Silas Battles The Horsefly

5J2CSJSRWFNW So, yesterday I am on the phone with Silas and all of a sudden I hear all hell break loose! I have had the luck or misfortune to have been on the phone with Silas as he had 3 fender benders and accumulated other "situations".

The funniest one was when he was parked in front of his nephew's in a bad section of Cincinnati and a couple of cop cars pulled up to check him out. Silas talks to everyone on his IPhone thru the truck speakers (I think) so he can be hands free. So I heard everything but I forgot that the cops could hear me too. Silas did his good behavior thing and it got quiet so I said "Are they gone yet" and started to make a funny comment like "Whew, that was a close one, did ya have your ganja put away?" The cops wanted to know what I was talking about but Silas cutting me off saying "I don't want to hear any editorializing"! or something like that. I shut up cause he was loud about it so thought I'd pissed him off. I got off the phone and he called me back as soon as they left and explained he was just trying to shut me up. The whole thing shook us both up cause they could have hauled him in!

Anyway, getting back to yesterday's comedy show, I heard all this commotion and thought maybe he saw a bear or porcupine or another turtle and just wanted to take a picture. After much noise, slamming doors and such, he said something about escaping a fly that was a foot long!! I kid you not, Silas was battling a fly! I laughed until my sides hurt and still get tickled about it.

So, I guess we better make sure the camera is always charged on this adventure cause there will definitely be lots of comedy! Let's see, what else do we need, oh yes, a fly swatter.

The Silas & Bibi Odyssey

I think of what Silas and I will be starting in a few short weeks as more of an odyssey than anything. It will be a bit of odd with some messy thrown in, maybe lots! For now, it will be us rambling across America, space and time one full gas tank at a time.

I am just as surprised as most of you that there will be a wedding (date and location yet undetermined) and this morning I accepted a surprise proposal from Silas to be his partner in Second Life. One thing that I have learned about Silas in over three years is to expect the unexpected. He has never disappointed!

His talent in music and writing is easily seen but each of you have your personal view of all that he is--just for you. I have mine, of course, to share just with him. Let's just say it's easy for me to become part of Silas' life and create something we both are passionate about. He is definitely unique and very special as everyone that knows him will attest to. One thing we both said three years ago was that the best in life was ahead of us and here it is. So, let's get this party started!

At the moment, we are extremely busy getting the practical matters of living together into place in addition to dreaming and planning creative and musical adventures. The challenges are huge as you have to remember we will be walking a thin line between being vagabonds and vagrants. How to finance all this is a huge challenge! We hope we can share this adventure across the blog world with clickable ads and I am dreaming of a book to come out of all this in the future. I think Silas' poetry is most worthy of sharing in an e-book at least and will look into that.

Silas doesn't want to sell his music so whether or not live gigs are possible remains to be seen. Donika is checking out Fort Worth now and there are friends like Matthew Perrault in Dallas who may have ideas. Charm March is in Austin and has asked us to come. Pete Mroz is in Nashville and we will be meeting with him soon just to learn what's possible. We had hoped Cincinnati would be home base as there seem to be so many opportunities for indie artists plus we have many friends and family as well. That fell through for the moment but there is hope for the future. We'd love to visit Zak Claxton (Kat) and Grateful Stryker in California and we have lots of musical friends in Seattle. These are just a few of places we'd love to visit if we can! How to do that is up in the air but we have talked about an RV for a home as one possibility. It's all unclear but as we say every day about something "We'll figure it out"!

I guess this is enough of a start of blogging for this girl. I don't like blogs! I don't read them (expect for Silas') and I have no experiencing in writing one. I come from a background of writing about wine and food and music and know nothing about how to blog. Silas is really sticking his neck out to include me in his public perspective of life, but as we all do when he asks something of us, I will do my best for him. Silas loves people to stand up and do something, so here ya go Darlin', see what you started now!

Tour in Retreat in Tennessee

The damage to the Tour in Cincinnati was profound and photographing hummingbirds may not seem that it would serve any purpose toward recovering it.

Half of the set was destroyed as it's not possible to use back tracks anymore.  Since the majority of my songs are more than one part, that takes almost all of them out of contention for a live show.  I'm not interested in recorded music so that doesn't leave a whole lot.

The loss of the laptop also cost Cincinnati as a base for recording.  It's possible that can be corrected at some other location in the future but there's no freedom or time to do that now.

I've talked quite a bit with the Mystery Lady and with Ms Bibi about Just What the Hell Are You Doing and the caps are because it's extremely difficult and complicated, not because anyone is angry about anything.

Despite many lost hopes for Cincinnati, I'm going to Ft Worth and Ms Bibi will meet up somewhere along the way.  I don't want Donika to feel like she's all that's left although circumstances make it appear that way.

My specific purpose is to work up a show all over again and part of that is developing the music and dance sequences we've been considering for the Boudicca Act.  Although my original material is not lost, it's unavailable for live and that makes it useless to me.  At times it overwhelms me as it's been so many years in building for that type of show.  To see all that flushed by a water leak is like something out of a Terry Gilliam movie.

Ms Bibi has used Andrew Bird as an example of someone who does just fine in a solo act with multiple instruments and loopers.  It's a good example but it's not the fact that a single person can do it that intrigues me.  The long-time regulars will almost certainly have heard me say I do it this way because I'm the only one in the studio.

So why be so restrictive as to refuse admission to anyone else to play in the studio.  I loved the Drum God's thunder and I hate it that it will be a long time before getting up this way again but so the Fates decree.

I've got to be very damn clear on what kind of music I'm trying to make or it will turn into bad stew when I bring other people into it.  Some approach music competitively and I throw those competitions right from the start.  OK, you win.  I'm off to find someplace I can jam.  There isn't time for that, tho.

This is largely for Donika to understand as I bet your Guardian Angel would have no problem finding a drummer but how do we know he's the right drummer.  I'm figuring we'll get down there early September as it's going to be slow getting up the money for diesel fuel.

Part of my thinking is that it takes me some time to work up a song if I'm playing all the parts.  It takes some time to get a drum loop going ... then some more to put some bass on it .... then some more time for some keys ... There are times when that's cool and others where I just want the song to rip right into it.  What that means is whether to save loops I've recorded previously or to build all from scratch in every live gig.

So looking at hummingbirds has plenty to do with it.  Being here in Tennessee gives me time to think without any worries about much of anything.  He says I took care of him for a long time but I don't remember it.  Even if I didn't, he would do what he's doing now anyway.

I fail Lotho and I fail you all if I don't pull it back together again.  At first I didn't think there was any way to recover from the loss of the laptop but it's coming clear to me what I need to do now.  There are some things for which I had no plan and this is one of them.

So this is as much of a plan as I can give you just now.  We'll get down to Texas in early September and I figure it'll be at least a month to put together the music.  Hopefully Donika will be able to use the time with me to work up her moves and The Raven will be able to come down every so often as well.

It's likely we'll try to do some type of gig in the DFW area and this is where we'll discuss things as we'll need the money so what happens if the place isn't big enough for Donika to dance.  I don't think we should take the gig.  We'll talk more and this article is to let you know where it stands just now.

Being on retreat in Tennessee is the best place to be after Cincinnati and things will pick up musically starting in September.

Big Day for Tour Design

The most practical place for the next show is in Nashville.  The Raven, Donika, and I talked for a good while and it came down to who has the most troops to bring to the show.  It would be much easier to bring Donika up here for the show than to bring The Raven's people down to Texas or somewhere else so Nashville is it.

We talked quite a bit about the detail of the time and it's very good to see everyone with the same view of it.  Donika has been thinking of using a spear in her dance but The Raven told her it wouldn't be appropriate for the Queen of the Iceni.  It's still premature to get into that level of detail for everything but it was good to hear them going over it.

The Raven has discovered a Roman legion down here as many role-playing groups exist in the area and one of them has a fascination with Roman history.  He will check to see if there's interest in being part of the show.

Great progress and the same thing will happen in reverse when I get down to Texas as the strategy calls will be a big part of coordinating this when people are far apart.

The Galactic Tour is Headed for Nashville

The schedule posted yesterday was to throw off the slumlord or anyone who might be tracking me.  The truck is fully-loaded and will be rolling out in just a few minutes.  I'll get down to Tennessee by mid-afternoon today.

The Tour is once again mobile.  The slumlord destroyed a lot of things but we'll recover and keep on pushing out there.  We've got a whole Galaxy to cover and not a lot of time!

I'll update as I can but that will be difficult without the laptop.  The answer may be to authorize the blog for updates by Ms Bibi so she can post them but I haven't talked to her about that yet.

Much love to you and we're coming out to see you.  Hope it's soon.

Frampton on the Importance of Touring for Music

Frampton: Touring key part of business

This is a quick read from the Cincinnati Enquirer with some thoughts from Peter Frampton on surviving in music and the inadvisability of the continuing creation of musical monoliths that dominate the musical world.

Frampton is sixty and has been touring with Yes, apparently to sell-out crowds.  If you've heard him play lately, you'll know he's faster than he ever was.

Schedule for Nashville

The truck will be loaded on Saturday night to roll-out as early as possible Sunday morning.

Yes, I'm aware this will make the truck a target on Saturday night but there's excellent visibility and it's parked right outside.  Also, there are two pit bulls here and they are fully-capable of eating people.

You know I hate giving up specifics on rolling out but it's important that Lotho understands when I'll get down there.