Pardon my recent lack of blogging. Truth be told, I haven't had much time in the kitchen lately and have been feeling a sore lack of inspiration. I did however make some tasty mashed potatoes last night, made all the more savory by the addition of roasted garlic and gorgonzola. Now there's some comfort food!
Last week my pal Denise and I went to the Prism Cafe listen to a lovely siren named Merrill Garbus. This woman has a powerful and unique voice and her delivery is a positively arresting - she really engaged the crowd. She absolutely played the shit out of her ukulele and I hear she's pretty crafty with loops too, but we missed that portion of the evening. I hope she comes back to town soon so I can catch her whole show.
After Merrill played, a gaggle of young-ish (she says with her old lady voice) boys rushed the stage to play their FIRST EVER gig, and it made Denise and Corry and I get all nostalgic. Well, it made me nostalgic anyway, thinking about that feeling of the FIRST EVER gig. I was 21 years old, standing in the corner of The Albion in SF. I was wearing a blue velvet shirt, which miraculously, I STILL have! I was terrified. My eyes were closed most of the time. I don't remember all the details, but I do remember that the p.a. broke during the middle of our set, and since the show must go on, we took it upon ourselves to have a Rock Star moment, and stood up on the bar to finish the rest of the set. People loved it. I guess I must've opened my eyes at this point to keep from falling off the bar.
I recently came across a journal I kept back then (see, all that lugging shit around for years was good for something!) and I wrote something to the affect that I could now die happy, for it was the most glorious feeling to finally do something that I had always dreamed of.
Although I'm surely much more jaded than I was back then, I honestly still get that feeling nearly every time I perform live, even when it's not perfect (it never really is!), even when hardly a soul is listening. There's just something magical that happens when I make music live, and for that, I am very grateful.
Time to get busy getting those Thanksgiving fixin's together...and hey all you musicians, drop a line w/ your experiences from your first gig, won't you?
3 comments:
sorry that I'm going to miss you this Thanksgiving. :(
it was 1968 or maybe 69 and for some reason mrs. smith decided i should play the lead in "peter cottontail". i don't remember too much about it. in fact i only "remembered" the experience a few years ago and it isn't a very clear memory. i had a crush on irene muchnick who was among the other girls in the same grade 2 class who, for reasons unknown to me re: the story of peter cottontail, danced a can-can at one point to the great amusement of all the parents.
wow, you got started much earlier than i did.
i guess now that i think of it, my first "real" gig was in the school musical in 6th grade; i played a gypsy and sang a song that went:
"i can tell your fortune...
i foretell what time will do to you
my crystal ball sees and knows all
secrets of your life come into view...."
i'll have to see if i can dig up that photo of my 6th grade gypsy self and post it.
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