My wife's the bestest

Every so often it's important to recognize!



Beautiful, talented, sexy, smart and an awesome mom to boot.

We've been together for eight years now, and married for just about half that. (Our four year wedding anniversary is in September.)

Salut, the Stephanie!! :) The pipples love her, and so do I!

Jesse Kates * www.sexyaccident.com

Cracker = Popcorn?

So, when a 19-month old says "popcorn" it can sound a lot like "cracker." This is critical, critical information. Why? I'll tell you why.

Last night Toby started yelling from his room after he'd been asleep for a few hours. This is unusual, as he's a great sleeper. It was about 11pm and Steph and I had just gotten into bed. After he didn't calm down right off, I went in and talked to him. He asked to get up, I said no. I offered him a hug, checked his diaper, his temperature, the usual. He seemed a bit cold, so I went and got him pants, put the pants on, and then asked him if he could go to sleep now. He said "yeaah." Which I thought was pretty cool. And he seemed to go to sleep.

Not so! At about 11:40, he started yelling again. We called gently from the other room, tried to calm him down without giving him too much attention, etc. He didn't really sound distressed, but he also didn't stop. At midnight I went in to calm him again. Gave him a hug, put him back down, asked if he could go to sleep now. "yeeaah." Great!

Not so! At 12:20, the yelling resumes. This time Steph bails and goes to the attic. He's calling "momma," so Steph says a quick goodnight through the door. Again, this is all very, very unusual for Toby. He's usually a great sleeper. The yelling continues. At this point, I really don't want to turn this into some sort of "get daddy to come into my room over and over" game, so I wait him out. Finally, at 1am, after he's been yelling for 40 minutes straight while I lie in the bedroom next door listening, I decide to go in one last time. He's been yelling at the top of his lungs for more than an hour all together, so I expect him to be pretty upset.

Not so! The second I'm in there, he calms right down, and in a perfectly normal tone of voice says "up. cracker cracker cracker!" I of course say "no, it's time to go to sleep. I'm not coming back in here. Can you go to bed now?" He says "yeaaah", lies down promptly and gets quiet.

I have no idea if he woke up again because at that point I joined Steph in her studio upstairs and we both slept in our old bed, tossing and turning in the heat, until he woke up around 5:30 for the day. Needless to say sleep was pretty crap.

So... where is this going?

In the morning I woke up and stumbled downstairs. Toby greeted me with "dada! cracker!" Well at least he's consistent, I thought. And I wondered if it was healthy to be so fixated on crackers. He was eating them, though, so at least his needs were being met.

After we'd been up for a while I heard the sound of him moving something heavy and made of glass, which always gets one's attention. He had found our empty popcorn bowl in the TV room. We had made popcorn the night before when we watched a movie. And he started saying "cracker cracker cracker" very excitedly. At which point I realized he was saying "popcorn popcorn popcorn." And at which point I also realized that at least 60% of the yelling last night, and my night of crappy sleep, was caused by the smell of popcorn in the air, which apparently drives Tobias into a frenzy. He LOVES popcorn, and gets very excited about it at playgroup every weekday.

So, the lesson? Make sure he's warm enough, of course (which is difficult in an old house where the nighttime temperature fluctuates a lot.) But more importantly, don't ever EVER EVER cook popcorn at night.

Now you know, and knowing is half the battle.

Jesse Kates * www.sexyaccident.com

Maybe I should break down

and start stealing music. There's a bunch of new stuff I want to get, but I have no bones!

First there's the new Spoon and Wilco discs (the Wilco stuff isn't even that new). And I want to get some stuff by the Belles. And then there's this $60+ set of player piano compositions that Steve Albini recommends that I'd really like to hear.

Gosh darnit! Buy some T-Shirts, peeps. This boy needs some inspiration.

Jesse Kates * www.sexyaccident.com

OK...

...I can't stop listening to this new song (see last blog entry). It's totally fuxing awesome. Doug and I put it down to "tape" on the mobile recorder last night at practice and It's been on repeat all morning.

Can't wait to play this one live. It brings a completely new flavor to The Sexy Accident.

Jesse Kates * www.sexyaccident.com

Finally!

As of about 10 minutes ago, I've finished writing the tenth and probably final song for the Sexy Accident's second album. It's a big weight off my shoulders. The first nine came pretty easily over the past year or so, but knowing that I only needed one more for the album (I like ten song albums) has kept me semi-blocked for the past two or three months.

I've been writing lots of stuff, usually starting with guitar parts, but hadn't hit that magical combination of catchy and interesting until now. That's what I'm always looking for. Most of the ideas that I discarded ended up being a lot more complex than what I kept. It just goes to show that simple is often best, particularly with this band (though honestly, are songs with choruses in 7/8 really that simple?)

So, the tenth song is called "Gardener, gibbet, misery" As you can guess, it's not a peppy number, but it's actually quite pretty (in a sad way) and probably contains my most acrobatic set of vocal lines yet. It'll be a nice counterpoint to the mostly driving/energetic material I've written thus far.

So, the ten songs (in the order they were written, not in final track order) are -

1. Glory be
2. Dancing with my friends
3. Stall
4. Morning drive
5. Abigail
6. Skies
7. Flirting with disaster
8. Lonely days
9. Hey you
10. Gardener, gibbet, misery

Despite the order in which they were written, some of the "oldest" songs are actually the "newest", because we never stop tweaking them as we rehearse and play them live.

For example, "Glory be" has been completely rearranged from the version that we first played at the American Icehouse last July. They only thing we kept is the lyrics. We're still making changes, too, and will continue to do so up until (and possibly during) our October trip to Electrical Audio.

I can honestly say that this is the best set of artistic work of any kind that I've ever done in my life. I hope I can keep outdoing myself in the years to come.

Jesse Kates * www.sexyaccident.com

Woo

The show last night was fantastico. We played well, and everyone was bouncing up and down. It was great to see some good friends in the crowd, too, and to meet new peeps. And of course the ever-capable Dave Gaumasterflex handled live sound, endowing us with the strength of eight gorillas each, at least.

For those keeping score, the setlist was:

Bottled in Glass
Abigail
Stall
The more things stay the same
Glory be
Starling
Hey you
Dancing with my friends
Flirting with disaster
Morning drive
Lonely days
Skies

12 songs (and only three from our first album!) It went by in a blink. It really was a fun show. I haven't listened to the tracks from the mobile recorder yet, but perhaps I'll post a few up.

This marks the end of the "first half" on our journey towards album-recording preparedness. Everything seems to be coming together very well. Wish us luck for round two!

Update: Google helped me find this unbiased account of the show!

Jesse Kates * www.sexyaccident.com

Aye, verily - The Brick, This THURSDAY

Yon Sexy Accident shalt smite The Brick this Thursday after the sun hath set in ruby currents (at 10pm) with YON THEORY OF THINE TONIC OF MEDICINAL-NATURE (the Medicine Theory) and HARK FOR I HAVE CROSSED MANY LEAGUES IN MINE BOOTIES (Overstep) ! Blood shalt run like maple syrup and the dead shalt tarnish thine mail with perilous and sparkle-y flame.

Forsooth, yay verily The Brick canst be founde betwixt 1727 McGee St. sur downtowne KC, MO (map)

Hast thine ears been denied the pleasure of our warbles? Harken to a small companiondom of living RECORDS from the VAULTS -

Flirting with disaster, Lonely days, Skies

May hope and honor garnish thine table with mushrooms and fresh relish,

Jesse Kates * www.sexyaccident.com

ALL AGES show this Saturday

7 Bands. 7 Bucks. 7 o'clock. 7/7/07. A lucky show, yes?

El Torreon. 3101 Gillham Plaza. (map)

Haven't heard us yet? Listen to a trio of live recordings from our last show -

Flirting with disaster, Lonely days, Skies




For the 21+ crowd, next Thursday we're hitting the brick -




Jesse Kates * www.sexyaccident.com

What I'd want her to know

That I'm not mad
That I know she's not being mean
That I really did want to be spinach for her (as in wholesome, healthy, kinda bland)... perhaps it was a bad omen that it was a bad year for spinach
That I have no complaints
That I'd try to be anything she wanted me to be, including spinach
That all I've ever wished her is happiness, and that will never change
That even though I have pretty much everything, it doesn't mean I don't notice something when it's lost
That I will always honor and respect her wishes, especially when they're clearly articulated. :)

Jesse Kates * www.sexyaccident.com