July July!

Had to look through my calendar to see what I've been up to - so much going on around town, and thinking back to what I missed last summer, makes me realize how great the Bay Area is for culture, art, significant things to do. Plus, having Andy visiting, and being envious of my having musicians such as Buckethead, Fred Frith, Mike Patton, etc in my backyard, and having seen Zorn 4 or 5 times in the years I've been out here. O yeah, my old college pal/roomie/bandmate Andy (Flanders) and his wife Jen were in town from Michigan. They spent a few days in Napa, a few in San Fran, drove to Monterey. In all, they seemed to have a great trip and loved the area. We had them over for a BBQ and some East Bay times on Sunday, I took them to Telegraph & one of the all time awesomest stores - Amoeba (Rasputin is cool too, but time ran out), then for a drive to Wildcat Canyon vista before sunset. Then hanging out for a bit back home, sharing some tunez, then they were out. Great times.
Other things going on this week - we are out camping, visiting Lisa Fay tonite in Hopland, get some jams going to.
We caught the new "Rockstar : Supernova" show on CBS. I'm not much for 'reality' shows, and that's gotta be the lamest, laziest band name in the last 30 years, but I was intrigued to see how the metalheads (Tommy Lee, Jason Newsted, Gilby Clarke, and Dave Navarro) conducted themselves. Anyway, I saw that a friend of a friend is one of the contestants! Storm Large, who is definitely the strongest female performer/singer on there (the young girl Dana is green but strong competition). I'm breaking tradition, and saying watch the show, and vote for her often on voting nights!

Holiday

So, had the housewarming party last weekend - guest list was kinda ragged, and I never got a chance to follow up & revise the EVite, sorry we missed some folks - but it was a good time all round. RobD showed up and became the default grillmeister, good flow of peeps all afternoon long, and it was great to meet some of the neighbors! A diverse bunch, and some on one side of the street who hadn't met people on the other side. Folks brought things, and we had a jam lasting until the wee hours, with my electronic/noisy friends joining in with Bonnie's folksy friends. Maybe a collaboration in the works?

Other news - full outgoing week - Tuesday saw Carla Bozulich at the SF Mezzannine , Wednesday was Rev. Steve Leyba's going-away party (he's relocating with permanent intentions to the Netherlands and parts European), at a Mission art space . Thursday after work was the 'PDI Summer Jams' concert on the campus at work (band was "Motion Picture", a light and fun pseudo-groovy-jazz act). They've (administrators) got a couple more shows promised, never get a solid answer on whether myself, or some other friends' bands I submitted, are going onto the lineup. Eh.

Friday was the start of the long weekend (o ya), we met in San Fran for the "Shadow World Film Festival" - a series of screenings promoting the new collection of Shadow Light's DVD releases. If you aren't familiar with the shadow puppet theatre of Larry Reed, (mostly based on Balinese Wayang, fused with his Western influence, but also blending in other Asian and Native American art and live actors) I highly recommend checking it out - going to these screenings and spreading the word for those in the Bay Area, others of you check out the website!). Saturday was free opera in Dolores Park, great to see a huge turnout for it. Came back on BART, decided to hit the movie theatre, the only movie we wanted to check out that was in our schedule was "Click". Not an Adam Sandler fan (how many people say that?) This movie was OK, surprisingly poignant and well-managed storywise but not too sappy. The true nature of the story is only hinted at in the trailers. Ummm.... 2.5 out of 5.

Sunday was house day - shopping at Home Depot, got a new fridge and tall grill. Getting ready for hosting more summer BBQ events. Then I spent most of the day putting my studio together! I'll work out the kinks on my days off, and hopefully get it humming by the weekend. Jam on!

Next up : the days off, the studio up and running, and the next parts of summer.