This might take a weeeee little second to download, but I order you to watch. This is the new show Michael’s filming in L.A. called ‘Mad Men’ which will be airing on AMC in July. (If you don’t know what he looks like, check out Mike’s IMDB profile to see his pic.)
Now Available in Full Screen!
I feel like poop…
It’s Friday morning at 7:38 and this is the second time I’ve woken up. The second time was just a few minutes ago moments after I lost a fight against my cell phone’s 5 alarm clocks.
The first time I woke up this morning was last night at 10:00.
At least, that’s what it felt like after I had taken a 5 hour siesta. 5 hours being the average number of hours I sleep a night, and black being the color of the sky when I usually grumble out of bed every morning; I wasted a night’s sleep on the afternoon before.
I had my hopes up as I tucked myself into bed last night. Hoping that the following 6 hours would be bonus sleep and I would wake up super refreshed and well rested.
No such friggin’ luck. There’s nothing more funner than lying in bed for hours on end within inches of falling into a deep sleep, but far enough away to still be conscious enough to know that it ain’t happenin’.
Meh.
::EDIT:: …at least i’ve got my health… (There, you happy? I said it.)
…and consitancy.
M’wee, somehow I wouldn’t be surprised if you’d been doing this same thing for a few years now…
It seems the only way I could make amends for Tuesday’s glorious failure in the safe confines of the rehearsal room was to get my tuckus up on a stage in some bar and perform in front of throngs of people. Well, maybe not ‘throngs’, but fifteen people seems like a lot when you’re a rookie performer.
And believe it or not, it went really well. This was my first time getting up on the stage at a jam session like this. I ended up playing 2 songs that I had practiced for countless hours before, and was pleasantly surprised to see the unique personality each one takes on as a group of musicians have their own take on how it should go. The blend of all of these interpretations was invigorating. Suddenly, that song I had been plunking away on for days on end, alone in my room with nothing other than the sounds in my head as accompaniment, grew up into something much bigger and better than I could have imagined. Pretty nifty, if I say so myself.
And I didn’t sound so sucky this time around.
Plus, there are some EXCELLENT musicians from my school that got up and blew my socks off. It’s humbling and inspiring to see what kind of potential lies ahead if you keep up a consistent practice schedule.
Next Wednesday I’m going back, but this time I’ll tell my friends BEFOREHAND so that they can come check it out with me. I guess I needed to be alone for this one to make up for something.
Peace
Ufff… I feel like poop.
Just had a rather sobering rehearsal this afternoon.
We’re working on 4 tunes. I wouldn’t call any of them incredibly challenging in the rhythm/chord-change department, and as far as soloing over these songs, I would say they’re fairly standard.
As a rhythm guitarist, I’m coming along wonderfully. But you could have substituted a deaf epileptic who’s having a bad hair day and they couldn’t have played worse solos than I did this afternoon.
I guess that’s what 2 weeks out of the city and 1 week taking my sweet ass time getting back in the swing of things get you.
But, as far as inspiration goes, there nothing that works better than the fear of everyone laughing at you behind your back to get you on the right track.
Well, that should work well as a kick-start. Later, once my shit is more-or-less together, I’ll use the actual joy of creating something that I consider a true representation of what I want to say with my music as all the inspiration I need.
Until then, I have some practicing to do.
It’s that time of year again.
Time to gut the closet and take out every drawer, turn it upsidedown and dump out the unbelievable amount of crap that you’ve somehow justified keeping over the last few years.
That’s what I did today.
I can’t begin to get over a. The amount of useless crap I have and b. that I at one point thought, “Hey, let’s stick this in a drawer, just in case I need to use it.” (yes, Spikey-Green-and-Black-Guinness-St.-Patty’s-Day-”Look-At-Me-I’m-A-Drunken-Putz”-Hat, I’m looking at you.)
and dust… is all that really dead skin cells? I need to start using moisturizer.
The one thing that gets me about spring cleaning is that 90% of that which you throw away was at one point hidden away in a drawer or in a closet. So, you really can’t SEE that much of a difference once you’ve dusted the last book and mopped that forgotten corner. But it DOES feel lighter. I just came back from dinner with Jacki and Zoe and the room really does feel less constrictive… more at ease.
I think I’ll sleep well tonight…
So, today was Grandma’s funeral. M’wee and Mom called and filled me in on the state of things back in the states… madness as expected. Flasks full of Jamesons tipped back at the funeral (with a little poured down the side of the grave for Grandpa), cracking jokes, and lots of hugs, I’m sure. From the sounds of it, everyone is keeping their heads up and handling this like a true Irishman would, with plenty of whiskey, good stories and laughter. Wish I could be there with you guys. Here’s to you Grandma…
::clink clink::
Ok… Things have been pretty quiet in the Gladis/Wolf blogosphere lately, understandably, but I figured now would be the time to get back on track with the writings. Plus, my memory is going in my old age, and I wouldn’t want to forget what I’ve been up to for the last 2 weeks.
Most notably : Belgium – Part 2
I biked my way back up north to spend 10 days with Annelies in her natural habitat. This time, master tour guide Annelies took up the challenge of not only showing me around her lovely city of Ghent, but the entire western part of Belgium. She took me out to the lovely coastal city, Ostend, through which we wandered until the waning of the sun. After which, we took the tram down the coast to Nieuwport, the city in which her parents live. Unfortunately, they were on vacation in Morocco, so I once again dodged the bullet of ‘Meeting The Parents’, which is never as bad as one makes it out to be, but is fun to be melodramatic about.
Seeing as meeting the rents was impossible, we opted to meet the entire extended family instead, or at least whoever was hanging around while we were in the area. I met her lovely aunt and cousins, and again spent time with her Grandfather (who speaks absolutely no English) and her brother and his lady friend.
We spent the day putting around the gorgeous city of Bruges (the Venice of the North)with Annelies’ friend Alexandra. In and around this time, we stole Annelies’ fathers Rover to not only to get to Bruges, but to visit some WWI memorial sites, we even learned some things… I’m sure… ummm.. uh yeah, the Australians kicked some ass on the western front, I’ll tell you.
Not only did I get a chance to visit some fine Flemish cities and meet some of her fine Flemish blood-kin, but I also got to meet every single one of her friends, plus the one’s she hasn’t seen in years n’ years. It was a real pleasure to meet her mates, really. They were all not only really fine and nice people, but great senses of humor and they all spoke magnificent English, so I didn’t end up feeling too out of place.
I have to take this chance to thank them once again for really making an effort to include me when we went out. I was the single outsider, and they all gave up their mother tongue to let me in on the jive they were talking. Granted, there were plenty of times that they went off talking in Dutch or West Flemish, but I would never have complained about that. It definitely made have respect for those who take the time to learn more than just their first language. Some of these people haven’t studied English in years nor lived outside of Belgium, yet their English was fantastic. It was amazing. I’ve lived in Spain for 3 years, and I think that their English is better than my Spanish. And there I was, only able to speak English and Spanish… What an underachiever. J
The nice thing about this outing to Belgium was that it was in between a vacation and popping in for a visit to your friend next door. There were days where we hardly left the house. We slept late, ate a late breakfast, lounged around and watched TV. Then of course there were the days in which we spent more than half of the waking hours on our feet and snapping photos of anything that moved. It was a perfect blend of vacation/relaxing.
And, of course, me being on HER turf, the question of the week being fired at me from friends and family was, “So Paul, when are you coming to live in Belgium?”
Can’t say it had really seriously crossed my mind until then and I’ve actually sat down to think about it some. The new language thing might be tough, and finding a job teaching music might be hard for a non-resident, non-certified, not fluent in Dutch-speaker… but it also has a lot of good things going for it (the beer and French fries.) Granted, staying in Spain or returning back to the US has its own set of fun obstacles to get over, alongside all the pluses.
Whoever said being an American living in Spain dating a Belgian was boring???
Well, that’s about the gist of it. Check out the photos I’ve tossed up onto the Gallery.
Also check out some other new Albums I’ve put up:
ARCO ‘07
Ponferrada - Business Trip
peace
Welp, back in Madrid I am, and believe it or not, but the weather in Belgium has been nicer than the weather here in Madrid… all week. I’m freezing my huevos off!
The week was great and I have oodles to tell. Photos and update coming ASAP. But First:
HAPPY BIRTHDAY JACKI!!!
Jacki is a super hip and with “it” even though she spells her name weird. It doesn’t bother me either that she’s a communist. She’ll be my BFF forever, or at least until we disagree during some trivial and pointless argument which she will inevitably lose. We’re having dinner tonight, so at least we’ll make it ’til then.
and a happy pre-Easter to all that will be mangia-ing chocolate bunnies tomorrow.
Me, I will be flying somewhere over France tomorrow morning as all the good Catholics make their way to church. I’m coming home with a bunch of chocolate and oodles of photos. I’ll binge and then ride the sugar high to get a nice update for y’all.
But I still have one more night to go. Annelies and I will be hitting Ghent center to have a nice little dinner, so if you wanna see where I’ll be tonight, hit up the photos of the last time I was here, and imagine me wobbling over the cobblestones on a bike, and you should get a pretty good picture.
‘Til tomorrow.
