broken glass

I'm still pulling broken glass out of my ass. it was all over my driver's seat on Friday morning, on a rainy day in chicago. I planned on sleeping in, on my friends bed, which was very comfortable. I was woken with: "Hey... was your window broken when you got into town yesterday?" hmm... purturbed, I knew so I headed downstairs and out into the rain to investigate. well i knew before I got out there that my navi was gone and my xm radio. i was hoping they were in a hurry and didn't see the guitar and mandolin in the back. but they had. no guitar, no mandolin and everything electronic was gone. even my phone charger. (THEY'RE NOT UNIVERSAL, DICK) or Dick(s) as it were, a neighbor mentioned he had seen a couple hoodlums (fittingly in hoods) hanging out at the corner, and surely it was them that "got" me. I wish I had the forethought to take pictures so I can share my misery with you, but elected to clean out my car, and get it fixed as soon as I could, since I had a show in MIlwaukee this same night...

This is how the healing took place, chronologically:

-call and file police report
-make a claim with insurance company
-Vacuum out car
-get window fixed
-buy new phone charger (Sprint blows my ass by the way)
-buy new guitar and mandolin at Avenue N Guitars on North ave. (they really took care of me there) http://www.avenuenguitars.com/

Made it to Milwaukee with wet shoes and feet from running literally around rainy chicago all day, and just in time for soundcheck. Got situated (still havent put new strings onto the new Takamine EAN 40c yet, but should). My friend Rosemary, my official Milwaukee mother figure and promoter, brought out a bunch of peeps and the show went on, with an aggressive, tension-relief kind of setlist. and it started off with a shot of Maker's from rose's beau, Joe. Great way to start, and rocked it out. All was well, except the knots in my back from being tense and pissed all day.

got the chance to frolick around with the |Marquette kids and have a few cold ones. Then as the night wound down, I was informed of a run that was taking place early Saturday morning. at 10am. but we had to be up at 830 for breakfast... I seemed to have remembered bringing my running gear, even though I secretly never thought I would use it. so I pulled out my asics running shorts, and nike shoes, and was ready in the morning for the 5 mile run (or 8k?). it was in support of children's hospitals of Milwaukee, and though I didn't register, I still made it without stopping, and in 45 minutes. so 9 minute miles, which would have been slightly better had the course not had a full mile (mile 4) all uphill. so having not run virtually all summer, and the only times being indoors on a treadmill, the road kicked my ass and I am sore for it. but felt good that I got some exercise on the road and helped support a good cause in a very small way.

After I got cleaned up, drove across WI to Winona, MN to the old acoustic cafe that I am so fond of. got there a few hours early and was just chillin, waiting to set up and perform. but the wild card was this zombie pub crawl that I wanted to take part of, which was from 4-midnight on this night and winona is 3 hours from twin cities, which i quickly realized, and now I have to see if I can return all of the accessories I bought before leaving town (white makeup, fake blood, fake teeth, decorative moss, black liner, and fake brain) maybe next year zombies...

well i'm still getting over the loss of my guitar, which I played soooo sooo soooo many shows with. I was very comfortable with this guitar, and will miss her very much. lots of miles and lots of shows... I hope the crack that the thief bought with the money they sold my guitar for fucking kills them... I used to have an alarm in my prior HOnda Element but when I hit the deer and totaled it, that is one thing that was not recovered... the deer is still haunting me...

anyway, cutting the trip short by canceling the final two shows in Kansas just so I can cut my losses from this mishap and go home a few days earlier and sort things out with the claim, and money, etc...

life goes on.

upon entering Indiana

Okay, anyone who knows me won't take this the wrong way...

So I'm cruising down to Indiana to play at Anderson University yesterday, and saw something I had never noticed before... just as I crossed state lines, I saw a couple of interesting billboards. they were for two different bar/restaurant/club type places...

one huge billboard read: BUTT HUTT. which I didn't think was THAT wierd, but a little...

then the 2nd one was for a place called, simply: "GAY'S"

hmm... indiana... more liberal than we thought, eh?

the show at Anderson was cool, just like the past couple of visits. one perk is that they always set up someone, usually a student to play before me... and this one was really good. her name is jill potter. she was awesome and had a 3-piece set up with a banjo player and her friend singing harmonies. some great songs...

now I am in chicago, day 2 of the midwest swing. I have today off and am hanging at my friends awesome house. tonight i may go visit my old pal Stolie who is a great musician from chicago and she hosts an open mic in town tonight, so I might head up there and hang... tomorrow, round 3 at Marquette University @ The Annex... super excited. I hope some peeps show up. the first time through was awesome, the 2nd time was a bit rough, just a handful of people were there, but my friend and personal promoter is back in town and she always rounds up the troops.

my first visit featured getting scolded by a college girl for filling up my dixie cup at the wrong keg, which was followed up by my most accurate game of beer pong ever. so those two events were a wash... this one ought to be fun, who knows what will be in store when I am pretending to be a college kid again...

Saturday, a nice return to Winona, MN to a place that I have been playing I think since first tour, or even when I was still in college.... after that I am looking forward to my first ZOmbie Pub Crawl. i bought some makeup and accessories and i'm going to try to be a zombie somewhere in st. paul i think... after I play in winona, which is a bit of a hike, but who cares. you only live once, right? unless you're a zombie I guess..

then I hope to stop in Ames, IA to watch Vienna Teng perform on my way to Kansas. its not out of the way at all, so hoplefuly I make it...

as for the recording, in case anyone is interested, we have 4 songs done (almost). each song needs one element added or fixed aside from general editing and mixing, so once we do all of that, we'll have the album (essentially) 25% done? i don't know how many songs will make it, but we have at least 4, so that will be decided I guess sometime very far off from now. the songs we have laid down so far include: "Belong" "Conversation" "Peculiar Things" and "Stay 4 Hours."

and they are all sounding like the best recordings that I have ever been a part of, by at least 10x.

so as soon as we get a cut done which is mixed and ready to rock to, I will post it up on myspace...

-have a good one.