nostatic at all...

Another week, instead of travel, chock full of meetings. Let the festivities begin!

Another nascent project with a big problem attacked by gaming. The only question is how. Well, that's what you have smart young people around for (no, not me but I helped). They give the spark, then you spray the gasoline. Will the sponsor bite? They should...I think this will actually work.

When is a gig not just another gig? I suppose when you're not worried about money but rather making music to try and make others happy. A quick "audition" of sorts for what amounts to a jazz collective/band that plays at local nursing and retirement homes. Mostly jazz standards with a mix of players with varying talent (though some *very* good). Maybe not a setlist that I would go out of my way to try and play, but for whatever reason I'm going to carve time out of my schedule to try and make some of these gigs. Hopefully someone will do the same for me at some point down the road...

Wow, my ISP is really fubar. Evidently they were testing the fire equipment and some halon got let loose in the data center, frying a number of drives. So the main nostatic.com site is currently not up, and won't be for some time. By some miracle, the blog and mail/ftp server are on other machines so they still work. Maybe back up in a week. Maybe not.

OK, that was a tidy 5+ hours solid of breaking story and scenario development. And we only finished the first of 6 scenarios. Yikes...at least I now know who's related to who and who died tragic deaths in the past 6 months...

When a 3-star general says jump, you say, "yes sir, how high?" So how quickly can we contract this?!?

yup, that pretty much describes it...

So what do you do when you're stressed out of your gourd, work is crushing your soul, and you finally come to the realization that coffee needs to leave your life?

You play music, silly. Comin' up!

Wait, didn't we just do this? Five solid hours breaking story on Friday? Well, I scoff at those paltry hours. This time seven solid hours finishing the scenarios. Do I get overtime?

After 10 years of amplification stability, change rears its head. In with the new, now just need to do the out with the old part...

Hmm, maybe this no-coffee thing isn't so great

No better cure for a long week than a long gig. In this case, a pared down lineup of guitar, bass and vocals doing the usual range of jazz standards to pop semi-standards. Why is it that we start at 8pm, end at 1am and I still want to play?

The boy is off to a playdate, so dad gets to take the GS out for a quick run to Topanga. Short but sweet...

Hmm, another playdate, but sadly someone needs more exercise than a motorcycle provides. That's what bicycles are for. Of course I discovered a new tendonitis pain inducer (the road brakes on the Salsa), my knee doesn't really concur with the decision, and I'm out of shape. What else is new?

Funny how people react to the requests of others. Annoyance and jealousy shine through like a santa ana sun. And then the snippy tongue goes into action. Uggh...

Thankfully not me, but rather st off to Hong Kong for a major show of her work. And its a family affair, doing the show with her sister. Go figure - sisters separated by 7K miles now reunited in the gallery. Well, she goes back for family visits too, but is is a better story spun the other way.

My second "violation" on youtube, courtesy of Cass County Music. Seems that my cover of "One of These Nights" infringed their copyright.

Fuck Don Henley and his music company. Threatening an individual who posts a cover version that CLEARLY indicates who wrote the song is extraordinarily lame.

No, not that kind. Instead, making music for people who can't get out and enjoy it on their own. Always an adventure when you're introducing yourself to the other players for the first time right before downbeat, but such is the life of a jazz musician...

Just write your own...

Though an odd one. All those times that you just want some down time. And then you get it. So what do you do? Umm...err...laundry.

No, not me. A keyboard player for the funk band. Actually it is the second callback for a nice guy who the first time around didn't really prepare (strike one in my book), and didn't seem to have a lot of live experience (strike two), and also didn't seem to really hear what was going on (foul tip). Others are more understanding than me I guess, so it was back again. There was obviously more preparation, but the lack of live playing in a band situation still showed through, and there were some pretty lame voicings in places. I think it is just a nice guy who is a good keyboard player on his own, but just hasn't cut his teeth in a band. And for better or worse, I'm not the guy who wants to do the cutting.

Catching up with a friend at the traditional Peets location. But this time, Xiao's blend herbal tea instead of my (past) usual lo-fat mocha. *sigh* Still coffee-free...

The usual flurry of emails and calls at work, but sandwiched inbetween a smattering of jazz and motown. At least they were dancing (the ones that could stand). Getting old is rough...

Well, the worm is turning. And will get stepped on. Just a question as to whether I'm the worm or the boot. Or an innocent bystander.

I suppose when millions of $$$ are at stake, things get a little serious. I hate this crap...

What was v0.5 in NC is now in MS, and v1.0 that was in MS is now in KY. And v0.5 is now v0.something and kinda works. Confused? It's trailer roulette...

Well, one $4K bass that was on order cancelled. Too much money going out, and I've got enough toys at the moment.

Well, looks like the Illegal Download Collection is about ready to gig. The set is set...well, almost set. A little fine tuning and maybe a spare tune or two, but live funk, here we come.

OK, so while I burned some time over the weekend on a proposal, I'm glad I didn't burn extensive midnight oil as now the tide changed and we're off to a different plan. This is so much fun...I hope no one gets arrested...

Hey wait, I thought that when the boy had a piano lesson that I got to sit on the couch and do nothing. But no...instead Dan (teacher) suggests that I play bass while they split the piano chores on "Hello, Goodbye." Actually pretty fun (glad I can sightread), and a reminder of how great the Fab 4 were wrt songwriting.

Well, we'll have to see how this plays out