This past Friday, my old friend Ethan Tufts was in town. After having some good lunch at Local Burger in Northampton, we headed up to Sackamusic in Conway Rock City. Ethan added some great guitar parts to Fourth Floor and Pulverized.

Me, Ethan, and our friend Bill Belina started our first band back in 1989 when we were in middle school. All we had at the time were two keyboards and drums. I aspired to be the next ‘guy from Tears For Fears’ or maybe Phil Collins with a mullet. We played music in Bill’s dad’s basement, which was lined with polka records and wood paneling. We wrote tons of songs and learned how to be a band. Gradually Bill and Ethan learned other instruments and I learned how to play keys. A couple decades have gone by, and we’ve all played in various bands, grew up, etc.

Now Ethan lives in Los Angeles, has a record label, and makes awesome music asState Shirt. He manages to come home a few times a year to visit with family and friends, and we seem to get together and collaborate on music things all these years later. It’s nice to have him be a part of this record.

Yesterday I drove up to Sackamusic in Conway to spend some time taking some inventory of the songs I’ve recorded so far for the upcoming record. I’m happy to report that things are sounding like they’re really coming together!

I recorded new lead vocal tracks for Mirror and Fourth Floor, and Dave added some bass to Mirror. I tried a vocal track for The Gatekeeper also, but it wasn’t quite what I was hoping for. I’m trying hard to capture the magic of the original live demo I made in my dining room. Maybe I should just use that version on the record. We’ll see.

I didn’t bring a camera with me, but here are some pictures I took with my cell:

So after the end of June, I decided to take a little break from recording and sit with the songs for a little while. Kristen and I went on vacation to Provincetown, Massachusetts for the first week of July, which was much needed.  I was hoping to get back to music soon after, but the remainder of July and August was spent doing some renovations to the downstairs apartment in our building in order for us to be able to rent it out to our next tenant.

Then, at the end of August, my appendix ruptured while we were visiting with Kristen’s family in Pennsylvania. I needed emergency surgery and wound up spending a week at Hershey Medical Center. When I got home, I had some complications with my incision that weren’t so great. Needless to say it required me taking it easy, because abdomen surgery kinda hurts I discovered. I was out of work for about 5-6 weeks… So here we are the first week in November and I’m able to finally get back to the music, which is what I love to do.

I headed up to Conway Rock City in the afternoon, and Dave Chalfant and I snaked wires out a window, through the garage, and into the main house where his beautiful Baldwin upright piano lives. I recorded a few songs: The Spires, The Gatekeeper, and Whatever Happened. Later, Greg Saulmon and Mark Schwaber came up to record some guitar and drum parts for The Spires. That song in particular is sounding amazing.

I took some pictures with my cell phone of the setup madness. I also had an old Canon film camera with me and snapped some photes, but I haven’t gotten those pictures developed yet.

I went with my friend Jamie to Local Burger & Fries at 16 Main St. in Northampton, Massachusetts. It was delicious. Exceptionally good onion rings and fries, especially… served with chipotle ketchup. We didn’t try the fried pickles, but maybe next time. Here’s a copy of their menu.

Kristen and I get food from El Guanaco Salvadorian & Mexican Food quite often since it’s delicious and within a close proximity to our house in Holyoke. Over the past couple years, we’ve seen it grow and have enjoyed their food while doing so. Last night, Kristen noticed an “Under New Management” sign, and picked up their recently revised menu.

I never understood why restaurants want to advertise that they’re under new management. Those signs don’t really affect my decision either way. As long as you’re advertising, why not a banner that says “New Menu Items!” or something related to the delicious food that they make?

Anyway, it’s awesome that El Guanaco has been able to thrive despite its somewhat odd location in South Hadley Falls. It goes to show you that people ARE willing to seek you out if the food is good enough. With that in mind, I hope the same success formula rings true for La Casita Azteca in Easthampton, MA.

Last week, Kristen and I went with our friends to La Casita Azteca in Easthampton. The space was previously occupied by The Pirate’s Den and Mi Casa. Both of the previous places were mediocre at best, but I’m happy to report that La Casita Azteca is FANTASTIC. Here’s a copy of their menu!

Kristen and I have this big shindig coming up this weekend with family and friends in a park in my hometown. It’s going to be great. I’m really psyched about it. Being the non-traditional quiet types that we are, we decided that a traditional wedding wasn’t for us and semi-eloped to Martha’s Vineyard to get married. But we wanted to still be able to celebrate with family and friends, and that’s how this whole picnic idea came about.

My mom Judy was gracious enough to plan and procure and sort of take on a lot of the stress of putting this together. Our families and friends also helped my mom too. So we luckily got off pretty easy. We just have to shmooze and enjoy, for the most part. It’ll be nice to visit with everyone and have our families meet and get to know each other… and to celebrate with friends too.

BUT THERE’S LOTS TO DO!

We’re cleaning things, organizing things, figuring out who will be where at what time, what to drink, etc. It starts to get a little nutty. I hope we are able to make it a great weekend for everyone who is visiting.

WHAT IF SOMEONE DOESN’T HAVE A GOOD TIME?!

Most important is for Kristen and I to be able to look around us at this thing– recognize all the wonderful people in our lives, and move forward in our marriage knowing that we can count on their love and support.

I was looking at my site one day and began to realize how seemingly quickly things become out of date and never get updated. It happens to everyone, and I suppose I could tell you that it won’t happen here since I have a fancy new blog setup so it makes it easier for me to post things. I suppose I could pledge to keep this updated as frequently as possible, not acknowledging the inevitable slackage that will creep up from time to time.

Instead I’ll just post about how I’m kind of excited about the whole blog setup. Ever since I started working at MassLive, and since meeting my lovely fiancee Kristen, I’ve been keen to the idea of starting one, but just didn’t have the time to explore it. Finally, I did.

So here we are. As I get into the swing of things, I hope some of these posts aren’t total snoozers.