Poagao's Journal

Absolutely Not Your Monkey

Oct 10 2004

Yesterday was a very long yet satisfying day. It s…

Yesterday was a very long yet satisfying day. It started when I dragged myself out of bed at 5:30 a.m., not an easy thing after getting very little sleep recently, as well as staying up late the night before getting ready for the beach shoot. Yes, once again we were hoping against hope that the weatherman would be wrong and that we’d get the sunny day we needed. We got it, in spades; I’ll be writing about that in the production journal, so I won’t go into it here.

Needless to say, I was bushed by the time we finished in the late afternoon, but my day wasn’t over yet; the Ramblers were scheduled to play at the Daniel Pearl Day of Music at the Taipei Artist Village. The event started at 6, but after taking the train from Keelung and the subway home, catching a quick shower, grabbing my horn and fedora and getting back on the subway, it was after 7 before I arrived to find a small crowd of people sitting around eating and chatting while a small group of guitarists played quietly on the wooden deck stage under the trees.

The good news was that the Ramblers were scheduled to play last, at around 9. The bad news, it seemed, was the someone had accidentally plugged the amp system into a 220-volt plug and shorted out the whole system. This explained the quiet guitars, which I could barely hear, as well as the chatting.

I grabbed a couple of spiced burgers supposedly donated by Jason’s Market. They were far too big for the tiny buns, and I didn’t really appreciate the taste, but they were the first thing I’d had to eat since some fruit on the beach, so they were welcome at that point.

Several groups performed, but not many people really paid any attention, to our growing dismay. Dave, Sandy, Will, Tim and I discussed how we could adapt to the situation, and Dave came up with a plan he felt would work.

Just after nine, following some pseudo-Shakespeare and some speeches by Sean Scanlan et al, we marched out into the crowd playing variations in D minor (in other words, whatever came to mind), over to the area where the beer was being served, or had been before they ran out of beer. This was the epicenter of the chatting, and Dave had decided to take the band to the audience rather than expecting them to come to us. We stood in a circle and played with much more enthusiasm than we probably would have in an amplified state. I loved it because not only could I hear myself, I could hear everyone else quite clearly as everything was wonderfully balanced. Dave’s enthusiasm was infectious; that man sure can work a crowd.

Over the course of the performance we shifted position a couple of times, each time going to where people were gathered. Will got up on the wooden deck and tapped up a storm, and a few people came and joined in on their own instruments. At one point a small child was taking pictures of us, and I noticed that he or she was using a new Canon 20D, the very camera I’ve had my eye on recently. Lucky little bastard.

We had to stop playing at some time after ten, but I think we made a fairly good impression. I also think that we’re going to try to recreate that setup with a single microphone to play around at future performances.

After the shooting and the playing, I was really tired, but I stayed and chatted with a few people afterwards. A pleasant-looking fellow introduced himself as the infamous “Wolf Reinhold” of Forumosa fame. Then Sandy, Jojo, a couple of their friends and I took the subway back to Xindian where, in spite of the fact that I was getting really tired, we partook of some delicious rhotis while sitting out on the street next to Athula’s rhoti stand, where I listened to Sandy and Jojo talk about their upcoming trip to Penghu, where they plan to search for a mythical vacation resort designed by Mike Brady.

It was after 2 a.m. before I collapsed into bed. And, of course, was awakened early this beautiful Sunday morning by the sound of jackhammers next door.

posted by Poagao at 3:43 pm  

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