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I flew to Chicago on Wednesday where The Awesome Ms. Katherine picked me up and we had an excellent dinner at Friendship. (Unfortunately, I also destroyed her plans with Chris and family for the night...) She dropped me off at the practice spot and we went immediately into rehearsal. Without warming up my voice I sounded croaky but at least I was on key most of the time. It was interesting to play the keyboard rather than the guitar and I felt more comfortable and at home with it. After we were done I went back to Jon's with him and got a decent amount of sleep.
We picked up the rental van in Downer's Grove then drove back up to the Spot to meet Dale and Justin and load all of the music gear. A decade ago I was the heavy lifter but now I have no upper body strength, which makes me feel like a slug. We got on the road a little late but we made it before everyone went to dinner. It was fun to record a podcast in the car (check it out on Something Beautiful's website) and the trip was good. The only difficulty was that heavy smokers Jon and Dale gave me nicotine poisoning (I weep for their lungs and bodies) but it passed by the morning. Far be it from me to judge or interfere with anybody's addictions
We got to the hotel, unloaded all of the gear into Main Events and the V4 suite then went out with the crazy staff/guest/people crowd to Steak n Shake. (I must be getting old because once was fine this trip. :) )There was much speaking like Batman.
On Friday, I worked with Sofia and Dale and various folks on our set for the concert then goofed around until Opening Ceremonies. As it was Halloween and I had face paint, I decided to do something very weird and paint my face ala the Joker in the Dark Knight Returns.
It was highly amusing and I greatly enjoyed freaking people out with it and harassing the people who were really creeped out by it like Emily and Steve Lin (who yelled, "A box of Pocky for the man who kills the Joker!" when I was harassing him at his table). It was fun at Opening Ceremonies and afterward I wandered around with a pen asking people if they wanted to see a magic trick. There were a couple of other Jokers who had better costumes (I was wearing my regular clothes) but a lot of people told me I had the best makeup, which is hilarious to me.
It's a strange feeling to have people be afraid of me and to give me nervous looks. It was uncomfortable in ways and powerful in other ways.
I eventually washed the paint off then we had our sound check and got ready for our Halloween midnight concert. Greg's Amy Winehouse was AMAZING! Our vocalists and friends wore costumes and it was a lot of fun. Chris was Monk from the TV show of the same name, Sofia was a farm girl, Josh was a giant whoopee cushion, Emily and Dusti were fairies, Bob was a hula dancer, and Doug was Afro Doug. I wore a "sexy" (as sexy as I can get with this body) nurse costume, sort of channeling Miss Katie. :)
I don't know if there's anything better than a Black Sabbath song at midnight on Halloween. :) We also mixed in the Monster Mash (which I made various folks in the audience sing along to) and Thriller, which sounded good. It was definitely cool to have door slams, wind sounds, creaking doors, and other scary noises along with the creepy organ and Theramin, all in the keyboard.
The concert was great and fast and it was great to work with Sofia. We had a different arrangement this show because Auggie, our regular drummer, was unavailable so #4 (who normally plays guitar for us) played the drums. I played keyboard instead of guitar so we had a different sound than ever before. Our sound mix was great and the monitors were awesome. We ate at the hotel coffee shop and Dale got his goetta - "Cincinnati Caviar", which is kind of like Scrapple mixed with oatmeal.
Chicago is a dangerous place for me. It is hard for the weak to not eat all manner of food that is magic to the mouth and murderous to the body. One could probably kill him/herself ala Leaving Las Vegas with Chicago street food in about 2 months, for real cheap. There are things I will not eat like bacon baskets and a pint of flan and, of course, Shame Sticks, which are sticks of butter rolled in sugar then eaten. They keep telling me I should have a Pizza Puff which has been described as, "It's like a whole little pizza, oil and grease and everything, balled up, put in dough and fried," and "It's like a piece of pizza but deep fried," neither of which makes me want to eat one or even have one near my mouth.
(Random memory: At one point some years ago, I think at an Ohayocon, I had one of those white styrofoam clamshell takeout container full of creme brulee, not in bowls or ramekins but one big pool in the container. I vaguely remember eating some of it it with a plastic spoon in the back of a limousine...)
Saturday was mostly working (and unfortunately not making a cent) and the Voices For panel. There was a yummy lunch at a local pizza place. Doug and I went to eat at the Oriental Wok that night and it was as classy and delicious as last year. Afterwards we partied and talked and goofed around. The most excellent #4 stagged in, proclaiming that he had, "Eight drinks!" I didn't think he really did because that's a lot and he's a skinny guy. It was unfortunately true and he kept going. When he is sober, he sometimes talks at great length about music theory because he went to school for it. it's quite interesting but sometimes long. He once gave an 80 minute lecture to me about temperament, which is basically the intervals that music is divided into. When he drinks, he becomes like a fire-and-brimstone preacher in a tent about music. When Doug came out and told me that he now knew the definition of "music" I knew it was time to turn Mr. #4 down. He got sick and emptied out about half of his body mass.
On Sunday, I did a good yoga session (which I really needed) then made a little money in the Dealer's Room then went to closing ceremonies.
Over the course of the weekend I met some people who touched me in some strong ways. One man grew his hair out so that he could headbang more effectively at our show and is going to donate his hair to Locks of Love. A number of people told me that I changed their lives and I told them that they changed their own lives. : )
I was preparing to sneak away to the Oriental Wok again but Nate told me that we were going to have the Dead Dog there! Yay~! The family who owns the place was very happy, if somewhat overwhelmed, by us showing up in our giant mass and it was great. I got to hang out with crazy artist friends all weekend and it made me feel very creative. A certain weird web comic will get finished, the next episode by the end of the year! Really!
The rest of Sunday was spent hanging out and chatting with folks. My life is so much less exhausting and expensive since I quit drinking. : ) We had a good yoga session on Sunday at 11 and it was sorely needed as I felt the effects of Friday night all Saturday. I get lost in work and study and end up neglecting the poor body, but not even a 1/10th as bad as I used to.
One of the strangest things that happened that weekend was one night, as I was going into the Green Room a woman attached herself to me and tried to get in. She was a little person and she hid under my hoodie and when the door opened she dashed in and hid next to a chair. It was a very weird situation and she kept blaming the weirdness on me. She was a nice but very strange -and very drunk - woman. She followed Doug around everywhere and we eventually had to get security to help so he could go to bed.
We drove back on Monday and I drove half of the trip, which was nice and saved my poor body from more smoky punishment, at least for a while. :) Back in Chicago, we unloaded the van and Katherine picked me up then we met up with Chris for an excellent Italian Beef feast at Portillo's, home of The Best Italian Beef Ever. It's so nice to get to hang out with them sometimes and I really wish I lived closer. I flew back to Denver then went to class in the morning.
It was good. :)
I forgot so much but I'm trying to get my backlog out of the way.
Rambling on music, etc.:
After we finished the production on Voices for Tolerance, I wanted to try out some new things and not do anything related to Tolerance until the end of the summer. The awesome Kevin Bolk gave me a Casio keyboard a couple years ago and I fooled with it a few times but never really learned anything much about it but I thought I would give it another try, buy a book and actually try to learn to play this time. After 3 years of guitar, the keyboard is SO EASY to me! Everything is right there all in a line, easy to find, one 7 note pattern that just repeats, and the accidentals (sharps and flats) are all there in a row of black keys. I will not give the guitar up as I love it but the keyboard is the most effective interface to the Power of Music for me. I saved up for many months and bought a workstation keyboard, a Roland Juno-G, in September.
With 100+ patches I can instantly indulge my need for more vibraphone, more orchestra, more Rhodes piano, more huge pipe organ, more tubular bells, more tabla and definitely more cowbell. I have something like 7 cowbells now! Aww yeah!
When we jumped right into rehearsal and I wasn't really ready, I still caught up right away and played right in there, a couple of times right in the pocket. It was amazing and I felt so confident and a part of the music. The same thing happened at the show and I felt more confident on stage as part of the music rather than trying not to screw up the whole time. For better or worse it stays in one place (although I have figured out a way to go into the crowd playing it, with some assistance) which means I don't have to pick it up and put it on and try to figure out where to put it when I'm not using it but I can't wander around the stage with it. (Not that I'm good enough with the guitar that I should be wandering all around the stage with it anyway.) It's great that I can play it with one hand and wildly gesticulate with the other.