What Does a Musician Look Like?

The question is kind of tangential to the main issue at hand- playing music- but the more I think about it, the more I feel some sort of inner musical persona really struggling to get out. When I look in my closet I feel like I might have a personality disorder- there are clothes for three different people in there. One person is a fairly conservative office worker who likes lightweight sweaters, the occasional cotton blouse and pointy-toed shoes. She's the one who keeps running up the balance on my Bananacard. The second person is a martial artist with a running hobby who wears mostly fleece, stretchy, and/or black fitness wear- she's the one the sales ladies at Lucy know by first name. The third person is harder to find- she wears very casual, unexciting clothes like dark jeans and simple black shirts, occasionally raids clothing from the other two personas, and she is the one who struggles on a friday or saturday (or sometimes even wednesday) night to find something interesting to wear to a show or a club. Can we get her some help please?

When the idea of bedazzled leather pants as "rockstar clothes" was raised on FB, I realized that in this area of my life (as in all the others), I know more about what I don't like than I know about what I do like. Persona #3 needs a role model, so I'm now on the lookout for examples. It's complicated by the labyrinthian genre-ization of music styles- "rock star" is the only household word I can think of to describe music fashion, but I think my own style is closer to acoustic indie folk chick something or other with an underlying desire to rock out without really knowing how to go about it. So as much as I'm digging Joan Jett's latest leather ensemble I don't think it's going to work for me...

How did the cookie know?

Laura Veirs and Drum Instigation

Laura Veirs is playing at Cafe du Nord tomorrow night- initially I was only a little bit excited, even though I love her latest cd July Flame, because I wasn't impressed with her live performances on youtube. I need to get over my miserly, judgemental nature- she just played a live set on KCRW this morning (8 months pregnant no less!) and it was great, so now I'm totally stoked! (Can I really say that? I guess so.) Plus it will be my first chance to check out Cafe du Nord and the Swedish-American Music Hall, which I hear is a great venue.

My friend T is slowly picking up the drums... and I am totally instigating. She got an electronic drum set ages ago, and is just now trying them out- I think last week was literally the first time she put the drumstick to the pad, and I went over to have a listen and try and "tune" them a little (I know only the barest amount of what to do with electronic drums). It's awesome because I'm at the same level with my electric guitar (more or less) and it would be so much fun to be a beginner rock band! With headsets on and not making too much noise though- her condo development in Emeryville is quieter than the Pineview Cemetery, by a comfortable margin. It's strange how densely inhabited urban spaces can be so eerily silent... and then a train comes through.

On a side note... if I get laid off before summer, I wonder if I could switch gears to music for a bit?