My Little Musical Evolution

It's been about 2 years ago this week since I started playing in front of people again.  I remember that night, finally making the decision to go to Mike's Pizza and play their Open Mic night, not having done anything like that in almost 10 years.
I remember when it was finally my turn to come up, my hands went numb because I was so nervous (great thing to happen to a fucking guitarist!)  My audience was half softball players who were NOT there to hear music, half Mike's regulars.  I started out with Johnny Cash's "Thirteen", telling everyone beforehand that if they didn't like what they heard to go fuck themselves, because I didn't owe them anything.
I also played St James Infirmary Blues, a Misfits song (forgot which), and House of the Rising Sun.  Afterward, I remember feeling better than I had in a long time, like I went though a huge change.  A bunch of punks (The Boys) walked up to me and told me they loved that I did a Misfits song, and they continued to come to Mike's to hear me play for months afterward.
That night after the bar closed, I went down to the river and sat there for a while, proud of myself that I finally got over the fears I had, finally saying "fuck it!  Who cares if I suck ass, I gotta do this!".
I wouldn't say that I've been unhappy the 9 years previous at all.  But I feel more like myself these past 2 years than ever.  I fucking love being in a band that sounds like we do.  I love making the music we make.
I have to say, even though Karissa and I aren't together, I respect the hell out of her for being as supportive as she's been of me going out to bars and playing music all night, she helped give me that push I needed to do it.  It's been a fucked up 2 years, but musically it's so far been the best 2 years of my life.

Bearing Witness to Cultural Evolution

I'm becoming more proud of how the culture of Grand Forks is evolving.  The music scene is fighting to come back.  The art scene as been evolving for some years now.  There is cool stuff going on in Grand Forks.  The only problem is that it's not as well-advertised as it could be.  People still bitch about how there is nothing to do in this town.  You sometimes have to be a little creative, but there is always something to do.  It just might involve getting off your ass and finding it. 
Yesterday we drove through downtown, and saw people in Townsquare and hanging out outside Ojata.  I thought how awesome that it doesn't look completely barren like it did a year or two ago.  There is night life downtown again!  The night before, the Grand Forks Roller Derby had their award gala in Townsquare.  I was lucky enough to be invited, and had a helluva time there.
Live venues, a derby league--careful, the generations so hell-bent on leaving might just want to rethink their exodus.

"Champagne For My Real Friends, and Real Pain For My Sham Friends"...

It's weird to think how my social base has expanded and evolved over this past year.  I used to have a definitive circle of friends, never really ventured far outside it, and never wanted to. 
At one point, I met "The Boys".  When I started doing Open Mics in 2009, they were the first ones to hear me play and became big supporters.  They gave me a receptive audience, took me into their fold, even made me one of them for a few months (I extinguished my membership for my own reasons).  They also opened the door for me to meet other new people, especially musicians in and around Grand Forks. 
When The Mecan'tiKs started playing, we found a community of musicians accepting us and we love being part of that.  When Karissa joined the roller derby, I was slower than I should have been in trying to socialize , but have found fairly recently that the girls involved in that are cool as hell. 
It's even weirder to think that I used to be terrible at making friends, but now in the band I'm the "networker" of the three of us--even though Kevin is the real social bug who can schmooze people. 

Inked and Loud...

I've been trying to revive some long-neglected projects lately.  I hadn't worked on Banjo's Tune in a long time, and I figured it's high-time to get back to work on it.  I still have a story in there, even though it's vastly different from Golden Brown. 
Speaking of Golden Brown, I also decided to do an "in-between" story--only a few pages long, and not anything that leads to a real story.  I just want something to precede what might become another Golden Brown story without having to worry right now about an actual story.  The last one took three fucking years to write/draw, don't know if I'm up for that again just yet. 
The Mecan'tiKs have been trying to record a demo for some time now.  We decided to try it DIY and found the process daunting but rewarding at the same time.  Luckily, my two other bandmates are technologically inclined, otherwise we wouldn't be getting very far.  We came up with 5 songs so far that are pretty tolerable to listen to.  We have more recorded, but not mixed. 
As far as shows, we've been trying to keep busy this year, and average about 1-2 shows a month.  Not too bad for a beginner band in a town that doesn't cater well to live acts.  We just did a show in Townsquare which sounded great but had only about a dozen people watching us.  Afterword, I got to attend a mellow afterparty at the Dogmahal/Ojata Records across the street.  Partying in a comic shop/hot dog emporium/record store is actually pretty damn fun!