I'm journaling tonight from the kitchen...because it's where I have my space heater running...because my furnace is out, and My Blue Heaven is starting to get chilly. My lovely assistant Kaylee is none too pleased about this...and in fact, she's been cranky the last couple nights. I'm starting to think cats do not like cooler temperatures. She won't have to suffer much longer though, as the new furnace is being put in on Thursday morning. I suspect we will survive just fine until then. Wow...not even a paragraph in, and already I digress!
I found my old smoke machines earlier, beneath the captain's bed in the upper port side chambers of my old raft (yes, the same place the aforementioned old journals of mine are stored in a box that you're not likely to ever stumble upon). We used to use those smoke machines for live shows years ago in my band Pitfall back before Weasel and Butterfly were born. I formed Pitfall with my best noun from high school in 2004, and I was a part of Pitfall up until our New Year's show in 2005. I was not kicked out of the band, nor did I leave in a fit of rage. It was all planned from the beginning. My best noun from high school had decided he wanted to play bass and form a band. Since I had experience doing these types of things, I told him I'd help him get it going but that I'd be stepping down once my son was born (H was pregnant with Weasel when we started this venture). We auditioned necessary band members in my best noun's basement, found the right ones, and started writing songs and rehearsing. We went through a few lineup changes early on but eventually settled in. We all thought of and suggested band names, but I came up with Pitfall. That ended up winning out. It turns out there was a semi-well-known band by that name in Germany at the time, but we figured since we were in Anchorage, Alaska it would be okay to use it. And it worked out fine.
I don't remember the exact date we played our first live show, but I know it was in September--so it was very nearly 11 years ago this date as I write this. It was at the Carousel Lounge...a popular biker bar here in Anchorage. The turnout wasn't huge, but we dominated and won them over right away. We became popular in Anchorage very soon after and played a few more shows at different venues. Our pinnacle (in my opinion) was when we played the Halloween show with my all-time favorite band from Alaska, T.S. Scream (their guitar player and primary songwriter was another high school noun of mine). I was dressed up as Alice Cooper--complete with top hat and cane. That was a night for the ages...we went back to the Carousel Lounge for that show, and all their records were shattered--attendance, liquor sales, decibels, etc. The fire marshal showed up because the venue was over capacity (there were over 300 people there, and I believe the capacity was 250), and the police showed up because they were getting noise complaints by residents that apparently were able to hear a show from the Carousel Lounge for the first time. The Carousel Lounge had been around for at least more than 20 years at that time, and probably more than 30. That was a part of Anchorage's history we were particularly proud of. I have video footage of that show on DVD in my archives somewhere, but as far as I know none of it has been put on the internet. I even sang "Eighteen" and "Welcome To My Nightmare" (famous Alice Cooper songs) at one point, though I wasn't the front man. Jason was our singer, I was the rhythm guitarist--but we traded places for those two songs. Jason was dressed up as a "hooker from Fairbanks" as he called it--he was wearing combat boots and a flowered dress he found in my best noun's basement while we were rehearsing one night. The smoke machines used during that infamous show are the very ones beneath my captain's bed.
So why the pictures of Butterfly and Weasel in this chapter? Because back in 2013, they stumbled onto the smoke machines and asked me what they were. I didn't tell them as much as I've shared in this chapter, but I let them know that the smoke machines were used for live rock shows. They were intrigued, of course, asked questions, and deserved an actual demonstration. I got the smoke machines up and running that night, and we had a blast. I think Weasel and Butterfly enjoyed the smoke machines even more than I enjoyed using them during Pitfall's Halloween show. Maybe there is a lesson in there for me somewhere?
Weasel and Butterfly enjoyed the smoke machines so much, in fact, that I spent the next several weeks saying "Not tonight" when they'd ask me to bring them out every night after we had dinner. I did say "Okay" a couple of those nights, but not nearly as often as they would've liked. Yes, I think those smoke machines should find their way over to the new raft once I've built it. Sometimes smoke and mirrors are really more than just smoke and mirrors...though I still believe much of life really IS just smoke and mirrors. For what it's worth.
I found my old smoke machines earlier, beneath the captain's bed in the upper port side chambers of my old raft (yes, the same place the aforementioned old journals of mine are stored in a box that you're not likely to ever stumble upon). We used to use those smoke machines for live shows years ago in my band Pitfall back before Weasel and Butterfly were born. I formed Pitfall with my best noun from high school in 2004, and I was a part of Pitfall up until our New Year's show in 2005. I was not kicked out of the band, nor did I leave in a fit of rage. It was all planned from the beginning. My best noun from high school had decided he wanted to play bass and form a band. Since I had experience doing these types of things, I told him I'd help him get it going but that I'd be stepping down once my son was born (H was pregnant with Weasel when we started this venture). We auditioned necessary band members in my best noun's basement, found the right ones, and started writing songs and rehearsing. We went through a few lineup changes early on but eventually settled in. We all thought of and suggested band names, but I came up with Pitfall. That ended up winning out. It turns out there was a semi-well-known band by that name in Germany at the time, but we figured since we were in Anchorage, Alaska it would be okay to use it. And it worked out fine.
I don't remember the exact date we played our first live show, but I know it was in September--so it was very nearly 11 years ago this date as I write this. It was at the Carousel Lounge...a popular biker bar here in Anchorage. The turnout wasn't huge, but we dominated and won them over right away. We became popular in Anchorage very soon after and played a few more shows at different venues. Our pinnacle (in my opinion) was when we played the Halloween show with my all-time favorite band from Alaska, T.S. Scream (their guitar player and primary songwriter was another high school noun of mine). I was dressed up as Alice Cooper--complete with top hat and cane. That was a night for the ages...we went back to the Carousel Lounge for that show, and all their records were shattered--attendance, liquor sales, decibels, etc. The fire marshal showed up because the venue was over capacity (there were over 300 people there, and I believe the capacity was 250), and the police showed up because they were getting noise complaints by residents that apparently were able to hear a show from the Carousel Lounge for the first time. The Carousel Lounge had been around for at least more than 20 years at that time, and probably more than 30. That was a part of Anchorage's history we were particularly proud of. I have video footage of that show on DVD in my archives somewhere, but as far as I know none of it has been put on the internet. I even sang "Eighteen" and "Welcome To My Nightmare" (famous Alice Cooper songs) at one point, though I wasn't the front man. Jason was our singer, I was the rhythm guitarist--but we traded places for those two songs. Jason was dressed up as a "hooker from Fairbanks" as he called it--he was wearing combat boots and a flowered dress he found in my best noun's basement while we were rehearsing one night. The smoke machines used during that infamous show are the very ones beneath my captain's bed.
So why the pictures of Butterfly and Weasel in this chapter? Because back in 2013, they stumbled onto the smoke machines and asked me what they were. I didn't tell them as much as I've shared in this chapter, but I let them know that the smoke machines were used for live rock shows. They were intrigued, of course, asked questions, and deserved an actual demonstration. I got the smoke machines up and running that night, and we had a blast. I think Weasel and Butterfly enjoyed the smoke machines even more than I enjoyed using them during Pitfall's Halloween show. Maybe there is a lesson in there for me somewhere?
Weasel and Butterfly enjoyed the smoke machines so much, in fact, that I spent the next several weeks saying "Not tonight" when they'd ask me to bring them out every night after we had dinner. I did say "Okay" a couple of those nights, but not nearly as often as they would've liked. Yes, I think those smoke machines should find their way over to the new raft once I've built it. Sometimes smoke and mirrors are really more than just smoke and mirrors...though I still believe much of life really IS just smoke and mirrors. For what it's worth.