Old Cape Cod

I arrived on the Cape for the first time in my life two nights ago. I'm here for Trish Larose is Bulletproof, and I rode up with our drummer. We drove (well, he drove) through heavy traffic and torrential rain and arrived over seven hours after we'd left my apartment (it's usually a 4.5 hour drive). Luckily, we get along well, so it was a pleasant long drive when it could have been a torturously long ride, and now the Bulletproof crew is teched and rehearsed and ready to open tonight.

Some recent songs (I had aspirations of posting about every one; giving up on that for now): Beyonce's "Ave Maria" (What must Schubert think?), LeToya/"Not Anymore", Cee Lo Green/"F*** You", and of course, 1957 song "Old Cape Cod", written by Claire Rothrock, Milton Yakus, and Allan Jeffrey, and sung by Patti Page.

Charming chromatic harmony & background vocals, and a tempo that matches the pace here. It's a foreign land to me, where people come to relax, and people live who like to have a certain amount of relaxation in their lifestyle. I could get used to this. I mean, I'm from New Mexico; I am well-acquainted with the concept of doing nothing and then resting afterward. This is a lot like that, but with a beach and more humidity.

More later - the world beckons from beyond the cute bedroom where I'm being housed. I'll try to remember to take pictures, but my brain is currently set to "keep warm" when I'm not working, so no promises.

Cinco de Mayo

Cinco de Mayo - the Mexican version of St. Patrick's Day, when everyone assumes a particular cultural heritage for one day as an excuse to wear bright colors drink large quantities of beer.  I'm playing for Trish LaRose is Bulletproof tonight, and will either be wearing my Virgen de Guadalupe t-shirt w/ jeans & boots (for a funky downtown look) or my bright blue Mexican-ish embroidered dress (for a faux-Mex look).  Thus I celebrate my New Mexican roots - that, and the black beans & rice w/ honest-to-goodness, from-the-bodega Mexican hot sauce.  I honestly don't remember how big a deal we make of Cinco de Mayo back home, but here, even the Irish pubs are rocking the Corona specials.  Ah well...

I have been sick this week - little cold/flu/allergy bug, not sure what, but I definitely had a fever during Epic Wednesday yesterday.  I sound like I've been smoking since I was three, and I can't breathe through my nose.  But I feel much better than I did yesterday.  Way to go, fever, cooking the germs! 

Anyway, I've done the bare minimum of activity this week - ie, no social life and no wish.  I'm bored with my wish anyway.  I really need a specific song and a pianist to imitate, otherwise it's so vague and I can't motivate myself to do anything.  So I'm working on a Plan B for goodbye songs - Nat suggested "Every Time We Say Goodbye", so I'm gonna see what piano-ey versions I can find of that song.

Irish For a Day

Look, look
Look to the rainbow.
Follow the fellow
Who follows a dream.
-"Look to the Rainbow" from Finian's Rainbow

Busy week this week.  Sitting in Starbucks right now, in between appointments on my Epic Wednesday (which currently goes from 8:30 a.m. until around 12 or 1 a.m., with no breaks long enough to go home).  Performances tonight and tomorrow night with Irish or St. Paddy's Day themes, both of which should be a lot of fun. Tonight is Irish night at Stonewall Sensation, so I'll be accompanying the contestants on songs written, recorded, or having anything to do with Ireland.  It's a broad category, which allows songs as diverse as "Lies" from the movie Once to "Ireland" from Legally Blonde the Musical.  My St. Patrick's day will begin there at 10 p.m. tonight, and end (punctuated by what is most accurately called a nap)...

...tomorrow night, when I'm playing for Trish LaRose in her cabaret act, Bulletproof.  Each incarnation of Bulletproof is a little different, and this one's about turning her turning thirty, which much-heralded event will occur tomorrow.  Ah, turning thirty... that epoch of life in which one examines how one is spending one's time, because one has realized one is actually going to DIE one day... Jobs, quit. Career courses, altered. Relationships, relegated to the "see-you-when-I-see-you" attic, or excised entirely.  What do I still have time for?

Ben.  Of course Ben.  Practiced "Lullabye" last night with the recording on Quicktime, where you can adjust the tempo down as far as 50% (or faster, but why would I do that?).  45 minutes, ok, pretty comfortable with the first half of the solo by memory.  Won't have time again until Friday, but will try to get a good chunk of time in then.  Better than nothing.