Monday August 04

Happy birthday Mom.  Who would have known that the piano lessons, guitar lessons, science fairs, art camps, composers camps, and miscellaneous unconditional love sent in my general direction over the years would have led up to today?  

Heros schmeros - moms rule the earth.

* * *   

This just in from the 'strange mail' department:

----- Original Message -----
From: "TP"
To: <SB>
Sent: Monday, August 04, 2003 4:51 PM
Subject: question about "League of Crafty Guitarists"

Hi,
do you know any sites with guitar tabs of "League of Crafty Guitarists"?  It`s very important!  Please mail me:)

-----------------------------------------------------
Załóż konto pocztowe - otrzymasz specjalny upominek! Zobacz:

What is up with that stuff at the end of the mail...? And what on earth could be soooo important as to demand LCG scores? 

* * *

I've been keeping this diary in real time, but have recently decided to avoid hitting the public publish button until some time has passed to provide perspective for reflection. 

Turns out, this is a wise idea.

* * *


Tuesday August 05

Via Amy at DGM, I found a real template and manufacturer today for the box part of the box set! One step closer to being done!  Also continuing to draft an email about the compilation project.  Almost ready to hit send. 

Whine of the day: communicating clearly  is haaaaaaaaaard.

* * *


Wednesday August 06

Received sad new details from Ferny about how MG died.  One more reminder: life is short, now get on with what is important.

Oh yeah, and... what IS important?

* * *

In 1998, I wrote an article for MS Technical Education about the 'top ten myths about audio in PCs', and today someone found and read that article. I emailed him back a link to this site and he mentioned that he listened to and liked 'Secret Agent' -- nice to get this kind of mail once in a while to remind me that what I do IS perhaps almost worth doing.

Once again, what is important?

* * *


Thursday August 07

Road trip to see Dave Matthews at the Gorge.  And this hole in the wall hotel in the middle of nowhere Washington has a wireless access point! Halleluiah!   The concert was both inspiring and depressing. 

Inspiring: that soooo many people find this quirky, asymmetrical, non-commercial music groovy and compelling.

Depressing: that this audience is completely disconnected from the work of 1st Gen crafty guitarists.  

* * *


Friday August 08

A decision to leave the SC house in Ballard has been taken.   History (and uncertainty) unfolds in front of us. 

* * *


Saturday August 09

Too many words lately.  How about a few blast from the past pictures to lighten the recent all-biz tone of this page?

December 1994, Gauchos play a shopping mall in Buenos Aires
Herni, Pelota, Machine Gun, Marti play "Cinco Latinos"
Those were obviously hair and fashion-challenged days (that I would not trade for a bazillion dollars.  Look at that smile on MG's face!) 

Back in NYC, Whidbey Island 2000

* * * 

Sunday August 10

SBRS duo played the Feast of Fields festival on Whidbey Island this afternoon.  An honorable show despite some serious problems from having no monitors at an outdoor show.  The audience did not seem to notice. 

Met an investor in SteveT's new start-up who I had been hearing about for awhile.  Nice people over there on Whidbey.  Hope to make it back there soon. 

 * * *


home

Monday August 11


Nothing to say, but it's okay.

* * *


Tuesday August 12

A few responses beginning to pour in from the CD compilation email that went out from the LA office.   Looking forward to hearing what comes in the door.

* * *


Wednesday August 13

Spent some time this evening finally transferring http://www.seattlecircle.com from my old ISP to our new ISP.  TravisM's newly designed SC site design is finally about to go live.  YAY!   

Meet the new boss.  Cheaper than the old boss.

* * *


Thursday August 14

Saw the following written on the whiteboard of a good friend today (who is leaving MS after 9 years in various design roles.)

deliver
surround yourself w the best and better
be visible
be flexible
take risks
recover from mistakes
ride the waves and see the crests
never just one option
embrace ambiguity

I'm not sure why this was there, where it came from but it seems like a good general list of general goals.   I will miss RobinA at MS.  In 97-98, we worked very closely together on about a dozen Themes and Screen Savers for the Win98 PlusPak.  She is moving on to bigger and better things, like writing a book. 

* * *


Friday August 15

Finally received official blessing to use JG Bennett quotes in the CDs.   One more minor, but significant roadblock out of the way...

* * *

Exactly 23 years ago today, four young naive best friends (BretH, RichardW, KevinM, SteveB) in a small Chicago suburb presented the debut performance of the opera we had written together over the summer.  "Gently Down the Stream" was a song story about a dentist whose dream life became more real than his mundane waking life and featured a Doppelganger, a ghost wife, and long stretches of open night-time road.   Disclosure: earlier that summer we had all gone to see Peter Gabriel (III tour with Random Hold opening) and Genesis (Duke tour) so we were a bit filled with the prog influences that were alive in our bones at the time.

I had the fortune to meet PeterG, Tony Levin and Jerry Marotta briefly a couple of years later on the PGIV tour when they played in DeKalb, but that is another story for another trivia-filled entry.

From a certain perspective, I have been driving ludicrous, unlikely, overly-ambitious projects for as long as I can remember (built a ventriloquist dummy at 12, Puck at 14, wrote an opera at 18, Hit or Miss at 22, found Guitar Craft at 24, Guitar Craft Services at 27, Prometheus at 30, Rockslide at 32, MSN at 34, Gauchos/Electric Gauchos at 36, Seattle Guitar Circle at 37, BootlegTV at 38, Roadshow at 39, SB Box Set at 40, and now back to the most ambitious version of Windows ever at 41.  Justification before and during the fact, each of these projects defy common sense and logical analysis.

Have I mentioned recently that a 45-song box set is just STOOOOPID??? 

* * *


Saturday August 16


Speechless today. 

Much personal and unmentionable difficulty in the air... remaining in hell, without despair.  Okay, maybe with a little despair.

* * *


Sunday August 17

SBRS performed our final real show in the 2001-2003 configuration as part of the Sandel Park concert series this afternoon.  Sea Monkey's opened with a rousing set of surf rock.  

In the audience: and old and dear friend (Tom Haig) from University of Illinois who traveled all the way from Portland for the show.  Tom used to be a diver - now he is a man with a huge heart.  I believe there may be a few photos floating around, but not sure if they will ever show up here. 

Nice to see Bob/Jax/Isabel/Eve, Keith/Karin, Tom/Jill, John/Elisabeth, among many others, in the audience.   Felt like a rockin' show -- Derek's mighty bass lines helped considerably in that department. 

* * *


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