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Shipped CDs to bushmiller, juliansinger, ahkond, and celie. Expect them in 5-7 days, unless you live across an ocean, in which case 4-6 weeks and in the form of millions of tiny shards of compact disc.

Also dropped off another 38 CDs and 21 videotapes at Goodwill, and a VCR and a hot pot. I always wonder if they really use any of this stuff, or if taking CDs to Goodwill is the stuff-conservationist's equivalent of taking that stray animal to the shelter and steadfastly denying to yourself that they'll end up putting it to sleep.

Anyone want a collection of tapes from the Black Saint/Soul Note label(s)? 21 albums by bands featuring Mal Waldron, Paul Bley, Paul Motian, David Murray, Art Blakey, Bill Frisell, Joe Lovano, Charlie Haden.... Most of them are still shrink-wrapped, so I can't tell you how they sound, but my guess is: avant-gardy.

Update: It's been claimed.

Some have shipped from the last batch, some haven't. Here are more:

( N O P R, plus some S and T leftovers and a few soundtracks )

Who wants them?

(subject courtesy of xythian)

Our friend Scott Andrew's running a contest: Make a video for his new song "Dark Corners". The winner gets an iPod Shuffle, plus a chance to bask in the reflected glory of Scott's fame. Also, it'll be fun. If you like video.

In other news, this weekend I'm playing my first solo show since... November? As part of the Sunday Chill Sessions I'm running at Barefoot Coffee. I'll be playing around 2, Philip Rodriguez will start around 3, and then we'll probably pack up. Philip played on some of Colin Carthen's set at last Sunday's session, and it was a high point for me. I think Colin will be joining Philip for some of his set, too.

I'll be playing some new songs that my bands haven't learned yet, some others that just aren't band songs, as well as stripping some older songs back down to their bones. It should be fun, and it won't happen again for a while. So if you live around here, hey, come on out. Request a song, heckle the singer, whatever.

I've got another little project cooking, but I'M NOT GONNA TELL YOU. Yet.

It seems like I say this a lot, but despite some sound problems, I had a lot of fun at the Tin Cat show tonight. It wasn't our tightest performance, but all the songs seemed to hold together under duress, and I just felt comfortable with the band and the audience. Also my head wasn't right next to any cymbals, which was a big improvement over our last show. And for those of you who were there for it--wasn't Cameron's opening set great?

I got, what, under four hours of sleep Wednesday night; was in a sleep-deprived haze (yet oddly productive at work) all through Thursday; slept better last night than I have in weeks or months; yet mysteriously spent most of today in the sort of detached, out-of-body state I associate with sleep deprivation; and by the time the show started, I was all cleared up and ready to go.

It's been an interesting week.

Earlier today I got the urge to hear Ida's "599" and now it's my song obsession, although I expect that Invisible Cities song to make a comeback soon.

1. Oh yeah, remember how Tin Cat was recording a demo? We have a demo now. The songs are up on our MySpace page. One song each from Dave, Tom, Meredith and me. My contribution is yet another version of my first song, "Losing Streak", but it's pretty different. It's a rock song now. Also Cameron made my accordion sound great on Dave's song "The Lion".

2. I've been booking a series of "acoustic" (or electric but mellow) shows at Barefoot Coffee Roasters. I know too many people who make great music and don't really get it heard enough, for various reasons. So I'm setting up three-band bills with a mix of local and greater-California acts, mostly solo and duo, on Sunday afternoons when the cafe has walk-in traffic and sunshine. A lot of the performers I've booked so far are my friends and bandmates, but I've got some people coming up later in the summer who I've never met before, and they're also great. Anyway, I finally put up a web page about it. The first show is next Sunday (6/19), with Meredith Edgar, Colin Carthen, and Jon Weston coming in from the East Bay.

3. Today I went out to get lunch and run some errands, the first of which was to drop off a CD player at Barefoot (theirs has been flaky, and I had a spare), and some CDs by upcoming acts, so that maybe they can get some play in the cafe before their shows. ("Like putting out pastry samples," Kate aptly analogized.) None of the other errands got run, because I then spent six? seven? hours in the cafe talking about music and philosophy to Dan, Avery, William (aka monkey587, and was it Will?), and Kate, who has no link here only because as far as I know she is represented by no web page. For someone who rarely talks at length (a taciturn sort of fellow, a few of you will recall), this was extremely disorienting. But not in a bad way.

I enjoyed this post by rhodri about an evening of watching bands:

Underdog were as mundane as their ludicrous press photo suggests, with a series of plodding, semi-anthemic numbers which merged into a tedious, predictable whole. The stage was tiny, and the singer looked frustrated at not being able to walk about. So he looked at the drummer. The drummer looked back at him. The singer turned around and looked at us. It was that kind of gig.

Trust me, go read it. I think it may be wise. Also contains the great band name "Being 747".

Also, his article for The Independent about Robert Chalmers's attempt to stir up interest in his second novel by traveling to the town of Otley and giving away a thousand copies of it to passersby.

Oh yeah, and some local news: The Red Rock Coffee Company has been bought by the HighWay Community, a Baptist-based church created to minister to Generation X. For the regulars, these are the youthful, happy-looking people who occasionally come out of the elevator in the "green room" while we're practicing our mopey songs.

Red Rock will reportedly reopen as "The HighWay Cafe". Steve Cavin said he'd be talking to the new owners about continuing the open mike, but after a look at the HighWay's music page I'm dubious. Something else might work out though.

1. Last night I dreamed about awkward conversations with musicians I adore.

2. Altercation this week had a piece from Barry Ritholtz on the concert part of the music industry, and how it's responding to the market by offering better value to consumers, rather than, you know, pursuing legislation to protect a dying business model. Then Stephen Anderson followed up with a letter (scroll down) about hard times for the recording studios:

Artists are tending toward recording at homes, either their own, or rentals, to keep costs down, and that affects studio rates. Renting a McMansion for $20K per month is still more cost effective than paying $1200/day for a conventional studio. For some recordings, that is fine. But when the same artist needs to do a "string date," they might come to Capitol, my old home, and then gripe that they no longer get the service they are used to. That's because the studio, in an effort to lower costs, doesn't replace key personnel who leave, or who are laid off as costs are cut.

3. Tin Cat can't afford a McMansion, so we've taken over a quadrant of Tom's mom's house this week to record a good demo with our friend Cameron. Evan came over last night to record drum tracks on the eve of his other band's tour. Here's documentary evidence:

( Evan spots the camera )

4. I wish I had time to post about the shows I'm booking! Maybe later.

5. I'd like to draw your attention to the redesigned site of Scott Andrew, America's favorite headless pop superhero.

Uh, I don't know why I said last night was Altamont's last show for a while--we're playing in Campbell next Saturday.

But nothing in June, that's my point.