Is This Thing On...?

I'm a very fortunate cat, and there ain't no denyin'.  I woke up today and no giant alien robots tried to play the old shell game with the houses on my street, hordes of radiation-mutated cephalopods didn't slime me with radioactive cephalopod goo when I went for my daily walk, the state of Minnesota didn't get sucked up into a massive sink hole, and, by golly, we still had plenty of Vietnamese cassia cinnamon for my morning oatmeal.  That's a pretty good start to anyone's day but, more to the point, I woke up this morning and I got to say, once again--like I have every morning for the past three-odd years--"I'm a musician.  This is what I do.  It's all good."

OK, I'm not gonna kid anyone here.  I'm not making what any sane person in the 21st century would consider a "living," financially speaking (though I am doing pretty well by early 19th century standards), but I've got a pretty darned good life, and I get to spend my time doing something that I think is pretty darned important, and that's a pretty darned good thing.  I reiterate: it's all good.

To illustrate, here's some of the stuff I got to do this past couple of weeks:
October 24--Presented a concert of lute music at Twin Cities Tai Chi studio as part of their "Beat the Winter Blues" seminar series.  Boffo concert for some very cool, very mellow people in a really live space.  Thanks, Ray!!!
October 31--Dressed like a pirate and handed out candy to the kiddies on Hallowe'en.  Okay, that has nothing to do with music--I just really like dressing like a pirate.  Arrrr!!!
November 1--Spent the afternoon wiring up an Orange Squeezer clone kit from the good folks at General Guitar Gadgets.  Amazing box.  Nice, squishy guitar tone goodness!
November 2--Rehearsed with the guys for the November 21 Lute Summit at Sundin Hall (see the "November and December Performances" post below for details).  Man, I like me some lute ensemble music.
November 3--Played lute music for the 25th anniversary reception at my old employer.  Yep, I got to go to the offices of my old employer, play lute music and see some old pals for my work today.  Who wouldn't like a job like that??

So where am I going with this?  Well, I just started with this Blogomat thing here, and I figured the inaugural post ought to set the tone for future posts to come.  I like being a musician.  I like making music, performing music, talking about music and whatnot, and I plan to shamelessly self-promote the doody out of myself with this blog, so I hope this microphone is on and you can hear me all the way back to the cheap seats (figuratively speaking, cuz...well...this is a blog and it doesn't talk and stuff, you know?), because there's lots more goofiness to come.   Welcome aboard--let me know what you think.

Oh...and be sure to check out the CD's I have available for purchase over on the left.  I'll blurb a bit about all five recordings in a future post, but in the meantime, you can click the pictures and go to CD Baby for info, sound samples and so on.

Until next time, eat your veggies, share your candy with others, and play nice!

Be excellent to yourselves!

r