Bar 82, yoga and the score...

We played Bar 82 last night, a small but very nice venue with a generally under-attended open mic (according to Wayne, the organizer). We ended up going first and played the best versions of "In the Garden" and "Vengeance is mine" yet. The performance went un-recorded as there was no really good person to ask to do it. But we'll do it again in a few weeks at Pete's Candy store and probably rock the place right in half.

There were at least two folks from Banjo Jim's open mic crowd (other than Wayne) that were there last night, too. One of them, Walter Ego, spoke to us for a bit. He's a good guy and has his own thing going for him, which I appreciate. So many times you meet a musician trying to emulate, which can be good in its own rite. It's always nice though to see some originality poke through the chatter.

Right now, I'm getting ready to bike to work for the first time. First chance I've had to do it all week since I started considering it and the weather is perfect for it. It's not going to get much hotter than 80 degrees F today and I already sampled the air this morning on the way to and from yoga. A great class this morning, too. Sarah's a great teacher and one of my favorites at Abhaya. There is nothing at all like getting up early on a bright morning and practicing yoga, pushing your boundaries and finding new strengths before most people have even sipped a cup of coffee and groggily entered the subway station. Most first time yogis that I have the pleasure of talking to after their first class say things like they feel taller and some say they feel like they could fly. While I don't ever encourage this, I do agree with them. Part of what I enjoy so much about yoga is that rush. For me that comes from stretching my own ideas about what I can do on the mat (which translates to off the mat as well). Whenever I do something I've never done before in yoga, I bring that feeling of power I get back to my real life and apply it as best I can. You really do start to feel like you could do anything short of flying.

I get a similar feeling of empowerment when I look back at all that I have done since I moved here. While, on a grand scale, it doesn't seem like much, it certainly does seem like a lot when you consider where I came from. From my own perspective, I have done things that six years ago I might not have even considered possible. Sure I might have dreamed of them but thoughts of implementing those plans and realizing those dreams had yet to surface.

So here I am. Working on major film project #2. The oud player we have our sights on now is a guy who responded to one of Mohammad's cragislist ads. He has some recordings on last.fm so I've had a chance to listen to what he can do already. I think this one will be better since he's actually a professional player, not a hobbyist. Plus, he responded to us so that indicates a higher level of interest than anyone yet involved. We'll see. With any luck, I'll also have my hands on an oud as well within a few days. My choir director may have one I can use. My idea i to get an idea of what can be done on it and ultimately let the oud player we use improvise on some ideas I've written so that it'll segue perfectly into the electronic part I've already written. I'm also debating using edited samples of the oud to layer in with the electronics or just having the oud player continue to improvise over the electronics. We'll probably try both once we get in the studio.

So that's the next step and meanwhile, until then, I flesh out ideas here, adding more layers to the track.

Wish me luck not getting run over by asshole cab drivers on the way into work.