musings

christmastime again. last year, we’d just opened the cafe, so it was all work. this year, I no longer have the cafe, but it’s still just work. my son won’t be here until just after new year’s and my daughter looks like heading to queensland with friends. so I’ll be juggling a few kitchen shifts and gigs. which is fine, without kids or family around, it never feels much like the festive season to me. doubly so with antipodean summers.

been working on a couple a cool new tunes that linda’s written. hoping to get a new demo track together this weekend, I’m still struggling with the bizarre programming on the digital rhythm machine. real live drummers are simpler - you only need to punch in the information once.

new year’s eve is looking like fun. we’re holding an outdoor party in the pub’s gardens. kid’s disco & sausage sizzle, then the bistro will be held out on the verandah with bbq grills - meet the chefs, etc. big screen tv for the fireworks over sydney harbour & music all eve. Linda & I are doing a set with greg on percussion, then a couple sets with the band later on. as new year’s day falls on the 1st friday, the boys & I will be doing our regular show as well. the after-eve gigs are often better than the ‘big event’ anyway.

politics? yawn. copenhagen summit? posturing and grandstanding. sports? snooze. I have two reasons to be ecstatically happy, and that’s that I get to play music; and the wonderful gal I get to play music with. life’s getting better every day, and I really have no complaints.

which is the best christmas present I could ever hope for.

was rather chuffed to learn that one of my older tunes - from my 1992 wooden nails album - was selected on this week’s ‘new’ charts at digital music site the sixty one. wonder if my new stuff will have to wait that long….

another busy weekend survived. first ‘official’ show with linda went very well. having percussion and harmonica really suited the songs well. looking forward to the next one. the two band gigs were at polar opposites of the quality scale, but seemed to go down okay with the punters, all that matters in the end.

been working with the new zoom video recorder and shot all three gigs. the only one that produced any usable results was the jazz fest on sunday, there’s one clip on youtube now. the other two captured too much crowd chatter and people walking into frame. next time will try a different cam location. it’s all new.

speaking of, I’d love to hear from anyone who fancies themselves adept with editing quicktime files. I’m trying to crop in-frame and resample to different outputs. quicktime pro is good for basic top & tail, but I need something more advanced (and can’t seem to find my copy of adobe premiere).

the other task that consumed my weekend was getting thrown back into the deep end in a commercial kitchen. with an unfamiliar menu that was more than a little light on the detail mixed with a kitchen I’d only been in once, it was somewhat daunting to do a four-course dinner. but everything went off without a hitch. plates coming back empty is always a good sign.

overall, it was a good boost for my pro-culinary attitude which admittedly took a big hit with having closed the last cafe. I’ve been offered a few chef-type gigs but have been a little reluctant to step back into the ring. of course, it’s much easier when it’s not your name hanging over the door and one can leave at the end of the shift without stressing over whether the bills will be paid etc. there’s an offer of some shifts at the local pub’s brasserie over the christmas period and a short-term cafe situation dangling which I’m still considering. but for now, I’m enjoying dabbling on the weekends. there’s a buffet luncheon on saturday I’m actually looking forward to.

the band’s usual monthly gig comes up this friday. guest this week is pam allen from the mountains jazz band, she’d guested a few months back & had a great time. I’m hoping that rens and megan aren’t planning on the usual irish session, as I have an early start with the aforementioned luncheon.