What's the Life Span of a Butterfly?

As I think I've mentioned a time or ten in these pages, I'm a writer.  I do love writing, and am very proud of my two novels.  I get such a kick out of hearing from people who've read and loved the books.  Gives me a warm feeling in that special place.

But my bigger passion in life is music.  Given the choice of being a successful novelist or a successful musician, I'd choose musician.  Problem is, I never devoted the time and energy to my playing that I should have. Like many things in my life, I got to a certain level of skill, and just kinda sat there on it.

Earlier this year, I set this personal goal for myself of being in a band by the time I'm 45.  (And I turn 44 in three weeks.)  Well, I've come to accept that having this particular goal might be a bit too much, and that I was setting myself up for disappointment with it.  Forming a band isn't easy, especially (as Jeffry of The Kimberly Trip pointed out) when talking about musicians who've been around a while.  Young kids forming a band... that works, because they're all still musically exploring.  But once they've been playing for ten, twenty years... they're pretty set in their ways... so finding a whole group of them who can play well together, and like what they're all playing... not so easy.

So, this past week, I came up with another goal... one that's not a long-term thing like a band, but... well, lemme just tell you how I came up with this wacky idea.  Remember the Shannon Curtis show I went to on Thursday night?  It was actually a birthday bash for Jerry, the guy who books a lot of musical acts downtown.  He'd invited many of his favorite performers to do a show.  How cool is that?  Seeing a bunch of your absolute faves on one bill?  Pretty damn cool, I think.  I'd certainly like to see something like that.  And I pictured Roberta Chevrette, Shannon Curtis, and The Kimberly Trip all in one show.  Awesome!

This, in turn, got me to thinking of another birthday show I saw this year, where The Kimberly Trip played for their bass player's niece.  During the show, the niece actually sang the song "Supergloo" with the band, in place of Kimberlina.  And that's when my mind got all wonky on me.

You might see where I'm going with this.  Cardigan would have a birthday bash, with his favorite locals, and he'd play guitar on one song with each of them.

Told you it was wacky.  I mean, there's no way I could get all three of these to agree.  None of them have even heard me play.  And besides, I haven't played guitar in front of more than a few people at a time since... um... 1981?  Yeah.  Dumb idea.

But Saturday night, in a WTF moment, I asked Roberta.  "Sure!" she said.  "I'd totally be down for that!"  And in that moment, the butterflies burst into existence in my stomach.

The following morning, Shannon Curtis gave a tentative yes via MySpace message.  Assuming, of course, that her career doesn't have her in another part of the country at that point.

And today, via email, Jeffry said, "I'd have ZERO issue with you joining us for a tune...that would be RAD!"  With, of course, the same caveat that Shannon put forth.

I'm... stunned.  This went from half-assed concept to actual, confirmed plans in a matter of days. 

Damn butterflies.  Guess it doesn't matter how long they live.  Little bastards are just gonna breed in there, anyway.  I'm gonna be excited and scared to death for the next year.