Many of those who made it to the Castro already know this, but I wanted to share what's been going on with me with everyone else as I haven't been posting much.
I made the decision back in April that I was going to leave San Francisco after 12 years and move back to Southern California. I have a producer in LA that's working on a cd for me that I need to work more collaboratively with, and my brother's kids in southern Orange County are getting older and I wanted to be around for that.
I took a trip down there from May 30 to June 6 to see the family, scout neighborhoods, meet with Jay (the aforementioned producer) and make sure this was really what I wanted to do. Sure enough, it's time to accept the fact that wearing shorts for 3 months, swimming in the ocean, and having a tan is something that's in my blood. It was a perfect week.
I went with my nieces and their grandparents (my parents) to the 7 year old's school carnival. Had much fun playing games, winning tickets and helping her pick out prizes at the end of the night.
I ended up choosing Long Beach as where I wanted to live. I'll start checking Craigslist in the next couple of days for rentals available Aug 1st.
Whatever concern I might have had about not knowing many people in the area (a foolish concern to begin with because I have plenty of high school friends that are still there), it was dispelled on this trip. I had a great, long dinner with an old friend in Santa Monica one night. The following night, while walking through an old haunt in West Hollywood, a guy approached me and said, "I know you." We knew each other through a performing group we were both in, though not at the same time, and we'd last seen each other in '91 at the latest. He started introducing me around to some of his friends. Very eclectic, fun, welcoming group. Turns out his best friend is a guy I did a Christmas show with here in SF back in '97 or so. Amazing. My old/new friend told me how this group has something of a procedure. A number of them are often out of town for work. So when someone is in town, and the message is sent out that they'll be hanging out at this place at this time, and being that everyone agrees that it's important to keep in touch and maintain strong connections with your buddies, everyone who can make it drops what their doing and shows up. So boom. I'm effortlessly in with a bunch of the most open, accepting, creative, genuine people you'd ever have a chance of meeting, especially in LA.
I met with Jay on two consecutive days. The first day we chose the 12 songs for the project out of the 16 we had to choose from, all of which I either wrote or co-wrote. The second day we chose a direction. For this first album I'm going to be an acoustic alternative artist. For the second I'll probably end up going both more pop and more innovative, looking at the songs we had left over. The important thing is, we now have a much better idea what the cd is going to sound like, starting each track with acoustic guitar and drums and adding in whatever is necessary and appropriate for each song. I think we've got some pretty strong material.
Once I got back to SF I called up a guy I had met right before I left, with whom I'd been quite impressed, and we've seen each other everyday since (pic attached). He's pretty special. We're both very upfront people so all of the big issues, i.e. anything that might have scared one of us off, were discussed in our first week. As I'll be moving in seven weeks we can't see where this is going, but we're loving it for now.
So while all of the Brokie SF festiveness was going on I was also gathering boxes to start packing, ordering my new car (if I have to start driving again I'm going to pollute the atmosphere as little as possible: I'm getting a Prius hybrid), and enjoying this spectacular new person in my life. And speaking of spectacular people, Ruby and Nipith, I will so be in touch come the big move.
So that's what's been, and will continue to be, occupying my time. I've got a lot to do before 8/1 but I'll be checking in when I can. Missing you.
Kirk
