J5’s Blog

Great fun was had at the Westford Red Hat office. Though few dressed up those who did came up with some great costumes. Click on my picture to see my small gallery. I’m sure others will post more.

Thanks to all my friends who came out last night to hear me play up in Nashua. I can’t remeber having that much fun in a long time. It wasn’t all without trouble though. I had called Penuche’s to see if the open mic night was still on and they told me it was. I went down there only to find out that it was filled with people watching the Sox game. They were nice enough to tell me to go to the bar across the street. The guys who run the open mic night didn’t show but the lady behind the bar told me I could set up and play all I wanted. Although there was no amplification everything went off really well with me entertaining people for a good hour, hour and a half, sans the 15 minutes some other really good guitar player took up. I have much more energy when I’m not constrained by a mic – getting up, getting the crowd into it and generally being a Ham. Hey, I even got a free beer out of it. Next week I’m taking a break for Halloween and I have to write an outline for a D-BUS article I’m doing but the week after that I expect to see some more people come out. So, I leave you with this last thought – The wheels on the bus go round and round, round and round, round and round…

It’s been one of those amazing weekends where I didn’t do much but got a lot done. Saturday around noon I went to Natik with Chris Allion to ckeck out the Guitar Center. We had lunch first at the Olive Garden which was right around the courner. I went in to buy some strings, picks, an acoustic guitar pickup and a metronome. The girl behind the counter started teasing me because my NY address was in the computers and I had to tell her I was indeed a Yankee fan. When she forgot to ring up the picks the manager came over sighed and said, “I can’t belive I’m giving free picks to a Yankee fan”. It was all in good fun. I spent the rest of the day writting words to a two year old song I had never finished.

Sunday I got up early and decided to go to the Church across the street. I haven’t been to Church in years but I have to say there is something wholy comforting about walking in to watch the familiar rituals.

I had to go to the Guitar Center again because I cut the high E string to short and it kept slipping out of the tuning peg. This time I went down to the one in Boston around 10:00. It is nice to see I am only a 15 minute bus ride from there. Got there and realized they don’t open until noon on Sundays. I ended up walking down to the Prudential Center and buying Once Upon a Time in China 1 & 2. If you liked Croching Tiger Hidden Dragon these two are much better movies. I ended up going to Daddy O’s Music shop to pick up a new set of strings. The rest of the day was spent watching the movies and practicing my songs.

That night I went up to Nashua to check out an open mic night at a bar called Penuche’s Ale House. I ened up being the only other band there besides the house band so I had fun and did a 1/2 hour set. It was fun, I wasn’t that great being that I am not used to being amped or playing while standing up but I don’t think I was bad either. I’ll be there next weekend, hopefully with a cheering section.

It was a good weekend.

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J5