The Boring and Somewhat Productive Monday

I suppose it's time to turn this into a real functioning blog now, instead of just a Project/Object tour diary.

Let's talk about today.

Last night I decided that I want to start waking up at 8:00 every day no matter what. I feel like there's never enough time to do the things I truly want to do in the 24 hours I am allotted. My brain moves very quickly in the morning, so reading is a good match for that. When it's the afternoon my brain starts to slow down and I want to do is practice my drum technique. But I also need to work towards the inevitable, which is acquiring my driver's license. I have never been able to the gather the motivation to even look inside the Driver's Manual. I just know that once I get a car, I'm going to be paranoid about killing squirrels. Now is the time to do it though. It's necessary to continue my dream as a working musician.
I'm going to get my physical soon. That shall put the figurative wheels in motion! Pun intended.

I didn't ignore the cell phone alarm and I woke up at 8:00 today expecting to help sell records on eBay. However, I am rather naive so this never happened. It got moved to tomorrow afternoon instead.

Instead, I spent the morning reading "Point Counterpoint" by Aldous Huxley. I remember when I bought that book. It was almost exactly a year ago, December 3, 2006. I was on a weekend tour with Chris Harford and the Band of Changes. We were about play a show at a small bar in Washington, DC called Iota. Scott Metzger and I decided it would be a good idea if we went to the local shopping center. It reminded me a lot of the big shopping complex in West Palm Beach, Florida. It seemed like the entire neighborhood was built around it, a hypnotizing Mecca for wannabe hipster suburban teenagers and the retired golfing type. You know, the two age demographics with the least amount of gross income (groan with me everyone).

The centerpiece of the complex was a gigantic Barnes and Noble. I have no problem with a giant bookstore, even if it is a national chain. At the time, I was inspired by a book that Chris lent me called The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. It was a self-help book without all of the bullshit, and it's the reason I started practicing and reading again. At the time I was being overzealous, and I wanted to purchase the most challenging book I could get my crooked fingers on. So I got "Point Counterpoint". I have 32 pages left, but the vocabulary is so outrageously difficult that I have to go to dictionary.com every 5 minutes. It's no wonder that I'm still reading it to this very day.

This story then presents a series of fun but stressful flashbacks.

(cue the Debussy whole tone arpeggio)
That weekend we also played the North Star Bar in Philadelphia and the Recher Theater in Towson, MD, opening up for the Benevento/Russo Duo. I get nervous before every show, but I was feeling particularly bad before that one. We got through the show and it was good. Afterwards it was a laid back affair. Joe Russo (the fabulous drummer) and I had our first unofficial dance competition, which led to furious finger snapping and leg shaking. If I remember correctly, it got really heated and passionate during Whitney Houston's "How Will I Know?".

I still torture Joe about having a real dance off. We were supposed to have one at the Bonnaroo Centeroo Fountain, but my 3 show a day schedule forced me to be relegated to the Ice Cream Man truck backstage. He is an incredible drummer, but little know he is an even better dancer. I may have to pull a Tonya Harding on him.
(cue Wayne and Garth going "Doodledeedoo")

After reading this morning, I spent some time heating up ratatouille and brown rice. I then practiced on and off for a couple hours. My hands hate me right now. I'll stop typing.

Sincerely,
Eric Slick