Friday, February 23, 2007

lucky lady

up at 9:00
feed G some cheerios
(with no soy low milk!!!)
sneak noisy boy out quietly
hurry out the door
first stop
whole foods
we buy jayme some pretty pink tulips
then we head to the black forest bakery
to pick up the glowing birthday prize
"lucky lady"
i can't wait to see the look on her face
when she sees this cake
10:30
video camera aimed
J comes out of the bedroom to behold
the mancake splendour that is
"lucky lady"
we have a good laugh
and decide to leave the cake intact
until the okerblom family gathering
at dinner
despite gavin's earnest pleas for just one piece
just one piece dada
one piece only!!!
lunched at steel
with remington
a fancy shmansty sushi place i'd been wanting to take jayme to
G was a perfect little gent
coloring and nibbling on his carry in pita bread
the green tea was good lee
next stop northpark
jayme hit lush
G the toystore
then miss blythe fan found some blythe t-shirts
that had been discounted at urban outfitters
from $30 to $2.70
i'd say that was a aptly bizarre birthday score
one of the best moments of the day was watching G
run around squealing with joy
as he hugged each leg of the 5 hammering man statues
we listened to
the white album
in the car
on the way to ikea
overcast and raining
G having a contemplative thumb suck in the backseat
during "while my guitar gently weeps"
i could see the wheels turning in his mind
believe it or not
it had been awhile since i'd listened to this cd
i noticed the lack of cymbals
i think i want to make a record with no cymbals
someday
at ikea we bought a gigantic circular mirror
for our living room
hanging it is going to be a real treat
macaroni grill for dinner
with J's family
the kids all had a good time drawing on the paper table clothes
with crayons
jayme was worried all through dinner
that the waiters were all going to gather
round our table for a birthday song
it never happened
she was very relived
i was too
back at grandparent O's place
we finally cut into lucky lady
i was a little sad
it was such a work of art
how could we eat it?
then our sexy plastic stud
got the licking of his red briefs life
from the aryn and gavin
they wanted the icing
of course
i'd like to think we let the birthday girl
win the movie trivia game
her prize was another slice of lucky lady!!
so now i think i'm going to go have a piece
of leftover birthday cake

Thursday, February 22, 2007

busy busy busy
that's why it took me so long
to get back to you
sorry...
in case you've been wondering
yes
i've stepped away from
snowing in my heart
it's finished
i promise
no more fiddling with it
i'm satisfied
that i did my best
and there can be no more done
to better it
so now
please send me some good luck thoughts
3 important packages going out in the mail
tomorrow (technically later today)
maybe a chance that this record
could be released by a larger label
it would be nice
i've worked my whole life
for an opportunity like this
to come along
so cross those fingers
and send positive thoughts my way
they work
thank you
in advance

for one of the packages
i was asked to put a "best of..." cd together
that was kind of weird
the first time i'd done that
i realized how much stuff i've recorded
over these past 4 or 5 years
a ton
most of it's been a blur
and the world's about to get a whole lot more in '07!!

the last two days have been beautiful
almost perfect
and they couldn't have come at a better time
the cold was even getting me depressed
can you imagine that?
me - depressed?
we took a family walk today
it was the best things i've done all week
then i chased G all around the yard
he loved it
jayme's birthday is friday
so we're going to do some celebrating
in fact
i've got the whole N family extravaganza
carefully mapped out
i can't wait to see her face
when she sees her_________

p.s. more importantly than my cds
i have 3 close friends whose mothers
are all very sick
please send some prayers out to them

i will too

Sunday, February 18, 2007

good sunday

another day is here
another already gone
last night i played the sons of hermann hall
with the noise
we played "avenue"
and "erased" for the first times
all my friends were there (like the kinks said)
vroom and the cut-off
the L & L factory
muellar and beth
carla and dean
johnny citizen
ameer
michael and mary
and larry
and lots of others
it was a great night
it went by really fast for me
handclaps and harmonies
made everyone smile
the chemistry set
made me wish i was in their band (again)
j.b. and the revival
rocked and rolled and even asked me to sing with them
i had myself i good old time with that
maybe i've got a future
as an all-star tambourine player?
right now J and i are waiting
on grandparents Okerblom to bring G back home
from gar-plano
we're going to go down to the all-good
and have breakfast
it's a beautiful sunny sunday morning
with a slight chill in the air
the sky is blue blue blue
and i'm feeling very good
a little work today around 1pm
hopefully i'll have enough time to enjoy breakfast
whatever you're doing out there
today
i hope you have fun too

love


s

Thursday, February 15, 2007

love day

i don't care if valentine's day
is a phony baloney
over-commercialized
blah blah blah
of a holiday
i'll take a good old fashioned
day OFF
any time
we had ourselves a very nice "holiday"
G and i went out early and got some flowers
for jayme
lovely pink tulips
and a heart shaped pink cake
(which G carefully selected)
when J got back from running errands
we had a nice "birthday valentine" celebration
anything with cake involved has G
thinking it's a birthday party
after a bit we went out and poked around
lula-b's thriftstore
lunched across the street at ali baba
then we went and rented "the departed"
G picked out a garfield halloween
for himself
while he watched garfield
we watched "departed"
i haven't spent an afternoon watching a movie in bed
in years
it was awesome
and "the departed"
was great
after G's show was over he played with his blocks
in his room
but would come in every 15 minutes or so
to tell us about something
with a lot of finger wagging and grand pontificating
we finally made it through the movie
and decided that instead of taking G
to the grandparents
we'd all stay in and stay warm
i went out and got some teppo
to go
and then another movie
this time
"marie antoinette"
our louisiana rolls were superb
and almost fitting
as we were about to watch a movie
with king louis in it!!
we tried to turn the little guy on to
"the knights of prosperity"
with no luck
but he went down without a fuss
around 10
after the book reading nightcap
it was
as G put it
"a very guh-nice day"

Monday, February 12, 2007

grateful SN

last night's show with the autumn defense
was cool
a nice way for me to say goodbye
to the tea room
as they're shutting down
come march 31st
i played a couple of songs for the very first time live
"it's lonely (when you're all alone)"
soon to be released (barring label objections)
on snowing
then rich and i played
"endless dream days"
my new orbisonesque/nourallahbrothersesque tune
that i'm hooked on
that was the best moment for me
playing that new one
i had a lot of fun with it
richard did a fab job on "i'll be around"
and "snowing in my heart"
everything felt really good
and easy
touring europe all by myself
has done wonders for my self-confidence
i feel like i've improved ten-fold
i've been feeling great about playing solo
all the time
when i didn't always feel that way
another thing that helped was the audience
they were superb
you could hear a pin drop while we played
it was nice
the autumn defense sounded fantastic
like a loud hi-fi stereo
great use of the mellotron samples
very '70's mellow vibe
nice to listen too
and very nice people as well
even though there were only about 40 people in attendance
they seemed perfectly happy
and positively upbeat about the show
these guys are truly doing it out of love for the music
not for glory and fame

a cold has had me feeling really lethargic all week
and although it threatened to wreck my voice
its held up somehow
tonight i had a great practice with the noise
for our show saturday night
at the sons of hermann
we played two songs for the first time
"erased"
and
"avenue"
which the noise inherited from the polaroids
both songs already sounded great
that's what musicians as good as these guys do
they make things easy
i felt very lucky tonight
and happy
to be playing my own music
with these great guys
in a beautiful environment
i took in the moment
and savoured it right up until the very last note
i felt very lucky to be me

Saturday, February 10, 2007

requesting good day sunshine

it's been a dreary 3 days
here in texas
i usually welcome the cold
and overcast
but after 2 days of sun and fun
on tuesday and wednesday
the end of this week has been dreadful
i haven't even left the house in 48 hours
which makes me feel like i'm losing my mind
i can't even begin to imagine
how the reclusive do it
it's surely a factor that contributes to
depression

so i'm supposed to have a day off today
for the life of me
i can't figure out what i want to do
the weather is uninviting
this cold i've been fighting
has got me on the ropes
i hope i can sing tomorrow night
i'm supposed to open for autumn defense
at gypsy tea room
anyone who knows wilco
should know who they are
it's john stirratt's side-project band
i'm going to play one of my other new songs
(if more than a croak comes out)
it's called "endless dream days"
and i think it's already one of my favorite melodies
i've ever written
sort of like the nourallah brothers
have collided with
roy orbison
but the vocal goes pretty high
and right now my voice sounds terrible

this is going to be a short one
the dishwasher needs unloading
G needs some attention
i gotta get rolling on my big day off
i hope everyone has a good weekend
maybe see you at the show tomorrow night
or at least at the big rock show
at sons of hermann
on the 17th

take care

s

Wednesday, February 07, 2007

exploding eyes and teapots

i hadn't written a new song in months
this week
3 songs
in 3 days
i'm on a roll
maybe now that i'm wrapping up SNIMH
i can start writing again?
"snowing in my heart" is
for all intents and purposes
finished
i mailed western vinyl a 12 song cd monday
2 of the 9 extra tracks still need a bit of mixing
so as soon as that's done
i'll send a 21 song cd to tapete
to sort through
another reason that i haven't posted is
i've had a re-lapse with my eye
i guess the 3 nights out in smokey bars
capped off by saturday night
was too much
too soon
for poor old right eye
i woke up sunday and couldn't read the text
on the computer screen
it made working very difficult
and the headaches from straining have been rolling
it's improved a little each day
but today
it's still kinda blurry
so i'm getting worried
song #3 is called
"one eye"
here's an excerpt:

sitting in the first grade with no glasses on
getting all the letters on the chalkboard wrong
the teacher sent me packing with a measly D
a note attached said something that i couldn’t read


i guess i'm going to have to go see another doctor soon

the radiator in my car went out too
a big overheat to cap off full-moon saturday night
i'm feeling positive regardless

i'm off to see the mechanic now!

Saturday, February 03, 2007

love

last night was awesome
one of my favorite bend shows ever
i didn't chicken out
even though the place was packed
a room filled mostly with people that had never
seen me play before
i opened with "saint georges"
less than 48 hours old
a song i still barely new all the words to
a couple of minor word flubs here and there
but i think i made it through ok
and mainly
i didn't care if i f-ed it up
i wanted to play it
i'm glad i did it
it was a bit of a personal challenge for me
the SN equivalent of jumping out of a plane

this last year of performing solo
has taught me a lot
believing in myself is the key
it was hard for me to do that during the
lean MF years
when i felt like nobody appreciated my music
it's hard to have self-confidence
under those circumstances
but those days are long gone now
there's a voice in my head that's always criticizing
it's a confidence killer
and maybe it helped me improve
as a record maker
performer
and songwiter
over the years
but it's never satisfied
and when i'm all alone
on stage
about to strum my songs
for you
if that voice starts sounding off
it can ruin my ability to enjoy the moment
so i have to work really hard
to shut it out
LOVE has helped me do that
thank you for sending some my way

here's some back at you

love,

s

Friday, February 02, 2007

another bend is here

i'm playing bend studio tonight
with david garza
i go on around 8
it's his birthday celebration show
i think it's going to be a good time
i have a new song
i wrote it yesterday
inspired by thoughts i had on this blog
it's called "saint georges"
i like it a lot
i want to play it for you tonight
so i'm trying to memorize all the words
playing it over and over and over again
i may even open with it
if i'm feeling particularly brash
lefler might sit in on a couple with me
if his back feels ok
i just sang gavie to sleep in his room
we were having a practice "concert'
for tonight
and he curled up in a ball
with his blankie
sucking his thumb
and after about 4 tunes
his eye lids started getting really heavy
and before i knew it
he was zonked out
it was nice

Thursday, February 01, 2007

the endless fiddling monster

well
the 1st of feb is here
in all it's dismal splendour
i knew it was coming
i knew it would eventually arrive to find me
ready to let go
or clutching my little musical precious
like gollum

i'm going to spend most of the day
wrapping the mixes up
at this point
whatever changes i'm making
are minuscule
a nip here
a tuck there
this is when you enter the potentially endless
tinkering
the songs aren't changing much at all
but the questioning voice starts getting louder
and louder
and LOUDER
threatening to drown out all clear perspective
this is the stuff that can drive you mad
"maybe i should re-cut that acoustic?"
"is that tambourine hit is slightly late?"
"should i have sung and instead of but?"
i've heard rumors (rumor is the key word here)
of someone that is still adding things to
the two track "final" mixes of a record that was
finish over a year ago
still tweaking and mixing over the finished mixes
that could've been me 5 years ago
anyway
i promise not to do that
all the things i've been working on up until now
have been valid improvements to the record
i'm just theorizing on some artist's knack for endless
obsessing on the minute details of their records
i fall into this category but recognize
that in carefully measured doses
it hopefully allows me to make interesting
detailed recordings

when the endless fiddling monster is let off its leash
chaos is sure to ensue...
eyes glaze over
lack of attention span
graying of hair
thinning of mane
emails not returned
phone calls unanswered
bathing reduced to weekly
shaving apparatus on permanent malfunction
sound of wife's voice not recognized
invitations for child's play lost in translation
divorce imminent
homelessness plausible
mixes over-wrought
record in toilet
madness
sadness
and finally
tinnitus
(that high ringing sound in your ears)