Clinton’s Appeal to Gays and Lesbians

It has to be said that part of Hillary Clinton’s appeal to many voters, regardless of their orientation, is due primarily to her husband’s time as President. It’s not due to her record as a Senator in New York, nor is it due to her time as the first lady of Arkansas, and its certainly not due to her career as a lawyer. The bulk of her campaign is built around her “experience” in the White House, whether it be representing her husband overtly around the world or, as many suspect, covertly running things behind the scenes. For many, many supporters, Hillary as President would be tantamount of having Bill back.

Though I did not start out this way, I grew to really like Bill Clinton as our President. I thought the whole Lewinsky-gate was a really unfortunate distraction to what I felt like were many more important issues that the Clintons were fighting to achieve. I didn’t always agree with those issues (eg. socialized healthcare), but I was happy to see our nation’s budgets being balanced and our national debt diminishing steadily. In spite of his personal flaws and nauseatingly lawyer-ish doublespeak (eg. “what the definition of ‘is’ is”), I was proud of his era.

Perhaps “proud” wasn’t the best choice of words there. For gays and lesbians, Clinton’s era was, shall we say, underwhelming. Bill Clinton supported/signed-into-law the “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” policy against gays in the military, and more unfortunately, the Defense of Marriage Act. Though the former would at least prevent gay soldiers from being forced to lie about themselves, its pretty well considered a ridiculous and fatally flawed policy that has done little to protect gays and lesbians in the service. DOMA, on the other hand, seemed like a policy that only a gay-fearing conservative would endorse, hoping to stave off a rash off gay marriages by firewalling states and taking it definition away from states for any federal usage. This is all part of the proud legacy of the Clintons!

As if this wasn’t enough to cause concern, there’s also this account that recalls how the Clinton re-election campaign used DOMA as a selling point for Clinton’s support of “family values”. For any gay or lesbian that reads these words, that article is worth a few minutes of your time. Here’s just a bit:

From the Associated Press, October 17, 1996:

After angry complaints from gay-rights advocates, the Clinton campaign on Wednesday replaced an ad running on religious radio stations that boasted of the president’s signature on a bill banning gay marriages….

The Clinton spot also touted his signing of the Defense of Marriage Act, in spite of earlier White House complaints that the Republicans’ use of the issue amounted to “gay baiting.”

Note that I’m also not saying that Hillary Clinton personally felt that “Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” or DOMA were good or bad, but given that her campaign has been built on her “experience” as First Lady, it is reasonable to say that she, at least officially, supported her husband’s decisions both in policy and in campaigning.

Given all of the above, I think its way past time that gays and lesbians stopped unquestionably supporting another Clinton for President!

The Muppet Story

During a student’s first year in the UCF Honors College, all students have to take a 1 credit-hour symposium. During this once-a-week session, every student must sit through an hour lecture from various professors affiliated with the Honors College. This isn’t too big of a price, and often proved very interesting, particularly for a young freshman eager to learn…but not always.

It was early evening on a Wednesday in the fall of 1995, and I was exhausted after just finishing marching band practice. I wasn’t relieved, though, because I had to rush back to the dorms to shower, grab some food, and head off to a lecture hall to attend the weekly Honors symposium. I didn’t mind the symposiums overall, at least the ones I had previously attended. So far they had covered such topics as how musical melodies are related, a sampling of contemporary poetry, and a lecture of the physics of black holes. The lectures were targeted at your average freshman at a university, not overtly simplified, and sprinkled with a dash of hip examples.

Not this night’s symposium, however. This professor’s lecture was aimed directly at her colleagues or perhaps grad students. It was as dry, read almost compulsively from her slides, and caused most of us to tune her immediately out. One of my friends started reading through a textbook, possibly getting a start on his homework. Another one just seemed to stare off into the distance, very likely escaping into a much happier, profoundly more interesting place. I think I sat there for a while trying to figure out what the professor was on about, but likewise giving up and finding something else to do quietly until it was over.

After about 10 minutes, I started hearing more and more murmuring, students that just couldn’t sit still without anything external to interest them. I saw a few people get up periodically, perhaps just going to the restroom, but in a much greater percentage than was typical. A few students even started talking loudly enough that we could clearly make our their conversation, even in this rather large, though non-echoey lecture hall.

This eventually started to wear down the professor, who would stop for brief moments hoping that the crescendoing murmur would subside. After about 45 minutes or so, she just decided to give up. We all gave her an awkward and obviously insincere applause, and then left much earlier than we usually did. Of course, this just made our day!

The following week, our director came back and announced that because we had acted like children last week, she had decided to “punish” us by presenting something closer to our apparent age - an episode of The Muppet Show! Sure, it was mildly insulting, particularly to those enough who had kept respectfully quiet, but that symposium was still one of the highlights of the entire semester. My group of friends and I stuck around until the end of the episode, well after the director dismissed the class. I’m not quite sure what she must have thought of us for doing that, but she never mentioned again after that night.

Years later, I actually had that professor during another honor’s course on ethics and biotechnology. I think in the few years since she had presented, she had learned a bit more about how to sell her material to college students. I probably only tuned her out only half the time, at most!

Why I Endorse Obama (and not Clinton)

I have absolutely nothing against Hillary Clinton as a person. I likewise believe that we’re way over-due as a country in having a woman lead us as President. That said, I reject what the last 16 years of our politics have left us with - divisions. I see Hillary Clinton, if elected, as bringing an extension of the same liberal vs. conservative conflict that we’ve endured since her husband’s time in the White House. Her political tactics are too strategic, too careful, too (dare I say the word) calculated for my taste, reminding me very much of her husband’s and more recently, those of one Karl Rove.

I have read/listened to Barack Obama’s two books, I have listened to several of his more rousing speeches, and I have read his much of his campaign platform. I agree with him completely on voting against the Iraq war, seeing it for what it was, a convenient extension on a justifiable war against terrorists that ultimately has led to far more death and destabilization in that region that would have resulted in a continuation of the existing containment policy. I agree with him that universal health care should not be mandated but provided by the government working within the free market. I want net neutrality, guaranteeing that our bits are treated as equals as they transit the internet and that no private company or government agency is allowed to suppress our speech or invade our privacy. I want an executive branch that is balanced by the two other branches and will strive to reach across the political aisle to find a consensus, not constantly and bitterly battle over politically useful issues.

I’ve campaigned for the first time over the last few weeks for Orlando4Obama, and it has been remarkably empowering! I’ve worked with men and women of all races, ages, religions, and orientations in this campaign, all of them “fired up” and “ready to go” for Obama. They all believe, as do I, that Barack Obama not only has the ability to beat any Republican opponent but also, once the election is behind him, lead us in restoring hope in the power of the people to make government better!

Get informed about the various candidates’ platforms, listen to what they have to say. Get excited about your chosen candidate, spread their word, and inform others. Don’t vote out of ignorance or choose the lesser of evils, get fired up! Yes we can take back government, but it will only happen if we all take ownership in making it better.

That’s what Obama has campaigned on, and that’s why I will continue to spread the word about him.

Happy New Year!

What did you do for New Year’s Eve? I spent the final hours of 2007 and the first of 2008 playing with Charlie D. and the Things at the Cypress Cove Nudist Resort, our third New Year’s out there playing their big event. The place was packed with well-dressed and, well, not-so-dressed couples, and the vast majority were fantastic.

There was one exception, an unfortunate patron who hadn’t yet got his dinner somewhat late in the evening. While his plight was quite valid, his response to it was pretty horrible. His first attempt to bring light to the situation was to go up to the stage and use one of the band’s mics to yell “We want our food!” This was in-between sets, and when we finally got back, our new friend was back asking our band leader to make the announcement for him and his table.

While we’re certainly sympathetic to the hungry and frustrated, you really can’t expect the band to make proclamations or somehow intervene with the management. Just saying for those of you tempted in the future. Charlie politely referred him to the management, but instead, this guy kept coming up. He even passed us a note stating their request, as if to somehow improve the likelihood of it happening. More on note passing in a second. As a very appropriate response to this situation, Charlie decided to honor this man’s situation through musical request. Our first song of that set was Jimmy Buffett’s Cheeseburger in Paradise. Tasty!

For those of you dying to know how it all ended, the patron and his table did soon afterwards receive their food, though I believe the man himself actually didn’t stay to eat it (which was ashame, because the menu looked amazing).

A short while after all this, another note was brought up on stage from a different patron. The note said simply “please play something for normal people.” At the time this note was likely generated and delivered, we were in the middle of a classic rock medley. You know, Taking Care of Business, Old Time Rock & Roll, etc. Nothing spectacular or remotely fun to play, but certainly a staple of party bands for the last several decades. In short, crowd pleasers sure to fill up the dance floor…and it was!

Essentially, this lady was saying that they wanted something else to dance to, possibly slower, possibly less classic rockish, though we’ll never know for sure. In fact, at the time the note was passed around the band, we were already in the middle of a slow dance medley. At least she probably felt a bit more empowered after this, unlike the starving guy. Bands usually don’t mind taking requests, but its always better to ask for specific songs or, at least, specific genres. And try not to insult them by saying their music isn’t really conducive to “normal” people.

So yeah, Happy New Year and all! 2007 was pretty good, overall, and a vast improvement over 2006 for us. Here’s to hoping that 2008 will be even better. May you love, learn, and learn to love more than you did before!

Two Reasons to Smile

Both items above represent two important groups that I followed late in high school and throughout my time in college - Mystery Science Theater 3000 and the Squirrel Nut Zippers. The former of the two, MST3K, was a show on television that showcased different terrible movies each week, on top of which the show’s cast would add their own commentary. It ran for 11 years, starting out on a small, Minnesota public-access cable channel, quickly making its way to a then very young Comedy Central, and finally retiring on the SciFi channel.

The show ended its run in 1999, and its production team went off to make their ways. Mike Nelson, the show’s head writer and second main character (the show’s co-creator Joel Hodgson was its first) wrote a few mildly successful books, but eventually found his way back to movie commentaries with a little start-up called Rifftrax. Recently, a couple of his MST3K alumni joined him on that project, which provides mp3 audio commentary tracks for more well-known film and television projects (eg. 300, Lost, etc.).

Returning to their obscure (and usually terrible) cinematic roots, The Film Crew series will again unite their funny commentary with these gems of bad cinema. There first of a thus-far planned 4 DVD series is out now, and its a fantastic film from the 60’s called Hollywood After Dark starring…you’ll love this bit…a young Rue Mcclanahan as a starlet stripper!! The commentary is just as enjoyable as I remember it being with MST3K, and the movie is just as awful as many they showcased. If you enjoy making fun of bad movies, or just want to see what Blanch du Bois looked like back in the day, go check it out!

While you know what I was constantly watching back in my dorm days, you’re probably wondering what I listened to on my portable CD player whilst biking around UCF. The Squirrel Nut Zippers were one of my favorite swing/folk bands back in the 90’s when swing dancing was making a major comeback. They didn’t quite rise to the popularity level of say a Big Bad Voodoo Daddy or a Brian Setzer, but I loved them even more.

There music ranged from soulful, Billy Holiday-esque jazz to frenetic swing to unusual, experimental instrumental. There only pop-chart experience was with Hell, a song that I’ve now had the privilege to sing and play with my band on at least 3 occasions! I also was fortunate enough to catch one of their rare appearances in Orlando at the Social (then called the Sapphire Supper Club). They’re excellent musicians all around, both recording and performing, and now after a 7 year hiatus, they’re back touring again! Though they don’t yet have any new tracks being released, I’d gladly recommend any of the 5 albums currently out now (though my favorite is definitely Perennial Favorites pictured above).

So yeah, two great reasons to smile!

Nashville

A few weekends back, Patrick and I took a short trip up to Nashville, TN to attend the Loreena McKennitt concert at the Ryman Auditorium. While this trip might seem a tad extravagant, Loreena rarely tours (hasn’t toured in the US since before 1997) and has never before (since I started listening to her) performed further south than North Carolina. So yeah, this was pretty much a must.

While I had previously been to Nashville several times, this trip would be Patrick’s first experience of the city some call NashVegas. Given that we only had partial days both Friday and Saturday, I didn’t attempt to plan anything too extensive beyond the Ryman, its surrounding tourist strip, downtown Nashville, and a quick drive-by of the Gaylord/OpryLand complex. This was a mistake, though, because all of those can easily be “done” to a cursory extent in a short few hours. Even with a luxurious 4 hours of time until the concert, Patrick and I quickly found ourselves quite done with downtown Nashville in just under an hour.
So, we drove around, waited in some rather dense traffic, and with only our Garmin GPS as our guide, proceeded to seek out anything to pass the time. After only another hour or so of random driving, we eventually found our way to Vanderbilt University. It was next to its campus that we found a great way to spend at least an hour or so more - Borders Books and Music!

Why is it that I almost never leave a bookstore without having bought some new book, even though I currently have a ToRead pile that is easily an entire bookcase full? Thankfully, these days, I’m only scouring through the bargain bins looking for those gems that I had previously passed up. Of course, I found a few of those at the Borders in question - a few yaoi manga that I’ve been collecting and the new Tim Powers book, all at clearance price! Into the bookcase they go!

But I digress. After grabbing a bite at the cafe next door, we at last ventured over to the historic Ryman Auditorium. We were still about an hour early, so we could only walk around and check out the Ryman gift shop, buy a soda branded with the Ryman logo, and leaf through the various other trinkets proving to others that we were there. Loreena’s people also had a small shop upstairs, so of course we got in line and purchased a few concert items. Though I used to balk at the usually excessive prices for things like t-shirts and posters, I’ve since learned that the artists themselves actually get to keep a healthy percentage of those profits. Though Patrick wanted their tote bag (how very NPR/PBS of him), they were unfortunately out, so we left with her new concert DVD/CD and the Ryman-specific poster.

Not too long after the shopping, we finally got in to the auditorium itself. Our seats weren’t the best, but we had no problems seeing or hearing anything once the show began. I’ve attended many concerts over the years, but I can honestly say that Loreena and her band performed the most engrossing, musically proficient, and perhaps even spiritually enlightening I’ve ever witnessed personally. She doesn’t seem to tour much, but by all means catch her if you can. No opening act, just two hour-length acts full of happiness. Well, happiness by way of Celtic-world fusion music.

After the show, we decided to see if she would make an appearance behind the stage to greet the fans and sign autographs. Her program notes mentioned that this was a common practice, so I decided it was worth the potentially long wait. Thankfully, we got their almost first, because the crowd quickly grew past a number I would feel comfortable meeting with after performing a two hour concert!

When I met her, I told her of the long trip up from Florida, how she had inspired me to learn the folk harp, and asked her to sign my poster to both of us. I was a nervous wreck at this point, as expected, and concluded the brief meeting with a hug. A HUG! I rarely even hug friends and family, mainly from some long-gone awkward experience as a child hugging some stranger by accident. But I hugged Loreena, and we then quickly retreated to our car by way of the Nashville music drag.

The next day, we drove around looking at several area quilt stores. Patrick found a few interesting fabrics, some quilting notions, and gifts for his fellow quilters back home. We checked out the Grand Ol’ Opry shopping megaplex, mostly just for the shops. I was thrilled to find this huge monument to all things apples called the Apple Barn, and Patrick found some cool electric-powered tent system at the OutdoorWorld Outlet.

Our plane wasn’t leaving until 6ish, so after shopping for the entire morning, we were pretty much done with Nashville. Southwest didn’t, unfortunately, have any earlier available flights, so we drove around some more, stopping briefly by Cooter’s Place (aka the Dukes of Hazzard Museum), grabbing the traditional “meat and 3 sides” lunch at a rather rustically awful little dive, and winding up walking around the Nashville Zoo, which I did happen to enjoy more than the dreadful National Zoo in Washington, D.C. Someday, I too will have Red Pandas eating bamboo!

Nothing eventful happened on the way home, though I must admit that Nashville’s airport was pretty uninspiring in its selection of Hudson News stores and crappy food choices. We ate some reheated Uno’s pizza while watching the planes land before boarding the plane. The flight was uneventful, though we later found out it was that particular pilot’s first flight as the main pilot.

And that was how we spent our (brief) summer vacation…in April…so more spring than summer…you know what I meant.

Four Truths and a Lie ANSWERED

As previously posted, here are the shocking reveals to Four Truths and a Lie.

1) Patrick and I have been together for almost 10 years.
This is true. We met back in early April 1997 and have been together ever since.

2) My drum major outfit in high school consisted of a vaguely US Civil War-ish general’s outfit complete with a sword!
This is also true, and pictures exist (though are not currently online). It was during our production of selected motifs from the movie Gettysburg. I highly recommend that everyone try carrying a sword around at least once in their life. Not as clumsy or as random as a handgun, but an elegant weapon for a more civilized age.

3) I once played the sax naked on stage in front of a restaurant full of people.
As told here,this also actually happened. Our band hasn’t played the nudist resort much lately, but who knows, it could happen again.

4) I’m a life-long Democrat that believes in the vast power of government to help its citizens lead richer lives.
Well, here’s where I lied. I’m actually a life-long Republican who believes that the vast power of government can be abused and wrongly utilized in the attempt to “protect” its citizens. The Republican party has been demonstrating this quite effectively since Clinton left office, but before his admirable tenure, the Democratic party was usually more guilty of this than their colleagues across the aisle. At this point, though, I’ll likely remain a Republican and continue to exert my influence at their primaries by voting for candidates that better reflect my socially progressive and fiscally conservative views…well, at least when there are candidates that allow me to do that.

5) I waited in line in front of Target for almost 12 hours to buy the new Nintendo Wii.
Not the proudest moment in my 1.5-score years thus far, but documented here of the ticket I was given to exchange shortly thereafter for my Wii. This sit-in was started around 9:30pm the day before the Wii was officially released and located in front and to the side of the Waterford Lakes Super Target. My brother Jeff joined me shortly thereafter, and in spite of the long hours of boredom and temperatures down into the upper 40’s, we made it through to the end. I’m glad I did it, though, as even now in mid-March, you still cannot find easily find a Wii in the stores.

Absence Makes the Heart Grow Blonder

My apologies for not posting much recently, but I was spending entirely too much time “conquering the blank page”, “leveraging prior work”, and uh, writing a bunch of bullshit for work (pardon my French).� As such, the last thing I wanted to do was chat on GTalk, much less pull random thoughts and anecdotes from my nethers.� Enough said about that.

Things are better now.� I’ve spent the last few days relaxing, catching up on yard work, Keith Olbermann, and trying to bring my blood pressure back down out of the red zone.� Watching the Daily Show doesn’t help, unfortunately.� There’s too much craziness going on in the world (eg., Israel v. Hizbollah, America v. Terror, Kim Jong Ill v. Sanity) and too many nutters excited about it (eg., rapture-obsessed Christians, Mahdi-obsessed Muslims, South Park-obsessed Scientologists).� Jane!� Stop this crazy thing!

On a happier note, it now appears I’ll be back teaching at UCF this fall.� First, though, some history.� For three years, I taught electronic music technology for the UCF Music Department.� Then, less than a month before the semester started and as part of the ramp-up to accreditation, I was let go because my graduate work wasn’t in music (though it was in technology).� I almost returned to UCF to teach Digital Media this past spring semester, but unfortunately that fell through because of the split in UCF’s College of Arts & Sciences (the adjunct money for the department got slashed).

Well, that same class that I almost taught in the spring has now been offered to me for this fall.� The course is named “Internet and Interaction”, so as an excercise for the reader, I’d like your thoughts on exactly what that should mean.� As a hint, the two technologies that are expected to be taught include Flash and some kind of web programming language (eg., PHP, Perl, Ruby, etc.).� My goal is to carve up a course that includes the above, works in some web services, and really tries to capture the student’s interest.� Oh yeah, and maybe some Marshall McLuhan for good measure.

On top of that, I’ll also be teaching a survey of computer concepts course at Seminole Community College in the fall.� I’m really looking forward to this course because of its broad, shallow scope and non-technical audience.� In addition to the expected computer and Internet basics, I’m going to throw in some basics of programming and Internet cultural items to mix things up.� If I’m really cheeky, I might even find a way to tie in some of my material from the I&I course, my past Web Publishing course, and even my Computer Music course from way back.� Happy Happy, Joy Joy!

Spider asked for a schedule of my band’s performances, so until further notice, here’s the deal.� We’re booked to play the George and Dragon Wednesday nights from 7:30-12:30 until the British tourist season dies down, which typically occurs around October.� After that, we’ll be playing at the Cypress Cove Nudist Resort the Saturday night before Halloween.� Good times!

Finally, here’s a list of do’s and do not’s, from me to you!

Do

• Listen to the new albums by Muse and Radiohead’s Thom Yorke .
• Watch the new season of Cheap Seats on ESPN Classic.
• Check out MST3K’s Mike Nelson and his new project RiffTracks.
• Listen to Drew and Savannah on The Morning After Show on 105.9FM.

Don’t

• Freak out about the end of the world.� Doing the stuff above should help take your mind off the chaos.
• Stop.� Thinking about tomorrow!
• Waste your time watching the new Blade TV series.
• Miss any moment of the Colbert Report or Countdown with Keith Olbermann.

My Saturday, Or How I Learned to Stop Fretting and Get Naked

This past Saturday our band played out at a nudist resort in Kissimmee, a place that we’ve played many times in the last several years, usually to an enthusiastic crowd that really appreciates and interacts with us. Sometimes, there are even certain regulars in attendance who’ve made a point of coming up and talking between sets, being incredibly friendly and welcoming. Well, this past Saturday night was no exception.

Things started out a little slow, though, with only a handful of people eating dinner and sitting through our first set. They were a great crowd, but we started wondering if the regulars had all gone out of town or what. Then, as the second set started, people started pouring into the restaurant. Regulars, people we hadn’t seen before, all started filling up the tables and the dance floor. Things were definitely looking up.

Sometime around then, our lead singer Charles announced that “tonight was a great night to be nude” and that sometime later, the sax player (me) would be getting naked. Now, he’s tried this before, several times in fact, and only once was he even marginally successful. That time, there was this one woman there who shall remain nameless, and she somehow persisted enough to get me down to only my underwear (well, and a leather jacket). On Saturday, she and her persistence returned.

It was the end of the third set when things started to deteriorate. Though she had arrived in the second set, I had managed to avoid her direct looks and taunts somehow. Then, out of nowhere, she found me and demanded that I remove on article of clothing per song in the fourth set. This would have been as successful as the previous time if she allowed socks and shoes to count as inidividual items and not pairs, given that we had a set of about 8 songs. Unfortunately, she was not so generous.

I did manage to put things off by sitting out songs (if I didn’t sing or play, I didn’t take anything off), and things then lined up such that I was down to my t-shirt and underwear with only 3 songs left. Given this situation, I was really hoping that one of those would go long and leave us no time for the, er, finale. Of course, Charles knew otherwise.

I also tried valiantly to shield myself by hanging my jeans over the stand, but my taunter would have none of it. She stole my jeans and only promised them back once I had gone the full Monty. So then, with only one song remaining, the moment came when I had to make a decision. I could either take off my underwear and play a song naked, or let down the now throng of taunters that waited below. The decision was tough, but the alcohol helped.

Let me back up a bit. I don’t want you all thinking I’m a lush or one of these musicians who’s absolutely pissed when they’re up on stage. Still, being that I am an introvert, I do find that a few drinks throughout a show really does help grease the wheels, so to speak. My improv skills and overall confidence definitely improve once I’ve achieved a slight buzz. Liquid courage, indeed.

So yeah, I announced to the crowd that “I just want you all to know that I am truly Charles’ whore”, removed my tighty whiteys, flung them up on to Charles’ keyboard (upon whence he winced), and we played our last song of the night. The crowd went wild both before and after the song, and I promptly got dressed. From what I heard after, not much was seen from the dancefloor with all the equipment between us. Only Charles’ wife Brandy even commented after I turned to go backstage - “nice ass, Bryan!”

Oh, and that guy sitting with a sax on his lap? That’s none other than Adolphe Sax, the inventor of the device which both helped get me naked and yet protected said nakedness. I wonder if he ever suspected such a unique usage for his creation.

Listening

Thanks to Spider and CB for coming out and listening to the band this past Wednesday. Next week will be busy for us as we’re playing as a trio at the British Pub on Wednesday night and as a full band at the Nudist Resort next Saturday night.

My friend Keri just tagged me with a music posting meme, which I have been meaning to do anyway for a few weeks. In turn, I would also like to pass this along to anyone with a blog who reads these words. Its a pretty easy one, just list the 7 songs (with their respective artist) that you’ve been listening to lately. Here we go (with 3 bonus songs)!

Crazy - Gnarls Barkley
Move Along - All American Rejects
The View from the Afternoon - Artic Monkeys
Not Ready to Make Nice - Dixie Chicks
Apocalypse Please - Muse
Springtime Can Kill You - Jolie Holland
Common People - William Shatner
Ooh La La - Goldfrapp
Soul Meets Body - Death Cab for Cutie
Strictly Genteel - Frank Zappa

Dance Party

This is a pic from our gig last night at the George and Dragon British Pub. The night started off rather slow with only a few tables occupied during our first two sets. Given that the full British tourist invasion hasn’t yet begun, this wasn’t too much of a surprise. We’ve played for fewer patrons, so we were grateful that the people present were enjoying themselves and our music.

During the second set, Patrick and Beth arrived. Things had picked up a little, but there were still a few tables open. Then, during the third set, a whole flock of high school-aged kids showed up from strip nearby. For those of you who haven’t been to International Drive in Orlando, its basically this long strip of shops, restraunts, hotels, and minor attractions that stretches about 6 miles from Sea World to the Belz Outlet mall. If you’ve ever been to Orlando, chances are you’ve stopped somewhere along I-Drive.

So yeah, these kids turned out to be high-school seniors from Michigan (and a few from Tennessee) down in Orlando for their senior trip. They heard our music, saw a largish patio area where they could dance, and just sort-of invaded. To the owner’s credit, instead of kicking them out since they had mostly just asked for water from the patio bartender, he simply asked that they all take care of the band and the bartender. This they did, quite nicely too.

The actual patrons of the pub didn’t seem to mind them much and in fact might have hung out longer because of the instant dance party atmosphere that the kids created. After playing our full four sets, Charlie decided to keep us playing a bit longer to keep the party going. Unfortunately, the kids had to be back to their hotels by midnight, so the extra only lasted a few songs.

Yeah, playing for an audience that’s enjoying themselves and the music is definitely the way to go. Even if its fake, a happy audience makes for great music and good times. Contribute when and where you can. You’ll make some musicians smile.

Musings with Arthur Dent

While watching a little The Robinsons that I had recorded from BBC America, I decided to send out a few quick emails to old friends. This is prompted, most likely, by finding and scanning some old photos this past weekend while we were visiting with my mom. I’ll be posting some of these as work through them on ye ol’ Flickr site, so by all means indulge my vanity a bit and check them out. Out of the rather large tribe of band friends I had in high school, I only keep in touch with a handful. This is most likely due to my complete disconnecting from the parochial high-school days of my life shortly after I came out, but could also just be for the usual reasons (apathy, laziness, etc. etc.).

Ok, back to the Martin Freeman. Cheers!

Ch-Ch-Ch-Ch-Changes!

Well, as you can see (at least with the cars) life lately has been about changes, all around. The band is no longer playing weekly at the British pub, due to the extreme lack of British tourists in Orlando at the moment. The last time we were there, the temperature was in the upper 50’s, and we played to anywhere from 0-2 tables outside. It was fun to play together as always, but the lack of audience certainly didn’t do much for us. Since then, the crowds have varied on the other nights, but usually most stay inside or come out when its quiet (ouch). I think we’ll be back, though, once the season picks back up (and assuming that we don’t find another regular gig somewhere else).

Life at work is also going through some changes, but they mostly involve generating more paperwork. It is hoped, however, that this newly generated paperwork will guide us and better organize our future efforts (well, if it doesn’t choke the life out of us all first).

In terms of my side-career as an educator of higher learning, it is appearing almost definite now that I will be teaching a course on web publishing (basics, people) at the local community college (that I could walk to) and a course on internet and interactivity (flash/php/mysql/etc) for the major university that I was previously employed by. Both classes are within departments with which I am fully accreditable, so it is my hope to keep gainful employment at both institutions for the foreseeable future.

Bad habits suck for so many reasons, not least of which is the one about rewiring your brain. As such, I’m making a renewed effort to cut out some of my bad habits (eg. drinking coke, not exercising, and chatting too much with strangers). This is in the hopes of producing a newly rewired, less physically challenged, less time-wasting Bryan.

Lastly, if you happen to find yourself playing Mario Kart DS on the Nintendo DS, feel free to look for me for a race or three - my friend code is 506865/630728.

Top Ten Songs for the Week

I’m passing this meme along from Moby. Its always a mixed-bag when people ask you who your favorite musicians or what your favorite songs are as there are an infinity of such things constantly rotating in and out of my head. I doubt I’ll actually keep this a weekly segment, but I will try to revisit the topic as my notions change.

Run - Snow Patrol
Girl - Beck
O’ Sailor - Fiona Apple (from the leaked Extraordinary Machine)
Feel Good Inc. - Gorillaz
Mummer’s Dance - Loreena McKennitt (always love her music best in the Fall)
Army of Me - Casey Stratton (love Bjork, but I like Casey’s arrangement better)
Broadband - Michael Brecker Quintet (he and King Curtis are my tenor sax idols)
Serenity - David Newman (all the nice violin, banjo moments from the soundtrack)
Snow Me the Way - Moya Brennan (new Christmas album coming out soon)
Raining Again - Moby (like the ambient disc from Hotel, but this song is good)

News

Hurray! Our band is now booked for the remaining Wednesday nights in September, except for this Wednesday, of course, since its Patrick’s birthday. Charlie’s also playing his solo gig there every Monday night, if you’re so inclined on a Monday.

After an extended-weekend of playing in the backyard, I’m feeling somewhat rested and ready to tackle other matters. Case-in-point, going to have dinner and meet with a friend about getting his small business website up and running. It should be nice as I haven’t had dinner with the full family in about a year. And they only live 15 minutes from us! Life keeps us so busy, sometimes.

Tonight, I might just begin the seasonal rearranging of the garage. It certainly needs it, and might just help me mentally prepare for any remaining tropical weather this season (ie. Ophelia).

Guilt and Promotion

Have you ever called or IM’d someone and felt guilty because you might not have contacted them but to mention something you wanted to promote? Perhaps you’ve done something similar, but it involved a favor that you needed of that friend. Either way, they’re your friend and its not that you never talk to them. It was just, at that moment, there wasn’t a pure, just-being-your-friend, motive involved.

I feel guilty and thus obligated to write about this, but I’m not sure if its entirely uncommon. In fact, it certainly seems to be all-too-common in the realms of politics and entertainment. You have friends who occassionally can provide connections, new job opportunities, or what-have-you. But in our day-to-day lives, is this kind of thing outright wrong?

I can honestly say that I have no friends that I befriended even in part for what connections they can provide. That’s not meant to make me sound better than politicians or anything, just something I should admit before going any further. I do, however, sometimes call people with multiple intentions. I want to catch up with them, but I also want to ask to borrow their edger. I’ve been meaning to call for a few days, but tonight there’s an event they might know more about. Stuff like that.

I admit all this for the following reason - my band is playing tonight from 8:30pm-1:00am at the George and Dragon British pub on International Drive. I know its been a few days since I last posted, so there you have it. Two good reasons for this post - guilt and promotion.

New Cousin

My cousin Danielle and her husband Chris just had their second child, Kevin Ryleigh. Congratulations and picture link to Kevin Ryleigh, my new first cousin, once removed!

Random Thoughts for June

I do so enjoy living in Florida sometimes. Its not 10 days since the official start of hurricane season, and already we’re getting some wet fun. Not that this storm will do too much damage, particularly to our specific neck-of-the-woods, but it certainly seems to portend a fun-filled summer ahead!

There hasn’t been too much excitement recently, what with school being out for me. As you might expect, most college departments don’t offer too broad or numerous a selection of classes in the summer. Now consider how vastly underfunded music departments are, and you can begin to imagine the likelyhood of them offering even a few courses each summer semester. Needless to say, my courses aren’t one of the few.

But this is good, since I am really enjoying the extra time in my day to do things like sleep, veg, and start various projects that I’ll likely not finish before my time is up. One project that I most certainly will “finish” is preparing music for my upcoming, very first solo set out at Cypress Cove. For this I’ll be searching through the archive of music to find songs that meet two very different sets of taste - the general public and mine.

Its not that I ever set out to hate what’s on the radio. Rather, I’m pleasantly surprised when I do happen upon a song that’s being broadcast and doesn’t instantly compel me to silence it by changing the channel. As you can imagine, this makes me a hoot at parties.
Nevertheless, through my gigs with the Charlie D. band, I’ve actually begun to stop hating the Buffet and love the Springsteen.

My goal for these gigs is to play some music that they’ll know and perhaps a few that they might not. I’m going to attempt to mix some Frank Sinatra with some Tori Amos, some Charlie Parker with some Coldplay, and maybe a little Bennie Goodman with some They Might Be Giants. It might work, it might bomb. Just doing it is going to be a major milestone for me in my life with music, so whatever the crowd reaction I’ll be pleased as punch just to make it through.

Finally, if you’re looking for good TV these days now that Lost, Alias, 24, Deadwood, Arrested Development, etc. are in hiatus, check out 30 Days on FX, a new show from the makers of Supersize Me. It places people in drastically different situations for 30 days to see what they can learn about other lifestyles. I’m particularly excited about the conservative Christian guy living with Muslims and another conservative Christian guy living with a gay man in San Francisco. Now if only we could have episodes that reversed that, we’d truly have a mutual exchange of ideas (and potentially a higher insurance premium for the producers).

Confidence, Concentration, and Community

These are the three C’s to which I’ve committed myself. Over the last few months, particularly with my renewed interest in music, I’ve realized that I am particularly lacking in all of the above. My lack of confidence keeps me from speaking up when I should, from more clearly articulating my own thoughts and ideas, and from playing out without worry or fear of rejection.

Perhaps worse, I’m finally admitting, is my extreme lack of ability to concentrate. This all started back in high school where I succeeded much too easily without really learning how to develop good work/study skills, and only improved marginally in college and grad school. Now that I’m wearing the man pants in life, I really think its time I stopped this terrible habit from robbing me of my productivity.

Lastly, and this is one that might be the most difficult to change, I need to cultivate my sense of community. Being an introvert really puts hurdles up in connecting with others as you’re far more comfortable in your own space than when sharing the space with others. I do appreciate all of my friends that have kept in touch with me over the years, especially those with whom I’ve been pretty neglectful.

So there’s my confession and my committment to change, publicly documented on ye old website. If there are any tangible results, I’ll be sure to post them on here. What might than entail? Well, I’m going to pick back up my composer’s pen (er, mouse) that has lain dormant for almost six years now and write a few songs. I’ve also had some ideas for short-stories that I’d like to explore, and I’ll be documenting some of my performances with the band.

Wish me luck and yell at me if I fail. That’s the least of what friends are for.

The Prodigal Musician

After starting out to recount my New Year’s experience, I turned down an unexpected garden path to find myself understanding at last my turning away from and eventual return to a life with music.