Sunday, June 28, 2009

sunday morning

holding your hand above the abyss
think of the things that i'm gonna miss
white swirling clouds tumble beneath our feet
i'll never forget this sunday morning...


the curse of Denton
was double broken last night
shattered even
like a Muhammad Ali knockout punch
Denton fell like Frazier
in the first round
i had a beautiful drive
at sunset
(well, as beautiful as driving through Lewisville and Coppell could be!)
the Ipod was on random
some strange almost cryptic tunes popped up
"Model Brothers" for starters
it made me sad
i thought about first going to Denton with F 20 years ago
yes, 20
it was hard not to feel a bit emotional about it all
then the Damned came on with "13th Floor Vendetta"
an old favorite of the N brothers
just as i rolled into Denton and the sun was fading on the horizon
"Death is a Star"
with Strummer's smoke addled voice whispering to me
"and i was gripped by that deadly phantom..."
my past
my phantom
so many memories
most of them painful
i ran away from this place
i vowed i'd never go back
i didn't play shows here for ages
i wrote about hating Denton
but what i really hated were the memories i associated with this place
memories of disappointment
and rejection
it felt good to be here again and be ok with it all
to not feel anything close to those feelings of old
happy that none of those things mattered anymore

my evening started with a pleasant dinner with my friends
Carla and Dean
they took me to a nice restaurant called the Greenhouse
one hour there felt like 5 minutes
over in a blink
then we drove a whopping 3 minutes back to Dan's
i love the vibe of this place
the way they have it decked out
it feels like Silverlake in LA to me
without the pretension
and Jimmy
the soundguy there
is one of the best in Texas
a Picasso of sound
the Whiskey Folk Ramblers went on around 10:30
trumpet and Spaghetti western guitar blazing
they sounded terrific
and i loved the 5 hats running across the stage!!
it got me revved up for our sessions later this week
we went on around 11:45
and surprisingly
there was a good crowd
i say surprisingly because Denton during the summer
can be rough business
i know all too well how the club crowds dry up once
school lets out
anyway - there we people
and they liked us
we played until 1am
the new Phil Spectoresque arrangement of "Love is All Around"
and "Saint Georges" were highlights for me
the crowd even asked for an encore
we play "the World is Full of People"
it was a triumphant return for sure
and well worth the wait
i don't think i'd played with a band in little D since the late '90s
rumour has it
we might be coming back in the Fall
so this could be the beginning of my new love affair with Denton...
ha!!!



love,


s

Wednesday, June 24, 2009

3 years

it's my 3 year anniversary on blogger
almost to the day
i just backed-up all my posts from the last year
then imported all the euro tour notes from facebook
it took me over an hour
only a drop in the bucket of loose ends i want to tidy up
i feel like there's too much to do
there aren't enough hours in the day
i'm struggling with finding peace
i'm struggling with being caught up in the doing (all the time)
we've been back now for only a month
bills and repairs are flying every which way
mishaps and things that need fixing right and left
that good ole "hamster on a wheel" feeling is back in full swing
i feel like i can barely keep up with it all
and then
at the end of the day
i'm gonna create?
sit here and write songs?
i don't have the energy most days
i've started at least 10 in the last month
but i can't find the time to finish any of them
i came back inspired
now i'm just tired
my jobs that need doing list stares up at me from the desk
french drain in front of studio to fix studio flooding problem
duplex repairs
carport
new closet
broken shelves in the storage room
broken lock
water leak
faulty faucet
sagging gutters
drop off the Jeep
sift through the 500 gigs of junk the data recovery people gave us
oh, and buy more baby stuff
(yeah - she's on her way and needs some gear!!!)
then
in the back left corner of my mind
cowering behind the stack of "practical" concerns
too scared to come out
afraid someone other than me might notice
how ridiculous he is
is my "other" to-do list...
finish the salim vs. shibboleth record (am i kidding myself?)
complete the double disc delusions of grandeur outtakes cd (now i'm truly delusional)
record live at pleasantry lane 2 with the constellations (commit me please...)
the sons of hermann hall live dvd (south korea is nice this time of year for a vacation...)

so i may be feeling overwhelmed tonight
but i still know these are all relatively minor things
it's just stuff after all
it doesn't really matter so much in the big picture
a close friend of mine
someone i've known for over 15 years
is going under the knife this week
the possibility of cancer looming large
(please send out a prayer or thought for him and his family)
every single day we have on this earth
where we don't have to face things like this
are truly lucky...
so i'm also counting my blessing at 1:43am

Tuesday, June 23, 2009

90 degrees at 9am?

3 shows this week
saturday night i do battle with the curse of denton
at dan's silverleaf
the whiskey folk ramblers will be there with us to try and make sure
only good things happen
sunday night chris holt and i go back to mineral wells
to play the clark gardens
tuesday night it's barley house with the constellations
we're hosting besides daniel from atlanta

we still haven't found out how many of the euro pictures will be saved
maybe tomorrow?
it's been an ordeal...
we finally started work chris holt's solo record yesterday
(original day 1 was post phoned by rain last week)
we're off to a fantastic start with "meltdown"
rhett's record has been getting fantastic reviews nationwide
4 stars in rolling stone!
i've even been writing a little bit
"coma"
"winners"
"andalucia in the spring"
jayme got me the stiff records book for father's day
yeah!
the wreckless eric radio shows keep rolling
so go have a listen at his website!
july is almost here
the texas tour with buttercup and the deathray davies
plus the return of half the polaroids
it's gonna be fantastic

now if i could only get that overwhelmed feeling
outta my system...

Thursday, June 18, 2009

from the desk of the whipped dawg

sometimes you just gotta laugh
at the way things aren't going your way...
welcome back to texas Nourallahs!!!!

it started with a couple of photoshoots Jayme had
where her camera malfunctioned
she had the unfortunate task of having to call these poor people
after the fact
and tell them they had to come back
in all the years she's been taking photos professionally
this had never happened before
she felt terrible
i felt terrible for her
she handled it gracefully though
and her clients were very understanding and kind
she ended up having to put in twice the work but we made it through
the fiasco ok
1 down...
then
last wednesday a storm rolled in to town
we had plenty of sideways Forrest Gump rain
and my recording studio flooded
i spent 3 hours running around
soaking wet
frantically trying to move things to safety
i couldn't stop the water from coming in
i felt completely helpless
i thought later of the poor people in New Orleans
who suffered through the floods there
we can't even imagine the horror they went through
so many who drown in their own homes
i felt lucky
and sick for their pain and loss
so this was nothing, right?
just a minor inconvenience really
a hello kitty band aide and i'd be better
...it still sucked...
our power was out too
for 3 days
we kept waiting for it to come back on
"oh, it'll be any minute now..." as we sweat our asses off
in the 90 degree heat
we went to the mall
to kill some time and soak in some A.C.
we saw the terrible "Night at the Museum 2"
(at least Gav liked it)
we ate out
ate out some more
Buzzbrew's
Teppo
Scalini's
we went to the art fair Saturday morning
it was miserable
we spent as much time out of the house as we could
unbelievably hot and humid everywhere that had no A.C.
it made me think of how sweaty and smelly the people must've been back
in the old West days...whew...glad it's 2009 and not 1809
by day 3 we were beginning to come unravelled a bit
so we fled to Plano
to stay the night at Jayme's parents house
we were there for 3 hours when our neighbor called
"your front porch lights just turned on..."
time to celebrate!!
but on the way home i felt the crushing pressure of mounting home improvement bills
1) fix the studio flooding problem
2) buy a new water heater and convert a closet to try and make more room for baby stuff
3) build a carport so we don't have to keep taking Mini over to Naab's
i spent most of sunday getting the studio back in order
but was grateful to not have to endure another day of the no electricity monkey business
monday, tuesday, wednesday
i felt pretty good
got back to running
spent some quality time with Gavin
things were sort of back to normal
until this morning
around 10am
Jayme accidentally deleted a folder with the 1600 pictures she took
on our trip to Europe
no backup
no way to get them back
she felt sick
i felt sick
we downloaded some recovery software
it didn't work
we both knew things could be worse
but it still felt terrible
i tried to work in the studio
but i was distracted all afternoon
i felt really bad for her because i knew she blamed herself
and would continue to do so for a long time to come
around 4 i started calling data recovery places
it was a drag
$500 to $2000 were most of the quotes i got
i finally found someone more reasonable
and took our PC to them in bumper to bumper traffic
then i tried to get back to the studio in time to meet Bales
more bumper to bumper
(oh, the woeful "mendult" world!!)
where were those green and pleasant fields of Chalus?
while i was gone rip got an unannounced drop-by from an unwanted visitor
i can't really go into details but it was upsetting to me
just another thing to heap on the plate of today's suck
by the time i got home it was almost time to go to my gig at the All-Good

all in all
i felt like a whipped dog

Wednesday, June 17, 2009

ma' blog is back in town!!!

my dear blog
gone for 2 months
removed by the blogger spambots
mysteriously
with no explanation
(could i have been a victim of sabotage?)
i wrote blogger countless times
"give me ma' blog back!!!!...pleeze..."
no reply
"i will report thee to the highest authoritee!!"
no reply
i believe there are no actual human beings working for blogger
just spambots
but now
through the good graces of my metallic friends
outta nowhere
with no notice or explanation or apology


it's baaaaccckkkkk!!!!



(thanks to carla who noticed at 2:30am)

for those of you who missed the german tour diary (which i posted on facebook instead)
let me know if you want me to re-posted them here
i will

i was working on a song about being in a coma when i got the good news
(as pointed out by julian - strange coincidence that my blog has been in a coma!)
gotta get back to that now


love


s