Tools

Looking down into the cribs and settling you eyes on your very own babies is one of the most rewarding, unsettling and indescribable feelings in the world. The day you get to swaddle them and take them home is a day forever ensconced in memories as the day your life really changes.

My babies of course of my MX12 400 watt mixer/amp, 2 12-inch passive sub-woofers, and 2 Seinheiser mics (with stands and cords!).

There is little feeling greater than when all of the fantastic things you love in life are surrounding you at once. Driving through the city I love, with the man I love next to me, the sunshine in my face and the meter creeping up on the cab back from Long and McQuade with my NEW AWESOME EQUIPMENT IN THE TRUNK!!!!

So a big deal was made about this stuff. It's just stuff. But once I got it home and really saw what it was, it became more than a few chunks of fabric and metal and dials and cords. It felt like potential. SHIT GOT REAL as we say in the hood.

After a fantastic evening of more detail planning and still yet no real feelings of terror (I'm saving it all for the first night), I played around with some tunes and got to know my newest arrivals.

They sound delicious.

So I went out to another open mic night which I love, at the Old Nick, and saw everything very differently. Their host is fantastically fluid, organized and impossibly cool. She knows everybody, and every kind of musician stereotype was there, though they all seemed so genuine and sincere in their craft. I even had a brush of celebrity, meeting the frontman behind a fantastic jazz funk band I saw in a jazz fest this past summer. Apparently all the good musicians live on the Danforth :) hint hint.

My time there watching the dynamics of an open stage further confirmed my belief in this concept and in my innate ability to do this. I try to avoid it but- like many artists and entertainment folks- it also has a lot to do with me not being able to do anything else.