Well, I’ll attempt this again. You know how it goes. I’m sure I won’t cover everything I typed the other night, so I’ll just talk about whatever comes to my mind.
(doing the Cut Thang because it’s long…)
As noted in my posts a few days ago, I did indeed finish my Marathon Quest of Nerdly iPod Listening. Will I ever do it again? Uh, I doubt it. The thought did cross my mind that if I decided to do something like it again, I might try to go alpha by album title. At least it would be more consistent that way…but then, having all of those “Live” albums all back to bad would annoy me. Profusely. I’m sure if I do decide to go that route, it won’t be for many years. In addition to annoying Julie to no end, what bothered me most about going alpha through the iPod was that whenever I heard a certain song, I’d usually want to hear the whole album (or at the very least other tunes from that album). Sometimes that particular song would trigger a desire to hear an entirely different song. I think that was more due to me being “confined” to listen to all of my music in a certain, orderly fashion. Oh, and I’m still annoyed about the alphabeticalization rules in iTunes.I did like that I was kind of forced to at least give everything the option to continue or be skipped. There are always those songs you put on the iPod and you kinda forget they’re there. It happens. This way at least, I got the chance to hear them if I wanted. I admit that I did take some breaks during the whole process; things like the Mildred album, those live Lovebead shows, the various CDs I’ve borrowed from Jenn since July and the group of things that I’ve acquired since I began the MQNIL. I made a special folder in the iPod for all of that stuff, and that’s what I’ve been listening to since I left work today.
Honestly, the hardest part of getting through it was during the early letters, around F and G. I did have that crazy stretch in the I’s with all of the King Crimson improv, and that was definitely something I looked forward to. Once I passed the mammothness of the M’s, I knew it would be easy the rest of the way. The only other major challenges were the S’s and W’s. Man, that last stretch after the W’s went by incredibly quickly.
So yeah, I’m glad I attempted it. I heard a lot of great music and went through stuff I might normally skip over. A fun quest indeed.
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Last Sunday was the Shades of Winter gig, their final gig. I had a great time playing with them and playing that music. It was really nice to be able to play bass for an entire gig. What was great for me was that most of the time I didn’t even realize I was performing. It completely left my mind. I remember catching myself looking out at the audience and thinking, “wow, I’m actually playing to a group of people that’s more than just Julie, Lizzi, Eric & the Puritan Rodeo guys”. I really wasn’t nervous at all and I felt I was in a totally different headspace than usual. I mean, of course I wanted to play everything correctly, but there was something different about being a “sideman” where I could pay more attention to what was going on. I think the lack of nerves (and also that it wasn’t my music) helped my listening. I don’t know if it made me actually play better or not, but it was something I noticed.
I only noticed 2 mistakes, 1 of which was probably audible to the audience. I missed a chord in the 1st chorus of 13 Years. No big whoop. I thought that everyone played well in general. Don had some trouble in Winds of Home, but he eventually got it right (after asking me which chord he was supposed to be playing!). So yeah, on the whole I thought Don, Jenn & Susie all sounded great. I know that Don didn’t hear things like that, and pretty much had a miserable time. Well, except for US playing together. I could tell he really enjoyed that, as did I. I just think the non-enjoyment was really aimed at anyone on his left side. You know, I understand though. It was his last gig and he really didn’t want to be doing it anyway. It was a commitment, he fulfilled it. Plus he was playing 3 hours later that night and I know he was way more focused on that. I mean, he chose to leave the band for a reason and those gigs after you’ve already made the decision to leave can be difficult. I’m not condoning anything, but I understand.
Overall though, I really had a lot of fun and I’m so happy I got the chance to play with Shades once. They’re a great band and even if i wasn’t friends with them I’d still dig the music and would love to play with them on stage. Since they’re my friends, it was that much better. Thanks guys!
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Monday’s Protean Mean practice started off with Jenn and I comparing notes about the Shades show before we moved into working a NEW SONG! Yay! Well, new for us. It’s called Trapped in Andy Land and one I wrote back in college. It’s an instrumental, so it’s our first one officially in the canon. I was really proud of Jenn learning the guitar part during the course of the practice. I think she sounded really good on it. Granted the middle section was giving her some problems (understandable, I don’t always play it right), but the rest of it she nailed. I think it’ll be a fun song to do once we get it together. As we worked on Andy Land so long, we decided not to work on anything else for the night. We were going to work on another instrumental, ME, but that’ll maybe be tackled next week.
I submitted us for SXSW the other day in hopes of making it this year. Who knows if it’ll happen this time. I’m not gonna deny that I don’t daydream about it a lot…but a lot of that is simply just introducing this band to Texas. And I would just LOVE to play a show in Dallas with all of my family and friends in attendance. I’m immensely proud of the music and the band and I really want other people to hear it too.
***
I think that’s all. In the initial entry I went into a huge political discussion at this point…hm…I guess I’ll leave that for another time. In the meantime, if you care which candidate you match up with the best, take this little test. I was really surprised who was my closest match.
One more “copy” before I go…
Current Location: mon bureau
Current Mood: 
cheerful
Current Music: XTC - Shake You Donkey Up
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