allergies?

Welcome to Sunday.

I feel like crap today kids. No, I’m not really sick. No cold or anything either. Just a headache, and oh yeah, it seems my body decided to turn into one giant ‘measle’. My head is a light shade of red and I have small red blotches all over the pasty white parts of my body. It’s not a pretty picture – so I’ll spare you the rest of the visuals. After a visit to the local Medi-center, it appears I’ve had a strong reaction to something. Duh. The Doc tried to pin it on the Amoxicillin I’ve been taking for the last week (thanks to my Dental peeps who are grasping at straws as to why a perfectly fine tooth decided to act up) but my skepticism is warranted …I think.

I’ve had this ‘allergy’ before. Not as wide spread as it is now, but the same symptoms and starting in the same areas. I usually get something similar once a year – and it usually clears up within a few days before I can become alarmed about it. Not this time though. It started Friday night when I went to bed. I noticed some redness on my arms and cheeks and kinda thought I might be allergic to dogs – as I’d just got home from visiting a quite friendly (albeit stupid) one. But I doubt that’s it. It’s not a contact reaction either …if anything, heat seems to spur it on. I found this out when I went for an hour long run (after visiting the Doc who simply prescribed Benadryl) hoping that I could flush the thing out with a good sweating and lots of water. Nope – that only aggravated it, and the redness intensified and then travelled all over the place. That was yesterday.

Ditto for a hot shower this morning. The stupid ‘dots’ even spread out to my hands and feet after the 10 min. I spent under the tap! Grrr. I’m giving it the cold treatment tonight. I got some plans to visit some friends in Vancouver this week, and I sincerely hope it calms down enough avoid the attention. Stupid skin. Stupid body! I’ve got a full allergy test scheduled in a few months that’ll hopefully reveal the problem. Hopefully. Maybe it’ll reveal my seasonal allergies as well …the ones I only started having within the last 5 or 6 years whenever springtime rolls around.

Stupid chemical imbalances.

On The Rocks

AR had another successful ‘On The Rocks‘ gig last night.  This was right after Frankie’s (one of our singers) Performance recital at GMCC.  He did good.  The band backed him up fine.  I sucked   But that’s ok, I shook it off and figured I’m just going to be me no matter what happens so I might as well enjoy doing it.  So yeah, OTR was OTR.  People danced. I drank, and I found the beat somewhere in the middle of everything.  Sergio wanted to record the gig so I obliged with my minidisc recorder – however I haven’t yet listen to it!  I’m a little scared – but I suppose there has to be a few seconds of something good on it.

Maybe it just didn’t record.  Maybe Graham jinxed the thing …that would be sweet.

Owen on the trombone.  Poor guy.

stupid mind…

I don’t know what it is about my nervousness. It’s always there and it’s annoying. Even when I think I have it under control, it pokes its head and screws up everything that I’m doing or about to do. It’s a ‘can’t win’ situation – and I’m not sure what I can do about it. Perhaps I’ll google some step by step coping strategies or something. Anything really.

Today, for example, I’m sitting in the wings awaiting a soundcheck. It’s only two songs that I have to play, and I know them …at least I DID know them a few hours ago. But as soon as I started to play them, my freaking mind starts racing around thinking about all the stuff that I can screw up, whether that note is right or this other one, whether the bridge or form will just come to me, whether anybody is judging me from a distance. All this crap that just gets in the way – and anything that I might have to say musically is chocked out of any appearance.

It always happens. It’s almost like I can’t plan to have a good time during a performance. Of course I do, but those times are usually after a set or so, maybe I’ve had a few drinks, or maybe the gig isn’t important or I have something else on my mind besides playing. Or I’m bored, or tired …anything really, but it just seems I can’t plan to have a good performance. And of course not thinking about it usually means I’m going to think about it.

I should have this figured out by now, but I don’t.

picture crap

Did a little downtown exploring today. It was nearing dusk with some overcast, but I forgot how nice that sometimes makes things appear …not so colorfully direct and stuff. Here’s one of a few that I’ve placed on my flickr! page.  I had ‘black and white’ on my mind too, so you’ll find some of that.

Clicking on it will get you there…

mitch hedberg

My roomie gave me a CD to listen to a while back – it was some standup comedian called Mitch Hedberg. I then decided to ‘misplace’ the disc in my room of junk, but then stumbled upon it last week. I threw it in my car to listen to on those trips to work – and I laughed. Usually I don’t laugh – not that I’m not a happy person or something, but because my humor is not really ‘normal’. Sometimes. Sometimes it is normal of course …but most often it’s not. Anyway, I did some searching and found out that he died of a drug overdose back in ‘05, Hedberg that is. I also listen/watched a few of his Youtube offerings and found that about 80% of his material was the same that I had heard on the CD he released. Not that that’s a bad thing …because a lot of it was pretty good.

So here’s a little Youtube posting for you. It’s a clip from Hedberg’s appearance on the Dr. Katz cartoon which was a steady watch for me back in the 90’s. That means it’s kid friendly – so go at it kids. His standup CD, however, is not so kid friendly – just incase you come across that in your travels.

reunion

Today was fun

To be honest I wasn’t quite sure about it but I’m glad it happened.  I mentioned earlier that Facebook, for all the crap associated with it, does have some interesting features – one of these is the ability to re-connect with old friends via the ‘High-school’ search thingy.  And I have been.  Slowly of course, and this Easter weekend I met an old friend – Darren.

We were in school together from grade 4 or 5 all the way through 2 years of University.  The last I spoke to him, which was briefly, was about 6 years ago, and the last I saw him was around 20 years ago!  That’s a long time, even by my standards.  The visit was good though.  Lol, I picked him up at his Dad’s place which happens to be the house he lived at when we were kids, and I drove straight there even though I haven’t actually been there for over 20 years.  Good ol’ memory.  I brought him out to my Dads for a little supper thingy – my sis was in town visiting so she came along …and it was like a family reunion of sorts.

So that’s it kids.  Will we keep in touch now that we’ve connected?  Lol – who knows.  It was fun getting together though – and if anything my Dad can lay off the “Whatever happened to that Darren friend you used to hang around with all the time?”

1984 – 2008

subscription service

This blurb was taken from an article about Universal Music’s latest proposal to include a ‘Subscription Service’ bundled with a player (devise) from the Apple company.

Subscriptions services, such as Napster, Yahoo Music and RealNetworks’ Rhapsody are dwarfed by Apple’s download store but are still very important to executives at Universal Music, say insiders. They see it as a way to get people to keep paying for music and a good way to keep tabs on what audiences are listening to, sources say.

If you could rewrite ‘Subscription Service’ into a four letter word then I think you’d understand my take on this. A subscription service is a way for labels to generate money from listeners and to control what music gets to the listener’s ears. It’s limiting. It provides you with music from that catalog, music that is ’signed’ to that company/label – giving you what ever it is that they feel you want.

Major Music labels like Universal don’t realize that ‘popular’ music isn’t going to be only that which they find. They certainly want it to be that way, and they go to great lengths in promoting artists/music that they control …but that’s the issue – control. They’re still of the mind-set that music must be controlled – and when it’s controlled, then money can be made. That’s how they stay in business.

Music is something to be conquered and listeners are simply things to be programed. That’s how business succeeds.Unfortunately for them (and luckily for us), ‘music’ doesn’t lend itself to a business model. Popular opinions and tastes in music don’t lend themselves to control. And as much as they try for this, music will always be that something that is uncontrollable, and it’ll always find a way to avoid their grasp. The same can be said for emerging technologies.

But they are persistent.

sleep comes

Success! It’s officially now sleepy time

After the gig last night a few of us hung out with some donairs and falafels …yummy goodness. Kinda. The point is, I finally got to bed at just after 3am …then up at 7. I’m not sure if I slept through my alarm or not, but I realized it was 15 minutes later than it should have been – so I skipped a few of the morning activities and I still made it to work with time to spare. And now my day is done …which means I can sleep. Yea me.

The 3 nights at Blues on Whyte went pretty good. Better than I thought I guess. Lol, of course I usually go into such things with low expectations – and that’s the secret. But yeah, it was fine. There were ‘interesting’ moments – but at the same time there were a lot of fun moments too. Some escort (really!) bought Amber a bunch of drinks – about ‘too many’ to be specific, and by the third set she had a hard time balancing on stage. It was kinda funny – but her good ol’ Fort Saskatchewan grit pulled her along remarkably well. The club owner was impressed I think …hopefully. If there’s any luck on our side maybe we’ll get our regular Sunday slot back again. Maybe. It was fun …and yeah, I admit I kinda missed it. Some things I didn’t. Some things I did. But I suppose the crucial thing is that there were more good things I missed than bad. And that was the case.

Ali and Ceej

bad body …bad!

Grrrrrr.

My body is giving me grief. It’s not its fault though – I’ve been a harsh taskmaster lately. The brain is sore as well as the attached sections. Everything it seems. Maybe it’s time for one of those hot-tub/sauna things or something.

It started on the weekend, Saturday I think, when I woke to a small queasiness in my stomach. It disappeared after a few hours, but a small headache took its place. Eventually everything worked itself out, and I kinda suspected that I might be getting a cold/flu/sick thing or something. This grabbed my attention because I’m having a hard time remembering when I was sick last. Over a year ago for sure. But like I said, it worked itself out …until Sunday that is.

Late Sunday I started to feel pretty tired. I had a workout earlier that was great, so I figured maybe I’ll retire early and hope that a good nights sleep would take care of it. The problem, as always seems to be the case, is that whenever I want to go to sleep early – I never can. So eventually I look at my clock, see that it’s 2 am and that I’ve been laying in bed trying to sleep for over 3 hours! Yuck. I gave up on it, eventually dozed off, and then was up before my alarm at 6:45am …so much for the good nights sleep.

Work was fine. Lol, uneventful as always, and then Monday day seemed a little off …so I planned for a run that might tire me out, maybe force me into actually sleeping this night. Unfortunately that didn’t work. KM had a ’surprise’ gig Monday night (I’m not going into the details) which caught me at 5pm, just before my run, and instead forced me to review a few hours worth of material before the show start at 9:30. I was already tired …and knowing that I’d have to play till after 1am and then get up at 7am – well, that didn’t sit so well. I made the best of it though, although perhaps a little too much of the best.

Approx. one pint, one tequila shot and 2 sets later I was kinda happy and kinda sad. Happy cause I was feeling happy and sad because I knew that I wasn’t going to be happy tomorrow.

Now it’s tomorrow – and as you might have guessed, and I’m not so happy. The day was long (driving wise) and I stuffed my dehydrated and slightly hungover body with slurpees and crap the whole way through. I figured I’d run this off ..but I got about 4 blocks out when my stupid lower calf/achilles started to tighten up …and bad enough that I had to limp home. Grrrrrrr!

Now I’m here. Tired, leg sore, small headache and a bunch of little things to do before I head out for night two of three with KM – after which I know I’ll get to bed at 2am and rise just before 7am. Ditto for the next.

Maybe I’ll find some sleep in between sets?! Yeah …wishful thinking. Maybe I’ll find one of those hot tub things over the Easter holidays? That’d be nice. Hummmm, who do I know that I can scam a hot tub from???

The Known World

The Known World – by Edward P. Jones.

I really liked this book – and of all the stuff that I might re-read, this one is a definite. It’s a story about ‘plantation’ life in mid-1800’s Virginia. Slave ownership is the norm for both white people and the ‘free negros’ of the area – however, the concept of ‘free negro’ isn’t all it’s cracked up to be. The rule of law at this time was interesting. There was the ‘law’ as it existed by the books, but it was easily trumped when it came into conflict with the ‘natural’ law …God’s law, if you will – the law of the Book. One of the ways Jones developed his characters was by having them come to terms with these two types of justice – justice as the County saw it and justice as the Bible did. Interpretations always lead to difficulties, and the consequences for his characters were life changing.

Development happened in a non-linear way as well. Although it was a little confusing at the start, it greatly added to the story as the book progressed. Jones would add little snippets that were far ahead in the future or way back in the past, and then bring these to a head when the time was right. Other ‘trivial’ characters were also created (in the future and past as well) that would deepen our appreciation of the main lives we followed. There was not one protagonist but rather an ensemble of a few dozen, and all related through their families/community. The case could be made for certain characters having more of the story devoted to them – but I had a hard time deciding on exactly who I thought was ‘it’.

I wouldn’t say it’s a ‘happy’ telling – nor would I say it’s blatantly negative …but it simply is what it is. Some characters went on to success – others didn’t. It’s life in rural ‘olde’ country USA circa mid-1800’s – a time when things were done because that was the way they were done in the past. People grappled with their actions – and then at the same time people were at peace with themselves as well. It was a time of deep spiritual connection with the word of God, and also a time of repugnant and deplorable treatment toward those of a different color. There was also the ‘in between’ – people coming to terms with the world and those around them in an amicable manner.

Presently, and unfortunately, it still seems to be a work in progress.
Here are a few of my favorite passages from the book…

“A body should be able to stand under some …some kinda light and declare what he knows without retribution. There should be some kinda lantern, John, that we can stand under and say, ‘I know what I know and what I know is God’s truth,’ and then come from under the light and nobody make any big commotion bout what he said. He could say it and just get on about his business…” pg. 303

“He stood there for a very long time, and the longer he stood, the more he sank. All the heart he had for living in the world began to leave him. He could feel the life running down his chest, his arms and legs, doing something for the ground that it had never been able to do for him.” pg. 200

“She was afraid that he would share more and she stood up and hoped that that would bring it to an end, but he went on to tell her that certain work songs made the work a little easier but that there were others, depending upon the time of day, that dragged a body down, so “you just gotta be careful with your songs and your hummin and whatnot.” pg. 321

…”Robbins told her he would sell her back into slavery. ‘You can’t,’ she said. ‘You can’t, William. I got my free papers.’ He told her that in a world where people believed in a God they could not see and pretended the wind was his voice, paper meant nothing, that it only had the power that he, Robbins, would give it.” pg. 144

“The kiss went through the breast, through skin and bone, and came to the cage that protected the heart. Now the kiss, like so many kisses, had all manner of keys, but it, like so many kisses, was forgetful, and it could not find the right key to the cage. So in the end, frustrated, desperate, the kiss squeezed through the bars and kissed Mildred’s heart. She woke immediately and she knew her husband was gone forever.” pg. 347

“So when I say he was a handsome man, he was indeed. Henry was, too, but never got old enough to lose that boyish facade colored men have before they settle into being handsome and unafraid, before they learn that death is as near as a shadow and go about living their lives accordingly. When they learn that, they become more beautiful than even God could imagine…” pg. 111

“What had always surprised him was that he had never seen as many flaws in Henry as he had seen in white men who had enough possessions in their lives to bring on the envious wrath of the gods. Robbins had always believed that the fewer flaws in a man, the fewer doors there were for the gods to enter a man’s life and pull him down to nothing. And not seeing as many failings, he thought Henry would make a way for himself where even some good and strong white men had faltered and been ground back down to dust.” pg. 126