boyziggy to see Vicki Burns perform at the premiere of Fresh Cuts Cabaret at Thick House. Vicki and the other four singers performed original music, accompanied by piano, bass (mostly upright, though electric on one tune), and drums. There was a great variety of song and singing styles. Two of Vicki's songs were penned by Ken Muir, an outstanding pianist who accompanied me at my Octavia Lounge recital. All performed well, looked great, and made the evening enjoyable. I had hoped to take photos, but Vicki didn't get clearance from the band, so I left the camera in its bag (other than for this photo of Ziggy in the lobby).Saturday day: Ziggy and I went to the Castro Theatre to see Steve Kirk perform with the Club Foot Orchestra. The ensemble wrote accompaniments to silent films, three of which were performed that day; we saw the matinee, the absolutely hilarious Buster Keaton film Sherlock Jr. I loved this film so much, I'm thinking about checking out more movies from that era, which I've generally avoided. Of course the live music was a big factor in my enjoyment. Steve wrote parts of the score and had some lovely guitar solos. Before the main feature, the orchestra also accompanied a Felix the Cat cartoon short, which was a lot of fun.
Saturday night: Ziggy and I went to Berkeley for two birthday parties, Danielle's and
zyxwvut's. Danielle had a joint party with a friend at his house, and we met some cool people there. Her friends are always very friendly and warm. Then we went to the Zuckershack and had a great time as usual. I skipped the hot tub as I was feeling pretty warm already, but had many lovely snuggles. Sunday: Karaoke with Mike, Robin, and Rex at the Mint. I got there pretty early and only one other person was there besides the bartender: Vince, a regular. He was singing "Stairway to Heaven" which I thought was an amusing opener. Mike arrived soon after and the three of us got to sing pretty much all we wanted until more people trickled in. I warmed up with "Abacab", then was going to do "The Logical Song" but Mike suggested we do "Goodbye Stranger" as a duet. Just before the high part in the chorus, I said "You know, I bet this part is already pre-recorded", and sure enough it was... with no lyrics on screen. Ouch. By the third time through that bit I had them pretty much memorized though. Later I tried "One on One" which I've played a lot on piano, and then did "Logical Song" after all, but had trouble hitting the high notes at the end. All in all not in good voice, but I could partly blame the heat I guess.
