Old Bloody Orange

My former bandmate, Nick, sent me an e-mail with a song called "Old Bloody Orange" that is pretty fantastic. He's sort of like my rock'n'roll mentor. Afterall, he's the one who taught me about the Rock & Roll Pyramid.

My weekend was slendid. It didn't go as planned, but that's ok. I think it went even better because of that. I spent my weekend away in Lincoln, attending a going away party for my former bandmate Sarah who recently was hired by a tv station in Kansas City. I had a great time at Bisonwitches, hanging out with television people, still feeling like I hang out with celebrities, even if they are local ones. And I found out that night that I guess I'm a local celebrity too since someone came up to me saying that she knew who I was but I didn't know her (she had been to our Candle Simon shows). I ended up staying longer than expected, but I sure enjoyed myself. I really had to make myself not get sappy about Sarah leaving.

The other plan that night was to go to the Q with Elliot, but he left before I returned to his apartment, so instead of trecking back out in the snow, I stayed to hang out with Luis, which then turned into Luis, Cory, and Schmidt. It was basically a flannel pants party with did I happen to say? Pizza! I stayed over into Sunday and this afternoon, mostly to give the snow time to melt. Sunday I had lunch with Elliot and watched Star Wars for the first time ever with the boys.

Yeah, I'd say it was a good weekend. In fact, it was a great one.

And so we are on to another week, the final week of January. I sub again this Wednesday at the high school. I feel like I've spoiled myself having been able to sub band, but oh well. Teaching is teaching and money is money I guess.

I dropped a few bucks at Dietze as well while I was in Lincoln. I purchased:
 - Two All For Strings books for cello (I like this series a lot, and I wasn't having it with the books I orginally bought)
 - a fingering chart for instrumentalists book (thanks to Lisa who suggested it to me so I can use it while teaching if I ever need it)
 - a rock stop for my cello!
 - string instrument polish
 - a buffing cloth for string instruments
 - a clarinet cleaning kit
 - a trumpet cleaning kit
 - brass soap

Ohhhhhhh man! I'm planning on trying to clean up my recently purchased trumpet tomorrow. I just need to find a big enough container around the house to clean it in since I don't want to wash it in the bathtub. I would need to lie a towel on the bottom of the tub if I did so, and I don't want to worry about ruining one of my mom's towels (though it's not like we're lacking in towels either).  I'm really excited to take on these projects. I opened the trumpet case this evening to remind myself just how bad the trumpet it and began to hack at how awful the smell was (it smelled intensely of old and unused). I also want to get back to my cello playing. I like this motivated and inspired feeling.

I've been listening to instrumental music most of the evening. From Beethoven, to Chopin, to Schubert, to Dvorak. You name it. I'm glad I always have something to run to to just clear away the overload of, well, everything else musically. It's a nice break from a different caliber of intensity. Plus I'm really behind in my WGBH Classical Performance podcasts which are usually 15 to 30 minutes long.

Peace out.