Bionic Teutonic

It’s been a busy last couple of weeks. I went home to Montana for Christmas, which was a combination of great and a depressing. My sister is pregnant and totally showing. We got to go in to her ultrasound where she found out she was having a boy and of course all her Christmas presents were baby themed. I met the father of her kid for the first time too and got a good first impression of him. Everybody in the family seems to really like him, which is a first for her boyfriends. So that part was good, but my step-mother’s cancer has returned and she was pretty up and down all week. She has pretty much no appetite at this point and it was pretty hard to watch her butter a slice of bread and then just stare at it for 10 minutes. She has a surgery with a really good doctor in two weeks though that they seem to be really hopeful about, so there seems to be light at the end of the tunnel at least. I also ran into a couple of old soccer buddies in town and went over for a party on Tuesday night where I ran into a ton of old high-school friends. It was really great to see a bunch of them actually. I don’t keep in good touch with anybody from Missoula much, but it’s always good to catch up. Some of them have turned into such crazy looking mountain men. Mountain men that I know and love, but it’s still odd to be hanging out in a room full of what looks like a bunch of big burly loggers with huge beards, only they all have PhDs in things like glaciology and geology.

On another note, I just broke the odd USB copy protection key that I need to my music software. I’ve already lost one of these and had to pay $100 to get it replaced. Again, because software companies won’t trust me, I’m having to get a cracked copy of the latest version that doesn’t require the USB key. I hate it when my software problems are the result of something like this. I bought the fucking thing, I should be able to use it. Now I just get a screen telling me I can’t open the progam without the key so I can’t work on any music. Sucks.

Our friends Dallas and Erin have been visiting for the last couple of days, which has been great. We have been pretty lazy, just hanging out, talking, and eating. Dear lord, too much eating. I was actually in pain last night from eating way too much all day and had to go to bed early and sleep it off. Please self, remind me not to do that again.  Next, it’s off to Orcas island for New Years with a bunch of friends which I’m really looking forward to.

I got my new tattoo yesterday!  I put some pictures up on Flickr. It’s a bit flakey and sensitive at the moment, but I think it turned out really well. I’m trying to take really good care of this one, putting lots of lotion on it and such. I got it done by a guy named George Long at Laughing Buddha, whose work I really liked. It’s a bit of a trick to get a tattoo to actually look straight on an arm, with all its curves and concave areas. He did a great job of adjusting it by hand so that it looks good regardless of the angle. He also designed the clouds behind the sanskrit and I’m really happy with the way they look.

We had a great time at Harbin last weekend. I couldn’t get any pictures really, as cameras are not allowed there (I guess they don’t want you taking pictures of all the naked hippies but we rocked it. It was really nice to have some time to just relax and catch up on sleep. We spent a bunch of time in the pools and had a really great time hanging out with our friend Rara and his fiance Jumana. Rara and I spent a morning in his studio on Saturday. I got him to play guitar over a track I’m working on and we also just geeked out on music, discussing ideas and techniques. It was nice to have somebody to shoot the musical shit with again. I’ve been missing that for a while. Harbin itself is beautiful. It’s located in a really beautiful valley just north of Napa and we got to take some really nice hikes in the surrounding hillsides. The resort is surprisingly big actually. It’s so spread out that you only rarely get a sense for how many people are there at any one given time, but there were probably several hundred guests I would say. I was looking forward to doing yoga in the mornings, but the yoga there was sadly very much on the new age tip - not so much on the physical practice.

This weekend I’m getting a new tattoo. I’ve been wanting another one for a while and I had a consultation this week, so I’m all set. I’m getting the ashtanga yoga mantra Loka Samasta Sukhino Bhavantu in devanagari sanskrit around my arm, with some stylised clouds behind it. It means may all beings find peace and happiness, which I like. Plus devanagari is beautiful.

I’ve been thinking about travel plans this morning. I have so many different places I would like to go and see and figuring out what to make a priority is sometimes hard. Ariel and I are going to visit our friend RaRa down at Harbin Hotsprings in a couple weeks which I’m hoping is a weekend of total relaxation, but I’m also trying to figure out my next international trip. I think I might go to Germany next summer with my dad for the 15th year anniversary of the sister city program he started. I actually got a little lump in my throat thinking about this yesterday. It’s been such a long time since I lived there (17 years with only one summer working there since then) and yet parts of my time there are still among the most vivid memories that I have. High school kind of all blurs together, but I remember so many little details from my 9th grade in Germany. It would be fun to go back, even if only for a short while. I’m also still considering a trip to Spain for some Flamenco guitar lessons at some point too. Jerez del la Frontera calls to me. The only problem with Europe at this point is the stupid exchange rate. It hurts. Perhaps I need to find another Bali like destination, where a thousand dollars can be more than enough for two weeks. Any suggestions?

I just got a new laptop (I bought a Macbook Pro from my friend Damon) and spent all weekend loading it up with software and starting the long process of reading manuals and playing around so I understand how everything works. I have to say, it’s amazing how far computers have come in the last 5 years or so. I have pretty much everything I could ever need music wise loaded onto a 1/4″ thick piece of metal and circuitry. It really blows the mind. Ariel, Tim and I also had a 3-way video chat yesterday (sounds kinky, but it wasn’t). Tim was puttering around preparing food for Marzipan (his dog) in his new house in N.Y. while Ariel and I were on our various laptops here in Seattle. We live in the future and it’s amazing.

I’m excited about making music again, which is cool. I haven’t really had the bug very badly for a while, but having the new laptop, not being confined to a basement studio, and just being engaged with the software again has given me a little kick. Hopefully I can integrate it back into being an integral and sustainable part of my life again. If anybody ever has the bug to write some music or just get together and share ideas, let me know. I’m feeling it right now.

It’s been a little while since I posted last. Partly becuase I haven’t set up my computer at home. I’m buying a laptop from a friend of mine and am getting rid of all other large, bulky computer and music related equipment. Downsizing like crazy. I’ve held onto all my old synths, computers, etc. for various reasons, but am realizing that the convenience of having everything be small and mobile outweighs all those other considerations at this point. Anyway, I haven’t had the motivation to set up my other computer knowing that I’m going to be moving over to a laptop soon. I have to get moving on selling all this crap online to make room. Good news is that our new place is starting to feel like home, just have a few things to get rid of and organize, but I’m now fully moved in mentally I think.

The last two weeks have been alternating between increadibly busy and increadibly lazy. Working on the house, decorating, etc. has taken up a bunch of time, and when I’m on a roll, I’ve been a machine, but on the other side, I’ve managed to have quite a few days of doing pretty much nothing at all. I guess that balances out a bit. I’ve also been various kinds of injured the last week and a half or so, and so have taken time off from circus and other excersise, and somehow that turned into allowing myself to eat poorly as well. I just got back to the gym on Saturday and did yoga Sunday. It felt good to get my body moving again. I think I need to have some of the structure that circus/yoga, etc. provides so I don’t start treating my body poorly in other ways as well.