The Scheme Demos

The Scheme 2002-3

In 2002 I moved to San Francisco to play with some of the original members of Drowningman, Denny Donovan and Todd Tomlinson.

Todd had been playing with Peter Martin(Lifetime/jets to brazil) in a band called San Geronimo. They had been playing with Ian Miller (Redemption 87) in a new band which Denny and I moved cross country to join.

These songs were all recorded in our practice space in Oakland by Denny. The sound quality is really good for a 16 track recording done in a little concrete box. No overdubs, no auto-tuned vocals a last vestige of the days when the "e" word meant bands like Promise Ring or Texas is the Reason. We had a shared love of Oasis which unfortunately manifested itself in rowdy drunken behavior more than it did in the music.

We turned down a few labels and pissed off more. We were close to recording when it all fell apart. I dug these songs up for a friend the other night and listened to them for the first-time in a year. 

Lyrically and vocally part heart-broken bitterness (Your year is almost up, Cardboard casket showroom) or various misadventures of waking up in strange girls beds in strange apartments in neighborhoods you aren't sure how to get home from (Western Addition) or the night the fellas from Vermont invited some fine ladies home from the bar and all passed out while they robbed the apartment (Capt. Steubing finds a mate).

Drowningman: How They Light Cigarettes In Prison 1999

Drowningman: How They Light Cigarettes In Prison 1999- hard to believe its been 10 years

As Biggie said: "if you dont know, now you know."

2008

Has been a motherfucker of a year. More on that another time.

In the meantime here is a "mix" of some of my favorite songs from some of my favorite records of 2008.

HERE.

j.sifl

let me show you who i am

Lily's training is continuing. She is coming to me even when I don't have pieces of hotdog for her. I usually do. I wrap the hotdog in a paper towel or plastic and put it in my pocket as I refuse to buy or wear a fanny pack.

The other night as I was laying in bed. I started to think the trash needed taking out. I could smell it. Then I remembered I had taken the trash out earlier after cleaning the refrigerator. Could it still be rotten celery?

Then I realized it was leftover hotdog in my shorts near the bed.

It had to have been there a while as I played poker earlier in the night and the poker room is filled with smoke and that's mostly what I smelled. To the vegetarian nose a warming hotdog is not pleasant. So I got up and put it back in the special hotdog section of the fridge.

It had been my first trip to the poker room and there was a small bearded guy with a hairlip named Bob who smelled pretty bad according to the people sitting next to him. I couldnt tell over the smoke odor.

Today I went back for an afternoon game. I was sitting for a while and got a whiff of something I imagined must be Bob. He wasn't at my table and I hadn't seen him when I came in and I did check because I like the fact that people had been losing money to him trying to put him out of the game to escape his odor. I doubt this was a conscious strategy but admirable in any case.

I looked behind me to see if he had come in late and was sitting behind me.

As I turned in my chair I felt the pieces of hotdog squish beneath me.

back to the head-pressed-to-glass

slept too much or not enough 

one of many nightime highways sailed, seas of unlit land

we are fast and near death 

nothing moves out this window 

a speck of light flickers on the horizon

then with conviction marks a point

we are moving forward, we are sure; we are alive

that dog can haz hotdogs

Between last night and a long walk today, Lily has a good understanding of the "come" command. She was even able to ignore kids splashing in the swimming pool and stop sniffing another dog's butt to heed the "come" command in search of bits of hotdog.

She is on a diet so I've cut back even more on her food to make way for the hotdogs.

Trying to determine if I will be playing poker tonight, going to a show or playing trivia. 

Need to go to bed at a decent hour for swimming with my niece tomorrow but not before more late not hotdog training experiments off the leash and with the bunnies in the yard. Should be interesting.