I'm Still Here - Purgatory

I've lacked any kind of inspiration for throwing thoughts away, out into the void. One think - one think-thing I realize - I always liked the idea of blogging to no one. Doing it for my own reason, to write as if in a journal, ephemera of thoughts, less than particles, a few stray ions out there for maybe my future, uploaded-to-the-singularity self to read back on later. Social media seems too low-effort - I don't really like posting my thoughts there for fear of getting into an online interaction. Internet cowardice. What do I like? Purgatory. Reading - very slowly reading - the John Lurie book I got for Christmas last year, "the HIstory of Bones." He is quite a human, a genius at existence, a chaos storm in the form of a man. Right now, I'm still early in the autobiography - his teenage and early-adulthood years. He's searching for meaning, searching for a better saxaphone tone, searching for God in himself, doing yoga, having random hippy experiences, sexually transmitted diseases, riding a bicycle inthe frigid cold winter of Ne wEngland 1971, almost dying and calling a friend to pick him up, suddenly moving to Wales to be near his mother and then staying in a cold little cement beach house while hallucinating. The entire thing reads like a fever dream poem and I love it. I woke up at midnight and read a chapter since i was too caffeinated to sleep and it was pouring rain outside. And I let the cat in - he was very grateful. Also - I hate booking shows for my band, I hate doing pricing for my work accounts and I hate that the house is a disaster mess. I love this tea I'm drinking and also Patti Smith. Later I will try to make some kind of music I can actually stand - pushing through the spiritual muck, into a new vestibule.

April Showers and Coastal Powers

Spring break came late this year - April 1-5th. Tina and I were able to take a few days off of work and head to the coast with the boys for qa bit of frolicking in the fog. Yachats is a place we love, just a perfect little quiet tourist town, not totally overrun in the early spring months. We rented a place overlooking the ocean waves, which were pummeling and stormy most of the time, and cooked food, watched tv, strummed guitars while the kids mostly played games or languished like droopy, life-like figures in a Salvador Dali painting. We were able to visitng with Dave and Samantha, second time in less than a year. We brought over some ice cream bars after dinner one night and then they came over a few days later to check out of place, Dave and I also jammed on some acoustic guitars at his place, was a nice visit. Tina made the most of our outdoors location, exploring all areas of the beach and rocks and trails around town. We hiked south of town on a section of the OCT Oregon Coast Trail (did you know there was an Oregon coast trail that runs from Astoria to Brookings?) to a place called Amanda's statue where there was a statue of a blind Coos woman named Amanda, who in the 1860s was taken away from her husband in Coos Bay and marched back to Yachats overland to an internment camp that was north of town, where she later died. Depressing and awful is our history of cruelty and imposition. The trail was beautiful and at times overlooked the blue ocean south of town. We've tried most of the eateries in Yachats by now but by far our collective favorite is Luna Sea fish & chips, where the catch is so fresh it slaps you in the face. Henry lost his "Don't Trip" hat and we looked all over town for it, coming back to Luna Sea twice before it was found in the bar. Yay! I also wrote in my journal and sent off a letter to a friend. I love a relaxing 1/2 week off - 1/2 week vacation.

Ouch my ears are ringing wait this orange is really good

February has been good so far. I got to go on a work trip to perform a few citrus tasting events up on the Olympic Penninsula. My friend Elissa and I drove up in the work car with a box full of promo stuff and set up a pop-stand at a couple different natural foods stores, the Food Co op in Port Townsend and COuntry Aire natural foods in Port Angeles. Rubber gloves, cut fruit, food cards and strange short conversations with a few hundred people. A highlight was going out to dinner at Alderwood Bistro in Sequim with our posse of produce account managers - incredible food, good conversation and good bonding with our colleagues in produce. Back in Vancouver, we've been working in the yard, enjoying the spastic changes in the weather and also using the inflatable hot tub most days. Therapy! We've been going to our friends bands shows around town - last week was Pink Tornado, Mountain Meadows Massacre and Desert Shame at No Fun bar:

Work continues on the Latinum project. Tina finished the vocals recently and I am now waiting for the band to review the current mixes so I can finalize the project and send it off to be mastered. I am liking doing audio work for a project other than my own recordings. In my personal life, I tend to be a little rushed and slap-dash in my recording process since I'm usually trying to write a song at the same time as recording. With a band where I sit in the engineer's chair, I am realizing how much work it is to parse the small details of someone else's performance. Overall it's sounding really good when I listen to mixes in the car - sounds nice and thick with a reasonable amount of low-end and good clarity. I can't wait for the project to be done so that people can listen to it. My good friend Sleeve linked me to my new favorite band - RMFC Rock Music Fan Club from Australia: