Steve Ball

May Connections

Where did this month go?  Work is intense and challenging, as always.  Play has also recently been intense. 

Regina is out at a dance class, so I have some time this evening for some catching up, working backwards:

Tomorrow morning, Paul Reed Smith is coming to visit at work.  I'm looking forward to meeting the guy who built my favorite guitar:

* * *

I just got off the phone with my old pal Juanita Debra Kahan who was wandering the streets of NYC with her (now 21 year old) daughter, Lili -- and my old pal (and guitar teacher) Tony Geballe.  They were out in the streets checking out the blue moon, and decided to call to say 'hi.'

Stevie Ray Juan and Juanita, circa 2001 

* * *

Other miscellaneous updates:

I also had a nice WM chat this afternoon with old Greenthumb bandmate, Horacio Pozzo -- more catching up.

I also (finally) replied to a mail from Pablo Mandel from over three weeks ago -- but it just bounced?  Hmmm....  Hi Pablo.   

Mail a few days ago from old League and Prometheus bandmate, Nigel Gavin who may be coming to Seattle for a visit in August.  I'm hoping we can arrange some sort of reunion show in Seattle... we've recently brought the song 'Curtains' back to life that was born way back in West Virginia with Nigel in the early nineties.

Regina and I traveled to Atlanta last weekend for a much needed visit to my Mom and Dad's backyard pool!  It was also sort of a summer birthday celebration -- my Dad turns 70 in July -- and I'm not that far behind!     

Nephew Joey gets his first lesson

* * *

Last week, the new SB Roadshow line-up did a photo-shoot with Regina and David LaVallee.   Over one-hundred nice twilight photos came out of the shoot, and I'll share a few of them here over the next few weeks to keep these posts visually more interesting than this standard gray Verdana.

* * *

I recently completely re-orged my studio, and it's finally functional again. I "broke it in" with 'The Angel in the House' last week, but I'm still tweaking a few ergonomic issues.  I also do quite a bit of Sound Design at work these days, but my office at work is jam-packed so much of the heavy lifting happens at home. 

I recently made contact after a long communications drought with Duncan Weller and his publisher at Simply Read Books.  I know that neither are standing still, but I hope to revive some projects with them later this year.

I also have at least 15 phone messages to catch up on -- I had a very useful discussion earlier this week about how email and online culture has pushed me out of 'phone mode.'  I prefer face to face conversations to phone calls.  

I also prefer the asynchronous properties of email -- and even there, I still mega-suck at timely responses.  Yes, I can blame the insane volume of email I receive, and my always-ultra-booked foreground schedule... but in the end, there is really no excuse for months of radio silence. 

How hard is it really to say "hi, thinking of you?"  

Not that hard... but it is much harder when it takes 10-15 minutes beyond the 'hi..." for the inevitable catching-up that follows.  

* * *

More to come as I have an active commitment to write here daily during the month of June.  Here we go.

* * *

Angel in the House

Evening: piano practice and quick rough recording of a song by my favorite (and vastly under-appreciated) songwriter on the planet: Jonatha Brooke.

The Angel in House (6.9M mp3).

The Angel in the House

my mother moved the furniture when
she no longer moved the man
we thought nothing of it at the time
she painted walls, painted smiles
checked herself in the mirror one more time
then yoked her heart to a whim

but the history of desire is such that just one word
just one touch could send it reeling

she passed go again and again
never collected her two hundred
or landed on the purple with the Jones'
she wanted to be a different person
she sat down finally and he walked away

she listened to the angel, she said to flatter
she said to coo, she said it won't matter

I thought I was by myself but I cannot kill
the angel in the house
even in my wildest heart I cannot kill
the angel in the house

you hang on to the pieces of the game that don't talk back
don't sneak around
moveable objects (but) where were we?
don't let anything happen
we're back to the wheel, back to fire,
onto the highwire

she listened to the angel, she said to flatter
she said to coo, she said it won't matter

I thought I was by myself but I cannot kill
the angel in the house
even in my wildest heart I cannot kill
the angel in the house

by Jonatha Brooke and the Story.

* * *

Jennifer is also still out there going strong.

If the Police, Genesis, and every other mega-band with irreconcilable differences can get back together to play the music that is bigger than the individuals, then why oh why can't Jennifer and Jonatha set aside whatever it was that drove them apart and get back together to sing these amazing songs?

I saw the Story play at least a dozen times back in Boston in the early nineties. And I am not exaggerating when I say I bought dozens of copies of Grace in Gravity and The Angel in the House and gave them to everyone I knew at that time. Jonatha was (and still is) the Star, but Jennifer is the Heart.

So, J & J: How about a reunion?

* * *
Semi-Historical Side Note: I tried to get some songs by Jennifer Kimball, Jane Siberry, King Crimson, Robert Fripp, and the California Guitar Trio "into the box" for Windows Vista. All of the artists were interested and willing to make this happen.

Jane (now Issa) had even offered an unreleased version of "Calling all Angels."

Unfortunately, no one marketing was interested in even discussing these 'fringe' artists, and instead we have, among about twelve other rather random tracks, the Posies shipping with every copy of Windows Vista.

* * *

Monthly May Music Mixer

Evening: our SB Roadshow House Concert brought another full house of diverse, creative, and driven folks together for a night of music and new connections.

Some quick images from the evening:

SB: come on angel, come on come on darlin' - let's exchange the experience

Paul O'Rear: nothing left to divide

Chuck Randall (doing his best Bruce Willis): and I wait, and I wait, and home I am

Ivan Lee: I want to live here

Steve and Paul: is there so much hate for the ones we love?

Paul, Chuck, and Lee: the sea of permutation

Steve and Regina: and I will lay my love around you

A quick vision to hold quietly and perhaps lose some sleep over: Ecstatic Dance, Tuning the Air, and various future Roadshow and SB projects working within a common, high-quality rehearsal and performace space.

* * *

A few of highlights of the evening for me:

- our new all-acoustic version of Orphan played for special guest, Sandra Prow

- Walking in your Footsteps, dedicated to Bob Williams whose (large, electric) footsteps Lee was walking in

- an unrehearsed but lively Back in NYC request for Steve Turnidge

- a percussive 2 against 3 Uke-fest led by Hannah Russell and Gracie Randall

- two inspired requests from Jaxie that have slipped away from our current repertoire

A fun and energizing evening, all around.

* * *

A visit from Hugh Macleod

Afternoon visitor to Building 50: one of my online cartooning heroes, Hugh Macleod dropped in for a campus visit with magnificent marketing maven, Kris Fuehr. Apparently, Hugh is a League of Crafty Guitarists fan. And he's doing some great (if not controversial) stuff for Microsoft.

He and Kris took turns 'filming' my impromptu Office Concert on their cell phones. This was interspersed with inspiring conversations about the Craft of Writing, Software, Music and Love. Notable discussions also about the life-changing guitar solo in Hammond Song.

For fun, I also played him a few of the many hundreds of top-secret Start-up sound contenders.

In exchange, he drew me a classic 'Hugh' business card.

It’s a very good sign when you leave a meeting with more energy than you arrived with.

* * *

Evening: I'm just home from a going away party for my old friend Tjeerd Hoek at the W Hotel -- this event was a who's who of design at Microsoft (past, present, and perhaps future.)

Now, to change strings on both my Taylor and Ovation and practice for our Monthly SBRS House Concert tomorrow evening.

* * *