Between a Rock and a Coffee Place

After the rehearsal for my cousin Brook's wedding, we repair to the rehearsal dinner/ blockparty/square dance. Pretty nifty. Pizza. Ice-cream. Bluegrass. I mingle with my family tree and then when the time is up, Gary & I scamper off to the venue for tonight's show--
ROCK BAR and Coffee Lovers Cafe. They can't seem to choose between the two: Coffee or ROCK , so they wave both banners, presumably the ROCK one at night, the COFFEE one in the day. Fair enough. It's a nice high-ceilinged space with an itty-bitty bar on one side, with a wall separating it from the couches and short-order kitchen/cafe on the other side. AH. SO. Hence the dual personality.

Even though we are in Portland, opening the show is another bay area band, CALLOW. Their music effortlessly walks the tightrope stretched between atmospheric rawness and carefully constructed arrangements...kind of like, rock-meets-coffee. We all enjoy! Then we play a nice long juicy set of our own. Our extra-special audience members include a sizable coterie of Eichler/Geffens and Andrew's long ago babysitter from when he was wee. Mindblowing. We do our best to entertain. And send out interesting contrasting vibes as befits the evening's running theme. Be aggressively groovy! Shuffle and groove along, but-- with an edge. YEahhhehjhhajehjgggggooooooood. Like that.

The important thing is, my mom really digs it.

MY MOMMY!

Prelude to the Summer 2010 Multi-tasking "Healthy" Birthday Tour

Tuesday, July 20th
I'm in the locker room at my gym extracting my swimming gear from my backpack. Bathing suit. Check. Goggles. Check. Earplugs. Check. Bathing cap. Check. Thinking: yeah, cool, I'm fitting in one more trip to the pool before our tour.

Gary calls. He says:
"UH--I really need another day--how do you feel about leaving Thursday instead of tomorrow?"

I say:
"I'm cool with that--no worries, man".

He says:
"Great. Hey-I'm really going to make an effort to eat healthfully on this trip. I'm bringing some bananas and apples, and carrots for the car."

I say:
"Absolutely! Me too! Texas was CRAZY! The way we ate. I'll be bringing some veggies and such!"

I swim. I make a trip to Rainbow Grocery for the proscribed healthful snacks to eat in the car. I dawdle on the way home. At home finally. Answer emails, laundry into the washer, play some piano. After all, I now have a whole other day to pack. The afternoon wears on. Sarah & I walk up to Bernal Hill for sushi dinner at Moki's. Then we watch a dvd, and then it's late. Oops I didn't pack. But I assure myself I will pack in the afternoon, and so planning I drift off to slumberland.

Wednesday, July 21st
Laundry into the dryer. Working out at the circuit gym. Playing a lot of piano. Then, it's 6pm...oops. I haven't packed. Sarah & I go to Pomelo for dinner since I was too busy playing the piano (and ostensibly packing) to cook. We return home. Then it's 10:30. Oops. Better pack. I pack.

Thursday, July 22nd
Oops it's 2:30 am. Shit. I sleep. I arise at the obscene hour of 6:30 am. Gary arrives at 7:30. We pack up the car & set out.

I say:
"Have you had breakfast?"

He says:
"No".

I say:
"Is Dynamo Donuts open?"

He says:
"Uh oh." Because once they are invoked, the Dynamo Donuts must be eaten. And they are ever so good. I have a Fleur de Sel Caramel. Gary has a Bacon Apple. Oh lord. We head north.

We pass Mt. Shasta in the noonish time. We are growing hungry, donuts notwithstanding. It has been four hours since Dynamo, after all. We stop in Weed, CA for some chef salads (very very good for us). Gary's friend, Sylvia Massey, owner & chief engineer of the AMAZING Radiostar Studios, drops by to say hey while we lunch. But soon enough she has to return to her session and we are once again zipping up the 5.

Our next celebrity meal is in Eugene, OR with Marc Time and Barb at Noodle House. Then on to Portland we go. We arrive at my brother's house at 9:30pm, delivered right into the bosom of my fabulous family. My brother, Dan, his wife, Karen, my mom, Sonya, my sister, (another celebrity) Mim Eichler Rivas, and my nephew (another celebrity) Elan Eichler are ALL here!! YAY! I LOVE Y'ALL!!

So this is the deal--this is the multi-tasking tour, and tomorrow I will:
1) go to the wedding rehearsal ( I'm playing a bit o' piano for my cousin Brook Geffen's Wedding)

and

2) play a gig with TRUE MARGRIT

Phew.