You got some ‘splaining to do, Lucy.
Well friends… I see that it’s been about two months since my last post. You might be wondering what gives. I could tell you that I’ve been super busy with work and two bands and shows happening and more coming. And all the while, my house is a mess and has needed to be cleaned for weeks. And that’s all true. But you’d think I could have found some time to sit for an hour and write this in a span of two whole months. And yet, I didn’t. Have I lost my zest for blogging? It could very well be. Whatever it was that used to drive me to want to document my current events and be clever… somehow it’s not driving me anymore. I could have filled a dozen blogs with all that’s happened lately. Instead, you’ll get the short, short version. And I will have forgotten some things by now. I feel like I should be sad that this thing might be winding down. Maybe temporarily, maybe forever. But it’s just not sustainable. Should I expect to have time to blog every week the rest of my life? And if I don’t, will my memories fade away because I didn’t record them? And will my progeny someday read this and be disappointed that the blog starts to fall apart here? I don’t know. But I guess I ought to just go with my instincts, and right now my instincts are telling me to hit the high points but not spend too much time on it. Let’s see how that approach works out for us…
So last time, I mentioned that I was about to embark on digitizing my music collection. Well I’m off and running, and it’s going even better than I hoped. Sure, it’s taking a lot of time and will probably take several more months. And sure, this pursuit has put a halt on my MySpace archiving project. But it’s what I’m motivated to do at the moment, so I’m going with it. Apparently the legality/morality of keeping a digital copy and selling the original is up for debate, so with that in mind, of course I’m only selling the things I’m not keeping a digital copy of. And I keep an eye out on Amazon to see what’s out of print and going for a high price, and I’m keeping that stuff for now. But hypothetically if everything else were to go to Amoeba, an estimated 30% of my collection I’ve gone through so far would have hypothetically netted about $750 in store credit! Using what credit I actually have gotten, I’ve picked up (often used) CDs and artists I’d been waiting on. My OCD about CD collecting often kept me from buying collections that were not definitive on their own, but with my new digital approach, I have no problem what collection(s) the songs came from, as for all my purposes, they all live in the same digital bucket. And having it all digital and organized and at my fingertips is bringing me way more in touch with my collection. I’m listening to stuff I forgot I had. This whole thing is a win/win… win/win/win/win…
Despite my busy schedule lately, I have managed to squeeze in some time with friends. Back to the Haight with Shel like the good old days. There’s a Dr. Marten’s store there now that sells all manner of Docs… gold, white, powder blue. If they were something non-leather, I’d be broke from all the shoes I’d have bought there. Even caught some movies (Insidious scared the piss out of me for days!). And I’ve managed to hit a few Smiths nights, a Haight Street Hop, and Booze, Broads, & Hotrods. That’s actually not a bad list. Now mellow out, watch this, and realize the we’re really all just clinging to a speck of dust floating through the cosmos…
I’ve been to a couple of great shows lately. OMD with a bunch of good friends, and then Paul Simon at The Fillmore with mom. The latter was a pretty special show as you might imagine. I got the tix at face value the day they went on sale (thanks to Sus), but they were fetching upwards of $500 each on Craig’s List. It was nice to be able to go to a show with mom. Reminded me of doing that when I was little. I think my first concert ever was Don Henley with her on the “End Of The Innocence” tour. Coming up soon is Bootsy Collins at The Fillmore, and Reverend Horton Heat at The Independent. 2011 has been good for shows so far.
And it hasn’t been bad for TCB lately either. There was a wild night playing that Smiths night at Milk Bar in San Francisco. Though it’s a smaller place and the rain was pouring, we got a nice big crowd of die-hards who helped make the night one of our best in recent memory. Some good greenroom stories, too. Sacramento was fun as usual, and our Petaluma debut was interesting. That night, I heard about how Tenacious D once opened for Super Diamond, and a young Jack Black was all over the band talking about his Neil Diamond obsession. Not long after, Saving Silverman came out, which prominently features a fictional Neil Diamond tribute band. Gee, I wonder where that idea came from… Then this last weekend was a Modesto debut (the highlight of which had to be the DJ starting a song through the PA during one of our songs; not between songs, and not our first or last song… but right in the middle of a song right in the middle of our set). Then it was Fresnope, and though the show was rocking, the next day brought me a double whammy of 1) Claim Jumper being closed permanently and 2) my car getting hit by a U-Haul just before leaving town. But hell, I’m alive, aren’t I? Guess things aren’t that bad.
Speaking of music, a random bitch I’ve had on my mind lately. Anyone know what’s up with the trend of musicians naming themselves with numbers? I don’t know who the first one to do it was, but that was probably clever at the time. But everyone who came after… I mean, how lame is that? After the first guy, it totally loses its cleverness and instead looks like an unoriginal gimmick. John 5, Adam 12, Nick 13. At least come up with a clever one like “Claude 9.” You’re welcome.
The quote of the week comes from Virgil, as we watched Davy Jones on Pirates Of The Caribbean in a Fresno hotel last weekend:
“As an Asian, I want to eat his face.”
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