficult Week

I've had better weeks, I guess...

This one started with Cynthia's Mom and Brother stopping in to attend the Vietnam Veteran's annual Pig Roast. Now Ellen and Steve are delightful people and I was glad to have them about, but coupling being a house-host with an overbooked work week made things a bit hectic. The Pig Roast was a complete success, by the way...Steve volunteered to stay overnight at the VFW and help some of the other guys do the long BBQ thing. He really is an excellent guy. I managed to get my folks out to it as well, and my rather aging and infirm Dad was greeted by the crew there as a WW ll Vet should be, with honor. I think he was rather nonplussed by that. The entertainment of the event turned out to be an amazingly smarmy Elvis impersonator! Cheese city, man.

Tuesday I got the news from my Mom that my aunt Marg had passed away. We had known that her cancer had metastasized, but I'd been hoping there would be a little more time, if for nothing else than the chance for my Mom and her other sister Ethel to get to see her again. I guess she went very quickly and peacefully. When I think of what a wonderful woman she was and of all the kindnesses that she has done me in my life, I feel both grateful to have known her and sad and angry at losing her. I still don't take mortality and entropy well at all, and I don't know if I ever will. If there is justice in the Universe she should be going somewhere fantastic. As many times before, I wish I had faith of that, but one can't really just wish for faith. Maybe someday it will be given me, though.

The rest of this week has been divided between spending as much time with my folks as I can and rushing about doing lots of work with Di Medici Domestic, mostly crawling around under things and exorcising spiders. That and perhaps drinking a few too many beers at the end of the night. Now that I finally have a day off I feel like I can put things into a better perspective, relax and plot my next move...maybe even get some time in the studio! I still have to get with my parents, and I'm still trying to deal with losing my aunt, but perhaps doing some creative work will help. I'm hoping so! Plus a bit of Doing Absolutely Nothing is good therapy for anyone, and I intend to try that as well.

Family, Festivals & Hummingbird Wars

Just in from coffee on my front porch...here in the boonies we get a lot of wildlife, and one of the coolest things happening this week is the huge amount of hummingbirds we get coming to our nectary feeders! For those of you who might not know, hummingbirds migrate all by their little selves (they're too feisty to hang in flocks, but imagine if they did! Bzzz), and from here in Michigan they go pretty much non-stop to Lousianna, where they take a break to refuel on the local flowers. Then they fly again non-stop ALL THE WAY ACROSS THE GULF OF MEXICO. That's like 500 miles across open water! Crazy. So they've gotta feed up here, and they often double their weight, and wind up looking like little feathered tennis balls before they go. As you might imagine, our feeders are very popular, and the Hummingbird Nectary Wars Of 2008 are in full swing. These tiny guys are very territorial and really have some amazing dogfights over the feeders. We've added new feeders and are gonna get more, probably today. It's very cool to watch them as closely as we do, they're beautiful and fascinating.

Friday we had our first gig with The Infinitones, out at the Crossroads Festival in Ypsilanti. As is the fate of all new bands, we opened for two other bands, the White Ravens and Muruga's Free Funk band. And also as with all opening acts, we followed the standard etiquette: Headliner sets up first (and does the first sound check), then next act sets up in front of them, and so on. That way the equipment can be hauled off in layers and the time between acts is lessened. Thing was, Muruga's band had 9 people in it!! With lots of equipment for each player...and a separate drum platform for the tabla player...and then the White Ravens had their keyboards up...so we were pretty cramped up there! Very little foot room. I didn't really have enough space to turn around to cue Dan the drummer much, although I didn't really need to...he's always on top of that. We played pretty well all in all, and had fun too. The Ravens sounded great and Muruga and his band are all stellar players, so I think a splendid time was had by all, really. I used my Cort Matt Murphy Signature guitar, the Fender Deluxe Reissue and the Vox Tonelab LE, and I was pretty happy with the tones. That Tonelab solves a lot of problems for me since it's so easy to program, so small (on a stage like that, very handy!) and sounds so warm and good. I still love my old analog pedals, but for now this is working really well.

Bad news on my family health front. My aunt seems to have had a re-emergence of her lymphoma. Of course my Mom is very upset indeed, as am I. I've been trying help as much as I can with my Dad's condition (he has Parkingson's Disease and is pretty shaky sometimes), but it seems everybody in their age group is having some real challenges. My aunt didn't make it out to the family reunion this year, and I'm thinking of trying to talk my Mom into going out to Montana to visit her, while I wrangle my Pa. That should be hilarious. As I've said before, this growing old is not for sissies! I know this is probably affecting my mental health too, but at this point I don't have time for that so I'll just soldier on and put out what fires I can. Later if things get better I can schedule a nice mental breakdown, and a comfortable rest in a nice white room with the men in the nice white coats. Ahh...

At some point in this next week I'm resolved to march into my studio and start recording again. I told Steve from the Buzzrats that I'd be working on bass for his new album, and it's time to go and see what I can do. Looks like about 16 songs! Ah, that Steve, ever the prolific songwriter. Once I get started it'll be fun...maybe I'll sneak some Electric Sitar on a few tracks as well. Hehheheh...

The new blog home

So I'm finding that I have to move my headquarters to new digs! While I'll include copies of this log on my other sites, I think that this spot right here will be central for now. We'll just see how it all works, and if I can tie my other sites to this tether! The layout should look nice anyhow.

I'm sitting here with an insistent cat on my lap (Isis the Abbyssinan, a serious love junkie), just minutes before I leave for a foray into the Big City and a quick visit with friends Death Kitten and the Six Foot Poles, who are playing a gig in Liberty Plaza. I'm hoping I'll have a little time after to get back into the studio and work for a while...between trying to maintain this old farmhouse and help out my aging parents, I'm not getting nearly enough time to work on the new CD! There are lots of strange ideas boiling around in my backbrain, and they're gonna blow if I can't get them out onto some virtual vinyl. Of course, they may blow anyway, but I still have to record them. The voices tell me to!

This is also the first day in a couple of weeks without the constant pain I've had in my back...not to whine too much, but after a while it does grate on you. Perhaps the chiropractor's tender ministrations have finally done their good work. I sure hope so! Between me hurting and having to deal with my Dad's problems with his fractured hip, I've been in an ongoing invalid mode...it just feel so good to take a breath without that "stabbed in the back" sensation. There, whine over!

Now I'm off to check with the guy up the road who has the Rhode Island Reds to see if there's any fresh eggs available (living in the country has its perks!), and thence off to Liberty Plaza. I'm gonna try to see my friends from Treatment Bound this evening, too, if the studio doesn't suck me into its evil hypnotic embrace...