Sunday, March 01, 2009

oh me, oh my

It's one thing when a member of the band doesn't post anything for like 6 months. It's another thing when he doesn't post for 6 months AND THEN misses a gig. Can I make up for it with a smile and a post? Let's see...

Well, let's start with the missed gig: 2 words: 24 hour stomach bug. You know the rest. Oh man... And to boot, just as I was celebrating full health after a week-long cold. Aye. It's been an interesting 2009 so far.
I also presently have a purple little toe on my left foot from a door-stop I didn't see when walking barefoot the morning after my horrible 24 hour bug. I kicked it. It hurt.

On to happier things...

where the hell have I been? I've been here the whole time! It's just like, you get out of the habit of something, it's the hardest thing in the world to pick it up again. Like a book...go 3 days without reading it, good luck wanting to finish it. So many other ideas and plans and schemes have filled your head, who needs that book you only have 40 pages left of? (this is currently my deal with the AWESOME, WHERE HAS IT BEEN ALL MY LIFE novel White Noise by Dom Delillo. I read the first 3/4 of it on vacation and got back and resumed life and forgot the book. I WILL finish it, maybe during this snowstorm).

This winter has been pretty lame, huh? Snow, snow snow. Days off from work and then double doses of work upon returning.

Well, I can't remember when I last posted, so I'll give a basic rundown of life in the last 6 months:

mid/late summer '08: ended a relationship. moved out, taking just what I needed. it was the stripped down life I wanted after the fire, but wasn't sure whether I was just in a bad state back then. moved into 2 bdrm with other local musician guy, Matt S. We get along, and are both busy so not a whole lot of run-ins. Everything I own fits into a small-ish bedroom and I'm pretty happy about it. It's a neighborhood I used to live in years ago with Lord Russ.

fall '08: getting into single-guy routine, making the rock scene, living small, still happy, unsure about impending cold weather. better buy more blankets. no cats anymore to keep warm at night.
I begin seeing a lovely lady who has 2 cats. We are still an item as I write this.

Fall-winter: begin recording new Sitting next to Brian project. An E.P. which will be 6 songs, called The Wrong Tree E.P. with cover art by the famous Scott Alden. The band on this outing is: Henning, Jason, Thane, me. No guests this time around. It may just be a cardboard sleeve with the art on either side. Living small.
Obama wins the presidential election. We all smile.

of course through all this, there have been gigs galore, right? right. Haunt, Fawns, SFTD, SNTB...

New years 2008-9. An Aloha Steamtrain show at the Sierra Grille. A drunken reveler breaks one of my ribs while giving me a new years hug between sets. It sets me back 3 weeks. I stupidly ignore it at first and work, lifting heavy things, probably doing it no favors. I get it checked out. 2 weeks of no lifting, except the bottle o' pills to help me sleep.

Winter 2009 A sort of winter depression sets in as the rib heals, knowing we have so much more left to go, meanwhile, everything hurts. Scraping the car, putting on a seatbelt, putting on socks. And we get one major friggin storm every week.

For some reason, in my spare time I begin reexamining the music of the Grateful Dead, after discovering a site with all their shows archived and downloadable or streamable.
Lemme tell you: I was an active listener of the Dead from 8-11 grade. College and being surrounded by Deadheads made me never want to hear them again, and it's been a very gradual warming up process since then. But the combo of the downtime, being laid up with the rib and the winter blues suddenly made certain eras (pretty much 67-74 and a bit of 77-81) very nice to listen to and explore. When going to bed alone, I've been selecting a show to fall asleep to.

I began coming up with new musical avenues to explore which would probably be of no interest to anyone. Like the intersection where the "noisy" Dead (as much noise as noodle) meet the "tamed" Velvet Underground (post Cale). So, like late '68-69. I suppose this would be kind of parts of Television or Sonic Youth. But suddenly something made me wanna play something like that. I don't know if that'll ever happen. (they in fact shared a few bills around 1969. I read Lou Reed would insult the Dead, saying "those paisley asses wouldn't last a week in the Chelsea". When you think about it, though, Lou Reed had an English degree from Syracuse, while Jerry Garcia dropped out and moved out when he was 16, making it on his own. I think he'd probably survive ok in most situations. Anyway, there are a few photos of the Velvets at this time, in fact WEARING paisley).

The other project would be where the song-oriented Dead (70-72 when Garcia and lyricist Robert Hunter co-wrote at least 50 classics) meet the Michael Nesmith of 70-72.
See, when the alt.country lines were drawn in the mid 90's, neither Nesmith or the Dead were on the correct side. Nesmith was square and verbose, the Dead were weed instead of whiskey. I'd like to hear an alt. alt. country in which these two groups are the kingpins. I think the "intellectual stoner" rock of the last few years may approach it. Mountain Movers, Silver Jews....

So there's my deal. I know. last summer I was raving about the Fall and Joy Division.

Um, so...here we are. It's March. I'm feeling better. Yes, we're about to have 8 more goddamn inches of snow.

Oh, well: almost forgot. A week ago, K and I spent 3 nights in Playa del Carmen, Mexico. It was so, so beautiful. It was a resort, yes, but an "eco-resort" where all the buildings were "green" and there were some animals on the grounds. The food and booze were so-so. But it was abundant and free (all-inclusive).
We took a half-day trip to Tulum (Mayan ruin city) at which we pissed off an old couple by being 5 minutes late for the return trip back to the resort. ("that was very, very thoughtless", grumbled the old man. Like he was now gonna be 5 minutes late for something. You're on fucking VACATION!!)

We had to stay an extra night in Atlanta because there were tornadoes in the area and the plane was unsure of a take off time. We'd already missed our connecting flight so we got a room at the red Roof. Bleh.
The next morning we flew to Detroit. Wow, their airport has a very psychedelic area where you're on the moving walkway thingy and the walls are flashing rainbow colors all around you. I loved it. Also, their gift shops proudly displayed Obama tshirts and mugs and things. It was a good vibe airport.

Anyway, then we both got sick with colds pretty much upon landing at Bradley.
And that brings you up to speed of where I been at.

Oh, I've also been on Facebook a whole lot. It's taken my time off of Blogger and Myspace. Facebook is where I hang now, more or less. I got a good page on it called
"marchese-brand drumming" where I post the news of all my projects and songs and links to where to buy etc.

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#/pages/Marchese-Brand-Drumming/55401156936?ref=ts

ok, bye. I won't make any promises when I'll write next because I've become a bad, bad friend.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Great update post, Brian. That was very, very thoughtful.