Sunday Gray

Sundays are notoriously the laziest days of the week. Today is no exception. Maryland has graced us with another rainy day, but I have no complaints. How can I when I have jazz and wonderful company? I opened up my window blinds and let gray light pour in.

What's on the agenda today? Packing, packing, packing. Bossa nova in between. I'm headed back to California for two weeks, and I'd be lying if I said I wasn't a little sentimental. Four months have passed since I last went back west, and these past few days have made me realize how attached I've grown to my life in Maryland. A year ago, I couldn't ever imagine calling this coast Home. Ironically, that's exactly what it has become. Being aware of the evolution of my emotions, though, doesn't reconcile much. I'm still leaving Maryland for two weeks. Then moving back to California for a longer period of time at the end of September, but I'll save all this for another post. For now, I'm fixed on the amazing food that I've missed out on since moving here, seeing all the friends that have been wonderfully supportive of me from afar, and getting a tan!

Felipe and Nabs are going to keep me company today while I rummage through all the things I have to pack. There's apple pie in the fridge. These are worthy distractions of my impending departure.

Love will lift you by the bicycle wheel.

Today's soundtrack:
La Dolce Vita - Maria de Medeiros
Emily - Bill Evans Trio
Smoke Gets in Your Eyes - Thelonious Monk

Love is Like Rhapsody in Blue

I'm convinced that jazz is an aphrodisiac. I have officially overdosed on it. Under its influence, I have fallen in love with life, music, and fallen in love, period. I owe Columbia Station in Adams Morgan, U Street, and Jazz in the Garden in D.C. for playing host to me, my ears, and company. We've taken to spending our evenings listening to the stylings of live jazz performers in Washington, D.C. lately. I can't help but feel inspired every time I hear live bands play, especially when it comes to jazz bands. More than anywhere else I've lived (keep in mind that I have yet to live in New York City or anywhere down south), D.C. has never failed to provide a wide selection of jazz bars and clubs to peruse.

The more I think about it, the more I realize how much jazz has underscored my life leading up until now. An old friend reminded me that when we were younger, I compared falling in love to "Rhapsody in Blue." I suppose my association with love and jazz dates farther back than I thought! I was drawn to swing and Sinatra early on, then to Gershwin, then to Django. Then I thrust myself ever deeper into the insatiable world of jazz music and haven't stopped since. My biggest concern for the genre is its seemingly sparse albeit enthusiastic fan base (which is also limited to a certain age range most of the time). While the music I write is more jazz influenced than pure jazz, I hope to one day pass on the message that the musicians I've been listening to carry, in my own way. I'd like to be part of a movement that helps make jazz palatable, relevant, and - goshdarnit - popular again to some degree!

Jazz is a whole world in itself, one that I hope more people opt to enter. It's intelligent. It's gritty. It's nostalgic. It's honest. It speaks to your soul at the end of the evening and sends your spirit flying if it's in need of lifting. It's the soundtrack to candlelit conversation. It's the brass band on a summer afternoon. It's what cuts through the smoky bar after midnight. It beckons you to dance even when your feet feel as if filled with lead. It's the old crooner ditty on the radio during Christmas time that reminds you everything will be okay. It's jazz. Always moving - and always moving you if you let it.

In the Red

In life's journey, people are my favorite stops.

There is no better feeling than being around people you love and whom love you right back. I feel so fortunate to have met the people that I have in my life in this moment. Last night, I played a show at Chloe's Coffee, and almost all the people that I've met since moving here came by to listen to us play. Even some people whom I've never met before but have heard about our music stopped by out of curiosity. Talk about warm and mushy feelings! I was brimming with gratitude and love.

I look back on my life one year ago and see how much has changed. Last August, I found myself feeling very isolated in a new city full of people. I spent most of my time alone reading, writing, listening to music, and filling up my Netflix queue in my spare time. "Home" was someplace from which I was far removed. How quickly the tables turned.

This week, albeit full of summer rain, was also bursting at the seams with memories. I've never slept less, but I've never loved and laughed more. In recent memory, I've stayed up all night just to watch the sun rise. I've ridden in a Ford Flex, the most obnoxious car imaginable on the road. I've made music every single day. I've fallen in and out of love. I've made multiple late-night runs to 7-11 to the point that I'm probably on a first-name basis with the cashier. I've made new friends and visited old ones. I've gotten lost driving in Virginia (it was a 14-mile detour, to be exact). I've started running again. I helped a friend move. I have filmed a music video in front of a green screen. While driving on the freeway, I've gotten caught in the middle of a record thunderstorm in Montgomery County. I've discovered carrots and hummus. I finally saw Under the Tuscan Sun (and disliked it). I've witnessed a car accident happen right in front of me. I've recorded an album with musicians I adore. I've laughed at nothing and everything.

While on the phone with a friend recently, Felipe (my bassist and very dear friend) commented to a friend about life, music, and money:

"We are definitely in the red...but life feels good."

Reinspired

Speaking to myself from the past seems to be a recurring theme lately in life. I recently received a letter written to me from my 12th-grade self. My reaction to it made its way into a song called "Senior Letter" on the upcoming album.

Then, in sharing my old xanga with a friend recently, I suddenly felt re-inspired to blog again, consistently. Looking back on my old entries, as menial as I thought some of the details of my life were, reading through them - no matter how obscure or dismissible - gives me a bigger snapshot of my life in that one moment.

How magical it will be when, five years from now, I look back on this entry and remember waking up at 5AM this morning to walk with Felipe to the metro, trekking to Pentagon City and stalling around the mall for 4 hours, meeting Celeste and Nabs at 10AM to go to the doctor's, taking a 14-mile detour through D.C., feeling terribly bloated and moody but silly, cracking up at gastritis at the diner, and the 3 consecutive out-of-service trains on the way back home? When asked about his favorite quotation, a very good friend of mine likes to says that he enjoys the things people say every day most. I'm looking forward to capturing more of this. Good times are all around. You just need the right lens through which to see them.

The older you get, the more material you have on which to look back. Unless you have an elephant's memory (which I don't), it's harder to keep track of memories when your brain is stretching its capacity wire thin to accommodate everything you need to keep track of now. That's where journal-ing comes in. Here's to looking back on yesterdays, remembering todays, and hoping for good tomorrows to come our way.

-L. Bee

Weather or Not You're Ready

This weekend not only brought on a tempest of fun but also an actual tempest as well. One with 70 mph winds, thunder & lightning, and fierce rains. I was driving home on 495 when the storm hit. Within two minutes, the sky filled with dark clouds, and it started pouring like there was no tomorrow. Some cars pulled under overpasses to wait out the rain while others pushed on at slower speeds with emergency lights flashing. It was the scariest storm I'd ever been caught in! Terrifying and exhilarating at the same time. I managed to take some video while driving. Kids, don't try this at home.

As of today, over 100,000 Pepco customers remain without electricity and 103 traffic signals are still in the dark. For once, misfortune skipped our humble abode. Maggs and I are lucky enough to still have power at home. However, the storm managed to take down the tree in front of our yard, and we have yet to figure out what to do about it (besides adopting it and naming it).



Other events of this tempestuous weekend include late-night diners, staying up all night to watch the sun rise, jazz in the city, recording in the studio, and wonderful friends. Life is, always has been, and will continue to be good when you know where to look.

Albumleaf

Three days, a series of laugh cramps, and tons of caffeine later, I find myself inspired to blog again because I can't imagine not capturing this moment in my life somewhere (other than in a song).

This past weekend, I began recording at Ambiance Recording Studios, LLC to cut my very first record ever! Life has definitely been good to me in 2010. The first couple of days of recording, we did scratch tracks, drums, and bass. The best part about it was the good vibes that everyone brought to the record. At one point, we were all singing songs acapella while making sandwiches for lunch. Philip from The Fishermen Band sat in on a couple of sessions to offer his ear on production value, and Andy Westcott happened to be around on Monday night and recorded some slide guitar for a track. The musical community that passes through Josh Insel's Ambiance Records is incredibly talented and never ceases to amaze me.

Today I walked around D.C., visited the Hirshhorn Museum, and (finally) saw Inception. While I was perusing the streets of the city, I thought about where I was one year ago: Still undecided about law school, uncertain about my new job, homesick, and socially disconnected from the city. Oh, how quickly tables have turned once Music entered the picture. I started performing in D.C., found a musical community that I love being a part of, met amazing musicians to play with, and am cutting a record seven months after it all began. No one could ask for more, and I feel so blessed. Within a short period of time, I underwent a catharsis and realized that this is what I'd been waiting to do my entire life. The only logical thing to do now is to keep doing it!

So much work has been put into this record already, and I'm learning so much about the process of recording along the way. I will continue to look back on the songs recorded and remember this wonderful part of my life. These songs are a product of love, hard work, and good vibes. I can't wait to share this album with the world.

And You May Contribute a Verse

I couldn't tell you the last time I had a day to myself to simply sit, breathe, and reflect. Trust me, I am not complaining, but it certainly has been a long time since I've had enough seconds in a day to collect my thoughts. The last four months have taken me up, down, around, and in a million directions at once. Above all, they have opened my eyes to how blessed I am to lead the life that I do and to be surrounded by incredible people.

The initial reason that I started this blog was to catalogue all the different places that I visited on the east coast. Since last year, this blog has received its fair share of entries about New York, Philadelphia, Baltimore, Boston, and other cities. Recently, though, because of music, I feel as if I've traveled prolifically. In this case, the journey is not something that can be calibrated by miles alone. It has been a special one inward that has helped me redefine what I want out of life. For the first time, I feel uninhibited in pursuing what I love.

I think about how different my life was a year ago. Around this time last year, I was packing up and getting ready to move out of my apartment in Irvine across the country to D.C. Up until then, music had been a form of therapeutic recreation more than a serious commitment. I'm so glad that this changed.

If there's anything I can take away from these past few months, it's that life will surprise you, and that being open to what it has to offer will make your experience that much more fulfilling. No matter what you're doing, life has been, is, and always will be about connecting with other people. Not only am I happy to be making music, but I am also happy to be part of a community that shares both a love for music and for each other. Truly, it is a blessing.

If I tried to list everything and everyone I am grateful to have in my life right now, I would blab on forever. I'll save it for another time. For now, you know who you are, special people!

I wake up every day, invigorated and ready, all because I know this: The best is yet to come.

"That the powerful play goes on
And you will contribute a verse." -Walt Whitman from "O Me, O Life"

Here's to contributing mine.