Monthly Archives: June 2014

brain injury, ocf

wtf?

okay, it’s the 30th of june and i haven’t been ranting about SACBO (which happened last weekend) and OCF (which occurs in a little more than a week)…

WTF, ‘eh?

oh, yeah… i’ve also got a parade in darrington with the fighting instruments of karma on the 4th of july. unfortunately, i believe my mother-in-law is coming for the whole weekend, rather than us going to see her, so it won’t get me out of seeing her, as i believed it would… oh well…

fact is, i am pretty apathetic about the whole thing this year. i’ve got a few photos from SACBO, which i haven’t looked at myself, and once the phil got its ritz performance time confirmed (which was last month), i really can’t be arsed to care very much. it will, undoubtedly, be all screwed up by the time i arrive at OCF, and, even if it isn’t, it’ll all be over soon anyway…

ned has decided that he can’t see me any longer. i’ve got two more appointments with him before eight years of “counselling” goes up in smoke. the people he recommended can’t help me, and when he said that they could contact him, they responded by saying that they are restrained by HIPAA from contacting him about me, even if i ask them to… it all has to do with medicare (which i have, but doesn’t include “mental health” coverage) and medicaid (which i don’t have, but which does include “mental health” coverage). apparently the company he works for now (which used to be part of the “public health” system, but is now a privately run company called navos) decided that they are only going to accept medicaid payments, and because of the fact that i don’t have medicaid, i’m being tossed out on my ear. now, technically, i don’t need to see a counsellor for anything any longer… apparently that requirement went away when i qualified for disability (which includes medicare), and i’m doing fairly well, recently, which means that, theoretically, i could just dump ned after two more appointments and be done with it… but… i’ve been in counselling for a LONG time, and it doesn’t feel right to just throw it away… not only that, but moe seems to think that, despite the fact that most of what ned and i talk about these days is frivolous stuff, it would be a good idea to continue in counselling… and i don’t totally disagree with her.

malfunctioning people

who?

who the hell is kim kardashian anyway?

i mean, i’ve heard of her, but who is she? what has she done that i should have heard about?

and being the subject of a “reality” television show, and marrying kanye west are not among the things she has done that i should have heard about… 😐

also, being the subject of a sex video is something nobody should have heard about, except the people involved in making it, so that doesn’t count either… 😐

what i’m talking about is what wikipedia refers to as “notability”… what has she done “of note” that i should have heard about?

ETA: now that i come to think about it, i had similar questions about arsenio hall… who?

miscellaneous, ocf, philharmonic, players, SACBO, snake suspenderz / alive, wedding anniversary

SACBO, OCF et cetera

we have three snake suspenderz gigs next week. tuesday we have a gig at horizon house, which we played for last year to great acclaim. thursday we have a gig at the university house, wallingford, which doesn’t pay enough and only wants “background music” for their art opening (they could easily afford to pay us twice the amount they are, out of petty cash, considering how swank and regal the place is, but it’s for a friend of a friend, so we can’t really say much). saturday we have SACBO, which is in a new place this year. apparently, in spite of the crowds of people who attend, the fremont solstice fair budget is on the “shoe-string” level, and they decided to use the parking lot that we have been holding SACBO in for the past few years as a “pay-for” concert venue, which means that SACBO has to move to the former sound mind & body parking lot. it’s good because there won’t be the possibility for loud interruptions, like what happened last year, and it’s a nicer location, with more shade, right next to the water.

this year will also be the 14th 16th anniversary (this is why my wife is always right and i am always wrong) of our wedding, which now moves into the class of things i have done for the longest amount of time in my life, including smoking cannabis and being a musician.

the fighting instruments of karma (for which i am now, more-or-less, the “official” tuba player) has a parade in which i am actually going to be “marching”, in darrington, on the 4th of july. moe says i “dodged a bullet” because her mom wants us to come down to portland for a barbecue on the 4th. i’m still not totally sure whether moe will attend or not (although i don’t see any reason why not), but at this point, i’m grateful for anything that puts distance between me and moe’s mother.

then OCF happens from july 8th (or 9th, at the latest) until the 14th. we are already scheduled to perform at the ritz, on saturday, 12th july, at 7:30 pm. if you’re interested, and in the area, i encourage you to come: it is, definitely, not to be missed. both kiki and sasha are cast members this year, which means that stuart will be the pro-tem leader of the band, we will have an alternate drummer (possibly) and at least one new player whose name i have seen bandied about in email, but have never actually met. the philharmonic still hasn’t had any rehearsals, and there is no new music, although some is rumoured to exist, at least in kiki’s mind… in other words, we’re coming into OCF with practically no rehearsals at all, and (at this point) no rehearsals with the cast… just like normal… i’m not even 100% sure what show we are doing this year (although i think it might be “Sleeping Beauty”)…

it’s gotten to be so much of a “tradition” that i’m not particularly worried any longer, but it still causes a small amount of stress.

vedanta society

vedanta

i went to the vedanta society this morning, for the first time in a very long time indeed. swamiji’s talk was on the utility of being a fool, which is a talk that i am sure i have heard before, but it was probably before my injury, because i don’t remember exactly when. it is full of relevant quotes from everyone from socrates, who, after his wife poured a bucket of water on him during an argument, said “it is very common that after a blustering wind, you get rain” to swamiji, himself, who said “politicians are like toilets in your home: it’s impossible to get on without them, but they are difficult to keep clean and require frequent flushing”.

what i took away from it is that it is far easier, and far more fun to say that you know nothing than it is to claim to know it all, even if you do know it all… which nobody does, because knowledge is infinite.

ramakrishna said “i am the worst of the fools (nirakshara = unlettered), but i know akshara (the infinite)”.

the chapel is exactly as i remember it from years ago, down to the pattern in the brocade cover on the lectern… i suspect that even the fake flowers in the sconces on the walls are the same as they were 40 years ago. the guy who was greeting people at the front door chuckled and said that he hadn’t seen me in a while…

my recollection is that the last time i went to the vedanta society was shortly after my injury, when we were still living in renton… and before that was probably while we were living on beacon hill.

but as familiar as it was, and as nice as it was to be there, i wasn’t overwhelmed with a desire to be a part of that community, as i was 40 years ago. it was really good to hear swamiji speak — he hasn’t changed a bit, which is somewhat surprising considering how long it has been — but, after the talk he said “haven’t i seen you before?”… yeah, you’ve seen me before: i was a student of yours for 15 years, i asked you to officiate my wedding, and i’ve been coming here since the mid-’70s… i was just thinking about it this morning: i have been coming to the vedanta society since shortly after someone planted a bomb near the front door and tried to burn the place down. i started coming while they were still in the process of rebuilding. i’m not particularly surprised that he didn’t remember me, though, because he sees thousands of people in a month, and he interacts with them far more than he has with me for the past 20 years or so… and it is a 45 minute drive to get there now…

the way i feel now is that if i’m going to drive 45 minutes to go somewhere, i’m going to choose places that challenge me to learn new things, and, to be honest, i’ve heard all of swamiji’s talks several times over. it is nothing against swamiji, or the vedanta society, but if i’m gonna drive 45 minutes, that early in the morning, i would get a lot more out of it if i were going busking. 😎

fort worden, karass, ocf, SACBO, snake suspenderz / alive, tuba

meh

i’m still alive and kicking, however at this point, whenever i think about posting anything the “meh” takes over.

i played for NANDA‘s 10th anniversary in the balloon hangar at ft. worden, which is now called the “McCurdy Pavillion”. 35 years ago, when i first came across it, it was a mouldy, forgotten world war II relic, taken over by the navy, that had been officially abandoned for 10 years or so. it’s amazing what a little bit of paint and a few hundred thousand dollars can do to a place. i spent saturday morning re-visiting the sacred sound-spaces with which i have become so familiar over the past 35 years, played music with members of my karass, and slept in a motorhome in port townsend. if i had my way, i would have spent quite a bit more time exploring the subterranean vaults, but i had to get thaddeus back so that he could take care of his obligations. i noticed, however, that port townsend is a little more than an hour’s drive from here, which (on heavy traffic days) is not that much further than seattle, which has got me wondering why i don’t get out to port townsend more frequently.

along the same lines, i have been in discussion with eben, clayton and andrew (the leader, and the two other tuba players for the fighting instruments of karma, respectively), and it has been more or less decided that i am now the “official” tuba player for the SANCApators. SANCA is a place in georgetown that is most known for its “School Of Flight”, but offers a variety of classes for all levels, including “drop in” classes in trapeze (the idea of which makes me wonder a little). they have classes in a number of pursuits that, i think, would be both fun and “therapeutic”, such as tumbling, acrobatics, juggling and so forth… it would be interesting to take classes there, but i would have to be sure that they knew about my brain injury, and talk with them about how it would be accounted for.

i’ve got 3 snake suspenderz gigs in the next three weeks: one at horizon house, which we played for a couple of years ago, one at university house, wallingford, which i booked in spite of objections from hobbit, and one at SACBO. the day SACBO starts, i am also going to be showing off my art car at the LeMay Automotive Museum with a whole bunch of other “car-tists”.

through sheer, stubborn will and determination, i got the fremont phil booked at the ritz at OCF before OCF, for the first time EVER… now, instead of wondering when we’re going on, and not knowing until 15 minutes before it actually happens (like what happened last year), we know, ahead of time, that we’re going on at 7:00 pm, saturday, 12th july, and OCF hasn’t even started yet! now, insha’llah, barring unforseen (and 51% likely, due to HIF) other circumstances, we actually know when we’re going to be playing at the naked hippie sauna… 😎