new bass...no toenail

So on Tuesday STB + I were moving a couch. And my entire big toenail was ripped off in a giant, painful, bloody mess. OUCH. It still hurts. And the generic vicodin-looking pain meds aren't really helping much. Although it's better than it was Tuesday. And I have some antibiotics to keep it from getting all infected. Currently my toe is just exposed muscle tissue. The x-ray tech couldn't even look at it because she was so disgusted. I'm hoping I can make the Sunday Nite Ladies Ride tomorrow without it bothering my toe too much. Especially since I don't have to work Monday and can enjoy a late night.

Now on to the really important stuff. My new bass arrived Thursday! It's a (very slightly used) G+L Tribute. It's louder than my Ibanez SR400. The reach is just a bit longer. It's a lot more "live" sounding, and maybe a bit brighter. I'm happy that they have 2 different sounds so I can justify keeping both of them. It's also a subtle sparkly red. I'm gonna go play him in a few minutes after I finish watching Obama's speech on YouTube.

Here's some pics. And I felt like my other instruments were getting a little jealous, so I took photos of everything except my tuba. I'll have to do that later this week.

The new G+L:



My guitar family: G+L Tribute bass, Nameless Acoustic guitar, Ibanez SR400 bass:



The bodhrans: an 18" cheapy + a small Vignoles + a handful of tippers (many also from Michael Vignoles):

little bodhran

Julia dancing, Doug guitaring, me bodhraning

information overload

The problem with not updated regularly is that when I finally sit down to write something, my thoughts are all over the place.

I'll start with today. I decided at about 11 am to attend the Ohio Folk Life Festival. I primarily went to hear a bit of folk music and attend the bodhrán workshop. It was a beginners workshop, and started out with a decent turnout (especially considering no one really advertised the festival). Most of the people filtered out after 30 minutes, although a couple new faces showed up towards the end. I learned a bit, and got to play a few different drums. The workshop was led by Tim O'Neill, the bodranii who plays in Knot Fibb'n. He was a really easy-going guy, and you would never suspect how much he can rock on stage.

Thursday night I attended Bardic Circle, a local Irish music session. I was invited by a bodranii on one my music geek sites. There were ~10-12 other people there. Everyone was friendly and I had a great time. Thursday is often reserved for quintet rehearsals, but I'm going to try and attend more sessions in the future. Best way to learn is playing with others.

I've been doing a bit of bike riding lately. Here's the new bike:



You can see even more photos here. Holly and I have been trying to master the bike path at Sharon Woods Metropark. There are two hills, and one kills us every time. Well, the two or three times we've been there it's killed us.

We're heading out Sunday morning with 1 or 2 other bike newbies to see if we're finally able to conquer the whole trail.

I think that's enough of an update for one day...

bodhrán!

It's official... I totally *heart* playing my bodhrán. It's the same kind of feeling I had when I finally got my hands on a bass - the moment of "wow... I should have done this years ago when I first wanted to...".

I think hitting something is also satisfying some weird primevil urge.

This kid has posted some better-than-decent bodhrán playing on YouTube - so if you keep seeing me post about the $%^&* thing and don't know what I'm talking about - check it out.