I think the best thing about living in this building full of musicians is the incredible amount of diversity represented, and the caliber of the musicianship. Right now, the Portland Cello Project is rehearsing upstairs, and I’m sitting down here listening and thoroughly enjoying it.

From the apartment next to mine, I often get to hear the Pete Krebs Gypsy Jazz trio, or the Stolen Sweets (1920’s and 30’s jazz with three-part vocal harmonies).

From the apartment in front of mine, I get to hear classical flute, sometimes in duet with another flute, or with other instruments as well. Sometimes I take my cello over there and participate.

From the apartment upstairs in the front of the building, I get to hear alto sax parts from Vagabond Opera songs, as well as piano playing and singing.

From my apartment, the people in the rest of the building get to hear people like Breanna and Susie, and sometimes Stephanie.

The Portland music community is very well-represented by this one building alone.

In other news, Joan and I went out clothes shopping at a whole bunch of places yesterday. I totally scored:

black hoodie – YAY! The five-month search for a black hoodie is finally over.

two orange thermal T-shirts, each with a different ‘pattern’ of stitching and thickness. Plus, one’s medium-sized and the other is small. And it was $10 for both of them, so why the heck shouldn’t I buy both?

button-up dress shirt from J. Crew. White, green and black pinstripes. If you look from a distance, though, it just looks like a really cool green.

brown corduroy jacket, also from J. Crew. This was the score of the year. It’s a $200 jacket, on clearance for $50, then another 25 percent off, for a total of $35. $35!! For a two hundred-dollar jacket! I can wear it whenever I want to look like a university professor or something. It has patches on the elbows, and it even has a pen pocket inside.

I’m thinking of going on a picture-taking excursion here in a little while, since the weather’s so nice. I’m not going to spend such a beautiful day sitting inside. I did, however, want to fill you in on the clothing ‘scores’, and say how much fun the rest of the weekend has been. Good birthday party on Friday, and good gig on Saturday.

Funny thing about the gig on Saturday was that CellistSkip, who I play with in various incarnations of both Susie’s and Stephanie’s groups, was actually in the audience (first time I’ve ever seen him in the audience) while I played the cello with Susie. She came up to me near the end of our set and said, “Skip just got here. No pressure.” I was a bit nervous at first, with one of the best cellists in town sitting right up front and watching me, but after the first cello song, he smiled and applauded, then ran up and stuffed a couple of dollar bills down behind the tailpiece. It was a hilarious and supportive thing for him to do, and I was completely relaxed after that.

Well, time to get in the shower and out the door to start the day ‘frealz, yo.’

Peace, out.