Hotel Chelsea (12.07.21)

Rocking a Tuesday night at Hotel Chelsea. Photo by Kat.

I don't know what it is about December and my health, but it's pretty amazing that regardless of various circumstances, I seem to have some aspect of my wellness go downhill this month nearly every year. Seriously, it's often right here in this very blog. I was sick on December 12, 2020. On December 16, 2019. On December 11, 2017. And so on. I'm assuming I was also sick in December 2018 but just didn't blog it.

Anyway, it's just weird. I know there must be a commonality here, some factor that causes me to be less than optimal at the same exact time of year, every single year. Rather than one magic bullet, it's more than likely a variety of causes. My stress level is always high in December, with my workload increasing by a lot in preparation for a new year of product announcements, business events and so on. Obviously it gets colder in December, and that might be one of the many impetuses. There might be other aspects that are relatively difficult to detect... mold spores, pet dander, and so on. And finally -- and perhaps most likely to be the cause of many of my ailments -- I continue to smoke cigarettes, a vile habit that has been very difficult for me to stop. Regardless of the cause, the empirical evidence shows that I do indeed get sick every fucking year in the same two-week span. It's downright bizarre.

What's Wrong With You Now?
Oh, this year is one of my more benign years, illness-wise. For the past week, I'd been experiencing the very familiar bronchitis symptoms that have plagued me so often. Coughing fits, and the disconcerting wheezing when I exhale, especially in the mornings and evenings. But it's been minor this year compared to previous issues of this nature. The fact is, being relatively isolated due to COVID protocols, and wearing a mask any time I'm in public, has allowed me to go for more than two years without getting nailed by typical common colds and flu to which I've been susceptible in the past.

Back at Ocean Medical. Truth be told, I was already feeling pretty good by the time I went in. However, I needed a refill on my Albuterol inhaler, and the pharmacy wouldn't do it without a new prescription, and the doctor's office required me to come in for that. I'm fine, really.

So all things considered, I've been lucky in 2021 compared to previous years when I ended up with serious bronchitis, pneumonia, and other related respiratory issues. And of course, the biggest thing of all is that I've managed to avoid infection by COVID-19 through social distancing, staying home whenever possible, and getting vaccinated. All in all, things could be so, so, so much worse. I truly am a lucky guy.

Staying Fit

While we're on this topic, I'd like to note a positive aspect to my health and wellness. On Monday of this week -- the same day I had to see my doctor -- I hit a milestone in my exercise regimen. It was in December 2010 that one day, while doing some holiday shopping at Best Buy (back when I'd actually visit retail stores to buy things) that I saw the Wii Fit system on sale. I must admit, this was one case where advertising was effective on me. Nintendo had been running a campaign featuring Helen Mirren, of all people. She would have been in her mid-60s at the time, and the ads showed her going through a variety of exercises using this simple balance board along with the Wii gaming system. I was only 41 at the time, and figured if she could do it, I could too.

We already had a Wii at the house, something my son used for games, so on a whim, I bought the Wii Fit board and Wii Fit Plus software. Little did I know that 11 years later, I'd still be starting each weekday morning by going through a series of yoga, strength training, and aerobic exercises. I can't tell you how drastically this affected me in a positive way. Previous to that, I'd been having to see a chiropractor on a regular basis; this allowed me to strengthen my core muscles to the point that not once in the time period since have I had those kinds of issues.

In case you're wondering, 4,000 days is 10.95 years. You're welcome.

Anyway, Monday marked my 4,000th day on the Wii. Other than times of illness or when traveling, I've barely missed a day. It's become part of my routine, and on days that I can't do it for some reason, I truly miss it. I'm convinced that regular exercise has also been beneficial to my mental state as well. I don't endorse many products, but I'm proof positive that Wii Fit is truly helpful for people like me who would otherwise never make time or effort to go to gyms or do other more traditional workout routines.

How About That Show?

Oh, right. So, between my greatly increased workload and too much stuff going on in general, I'd barely touched a guitar or sung a single note in the month-long time frame between my previous show at Hotel Chelsea and this one. Especially with my lungs acting up in recent times, I was concerned that I'd have serious problems doing an hour-long set.

But that wasn't the case at all. I did make it a point to warm up more thoroughly than I usually do, and everything went fine. Better than fine, actually; my voice and guitar playing both cooperated very nicely for the show.

I also had a concern that, after seeing I didn't have my pal Max Kleene doing the show in the slot before mine, I'd have a very light crowd, but that wasn't the case either. We had a nice-sized batch of people in the audience, and everyone seemed to be having a great time. The set was mostly made up of tunes that I don't do very often, including a couple of holiday-ish songs that I only do for shows this time of year, and it was good to dust off a few of those.

Trivia: Kat can't stand the song "Long December" by Counting Crows. I neither love nor hate it, but I do play it every December regardless. Photo by Kat.

One nice thing about Hotel Chelsea... I really never feel like there's any style of music that won't be acceptable there, and that they welcome everyone who comes in with no kinds of dress codes or other behaviors of exclusion. I play what I want, people can be who they want, end of story. Photo by Kat.

That's right; still masked, just like real life. When the time comes that I no longer need to wear a mask in public in reality, the mask will come off in SL as well (though frankly, I am beginning to forget what my avatar's face even looks like after almost two years). Photo by Kat.

How About That New Mixer?

Ah, yes. Between my last show and this one, I finally replaced the ancient Mackie mixer that had faithfully routed my signals for all of my SL shows and home-based recording projects going back to the early 2000s. The Mackie was still working -- they made very reliable products back then -- but it was slowly starting to run into problems. The left channel was becoming fuzzy and occasionally cutting out altogether, and this was beyond the point of being acceptable.

In mid-November, I bought a Soundcraft EMP8, an inexpensive but high-quality analog mixer. It seems everyone these days either a) doesn't use a mixer at all, or b) uses one that functions more as a control surface, with DAW interaction and onboard effects and built-in USB interfaces and so on. I didn't need any of that, which probably explains why the Soundcraft was so comparatively cheap. But I've used Soundcraft mixers for many years, going back to the late '80s when my college's recording studio was built around a large-format Soundcraft 6000.

I like the fact that the Soundcraft EPM8 is compact but has all the routing I need for pretty much any situation that I require on a regular basis. Oh, and faders. I missed faders.

I swapped out the new mixer and got it up and running in minutes, and was super impressed with the immediately noticeable improvement in audio quality and functionality over my old mixer. But there was one thing I'd neglected to do, which was to actually test the mixer for live broadcasts. I mean, I hadn't even plugged in a single cable until about a half hour before my show. Tsk tsk. This isn't what they teach you in audio school, I promise.

That being said, it worked like a champ. Ran my condenser microphone and guitar straight into it. Its outputs are normally back into my audio interface, and my broadcast software recognized the signal right away. It was super nice having full-size faders (as opposed to little knobs) to control my levels. That being said, right as I was starting the show, I immediately asked my audience to let me know if anything was sounding off... weird balance of guitar and voice, too loud, too soft, distorted or whatever. And everyone immediately responded that it sounded great, and that was all I needed to hear. Anyway, looking forward to many years of shows and music recording with this new machine.

December 8

Another note. Today, the day I'm writing this blog post, is December 8. I've written before about this date. I'm not a superstitious person, truly, but I've had an unusual amount of interesting things happen -- some good, some bad, some just plain weird -- on this day throughout my life. Notably, on December 8, 1980... I was 11 years old, and did my first big public guitar and vocal performance, i.e., the first Zak Show. It was a huge triumph for me, but on the way home from that event, we heard the news that John Lennon had been killed in New York City. I'm not going to dwell on it, but in years since, a number of odd things have tended to happen on this date. Hopefully, I'll make it through today without anything notable going on.

That's me, the fuzzy-headed kid in the middle. December 8, 1980.

Hotel Chelsea set list...

How Lucky (John Prine)

Shame Chamber (Kurt Vile)

Little Drummer Boy/Peace on Earth (Traditional/David Bowie)

Fade Away (Zak Claxton)

Here I Land (Nicholas Stevenson)

Fire and Rain (James Taylor)

Swing Lo Magellan (Dirty Projectors)

You Wreck Me (Tom Petty)

Peace Love & Understanding (Elvis Costello)

Long December (Counting Crows)

River (Joni Mitchell)

Swirl (Charlie Martin)

Huge thanks to everyone who came out for the show, with super duper extra thanks to the following who helped support it!

not4gods Resident, Camden Wrydan, KellyMay Georgia, Rusty Seisenbacher, Kat Claxton, Richy Nervous, Christine Haiku, noowun Wind, Alex Zelin, Trouble Streeter, my terrific manager Maali Beck, and Hotel Chelsea manager Shyla the Super Gecko!