goldengram

how am i not myself?

today was a great day.
leading in from yesterday actually.
last nite was the sf weekly music awards.
we were nominated for best pop band so we showed up for the ceremony at ruby skye, the cheesy dance club. i mean, they put an extra E on there. it is cheese.
so, we showed up early for the open bar and free food.

i had my first shot(s) of fernet at garrett kamp's (the music editor who helped get us nominated) recommendation.
mmmh, cough medicine-y.
we were up against two other bands, citizens here and abroad (who i like) and the monolith (who i've never heard or met).
as i write now, i listen to chutes too narrow, because it has been too long. it is emotional and weird to hear becuz the live show which i was privy to for one special month is a lot different from the record. james has changed his singing parts. he belts out the refrains on "Mine's Not A High Horse from the album Chutes Too Narrow by The Shins" an octave higher in more of a yell than the mellow tone on the record.
i digress.
we won the award for the best pop band. rogue wave.
me and pat and zach went up to accept the award. zach said thanks and handed the mic to me but i had nothing to say, i was just happy to be there. and happy that zach at least tried to hand me the mic to say something.
we're a band now. things have changed.
we are so crouching right now, getting ready for the hardcore touring we are gonna do in january and february.
we will pounce.
so the awards ceremony was silly, i did not enjoy the music, except for the DJs, and the not free drinks were overpriced.
the weirdest part of the whole thing for me was that they didn't announce the nominees.
they just got up there and said "OK, next up, we have the award for best hard rock band. And the winner is..."
isn't that strange? you would think they would at least announce the names of the losers since a lot of them went through the trouble of going to the thing knowing they might lose, just like us.
whatevs.
i got up this morning and went to my favorite yoga class, taught by baxter bell at berkeley ironworks gym.
today was especially good.
i got there a little late, which really means about 3 minutes early instead of 5 to 7 minutes early. people show up early to get a good spot for his class.
so i have to sit right in front of baxter which isn't a bad thing. so we start as usual sitting and meditating, with baxter explaining more yoga philosophy and such.
the we go into dandasana, or staff pose, where you are sitting with your legs straight out in front of you and your arms are behind you.
our feet are almost touching and after a minute or so, baxter says "our feet are so close, i just want to touch them so we can get more of a stretch", so i move in closer so we can push against each other's feet and we do get more of a stretch through our ankles and calves.
so then things veer off and baxter has everyone turn around to face the person in the row behind them and touch feet to help stabilize our poses.

it feels great and the energy in the room is positive. we spend most of the rest of the class doing partner poses, helping each other get deeper into ourselves and our stretches.
i stared into a stranger's eyes from a foot away for over 2 minutes. what an experience.
excuse the pun, but, that will open your eyes to how disconnected we all are.
it was a moving class. one of my favorites ever.
baxter apologized for not having it be more of a work out, but i left feeling more emotionally and spiritually refreshed than i have in a while.
so after that, i ran 3 miles, lifted some weights and then went home.
and then i went and saw I heart huckabees, directed by david o. russell. it is the best movie i have seen since eternal sunshine of the spotless mind.
russell made spanking the monkey, then flirting with disaster and three kings, which are all favorites of mine.
he captures a real part of life that i understand,
the cast is flawless:
jason schwartzman, dustin hoffman, lily tomlin, mark wahlberg, jude law, naomi watts.
awesome. i left feeling so awesome.
especially after the morning yoga meditation.
there was a theme to this day.
i left the movie not knowing what to do so i rode my bike out to the emeryville marina and watched the sun set over the bay.
i talked to my friend david in nyc and just mostly thought about my life lately. it was amazing.
now i am sitting at home, totally content. i am going to play some guitar and go to bed.
oh yeah, one more thing.
my good friend, terri from (call and response) and my good friends kori and jason (from mates of state) both had babies this year.
band kids!
and they are sinisterly cute. you gotta see this photo of them together. felix is on the left, maggie on the right. lovely:


love,

gg

friday five plus one

1. moving into a new place next month. its an art gallery, where they had that black dice, animal collective, comets on fire show last month. and its $200 CHEAPER than where i live now:
www.lobotgallery.com

2. the arcade fire - funeral, this record rules. canadians are rocking me this year.

3. fresh tomato bloody maries, get a bunch of organic heirlooms at the farmers market and blend 'em up. amazing.

4. playing my first solo shows in 2 years as golden gram on saturday at cafe van kleef and now on monday at lobot! me and the phantom drummer are gonna kick down some duo jamz.
check out the flyer me and devin satterfield made below. we will be playing almost exclusively ICS compositions. and we've got jeff johnson from kitchen sink magazine doing some bass on a few jamz with us as well.
10:30 $5
@ cafe van kleef
1621 telegraph avenue in downtown oakland

5. brick day!!! even though i don't have a job to call in sick to, i'm still going.
see you at the stork club at 1 today.

BONUS 6. rogue wave appearing on the Napoleon Dynamite soundtrack alongside such amazing artists as Bow wow wow, Yaz, and When in Rome.
how the heck did that happen?
love,


gram
phantomdrummer.com roguewavemusic.com

all email lists are the same.

its just a matter of you trying not to brag about how much you know (and who you know) so you will look cooler than the other people on the list that aren't afraid to go ahead and brag.
cuz you know the coolest people on any list are the ones that rarely get drawn into the silliness of arguing on the internet.
i must admit that on one list in my past, the idea of actually fighting someone was entertained, but, of course, he started it.
He said something to the effect of, well, i better not see you out at a show sometime. don't introduce yourself. or maybe i'm lying. either way, i've seen it happen. so it exists.

so, pick a list.
i think its funner, and (funnier) to join an email list for a subject you know nothing about and just be the idiot. that way you dont even get all upset about it.
cuz it doesn't matter to you whether a '73 maytag washer dryer combo actually came in avocado like you said it did. seriously.

gg

listening: Neighborhood #3 (Power Out) from the album Funeral by The Arcade Fire

plus another gem from mr. shea, from an email list of course.

From: "eric shea" Subject: Re: GHOOOOOOST!
...

White Magic sounded like a generic indie band to me.
You know, make sure there's no bass and put a demure and bored girl up on stage whose fans in the crowd will hush your drunk ass with finger-to-the-mouth-shushes louder than you are when you run into a buddy, and who will refer to the demure bored girl by her first name, as if they were on a first name basis, even though they so are not, and if they were, it really wouldn't be any different than if they were on a first name basis with...oh, let's say the girl from Mocket.

Posted by goldengram at 05:08 PM | Comments (0)