Minnie and Otto

Well Minnie and Otto headed back to the central states, and that leaves our home a little quieter than it has been. Played a gig on Saturday night at a local coffee shop, warming up for some friends in a band called Mr. Blackwatch (www.misterblackwatch.com) The people who were going to warm up for them had backed out so they called me in a bit of a bind. Fact was I was happy to do it, being that I don’t get out and play as much as I’d like to. I had warmed up for Mr. Blackwatch before and in fact have been in various bands with some of the members over the years. Though their music is a little more atmospheric or mood driven than mine is, it was just fun to play and catch up on old times.

The only drag was that I really didn’t have enough time to get ready, so the show was a little rough to say the least. Got a very nice response from the crowd though and Rick, the guy who owns the place, asked me to play again. So I’ll be appearing with my good friend Michael Shin at King’s Coffee on the 18th of January. I’ll be sending out an e-mail with all the details, so be sure to send me your address if you’d like to go.

Friday night we all wound up at the Java Jive after much beer and pizza from The Cloverleaf Tavern. Friday night is Karaoke night but there was hardly anyone there so it was up to us to liven the place up. Karaoke is not something I’m usually that interested in but given enough beer, boredom and a desperate need to not to go home too early because we have a baby sitter, I will upon occasion imbibe. Somehow over the years the Java Jive has gone from very, very strange to Tacoma hip. It would be cool to say that it didn’t change and that the rest of the world has caught up to it’s strangeness but that’s not the case. Like most things out here in the Pacific Northwest you can date them pre and post 1990. Old Tacoma (pre-1990), just like old Seattle, is pretty much gone for good replaced by alehouses and coffee shops. Tacoma is slowly loosing its blue-collar edge and for better or worse the Java Jive is changing right along with it. They still have the best fries around though.

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