Monthly Archives: April 2018

to quote an old song: mama may have, papa may have, but god bless the child that’s got his own… typewriter! i threw that last bit in there because i obtained one a few nights ago (thanks elizabeth!) the smith corona was described as “a good version of a Chevy” in the movie california typewriter. 30 years ago i mostly used a typewriter for school, work, and purposes that were not creative. after watching this movie, i thought i’d try one out again to see if the experience could turn itself into the muse. i do like hearing the “bap bap bap” of the keys, the “ding” when the margin is getting close, and the groan of the carriage return. thankfully there’s still enough ink in the ribbon to hit the ground running.

a few days ago i heard a song by the breeders (above) called wait in the car. the sparse use of chords & unison styled vocals motivated me to write a similar type of song so i could record it with my beep goes the weasel bandmate: angie wolford. our song is called all work and no play. it’s a little slower, but we had fun recording it.

happy birthday chloé! 15 years ago, one of our friends got me a collection of old photos with really inappropriate captions for my birthday. mikwright.com puts all of these images in books & on napkins & various other products. i know chloé will always be a little girl to her parents, but then i thought to myself “she’s old enough now,” and just wanted to share the same joy that someone shared with me on my birthday! the above image is courtesy of mikwright.com.

well the carpets are clean, beds are made, the drapes are dusted, and there are plenty of towels. that means motel mancini is almost ready to turn on the VACANCY sign at homer’s! what is motel mancini you ask? it’s not actually a motel– it’s an acoustic trio made up of myself, chris mull, and clay vinyard. together we’re gonna play originals and covers that you may not remember right away, but after awhile you might go “oh yeah! wait, hold on… who did this?” we’ll dim the lights & grab our guitars june 9 (that’s a saturday) 7:30pm at homer’s coffeehouse. mark it on your calendars now!

i had a few hours to myself tuesday night, so i got out some gear to work on a song. i started out with the rock-1 pattern on the casio VL-TONE. things got progressively weirder with each track i put down. the last thing i added was an insanely high falsetto effect using the roland voice transformer. i sound like a woman in the 1930′s who is trapped in the jungle.

christy dropped by homer’s monday. it was below freezing, and i realized we were both wearing navy style pea coats! when i asked chloé to take our picture, christy turned to check on her 4-year-old son. he was unusually quiet right at that moment, and that’s when the mischief typically starts.

time, life, and circumstance were stacked against us, but matt hawkins, me, josh fairman, and tommy wooldridge finally played together as the enduros easter sunday at overland park lutheran. the church was going through serious changes two years ago, including some departures and arrivals in wailin’ wall. that was the name of the worship band i’d been playing in since 2009. those of us that stayed around thought it would be cool to change the name to the enduros. easter morning we played:
Come On Up To The House
Let My Love Open The Door
Because He Lives Amen
I’m Gonna Sit At The Welcome Table
Ain’t No Grave