02.07.07
Just to show I'm back in one piece, here's a self-portrait taken a few weeks after my ladder crash.
Not the nicest image of me - but then again, a successful snapshot of me has yet to be taken.
As for new, there's not much new to report other than that we sold the home where my fubar went down. We are still waiting to close but hope to pay down a lot of debt when this transpires.
01.26.06
"No one over 40 should ever go on a Ladder."
(Tom Drohan - Ladder Expert)
The pic above was snapped on January 15th, two days after a serious ladder accident that occured while prepping my house for sale in San Francisco. After climbing this ladder many times to clean, prep and paint the exterior trim on my barrel front house I placed the ladder at a slightly lower angle to do some touch ups. (This was at noon on a Saturday.) Next thing I know I'm in a great deal of pain waking up covered in paint & blood and being transported from an ambulance into the ER at SF General Hospital.
I wound up with a dozen stitches over my left eye, 6 in my upper lip and 6 in my right knee. I also bruised my left wrist and those who witnessed the incident suggest that if I had not landed on the ladder I would have been in much worse shape. As it is, I am pretty lucky.
It is now nearly two weeks post incident and I am feeling much better though I do have a couple of lingering health issues including soreness and numbness. Turns out that, according my MD I oblitered the so called "Supra-Orbital" nerve in my head and now I am officially a numb-skull. From the wound site on my forehead to the back of the left side of my head I am numb and unable to feel pressure. Sure makes showering a weird experience but otherwise I am fine.
The good news is we sold this house very quickly - and for more than our asking price!
We are now happily living on Rockdale Drive in a much nicer neighborhood of San Francisco (Miraloma Park).
Big t Thanks to all my friends, neighbors, family and musical buddies for all their support and good wishes!
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On a happier subject: We have a beatiful new neice named Caroline! Jack and Nina have a gorgeous daughter and we are having fun with this wonderful new family member.
Aunty Krissy and Baby Caroline
10.18.06
(Red Text = Bands I'm in or have played with)
Well it’s been a while since I scribed any new “Newsy” content to the old web space so here’s a fall update:
It’s been a very good, very busy year for WorldWideTed. Earlier this year Krissy and I traveled to Japan for an exotic and very interesting week. Later I took Stuart and Krissy to Lyons, Colorado for the Rockygrass Bluegrass Festival. Belle Monroe & The Brewglass Boys participated in the Band Contest and did pretty well by qualifying out of nine bands for the final three. Not that it’s any kind of excuse but historically speaking morning’s are not our best performance time, and between the jamming, drinking, spectating, drinking and lack of sleep (did I mention drinking?) we wound up in 3rd place.
Still it was a great time and we hope to be back for more!
Musically speaking I haven’t been this busy since my Chazz Cats days. And speaking of Chazz Cats, this old amplified, acoustic swing sextet did a handful of gigs this year starting off with a late August wedding in Deltaville, VA for Rebecca and John Frazier of the great, Colorado based, Hit and Run Bluegrass Band. (This version of the cats featured Pete Cornell on sax and flute and Corey Losee on drums.) The next day found us at Richmond, VA’s shrine to Jerry Garcia, The Cary Street Café where we made Pete Cornell’s pals happy. (Pete is originally from Richmond). A few weeks later, the Chazz Cats performed at a lightly attended but very fun gig at the Ace Cider Pub in Sebastopol with our original drummer, Doc Ward and the fiery sax and clarinet of Greg Laakso. This was followed by a great gig in celebration of the 2nd anniversary of the Iron Springs Pub and Brewery in Fairfax for our good pals, Mike and Ann Altman who were also celebrating their 3rd wedding anniversary and Mike’s 40th Bday. The Cats tore it up at the Pub but our now safely back to cat nap mode.
The Brewglass Boys have been busy as bees with gigs stretched over the summer and fall. We’ve been working up some new material and plan to record a bunch of it soon.
Adding to the pile of music I’ve been making has been fun gigs with Jared Karol in our little duet, “The Lid Flippers,” and a fun trio performance with Mario Desio in a band dubbed, “The Oh Yeahs.” This is fun acoustic folk/protest/blues music in which I play upright bass, mandolin and guitar.
Bluegrass wise a few gigs transpired with a new band I pulled together called “Hoarse Opry,” with Larry Goldfield on guitar, Gary Kaye on banjo, Dan Large on mandolin, Katy Rexford handling fiddle and yours truly on dawghouse bass. Our debut performance was at the Louis Martini Winery in Sonoma Valley and we’ve got a couple of fall gigs in the offing. I’ve also done a few fun stints with Jimbo Trout and the FishPeople which has been a hoot.
In recent music news, I recently put together kind of an electric bluegrass/rockabilly/country act featuring Billy “Longhead” Williams on doubleneck pedal steel guitar, Mitch Polzac (of the Royal Deuces and the Cotton Pickers) on archtop and baritone guitars, David “Killer” Hymowitz on drums, Josh Lazarus on bass and myself on mandolin, acoustic and electric guitars. I dubbed this act, “The Way too Busy Boys,” and our one and only performance has been at the wedding of Hoarse Opry member, Larry Goldfield just last week in Glen Ellen.
Today’s email brought an offering of a well paid private gig at the Studios of KQED next month so I called Brewglass Boys Diana Greenberg (fiddle) and Jordan Klein (banjo) to join me in a new trio I’ve called “The String Beings.” This ought to be a fun event and as it happens The String Beings will also play a private party the Saturday after Thanksgiving.
As crazy as it sounds – other musical events are in the works. The night before Turkey day I will be playing rock guitar with some old pals in The Pat Echols Experience up at Iron Springs. I’ve booked a great band called “Django Obscura,” at Iron Springs and plan to possibly sit in with these guys who combine the style of Django Rinehart with the musical sensibilities of Jerry Garcia. Very cool stuff. I also play bass and a little mandolin with a fun act out of Mill Valley called “Wagon.” They cats play some very fun old timey stuff with claw hammer banjo, mandolin, guitar and dobro. Finally, I always have a great time the last Thursday of each month down at the Atlas Café picking along with Jimbo Trout and Jimmy Sweetwater at the monthly old time and bluegrass jam.
Whew – I’m tired just from recapping all the musical stuff I’ve been up to as of late.
On the home front Stuart is now a very active, inquisitive, competitive and passionate third grader at 8 years of age. He’s gung ho for baseball; plays little league ball and aggressively collects baseball cards. He’s also a statistics wizard and stumps his old man on a daily basis with baseball knowledge and trivia. I recently bought him a cool guitar but so far sports seem to appeal to him more than what Dad is up to.
Krissy recently got herself a salaried position as teacher at a prestigious north of Van Ness Pre School. This is a good thing since she hasn’t had a steady job in the past 8 years. Currently we are in the process of packing up our home and selling it while simultaneously hunting for new digs either closer to the center of SF or perhaps in Marin where I work as an IT Geek at Autodesk Software.
So as you might have deduced if you've read this far: there's never a dull moment in the world of World Wide Ted.
Check back here in the future to see what WWT is up to next!
