Ah, alcohol, the drug of choice is hung like a badge from the exteriors of houses. In California, PA – most mornings have a Morning After kind of feel to them. People are obviously hung over and not ready for the sunshine. I don’t understand how people can be so bored with their Lives that this is the only entertainment they can find. Shame the one video store went out of business… Sharif mentioned that they clearly need some video game tournaments… of course he’s biased, but it’d be interesting to see an alcohol company vie with a video game distributer for ownership of a college town. Of course, the latter would eventually lose as it doesn’t assist in getting people laid. 
After making it back from our 65 days on the road, I’m almost euphoric to be back in Owings Mills. Sharif and Rowan come back to the house with us and we sit and play Wii long into the night, eating and occassionally throwing M&Ms. Life is very, very good. (and they wore their wrist straps! GOOD Rowan! Good Sharif!!) 
Life is really good right up to the point you realize your enemies ride upon the roads.
I’m moooooody today. Probably, I’m just tired – but possibly I’m annoyed. I’m sitting at the New Deal Cafe for the Green Man Festival and wondering about things like new management and Celtic music and sleep deprivation and Goths and people who gripe too much about their parents on Mothers Day and police officers and what kind of dog I want when I grow up.
Clearly, I have a LOT on my mind.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA 
A general. Definitely. 
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA 
But my people wander the fields, so that’s aight. Though this grumpy beast has been caged, many more roam free. The day after we came back from the Beeeg Trip we went to the Sheep and Wool Festival and petted everything in sight. I petted sheep and Loved sheep and ate some sheep and all in all had my way with the sheep. The rabbits, however – well, that was more of a pilgrimage sort of thing. I had to continue my search for troops and generals for my rabbit army of doom. 
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA 
A goat! I Loved his tiny hooves! I wanted to take him with me but that would’ve caused great consternation to all parties involved. 
Came home to put stuff on Orion, because they wouldn’t let us put stuff on the fancy bunny beests.
Last night Heather and I played at the West Side Cafe in Frederick, MD. It turns out that we were the last performers that will ever play there. Unfortunately, this was not information that was made available to me… I wonder if we’d have had a better showing if that had been an advertisement point… I doubt it.
We had a wonderful artist guesting with us for the night: Amber Rubarth is simply one of the most beautiful women, Loveliest voices, BESTEST (yes, it’s a proper word when used with enough enthusiasm) songwriter… we met her in Boston, saw her last in Austin. She’s just moved from LA to NY and came down just to play this show. To five people.
Heather and Rowan join forces with the Dreamscapes Project before we hit the stage at Whitlow’s on Wilson in Clarendon, VA. 
Heather and Keith Center from the Dreamscapes Project (he’s from the DsP, not her, obviously) communicating telepathically through the medium of my electrical tape.
Damnation – I mean, yeah, I was embarassed to have a tiny audience, but we’re all professionals and we all know that such things happen. But mostly I was disappointed because I wanted to show her off… I spend a lot of time traveling, and as we’re traveling I think things like “my friend back home would Love this bar, coffeehouse, mountain, goat”… but chances are I will NEVER be able to take them on a road trip, or convince them to travel – most people are generally pretty sedentary. The one thing I really have the chance of bringing home to show people other than photographs are the other performers we encounter, and Amber is simply one of my favourites. The five people who came out know this, but any number of others will never know. I just hope she wasn’t turned off from returning and playing with us again…
What’s nice about artists that admire one another, is that we’re playing our hearts out for one another – we might even want to impress one another – so even sans an audience, I think we performed really well.
Today we’re at the Green Man Festival – at Roosevelt Center outside the New Deal Cafe, but as I’m constantly reminded – NOT a New Deal event. I’m sort of disappointed with how things are going today… not from the Green Man’s end, however. The festival is great: there’s more people tromping through Roosevelt Center than I’ve ever seen before, the music’s great, plenty of artists and stalls of crafts and even the weather is perfect.
Unfortunately, the new management at the New Deal is completely failing to take advantage of it. They don’t have additional staff today to handle extra orders, they’ve run out of most of the most popular food items – I’m really, really disappointed.
As far as I can tell, they’re really struggling to make ends meet right now, and today, not only have they tossed away an opportunity to make quite a profit, but they’ve given a terrible impression to perhaps a hundred first-time customers.
Not cool.
Even though New Deal politics are something I’ve long avoided becoming embroiled in, I’m tempted to go scream at someone. The New Deal is something that I Love, and if it falls apart through poor management rather than the inexorable tide of economics, I’m going to be damned disappointed.
Well, at least Jeff is running sound. That tends to make EVERYTHING better.
