Friday, April 06, 2007

Friday April 6, 2007

A very good, Good Friday to one and all. The topic for this week is music, and more specifically live performance. Every band or individual will eventually reach a point at which they've outgrown the garage or bedroom. The likely first gig for an aspiring artist will be a nice non-paying night at the local pub or coffee house, or an “open-mic” night. While playing for free or for beers doesn't seem very glamorous, you're slowly gaining the essential experience necessary to take it to the next level. It's a well known fact that the Beatles played a number of low-rent dives in Hamburg before hitting it big, and there is a persistent rumor in these parts that the band that would become Van Halen performed at Pasadena High School in the days before they were the toast of the Sunset Strip. It all goes to show you need to pay your dues and do the hard yards before you reach stardom. This past Tuesday I did my first live performance on guitar (rather than keyboards) at a local pub during a blues jam/open mic night. The house band was very forgiving and overlooked my beginner nerves and obvious flubs. It's a continual learning and growing experience that I would recommend to anyone with a love of making music.

I thought it would be appropriate for Easter to share some pictures I took of bunnies living in the park near my home. They aren't wild rabbits. They're domestic pets that were abandoned in the park. That bit of thoughtless cruelty nearly made me cry, but fortunately for the little long-ears there are some good people who have been putting out carrots and proper rabbit food. They have a comfy hole in the concrete wall to evade the numerous dogs and occasional coyote and they seem quite healthy. Happy Easter Bunnies!


Click on a picture to get a full-sized view










The website of the week is my old friend Mark Craig's Blog. It's something like the mathematical inverse of my highly artistic and largely unstructured blog.


Send your comments and feedback and I’ll read it all and respond to some of it.

Bye for now!