:: anne in the attic ::

Create Your Own Countdown

:: Sunday, July 15, 2007 ::

Lately, I've really been enjoying the acoustic bass, playing with some new 3/4-time jazz licks, limbering up my fingers for camp in two weeks. I'm starting to get pretty stoked about it. Lark Camp takes place in the Mendocino Woodlands of California each summer around the beginning of August. This group takes over all three large camps, and I'll be in a cabin in camp 1, probably much like the one at left. I mean, even without the music, how can you not love such a beautiful place?

The cabins in camp two look a little more like what I remember from being there as a child, back in the 70's when the Unitarian Universalists and their "extended families" rented it out and gave workshops [maybe they still do, don't know] and we'd go up the week after Camp Cazadero every summer. I do remember the main hall in camp one, and the layout of paths and campfires, etc. I wonder if those will hold true. But I also remember a Sufi gathering in camp two one summer that was laid out differently. Each camp is huge-- to think our group will be taking over all three means this is quite the large happening. In between workshops, jams and meals, I will have to get in some hiking on the trails-- and document it in photos, at the very least. That's the camp one dining hall [c. 1935] to the right, and it's funny, but when I think of standing in line for breakfast, I remember that tree being to my left and even leaning against it at times. It has probably supported tens of thousands of backs over the years....

On the Lark website, there's a list of this year's staff, their areas of expertise, the workshops they'll be teaching this year at camp, and sound bytes of some examples. After poring over the majorly-packed schedule, the workshops I'm most drawn to are:

:: Italian mandolin & guitar
:: Basic swing bass
:: Old time harmony singing & back-up guitar
:: Women's barbershop chorus
:: Rhythm guitar [surprise, surprise]
:: Swing improv for guitar

There are so many others-- as many as three simultaneous classes from nine in the morning all the way up until dinner at six-- so I'll have to decide between swing guitar and old-time harmony & back-up, which are both at ten in the morning. *sigh* Can you say 'option paralysis?'**

I'm having a little trouble deciding which instruments will accompany me to camp. I've narrowed it down to three, but I'd like to take just two, as space in the Volvo is limited. It's either the Martin DM acoustic or the '65 Gibson J-45 as my main squeeze, and I think I'm leaning toward the Martin for durability. Though I love the absolute playability of the Gibson, I would worry about the effects of temperature and humidity changes on that 40-yr-old beauty, to say nothing of the usual camping dirt and grime. So probably the Martin will go, and though I've strung it with medium-gauge since I bought it, I might bring along a lighter set for tonal variety [I string the Gibson with Martin acoustic SP phosphor bronze light-gauge ONLY]. And then, of course, the acoustic bass will be going. I've decided that, as much as I'd like to bring the banjo to learn more about it, I feel I'm not yet skilled enough to jam freely with it-- better to use precious car space for something I'll really use.


**A term I coined years ago to describe the possibility of inaction when faced with too many opportunities at once.

:: Anne 9:17 AM [smartass remarks] ::
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