TGIF

Thankfully I think most clients are away for a long weekend, so hopefully it'll be quiet around these parts and I can get stuff done. Yes, I'm working today. *sigh* :p

On the plus side, got tunage going (Live 105 is playing "An Honest Mistake" by the Bravery at the moment--haven't heard that one in awhile!!!), and slowly catching up on stuff.

Plans for the weekend?

SATURDAY: Go out early to have lunch, see the neighborhood, etc...but probably hunker down and hide by evening. Our area gets a bit silly come 5pm or so on the 4th. Quite possibly no early sleeping tonight due to hooliganism. ;)

SUNDAY: If it's open, sell off the final (for now) batches of cds, tapes and dvds we have lying around at Amoeba, only to buy more stuff. :p

[Weekend] Interesting...

According to the SF transportation site, looks like they might actually close our street tomorrow! This is rather interesting, considering how much traffic comes through every Fourth of July. It usually starts mid-afternoon with a lot of people coming in looking for parking (and a LOT of foot traffic coming down the hill from Chinatown and other points south), and they close the most northern east-west streets one by one as the day goes on. Bay (the east-west cross street outside our window) usually gets partially closed, or at least slows down...but gets SERIOUSLY backed up post-fireworks. Like I'd said earlier, the fireworks are usually over by 9:30 or 10pm, but the traffic doesn't let up for another two hours.

I'm not entirely sure where the traffic will go, since Bay is the most northern main thoroughfare that's busy, and the only one that really connects between the Embarcadero and Van Ness, the two big north-south thoroughfares. Not that I'm complaining, though...would be nice to have a quiet street! One of the worst things we get each year is people honking horns because they're not moving on a green light (even though there's five cars stuck in the intersection that can't go anywhere--yeah, our drivers here in CA are funny that way), hopefully no traffic will be nice... :)

Well, that is until post-fireworks, when all the foot traffic heads back south up the hill again. Your typical loud shenanigans (but thankfully no violence/desctruction, at least not since we've been here), which can get annoying after awhile. But I think I can handle that. ;)

[Music] Influences

Two songs that influenced my bass playing.

Wire, "A Touching Display" (original version on 154; this is from a Rockpalast show)

Cocteau Twins, "For Phoebe Still a Baby" (not official video, song is on Blue Bell Knoll)


Both, as you've noticed, have the bass played more as a second (or third) guitar rather than just an underlying rhythm guitar, playing melodies rather than just lines. Not quite like the method of New Order's Peter Hook (who, if he isn't playing straight bass, plays it like he's soloing), this style is more laid back. I learned how to play bass by listening and playing along to these two albums, among others, but Wire's Graham Lewis and Cocteau Twins' Simon Raymonde were a big influence.