We are Piano Pop for the Lyrically Inclined.

We are a broadway musical starring Ben Folds Five, Tori Amos, Elton John, Ella Fitzgerald, Jamie Cullum and Regina Spektor. We are Fleetwood Mac with a Jazzy Piano. We also play cover tunes for various events.

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Last night I played at Eon Cafe for the first time. I hoped to meet some more folks who might be enticed to come see the full band at the Bistro on January 11th in downtown Hayward. I was amazed at how loud the booker wanted the music for such a small cafe. I learned more and more how the tight knit cafe values it’s music and how people come just to see who the new feature is. Thanks to Al Badger for the nod on his blog regarding the show. Many of you know I am obsessed with Loose Leaf Tea- I even wrote a song about it after my visit to Vital Leaf Tea Bar in China Town. Well add Mulberry Tea to the list of loose leafs I treasure. Actually wait on that- I haven’t tried the bag they gave me, but I hope it becomes the simple pleasure that is dragonwell in my life. I played the reggae songs last night without percussion and I felt naked with the absence of the band; the family. It was good though and I will put up a picture or two from the cafe tonight. Speaking of cafes, the owner of the Nomad Cafe, Chris Waters, was kind enough to judge the West Coast Songwriter’s song competition I host. It was a pleasure and he elaborates on the Nomad Cafe weblog. Jacob and the band and I will decide song order for our CD this Friday and solidify it Saturday at practice. Everything else is done. I can’t wait to play Joe’s again and catch up with friends! And, oh, my friend Billy White is going to play “Sinner Man” with us, from the “Thomas Crown Affair” for our CD Release- which I will tell you the date of ASAP! I have it, pending the booker’s confirmation!

So an old friend of mine from highschool, Joanna, took pictures of the band in the redwoods of Canyon near Moraga on Sunday. She was extremely professional and I doubt I will forget the experience of sinking red heeled shoes into mud and balancing on branches with a red umbrella. You’ll see how the pictures turn out very soon. I highly reccomend her for band shoots, as she has her own vision and gives direction very well, which is nice. You could probably google Joanna Mylin or put her in the search on facebook. Her husband Ryan and their dog Duece were also extremely pleasant to be around. Good luck to her brother with rebuilding the computer! In other news Jacob is finished mixing the album, which means all we are waiting on is the song order to be decided, the photos to be sent to me, and then it’s off to be mastered and manufactured. I have written to the possible release party locations, including Anna’s Jazz Island, and will get back to you as soon as I have a date. Many thanks to those of you who have blown bubbles for my crazy music video. I don’t think I realize what I’ve gotten myself into editing wise yet, but it’s going to be worth it. I play tomorrow at the Eon Cafe in Hayward- I’ll let you know how that goes! Have you started shopping for the holidays yet? My little sister Caity gets back from Ghana on the 18th and I tried to convince my family to not buy gifts and just donate to a charity or all do an activity together, but they were totally against it. Can you and I unite in not buying each other stuff? I’d like that very much..

Grace writing this one- I wish I could relax and kick back like Joe and Whit do sometimes ( I have to remind myself that there’s nothing I have to be doing). Cousin Ellen had some fun people over, as well as the band, to her house in Orinda. I laughed the whole way through our mimosa time with Joe, Aleks, Christian, Megan and my brother. They even obliged blowing bubbles together for my music video which I have a budget for of 59 cents. Then it was off to the Blackshear Wedding where Lauren and Jake provided the most refreshing wedding I have ever seen- fall colors, an Italian wedding gown with flare, jazz bands and island reggae with the fog of Tilden in the background of every picture. They blew bubbles for me too, which I found endearing and I was grateful to know such down-to-earth people. I got to talking with Elena, Emily, the Dennis family (and nice to meet you Dave) and I was glad to reconnect. Whitney ran into John, who owned Venezia when Whitney worked there. It felt strange having a weekend of funeral and wedding wrapped in one, but the funeral service the day before was more of a positive reception than anything. Lilah, Jane, Michael and Demaris were all sweet and the stories they shared about the 99 year old Great Great Aunt of Whit, Fritze, were funny. She was the first female executive at the Bank of America. My brother Jimmy got fired there years ago for telling a supervisor that those who walked down the red carpet in the bank should be wearing crowns so he would know to give them more special attention. It’s all tidbits really. And by now you’ve learned that my posts, like my songs, are more stream of consciousness than anything. I’ll let Whit and Joe balance this one out..

Grace here- After 70 shows together, it feels so good to play to a new room of people at a new venue and have the whole crowd clap immediately and loudly after each song. We’ve even played some packed houses of people who all signed our e-mail list but for some reason were too embarrassed to clap- well not at the Bistro in Hayward. Rita, Mark, Kathy, Tim, Matt, JV, Fawad, Christian, Bob and Scott made it a fun night for us and I’ve never heard the band so tight before. We came up with a pre-show ritual after one of the longest band arguments in the car on the way there. It’s really the same argument we always have- and it concluded with some humbling thoughts on how hard we are all working to see where each person is coming from and what we can do to become more aware of our barriers we make to accepting the different forms of love we throw at each other. I thank Whitney and Joe for their patience with me. I thank Kevin at the bar. I thank “Virtual Insanity” and I had an amazing time. This is the feeling of hard work blossoming like a flower; this is the sweet part. Please say hello by commenting below!

The last 3 songs are currently being mixed and will be done before December 1st. We are getting down to the details, trying to hammer it all out so as to avoid arguments. That’s the incredible thing about this band; this family. We are doing everything so far in advance because we love each other so much and have our own little ways we step together to get it done. Whitney can’t stand that I fill his inbox with e-mails copying him on everything from our mixer’s birthday to what color is best for photos, while Joe savors the e-mails and actually prefers them over calls because it leaves him a little trail of band messages; a guarantee that some time months he ago, he did indeed agree to play the upcoming crazy show I booked for us. The little adjustments that keep us whole, the little compromises for our sanity. My financial investment day-time boss, who is so very kind, asked if I wanted to come to the team research meeting. I quickly smiled and said “no thank you”. Moments later I realized he was opening a door, making sure I didn’t feel left out and offering me a window into a possible education. I have a musical education spinning in my mind that keeps me from that offer. I have a dream being dug in asphalt that will form something beautiful. I am the crazy one with a family and friends sprawled on top of me, dreaming with me, of a meaningful life prevailing creation and generosity over comfort and money. I am hard at work inside me. I am researching a grand scheme, and I am so grateful.

… Joe here. I had the band over (along with Jacob - our mixmaster - and Sarah and Gregg, two other good friends of mine), for a dinner party last night. I brought back some “liquid souvenirs” from that trip I took to Italy in September, including a bottle of a Tocai Friulano that I’d tasted at a wine festival in Florence. For me, good food, good drink, and good friends is about as good as it gets.

Among the dishes, I made an asparagus bisque, which sort of turned into a dip because it was so thick. However, much like in songwriting or performing, every so often you make a mistake and it winds up being better than what you’d intended to do in the first place. Spread on bread, with a little burrata cheese on top, the “dip” was out of this world, and very good with the Tocai! Everybody contributed to the festivities, with Sarah and Gregg brought a bottle of Shiraz to go with the main course I cooked (sherry chicken stuffed with spinach, mushrooms & carrots, and wild mushroom risotto), as well as extra dishes and silverware so no one had to eat out my pots and pans, Grace and Whits made a tasty salad, even if it unexpectedly contained dill (which Grace decided smells like Christmas, but tastes like hell… why do you hate Christmas, Grace?!), and Jacob provided dessert in the form of prosciutto-wrapped, blue (bleu?) cheese-filled dates. Drool…

Just a lovely evening of cuisine and conversation, and yet another reminder of how lucky I am to make music with some of my best friends! We’ll have to do it again soon… though maybe at someone else’s apartment… what a monumental stack of dishes I have to clean!

-Professor of the Low-End

How nice to have such a large space to play in. And what a great Cuban Pork Sandwich. Joe and I made a pact in the car ride home that he would wait until after a show to show his frustration with things that might be going wrong and I would work on not getting angry when we start 5 minutes late. It’s so counter-productive. I can’t stand starting even a minute later than we said we would, even when it’s appropriate or people are just starting to arrive. Steve, Liz, Ellen, Richard and John were there. It was great to catch up. And we had some new friends at the bar, one of whom played a mean piano during the break. “Virtual Insanity” is getting easier and easier to play. Thanks to Eric, Adriana, Dessirae, Vince and Phil for coming and giving us some momentum. Today I hope to meet Julie and Kristin in the city, do something non-musical; hang out with friends who would hug me in dire straits and make me feel grateful for the world. Megan, I look forward to talking with you more about Bean and Ender…

As many of you know, I was feeling down this week after the loss of two of our album tracks from the hard drive. I was only slightly comforted by Whitney telling me everything would be ok and that the album would be 14 songs even without those two. And something marvelous happened. Last night I got to see some friendly faces from the past and some people I really care about. You know that feeling when your birthday is coming up and you want to celebrate, but you think maybe no one knows about it and you don’t want to bug them? Last night was one of the most fun performances we have ever had. There were moments of sloppiness and brilliance, but the best part was that I felt connected to every single person in that room, what with Dave and Kathie surprising us and Shania helping with sound. I can’t thank the following people enough for lifting my spirits: Shania, the Mothorns, Liz, Kelly, the Ski Club Crew, Jenn, Maggie, Annie, Carlo, Gail, Angie, Dave, Kathie, the Powells, the dancing duo, Cristina, and Lionel. I hope you guys had a great time, because I know we did. Joe felt so good afterward and Whitney was so pleased with the sound of his new drumset. We are still hoping the money comes in soon for the old drumset he sold, but those worries fall away when I get to see positive people who are getting something from what we are doing. Thanks so much for making it all happen! Please let me know what you think, if you have show suggestions, covers you want us to play or stories from last night!

It’s a good thing we have a big show in Lafayette tonight and another one in Sacto tomorrow. I have moved on to the book “Ender’s Shadow” and am thinking more and more about people’s limits. I think I hit mine last night. I learned that two of our tracks for the album are missing. All we had to do with the album was get these 2 songs to the mixer and the whole project would be complete by December 1st. Now we have to rerecord them and it was too much for me, looking back on all the work we’d done, to have another setback. The only help was my boyfriend and drummer Whitney telling me not to lift a finger; that he would arrange a rerecording and still have everything done by then. And there was Jacob, offering to be there for the rerecording and do all the sound work. And there was Rolf, offering his recording devices and possibly a space. It was all coming together and yet it was too much for me to handle. It was the second time that tracks have been lost and I was positive the first time, but last night I felt broken. I ate some mango sorbet and cried a bit (I feel embarassed admitting that, but a year and a half of student recording sessions has taken its toll). I just want to have something to give. And then a new friend, Jessica, e-mailed me about seeing her friend wearing our T-shirt (one of the few that have leaked out) and telling me she was really into the music and coming to our Sacto show. And Claire asked when our next SF show was. Things are going really really well. It is only my efficiency and impatience that wear on me. Joe is kind and helpful and will have the band over for a home cooked meal Sunday. We play our new cover songs tonight and performing is more fun than ever. People are catching on. People are getting something out of the words. If only by New Years we have something to give back to everyone who has shown support and interest, then I could be happy. And I guess I am happy right now that I just got 3 interviews for my podcast- 3 musicians from the Bay Area I care about- Billy White, Jacob Wolkenhauer and Steve Laciak. And the guitar my brother lent me sits in the spare office of the skyscraper I’m in right now. And there’s you, reading this post. Thanks Life for you!