I'm With The Band

Today was a busy day.  I'm having a lot of those lately.  A good portion of this is because I've been playing with the band Designer, based in Philly.  I came along as they were finishing up recording their first CD, so I don't have a huge part yet.  They needed a second pianist for one of their songs when it's performed live, and luckily for me, piano is one of the instruments I play.

Being one of the only band members without a full time job (something I'm working on, more details on that if it pans out), I've started doing a lot of background stuff to help out.  The major thing was designing the website.  Website design is not something I have any training in, and I rely heavily on templates followed by back-end editing of html, css, and xml for those things templates won't let me do.  Thank goodness for Google.

Other things include imparting my (limited) knowledge about things like Square Up and business finances, and helping out with creating band merchandise like this poster.

Copyright 2011 Dan Bellotti, for Designer

No, I didn't design it, Dan, the drummer, did.  All I did was use my ink-free hands to move finished posters around during the screen printing process and then make sure they were dry with a blow dryer so they wouldn't smear.  The posters are going to be on sale at the CD release show on June 17th at World Cafe Live in Philadelphia.  I'll be on the piano, and perhaps the flute.  We'll see about that last one.  I've been noodling around on the songs during practice, but I'm not sure anything I've done yet is worth playing at a show.

Check out some of the band's songs here (some will hopefully be on the website soon), and if you like them, pre-order the CD so we can afford to make another I'll actually be on!

What else have I been up to?  Practicing my mandolin, flute, and piano playing nearly every day.  Working out, which has actually been showing progress!  Sewing up a mobile for my friend Lisa's baby.  Lots of for real cooking;  I'm as shocked as you are.  Tonight I made DS a lentil soup from scratch for him to take in his lunches.  Of course, I've been doing the usual things, like cleaning the house, gardening, reading, etc.

What's keeping you busy?