Seattle, WA: House Concert

The flu-crud that has put Seattle in a headlock this holiday season has reduced our bill from a triple to a double, and Joe Jencks and I wish Trina a speedy recovery.  Nice to wind down the year with a good friend in a low-key-but-attentive-and-engaged setting.  More, of course, to come as the calendar flips over!

12/28 Performance & End-of-Year Recap

Seattle, WA: The Royal Room (Bushwick Book Club - 2012 Jack Straw Anthology)

Jack Straw Productions is a Seattle non-profit that offers grants and assistance to local musicians, writers, and other artists.  Among its many projects, the organization produces a yearly anthology from its writers program, and The Bushwick Book Club has teamed up this month to offer a show of writer-songwriter pairings, the latter charged with writing a song inspired by the former's contribution to this year's anthology.  Lovely idea, and it comes off swimmingly!

I've drawn Nick Wong, who has contributed an essay about his experiences training in boxing gyms throughout Latin America.  I know very little about boxing, but in recalling how my favorite baseball writings don't deal exclusively with baseball (and I know a ton about baseball)--but rather address the ups and downs of life through the lens and terminology of baseball--I appreciate how Nick's piece does the same via boxing, and I'm excited to learn.  My song, "The Stance," draws from the entirety of the essay, but particularly this passage:

Entering a boxing gym in another country makes you a tourist in two ways. The first being the quite obvious one of being in another country, but the second is a more subtle form of diplomacy. The way you hold your hands, the distance of your stance, whether you lead left hooks off the jab or always follow up with the right hand, is a representation of your school. Essentially, it is your dialect to the language of boxing, and once you announce an intention to fight, the entire ambiance of the gym shifts; people stare as you walk by, silently estimating how you size up in the ring.

I feel very fortunate to have scored this pairing, but then so many serendipitous moments occur through the evening that I imagine it would have happened with anyone--the idea (and individuals producing content) is just that good.

Photos: Melissa Thompson

Seattle, WA: Musicquarium Lounge at The Triple Door

Brian just had to take a choir full of kids to sing the anthem at the Sounders FC playoff game tonight, so we're a man down...but we're warmer and drier in the MQ, no doubt.  Might as well shake things up, then, so first set is entirely songs I wrote for The Bushwick Book Club Seattle--which, with one or two exceptions, Dave and Alicia haven't heard before.  If you didn't know they had originally held only water, you might think this decision hit Dave a little hard judging by the empty collins glasses piled along the base of the aquarium tank in his corner...easy, fella.

Drummer Dave Bush's collection of empties

Seattle, WA: Musicquarium Lounge at The Triple Door

Visit number five to the MQ in 2012 passes without major incident, but none too dull either.  A resident's equilibrium...

Irvine, CA: FAR-West Folk Alliance Conferece

The task of documenting a weekend-long experience such as FAR-West seems too tall a task at the moment, so I'll let the picture below speak for the time being...  Nice to see so many good folk!

Photo: Victor DesRoches

Seattle, WA: Columbia City Theater (Bushwick Book Club - 1984)

Interesting to re-read this one so soon after re-reading Fahrenheit 451...but dang if I can bring myself to contribute another thoughtful number for The Bushwick Book Club this time, despite ample and engaging source material.  No, a ukulele-driven commercial jingle for Victory Gin is what I'm offering.  Delicious!

Tonight's quiz: did a given event happen in 1984...or 1983?