running

I run alot.

Lately it's been extra-alot.....weekly average is up around 35 miles, definitely uncharted territory for me. While I've been into it for some years***, I've always been limited by my legs. Or rather the litany of little aches and pains and bangs and pulls and -itises that are a normal part of a runners' world. A shin splint here, a knee tweak there, maybe a bruised toe (trails!)....after last years Seattle (half) Marathon I was hobbling for months ( I put up a kick-ass time though! Beat my goal by 4 1/2 minutes!). Currently though, I am enjoying unprecedented injury-free leg action, and I'm 90% sure it's due to yoga. Yay yoga.

I mention this because...

there are a million cool sites people have put up using google maps and other map apps. Hmmm......map apps..... I've been using this one to keep track of my mileage lately....here's my route from this morning. Thats right, I am a big enough dork that I will sit and plot out the route I've just done. Just started saving them this week, thereby upping the dork ante considerably.
















***Running is absolutely the best thing you can do if you are quitting smoking! And I should know, I've quit smoking dozens of times!

Go M's, Go Pixies

So yesterday I had a vague notion of busting out Download Recap pt 2. It was not to be, since I fried my brain at Mariners game. As it turns out, I would have been better served going to the beach. We got killed. On the one hand, it was a bummer to watch the massive suckfest that was this very important series (I went Tue night also). However, it must be remembered that it's been years since there has been an important series in late August to suck in. Our Boys in Blue have been in it all summer, and it's been awesome.....I am trying to keep sight of how much fun I've had listening/watching/going to games this season. So there..

See how fun it was? My friend Jackie begged for me to destroy this photo. Suck it, Jackie!

Anyways....it was a million degrees(a couple beers in the mix too), and by the end of the game I was too brain damaged to consider any typing activity. Which was just as well, since I remembered at the last minute that I had to go play Pixies songs! Thats right, I play with a Pixies Tribute band called No. 13 Baby......we havent played for a couple years because A) The fricken Pixies got back together, and B) our singer moved to Atlanta. BUT since they seem to all hate each other again (weird!) and our boy Jeff is visiting, we're doing one more gig. It's weeks away and I thought rehearsing this early was nuts. Whoops! I forgot that most Pixies songs are really fucking hard. Well, that might be overstating it, they tend to have alot of off-time weird little bits that you thought you would remember that you don't, and arrangement quirks that need to be re-learned. Plus, as mentioned I was a little brain drained anyway, so I did very little to distinguish myself musically at this practice. I'll get 'em next time!

Download Recap, pt 1

I can't seem to find an hour to chill out with laptop and crank out some yarns about last weekends' Download Festival at the Gorge. You'd think I had a job or something. For now I will say simply........


I didn't think it was possible for me to become a bigger Nada Surf fan than before....then they left us their last six beers, along with a nice note on our trailer door. I am a huge, huge fan. Of beer.

party house, where there was a party

Can your band fit their entire backline into the back of a Mini Cooper?


I DIDNT THINK SO......SNAP!

ok ok.....this is a very small version of our backline. A couple teeny acoustics with amps, and a new rig I bought the day before. The best toy drum kit that 85 bucks could buy, as far as I'm concerned....this thing is small. The kick drum is 13 inches (diameter, duh), and just to put it into perspective, that's an inch smaller than your average snare drum. I swapped out the ridiculously thin heads it came with for some 'real' ones, and it sounds great! Well, the tom and snare are great, the kick sounds like a tiny drum being hit with a pedal. It'll do though, because the idea is to come up with a rig that is really portable, for use when we do little acoustic performances, like for radio stations.

Oh my god, that's exactly what we did Friday! Why am I writing about this on Tuesday? Because I suck eggs!

sooo....we played all country versions of our stuff, and wore cowboy hats, and ate chicken wings, and drank beverages provided by a large beverage company, and generally had a good time. Stef took a bunch of pictures with my phone, for which I am extremely grateful, even though she kind of owed me for blowing it on the pic front at the TFH gig last month. Here is one. Note the very fine sense of composition and style.

afterwards I met some friends at a Mexican bar down the street and had 3 Mohitos, which made me feel I had been beaten severely about the head and neck with a baseball bat the next morning. Sugar and Liquor don't mix as nicely as they used to.

Late plug

shoot..I forgot to mention: We're doing a very short acoustic set at the END's "Party House" tonight around 8. It's somewhere on Alki in West Seattle, and I think people can watch from the street....but your best bet is probably tuning in. We practiced for this on Wednesday, and every tune came out country. So, it'll be a pretty iinteresting little set.

Back that thing up!

Monday night was Biscuit night.

I ordered a ridiculous amount of these special biscuits from this company that my friend Von pointed out in a magazine. I should point out that she was on day 5 or so of the Master Cleanse, and had brought a cooking magazine to the beach with her. I couldn't tell whether she was extra nuts that day or just showing off. Anyway there they were....4 kinds! Easy online ordering was promised at the end of the article, and thus Biscuit Night was conceived.


They were tiny, barely 2 inches square, and weighed about a pound apiece. very deceptive. The consensus was that the traditional buttermilk (with butter and preserves of course) was the best, but the heavier savory types (cheese, ham) were good too...fricking huge meal, especially after adding the fried chicken and mashed potatoes into the mix (there was salad too, in a last minute nod to the nutrition authorities). THEN dessert....

strawberry ice cream, scooped onto more biscuits...the secret weapon flavor: cinnamon. mmmm...

I just realized I don't have access to pictures from biscuit night, except for one I took with my phone while prepping, before anyone showed up: noteworthy because the scoops of butter look like an ass! Sorry.

Totally pro percussion(ist)

Check out this mish mash kit I was using for our acoustic session earlier this week (I'm also using this as an oportunity to learn how to hot link a picture, so try clicking on it, to see a larger image). Note the little wooden block propping up the silver and red drum on it's stand. Nothing sketchy about that as long as you're not planning on striking it more than once or twice. In this case we'd set it up to augment the main kit for a short drum solo that was (for about 15 minutes) to be part of the arrangement for a tune called More Bad Times. Fortunately it was decided that, like most drum solos, it was more funny than good, and was 'edited'. Now, there are lots of great drum solos...like this one...Jon Bonham...The Greatest....I mean, along with Ichiro.

Onward! Did I mention how Pro I am? Only a Pro would tape together two tamborines, for that extra tamboreeny tone! Nestled onto the couch cushion no less, to be struck with stick or palm. But that's not even the most Pro thing. The Most Pro Thing is below: The Pro Cowbell Thing. Again, nestled onto the couch cushion, this time because it was too freaking loud unmuffled. But how do you keep it from slipping off the cushion! Duct tape, baby! Obviously Pro Percussion is alike with every other segment of Human Endeavor in that it would be impossible without duct tape. Remember Apollo 13!

This is also a good spot to reference the Christopher Walken more cowbell skit. So let's all do that. Silently.

Ok...out of time, I'd like to dash off a Big Finish to this post, but must run.

more songs, tacos

personally, I'm still really happy about Ichiro's contract extension. And as anyone who occasions to look at my various screensavers knows, I get endless enjoyment from gazing at him.

HOWEVER

not everyone agrees with me on this. So...I am going to press on, even if it means Ichiro gets knocked off the top.

......


Monday and Tuesday this week PUSA was back in Chroma taking an acoustic whack at a couple of songs that for whatever reason didnt quite Raise The Roof at our sessions last month. I was particularly excited by how a little number called Scrappy Puppy turned out. it was a favorite of mine while we were demo-ing in our practice room.

Sample lyric:

eyes drippin all brown and runny
get distracted by the smell of a bunny
small puppy.....wish he had some money
too take a taxi home

what's not to love, right?

anyways, we didn't nail it last month, and I had despaired of it's ever rearing it's puppy head. There is a groovy drony trippy element that is delicate and and has been tough to capture. In fact while the "tape" was rolling* i was pretty sure we still werent going to be able to use the stuff. Lo and Behold! I believe we captured a really nice vibe. I even got some footage with my phone of our musical genius unfolding! I'll see if I can put it up, I have yet to try any video here....

I'll tell some fascinating stories about my percussion skills tmorrow.

I should mention to that on our lunch break yesterday I snuck out for lunch with a friend at the taco place next to the Sunset.





enchilados!



*no actual tape has been been harmed making this record. We've been beating the shit out of a couple hard drives, though.