An incredible night with the lads — including a few special guests — at the Kirkland Performance Center on May 14th, 2016! A very memorable evening for me personally, for a few reasons, since that’s how we started as a band back in the Mother Superior and the Warm Guns era. Great this time to have both Mike & Jakael with us filling in on guitar duties, and special guest Geoffrey Castle was like pouring lighter fluid on the bbq!
We put a bunch of pictures up on the band FaceBook page here, and here are a couple of my faves:
I really don’t like talking about this stuff. 😉 For a long time I didn’t even want to say the words out loud: Crohn’s Disease. My FB posts will attest to this fact: I think I’ve probably only mentioned my Crohn’s once on my timeline, when I was first diagnosed almost four years ago in September 2010. And I think to some degree, people don’t like talking about this stuff, either. Unless you’re in the medical field, you probably don’t talk regularly about poop and butts and bodily fluids and your colon. I get that.
But it’s important to talk about this stuff, and that’s why I decided to share this post. It’s important to remember that we’re all involved in each other’s journey. It’s important to remember that we’re all dealing with stuff – which is sometimes plainly visible to others, and sometimes not. Knowing those two things fosters so many good things: empathy, compassion, understanding, even patience!
Crohn’s is fascinating to me, like other autoimmune diseases, in that the body’s normal wiring/programming gets out of whack and the immune system starts attacking healthy tissue. Maybe my brain just needs a software upgrade/patch! In the case of Crohn’s, it can happen almost anywhere in the digestive track – from the air intake to the tailpipe, so to speak. In my case, it showed up in the colon, which is fairly typical.
I count myself very fortunate, in that through medication and some diet adjustments, I’ve been able to lead a fairly normal life. I’m not sure others with Crohn’s are so lucky. For me, the initial 6-9 months were a bit rough, but things improved and the last three years have been manageable.
But now, a new phase. For whatever reason, about two months ago I started experiencing new symptoms, popping up in new places. I’ll spare you the gory details, but suffice to say it was definitely not fun. So that prompts a new approach. This diagram (below) sums it up pretty well. For the last 3-4 years I’ve been able to hang out in the orange zone with a corticosteroid (fairly low-dosage). Now I’m moving into the yellow zone. I recently was approved to start taking a long-term medication regime which, if it’s successful, can halt the progress of the disease – aka introduce remission. That sounds pretty good. And I’m really hoping it does work, because the next step is surgery (down there) – and that definitely doesn’t sound fun. So we just take it as it comes. My faith and my family are a great comfort and support.
I am grateful to have been able to still pursue my passions (paddling and music) these last four years; and hope & plan to continue doing so – big plans for this summer and fall! I had a little setback earlier this summer, unfortunately, that primarily affected paddling: it’s kinda hard to be in a boat for long periods of time, and especially tricky when you’re expected to lead / guide / coach. But I’m pleased to say that things are already improving since June, and should allow me to get back on the water more and prepare for some big things in October!
So that’s my journey so far, at least this part of it. There’s plenty of exciting, great things happening too. But I do welcome your thoughts & prayers (sandwiches also accepted) for both Brandi and me; and I offer you mine for you and your journey, whatever the nature. Peace!
I had a question today from a friend in Ephrata about keyboards, and it’s a great one so I thought I would post it along with my response. Keyboardists: what are your recommendations? Post in blog comments. Thx!
Q: We need new/better sounds for our keys player on the church band. What would you advise? New keyboard? MIDI effects processor? MIDI effects software (Ableton Live, MainStage, etc.)? We would be typically using the keys for pads.
A: I’m a fan of Apple MainStage, been using it almost exclusively (with my Roland RD700 stage piano as a controller) for the last year for both my bands. The software was bundled with Logic, and fairly expensive, but now you can buy MainStage by itself for $30. It does require a Mac. And you’ll need to interface it to the keyboard via USB or MIDI-USB adapter. If you already have those two things, you should definitely try out MainStage.
For the PC, I have a couple friends that use and love Ableton Live. I’m not that familiar with it, but it looks like they have an Intro version for $99 and Standard version for $399. For what you want (more patches/sounds) it looks like those packs come in Standard/Suite but not Intro. But like I said, I’m not that familiar with Ableton so you might want to research that.
After software, my next suggestion would be to look at a MIDI module that can connect to the keyboard. All the major keyboard manufacturers make a MIDI module version of their popular keyboards, and it’s going to be cheaper than buying the whole keyboard (that part which you already have). You could pay $1000 or more for a good one of these, for example the Yamaha Motif-Rack XS goes for ~$1300. Good luck!!
Listen to this! I was asked recently by my company, the Washington State Department of Transportation (WSDOT), to create an original recording for use with their phone on-hold system. It was a lot of fun, and when you listen to this first preview see if you can pick out the following themes. In thinking about the project and the types of work that goes on at WSDOT, I created three distinct sections of the song:
Winter — the snow is falling lightly in the Cascade Mountains, the snow-laden firs stand tall and the massive, majestic peaks rise up above you as you pass through them
Summer — it’s workin’ time! Let’s get out there and build some roads. Hammers clang, machinery belches, and we’re driving forward!
Ferries — it’s another beautiful day as you cross Rosario Strait on your way to the San Juan Islands. The sun sparkles off the wave-tops and the brisk wind comes straight at you. The waves lap up against the ferry as it’s underway and creates a natural rhythmic pattern. Seagulls overhead match pace with the boat, and in the distance you see a harbor seal pop its head out of the water to keep an eye on you.
[This is repost from my old website. But as it turns out, this was Billy Preston’s last public performance before his tragic and premature passing — which makes it even more meaningful to me that I got to be there. cnd]
Billy Preston @ Bumbershoot 2005
On September 4, 2005 I went and saw Billy Preston on the Miller Lite Blues Stage at Bumbershoot 2005 in Seattle. Billy has performed with music’s top acts for 35+ years, but I went primarily because Billy is the honorary “fifth Beatle” — having played on later albums such as the White Album (1968) and Abbey Road (1970). That makes him (along with Paul McCartney) my musical mentor when it comes to my band, Creme Tangerine. Billy’s fun, music-loving style and tremendous talent is a joy to watch and the crowd was really into it, singing along on several of his well-known tunes. We managed to avoid the rain, and apart from the broken keyboard pedal and disconnected pedalboard on the organ (a bad day for feet apparently) we had an awesome time! Billy and his four-piece band (Billy: keyboard [Korg Triton] and organ [Hammond B3-ish], electric guitar, bass, and drums) performed the following:
Set List
Opening Jam (on Hammond) “It’s my pleasure”
With You I’m Born Again
Ray Charles: Georgia
Ray Charles: ???
Beatles Medley: Yesterday intro, Imagine
Beatles Medley: Let it Be
Beatles Medley: Get Back
Amazing Grace (on Hammond) – tribute to Hurricane Katrina survivors
Will it Go ‘Round in Circles?
Nothing from Nothing
You Are So Beautiful
Outa-Space Jam (band solos)
Stones: Jumpin’ Jack Flash
Pictures
Note: It was quite dark and although I was only about 20′ from the stage, between the mediocre stage lighting and my light-hungry camera these didn’t turn out terribly well. But you’ll get the idea. Click on a picture for a larger version.
