"In the Suburbs I, I Learned to Drive..."

 Well here I am, in the suburbs of Austin at my aunt's palatial hilltop villa, reconnecting with a lot of my extended family that I haven't seen since I was discharged from the Marine Corps five years ago. While the West Lake / Southwest Parkway area on the outskirts of Austin is hardly the "Weird Austin" of downtown and Sixth Street, it is still pretty cool - the Spike-Jonze directed short film "Scenes from the Suburbs," included with the deluxe edition of Arcade Fire's album "The Suburbs," was filmed here. My first night in town I was lucky enough to meet some local musicians, via my father's brother, and we had a very enjoyable evening sharing our music with each other.

I did get some sad news yesterday. One of the bands in our little West-SLC music clique, "The Wild Ones", is breaking up. Always a drag to see a good band cease. Selfishly, I am disappointed because we never got to do a show together. But in the bigger picture, I just hope that the relationships in question aren't too strained, that there is no bad blood. Who knows, maybe this had to happen to give everyone some fresh perspective...and they'll end up playing together again some day, in a better and more mature incarnation? They say that there is a silver lining to every cloud...

Well...the piano, for my show tomorrow night, is being tuned up right now...