Hello. How is it going in your neck of the woods? Did the weekend treat you right? Spins some tunes? Watch a movie or two? What book are you currently reading? I’m trying to get through Chuck Klosterman’s Fargo Rock City. I’ve actually been trying to get through it for a couple months now. I’m not sure what’s causing me to not just blow through it. I mean, I thought I liked the guy. Anyways, once I’m done with that book I have The Zone Of Interest and a Ray Bradbury collection to get through. Though, I may end up restarting Brian K Vaughn’s Saga series. I picked up the second volume a couple weeks ago and I’m excited to get back into it. We shall see.
Besides reading I spun a bunch of records and CDs over the last weekend. Spent Sunday morning with Mr. Lee Morgan and worked on my latest painting/collage. I’m partly happy with the results, but I’m not done just yet. I’m going to try and finish it up this week.
I really just kind of fly by the seat of my pants when I’m making this stuff. I’ve usually got a general idea, but it tends to change and morph as I go along. I’m not formally trained or educated as a painter/artist, so I have no academic skillset when it comes to color palates, brush strokes, technique, etc. I’m going in and seeing what happens. That’s all I got. My wife has asked me about taking some painting classes but I feel like if I did that I’d lose interest. I’m stubborn that way. It’d be the same thing if I were to start taking guitar or piano lessons at this point. I don’t want to practice, I just want to play. I don’t want to take art classes, I just want to make stuff. Right or wrong, that’s just how my brain works.
If you have Shudder I recommend the movie Destroy All Neighbors. It’s a pretty fun, goofy horror/comedy about a musician who’s brought to the brink by his new and extremely noisy and obnoxious neighbor. It’s one of those “it just gets worse” kind of movies where the hapless guy gets embroiled in murder and insanity and can’t seem to find his way out. Alex Winter(of Bill & Ted fame) plays the loud neighbor of some unknown origins and comedian(and former MST3K star) Jonah Ray Rodrigues plays the musician who’s day just keeps getting worse and worse.
Saturday we had a late breakfast after my dad left from having coffee, then in the afternoon my wife and I headed into town and we bought her a tennis elbow brace. She doesn’t play tennis, but somehow is having tennis elbow issues. I had tennis elbow issues(without playing tennis, too) a few years back and the brace helped tremendously. Saturday night we had flatbread pizza and watched The Irishman(my fourth time). It just gets better.
I bought tickets for my wife and I to go see Mr. Big next month. On Valentine’s Day to be exact. They’re on their final tour and are stopping in Wabash, IN of all places to play a show at The Honeywell Center. Now I liked Mr. Big in high school, but I wasn’t a HUGE fan. I was and am, however, a huge Paul Gilbert fan and am a fan of Billy Sheehan. To see these two live at a lovely venue that’s just an hour from my house seemed like a no-brainer. I saw Steve Vai in the same venue back in 2016 and it was amazing. Just an absolute killer show. The acoustics in this place are unreal, and Mr. Vai came out into the audience at the end playing his guitar and went down our aisle. I could have hugged him he was that close. I didn’t, of course. But I wanted to.
Speaking of Steve Vai, I’m taking my mom to see Joe Satriani and Steve Vai at the Embassy Theater on April 20th in Fort Wayne. My mom love Steve Vai, ever since seeing him in Crossroads and me obsessively listening to him all through middle school and high school she’s become a fan. She is beyond thrilled we’re going. Maybe the best Christmas present I’ve ever given her.
I don’t feel I do enough with just my mom, so this concert is important. I see my dad nearly every Saturday morning when we have coffee. Mom doesn’t like coffee, and I think she enjoys having a couple hours without my dad watching the news and getting mad at said news, so she doesn’t come with him. I try to call and talk to her a couple days a week. Last time just her and I did something was a year ago when I took a Friday off and picked her up and we went up to a brewery near Michigan so I could grab a couple 4-pks of micro brew. We stopped at an old timey candy shop and picked up some Cheerwine for my wife, then we grabbed some lunch after the brewery. So I’m excited for this show in April, both because I get to see Vai and Satriani on the same stage together, and I get to see it with my mom.
Okay, that’s all I got. Have a great week, and do something for yourself dammit. You deserve it.
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Cool your Mom is into Vai and Satch. That is a great night of guitar. I have too add that Mr. Big will be a good one as well. Gilbert is a beast.
I liked Fargo Rock City as it was basically in my wheelhouse. Keep at it dude and finish it.
Have a great day!
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Those Mr Big tickets were also 2 for $40. Really couldn’t pass it up either way. They’ve all taken pretty good care of themselves, so I’m sure it’s gonna be a blast! Oh, and I’ll definitely finished Fargo Rock City. I’m enjoying it. I grew up very much like Klosterman..in the age of hair metal.
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We both grew up in that age but I I never really grew out of it. lol
Smart business practice on Mr Big charging $20 tix. Full house that way. A few months back I picked up the debut by them which was a discounted RSD title. Some great stuff on there.
Enjoy the show.
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I don’t think I necessarily grew out of it either. It just sits dormant in me until I see Ratt ‘Out of the Cellar’ or TNTs ‘Tell No Tales’ on vinyl in some random used bin, then that teen perks back up. lol
Yeah, 2 for $40 is a steal in regards to tickets these days. I remember seeing Paul perform a couple tracks from the debut at a guitar clinic back in early 1989. He played the backing tracks on a 4-track recorder and played along on the guitar. I think it was “Addicted to That Rush”. Pretty damn cool.
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Monk!
….I’ve been through Wabash so many times and even stopped there a couple, and I never would have thought of a performance venue there. I guess I could Google it, but it’s not terribly different than imagining a tour stop in, say, Warsaw, is it?
I did meet Wayne Gretzky in North Webster and had no idea who he was. In retrospect, getting him to receive an honor from Counting House Bank was a coup.
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The Honeywell Center is an amazing venue in the middle of nowhere in-particular. Acoustically perfect. If something rolls thru there that I like I definitely hit it up.
Was Gretzky getting his honor at what is Pilchers? The big castle building? Wasn’t that some sort of sports Hall of Fame at one time?
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I would have to Google it, but Counting House Bank had a castle design and they did go for like a sports hall kind of thing. One of my friend’s dad was part owner and there was some sort of banquet for Gretzky. I was sophomore in high school and was at a table with my buddy and his parents, and kept asking for and receiving for whatever reason round after round of vodka, neat. I cared very little about sports in general and had no idea who this guy was, but he seemed modest and nice and when I actually met him, seemed the same though I have no idea what level if inebriation I was at.
One time I rode my bike from Big Chapman (near Nellie Bay) to North Webster to see my friend, and on the way, a family of deer bounded out of this little valley and ran along ide me for a bit. Thrilling and also kinda scared the crap out of me because history teacher Dan Kuhn had not long before had car windshield busted when a deer left over and kicked it.
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Yeah I bet that’s it. Kind of hard to mistake Pilchers as anything but a wannabe castle.
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By the way — did the Hank Mobley CDs arrive? I know one was on backorder.
— and do you care for Horace Silver’s work at all? I especially like Blowin’ the Blues Away. This comes up because I had a dream this morning that I was in some kind of oversized Applebys or something and a small jazz combo was playing. They asked if anyone had any requests and I called for anything they knew by Horace Silver. They were delighted that someone in the crowd knew a bit about jazz and one of the players chose to play a accompanying piano that they tentatively played to see if the thing were even close to being in tune.
Pretty random. Pretty chatty this morning and I should be working. 🙂
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The Workout CD and the Roll Call vinyl arrived. Both are brilliant. Another Workout is still back ordered at the moment.
Love Horace Silver, though I only own Songs For My Father. I need to expand that a bit. I’ll give Blowin’ The Blues Away a listen. And really, if Applebees had jazz combos playing live music I’d probably eat there.
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Glad you like the Mobley records!
It was kind of a sad/ happy dream, because the combo was pretty good considering the pianos were house instruments and not particularly cared for, and the combo was sort of shoved back into an adjacent room. Clearly providing ambience that people could freely ignore, which they were. But when they made the request and I responded, the guys were so happy, it was nice.
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Such a strange and unknown thing, our subconscious. Jazz combos in chain restaurants, and me, trying to find a bathroom in a basement comic book shop and not being able to find one. There’s a lot of bizarre, unchartered square footage in our brains.
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