Friday, May 4, 2012

Happy May

Cinco de Mayo, Mother’s Day, Memorial Day coming up.  I am down in Santa Monica celebrating my mom’s birthday. German chocolate cake and red wine – mmmmmm. She is still spunky and stirring things up for us at 94.

The timing of my visit to LA was serendipitous as Bob Baker, music marketing guru extraordinaire, was in town and had invited folks to drop in for informal conversation at the Makai Lounge happy hour. It was a small group and very nice for chatting and indie artist shop talk. Thank you, Bob. I learned “the scale that will change your life” from Adrian Galysh.  And this important tip which I would have liked back when I was starting out .

Went to the Two Day Town music festival this last weekend at the Del Valle reservoir in Livermore. My first time there, and what a lovely gathering !! Much smaller than events like Strawberry or Grass Valley, but still lot’s of good music both on and off stage. And you can have camp fires !! (A very big thank you to Rich Chamberlain for his fine camp hospitality. ) It was good seeing and playing with long time friends and making new ones. Sure whetted my appetite for Razzberry and for the Kate Wolf festival.

Speaking of appetite and going back to the German chocolate cake (which I went back to several times actually), I have been thinking a lot about cake and pie lately. Here’s why: This was my mid-term project for the class I am taking at Berkeley City College. The assignment was to make an animation inspired by a painting. Wayne Thiebaud called to me, and it was a fun and tasty project.

Other video activities: I finished editing the videos of kid’s music I did with Michael Hanna, and have put a couple up on Youtube. Here’s one.  I sure don’t watch videos like I used to. I see camera angles, notice zooms and pans, scene transitions, etc. etc. I have a couple of video shoots this month, and I am learning more all the time.

And I have some fun gigs coming up. The first is at Chester’s Bay View Café in Berkeley this Saturday night, May 5th. I’ll be playing with Don’t Look Back which is always a treat. Come by if you can. The next day, I’ll be at the Kensington Farmer’s Market (at the Colusa Circle) from 11am to 1pm. I had been hesitant to get involved with playing out in the harsh elements of Northern California, but I am a convert now. I played there last month, with my friend Patty Hammond on bass, and we had so much fun!! This time, Dorcas Moulton will be joining me with her accordion. John Roy Zat and Friends will be back at Chester’s on Thursday, May 17th.

Don’t recall if I mentioned I have been learning Zydeco dancing. There are dances twice a week to live bands in my ‘hood with hot loud music and loads of style. A lot more fun than running on a treadmill for exercise.  

Hope you are doing great and that your toes are tapping too.

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