Thursday, November 20, 2008

Coffee and Dance This Weekend

In addition to this being the last chance for people to see the play that I've directed for West End Players, I'm also playing a dance on Sunday night with the Mound City Slickers for The Childgrove Dancers. Details on time, place and cost can be found at their website via the blue clicky letters in the previous sentence. Come on out and getin on the contra dancing fun. The Slickers always have a blast when we play for Childgrove, and this promises to be no different.

I should also mention that my other band, The Hot Baloney Boys will be playing this Sunday morning at The Hartford Coffee Company at the corner of Hartford and Roger St. Louis' south side. Colleen, Dan, and I will be playing old-time tunes and singing some songs while folks open their eyes with cups of joe and breakfast.

And then I'm on vacation!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

Good News!

My life these days is one hugely busy blur! I'm spending time putting the finishing touches on A Perfect Ganesh which opens tomorrow night. My day job has decided that this would be a good week to kick my butt with thirty-four absolute-top-priority-number-one-have-to-get-done-right-now things every day. Dentist and physical therapy appointments keep popping up. And so on and so forth.

But in spite of all of this nonsense, I've been able to find a few spare minutes to sit down and play some tunes. And the really good news is that I got the fiddle down off the wall after not being able to play for a good long while due to a persistent shoulder injury. Hot dog! I found that I can reach all of the strings in a reasonably comfortable way and can play the low notes that have been eluding me for a couple of months. Now I just need to spend some quality time working on getting my bowing back (geez, I sound scratchy and screechy!) and I should be back up to snuff in no time.

Even when all of the other noise in my day is seeming completely out of hand, I can remember that I'm able to play the fiddle again and most of the annoying stuff kind of fades to the background.

It's a good thing.

Wednesday, November 05, 2008

WA-HOO!

What a happy day this is!




As I drove home last night from rehearsal, about ten minutes after Sen. McCain had conceded the race, I could hear shouts and cheering all around me. I stood on my porch and listened for a while, then went in, turned on the TV, sat on the futon with Amy, and watched President Elect Obama's speech.

It struck both of us that when we were small children, African Americans could not attend the same schools as white children. We visited places on family vacations where we could not all drink from the same water fountain or use the same public rest rooms. And now there is an African American elected by the people to lead the nation.

It really is a new day.

Tuesday, November 04, 2008

Election Day Fiddle!

Get out there and Vote!

I got a couple of emails yesterday from people involved with the Obama campaign here in St. Louis asking if I'd be interested in playing tunes outside polling places to entertain the folks waiting in long lines to vote. They had also contacted the Folk School. Colleen, the Director of the place forwarded the request on to me and a bunch of others.

These Obama guys really have all this stuff figured out. What a great idea! Having live acoustic musicians play for people in line to entertain them and help keep them from getting bored and leaving.

I can't be out there today (stinkin' day job), but I know some of my friends will be.

I wonder which musicians McCain's folks contacted?

Get out there and Vote!

Monday, November 03, 2008

How's the shoulder?

I've been dealing with a shoulder injury for almost a year now. It's kept me from playing the fiddle for the better part of six months or so, and friends are rightly concerned, I guess.


So, for all who care, it's getting better. Each week I improve some, but it is happening more slowly than I'd like. I've been picking up the fiddle and playing a little bit the past month or so and can now play comfortably on three of the four strings. Just a little more gain in the rotation of the shoulder joint and I'll be able to get that low string. I'm hoping to be back playing fiddle full time with the Hot Baloney Boys pretty soon.




In the meantime, I'm happy playing the banjo uke, lap dulcimer, and mandolin.

Of course, the upside to this whole thing is that not playing the fiddle for so long has allowed my mandolin playing to get a lot better than it was a year ago. So, there's always a silver lining!