friday, jan 8

As I look out our hotel window, I see the early morning sun peeking through the haze illuminating a lovely sheen of ice on the highway beside us. I start to wonder, what is it about me that attracts bizarre weather conditions, people in grocery store lines who insist on paying with exact change, drivers ahead of me in toll booth areas who drop their quarters and decide to get out of their cars to find them, people in front of me at the bank who have 18 transactions including one which involves a bag of loose change and a trust fund, golfers in the foursome ahead of me who love the game so much they want to spend six hours playing it, etc, etc, ad nauseum? Luckily, I am now at a point in my life where I can just shake my head and laugh at it all...then I try and find an orphan to kick.

It looks like Matt has made an important decision. He feels moving to Asheville is definitely a good idea. He reached that decision after going out to a club last night and talking to several area musicians. They told him that good horn players are a rarity here. That was certainly music to his ears. (get it?) He was invited to play with a blues band, but they weren't likely to start their set until after midnight and he was still fighting this cold/flu thing he's been carrying around so he declined. When he got back to the hotel, he was upset with himself about not staying to play with them, thereby missing an opportunity to showcase his chops. Hopefully, he'll have a similar opportunity tonight and tomorrow night at other clubs with other groups. Simply put, everyone he's talked to, from musicians, to bartenders, to club owners, has verified the notion that Asheville is a terrific place to live if you want to be a working musician. So he wants to be dealt in.

As far as his living arrangements, Matt signed a 6-month lease this afternoon. This was an interesting place: it is an upstairs apartment in the Montford district. This is an historic district of Asheville with tree lined streets and many large homes that have been subdivided into smaller apartments. The advantage of living here is that it is within easy walking distance to all the downtown music venues. It's a little like Beacon Hill in that regard. The apartment itself is quite spacious and extremely well furnished. The only possible sticking point was that the owner of the home lives downstairs, and Matt had to be convinced that his practicing late at night would not be a problem for her. He went over there today to speak with her and actually played his horn upstairs so she could experience the sound and decide if she could live with that at night. She told Matt it would be no problem and that she rather liked it; also, she said if it ever became a problem, she would get earplugs. Sold!

The photo above is a place downtown called The Mellow Mushroom, a pizza joint/sports pub that had just about the best pizza anywhere. When I visit Matt down the road, he can find me there. I had the Shrimp Alfredo pizza and it was fabulous...no, actually it was pepperoni and mushroom.

Matt will probably head out tonight to play somewhere and, if he can complete all the paperwork for the landlady today or tomorrow, we may be able to leave Saturday instead of Sunday. We did everything we came here to do, have a good feeling about the possibilities, and are ready to get back to where it's warm!

Thanks for following along.

Much love,

J