(Up)State of Mind

Growing up in a small town, I felt like there was so much time. So much time between interesting things to do; so many quiet, boring afternoons and evenings to endure until the next much-anticipated event: the next time to go see a movie, the next party, the next time I would see the boy I had a crush on, the next open mic. In that setting, endless free time was suffocating; it was the filler, the tasteless cereal you eat only to get to the prize at the bottom of the box. Stepping out of the house into a cool, dark, star-lit night or a hot summer afternoon with a cloudless blue sky, my only thought would be… “When will it be interesting? Will it always be empty like this?”

The Hudson River in December. (This picture reminds me of Magritte's L'Empire des Lumieres)

The answer is: No. I have to dig pretty far back to remember that feeling of the endlessness of free time, the hours to be filled, the space and the quiet and anticipation. When I go home to visit family these days, the constraints of time are completely opposite. Everything has to be crammed into six or seven extremely short days, all the meals, meet-ups, get-togethers, catching up, extended family visits and activities. I have to make a schedule as detailed and crammed as any deadline-week work schedule, just to make sure things can happen at the right time. When I step out into a cool, dark star-lit night now, I want to stand out there and see the stars, the moon; taste the moisture in the air, smell the rain, wander in the darkness. But often there isn't even time enough to let my eyes adapt to the darkness before I have to go do whatever is next on the schedule.

The woods behind my childhood home

Sometimes I get just a little taste of it though- a little reminder of the expanding nature of empty time. Last winter I went for a walk in the back woods, the woods that were even at that time being cut down for a new McMansion development. At that time it was silent, eight inches of ice-crusted snow on the ground, solid enough to walk tenderly on top without punching through. I stepped through the back gate and closed it behind me with a clink.The future cul-de-sac was invisible except for the utility rough-ins poking up here and there with little orange flags. Nobody out there, not even a squirrel or a bird making a sound. I walked through the woods until my toes were numb, listening for tiny winter noises and just observing what was new and what hadn't changed. With no pressing plans to keep, time expands. Other times I might get the same feeling on a summer evening, driving out into the farm fields to meet a high school friend, winding down two-lane roads with no other headlights in sight.

Future Cul-de-sac panorama behind my parents' house

Now I wonder- is it the nature of time in a small town, or is it the nature of time in pre-adulthood, or is it both? Maybe every time I revisit that area, I slip back into my pre-adult mindset and recapture the feeling of expanding free time, except it no longer seems like boredom to me. It tastes like freedom.

Charleston and the South Carolina Lowcountry

At the end of February I traveled to the South Carolina coast to visit family. This pretty much catches up the recent travel backlog.

I knew when I booked the flights that my inbound travel to Charleston was going to be challenging, but the flights turned out to be the easy part. After brief de-icing delays in Chicago, we landed in the rainy part of one of those winter storms with names. Torrential rain combined with after-dark driving, exhaustion and really bad GPS instructions for a very long night driving up the coast. Pro tip: SC Route 41 may call itself "Route 17 Alternate," but that only makes sense if you define "alternate" as "the road you take when you want to make a bad drive in a downpour twice as long and twice as scary and include 200% more hydroplaning." 

I learned many important driving lessons on that trip, but enough about that. I slept until noon the next day and then with my Aunt and Uncle as guides, we set about exploring some coastal treasures.

Boardwalk. Huntington Beach State Park

Saltwater Marshes. Huntington Beach State Park

Escape to Stinson Beach

I know this post is four months late, but I want to get through the backlog before getting ahead of myself... and the pictures were nice. Please enjoy this window into the recent past : )

On Black Friday, we escaped.

Sunset over Bolinas Lagoon.

While others were lining up outside Best Buy at 4am, or preparing for another night of roaming protests in the East Bay, or possibly experiencing a combination of shopping and protesting hordes in Union Square, we drove out to Stinson Beach for some peace and quiet.

Bench at Divide Meadow, Point Reyes National Seashore

Which we found in abundance. On Friday we drove up the divide to Point Reyes Station for lunch, and on the return trip down to Stinson Beach we stopped off at the Bear Valley visitors center for a short hike in the Point Reyes National Seashore, although we didn't see any seashore on our hike, just lovely trees and meadows.

Divide Meadow, Point Reyes National Seashore

The sun sets early in late November, and by the time we returned to Stinson Beach it was completely dark. Apparently the Stinsonites don't care much for streetlights or sidewalks, making the foray out for dinner somewhat fraught but memorable.  After a good night's sleep and satisfying breakfast, we headed out for Muir Woods, thinking the chill might just maybe keep some of the tour buses away (don't bet on it). On the way we had to stop for this view...

Clawhammer Banjo for the Rank Beginner...

I will talk about Clawhammer Banjo in a minute, but first-

Disclaimer: After many years of exams and studying (and working full time as an "intern" for about 8 years), I finally got my Architect's License in June of last year. Whether by coincidence or by design (or both?), not long after that my workload increased dramatically and it hasn't let up since. As an architect, it's better to be "too busy" than "not busy enough" so I'll stop complaining right there... but it sure makes it hard to find time to practice playing music, and I haven't been to a concert since November, so...

Anyway, since January I've been taking Clawhammer Banjo classes at the Freight (finally putting that banjo to use.)  This week we just started the second series of beginner lessons- and it is so fun!  I've been learning to play (slowly) about a song a week- Cripple Creek, Waterbound, Cotton Eye Joe... and this week, June Apple and the introduction of drop-thumbing, a technique that adds some versatility to the strum pattern.  I'm turning into sort of a banjo geek- I'd geek out even more if I could find the time.  I'm not sure what I'll do with my newly-earned banjo skills; I hear there are trad music groups that just get together and jam, but I'm not quite there yet.

Banjo lessons conflict with open mic nights at the Freight (Tuesday nights at almost the same time) so I'm trying to psych myself up to play the first open mic after lessons end.  My friend JT is an excellent guitarist and we've been tossing the idea around of maybe playing an open mic together.  Wouldn't that be nostalgic...

Concerts on the Road: LA, Berkeley and Seattle

I've been rattling around the Golden West the last few months seeing a few choice shows here and there. I made a trip down to LA (Burbank to be more specific) in early October especially to see Elbow at the Greek Theatre.  The week before, I had seen another favorite, Bon Iver at the Berkeley Greek, with opening act Other Lives.  Most recently, I took a long weekend in Seattle and stopped in to the Neptune theater to see The Belle Brigade and Dawes.

Two Open Mikes in One Week. 08.2011

Last month I made my annual summer trip to upstate new york to visit family and friends, and squeezed in not one but TWO open mikes in Saratoga Springs.
Open Mic #1 was at Caffe Lena, a career-launching coffeehouse venue for some well-known songwriters, Bob Dylan and Ani DiFranco among its distinguished alums. Growing up in that area, I heard much about its reputation but never worked up the nerve to go play there during my high school days. 

Open Mic Progress - 07.12.11

I did it- I finally dragged myself back to the Freight and Salvage open mic night to try again, and I'm happy to report that it went much better! It's been about 8 months since my last attempt; hopefully it won't be 8 months before I do it again. I'd like to do it at least once a month.

I played a cover this time (Bad Reputation by Freedy Johnston), which feels a little like cheating since so many of the open mic folks play their own songs. I figured that I have been playing Bad Reputation since my high school days (well over ten years, that is) and it's so simple that I should be able to play it in my sleep. So when my fingers turn into spaghetti and my brain goes into cold shutdown, I should be able to get through it without forgetting the words... and it seems to have held true. I was pretty happy with it despite still being very nervous.

I have to say the guys from my study group were awesome- they were my "entourage." They all showed up and kept me company, and kept me from getting too nervous while I waited. I seem to have odd luck (or maybe it only seems this way to me) with performing immediately after the best performers of the night- this time I played right after an amazing south american quartet and a laid-back sweet voiced guy from Humboldt. He sang a song about a beautiful day, and he looked as comfy and happy as if he was sitting on his front porch watching the sunset he was singing about. Maybe I should watch more sunsets...