Definitely a bit of an ego boost hearing total strangers (as well as decidedly unstrange people like
fancybred and simrob who showed up despite my ninja-like stealth, having seen my name on some poster somewhere) saying they liked my stuff. Of course I self-critically tend to focus on all the bits where I messed up, but whatever. More objectively, I do notice that I get more hurried when I play in front of other people, and aim for more note-dense fast pyrotechnics (which tends to lead to more mistakes) instead of paying attention to setting up some sort of reasonable dynamic structure across the span of a song, or making the melody actually sing right instead of just getting from point A to point B. Something to work on in the future.Anyway, it was fun! I think I may try hitting the open mic at Kiva Han next week if my understanding is right that they're having one.
Afterwards went to Mike Beattie's St. Patrick's Day party. Good to see
madmadammim and sackofbob and sweaterella and Dan "Dan" Fernandez and everyone else. 