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FRI
7.03.98
the best is yet to come?
3:30am Got home from our gig at Music City in Fountain Valley. Was very tired from our mini tour to Las Vegas on Wednesday and Music City last night. Usually I can't get to sleep right away, so I check email and/or worked on the web site a bit. Today was no exception. 4:00am My wife wakes up and says she needs to get to the train station by 5am and that their train leaves at 6am. I knew I was going to drop them off today but I didn't know it was going to be this early. My wife's sister, her dad and aunt, and nephew were all going as well. 5:00am Dropped everybody off at the Amtrak Station downtown. I couldn't stay and see them off; I was just too tired and I hadn't slept yet. I just kissed the wife and hugged the kids and went home to get some sleep. 6:00am When I got home I couldn't get to sleep. It was light out already and I just remembered that I had an appointment to take our car to get the new CD player installed and I had an appointment at 10am. I was afraid that if I tried to sleep a little I would not wake up before 10am. I'm such a deep sleeper that I don't hear alarm clocks. So I stayed awake. 10:00am After dropping the car off with the dealer to get the new CD player installed, I called my dad and he picked me up. I figure I could go hang out at my parents place until the car was ready. When I got to my parents' place I fell asleep right away. 1:30pm I woke up in my brother's old room and rush out to call the auto dealer. The car was ready. 2:30pm After my dad dropped me off at the dealer's, I drove to Tower Records to get some new CDs and listen to them on the new CD player in our car. Since Frank Sinatra's death I'd been meaning to buy one of his CDs because I had recently been fascinated with his music lately. I especially love the period where he used Nelson Riddle's Orchestra with all that lush orchestration, amazing stuff. I ended up purchasing Frank Sinatra's September Of My Years album, which won a Grammy for Best Album of the Year in 1965. 4:30pm Worked on the web sites for awhile, trying to upload the exhibition section. I ended up editing the poetry one last time before uploading the stuff to the web site. 8:15pm Got to Croce's to set up and get ready for our gig there. We had some dedicated friends already there. We also had some of the swing dancers from the San Diego State dance club here tonight. 9:30pm - Downbeat Tonight was yet another great night for the band. This time I felt I had a very nice solo on Sing Sing Sing at the end of the first set, finally. Afterwards I was well received and I felt really good about the solo tonight. I did an interplay between the snare and the bass drum that fascinated even myself. I was "getting into it" so to speak. I felt very appreciative that the crowd really cheered and applauded my solo. There's something about Croce's, something that really makes me want to play my best. During the break Charise mentioned to me that my solo tonight was the best she's heard so far. I was very flattered with her comment. I was thinking that my solo some weeks before at Croce's was the best solo I've every done, and I was thinking that maybe this one tonight was the better solo. I'm not really sure. I just feel every solo is an expression all its own in that given time and space. Nate gave me a great compliment, that he really enjoyed the fact that I "threw some attitude" into my drumming. I guess one learns that it's not just playing notes and drum rudiments, but the way in which you express yourself throught your playing. I feel there are subtleties in the music that are important to playing music at a finer level, being more dynamic and expressive. A friend of the band (Debbie) mentioned to me that she visited my website and checked out my online journal. Oops! I guess there are people out there reading this stuff. Well, if you're out there Debbie, hello from cyberspace! And thanks for the support. My knee felt great the entire time tonight. Although I better knock on wood right now. Well, I talked to Leslie, Jim's wife and she recommended a doctor that works with the San Diego Chargers football team and obviously specializes in knee problems. I'm going to have to give him a call sometime soon. After the gig I had a good chat with Rick, the sound engineer at Croce's that handles the sound system there tonight and every night we play there. He was talking about Cesar Lozzano, another great drummer around town. I know Cesar, but haven't seen him in a while. He's been very busy and so have I, so it's hard to connect with these other musicians in San Diego. When I do have time off I really need to use the time to rest and recover. Rick also mentioned how great my solo was tonight and that in his opinion I was the one who holds the whole band together musically. I thought his comment was one of the greatest musical compliments I ever received. I claimed humbleness though and said that I was just trying my best to make it happen. All and all, a great night tonight. Knee felt great, solos felt great. When I finally got home at around 3am, I again couldn't sleep and I worked on the web site for a bit before turning in to bed at around 4am. It had been a long day.
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