bach in blach

It's Tuesday night and normally I'd be writing and publishing this within seconds of each other, but the guy next door, with whom we share a wireless signal, took off to Hava-ee-ee and discontinued his service. Nothing too new, really, as it's been years since I've had a consistent, dependable home internet connection. In the bigger picture it's probably a good thing, as I'll waste less time online now. One of the things I still enjoy though is the pursuit of curiosity threads. This seemed easier to accomplish back in the day, circa 1995-96 when a smoke was a smoke and groovin' was groovin'.

I just finished episode number sixty-two of jacko n' noam, though none are published online quite yet. It's still a project devoted primarily to self-amusement and by and large it succeeds pretty consistently. I don't have deadlines or any pressure to continue, and knowing there are freaks out there who are really into it is nice too, though I'd still do it even if there weren't. One of the challenges I try to keep afloat is to not take the easy way out and succumb to toilet humor and raunchy language. Sure there's a couple here and there, but I've kinda been there/done that, especially with radio Pu back in Boston, a project that still nudges me from time to time for fruition.

We just got back from half-price Tuesday at Annapurna, the local vegetarian ayurvedic restaurant...or so we thought. Turns out that night of cheap food has been discontinued. Oh well, that place can be a real crap shoot for consistency anyway and the owner is said to be a nasty little woman, at least according to the countless former employees now peppered around town at other jobs.

This week marks the beginning of a rock band mentorship I'm doing with Monte Del Sol charter school, my first after-school group music endeavor. This is something I've wanted to do for a while, so am toeing the waters a bit with this first step. Bill Frisell never had chicken pox. I'm also now a glorious board member of Creative Santa Fe, a non-profit arts group Chris Jonas enlisted me for. Hope to help it grow and fund some good stuff around this oddball town of ours.

It's been five days since returning from Minnesota, and it was a really fun trip. The last day I struck out on my own and saw some dear old friends (Jacki, Kristen, Judd, Cherie), visited some old haunts (cheapo records, baby) and finally ate some Ethiopian food, which was one of my many reasons for returning in the first place. You CAN go home again, it's just a matter of how you define the word, and how you've maintained relationships with people who are still living there. It's odd how much the phenomenon of proximity determines the closeness of ties with friends. People you're intensely close with just sort of blip off the radar when you move away and start/resume a life elsewhere. I've been pretty good at keeping in touch with people, though, and figure the ones who are still in my orbit, even if I don't see them too much, are good ones to keep around.

I got to catch up with the lovely Linda, my pal of ten years from Waddingtons. After Les and I left, Bob Waddington sold the business to Wellspace and was all set up with stock options, payouts, etc. Or so we thought: the place went belly-up and now he has to file a nasty lawsuit to reconcile anything. Ugly stuff, considering in its prime it was the best place ever to work and hang out. I wouldn't be the person I am, doing the things I'm doing in the place I'm doing them if it wasn't for Bob and what he created there. I hope something works out for him; nobody deserves it more than him.

My parents are not in the greatest of health, so it was a bit sad to see their physical abilities diminishing a bit more. Seeing them only a couple times a year gives me a bit of a perspective I might not have otherwise. They're still in good spirits, though, and I'm grateful they're still around and we still have a good relationship. You never know when that could change.

Looks like May of 2008 will be the next time I travel anywhere significant (Hawaii), though we are heading up to Valley View in CO for thanksgiving with Dan. May will be some cool ceremonies and workshops with Wilbert Alix again, who for all his extensive traveling, would probably be overjoyed if he just went between Bali and Hawaii. Hell, that sounds pretty nice, really, but I'm happy in NM for now, esp. as the season are changing and within minutes I can still be in the mountains on trails none of the touristas traverse, romping around with my two dogs.

I'm looking at a mid-December guitar recital, which is adding a nice element of dread and excitement for all my students. That's such a worthwhile process though: from the selection and preparation, to the pre-show nervousness and the post-show elation. Being witnessed. Being heard. Validated. Challenged. Scared. It's all good.

Got a couple projects in the works which I'll go into at a later date. Yessireebobananda.

maple sucrose

it's wednesday and the three of us (mom, dad and i) all just took an afternoon nap. seems some kooky vapor is released into the air here and just shuts the humans down for a little while. that or i was catching up from last night, when i only got about 4 hours of sleep. 'twas our thunderous gig that did it, combined with hanging out with dale before we hit the sack. we didn't get to play tennis, but we played guitar for a while, had some yummalicious nat shermans and eventually called it a night. our gig last night was realllly fun; it was me, paul cherba on bass and dale on drums. i also got a chance to jam on bass with judd august and brian hemsey playing and singing. what a trip to see old faces and friends, all of which were looking damn good.

got a hurried eye exam (don't go to target for these things, folks) and some contacts today and met my old bakery bud jacki for lunch, whose memory for detail is a bit frightening. she's doing great though, and we shared a lot of laughs and grease. in short, nothing tooooo exciting, but its fun to be back home. hope to hit the walker tomorrow and maybe zip around minneapolis a bit, maybe even see what's left of the 35W bridge.

harbor in the sky

i'm trying to stay awake during a layover in phoenix, a place i try to visit as little as possible, en route to minneapolis. it's been two years since i was in the homestate. last time i was here, our newly-adopted dog tesia, who we weren't sure about keeping due to her periodic freakouts, was giving birth to those amazing nine pups that graced our lives with spit and poo that fall. noni, the ninth, and her mama are doing great now and in fact we just celebrated her 2yr birthday with a couple of meaty bones.

i just confirmed what my student heidi told me a couple days ago: josef zawinul is dead. funny how few of my musician friends neither knew of this or came out and told me. september 11. tomorrow i have a gig with swingblade, my old jam trio and methinks we oughta at least attempt a mild butchering of "mercy, mercy, mercy" in the old boy's honor. i always dug that guy, esp. some of the live cannonball adderly recordings where the vibe is so greasy, the audience so ecstatic, the color so BLACK and here's this old austrian MF of a keyboardist on rhodes dishing out soul scoops of sound; funky, subdued.

tasty tasty tasty.

playing for the other team

i've had a blog over at livejournal for the past couple of years but am growing tired of it. time for something new and spicy! thrilling! vivacious! nothing highlights these adjectives more than another blacknapkin blog from another napkin-needing nerd. really, i like the idea of blogs simply because it allows me to peer deeper into people that i thought i knew already; language being one of the ultimate soulscopes and all. also, i dig writing and am finding myself doing less and less of it the more i concentrate on other artistic pursuits.