Beating the heat with cold packs and music

It has been hot here on the California coast. For a lot of folks 85F isn't that hot, but it is for this location, where we traditionally have heavy fog and sea breezes in the summer. This is the hottest, driest season I have seen since I moved to Santa Cruz. And while I'm generally OK with heat, Luna is not. It gets hot in that little fur suit, and I've been leaving a cold pack on her favorite blue towel to cool things down a bit.

Let's crack open all the windows!

We can also stay cooler by going downstairs to the music studio - the main upstairs area has been getting extra hot in the evenings, baked by the afternoon and evening sun. It's good to be downstairs this weekend, though, as I have plenty of musical tasks to keep me busy in the evenings. First, there is our proposals for the revived Woodstockhausen Festival. Hopefully we're in. Plus, I got a surprise phone call from a fellow musician I saw at last week's Skronkathon performance, inviting me to join her band this coming Friday. I'll be performing live electronics, mostly processing an electric guitar. I think some of the same programming I did last week for the Indian string instruments will be applicable again. I've been reviewing some of the pieces for the Friday set to get ideas - I can't play them here as they are unreleased commercial recordings. The thick textures with voice, electronics and bass suggest I do something much more sparse and articulated, though that in part depends on the guitarist. We have a rehearsal scheduled for Wednesday...

Sunday has been a bit more reasonable (or at least felt that way), so plenty of time out by the ocean and in the garden. Plus, on Sunday some of the annoying tourists leave.

Once things cool down, there are some good films to watch here at CatSynth, too...