Rattlebrained

So the Organic Blues Unit spent most of the weekend in J.-Daniel’s (thanks) recording studio for our first demo. I’ve been practicing like mad all month for this and was pretty hyper while I packed the car with my gear and a morning of setting up microphones, getting them to the “best” placements did nothing to help relax. I was stuck into the “aquarium” (picture), one end of the room that had been sealed off with a window and door, so that my washboard and cymbals didn’t bleed into what Dave and Bill where playing.

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I finally got around to reading Richard Miller’s last book: Tanglefoot: An (Almost) True Story of Civil Wars and Cities. Normally I would have rushed into it with glee but because I only learned of his passing away this last spring, looking at the cover was still painful enough that I kept putting it off….

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Last Friday we – Crawfish – played for a bar that was celebrating it’s first anniversary here in the city. They had closed off the street, put out tables and tents, got the BBQ going, invited some wine folks to present their wine, set up an outdoor bar and stuck a truck in front of it all in which we squeezed along with the DJ equipment.

Since the street was slightly slanted, the truck was too so we were all in a leaning forward kind of position that was funny. My little problem of the evening was keeping my foot from sliding up against the bass drum… But besides a guitar stand falling over the edge the setup went surprisingly well…

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What to say? Is embarrassment really screwing up your washboard solo while being on TV? Or was it accepting to play a 1/2 hour set in a situation which was probably obviously sketchy had we stopped to think about it?

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Here’s a map showing yesterday’s walk, one of the variations I can do directly from my house since I hate to drive somewhere to walk.

I like walking, it’s one of the best ways to let the mind wander, and it just so happened that yesterday it wandered towards a bit of pathway criticism.

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When traveling by train I often sketch. Generally people aren’t my usual subject matter, mostly landscapes, but some days it’s fun to draw people you see.

One way to do it is to just glance at stuff as you go by and trust your memory, but this guy was hanging out, or waiting, at a station somewhere so I had 30 seconds at least.

Many years ago I work in the Swiss alps doing odd jobs, cutting wood, caring for a bunch of chickens, sheep and a cow. Clementine was her name so this design is for her.

That winter (1977-78) had record snow falls, and shoveling snow turned into a daily activity. One sunny afternoon we cleared out a space in front of the barn to put the animals in while doing a major cleaning. We took for granted that the over 6 feet of snow would keep them from wandering off, a big mistake.

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