Double Juiced

Hi!

So. Busy times, travel and projects. Jacked up rhythm and about 10 days of migraine. Phone calls were especially rough, certain frequencies punching through my skull with enough force to make me recoil away from the phone while mashing the volume down button while trying to keep my wits. I can only assume it was stress and/or allergies. Time to call a serious massage therapist and redouble the meditation efforts.

* * *

The different towers in this image struck me as a praying mantis, holding the wires a little too fussy but still with a sense of elegance while the mid-century robot man stands doing his work as if any second, that damn bug might drop his wires and that will be one more damn thing he has to do to take up the damn slack.

Or maybe it’s just a tweaked photo of a couple of utility poles in the fading sun. Maybe.

* * *

Affirmation: Keep doing the affirmation. You’re a flake without it.

Original Article

Private Property

I love the clouds. Looks like something an artist would do; drag a rake across the sky or paint a cloud stripe and then tilt the sky before the clouds dry to get them to flow down. Then put the sky back in its place. The fence on the left side of the image was begging to be climbed. I did not climb it. And I would not recommend that one climb it.

* * *

I’ve been up to my ass for the past couple of weeks in old song arrangements, setting up gear, figuring out patch changes for the Stretch Armstrong / Swim Herschel Swim show coming up this Saturday. Tickets are still available! I’m wondering what the average age of the crowd will be. I’m not concerned, just curious. I’m most happy that it is an all ages show and Leta, should she choose, will be able to see the band perform. She’s asked me about it from time to time and ever since starting piano lessons, she’s increased the asking. She’ll ask me whenever I play a song she hasn’t heard if it’s something I wrote or performed on. It’s endearing and sweet; I have to tell her that most of the music I play when she’s around is stuff somebody else did. I also suggest that if she wants, she can write her own songs. Which she’s started doing and leaving around the condo. I’ll be straightening up and find a couple of sheets with words written like a verse/stanza and be stopped in my tracks about things she’s written. The words are hers to share, so I’ll leave it there, but she’s an incredible kid. I think there has been an imagination explosion as Marlo has started really playing with her toys, making up stories and giving the small figures (a mixture of Playmobil and grocery store cheapies) things to do that she makes up. Just like Leta at her age, she looks to me to add exposition and character arc. However, she’s doing a bang up job. By far the best part of watching them grow and learn is seeing them stretch their creativity.

Last night I played through potential setlist songs for hours. My forearms are cursing me this morning. So many of the songs feature extensive sections of keyboard upbeats and it’s been a lot of years since I’ve played with any kind of regularity. I’m fearful that my arms will be useless on Sunday morning. I’m also needing to drop the anxiety around this show. It’s supposed to be fun. I forgot about this part of being in a band. It used to be that I’d stress day of show, but as time passed, the stress was less about the performance because we had rehearsed so much. The stress became about driving to out of state shows, crowd attendance, crowd safety and money. But this week? The very early stress about hitting notes, putting on a good show and playing well have dropped with a familiarity akin to riding a bike after years of sedentary absence. I think once the full band rehearses, I’ll be able to get a grip and the nerves will subside.

It’s been 17 years since I performed these songs onstage. The difficulty of memory is that such moments seem so far away and that the passage of time seems to move at an improbable speed. Yet if I stop and generate a mental timeline, those years are full of events. So full as to obscure things like chord progressions, patch changes and performance muscle memory.

* * *

Daily affirmation: The work is worth it.

Original Article

[note: the plugin I use to share posts from my personal site to tumblr doesn’t include images in the way that I post them on the personal site. So I do a text post immediately followed by an image post. I know it seems weird. Which is also why I include a link to the original article on the text post and a link back to the original post on the Tumblr image post. So confusing. Software! Computers! Edge case!]

Nels Cline with Wilco at Red Butte

This one just had to be black and white because it reminded me of high ISO, super grainy film from back in my print publishing days. Back then, I shot with a Canon Elan and I thought I had hit the jackpot in the camera department. Scanning 3200 ISO film added more noise and grain and then when it finally appeared on newsprint, the dot gain from the ink pretty much assured a dodgy looking photo. I think I have about 3 shots that are keepers from those days. Comparing the clarity in this shot to the grain of my older work shows what better lenses, better sensitivity and amazing noise reduction from software can do to give one more control about how to work the image. In some cases, I’ve introduced a little noise to help soften the crisp edges that digital photos have. If you look closely, you can see it here. I think the software does a great job of graining it up.

The player ripping it up in the image above is Nels Cline, a stellar guitar player whose solos on Wilco songs add an experimental edge as well as a gritty, but lyrical feel to songs like “Impossible Germany”. It may be hot where you live. Try to listen to this song, particularly Cline’s solo, when it’s raining:

There are a ton of songs off that album that I’ve avoided listening to for a long time because of the memories both painful and beautiful associated with the sound of the album; ignored signs that in retrospect pointed to the obvious, especially signs that pointed to right now; typing this alone, way too late, way too wistful and way too torn, listening too literally to these life soundtrack songs to write coherently about loss, hindsight and/or the future. This sounds a little wallowy, but it’s not. I’m just struggling for words to describe the recall and playback of good times, bad times and the bittersweetness of memory. I’m not going to lie, these nosedives have decreased over the months. The fog is lifting, truly. But every now and then, I get a glimpse of what was, what could have been and how all of it is now filtered through a sharper focused reality. The past is beautiful. The past is painful. The past is over.

I’m sure in a few years, I’ll look back at these posts and cringe. But for now, this is what I’ve got. This is the song that I shouldn’t have listened to:

* * *

Daily affirmation: Find the good and beautiful, even if it’s small.

Original Article

Woodsy

I think I’ve hit a series of particularly difficult personal hurdles. I’m a say-yes-to-everything person. The problem is that I tend to say yes because I’m hopeful that I can learn something new, stretch myself and work on a project that sounds cool. I’m helping!

For unknown/first-time projects, I’m terrible at estimating time. I’m pretty good once I know the parameters, but the first time on a project can be brutal. I’ve got several firsts up in the air.

I’ve got several in the air, only one that I’ve shared: Swim Herschel Swim reunion show in less than two weeks. The logistics have been pretty good, but as people start arriving, I have a feeling that we’ll spend a lot of time in rehearsal and I won’t be up for air. Since this is the first time we’re doing this, with people flying in, arranging rehearsal space, making sure everybody has an amp, a microphone and knows the songs isn’t that bad, but the unknown part of this endeavor is hanging over me just a tad.

So I share this peaceful image of a badly lit bunch of trees. Peaceful.

* * *

Daily affirmation: Lift and then put down one foot. And then one more. It’s Monday. Let’s stop there.

Original Article

Trailside General Store

This is a metaphor for so many towns across the U.S. This one is personal. This convenience store has been boarded up for a long time. The last time McQueen, Haden Church and I drove through town nine years ago, it was boarded up. This store was one of the places I’d walk to at just about any hour for a soda, junk food or trashy video rental. Loved this little place. This was where I scored so many points on Defender that I rolled it over. This is where I’d go for my mom’s late night Diet Coke. I took my nieces and nephews here to buy candy. A lot of memories.

Remember those pull tab contests that Pepsi did in the 1980s? I swear I got an “A” to spell C-H-A-L-L-E-N-G-E and win $10,000 or whatever the prize was. Except that I was also convinced that I threw out the winning tab early on in the contest. That’s what I told myself the entire summer as I purchased can after can of Pepsi, hoping to find the winning “A”. I drank a lot of cans and ended up with nothing but a burning desire for more Pepsi. Wait.

Maybe the two 7-11s in town what ultimately did this store in. I don’t know the details, I just know that it’s one more in a list of physical examples fading the memories of my youth.

* * *

Daily affirmation: Seriously. Stop with the “if only….” Make today “if only…” free.

Original Article

Not So Quaking Aspen

I had a great weekend. It’s Thursday already, I know. Seeing my long-time childhood friends was fantastic. You might remember them from such expoits as 2005 Road Trip, (2, 3, 4), 2006 Insane Hike (with erroneous title) (photos), Bonnaroo 2007, etc.

We’ve been unable to do big trips the past few years so seeing JB/Thomas Haden Church and McQueen together was stellar. We’ve decided that we need to restart the yearly get togethers in a neutral location; a true vacation/escape. Last year, McQueen and I went back to Knoxville and hung out for a few days, but this year, Haden Church stayed for five nights. I got him for three. Great to shoot the shit and talk about the recent past and the future. This time together with my boys was some of the best times I’ve had with them. I’ll share more from the weekend in another post, but I wanted to share this photo as it was taken on the first hike I’ve been on since the gall bladder removal. I did pretty well, given the high temperature and the late start. I estimate we hiked an unfamiliar trail at least 4-6 miles round trip.

I wish I’d taken more shots of us as a trio, but I did get all of us to sit still for a shot at a boarded up store that was a block away from my childhood home. I need to get permission before sharing that one.

* * *

Daily affirmation: Let go. Of the past, of the pain and of the crazy-making what-ifs.

Original Article

Top