You shake my nerves and you rattle my brain

It's Monday night. And I've been smiling through this whole day. Had just a perfect weekend. Been laughing so much, so hard that my cheeks and my stomach are sore. But it's a good hurt. Saw two gigs, one on Friday and one on Saturday. And the man of my life, my nephew, visited me on Sunday.

But beginning from the start. I got a message from a friend I learned to know a bit better a week ago when on Rival Sons' gig. I was somewhat surprised to get that message but in a positive way. I had such fun with him on the RS gig that it was nice to see that he had similar thoughts about our friendship. So I invited him to my place on Friday and we had a few drinks, talked A LOT and then took out to the night time. We met our friend in the bar and watched the gig, continued talking about everything and between before Mr Charming continued to another bar, alone. I stayed in the first bar since I had some friends there I hadn't seen for ages but my phone kept constantly sending and reseiving messages from Mr Charming. His night didn't seem to go as planned and finally we ended up taking the same bus home. We continued the night at his place, listening to music and talking and talking and talking until we both fell asleep on the couch. I woke up few hours later, shook him awake and told him to get to bed as I left and started walking home, 9.30 in the morning. I got nothing noteful done on Saturday.

Until it came Saturday night and time to get out on a gig again. Met close friends, had a great time and the gig itself was amazing. Kept laughing although my stomach was hurting already from doing it. Continued to another place again, had a coke and once again headed home with the last bus of the night with Mr Charming. This time my place, more music and talking. 5am he headed home and I slept about four hours before my nephew came with his mom to visit me. Already the bus trip to city was exciting for the little guy, his first time in a bus. :) We looked through some christmas decorations in the windows (Penguins!!! :)), and we met Santa Claus as well. Santa made the little hero act a bit shy but with the help of his mom they told Santa that he's hoping for some Lightning McQueen toys for christmas. Spent some quality time with him while his mom went to Ikea. We had a quick snack and then they headed home, the small trooper fell asleep as soon as he got into the car. But at least he had lots to tell dad, Santa seemed to be one of the top things. :)

I'm really feeling lucky.. lucky to have the best people as a part of my life.

Music maniac

I had an interesting exchange of thoughts about music last night. And it got me thinking today a little bit further. I don't consider myself qualified to debate about music with musicians but that doesn't mean I don't have any opinions about the subject. The discussion yesterday was about my musical taste and about improvisation and about the "right" way to deliver music to your audience. And oh boy, you people have the wrong image of me if you think that my taste is limited to one music style. Yes, I do admit that my main interest involves mostly rock. But it's not the only type of music I listen to.

But to the point. I had one wish for the star of the yesterday's gig. I'd be happy if I'd get at least one song played and sung correctly from start to finish. The thing is that he prefers improvisation to the bottoms of his heart. But I don't think one thing rules out the other. I believe that the better you know and understand the original version of the song, the better you've learned to play it the original way, then that much easier it is to improvise and the better the end result. One does not necessarily need a folder filled with lyrics and chords on a gig but a set list does help without a doubt. And a set list can be planned loosely enough that there's room for that improvisation. The set list works like a spine: it keeps you up and going but it also allows you to do much more than just that. When you get those blank moments when you don't have any idea what to play, you'll just take a look to that set list and you're back on track again. Even with the set list one can fullfill wishes from the audience or play a song that suddenly pops into your head. The set list isn't the law, you can leave some songs out of it and add others. And the set list gives some sort of structure to the gig, so that one doesn't play just one type of music but can successfully mix different types of music. Mix it in a way that answers better to the expectations of the audience.

Improvisation is a good thing but to make it really work takes a lot of training. Let's think about acting for example. Sure, I could improvise a Shakespeare play, base it to the movies or theater plays I've seen of it. But knowing the original play, reading it and making notes of it would make my improvisation so much better. At least that's what I believe.

But with this said, the gig last night was good and I was having a great time. :)