First 3 Post-COVID Performances with Steel Parade

Post COVID?!? That's weird to say. Wrong? Too soon? Seems a little too soon everywhere except SoCal. Still lots of mask wearing and little resistance from my perspective. Lots of people are vaccinated, but businesses still wear masks. In my opinion, people in the service industry deserve protection. People in the service industry should be allowed to wear a mask if they want. My goal is to match people. My goal is to avoid exclusionary behavior.

June 12 Performance

This is a celebration of life. Not everyone wants people to cry when they pass on. We’ve done lots of these events and they are a great way to remember someone. All that traditional miserable funeral stuff sucks. Stop practicing so much miserable emotionality.

Mikeoshea is how he wanted his name pronounced. He wanted first and last name said together because he was proud of his names heritage.

Mikeoshea was also known for playing a specific Jimmy Buffett song as he was approaching port. We learned Mikeoshea's favorite song for this celebration of life. The Jimmy Buffett song is called "Lovely Cruise". At first it seemed like a regular kinda whatever blues, but it’s grown on me. The poetry is nice and the music is fun to remember. Apparently, lots of people like and know the song. Steel Parade would be wise to make it a regular song for the repertoire.

This guy loved to fish. Mikeoshea has a sunglasses tan in every picture. Boat people are everywhere at this party. I have a tan-line from my flip flops. My arms look dark and my face looks light from trying to avoid the sun. I might be a boat people sooner than I think. Boat spores are everywhere.

The food was just meh. Worked-over triangle sandwich platers get gross fast. Good meat though. I drank one beer after the host insisted. It was delicious. It’s been a while since I’ve had a beer. 805 is a popular beer here in SoCal. I liked one. That was enough.

img_1754.heic

Only one performance for this June weekend. Next weekend we have a Saturday and Sunday performance.

It was another fun day making music with professionals. We don't usually performa at bars, but this was an excellent exception. I purchased three lambos afterwards.

June 19 Performance

Today’s performance is for multiple fathers at a Father’s Day event. The weather is perfect and these fathers have a lovely backyard to enjoy with their families.

While we were getting setup to perform. We met a Siamese cat who was very friendly. Maybe a mixed…

Stick bags smell like everything else in your home. This cat smells all the other cats and dogs and venues that the stick bag has visited. Oh, if only a bag of sticks could talk. The stories it could tell…

img_2056.heic

Here is my bass, drum set and our little corner or “stage”.

img_2062.heic

Grimace for the camera please!?!

img_2068.heic

After we set up we head back to change into performance attire. Phil keeps our shirts in this real cool garment rack named Sandy Bus.

Dressed and ready to go. I prefer wearing white. I like being reflective. Less drama.

Traditionally, I would have performance footage and a live broadcast. All that’s over now. My phone/camera can’t handle it. Second battery is dying fast. I don’t even know what broadcast platform I want to use. Twitter? Fuck Facebook.

What’s your favorite HIVE platform for live broadcasting?.

OH CRAP!!! Caught slippin’. I hate it when bottles and beer photo bomb our pictures and backgrounds.

The food is delicious. Catered by a local barbecue restaurant/. Brisket, macaroni and cheese, potato salad, spinach, bacon wrapped chicken morsels… all the fine details were there. The chef makes his own hot sauce, and barbecue sauce. I almost forgot to mention, the macaroni and cheese was slightly burnt on top. I didn’t get a picture,.

img_2096.heic

The dessert table was also a perfect combination of delicious and difficult to digest food. It’s amazing that our bodies can digest all these different types of foods. My stomach is still trying to figure out what to do with it all.

June 20 Performance

Happy Father’s Day. I’m not a father. It’s not an accident. It’s 8 AM and I’m on my way. Today we are performing for a senior center/retirement community in the Newport Beach area.

img_2106.heic

This was a last-minute booking. Fortunately my schedule is flexible. The guy subbing for me at my job is flexible too and I’m hoping to thanks him with a $20. This will be a long day for me. Two in one kind of day. After this I have more to do. Luckily I have coffee and a snack.

Another VW Bus is here.

img_2109.heic

The bus above belongs to the photographer. The inside was set-up/decorated to be a fun island style photo-booth. Nice curtains, nice seat, nice liner. It was really nice inside. I was afraid my body odor would mess it up.

You can see her WV Bus here: https://instagram.com/shanda.photo?utm_medium=copy_link

Sandy Bus is the VW bus that Steel Parade loves.

It's decorated like a toilet inside. We all love toilets.

img_2123.heic

Can you see the new Tetrahedroseph magnets?

img_2119.heic

The event photographer, Shanda, took this really cool shot of us.

Thanks Shanda!

These are my images from the performance.

img_2129.heic

img_2140.heic

My documentation game is very weak this year. iPhone 7 is struggling for space, I am struggling to make time to create space by completing nearly competed projects, and my phone is too valuable to endure treatment like a camera. I am to blame and it would be worse if I was anticipating this scenario long ago.

The image above seems normal, but I can tell that i'm not sure what my phone is doing. Did you know Periscope is gone? Gone from usage as a broadcasting app, and moved to Twitter I believe... I had lots of Steel Parade performances documented there, here... i think: https://www.pscp.tv/Tetrahedroseph/1lPKqXERlWbxb

AHHH PIECE OF SHIT!!!
I can't even scroll past last year.
WTF PERISCOPE!
Hmm... wtf... ... stupid internets...

Anyway, this is kinda fun: https://www.pscp.tv/Tetrahedroseph/1dRKZZNEePzKB
This too: https://www.pscp.tv/Tetrahedroseph/1yoKMARYlVkKQ