I had such a fantastic time tonight, I feel like I’ve already won!! I’m convinced that the voting will honor the Sun Tzu crew or maybe Kid Hops (nothin’ like passing the torch!! but my prize was playing in the funnest venue with all the gear I needed and a great soundman (thanks Andrew) and a chill crowd and these super bands:

Suicide Jack
NA
Bill Horist
Picoso
Ficus Trio
Swampdweller
Wayne Horvitz & Sweeter than the Day

Suicide Jack is a killer blues band with saucyness and drunkenness reminiscent of Tom Waits, which happens to employ a couple of friends of mine (Micah and Bryan - but I didn’t know until tonight). Na was insane, of course. I’m sure they scared plenty of new fans. Bill Horist sounded amazing tonight, just gorgeous walls of sound, I’ve heard him before but I think tonight was my favorite. I don’t want that to get lost in my spiel of post-show joy - fantastic. Picoso and Swampdweller? Straight up party bands, crowd pleasers, we were over capacity for both and had to stop letting people in. Too fun!! Awesome bands. I’d heard Picoso before, because my friends Sam and Izaak from Monktail are in it, but they were super on tonight. I LOVED their last song, a latiny swing tune. And Swampdweller - (hey, Ambrose, another instrumentalist friend! Is this town getting smaller?) Nice tight horns, fun uptempo enjoyable music. And then Wayne and the boys just killed it. Slayed them all. RAD. Even Josh stayed up two hours past his bedtime because he couldn’t tear himself away. Yay!!

Maybe tomorrow I’ll post everything I played tonight. How to make Tamara happy? Two turntables AND two Pioneer CDJ 1000s. (Cathedral Band already knows this of course…) I probably didn’t even crack an hour an a half of play time (I just played between bands) even though I was there for 8 hours, but it was awesome nonetheless. The bands were all over the place so my selections could be too. Fun fun fun. Thanks Seattle Weekly!!

Pictures by the inimitable Ryan Schierling:

My photos of the night here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/lifeasart/sets/72057594090828527/
And the flickr group here contains more from Andi, Chris, +Russ, and Paul. Hoping for more soon from Ginny and Bruce. Post favorites in the comments!

I am so honored to be nominated for a 2006 Seattle Weekly Music Award in the category of best DJ/Turntablist! As hard as it is for me to ask you to choose me out of this fabulous list of friends, colleagues, and worthy nominess, please go here to vote now:

Music Awards 2006 (Seattle Weekly)

So many people on this list totally rock - I adore them - that I am sure going to need your vote!!

While you’re there, can I reccommend a few more?
JAZZ/EXPERIMENTAL: Degenerate Art Ensemble
POP/ROCK: Buttersprites
GUITARIST: Sam Mickens
ELECTRONICA: Randy Jones or IQU
INDUSTRY HALL OF FAME: David Meinert
BLUES: Alice Stuart or Henry Cooper

thanks!!

This afternoon, Josh and I went to Brechemin Auditorium in the music building of the University of Washington campus to hear a recital by Stuart Dempster, a friend and bandmate of mine. It was a “40 year retrospective” put on as part of something called “Northwest Trombone Weekend 2006″ - I would say that it barely scraped the tip of what this incredibly active septagenarian has been doing the last 40 years but was pleasant nonetheless - and we had the afternoon free and went on a lark after reading Delaurenti’s writeup in the Stranger. He performs frequently enough around here but I don’t go as much as I wish I could, and I try not to let too many months pass between opportunities to be in the same room with this wonderful human (I figured we’d see his wife Renko too- two for one super-people-checkins).

The Program:
Ricercare a 5 for Trombones (1966) by Robert Erickson
Three Sketches for Trombone and Piano (1967) by Andrew Imbrie
Sequenza V for Trombone Solo (1966) by Luciano Berio
Dhrupad selection (a traditional piece of Indian music performed by Stuart on JDBBBDJ and Greg Powers on Trombone)
General Speech for Solo Trombone (1969) by Robert Erickson

A lovely program. I was about to type a bit about how I liked such-and-such a thing, but really I liked it all very much, almost increasingly in order of appearance. And though I do have a soft spot for Berio, I couldn’t pick a favorite. It was nice to see some friends in the audience from local new music circles concentric to both mine and Josh’s, like “Skip” Milford, Tom Swafford, Byron Au Yong, Angelina Baldoz, Christopher DeLaurenti, Jim Knapp, Wally Shoup, Gavin Borchert, and others we didn’t get to greet. Oh also, a happy coincidence that we caught a story in today’s New York Times giving a pleasing thumbs-up to Loren’s loft/performance space Chez Bushwick, and were able to take it to Renko. (Loren is the youngest Dempster son and my cellist of choice.)

I gotta get faster with putting pics up. I’m a bit behind and can’t comment in a timely way.

Oh and this is neat - Brian Eno & David Byrne have reissued My Life in the Bush of Ghosts under a Creative Commons license, and very publicly invite collaboration and remix. Should be fun to play with and fascinating to watch (/listen for) the reinventions!

Actually, I’ve been sick all weekend - though today is the worst yet. My dear sweet kitten is taking care of me, it’s pretty cute, she’s way more snuggly than usual and is sitting on me and purring every chance she gets. My boyfriend is off with our roommate, helping with another of his elaborate photo projects, and I’m here with a West Wing marathon, a half gallon of cranberry juice, and the internet.

I wish we didn’t have this TV here honestly, I get so much more creative thinking and art projects done when there’s not one in the house. I have no power to resist the temptation to check out for a while, just be passive, stop thinking, especially when I feel like crap. This is a great flaw of mine, one that I try to be aware of, and so I haven’t owned a TV in my entire life. But now I live with one. And actually, I won’t feel bad about it today, because I’m very sick, and the West Wing has great dialogue, and it’s distracting.

Funny how we don’t appreciate our health until it’s gone bad - not that I’ve felt 100% in quite some time, but how would I be spending my Monday afternoon off if I wasn’t melting under the pressure of my sinuses and sitting around feeling sorry for my drippy self? Honestly, in this comfy warm house with this sweet cat and this sweet boy and too many unfinished projects, do I have what it takes to change the world? A mind? A sound? My socks? To change anything? What does it take? Is compassion enough? The memory of pain? Frustration? Or does it have to take rage and conviction and singlemindedness?

What Satan and I once called Fighut, to fight against the forces keeping you down, against sadness, against unfairness and that which cannot be right, against the darkness in people and the frustrations of life - that was what drove me for so long. Even -especially- after he chose that world, enough of our country bought into leadership that represents that world, I remained a citizen of a country that increasingly becomes colored more like that world and sees less and less gray. But honestly, nothing’s keeping me down now but inertia… Is that the problem with our wealthy adolescent state? We’re too COMFORTABLE? So comfortable we can ignore it all? Until when? Our families die? (war, disease, poverty, crime, misfortune, whatever.) Until we lose our jobs? Until our idea of truth and destiny is destroyed by lobbyists and replaced with settling for security? Until something happens to our wealth and comfort? Until a terror attack or a breach of civil liberties?

Okay, I’m going a little off the handle here, I’m not paralyzed, I’m not middle america, I’m not a watching an abnormal amount of TV. I’m just a little sick and it’s been a long winter and I’m between projects. I’m easily bored, and have a hard time finishing projects. I’m normal and human and fine and will definitely feel better next week.

Meanwhile, it’s good for us all to ask these questions, so I am. Time for a hot bath.