I returned to my desk today after lunch and found this post-it note. For the past few mornings I’ve been pulling the top part of my hair back and putting it into a short pony tail to keep it out of my face. Apparently one of my co-workers found this hairstyle to be derivative of their favorite Saturday morning cartoon. Good thing I didn’t wear that leopard print jumper today too.
For reference, here is a handy guide for field identification use:
Pebbles Flintstone
Not Pebbles Flintstone
Seriously. This morning was unnecessary. I got up early so I could load my gear into the car for tonight’s gig. Getting up earlier than my usual 5:50 AM alarm is already pretty gruesome, and having to load gear extra early is un-fun. But the torrential downpour was an exclamation point on a run-on-sentence-of-morning-lame-osity. Trying to wrestle my bass cabinet into the back seat isn’t fun under the best of circumstances. It takes a lot of wiggling and shoving and leveraging and takes several minutes. But I succeeded. So now I have a wet bass cabinet in the back seat. I’m sure it’ll look like a tropical rain forest inside the car when I leave for the gig this afternoon. According to mythology, the weather gods typically live on mountaintops and in cloud castles. This is to avoid feedback from mortals. If I could get my hands on the deity of precipitation, I’d give him a fearsome wedgie.
The 1 Uppers had a great gig last night, easily our best yet. Sunday shows can be random. It’s hard to predict whether people will actually come to hear music on those night, and the intermittent snowfall this weekend probably didn’t help. This was one of those surprising gigs where (1) we had a sold out room (2) we had some great guest vocalists and (3) the entire band played their cabooses off. We ran through a 50 minute set of material, highlighting nine new originals which really sounded good. Friends and regulars provided positive feedback on the new songs.
The stage at the Rendezvous is small. I’d describe it as “intimate”. Given the size of the room we usually don’t put anything in the PA except the vocals, which means we’re mixing ourselves from the stage using our amp volumes. In my opinion this is ideal. It allows us to have the same experience on stage that we have during rehearsal. My amp has been de-ghosted, and is now acting normal again. Many thanks to Brian at Hyatt Studios for the quick turnaround on this crucial repair. The issue did turn out to be that pair of +/- 16v resistors in the primary voltage circuit, which explains all the random op-amp behavior. Brian also went throught the circuit and make a few minor improvements, adding jumpers to areas where the intermittent signal flow seems to occur in this model amp.
David and Jon are really sounding great together on harmony vocals. Their blend of voices is becoming part of the band’s trademark, along with Jon’s fearsome pedal steel and Kris’ stellar guitar work. Those guys blow the doors of the rest of the band every night. It definitely raises my game playing with them. I am looking forward to the next gig.
All this time I’ve been using the plain old “rock and roll” grade duct tape. 3M has been holding out on me. Behold NUCLEAR GRADE DUCT TAPE. It’s like +5 duct tape with extra awesomeness.
Over the weekend I went to the Pacific Science Center to view the “Lucy” exhibit. The fossil was the first discovered Australopithecus afarensis and is designated AL 288-1 in the catalog. Lucy is 3.2 million years old and is a crucially important specimen as she reflects bipedal posture but has the smaller cranial capacity associated with apes. This fossil is considered extremely fragile, to the degree that the Smithsonian declined to accept it for display on its US tour.
The balance of the “Lucy’s Legacy: The Hidden Treasures of Ethiopia ” exhibit contains historical and cultural artifacts from Ethiopia. Some of the displays reflect the varied history of this unconquered African nation proudly reflecting that is the birthplace of coffee and Rastafarianism, and is reputed to be the resting place of the Ark of the Covenant.
One gallery contains several comparative studies in anatomy and locomotion, exiting onto a nicely designed ramp exhibit with display cases containing skulls of hominids, starting with very early species and moving forward through time as you ascend the ramp. All the items on display are quite interesting, but the star of the attraction is held until the final gallery.
If you have not viewed this exhibit I’d strongly recommend getting tickets before it leaves Seattle on March 8. You may never get a chance to see this fossil again.
Two flakes does not a snowstorm make. This morning a scant few tiny snowflakes prevented one of the bus runs from even occurring. There wasn’t enough “snow” on my windshield to even obscure the view from inside my car, and with all the latent heat in the road any random flakes were instantly melted. It’s well above freezing and the roads are bare and wet. Meh. With one of the bus runs apparently canceled it’s a mad wrestling match to even get aboard, and there are no seats available. So once again I found myself trying to stay balanced as the bus hurtled through traffic on its way to Seattle. For the second time this week I find myself wondering if there isn’t a better way to get to work. The option of switching to the commuter rail line is beginning to sound interesting. Once the trains start running later this year I might investigate that as an option. Until then I’ll continue to ride the bus. And occasionally gripe about it.
Riding the bus isn’t particularly delightful under the best of conditions. My morning commute involves searching for parking at an already overcrowded park-and-ride lot (at 6:45 AM!), waiting for the bus to show up, and then a mad scramble to get a seat before they’re all full. Today I was one of the unlucky people standing during the commute. On an articulated bus the entire structure tends to oscillate and bounce; if you’re standing you will be thrown around for 30 minutes while the beastly vehicle rumbles toward Seattle. Many of my fellow commuter seem perpetually sick, and their coughing / sneezing makes me wish I could hold my breath indefinitely. Ah… the smells… the noise… the physical thrashing… these kinds of experiences leave me wondering if there isn’t a better way to get to work in the morning. I know the bus is the better choice for the sake of the environment, and I do want to support the Metro system though ridership. But at the same time I feel it could be better.
This morning I had an MRI, which is a fairly claustrophobic experience under the best of circumstances. The technician asked me if I was comfortable with being in a confined space for 40 minutes or so, and I told him there would be no problems with that. He said the machine is quite loud and gave me a pair of headphones to wear while inside the machine. This would allow him to communicate with me during the scan, and would also help block out some of the considerable noise it generates during operation. The last question he asked me was “would you like to listen to some music while we do the scan?”, which seemed like a thoughtful idea and I was happy to have something to listen to. Thirty seconds later I was whisked into the cramped space inside the MRI. It’s a little like being buried alive I suppose. And what did I have for my listening pleasure? Kenny G. Buried alive with Kenny G as my soundtrack. It was a brief eternity in Hell. Or in Hell’s elevator at least. Immediately I resolved to live a better life and maybe go to church more frequently.
What can I say that hasn’t already been said today? It’s a beautiful day. I’ve never seen such an outpouring of love and respect for a President. I’m surrounded by people who participated in, or reported on, the last four or five Presidential elections. Emotions are running high and there is a lot of sniffling and dabbing of eyes. I was too young to really understand the public response to President Kennedy. But I think I understand some small part of it now. President Obama, lead on.
So far today I have had:
- 2 car rides
- 1 bus ride
- 1 cab ride
- 1 blood pressure test
- 4 X-Rays
- 3 changes of clothes
- 6 meetings at work
- 1 meal
And it’s only 5:15 PM. I still have a few things left to do today:
- 2 hours of band practice (playing guitar with the 1 Uppers)
- 1 hour of bar gig (playing bass with the Preons)
Hope I have time for dinner somewhere in there…
I returned to my desk today after lunch and found this post-it note. For the past few mornings I’ve been pulling the top part of my hair back and putting it into a short pony tail to keep it out of my face. Apparently one of my co-workers found this hairstyle to be derivative of their favorite Saturday morning cartoon. Good thing I didn’t wear that leopard print jumper today too.