I'm only getting around to putting this up now, since I've been busy with the edits, and with preparing for my first trumpet-playing gig in 8 years. This is related, trust me...
And I don't mean just getting my lip back in shape. I had to get my ear back in shape too, since I was tasked with transcribing the horn line to Blondie's "The Tide Is High." It's been about 8 years since I've done anything like that, too. But it was for a good cause -- a fundraiser for the Cancer Resource Center of the Finger Lakes.
My performance was far from perfect, though. It's my own fault, especially since I had to pull a Chet Baker because of my travel schedule -- in 1988, he'd blown off all the rehearsals for his Last Great Concert in Hannover, Germany but showed up the day of the gig and rocked it. However, smack-addicted Chet Baker was still a better trumpet player than I ever was on my best day. Still, I was pleasantly surprised at the results. People asked me if I'm inspired to play again, considering the dearth of trumpet players in the music scene in this town. I don't know. I am inspired, however, to watch The Commitments again, since I'd been quoting Joey "The Lips" Fagan all week: "The Lord blows my trumpet."
Anyway, this sort of brings up a personal issue for me, in that I'm not as anonymous as I used to be. Not as compartmentalized. Not so long ago few people knew "Don the Co-Worker" was also once "Don the Martial Artist," or ever "Don the Jazz Trumpeter Wannabe." Now, some of them are finding out about "Don the Writer" and "Don the Editor."
But now it's all coming together. I'm not as carefully covering those track as I once was. I'm even opening the doors a bit, and maybe that's a good thing. Besides, it's getting so I can't cover those tracks as much, even if I wanted to. I've now been on the Functional Nerds podcast, as well as SFSignal. I've been filmed reading. Nope, no hiding it now. I might have mixed feelings about it, but I'd better get over them PDQ.
Anyway, since the gig was an 1980s musical revue, the theme song for this post works on every level...
I'm taking a day to recover. It's been a helluva couple of months, and I'm totally depleted.