Happy New Year, everyone! Lots of plans being made, new growth, skullduggery, and more than a little mischief in the works. One of those plans is another attempt to keep connected with our fans. Facebook is all well and good for gig announcements and promotional stuff, but this page is where we can let our hair down a bit more, pull the curtain back, and just kinda hang out with y’all. We don’t have to shout to be heard here, y’know? So we’ll be talking about band stuff, sure, but also regular life stuff too. Hobbies, bitching about our jobs, family life. If you find it boring, if you’re not interested, that’s cool. But give it a glance now and again, you never know what might come up.
2019 was a…challenging year for me. The top of the year was a lot of work, and I built a lot of momentum in a couple of different areas; the band had some really great shows, we started to really refine our sound. My recording business started to pick up, and I got to work with some really great artists. I made a couple of large (for me) purchases for the studio, actually obtaining credit to do so. My parents got ready to celebrate their 50th wedding anniversary, and bought a 9 day cruise for the entire family to celebrate with them. Lots of cool stuff, and it kept getting better.
In early May, I ended up in the hospital with an infection in my foot. Turns out, I’m diabetic, and folks with that disease can run into all sorts of medical complications like opportunistic infections. I also have a fairly severe needle phobia, which makes medical treatment interesting. A lot of the meds used to treat diabetes involve injections, and multiple blood tests per day are required. A lot of people put their heads together, and we figured out ways to get around those enormous stumbling blocks, but it’s required some fairly major life changes on my part. Making those changes somewhat derailed the momentum I had been building, and I’m just now starting to move forward again. So, my vision for 2020 (Sorry, obligatory dad joke) involves a lot of rebuilding. It’s going to be an interesting ride.
What else has been going on? Oh! I’ve started DMing a D&D game again. I’ve played since I was in 4th grade. I love the game, the collaborative storytelling, the chance to explore facets of myself that I don’t always want to show to the public. Pent up frustrations I need to let out? Play a half-orc barbarian. Wrestling with issues of integrity and commitment? Roll up a paladin. Feeling particularly lecherous? I have just the bard for you. I love looking at the world and how it’s changed, how the geeky nerdy dorky things in my life that I once felt compelled to keep quiet can now be shouted about.
So yeah, I’m running a campaign for a group of people, and it’s been fun, and also instructional. It’s a good mix of players, ranging in experience from the person who’s never played a tabletop RPG before to the one who’s written published source material to the guy who seems to have committed every scrap of lore from every edition of the game to memory. And there’s me, with this story in my head, a sack full of dice, a bunch of maps and monsters…and an obligation to allow the players to tell the story. That’s hard. It’s in MY head, I know how it’s supposed to go…but the moment we sat down at the table, it became THEIR story. They get to decide how and if the story goes forward. I get to facilitate that. It’s a weird balancing act.
Anyhow, that’s how I geek out sometimes. How about you?
Well, personally, I spend an unhealthy amount of time modding and playing Skyrim when the mood hits. I also play a lot of Diablo III and other video games (please don’t ask me how much time I’ve logged in Pokemon, it’s embarassing). I’m also playing in this fun campaign with an awesome DM who happens to be a drummer in this band I’ve been following for a few years (and I’ve been listening to said DM’s music for more than half my life). And this month, I’m hosting Sentinels of the Multiverse games at Arizona Game Fair!