Lucas Charles

Lucas Charles joins the world at 5:09 am, weighing in at 7lbs 10 oz

here we go again

a couple of years ago, I sat in a hospital room at University Hospital, writing blogs about waiting for Leo to be born. Kim was asleep because they'd just given her her epidural, and I was scared out of my mind.

it's 3:47 am, I'm sitting in a hospital room at Good Samaritan hospital. Kim's asleep because they've just given her her epidural. This time i'm not as (as..) scared as I was last time, but still in this surreal environment where the world has gone very still because you just wait for nature to do its thing. well, except for the epidural.

What it is

So, one of the bands I'm in played Midpoint Music Festival this past weekend. It's one of the cooler festivals that I know of at least around here, and if you believe the press it's the greatest thing since sliced bread. Anyway, close to 300 bands show up in cincy and downtown becomes a place with real live people for 3 nights of the year. Most of the bands are indie rock or alt country/roots bands, and for $25, you can see some of the best independent rock bands in the country.

I was really excited that we got to be a part of it - i like when there's something that feels like the entire city is experiencing together, and I get to be a part of that, especially if it's something I'm doing (as opposed to just going to watch). So when Jeff told us we were playing Arnolds on Saturday at 11, even if it was abusively late (I'm an old man, and Sunday mornings are work days), I was really excited to a part of something pretty universally recognized as "cool." It's also nice to be playing for people who just like music, and who just like to sit and listen to music, where you don't have to feel like you have to do anything entertaining other than playing.

Arnold's is a cool venue. It's the oldest bar in Cincinnati, and it has a fantastic outdoor patio with a great stage. It's where we were supposed to play - great environment, playing outside is always nice, it's hard to beat a gig like that. This picture is the first band playing, when we arrived.

So as we're loading in, i'm thinking how great they sound, how cool the environment is, and how much this is going to be. Then i notice that there is infrastructure for a building over top of the courtyard, so that they can make it a useable place in case of rain, or winter.

And about 15 minutes later it starts pouring down rain. Buckets and buckets of rain.

So we're sitting at the bar, listening to someone play some blues, wondering what we're going to do. they moved the guy playing inside, because it was just him and an acoustic guitar, but what are they doing to do with us? we're a full band - we need space, and stage monitors, etc. I tend to think we're pretty low maintenance as band's go, but we do need some things to play. But no, they moved us into Arnold's tiny dining room (no criticism here - there really was nothing else to do).

So we ended up crammed into that space. I had to sit on the piano (not the bench, the actual piano) below that neon sign. Dan (drums) was wedged into that back left corner and the door there in the middle was open to let some fresh air in, was between us. Jason (lead guitar) was next to me, Jeff (singing) was next to Dan, and the speakers were next to me on the piano. I couldn't hear the drums at all (what?), and Jeff's vocals and guitar were overriding everything (until we blew up the speakers they were using). It's a recipe for a disastrous gig right?

Turns out, I had more fun than I think I've ever had at a Lens Lounge gig. All 4 of us had to be constantly watching each other, because we couldn't hear each other. Instead of dropping into the normal routines of just playing the same songs we play and always play, we watched each other, improvised, we had fun playing with each other. Jason couldn't set up his pedal steel because of the room, so he played his beautiful Rickenbacker, and I had forgotten what a monster instrumentalist he is. At the end we sat at the bar and talked like friends.

it was a good reminder that things are a lot of fun when they're off schedule. Once things went out the window, all that was left was to have fun. I was forced to let go of my concerns, my worries, and for an hour, i just played bass. I played with other people, four of us became one, and we just had fun. there's probably (yeah, just probably) a bigger lesson for me in the rest of my life from Saturday night.

For those so inclined, a new Lens Lounge cd should be coming out soon.

Atmosphere

Last Thursday night, I went to a Jimmy Buffet experience. Those of you reading outside the Cincinnati area may think this is a strange thing to write about - after all, who listens to Jimmy Buffet anymore? And you'd be right. But in Cincinnati, Buffet is a big deal. A huge deal - if you want to do "Cincinnati" things, Buffet is on par with Riverfest or Oktoberfest. And, rather than pay the simply outrageous price of $50 to sit on the lawn, we decided to take the boat out for the real party, on the river directly behind riverbend.

And as I drank beer and ate chicken wings, and marveled at the willingness of fairly attractive girls to take their clothes off, I came to this weird crossroads, where I think I might like Buffet more than I'd ever realized. Buffet's music used to really irritate me, but as I experienced Buffet, I came to have a different perspective of his music.

It's not because Buffet is an amazingly groundbreaking musician or songwriter (actually, it may because he's not). But as I sat there listening to his music, I was instantly transported to a specific time and place. The time and place c

an be sort of variant, but it almost always involves sun, and beaches, and good drinks and food, and fun music and people really enjoying themselves. Buffet's music isn't pretentious at all, and it exists merely for the sake of having a good time (oh, and making Jimmy Buffet an obscene amount of money). Other bands that I really like do the same thing - Roger Clyne and the Peacemakers make you feel immediately like you're living in the desert of southwestern Arizona, with nothing to do but think. Lucero makes you feel like you drank entirely too much whiskey in a bar in Memphis, because your life is falling apart. And Buffet, like I said, immediately transports you to a beach with some really good friends, where everything in life is right. Music that creates that sort of atmosphere is powerful and in and of itself good, and we could use more of it.

The boat we tied up to ended up being connected to a boat full of firefighters, who decided to come over and hang out with us on our boat, b/c we had the best stereo system. in the act of tying our boat to theirs, we immediately became part of their community. The community there, the atmosphere there, all of it led me to rethink my interpretation of Buffet. Music that creates community and atmosphere like that is something powerful, and music that exists to remind us that life can be fun, is something we need a whole lot more of.

Lotsa Music

Last night, for the first time, I played my stand up bass at Habits for close to 2 hours. My fingers really hurt from all that. Why, you may be asking, would I put myself through all that? Well, after a fairly lengthy hiatus, both bands that I'm in are playing this weekend!

Len's Lounge, after taking a break for Jason's (not me, pedal-steel Jason) transition into fatherhood in May, is playing at the Northside Tavern, in the front room on Thursday night at 9 pm. We practiced last week, and I think we sounded as good as we ever have. It should be a fun show.

Headphone, (see our videos in others posts on this blog) is playing at Stanley's Pub in the East End on Saturday night. For you early birds, we're the first band to play that night, so you could come out at 10 and catch us and leave, though the closing band that night, the Zachary Burns Band are simply fantastic - imagine the Black Keys fronted by someone with Jack Black's energy.

all in all, it's a weekend of great music! You should come check it out!

A Life Well Lived

I haven't said anything substantive here in awhile (which of course begs the question of whether I've ever said anything substantive here), and lately, it hasn't been because i don't have anything to say, but rather because I've been sort of overwhelmed with new experiences and life and all of the things going on that I haven't had as much time as I'd like to pause and reflect and think on things. Between three vacations since May, a pregnant wife, a 2 year old son who is always learning and amazing me, a new church, and family stuff i'm sort of bowled over at this point by life.

Which has made this week all that much harder. My grandfather passed away on Wednesday. It wasn't a surprise, and in the grand scheme of things, it was probably for the better, and he's in a better place and he's at peace. I could rattle off platitudes at you for an hour on the passing of a loved one. People feel the need to say something in the midst of loss and pain, because the silence is an amazing reminder of loss and loneliness. But through all of it, I have amazing friends who love me and love my family and have taken good care of us, and I'm thankful for that.

Obviously, this week has caused me to reflect on my grandfather and his life and my life and how all that plays together towards something else. A lot of times, when someone dies, we look to the great things, the accomplishments of one's life to remember and to point to, I suppose, the value that they added to the lives of people around them. And it's always been in the back of my mind that I want to accomplish something truly great - I resonate with characters in movies who do noble and heroic and massive things and I've always seen myself in that light.

One of the things that really strikes me about my grandfather is not his greatness, not his amazingness, not all the things he had accomplished, but rather, the joy and faithfulness with which he lived a simple life. He loved his wife at a profound level, and he loved his children. He loved his grandchildren just as much, and then doted on his great-grandchildren. He worked hard, served his country, played softball. He made a bologna salad that was fantastic, and because I loved it every Christmas, it was at the house. When we needed picked up, or driven to school, he was there. Here is a man who loved deeply and faithfully, not dependent on what people did for him, but rather because he loved people and that's what he did, and as a result, was loved by almost everyone who knew him (I say almost b/c I assume it's possible that there was someone who he didn't like or didn't like him, but I never met them). You couldn't walk the streets of Hamilton, OH without him seeing someone he knew, and that meant a conversation followed.

What if that's what true greatness is? Not even in the loving people - all of us love people at some point, for various lengths of time - but the faithfulness with which he did that, year in, year out, with no regard for how tiring it is, no reservation about doing it, never an assertion of what he needed, but rather a constant look for what others needed. What if the greatness in our lives is not going to be measured in how much we did, or in what we accomplished, but in the people that we loved and served. What would it look like if I reoriented myself around that?

I'm thankful for my grandfather, and for how he was another example, put in my life, of what it means to be a man, and a husband, and a father, and a friend, to love people and to genuinely share in your life with others. It's a high bar for me to live by.

Headphone Part 2

Almost done!  Only 3 more videos to go

"My Favorite Game"

"Viva La Vida"

"My Girl"

"16 Tons"

Headphone

I'm in a new band, Headphone, that originated out of the Open Mic Night at Habit's.  The guys that host (drummer/singer in the video below) asked me to play bass.  This is our first gig at the 20th Century Theatre - in late may we did a fundraiser for Habitat and the Musicians Resource Center.  It gave me a chance to play with my video editing software.  It's just one song, but hopefully more will follow!

video 2