Gone Again

No sooner than I make my plan for the remainder of the year music-wise everything comes to a crashing halt yet again.  I swear, if I had GOOD luck like I have not so good luck I would have been a millionaire decades ago.

So, I'm most likely going to be offline for a bit.  Why?  Apparently, my retina tore yet again in my bad eye...you know, the eye that I've been complaining about my vision in for the past few months?  Well, yes, lucky me...it finally tore again and it seems that I'm going to be having emergency surgery tomorrow afternoon.

It all depends upon what they end up doing, of course, but I'm mentally preparing for not only a miserable experience but also a 1-4 week recovery, again depending upon the actual procedure.  This is...well...not great news.  It's also the lousiest birthday present ever, I would think.  It'll also most likely drain all of my PTO and therefore I'll end up with no time off over the holidays, which ultimately means no recording.  I just can't win in 2023.  I give.  You win.  This will be the first year in a very long time where I'll be very happy to see it come to a close...provided I'm still here, that is.  With how this year has been going, one never knows.

In any event, I'll write again once it's safe for me to do so.  Wish me luck; I'll need it.  Looking at the bright side, hopefully I'll be able to see again in a clearer fashion.

Casual Day and Return

My last full day in MN started once again with a Caribou run, this time for the high calorie "malted mocha".  This proved to be certainly not my cup of "tea" since the sweetness level was through the roof.  No wonder the calorie count is so high; it tasted like a pound of sugar was in it.  I'll definitely skip that one in the future.

My sleep has been okay but a little on the rough side, kind of to be expected in a hotel.  I still have a nasty sore on my head which tends to wake me up at night and my back isn't exactly doing the greatest either.  For whatever reason, my right "bad" eye has been having a very hard time focusing which is a bit of a drag.  I swear that I'm falling apart.  Nevertheless, I've been getting more sleep in the hotel than I'm used to getting at home, mainly since I don't have two furry critters jockeying for positions on me at 3am.

Sunday was time to visit with family, a rather long overdue visit.  We had a nice lunch at French Meadow and then later on had Carbone's pizza, another old favorite of mine from when I lived here.  The pizza was fantastic, in fact I'd dare say that it was better than what I occasionally get at Rosati's in Encinitas which is a direct from Chicago brand whereas Carbone's is the MN version.  It's pretty rare that I prefer something MN over Chicago itself.

After the visit, I ventured back to the hotel and watched the end of "Bohemian Rhapsody" and "Massacre at Central High".  The latter film was an odd one for sure, something that I found on the Criterion Channel.  I thought it was going to be a teen slasher film...hah!  Yeah, a bit far from it but certainly an interesting film.

The next morning, it was time to start packing up and thinking about heading home.  One more Caribou run!  Geesh...  It's just like old times since I used to basically live at Caribou.  I would normally venture out to other coffee places, just to try them and such, but there's really nothing else over in the area of the hotel so I figured I'd just enjoy Caribou while it was within reach.  Next, it was off to Zantigo, a fast food Mexican place and the only of its sort in MN that I ever found that was worthwhile.  I guess you could call it the MN Del Taco.

After doing a bit of clean up and packing my things, I headed out to my old cat clinic, to see if the doctor was working today and say hello to any staff members that I might know.  I spent an incredible amount of time at this cat clinic over the years since I had three adult cats that were constantly having various issues and such.

Lastly, I drove around my old neighborhood, just to see how things look, etc.  It's always a strange feeling seeing your old house and area, etc., and it tends to fill you with a weird mix of feelings.  For me, the house I owned in MN will always remind me of my cat trio, all of which have sadly passed now, and it's probably the most pleasant memories I have of living in MN since the cats were really the light of my life.  I honestly can't imagine my life over that 25 year span without them.

I was a bit shocked to see that my old house was completely changed on the outside.  The new owners redid all the siding, windows, tore down one of the annoying trees in the front yard, installed new snazzy garage doors, etc.  I almost drove right past the house...that's how different it looked.  All in all, I think they did a fabulous job and I couldn't help but ask myself why it never occurred to me to make any such changes.  In looking back on it, I made an incredibly low number of changes in that house for living there for over a decade.  In comparison to the house I live in now, it's kind of shocking since almost everything in this house is or will be changed.

I dropped the rental car off at the airport and grabbed yet another coffee in the terminal.  This may be the worst Starbucks location ever, AND it had an increase of over $2 attached to it.  I guess it was some sort of "convenience" fee.  Um, yeah.

The flight home was status quo with nothing major to report.  I watched "Goldfinger" and found it to be pretty amusing and enjoyable.  I'll admit I did fall asleep briefly at one point but I wouldn't mind watching the film again, in fact I might just watch all the old ones in succession.

All in all, it was a great trip, especially after not going anywhere for years.  It was also nice to finally make peace with MN.  As for Zorn, fingers crossed that I get another opportunity to see him either for his 80th birthday or maybe in the LA area.

Mr. Zorn, Take 3

I finally got some sleep.  Wow, I really needed that.  I haven't slept for 10 hours in quite awhile so I know I'm really exhausted.

Today has been the first time that I can slow down a bit since I don't have any morning appointments to rush out to, no one to meet, etc.  It's a bit of a refresher.  I once again ventured to Caribou Coffee, for a latte this time vs. a mocha, and then grabbed a sandwich at Potbelly, another old favorite that didn't survive in CA so it's a bit of a treat.  Businesses struggle to get setup in SoCal for whatever reason.  Potbelly had one location that folded pretty quickly and Jimmy John's is still struggling to get going over there as well.  Which Wich, an easy win in most parts of the country, closed most of their locations.  It's kind of odd.  CA folk tend to go to the same places that they're used to, even if they're not the greatest...it's strange.

Back to Caribou, I was mildly shocked yesterday to see the calorie count on their mochas.  My god...  No wonder they taste good!  Back home, I skip certain drinks at places like Black Rock Coffee Bar because the calorie count is upwards of around 500 or so for a large; Caribou's mediums on their flavored specialty drinks were pushing in the 700-800 range!  I mean, that's outrageous, in my opinion!

Next, I was on the hunt for a cheap DVD I could watch on the plane ride home since I only brought one with me.  Since no one wants DVD's anymore, it's usually a fairly easy thing to find, although it's not always easy for me to find a movie I haven't seen before.  It's part of the downside of being a cinephile.  A trip to Barnes & Noble solved the problem where my best option ended up being "Goldfinger".  I've been meaning to watch the old Bond films anyhow so why not?  I also picked up another three CD's while I was there, something I really don't need but still insist on doing.

Next, it was off to the Walker for the festivities.  Upon arrival, I was disappointed to see that the free gallery "shows" actually started at noon whereas I would swear that the emails said 3pm, hence my arriving at that time.  It's not every day that I could have seen Julian Lage, guitarist extraordinaire, playing in a corner of a gallery and I ended up missing it.  To add salt to the wound, Lage passed me casually in the hallway where I momentarily thought about asking him why the time change and then thought better of it.

My old bandmate then showed up while Zorn was playing the bizarre piece "Hockey" and so I was treated to both the wackiness of Zorn while catching up with an old friend.  "Hockey" is a bizarre, rather silly piece played with what I believe are duck whistles, cello, and some eastern styled percussion and there is simply no way to describe it apart from saying it's like hearing a herd of ducks on acid (the ducks, not us).  Next, there was one other piece done in the gallery done with classical instruments, and while pretty interesting (it reminded me of the "Psycho" theme, again on acid), it was hard to pay attention while standing in a crowd.

The Zorn composition "Prolegomena to any Future Metaphysics that will be able to Present Itself as a Science" in the Walker Art Gallery

After dinner and saying goodbye to my old friend, I quickly rushed up to the McGuire Theater for the first of the 3 Zorn performances, "Nove Cantici Per Francesco D'Assisi".  This contained both Julian Lage and Bill Frisell, the latter most certainly being one of my favorite artists of all time and someone I've probably seen over 30 times by now.  Strangely, I've never once seen him play an acoustic guitar so that was different, and this was basically an all acoustic guitar trio (sorry, I don't know the name of the third gentleman playing the nylon string).  Quite frankly, unlike most Zorn based compositions, it was quite accessible and very beautiful, and most likely an album I'll seek out.  My only complaint was that the set lasted 45 minutes and I could have easily been down with double that.

This in turn meant that I had an hour and fifteen minutes to kill.  Bummer.  So, I used it wisely and walked across the street and took some photos, some of which will probably be used for album artwork at some point.  The famous Minneapolis "cherry on a spoon" is more or less the city symbol and I took quite a few pic's even though I've obviously seen it dozens of times before.

At 8pm, I ventured again up to the McGuire for the Chaos Magick performance.  This was a bit more typical Zorn based but was still kind of accessible, much to my surprise.  It was awesome, though, and definitely my favorite of the three shows.  Again, it was only 45-ish minutes long and I really wanted to hear more.  What's up with these short sets this year?!

Zorn directing Chaos Magick

And so, yet another hour and fifteen minutes to kill doing pretty much nothing.  I did talk a bit with a guy in the audience who seemed pretty well versed in Zorn, and then I also kept an eye on what I believe to be Marc Maron, although I can't imagine why in the hell he would be at this performance unless he was interviewing Zorn or Lage for the WTF podcast.  I kept staring at him, and he was wearing unusual round glasses for him, but he was also wearing curiously pointed shoes and was slightly hunched over, and the more I looked at him the more I was convinced it really was him.  He also seemed like an anxiety prone guy of which Maron is indeed and I think my staring at him was making him rather nervous.  I'll have to listen to WTF over the next month or so and see if says anything about being at the show.

Last up was the New Masada Quartet, this time with Zorn actually performing (he did not perform with the previous two sets).  This was pretty awesome as well but again it didn't seem as outlandish as he's been in the past.  Is it just that I'm actually acclimating to it?  That's both exciting and scary.  After another 45 minute set which seemed way too short, I left the theater and headed back to the hotel.  Zorn was scheduled to play the organ at the local basilica but I actually saw him do that a decade ago and it wasn't really my thing, hence I skipped out on it.

The New Masada Quartet

All in all, it was a great day and night, and the performances were top notch...just all too short.  It was certainly worth coming to, however, but I'm now hungry for more.  It looks like there could be a small chance that Zorn might play at LA's the Skirball Center so I'll be keeping a close eye on that.  If he's there or anywhere in the near vicinity (hell, even Phoenix, which seems unlikely), I'm there.

Not So Bad

I headed out yesterday for Minneapolis, the first time I'm returning to the area since I left back in December of 2016.  Leaving MN was one of my biggest accomplishments ever in my life.  I know that sounds strange but I more or less got "stranded" in MN due to the housing market collapsing in , and with the added (not) bonus of not liking the house I owned and then having it lose 100k to where there was no possible way for me at the time to sell it, made life in MN nearly intolerable.  It also created this tremendous animosity inside of me as well as a feeling like the city/state was holding me hostage, and whereas I would have left of my free will after about 3-4 years, I ended up having to stay an awful 12 years.

MN itself really isn't a bad place at all, mind you, but I really didn't fit in there much.  I also grew incredibly tired of people constantly telling me that I didn't fit in one way or another, and again my animosity only grew and grew over the years.  There was a time when I actually thought I'd never be able to leave.  When things like this occur, at least for me, it builds up a really bizarre false set of feelings internally that end up being rather challenging to overcome.

Needless to say, when  I drove out of MN in my Mini Cooper S in late December of 2016 and physically crossed the state line for the last time as a resident, I literally cheered, screamed, etc. at the top of my lungs.  I could hardly believe it.  I also vowed I might never return.  I always said that the only reason I would consider returning is if John Zorn played another birthday fest at the Walker, of which he had for both his 50th and 60th birthdays, and both shows were incredibly memorable.

And so, when the 70th birthday Zorn fest was announced two months ago, I mulled it over and promptly gave in.  I will honestly admit that I've had nothing but anxiety about this trip coming into it.  In fact, yesterday, prepping to get to the airport, even sitting on the plane, etc., I literally felt defeated and depressed knowing I was flying to MN.  It's kind of hard to explain, really, but I was also so incredibly tired and was falling in and out sleep on the plane, having visions that MN was this large Godzilla/Mothra styled monster grabbing people (myself included) with it's tongue, dragging them back into the void.  Yes, that's how weird this whole thing has gotten for me.

After lying in this depression for awhile, and trying to keep calm on the plane, of which I don't enjoy plane rides much, not because of being off the ground but more or less being cramped in a tight space, I did my best to come to terms with everything and did a lot of thinking in general.  I thought about my whole life, decisions I've made, wrong turns, terrible wrongs that I wish I could right but can't, and so on.  I finally just told myself that you might, just might, feel better once you're on the ground and have some time to acclimate.

The plane ride was fairly uneventful.  Thankfully, I brought along "Bohemian Rhapsody" to watch on my laptop, a movie I had deliberately been putting off since its release and found it to actually be fairly enjoyable.  It definitely helped to pass the time.  One alarming thing that happened was when the flight crew announced, "Ladies and gentlemen...if there are any medical personnel on the plane, please come to the front".  Yeah, that's never what you want to hear on a plane, right?  I immediately thought that maybe the pilot had ordered the fish and was deathly ill, a callback to the old "Airplane" movie.  Hell knows that I wouldn't be the one flying the plane for them, even with the automatic pilot.

We landed on time but it was 11:45pm MN time.  The real kicker is that Terminal 1 in San Diego is beyond awful and ended up having no food that I could eat, and here I thought I was being smart by saving time and planning to grab dinner at the airport.  Instead, I only got to eat 2 Kind bars before taking off and was now physically starving beyond belief.  The real downside is that the Twin Cities more or less closes down food wise by 10pm so I had to do a bit of digging.

I mildly lucked out because White Castle was open, in fact it was the one I used to go to by my old workplace.  Unfortunately, the road was closed so I immediately got lost, and I was also slightly shocked by how I couldn't completely remember how to get around nor did I remember the street names.  I should also mention that at midnight in the outskirts of the Twin Cities, there's literally no lighting anywhere and no cars on the road.  I was frankly shocked to see that White Castle actually WAS open at that hour given the circumstances.

The Impossible Sliders, which I've been eager to try for awhile, honestly weren't as good as the old veggie sliders.  Bummer.  Eating at midnight, or 10pm my time, also didn't sit well in my stomach or intestines, as you might imagine, and I didn't end up getting to sleep until about 2:30am.

This morning, I woke up in a mild hurry, went and grabbed my old MN favorite Caribou coffee, and then met up with my old work mates at the Original Pancake House.  It was really fun seeing them and chatting, and it was almost like I had never left even though it's been 7 years.  I was also pleased to see that my weird feelings about the area seem to quickly be disappearing, and instead I'm focused on just enjoying myself.  It's also the first time in a few weeks that life has finally slowed down a bit since I've been going at full speed for as long as I can remember, and I don't handle stress or a frantic pace very well.

Next, off to Paisley Park for a 2 hour VIP tour.  It should be interesting.  Overall, I think it's going to end up being an enjoyable weekend after all and maybe it'll finally put all these weird feelings to rest.  If so, that's a major win in my book.