Tuesday, October 03, 2006

II’ve been in Northern California for nearly two weeks now. I’m staying at KBD’s home once again, in the house overlooking the ocean and the rolling hills. Today I saw two deer grazing right outside the kitchen window. I felt a long way from the overcrowded, noisy streets of New York City.

A couple of days before I left NY, I was sitting in the living room one evening and heard several gunshots ring out. Then I heard the sound of people screaming and yelling. I peeked out of the window and saw a large group of people running away from the direction the shots were coming from. Then I heard more shots and decided to move away from the window, thinking about what MRMCS said: “Bullets don’t stop moving until they hit something.”

The air quickly filled with the sound of sirens on the ground and helicopters circling above, their searchlights shining down on the frenzied street scene below and swooping across the building rooftops above. I was quite happy to board a plane that was taking me all the way to the other side of the United States. The sad thing is, to some people, those sights and sounds are commonplace.

I had a patch of cloudy days when I first arrived. At least I thought it was a cloudy day until we went over the hill to Mill Valley and discovered it was quite sunny. It was just the fog that rolled in from the water that made it seem overcast and grey where we were. KBD’s driving license is temporarily suspended, so I drove her into town to run some errands. We stopped at the operating center of this really cool company that makes solar powered cell phone chargers. KBD went to Baltimore last week to help promote their product at a music festival there.

Today she had to go in to the office to turn in some receipts and invoice them. While we were there, I got into a conversation with the owner and, as a result of that conversation and KBD giving him my resume, I may wind up doing some freelance work for him.

I performed at The Cannery. It’s one of those touristy places that only people from out of town populate. I was surprised that I was able to sing for nearly three hours straight and still was able to talk at the end of the whole thing. My voice wasn’t hoarse at all. The Cannery is located at the wharf in a beautiful courtyard. What I didn’t anticipate was the wind. I left my sweater in the car because it was so warm driving there and I was wearing a really cute top that I wanted to show off. About an hour into my performance, a wind suddenly sprang up and the temperature must have dropped ten degrees. I sang for another hour and a half with my teeth chattering and my knees trembling from the cold. At one point someone in the audience mentioned that my lips were turning blue. A new friend who came to the show volunteered to go to my car and get my sweater for me but by the time that happened, I was nearly done with the performance, although I was quite happy to have it to put on afterwards.

Two days before my performance I discovered that I would have to supply my own guitar amp, microphone and microphone stand, none of which I had with me of course. The last time I headed for the west coast, I brought along everything but the kitchen sink and didn’t use any of it, so this time I left everything behind and only brought my guitar, keyboard and laptop. So the day of my performance, I drove into the city early and stopped at the Guitar Center and picked up a microphone stand and microphone. They had a microphone advertised for $20, which was just my speed and they also had a microphone stand for $20. When I arrived at the store and asked for the microphone, the salesperson said they were out of stock on that one but he gave me a more expensive one for the same price, since they didn’t have the one that was advertised. KBD’s new roommate let me borrow his guitar amp, which meant I didn’t have to purchase one for the show. I almost bought one from someone on Craig’s List for $50.

I drove to the Mission District the other night to hang out with a new MySpace friend. She’s a wonderful writer and some of her other friends were meeting her there. We all met at the Revolution Café on Mission Street and sat at the outdoor café ran our mouths until nearly 2:00 in the morning, talking about men, politics, who’s hot and not and sharing titillatingly scandalous tales over bottles of red wine. The plan was to go for tapas after but that never happened. By the time I made it back to the house I was practically starving. I had a big bowl of cereal and hit the sack.

My friend BGJ drove up from Los Angeles and hung out with me yesterday. His mother lives up this way, and several of his aunts, uncles and cousins, he informed me during his visit. He drove back down to LA on Monday morning and I thought about hitching a ride down with him but then I was asked to perform at a festival up here so I think I’ll hang out a bit longer. Plus, I was planning to stay at my friend JSM’s apartment in LA but she called and said it won’t be empty until the end of October. So I may stay up here for October and head down at the end of the month. Hopefully I can get some freelance work while I’m here so that I can have a bit of cash in my pocket.
Before leaving NY, I got a call from a producer located in LA. She’s done a few television shows – Who Wants to Marry My Dad, Black and White and some other one about country western singers. This documentary is called Rappin’ With Shakespeare and is filmed in a south central LA highschool. The producer wanted to know if I knew any hip hop producers located in LA because she needed some backing tracks for the documentary. I gave her a couple of numbers of talented people that I know in LA. Then I decided to also send her a track that I had just lying around collecting dust, figuring what the heck; you never know… Two days later, the producer called me. “I played your track for the rest of the crew and we all agreed that it’s the best thing we’ve heard so far,” she said. “Can you give us a few more pieces?”

Well of course I said that I could. I started working on them the other day. I turned in two tracks right before I left for the west coast. The day that I was flying, the producer called me again and asked for more tracks, so as soon as I got to KBD’s house, I unpacked and got to work. For the next several days, my time was consumed with creating tracks for the documentary. They had a deadline because they wanted to submit the piece for the Sundance Film Festival. I’d send the producer an mp3 and she’d call me back after listening to it and ask for some changes – make it four minutes longer or put some cello in. I finally sent off all of the tracks the day of the deadline. There’s going to be a screening on October 10th in Los Angeles. I want to travel down to LA to be there to see it. I’ll probably just go down for a couple of days for the screening and then come back up to San Francisco until the end of the month. Otherwise I’ll have to figure out a place to say while I’m down there because JSM’s place won’t be available until November.

KBD has a new roommate, RJD. He just bought a G4 laptop and I helped install new software on it. It’s one of the newer ones, with a backlight on the typewriter keys and everything. So cool. But that’s alright; at least I have a G4 laptop and I’m able to do what I need to do with mine, even without the lighted keys.
I may be performing on Wednesday night at a place called Bottoms Up in the Mission district. I’ll know more this evening. There are two more possible October performance dates for San Francisco as well. Gotta be in it to win it!

KBD and I went for a hike up to the top of the highest hill near the house and then down to the beach this morning. It’s so beautiful around here. As I stood at the shore, looking out at the ocean and hearing the sound of the surf and breathing in that fresh ocean air, for that moment, all was well with the world and I was so happy to be alive and right there in that moment.

More soon...

© Daughter of the Sun. Reprint by permission only.

September 10, 2006 - It’s almost midnight and here I sit in front of my computer still. I didn’t go out today. I don’t know if it was cold or hot but I do know that it was sunny because I sat near the window as I worked, so that I could feel the sun on my skin. More...

August 20, 2006 - Friday night was my performance at The Alphabet Lounge. There was a nice turnout, although about one third of the people arrived almost at the end of the performance. More...

July 7, 2006 - Yesterday was my show at The Talking Stick. I thought I’d get some photos of my performance but unfortunately TDJ arrived just as I’d finished my last song. I only performed a few songs. More...

July 3, 2006 - I’m in my own bedroom at TDJ’s apartment. My own little slice of Heaven. I’m sleeping on an air mattress on the floor in what is technically TDJ’s office/recording studio but who cares. I have my own bathroom and I can sleep as late as I like. More...

June 30, 2006 - I think I’ve worn out my welcome with NAP. Fortunately, I spoke with TDJ yesterday and his other houseguests have departed, which means that starting today I can stay in his extra bedroom. He’s my only friend in California that I haven’t met through MySpace. More...

June 24, 2006 - So I’m in Los Angeles, the city of broken dreams and make believe. I’m staying with a wonderful family, thanks again to MySpace. NAP is a singer, a wife and the mother of two absolutely adorable (and exhaustingly rambunctious) children. More...

June 8, 2006 - I am loving life right about now. I’m in Northern California in a little town near Sausalito with a population of about 200. I posted an ad on Craigs List saying I was willing to exchange administrative services for room and board and, lo and behold, I got two responses the very next day. More...

May 3, 2006 - I just got in from playing in the subway station. I like the F line at the 23rd Street station... More...

April 24, 2006 - I found a numerology site and, according to their calculations, I’m at the end of a cycle. I‘ve past the harvest and I’m about to lay down new seeds I guess to prepare for the coming Winter. More...

April 10, 2006 - I’ve been spending a lot of time online, working on my MySpace page, making new friends through MySpace as well. By the time I get to California, I’ll already know lots of folks there. More...

April 2, 2006 - I can’t believe it’s April already. The year is nearly half done, although some more optimistic than I am at this moment in my life would say the year’s barely begun. It just seems that time is marching along faster and faster each year. More...

March 23, 2006 - Not much new to report. Still laid up with my broken toe. More...

March 16, 2006 - What a week it’s been! A broken toe, post-Philly drama, TTT came into town, west coast tour in the works, April concert to plan, new band. More...

March 10, 2006 - It was a pretty smooth drive with almost no traffic even though we left the city at 5 o’clock. We reached Philadelphia at about 8 o’clock. It reminds me of a lot of other small towns I’ve been in, like Troy and Albany. More...

March 8, 2006 - This evening I’m off to New Rochelle to perform at a Habitat for Humanity fundraising event. I’m taking CDs, which I will autograph and sell and donate half the proceeds to Habitat for Humanity. They’re going to New Orleans to rebuild some of the homes that were destroyed by Katrina. More...

March 2, 2006 - I am so over the cold and ready for the Spring. It’s hard to believe it’s right around the corner. The groundhog saw his shadow last month, which supposedly means Winter is hanging around a bit longer but I remain ever hopeful. More...

February 25, 2006 - Another late night… What else is new? I performed at Bellizzi’s tonight. Two sets. I ran through my entire arsenal of songs and even threw in a cover of Cyndi Lauper’s song, “True Colors.” I don’t really like doing covers but the woman who hired me for the night asked me to and you have to give the people what they want, especially when they're paying. More...

February 19, 2006 - Another all nighter… My plan was to get into bed by midnight at the latest but I wound up staying up and setting up my page on MySpace. It turns out there’s another artist with my name (Setra) who’s already on MySpace so I couldn’t use my own name. I had to sign up using Daughter of the Sun instead. It took a while to upload the music and the photos, once I figured out how to do it. More...

February 16, 2006 - Hurray! The snow is almost gone! Just the way I like the snow. A lot of it comes down, it stays for a few days and then it melts and is gone; and not a moment too soon. I ate the last of the food today, which means I have to go grocery shopping tomorrow. I haven't weighed myself but I have a feeling I've gained at least a couple of pounds. More...

Snow - I have about five days’ worth of food, and I’m prepared to hibernate until the snow melts. My car is parked across the street but I don’t know which mound it’s under. It was kind of nice being home alone and doing whatever I wanted to without having to answer to anybody or even speak to another person. I turned off the ringer on the phone and just spent some time with myself. More...

Guero's - I just got in from Guero’s. What a night. First off, it turns out they didn’t have a PA system, an amp, a microphone or microphone stand so I had to pack up all that stuff and take it with me. I lugged it all a block and a half to where I’d parked my car Monday evening and when I got to the parking spot where I’d left my car, my car was nowhere to be found. More...

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