Well, the original big plan was to have the band go out with a bang - a bunch of shows, a couple new songs, recording all our stuff... But it kind of looks like we've gone out with a whimper and a nice dinner. I have mixed feelings about it. In one sense, we kind of don't have a band anyway. I mean, I made sure I was available pretty much every Sunday at noon for the last 5 months, and we've practiced, oh, four times? We haven't had a show since last year, and frankly, we kind of got downgraded from regular gigs at the Distillery to the occasional deal at some trashy dive in Roseville. On the other hand, it was so fun to have that as part of my identity. I never usually brought it up, but lots of people would go "Oh, Mockula's in a band," or "how's the band?" and then the people around would be like "what's the name? Oh that's rad!" Or they'd be scandalized, which was just as good. I was Mockula, and I was in a band called The Gynas, and that was cool, and now I'm not anymore. Hmm.
There are two up sides, though. First, I have so much going on now that I didn't have when we started the band, back when I was 25 (ouch!). For example, drummergirl is in a much better relationship (like, a billion times better), has graduated from college, has a grown-up job, has a cute place downtown, and is happily involved in martial arts again. Gynagirl has moved up and up in her career and is making fat money. She has a beautiful nephew who is very attached to her. Her kitty family has increased threefold. She's getting ready to go on the European vacation of a lifetime. I've gotten a teaching credential and an MA. I've gotten married to the best guy ever. I own my own home. Knock wood, we're starting our own family soon. I'm really satisfied in my job. Everything's so much better in so many ways.
And the other up side is, I don't feel obligated to do musical stuff, but if I wanted to, I could try to get better at playing the bass for real. I can continue learning guitar. I can call up Underclass and see if they still want me to sing with them on a track... I don't know, there are all kinds of opportunities. Anyway, it's been a little bittersweet thinking of it for the last day or so.
By the way, I finished "A Long Way Down," by Nick Hornby. I liked it. Not as much as "About a Boy," but way more than "How to Be Good." I'll have to decide where it falls between "High Fidelity" and "Songboook." I was only okay on the football one. I got a little teary at a few points near the end, but I've just been teary lately anyway. I think he does a better job voicing young American rock and rollers and teenaged British punks than he does with middle-aged TV personalities or women whose children have disabilities, but whatever. Overall I quite liked it.
I also totally forgot to tell you that I finished the latest Salman Rushdie, "Shalimar the Clown." I really super-liked that one, actually. It was a great book, and I highly recommend it. Rushdie has an incredible way of making everything lead inexorably to its inevitable end. I'm a pretty fast reader, and I read for content, but with Rushdie, sometimes he has such a striking way of putting a sentence together that I would stop and read it again and contemplate it for a minute. He puts stories together in the way John Irving does, so that it's tragic, but hopeful, and everyone is linked from the beginning, but you only slowly begin to understand, and even the good guys are bad guys and the bad guys are good guys, because everyone has a past. I don't know, it's cool. Besides "The Satanic Verses," it's the only one I've read. I'll probably pick up "Midnight's Children" soon, but I have an ever growing and shrinking shelf of stuff to read, never mind the magazines...
Okay, bye y'all.
1 comment:
Oh, I am sad to hear that the band is no more. But as you note, it is for many good reasons, and while I did not know you at all when you were 25, it does sound like everyone is kicking some ass in a quieter, more stable way. I'll just treasure my CD all the the more.
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