The Gig Is On
After conferring with my associates, the gig I am playing at on the 29th is still on, and it is on the 29th after all.
It is at the New Nothing Gallery, 18 Sherman Street, off Folsom, between 6th and 7th Street, here in SF CA, 94110.
The Show starts at 8 pm. Apparently, I will be playing with these other musicians for only 11 minutes...
Oh well. It'll be fun!
Be there or be painfully square.
On other points of amusement in my life:
I finally finished a project that was years in the making and is now so hopelessly out of date, it's amusing, and - I won't even be keeping it.
Back in 1999 going into 2000, I decided I wanted to make a series of CDs that had one song from each CD in the Warwick Music Archive. Right around the letter "R", I gave up as I decided that it would be wiser to turn the entire collection into a set of MP3s and abandon the CD route. So, I left off at the letter R. And I soon had my entire collection as MP3 files on a hard drive. The CDs had nice little covers and were in nice little jewel cases, and were soon set to moulder in a nice litttle corner of my garage.
A few weeks ago, I came across that box as I was searching for some extra jewel cases. I thought: what a waste of time. A great idea, but a waste of time. And such nice jewel cases....
In moments I was tossing the CDs and covers in the recycle bin and stacking up 34 CD jewel cases. I thought: what a sad waste - it took me a long time to make those CDs - it seems a shame to waste them.
Then: I remembered an old friend of mine, Vicky, was given a new car from her elderly cousin - a fairly new Nissan Maxima, which has a CD player and is the nicest car Vic's ever owned. I can attest to this as I had spent many hours traipsing about Wasington DC with her back inthe 1980s, looking for a place that sells batteries for her ancient Rambler American and was open on a Sunday Morning. The Rambler that didn't have working windshield wipers unless the engine was warm enough to draw vacuum... This clunker, painted in a prematurely sunbeaten shades of copper and streaks of rust, was replaced by a more reliable, if equally nomadic Honda Civic that she made last longer than is normal or reasonable for such a vehicle. The Honda has given way to the Maxima, so now, dearest Victoria has got some stylin' wheels.
And these wheels have a CD player - but she hasn't that many CDs to play...
So I boxed up those 34 CDs in cheaper slimline cases and shipped them off to her. She called me the other day, and told me how happy these CDs have made her. This made me feel good. She also wondered what S - Z sounds like...
And I wondered too! After all: this was as much a conceptual project: determining which song I wanted to listen to from a given record. So often, that would NOT be the most popular song, as such a tune would be too familiar and soon grate on the nerves. Sometimes, that would be an appropriate choice - especially if the rest of the record was pretty weak - but usually not. So there was a different kind of choosing made on these CDs. And I had to get back into that kind of thinking to Finish The Job. I had to Finish The Project I started in December 1999. And I have succeeded. Including what I have already sent her, the collection now totals 55 CDs. The last CD I reserved for :zoviet*france:, as I have so much of their material, and it make a good bookend - iTunes sees :zoviet*france: as the FIRST group listed in alphabetical order in the Library.
So, now she will have way more music than she will know what to do with for a very long time. I will have finished the projectd, and it won't sit in my garage, and that particular obsession can now be laid to rest. Everyone is happy. What's cool about this is she's already considering a shopping list to buy CDs of new music she likes that she has discovered on the CDRs I've sent her. It's all good.
For those who don't know - I'm a total freak that way. I develop these completely obsessive projects and eventually I do them. My art is like that as well. That's why I like to work in Series - it gives a theme to the chaos of creation. I feel so completely adrift and chaotic right now, this was a good centering "feel good" thing to do. That it helps a friend in need is a delicious icing on the cake.
HW
It is at the New Nothing Gallery, 18 Sherman Street, off Folsom, between 6th and 7th Street, here in SF CA, 94110.
The Show starts at 8 pm. Apparently, I will be playing with these other musicians for only 11 minutes...
Oh well. It'll be fun!
Be there or be painfully square.
On other points of amusement in my life:
I finally finished a project that was years in the making and is now so hopelessly out of date, it's amusing, and - I won't even be keeping it.
Back in 1999 going into 2000, I decided I wanted to make a series of CDs that had one song from each CD in the Warwick Music Archive. Right around the letter "R", I gave up as I decided that it would be wiser to turn the entire collection into a set of MP3s and abandon the CD route. So, I left off at the letter R. And I soon had my entire collection as MP3 files on a hard drive. The CDs had nice little covers and were in nice little jewel cases, and were soon set to moulder in a nice litttle corner of my garage.
A few weeks ago, I came across that box as I was searching for some extra jewel cases. I thought: what a waste of time. A great idea, but a waste of time. And such nice jewel cases....
In moments I was tossing the CDs and covers in the recycle bin and stacking up 34 CD jewel cases. I thought: what a sad waste - it took me a long time to make those CDs - it seems a shame to waste them.
Then: I remembered an old friend of mine, Vicky, was given a new car from her elderly cousin - a fairly new Nissan Maxima, which has a CD player and is the nicest car Vic's ever owned. I can attest to this as I had spent many hours traipsing about Wasington DC with her back inthe 1980s, looking for a place that sells batteries for her ancient Rambler American and was open on a Sunday Morning. The Rambler that didn't have working windshield wipers unless the engine was warm enough to draw vacuum... This clunker, painted in a prematurely sunbeaten shades of copper and streaks of rust, was replaced by a more reliable, if equally nomadic Honda Civic that she made last longer than is normal or reasonable for such a vehicle. The Honda has given way to the Maxima, so now, dearest Victoria has got some stylin' wheels.
And these wheels have a CD player - but she hasn't that many CDs to play...
So I boxed up those 34 CDs in cheaper slimline cases and shipped them off to her. She called me the other day, and told me how happy these CDs have made her. This made me feel good. She also wondered what S - Z sounds like...
And I wondered too! After all: this was as much a conceptual project: determining which song I wanted to listen to from a given record. So often, that would NOT be the most popular song, as such a tune would be too familiar and soon grate on the nerves. Sometimes, that would be an appropriate choice - especially if the rest of the record was pretty weak - but usually not. So there was a different kind of choosing made on these CDs. And I had to get back into that kind of thinking to Finish The Job. I had to Finish The Project I started in December 1999. And I have succeeded. Including what I have already sent her, the collection now totals 55 CDs. The last CD I reserved for :zoviet*france:, as I have so much of their material, and it make a good bookend - iTunes sees :zoviet*france: as the FIRST group listed in alphabetical order in the Library.
So, now she will have way more music than she will know what to do with for a very long time. I will have finished the projectd, and it won't sit in my garage, and that particular obsession can now be laid to rest. Everyone is happy. What's cool about this is she's already considering a shopping list to buy CDs of new music she likes that she has discovered on the CDRs I've sent her. It's all good.
For those who don't know - I'm a total freak that way. I develop these completely obsessive projects and eventually I do them. My art is like that as well. That's why I like to work in Series - it gives a theme to the chaos of creation. I feel so completely adrift and chaotic right now, this was a good centering "feel good" thing to do. That it helps a friend in need is a delicious icing on the cake.
HW
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