January 22nd, 2004.

Very quickly, we're home again, with Mari being forced to try on hats. Poor pup. — Very quickly, we’re home again, with Mari being forced to try on hats. Poor pup.

We played Chopstix last night with Chelsea and Beau – and had a spectacular time. Though the venue itself was kind of… unfortunate (they paid $80 to play there? the place wouldn’t let us into set up for a 10pm show till 9.30? They still charged me a dollar for a soda?!?) they gig itself was soo much fun. I’m going through recordings of the night now. A whole lot of tuning on Chelsea’s part.

Erf. I hate sorting the recordings.

Heather on drums. I got to play bass for the night, too. She just looks like such a bad ass.

Sandy. A Lovely creature. I've written at least three or four songs about her, and have always found her irresistable. She's in Virginia as a art-school graduate student. She made me a bunny. — Sandy. A Lovely creature. I’ve written at least three or four songs about her, and have always found her irresistable. She’s in Virginia as a art-school graduate student. She made me a bunny.

Chelsea and Beau at Chopstix. Entirely mirror encased stage with disco balls and all sorts of weird lights. I wish we'd had Cat there to like REALLY make it a show. — Chelsea and Beau at Chopstix. Entirely mirror encased stage with disco balls and all sorts of weird lights. I wish we’d had Cat there to like REALLY make it a show.

At the end of the night, we did a couple of covers and a couple of their tunes all together. I'm standing over in front of one of the speakers, playing bass. — At the end of the night, we did a couple of covers and a couple of their tunes all together. I’m standing over in front of one of the speakers, playing bass.

The night was really wonderful, and I think I fell in Love with ALL of their friends. Just really good people. AND Sandy showed up – Sandy of the long blonde hair and the beauty and the wonder and the oh my God she’s so wonderful. A really fantastic night. The only thing that marred it was a fantastically intense bout of stomach discomfort that struck midway through Matador. My capacity for playing guitar almost audibly just vanished. I started losing some notes, a whole verse in Spiral, and we clipped a song as I just started feeling too sick to play. Cursed microwave white-sauce lasagna.

Chelsea and Mariposa... HUNTING. I spent some time just lazily shooting with my camera set to "manual", getting a better feeling for what it can do and how I can control it. I Love shooting in bright, concentrated sunshine - and Chelsea's such a beautiful subject, even if we're just sort of hanging out doing nothing. — Chelsea and Mariposa… HUNTING. I spent some time just lazily shooting with my camera set to “manual”, getting a better feeling for what it can do and how I can control it. I Love shooting in bright, concentrated sunshine – and Chelsea’s such a beautiful subject, even if we’re just sort of hanging out doing nothing.

A good night, but a rough one. Oof.

Today, I’m feeling a lot better, but worrying about the time I’m wasting on the computer. The logistics of recording a night, taking photographs, organizing the recordings (both audio and visual), writing about it… setting it up in the web page… burning versions of it for the computer-bereft Chelsea n Beau… pleh.

We stayed up till 5am hanging out with one of their friends that had popped by after the gig, and then I’ve sort of wasted the whole day sitting here fooling with all this shit.

The Grate of Fear. This thing heats the house - quite effectively, but I can't get over how scary it is to be able to see the pilot light, glowing and glaring blue up through the floor. Mariposa has learned to leap over it, but if you forget yourself and stand on it for a little bit, it melts into your shoes. — The Grate of Fear. This thing heats the house – quite effectively, but I can’t get over how scary it is to be able to see the pilot light, glowing and glaring blue up through the floor. Mariposa has learned to leap over it, but if you forget yourself and stand on it for a little bit, it melts into your shoes.

Pleh.

But the recordings of C&B turned out half-decent, and… well, when we stay with anyone for any length of time, there’s always the question of how we can possibly return the favour. In this case, I’m feeling pretty good about myself, because they’ll probably be able to get a little make-shift CD out of the night’s recordings, and that might help them with making rent.

Heather’s on the verge of finishing a new song – a beautiful almost war song. Unfortunately, I’m probably going to end up calling it the Chupacabra song. The reason for this will become more apparent once she finishes it and we start playing it out.

listening to Led Zepplin – the BBC sessions

Boredom is threatening to take its toll. We’re watching Jeopardy. Sigh.