things i'll miss about living in the twin cities: kitty edition

I finally finished the piece for The Esoterics and, boy howdy, I don't remember something being that difficult in a long time. Trying to make a choir fit into the instrumental idiom was a bitch of a problem to solve but, in the end, I'm massively happy with what came out. I even managed to write in a jaunty little waltz right in the middle that I fell in love with. How the hell did that happen? The only problem was that I think I almost gave myself an ulcer from the amount of coffee I was drinking while I was writing.

Although, since Seattle just got voted the most caffeinated city in America by The Daily Beast (the Twin Cities got 14th) and that's where this particular ensemble is based, perhaps it was just life imitating art. Either way, The Esoterics will give a fantastic performance of my new piece, songs about most of my friends, next October and, should you be in the neighborhood, you should stop by.

On the domestic front, I'm just about through packing up my place in Uptown Minneapolis so I can move to Austin. One thing I will miss is this little cat who was always in the first floor window before I left for work. Here's a camera phone picture I snapped of this thing at something like 6:40am.






I don't know what its name was but the consistency with which it was there seeing me off was impressive:

"Meow-meow-meow I'll miss you too meow-meow-meow."

And then, just for good marks, here's a picture of the Twins' beautiful new stadium, Target Field. A friend threw free tickets at me recently so I enjoyed an $8 beer, a surprisingly good veggie burger and a victory by the home team. Boo-yah!

trying to work...don't bother me OR monochromatic cat blog to distract me from writing

What is it with cats? I drove down to my parents' house in bucolic Northfield, Minnesota to get some time away from the frenetic atmosphere of Uptown and their cat, Jack, will not leave me alone. I'm trying to get this piece for The Esoterics done and this guy is taking up half the piano bench.

I like to spread out a lot when I have staff paper to work with but there's a cat-sized spot on the bench where I'm sitting that I can't put my sheets of manuscript. Here's a photo of him from my phone:
















I should say that Jack showed up after my tenure under the Shank roof and, frankly, we've never really gotten along all that well (he bit the hell out of me a few years back)...but he's calmed down a whole lot in the last few years and, for some reason, he seems to like music.

My old cat, Max, used to do stuff similar to this. He was never a lap cat of any sort unless I was writing at my desk.

Just surfing the net? Nope. On the couch.

Working on correspondence? Sorry. Sleeping in the rafters somewhere.

However, if I was intently engraving music with headphones on and coffee in hand he was in my lap purring. It was the weirdest thing.

Rest in peace, little buddy. Your investment into my creative process will be missed.