Blogger Water.

My latest invention. Think of it! With cerebrially-enhancing ginko biloba added, which we all know is a great marketing ploy, and a cool label, it's sure to be a hit. It would have to have a harmless, bitter taste though, symbolic of the humble blog itself. Kind of like coffee, but more like a martini. Yeah, that's the ticket. A good-tasting, non-alcholic martini with ginko and, and wait, how about a little vitamin C, and a humorously ironic label. Yesss! Any ideas? Investors, how about some funding?

Dynamite And Dancing.

Wow! Sunday, May 25, 2003, I attended yet another incredible Bay Area jazz event, at the Bach Dynamite and Dancing Society located at Miramar Beach just north of Half Moon Bay. What a wonderful experience. A number of local artists including John McKay and my friend's hubby Perry, gave a benefit performance at Pete's beach-house-aka-jazz-club. A week and a half before, I was in the audience watching Fred Berry conduct the very talented Stanford Jazz orchestra featuring DeeDee Bridgewater (see below) and now yesterday, Sunday, I was dancing with him, albeit only for a minute or two. What a joyful coincidence. Everybody was cutting the rug, even Carol Anne.

Wish Me Luck.

I am performing at the Palo Alto Farmers Market this morning with my bandmate Tim on guitar. I think it will be fun.

Post-Mortem Addendum: We made do without the keyboard. We were told to bring our own power source, which we did, and on arrival were told uh-uh. Luckily, my amp is ac/dc so bought eight D batteries at 9:40 in the morning at a liquor store in East Palo Alto. Mmm, good fun. Made $15 in tips, and we sang real sweet like, and people seemed to like it. At one point there were several very young children, I'd say between the ages of 3 and 5, standing round. So I went into a rendition of "Dreamland" by Mary Chapin Carpenter. They liked the part about sleepy boys and girls in every bed around the world. I liked their smiles. Later, a boy named Dylan who worked the honey table gave Carol Anne a beeswax candle in a brown paper bag that said, "To Pam, from Dylan, Have a nice Bath," and drew a little picture of a hot bath with a burning candle perched on one end. How thoughtful. And the goat cheese man gave me a little goat cheese. Very nice trip overall, I'd say. Thanks to Tim for helping to make it happen.

2003 Weird Lingo Award.

I find the term "embedded" annoying when journalists are referred to as having been "embedded" with Coalition battalions Iraq. Is it just me, or does this make them sound like a bunch of ticks?

Get'n Buggy Widdit.

She's Going Buggy.
Tonight I biked up Mesa Verde from the park near my house. That's my route. Takes me past the Haydens' old house. Funny. I remember when I was a teen I could hardly ride up that hill at all and now it's nothing to me. Tonight was warm, breezy, and buggy. I guess it's not a real bicycle ride until you've gotten a few bugs in your mouth. Hard to avoid them even keeping your mouth closed. Once you get over the bitterness you're fine, but tonight they were winning. At one point I got a pretty good size one in there, then, when I was trying to get the first one out, drove smack into a spider web and got the spider too. I believe they did a little battle in there before I got them both out. That's when I got [ahem] clever. I decided that putting my head down helmet-first to sluice through the swarms as I spotted them ahead would be intelligent. I was enjoying the ride and not about to be beaten out of it by them. I remembered too late the helmet has long oval airholes to let heat out. And, as any child would know, wherever heat can be let out, well, bugs can be let in. Told myself I didn't care although I was actually pretty darned annoyed, and continued on. Bugs in hair and all, we rode around Ed Levin before deciding it was time to come down Calaveras flying through the air like Underdog,* riddled with little black carcasses and a few live hangers-on. It was wild and wonderful ride. Time to sign off and rinse off. Note to self: Bandannas (face/head) next time.


*Favorite childhood superhero.

Time To Breathe.

Spent a rejuvenating weekend camping in the great outdoors enjoying so many breathtaking scenes and landscapes it would be difficult to recount them all. Encountered field upon field of wildflowers: rolling yellow hills of mustard cradled by lakes of lupine sprinkled with bright poppies. A rainbow-sherbet sunset soothed an already quieted lake in the folds of the green-gold hills west of Paso Robles. Pitched tent under peaceful, very old twin oaks that provided shade as well as a stage for avian entertainers. Hiking, bicycling and driving around those easy roads provided long-needed comfort for a few city-weary wanderers, including, ever so fortunately, yours truly.

What A Pleasure.

To hear DeeDee Bridgewater sing is bliss. She and the Stanford Jazz at Dinkelspiel Auditorium last night were positively seductive. Fred Berry, the conductor, and DeeDee have quite a rapport.

Something Missing Here?

Governor Davis, bless his pointy little salt-and-pepper head, has signed legislature hewing a one-billion-dollar slash in PG&E rates over the next year. The newscaster reported that this would work out to an approximate decrease of $30 per year per household. Figured that is $2.50 per month. Gee, I'll try not to spend all of that in one place.

More "Tales of Adventure Dog."

On another dog-accompanied morning bike ride early today, I erred in steering the dog through Squirrel Hollow. He took off after a three-pack of them, completely out of control, and left shoulder soon met rocky ground. Good thing I'm sturdy. Broke my rearview mirror. Must avoid Squirrel Hollow next time. Continuing on our adventure, we saw another dog that he took off after. He used to have more manners than this. I took him home and continued my ride alone. Went down Piedmont over past Whispering Hills Ranch at Evans and Calaveras. Saw a woman washing a white horse, something I don't often see, so I stopped a bit for a longer look. The droplets of water splashing off its hide reflecting the cool morning light looked like diamonds bouncing in the sun, or the spray of sparks from a welder's arc.

Site Insight.

Rob's Amazing Poem Generator. This entertained me. Type in a url and it generates poetry based on the site. This poem was generated from pamslife.com. Weird fun.

Life up my
central characters.
She thought it I think.
Intentionally leaving
it was beautiful.
Wish I could cringe, every
one wearing an older woman, sitting in
wishful thinking about it so well. On my
dearest aunt, my
response: get plenty of fun hearing myself out
Over acres of a gap between his teeth.
Jake LaMotta was overhearing
a dream of coffee inside by
the sun. Here goes
The One around you, or better yet: another
good. I put their performances forward to
a total of the inside work
All over. An
intelligent statement, I
think about three or four cassettes. No
leftovers.

Buy This Album.

The beauty of Dar Williams is her stellar songwriting capability and absolute purity of tone. I haven't heard anyone like her for quite some time. She uses rain to symbolize life's hardships in "The Beauty of the Rain." And the beauty of the rain is, how it falls. Of course -- the beauty is in how it falls, how it falls, how it falls.
She's a remarkable talent. Note to self: Buy ticket to see her at Montalvo this summer, and do it soon.

Sock Deficit Syndrome.

I threw out all my mismatched socks, which left me with none at all save for one white pair. I went to the store and bought a pack of three pairs, black. This was a complete waste of time and money, as they were the most terrible socks ever made in the history of the planet. I wound up throwing each pair away halfway through the day. No elastic, scratchy, not worth wearing. If you want a great pair of socks that last, you have to spend at least five to ten dollars a pair, seriously. When you see me wearing white socks with loafers, don't ask, just please, have a fashion flashback for my sake.

Something Cool #1.

I've realized: I don't look at people's bodies anymore. I look at the soul behind the eyes.

Something Cool #2.

Elvis Costello and Diana Krall are getting married.

Dreaming In Paris.

Last night went to hear my friend Cathi's husband, Perry Thoorsell, play jazz in Los Gatos at some very sexy lounge. Went home and dreamed I found myself walking in Paris, in a group of people, toward the Louvre. I could see it in the distance. I turned to the person next to me and said, "We're in Paris. This is Paris." And that was the whole dream.

Not a bad dream to have at all, really. Next time I close my eyes, I hope I pick up where I left off.

Chain Chain Chain.

There's a strange phenomenon taking place at the office lately: people are being victimized by a chain letter that by the end of the life of the chain letter, each participant will have amassed a total of 36 kitchen towels.

I have begged a number of people to 'uninvolve' me in this quest, with the caveat that if anyone ever chooses to initiate a "drug store earrings" or "amusing socks" chain letter, I'd be happy to join in. Can't have too many of those.

Hoping.

I seriously hope this guy is no relative of mine: ""People feel invincible when they're doing this in the privacy of their homes," said Cary Sherman, president of the Recording Industry Association of America. "This is a way of letting them know that what they're doing is illegal."

Again, I ask: How is sharing music "illegal" when I can listen to the radio for free? I guess I just don't understand.

Letter of the Day.

A musician friend of mine invited me to come visit. My response:

What a great idea, surely fun to think about. My
budget isn't so terrific to be honest. It's expensive
to live here. On the upside, band practice went well last
night. What a great group of folks. We're going to
have some fun gigs. I have to get into memorization
mode. Any tips on how to memorize? I try to pick out
patterns and just trust myself to remember, but I'm
finding that as I age the memory doesn't stick around
so long any more. Ever see the movie Memento? I'm
going to have to start carrying around sticky notes
and a camera, I swear.