Wow, what a sound!

I just got back from the rehearsal for Yoshi's next week with the big band, El Balajo. I think I lost a few decibels of hearing. We were crammed into a rehearsal room in the Jazz School, all 20 of us! As one of the horn players said, "We've fit in here before, but that was for a college prank!" That's what I love about musicians--great sense of humor. I guess you gotta have one to make up for the lack of money? The band really sounds good, and since pretty much everyone as far as I know in it is very well versed in salsa and latin music the groove is great. Orlando and I are singing, but it was near impossible to hear in there. Anyway, I'm back home practicing again, running through percussion and coro/pregones and reminding myself of the form. Wayne also brought me my songs that I left at his house so I can try to get some more work done on the albums before I go to see him Thursday.

I had a really nice and inspiring conversation yesterday with Laurie, my fellow layoff survivor, and she had a very positive attitude and was urging me to take the time to work on music while I have it. That's my plan, but it is so hard--I've already got some freelance writing/editing/translating/web development gigs lined up, plus there's just so much to do in terms of cleaning out and organizing things before 12/30.

Funny how your perspective changes. Until I latched on to the corporate teat 10 years ago, I had been a freelancer and an itinerant roofer/mechanic/laborer/Xmas carol singer/secretary etc. So working in the office seemed so stifling. Amazingly, I developed levels of self-control neither I nor my parents ever thought I'd achieve. I used to walk down to the Embarcadero and see the sailboats on the water and think, "that's where I'm supposed to be, not inside a building all day." My other fantasy was to just jump in the Bay and swim back home to Oakland. But I conquered it all and grew to enjoy the office and the other day was thinking how much I'd miss my stupid cubicle. Now is that some effective conditioning at work or what? I've just got to turn my perspective back around. It also got a lot trickier when I became a mom in 2000. Made the cubicle sacrifice a lot more palatable.

Anyway, I don't have much choice about being down from here until the Yoshi's gig--this is a big deal for me and I've got to be psyched for it. Thankfully it doesn't all ride on my shoulders--I'm just a small part of that band, but I will have two nice showcase tunes, plus the percussion and coros. I was saying to Murray at the rehearsal that our gig at the Octavia Lounge wasn't so great--it took me nearly two hours to get there with the traffic, and I was dying to go to the bathroom. At one point I pulled over to pee by the street, but I was all dressed up and I just couldn't do it. Figured with as many folks as there are in SF doing just that, it would be my luck that a cop would go past and I'd never even get to my gig. I got back in the car and got to the gig. Once I was there, there were still so many mishaps before we started, and the stage was in a weird new location from the last time, so I wasn't at the top of my game. The table of morose transvestites kind of threw me off too, but I did ask them to sign my mailing list (they didn't).

I do appreciate the support I've gotten from friends and editors and contributors. Larry O'Brien, you really made me laugh with your posting! Thanks to you, to David and to a nameless few others!