Just wanted to check in and note a few things since the last post those many moons ago.

First, I put up a couple of new photo galleries on the PeteOfTheStreet Pics page (get the link on the right -->). One is of the Great Blanket Project of 2004, documenting the purchasing, knitting, and creation of a blanket for Rae & Dave's soon-to-be-arriving "Boba." As you may know, this was my first foray into Cecilia's world of knitting, and I found it a fun task. About a week before Rae's shower I was traveling to Cleveland for the SAM conference and happened to sit behind a young woman who passed the time between Pittsburgh and Cleveland knitting a scarf. Because of my weeks of experience, I enjoyed studying her technique and noting the way she always knitted the first stitch of every row rather than just transferring it to the right needle. If there's anything Cecilia has taught me, it's don't knit the first stitch! I almost reached over and tapped the woman on the shoulder to point out the errors of her ways, but decided to just sit smugly behind her instead.

The other gallery is from my trip up north weekend to Stockton. On Sunday I had the whole day to myself and took the opportunity to do an exploration of Yolo, Colusa, and Lake counties. I took it at a leisurely pace and really enjoyed the early springtime scenery.

The SAM conference paper went well, so I'm told. When you're up there reading you never have a very good sense of how things are going, or how they went, so when people tell me it was a good paper I'm happy to believe them. I was thrown a little by some technical difficulties at the very beginning (the digital projector wasn't projecting the PowerPoint show from my laptop), and some of the jokes bombed, but the choreography I employed to distinguish "H" from "h" in the word "history" seems to have been enjoyed. If you're just dying to read my paper, I've created an online version, complete with the video clip I played during the presentation (QuickTime required).

I've so far enjoyed working on the tribute band thing, to the point that I think it will become a chapter in the Damage Incorporated book. Right now I'm thinking the tribute stuff will serve as a kind of postlude or epilogue, basically looking at Metallica and musical identity from the standpoint of tribute musicians rather than continuing the focus on the people in Metallica. Moreover, I've enjoyed working with the musicians themselves. They seem quite nice and, most importantly, they seem genuinely interested in my project and have been very willing to answer questions and so forth. Along those lines, I decided to participate in a charity gig with some of the tribute musicians to benefit the Cure Autism Now organization. Two of the folks in the metal tribute scene have kids with autism and the annual Metal Jam benefit is designed to help out a little. The gig will consist of tribute musicians jamming on classic metal tunes with folks like me. I've signed up to play Ace Frehley's parts in KISS' "Detroit Rock City" (a song I've been playing for years) and Marty Friedman's parts in Megadeth's "Holy Wars." Friedman is one of those 80s metal guitar virtuosos and I've had to work pretty hard to learn the two short solos he has in "Holy Wars." In fact, I've had to learn a whole new technique, sweep picking, just to play the first measure of the first solo! Indeed, I've basically been practicing that one measure for about two weeks now. If you could only see my fingertips... Really, though, it'll be fun and even though I don't plan on making the audience's jaw(s) drop with technically brilliant playing I've enjoyed the challenge of learning a couple of solos (I've always been much, much more of a rhythm guitar person).

Let's see, what else...

Oh yes, the Damage Incorporated book proposal is out to readers, which explains why I hadn't heard anything from the editor since late December. Once the readers reports come back the proposal will be taken to Routledge's editorial board for discussion and (hopefully) approval. I'm expecting a copy of the first report any day now (I was told it was very positive).

Finally, this weekend Rhonelle and I drove out to Berkeley on Saturday night to see Patrick's new band play. They were winding up their four-show mini-tour that night at a punk club, the name of which I've forgotten. The band is called Lux Nova Umbra Est and it's not punk. It's more like King Crimson than the Sex Pistols. The show was great, especially after all the punk/noise bands that preceded them on the bill. The band doesn't have a web site (yet, I'm told) but they do have a CD. In fact, listen to "Wo ist das Licht?" (8.6 MB .mov). I'm sure Pat won't mind. :)

Ciao.