December 22, 2005
pics from recess show
our monkey-masked drummer will has posted a whole bunch of photos from last week's elementary school recess show. the kids were really excited, dancing and screaming and marching along with us, which made for our super-awesomest performance yet. some of those kids could really dance, man! they also really loved the "monkey man," as they called him, whom they chased all over the playground (okay, repurposed parking lot). after he'd taken off the mask to appease a girl who was crying from fear of it, the other kids followed him relentlessly, chanting "we want the monkey, bring back the monkey!" then dan on tuba led the kids in a perambulatory parking-lot-perimeter pied-piper parade.
memorable quotes from the kids:
"are you coming back tomorrow??"
"i'm telling my mom about this!"
(little girl to her friend, with tone of authority) "they are a REALLY GOOD band."
 | finally: looks like a front-runner for the band's name is the "What Cheer March Band," in reference to the Narragansetts' legendary greeting to Providence founder Roger Williams, which appears on the Providence city seal. |
December 20, 2005
gig cancelled by TWU
tonight i would've been playing trombone for singer-songwriter buddy jeff solomon, but the knitting factory cancelled the gig due to the transit strike. so let's just say i'm not playing the gig in solidarity with the transit workers. that's the spirit.
December 06, 2005
china trip after xmas
michael has scooped me -- and shamed me back into blogging -- by reporting on my own life before i got around to it. and from western desert china, no less! yep, i recently bought tickets on continental's newark-to-beijing direct, departing 12/26, returning 1/15 (just $734 incl. tax!). it will be cold there, but i did it once before. the current plan is to buy giant yak-fur coats upon arrival.
the current tentative plan is: beijing, a flight to korla (xinjiang), then back along the silk road to lanzhou (gansu), get some tibetan flava in xiahe (review, info, pics) or langmusi (review, info) (gansu province), some spicy flava in chengdu (sichuan province), and maybe yunnan if we can make it that far south in time. as well as shanghai if we can fit it in! yay!