shitty end to a shitty year

I thought this one might be better than '04--hoo boy was I wrong! Well, I had my surgery two days before Christmas, and that went well I'm told. Wow, the anesthesia certainly worked, because I don't remember anything after they moved me on to the operating table--the next thing I knew I was lying on a bed with a cute nurse monitoring me, and it was all over. I was able to leave later the same day.

Nevertheless, it still sucks. I can't walk, drive, work, or do much of anything really. Just bathing is a chore. I can't ever get completely comfortable, lying down or sitting up, and I don't ever really sleep well because I'm used to sleeping on my sides or stomache. But then I know it could be a lot worse. I'm surprised to learn how many other people I know have had similar bad breaks, with pins, plates and screws inside them.
Some good side effects are that I've been reading more than I have in a long time, and I've been able to play guitar--although I'm doing a lot more fingerpicking and writing new tunes that way. It's just more of a hassle to strum chords with the way I'm usually situated in bed. One weird thing is that the tip of my right thumb is still numb. After the surgery, my entire forearm and thumb was numb, although now it's just that tip. I'm hoping it'll come back soon, but it hasn't hurt the guitar playing at all.

I've also been watching a lot of second-tier college football bowl games, and I've actually been surprised at how good most of them have been. Makes me worry that the big games will be a bust(go FSU, beat those demonic Nittany Lions!)

Anyway, good riddance '05, and here's hoping that I'll be setting off a metal detector near you in 2006.
Seacrest, out.

Ape Man

Anyone else have these Ray Davies lyrics running through their heads lately?

I think I’m sophisticated
’cos I’m living my life like a good homosapien
But all around me everybody’s multiplying
Till they’re walking round like flies man
So I’m no better than the animals sitting in their cages
In the zoo man
’cos compared to the flowers and the birds and the trees
I am an ape man


Can't figure out why...

worse, worser

Of course something like this has to happen when I'm at such a low point. On Friday night, I was walking out to my car in a grocery store parking lot, slipped on ice that I didn't see, and snapped my leg right above my ankle. It's fractured in two places, on both sides of the leg.
Luckily there were some other people right there who saw what happened, and called an ambulance right away. After arriving at the emergency room, they determined that I need surgery, to insert some sort of pin and plate, or bracing device.
I went back to see the orthopedic surgeon yesterday, but they won't be operating until at least next week, because of the swelling and soft tissue damage.

I do want to say that everyone at Hershey Medical Center has been great, the ER people, orthopedic people, and also the financial department(it looks like I'll be covered either by the state or the hospital's own assistance program).

Still, this is just the last thing I needed. On my right leg, so I can't drive, I have to use crutches and can't put any weight on it, the most basic activities take ten times as much energy, and it just generally sucks.
It was like some sort of NFL injury that you see on t.v., and cringe--I soon as I hit the ground, I could see the bones shifting back and forth. It hurt like hell, of course. The one comic aspect of the whole incident was when a store employee came outside and started throwing salt on the ground, after I was lying there in agony.

So how was your weekend?

Travis picking

I've been listening to the Beatles' "White Album" a lot recently, and I dug out an old guitar magazine that had an article about the making of the album, as well as a discussion of the guitar playing on several tracks.

Apparently John Lennon learned the "Travis" fingerpicking style from Donovan while they were both visiting India. The magazine also included guitar tabs for this type of playing, so I sat down and figured it out myself. I was pretty happy, since I haven't really learned anything new on the guitar in quite some time, and it's always good to have new chord or lick or whatever to incorporate into your own songwriting. I'm pretty much self-taught on guitar(although I took years of lessons for piano and brass instruments), and have always been more of a strumming and rythmic barre-chord kind of player--so it was nice to learn something different, although it's probably something that most guitar players learn at an earlier stage.

Anyway, you can hear what I'm talking about on Lennon tracks such as "Dear Prudence", the first part of "Happiness is a Warm Gun", and "Julia".

Ever notice?

Did you ever notice how, when someone begins a sentence with "No offense, but..", it's usually followed by the most offensive or insulting statement you can imagine?

Maybe it's just me.

There and back

The performance last night went well, although there were a couple snags leading up to it. After arriving at my friend's place in Erie, I realized that I forgot to bring my microphones. But she informed me that the PA system included mics and stands, so no worries. Then I open my guitar case, and realize that I didn't have any picks, which was annoying because I could have sworn that I had put them in there. So I go to a music store nearby and buy a bag of them.

After that, everything was fine, although I was nervous leading up to it, since I haven't played in front of others much at all. There was a little stage in the corner of the room, and I said something about not wanting to be the center of attention. The woman in charge of the event said something like "since when does a musician not want to be noticed?" Luckily, the whole thing was casual, most of the people were talking amongst themselves, drinking and eating, while I was playing. But afterwards, everyone said it sounded good, including my friend. She made a valid point, which was that she wouldn't have asked me to play there if she didn't think I was decent.

So, I got a needed bit of confidence, and hopefully I'll be able to play out more, in venues where the main focus is the music. After the party, we went out to the Docksider in downtown Erie and saw a really good local band called the Starfish. It was a nice night, with snow falling and that neat glow and hushed sound that comes with it.
So now I'm back. The five hour drive each way can be a drag, but it was worth it.

Fucking RIAA

Where does it end?