It was a festival weekend here in Eugene, with Guilty Pleasures III on Saturday night a wild success, again, and lots of fun. (Photo is of Pia Robbins killing it on "Magic Man" with Ryan Tocchini, Jason Robbins, James West, Dave Snider, Jake Pavlak, and Tony Figoli.) My band was the set II band and we did real well, backing performers who were having the time of their lives, singing on stage with a full band. For some, it was the first time. Very cool. I sang TLC's "No Scrubs" and was not 86'd from the venue.
Practicing for the gig was both workmanlike and FUN, playing radio staples (mostly) over and over again and getting them stuck and unstuck from the brain with Jason Robbins, Pia Robbins, Tony Figoli, and Dan Schmid. Some mornings I'd wake up with the guitar licks from "Can't Fight This Feeling" lodged in my inner ear like a weird South American aquatic worm that eats brain tissue.
I also enjoyed my best run at the track in a long time, logging three 12 minute miles, which is a full four or five minutes less than my initial lap time, when I started running again a couple months ago. I have no problem starting slow. I hate it when I hear someone has gone to a "boot camp" and hurt themselves or become demotivated about exercise. If you can't run, walk. If you can't run fast, run slow. If you can't run really slow, run really really really slow. Speed at the track, lots of notes in a guitar solo--these things don't really matter.
