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Monday February 21 12:43am. Just reporting the facts tonight. Home from SBRS rehearsal, sans Bob tonight. Missed him badly. Babysitter bailed at the last minute. Dean was flying high. Some very tasty stuff flowing out of that man's hands tonight. Brock was also largely "on" this evening. Curt was, as usual, delivering like a metal maniac. And Jaxie, was rocking solid, all the way around. We missed Bob, badly. And yet, we still managed to hit some really stellar moments. Jaxie continues to underestimate her value and role in this project. She is an acoustic engine that drives this group. Did I mention that we missed Bob tonight? * * * Meeting at Starbucks just before rehearsal with GM and JL. Immediate future looking bright. Pieces falling into place. People falling into appropriate roles. Before this, dinner with Steve Enstad, Travis Metcalf, and R. Chris Murphy at the official BTV Thai restaurant in Bellevue. Steve and Travis helped me move 20 boxes of accumulated stuff out of my former MS office this afternoon. Three years and ten months of accumulated stuff, to be exact. Nostalgia all gone today. Cold hard moving on settling in. * * * Intriguing mail from BillR today. I'm too chicken-shit to reprint it here. Some half-formed ideas, but he's on the way to something good. * * * Feeling crabby this evening. Not sure why. Didn't really have a day off today, even though it was technically a national holiday. Tomorrow the intensity begins again. I mean,... continues. Time to deliver. * * * Last thoughts of the day:
* * * Tuesday February 22 Ballard Firehouse was rocking this evening. The world premiere of the Brocksongs band hit the stage at midnight. Wow. I think we surprised ourselves and the audience. Excitement about the future of this project is keeping me up late.
Well, that and a necessary phone call to England. The sound on stage was 1000x better than our previous show here, largely due to the heroic efforts of our stage soundman Walter Harley. Being a difficult-to-please, whiny-ass vocalist, the vocals were still totally illegible on stage, and I was singing blind. What does Tori do? (okay, she plays piano, I know...) but how does she get her voice to sound so clean, clear, with massive, high end purity and clarity? That is what I am after. And it's a complete mystery to me, despite my audio background, and engineering skills. I will pay many dollars to the person who can help me figure out how to get a great, reliable, vocal sound in my monitors despite what else is going on in the room. Let the bidding process begin. * * * SBRS before the Brocksongs set was also honorable. The opening band dudes hung out to check out our incessantly wicked odd-time-signature grooves. Their bass player was playing a bass with about a hundred stings. * * * "Exit Interview" at the borg today. "Why are you leaving?" was the question. HA! "Why are you staying?" was my answer. Okay, not really. But that's what I wanted to say. Also sent out the standard "I'm leaving" mail, even though I've really been gone for the past six weeks. Sorting through the MS address book for friends and co-workers who might possibly care: about 250 names of 'close' friends and co-workers. Yikes. No wonder my email boxes are constantly clogged. * * * Ten thousand phone calls today, and my ear piece is broken so my brain was irradiated all day long. Must get this fixed asap. Also, good news from JM this morning -- joining the BTV enterprise. * * * 2:54am. What the hell am I doing up? Putting the 'capital' from a day of good work into the pelota bank. * * * Wednesday February 23 11:49pm - Oh to bed "early" this evening after a short SGC rehearsal tonight at Bob and Jaxie's. Preparation for our Seattle Art Museum gig tomorrow evening. The best preparation for us right now would be to arrive at the show well rested. So we bailed early. DavidS has landed again in Seattle. Before rehearsal, dinner meeting with DavidS, CurtG, VioletL at "I heart Sushi" on Eastlake. One good thing about dinner meetings: efficient use of time. One unfortunate thing about dinner meetings: I rarely taste my food; my attention is elsewhere. * * * Wednesday mailbag funnies:
* * * Other significant news: 80 has landed in Seattle. With three cats. Wish there were a place for her to show up for work. <sigh> We are so close to getting this ship in the air... I can see it now. It all makes sense to me somehow. Getting even for Brock stealing the scanned set list and putting it on his website. Actually, Brock can steal anything from me anytime he wants; what's mine is his, without restriction or limit. * * * One quick comment on my efforts over the past seven years to get guitar players to move to Seattle. The sales pitch is over -- I realized something last evening at the Ballard Firehouse: we now have critical mass. We don't need you. Stay away from our party. My couch is officially closed. TravisH, please close and lock the door on your way in. * * * Hope Jaxie's mom is not reading my diary, too. * * * Still reverberating from the SBRS and Brocksongs shows last evening. Good feelings in my heart, but my body is struggling with sleep deprivation. So shut up already. * * * Thursday February 24 6:52am -- This just in: an early entry from Thursday's mailbag:
Obviously, Violet's sad, bitter, and delusional shell-of-an-attorney has not realized that if she sends me mail, it will end up published in this space... Side Note: For the legal record, M. Violet Leonard is the most organized, together, not-insane-guy woman I have ever met or worked with. Granted, her vicious lawyers suck. But otherwise, Violet really has it together, and it is an honor to be working with her. * * * 11:11pm I can barely keep my eyes open. And yet, I am compelled to sit at this keyboard and document this insane life that has chosen me to type these words. * * * SGC show at the Seattle Art Museum this evening. I was negotiating with a friendly Vulture Capitalist up until 10 minutes before show time. Jaxie said "this is on the edge" as I showed up three minutes past show time. I responded,... "no, actually, the edge occurred thirty minutes ago..." Despite this difficulty, we began on time (via Dean's excellent ambience) and we delivered an honorable show with some powerful circulations. Ab before twilight had some melodies that flew down from above, and we were there to catch them. Quote of the evening, uttered just before we played Derailed: "perhaps we should consider rehearsing the pieces we are going to perform." Nothing was totally derailed by blowing off the rehearsal of our second set last night, but I was genuinely scared at a few moments during the show tonight as we played pieces we had not rehearsed in quite some time.... And generally, I do not scare easily on stage. Overall, a warm response, and I have good feelings about the music tonight. Bob's solos were adventurous and just plain ol' great Bob's of fire. From where I was sitting, our tone this evening was really nice. We went from from gentle and caressing to intense and energizing, in one sweet phrase. * * * What an education, with this never-ending VC dance. Is it possible to ever trust what a VC says? And what a a wide rainbow of personalities, problems, egos, eagles, visions, villains, methods, and madness. * * * TravisH arrives tomorrow to further confuse everyone who is already confused about which Travis is which. * * * Saw an interesting space (with a built-in recording studio) for least this afternoon, recommended by TreyG and BillR as a potential shared recording studio/BTV office. More in-depth discussions needed about this idea, perhaps over the weekend. * * * Mary Lou Lord arrives tomorrow. Playing I-Spy tomorrow evening. Now there is another saga from my distant past. Someday, I'll have the energy to tell the Mary Lou/Sanford Ponder/SB/Deep Music saga. But for now, wishing her a great show tomorrow evening. * * * Friday February 25 Friday, the end of a million mile week. No energy for this diary tonight, although there is plenty to report. Like TravisH has finally arrived. He busted my gut during dinner. Numerous times. David, Violet, Ken, TravisM, and Eighty also seemed to be having some gut bustage. A good sign. Wish I could paraphrase TravisH's "four hour rule" but I would not do it justice. Perhaps he will document these in his own diary. * * * Now that we have critical mass, we are beginning to get into the nitty gritty of personality chemistry within this diverse group. I am learning the craft and art of management by doing. This is both a privilege and a curse. * * * A close friend asked me this evening: "Steve, what do you want to be when you grow up?" I realized something recently. I am already what I want to be when I grow up: myself. * * * Saturday February 26 Wow. * * * Sunday February 27 Double-wow. It would be a complete mistake to document what is happening inside this Pelota life right now. All of the standard physical activity and action is being enhanced by a new and surprising intensity of emotional movement. Another thankful prayer for 14 years of Guitar Craft practice which is keeping me grounded. * * * Morning, cleaning and organizing for the upcoming week: laundry, straightening up, paperwork. Then, BTV brunch with Violet, Ken, and TravisH on Capital Hill. Then, SteveE joins us for coffee. Then, sync with CurtG, BillR and DavidS at yet another cafe across from David's hotel. Phone calls to RF and JPB from this same cafe. Plans brewing for NYC later in the week. I'll be there from Wed night to Saturday. Bill and David stayed for more coffee as Curt, Travis, and I peeled off to Bob and Jaxies for a private showing of Ken and Violet's inspiring video of the SBRS Whidbey show. Some interesting lessons in seeing yourself on tape: a rare chance to see ourselves as others might. Overall, some nice surprises, and a good experiment for BTV. Should have invited Brock and Heather to this first viewing, but Bob and Jaxie's TV room is about the size of a shoe box, so I will meet separately with Brock and Heather for our own private viewing... * * * Complete exhaustion -- where was this refreshing weekend? Tomorrow, the hourly beeps begin. Pausing on the hour. Who else from a distance is joining in on this process? * * *
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