On Tuesday, we took the RV to Best Auto RV Service for a 9am appointment. The plan was to de-winterize the RV, and, along the way, for us to learn what that means, and to learn a few more points in the care and feeding of an RV. It turned out that the RV had never been winterized in the first place (not good!). So as Brad (the mechanic) started to check out the plumbing, we found out that the spigot in the kitchen was basically useless, and there was a broken valve in the toilet, and a leak at the shower head. What was supposed to be about a three hour session ended up taking about five and a half hours, with all the extra work that turned up. Still, all these things were fixed, and we tested the propane for the refrigerator/freezer, and we learned how to use the Leveling jacks, the slide-out units and the awning. I have to confess to being surprised and impressed with the sliders. I understood the concept, and that it would give the RV more space, but I was amazed at how much more spacious the place seemed, once the sliders were deployed. Good enough, since, again, this is going to be our home for the foreseeable future. On a side note, we removed a cheesy and slightly uncomfortable chair behind the navigator's seat. We're looking to replace it with a bean bag chair. The bean bag chair arrived about three days ago, and is currently sitting in the living room, where the kitties are sleeping on it and getting very used to it. I figure that's a good thing, since it will give them something to relate to when we move them into the RV. The plan is to introduce them to the RV over the weekend (limited visits, to start, in preparation for the eventual big move).
Meanwhile, all the art and design work for the two albums were finished, proofs approved, and sent off to the plant The disks are mastered, as well. I've spent a good part of the last ten days or so listening to various iterations of the disks, as we proceeded through the mixing and mastering process. The masters sound awesome! I have a couple of tracks on the Collage album that feature Veronika Wojciechowski (my friend, Bula) playing cello. The masters have a beautiful blend of the cell with the guitar, with a shine and an intimacy that I have enjoyed listening to over and over again. (hats off to Bula, who did a wonderful job in the playing).
Finally, I played my latest gig at Sonoma'z last night. Management has scheduled the gigs for 5-8pm. For the last month or so, I have tried to persuade them to consider 6-9pm, since 5pm is still very much rush hour, and, in the summer, the patio is still kinda warm at that point, and whatnot. Still, I started at 5pm last night, with one guy listening to me on the patio (for what it's worth, he totally enjoyed the music; especially my song, Rufus, composed in honor of my puppy). By 6, there were a couple more people. By 6:30, we had a dozen or so. But by 8pm, there were about 30 people on the patio, saying it was not right that I should be quitting, and clamoring for one more set. So I chatted with the restaurant manager, and between us it was decided that I should do another set. That last set was the best: a blend of old favorites that people clapped and sang along to, and some of my originals and new work, all of which was received with much enthusiasm. I had a ball. I'll be at Sonoma'z next Friday, on the 19th, and look forward to more good times there. Between gigs, selling the house (with all the packing and purging and whatnot that is part of that process), selling one of our cars, selling one of my guitars, finishing up on the CD's, booking the tour, and awaiting some new guests from Australia, it's been some long and full days. On the other hand, I can't recall another time when I have felt so alive.
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Michael Engberg / Blog
The Musical Instrument Foster Parent Program
One friend of mine is taking my acoustic bass guitar in his care while I am on the road. A colleague from Arapahoe Community College will take care of my koto and sitar (it helps that Chuck teaches a class on World Music, and looks forward to learning to play those instruments). Another friend has agreed to look after my small collection of drums (a djembe, a dumbek, a Sioux hoop drum, and something that pretends to be a bodhran). There is only so much room in the RV. I have some necessary sound equipment, a steel-string, a nylon-string, my electric guitar, my POD EX rack, my mandolin, my concertina, and my trumpet (which I inherited from my Grandfather Engberg). And that is probably as much as I can ask of Pony (what with three cats and a dog, as well). We will also be packing CD's for the first three albums, plus the two new albums being released (hopefully in the next week, give or take). Then there's that little thing about clothes, food,..... You know: those luxuries. Just about every moment of every day is spoken for anymore, as we race to prepare everything that is going into storage, and look to close on the house on the 31st of this month. We expect to be out of the house on that day, and start living in the RV. I still have a bunch of gigs in the Denver area for the month of August (and teaching a handful of students who want to hang with me till the last possible moment), but we will be finding some places to park the RV and start "living the lifestyle" (as friends and fellow RV'ers refer to it). Yesterday, Pony cooked a big turkey on our smoker in the backyard. This was part of our ongoing effort to empty everything in the deep freeze, as well as a sort of last, send-off party with the grill. We had a half dozen friends over to help us consume massive amounts of roasted bird flesh, plus some nice, herbed mashed potatoes, corn on the cob, creamed spinach, and pumpkin pie for dessert. It is definitely a mix of emotions, as we think wistfully of the good times we have had in this house, and yet truly look forward to the adventure of hitting the road, seeing friends (and making new friends) across the country, and getting a chance to play a lot of music.
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Hats Off To One of My Fans
I want to send out a huge thank you to Leonard Cumley and his wife Marcia. Leonard has been studying guitar with me for a couple of years (coming right along with finger-picking on his Martin guitar), and he and Marcia have been steady fans. They were among the audience that attended the concert at Victor Guitars last Sunday. The concert did not have a set admission, but was a pass-the-hat contribution sort of affair (much in the tradition of many a house concert), and Leonard and Marcia were exceedingly generous and very supportive of all my efforts with the new albums, the tour plans, and everything else. In addition, Leonard donated dozen of cardboard boxes to us, thus making easier the process of packing up the stuff we are putting into storage. I have taught hundreds of students over the years. Leonard is one of those I will be remembering for a good, long time.
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Various Countdowns
Rufus and I were taking our customary walk around Lake Arbor this morning, and I got to thinking about 31st of July, when (at least as of this point) we are still set to close on the house. Between now and then, we will be taking a couple of days to load up a moving van and move a bunch of our stuff to Casper, Wyoming, which we plan to make something of an "official" base of operations while we are on tour. Among other things, this would suggest that Rufus and I will only have another dozen or so walks around Lake Arbor between we (wife, kitties, Rufus, and I) all pile into the RV and start to make it our new home. Before that closing date on the house, we have a house concert scheduled at the home of my good friends, Warner and Lindy Losh (in part to celebrate Lindy's birthday). I am hopeful that the new CD's will be delivered to us and available at that event. I still have some gigs booked around Denver for the month of August. Then, come August 3Oth (give or take), we take the RV (and our faithful KIA Sportage) up to Casper Mountain for a house concert at the cabin of Rebecca and Geoffrey Hunt, and that marks the official beginning of what we call our "Endless Tour". As of now, I've got some firm dates for Omaha, Iowa, Michigan, and some possible dates in the works for New Hampshire, Massachusetts, New York, New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Virginia, Maryland, and Georgia (and more to come!). So while Rufus and I may come to miss our walks around Lake Arbor, we've got a whole lot of country (and a country's worth of smells) waiting for us.
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The Mixed Bag
After the usual walk around the lake with Rufus (joined by our friend, Sir Brusi), I spent a couple of hours playing guitar and listening to news on the radio in the RV. I managed to bring all three cats into the RV in my continuing effort to get them comfortable with their new home. Sam (the orange cat) remains the most unsure about the prospect, although he seems to be warming up to it. Zebie (the black cat) has found a cozy, dark spot under the main sofa to curl up and meditate. Murphy (our grey and white, fluffy monster) is the most sanguine about the whole thing. He freely goes about exploring the whole vehicle (no doubt looking for potential escape routes; but, to be fair, he has done that in the house from day one). The RV is proving a comfortable place to sit and play guitar, even when I am parked off-street and thus not presently able to deploy the sliders for extra room. It is a bit cozier, more not necessarily claustrophobic. By this time, we have installed a small kitty tower in the very back (something some friends found for us), plus a food dish, water dish and the ever-so-important litter box. By late morning, Pony and our various house guests were off on a journey to Colorado Springs (to drop off some armor with a friend there, and to enjoy a restaurant that was part of their itinerary for the day). I managed to ship off the masters of the two new albums via Express Mail to the manufacturing plant (guaranteed delivery by noon tomorrow, or my money back). The rest of the day has been a mix of phone calls, emails and EPK's to various potential venues for the upcoming tour, with occasional efforts to clean and organize my desk in between. The one thing I failed to accomplish today was a swim at the gym. For only the second time since joining Bally's, the pool was totally full, with little hope of squeezing in a session. But part of the problem was I did not get there until nearly noon. Usually I can manage something much earlier in the morning, and will hope to do so tomorrow. And now I am waiting for my wife and our various house guests to return from their travels. There are plans to visit an Absinthe bar this evening, and we might even find a place to grab a bite to eat, too. I'm missing my wife at the moment, and absinthe makes the heart grow fonder.
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Aussie-um
We have some additional guests visiting from Australia for a few days. It has provided a bit of additional incentive to start practicing guitar in the RV (presently, we have the RV parked offstreet, near the house, so we can continue to work on it). I also decided to start getting the cats acquainted with their new home on wheels. I started with Sam (our orange tabby). He was not all the happy to start. I have a very noisy kitty on my hands for the first 40 minutes or so. But I played guitar and let him sort of wander around and explore the thing. At one point, I lay down on the bed in the back, while he explored around there. From time to time he would come around to rub against me for a little reassurance. After about an hour or so, I went back and got Zebie (our black cat, and the oldest of the pets). Her inclination was to find a dark corner and quietly hunker down. The dining table folds down to become an additional bed, and in the process creates a very comfortable dark space that both of them occupied for the remainder of the visit. After a couple of hours, I took Sam back into the house, then drove the RV to a new parking space with Zebie going along for the ride. There was a bit of meowing, but she did reasonably well. The next day (yesterday) I took Murphy in to the RV by himself. He had no problem at all, but set right out to explore every nook and cranny (looking especially for any potential routes outside, I am sure; as that is his usual occupation in the house). He made no fuss at all, but seemed to enjoy the place right off. So Murphy and Rufus are both pretty cool about the new digs, while Zebie and Sam will adjust (I think; I hope). I look to do more sessions of getting them used to the place over the next week. Meanwhile, I had a great time performing at Victor guitars last night. For anyone who many not be familiar as yet, Victor Guitars is the shop owned and run by Edward Victor Dick, the luthier who has made four of my guitars (two steel strings, and two nylon strings). I had all four of those guitars with me last night, using each of them at various times to play songs from the two new CD's (soon to be released now), as well as cuts from the previous albums. It was a great audience, with students and friends and a few new fans. We got a good bit of it caught on video camera, so hope to have some new clips up on YouTube over the next few days.
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I'm Levelling With You
On Tuesday, we took the RV to Best Auto RV Service for a 9am appointment. The plan was to de-winterize the RV, and, along the way, for us to learn what that means, and to learn a few more points in the care and feeding of an RV. It turned out that the RV had never been winterized in the first place (not good!). So as Brad (the mechanic) started to check out the plumbing, we found out that the spigot in the kitchen was basically useless, and there was a broken valve in the toilet, and a leak at the shower head. What was supposed to be about a three hour session ended up taking about five and a half hours, with all the extra work that turned up. Still, all these things were fixed, and we tested the propane for the refrigerator/freezer, and we learned how to use the Leveling jacks, the slide-out units and the awning. I have to confess to being surprised and impressed with the sliders. I understood the concept, and that it would give the RV more space, but I was amazed at how much more spacious the place seemed, once the sliders were deployed. Good enough, since, again, this is going to be our home for the foreseeable future. On a side note, we removed a cheesy and slightly uncomfortable chair behind the navigator's seat. We're looking to replace it with a bean bag chair. The bean bag chair arrived about three days ago, and is currently sitting in the living room, where the kitties are sleeping on it and getting very used to it. I figure that's a good thing, since it will give them something to relate to when we move them into the RV. The plan is to introduce them to the RV over the weekend (limited visits, to start, in preparation for the eventual big move). Meanwhile, all the art and design work for the two albums were finished, proofs approved, and sent off to the plant The disks are mastered, as well. I've spent a good part of the last ten days or so listening to various iterations of the disks, as we proceeded through the mixing and mastering process. The masters sound awesome! I have a couple of tracks on the Collage album that feature Veronika Wojciechowski (my friend, Bula) playing cello. The masters have a beautiful blend of the cell with the guitar, with a shine and an intimacy that I have enjoyed listening to over and over again. (hats off to Bula, who did a wonderful job in the playing). Finally, I played my latest gig at Sonoma'z last night. Management has scheduled the gigs for 5-8pm. For the last month or so, I have tried to persuade them to consider 6-9pm, since 5pm is still very much rush hour, and, in the summer, the patio is still kinda warm at that point, and whatnot. Still, I started at 5pm last night, with one guy listening to me on the patio (for what it's worth, he totally enjoyed the music; especially my song, Rufus, composed in honor of my puppy). By 6, there were a couple more people. By 6:30, we had a dozen or so. But by 8pm, there were about 30 people on the patio, saying it was not right that I should be quitting, and clamoring for one more set. So I chatted with the restaurant manager, and between us it was decided that I should do another set. That last set was the best: a blend of old favorites that people clapped and sang along to, and some of my originals and new work, all of which was received with much enthusiasm. I had a ball. I'll be at Sonoma'z next Friday, on the 19th, and look forward to more good times there. Between gigs, selling the house (with all the packing and purging and whatnot that is part of that process), selling one of our cars, selling one of my guitars, finishing up on the CD's, booking the tour, and awaiting some new guests from Australia, it's been some long and full days. On the other hand, I can't recall another time when I have felt so alive.
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Making It Ever More Real
Most of last Sunday was spent going through the RV and starting to get an idea of how to make it home. My big thanks to my buddies, Kevin Wolfskill and James King, and all of their help and advice that afternoon. We have been advised by various RV-experienced friends that one of our biggest goals is to keep weight down as much as possible (weight equals drag on the engine and more gas, etc.). We ended up pulling out the two massive tube-tv's and the VCR player (I no longer possess any video cassettes, so that VCR was entirely irrelevant to us at this point). The plan is to mount a flat screen TV in the front, and we have a desk top computer with a lovely monitor that will serve all needs of watching movies or whatnot in the bedroom. We took the old TV's and the VCR to Best Buy for recycling, thus shedding a good 60 pounds or more in the process (even after adding back in the flat screen and the computer). It turned out that the in-dash radio/CD/cassette player wasn't all that useful, either. The radio worked alright, but the CD player didn't work at all, and, again, I no longer have any music cassettes. It was resolved that we would replace that piece of equipment as well. Meanwhile, in addition to removing said TV's and such, we learned how to start the generator, turn on the AC (which works very well indeed, thank you), and use the propane to power the refrigerator and freezer. And I gave away a bunch of computer and stereo equipment to my buddy, Kevin, as he has kids that can make good use of it. Between purging the house of further possessions and the work on and with the RV, it all made for a productive and very satisfying Sunday. Next blog: further lessons in the care and feeding of an RV, plus getting the CD's mastered, art and design finalized, and everything ready to ship off to the plant. With a little luck, I should have copies of both CD's produced and ready to sell to audiences by the end of the month.
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Home on the range....
Friday morning, the real estate agent came around, made me sign and/or initial many papers, took many pictures, all to have the house officially listed on the market come Saturday morning. We had the first showing of the house that evening, with six more showings on Saturday, and a few more yesterday. Here it is, Tuesday (four days later, or maybe five, if you count Friday), and we are already under contract. Closing is set for the 30th of July. Wow, but that was quick! Meanwhile, we are choosing which plant to press the CD's, while mixing and mastering is going on this week, and working out final touches and tweaks with Cheri, our excellent graphic artist. Still lots and lots to do, but things are moving forward at a brisk cllip. We had to make ourselves scarce for a couple of showings this morning (whle waiting to hear from the Real Estate agent about the most recent offer and all), so Pony, Margaret, Rufus and I went up to Boulder. There, I discovered that pets are not welcome on the Pearl Street Mall. No matter: Rufus and I found a shady spot near the Trident Bookstore and Coffeehouse (about a block west of the mall), where we hung out for an hour or so. I played guitar and Rufus let anyone who wanted to pet him while he wiggled his butt in joy. We made some $10 in tips and had a pleasant morning. Now it's back to phone calls, emails, EPK's, tour plans and negotiations, and all manner of other details to manage (oh, and zombies! Tonight I meet with some of the guys to watch World War Z).
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Congrats! I have heard that the Colorado housing market is red hot, but that is amazing. Is this a "no strings attached" offer that isn't contingent on any other dwelling getting sold?
Air on a G-String?
It was a double-gig day yesterday. I played the Highlands Farmer's Market from 9am to 1pm, then made my way up into the mountains to play a wedding at Ten Mile Station, in Breckenridge. All through the Farmer's Market gig, people were tossing dollars into the guitar case, then the bride and groom also gave me a nice tip, so on the way back home, I stopped off at Apple Jack's to pick up some wine and cider (a bad cliche: musician spending his tip money on booze). Now for both gigs, I am dressed in black dress slacks, a pale lavender shirt, a somewhat shiny purple and black vest and black tie (and a top hat, although I left that in the car when I went into Apple Jack's). The booze came to just under $50, so I'm peeling off all these ones from this roll of bills I pull out of my pocket. The cashier looks at me long and careful and says, "Are you a stripper?" Oddly, on some level, I feel sort of flattered.
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As long as the clerk wasn't laughing while saying it, sounds like a decent compliment to me!
Bon Voyage, Xmen!
My comic book collection (some 3800 issues, give or take) is off to a new home. Proceeds from the sale of which go towards financing of the new, upcoming album(s). I had stopped actively collecting about the time I left graduate school, but there was still a good twenty years or so of collecting carted off an hour or so ago, in several long, cardboard boxes. Summer seems a somewhat appropriate time for this send-off, as I remember summers as a kid buying half a dozen comic books, plus some Hostess cupcakes (or Twinkies, or fruit pies) and sitting under the foot bridge at Perkins Park to spend many a pleasant afternoon. But I did not want to put the collection into storage, and there would be no room for 3800 comic books in a 33 foot RV. And besides, those comic books, and all the dreams they represented, now help me to support a new dream.
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