it’s Friday, which is nice. Actually the outlook around these parts is not awful. Thanks to the nice weather, and let’s face it, the the dosage adjustments from the doc, I’ve been feeling a lot better; it’s not that the world or work or anything has gotten less uncertain or threatening – that’s about the same, or worse, on the global front (when NPR is sounding apocalyptic, you start to pay attention) – but I am (provisionally at this point) able to see past my personal cloud of despair and see some of the good stuff.

I got some additional solo biking in this week; I am starting to remember how nice those rides along the river loop at Dutch Gap can be for clearing the head, and I need to make the effort to work that back into my routine, and maybe melt away some of the extra self I’ve packed on thanks to the crazy stress and anxiety the last several months.

Last night we got the band back together…for our weekly rehearsal – the Ravencon debut of the new, improved lineup of Dimensional Riffs is coming up real soon now, so we need to get our stuff together, arranged, and ready for performance. After spending the last couple of weeks on the CD, our original stuff is solid, though the covers we’re filling out the set with started to suffer a bit, so we need to wrok on those, get off book and confident with them. Well, *I* do at least – especially since I need to re-acquaint myself with playing with a bass player instead of *being* the bass player, and doing it on an electric guitar, which is something I haven’t done in a long time, at least on stage in the group context.

warning: musician shop-talk musings ahead: I’m mostly used to playing acoustic anymore when I go six strings, which allows me to fill a bunch of shoes in a group context in a pinch; an acoustic guitar, especially a jumbo like mine, does a lot to cover low-end and percussion sounds, adding a bit of “oomph”, or substance to the overall sound of the ensemble, resulting in a “fuller” sound when you’re lacking some important players. The electric guitar, while it can be powerful, lacks some of that depth of sound on its own, especially when, as in the DR context, you’re lacking a percussionist; it’s just a bit thinner, at least to my ears. Our bassist D.J. is, in many ways, a better bass player than I am; working in all kinds of interesting runs and some clever fretboard acrobatics (he calls it “taking it for a walk”), which leaves me off the hook a lot for carrying the upper end/embellishment stuff I’d normally do – I’m struggling a bit adjusting (or rather trusting) my playing with the fancy Telecaster rig to carry the rhythm stuff in a way that lends solidity to the ensemble’s overall expression, especially as we lack percussion in order to give us an instrumental sound I’m happy with, and full enough to support the great vocal harmonies the girls are coming up with.

Anyway, what I’m trying to say, is that I have some work to do in the next two weeks (or give up and just play the acoustic, but I really wanna play my pretty new guitar!), but if I finally have the mind-space to worry about this, I’m doing pretty well in terms of overall anxiety management. Yay me.

Oh yeah, we shot some band photos this week too!

Here’s today’s random playlist – so, so indie:

1. “Manic Monday” – The Bangles
2. “Smooth Criminal” – Michael Jackson
3. “Drag” – Day Wave
4. “Intro” – the xx
5. “Home” – Edward Sharpe and the Magnetic Zeroez
6. “Flashed Junk Mind” – Milky Chance
7. “A Punk” – Vampire Weekend
8. “The Underdog” – Spoon
9. “Heartbeats” – Jose Gonzalez
10. “Fade Into You” – Mazzy Star
11. “Where Is My Mind” – The Pixies