NP: Joey Baron, Tongue in Groove (CD)

What I'm thinking is that, if the city changes parking meters in a part of town to those that affect the spaces in front and behind of the meter, but puts no signage on the meter to indicate that it's responsible for the space in front of it, that constitutes inadequate notice of the parking regulations, and I don't have to pay the ticket. In the ten years I live in Wrigleyville, I never saw one of these dual meters. It took me some time to even figure out why I had gotten the ticket.

I'll protest it, and do it in person, because I've learned that the city doesn't really put a whole lot of effort into their defense, as evidenced by the halfassed attempt from them to convince me to drop my appeal when I got towed a few years ago. I might even win. Or I'll owe all of thirty bucks. Suddenly that's not so big of a deal anymore.

Speaking of giving money to the city, I resisted getting the new farecard when it was "free," because I don't really feel like loaning the CTA $10. That's the threshold amount before it automatically recharges. Why not make it less than one fare, you ask? Because it boosts CTA's coffers by those ten dollars for every single rider who uses one, without having to offer a single thing in return. If they get the buy-in they're looking for, that's huge. I may get the card anyway on the monthly option now that I'll be commuting every day again, and that may, in turn, get me over to the rehearsal space more often and finally start practicing my drums again.

Of course, I need to figure out if riding my bike to work is feasible first, with regard to the farecard, and not so much the drumming, as I can get over to the space after work by bicycle just as easily. Getting the two-wheeler tuned up was part of yesterday's laundry list of things to do, and I'm happy to say I made it through nearly all of it. Except my taxes, but those are very close to being done.

Sitting in with Tributosaurus last night was a blast. Not unlike the one time I sat in with Sumo many years ago, I was a little freaked that I was in over my head, in terms of the quality of the other musicians on the stage, but I did fine. And I wound up playing shaker on two more tunes -- "Young Americans" as sung by Poi Dog Pondering's Frank Orrall and "Panic in Detroit" -- on top of playing kit for "Moonage Daydream." Big thanks to Dan and the rest of the band, and hopefully I'll be back.

It did strike me as one of those things that would have been very, very beneficial to do much earlier, in terms of getting the musical career further off the ground, but if the full-time gig hadn't come up, the timing of this as a career move wouldn't have sucked. As it stands, I've had two more bands cross my path in the last day or two, both through friends. I may need to wait a couple of weeks before deciding if I can take on the projects. It's very odd to think I might not have enough time for some of this, and again, a welcome change.