Category: music

2025 Roundup – Art and Music!

On By stefrobrtsIn art, guitar, musicLeave a comment

I had a really fun year exploring art. I loved art as a kid, but it is not something I could really pursue with my chaotic upbringing. So it has been really nice to have room to get back to it. With my art/music room setup, I finally have space to spread out and do things, and then shut the door to keep the pets out of there.

At the end of last year I started a daily art journal, and I have kept it up pretty much all year with only a missed day here and there. Sometimes I make little pictures in it, sometimes I make full page spreads. I haven’t had the guts to try a full two-page spread yet, but maybe I will before it’s filled up.

I’ve really enjoyed using the journal to try new techniques and new mediums – watercolor, acrylic inks, colored pencils, watercolor pencils, gel pens. I’ve really felt good about the regular practice, and it’s a nice time to settle down before bed and draw something.

I did a few pieces outside of the journal as well, mostly following tutorials on YouTube. I really enjoy learning new things.

So the painting was going pretty well, I’m really happy with my progress. I also started doing some polymer clay figures. I started out with YouTube tutorials and moved on from there.

As I got to feeling more confident, things started escalating

And this latest guy is a bobblehead with a spring for a neck. He just sits on my desk, bobbing his head along while I type! I wanted his feet to bobble too, but the springs are a little stiff.

Lastly, since the Art Room is also a Music Room, there has been some nice progress in that area as well. Where I previously had to dig everything out and setup to practice, now I have a space that is ready to use all the time – I can walk in anytime, grab an instrument, and play. I’ve been doing online guitar lessons and really improved my rhythm guitar skills.

Earlier this year I went with my friend Michele to the used guitar shop downtown to look at guitars, and instead we found this beautiful Breedlove Concert Uke made of Oregon Myrtlewood. Michele tried it first and it sounded great, but she wasn’t looking for a new uke. I found myself saying ‘if you don’t buy it I will’, and I did! It has been a lovely addition to my collection. I love just grabbing it during the workday and knocking out a little tune. I even took it camping and played it during quiet time at camp. It’s perfect, and it sounds oh so sweet.

And finally, at the end of the year I went back to the used guitar shop to check out some electrics I was curious about. I bought a Telecaster at the end of last year, and it’s fine. I think maybe I don’t know enough yet to really appreciate it, since I’m still learning. Well, I tried out a bunch of guitars, but the first one I tried kept calling back to me, and I ended up bringing it home. It’s a beautiful Korean-made Les Paul from the early 2000’s, in a lovely blue. It just fit me, it felt right in my hands. I also bought a 12″ old amp from the 70s that had a lovely rich sound, so much better than my modern 10″ Fender practice amp which seemed tinny in comparison. The new amp makes both the Tele and the Les Paul sound amazing.

I joke about finding the guitar that has the music in it, but in reality I think I’m just going to have to keep practicing to get the music out. That’s just life. Anything good you want to do – painting or clay or music – you have to put in the work to get there. I have had a fantastic year getting there!

Another Duchovny concert, this time in Canada!

On By stefrobrtsIn dave, music, travel, vacationLeave a comment
A few months ago I heard David Duchovny would be doing a concert in Vancouver BC, and on a whim I bought the tickets and said ‘whatever happens, I am going to this, and we’ll just see who is going with me as we get closer.’ Dave was expecting to be in a play that would actually be going on that weekend, and Michele thought she might be in it too, and so Sherry said she would go if I needed a partner for this escapade. I’d go by myself if I had to. Glad I didn’t have to though, turned out the venue was sketch as hell. We’ll get back to that. 
It turned out Dave didn’t get cast in the play he thought he would, and Michele was an understudy, so we went ahead and planned our trip. Right before the trip she got moved from understudy to actually being IN the play, but she had already told them she needed that weekend off, so they had HER understudy cover those days. Our little adventure was still on!
 Michele thought it would be fun to rent a room instead of staying in a big hotel, so after much discussion we all agreed on a little 2 bed, 1 bath flat downstairs in a 1920s house in Kitsilano. It was walking distance to stuff. Parking wasn’t terrible (we found a spot on the black every time). It was a cute little place. Upstairs we could hear the landlords family walking, talking, playing piano, their little dog’s nails tapping on the wood floor and yipping. It was fine though. I liked it. It felt a lot more personal than just being in a hotel. 

We had a lot of fabulous food while we were there, starting with a place right down the street called the Oakwood that did a menu with small plates to share. The food was amazing! The poutine with glazed brisket – drool! We waddled out of there and then took a nice long walk to Safeway for some snacks.

Can’t go to Vancouver without visiting the Aquarium. Lots of cool displays.

After the Aquarium we headed to English Bay Beach, and I found a restaurant with a view on Google, so that’s where we were headed. The XF Season 11 trailer had just come out the week before, and it showed a scene of Mulder next to some crazy laughing statues.

Found ’em!

Saturday night was the concert. We drove by ahead of time to check it out and it looked super sketchy. Lots of homeless people around. The parking looked iffy – since we have the Flex with the giant kayak rack on top, it couldn’t go in a parking garage. Dave found street parking a few blocks away. He dropped us off since there was already a line forming, and Michele and I got a place in line while he parked the beast.

We had to stand in line for a bit, but the other folks in line were friendly and chatty, and everyone was pretty chill. Folks kept walking by with dogs, and since I missed our dogs, we kept pointing them out. At one point Dave pointed out someone had a little corgi-esque dog with a fluffy tail, but I was short and couldn’t see it from where I was. Eventually they opened the doors and we all went in.

The venue didn’t have seats, just big open areas for standing, dancing, and a few tables around the edges which were pretty much taken. I wanted to stand up by the stage, so I staked out a spot and made like a rock – nothing would move me from my spot – close to the stage, and the exit door – just in case. I’m not fond of crowds, but I had Michele next to me and Dave behind me, and the rest of the floor just filled in until they were packed like sardines. I have never been in a concert like that! Michele proved to be a master at chatting up people, and ended up talking to some folks next to her about the wildfires in Santa Rosa (where she is from), because they were from the Bay Area too – small world!

Finally the show started about a half hour late. DD seemed tired, not nearly as energetic as the last concert. Seemed like he hit a lot of sour notes too, maybe his voice wasn’t up to it, or he just wasn’t feeling it. After a while he started to loosen up and it got better. I liked the songs he sang off the new album. And he played guitar this time, which was cool.

There was a group of girls behind us who were absolutely plastered by the time it started and were super obnoxious, falling over, dropping their bottles, squeeling randomly, waving a lighter around (for god’s sake, use a phone like everyone else before you set someone on fire!), shouting stuff out. Finally a stage hand came over and asked them to chill. At the end of the show our friend Michelle went over to thank him for doing that, and he said no problem, and said ‘oh, here, you might like this’ and handed her the setlist off the keyboard station. So she gave me that, and when we got home I hung it on the wall next to Mulder 🙂

It was a fun concert, and I wish I could have brought my camera because the pics would have been so much better, we were way closer than the cell phone pictures make it look.

The next morning we were talking about the concert, and I pulled up Twitter to show Michele a picture of Duchovny’s dog, Brick, and Dave says ‘Hey, that’s the corgi-esque dog I saw while we were in line!’ What?! You got to see Brick and I didn’t?!

The next day we went up to the Bloedel Conservatory, which is full of exotic birds and plants. Very cool.

All the beautiful birds! I can’t wait to make art out of some of these.

But Dave got tired of chasing birds and looking at plants. Poor Dave.

Then I think we took a long, meandering trip over to the north shore of Vancouver and drove until we got hungry, driving through little touristy towns that were hopping on Sunday afternoon. We had lunch at a random spot in a strip mall next to a grocery store, and the food was amazing! I don’t know how we got so lucky every stop.

We continued back, doing a loop around what used to be the XF studio, not sure if they are still filming there, and then back over the bridge and around Stanley park, stopping to take pictures of the city at sunset.

You’ll just have to trust me that this pic looks amazing blown up. The blog just can’t handle it.

The next day we swung through Steveston on our way home, and like everything it has grown a lot from the sleepy little beach town we found on our honeymoon. We also stopped in Bellingham to see this cool old sailing ship Michele had gone on a tour/crewed on. Then we pretty much hotfooted it home, because Dave had a rehearsal to get to. It was a fun weekend, I’m so glad Michele was able to join us, and ultimately even if the concert wasn’t the greatest concert ever (super hard to beat the last one), it gave us an excuse to wander around Vancouver all weekend, and that was pretty awesome.

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Going to David Duchovny’s Concert

On By stefrobrtsIn concert, music1 Comment

(An excerpt from what I wrote to Heather about going to see David Duchovny’s Hell or Highwater concert at the Aladdin in Portland.)

It was a beautiful blue sky/puffy cloud sunny day (I know, what the heck?) and so I was just in an awesome mood. I wore my Mulder t-shirt to work. Dave had a performance that night so I was taking my friend, Michele, who I finally talked into watching XF this year and she liked it, so she came along without even hearing any of his songs just because she liked him. She goes to a lot of concerts, and she happened to know that the concert venue, which is an old theater, has a little pub attached, and if you go to the pub before the show for dinner, you get in a short line to get in. So we did that, I left work at 4, picked her up, drove over to Portland, and got there just after 5, had a nice dinner, got our wristbands, and we got in the short line, and we were like behind six other people to get in first!! Brilliant! Usually I am in the long line, wondering how the special people got in the short line, but this time I was the one in the short line – ha ha ha!

We started chatting with the ladies behind us in line, and they were there for their friend’s birthday ‘girls night out’, and their friend had gotten the $120 ticket to go in early and watch the sound check and get to meet him. Pretty soon she comes out and she’s just bouncing up and down happy. “He hugged me!!!!” So everyone was like “OMG, what was he like?!” and she was just bubbling over “He was so nice and kind, he’s so sweet!” And then I’m kicking myself for not going for the $120 ticket – lol!

Finally they open the doors and we stroll on in ahead of the crowd and I spot the perfect spot – 5 rows back, and on the outside aisle, but I can tell they are going to keep that aisle clear and all I have to do is watch over the heads of the crowd down front at the stage. Awesome seats. We considered going up and standing at the stage, but I don’t care for getting into a bump & jostle crowd, I have a thing about crowds, and I don’t think that would be fun for two hours. And we were literally about 25 ft away at our seats. I think this is the first concert I’ve been to where being short didn’t result in me listening to the music while staring at people’s backs the whole time (which is what happened at  Barenaked Ladies a few years ago – ugh).

I’m sorry for the crappy phone pics, cameras were not allowed, so I left mine home. Though getting a pic of him would have been the highlight of my photographic life 🙂 This will have to do. They had an opening act that was really good, then after a pause to setup their equipment their band came out and then he comes bouncing out and the SOLD OUT crowd goes wild! I was so stinking happy to see him, like there he is – in real life, just a couple yards away. I was smiling like an idiot, and Michele elbows me and she’s laughing and says ‘I don’t think I’ve EVER seen you so happy!’ I mean, it was HIM, right THERE!

He does a couple songs, and then he moved over to the far right where I couldn’t see him well, and took off his jacket, and I hear my friend say “Oh My God!” and I leaned over to see and said ‘What?” and she says “Look at his arms!” Yeah, his arms are actually pretty magnificent.

He rolled through some songs from his album, and some songs that will be on the next album, and threw in a couple covers, one was a David Bowie song. He said some nice things about how this is a tough time for everyone but maybe it’s good because people will learn who they are and what they really stand for. He played around with the audience by reaching down and touching the folks down front, pretending like he was going to crowd surf off the stage, and at one point hopped down into the crowd and worked his way back to the seats and climbed up on the seats and then worked his way back up on stage. He was trying to get everyone up dancing, and our section was sitting down, and he points right at us and says ‘you guys sitting down, dance in your chairs, whatever makes you happy’ – he was just totally engaging with the whole crowd!

After an hour or so they pretend they’re done and all run off stage, the crowd goes wild screaming for an encore. After a short break they come back out and by now everyone is up on their feet, and he does his big song, which is Hell or Highwater, and maybe another one, I don’t recall. Then they are done, say goodnight, and head off. Everyone cheers for a while, and then the lights come up and the back doors open up and it’s over, so folks start filing out, then they come out AGAIN!

He comes out and says some more nice stuff about being kind and loving each other (the whole night just felt very full of love – everyone in the audience was a huge fan, everyone was totally mellow and being nice to each other, he was talking about loving each other, and brotherly love and stuff like that), and him (and the rest of the band) puts on pussy hats (you know those pink hats all the protesters have been wearing) and they do an awesome cover of The Weight (Take a Load off Fanny), and everyone is singing along – it was magical! It was just the greatest thing ever!

Then at one point he comes down into the audience again on the far side, works his way halfway back, starts coming over our way and it looks like he’s going to loop right by us, but then gets blocked up and changes direction about ten feet away – I almost died with excitement for a second there! But I was too happy with the whole experience to be disappointed 🙂

I was so happy, I was still happy all day Saturday 🙂 It took that long for the endorphins to wear off. It was the best concert experience I’ve ever had. Better than I possibly hoped for. It was just ridiculously awesome! Love love love love.

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