hi
i don't have time to do a big, true post, but maybe i'll surprise myself. (ed. note: he surprised himself) it's the greenwood car show today in my neighborhood, so it's crazypants outside. we're heading out to maple valley to see kelly's mom today, somewhat later than now. kelly's in the kitchen embarking on a baking project, so i can't imagine we're leaving anytime in the immediate future. life has been interesting and full lately. we went to italy toward the end of may, me and kelly and jen and erik and kris. kelly and kris and i flew in to venice, we spent three nights there, then a train to spend two nights in florence, and another train to spend three (or possible four) nights in rome. it was pretty fantastic, all around. more than worthy of its very own post, but yeah.
shortly before that i took a trip (i've spent a lot of time on planes recently) down to phoenix to meet my dad, and drive with him in his motor home back up here to the northwest. his wife, my step-mom, died on may 2nd of a fall from a cliff when they were out hiking. there are many dimensions and layers of reaction and emotion and speculation and expectation of consequence involved in this state of affairs. i had a really good time driving back here with my dad, whom i haven't seen too terribly much of in recent years, primarily due to the influence of the deceased. lots of hours of idle chat, serious chat, companionable silence, etc. it was very nice.
fascination street had its last and final [sic] show a couple weeks ago, at the tractor, one of the venues in seattle that has always been on my list of places i want to play someday. it sold out, the place was packed and jumpin, we made more money than ever before, and in general it was a great coup de grace. sean is moving to chicago, is wherefore the endingness, finality, etc. all of which leaves a band-shaped hole in my life, and one i've been craving for some time, if truth be told, the hole that is. the appeal of that band had palled for me, to a large extent, and was becoming more than anything an impediment to me feeling comfortable moving on in any substantive way. as i've written here numerous times in the past, i have yearnings toward starting/joining a band that lies closer to the axis of my own personal musical interests and tastes, yearnings that have continually butted up against my own shyness, my own a priori armchair determination that the genre or direction in which i wish to creatively flounder is of a kind rendering the likelihood of finding like-minded folks, band mates, aural compatriots, if you will, somewhat less than likely. however, i did meet with a couple musicians recently, andrew the bass player and gem the singer, who are interested in putting together a sort of early jazz, americana, blues thing. sigh. this subject makes me tired. i was also thinking this morning that i would like to have a songwriting partner, someone to suggest harmonic departures, lyrics, melodic ideas, all of the above, but primarily harmonic ideas. my harmonic instincts are most distressingly pedestrian, it pains and humbles me to admit. overall this area of my life remains in a shambles. i still do open mic, though not terribly frequently recently, what with flying hither and yon, etc.
the writing portion of my life is also on something of a hiatus, due probably equally to being busy a lot lately and to kelly not being in an esoterics project right now, meaning that she's home on tuesday nights, meaning that skedaddling for the entire evening on a random school night (namely tuesdays) becomes much more of a negotiation-heavy, fraught-with-emotional-implication-type undertaking. however, i am poised to make my entrance into the world of publishing (self-publishing, that is) with one of my novels in particular. this spring i got extensive notes from both larry and akiva on 'summertime', took a major break in working on my current new project, re-wrote the ending almost entirely, did a line-by-line read-through/revision, and have since resubmitted the manuscript to them (larry and akiva and mom and dad, that is) for, hopefully, one more round of notes. the idea is that, as soon as i get those notes and make any changes i feel necessary therefrom, i will use the cover art lara so kindly made up for me and pop that bitch up on amazon for sale. at which point i will, i suppose, embark on some sort of marketing push (and herein lies an entire world of worry and impotence, but one thing at a time) and see if i can sell two or three of them. after that i have two more completed novels that could do with a serious looking-at, but that could then follow into the jaws of (something cleverly daunting and judgment-ridden).
fortunately i have all this free time in which to do all of these things. <--rather obvious attempt at take-pity-on-me/gosh-aren't-i-interesting, self-deprecating/aggrandizing sarcasm, presumably with accompanying aw-shucks arm movement heavy on the elbow.
this was fun. we should do this more often.
shortly before that i took a trip (i've spent a lot of time on planes recently) down to phoenix to meet my dad, and drive with him in his motor home back up here to the northwest. his wife, my step-mom, died on may 2nd of a fall from a cliff when they were out hiking. there are many dimensions and layers of reaction and emotion and speculation and expectation of consequence involved in this state of affairs. i had a really good time driving back here with my dad, whom i haven't seen too terribly much of in recent years, primarily due to the influence of the deceased. lots of hours of idle chat, serious chat, companionable silence, etc. it was very nice.
fascination street had its last and final [sic] show a couple weeks ago, at the tractor, one of the venues in seattle that has always been on my list of places i want to play someday. it sold out, the place was packed and jumpin, we made more money than ever before, and in general it was a great coup de grace. sean is moving to chicago, is wherefore the endingness, finality, etc. all of which leaves a band-shaped hole in my life, and one i've been craving for some time, if truth be told, the hole that is. the appeal of that band had palled for me, to a large extent, and was becoming more than anything an impediment to me feeling comfortable moving on in any substantive way. as i've written here numerous times in the past, i have yearnings toward starting/joining a band that lies closer to the axis of my own personal musical interests and tastes, yearnings that have continually butted up against my own shyness, my own a priori armchair determination that the genre or direction in which i wish to creatively flounder is of a kind rendering the likelihood of finding like-minded folks, band mates, aural compatriots, if you will, somewhat less than likely. however, i did meet with a couple musicians recently, andrew the bass player and gem the singer, who are interested in putting together a sort of early jazz, americana, blues thing. sigh. this subject makes me tired. i was also thinking this morning that i would like to have a songwriting partner, someone to suggest harmonic departures, lyrics, melodic ideas, all of the above, but primarily harmonic ideas. my harmonic instincts are most distressingly pedestrian, it pains and humbles me to admit. overall this area of my life remains in a shambles. i still do open mic, though not terribly frequently recently, what with flying hither and yon, etc.
the writing portion of my life is also on something of a hiatus, due probably equally to being busy a lot lately and to kelly not being in an esoterics project right now, meaning that she's home on tuesday nights, meaning that skedaddling for the entire evening on a random school night (namely tuesdays) becomes much more of a negotiation-heavy, fraught-with-emotional-implication-type undertaking. however, i am poised to make my entrance into the world of publishing (self-publishing, that is) with one of my novels in particular. this spring i got extensive notes from both larry and akiva on 'summertime', took a major break in working on my current new project, re-wrote the ending almost entirely, did a line-by-line read-through/revision, and have since resubmitted the manuscript to them (larry and akiva and mom and dad, that is) for, hopefully, one more round of notes. the idea is that, as soon as i get those notes and make any changes i feel necessary therefrom, i will use the cover art lara so kindly made up for me and pop that bitch up on amazon for sale. at which point i will, i suppose, embark on some sort of marketing push (and herein lies an entire world of worry and impotence, but one thing at a time) and see if i can sell two or three of them. after that i have two more completed novels that could do with a serious looking-at, but that could then follow into the jaws of (something cleverly daunting and judgment-ridden).
fortunately i have all this free time in which to do all of these things. <--rather obvious attempt at take-pity-on-me/gosh-aren't-i-interesting, self-deprecating/aggrandizing sarcasm, presumably with accompanying aw-shucks arm movement heavy on the elbow.
this was fun. we should do this more often.