An Apology from Tryptophan Heaven
A quick foreword/apology - I have been remiss in the timely maintenance of my weblog as of late. Trouble with my modem on my home computer, and limited access time at my new job has slowed the process a bit. Couple that with the temporary financial strains brought on by the inappropriate fiscal policies of my former employer, and I still don’t have it fixed. With any luck, though, I should be able to remedy this situation in the next week or so. I have written blogs for many of the intervening weeks, I just wasn’t able to post them until now. Feel free to go back and read them with the links on the left of this page. For the delays, I apologize.
So, without further ado...
Saturday, 26 November 2005
Thanksgiving weekend is probably my favorite holiday. I love turkey, and could probably eat it every day. In fact, I usually eat either turkey or chicken just about every day for lunch. So, I do eat it almost every day now that I think about it. However, the sliced stuff in plastic packages simply isn’t the same as fresh-off-the-bone fowl. Throw in all of the standard sides, and I’m in tryptophan heaven. I indulged myself with Dawna’s family this year, and the meal was outstanding to say the least. She and I spent the rest of the day putting up plastic barriers around her outside windows to help alleviate the incursion of cold air into her enclosed porch.
Friday was pretty much a music day for me. It started with Dawna asking me to go with her to her piano lesson. Her teacher is a riot. She is someone who obviously enjoys what she is doing. This is really nice to see in a music teacher. After I returned home, I practiced my cello like a good boy, practice my bass in one of those rare moments, and spent the rest of the day working on a couple of original string quartets. I had picked up new notation software by Finale to replace the old Sibelius 2 software I had been using. It was a pirated copy I received from a friend, and was not registered, so the save option was disabled. It has been quite a pain to re-enter everything when I wanted to make changes, and then reprint the new copy. The new software is registered and functioning properly, making the writing process fly right along. The playback sounds are more realistic as well. It doesn’t have as many bells and whistles as Sibelius (which I didn’t really need anyway), but it also didn’t cost $400. Dawna and I had dinner that evening at the Olive Garden and went to see the new Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie, then headed home for bed, as she wasn’t feeling too well.
Saturday didn’t see her health improve much. In fact, it had gotten worse as the day wore on. She had planned on accompanying me to Baha Rock Club that night, but decided late in the day that it would be best if she stayed behind. Baha is not known for its efficient ventilation system, and she was sure the incredible amount of smoke would only increase her inability to breathe. She did, however, agree to stay at my house while I was gone. Knowing that she was there didn’t exactly make it easy to concentrate on the task at hand, but I somehow managed.
Once again, BenWahBob put the sets through their usual paces. Dale had inserted several of the new songs into the set list, but this time had interspersed them throughout the sets. The night started off pretty slow. There were very few people there when I arrived, and we all discussed how we thought the Saturday after Thanksgiving would yield a better turnout. Of course, we didn’t have to wait too long for that to happen. By the time we had gotten into the first set, the place was starting to buzz, and very soon was as packed to the rafters as would be expected. Everyone seemed to be having a good time.
Throughout most of the night, we had people coming up to the stage and requesting somewhat odd songs. We always get requests, but these were off the beaten path stuff like Brian Adams, The Cars, Iggy Pop, and some others of whom I had never even heard. We got several requests for some heavier stuff like Ozzy and Sabbath. I am not sure if people really just like that stuff more lately, or if it is starting to become known that we do more of it lately. Whatever the case, we accommodated them in the fourth set. Whatever benign song Dale had put at the top of that set was summarily passed over to get to the meat-and-potatoes of the rock stuff. We launched directly into Bobby singing Love Removal Machine by The Cult, then into me singing Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin and What You’re Doing by Rush. Dale came up to sing Moxy’s Sail On, Sail Away, then retreated again for Carlos to sing Faeries Wear Boots to begin our Sabbath onslaught. We rolled into Paranoid, but suddenly ran out of time. As Jim was at the door tapping his watch, we had time for one more. So, we made as short as possible a version of War Pigs, and shut everything down for the night. As much fun as this was for us to play all of these killer tunes, it apparently did less for those still in attendance. As we wound our way through this great set, more and more people got up to leave. By the time we arrived at the end of the last song, the place was empty but for a few hardcore Sabbath fans. Oh well...at least Jim and his staff didn’t have a bar full of people to throw out at the end of the night.
We packed our stuff, loaded out, received our compensation for services rendered, and I headed for home and my lovely-yet-ill girlfriend. My drive was accompanied by the strains of Exit; Stage Right - The String Quartet Tribute to Rush put out by Vitamin A Records...very cool stuff. I had long thought about doing something like this. I guess I thought about it too long. Now that someone else has done it, I can check it off the list.
So, without further ado...
Saturday, 26 November 2005
Thanksgiving weekend is probably my favorite holiday. I love turkey, and could probably eat it every day. In fact, I usually eat either turkey or chicken just about every day for lunch. So, I do eat it almost every day now that I think about it. However, the sliced stuff in plastic packages simply isn’t the same as fresh-off-the-bone fowl. Throw in all of the standard sides, and I’m in tryptophan heaven. I indulged myself with Dawna’s family this year, and the meal was outstanding to say the least. She and I spent the rest of the day putting up plastic barriers around her outside windows to help alleviate the incursion of cold air into her enclosed porch.
Friday was pretty much a music day for me. It started with Dawna asking me to go with her to her piano lesson. Her teacher is a riot. She is someone who obviously enjoys what she is doing. This is really nice to see in a music teacher. After I returned home, I practiced my cello like a good boy, practice my bass in one of those rare moments, and spent the rest of the day working on a couple of original string quartets. I had picked up new notation software by Finale to replace the old Sibelius 2 software I had been using. It was a pirated copy I received from a friend, and was not registered, so the save option was disabled. It has been quite a pain to re-enter everything when I wanted to make changes, and then reprint the new copy. The new software is registered and functioning properly, making the writing process fly right along. The playback sounds are more realistic as well. It doesn’t have as many bells and whistles as Sibelius (which I didn’t really need anyway), but it also didn’t cost $400. Dawna and I had dinner that evening at the Olive Garden and went to see the new Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire movie, then headed home for bed, as she wasn’t feeling too well.
Saturday didn’t see her health improve much. In fact, it had gotten worse as the day wore on. She had planned on accompanying me to Baha Rock Club that night, but decided late in the day that it would be best if she stayed behind. Baha is not known for its efficient ventilation system, and she was sure the incredible amount of smoke would only increase her inability to breathe. She did, however, agree to stay at my house while I was gone. Knowing that she was there didn’t exactly make it easy to concentrate on the task at hand, but I somehow managed.
Once again, BenWahBob put the sets through their usual paces. Dale had inserted several of the new songs into the set list, but this time had interspersed them throughout the sets. The night started off pretty slow. There were very few people there when I arrived, and we all discussed how we thought the Saturday after Thanksgiving would yield a better turnout. Of course, we didn’t have to wait too long for that to happen. By the time we had gotten into the first set, the place was starting to buzz, and very soon was as packed to the rafters as would be expected. Everyone seemed to be having a good time.
Throughout most of the night, we had people coming up to the stage and requesting somewhat odd songs. We always get requests, but these were off the beaten path stuff like Brian Adams, The Cars, Iggy Pop, and some others of whom I had never even heard. We got several requests for some heavier stuff like Ozzy and Sabbath. I am not sure if people really just like that stuff more lately, or if it is starting to become known that we do more of it lately. Whatever the case, we accommodated them in the fourth set. Whatever benign song Dale had put at the top of that set was summarily passed over to get to the meat-and-potatoes of the rock stuff. We launched directly into Bobby singing Love Removal Machine by The Cult, then into me singing Immigrant Song by Led Zeppelin and What You’re Doing by Rush. Dale came up to sing Moxy’s Sail On, Sail Away, then retreated again for Carlos to sing Faeries Wear Boots to begin our Sabbath onslaught. We rolled into Paranoid, but suddenly ran out of time. As Jim was at the door tapping his watch, we had time for one more. So, we made as short as possible a version of War Pigs, and shut everything down for the night. As much fun as this was for us to play all of these killer tunes, it apparently did less for those still in attendance. As we wound our way through this great set, more and more people got up to leave. By the time we arrived at the end of the last song, the place was empty but for a few hardcore Sabbath fans. Oh well...at least Jim and his staff didn’t have a bar full of people to throw out at the end of the night.
We packed our stuff, loaded out, received our compensation for services rendered, and I headed for home and my lovely-yet-ill girlfriend. My drive was accompanied by the strains of Exit; Stage Right - The String Quartet Tribute to Rush put out by Vitamin A Records...very cool stuff. I had long thought about doing something like this. I guess I thought about it too long. Now that someone else has done it, I can check it off the list.
posted by Paul J. Smith | 12:10
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