Jan 16 - 2nd show of the year /driving while falling asleep

I brought my MacBook pro, guitar, mxbox, and ukelele into the office; thankfully very few people saw me bring the guitar and ukelele or else I would have aroused the curiosity of the masses at the office. And I don't want to do that. I just want to focus on work and then during my lunch break work on music.

Lunch break was sweet. The last 4 days i have been bringing the laptop and mbox into the kitchen/rest area, and going into my corner to mix. And by the time I had to leave lunch break, for modern masterpiece I re-eq'd guitars and vocal, and added the "underground water pad" sound which I felt blended in with the song perfectly.

I went straight to the library after work, to drop off some books and the audio CD Book of Ender's Game by Orson Scott Card. Marie introduced me to Ender's Game a couple of years ago, and I've been a fan of the Ender Series ever since. So I picked up a few more Ender's related CD audiobooks - Ender's Shadow, and Speaker of the Dead. And I'm happy to say that I'm embracing my Orson Scott Card geekdom/fandom fully. When I heard Ender's game was being made into a movie, I had a joygasm.

Since I got to cool beanz around 6:30, I decided to keep working on modern masterpiece. I brought in my keyboard to add the piano part, and remixed the vocals a little bit, because alot of the levels, even with compressions, were so drastically different from each other (like one word it would be really soft, and then the next couplw of words after that it would be really loud, and vice versa). But I was able to pull off a mix before people started arriving for the show.

The show went well! The PA at cool Beanz isn't really a great-sounding PA, so we did our best to make things work. And it was Cat's birthday (Cat is someone i met a while back at cool beanz when i used to go to their open mics) , so a lot of the people there were in a festive, yet-eager-to-listen-to-melancholy-music mood(which is what Michael Korb and I are really all about). A lot of Cat's friends, who are her Marist college buds, were really sweet; hell, one of them even had a Metroid t-shirt on, and we started to talk about gaming (awwww yeah......awwwwww yeah......AWWWWWW YEAHHH!!) Cat brought cupcakes, which I did not get a chance to try (weakness) but brought her boyfriend, who seemed to be a fine fellow. It turns out they both play instruments, but did not meet each other at some band-related event in Marist.

Michael Korb and I traded sets during the night. Damn. Every time I hear him play, I am just amazed at his musicianship,and song-writing. Both his sets were solid and , I was happy I got to hear him play Circles, which is my favorite song of his. He also played this newer song (or at least a song of his that I've never heard)and it blew my friggin' mind. To quote Teen Girl Squad, Michael Korb was 'sooooooooooooooooo good'. Or 'Grood....i mean, good and great'.

my set list

(1st half)
We Would Last Forever
Modern Masterpiece
Natalie
Kneecaps
Buttercups

(2nd half)

Sally Song - Nightmare Before Christmas Cover
Tag (Jon Greco request)
To All Indie Stars I had Crushes On In College
24 Lives
She Wants (Cat request)

and before the end of the night, I played the Britney Spears song, to honor Cat's 2nd request. Ahh..Britney.

It was nice to see some familiar faces once again :) Jon Greco updated me on his life; he's going on tour playing bass for a punk band, which is so phresh. And I got to see Jaime and her boyfriend Ed (who I embarrassingly kept calling John the whole time I talked to him), who met at music education college and we even talked about our respective instruments, and how we all know the Preddice dynasty (the best Long Island music dynasty EVER.) And about the trumpet. oh man...my sweet, sweet trumpet days of the 7th and 8 grade.

*reminiscing*...


Afterwards, we went to the Applebees near Smith Haven Mall. Long Island, represent!
Stasia was eager to learn the ukelele, so I showed her a couple of chords after the show was done, and i let her borrow it while we waited for a half an hour at applebees. She picked it up really fast, and most likely I think she is going to get a uke for herself....I think...

I just got buffalo chicken wings (which i've been craving), and only ate a couple of them while I immersed myself in conversation all around. Topics discussed included The Marist Poll, Joe Broome's girlfriend who is going to Germany, pad thai, and....i don't remember anything else. Oh yeah, a classmate of Cat's, who went to high school with her, was also in Applebees and had his stomach-stapled (not at Applebees, but at a hospital) and lost 150 lbs. That's pretty dope. And all dope about people wanting to change their lives for the better.

Phil Minissale, super-talented blues player/singer-songwriter, met up with us at Appleebess, having just come from seeing a Wood Brothers concert, which he said rocked. He also told me about a couple of shows he's doing next weekend at DC and Pennslyvania, which is also dope. It was nice to see Phil, since he's a good guy, and we need more good guys in this world.

Word to your mother.

I was a little confused though on the lady who was with Michael Korb. I kept wondering if they were going out or not; the only info i gathered was that they knew each other from high school, and lived as roommates here and there. They seemed actually very in sync with each other, but I wasn't sure if Michael introduced her as his girlfriend when we 're-met' before the show.

I have a terrible, terrible memory. It's almost like if it isn't music, information that gets sent through my brain leaves fast. F*ck.

When I left Applebees, it was around 1 sum sum. And i struggled to stay awake after 30 minutes of driving; it was really, really bad. I remember losing consciousness, and then regaining it and freaking out that I lost consciousness...only to lose it again in 3-5 minutes. I even got woken up when I heard my car driving over the part on the right side of the highway that warns you when you are driving too close to walls enclosing the highway..all I heard was the ''gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-gr-' and freaked out. I also remember driving on Grand Central Parkway, only to realize later that I somehow drove to the L.I.E. I took a nap around Exit 19 on the L.I.E. A 30 minute overdue nap..and drove fine afterwards home.

note: I really have to stop driving while tired. it's really dangerous to myself and to others. Im sorry, people. i'll make sure to get some coffee next time at the slightest hint of dreamland.