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SUN
6.21.98 Cafe Du Nord - San Fransisco
Well, one more trip to Siegal's wasn't going to hurt anyone, except maybe their pocketbooks. As soon as I woke up I hurried over to the main lobby of the Andorra Inn to partake in some of that continental breakfast. Again I missed it, for I had awoken at 12:30pm. All the talk had been about the drive-by shooting that occurred in the wee hours of the morning. Supposedly, someone was gunned down just around the corner from the Andorra Inn. A few of the guys, Shannon and Nate, were able to look out the window and watch the whole scene as they wisked the body away in an ambulance. On my way to Siegal's an old hispanic woman gave me some religious material. I found that a significant sign in response to the shooting that occurred just hours before in the predawn.
At Siegal's we had our final fittings for our new suits. A few of us, including myself, were not happy with the tailoring, so we sent our suits to be retailored. At this point it was the last day here in San Fransisco so we needed our suits shipped to us Fed EX.
For lunch, Jim, Shannon, Nate, Jamie, Tom, and I went to Ghirardelli Square at a beautiful restaurant that overlooked the San Fransisco Bay. The food was excellent but just a little on the pricey side. I had a crab and shrimp ravioli that was just out of this world! The sauce of this pasta dish was simply, incredibly delicious. Since this was our last day to enjoy ourselves here, we decided to go for it, and we did... stuff ourselves, that is. After roaming about the shops and stores, and after buying some souvenier chocolates at Ghirardelli Square, it was time to head on back to the Andorra Inn. It was already late afternoon and we needed to rest up before our last gig, at the Cafe Du Nord. We arrived at the Cafe Du Nord about 7:30 and had to be set up by 8pm. They had swing lessons tonight from about 8:00 to 9:00, and we were to start at about 9:20pm. My right knee was "acting up" a bit, so I had to be extra careful. I figured this was the last gig in San Fransisco, but we still had a very busy schedule the following week. We pretty much impressed everyone there tonight and I have to admit, my solo on Sing, Sing, Sing was pretty spectacular. I'm usually very critical on myself and I don't usually applaud my own solos, but tonight felt very good! I climaxed the solo with a double bass/cymbal combination that even surprised ME, and I guess I must not have been thinking about my knee at the time either. All and all, I thought we played better the second time at the Cafe Du Nord, but I was getting sore again toward the end of the last set. I noticed some of us were getting tired and it showed thru our playing. I started to get mad at a few band members. I guess I was getting tired and cranky myself and may have lashed out at a few people after we were done. Well, It had been a long grueling week for all of us in the band. But we made it! It was an extremely successful tour of the San Fransisco Bay Area. Now, we just needed to get home...
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