2010; new year - new blog.

Okay, let's try this again.

I had a simple goal last year for my "Gig Blog," which was to document every gig I played as sort of a time capsule thing. I also used those musings as a springboard to discuss the current state of live music in my area and in society in general. Not to strum my own guitar, but it was a fun weblog and ultimately so insightful that whole courses were taught on it at major conservatories around the world.

Unfortunately the sarcastic ego that allowed me to write that last sentence didn't serve me as well as it should have. It actually never occurred to me that anyone besides my wife and the other folks in my band would read it. But, hooray for Google searches! Somebody searched a club name, found my 'blog and somehow didn't get just how clever and witty I am. My admittedly acerbic comments after one particular gig caused that club to get really ticked at the band.

Two things were wrong with this. First, the band neither "authorized" nor previewed my 'blog posts, so punishing the band for what I wrote was misguided. Second and far more laden with irony, despite causing me to delete many months worth of 'blog entries for fear of angering anyone else, the club rather quickly implemented some of the changes I suggested in the offending entry.

Which of course means I was right. Not that being right is important to me, I'm just throwing it out there as part of the time capsule thing I mentioned earlier.*

The bottom lime is that I enjoyed writing the 'Blog and I loved getting all the comments from my friends who read it. It was fun and cathartic.

This year things will be a little different. I'm hoping to write now and again about both sides of my oddly bifurcated life: my days spent at the local Juvenile Court where I work as an attorney who represents kids on Delinquency cases, and my nights spent playing guitar with one of the most successful cover bands in the Central Ohio area.

Under the rules of ethics as an attorney, I can't divulge the names of my clients or other possible identifiers when I talk about my legal career, so I'm going to try to do the same thing with the musical entries. No clubs will be mentioned, nor the last names of the guys in the band, etc. Nor will I mention the name of the band.

That's a little annoying, because hey, any time we can get the name of the band into a search engine-friendly medium, the more free advertising we get. Moreover, many people who read this 'blog will be linking to it from my website or Facebook page, and they'll already know exactly where I was playing and who I was playing with. So it's a technicality obviously, but one I'll stick with for now as a parameter of the new 'blog.

2009 was indeed a great year for me. The band I've been playing with for over five years now had its most successful year ever. We added horns at some gigs which made the band eight or occasionally nine pieces, and I have to say that's been fantastic for me. For my own personal tastes, the only thing better than being a part of an ultra-tight rhythm section is getting to hear two of Central Ohio's most talented horn players doing their thing overtop of the groove. 2010 will be even better in that regard because the band has added the horn players to even more of the gigs that we'll play.

2010 promises to be another great year for the band and it remains my privilege and honor to play among these incredibly talented musicians and performers.

* (As of mid-2010, the club mentioned above went out of business due to gross mismanagement--and not at the local level. There was only so much the location manager could do given the ridiculous rules and spending policies the corporate level of the club imposed on him. It's a shame because it was a classy place and we were well paid there, but it was hard not to notice the place hemorrhaging money from every nook and cranny. I'm tempted to feel a grim sense of self-satisfaction, but instead I think I'll grab a coffee.)