hitting on servers is tacky and classless

hitting on servers is tacky and classless

The show at east stroudsburg was pretty tight. thankfully, there were students around and hanging out at the common grounds, and after loosening up a bit, the show took off and was pretty fun. I had a chick names samantha I think come up and play the djiembe during "pile of gold" and she's not a drummer, but she played her heart out, and I think it was all right. I hope she wasn't too embarrassed about being up on the stage.

*I forgot to mention about the guy that played the djiembe at URI. I think his name was Dean. great hand drummer. he was doing all these great fills and the ending of the song had never been tighter. he was all over it. I told him I'd hire him for the next tour*

anyway, so afteward at esu the gracious kids who stuck around all came up and bought some cds and helped themselves to some jimmyatto swag. you know, the frisbees, the cups, stickers... and I only had TWO chapsticks left. so they all had a rock-paper-scissors tournament to see who would get them. it was single elimination best 2 out of 3. it was pretty fun to watch... then they took a bunch of good photos, and i wrote them a few little messages all over their newly acquired items... YOU punks are supposed to send me pics!!

they were really cool though. then, as it was the last show for a couple weeks, I went and had a beer at a place called FLOODS. it was pretty cool.

Drove back home yesterday morning from 9:30am til about 6:30pm and arrived just in time to meet up with my friends for dinner. at the restaurant they were trying to decided whether or not our server was cute (a girl) and once I rejoined the table after scattering sunflower seed shells all over the bathroom, I put my two cents in. she is cute. so my friend adam is married, and my friend KG, she likes chicks, but they both decided that I should be the one to hit on her... for whatever reason, maybe cos I'm single... seems pretty simple I guess... so I just started making an ass of myself and was reiterating to my friends that flirtng with a bartender/server at a restaurant under most curcumstances, is really tacky... especially if the person doesn't initiate the flirtation <<<------ just invented that word.

*Besides, I'm taken... I'm with Ingrid now... (see profile picture) Note to self: make sure to notify Ingrid that you're with her now! oh and record the song you wrote for her!!

put your two cents in... I look forward to hearing from you.

undies

mmmm... a hearty hello to you from East Stroudsburg, PA. If you don't know where East Stroudsburg is... to give you an idea... it's juuuuussssssttttt east of Stroudsburg, PA.

arrived in town really early today. I thought I had like a 5 hour drive in front of my (stopped in NYC last night) and it turns out it was like 90 minutes.... so fortunately I got to check into this hotel here early, and finish my sleep... let's recap:

After Maine, I travelled down to Kingston, RI and played at a coffeeshop on the campus of URI. The kids there were great. There were a couple of bands opening up the show, and I enjoyed them both...

Aldridge: (I don't know if they have a myspace)
Bathe & Hint: www.myspace.com/batheandhunt

So I was thankful that these guys opened up, because they brought in some peeps for me to play for. and to the ones that stayed all the way through on a monday night... THANKS!

I played pretty hard and was sweating pretty bad by the end of it, but as I said in Maine, if you go to see a band or singer and they're not sweating, they ain't trying...

So after Kingston, I decided to head down to NYC to visit a couple of friends. I got in touch with my friend kelly, who works at a men's underwear company... and seeing as how I am running low on boxer-briefs this trip, it was a perfect idea. I visited her office, and she showed me alot of mens underwear and gave me a goodie bag full of great items to try... but no european style guys, cos well, i would just never wear them, unless I was dating some european chick or something...

after that we headed out to the crocodile lounge to get some beer and free pizza! If you're in NYC you know about this place, but i didn't and we walked up to the door, and the guy said, "sorry we are currently closed, power is out" which totally sucked, so we scoped out the 176 other restaurants which were on the same block, and decided on a sushi place. This place was funny, they say "sushi is always 50% off every day" but they just list their normal price at 2x normal prices and i guess it sucked us in, and there were a lot of people there so i guess it works... good sushi... and edamame... pronounced /ed-uh-maym/ bitches...

so after sushi we were walking by crocodile lounge again and decided to go in there cos their power was back... kelly bought me a beer and the pizza that came with it, and I ate it all of course... right after the sushi settled. and she sent me on my way back on the subway, all alone in the big city...

I then took the train back north and met up with my friend Andy, whom I had not seen in a while, but whom I have crashed with on a couple of prior tours... he is an actor out there, and is in a Musical Improv Group called "VEAL"

www.myspace.com/vealimprov <-------- check 'em out

tonight is the final show of this leg of the tour... i'll be back on the road in about 2 weeks heading down to Ole Miss, and then back up for some midwest flava...

see ya...

1-2''

yeah... or should I say, "Sheah!" its just yeah with a "sh" in front. i sometimes answer my phone "shello!" usually when it's someone close to me...

so I found this little college yesterday called Thomas college in waterville, me. It reminded me of just like a large high school. when I got their for dinner, they took me into this dining hall, which i believe is the only one on campus. I passed the student center right when I pulled into campus because it came up so quickly, and I knew I passed it because soon thereafter, i was at the end of the campus.

while we were eating (we = my escort, amber, and I) it;s like she knew everyone around us. I thought, well maybe she's just a popular cat. but actually it's more like everyone kinda knows one another. not really well, but you probably know the face if you don't know the name....

on toward the show. i wanted to catch a screening of "don't mess with the zohan" that they were playing, but it was cutting it too close to soundcheck, and I didn't want to leave an adam sandler movie early.

I forgot to mention my introduction for the show at Orono on Tuesday:

"And now, the only player in Maine hockey history to take his skate off and try to stab someone.... Jimmy Atto"

which leads me to the Thomas College introduction by a guy names Dayton:

""... and now for your viewing and listening pleasure, a 3 hour lecture on british literature between the years of 1879 and 1917. Here is Jimmy Atto."

I needs to think of a good one for the next two shows of this stint, and also the midwest shows coming up at the end of the month.

it was pouring though last night. the forecast was 1-2'' of rain, which did fall, and didn;t help for the attendance, but a few brave souls walked to the student center and stuck a round for a while... some until I finished. I performed my first mandolin song live at Thomas as well. (Note: i had a mic set up and my mandolin ready to play this song at Orono, but simply forgot to, sorry Black bears)

Now today, Sunday, I did shower today, the remarcks on Low Carb LP about never showering on Sundays... well, i think things have changed in the years since that album, so yes, nice and clean today, although just sitting on my ass all day and watching baseball and FOOTBALL. 1st week of the season today, so I'm pretty psyched like a lot of sports fans out there...

LIONS LOST!! They suck, and always will, but i always secretly pull for them. What do you expect when you spot the falcons 21 points in the first quarter, that's like the ultimate worst possible scenarion in a quarter of football, so surrender 21 points and score none. the only thing worse than that would be to somehow score negative points in a quarter, and although this has never happened in NFL history, if there was one team to finally do it, score negative points in a quarter.... it would be the Lions...

My aunt has season tickets, and when she invites me, I never turn it down... so what does that tell ya? I like watching sports live... hopefully their opponent will be good when that does happen this season...

i wrote my song for ingrid michaelson. It;s completed, and a great song. I intend to record it somehow and sometime soon, and then send my sis to see her when she plays in ann arbor in November (I'll be in carolina), and convince Ingrid to either date or marry me...

i think i have a chance...

Periodic Table - Tour Intro

hiddely-ho neighbor! from Jim Flanders over here. Hanging at my hideaway in brunswick, maine right now. Playing a couple colleges out here and catching up with my friend, Whit, who went to college out here and found no reason to leave upon graduating. and I cannot blame her. It's a beautiful peaceful town, and really just asthetically beautiful anywhere you look. Yesterday, working my way down from Orono, where i played Tuesday night, I sold something on eBay to a guy from Maine and decided to hand-deliver it to him, so I did that, which to me is kind of funny. I didn't meet the guy, not that i care, but he probably may have been surprised to see a bearded fella with a honda element pull up and drop off his item.. and not a UPS man or someone like that...

Went down to the little dog coffehouse for some internet and smoothy action in downtown brunswick, and then to Joshuas (our old stomping grounds) for some dinner, and finally made it back to the hideaway...

the show at Orono was pretty sweet. I had an amazing grilled cheese with tomato and bacon, and some great soup, but the capper to the meal was this new thing I discovered, called a whoopi pie. it's like two soft chocolate type cookies I guess, with some sort of white cream in the middle... and dang was it good. apparently they're pretty big in Maine... I had never heard of them until now.

The actual show started off with some technical difficulties, but once the crew switched out the mixing boards, we were off to the races. and what an honor it was to actually kick off the CAB programming schedule for the semester. Karl and Melissa from CAB were great, and even gave me my own "java jive" coffee mug. so I repaid them with some jimmy atto official chapstick (which are running low, so I can't just give 'em away to the masses anymore)....

This was my only repeat school of the fall's current schedule. I'm really excited to be playing at Thomas College this Saturday, cos I've never been there before, and hopefully it will lead to some future shows down the line...

let me list to you all of my "firsts" that have taken place in Maine:

-first and only state I have ever been snow-shoeing.
-1st time I have ever had a whoopi pie
-1st and only state where the students in the audience pulled out their cellphones during a song and waved them back and forth in unison during what was deemed as a "ballad-esque" or "lighter worthy" song. and apparently with the school frowning upon open flames, as well as the students likely lack of lighters, the cell phones are now the new lighter. (it took place during "dust" by the way... newest song)

now that I can understand some words from the kings of leon singer, I hereby recommend the song: "fans"

enjoy.