Swingin' in the Park

A month and a half ago, I dusted off my righteous rage, put on the activist armband again, and joined the Nightwatchman and the Occupy Guitarmy in a march and some music in midtown Manhattan on May Day. The rest of the month involved quite a bit of marching, too, including a trip to the Maryland Sheep and Wool Festival, two weddings, Mother's Day visits to both my mom and Laura's, and a rare Not An Exit jam/recording session with Jon Wardell.

Jon and Andy: this is Not An Exit!

At the beginning of this month, I stood by and watched Laura march instead.  Well, actually, I watched her run, in a 5K race, her first, and I was incredibly proud of her.  She's planning on doing the 2013 New York City Marathon, and I'll be there to watch her, too!  Last week, however, I slowed things down a bit, and the two of us headed to a Victorian bed and breakfast, the Hewitt Wellington, down the shore (yes, we say "down the shore" in Jersey) in Spring Lake for an overnight stay. There was a brief period of rain, much of which we escaped by ducking into a wine shop, but the weather was otherwise wonderful, as were both the lake and the beach, and we even got to commune with the squirrels (and ducks) and swing in the park, though it wasn't after dark. We had an amazing if puzzling dinner Thursday night at Café Artiste; we were never given menus or asked for our orders, and by the time we'd figured out that the chicken special mentioned outside was the only meal available, we'd already been served bread, lentil soup, and salad. After sausage and peppers and a side dish of peas, we finally got to the chicken dish, which certainly lived up to the hype by Cosimo, as did the incredible peach pie we barely managed to tuck away, too.  Dessert was plainly not optional, and I for one didn't mind.

I brought my acoustic/electric along, too, and Laura snapped some nice shots as I played a little on the beach early Friday morning. (Speaking of pictures, I know I haven't updated the Gallery... of Death! at all this year.  Since Apple is doing away with iWeb, I'm thinking of migrating my photos to Picasa and redoing the Gallery from there instead of iPhoto/iWeb; I just need to get around to doing it.)  She found a sand dollar among the tide's remains, which was a nice surprise, and we got quite a lot of walking done.  I know we did, because I finally have a Jawbone Up that seems to be lasting!  I got this one (I think it was the sixth replacement since Christmas, though honestly I've lost track) on May 2nd, and it's still going strong.  The longest that any of the others went before dying on me was three weeks, and that was the original one Laura bought me.  At least Jawbone's customer support has been very good about it, and each replacement was sent to me at no charge, not even shipping.  If this one goes the distance, I will be very happy indeed.

On the Beach at Spring Lake

A week from today, I'm lugging the Danelectro to Jackson Square at Greenwich and Eighth Avenues in Manhattan to play some tunes outdoors at 2 PM for this year's Make Music New York.  It's free, as are the hundreds of other performances taking place around New York all day, so you should come get an earful if you can!  I'm planning to add my newest song, "So Much Happy," to the set, and there's a new T-shirt design available ay my CafePress shop if you're interested; for the new free buttons and/or guitar picks, you'll have to come to the show.  ;-)  The shirts feature my two main axes on the front and Slime's Doug the Slug, plus his hedgehog and penguin buddies, on the back (thanks, Laura!).  You know you want one...

Some days, trying to find time for everything (including updating my personal social media accounts and 'blog - and now I'm adding RebelMouse, too?!? - in addition to the "music" and Slime social media accounts; writing the dialog, and scanning and prepping the artwork, for Slime; making the occasional YouTube video; playing guitar; and of course waiting hand and foot on the Chinchilla Princess, Meguilla) after spending a workday on Microwize Technology's user forum, 'blog, and to a lesser extent its social media and clients' data issues can feel overwhelming.  I need to record a medley of the Police's "Too Much Information" and Living Colour's "Information Overload" as my theme song... but where would I find the time?  Heh.  Then again, the minuscule interaction my "music fans" (102 on Facebook, 90 on ReverbNation, and 294 (!) on Jango, allegedly) provide can feel underwhelming; I still haven't gotten any responses to my query as to which artist(s) I sound like or remind listeners of, and I'm not holding out hope for many people I know showing up at Jackson Square next week, though of course my honey will be there supporting me.  Still, in spite of dwindling time resources and limited active interest on the part of the general public, I'm not ready to give it all up and live a "normal" life.  I want to revamp my Web sites, I want to come up with more creative outlets for the Slime characters, and certainly I want to write new music ("They Might Be Roses" is brewing in my head, and maybe I'll finally pen a song about the experience of playing live, for real people) as well as record some already-written songs that haven't been laid down yet ("I'll Live," "When Giant Giants Attack!" and "Occasionally Tormented Soul," I'm looking at you in particular).  I want to spend more time trying to interest people in that music, for while I'm neither trying nor expecting to become the "next big thing" in music, I do intend to keep at it, and input and criticism can only help.  I want to keep writing in general, and boy, did this 'blog post turn out to be longer than I'd planned.  I want to stop using so many parentheses and semicolons; no, wait, I don't (I really don't)...  Slouching back on the couch and watching the game and the latest reality show is too easy and not satisfying at all, and besides, there are way too many people doing that already.  Also, I can't really teach Laura to play tennis that way.

After all...  Better that your life be a blur than a blurb.  Happy Flag Day!  Got somethin' to say about any or all of this verbosity?  Leave a comment, then!

Burning in the Sun

Two weeks ago, I was in Costa Rica with some of my colleagues as part of McKesson's VAR Achievement Club.  We were only there for a handful of days, but it was great fun, and I managed to ride a zipline high over the rain forest canopy, go scuba diving to forty feet below the surface of the Pacific Ocean... and get sunburned.  Go figure.


I took my newly-purchased Kona K2 with me on the trip.  I'd never brought a guitar along on a flight, and part of me was admittedly nervous about it getting lost or damaged, but once we'd arrived at the hotel and I opened the hard case, I saw that everything was fine, though there was a Notice of Baggage Inspection from the TSA inside.  Guess they wanted to be sure it was really a guitar and not a sniper rifle...  On the way home, the guitar again arrived intact, but the case took a bit of damage.  Oh, well; that's why one uses a hard case.


I didn't play the acoustic/electric as much as I could have while in Costa Rica, and I didn't end up playing for anyone else, but I did play, and I did start writing a new song, "Burning in the Sun," which I recently finished.  I'm fairly certain that this was the first time I wrote music and lyrics together at the same time, and it was a good experience, although I was a bit rusty at first, not having written a song in, well, too long now.  I hadn't consciously intended to give it a Brazilian rhythm and feel, but it seems I managed to do that.  Not that you can tell from the lyrics... but I'm probably going to record it soon, as I've already got the lyrics and the guitar part figured out, so you should be able to hear it within the next few weeks.


You can probably hear it at Make Music New York, too.  Yes, I'm taking part again this year, and yes, I think I'll be comfortable enough with "Burning in the Sun" by then to play it.  I did procrastinate a bit on applying for a space and time to perform, getting in just under the wire; I'll be back at Duane Park this June 21st (a Tuesday this year; blecch), but not until 4 PM.  If you can come out, please do!


I've recently seen two musical productions featuring two friends, and both were science fiction-based and a lot of fun!  My colleague Nicole was in the St. Anne Stages' production of "Bill & Ted Save Broadway," at the Fair Lawn Community Center in NJ; it took the characters from the late '80s movie and revisited them a few decades later, as a not-dead Rufus calls upon them once more, this time to help save Broadway from flagging sales and declining patronage.  They grabbed performers (and songs) from Broadway musicals past and present, and the show was done incredibly well.  My friend and fellow singer/songwriter Tatiana Moroz was in "Europa" at New York's Kraine Theater, and the musical featured a number of well-meaning (and some not-so-well-meaning) misfits on Jupiter's moon; while I went solely to support Tatiana, the rest of the cast was incredible, too, and I was pleasantly surprised to discover that Television's guitarist Richard Lloyd was in it as well!  I'm not generally a big fan of musicals (though I loved "The Who's 'Tommy'" and "The Phantom of the Opera"), but I'm glad I got to see these two.


In just under a month, Pam will be coming back to New Jersey for another long weekend. My friends Susan and Brett are getting married, and Pam and I will be attending the wedding, along with my friends Barbara and Stephanie (Susan's sister) and her girlfriend Nicol.  It was kind of a sudden thing, but I'm glad it worked out; I'm looking forward to seeing Pam again sooner than expected, and to taking her to the wedding.  :-)


Lastly, the Web site has finally gotten something of a tune-up.  All the old Vitriol and Being... columns are posted now, the FAQs are back up (and those of you who can't understand why I have a "Gallery... of Death!" and a "'Blog... of Death!" can get answers there), and I've even put the x Walks into a Bar page up again (I love those jokes).  Oh, and speaking of the Gallery..., all the Costa Rica pics, and some from "Europa," are there now, too.  Enjoy!  Or don't.

How am I different?

I first saw Aimee Mann in that iconic "Voices Carry" music video by 'Til Tuesday back in 1985, and I bought the single, but didn't get anything else by the band at the time.  Several years later, I was at a flea market browsing through music when I came across Whatever, Aimee's debut solo album.  I hadn't heard anything from it, hadn't even known that 'Til Tuesday had broken up and that Aimee was a solo artist now, but based on how much I'd liked that first exposure to her music (and how she looked on the front and back artwork), I picked it up.


I've never looked back.  I own all seven CDs, plus the "Magnolia" and "I Am Sam" soundtracks and "The Imago Traveling Road Show," and the "Magnolia" and "Live at St. Ann's Warehouse" DVDs.  I've seen her perform four or five times (most recently, last Friday at the Forum Theatre in Metuchen) and got my copy of "@#%&*! Smilers" autographed at Barnes & Noble.  I had a girlfriend give me grief about a promotional picture of Aimee that I'd taped up on my wall (right, 'cos even pre-Michael Penn, she'd have run away with me...)  I even wrote a song, "That's Just What I Am," that is in part a response to her minor hit "That's Just What You Are."  (Subtle, right?)


I like a lot of different music.  A lot of different music.  Somehow, though, no matter what I'm listening to, I always come back to Aimee.  Music always makes me feel, or at least good music does, but her music makes me feel alive and human and flawed and OK nonetheless.  She's still my favorite singer/songwriter, and while it had been a few years since the last time I'd seen her play, I'm so glad I made it to the Metuchen show and had such a great seat (four rows back from the stage, and directly in front of Aimee!).  I love that she closed the show with such a downer, "It's Not," and acknowledged just how wrong that was.  Heh.


I have to start writing (and recording!) my own music again.  I'd sort of imposed a moratorium on songwriting a few years back, because I've already got several songs written ("I'll Live," "D.V.," "When Giant Giants Attack!" and others) that I haven't yet recorded, and I didn't want to end up looking at a backlog of twenty songs I needed to record... but I don't think that's the right approach anymore.  Perhaps writing a few new songs will prompt me to start recording them immediately, and then I can go back and get those older songs done, too.  In any case, the new acoustic/electric should make it easier for me to drag a guitar around without needing an amp, and so hopefully I'll be spending more time playing, and writing.


I've decided to bring the Kona to Costa Rica with me tomorrow (an interesting coincidence: the last McKesson 'VAR Achievement Club' trip like this I took was to... Kona, Hawaii).  I'm not sure how much time I'll have to play or to try writing, and of course it'd be nice not to have one more thing to lug along, but I'm also trying to make time to play every day, and I'd rather not have to wait until next Monday to get my hands on a guitar again.  So that's that.


The six-guitar rack I purchased at the same time as the K2 isn't quite as great.  Well, it's a great concept, but I think the rests should've extended further, so the thing would've been sturdier and more efficient.  Still, I do have my five guitars on it now (although I'll be pulling the Kona off shortly), and it does look cool...

4 + 7 = 11

Guess who's back?  Andy's back!

I haven't 'blogged in a great long while.  Vitriol, which started as a column in my long-defunct 'zine (do any 'zines have funk anymore, though?) the Extreme, eventually found its way to my Web site, andersensilva.com, and though I didn't think of it as a Web log at the time, I suppose that's what it was.  That was replaced by Being..., and over time that was replaced by my own space on LiveJournal.  Once I stumbled headfirst into Twitter and Facebook and Brightkite and Pownce and their ilk, however, I became more interested in microblogging and posting short updates.

Now I've decided that I need to start writing things that require more than 140 characters again.  That means essays, short stories, songs, poems, and yes, 'blog entries.  I can write, and I'm going to start doing so again; it's been too long, and while yanking chords from an overdriven electric guitar is a great release, so is hurling words and phrases.  I've done it before, and I'll be doing it again.  Don't call it a comeback.

So, speaking of guitars...  I just got a new one yesterday!  I'd been planning on getting an acoustic/electric for a while, mainly because I want to force myself to go play some open mics and get used to the idea of people watching me perform my music (and they generally prefer acoustics).  There was an Ibanez that had caught my eye and received great reviews, so for a few weeks that was what I'd intended to order.  When I felt the time was right to order last week, though, I considered the price again, and started browsing online a bit more, finally coming to a guitar from a brand of which I'd heard once or twice before, Kona.  The K2 certainly looked sweet, and it was a thin body, which I prefer to the dreadnoughts, but I was a little hesitant.  In the end, many great reviews swayed my decision; everyone seemed to be very pleasantly surprised at how good this fairly inexpensive guitar looked and played and sounded.  And so far I'm in agreement with them all.  Say hello to Serenity!

My new colleague, Nicole, found the guitar really cool, too.  Turns out she's a left-handed guitar player as well!  I'm always thrilled to meet (or at least see) another southpaw guitarist, and it was a nice surprise for us both when she was being introduced around on Monday and noticed the guitars on my MacBook Pro's desktop and started asking questions.  She high-fived me upon learning that not only do I play, but I play lefty.  Heh…  I recently saw another lefty guitar player, too, Mary Bichner of Box Five, who played at Caffe Vivaldi the same night as her friends (and neighbors) Goli.  I didn't get a chance to talk to Mary that night, but we're Facebook friends now.  One of my favorite singer/songwriters, Aimee Mann, is not left-handed, but I'm going to see her tomorrow night anyway.  Haven't been to one of her shows in… forever.

I've finally come around to the idea that I should be posting separately to any 'fans' I have, because maybe they don't want to hear every goofy exchange between a long-time friend (or two) and me.  I already had a Facebook Page set up for my music, but now I've got a Twitter account dedicated to that kinda thing, too.  Apple graced me with my own iTunes Ping artist account, as well, though no one seems to be flocking to that.  Maybe I need to slag Lady Gaga or defend Chris Brown or something to get some attention.  Anyway, if you're interested:

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Andersen-Silva/361729006176

http://twitter.com/joyinthenew

http://c.itunes.apple.com/us/profile/id-17590

My old roommate and long-time friend Jon and his wife Karin are having a baby!  I'm really happy for them, though I haven't actually spoken to Jon since I heard the news (via SMS from Karin, complete with sonogram picture - yes, this is the digital age).  I'm not generally a big fan of phone conversations these days.  I think a job in tech support does that to one.  I do have to call him.  I found out this week that my old 'bus buddy' Alex is also expecting.  Nice…

Work's been keeping me especially frazzled lately.  The good news is, I'm getting a mini-vacation out of it.  Next Wednesday morning, a few colleagues and I are flying to Costa Rica for four days!  I am looking forward to warm weather, ziplining over the rain forest, scuba diving... and getting away from the office.

Lastly, but not leastly, I'm in a relationship again, though it's (for the moment, anyway) a long distance one.  OK, Facebook has us down as "it's complicated..." but it's not, really, it's just far.  Pam is a wonderful girl, and a Mac geek like me, and she appears to be able to put up with my zaniness, most of the time anyway.  We've known each other a long time, and she's come to visit me (and New York City) several times over the past few years, and I went to visit her this past New Year's, and... well, we decided to make it official on Valentine's Day.  Changing your relationship status on Facebook makes it official, right?  Heh-heh.  Pam will be heading back out to Jersey in the fall, and we're both looking forward to her next trip.

This concludes today's 'blog entry.  There will be more, however.  There will be more...