beautiful, funny, sad & true

So the live show of Wait Wait Don’t Tell Me was really cool. I’m listening to the broadcast of the show as I’m writing this. It’s very cool to be able to imagine the action that’s taking place on a radio show; it’s very different from the way we USUALLY imagine the action that’s taking place on a radio show.

The show was scripted, for the most part, but most of the jokes were improvised. The cast went through the entire show live, and then the producers, who were taking notes throughout, talked to the cast via their headphones and told them which parts needed to be touched up. So they went through and re-read those particular lines, and the audience attempted to sound spontaneous. There were lots of particularly hilarious guesses and improvised moments that I’m sure have been cut from the actual broadcast. We had a total blast.

The Breanna Paletta–Sarah Castro–Scott Gallegos show last night was great, and between the musicians who were playing and the ones who were friends watching from the audience, the Portland music scene was very well-represented. Good times. It was particularly fun to hang out with Sarah again. She moved to L.A. a year ago, and just moved back to Portland a month or two ago. We closed the place down last night, and I didn’t get to sleep until 3:30 last night.

My dad and stepmom were in town this weekend, so at 9:00 we met for breakfast at Violet’s Cafe out on Sandy. It was. . .okay. At one point, they spent half an hour talking to one of the owners of the restaurant, while I sat there looking around and thinking, “Hello? Haven’t seen you guys in a year. . .?”

The Young Immortals’ much-anticipated new CD will be coming out of duplication on Wednesday (the same day the guys head out on a two-month tour), so tonight they’re having a CD listening party for friends and fans at an apartment in NW. Jake told me last night that he credited me as the producer on the album, which was a very nice thing for him to do.

I called the repair shop yesterday, and was told that my cello will be ready today. I can’t even tell you how excited I am to play it again, especially after all the work that’s been done to get it up to ‘classical’ specifications.

Crystin Byrd’s song–the one we recorded for the movie soundtrack–is finished. Both she and FilmmakerAndrew loved the newest mix, so I’m going to take the CD of it over to Crystin today. We’re very excited about this opportunity. I’ll write more about the movie and let you know where and when it’s showing, so hopefully you’ll be able to see it.

So that’s the latest news; it’s been a good week.

BFS&T got a very nice referral from Eric Edberg in his blog today:

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“I’m especially enjoying Todd’s Beautiful, Funny, Sad and True. How can you not love a blog with posts like this one?”

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Eric is a college professor and cello teacher with a very extensive web site on improvisation for classical musicians. It looks like a tremendous site; there are links, videos, instructions and all kinds of valuable resources for getting us neophytes up to speed. I’ll definitely be spending lots of time there. If you’re a cellist too, I’m sure you can find plenty of things on there to entertain yourself.

I really appreciate it, Eric, thank you! I’m going to return the favor and add your site to the ‘blog love’ list.

And now, it’s time to throw the accordion in the car and head to a Susie Blue gig. Today is a good day.

This morning, I dropped my cello off to get the last of its big repairs done (yay!), and I stopped at Tiny’s coffee shop on the way home to. . .uh. . .get some coffee. After I made my order, the barista guy asked, “How’s your weekend going so far?”

“Great,” I replied. “I just dropped my cello off. It’s getting fixed.”

He stared at me, dumbfounded, with a horrified look on his face.

“What?” I asked, smiling.

“You CHOPPED your TOE OFF? Jesus! Are you okay?”

String arrangement – written

“Once” – seen. It was very good, very touching, very ‘real’, and the music is great.

The gig with Steph was really fun. It was at a middle school, to celebrate their last day before summer. We played two half-hour sets, took a short break, then played a third set. It was very unlike most of the other shows we’ve played, for lots of reasons. It was in a gymnasium, we had a whole corner of it to ourselves, so we (did I say ‘we’? Cause I meant ‘I’. ha ha) had plenty of room to run around. Another fun thing about it was that playing in a gym is very different from playing in a jazz club, and you get to play louder and act weirder. DrummerCharlie was having a blast getting to play in a way that he rarely gets a chance to, and I walked all over the ‘stage’ (really it was a corner blocked off by wrestling mats) like one of the Rolling Stones or something. BassPlayerKeith played with us for the first time. You may know him from being in Dirty Martini at the same time I was. It was really great to see him and play with him again; he’s just an all-around great guy. The kids were amazing. I think the second set of the three was the most fun. We signed T-shirts and yearbooks and somewhat surprisingly, even gave a few hugs. There was a group of boys who asked their teacher if they could dance. She said, “Of COURSE you can, that’d be great.” They replied, “No no, we want to dance with HER.” Meaning Steph. It was hilarious. We left the gig completely exhausted, with ringing ears from all the screams and cheers.

After that, I drove home to unload my instruments, then raced back downtown to the DMV to get new license plates. After having the car for six months, everything is finally legal and accounted for. Emissions test passed, registration in my name, Oregon license plates. Relief.

Crystin’s song – e-mailed. Now I’m just waiting for the verdict on the mix to see what she and the filmmaker think of the new-and-improved version.

This morning I’m going to take my cello in for Part Two of the repairs that it needs. It’s going to get the neck wedged up a little bit, because for some reason it’s not at the standard cello neck height. At the same time, it’ll get a new bridge, which is the little wooden tower-shaped thingy that the strings rest on. I’m also going to get a ‘wolf’ eliminator installed (it’s too complicated to explain what that is), and last but not least, I’m getting a new set of strings, because it’s time for that too. All these repairs are going to make my cello easier to play and stay in tune, make the sound ‘ring out’ better, but most of all it will make me a much better cellist. I’m going to have to un-learn a lot of weird habits that I’ve acquired, because of playing such a non-standard instrument for so long, but I’m very ready for that. I guess If I wasn’t, none of this would matter. I’ve improved a lot as a player, and I keep finding myself limited by my instrument, which is unacceptable. So off it goes to the shop, to get what it needs.

It’s time to go do that. I need to get off the computer, get into the shower, and start the day. And of course, some coffee would be good too; hmmm.

TONIGHT:
1) write out string arrangement for one of Andrea’s songs
2) see the movie “Once” with Andrea

FRIDAY:
1) gig with Stephanie from 11:00-1:30 during the day
2) go to DMV to get new license plates
3) go to the bank
4) pay rent (yeah yeah, I know. I was too busy with all the car stuff and forgot)
5) send mix of Crystin’s movie song for her approval and suggestions

SATURDAY:
1) make changes, if any, on Crystin’s song
2) take cello in for the rest of the repairs it needs (Yay!)
3) laundry? cleaning?
4) gig with Steph
5) Saussha’s graduation party, if I can make it/if it’s still going

SUNDAY:
1) go to frickin’ work for a while, which is LAME.
2) meet a new friend for coffee
3) buy desk and shelf from Alyssa, and hang out
4) laundry? cleaning? rearranging furniture? all of the above?

I actually printed out this list while I was at work, because I have so much to remember. Don’t want to forget anything!