This is a reanimation of the Vicaribus blog as lived by Miro Kazakoff and Ehren Foss in 2004 and 2005. The photos may be spotty.

And a pinch of salt

Posted by Miro

Tonight we’re eating seared wild pacific salmon, braised leaks and lemon rice. I was quietly thrilled to stand over these beautiful pieces of odorless wild salmon and sprinkle kosher salt across them just like the TV chefs do. The fish monger in Bandon told me that whichever agency controls the salmon fishing in Oregon is about to cutoff the supply of wild salmon for the year because not enough have gone upstream yet. I’m more excited than I should be that we got some before the season ends. It’s half the price of the same fish on the east coast.

I don’t share any of this with Ehren. He knows we eat better than we probably should on a bus. Sometimes I’m not sure he’s happy about it. But he dutifully does the dishes without complaint, no matter how many I soil (except the one time, due to bad planning, I used every pot and pan we have). And he eats every single thing I make, though he does so almost always without comment positive or negative. Scratch that. He’s too classy to ever be negative, and earlier this week I got a “good soup” about the Vichyssoise.

I’m haltingly trying to teach myself guitar. I picked up a beginner guitar kit at the Walmart in New Orleans (small size guitar, tuner and 24 picks). I’m not nearly as far as I should be in 5 months, but I didn’t practice from February through late April. I’m putting in concerted effort again, but it’s a slog. I figured the guitar would be a good choice because it’s a social instrument, good for playing and singing, and one can get easily to a competent stage (e.g. playing simple songs).

All easier said than done, given that I have poor fine motor skills (see my 3rd grade art report card) and no sense of pitch. Still, my hope is that with unbelievable amounts of practice I can manage to both play and sing (simultaneously) the easiest of beginner songs. In preparation for playing and singing together I’ve been practicing singing to myself in the shower and on walks alone. I pay special attention to trying to stay in key and get most of the words right. I think my ear is good enough to catch myself when I slip off key, even if I can’t always correct myself properly. I know however, that I’m singing many of the notes wrong. Hopefully if it sounds okay to me, future audiences will forgive. I don’t even have the range of JJ’s old eight-note cookie monster piano: the one where the eye’s would google every time you played a note (the harder the playing, the more googling).

For my practicing I’ve been alternating between the Alfred Max guitar series and the free guitar lessons on About.com. Alfred Max emphasizes picking individual notes and learning for to read music. About.com teaches basic chords and sends you off to play simple versions of camp fire classics. I know realize that they’re campfire classics because they’re easy to play on guitar.

I’ve really just started in on practicing chords over the last week. I can now play G major reliably and get C & D major right about 70% of the time. As a reward, I decided to do a very slow singing and playing version of my first song, “Leaving on a Jet Plane.” Pray that I never “reward” any of you in a similar way.