Monday, February 25, 2008

fog

i can't seem to shake this bug
even though i'm back to
"business as usual"
i don't feel quite right
i feel really sluggish
and worn out
yesterday crushing depression set in
i could barely move
it was terrible
today i'm really gonna try and shake these
blues
i want to spend some quality time with my son
and not be distracted by the constant
noise and chatter of the adult world

jayme's birthday was good
the rockstar party at barley friday night
loud and silly
i was michael mcdonald
jayme was gwen stefani
which was fitting
because the night i met her for the first time
she was attending a costume party as G.S.
we didn't get started with the noise
until 1am
i apologize to all who waited around
but the mellotron was acting up again
i hear the highlight of the evening
was happy birthday sung
with a bad michael mcdonald impersonation

saturday we spent a mellow day with L and L
i went with G to snag the massive barbie birthday cake
that came in a gaudy barbie "house" box
maybe i'll post a picture of it
it's got to be seen to be believed
it made Jayme happy
which was the point
in the evening we went and had dinner
at an Ethiopian restaurant J picked out
her parents joined us
and were good sports about the strange
choice in cuisine
at one point the owner came over to our table
and unveiled a secret "culture" room
for us to watch music videos from his country in
it was charming and hilarious
watching the videos made me flash back to F's plan
to move to Syria and be a pop star there
i hadn't thought about that one in ages

i'm playing a low key show
with the noise next week at club dada
it goes down wednesday night with my friends from ohio
the black swans
i'm also playing an austin show with them
on tuesday the 4th
i'm also looking forward to seeing billy harvey at bend
on saturday night
he's wrapping up his veggie oil tour across america
(he drove a car that runs on vegetable oil coast to coast)
you should check out his video blog
if you have a chance
www.myspace.com/billyharvey
it's pretty fascinating
and funny

Thursday, February 14, 2008

all you need is...

valentine's day
a good enough reason to celebrate
my favorite thing
L.O.V.E.
let's just call it love's birthday
ok?

G and i woke up earlier than usual
8:30
we crept outta the house
and went to get J some flowers
we settled on pink tulips
then we went to krispy kreme
and got some donuts
gavin was pretty excited
we'd never done this before
next stop
was starbucks
i felt like a martian in there
trying to remember her drink
was it a mocha or a latte or a grande
or a vente?
all japanese to me
i don't drink the stuff
anyway the nice employees just smiled and waited patiently
for me to mumble fumble my order
good news is
i got it right!!
at least this old memory of mine is still good for something
we had a donuts in bed celebration
opened our cards and gifts
then we lounged around
about noon we decided we'd go have a picnic
it was almost 70 outside
breezy but nice
we picked up some cheese
crackers fruit and other fun stuff
then we went to "max's park" and put down our spread
in the middle of a nice sunny spot
i felt like i'd stepped out of a monet painting


cut to midnight
the start of my 5 day tear
in bed with the fever
it was like the plague around here
all 3 of us
wiped out

tomorrow is jayme's birthday

Monday, February 11, 2008

where oh where

have i been?

sorry my poor blog
i've neglected you so
too many other things going on
what else can i say?

we finally wrapped the old 97s record
on the 30th
it comes out on may 13th
i don't know what it's going to be called
we had a blast making it
and i'm really happy with the end result
the old 97s rule
you will love "the fool"
and the rest of the gang
it's a cool record and one of the best i've ever helped make

i also finished the cut-off
"packaged up for beginners"
that should be out in late march/april
it's in the top 5 of any record
i've ever been involved with
so when it comes out
i heartily recommend you buy it

maybe the biggest reason i haven't been hanging 'round here
lately
is i've been doing a lot of the other kind of writing
the kind that involves songs
for me it's a pretty time consuming
and all encompassing process
i'm trying to get ready to make solo record #4
i have to be ready by april
i'm working on it with one of my favorite songwriters
billy harvey
so i'm pretty motivated to make sure i have some
good tunes lined up
i don't want to go to billy with anything
that's so-so
so most of my late night down time
has been spent working on this latest batch of songs
right now the "A" list contains
"western hills"
"endless dream days"
"stranger in my own skin" (which i wrote last week)
"the blink of an eye"
and
"st. georges"
a few of these have been hanging around for about a year now
"georges" which was inspired by a blog
which you may or may not recall
and "endless dream days"
which i've played once or twice at acoustic shows
anyway
this time i'm going to try and make it quick
no year long debacle like "snowing"
we're going ot work on it in april and may
try to get it out by the fall
old school
knock it out
so to afford myself the luxury
of taking some time off to do this
i'm going to have to work extra hard between now
and then
that's ok though
i love my job
i promise to blog again as soon as i can
i'll just have to see when

one other thing
i'm breaking my 2 and 1/2 year barley house hiatus
to play jayme and ryann's birthday bonanza
that's happening next friday
the 22nd
it's going to be a dress as your favorite rockstar
so start planning your cher and bono costumes now

i guess that's all for now
see you at the party!
(if i recognize you)

love

s