(on this tour there was a lot of van trouble. it kept breaking down and we missed a lot of gigs and it drove poor pete crazy. and me, a little. my life has been one long rattling sauna, from new york to new orleans and back up to chicago and in between ( Read more... )

today i played a french horn in a jam session for the first time. it was epic, as french horns are want to be. i got to do some mind reading again, too, which is always very rewarding. the trombone player and i hit harmonies and swelled together, and i saw the rhythms people were going to play ahead of time and harmonized dissonantly with them. now ( Read more... )

i've just realized that the reason i've not been able to get up in the morning the last few days is the week i had and the week i had before it. halloween was surrounded by three successive nights of partying, which hasn't happened in a very long time, and was extremely enjoyable and tiring. the nights directly before that there were the ensemble ( Read more... )

one thing i haven't done this summer is update this thing. so: just now i gained co-rentalship of a great apartment in jersey city for the school year. it's huge, and cheap, and has lots of windows viewing new york, and anyone can come and visit me if they want to. it also seems to be the only place in the new york metro area with a dishwasher. i ( Read more... )

today i met ryan the bass player. the bass player who i played with during a crazy televised concert four years ago, and who suggested to me that i go find The Cement Factory - my first major exploratory adventure. he was, i think, on my list of people i would never see again; the first time i thought to call him after i met him, he'd moved and ( Read more... )

the most fun i've had at a gig, maybe ever, definitely in a long time. the gig was this: i got to play a "classical bass guitar" with a classical guitar ensemble, plus chamber orchestra. this instrument i was given is not really a bass, cuz the strings are too close together and there's six of them, and it's not really a guitar because it's an ( Read more... )

i went directly from an outdoor electric bass gig to an indoor upright bass gig, went to sleep late, woke up and went on a french horn band trip ( Read more... )

there was also an amazing (and massive) Music party. with four bands of all my friends. they're amazing. i wish they knew ( Read more... )

in a direct extension of my Most Perfect Gig, i called a bunch of vague acquaintances and had them meet at the piano player's house, in the Hills. the clean-scrubbed piano player bounded out of his house with outstretched arms and introduced everyone to everyone else. this is my friend doug, he exclaimed, gesturing to the other grinning boy in the ( Read more... )

( warning, the following is unedited, unspellchecked and unintelligible )