Saturday, January 24, 2009

Weekend Update

Joreen is back from Vermont. We're just hanging. Last night Alex and Tom of the Durable Goods came over to play, and we had the pleasure of the company of Bill Nork, his shiny red Hamer guitar and his Fender Ultra-Super-Dooper-Sonic amp. We tore it up for a couple hours. Very satisfying. Like the T-shirt says, "You can't beat two guitars, bass and drums."

Courtesy of Parker Kenyon, here is an interesting link for fans of Rush songs:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W4vd9OVLO7Q&feature=channel

I haven't heard of this guy before, but he's apparently a Christian artist, judging by a video of another song called "Just Like You." Phenomenal voice, and the kind of live performance I aspire to.

Physical therapy continues on the shoulder, and there's been measurable progress. I attended darts Thursday, and my game is back to status quo, i.e. erratic to the point of being random.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

Stuff Happens

Around here, much stuff has been happening. Synopsis follows.

Just Friends has undergone another personnel change. Craig Rankin, who joined us after Barry left, has left the band. Craig is a decent, hard-working guy who will be an asset to any band he joins. Our parting was very amicable. Joreen and I wish him all the best, and I believe I can speak for the rest of the band in that regard. Our new drummer, John Wilson, is from Enola and is a veteran of the local band scene, having played in the past with Rosie and the Naturals and other local groups. John is also a really nice guy, and we welcome him aboard. He joined us at the Minnequa Saturday night, and we had a blast.

Joreen traveled to Vermont today to spend some time with her sister.

Saturday, the oven crapped out on me just as I was about to bake two of the prettiest loaves of bread I ever formed. The estimate for the part to repair the control panel is almost the price of a new oven. It's 15 years old, so it's not a big shock. We'll go shopping for a new one when Joreen gets home.

This morning, the last of our old pets, Cinders, passed away at home. As late as Sunday afternoon, she was climbing up on people's laps and yelling for meat. Yesterday, she began making a sound I hadn't heard before, and in my non-veterinarian opinion it seemed like she was having some kind of stroke. She died this morning. Making a sandwich this afternoon, I got a little lonely. I'm used to her running into the kitchen at the sound of the refrigerator opening and making a sound that roughly translated into something like, "Hey, down here!"

Between this, that and the other thing, I am behind in my typing, so I'm going to go "make the donuts" now.

Wednesday, January 14, 2009

Cold Enough For You?

What a great time to be indoors in my office, where all the heat rises. Yesterday Andrea and I took Theo to the Farm Show, as I mentioned. In my haste to catch the bus that was pulling up in the parking lot, I left my camera in the car, so no cute photos. The boy was enthralled with the alpacas, cows, goats, pigs, and the hot dogs at the Food Court. The apple cider was also a hit. We had a great time. Joreen is taking Mary, Deven and Travis this evening. Mary's personal favorite is the baked potato, and she was psyched when I spoke to her a few minutes ago, while they were outside, freezing, and I'm not.

Just in case you're not wasting enough time on the Internet, I just learned of a site called Googlefight. You can type in two names, like Fender and Gibson, Kirk and Picard, or Marilyn Manson and Marilyn Monroe, and see which one has the most Google hits. I would never suggest anyone engage in such foolishness, but if I did, I would recommend you type in "George W. Bush" and "box of rocks." The results might (or might not) surprise you.

(Update: later this same evening, for some reason the Googlefight site is showing zero results for everything. I don't know what's up with that.)

Tuesday, January 13, 2009

Say Hallo to My Leedle Frens


Here is the original "leedle fren," the Heritage, being played at the Hotel Hershey with Vince and Gio. The Amici Trio continues to please the small but elegant ballroom dancing crowd in this lounge. We will be appearing there next on February 28th.



This is my newest "leedle fren," a CNB pedalboard case from Rondo Music. It is much heavier and 25 times as expensive as my old pedalboard case, which was a hardshell suitcase from a flea market, but isn't it cool?



And speaking of cool, here's one of the Grandboys in what has become a traditional pose at the piano. We have photos of his mother, aunt and cousins all doing the same thing.

Today I'm taking Andrea and Theo to the Farm Show. Joreen and I already went down Sunday afternoon, and the place was packed to the rafters with people. Joreen thought it might be less crowded because of the football games. Wrong. I didn't get any pictures from that visit. It's hard to hold a camera when you're stuffing potato donuts in your mouth. And a roast beef sandwich. And broccoli salad. And fried mushrooms. See the blog entry of January 10, 2008 for a nice picture of Farm Show cuisine. Now I'm going to get ready to leave, because I'm getting hungry.

Friday, January 02, 2009

Up and At 'Em, Kids

Time to be productive again after the holidays, and transcripts need to get out of here. I'm not synesthetic, but as I headed out to the office this morning I could almost feel the flannel-soft quiet of no wind and the hush of not much traffic on 83, normally a constant running water sound outside our house. Then there was that mild depression that comes when Christmas lights are turned off, and in another flash of synesthesia I thought I could hear the gray blank landscape, the sound of something missing. As if in response to that, I did see some blinking colored lights, sitting behind some unfortunate commuter in Penbrook whose 2009 is not starting off well.

The holidays deserve more reportage than I'm going to give them in this post. I do want to thank the folks who joined Just Friends at the Sheraton Harrisburg-Hershey for our New Year's Eve party. Our attendance, like everyone's, was down but our spirits were up. We had a great time. Special thanks to Craig and Carrie (who's name I might be misspelling) and Mike and Karen (one of this blog's biggest fans -- hey girlfriend!) for their support and kind words. As I've said before, 2008 has been generally sucky, and it was good to bid good riddance to a bad year with such a good time. Stay tuned for next New Year's plans. Time marches on.

Also, a shout-out to my brother David who enjoyed only his third New Year's Eve off in 28 years. It was cool to watch him hit the cheese and veggies table, smiling like a guy on his day off. His band Leghorn did play at the casino New Year's Day night, with a new lineup. Chris Novak, one of the best keyboard players around, has joined Dave, Andy Alonso and Dave Brinkley. All killer, no filler. I'll try to give you a heads-up when they're at the Winners Circle next time. They sound better than ever. Don't go see them at the casino, though; it can cost you 20 bucks down the slot machine hole. It's not a bad venue for music: The stage is nice, the graphics on the ceiling are a guaranteed acid flashback if you're into such things, and the sound is pretty good and improving as Aaron the sound guy continues to fiddle with the levels. Just leave your wallet in the car.

Final serious point: This past year has left some real damage in its wake, and I'd ask you all to pray for each other and each other's families as they face the fallout and consequences of the last twelve months. Stay close to your people, and tell them you love them. It's important.

Apologies for the broken promise in the last post. Christmas was good in a lot of ways and I'll try to post about it later. In the meantime, here's one of my favorite images of the holiday:



I wonder how many Grateful Dead shows "Santa" saw.