Yesterday Mia and I went to a new coffee shop in Chattanooga called Camp House for their open mic night hosted by Noah Collins. I ended up playing a couple songs with Noah and it felt good to play again!
The sound was phenomenal - best live sound I have experienced in Chattanooga. The only hang up ... the place has a bit of a church vibe ... but the people are cool so it's not a deal breaker.
About a dozen or so listeners sat in silence, giving full attention to who ever was on stage (rare for a Chattanooga open mic night).
In the corner there's a coffee bar (I had a cherry italian soda). At the end of the night I gave $5 to the sound guy in exchange for a recording of my set. Most of the artists played singer-songwriter type songs. One 3-piece band got up and played some gospel songs (the bass player from Ludacris was there and played with them). At the end of the night they tallied listener-votes and the winning performer got a percentage of the door for gas money. Last night Aaron Rauch won.
Next week Mia is going to join me and add a little french flavor to the set. =)
Directions here - map
It was Tuesday night and I was walking down Frazier Avenue with Linda Jane and Grayson (my sister's boyfriend). Out of no where I hear "Watch out girl pants!" A kid on a bike shouted as he swerved around us.
Surprise. Shock. While i was fumbling for words, my sister shouted at the boy speedy away "We can see your ass-crack looserrrrrrr!!!" Both Grayson and I stood, jaws dropped,
as she blasted this 12 year old's life without a hiccup. The boy's shorts were in fact falling off him as he pedaled away, revealing half a moon. Yes, he was a biker with a credit-card swiper.
Nearby a family stood surveying the scene as their children gigged. I thought girl pants were popular among 12 year old skater-boys.
Apparently not. Perhaps this lad momentarily forgot the style preference of his contemporaries. After all, I was taking up his sidewalk.
One always thinks of the perfect comeback too late. We sat in Clumpies
eating ice-cream and pondered all the possible comebacks. "These are actually men's pants from H&M in Atlanta!" was my first thought. Grayson's comeback was my favorite;
"Sorry your mom's on meth!!!" Still, Linda Jane's was pretty classic. "We can see your ass-crack, looser." Oh, I love my sister.
So here's to you skater-boy who doesn't like "girl-pants!" Thanks for brightening our day. By the way, "Watch out girl pants" is now my sister's notification ring-tone.
Tim says: I want to get CDs made of this recording I did a year ago with some kind of art that looks like "Eskimo Mary" (one of the 7 songs on the live-in-studio album recorded on July 1, 2009).
Mia says: Ok. What colors are you thinking?
Tim says: Red, black, and white for sure and maybe yellow?
Mia says: Oooo I have an idea!
Several days later Mia sent these pictures to me via txt message. I think they are pretty cool but I need help picking one to print.
Q: Which one do you like best? 1, 2 or 3?
*let me know on facebook.
Before I left to fly up to visit home for a couple days I told Mia "I can't wait to hear what the lake tells me this time." She responded in delightful curiosity and wonder asking "what do you mean?"
I told her that every time I visit home now [that I have moved to the States] I must take one night and canoe out on the lake, alone.
When I reach the middle of the lake and canoe around the bend everything goes silent. The hum of the generator fades. The silence is deafening. The stars are so bright.
All that can be heard is the water dripping off the paddle, the call of the loon and at times, a mosquito buzzing in the ear.
During this last visit, I went out to the water and this is what the Universe said ... "I am right here ... before your eyes and ears. I am in the stars,
in the air and water, in the trees, in the loon call, in the stillness. I am bigger than you can imagine and I will always be here."
Dear reader, not sure if you knew this or not but I recently shot and produced a web series called The Steps with actor Dylan Kussman (Dead Poets Society, Wild Hearts Can't Be Broken).
We've been working on it for 19 months with. We finished Season One (10 episodes) last week.
And LAST night we shot an behind the scenes interview about how we made the show. (these interviews will be on the DVD which should be available in September!!!)
I was a little nervous about the interview because I often have trouble expressing what I'm really trying to say when the camera is rolling.
But last night I felt really comfortable and I think you will like hearing the stories about me figuring out how to film a web series.
Some of the questions included:
1. How did you get involved in this project and what was your role?
2. What kind of camera did you shoot the series on?
3. What was your favorite scene to shoot?
4. How did you write the theme song with Dylan?
5. Are you happy with the way the series turned out?
You will be able to order the DVD online (in September, 2010) on http://watchthesteps.com.
It's been over a year and a half since I wrote a song. That is depressing as an artist. So when a song landed in my lap Friday morning as I drove to work with a coffee in my hand, I was flipping out. I even considered not going to work at all so I could finish this idea in my head. I ended up fleshing it out on my lunch break. No guitar in hand ... but I knew I had something good. *I will upload an MP3 when it's complete.To capture the general idea, I sang the melody into an audio recorded app on my Droid (called Rehearsal Assistant). By the way this is a great app for recording song ideas on the go. Check out the screen shot below.
I told myself I would wear this bracelet till it fell apart. I remember thinking several years ago " when this thing falls off I have a feeling it will be at a significant time in my life." Well the day before my birthday I woke up and it was gone. Later I found it buried in the sheets. That same day Mia gave me a birthday present. It was a beautiful oil painting of an eagle feather laid over an Ojibwa beed design very similar to the bracelet which was hand-made in 2005 in Ontario, Canada.
