Parenthetically Yours

Favorite Things Friday - MONO CASE!

I'm not usually one for blatant promotion. Oh, wait. I totally am. That's what Favorite Things Friday is all about. 

From time to time I like to mention a cool piece of gear that I've run across...like this week. For those of you who aren't musicians, don't tune out. I'm sure there's a musician lurking around your family or friends...and don't they have a birthday coming up? 

This week, I'm all about MONO CASE. If any of you have ever travelled with a guitar in a gig bag, then you understand why I get so nervous when I fly. I have literally $1,000s of dollars invested in my guitars so that's reason enough to get skittish. Now, put those expensive guitars in a case that has no hard edges and no bracing to protect the neck. It's not that big of a deal, as long as I have control over my bag. Back in the day, I could check up to three things, but now I have to simplify and carry-on as much as possible. Even then, half the time I have to hand my darlings over to a a burly bag handler who would like nothing more than to set them gently under a 500 lb steamer trunk. It's enough to make me want to take up a cheaper profession. And Kung Fu.

About two months ago, my buddy Barry Graul showed up on tour with his new Mono Case. It looked like something out of Star Trek and I knew instantly I needed one, but one that carried two guitars. He said the company was working on a new double gig bag and it would be out soon. Well...SOON is here!

Gorgeous! 

Even if you're not a musician, you have to appreciate the design. It just looks awesome and say, "I do this for a living." Is that a little smug? Maybe.

The best feature, however, to me is definitely the neck brace. Now, I won't have to be scared to check it. As long as the neck isn't moving around, I can hand the case to the burly baggage beast with confidence.

Like I said earlier, you don't have to be a musician to love the cases. In fact, they have a pretty awesome line of messenger bags/cases if you travel with a laptop, headphones, books, etc. It will definitely make you stand out in the coffee shop or airport. And let's be honest, isn't it kinda cool to be the guy/gal with the coolest looking bag? Is that just me?

Click on MONO CASE to see everything I'm talking about. Tell 'em Randy sent ya.

(rw)

Larry Jon Wilson

I've got an unusually busy week, but I found this gem of a video that I had to share, if for no one else, for my family. If you love music, you'll love Larry Jon Wilson. I was obsessed with this guy when I was a kid when my Aunt Arleen had met him in a recording session in the 70s. There still aren't many funkier or more soulful. Talk about someone who deserved to be a superstar, but never was.

Nobody makes records like this anymore. 

Dang.

(rw)

You Had to be There

There are some things that you just “had to be there” for. The retelling doesn’t do it justice. That’s because the retelling can never satisfy the details necessary to explain why something was so funny, or epic, or sad.

For instance, all the words I could muster up could never clearly explain why it was so funny last night that my friend Lee choked on rice while laughing at Katie as she successfully guarded her tongue after burning herself and dropping a pan of brownies. You'd have to know that Lee also choked on a noodle a few months ago while sitting at the same dinner table. You'd also need to know that he'd just hit his funny bone so hard it put him in the floor with a numb arm. Epic, funny stuff. 

Also,if you happened to be at this year’s Gospel Music Association’s Dove Awards, you know that if you weren't there, you wouldn’t have been able to understand just how poignant and brutal Steven Curtis Chapman’s performance of “Cinderella” was. For those who don’t know, "Cinderella" is SCC’s song written for and about his adopted daughter Maria, who tragically died several months after the release of the song. 

If you were there in the audience, though, you would’ve known that during a commercial break, singer Donnie McClurkin came onto the stage, got our attention, and made an announcement that Aaron and Amanda Crabb were rushing to the emergency room because their two year old daughter had just fallen from a window and that it didn’t look good. We in the audience were shell-shocked. We prayed, we whispered, we prayed a again for little Eva. Then I noticed that the stagehands were setting up Steven’s band. I recognized his son Caleb tuning his guitar. There was his other son Will adjusting his drumset. Will is the son who was driving the vehicle that Maria ran in front of that fateful afternoon. I thought, “Surely he’s not about to come out and sing that song.” Sure enough. He did.

We were stunned and silent. Honestly, it was too much. Not a dry eye. In spirit, we were in two places at once: on the stage with him and in that ambulance headed to the hospital with the Crabb family. When it was over, we stood for well over a minute with a mixture of tears and applause. It was the defining moment of a show that was, quite frankly, void of meaning. But in that moment, the Dove Awards show was transcendent, and ironically, sacred. It took on a depth and weight that is never present or expected at awards shows. Even tributes and memorials come off feeling put-on and manufactured. But you couldn’t have manufactured this moment, which is precisely what made it bigger than the sum of its parts.

And that’s the miracle of Providence.

But you had to be there.

(rw)

Favorite Things Friday - Northwest Edition - Pt 2

Well...this is gonna be a quickie, but I wanted to get something up before I'm detained by the Canadian authorities. Ok. That's a joke. I'm sitting at a coffee shop in Seattle waiting to leave for Vancouver, British Columbia to do a show there tonight...so let's jump in.

TULLY'S COFFEE - There's a running joke in Seattle that if you want to find a Tully's, go to a Starbucks and turn around. This is my favorite chain coffee in Seattle, beating Starbucks' burnt bean juice by a mile. I'm enjoying a piping hot Red Eye (coffee with an added shot of espresso) and there's nary a hint of bitterness. Mmmmmm.

VANCOUVER, BC - If you're dying to go to Europe but don't want to bother with all the travel expense, hassle, and language issues, you have to visit Canada. I know, I know. Canada evokes images of snow, bad fashion, Bob and Doug McKenzie, and progressive rock music. Well, at least it does for me. But...three of the most amazing cities in the world are up here in the great white North: Vancouver, Montreal, and Toronto. But for my money, Vancouver is where it's at. I really wish I had more time to dedicate to this paragraph, but just take my word for it. Good memories in Vancouver.

THIS VIDEO - Ok, this has nothing to do with the Pacific Northwest, but it's awesome. Below is an excerpt of a hilarious interview on Conan with the comedien Louis CK. I saw this the night it aired and loved every word of this interview. I finally found it on NBC.com (an amazing site). By the way, if you get irritated by the 12 second Lowe's commercial at the beginning of this, you may be one of the people Louis is talking about. Just a thought. 

Ok...the weekend is your. Do something great or hilarious with it.

(rw)