Hello all! I am still in Phoenix as of now and taking it pretty easy.
My trip to Flagstaff this past weekend was one of the best few days I have had in recent memory. A synopsis of the entire trip is forthcoming. I apologize if this all seems trivial or boring to those of you who do not know me personally.
Friday afternoon my friend Chris picked me up and we headed to Flag. We had our first of two gigs that night with our band Pithecanthropus Erectus and we needed to be in town by 5 pm to rehearse. It was necessary to rehearse because we had not performed together in a year. You see, the band was forced to break up when I left for Florida because there was nobody in Flagstaff with the musical abilities to take over the Bari sax part from me. Anyway, on the way up the highway Chris gets an idea to stop by the Cliff Castle Casino and pushes the rehearsal back to 6 pm. I really do not favor gambling so I just watched him play video blackjack for 30 minutes or so. He lost forty bucks.
Chris and I made it to Flagstaff in time to make some copies of the music for the gig and stop by the Pita Pit for some nosh before we had to be at rehearsal. The rehearsal went fine and it got me psyched to perform that night. For not having done a jazz gig in a year I had my apprehensions at first but as soon as downbeat came I was tearing it up with the best of them! My family chose to come up to see me play and they were all having a good time. Ma, Pa and Groove were doing a bit of the alchohol but CRXBot is still just shy of the legal age so she could not partake. It was fortuitous that our gig was on the outside stage of Flagstaff Brewing Company so that she could still see me play. The crowd resopnse was great and it felt to me as if we had never stopped performing. My family had booked a hotel for the night and I crashed on the floor. It was pretty easy to do after drinking all night.
Saturday my family and I took to the streets of downtown Flagstaff for some shopping and general frolickery. Flagstaff has some great local "Mom and Pop" shops and restaurants to explore and experience. After much browsing and not much buying we settled down to lunch at San Felipe's Cantina. Check out the fish tacos-they are the best anywhere in Arizona! We then proceeded to Wheeler Park to take in the arts and crafts fair going on there for the holiday weekend. Shitty synthesized music behind Navajo pipes and guitar killed the event for me personally. I cannot stand cheesy cover songs performed to backing tape. Cringe. My family soon departed back to Phoenix and I stayed behind because the band had one more gig to do on Sunday evening. So I went to the NAU Music School and practiced for a while until I made arrangements with my friend Laura to stay at her and my other friend Jonas' house. So we grabbed some pizza and then bought some 40s of malt liquor and chilled out for the rest of the evening.
Sunday I got up early and Laura made us blueberry muffins for breakfast. We parted ways and I soon met up with Chris and two of his rather granola-looking friends and we hung out at a coffee house downtown for a wile and then Chris and I left them to go pick up this chick Kelly he has been seeing lately. She had the idea to go to the fairgrounds to take in the horse races and I am sure glad we went! It was pretty exciting trying to figure out the betting strategies while double-fisting beers! After we had our fill of the equine madness we went downtown again to get some sushi. I sure do love me some sushi! Then came the gig at Mogollon. It kicked far too much ass to be legal in my opinion!! That gig was the best one we ever did and probably the best one I have done of any of the bands I have peen a part of. The crowd was behind us 200%! We were jamming and jiving and cleaning clocks! But it was also bittersweet because now Hannis the guitar player and Ron the drummer are moving to NY and Seattle, respectively and I am going back to Florida so the band will truly be scattered now.
I stuck around until Monday so I could rehearse with Jonathan for our performance of the Hindemith duet this Thursday. Actually, as of right now it is today! And that brings my trip to a close. I had so much fun while I was there and even though I was constantly busy it was all done in its own time and pace which allowed for a more relaxed experience. I spent way too much moola, though!
Anyway, hope that catches all of you up to how I am doing. I will probably update soon when the rest of my vacation has passed. Hope everybody out there is doing well!!
