Delilah and I went to a Halloween party at Craig and Virginia's Saturday night. The had invited a bunch of parents and kids over for the festivities. The "big kids" (read:adults) ended up taking over the living room, where we hung out and listened to a live Peter Gabriel that Craig's brother Paul brought. This ended up in an impromptu drum jam (of course, you get a bunch of percussion puppies together and that's bound to happen).

Later, we ended up in the "multimedia room" (read: basement) and Craig put on the DVD of Baraka. Virginia and Paul had never seen it before, and were totally amazed. It's an awesome piece of filmaking and if you havent seen it, I highly suggest that you get your hands on a copy.


The little kids (Delilah, Sarah, Emmy and Madison) all were up in the play room (in the 3rd floor) and were rarely heard from all night. The kids were in their costumes (and some of the adults) and since the weather was warm, Delilah got to wear her fairy costume without her street clothes underneath. She looked so adorable- as did all the kids.

Delilah decided to sleep over, but insisted that I stay till it was time to put her to bed. So I never got out of there till kind of late. I was thinking of possibly going to Brian's house for the Blessed Beat drum circle, but I would have arrived way too late. So I went home instead.

Frights, Fires, Flares!
I dunno why I've been so beat lately, but it seems that every night when I want to take a chance to log in and write here, I tend to be dozing off. So I have a few days worth of stuff to say....

Frights:
Last night, I took Delilah Trick-Or-Treating for the first time in a few years. We went out with Roger, Michelle and Cullen and the Curtiss clan. The kids had a great time, but it seemed that the adults got pretty worn out. I crashed right after I put Del to bed. Roger and Danine took a ton of pictures, and I will post a few from Roger when I get them. Danine dosent have a digital camera, so when they get developed, I'll try to get a scan done of them.

Fires:
In other news, Chuck Dube' sent me a link to a radio station transmitter site that was totally destroyed by the wildfires that are ravaging Southern California. It just amaszes me that the power of Mother Nature can be so firece and destructive. When will we learn that we cannot conquer her and we must learn to live in harmony with her.

Flares:
I went out Thursday night to try and see some of the Aurora (Northern Lights) that was supposed to be out. I went up to the baseball field in Portland that was by our old house, and I think I saw just a tinge of a red glow above the light pollution. Harry emailed me a report that he had seen the lightshow in Colebrook.

The last time that I saw the Northern Lights was with Harry back in 1999 at the Colebrook Dam. We had been hanging out there just shooting the breeze and I noticed what seemed like light pollution in the distance. No sooner than I had pointed it out to Harry, the sky was just dancing with colors. That lasted about 45 minutes and then it vanished just as soon as it had appeared.

I had experienced another sighting of the lights back in 1989 while driving on interstate 91 north of Northampton, MA. We got to the rest area in the Hadley area and it seemed the whole highway had stopped to look at the spectacle that Mother Nature unleashed that evening. I think that was the same solar flare that wreaker havoc on Canada's power grid that year.
The image of the northern lights is from Geofffox.com

Wow! Who would have thought that I could go an ENTIRE DAY without even powering up the PC at home? I didn't even really feel the motivation to turn it on last night. So of course, when I got home today I had like 60something new email messages. Of course 3/4 of them were from the Blessed Beat list, but new messages nonetheless.

And now....a look into the future:
Either my voice mail can see into the future, or there's some kinda bug with the time switch. When I retrieved my messages tonight, it told me that the message was left "tomorrow at 4:14". That must be a new service that SNET/SBC is offerring. I also noticed that the AM/PM designation of the time was incorrect yesterday. Looks like someone was asleep at THAT switch late Saturday night.......

Mike and I stopped over to visit Dennis Waring today. In addition to being the author of several books, he's an ethnomusicologist, musician, and the official Connecticut State Troubadour. Anyway, Dennis has traveled the world, collecting musical instruments from all over the place. Going over there is like visiting a museum, but more comfortable. I'd love for Dennis to come over and decorate my place!!!

Dennis is part of the musical group Sirius Coyote, a group I was first introduced to when they were recording at Mike's Studio (now known as The Coffeehouse) in 1991. My daughter really loves listening to their stuff, so when I mentioned that to Dennis, he gave her a copy of their latest CD! Cool!

It's 10:00 err 11:00...oh, right it's really 10:00!! Did you remember to turn your clock back?? I just had a really serious brainstorm this morning....instead of screwing with the clocks TWICE a year, why don't we just comprimise, and change then a half hour ONCE and then leave them there. Kinda split the difference between daylight time and standard time? What do you think National Bureau of Standards??

Tonight, I took a trip to Madison to an event at Pete the Didg guy's place. His venture, Didgequest threw an event called Didgi-Dance. I had beeen expecting a little dancing around the fire, accompanied by some drumming and sounds of the didg. What I hadn't expected was the ammount of energy that was raised!!!

Pete had built a great bonfire in the center of the circle, and people had begun to gather around it in the crisp fall evening. The night was perfect weatherwise. A bit cool, but the sky was cloudless and starry. At one point I was looking towards the South, looking up at Mars, and lone shooting star streaked across the sky! Amazing!

I had a chance to sit by the perimeter of the circle and meditate a bit and get into the serious energy that was there. Though I was a bit cold, I could swear that I actually was in a state of semi-trance and could not feel the coldness of the night. There was so much energy there that I felt a little vibration from all of it.

Before we danced and moved under the stars, Two Dogs from the Mohegan tribe provided a blessing to the group in the traditional Mohegan tongue. He then proceeded to work around the group, smudging each of us (I just love the smell of sage!).

Most of the evening was some great dancing around the now raging bonfire, with the accompaniment of Pete on didg, John, Craig, Baba David Coleman and the other Pete on drums and percussion and Two Dogs on flute. They were throwing down a serious groove and I really wanted to break out the Doumbek and join them (Craig told me later that I should have), but I stayed with the dancers.

After the dancing, Two Dogs started off a Mohegan song that we had all been invited to join in on, and it became like a mini drum jam. So I got my fill of playing in as well. As I write this, I'm still feeling the energy that was raised tonight.

Well, last night Mike and I got together at the studio to go over the multitrack recordings of the band from last week. We listened to most of what we recorded Monday night, and man was it HOT! I think we'll have a tough time selecting only 1 CD full of stuff to mixdown...Peter at the Gatekeeper and the other guys in the band are gonna love it!

In other stuff, things have been pretty normal for the most part....work is work and life is life....what can I say......

In the CD player recently:
Jack Johnson- On and On
Stevie Wonder- Original Musiquarium 1
Rolling Stones- Exile on Main St.
Peter Gabriel- Passion

I'm finally getting around to posting some pictures that were taken over the summer. Delilah and I went to the Beardsley Zoo in Bridgeport back in August. Here's a picture of us riding on the carousel.

Delilah went to a "playtivity" function thrown by Craig and Virginia tonight. They made percussion instruments out of ordinary household items (gee, you think??). The parents werent allowed to join the group till 8PM, so John and Darcy Boiano and me went to Wild Oats for them to do some shopping, and me to kill some time.

Well, I did do a little shopping, I picked up some Dr. Bronner's Soap (man, I still love that stuff...after all these years) and the ever so elusive bottle of Skin Trip (EMS Stopped carrying it, I think...)

When we got back to the house, Delilah and the girls were having a great time, and then the parents all joined and did some activities together. We did a little rythym oriented stuff and did what ammounted to a mini-drum circle at the end. So, all in all, it was a cool night for both Delilah and myself.

I was informed by my boss today that the decision by corporate has been made- 2 people from our shop will be getting the axe by the end of the year. Now, we only have 5 people in our shop, so the odds are a little disturbing to me. I think that I do a good job, and am dependable, but who knows what criteria that they will use to get rid of people. This comes on the tails of me finding that I got a raise last week- ironic, eh??

Tonight, I'm just kinda hanging out at home....relaxing for a change. Monday and Tuesday were very long days, as we did the CU Next Tuesday recording sessions. And I had to work early Tuesday morning after Monday night's performance. I was beat!

So, tonight was the first night that I was able to just hang and relax. And guess what? Having nothing to do tonight actually got me bummed out. Sometimes I just feel so sick of being alone, and then I get to thinking about the string of fucked up relationships that I had and actually dread of having to deal with that again.

So, what am I to do?? I kinda feel like I'm damned if I do, damned if I don't. I mean I hate feeling lonley, but it seems everytime I feel I get close to someone that I feel comfortable with, things come to an abrubt halt. So here I am....

Let's reprise this:
In the CD Player today:
Three Doors Down
Tor Dietchricson- Global Village
Diana Krall- When I look into Your Eyes
The Beatles- 1
Rythym of Our Souls Mix (thanks Craig!)
Sunday Morning Coffee Mix (thanks Me!)

I actually flipped by MTV on the tube tonight and saw them playing videos! Not bad, considering they are supposed to be Music Television. Remember when they actually played videos all day long, and not the stupid, repetitive reality-type shows with all the cute young girlies showing cleavage?
Ok, ok, soapbox mode off. And I'm not complaining about the cleavage either!

Tonight's the night! The first of 2 nights of recording CU Next Tuesday at the Gatekeeper. Tonight I get to play yet another role with the band...I get to be the recording engineer! Just add it to my resume :)

Unfortunately, I have to work early tomorrow morning, and it's gonna be killer to record yet again tomorrow night. I have a feeling that when I pick up Delilah on Wednesday night, that I'll be probably going to bed at the same time as her, I'll be so drained!

Had a great time Saturday night! The Naugatuck crew threw a Hayride and Bonfire/Drum Circle at Schrieber's Farm! The weather was perfect for a October evening and it all happened under a nearly full moon. Roger and Brian built a huge bonfire, and after we got back from the hayride, we played around it for the rest of the evening.

The drumming energy wasn't quite as intense as it had been the last couple of times art Brian's house, but it was a great time, and I always enjoy playing along with Pat, Steve and Mike. Some of the usual drummers weren't all that active (I don't think I saw Roger play all night) but we were all having a great time.

I found an interesting weblog (thanks to The Daily Column) today. It's the weblog of Geoff Fox, who is the weatherman at Channel 8 in New Haven, CT. He's got some pretty cool stuff on there.

What gives? Dunkin' Donuts has the nerve to start selling espresso and cappuchino? Trust me, If I wanted a "finer" coffee drink, Dunkin is the last place that I'd go. And those of you who know me know that I love Dunkin Donuts coffee. I hope they don't do to my favorite coffee places that they did to my favorite bagel places when they started selling bagels....

So, go to your favorite locally-owned ocffee shop (I prefer Klekolo World Coffee in Middletown). They allready have enough competition from Starbucks (who I frequent sometimes as well!)

The Pictures are in!!! The pictures from the CU Next Tuesday gig on Labor Day are back. Above, you see just a peek at what I've got! Pictured in front of The Gatekeeper -left to right- Colin, John, Mike, Matt, and Bryan. They're doing a live recording next Monday, and hopefully some of the pictures will be in the artwork for the CD (there will be a CD, right guys??)

So, I guess I'm the "Jack of all Trades" to the band....Roadie, Sound Tech, Crowd Control, Photographer, Percussionist, and occasionally, a Singer!

Delilah and I spent the day with Craig, Virginia and the girls. They were having a tag sale at the house in West Hartford so we went up and hung there for a while. Delilah, Me and Emmy took a walk around West Hartford Center where they are having a display of all these funky cow sculptures. It's called the Cow Parade. My favorite one is the Jackson Pollock looking one. Also check out the Cow Parade Homepage to see where else it's going on.


When in the center, I also stopped in Ten Thousand Villages (yes, AGAIN) and bought another piece of percussion. Ok, Ok I know that I'm a percussion addict.....I also picked up Delilah a cool windchime for her room...and got one for Emmy's new room as well (like any good unofficial Uncle would do!).

Del and I were planning on heading down to Naugatuck tonight, but she started getting a bit tired and cranky, and we had a pretty busy day, so we headed home and called it a night. So here, I am....online.... :)

Miles Played the Blues

A quote from the PBS "The Blues" episode I watched tonight, said by someone comapring Miles Davis and Muddy Waters. Seems like a cool album title for someone......

I had a relatively good day today. Much better than yesterday. Delilah was over last night, so we had the morning ritual. She's been alot better about waking up for school now. What a little cutie :)

Mike and I hung out tonight, watching a little tube, old tapes, records, you name it. He actually had a daytime session today, so he called after he was done...it was good hanging out with him...."What Happened???"