I've been stuck inside for 3 days now with a ridiculous toothache that prevents me from thinking straight. Had to cancel brass band rehearsal last night, couldn't busk with Tobias yesterday, could only practice for 20 minutes today. Boo hoo. Even the codeine my dentist prescribed ain't doin' it.
The upshot is that I've put lots of work into the website (finally, I registered the thing a month ago now). Feeling nerdy....
Sunday my bike was stolen when i stayed overnight in Berkeley. I walked to the Ashby bart station to come home, walked past the drum circle that happens every Sunday, and there was my bike, leaning against the wall. I asked the nearest guy if he knew anything about the bike, he said no. I said it was mine, stolen, & i was taking it back, to which he replied, "you can't do that!" Of course I can. "But what if someone bought it from the person who stole it?" Too bad.
Unfortunately, they managed to screw it up a good bit in the 12 hours they had it, & i've already (pre-repairs) spent $80 i don't have for new locks, helmet, toe straps. But that's better than new locks, helmet, toe straps, and bike.
Hmm, i feel like writing more, since i've just had some amazing times in the last two months....
In June i got a call from a friend who lives in Paris, asking if i knew anyone who wanted to sublet their room for 6 weeks so she could come out here. I said how about my room? So i spent essentially two months bicycling & camping in northern California, & going to music camps. At Balkan camp, my friends Matt Moran & Adam Good (both awesome musicians in Brooklyn) had brought over two virutosos from Macedonia (the slavic one), Goce & Angele Dimovski. Goce in particular plays amazing clarinet, saxophone, zurla, & basically everything else. & i got to study clarinet & zurla with him for a week. Phew. I'll try to put up some recordings soon of this man...
Then i had a few days off before going up to another music camp, called Sweet's Mill. This was a whole other level. It's almost completely unstructured, & I found myself surrounded by love & appreciation simply for playing music. I got to play a dual-clarinet klezmer set with David Julian Gray (founding member of the Klezmorim, the first klezmer music i ever heard, which inspired me to take up the clarinet, which changed my life entirely). Played balkan Rrom (gypsy) music with my pal Eva, Armenian music with Jim Karagozian & John Chookasian, did an awesome show with Aywah!, & perhaps most significantly, met Georgios Leftheriotis, a beautiful Greek violinist from Kalamata (now from Fresno) & have started playing with him. The rest of the time i was hanging out with my amazing friends Jade & Larry, swimming in the pond (home to biting silverfish; couldn't catch me!), or curling up on the floor of the coffeehouse with 15 friends. It's how life should be all the time.
Since it's how life should be all the time, several of us have started working on putting together a musicians' & dancers' living & collaborating collective. We hope to find a place (for 7-8 of us!) by October, hopefully in Berkeley. If you know of a place, please let me know;).
Enough for now. Thanks for listening.
This morning i rush off to the dentist at 8:45am, crossing the bay on bart, so of course i didn't get enough sleep, nor eat breakfast (that's leading somewhere, i'm not just complaining). Dr. Gail Jang checks my bad tooth with an electric probe, declares it DOA. Need a root canal.
Now, a bit of background is in order. I am a medical wimp, to the marrow. Talk to me about aneurisms, decapitation, amputation, i'm likely to get light-headed. When, for a blood test, a clinic worker takes four drops of blood from my fresh-pricked finger, i feel faint.
So i'm trying to make an appointment with an endodontist for a root canal tomorrow, Dr. Gail's receptionist is on the phone with Dr. Wong's receptionist. I'm thinking, "dead nerve, breaking down inside my tooth." Start leaning on the counter. Not enough. Remy looks up from the phone, exclaims something--fuzzily in a low contralto quite uncharacteristic of her--as i slide towards the floor. Except i don't remember the sliding. I do remember hitting my butt. Everyone's suddenly there, hoisting me onto Remy's office chair. Alarmed.
I'm a boy. I shrug it off, fine. I'll sit for a second & be fine. Ok, see, i can stand up. And quickly sit back down.
Dr. Gail calls a paramedic, takes my blood pressure, 86/palp, i guess that's really low. I wait a minute, assure Remy i can make it the 5 steps to the waiting room so she can have her chair back. As i'm walking over, the paramedics three enter. "Hi." "Um hi. Who are we here for?" "Me," sitting down, finally. Blood pressure taken again, again. Oxygen.
My thought at this moment is of the Oxygen Bar, on Valencia St., where they play trance music & people pay $25-40 to breathe from oxygen tanks.
Two more paramedics arrive, three leave, a very nice Irishman does all the talking. Blood pressure, again, questions of diabetes (no), low blood pressure (see above), breakfast (no). Stand up? Sure, ok i'm sitting down again now. It comes out that i'm a medical wimp. Oh, lots of people have that, see blood & they feint. How about we check your blood sugar in the ambulance? & maybe we should drive you to SF General for you to rest there.
Ok, blood sugar, but you know finger pricks make me light-headed too. & i don't have insurance, so i'd rather not ride in the ambulance or recoup in a pay-by-the-minute bed.
The nice Irishman understands. Not only does he understand, he offers to take down only my name, no address. No bill to be mailed, thus. So i consent to the blood sugar test in the ambulance & two more blood pressure readings.
At this point, a non sequitur, in that the other paramedic still present knows my friend, former Voluta Vox accordionist Lisa Ekstrom. Tell her hi for me, he requests. I forgot his name. I always do.
Finally i'm on my way with a prescription for sugar & coffee to get the sugar up & the heart moving.
The rest of the day was anti-climactic, though.
Forgive me, it's been 10 days since my last confession. Unfortunately, I have no new sins to report. I have been spending an inordinate amount of time at this ordinateur lately, upgrading my operating system (Mac OSX) & getting everything working like i like it. Boring, Sidney, boring.
Friday, was it, Tory rescued me at 10pm & took me four blocks to 22nd & Mission, where Rube Waddell was playing on the street, tubas, harmonica, ukelele, guitar, drums, trumpet, & a few other unnamables. Great scene, probably 50 people gathered watching, dancing, laughing. Why have I been so stuck inside lately, instead of playing constantly as was my intent after Sweet's Mill?
Partly, i blame my tooth. I lost momentum with music cos i couldn't play for a week after Lark. & i also got used to being in front of the computer a lot. So i just kept doing that, even when i could play again. It actually feels like a serious problem. Damn, if i had to have an addiction, it could at least have been a fun one, something social....
Did some recording with Tobias & Eliot, Turkish & Greek stuff. First time recording in a studio (a fancy one at that) for me. It's so unforgiving, a bit discouraging sometimes, to listen back & hear out of tune notes I didn't notice before, weird mistakes. But it turned out to be fun & there are a few good takes, perhaps to make an EP or somesuch.