the most beautiful of days (lost entry)

*Big news on the Ingrid update: Ingrid did NOT write today...

I don't know if anyone can relate. but i am just having a great day. I just got back into town a couple days ago from a great set of shows... I met Citizen Cope, and got a chance to talk a little music with him. Amazing, inspiring performance from him, and I come home... and to cap it all off.... as if I haven't had a great enough couple of weeks... my roommate moved out today.

I didn't want to speak too soon, for fear that I would curse the act and that something might happen and she would somehow stay, but now, all of the unecesssary garbage and junk, and clutter and dirt is gone... It's unfortunate, that for the last year I had my worst roommate situation ever. as many partnerships, they have the honeymoon phase, and this one didn't last long. and I knew it wouldn't change no matter what. so I stuck it out. bit my lip, and finally this glorious day has come.

The best part is, i'm told she moved across the country, to a place where people like her fit in, because things aren't really real there... and the further the better. Without going into too much detail about my joy and the ridiculous happenings of the past year, I'll just list some adjectives off the top of my head which describe her:

Selfish, inconsiderate, rude, careless, irresponsible, unrealistic, emotional, impulsive, close-minded, immature... and that was just my stream of consciousness list..

ahhhhhhhhhhh (huge sigh of relief)

I've just eliminated the most worthless person that was in my life, and what a feeling. To anyone who may read. I've met a few people in my life that share some of the above characteristics and personality and character flaws. My advice when in this situation is just to sever all ties. I never have to worry about hearing from this person again, and to actually live with someone like this is really rough because when you don't have any sort of a grasp on reality, it's tough to communicate and understand these types of people...

I had to live in a pile of garbage, wrappers, junk strewn all over the place for at least the last 10 months, with no effort whatsoever to change it. Now, that all of her belongings are gone, this place looks like an actual home again, and I intend to make it so.

If you ever know someone who doesn't know what to do when the toilet is running (jiggle the handle??) or who throws actual garbage into a shower drain or flushes trash down the toilet, you know you are involved with someone who doesn't know how to live...

A waiver should be noted, don't worry, we were never an item or anything, it wasn't like a breakup. But as you can see I have tons of resentment for the ridiculous actions that have taken place by someone who, in my estimation, at times didn't even realize she had a roommate...

Good riddance.

Back to reality!

some post tragedy history/motivation

When I was at Wichita State University in Kansas earlier this month, I forgot to mention the historic site I visited. And once you read the plaque I snapped, you'll understand that dreams do come true...







Poor guys. They sold Pizza Hut for $300,000. But back then money was worth something. I like how they relocated the actual original HUT to show the students what a couple of WSU students could do. The started with $600. and it was borrowed... amazing...
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In other photos I dug up, these were taken as I cruised the highway (really safe I know)













I love what I do. if you read the blog I posted just before this one, I separated them because they have completely different tones to them.

the other one was pretty light hearted, considering people die all the time from hitting deer while driving. I usually don;t think about it, and I do take things for granted. obviously I could have been seriously injured or killed. I think what saved me was that I never saw the deer. I was driving, and then BANG. No preparation. I could have swirved, and maybe rolled over my car or ran into a tree or something. yes this is a reason start praying and shit. but i know it would just be temporary and i would just be going through a phase. I thanked the big man, and hope I don't have to hit another deer again, mainly because I wouldn't want to kill another one. I have no proof this one is dead, but judging by the state of my car, my speed, and the fact that my cars route was not altered at all, I'm guessing I took care of him/her.

it's something that makes you think. it was a big accident. I'm really glad that there were no other people/cars involved. I'll try not to think too much about it...

when I got home finally at 6am yesterday morning, i forgot all about it and smiled widely when my head hit the pillow. it was nice to be home. i love performing, cruising and meeting new people. i'd love to make the road home. I've said it many times. i love the interaction of shows and with meeting the kids who bring me in to play, but the communication i'm missing is when I am driving, hanging in the hotel room, having a beer somewhere or dinner. i'm sure it will come eventually. I just want to keep the momentum going, and thanks to everyone who has made each of these trips either just plain convenient or just plain memorable for me.

it is my pleasure.

Oh Deer! what happened?

I'll start off the blog with some photos:









and now here's the recap...

After Chicago, and after I got searched by cops and a drug sniffing narcotic k-9 unit. I headed to Anderson Indiana to play a little college show. The little coffeeshop at Mocha Joes in the student center was really cool. nice big stage and great sound... I even was treated to a great taco salad by jessie. So after I played I decided I could make it home by around 2am, and said, what the hell and went for it. so i put on my driving sweats and hit the road. everything was going smoothly. I made it very far, and was not even tired at all.

I think it was aroudn Albion exit on I-94 East, and I had just fuled up for the final hour of the trip, which I was sure to make given I wasn't that tired at around 1:30am. I got me a coffee, even though I didn't need it. just for the hell of it... got back onto the higway. found a great XM radio station... was jammin, singing, and then-



Oh the horror... I didn't know what happened. one second I was just cruisin, and the next. All I see is dust, airbags and hear bad noises coming from my car... oh yeah and a huge BANG preceding all that. So I didn't know what the fuck was happening, so I rolled down my windows to clear out some dust. I kept moving forward, albeit while slowing down, cos my gears were gone and was basically in neutral at that point. There were no other cars around. so I got onto th shoulder. and noticed a piece of my car hanging from the front driver side. couldn't figure out what it was though.

Called 911, a police officer showed up about 20 minutes later. I was still in my car, mainly because i was in rural Jackson, MI (not too nice of a town) at 1:30am on the shoulder and no lights anywhere, but also cos of a bit of shock for a few minutes. He examined my grill and told me that I had hit a deer.







so i called up my bro and he answered fortunately. and as expected, said, "i'm on my way".... about an hour drive. he picked up his resourceful friend Andy and they came to the rescue, but not before stopping at a Meijer to drop deuce side by side...

Here are some more pics that capture the night...








Then I gave my wonderful vehicle an almost sure "last goodbye"



Does the future look bright for the "perdiodic table of Element?"

baby why don't we go...

...down to Kokomo...

well no big updates from me i guess since last trip i took.

this one started with a radio show at Hamline University in St. P. the two hosts of the show decided on this night that, as well as host me for the night, they would each try to drink a gallon of chocolate milk during the show. needless to say, it didn't happen, however it was pretty fun for me to watch them almost throw up a couple of times, and i'm pretty sure their nights weren't as smooth as mine.

during the show, I got 3 texts worth of directions to my friend Gayle's place. this was my couch for the night. hadn't seen my old pal gayle in a while. she bought her own house. pretty excited for her. even though the heat wasn't turned on yet, i still slept well... just add a blanket baby...

The show at Hamline was cool. the group that brought me in, HEAT, also hosted a free coffee and caramel apples night. they offered fresh apples, caramel sauce and a variety of sweet, sugary toppings. everyone who was there seemed to enjoy it. the show was fun. this guy Guthrie jammed before me, and was pretty good, although he was ill. i jumped up real quick during his medley of classics, and sang a few harmonies for the lyrics, "don't know much about history, don't know much biology, but I do know that I love you..." etc. great song...

then he was nice enough to be my honorary band member for the night and he played "pile of gold" with me.

I like Hamline and look forward to returning in May for their party...
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Now we have Winona... OHHHH winona... well the turnout was reminiscent of when I first started playing there. alas, of the crew that initially made winona so magical for me, only 1 remained. kelly. she came out and brought a friend and the rest of the people stuck around for either the 1st hour or 2nd hour. so it was cool, and afterward they told me they were heading across the street to see this cool local band. so I packed up and met them up there. this band was awesome. it was actually the opening band... AND this bar (i think called draught house) NEVER charges cover and always has bands! what an amazing deal...

anyway the opening band was called "we are the branches" and they were really good. I especially liked the song, "i think i'm dead." though they had many other great ones. plus the lead guy had long curly hair and a beard, so how can you not like that?? I made a couple new friends that night, and slept on Nate's couch (the guy who set me up at Acoustic to play).
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Chicago, IL

got to catch up with a friend from college, my old linemate from the WMU club hockey team. unfortunately I quit on him my sophomore year, but i think he forgot about that. he and his wife erica have a 20-month old boy and this boy is the cutest. he took a liking to me, much like female dogs do... (not comparing the two of course) and showed me all of his toys. I found a couch once again. my friends have really been coming through for me this month. I really fucking appreciate it!! I hope not only to see them again soon, but to see erica act. she's in a production of "the producers" right now somewhere in chicago...

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bermuda, jamaica, ooh I wanna take you to key largo montego, baby why don't we go to... kokomo, where I got pulled over and my car searched by an officer and a narcotic sniffing dog!

TRUE.

Yeah I wanted to get pictures with the nice officers and the dog that sniffed out my car AND ACTUALLY BARKED, WHICH MEANS IT SMELLED NARCOTICS!! the officers were both really nice, and they suggested I check out this place Mike's Pizza in Kokomo, Indiana here where I have been using their internet for like the past 7 hours. sorry for the girl who was waiting on me, but Im giving her more than 20% tip and i ordered a pizza... even though I wasn't hungry... but it was good anyway...

One more SHOW for this leg. Anderson University in Indy here tomorrow night...

no couches tonight though... what the frik.

check out:

-We Are The Branches
-Mara Levi

good music... support indie music!

go away

*Ingrid Phone Call Log for Monday, Oct. 6th: Ingrid did not call today

It's freakin pouring outside right now. I'm in wichita. just played on campus at Wichita State this afternoon. It was a pretty cool afternoon gig. Similar to the Ole Miss deal but this one is inside... they put me up in this great room/apartment on campus. I walk in and everything's nice and then I look around and there's a kitchen, fridge, microwave. There's 2 bathrooms, and an office... it's actually technically student housing, but i guess they use this particular unit for out of area guests, etc... so it's pretty sweet. the unfortunate part is that I have all day here now and it's nasty outside. I don't feel like going out there at all.

yesterday, in order to get here, I had a 12 hour drive from Milwaukee. That, too, was nasty. it wasn't as rough as it could have been, but I just listened to the XM radio all day and tried not to get too bored. the gig at Marquette was awesome. I played at this place called the Annex. It's technically on campus i guess, but the campus is like right in the city of milwaukee almost downtown area. AND the Annex is literally right around the corner from the couch I was crashing on at my friends place...

a shout out to all the ultimate frisbee peeps and all the others who showed up for my first ever milwaukee show. I really had an awesome time and the singing the audience did during "the line" was pretty solid. right after the show I got the chance to speak with a young journalist, sarah, who writes for the marquette tribune, and she asked me all these questions that no one has ever asked me before, and it's not like they were crazy questions, it's just that no one asks. i don't do a lot of press. I wish I did, but, as I told her, I put all of my time into securing shows, cos if you don't get a show, then there's no reason to set up any interviews or anything... so it was cool. i kinda forgot how I got to this place, i mean from the beginning. why do I play guitar? why do I write songs? it would never have happened if I never received a SEARS guitar as a gift on my 18th b-day. so I have not forgotten that...

Friday night after a long day of ultimate frisbee and driving around milwaukee i decided it was time to get back to my roots and pretend I'm a college student. so I went out with rose and her friends and we just walked around and did a little party tour of marquette. a couple apartments, a couple of parties. played a little beer pong (and I was on fire by the way; only missed like two shots). then had a late night gyro and made fresh guacamole before passing out. just like old times I guess... i wasn't that drunk or anything, but, well... i wasn't sober. it was a freezing night too, and the weather is changing all around...

One thing I'm really excited about right now is that I am going to see citizen cope play a solo acoustic show in kansas city tomorrow night. he's one of my favorite songwriters and has influenced a couple of my newer songs: "dust" and "stay 4 hours." I got a 7th row ticket. I hope it's in the closest section to the stage. I can barely afford the freakin thing, but it's a nice pit stop directly on my way back home, so after that show, it will only be A 12 HOUR DRIVE. That's all. I just did one yesterday, so why not two 12 hour hikes in 3 days...

... fuck

Ultimate CROCS (and fuck politicians)

whew. need to rehydrate.... why, you ask? well just gone done running around with the baddest ultimate frisbee group between lake michigan and the mississippi. i played at IL ST last night and it was a pretty cool little coffeeshop, Cage II they call it. A great sound crew, including a closet drummer, Andrew who sat in with me on 'pile of gold' and played his heart out. and he didn't even get in trouble for it.

so after being treated like royalty in chicago my Hello Himebaugh, I ventured down to Normal, IL to play at Illinois State. Finally found the campus after making a few wrong turns. Still sporting the Crocs. I initially set up and soundchecked and was about to start until this freakin politician walked in with her big entourage and some ass-kissing followers. I think she is running for congress in IL and her first name was debbie. It was just hard to watch, she was saying all these political lines and it was such a cliche PR atmosphere and nothing seemed sincere at all.

I was worried that her politicking and all the people following her around would scare off all the students who might want to hear some music, so I jumped on stage and started in an effort to clear them from the room. as if my look wouldn't steer them away, I opened up with my song "backside" which is about the worthlessness of government in certain situations and how they are just a bunch of white guys sitting around, hanging out and making noise... and then followed that up with "the line" which has the lyrics: "you're really being a tease / for someone who's got a disease."

mission accomplished.

they filtered out and the students "flocked" in. there was a usual crowd for this tour of about a dozen. we clarified the proper response to "danke" in german, which is "bitte schon" thanks to the girl in the white for confirming that for us all...

i met a cool guy names d'andre (spelling?) afterward also and he's a pretty good singer and tells me he plays piano and has gained the attention and worked with some grammy award nominated artists... and he gave me a good tip on a cool open mic to hit up in Chicago next time I'm through town.

Now, to the current day. i got in touch with my friend Rosemary who has a radio show @ marquette and also she has a couch, so I got in touch with her and met up with her just in the nick of time to join in for her radio show with her two bros. her official title is traffic correspondent, but they don't really do traffic, so it';s just an excuse for her to have to talk less on the air, and cue up music when need be.

they had a great announcement in their booklet about my show tomorrow night on campus and they let me perform "backside" live on air since their topics of conversation on their 'talk' show was covering political topics. and they also played a couple of songs from low carb lp. it was an hour show and I got to chime in on a couple of topics as we passed the two microphones around for the 4 of us. and it was a great experience. ALSO, i met Selvin, the music manager afterward and he got my CD into their regular rotation... sweet....

so after the radio show fortunately rose didn't have any classes so we went to the hardware store to buy a hose and funnel and put a bong together. fun times, never done that before. I mean when I was in college the bongs were already purchased and assembled. and all for under $15. nice deal, eh?

she told me she's with this ultimate frisbee group who has practice today, and I decided to get a workout (as if 3 free games of bowling at illinois state wasn't enough; broke 100 all 3 times) so I went along to the ultimate practice. armed only with my crocs of course, since I still have no shoes for this part of the trip.

One of her friends loaned me a pair of his shoes, and upon chasing around this kid named Luke who totally schooled me a few times, the shoe ended up tearing open and my foot was like falling out of it, and I told him next time I'm in town, I'll hook him up with some footware. NOTE TO SELF: never come to Milwaukee again for this reason, or unless you are rich and can afford to buy him a new pair of shoes.

the practice was cool and everyone was really nice to me, and knowing I was playing in town tomorrow and just welcomed me in to their group and when push came to shove, at the end, I finally caught a pass, and made a pass to an open teammate for a score. I then promptly announced my retirement from ultimate frisbee to the group. it was a sad, and emotional announcement, but with all the memories and ups and downs, I decided to just go with my heart. And being in wisconsin, there's always that chance to pull a brett favre and reinstate myself and my decoy skills to the game... i have a lot to give...

we just got back from some free freshman dorm cafeteria dinner, and everything tastes better when it's free. i told all the crew I was rose's uncle, and a couple of them believed me I think. especially when I went to put some coco puffs into my frozen yogurt for dessert and actually couldn't figure out how to dispense the cereal. yeah its been a while...

touch base tomorrow or sunday after the show... thanks for tuning in with this edition of "To Catch A Predator, uhh I mean songwriter"

bitches love me

Ingrid Update: Ingrid didn't call yesterday.

OK, I made the drive a couple of days ago (13 hours) to Ole Miss University to play outside the union for their Union Unplugged series. This is one of the few shows/schools that I have played before, that I will be hitting up on this back and forth touring. Typically a nice day and this one was a little cloudy and brisk (which is fine by me) but I still got hot while playing... no matter what you do, if you're a musician, and play the devil's music, like I do, then you most likely will sweat up there...

So I thought that I was coming down before "Miss Ole Miss" was crowned. Last time i swung through there, they have a girl in a red dress, and a girl in the blue dress, and they're like campaigning to be Miss Ole Miss. So while i was driving down there I thought to myself, I'm going to write a limerick for the Ole Miss show, reflecting my admiration for the school, and especially the two gorgeous ladies who are running for this prestigious honour. <---- I love canada

anyway, so when I started playing, I mentioned the campaign, or whatever you call it, and they said it already happened last week, and the winner was chosen. I don't remember which color won, red or blue, but here is my limerick:

"I once played a gig for Homecoming
and the red dress, and blue dress were both stunning
but i voted for brown
and got run out of town
when I come back, you'll know I'm not slummin' "

In "things I forgot to pack" news: As I drove 13 hours to mississippi, and then checked into the hotel, and made several trips to the back of my Element to unpack things, etc... so not until the morning of my Noon show on campus, did I realize, while wearing my comfie CROCS for the drive, that I forgot all of my other pairs of shoes on my steps at home in detroit. This includes flip flops. So my big goal for this next week is to make the CROCS work for every show, and for everywhere I go in the next 7 days. 6 days now I guess...

So with crocs on feet, I was driving up to Illinois (a couple days early) from Mississippi and had now real destination. I texted my buddy Mike, from the well-known HELLO DAVE in Chicago. fortunately he texted me back and after getting the proper paperwork and sanitary clearance to have a guest (who was deemed a little hairy) I was granted not only a roof to sleep under, or a couch on, but a bed, AND.... wait for it... my own personal bathroom.

It started with my endless drive (Illinois is a huge state when driving from south to north) and when I finally arrived, I ended up waking up Daisy with the buzzer, so when I came up the steps she wasn't too happy with me... and Mike and I were both pretty exhausted, so we had a man embrace, and both said, "yeah I'm going to bed." so what happens first thing the next morning??

I'm walking down this long hallway and so is Daisy out of the room, and I startle her, so she freaks out and is about to attack me. Fortunately Mike was right behind and settled her down, and now Daisy and I are tight. To be honest: Bitches love me. I have a ton of great female dog relationships.

-My brothers dog, lola, loves me... absolutely goes crazy when I come around and wants to play with her favorite toy ever: my left hand.

-Bubs' dog, chloe, also gives a great whine and runs around in circles when I come in... but they moved to Denver, so I don't get to see her anymore. But if I ever make it back out west in the coming months, i'm sure she'll be happy...

See... bitches love me... and now daisy is the next on my list for me to woo endlessly until she can't wait til my next visit. I suppose the real task would be to get my own little bitch running around... we'll see... i need a road dog...

Headed down to Illinois State today to play there for the first time... sounds prety cool. Will be in touch some time in between tonight and tomorrow, when I head up to Milwaukee to play and hang out for my friend's radio show at Marquette to promote the show for Saturday...

Piece.

james