Saturday, December 29, 2007

A Northwest Christmas Week: December 2007

Friday, December 21, 2007 – From The Ridiculously Sublime to The Sublimely Ridiculous (Tokeland, WA to Hillsboro, OR)

It’s 8:00am and the sun is streaming through the wispy window covering as my cellphone alarm chirps me into consciousness. I’m buried under a thick comforter and dressed in sweats and flannel and even socks. My nose starts to freeze when I poke my head up, even though when I open the back door it will seem warmer out there than it is in here. Squinting unbelievingly, I focus on the far-off buoy on the whitecapping Pacific. There’s a boat out in Willapa Bay this morning. I put on my slippers, boil some water for tea and throw my sheets and towels into the wash. The neighbor’s sweet calico appears outside the livingroom window to say hello.

Foregoing breakfast at the historic Tokeland Hotel yards away, I walk across the street to see the bay. When the tide is out, this area is a lagoon – a prime birding spot, too – and you can walk across to the spit-like area if you know the tide tables. Literature in the house says there are 25 miles of beach to walk. When the tide is in, like now, it’s a bay. That’s it. Freaking amazing. I cleaned the coastline here yesterday – dug into the rocks and underbrush in my boots pulling out YooHoo bottles and Styrofoam packing forms and motor oil containers from god knows where. It was simultaneously satisfying and saddening… Today I am just breathing my last breaths at this oasis before I go prepare the place for my departure.

The best laid plans of moose and men, washed away by the rains and tides. Delayed by Southwest Airlines "borrowing" my luggage for 9 hours, I spent my first night of this trip not here as planned, but in Seattle. I thought I’d be SuperAmy when I got here – a reasonable expectation as there is no phone or TV in this wonderful house. I'd be ProductiveAmy - couldn’t burn hours on the net – no WiFi. (I allowed myself one 20-minute chunk a day in the RV parking lot of the Shoalwater Bay Casino for that, can ya believe it?!?!)

After the first of what will surely be many conference calls with the bookwriter and composer for my next theatrical project, I would surely sequester myself in seaward seclusion and do my research. ENNNNNNNNNNNH goes the buzzer. I DIDN'T GET ANY WORK DONE. I could tell you what I did with the approximately 48 hours I spent in Tokeland, but... all I can say is, “Oh Well.” And "Thank you, Willapa Bay."

As I sweep leaves off of the back porch, I marvel that I never got around to the hot tub in the backyard… WOW. Colors are crisp, I’m sweating a bit and not wearing a jacket, it’s about 50 degrees. I am loving every minute of it. Leaving here will be difficult despite the a gorgeous drive ahead to Portland. I'll pick Alex up at the airport and meet The Bobs in Hillsboro for our first of three sold-out holiday shows this weekend. I am palpably sad to leave, packing out all of my trash, flipping the breakers, replacing the key.

A stop for espresso in South Bend, WA after being denied Route 6 to Centralia as a route to I-5. Apparently storms last week that damaged a lot of Pacific County caused quite a few slides. The two 60-ish aged guys in the coffee hut seem overly jolly. The owner extols the virtues of his Prius, I chime in about my Civic Hybrid. The other guy mocks us, having pulled up in a not-too-well preserved El Dorado. They recommend Route 4 to Longview, which I’d planned on taking anyway. As I leave, I wish them Happy Holidays, “No matter what you emit.” They let out a whopping, “Oooooohhhhhhhhhhh,” and burst into yukkage as I stir up gravel exiting the driveway.

Route 4 is breathtaking, especially when it dips down to the Columbia. Lewis & Clark country. I am mesmerized. Listening to Suzanne Vega’s Days of Open Hand. Alex calls to say his plane is delayed… so I stop in Longview for breakfast at Denny’s… it’s an industrial town… sleepy and gray. I am so loving this time in the Northwest.

Alex and I crawl in suburban Portland traffic headed to Hillsboro, Oregon. Mapquest took us in a huge, stoopid circle to get to the hotel, and no one at the hotel seems to know where they are either. But at least they’re nice about it. We meet up with the other Bobs outside headed to soundcheck, to which we also take a circuitous route!

We’re sold out here at the Glenn and Viola Walters Cultural Center, a lovely room with a nice sized stage. The guy who booked us is a big Bobs fan from way back, apparently. We’ve been getting a lot of that lately – the person who brought us to Wells College in Aurora, NY three weeks ago brought his vinyl for us to sign! The good folks here have baked evil anise cookies – and they order us an awesome Italian dinner.

It rocks – and the guitar in "White Room" is HUMONGOUSLY LOUD, which is always a great ending! The new version of "Yuleman" (with me singing a more reggae-tinged, super-energyified cartoon lead as Dan funks it up) is fun fun fun. And Dan’s "But I Was Cool" has yet to get old. These shows are a refreshing combination of older Christmas material from Too Many Santas (The Bobs’ 1996 album), the new holiday material I brought in a few years back ("8 Days" and "How Did This Thing...", my friend Michele Weir’s arrangement of Vince Guaraldi’s "Christmastime is Here"), and a large wad of new material from Get Your Monkey Off My Dog, our new CD, selling like hotcakes.

The mostly new, packed house was wonderful and amazing – hope they’ll venture into Portland to see us at Mississippi Studios when we return to this area. That isn’t always the case… After the show, the fog is so thick we fear John Carpenter’s imagination but make it home safely and in about 25% the time with ACTUAL directions from the venue folks!

Saturday, December 22, 2007 – Leaving a Woodmark in a Kirkland (Hillsboro, OR to Kirkland, WA)

Our catsitter calls around 7:30am. We are up anyway. The “Super Meowio Brothers” kitty alarm clock starts around 6:45 these days! Nice to hear our leetle Sitka (not so leetle, actually) is doing well. Alex and I breakfast at the virtually empty hotel restaurant. Everyone’s gone for the holidays? We gas and caffeine up. Dan rides up back up to Seattle with us in light drizzle. The rental car had to be back at noon so Matthew and Richard left around 9; dan slept in. It’s SO grey here in Oregon. As we loop around the endless bridges and ramps through Portland, all I can think is, “Right now, this looks exactly the way people THINK it looks here all the time!” We sing along to bad Stevie Wonder songs (yes, there are bad Stevie Wonder songs – think 1980s), and the Little River Band. Dan and I gravitate to different harmonies. I have always wondered who else naturally sings those (and horn lines) in their car instead of the melody… now I kind of know. Richard Bob usually basses it up and Matthew usually sings the lead. There ya have it!

The Woodmark’s one of those places. The ones at which you valet your car (”Please keep the Kia out front, my good man – we depart in one hour!”), covet the bath products in your room robe, and futz with the iPod player/alarm clock as you salivate over spa treatments you didn’t have the foresight to book before you arrived. A girl could get used to staying in a place like this. It’s a well-known fact that, when lodging as lovely as this is provided with a performance, you invariably arrive late (usually after midnight) and must depart early in the morning. Neither is the case here. I’ll stop now – but close with two words: ceiling shower.

We return to the Kirkland Performance Center (sold out again!) tonight. Our last performance here was in a 2002 summer gala of sorts. We flew up and back from Eugene as we were in the middle of the Oregon Country Fair (see my July 2002 Bobtale, North By Northwest). All I remember is being enthralled when Executive Director (and all around great guy) Steve Lerian showed me the shower in the dressing room... after three days in the Oregon woods... We smell a lot better this time, Steve!

Such onstage fun – they cloud us in rockstar fog for the first part of the show – until I am sure I hear a cargo ship in the distance and request that they save it for "White Room"… the audience is rowdy and fun. My sparkly people are here (see my December 2002 Bobtale, Silver Bobs: Part One)! Glad to hear that some diehard fans got in on standby or standing room… and it turns out Alex’s dear friend in Seattle, opera singer Awilda Verdejo, has known Steve Lerian for many years. The world keeps getting smaller… We share strawberries, chocolate and wine with some of the show’s sponsors onstage after the performance before heading out, exhausted and smiling. I give Steve a Rhapsody in Bob album. This venue would be so perfect for that program.

Sunday, December 23, 2007 - Quadruple Holiday Fun at the Triple Door (Seattle, WA)

Sad to leave the luxurious digs, we loll around until noon, then head up to Seattle where Alex lunches with Awilda, and I visit with Eben, who sings his new Chanukah song to the tune of “O, Canada” – “Oh, Chanukah, the holiday of Jews.” (This will come in very handy later tonight, mid-show. Yes, Eben, I credited you!)

Off to the Triple Door for an early soundcheck. Tonight we're a part of Judith Owen and Harry Shearer’s Holiday Singalong. We shared this wonderful celebration with this dynamic duo for two nights last year at San Francisco’s Great American Music Hall. Proceeds benefit the Tipitina’s Foundation. Julia Fordham and Jill Sobule were there last year and are back tonight, too. This year we were also able to join Harry and Judith in Los Angeles at the Steve Allen Theater (with Julia and “Weird” Al Yankovic) for two nights. (Yes, Dan and I spazzed out about that one! Al signed my 1988 cassette of "Even Worse." How cool that my tunes have been played on the same Doctor Demento shows as his!!!)

It’s Harry’s birthday (we’ll do our Volgan Boatmen Birthday Serenade later in the show), but he’s sadly quite sick... – still illin’ since the LA show 2 weeks ago… you wouldn’t be able to tell, though. Doris the dog is absent here, sadly (she came onstage in LA). We head over to Wild Ginger where we all dine in a lovely private room with a gigantic circular lazy susan (which I posit is misnamed – it’s the diners, not the susan that’s lazy). Kung Pao Chicken, black pepper scallops, garlic green beans, etc. Amazing food – better than it’s ever been – I think they changed chefs here as it’s less spicy but more flavorful - and completely stellar company.

It’s a evening both irreverent AND sentimental, featuring onstage carousal, venue-wide revelry, fabulous prizes, and a special audience singalong not likely to be forgotten. Between Julia’s champagne-meets-molasses vocals, Jill’s amazing. laser-like delivery of “Jesus was a Dreidel Spinner” and “White Trash Christmas,” Judith’s moving “Dancing Tree” and jazztastic Spinal Tap duet with Harry, “Christmas with the Devil,” and four of our high-energy megablasts (including "White Room" - since we don't know "White Christmas" - and "How Did This Thing.."), we’re all over the moon with mutual admiration! A perfect capoff of a great month.

This is the third year in a row I’ve had the privilege of doing holiday shows with Harry & Judith. In 2005 I was part of the “OK Chorale” octet in the Walt Disney Concert Hall version of this show in Los Angeles. If you are unfamiliar with Judith’s work, do yourself a favor and check out www.judithowen.net. Her incredible live shows are like... Joni Mitchell meets Eddie Izzard. And you can see clips (as well as videos from Harry's Grammy Nominated album, Songs, Pointed and Pointless at www.mydamnchannel.com. Massive talent aside, Harry and Judith are warm, generous, grounded people. Yes, these do exist in showbiz – but few and far between. It’s all about surrounding yourself with the good ones. The rest can (and do) feed on the Hollywood poop machine…

Monday, December 24, 2007 From Kitten to Kitten (Seattle to LA)

Annie is climbing on Alex and purring up a storm. Alex and I are staying across the street from Matthew's place. Neighbor Jenny, off to Vancouver for the weekend, lent us her guest room as Matthew’s place is fully booked this season! Jenny's sweet, affectionate tabby, Annie digs into Alex's chest (thankfully under the covers) with her outside cat claws and kneads him incessantly. Dog person, yeah right! How nice to get love from a Washington kitty. I shall squeeze Sitka later tonight! For nearly every year of the past 17 years (save for one spent in Beaver Creek, Colorado before a Bobs Christmas matinee at the Vilar Center for the Arts) I have been in Los Angeles on Christmas Eve, and I've sung a specific gig that's really wonderful... I let it go this year. We are flying back at 5:00 pm. Is this the beginning of an all-new array of holiday traditions?

Beautiful day. Sorry to be leaving – AGAIN. We pack up, return the keys to Matthew and head over to SeaTac early, yummy basil/garlic curds from Beechers in our carryons, in case there’s a long security line. No such thing – it’s really sparse here. So, two hours early, I chowdah and Alex has a salad at the Pacific Marketplace before we Southwest to Burbank through Oakland. In Oakland, all I can think is, “I’ll be right back here in 5 days!” (Our CD release party/concert for GET YOUR MONKEY OFF MY DOG in Berkeley 12/29 will be awesome!) What a great holiday season.

BEST WISHES FOR A RIDICULOUSLY WONDERFUL 2008 - my solo album, Not Gonna Be Pretty, will be released late February!

AMY BOB