BESSBLOG

How I stressed myself out about 80's covers.

Well the Ingrid tour officially starts on Wednesday and all I have been doing for the past 4 days is making the songs of the 80’s sound country.

I decided that, for fun and for money, I was going to start playing cover music sometimes in shitty bars. Sounds like a horrible idea, I know. But the thing that makes it awesome is that they are exclusively 80’s songs in a variety or inappropriate styles such as country, bluegrass, blues, jewballs (the official term), and even latin. It’s actually pretty rad (that’s an 80’s word and it means cool) and I would like to record some of them in the future and perhaps release an EP.

But I made two major mistakes here that are resulting in my stress. 1 - I booked the first gig the night before I go away on tour. 2 - That gig is 3 hours long.

So while I should be packing and cleaning and tying up loose ends, I’m arranging “Addicted to Love” and “Hot for Teacher”. I have about 8 more to do tonight and then tomorrow I have to write out charts for all of them!!! AAAHHH! Chris Kuffner to the rescue. It’s pretty awesome dating someone who’s 10 times better at what you do than you are.

Regardless, it’s going to be a pretty fun time and hopefully the local drunks at the Red Lion won’t boo me off the stage. I’ll try to get some footage to post of it.

Other than that, the last week here at home has been pretty good. My cats finally love each other. Andrew, Jenny, our friend Shervin and I recorded another podcast which will be up soon, and I had a good show at the Canal Room. Whew! But I’m really looking forward to being on the road. Lots of people that I love all the time, and no teaching for a whole month.

cats

I fear that my blog is at great risk of becoming mostly about my cats.

So here’s the situation. Cat # 1, Puppy, despises… and I mean ABSOLUTELY despises Cat # 2, Lyle Lovett. Puppy has never hated anything more in her entire life. She hates him more than trips to the vet, more than getting her nails clipped, and more than cat food with fish in it (don’t know why). Any time she’s near enough to smell Lyle Lovett’s adorable SCENT she hisses and makes unhappy noises that I’ve never heard her make before.

Lyle Lovett, who is a recent addition and six months old, is an angel prince sent from heaven. He doesn’t give a shit about puppy. He just wants to play and snuggle and get loved and fall over ( he is very very clumsy and falls ALL THE TIME. It’s really cute).

I’m slowly putting them together more and more but so far it’s not looking good. I know this takes time, but God DAMNIT why is my cat being such a CUNT?!

Anway, I go on tour with Ingrid at the end of this month, and until then my purpose in life is to make these fucking things love each other. Any suggestions?

new things

Yesterday Chris bought a new guitar to replace the one that was stolen and today I fell in love with a stray kitten and adopted him. See pictures of both new additions below.

Its nice when things are going badly for a while and then suddenly there’s a sea foam green guitar and a fucking cat that’s just chilling on your doorstep (literally), begging you to take it in and love it forever.

Anyway, the guitar has not been named yet but the cat’s name is Lyle Lovett.

Things are looking up!

robbed but loved

Well you may have heard that Chris Kuffner and I were recently robbed of our electric guitar and bass amplification. This is a major bummer because shit costs money and has sentimental value that greatly exceeds the money involved. (more details on my myspace)

But the positive thing that’s come of all of this is the outpouring of support from friends and from total strangers. This seriously warms my heart and blows my mind. Thanks to everyone that has posted the info on their blog/myspace, has offered their help and even offered to donate money to buying new gear.

We’re currently in the process of checking out our insurance policies to see if we can squeeze some money out of it. AND we’re still hopeful that some of it will turn up on craigs list or at a local music store. (I’m banking on the stupidity of whoever stole it).

But I’m really grateful that Jenny and Andrew (will they read this????!!!) have helped to spread the word and encourage the collecting of funds, and that people out there in the world have offered to as well. I feel really weird about taking money from people, especially with our country on the brink of a fucking depression. But I do appreciate it a whole lot and wanted to let you all know that I do. Thank you.

So this was a very serious post.

I feel like I have to counteract it with a picture of a kid in a hot dog suit.

lovebess