“Write me a book” he encourages on my LinkedIn contact.
I haven’t talked to Mark Pitchford in, what, 16-17 years? I do find myself wanting to write him a book. I kind of want to see what I’ll say about my life, especially from the vantage point of right now. I’ll have to take a step back from the hormonal, lustful, conflicted, painful reality I’m living right now, and lift my vision back out across the horizon. It will be good for me to acknowledge all the great shit and accomplishments.
How do I break it down? Chronologically might be too obvious. Topics: Love, activities, music, locale, work? I guess that probably gives me more room to emphasize the important. (As I begin, I’m not sure I’m in the right environment to write a book, Don Henley is playing on the radio in the cafe where I sit. I can’t abide. This, in sharp contrast to the Phish Halloween sets my husband streamed last night (I listened to 1.5 of 3) or the pre-Phish Primus doing Charlie and Chocolate Factory.
Oh god, now playing: old Shania Twain.)
*finds earphones*
Let’s start with Music….
To give you an idea of what I’m mostly listening to these last few years:
I truly believe Kenneth Pattengale is one of the best acoustic guitar players I will ever see in my lifetime. And their vocal blend / harmonies; damn. If this isn’t your taste, and you need to limit yourself to one song only – I recommend “Michigan” on Spotify (Could be under Milk Carton Kids or Kenneth Pattengale.)
I should confess my ability to identify at least 5 Phish songs within the first 2 opening beats, that I regularly wake up singing Ween’s “Piss Up A Rope” on Saturday mornings, I’m fascinated by gypsy-punk and electro-swing (see: Gogol Bordello and Caravan Palace) and that I do a fucking sweet living room cover of “Sweet Loraine” by Patty Griffin.
I sent you links to my own creations on LinkedIN. Be nice please. Performed for a bit around SF, actually closed down my band after opening up at Yoshi’s (who does that?!) and had a fantastic opening set at Great American. I fucking love performing. I feel alive there. But alas, my songwriting partner, lead guitarist (and best friend) had a baby. And there went the productivity in that relationship. Shortly after that I moved to Portland. I have a craigslist add for a new piano or guitar songwriter languishing in my drafts box. I hate looking for new music relationships – gotta go through too many sing-alongs and musicians who treat vocals as incidental. I also miss my best friend. But, Portland is wonderful and everything I hoped it would be.
In all seriousness, Portlandia is more doc- than mock-umentary and it suits me well. Brett (the other) and I dove into this town 1 1/2 years ago and it’s flown by. I’ve a good nest here: two close friends from college, my older sister and a slew of folks I worked with at Oregon Country Fair for a few summers. So a soft landing in a new town and just as far from my mother as SF (which, though not right for some, is a conscious decision by me).
Lots of looking later, we’re settled into our new place and loving it (and the squirrels waiting to be evicted from the attic crawlspace).
It’s been a big year all around – my career is going very well (I manage web monkeys at Mozilla, getting our open source mobile phone and apps out there into the free web market). Not to minimize my web monkeys, I do love them.
Cancer Bout
Husband Brett