Top o' the hill to you

12/11/09
Friday morning
San Francisco, CA

Just back from a walk around the hill. Some days life really is just a walk in the park. Neighborhood’s still changing. Today I saw a Land Rover & an Audi parked in front of remodels at the top of my street. Used to be mostly jalopies all over the neighborhood. Some of them might have been mine, I’m not saying for sure, but… alrite, I confess I named my green F100 The Incredible Bulk and bums would use the bed for a bench because the tailgate went missing.

Today some guy was being picked up from the yuppie mansion in the aforementioned block by a limo with smoked out windows. Back in the day there was a crack house across the street and another one at the corner up from his house. “Course during prohibition we had bootleggers. When I first moved to the neighborhood even taxi drivers got lost on our convoluted narrow streets and the cross street was a drop off point for stolen cars.

Now we have a dog park with a drinking fountain for the dogs, one for kids and one for the bigger folks. Only the spigots for dogs and kids are working. We have our priorities. The New York Times writes us up and now tour buses go up there to show off the view. ‘sAlrite, a city always has changing tides & I’ve been bobbing up & down on the waves of this city's history for over 30 years. And people still drive the wrong way on our one-way streets, but nobody comes knocking on the door claiming they need money for Pampers and then turning down the package I have on hand.

In guitar news, I’m still working on healing my left hand, probably have to get sprung from OT and get another cortisone shot soon. I sure wish those tendons in my thumb would calm down! Meanwhile, I may only be able to play one note today, but I’ll make it a good one.

And I’ll take the time to say hey as I pass by.
See you in the music.

Uke 092609

Uke 092609, originally uploaded by ninajosmith.

I've been fooling around online enough today, time to get back to practicing uke.

update

It's been awhile since I've blogged here. Been a few places & back again. I'm still trying to heal my hand, am between bouts of OT, waiting for Brown & Toland to approve another 8 sessions. Meanwhile, ow.

I did get to go to Hawaii for Joey & Takako's wedding last month. Can you believe that sunset? That was their wedding day! While there at Turtle Bay I had an amazing Lomilomi massage where Lei (the masseuse) tied my Psoas muscle in a bow around my neck. Couldn't believe the intensity of that massage, and it was truly the massage of a lifetime. Worth the trip to Oahu for that alone!
I continued on down to Pahoa for several days. Lee was very close the whole time.
I picked up a ukelele in Kona. I've arranged Make Love Not War as a raggae song and am working on a new song inspired by the wedding. (The Lee Side of Love)

Thunder? Storm!

I've been bouncing around the state recently, San Francisco, Ojai, Big Bear; even bounced over to Alabama for awhile to launch my People Places & Sings project. It's a slow cookin' backwards tour.

In LaFayette, Alabama, Janice Key-Walding, The Southern Herbalist, graciously hosted me. It took a couple of weeks, but the trip bore a song called Snake In The Rafters (true story.)

Thanks to Deborah Crooks, you can read more about it at: http://deborahcrooks.blogspot.com/2009/07/nina-jo-smiths-people-places-sings.html

Still working on healing my sprained ankle. The more I hang out with it up on the back of the couch, the better it feels. I'll spare you the technicolor photo.
Instead, here's one of my friend Elisa playing the grand old Steinway at SF's Cadillac Hotel.

Got to see Sonja & Patrick yesterday and subjected them to the icy-wind torture of walking on otherwise beautiful Baker Beach. I love that place for the obvious reason of its natural beauty, also because something special seems to happen every time I go there.

As I reflected on their visit, I was thinking we didn't see anything especially remarkable (unless you count the nude sunbathers....). Then I realized what was special was our being there together!

Wonder of wonders, I'm no longer locked out of my blog.

Here's the Reader's Digest Condensed version of an update since my last posting: I retired from my day job to pursue my music. About that time I developed hand pain that kept me from playing guitar for about 8 months. Grr. After a lot of work to heal, I'm gradually getting back into playing guitar.

I'll be the featured performer at Hotel Utah Open Mic on April 27. This is the liveliest open mic in San Francisco, without a doubt, & I'm really glad to be back.