This is a picture of Nara. There are these cool stone lantern thingys lining the street on the way to a shrine. I haven't put up any pictures lately, so even though this picture has nothing to do with anything in my blog today, I thought I'd give you something pretty to look at. Enjoy!

Last night I had a show at a local club. I played my guitar and sang, and my friend accompanied my on the keyboard for one song. We had the worst rehearsal I think that I have ever had. First off, my guitar was making howling noises when I played...it had of course never done that before and I was really concerned and worried that my guitar might have been broken. I had to borrow another person's guitar until we figured out the problem with mine. (Turns out it was a problem with my capo, not the guitar. For those of you who have no idea what I'm talking about, a capo is like a clip that you use on the neck of the guitar to easily change the key. I was using an old one that had lost it's grip. I used a stronger one that really kept the strings pushed down and my problems were eliminated.) Then, my keyboard accompanist couldn't remember the notes that she wrote for the song. It didn't help that I had my capo in the wrong place and therefor was playing in the wrong key to begin with though. It was pretty awful. I could just see the other performers thinking, 'Who are these clowns and what are they doing?'

Luckily the performance went well. Except for one thing... I wasn't aware that my accompanist/friend wanted to say something to the audience before she left the stage, so when we did set up before the show, I only asked for one mic. I had the mic positioned in front of me to be used sitting down. Before I could move the mic stand into a more upright position so that she could use it to say a few words, my accompanist/friend had just leaned over and used the mic where it was. Needless to say, the mic was close to my face and there really wasn't space for her head and mine in front of that mic. It was a very interesting sight from where I was sitting, and I'm sure it was even stranger from the audience's perspective. It would have been fine for a few words, like 'Thank you' or 'Good night,' but she talked for like 2 or 3 minutes... twice. I started to get a crick in my neck from trying to keep out of the way. After that first song, I could relax a little and I think, except for my guitar playing, it was a good show. My guitar playing is always bad, so I try not to let that discourage me. I played a couple of covers and the rest were original songs. I suppose I should make a myspace page for my music stuff. Maybe when I have time I will.