Tuesday, December 18, 2007

Table of Contents, No Appendix: Part One

It's obvious that I haven't blogged since post-Thanksgiving. All 3 of my readers, raise your hands and start asking the questions.

Where have I been, you ask? Well, let me tell you!

In my previous entry I was talking about the birthday boy and my hungry aching brain. I suppose my journey begins on December 1st. I taught lessons all day at the Wilmington School of Rock and probably made some kids unhappy. I've been doing this thing where I just throw on the metronome if the kid hasn't practiced. My time playing isn't even spectacular yet, so I figure I'll get my students to have good time when they're my age. The day flew by because I was basically en route to New York City to see Ween. I decided to get them Christmas presents so I went to Book Haven and picked out a fairly unique selection. I got a book on Frank Lloyd Wright for Claude, a book called Jazz Matters for Dave, a book on Jazz Piano for Glenn, and a book on The Aesthetics of Rock for Mickey. I got Aaron a book too, but he left before I could give it to him.
There was an after party at the lovely Monica Hampton's apartment and I attempted to make people laugh by posing as the current Vice Magazine cover boy. I don't have the before and after pictures from the party, but I rolled up my sleeves to look like this:




Our hair similarities are uncanny, non?

I spent the majority of the party hanging out with the Seahag (Sound of Urchin, Project/Object). He has an obsession with a face I make sometimes when I play drums. He calls it the "nerd face". I make sure to do the "nerd face" as much as possible in his presence.
After the party I went back to midtown and slept on the couch of a sort-of-famous music school. You may have heard of it.
It was convenient, it's only a few blocks from the Port Authority Bus Terminal. I needed to hop on a 12:00 bus to Boston because I was going to have a lesson with my teacher Kenwood Dennard (Sting, Jaco Pastorious, everybody in the world, etc.) the next day at 6:00 PM. I got to Boston at around 4:20 in the afternoon and I began walk from South Station to the Berklee complex. My luck has been wonderful lately, and it started snowing as soon as I left the station.
I should've estimated the time to walk there more approximately. I walk way too fast, and I ended up there an hour early. I decided to explore Boston and I walked several blocks south to the cheapest pizza place I could find. I had two slices of vegetarian pizza that were so ungodly that I considered eating meat again, albeit only for two seconds. Not only that, but my heinous meal was grease-laden and filling, providing me with an uneasy stomach right before an intense lesson. I walked back to Berklee and I was still too early. I started calling Kenwood on his cell phone so he could let me into the building.

No answer.

I figured he must've been deep into a hyper-complex drumbeat with one of his more accomplished students. But the fact is, my ears were just about ready to snap right off from the sub-zero temperature. I called again.

No answer.

I was starting to get suspicious but I continued to give him the benefit of the doubt. I then called a whole bunch of random people from my phonebook. I had to fend off the bitter cold that immersed my entire body by sober dialing and pretending like I had no nerve endings.

The cold wasn't funny anymore and luckily an older guitar student graciously let me into the building. I called Kenwood one last time and I finally got an answer. It turns out he was hanging at the Pastorious estate in Florida celebrating the life of Jaco. He forgot to call. It's okay, I still love him. We can't remember everything, and this kind of stuff happens.

I will share my favorite line from the call:

"Wait, don't you come all the way from Philadelphia?"

"Yeah."

"That's incredible. I'm giving you a free lesson."

And then I started walking back to South Station, to catch my 8:30 bus to upstate New York.

6 comments:

Jeff Jankowski said...

Glad to read you are feeling better! Probably sounds weird coming from a complete stranger right? Well, consider it best wishes from a fellow drummer, and since drummers are one big family we're no longer strangers!

Really looking forward to seeing the trio in Buffalo in 2008. You guys sound great!!

Lerch said...

Very happy to hear you're felling better, Eric! Going to do my best to see the trio in Northampton, MA. Also I just got side 4 and have to tell you, it's a delight. Definitely going to seek out the other bands you play with as well (wish I'd seen the Albany show prior to the stinkiness!)

Ramiro Rodriguez said...

Glad you're feeling better.
Got my tix for the Trio March 5th show in Chicago.

Happy Holidaze!

fishhead said...

Ok, I just had to comment and be the third person who actually reads your blog. Merry Christmas!

fishhead said...

Ramiro beat me to it. So, now 4 people have read your blog!

Kimberly M. Wetherell said...

WOO HOO! Reader/commenter #5!

What's funny is... my own appendicitis story ALSO begins with greasy pizza. Can't wait to hear how the rest of your story unfolds.

Glad to hear you are back in action! Come back to NYC soon!