The weekend Thread

[Brian Krashpad]

This weekend was the annual "Boar's Head Festival" at church, a funky medieval play/pageant thing for Christmas with a bazillion and one cast members in costume, and lots of music), and most of the men who are in the cast grow beards to be more authentic. Since the time where everybody was growing their beards coincided with "No-Shave November," I decided to go ahead and grow a goatee as a show of solidarity with the cast, and a way to my placate my own laziness (win-win!).

While I avoided being actually in the cast (and thus having to go to weekly rehearsals), at the last second the pastor decided it would be good to have some praise band people be "minstrels" in the church courtyard before each of the 3 shows, and I got drafted for that. I played mandolin, and two other guys played guitars. Since I had no idea what kind of costume I'd be stuck with and really didn't want to go to the trouble of changing at the church and then de-costuming for a 15 to 30 minute performance, I short-circuited the plan and made my own costume (had an old pair of engineer boots with buckles, and stole a woolen hooded cloak from Mrs. K's side of the closet).

Anyhow, the goatee came in nigh on white. Ugh. Here's a couple pics. Our other guitarist got called away momentarily, so "Mary" (my daughter Hannah Beth) sat in for a song:





That goatee went away last night and hopefully I can get a haircut today. I am looking awfully grampa-like of late.

Sigh.

So, anyhow, there were shows Friday night, and two on Sunday (the pics above are from the early show on Sunday). In between on Saturday we had a praise band practice, and both kids went to birthday parties. Watched Army-Navy Saturday afternoon (Go Navy!). Sunday morning played in church as usual, but the praise band did all the music again, since the Music Director (the praise band's nemesis) has been ill. In between the service and the 4:30 Boar's Head show, I squeezed in a short practice with the new (to me) band, Cinnamon Hill. Played all mandolin for that. Seems to be going well, at least they asked me back.

And you?

[Robert****]

That's cool Brian! You old and awesome!

Me? I was cold. And I had my birthday.

[Brian Krashpad]

That's cool Brian! You old and awesome!

Me? I was cold. And I had my birthday.

Haha, that cloak looked cool anyhow. With the hood up it was very Jedi. I went around in the staging area (church fellowship hall) saying "These aren't the droids you're looking for."

Did you do anything special for your birthday? Do tell!

[Brian Krashpad]

Here's a pic a pro photographer took during the dress rehearsal for Boar's Head, my Hannah Beth is Mary. This is from the end of the show, where, after the Biblical cast tells the Christmas story, the Medieval cast comes back in, with the King and Queen last, and all the Court bows to the Holy Family:

[Robert****]

I went for a run today and this is what I looked like when I got back. It was minus 23 with a 35 km/h windchill, so it felt like about -37 Celsius as a result.

[Brian Krashpad]

I went for a run today and this is what I looked like when I got back. It was minus 23 with a 35 km/h windchill, so it felt like about -37 Celsius as a result.

It's official.

You're clinically insane.

Please check yourself into a facility, as it's clear you're a danger to yourself and others.

[M29]

Run from what? Is that the edge of a chain saw I see there at the bottom?

[marnold***]

You look like Samson's Thunderstick:

[Brian Krashpad]

Run from what? Is that the edge of a chain saw I see there at the bottom?

The sane thing to do would've been to take his chances with the chain saw!

[Spudman***]

Speaking of sane...I was wondering if I still was. My weekend was surreal. I played 2 nights of my rock and blues sets with mostly nude women grinding away on tabletops and doing lap dances on the other side of the room. Toward the end of the night it kind of dawned on me that most of the song lyrics actually fit the situation. Go figure.

[Brian Krashpad]

Speaking of sane...I was wondering if I still was. My weekend was surreal. I played 2 nights of my rock and blues sets with mostly nude women grinding away on tabletops and doing lap dances on the other side of the room. Toward the end of the night it kind of dawned on me that most of the song lyrics actually fit the situation. Go figure.

Pics!

[Spudman***]

Pics!

Check your PMs in a while. I can't post them.

[sunvalleylaw]

Well, it is the end of the always very busy holiday period. During this time, I teach skiing in addition to my lawyer gig, plus the family excitement for Christmas of course. Today is a quiet day. I finally get a day off after working straight through other than Christmas day itself. We are going to go snowshoe out one of my favorite mountain bike areas (Greenhorn), and likely take down the tree, put things away, etc.

I have holiday music on still, as I like to listen a bit after the holidays after things slow down and I can appreciate the season.

Here is what it looks like outside today:



The snow is not as deep as the porch swing makes it look. That is my partly finished trellis project. I still need to cut that chain to proper height, and get the 2x6 installed up top and 2x2 firring strips on the back to complete the fence. Still looking pretty nice out there though! Happy New Year all!

[Brian Krashpad]

Check your PMs in a while. I can't post them.

Haha, you ol' dawg!

[deeaa*]

been cold here of late...below -20 the whole week. under 30 in places. walked to town yesterday ... only 3-4 mile trip but we sure had to put a lot of clothes on the 3-month-old Paul :-)

been busy...finished with latest demo & we got album out as well...and got me a new toy - a htc hd2 "smartphone" which I'm writing this on.it replaced my iPaq smartphone wwhich I will now use only as a boat and car navigator. this htc sure is pretty and fast, quite ok for web surfing, email and navigation etc. was hard to pick between this and an iPhone but this just made the iphone look clumsy and dated. plus i had a lot of wm software paid for on ipaq...iphone might have had less little bugs tho.

[Brian Krashpad]

been cold here of late...below -20 the whole week. under 30 in places. walked to town yesterday ... only 3-4 mile trip but we sure had to put a lot of clothes on the 3-month-old Paul :-)

Yikes!

I hope that -20 is F and not Celsisus!

Have had a busy weekend myself-- gotta run to church to play some guitar! '52 Reissue Tele this week, with the Agile P-90 SG in reserve.

Report on return.

[Brian Krashpad]

OK, promised (threatened) report.

Friday night: Practice in church Fellowship Hall for club debut (versus playing at church college group function earlier this year) of my "church" side band, Pedagogy. This is the keyboard-bass-drums trio doing the praise band director's (Joel's) material. We got a last-minute show for Saturday night earlier this week. So we practiced Friday night. Singer threw 2 new covers at me (I don't listen to the same type music he does, so I'd never heard either of them before) for the Saturday show. Tried practicing with my DiY 2x10 and old 60W Sunn head but it sounded horrible. Resolved to use 200W solid state Crate for next practice and show. One of the church's monitors actually started literally smoking, and Joel blew up one of his keyboard amps.

It was pretty loud.

Saturday:

Praise band practice at 11:30 in the Sanctuary. Nothing I could play mandolin or banjo on. Second week of us doing only 3 songs, but at least they were pretty cool songs. The service opener was a rocker, and with more guitars playing now, I basically solo through the whole thing. After praise band, the director, the drummer and I went over to the Fellowship Hall for another Pedagogy practice. This time I played through the 8x10 Ampeg SVT cab and the Crate. Vast improvement sound-wise. Nothing blew up, though we were still pretty loud.

Went home after trying to get a new heating element for the water heater, and a bow saw to cut fire wood. Couldn't find a matching heating element without the old one in hand, and ended up getting a small hand saw since the Home Depot was all out of bow saws.

Cut some firewood at home, watched some football, and loaded up the van for the show. Went to the show with my daughter. Tiny little room. A bunch of the church college youth group came, and our singer's mom. Set went well enough, a couple of my friends showed up late and missed us by almost a half hour. The house gave us $10 (yes, ten) and a $20 bar tab.

Hung around for a little of the next band's set. They were a couple aging white hippie guys on guitar and bass, and somewhat younger black guy on drums. Kind of bluesy-jammy type stuff. The guitarist used a stereo rig with a Fat Strat into two Peavey 1x12's. Bassist was especially good, played a Fender P-J with a painted headstock, didn't know the changes by rote, was following the guitarist's hands. They covered the Stones' "Dead Flowers." Got home about midnight, but couldn't fall asleep for another couple hours.

Sunday:

Church service went really well. First song totally rocked, after the service my daughter (who plays bass, but stands up on a riser, higher than I and more close to the center of the church) said there were lots of scowls during the first song from various and sundry parishioners, haha.

Sigh.

On returning home, cut more firewood, did a load of dishes and tried to pick up the house a bit before my daughter's school chums came over to work on a project.

Next up: pack up van with basses from Saturday night and guitars that've been sitting around since last Sunday in the family room (this morning's guitars are still in the van, as is my bass rig from last night), and take the whole batch over to the office for a practice with the roots rock side band, Hoyt and the Hotheads, after the last NFL game (Green Bay, I think-- our drummer won't practice during most Green Bay games since he was briefly on the Green Bay roster before getting cut after pre-season back in the day). On return to Casa Krashpad, tend fire, maybe write a bit for work and/or crack the whip over/assist the lad with his math homework.

[Brian Krashpad]

Hey man, nobody does anything on their weekends?

Friday: Pedagogy practice at church at 6. Nothing blew up.

Saturday: Took son for a playdate at his friend's across town in the afternoon. Went home and tuned basses, mandolin, and 12-string. Cinnamon Hill practice at about 5:30, could only stay for awhile as I had a show following. Played all mandolin.

Pedagogy show, same place as 2 weeks ago. We opened, after an acoustic guy. I played my Epi T-bird this time, the T-40 sounded better, but at least the T-bird wasn't as heavy. Lent my bass rig to the guy in the band that followed us so I could separate my breakdown/haul-out into 2 segments. Good set but not quite as good as previous. My entire family was there, Mrs. K and both kids. The Mrs. and my son left after our set, my daughter stayed with, for the band after us. Stopped at Taco Hell on the way home since I had skipped dinner due to the practice and show.

Sunday: slight hangover (my daughter was my designated driver the night before), at church at about 9:30 to practice. Played one song on mandolin, 2 on electric guitar. After church was a potluck for our vicar, who got married last weekend back in the Midwest somewhere. His new wife did a piano-vocal song during church and was really good.

Afternoon and evening was mainly watching the football championships when I could stay awake. Also finished cleaning the higher gutter on Casa Krashpad and took the borrowed ladder back to our neighbor.

And y'all?

[Eric***]

Hey man, nobody does anything on their weekends?

Friday: Went to eat some Indian food at a local buffet, kept eating until I was ready to explode.

Saturday: Went for a run in the morning, went to Home Depot to get some supplies for a closet pole in the basement, and installed said closet pole. Organized some things in the basement. Gave away a recliner that I don't use. Went to a bake-off in the evening and ate more sugar than I thought was physically possible.

Sunday: Went to the late service at church, as I wasn't scheduled to play. Listened to the new sound system that was just installed the previous week. Ate lunch, took a nap, and went into the city for the evening service at that church.

Exciting, huh?