King of Roma

Saban Bajramovic passed away yesterday, at age 72..
He was the voice and soul of Roma.

It's strange. I was at DID over the weekend, and heard August sing his song. I was moved to hear his song unexpectedly at such a beautiful event under the stars, and was impressed that Onca's troupe would choose it for their performance. August's performance was different and lovely. I thought of Saban, and wondered how he was doing. I had met him a few years ago, and he was not well then.

Seido is sad. I guess all Roma are.

prego photoshoot

so like 3 weeks ago, when I - "look good now. now. do this now." (Seido) - okay, looked decent, our good friend Sarah Skinner took some photos of my prego-ness. check it out!! www.weclick.net/gallery/49...82455_rmrJs
okay, Sarah rocks!!! there are sooooo many more images she took, and some of them are of Seido and I being goofy, which I will share with you all soon. All the images are so warm and make me and Seido look so much more attractive than we actually are!!
I am really lucky with the friends I have.

because he digs youtube all the time...

my 20-year-old friend Jesse showed me this the other day. it's awesome!

youtube.com/watch

2 days later

I am still recovering from the CD creation/release party tornado. The show/party went really, really, really great.

I did nothing.

My super talented and generous friends turned up with their gear, and just did their thing with me, and it was the party. The vibe was warm and great, and the show was excellent. We filled the tiny "theatre" space with a great energy.

I am deeply grateful to have so many fantastic friends -

Kamille, who pushed me into this, and planned the whole thing with me.
Nevik, who drove 11 hours from home to be there, and ended up being the integral part of the performance. (Christina was right!!)
Paul, Sarabeth, and Marnen, who just came and made a beautiful music, no questions asked.
Mel and Karin (and Jim and Adam!!), in their ever-laid-back humor, just came and gave me a great support.
Belladonna and Mavi, who drove all the way from DC, and brought their fabulous swords! on Mavi's birthday!
Sarah Skinner, who gave me encouragement, and her beautiful sensuality on stage.
Jaida, who took this very seriously and made me feel really special with her beautiful dancing.
Jesse, who ran in with his violin in between gigs to be a part of the show.
Pacita, who brought the "village dirt" with her great dance.
June Li, who was pretty much conned into performing her birimbau on stage.
Peter, who opened the show with his soulful piece of Africa.
and, Ashar, Dan, and Sabrina, who guarded the door and greeted all the people, smiling and ever-so-friendly.
and everyone who came to be a part of the show. I hope you had as much of a great time as I did.
and, oh yeah, Seido, for being supportive and proud of what I've done, and doing whatever I tell him to do.

I am really, really, lucky.
thank you all.

first wave of CD is now here

this is scary.
100 CD is now sitting next to me, in a box. I had them sent here, in the office.
so far, I haven't found any typo. it is a matter of time, though.
I played it on this computer. it plays. hmmmm.

Kamille and I are constantly calling and emailing each other about Saturday's CD release party. If it takes a party for us to be connected this much, maybe we should do this more often.

Nevik will be here for the party. Great news. If it takes a music-related party for him to turn up, we should do this more often, too...

Roddick and recording

So I am staying focused on my recording the first album. My nature truly comes out at times like this - I have recorded 7 songs so far, and i like only 2 of them. So I keep going. I decided not to use too much of "click". it seems to limit me in many ways. if my tempo is uneven, so be it. i take creativity and fun over stiff any day.

my calf is healing, but slowly. so no tennis yet. so when I'm not recording and mixing and cooking and eating and yelling at seido and melina, I play the INNER-TENNIS. I watch the newly acquired Tennis Channel on cable. instead of actually following the match, i try to watch the way the players move. just focus on their form and movement, not the ball.

so i dreamed playing against Andy Roddick! ha! he was taaaaaaal, and his serves were clocking 158mph. (and I noticed, in my dream, that he had a really good posture.) i managed to return only a couple of times, just by telling myself "just guess the direction and stick your racket out!" but was really fun. was enjoying this impossible challenge.

hmmm. tennis=album??

it is funny that it was Roddick that showed up in my dream, and not Sampras or Federer...

Asians and Points

I am definitely harsher in judgment with Asian people. well, not including Indian sub-continent people, just the ones that look like me. Oh yeah, if you are Japanese, you are pretty much dooooomed. I wonder why. It could be about anything - the posture, narrow-mindedness, illiteracy, teeth, sense of humor, clothing, mannerism, table manners, politeness, penmanship, hair, "D.W.A."... I keep almost-subconscious score on everyone I meet, but it is way tougher with "my people."

I guess I feel that whatever they do sort of reflects on who I am. It is ridiculous, but can't help it, man.

Don't worry. If you were Asian, and I just deducted a bunch of points, you won't know.

recording and torn muscle

taught a workshop last Sunday. small crowd, but went well. teaching is interesting in many ways.

started recording. finally. i really need to lock myself up somewhere for like 10 days. things like a day job and eating gets in the way...

tore a bit of my calf muscle the other night, playing tennis. hmmmm. not so young any more, i am. no tennis for 2 months, so i went onto amazon.com and got a Federer vs Sampras and a Federer vs Nadar DVDs to obsessively watch, to play "inner tennis." should drive Melina insane, which would be a bonus. this will limit my ability to do stuff, forcing me to drumming, which is also a bonus in disguise.

Alone in the office. I am hungry now, and am not in the mood for delivery. I will need to hobble over to some place a bit too far on crutches.

one year anniversary and

it's been a year since our wedding. we are still happy. we are still busy. i thought all that busy-ness was caused by the wedding prep, but it seems that i was wrong. i am just busy. always.

i managed to push out all the thank-you cards before our actual anniversary date. i understand that is the deadline. if you were there and haven't received the card yet, you live too far. i took them all to the post office before 7th. you will get it eventually.

tennis lesson started, and i feel old. yesterday, my instructor noticed my racket, and said "wow. i like your racket. i haven't seen one like that since..." then i finished his sentence for him - "before you were born." my racket i found in the storage was actually the one i used to play with in high school. it is definitely older than the young instructor.

at least i look good in the brand new outfit.

now i have a 9-year-old regular student at my weekly dumbek class. he is actually really good. next generation, man.

spoke to kamille today. she lives too far, too.