Restarting the Music

I played with another musician this weekend for the first time in far too many years. Jason played drums while I switched back and forth between bass and guitar and sang. There were plenty of rough spots between us, many of them because I knew how to sing the songs and how to play them, but hadn't practiced enough at doing both of those things at the same time. It's clear that I have a lot of work to do.

I also spoke with Bob, the singer in two of my old bands, about getting together, and we made tentative plans to meet in a couple of weeks and see what we can still do together. We'll eventually get more than two people together at a time, but this is fine for a start.

I'm still way too excited about getting involved in music again. In addition to actually playing music, I plowed through Ron Wood's biography (guitarist with the Rolling Stones and the Faces, for those who don't immediately recognize the name) this past week. I don't have anything especially noteworthy to say about the book, other than that he seems like an interesting guy, being involved as much in art, breeding horses, and other things as in music, even though he came from about as humble a background as you can imagine.

I also picked up a book called "Sit Down and Shut Up" by Brad Warner, famous for being a Buddhist monk, punk rock bassist, and extra in the Ultraman series. I wanted to find his book "Hardcore Zen", but they didn't have it at the time. This one still looks good, though. I'm interested in seeing how he brings together these apparently very different worlds. I skimmed a couple of sections and he has an unsurprisingly direct way of expressing himself. Good stuff.

Veronica Mars, Season Two

I just finished watching season two of Veronica Mars. While I agree with the apparent Netflix consensus that season two isn't quite as strong as season one, there's some fine writing, and season two wraps up the most significant loose end from season one.


The plot isn't nearly as focused as season one, which I'm sure is a huge part of why it doesn't work as well overall. However, it covers a lot more dramatic territory, focusing less on Veronica personally and more on the supporting cast. It's a bigger, more ambitious story, if not packing as much emotional punch, except for the last episode.


I particularly like that overlapping plot lines generate red herrings without actually contradicting the multiple underlying mysteries. Sometimes a mystery is solved, revealing that one of the apparent clues to it isn't actually related, and in fact is part of something else entirely.


On the negative side, Rob Thomas does seem to have a minor case of J.J. Abrams syndrome, having characters take actions that seem inconsistent in order to generate shocking plot twists. I recognize that real people aren't always consistent, but real people aren't as inconsistent as some of these characters.


Veronica's taste in men continues to mystify me. I don't understand her attraction to Duncan in any way, shape, or form unless it's simply that he's wealthy and good looking, and I give her more credit for depth than that. I can understand how Logan's intelligence and bitter humor would appeal to her, but he's said and done so many nasty things to her that I can't understand how she could forgive him. I'm not talking about "bad boy" behavior here; I'm talking about flat out cruelty that seems inherent to his personality. I'd love to hear a woman's point of view on the choices she makes. Unfortunately, I've been unable to convince my wife to watch the show and don't personally know any other women who've watched it.


I'm intrigued enough to watch season three, but first I need a minor break from watching series on Netflix, and then I'll be watching the second season of Dexter.

The Atrocity Archives

Just finished this book, written by Charles Stross, recommended to me by none other than Dr. Aether. Very good stuff. It's an interesting mix of Lovecraftian horror with scientific-sounding explanations and humor, largely at the expense of bureaucrats. The hero literally saves the universe and is promptly chastised by a superior for not doing the proper paperwork afterward. I loved the throw-away reference to Steve Jackson Games and the more extensive references to the "Pinky and the Brain" cartoons. I'm certain that there was a lot of computer-based humor in there as well that flew right by me, but would've had someone more technically oriented ROTFL.


One of these days, I might try a roleplaying campaign with a similar flavor, probably using Delta Green as background material and adding humorous touches. For now, I have enough creative irons in the fire.

Meditation Class

I've been meditating on my own for a while now, almost two years if I'm remembering correctly, but I'd taught myself to do it from things I'd read in books, so when the opportunity turned up to take some formal instruction, I thought it was likely to be worth doing.

The first class was Tuesday night. I wasn't at all sure what to expect, which is usually a Good Thing where I'm concerned, allowing me to keep a truly open mind. The bottom line is that this is definitely worthwhile. I've learned that I'd undervalued the importance of physical position while meditating. Not that I was previously sitting in weird positions or anything, but I'd thought that any reasonably comfortable position would be fine, and that meditating was really more about my frame of mind. In fact, I found that correcting my physical position allowed me to get into the right frame of mind more quickly and made me far less vulnerable to distractions. So far, so good.

I also learned that preparing to get into the right frame of mind was important. This matters because I usually spent the first five to ten minutes (and sometimes more than that) of sitting just clearing my mind, and preparation saved me a lot of sitting time in that respect. It doesn't make a great difference in my practice, since I'm using yoga as preparation and always did that before meditating anyway, but my mental approach is a bit different.

The other really new element is journaling about that day's meditation after finishing. I'm not sure how well that's going to work out when I return to a regular work schedule, but I'll do the best I can. My teacher is fond of asking us to try to find words for experiences that are generally hard to describe. I think the reason for it is at least partially to help the student focus and really understand the experience.

My previous meditation practice seemed worthwhile to me, but I've already been reminded again of the degree to which I was just scratching the surface. I hope the coming classes are as educational.

Dramaville, Session One

I ran the first full session of our new home In Nomine campaign this past Sunday. I was pleased that, for a change, a home campaign had some of the feel of some of my convention In Nomine sessions.

Our cast includes an Elohite of Michael, who has been assigned to bring relative peace to gang conflict in the city by trying to balance the scales of power. Good luck, Dana! He's joined a gang and is trying to personally demonstrate the value of honor. He hasn't had much luck in convincing the gang members yet, but it's still early. He's figured out that there's a demon messing with his efforts, but hasn't figured out who the demon is yet. I wouldn't want to be that demon when he does.

We also have an Ofanite of Gabriel (played by Mike L.), on a vengeance trip hunting down a charming Impudite of Andrealphus, the Demon Prince of Lust. This particular demon caters to pedophiles. Nice guy. The hunt has just begun, of course, so he hasn't learned much yet, but he's made it very clear that he doesn't plan to hang back and wait for the demon to re-establish himself in his new home town.

We have a rare Bright Lilim of Destiny (played by Mike H.) in the group in an unusual sort of role. Not only is she an angel pretending to be a human, the human role is an undercover cop pretending to be a stripper. It's not as vulgar as that might sound, as her actual goal is to help a little girl achieve an especially socially significant destiny. Unfortunately for this angel, the little girl comes from humble beginnings and needs all of the help she can get.

Rounding out our team is a Mercurian of Eli, in service to Novalis. And as usual, Scott P. brings the character in a mighty way. He doesn't have a particularly colorful personal storyline, but he has his own low key stories developing and has taken an interest in the activities of the others, which we need to help bring them together.

We have an unintentionally unifying theme of the importance of children and community, which has been working out beautifully, at least to start. I'm really looking forward to the next session, and I think I may get a convention game out of this one with a little modifying/tightening of the plots initiated by the players.

Richard Wright, R.I.P.

A lot of people wouldn't recognize him from a photo or even from his name, but virtually anyone would recognize his band, Pink Floyd. He was a major part of the wonderful atmosphere of the legendary "Dark Side of the Moon" album.

Pink Floyd is one of my favorite five bands of all time and wouldn't have been the same without him. I think I'll listen to "Us and Them", which I know was something he'd written, and one of my Floyd favorites.

Too Much Guitar Playing

I've always been a bassist and singer when I've been involved in music. I started out as a drummer many years ago, and I know enough music theory to figure out chords on guitar or keyboards, but nobody would be likely to want me as a band member playing anything other than bass. However, since I plan to play again with an unstable lineup of people (as opposed to a lineup of unstable people), I decided I wanted to understand as many of the songs as possible on a deeper level and learn them on guitar as well as bass and learn to sing them all as well, even if I don't plan on singing lead for that particular song. It also gives me more options if we end up with another bassist involved at some point.

My plan at this point is to bring some friends together to play on a very loose basis, encouraging them to bring in new people from time to time to shake things up. I don't want to get involved in a regular band again, but I do miss the interactivity of playing music with other people, so this is my way of solving that problem.

And so I've been spending more time playing guitar than I ever have before, and I'm enjoying it a little too much, to the point where I've been spending more time on it than my other creative projects. I'd be years away from joining a band as a guitarist, but I'm reaching a point where I'm good enough to play relatively simple songs and sing them at the same time without screwing it up, and good enough to show a real guitarist the chords if necessary.

A guitar or keyboard player who can sing can join a band and immediately have songs that everyone else can start improvising behind them, and I've always envied that. I'm still much better on bass and more comfortable there, but it's cool to be able to play complete songs on my own, which is significantly harder to do alone on bass. I suppose the whole point of this post is to say that I'm doing something (mostly) new for me and having a good time doing it.

A Moment of Peace

"Grant yourself a moment of peace, and you will understand how foolishly you have scurried about.

Learn to be silent, and you will notice that you have talked too much.

Be kind, and you will realize that your judgement of others was too severe.

Hasten slowly, and you will soon arrive."

I came across this one in a Surya Das book, attributed as a Chinese proverb. I've been re-reading it every morning before going to work this past week as a reminder, which seems to have been helping me when the pressure's been on.

I did much better this week than last regarding keeping myself together when things got crazy, and came up with an anger management technique that seems to work for me, along the lines of the well-known "count to 10" routine. When I feel anger boiling up inside, I stop whatever I'm doing and breathe deeply, focusing internally until I'm specifically aware of my own heartbeat. Then I listen to it for a few moments. If I'm focused enough to do that, I'm under control, even if I still feel a little agitated. If I have time, I do it a little longer. If I'm not focused enough to be aware of my own heartbeat, I'm too wound up to work productively or intelligently, and it's time to take a break until I can. I don't know if this would work for anyone else, but it seems to work for me.