Tender Moments with G. Calvin Weston, Part 1: "In my office! NOW!"

Having started his 30+ year career as a musician with harmolodic saxophonist/composer Ornette Coleman at the tender age of 17, it's safe to say that G. Calvin Weston is a drummer of epic proportions.  It's his innate musicality, however -- a seemingly indefatigable desire to emote vocally, as a countertenor would, augmented by a verve towards sound and vision -- that makes him four dimensional as an artist.  One would think he was from the deep South.  Calvin is grounded and yet he is ethereal, a heady mix of what can only be described as a sophisticated hick that is refined and aware, set adrift upon the performance stages of the world.

We just came off a European tour with James "Blood" Ulmer, hopscotching all over creation and then some.  I would say that Calvin and I became what most people would describe as fast friends but that isn't exactly true. The truth is, Calvin and I met and realized that somehow, we already knew each other. At least, that's the way it felt on my end.

How does he describe it?

It was after the gig, when we were at the bar at Kunst & Kulturhaus in Oblarn, Austria that Calvin turned to me and said, with a great deal of astonishment, "Do you realize we only met four days ago?" Then without warning, before I could fully express my mutual wonder and admiration, he smiled broadly, threw his hands up triumphantly as though he'd just made the touchdown of a lifetime and yelled at the top of his lungs, "It's like you fell out my balls!"

If I wasn't mortified the first time he said it, the third time probably sealed it for me.

Of course, the back end of the bar roared its approval and applauded raucously. I opened my mouth to scream but nothing came out. All I could do was cover my face with my hands. Later, I remember thinking, well that was a compliment, really -- as only Calvin could give.

And that's pretty much G. Calvin Weston -- in a nutshell, so to speak.

Once they were up and positioned and tuned, Calvin had the habit of calling his drumset his office. There were too many moments when he would insist that I photograph him there.  It is with this in mind that I give you a pastiche of images from any given soundcheck from our happy jaunt through the Rhineland and beyond -- Calvin, hard at work, in his office.



Rehearsal, Music Hall Worpswede -- this is our sound engineer Joerg Mohr's home base.






Porgy & Bess, Vienna Austria



That's a glimpse of Joerg, moving and repositioning that drumset for the 5th time.



Cinema Paradiso St. Polten, Austria





Altes Kino, Landeck Austria



BIX Stuttgart Germany





A-Trane, Berlin Germany -- with Joerg checking Blood's monitors.



The view as I tilt open the backstage door.



At Altes Plandhaus in the round, Cologne Germany

30 days of birthday - day 3: "...my backpack's got jets..."

i must say, i was profoundly disappointed that darth vader wasn't in attendance ad nauseum at the philly comic con. (i love that negro!)  actually, there was a dearth of star wars characters in general. everybody was way too busy flipping out over the avengers. lots of shirtless green children running around in flip flops. occasionally some little misfit from where the wild things are would pop up with a crown on his head, but no. no storm troopers storming the crowds. no straight guys with heavy duty facial hair dressed as princess leia. and no -- no darth.

thankfully, all was not lost. i did find boba fett.

don't be fooled. that gun was bigger than me. and his outfit looked real. a little too real, if you ask me. *sigh*

just in case you have absolutely NO idea who boba fett is, here's my favorite mc chris video that explains it all for you -- fett's vette. the first one has a vignette in the front that the drama queen in me just gushes over whenever i see it.

this one is just a straight up music video but the dancing sequences in it are so 1980s solid gold miss-jackson-if-you're-nasty, it's kind of irresistable, too.

i've had my star wars moments before, people. at this point, i'm way too much of a lady geek to not have a photo op with all of them eventually. (and yes, i'm STILL annoyed that i missed chewbacca yesterday.)

 stay tuned.

boing-boing!

back in the saddle again after a weekend of running around in philly -- which really is more fun when you sleep over. still thinking about that wonderful king sized bed i slept in at the westin. and of course they have a store! if i could have a bed like that, i'd probably turn into marcel proust and hardly ever get out of it. suprisingly, "pulling a proust" requires a lot more effort than you'd think. and yet, i can remember when i did it so often, i looked forward to disappearing from the world.

i'm up to my neck in boxing sessions, auditions, and rewrites oh my! lifting weights and running every other day, hoping to improve on my lousy bent leg girlie push ups and learn how to work that speed bag. at least i don't have to struggle to keep my gloves up anymore. now that's progress.

working on a new idea for the pie contest at the roaring 20s jazz age lawn party on this saturday that's exciting me a great deal. oh, that reminds me: the ultra-cute kit pie contest in a box -- and yes, my pie recipe and i are in there! -- is available everywhere as of june 28. here's what the box looks like!



this clever little box and the fact that i've made all my deadlines and submitted my librettos and manuscripts to the proper channels in the past few weeks makes me feel like a millionaire.