aaaaahhhhhhh...

feel exhausted... cannot believe april is almost gone...
hmm... played at kill your timid notion festival in dundee, scotland and had such a wonderful time... everybody involved were super cool, relaxed, passionate and supportive... playing/hanging out with andrew lampert, steve beresford and mark sanders was a blast... and met many other cool people... we tried all sorts of baked goods and i did like oat cake quite a bit... although i didn't get to taste dundee cake... then was in edinburgh for a day and thought the entire city was so gorgeous... all those stone buildings and hills cobble stone street... and so on... was so much fun... too bad i didn't get to go near a sheep but oh, well... don't know why and how but the green in that country is so particularly green... very different from what you get over here...
then a day after i got back, got up at 6:30 in the morning and went down to washington dc to play with vijay/mike ladd's still life with commentator at george washington university... we drove for 6 hours then went straight to the venue to do a sound check and stayed until 10... the gig went really great and chilled out... for some reason everybody was relaxed on the stage and that brought out some new qualities into the show... then after hassling at the hotel to get our rooms for almost an hour, went to bed at 2... got up at 6:30 and drove back to new york to be at a sound check at joe's pub... then did the gig at 11:30 which ended at 1:20 in the morning... went to bed at 3, got up at 8, went to my sunday gig, finished at 7... then there was fire on subway tack, spent 2 hours underground... got home at 9... passed out...
then was lucky enough to be a part of john zorn's marathon concert at miller on thursday... it was three hour full of amazing music... from masada string trio to double bass clarinet duo to string quartet to cobra... so intense and very rewarding... then the following night, played with b. fleishmann from vienna at austrian cultural forum, playing notes... and had so much fun...
then here i am...
went to brooklyn botanical garden yesterday but only a few trees were bloomed... still it was fun to be outside eating out of japanese bento boxes we got...
oh, went to see "the lives of others" last monday which was my first night off and thought it was brilliant... it was one of those movies you leave the theater feeling very satisfied... the story, acting, cinematography and music... everything was in the right place... gabriel yared did a beautiful and haunting score... loved that piano sonata...
and watched "the 40 year old virgin" last night and this morning, i fell asleep around 5 in the morning, and thought it was really sweet... steve carell is playing maxwell smart on the remake of "get smart", tv show from the '60s and think he'll be great at it...
wanna go to see "black book" sometime this week if i can...
uh...
so that's why i'm so tired...
oh, in case you don't know it yet but i really like this japanese bakery called zaiya on 3rd avenue right below st. marks... especially their rice balls and mochi doughnuts... they make everything right there so sometimes you get those rice balls really warm and fresh... yum... and good salad... and very interesting baked stuff... if you're adventurous enough, try spicy tuna bun or ham roll... also i'm addicted to their honey butter toast... yum...
ok... i'd like to get some sleep tonight...

it happened last night... again...

ok... last night it happened again... well, it's been a while since i'd been in that situation but there it was... again...
alright... we (jeremiah cymerman, matt welch, sam kulik, tom blancarte plus myself) had a gig at this place called stain bar in williamsburg... it's right off the grand station on L... jeremiah hooked up the gig and we were supposed to do a solo each... and jeremiah had told me how the owner sounded cool and enthusiastic about music and all...
so we got to the place and somehow i could smell that this wasn't the right place for us... but since we were there, i wasn't going to ruin other people's time by saying this place felt weird to me...
anyway...
we walked in and the inside was rather spacious... but then had a tiny stage on the far corner with an amp with a sign saying keep it quiet... no speakers... and a bathroom on the other corner and the bar not too far away... since we were all doing solo, there shouldn't have been any problem... and of course the bartender reminded us again that we had to keep it down...
it was about 10 after 8 when sam started his solo... he plays bass trombone... he wasn't playing loud but the people at the bar and the bartender were talking so loud, it was almost impossible to hear sam... which began to irritate me... i mean i knew that we were in a bar and not expecting everybody to be quiet... but then they could've moved away from the stage or at least try not to be louder than the music... there were lots of chairs on the other side of the place... well, anyway, i wanted to keep it civilized somewhat and didn't say anything... then tom went on with his bass solo... he decided not to go through that amp since it wasn't a bass amp anyway... and he began his solo very energetic hoping that people will start to pay some attention to music... but then of course the bartender and the people kept yakking... making me so angry... so i leaned toward to jeremiah and asked him if he cared if he'd ever get a gig at that place and he said no... so when it was my turn to play, i turned up the amp up and up and up... and still i think i wasn't loud enough... and when my microphone was feeding back, they all stopped talking at least for a second... anyway, so i began playing with the highest, screechy-est, ugliest sound i can and just continue sawing... i was so mad at that point, i wasn't playing music but simply letting my anger come out through my cello which made me even more unhappy... still whenever i got little quieter, i could hear that annoying bartender... so i went on and on... then after me, it was matt welch playing saxophone... and he can play that shit LOUD... still people kept talking but at least i could hear him...! then it was jeremiah finishing our glorious set at the stain bar... he began with screechy sound on his clarinet... then when it wasn't loud enough, he took his mouth piece out and created the loudest sound of the entire night... and i was cheering him to get even louder... that's when the bartender walked toward to jeremiah and tried to stop him... and i stood up and told her she couldn't do that... and the next 10 minutes were me and her going at each other verbally... and it wasn't pretty... but you know what, i am glad i did it... not that i'm a big fan of yelling at people (at least not as much as i used to) but i just couldn't let her step all over us and our music... treating it like it was some kind of background music that they can talk on top of it... if that's what they wanted, they shouldn't even have live music and just play records... and what's up with that pretentious tiny stage... do they think their bar is a set for "friends" where phoebe sings stupid songs about cats...? and you know what, even in that stupid sitcom, people LISTENED...!!!
anyway... that bartender was beyond anything... she was a total cultural moron and probably didn't even deserve me yelling at her... the stuff she said was pretty pathetic... she even tried to have other people in the audience get involved which they didn't...
well, after that 5 of us and a bunch of friends went to a bar around the corner and had a fucking GREAT time...
it's really shame that it's getting harder and harder to find places to play in the city... but we are not ready to back down... we will find places to play and the right people... and hopefully i don't have to yell at anybody anymore... and play some music, damn it...

memoirs of a geisha...

watching it right now on tv...
come on, give me a fucking break...
it's almost impossible to watch without getting my skin crawl... for so many reasons... it's year 2007 (ok, it was made a couple of years ago) and do chinese still have to play japanese...? and if so, they should have known that chinese accent and japanese accent in english is very different... well, of course it is weird to see them speaking in english... i know the book was written in english... but it is weird to see it on screen when i can hear it all...
all those chinese actresses are fabulous ones and shouldn't have been wasted like that... and why is it all the male characters ARE played by japanese while female ones are not...? thank god, it didn't become a box office hit... otherwise there would haveen even MORE people who couldn't care less that asians are not all the same... "letters from iwo jima" was exact the opposite example of that... keeping it real and respectful to the culture and people and history...
argh... i don't know... maybe i'm just cranky...
argh...