I've been remiss. I'm ok with that. Here's a bit of mostly outdated news.
I've been playing about a show a week since the start of September. That's a decent amount for me. It's been great. Mostly pro bono work, but stuff that I want to be involved with--friends whose company I enjoy and whose art I want to support. Venue shows, outdoor shows, church shows, coffee shop shows, house shows. Cello, upright bass, electric bass. Even led worship at my church a couple weeks ago--while playing electric. That was a fun challenge for me. And leading worship is often one of the ways that I most experience joy in Christ.
The last couple months of shows have clarified my take on music in my life here in Nashville. I want to be involved with stuff I want to be involved with. I want to support my friends in their art-making. If that's the case, then pro bono is fine. Money is an added bonus.
This past Saturday, I played a surprise wedding with a friend. Guests thought they were coming for a nice dressy engagement party. But partway through, the couple announced that they were going to have the wedding right then and there in the house. There was a break to set up the room and change into the wedding dress, then Charlie and I played "I Just Don't Think I'll Ever Get Over You" (from the Garden State soundtrack) for the processional. Less than 10 minutes later: married. And awesome.
Less awesome was finally finding the mouse that had been decomposing in our house for a couple days. My housemate and I searched all over--up in the attic, down in the basement, all over the kitchen. Until finally we pulled the oven from the wall, unscrewed the back panel to open it up, and--
Yeah, it was nice and bloated, stuck up in some wiring. Gross. But, situation resolved.
Less resolved has been some unusual stuff at work. An ethical lapse on the part of a co-worker. We're working through the fallout there, and we're a pretty small department. It's been tricky. But I have a clearer picture now than 24 hours ago of God's capacity to bring redemption out of it. We'll see how it plays out. But that's been hard.
I've been listening to Sara Groves' forthcoming album, Fireflies and Songs. It's mellow. It suits me right now.
I leave on Wednesday for the Christian Community Development Association conference up in Cincinnati. A bunch of folks from my church are going this year, so that's great. The road trip and getting away a bit will be nice, too.
Gang and gun crime hit really close to home a couple weeks ago. A teenager I know whose picture is up on the Nashville Police press release website, charged with attempted homicide. There's more to it, of course. But it's pretty heart-breaking--not just the event itself, but all sorts of circumstances around it and in the aftermath. All the ways that this is almost normal--or at least very much within the realm of understandable reality--for his family. It's gotten me re-engaged with the family, though, which has been good. I hadn't seen them as much lately.
I could say more about how I'm changing and how I'm not changing. Mostly how I'm not changing. But not right now. I probably don't have the perspective, anyway.
Lastly, I leave you with another music video. I played a show on bass for Charlie a couple weeks ago. He is one of the artists on a music subscription service called Brite Revolution--$5 flat monthly fee, for which you get mostly unreleased/exclusive content from their whole roster of artists.
Anyway, Brite had a showcase for the Next Big Nashville 4-day quasi-music festival--tons of shows in a whole lot of venues all over the city. Buy a bracelet, see whatever you want. I learned the night before the gig that I was getting a free bracelet out of it, which was awesome, since I wasn't up for paying $40 for one just on my own. I saw great shows all four nights, including Sarah Siskind and The Civil Wars.
Back to Charlie. He wanted to do a Smashing Pumpkins cover--a song I had never heard before (sorry, my 90's friends)--"Bullet with Butterfly Wings." Here you go:
Oh yeah, I almost forgot. My glasses fell into a fire over the weekend and burned like awesome. So I had to wear my sports glasses for the last couple days. Thankfully my new ones (that I had already ordered before said fire incident) arrived today. Although I was mentally preparing myself for going to CCDA in my rec specs and meeting all sorts of new people and telling them what planet I was from. Or challenging them to a game of racquetball right then and there.
