Monday, January 29, 2007

the heat is off

it's gonna be a strange day
around the N house
we're having our heating system replaced
a chilly chilly day with no heat
i have to sit here and man the house
while they rip everything out of our attic
and install the new system
then we get to scrape a lot of money together
for them
our heater is from the '70s
and was making a loud BOOM sound
it was dangerous
we were advised to replace it
immediately
so we are
J and G are going to go to grandma's
where it's nice and warm
later on
the foundation repair people coming
for estimates
the money pit continues
YES
our house is falling apart
literally
but the side of our house is apparently going to be
on the 5 o'clock news
they are coming to film the installation of
the new TXU meter system
and we're gonna be NUMERO UNO!!
(thanks to jdw)
a weird day
for sure
i'm listening to final mixes of snowing in my heart
at my domestic post
while i type this arctic blog
so far
so good
i haven't heard anything yet that needs fixing
but i'm only 2 songs in
it feels good to be nearing a close
and i'm really excited about these recordings
glad i worked on it slowly
and not rushed to finish
i feel like this record is the best encapsulation
of everything i've done over the last ____ years
the definitive SN record
it's got the melancholy ballads
the pop songs
melody in spades
a little atmospheric quirkiness
mellotron
guitar city
and a lyrical thread that hopefully runs through all the songs
that makes it an ALBUM
not just a random collection of songs
i know i'm too close
so i can't wait to see what you think
i hope it stays in your ipod
or cd player
or toaster
for as long as it took me to make it!!
i'm still messing around with the running order
yes
i know
i'm a throwback to days
when the song order actually mattered
in some ways
it'll always be 1968
in my head
i don't wanna know about all the current musical fads
and trends
and nano-chips
and microwavable i-pods
pass me a slice of vinyl please
with a side of headphones
there's nothing wrong with the good old cd either
can i qualify as a dinosaur rocker now?
i'll probably be messing around with the song order
right up until the end
even though
this one i'm listening to right now
sounds just about perfect
maybe i've gotten it right???

yesterday night
we had the first meeting to discuss
the anju gill fund
gavin and lennon were quite the toddler combo
i think they'll be forming a band before we know it
lennon has the jagger pout
so he's gotta be the frontman!!
i hope we can do something that would make anju proud
lot's of ideas so far
and there's no one more capable than ally
in the "can and will do" department
the first fundraiser will be march 24th
more on that as we get closer

a.n. sent me a message today about hosting a
pleasantry lane showcase night
at dada
once a month
sounded like a pretty nifty idea to me
my mind is already racing with the possibilities
so even though '07 has been a rocky start
in the good health department
there are all kinds of exciting things in the works
around here
and don't forget about HIT records either!!

this could be the year of the bull afterall

we'll see...

stay warm!!!

and fax me some heat please!!!

Friday, January 26, 2007

thanks

to those of you who came out to the ellum onstage show
last night
i was having some problems with my throat
hope it wasn't too apparent
i was also conducting electricity
through my mouth
from the microphone
it was a bit uncomfortable
i hadn't done that since bakersfield '92
oh how i missed the metallice taste
of sweet electicity


not so much...

but i did enjoy seeing your smiling faces
thanks for saving the day
i promise
we're gonna have some more new songs to play
for you
next month at sons of hermann hall
it's a really good bill
i'm looking forward to it already
my record should also be done by then
yesterday was quite the rock'n'roll day for me
jayme took photos
for the new cd
we had fun
goofed around and spoofed a beatle photo
for a poster idea she had
the scary thing was
i had all the clothes for the beatle spoof
already in my wardrobe
we're sending the "real" photos off monday
to tapete
they're going to design the artwork to this one
i can't wait to see what they come up with



i spent the rest of the day
and on into the night
mixing with r.r. and p.w.
at 9:30
i raced to get lefler
we went straight to the gig
and arrived in time
to catch most of johnny lloyd's killer set
then we did our thing
lefler was great
there will be gigs later this year
i'm sure
we had a good post gig hang
at b.h.
the cape cods were rolling

turns out ellum onstage
is not funded by the city
the rumour mill was a little off
it's actually somehow linked to church money
but not kilbee's
it's going to function as a rock'roll
community center
a far-out (in all the best ways) concept
i hope they make it work
i wish them the best
i'm going to try and go back again

my friends the cut-off
are coming to pleasantry lane this weekend
i've miseed them so
we're going to have a good time
making some racket
and next week i hope to take a big bite
out of finishing my record



i hope you all have a nice weekend






love



s

Tuesday, January 23, 2007

the gambler

it's shaping up to be
an exciting week
hopefully G's kung-fu moves
will be used on robot 2000
and not dear old dad
(key word there:OLD)

wednesday night
i'm going to judge rockstar karaoke again
up at barley
with lefler and matt p.
i do accept bribes
just throwing it out there
don't be bashful
or ashamed
dancing with the stars did it
so will i
s.n. + lefler + paradowski = noizey boyz out on the town
let the good times roll wednesday night!

thursday night
a different story
going to play ellum onstage
with the noize
just when i thought i'd played every venue in dallas
a really nice
multi-million dollar venue opens
funded by us taxpayers
what a great idea
finally the city does something for rock'n'roll!!!
plus
i'm looking forward
to getting some of my tax money back
come support this place
deep ellum needs to be resurrected by someone
why not us?

it will be our first show ever
without holt
lefler is filling in for him because he will be with sorta
in nashville
we had a very fun practice yesterday
maybe the zaniest ever?
i think all the guys were tripping over
me and lefler as
ernie and bert
he showed me how i could wag my finger
"no, no, no..."
while i sing
such a funny move
you might not see me bust it out thursday
but i was working it in practice
trust me

i've only got 3 more sessions
to try and complete snowing in my heart
black february is drawing nearer
and nearer
by the second even
ok
i may go over one week
but not more than that!!!
i swear...
i promise...
i'm no music junkie
i know when to quit
where to draw the line
like kenny said in the gambler
you gotta know when to hold 'em
know when to fold 'em
know when to walk away
i've got my walking shoes ready for action!!!
guess what kind they are?

Sunday, January 21, 2007

chez tweedy cat

tweedy played the granada last night
i grumbled up until the last minute
"i'd kind of like to see it
but it's so dreary outside
and cold
i just want to stay home
it'll be sooooo crowded
and the crowd is just going to talk over him
and blah, blah, blah, blah..."
any old man excuse not to go
that i could think of
but then came bucks' invite
like a bolt from the blue
"hey, wanna go see tweedy with me tonight?"
how could i resist a chance to hang out with my friend
of almost 20 years
and see a nice acoustic show
at my favorite place to see the big shows
i said
"yes..."
it was cold
and dreary
and crowded
but the crowd of 900
were struck silent
nothing short of a super-sized texas miracle
900 texans standing still and silent in a music venue?
for almost 90 minutes?
tweedy could've walked on water after that
or parted the red sea
instead
he played his last song completely un-plugged
on the edge of the stage
you could hear a pin drop
if you listened close enough
this alone was worth the price of admission
i've always loved acoustic shows
but the audience has to be respectful
for them to work
texans are notorious for jibber-jabbering over
delicate concerts
i guess wilco fans must be a cut above?
it felt good to be in a crowd that handled itself so well
tweedy wasn't half bad either
(insert sly smile)

Friday, January 19, 2007

friday night eyecitement

my eye is doing a lot better now
i worked in the studio today
the first time since saturday
i'm reading my emails again
the shattered glass feeling is gone
another checkup tomorrow
just to make sure there is no permanent damage
better safe than sorry
since i only have one that actually works

thank you to all that wrote
and offered to help out
it means a lot to me

time is running down
and almost out
on my mixing of SIMH
this week's medical drama
set me back a bit
might push things back a week now
i'll know more after next week
it's stressing me out now
and that's annoying me
'cause there's enough things in this life
that create stress
music should never be one of them

next week the noise is playing this new venue
opened by the city of dallas
to revitalize deep ellum
it's called ellum onstage
someone told me
it's supposed to be the musical equivalent
of a public library
an interesting concept
i hope it works

i love the winter but i'm ready for a bit of sun now
this week has been dismal
makes me think about all those poor people
living in the chillier parts of the world
i may have been born a northerner
and i may listen to a lot of cold weather music
but i guess i'm a wussy southerner at heart

so bring on some sunshine now!!!

Wednesday, January 17, 2007

kicka you in the face

my left eye is completely useless
it has been ever since i was a newborn
it could've been corrected
if it had been caught in time
but you have to go to a doctor for that
so anyway
i use my right eye for 100% of my vision
and in that one eye i have an astigmatism
so it's by no means perfect
i've been hounded ever since i was a kid
by the words of one eye doctor
who cautioned
"son, you'd better guard that right eye of yours
with your life...because if anything ever happens to it...
you'll be blind as a bat."

sunday night i was rough housing with gavin
when the heel of his foot went
POW!!!!
smack dab into the middle of my right eye
i felt it pop back in my head like a grape
instant shooting pain
and me
howling like a gimp dog
two hours later i couldn't open it at all
without it tearing up
it felt like shattered glass in my eyeball
i began to panic
i couldn't see a thing
the pain was pretty intense
jayme was in bed with the stomach flu
she was sicker than i've ever seen her
she couldn't help me
and i couldn't help her
we were like two 80 year old cripples
except we happened to have a toddler running around
our geriatric ward
that we were supposed to be taking care of
i must admit
in the darkest moments of that cold sunday night
i pictured myself like ray charles
(without the instrumental talent)
hobling around with my cane and sunglasses
begging for pennies on a streetcorner
how on earth would i be able work with no vision?
my son would grow up in a hovel
it makes me chuckle now
that's how my mind works sometimes

at 6am
i managed to dial the eyeworks hotline
and made an emergency appointment for 9am
the streets had iced over that morning
jayme was too sick to get out of bed
so my mom came over and got me and gavin
i still couldn't see out of my right eye
and lost my cell phone soemwhere between
our house and her car (10 steps)
the doctor told me i had a severe abrasion
on my cornea
the equivalent to skinning your knee
but on your eye
he thought i'd be seeing ok later that evening
unfortunately i wasn't
things were still super blurry
i couldn't read emails or see the numbers on a phone
i had to cancel work monday and tuesday night

this morning things finally started coming around
at least i could make out letters on the computer screen
when i got really close to it
although everything is still blurry
hopefully i'll be back to normal by saturday

the last words of my last blog cryptically said
i could/would be
"avoiding danger"
oh how ironic
next time
i should heed my own advice!!!

Sunday, January 14, 2007

a day in the life

here we are again
i'm sitting here writing this
another day in the life
they continue to speed by
days disappear
where do they go?
i don't know...
so i wrote another song about it
when you read this
i've already moved on
off in the distance
running around out there
doing god knows what
i could be
moving a kick drum beat 2 milliseconds
right now
or
singing the vocal of a lifetime
dialing in an electric guitar sound
playing alligator wrestlator
or
big dumb tambourine
driving
crying
obsessing on time and
money
waiting for it to snow
sending an email
to someone in spain
or germany
or even euless
sipping hot soup
breaking crackers
making lunch for G
watching actors
flipping channels
wearing my flannels
talking to mom about her day
or shoes
fighting the flu
slaving over words
charging my recorder
placing a to-go order
eating tabuleh or chop suey
folding laundry
thumbing through atomic ranch
taking out the trash
trying to fix the leak in jayme's studio
cleaning the recording studio
working on another blog
or if i have lot's of spare time
a song
choking on smoke at the barley
plugging my ears to bad karoake
surfing ebay
kissing my wife goodbye
thinking of deductions
contemplating mortality
or the need for bad hair metal bands
listening to the ipod
downloading
uploading
consuming
enjoying
stalling for time
avoiding danger

Friday, January 12, 2007

the 1st of february

the 1st of february looms large
i'm planning on cutting myself off then
no more obsessing
no more tweaking
and fiddling with my record
on the 1st
it's all over
my last hurrah
see you later
sayonara
it's already the 12th
i'm not sure i can do it
but i have to
no more time booked for myself after that
so there's going to be plenty of late night mixing
between now and then
yesterday
12 hours
and even more tracking
with r.q.
i was feeling close to the finish line wednesday
but then
a nice healthy burst of self-doubt
came blowing in
i want to walk away from this record
with no cringe-inducing moments
i also want it to be really really good
to encapsulate everything i've done
over the years
and still all hang together
like the last one
that's my goal
i'm glad i've worked slowly
and patiently on this one
i'm beginning to see the pay-off
and now
it's my favorite time of the year
for recording
always better
when it's cold and dreary outside
my studio was tailor made for occupation
on these dismal days
if it snows on sunday
we're gonna take some pictures
i need an album cover!!!

Tuesday, January 09, 2007

happy birthday F

on faris'
ninth birthday
my mom decided
that instead
of throwing a party
we'd invite
some of his friends
to go see
"king kong"
in this old theater
downtown
el paso
i'm not sure what happened
but when it came time to gather the movie troops
before movie time
the only guest standing on our front lawn
was mom's elderly friend
agnes abraham
"agia"
the ditzy el paso version
of lucille ball
except she sounded like maude
maybe the invites never got out properly?
maybe nine year old kids were afraid of king kong?
poor faris couldn't help feeling like he had no friends
i felt terrible for him
it was so demoralizing
i know it hurt
and probably left a decent sized scar
on his nine year old psyche

so we went out anyway
and saw kong
jessica lang tore it up
kong was big and terrifying
then sad and pathetic
the four of us
sat in an upstairs balcony box
kind of like you do when you see an opera
it was a weird old theater
i still remember the uncomfortable feeling
of knowing my brother was in pain
and wishing i could do something to help
but there really wasn't anything that i could do
other than suffer silently through the movie
afterwards
i think we went home
and had some cake
and ice cream
it was so anti-climactic
with no party guests
my mom was her usual chipper self
writing it all off with optimistic theories
on why no guests attended
i'm sure if i could recall her reasons
they'd now be hilarious

sadly
it's my brother's only childhood birthday
that i actually remember

i think it scarred me in some way too

so
happy birthday faris
i hope this one was better for you
than that one in '77

love

s

Friday, January 05, 2007

st. georges

when i was sick
and full of fever
strange memories and thoughts floated in
and out again
some about mrs. georges
way back in el paso
she was me and my brother's
childhood friend's mother
he was
jeffrey rust georges
had the reddest hair i've ever seen
a "dumb and dumber" bowl cut deluxe
and could shoot a mean game of pool
anne georges was a small lady
only about 5'2"
long red hair
she usually kept neatly tied back
she wore tiny wire framed glasses too
we'd always pass by her bedroom
on our way to the TV/lounge room
and peak in at a scene
that almost never changed
it was as if it had been truly frozen in time
curtains always drawn
even on the sunniest of el paso afternoons
perpetual night
in jeff's parents bedroom
mrs. georges on the bed
playing solitaire
cigarette in hand
TV going
small drink on the nightstand
she was curt
during the day
short clipped answers
a coldness in her voice
that hissed
"bitch"
hardly ever much to say except when she was
sending orders to jeffrey
but as night would descend and wear on
dear anne would emerge
from her bedroom solitaire match
for refreshment
then saunter into our TV room
looking at us with a twinkle
gregarious and even downright chatty
we usually didn't know what to say
we were so puzzled
the next afternoon
she'd slowly pull open their big oak front door
like it weighed a thousand pounds
and our arrival was nothing but a nuisance
standing in her bathrobe
hair down
dishevelled and wild
barely even a nod for hello

at least 2 to 3 times a week
she'd call out
"jeffrey!! jeffrey!!
i need you to run and fetch some more beefamato!!"
http://kookychow.com/kookychow/01/page/beefamato2.htm
we were so confused
that drink was horrible
i tasted it once
out of curiosity
and nearly spit it back out in disgust
who could drink that bile!!!???
and not only that
she went through bottles and bottles of it
we were so naive back then...

it wasn't until many years later
as adults
that we realized poor anne was a terrible
sad
alcoholic
beefamato her hangover remedy
we'd been oblivious to one of the most obvious
adult scenarios

in my fever induced haze
i thought of how the days must have crawled
and blurred by
for mrs. georges
endlessly
like groundhog day (the movie)
in that dark bedroom of hers
day after day after day after year after year
cigarettes and solitaire and cocktails
hangovers and hangovers
beefamato after beefamato after beefamato
and floating beefamato medley
dancing across the smokey solitaire sky
until one day
it was all over

and where did she go?
where did it all go?

when i was still in college
i heard anne fell down a steep flight of stairs
while vacationing in their winter condo
one christmas
she was making her way to a cocktail
the tumble didn't kill her though
she made it a few years past that
but not many
i heard the injuries shortened her life considerably
she was after all
a very small
frail person
poor sad anne georges
i'm sure i'll see you again
when the fever grips me

Wednesday, January 03, 2007

slow start

i know we're only 3 days in
but i'm moving in slo-mo for '07
today is the first day since saturday
that i've actually left my house
all that free time i was looking forward to
i spent in bed
sucked right up
what a drag
i didn't get to work on my record
write
enjoy my family
or do anything
didn't even feel good enough to work on the blog
well at least the worst part is behind me
this month is going to be a doozy though
the avalanche starts tomorrow
i have a 10 hour plus marathon planned
i hope i'm not overdoing it too soon
i probably am
the plan is to finish all tracking on snowing
steve duncan
paul davis
chris holt
are all coming over
it's the last hurrah
then i'm going to spend the rest of the month
mixing
lights go out february 1st
i've got no more time booked for myself after that
so if i'm not done by the 1st
it's going to be a mighty struggle to continue
i'm going to go back to bed now
there's plenty of bad TV shows calling my name

Monday, January 01, 2007

2006 is history now

i've been sick
spent the last 24 hours in bed
with a fever
not much of a new year celebration

so many things happened this past year
i'm already having trouble remembering it all
i'm going to skim over a few of the things
that were important to me
so that at the end of next year
when it's all REALLY hazy
and i've completely forgotten '06
i can come back and look at this to remind myself
what happened

in january
i finished working on the jayson bales
and dave little cds
february
i started work on my next record
my telefunken 251 super mic finally arrived
sorta recorded 3 songs at PL
march
SXSW in austin
with L and L
best one i've ever had
capped off with a great show with the noise on the 18th
april
played the granada with centro-matic
it was the last time i saw anju gill
who took her own life 2 days later
beautiful noise was re-released in europe by tapete
five days later
overshadowed by grieving for anju
may
my father had a stroke 2 days after my birthday
at least he survived
5 days after that
the dallas observer music awards
i won 3
it was a shock
jayme's 1st operation of the year was a week later
the polaroids and i played our last show together
at club dada
on 5/20
no one knew it at the time
june
i started my blog
jayme had surgery on her neck
i played anju's dream bill at bend on 6/24
while jayme was still in the hospital
july
decided to take a break from shows with the noise
we said goodbye on 7/1
at the granada
i saw ray davies later that month
and hung out with bucks and the church
finished work on the binary sunrise and vanessa peters cds
august
johnny lloyd rollins came to pleasantry
september
jayme gavin and i spent 2 and 1/2 weeks
driving around germany and switzerland
while i played acoustic shows
october
finished working on jd whittenburg's cd
november
finished the falling of john kenny
december
art conspiracy 2 at the longhorn ballroom
dallas music revue at sons
pleasantry lane cd was finally released
and i played a year ending show at the granada
which my mom attended (only the 2nd in 20 years)
i finished working on the last ones on earth
scott blasey
and daniel miller cds

after running through all of that
i guess '06 was busy
lots of running around
"doing things"
it was a good year for me
i think i may have done some of my best work
but it was a tough year too
jayme had 2 operations
we lost anju
life is never cushy
is it?

i'll fondly remember you '06
we had lots of good times under your watch
i'll be seeing you again
in dreams and photos

hasta la vista baby!!!

love

s

p.s. wishing all of you a very happy '07