...being the observations and navigational extracts
from the ongoing expeditions of San Francisco Piano Pop trio
True Margrit

Saturday, November 24, 2007

Thanx Gimme

Thanksgiving is that certain time of year we reflect on our good fortunes (as robustly bountiful as they may be for some or as thin a silver lining as they may be for others) and gorge to toast our enthusiasm on high-fat tradiitonal American foods. Now I do love to hang with friends and/ or family and do just that. I love thanksgiving's indulgence, its community appeal with a lack of overt religious meaning, and its concomitant menu of gigantic poultry, grains, tubers, butter, and turkey fat that is saved from visual monochromaticism by the odd splash of red cranberry or orange pumpkin & yam. Sarah & I, in fact, attended a spectacular spread with some lovely friends and acquaintances and we all had one hell of a time with laughter, overeating, four kinds of stuffing ( half my fault), and even a pop music singalong (it's amazing how many melodies we all know and how few of the lyrics). A grand time was had by all hands and stomachs.

But...

I have a few friends who eschew the celebrations of this holiday since it is based on historical events that led to the ravage of a people--y'all may at times recall them from the vestiges of their language utilized for state names and various models of cars, or the casinoes and reservations. You may have seen their culture misrepresented in films, books, and tv shows or coopted for its application to diverse new age aesthetics when uesful as such. Thus the complete and unencumbered embrace of all aspects of Thanksgiving requires a certain share of cognitve dissonance. For that matter cognitive dissonances attend many joyous occasions in these mixed up times of war and woes which go back...hmmm. Centuries.

Is the cup two thirds empty after all? Or?

Well, I do tip my hat to those who observe and make us ponder (as we should) the empty part of the cup. And for you other lusty souls..uh... are you gonna eat that? Thanks! Gimme!

Monday, November 12, 2007

The Razor's Edge

Well. Dear readers. The band that watches science fiction together...uh... is band o' geeks. Fo sho. Ya see, Gary called me up today & informed me that he reserved us spots at the Battlestar Galactica: RAZOR one night only event showing at the cineplex in San Mateo. ( It can be viewed on Sci Fi Channel on Nov 24--but we got to see it early on a BIG BIG SCREEN!!) So! You may ask, was I excited, was I thrilled, was I gonna go? DUDE! You betcha. Sarah's brother--James, of Baby Boy H-- said it's great, so it must be so! And thus we went.


*** BSG spoiler alert*****
I don't give away much, but some stuff, ok, so I warned you. & For those of you born without the science fiction gene, please turn to page 90.

We zipped down 101 to the big ol' cineplex in SM. Gary tells me as we are getting out of the car that he notified Andrew about the Seattle RAZOR showing--so, we ponder, maybe our drummer is settling into his local cineplex as we speak--two states away, at the same time as us...nice.

And was it worth it? You betcha! The two-hour episode cleverly & suspensefully fills in some gaps in the epic tale that is the Sci Fi Channel's Battlestar Galactica. We are flashed back to events on Battlestar Pegasus before during and after the Cylon attack--or "Everything You Wanted to Know about Admiral Helena Cain, But Were Afraid to Ask". This includes the ever-pertinent question: was she gay? This is answered by a kiss--yes! One of the Number Six Cylons gives her a "we-are-more-than-friends" type of smooch, causing quite a stir amongst us fans in the theatre (especially guys and especially me) who all made appreciative gruntly utterances, not easily replicated in this forum. Now, it's a shame the one and only gay character in the entire series is a pathological, megalomanic, tyrannical freakyhead, but what are you gonna do? One day we will have our great gay role model. One day, neighbors, one day. But Tricia Helfer kissing Michelle Forbes, that is in fact, the stuff dreams are made of. Kinda like my fantasy mashup of L-Word's and Battlestar's season finales--almost.

In other news:
We recorded the final three acoustic piano tracks for "The Juggler's Progress" (our new CD which is incubating nicely, and is soon to burst from its conceptual shell). We tracked over at Woody Simmons studio on her Schimmel baby grand, which was a lovely experience. I got to enjoy a fuschia sunset over the Pacific as I played our tune, "Make Them Beg". It was pretty splendid. The other piano tracks, y'all might recall, were done on a Steinway D Homberg at an undislosed locale... hee hee. The stuff is sounding so very rocking good if we say so ourselves. I CAN"T WAIT for y'all to hear it. Am I excited about our new CD? YOU BETCHA! Soon soon soon ...!

&

I was working with Judea Eden on her CD last night ( I'm producing 3/4 of her album) and while we were bouncing down a track we took a free moment to peruse the Sparrows Point myspace page. Ahhhhh. Memories. Good times, dudes! You betcha.