
Well I finally recovered from the weekend’s gigs, although it seems that I just can’t sleep well the last few days. Guess that’s why it’s taken so long. Anyway, over the weekend I was in Fresno for their annual Rogue Festival. This is their 8th year running and they are going strong! I found out that they are the largest arts festival west of the Mississippi. In Fresno?!?! Ya, that’s pretty impressive, as that makes them bigger than the Fringe in San Francisco, and everything in Los Angeles, for that matter. (We won’t mention that this is Fresno’s ONLY event and that it happens only once a year, but who’s counting?)
If you looked at my gig schedule you saw that I was up in that neck of the woods, but it wasn’t clear as to what I was doing, aside from playing with the talented Karen Marguth. That is because I wasn’t really sure what I was doing until I got there. Perhaps I should have blogged it while it was unfolding, but I just didn’t have the time. Well, she put on a show with her friend, Debbie, called FloraDora, written by her equally talented husband, Rick Hanson. It was a fun show chronicling the lives of two sisters, Flora and Dora, and their man-conquests. Men tend to come between them, especially one, a traveling salesman whom they both become married to at the same time, without each other knowing it. The show was very wittily written and extremely silly. Just the name itself, as well as the popularity of its performers brought in a packed house for all of the 3 shows. Most of the audience was made up of women, though; gofigure! Anyway, if I find a video or some pictures, I’ll be sure to post them. It’s hard to be Musical Director and to be simultaneously snapping photos with my trusty iPhone. Maybe one day I’ll get the hang of it, like chewing gum and playing the piano, that took me a while….. I suppose I should just hire someone! Any Takers?
So before all this madness, on the way up to Fresno, I actually got to spend a little bit of time with my family at Disneyland, which was nice. I was up there with Denise and her students on a field trip. She works at the Institute of Effective Education, a private special ed school. Had a total blast with them! One of the highlights was going over hills on rides and hearing one of the students scream “nineteeeeeen seeevvvenntyyyy-fooouuuuurrr”. I guess she really likes the “Cat’s in the Cradle” song because that’s when it came out. No really, she told me this. They had to go home at 5, so Denise got on the bus and left. I stayed to see my family. Mom was in town on a conference, and sis was just along for the ride. We’ve all been annual passholders for a while, so any trip to SoCal usually means Disneyland time. As always, spending time with them is a joyous one, and my sister made me laugh hard and out loud like she always has the knack for doing. Wish I could have spent more time, but there’s always next time.
After the show Sunday night, I booked it back to San Diego in what seemed like record time (i.e. I didn’t hit any traffic). I rolled in about 12:30am to a sleeping house. My butt still hurts because I’m getting old.
Since then I’ve repaired a burned tail light in my car, listened to music, and finally beat an old computer game that I’ve had laying around since 1995. If you ever get a chance to play Sierra’s Space Quest series, do it! They are hilarious adventure games that are challenging with a nice simple interface.
Speaking of computers, new updates to Apple products yesterday! If you were waiting to buy a computer, now is the time. Although, the updates are really not much to write home about, just some bumps in speed. But now you can get an iMac with a 24” screen for the same price that you used to get the upper end 20”er. That’s a pretty good deal!
Looking forward to going to Monterey this weekend! NOT looking forward to the drive though. Denise is going to meet me there Saturday, so at least the drive back home won’t be so bad. It will be good to see everyone again, especially all those Sister Swing people up in Sac. Miss them! I also get to do a pianorama again this year. Maybe I can con a few poor suckers into buying my new CD… 😉 -BYE