Eric's House Of Ego

I got a message over on FB a couple days ago asking if I was ok. I had been pretty much silent online. It's nice to have someone reach out. I feel really isolated most of the time. Lizzie is pretty much the only person I actually speak to.

The short answer is pretty good. I have gone through a bunch of testing the last month, two scans of my heart and a sleep test.

The first chest scan led to my favorite thing ever said about me. I understand that this is a medical term for everything looks fine at first glance, but if I ever do another solo record, I will call it this ...

Grossly Unremarkable.

It makes me giggle.

The scans seem to be OK, but I talk to the doctor in a month for the real diagnosis. The fact that he has not called me in early is a good sign.

The sleep test came out pretty much as expected. My sleep apnea has gotten worse. I will say that that night was the worst night sleep I have had in months. The night before or after may have had a different result, but, they know what they are doing.

We're taking a beating financially. We have a bit of extra money this month, so I was able to get rid of a lot of the little stuff, but we both still have two very large medical bills hanging out there with more coming.

Helvetica cracked a tooth. He is getting that dealt with in a month. More money going out.

So we are not traveling this year. No cons, except Icon which is local. We probably shouldn't do that.

I can get around a little better but I still can't walk very far. I want an electric trike so I can ride and pedal as much as I am capable of, but wow are they out of our price range.

Lizzie continues to work from home and I work from home part time, so we get a lot of time together. Yeah, we still like being around each other all the time.

I'm trying to get back to playing guitar, but it's hard. We have no shows, we have no way to record either album this year, all that drives the depression that made me stop in the first place. We're looking for local shows, just so we can get back to playing live. I think I have a location. There is an open mic at a coffee shop we have gone to a couple of times and they have a nice space. We'll see what they think. I am uncertain as to whether we can pull in an audience.

My granddaughter turned 3 last week. We have seen her twice in the last couple of weeks, and she is finally getting to know us. She ran across the room and gave both of us a hug. And there is another due in October.

My former father in law passed a month ago. I am sad that I had not seen him for quite some time, I liked him a lot.

I do comment and post on some groups on FB, but I hate it so much.

There was a Toyboat reunion of sorts at Demicon. Mike Nixon was playing a solo show, Random Fractions were playing as well, so Mike thought it would be fun if the 4 of us got together for the last half of his show. We called it Mayday. We weren't too awful, considering we had one rehearsal. I don't expect it to happen again, we're not traveling for awhile, and Cathy and Pat are moving out west sometime next year (I think).

So there ya go. Eric in a nutcas ... nutshell.

How are you?

I got the phone call from the cardiologist’s office late last week. They wanted to get me set up for the stress test. The woman on the phone was very funny. She said that the doctor may decided to do something else, but they wanted to get me in as early as possible just in case. If the doctor decides to go another direction, they can cancel it.

Another reason why I like my current health system better than the last. My last doctor would have waited for me to have the heart attack, and then done something. Never anything preventative.

The bad side of this is that the stress test isn’t until mid May. So I have a month and a half to worry.

The first bill from the ER visit hit last week. Hit is the right word, it’s a lot. I called yesterday to see about starting a payment plan, and the very nice person I talked to said that I should wait. There was still a smaller part of the bill out to insurance, and the bill for the follow up with my doctor. Neither of those will be much, but it is so unusual to hear anyone say “hang on and do this later” when it comes to bills.

Music continues, slowly. My calluses are nonexistent. I have a month to do something about that. We’re playing more, and feeling better about it.

We have been rearranging gear. Lizzie’s pedalboard had become too small, so she grabbed my old board and is using that. The sounds she can get out of the fiddle are amazing. I have a small acoustic board, just a volume pedal, a tuner, a reverb and my usual preamp/DI. I’m also putting together an electric board. I want to get back to using the effects. There is so much gear in our house.

My voice is almost back to normal, I may actually be on FilkCast this week.

I’m tired today. I took yesterday off, had a mental health day. It helped a lot.

We have shenanigans planned this weekend. Rehearsal for some stuff at Demicon. Then a few quiet weekends, then Demicon. Oh, and we’re hosting a Steve Goodie house concert near the end of the month. That is always fun.

So better, but still dodgy.

We will be going live at 4pm Central time today as part of Demicon Online on FB Live and You Tube!

https://www.facebook.com/groups/DemiCon/
https://www.youtube.com/user/CheshireMoonBand/

It will be archived both places.

And Eric has decided that, for this show, there will be nothing in standard tuning! Lizzie is giving him that look.

We’re starting to look to next year.

In January we intend to go into the studio to record the best songs from the 52 Songs project. We will start taking preorders for that once we have songs picked and start recording. We need to get a certain number of preorders to be able to press the CDs.

We hope to get Callenwood written and recorded next year, we’ll see how that goes, but we could, feasibly, release two CDs next year.

We’re starting to think about shows. The only certain thing is OVFF, but Demicon is a good bet too. Those may be our only cons next year, money is more than a little tight.

Other than that, we will most certainly do shows in Chicago (probably two) and the surrounding Burbs, Minneapolis, Champaign, Indianapolis (if the show next weekend goes well) and a couple shows in DSM. We’re looking for a place in Kansas City, and in Nebraska.

So, if you know of a place that would have us, or want to set up a House Concert, please let us know. We’re always on the look out for new places to play.

Lots of music today. Lots of tired now ... two shows and stuff in the music circles too!

Afternoon Show
Circus Of Dreams
Call Me Home
Witch In Your Story
Hot McGonagall
Catnyp
Stream of Consciousness
Critters - w/ Justin & Beth!
Widows Garden - see above!
Snow White Red Road
Masters of Library Science

Masquerade
Masters of Library Science
Snow White Red Road
Hot McGonagall
Disenchanted
Witch In Your Story
Corvus

Circle
11 to 12
Don't Look Now
Calvin's Girl

We both think we're missing something in the lists. Anyone remember anything else not mentioned here?

What we played at Demicon

Stream of Consciousness
If I Were The Rain
Child Of Stars
Lighthouse
Out Of The Light
Caravan
Companion
World Walker
Calvin's Girl
Critters
Widows Garden
Family

The show went very well. Dybbuk Q. Klezmer brought wonderfulness to the songs. Lizzie sang beautifully. I played instruments. At the circle Saturday night Lizzie and I did Daughter Of The Red, with interjections from a young woman sitting behind Lizzie that were wonderful. After which we collapsed.

There was an unexpected addition to Eric's Quest For Pizza. I had intended to get to Pagliai's sometime soon, but since it was right down the street we went with Bryan and family (as mentioned before). It was yummy and I will get my review up shortly.

The music track went amazingly well. Lojo Russo and Adam Stemple were bad bad people. Adam also played with Chas Somdahl yesterday. Bryan had a sterling set with CW Smith backing up on cajón and vocals.

Robert from Orckes & Trolles said that this show wasn't as dirty as last years, he sounded a little disappointed.

The Rocky Horror Sing-A-Long went wonderfully.

The WSPA had a blast, we went to the pool every day. Jared was seen when it was time for food, although even there he tended to just go to the con suite. WSPA-3 had a great time and made some new friends.

I had a great time with my family this weekend, life is good. Collapse now.

Last Ride
Marilyn Monroe
Trophy Wife (the very extended dance mix version)
The Woman I Want
She Moved Through The Faire
Hides (the last two moved through each other, wait till you hear Lizzie and I do these)
Hey Dad
Folsom Prison Nightmare

I broke a lot of people tonight. They broke me right back. This was the best show I have played in a long time. I need to do more of this. Thank you everyone for making it so much fun.

Oh, and just for reference, this is the set list I had planned

Last Ride
Marilyn
Trophy Wife
The Woman I Want
Pine City Motel Blues
She Moved Through The Faire
Hides
Ghosts
Hey Dad
Heaven Out On The Highway
Side Effects
I Got Nothing
Nice Guys
FPN

Yeah, some songs got cut.

Toyboat will be at ...

Penguicon
Jean has put together an exceptional music track. It's gonna be fun

Demicon
I gotta say I am pretty darn proud of the music track I put together for Demicon.

Duckon
And of course Duckon. Filk Hall Of Fame Inductee Jan DiMasi always puts on an amazing weekend of music. Don't miss it.

I will also be doing a solo show at Demicon. Be afraid, I haven't played solo in a long time (no fiddlers this time).

I didn't thank the ever wonderful chia_rhino (still one of the coolest names on LJ) for watching the merch table. Poor woman, forced to listen to music all day (especially those clowns who went on at 5).

Everything balanced till I got my hands on it, and in 10 minutes of sales I managed to not check off several items sold ... SHE did it right ALL DAY.

Last nights show was fun. I chased out the folks who hadn't seen me before (why does this guy keep talking? In the middle of songs even?) but the folks who stayed were a little more used to me. Being heckled by Adam Stemple and Lojo Russo always makes for ... well ... it was only a little brutal. This after sitting at the restaurant next door listening to them ... I don't know how many of you may have met them, but they're bad bad people.

Let's see if I can remember what I played

Hey Dad
Trophy Wife
Bang My Bald Spot
Jordan Cochrane
How Can I Miss You?
edit Only Coffee House In Town (with mike46 on lead guitar, thank you gamerchick for remembering this one
Dancer/Hides

Geeze, did I only manage 8 songs? That may be a new record for me in an hour show. I'll ask around and see if there was anything I missed. (and indeed there was)

gamerchick just told me that Hey Dad went on for 17 minutes. That is indeed the new record, beating the old record of 12 minutes by way too big of a margin.

There was a simply too insane of a setup this morning, but everything works. There will be three bands in a row at the end of the afternoon. It's gonna be nuts.

The Flatland Ramblers are on now, and I forget every year how much I love their music. I need to get out to see them other times, since they are local to me.

More as the day goes along.