Touring

We spent Wednesday driving from the Bay Area to Portland.

We barely got all five people, their luggage, and our gear into the van. It turned out we had to leave our main speakers and stands behind, since they wouldn't fit! We listened to the Ken Burns Duke Ellington CD and Brahms' piano trios; plus the Very Best Bollywood Songs compilation, which was definitely my favorite.

We made good time and arrived at the home of our gracious hosts, K and Paula, at about a quarter to 10 p.m. Delicious vegan chili, corn bread, and fresh carrots and radishes were waiting for us and we collapsed almost immediately onto their floor.

Next morning our first task was to rent mains and stands at Apple Music (thanks to Luis of the rental department there). Then we hit Powell's Books, Moonstruck, and the Greek Cusina before going back to our host home to practice.

We liked the spacious stage at Rotture and the mural which we posed in front of. We suffered no more than an average amount of technical difficulties and there was an actual audience there besides the other musicians. It rained really hard during our set, and it was audible between songs...and it was enough to make me say by accident during Suspension, "There's no RAIN, 'cause those parts don't feel," instead of "pain".

I was really happy to see John "the big JS" Savage in the audience, and enjoyed talking to him afterwards. It turned out he was a special guest of the final band on the bill, Resolution 57, so I got to hear him play alto sax, too.

Now we've made our drive to Astoria, OR and we're all sitting in an internet cafe. Our show tonight will be at the Astoria Visual Arts Center as part of the Creative Music Series. Walking around downtown, it's been fun seeing flyers in all the local storefronts advertising the concert.

One down, three to go

The trio configuration delivered the goods last night at the 1510 Performance Space in Oakland.

And as so often happens, Amar has beat me to blogging about it. His post has pictures, too!

Since Bill wasn't able to join us, Jim and Amar needed to expand their roles in the texture. Amar brought another laptop and contributed some sounds I hadn't heard before in rehearsal. Amar also served as our opening artist with about a half-hour's worth of meditative solo electronica. He also improvised with his own electronic sounds acoustically on the 1510 piano.

All four of us (once we're reunited with Bill) will spend tomorrow traveling and play our next concert on Thursday night at Rotture in Portland. We'll be sharing the stage with Resolution 57, Emily Hay and her group, and a duo of Brad Dutz and Wayne Peet.

All together now!

Jim Carr arrived from Kentucky Saturday morning! Now we are four!

So Jim, Amar, marvelous new guitarist Bill Wolter, and I spent the weekend rehearsing and we're all ready and psyched for our tour this week. We have three gigs in three days in each of Portland, Astoria, and Seattle. For some folks I've talked to, this qualifies it as a "whirlwind tour". There's certainly going to be plenty of driving involved.

Clyde, as our our road manager, will be along to coordinate all tech and logistical madness, sell our CDs, and record each of our performances on his own custom ProTools rig. Since the Astoria Visual Arts Center doesn't have a sound system, we're having to bring our own P.A. just for that show. All that gear, plus instruments, five people, and their luggage, is going to be an advanced game of Tetris in the van.

Bill has a conflict this evening, so Jim, Amar, and I will be holding down the fort in trio fashion at the 1510 Performance Space in Oakland. Amar will play a solo electronica set to open up.

Our set will consist of (1) pieces with composed text and improvisation cues for the instrumentalists; and (2) improvisations that grow out of each of those. We'll also be playing a cover of "Little Red Riding Hood". If that final statement makes no sense to you, you'd better come out and hear what it sounds like. :)

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Or at least, be kind of...sobered and solemn.

James Carroll says, "The religious tradition of Christian fundamentalism is one thing; the tradition of American exceptionalism another. They both have their roots in the same experience. They were separated. Under George Bush they’ve been brought together."

Read the whole interview here.

Alex the African Grey passes on

Just 31 when he died suddenly this past weekend, Alex the African Grey parrot taught everyone just how blindingly smart his people are. I'm sure his person, Dr. Irene Pepperberg, and her staff and students are devastated.

"Alex was in good health at his most recent annual physical about two weeks ago," says blogger GrrlScientist. "According to the vet who conducted his necropsy, there was no obvious cause of death."

Of Alex GrrlScientist also reports, "As early as 1999, he was able to "identify 50 different objects and understand quantities up to 6; he could distinguish 7 colors and 5 shapes, and understand the concepts of 'bigger', 'smaller', 'same', and 'different', and he was learning 'over' and 'under'," according to the New York Times. By 2002, Alex had a vocabulary of more than 100 words."

Gifts in his memory may be made to:

The Alex Foundation
c/o Dr. Irene Pepperberg
Department of Psychology/MS-062
415 South Street
Brandeis University
Waltham, MA 02454
781-736-2195
alex@alexfoundation.org

Don't reply to my Quechup invite

It's not that I don't wanna be your friend.

But if you got a Quechup invite from me, it was unintentional.

I signed up because I got an invite of my own (unintentional, I now realize) from somebody who didn't know Quechup would automatically email everybody in her address book when she searched for contacts.

I've since deleted my account.

Read more about this insidious social networking site here:

http://www.boingboing.net/2007/09/04/quechup-is-rotten-do.html

and here:

http://blogs.chron.com/techblog/archives/2007/09/spam_alert_just_say_no_to_quechup_1.html

Apologies to everyone who may have gotten such a spam invite purporting to be from me!