These Shoes Don't Fit

sorry for not posting in so long

2009-12-22T14:35:00.000-08:00

alot has been going on. happy holidays!!

you too

2009-09-30T13:55:00.000-07:00

super fan of all music, including ellen cherry music, Raj, took me and #1BB to see U2 at FedEx Field yesterday. wow. and wow again. i like their music. don't get me wrong, i like it as much as the next guy, but there are some people who love it so much they loerve it. it was insanity. we arrived at 1:30PM to wait on line, get some numbers and wrist bands and then were let onto the field at 5PM. it was nice to have an afternoon hanging out with a good friend, and having us peek into his, and many others', obsession for awhile.

U2 are great performers. the sound was great. the stage was amazing. overwhelming. a modern day, moveable cathedral. i suppose that's the point. U2's Cult of Personality is having us always look up at them and be overwhelmed by spectacle. I have never thought of the shows I've seen on video, DVD or photographs to be intimate experiences for the audience. But still, that's okay because I was amazed by everything that went into the show. An outside observer would have seen me standing still while everyone jumped around me, in time to the music. I was wide-eyed, intensely watching The Edge as he played through the songs. I was fascinated by the flow of everything and how easily they traded guitars--it had been done many times over and was familiar. So were the songs, even though there were a few times with The Edge appeared to be "searching" for a note over the pre-recorded other guitar tracks that were playing. I tried not to smile when I heard a possible flubbed note--it made me happy. That was a human being up there, playing in front of 60,000 people.

There was a point when Bono walked over the inner circle area where we were. I caught this picture of everyone looking up. It was very strange. I felt I was the calm person in the middle of some kind of madness. I don't like big crowds at all and Raj was concerned about my anxiety, but i managed to handle this by concentrating on one thing at a time. First I would watch Adam Clayton stomp around the stage like a bass Godzilla in his sparkly trimmed gray pants (gents, I don't know how he does this, but those pants made him look super fine.)

I wondered if it feels completely odd to be sitting at your drum riser and have it spin around at pre-determined times. Then, at the end of the show, Bono wears a jacket that has lasers, literally, shooting out of it. Trust: it was not cheesy, but incredibly cool.

But my favorite part was watching The Edge. I confess, I did have one of those moments where I thought: is he looking directly at me? So i tried to give a little smile. Now, on reflection, it makes me laugh. I must have been a little starstruck.

It's going to take the crew 2-3 days to pack up this stage and move it to the next location. Amazing.

It reminded me of what I saw last summer in Wisconsin: The Forevertron. It's possible that your life is unfulfilled if you don't have both the U2 and the Dr. Every experience at least once. I highly recommend.

last week's video blog....oops, sorry it's late

2009-09-30T13:53:00.000-07:00

video blog--trying to get these started again....

2009-09-10T18:44:00.001-07:00

maine

2009-08-31T14:55:00.000-07:00

have to get to a meet and greet dinner with other Summerkeys students, but so far, cello camp is FUN. we stopped at this blueberry stand along the way. apparently, Maine is the capital for blueberries. i admit, they were very delicious!!

mini tour with the lovely Dylan Sneed

2009-08-13T08:00:00.000-07:00

Last night, Dylan Sneed, my fellow Texan and now a South Carolina resident, played the El Rancho Grande in Baltimore, MD. we had a great crowd, thank you guys for being there! I was worried--sometimes it's hard to get people out on a Wednesday in the town you live in. But we did it, it was really great. Dylan is a wonderful performer and an amazing guitar player. Alternate tunings, looped stuff, and just beautiful tone and technique. it was an education to watch him play. I feel like i learn so much just by being around these great players.

we play DC tonight and again tomorrow night (in Georgetown). We have some guaranteed cash, so that takes some of the pressure off and we can just play and enjoy without worrying so much about the size of the crowd.

'cello camp is coming! i'm stoked. I met with my pals at Naked Blue, Jen and Scott Smith, who are making the trip with me. Jen and I played 'cello together yesterday for about 10-15 minutes. we are going to have a great trip, i'm excited for this adventure.

There's some other adventures going on that I wanted to mention just because I'm excited and happy for my friends and their pending new additions to their families. My drummer, Darin and his wife Carrie are expecting a girl, due in December and my friends Doug and Jaia are expecting a boy. For some reason, it makes me so happy to know that these caring and thoughtful people are producing more people. It's like a balancing act, ya know? I know that they are going to make great parents and raise kids that are also thoughtful and kind and caring. We need more people like that. So kudos to you guys for doing that hard work! I appreciate it and the world appreciates it too. Keep me posted, okay?

where did July go?

2009-08-07T09:07:00.000-07:00

i feel like i missed the whole month of July. i'm a bit sad about that. summer is my favorite season and it's been flying by. i'm not complaining. busy is good. busy is money to invest back in the e.c. company. busy is money to pay for strings and food and bills. busy is just....well, busy. i did alot of stuff in July, but the enjoyment of the stuff, it was too small. too rushed. i couldn't sit back and watch things happen. i was in the thick of it with little or no time for reflection.

i'm sorry if you've visiting here and wondering what the heck happened. also, not blogging has meant that i haven't been keeping up on my diary either. i think today's the day to catch up on that. and a whole host of other things too.

plus, the weather is insane today. sunny, sparse whispy clouds. breezy. this dry, warm day.......i just had the feeling come over me that it was 1980 and it's May in Texas. i'm sitting on the curb outside my house and i have that thrill. you know the thrill: everything is front of you and you don't know anything. everything is still yet to be learned, to be heard, to be seen. i'm only 5 years on the planet and although i've observed alot, there's still alot to be observed.

*****

two men just walked by on the sidewalk behind my house, speaking a language i don't know. it brought me back to here, where i'm sitting on my porch in Baltimore. that 5 year old i was talking about above, she's 30 years ago almost. i'm back here now, but it still feels like a Texas day in early summer. i'm suddenly homesick. not for a place, but for a time and place that can never be again.

too long, out of touch

2009-07-08T12:56:00.000-07:00

sorry, my little chicklets....i've been avoiding the computer. not really avoiding, just spending as little time as possible in front of it. spending time outside, painting my house, etc. actually playing some music!

but fun things have been in the works and June's show were great. there's always so much going on...it's been nice to have a few moments to myself to just sit. sit and think. those moments are few and far between and i've cherished them.

The big show this weekend is the Stoop Storytelling summer show, called "Baltimoored: Summer in the City." It features the tales the Stoop is famous for, as well as featured music by me (ellen cherry), Caleb Stine and the Brakemen, Arty Hill, The 5th L and also performances by the Baltimore Improv Group. It's an old timey radio show and is going to be super fun. Starting tomorrow night, Thursday, July 9 through July 11. Tickets are still available, just click HERE.

more to come.....promise.
in the mean time, get out there in the world. get some vitamin D working in your skin. i'll see you out on the town!

ouch.

2009-06-04T07:26:00.001-07:00

I watched Ray Kurzweil on TED.com this morning. And my brain began to ache a little, attempting to keep up as he was talking about the advances of technology. But he mentioned the establishment of his Singularity University and I realized, I didn't quite "get" what they were using the word for. So I looked it up.....I googled "What is singularity?" Little did I know that while I'm painting the back deck today and power washing the sidewalk, I can ponder and attempt to ponder THIS. It's possible that there is a nearby future of smarter-than-human intelligence within my lifetime. This is the Evolution, no? Will we evolve right out of being human? And the bigger question is: once there are beings with smarter-than-human intelligence, will they be things that won't war, don't cry, laugh only on command or as a pre-set, designed reaction to stimuli? More importantly, will they be bigger jerks than us or more "compassionate"?

Shout out to Jim in Dallas: I read your comment and I'm too lazy to comment back on my own blog, but just wanted to say....well, I don't know what I want to say to that. If we figure out what happened the second before the Bang, well....I don't know: what happens to mystery? What happens to Wondering?

Back to powerwashing--which I am finding super fun and satisfying, but it's hurting my arms!!

particle man, particle man

2009-05-27T07:35:00.000-07:00

I've been watching TED talks in the mornings--a way to feel informed, and not out of the loop, since i am still actively trying to avoid reading the news. this morning's was Brian Cox, who was labeled on the TED site as the "rock star" of physicists. His talk was from last year, about the Large Hadron Collider, which was I was fascinated by when it was in the news. Mostly because there was this hilarious and scary quote from one of the scientists on the project who said "I don't think the world will end when we switch it on." (Cue sinister movie music: dunh, dunh, dunh.)

This talk is a bit confusing, because my brain, despite the 13.7 billion years its had to develop into something more than it is, does not compute alot of the physics--even explained "simply" as he tried to do in this short lecture. But at about 13 minutes, he starts talking about the stuff that fascinates me: what happened a billionth of a second after the universe began. cool.

Click here to spend 14 minutes pondering the universe....

Alonzo's Lullaby TONITE + Helen Fisher on TED talks

2009-05-22T08:09:00.000-07:00

Tonight is the debut of my original composition for "Alonzo's Lullaby", which is a shaddow puppet piece about the Hagenback-Wallace train wreck of 1918. Couldn't get more obscure than that, i suppose? Lots of top-40 hits presented during this one! (i'm kidding, you know that, right?) Kidding aside, I've composed, along with my friend Nick Sjostrom, a sparse but beautiful (even if i say so myself) 30 minute piece to accompany the shaddow puppets. And don't worry if you're not in Baltimore to see it--we're going to be presenting it elsewhere at festivals and hopefully colleges. I'll keep you posted.

I have loved working on this project, it's just been amazing. Annie and Molly and Nana Projects have been incredible. I made some video of behind the scenes work that we did on it as well and i'm hoping to turn that into a bit of promo material/documentary about the process. It has been my most memorable "scoring/composition" activity of my career so far. I'm grateful to have had the opportunity to participate and thankful for Molly to have asked me to put my voice and music to her show.

We debut it tonight--Creative Alliance, @ 8PM. See you there. And if not, we'll see you the next time we show it!!

In other news, I've been watching TED talks every morning as a supplement to skipping news reading. It really helps me to feel like i have something to talk about with people since i'm no longer up on current events. Today, I watched this one by Helen Fisher and was more impressed by the ideas she presented about Feminism. That women are now moving back towards the power and position in society and relationships that we had 10,000 years ago and even longer ago. That thought has had my mind spinning for an hour now.

Have a great weekend and I'll post again soon. See you out on the town!

no winners for Alonzo's Lullaby/Single Carrot Theater gala tix

2009-05-21T12:31:00.000-07:00

hello there dear little lamb-lets. sadly, no one took the bite on the free Single Carrot Theater gala offer of a ticket to the June 6 event in exchange for attending (with 2 friends) the Alonzo's Lullaby event tomorrow (May 22).

I will think of another way to get these tickets out to fans over the next week and keep you posted!!

debut of Alonzo's Lullaby!

2009-05-19T20:46:00.000-07:00

Please spread the word far and wide, especially in Baltimore! I've been working on a completely new original score for Nana Projects newest shadow puppet piece, Alonzo's Lullaby. We are debuting the new piece at Creative Alliance, this Friday, May 22 @ 8PM. I will be performing the 30 minute score, absolutely live, with my friend and collaborator, Nick Sjostrom.

Click to Creative Alliance for tickets. There's not a bad seat in the house and tickets are only $15 for what will surely be a strange and wondrous night. I'll also be playing a 30 minute set to start the evening. Here's the official blurb:

Madness, passion and sabotage are intertwined in the newest magic lantern show by the creators of the Great Halloween Lantern Parade. Inspired by the Hagenback-Wallace circus train wreck of 1918, Alonzo’s Lullaby is a luminous, richly-hued, shadow puppet play for adults, with original score performed by singer/songwriter ellen cherry and Nick Sjostrom. Funded by the Jim Henson Foundation.

Artscape!

2009-05-13T18:42:00.001-07:00

hallo friends. well, i made it to the regular Artscape Stage for Sunday, July 19 @ 3PM....but there's another competition: the Sound Off! Competition. And if i win this, i get to play on Saturday too. so vote HERE:

http://www.artscape.org/index.cfm

You can vote as many times as you want to. Seriously. So click it ALOT. it doesn't hurt. I promise.

And spread the word. It would be super fun to rock Artscape, not once, but TWICE.

2009-04-30T15:15:00.000-07:00

the day before i left Baltimore, the FOX45 folks asked me to come in to chat a bit about the promo and play it on the air. they were going to launch the campaign on Friday, April 10, but knew that i was leaving for tour, so they wanted to get something filmed before i left. i'll admit: it was really interesting to be in the studio. i hadn't yet seen their news program, but now that i've seen the studio AND the program, it's really interesting to relate things spatially. we filmed the spot and #1BB got up early on Friday to see it and described to me, over the phone, how it looked, etc. I was a nervous wreck filming it, though! And they just did one take, no time for screw ups!

so i left for the tour on Thursday, April 9. first stop, Charlottesville, VA, where i opened the evening at The Box, a little wine bar/hang out on the main square. The best part of the evening was meeting new people and hearing both Dylan Sneed (a songwriter from South Carolina, but a native Texan) and The Astronomers. Both put on a great show. The Astronomers were AMAZING. Please check them out, you will like them. And Dylan is going to make it in this business, i think. Great songs, great performance and super nice.

Next night, I headed to Charlotte, NC, where I met amazing musicians and played music with my friends Josh and my new friend, Marley Carroll. I hope to be composing some things long distance with Marley (who has his stuff together), but he's going to be waiting on me to get MY stuff together. Just a few more weeks, Marley....i swear.

Sunday, April 12, I headed to Johnson City, TN to play at the Acoustic Coffeehouse. The people there are incredible nice, and it's owned by this cat, Jim Benelisha. Jim emailed me a few weeks prior to the show and he asked if he could sit in, on 'cello, during my set. Sometimes, i'll be honest, when someone asks if they can sit in, I'm worried. Especially if I've never heard them before. Jim was amazing. A classically trained 'cellist with years of experience and a wonderful sensibility about playing with other performers. The next morning, I stayed for a bit longer just to be able to play with him again. He even generously gave me a few tips on my own 'cello playing. Curt, the sound technician, was also really cool. We chatted for a long time about music, the state of things the artistic world, how to keep your head above water and really just enjoy the technological developments of late, etc. Curt, if you happen to read this, thanks for the hospitality, the conversation and the offer of the Library of Congress on a huge projection screen. You are a cool, dude!

Monday, April 13, I headed to the famous Eddie's Attic, Decatur, GA. I would be one of 23 competitors for the Open Mic Shootout slot in June. You get to play 2 songs and Eddie himself judges the evening. He picks 3 performers to return to the stage and perform one more song. I made the finals! But, was not ultimately the winner that night. I wasn't disappointed, though. I had played my best and Eddie pulled me aside and said "ellen, i'm familiar with your music and would like you to come back here." Which was great! The next day, they called and invited me back for the Open Mic Shootout in June. (Sadly, I can't make it because of other commitments, but I'm hoping to go back for the Shootout in November.) That night, I stayed with my friend Chip, who works for a great for-profit company that's actually got a non-profit mindset: Better World Books. Chip is hilarious and talks faster than I do, if you can believe that. And just to let you in on the glamourous life of touring: When I woke up in the morning at Chip's house, i found out that one of his roommate's cats had peed in my clothes bag. I had two more days on the road before I reached Texas, my stopping point. I knew that I couldn't drive for 2 more days with a bag of clothes that smelled this bad. So, i weighed my options: throw the clothes out? Put them in a plastic bag and tie it to the outside? I decided to shower with the offending clothes, and did this before I located Chip's washing machine. Oh well. the clothes and I survived.

Tuesday, April 14, I headed up to Nashville to play another songwriter showcase. This time, I was lucky enough to be staying with my good friend Jack of the Jack Silverman Ordeal (he's an amazing guitar player and really funny dude, as well.) I played at the Listening Room, right near downtown and happened to run into fellow DC musicians, Lori Kelley and Cletus Kennely. I don't even want to guess at the odds of that, but they were there recording demos of new songs that they had written. It was great to hear them play together during their part of the showcase and also just to chat a bit about being working musicians. I played well, sold a few cds and made some connections. Success!

Wednesday, April 15, i headed to Texas. A long drive, but worth it because i got to spend the next week with my family.

Friday, April 17, i played in Dallas. Sharing the stage with the lovely and talented Johnny Lloyd Rollins. He just gets better and better. And also seeing some Dallas area based fans and friends. I need to make that circuit a little more frequently, i think.

On Sunday, April 19th, I drove to La Grange, TX, to play the Songwriter Showcase competition at the Bugle Boy. I have long admired one of the judges, Sara Hickman, and felt so lucky to play for her. She even took the time after my set to give me a helpful and detailed critique of my performance and songs. She was so encouraging, but her critique was the best just because it caused me to really pause and evaluate some of what i'm doing on stage. Thanks Sara!

The rest of the week was spent with the family and with my beloved childhood piano (that my parents keep threatening to sell.)

On Thursday, I headed back in the direction of Baltimore, stopping for 2 days in Louisville, KY, to see my friend Gabriel. He works for an A&E show called "The First 48" which i had not seen until this weekend. I knew it was a homicide detective show, but that's all i knew about it. When i got there, Gabriel was out "in the field" shooting the most recent homicide in Louisville: the death of a prostitute. Later in the evening, we watched some of his footage and I don't mean to sound macabre or give you the impression that I'm championing or endorsing ANYTHING, BUT: it's very interesting. One of my favorite shows on television has always been "Law and Order" and of course, I adored "The Wire." But there is something strange and bizarre about watching footage of an actual crime scene. It was unreal. strange. And then my mind made the connections: no, this is a real person. The detectives are all real people. No one is acting at all. The experience of the entire weekend has stayed with me.

Now I'm back in Baltimore and I can't believe that tomorrow with be the first day of May. Where is this year going!?

Thanks for letting me ramble. I'm going to try to be more timely about updates from now on. But i'm not making any promises! Just the promise that I'll try!
To everyone that I met out on the road: thanks for your support along the way and I hope to see you again soon.

2009-04-30T11:20:00.000-07:00

excuses. i'm getting better at turning a phrase in a song. of telling a story. or at least, that's what i'm dedicating my creative energies towards. but really, if i'm honest, the thing that i excel at, no, the thing i am becoming Master Craftsman of, is: making excuses.

for some reason, it's easier. and because it's easier, i've been doing it alot. and because i've been doing it alot, i'm getting better at it, and it's becoming easier. i recognized this part of my personality a few years ago and did nothing about it and the behavior continued. then a few months ago, i started reading books about how to better organize my time, better direct my energies. i put a few things into practice and noticed an immediate difference in both my energy level, my productivity, my creativity and overall outlook on life. but then, after about a month of this, i began to backslide. i started reading news again. i started having depressing 2 hour breakfasts that were lasting because i simply couldn't log off the computer.

i'm not sure what the ultimate solution is for me, but i think it has to do with re-learning how to focus my mind. for a few years, yoga was helping me, but i've strayed from that, too.

i got back from the most recent tour, 3 days ago. i swore when i left, that i was going to spend every day being productive. it always makes me so sad to leave #1BB, the dogs and my house (my safety zone), and so i promised that i would make each moment worthwhile. i would work. i would make contacts. i would make all free moments into something amazingly creative. but you know what happened? it all just sort of buzzed by. it was 17 days and every day was full of something, but it wasn't nearly what i had hoped it would be. and although i accomplished a lot of my goals (i met amazing musicians, played great shows, made great connections, saw my family, celebrated milestones with my loved ones, played the piano at my parents' house, saw friends and fans along the way) i realized i was also making many excuses while on the road (i.e. i'll get to that email when i get back; i'll make that phone call later; i'll write that down when i remember). i feel disappointed that the time away wasn't more productive and even worse, now that i'm back and, relatively, caught up on sleep, i'm still feeling listless about doing stuff and don't want to really do anything. and i've spent the past few days making a bunch of excuses.

i want to stop. this is me, telling you, that i want to stop with the excuses. for the past 3 weeks, i've been writing it on my list every day: BLOG. and i haven't done it, why? there's no reason, except that maybe i felt i didn't have anything to say. (actually, that's a pretty good reason.) but i was on the road, lots of interesting things happened! maybe people who are interested in ellen cherry would actually like a bit of a distraction and read about these things.

SO. what am i going to do about it? well, the first thing i'm trying is Dark Room (for Windows). a mirror software program of Write Room (for Macs). Dark Room is a simple piece of software that makes my computer into a black screen where i can only see what i'm typing. and so far, one day into it, i'm already loving it. Something about not being able to see any other things that are happening on the computer has really helped me to focus on exactly the ONE thing that i'm doing.

Mainly, i'm disappointed that i'm no longer a real diarist. I used to write in my diary very regularly and it helped to clear my mind, calm me, and also served as my memory. i didn't have to remember things because my diary was remembering them for me. I'm hopeful, no--i'm determined to let this program help ease me back into being a diarist. i think my songwriting has really suffered from my lack of daily, mental maintenance.

Okay, enough excuses. and enough worrying about all the excuses i'm making. next post will be about the tour and all that's going on. hope you're doing well and to see you soon. thanks for reading my rant about myself.

My Very First Jingle

2009-04-10T08:26:00.000-07:00

hey there, i hope you like getting a song stuck in your head, because this one was stuck in mine for about a month. And FOX is running the promo on their channel for about 6 months (yay!!) But i'm really proud of the work we did on it and hope you like it. I also hope it brings some new fans into the ellen cherry fold.

cool pic from my friend

2009-04-05T11:53:00.000-07:00

last week, my friend Daniel Bedell had a picture he wanted to experiment with. so we played with some characters and he photographed a strange band practice. i *wish* i were proficient at these instruments and could even fake playing them all well--i did my best, but truth be told, it's always more fun to play with others. hope your Spring is nice so far....

Tis Pity She's a Whore TICKETS are gone. thanks for everyone who wrote in!!

2009-03-24T07:49:00.000-07:00

Thanks to everyone who read the email immediately and responded!! Hope to see you on Friday anyway. The ellen cherry show is FREE in the lobby and you can buy tickets to the play if you like....

'cello camp, 11 years, March Madness, last shows of the month

2009-03-23T13:47:00.000-07:00

Morgan is 11 years old today. I can't believe it. He's as spry as ever and happy, although he's starting to exhibit a few signs of old age, which depresses me. Nothing major, just that his sight isn't so great anymore and he startles so easily with minor noises. There's more random barking than before, but I'm amazed at this age, how much he still loves to run around for no reason. I've noticed a bit more needy-ness too. He's always underfoot and wanting to sit in my lap, but this could be entirely my fault--i indulge this behavior pretty heavily. I just can't help it!! So, happy birthday, my sweet companion. I hope we have a long way to go yet.

This weekend's show are big ticket items, but all worth it, trust me. I'm looking especially forward to Saturday night (house concert in Ellicott City--there's still 10 seats left!!) which will prove to re-energize me about playing again. I love house concerts--they are exhausting, but SO rewarding. Then, Sunday is Kevin's Concert, Vol. 2. This is the second annual concert put on by ex-ellen cherry guitarist, Patrick Kisicki. The purpose of the concert is to raise money for the National Kidney Foundation and is named for Patrick's brother, Kevin, who donated one of his kidneys to Patrick several years ago. I think this is such an amazing event and I'm so happy to be a part of it again. Patrick is amazing and please please please show up. The bands are all donating their time and energies to entertain you. I'm also donating a "singing" telegram to the auction. I've not played Sonar yet, but it's sure to be worth your time and money. I promise to put on a stellar show!!

in that vein, i'm introducing a MARCH MADNESS of my own. Part economic stimulus (ooh, kinky!) and part fundraiser and part spread the freakin' word, peeps.--I'm offering all ellen cherry cds from now until the end of April will be 2 for 1. i.e, you buy one ellen cherry cd, you get 2 instead of 1. one to keep, one to give to a friend. email me: if you buy a bunch, i'll even pay for shipping.

in another vein, i'm headed to 'cello camp at Summerkeys in Maine in August. I'm trying to think of creative ways to raise funds for that trek. I'm thinking of just asking for it. how's that for a novel idea??

elec-trauma

2009-03-07T11:13:00.001-08:00

after having this flick in my possession for 2 weeks, i finally screwed up the courage to finish it. lots of weird stuff has been happening to me lately and i'm trying to process through it all, slowly, so that i can understand it and find out if there is any meaning in it, or just more of life's randomness that i struggle to understand.

but after watching about 20 minutes of this (Daft Punk's full length, silent movie, Electroma), 2 weeks ago, i needed a break. it's intense and wonderful, but was striking too close to home with some of the weird things of late. but it's been holding up the Netflix queue! so last night, i sat down and finished it. and then i re-watched the opening scene with the Ferrari again. It's so beautifully shot that I found, several times, i was holding my breath.

i recommend highly. plus, the leather costumes are freakin' cool.

Finished John Cheever's The Brigadier and the Golf Widow. I also recommend. The copy I got from Book Thing of B'more is falling apart and now that i'm done, i don't know what to do with the book that's falling apart. I'm thinking of pulling my favorite passages and making some kind of found art out of it.

lovely weather here in B'more. gotta go sand some paint off the front porch railing.

John Cheever and more.....

2009-02-27T13:34:00.000-08:00

#1BB and I went to see the killer "Killer Joe" last night at Single Carrot Theater. Go see this play. It's a great theater (only 40 seats or so) and it's really well done. As a native Texan, I thought the accents were very authentic! But put that aside--the acting is very good. I suppose i'm not very articulate when writing about theatre. What can I say? It felt trashy and the personalities presented were unnerving. My favorite character was the mother, whom we never saw, but I felt the way Letts presents her: we know all we need to know through her relationships. Anyway, I highly recommend it. It's an intimate experience and it's only like $10 or $15 for a great night out. Plus, then you can go across the street to Joe Squared and order the Spaghetti and Meatballs pizza and have a nice night of it all.

Man, i wish we lived closer to the city. In fact, my desire for this is taking shape. It's time for a move. Time to purge possessions, sell them and give them away. I'm going to mention this in the ellen cherry newsletter, but I'll start here....I have a bunch of books and clothes and cds and cd sampler and stuff I've accumulated that is feeling more like a heavy weight and i don't want to continue to move this stuff around. So in an effort to prepare the house to sell it, I'm going to start by unloading a bunch of stuff. i'll keep you posted on the items and if you're interested, we'll make contact and a deal.

One of the things i'm going through is my library and finding that i've got a worse case of my Dad's disease than previously thought. He likes to get books and more books and more books and more books. For practially every gift giving occasion, i always get books. I love them. I love to read, but i've simply got to many that i've started and never finished or never even started. So, while packing up the books i know i'm going to keep, i've started the slow slog through the ones i'm uncertain about, or simply never read. One of these I got at the Book Thing of B'more. John Cheever's short stories, The Brigadier and the Golf Widow.

Whilst enjoying some tea the other night, I started this collection and have been jonesing for chances to read through the rest of it ever since. And it's a rainy day; I've brewed myself a nice cuppa coffee--as Agent Cooper (Paul Loyd gave me DVDs of Twin Peaks as a gift recently and I've been inducting #1BB into the club) likes to say, i'm going to give myself a little present today and just sit and read until the coffee's empty. Then back to whatever it is that i do that i call "work." I've not read Cheever before, but heard the recommendations. So far, I like.

back to our regular programming

2009-02-24T07:30:00.000-08:00

my drummer, Darin, sent me this link to an photog's video and it started off a melancholy (sp?) day for me on Friday, but sometimes, it's good to have those days. (it was probably compounded by watching the amazing "Waltz With Bashir" later in the day.) i liked the video clip, just because it's nice to know that there are many others (i know that probably everyone feels this way at some point) that go through this cyclical thing. mine has been more of an every-few-years thing....where i feel, all the sudden, and for depressing months at a time, that the Muse has left and will never return. my good friend Cliff, the poet, once said to me, when i was moaning about not having any ideas: "your muse is on vacation. let her rest, she'll come back. don't worry." [easy for HIM to say. he was spitting out great work at break neck speed.] but he was right. after what seemed like a lifetime of sitting at the piano or with the guitar, playing the same stuff over and over again, suddenly an idea would come and rest lightly on my shoulder again and i would write it down, and let go of my breath, as though i'd been holding it for a year.

i can feel the slide towards un-inspiration happening again. like a crumbling of loose ground beneath my feet. i stumble back onto surer ground...songs i know...paging through the last 13 years of songs....rehashing old crap. why did i sign up for FAWM again this year? it's like a self-fulfilling prophecy that i definitely WON'T write during this month. argh argh.

maybe a long, slow swim will help.? i'll let you know. sorry to be complaining about something that is kind of trivial in the large scheme of things. i know the economy is crumbling, even though i'm still avoiding the news as much as possible (full disclosure: there's been plenty of back sliding--reading news and wasting time on stuff i have little control over and can only worry about). but i've been, happily, surviving sort of below the economic radar for a few years, so i don't feel its downward effects as much as others.

still...the next post will about material things.....in an effort to clear my mind, i'm clearing out my house.

bizarre and funny (both ha-ha and um, what??)

2009-02-14T07:55:00.000-08:00

last year, i was talking on the phone to my good friend, RED. (longtime e.c. fan and even more long time U2 devotee.) i looked out my window into my backyard and there was a cd or dvd, lying shiny side up in the middle of the backyard. no, this isn't where i store my movies, so i was curious. i told him what i saw and he accompanied me, via phone, out in the yard where i found that someone (i'm TOTALLY not kidding!) had thrown a dvd of a pornographic movie into my backyard. i have gotten many good laughs out of this experience, simply because--how the heck did it get there? was someone running down the alleyway and thought "man, i had better get rid of this disc RIGHT NOW" and tossed it in the yard? had it fallen from a plane? helicopter? heaven? was someone sitting in my tree, unbeknownst to me, having a good old time with a portable player and whilst switching genres, dropped the disc and forgot about it when they climbed down? (does that sound impossible? well, so does finding porn in your backyard!)

ANYWAY, yesterday, i'm getting out of my car in front of the house and Eli, my bass player, has just driven up to have lunch and talk about band stuff. i'm really glad he was there to see me pick this up, because there were some papers, stapled together, lying on the front lawn. (mind you, we've had crazy wind in these parts the past few days, so this could have blown (pardon my pun, if that's a pun....wait, i'm confused) in from anywhere. so there's these papers, stapled together and it's a B&W print out of from some downloaded pictures of a "risque" nature (that's putting it lightly!) and some, get this: instructions!! when i realized what it was, i thought: i must have the weirdest luck in the world. and: what is with the outside of this house and porn!?!? it's like magnets!!

so there are just a few more points i'd like to share about this. it's stapled neatly together--like a manual you would use over and over again. it's dated 12/18/07, so i'm not trusting the information, because obviously, it's old info. thursday was recycling day, so i'm guessing someone might have put it out in their bin and the wind wafted it to my house....which means the possible culprit for all the free porn is actually living on my block (score!!).

so, i hope this made you laugh, because i still find it really amusing. also, if you need to see it, the next recycling day is in 2 weeks and i'll put it in the bin. just bring an industrial fan with you and it can be YOUR burden to bear.

on any sunday

2009-02-13T07:20:00.000-08:00

have been concentrating on writing in my diary every day at the expense of my poor, dear old blog. oh well. that stuff's private anyway! (and interesting only to me, trust me.)

plus, the weather has been WINDY, but very very nice and so i've spent more time outside, reveling in it. i am lucky, very lucky, that i've enabled myself to work on my own schedule. of course, this means my slackerly attitude can sometimes take over, but i've been trying to curb that as much as possible and filling up each day with both productive and silly things, to stoke creativity.

watched "On Any Sunday" last night--Bruce Brown's motorcycle documentary last night. Steve McQueen's in it, and I didn't know he was such a skilled rider, but the true star of the film is Malcolm Smith. A rider with such grace. on the "widowmaker" hill, near Draper, UT, there's a race that people held from the late 60s to the 80s. I think they've revived it, and although Malcolm Smith wasn't the one to be the first to make it up and over the top, his ride was so completely graceful and i figured out why, i think. he just hovers above the bike and manages to keep both wheels connected to the ground. when most most riders were falling backwards, he had both wheels just connected and rolling. so graceful. i could watch that scene over and over.