Memorial Day Odds and Ends
Enjoyed a nice 4 night weekend (we closed Monday night. Yay!)... nice and restful. And needed. But not as needed as my upcoming vacation (which, actually, is just a slightly longer long weekend... I'm only taking two working nights off, as well as the weekend itself). Definately looking forward to that.
Buddha had a double-header this weekend, of which I caught the local show at Mr. Beery's (much as I love da Buddha, I just couldn't manage the trip up to Albany. The cost of gas, plus tolls, plus $40 just to get in the front gate? Sure it was a festival, which is why the cost, but I just couldn't see myself doing the trip at this point. Mind you, this is the same gal who followed the band down to N. Virgina for an overnight trip... and one that I wasn't guaranteed a place to sleep.)
Anyway... Blind Robbery opened up for 'em at Beery's... and they put on a good show as always. Craig, especially is just a thrill to watch. I want to grab Tracy and Matt from my own band and have them come to one of their shows... just to see the showmanship. I grabbed some video of Buddha... and I wish my camera took clips that are longer than 3 minutes. When yer talking about a jam band that just goes buck wild with the solos on stage, 3 minutes just ain't gonna cut it. I swear the camera would just cut out in the middle of someone's solo, too... usually Bob's. One of these days, I'll invest in a video cam... or maybe I'll just find a camera that allows for longer clips (because there is something seriously screwed up with my camera anyway... I get all these wacky scan lines... and it's through both stills and vids). Perhaps that'll be the next thing I save my pennies for... we'll see. Meantime, three of the vids are posted up at YouTube: Eight Days Ago, Habitual Ritual & a new instrumental piece, Mocos Locos.
Da Buddha was excellent, of course... and new boy Joey D. absolutely shined with a couple of keyboard solos that just left me all kinds of impressed (let me explain something here: I'm not at all easily impressed by keyboardists... most of them (in my experience) tend to think more of their abilities than they warrant). And his opening solo before Eight Days Ago just made me grin (even if it did have a hint of New Agey flavour to it in the opening notes)... as a Phrogish chuckle, it was a nice way to cover up the re-tuning sounds the guys were making in the background (hey, when you play as hard as these guys do, chances are, you're gonna have to retune a little in the middle of a set to make sure you sound your best for the rest of it... it's not like they have techs and spare guitars off-stage to be ready at a moment's notice).
They should be in the studio recording for the new album sometime this fall. Should be an interesting sound this time around... there have been some changes in the line up (there have been change ups each time, tho... so this is nothing new)... and some new dynamics going on. As always, I'm looking forward to hearing how everything comes together. I'm especially looking forward to one of my new favourites: Jasmine and Vanilla.
I'm a little sad tonight, too. When yer sitting at work and you see a group of 6 women come in, and they all look related, and two of them are younger teens... and it's 2:30 in the mourning... you just know it's not for a good reason. So when they said they needed to print up "some programs," it was fairly obvious to me that these weren't programs for a high school play. Sure enough, when I opened up the file, it was a memorial booklet for a funeral.
I try to bend over backwards for folks when they come in for this particular kind of job. My reasoning is this: I figure that they have enough on their plate, with grief and all the other arrangements they have to deal with, the last thing they want to have to stress over is the printing of rememberance booklets. I've had nights where I have jobs up the ying-yang, all of them due in the early mourning... and I'll put them off to run off funeral programs. It's just the right thing to do, ya know?
So, I'm running these prints while they wait, and as I'm looking at the pages coming out of the printer, I'm reading little bits and pieces. First thing that caught my eye was the "Sunrise/Sunset" dates. Two things immediately went through my brain: one, that the woman passed the day before her birthday; two, that she would have just turned 36. Now, I don't know what the causes of death were, and honestly, it doesn't make a difference to me if it was sickness, or some kind of accident... what caught in my throat was the fact that she was only a year older than me.
Life's short. Sometimes even shorter than you expect.
And so is my break, for that matter.
Buddha had a double-header this weekend, of which I caught the local show at Mr. Beery's (much as I love da Buddha, I just couldn't manage the trip up to Albany. The cost of gas, plus tolls, plus $40 just to get in the front gate? Sure it was a festival, which is why the cost, but I just couldn't see myself doing the trip at this point. Mind you, this is the same gal who followed the band down to N. Virgina for an overnight trip... and one that I wasn't guaranteed a place to sleep.)
Anyway... Blind Robbery opened up for 'em at Beery's... and they put on a good show as always. Craig, especially is just a thrill to watch. I want to grab Tracy and Matt from my own band and have them come to one of their shows... just to see the showmanship. I grabbed some video of Buddha... and I wish my camera took clips that are longer than 3 minutes. When yer talking about a jam band that just goes buck wild with the solos on stage, 3 minutes just ain't gonna cut it. I swear the camera would just cut out in the middle of someone's solo, too... usually Bob's. One of these days, I'll invest in a video cam... or maybe I'll just find a camera that allows for longer clips (because there is something seriously screwed up with my camera anyway... I get all these wacky scan lines... and it's through both stills and vids). Perhaps that'll be the next thing I save my pennies for... we'll see. Meantime, three of the vids are posted up at YouTube: Eight Days Ago, Habitual Ritual & a new instrumental piece, Mocos Locos.
Da Buddha was excellent, of course... and new boy Joey D. absolutely shined with a couple of keyboard solos that just left me all kinds of impressed (let me explain something here: I'm not at all easily impressed by keyboardists... most of them (in my experience) tend to think more of their abilities than they warrant). And his opening solo before Eight Days Ago just made me grin (even if it did have a hint of New Agey flavour to it in the opening notes)... as a Phrogish chuckle, it was a nice way to cover up the re-tuning sounds the guys were making in the background (hey, when you play as hard as these guys do, chances are, you're gonna have to retune a little in the middle of a set to make sure you sound your best for the rest of it... it's not like they have techs and spare guitars off-stage to be ready at a moment's notice).
They should be in the studio recording for the new album sometime this fall. Should be an interesting sound this time around... there have been some changes in the line up (there have been change ups each time, tho... so this is nothing new)... and some new dynamics going on. As always, I'm looking forward to hearing how everything comes together. I'm especially looking forward to one of my new favourites: Jasmine and Vanilla.
I'm a little sad tonight, too. When yer sitting at work and you see a group of 6 women come in, and they all look related, and two of them are younger teens... and it's 2:30 in the mourning... you just know it's not for a good reason. So when they said they needed to print up "some programs," it was fairly obvious to me that these weren't programs for a high school play. Sure enough, when I opened up the file, it was a memorial booklet for a funeral.
I try to bend over backwards for folks when they come in for this particular kind of job. My reasoning is this: I figure that they have enough on their plate, with grief and all the other arrangements they have to deal with, the last thing they want to have to stress over is the printing of rememberance booklets. I've had nights where I have jobs up the ying-yang, all of them due in the early mourning... and I'll put them off to run off funeral programs. It's just the right thing to do, ya know?
So, I'm running these prints while they wait, and as I'm looking at the pages coming out of the printer, I'm reading little bits and pieces. First thing that caught my eye was the "Sunrise/Sunset" dates. Two things immediately went through my brain: one, that the woman passed the day before her birthday; two, that she would have just turned 36. Now, I don't know what the causes of death were, and honestly, it doesn't make a difference to me if it was sickness, or some kind of accident... what caught in my throat was the fact that she was only a year older than me.
Life's short. Sometimes even shorter than you expect.
And so is my break, for that matter.
posted by Phrogie at
2:20 AM
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