I have a cold. It’s been a year since my nose staged its last rebellion, and I’m working hard to put down the insurgency before I start performing again in a couple weeks.
This month I’m playing a band show at Broad Street Cafe in Durham on Jan 24, as well as solo gigs at Six Plates Wine Bar, Fayetteville’s SFL&A Architects, and the lovely little sandwich bistro Nosh. As always, details are at the Shows page.
To my NC Triangle friends: Festivus has passed (*), and this Thursday Dec 18 I’m playing in Durham at Six Plates Wine Bar from 9-11 pm! Come out, sip wine and have something to eat from their gourmet kitchen.
It’s located just around the corner from the Duke Medical Center on Erwin Road. For directions, go to the Shows page and click on the little globe icon. See you there!
(*) for the orthodox Seinfeldians among you, yes, Festivus is Dec 23, but I played a Festivus benefit event for Traction last week, and they are apparently reform Seinfeldians, so they can celebrate Festivus whenever they please. Why do I bring up Festivus? It was the last time I was in Durham, that’s all : ) Alright, enough with Festivus. See you Thursday!
My computer just shuffled and played me “Way I Am,” by Martin Sexton, followed by the instrumental “Horn,” by Nick Drake. It was the same melody, in the same key. I am shaken.
From the Finger Lakes up the snowy highway to Watertown, and back down again to the Village in NYC: that was my experience in upstate New York this past Monday and Tuesday. Visited with friends in the city, met a whole bunch of people and lived the indie-songwriter version of Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. Everybody I met knew somebody I knew.
On Thursday I paid shocking amounts of money to the toll trolls of the New Jersey Turnpike Authority and reached Maryland with no delays, while listening to Chop Chop by my friend Shwa.
After three or four years of playing at various locations around UMD, I finally made it to the lunchroom stage, and it was good. Only half-kidding. The gigs I play are not glamorous, but I do really appreciate having a room full of people to play for. I’d rather play in a full cafeteria than an empty coffee shop.
Tonight I was back in Durham, NC and played at Festivus celebration, put on by Traction. It was a rainy night and I had trouble finding the Chameleon Building but the SMS Googl text service set me straight. Feats of Strength were represented by Dance Dance Revolution and the Airing of Grievances were written. They had a skillshare auction, including “how to make granola” and “advanced knitting.” I played music in between raffle and auction announcements.
At the end of the night, it was nice to have only a half-hour drive home. Durham Tractivists take note - I’m playing in the Bull City again in two weeks, at Six Plates Wine Bar on Thursday Dec 18.
Today I played a little 3-song lunchtime set at FLCC to promote my evening show, then sat in my car by Canandaigua Lake and listened to Laurence Lessig discuss copyright on NPR, which is actually quite a nice thing to do, if you get the chance. Tomorrow I’m playing at Jefferson Community College in Watertown NY for lunch and heading down to NYC to play at Kenny’s Castaways that same evening, then a couple days off and I’ll play at the University of Maryland on Friday on the way home to NC.
Thanks to Steven Snedeker for this awesome image, and best wishes to you all for the holiday!
My two days at home are up and I’m off to the great upstate of New York to seek my fortune. I leave behind memories of laundry and a lovely little show at Whole Foods in Chapel Hill where I met a woman who saw me accidentally eat a moth onstage several years ago. I’d forgotten what exactly happened and she was able to fill in the details I had blanked out. Also, hello to the DSI improv wonderkids who came out on a rainy night to see me. Now I gotta pack some longjohns and get ready to hit the road. APCA Northeast, here I come!
Just arrived in Iowa. It is cold. Some of the corn fields on the way in were still standing, long past harvest season. I feel sorry for the corn that doesn’t ever ripen and get eaten. Makes me feel like an emo farmer.
Tomorrow I’m putting on a warm coat and heading up to Coralville, Iowa for APCA Midwest. I’m showcasing Monday afternoon. If you’re going to be there, we should make a pilgrimage as a group to the terrifying Ronald MacDonald statue carved out of a stump. I don’t want to visit it alone.
If you’ve driven south from Charlotte on 85, you’ve probably seen the giant peach. That’s where I’m going first. I’m heading down to play at Limestone College tonight at 9 pm, then I’ll be driving back up to the mountains of Western North Carolina for a show at Lees-McRae College at 9 pm tomorrow. Then it’s off to Iowa on Sunday. I’ll let you know how it all goes. Talk to you later, Internet!
The cc flickr image above is from jimmywayne22.
