Rolls from scratch

Gypsy life continues. Zipped back up to Seattle Wednesday right after the last lesson with Derek.

I missed a phone call from Eduardo inviting me to come play with Show Brazil on Thurs, bummer! I only heard the message after the show was over. dang. But it was for the best really because - get this - on Thursday I had - I had - I had a WHOLE DAY OFF. I took the WHOLE DAY OFF, a whole day in a row! It was amazing! I did my laundry! I took a shower! I paid my bills! It was the most incredible day!

Now it's over and I'm back to work of course. Working 2 days at the zoo this week; Friday & Saturday; and working 7 hrs at night Fri, and Sat, and all day Sun, on my new Vietnam fisheries project for NOAA. These NOAA jobs always about kill me. I'm doing it to fund my London samba trip; and save money for my next music year. Everything for music. But, oh man, I'm wiped out.

Some interesting fly-offs recently. The local zoo crows have been harassing our birds no end. Last week the crows chased our gyrfalcon Kenai straight into a tree - she actually crashed right into it, didnt' land in it exactly, just sort of went SMUSH into a bunch of branches with the crows right behind her. Today a crow bombed her and she vanished for several minutes and came back panting so hard that we figured she must have been in some kind of Olympic chase. (Gyrfalcons are the fastest bird in the world in level flight, up to 100mph, so that might have been quite a chase.) The week before that, Cree, the big ferruginous hawk female, took off due to crows; and of all the places in the zoo Cree could pick to land, she chose to land IN THE WOLF EXHIBIT, NEXT TO A WOLF. The wolf actually grabbed her! He had her wing in his mouth! But she got loose and flew back to Raptors with only a damp patch on the edge of her wing.

It would have been really nice to have been able to stay in Portland the last month. I would have been steadier and calmer about the Lions, for one thing. I would have been able to move in, and able to prep for my UP classes. It is the zoo that has kept pulling me up to Seattle. But - it has also been really good to have something in my life other than music. The birds have been amazing. I'll miss them. Especially Kenai and Cisco. They are just such incredible creatures. Today, at the zoo, is the first time I've felt relaxed all week; and the first time that the knot in my chest that's been there since Lions rehearsal has loosened up.

So. Worked at the zoo all day today. Got 6 hrs' work in on the Vietnam job. And glory be, I've actually had time to get in 3 real good runs of repinique practice - one yesterday and TWO today plus a fun stint on chocalho too! Plus a few hours watching Lions dance videos over and over. On repique, I had some good sessions, went through everything I could remember from Derek and Jorge, tried some bitty solo things (decided I should develop some pre-packaged solos, since I tend to panic so much otherwise, so I got a 4-bar one worked up and going pretty fast). And drilled myself silly on rolls. This Lions leading thing, whatever the hell else it does or doesn't lead to, it sure is making me practice and that is a GOOD THING. god damn... those rolls... they are SO close now. Pretty frequently now I actually manage to do a PERFECT roll at pretty fast tempo! oo! When it's perfect it's so startling - when the left hand is exactly in place - like a machine. When I hit it it's so startling it's like "whoa, who played that?"

It ain't anywhere near 100% yet. More like 25% perfect, 50% nonperfect, and 25% just crash in midstream, the horse tripping right over its own legs and going down ass over teakettle. But it's POSSIBLE now, I can feel it! I can feel it! It's so close....

If I ever succeed at these rolls, really fast clean rolls, it is going to be one of the great neurological triumphs of the century. Because I'm pretty sure I've had to grow these neurons from scratch. Been plugging at it four years now. It's almost there.