No one had to go to the hospital this show. I considered that a win. A couple of people took hits off the oxygen tanks at various points. I could almost hear the wheels in Carynne’s mind turning as she added that to her mental contract rider for future shows above 3,000 feet of elevation […]
We weren’t halfway across the lobby when Carynne stopped me. “You’re white as a sheet.” I took Ziggy’s hand with the one of mine that was working, to keep him by my side. “I’m fine.” My cramped-up hand looked like a tyrannosaurus’s arm, though. They didn’t believe my bullshit for one second. “Let’s get upstairs,” […]
Well, I almost got my wish. Carynne came over to my room, where I was resting after the taxicab sightseeing trip, to tell me the deal on dinner. “What do you think about you, and Ziggy, and me, and another person doing dinner?” Her hair was pin straight in the cold, thin air and she’d […]
Tell me. When do you think the worst possible time for my hand to cramp up would be? In the middle of the show? Right at the beginning of the acoustic segment with me and Ziggy? Right in the middle of “Candlelight?” The fact that it happened the in the five minutes before we went […]
I took a long shower as if that could thaw my frozen brain. It didn’t work. But Ziggy didn’t object and he didn’t rake me over the coals or anything so that was good, I guess? When I emerged from the water I spent a very long time combing my hair. I had conditioned it […]
It’s been a while since I geeked out about equipment at you guys, because you know I try to keep it to a minimum. Otherwise I could go on all day about gear. But it’s time for me to tell you more about looping, which was Jordan’s idea for how to recreate something like the […]
Ziggy got up on the stage and clapped his hands for attention–a move that by then I realized he’d picked up from Josie, who’d no doubt learned it from some other dance teacher or choreographer or theater person, carrying on back through generations. Anyway, it worked.
The only light in the apartment came from the streelights and the bluish glow of the numbers on the VCR. I could see no colors at all. A few feet away, Ziggy slept in the grand centerpiece bed, under a snow white duvet, his closed, lined eyes and tousled dark hair like slashes of urgent […]
I debated whether to wear the brace for my hand to rehearsal. You know, have it on up until the last minute and then whip it off to actually play? I was debating whether it would be better to do that–and potentially have everyone treat me like glass, which might undermine my authority but might […]
I waltzed into soundcheck feeling pretty good from Vitamin F kicking in. “Who’s doing the very last lounge act of the tour?” I asked. No one moved a muscle. I gave it another couple beats before I said, “Am I going to have to do it myself?”