Battle of the Bands brings me back

 Went to a high school-aged "Battle of the Bands" last night with my teenaged daughter (who was going with a few of her friends).  She had never been to a concert or rock music event before -- just school orchestra types of events.

It totally brought me back to my youth -- being in my 20s in Seattle, going out to see bands every two weeks or so with Guitar Cousin.  This was a bit more "sanitized", as it took place in a school multipurpose centre, so there wasn't any spilled beer on the floor, or secondhand smoke in the air.

But:  it still had that quality.  Most of the bands were good performers; some were really good performers, with strong "audience engagement".  Nearly all were cover songs -- but, that's okay.  The crowd was pogoing and singing along to the good songs -- and I was reminded at the sort of "communal spirit" you get at a concert, which is not at all replicated by sitting in your room and listening to the album.  ;)

I also noticed that it's hard to find good singers:  out of about 12 bands, one singer was "pretty good" and the other two were definitely good.  Among the songs were a No Doubt cover, a Pearl Jam cover, and a Queen cover -- and I realized just how powerful the original singers (Gwen Stefani; Eddie Vedder, Freddie Mercury) were.

Anyhow:  had a great time -- was bopping along to the music, "Woo!"-ing, clapping - all without conscious volition:  I was just "in it".  :) 

Would do it again.

And:  as often happened, was inspired to go home and play guitar... or bass... or drums.  But, I didn't (by the time I got home, it was late).

 

--GG

Different radio station

I was flipping through the car radio preset stations on the way to work this morning, and happened across 98.1FM -- which as soon as I saw that frequency on the screen, I heard a radio announcer voice in my head that gently intoned "Classic KING radio, ninety-eight-point-one FM".

Except it wasn't:  because I live in Brisbane, in Queensland, in Australia -- not Seattle, in Washington state, in America.

Most of the time, it doesn't make a difference to me.  But occasionally:

I spent the first thirty years of my life in the greater Seattle area -- so I have a lot of reflexes and classical (no pun intended) conditioning are based on living in the same place for such a long period:  associations; expectations.  So "98.1 FM" is "supposed" to be a classical music station -- not a community radio station.

But, it isn't.


On a brighter note:  as I drove out of my yard this morning, I saw a cockatoo standing in my front lawn, and then fly away.  As a guy from Seattle, having cockatoos and kookaburras around just blows my mind:  I've lived here for fifteen years, and it still seems exotic to have "tropical" birds wandering about.


--GG

Am finally back

Sorry for the delay:  I'm finally back.


I was in Seattle for nearly all of December, visiting family.  Apologies to my friends over there:  due to our tight schedule, I made the decision that I'd be visiting only family, not friends.  I'll be back in Seattle in a few months for a fairly large family get-together, so I'll catch up with friends at that point.

Over the next few weeks I'll post some blog entries remedially.


Once I got to Seattle (in very early December), I discovered that I couldn't remember my gmail password -- so I couldn't access my e-mail account -- or my blog!  Thus, the big gap in blog entries.  The lesson learned is to not change my password the day before flying out on vacation -- or, if I do, to write it down and carry it with me.  And Google didn't believe my various attempts to restore my account while away -- so I had to wait until I got home.

Awkwardly, once I got back to Brisbane -- after being away for nearly a month -- I discovered that I had also forgotten my computer login.  Or rather:  I'm pretty sure I remembered the "log in after the screensaver kicks in" password, because I use that several times a day.  But I couldn't remember the "decrypt the hard drive" password that preceeds the other one, because I only use that once every day or so.

Actually, I'm pretty sure I did remember it -- but the computer didn't believe me.  Maybe I used to hit "shift" in a way that I don't remember.

For security reasons, I hadn't written the password down.  Hm.  That's gonna change...


So, after many, many failed attempts at unlocking my computer, I ended up having to wipe everything and re-install Mint Linux 17.  Took about an hour for the install, but another hour or two for me to re-install addtional bits of software (e.g. recording software).  So, not horrible.

Luckily I didn't lose any actual data (documents, photos, audio files), because I had done a full backup (but not a disk image; just all my personal files) before we went on vacation.  But it was still a bit of a nuisance.


But -- now I'm back! 

And I hadn't realized how... lost... I was without my computer.

So now -- over the next few weeks -- I get to empty the photos off my phone, write down a very long list of quotes, log the gifts I received for Christmas, and -- eventually! -- record a song I wrote about a really nice guy at work.


--GG

Color of Seattle photographs

As I'd mentioned in an earlier blog entry, I'm slowly going through some snapshots of my (paternal) grandparents' house, and saving them as my PC desktops.

This photo is of my grandparents' back yard.  My grandfather built the chicken coop -- a long, long time ago.

This photo looks very "Pacific Northwest" to me:  the moss on the roof, the evergreen tree in the background -- and especially the lighting.  You can just... tell.


British murder mysteries often have the same kind of lighting.  Nice.  I've been told that I'd probably enjoy England, or Ireland.

Not sure what I'm doing in sunny, glare-y Brisbane, in Australia (some parts of Australia are overcast -- like Tasmania).  Besides, I mean, following my wife here.  :)


--GG

Missing Seattle

Usually I'm perfectly fine about living in Australia -- even though I'd always figured I'd grow old and die somewhere in the Seattle area.

But today at work I took a moment to Google some Native American place names around the Seattle area, to see if my co-workers could pronounce them. 

One of the names was "Tulalip", which is an Indian reservation near Tacoma.  And when I saw the logo (see above), in the Pacific Northwest style of art (totem poles are from the Pacific Northwest -- from Alaska down to (I think) Oregon), I got a bit nostalgic.

As I told my co-worker, I still like Seattle -- but I'll never live there again.  My kids are here -- and once they grow up and get jobs and have kids, I need to stay here, too, if I'm going to see my kids at all.


Even if one of my kids moves to the States -- the others would still be here, around Brisbane.


So, I'm here:  I'm gonna be buried in another country.

Huh.


--GG

Young guy but old voice

Found this guy when doing a web search for "Hispanic country singers".

Vince Mira.  15yo, from Federal Way (near Seattle; woo!!!).  Has a much deeper voice than you'd expect -- especially given his voice during the interview.

His singing starts around 1:52.




Ayep.



ADDENDUM:  An original song by him.  It's a good song.  I hope he does well.




--GG

Finds money

Blondie Boy is really good at finding money.  Whenever we run errands he finds one to three coins.  Part of this is effort:  he's always looking down at the ground, checking coin return slots, and even getting down on his hands and knees to look under vending machines.  And his perseverence is often rewarded.

And part of it is just innate ability:  he sometimes seizes a coin in the parking lot that everyone in the family has already stepped over -- and he's the only one to see it!


We recently got home from a trip to Seattle, and he found 63c(U.S.) on the trip home:  a quarter, two dimes, two nickels, and eight pennies.


His brother, B2, found 16c(U.S.):  a dime, an nickel, and a penny.



The day after we got home, the kids ran some errands with The Lady (I stayed home to unpack and catch up on the laundry).  Blondie Boy found a 10c piece, a NZ 20c piece, and a $2 coin.

Blondie Boy and The Girl also saw a 5c piece a the same time, but since The Girl wasn't able to go after it because The Lady had asked her to watch the shopping cart -- so Blondie Boy got it.  But because The Girl wasn't able to go after it, The Lady had Blondie Boy give the coin to The Girl.

Then, B2 felt bad that he hadn't found any coins, so Blondie Boy promised the next coin he found would go to B2.  The next coin turned out to be another $2 coin -- which Blondie Boy willingly gave to B2.

So, in the last 32(?) hours, Blondie Boy found (but didn't necessarily keep) about AU$4.35 (if you pretend $AU=$NZ), plus the earlier US$0.63.




And, during the previous three weeks (i.e. our trip to Seattle), but excluding the trip back, Blondie Boy found 63 coins:  a 10 florint piece (??!!), 2 quarters, 7 dimes, 7 nickels, and 46 pennies.

Pretty good!


--GG

I love the Trading Musician

My favorite shop in Seattle (nay! the world) is the Trading Musician -- a used-instrument shop about a mile north of the University of Washington. They have two floors of used gear: electric guitars and electric basses, plus amps, on the first floor; acoustic guitars, plus ukeleles and assorted band and orchestra instruments in a large room off to the side; drums and percussion upstairs; and mics, synths and recording gear also upstairs.

And pleasant, helpful salesfolk. Including the lady behind the counter, who sings and plays bass in a Metal-style Pat Benatar covers band called ''Battletar''.

The Trading Musician boasts a marvelous range of eras and price ranges (''inexpensive'' through ''botique-y/vintage/collectable''). There ain't nuthin' like it in Brisbane.


The original plan was that I would have lunch with my aunt and uncle, then meet my friend ''No-Tower'' at the store. (I used to call him ''Four-Tower'', because he used to have four PC servers in his home office; he has since divested.) My mission was to help him upgrade from an acoustic guitar to an electric -- and yes, he pointed out that saying ''upgrade'' exposes my bias; and so it does.

However, my aunt and uncle were nice enough to drop me off directly. So, while waiting for No-Tower to arrive, I hacked around the percussion area upstairs.


I got to try out a bunch of things that I'd read about but never experienced, such as the differences between different size high-hat cymbals: 14" diameter is the standard,but some hard rock drummers use 15" cymbals. I like!!!

I also tried out a ride cymbal with no bell. Interesting, but not on my "To Buy" list.

Dug through a few of their less-expensive cymbals. Ended up getting a Salvador Dali looking cymbal, a ''Trashformer'', with a delightfully trashy sound and at a bargain price. (Note: not my photo.)

I also bought a pair of plastic-bristled jazz brushes. I already have a pair of metal-bristled jazz brushes -- but the kids were starting to damage the ends when they used them, so I hid them away -- and now I don't remember where I put them. Oops. I figured that buying something different was better than buying a replacement -- and then finding the original.

(Because the US:AU exchange rate is favorable, and because things are generally cheaper in the U.S., I was open to picking up some music gear during my visit.)


Then No-Tower arrived, so we went downstairs. He was very methodical: he browsed around, looking at all the electric guitars and checking out price tags. He eventually chose about five, and tried them out for feel. From memory (i.e. I could be wrong), he then plugged in three to try out, and I borrowed a guitar strap from the salesfolk so that he could also try them standing up. He settled on one, and then had me give it a quick play to confirm that it was a decent guitar.

It indeed was: a Fender Stratocaster -- a ''name brand'' guitar, far fancier than my guitars. See photo at left.

Interesting that No Tower appears to be a single-coil man: all the guitars he demoed were single-coils. In constrast, I'm a humbucker guy. At the moment, at least.


Somewhere during the demo-ing process, I tried out two different inexpensive reverb pedals, as I didn't own any reverb pedals. But I do now! I chose the one that was twelve bucks more expensive, but had an extra adjustment knob and an extra slider switch: I figured the extra flexibility was worth it.

I also slid a distortion pedal under No-Tower's foot. I'm pretty sure he ended up buying it.


So, good times. Good to visit my favorite store in the world. :)


--GG

Twentieth anniversary of Nevermind

Last night I was gonna spend an hour or two recording. Unfortunately, it had been so long since I'd last recorded that I couldn't find the cable that connects my mini-mixer to my laptop (two RCA males to a 1/8" stereo male, FWIW). The annoying thing is that I know I have at least three of them... somewhere. But danged if I could find them.

So today I bought another one. Three bucks at a cheapy store; fair enough. I'll do a little recording tonight.


Also: It's apparently the 20th anniversary of Nirvana's Nevermind album. On Thursday there was an interview in the entertainment section with Krist Novoselic (sorry; poorly spelled). Today (Saturday) I picked up the Australian edition of Rolling Stone just because the guys were Nirvana were on the cover.

Nirvana's not my #1 favorite band -- but, they're pretty good. And they evoke a certain period of my life -- when I lived in Seattle, and my roommate, my cousin, and myself were in a band together.

A bit of trivia: not only were we in the same birth order as the guys from Nirvana (bassist = oldest; then guitarist; then drummer), but we were also the same age-spacing. Just not as famous.

It was always on my "To Do" list to go catch Nirvana in concert. Then Kurt Cobain went and shot himself -- so **that** wasn't gonna happen.

Some generations have their Buddy Holly. I guess I have Kurt Cobain.


--GG