Good choice? Bad choice? Tonight we stayed in Dayton, Ohio instead of making a 230 mile round trip to Columbus, Indiana and back. We chose to save $50 in gasoline and play an uncertain open mic, a hole in the wall spot called the Chapter II rather than go to a sure thing at the Columbus Bar and use that one opportunity to advertise at that venue. It was a gamble and we’re not going to know whether or not it paid off for a couple of days yet. We’re not going to know if it hurt us for a couple of days more.
OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Huh. Icarus at the door to our National Aviation Hall of Fame, hey? Seems pretty unfortunate. I think Heather was going to write something about this. Poor, poor, overlooked Daedelus who, you know… DIDN’T fuck up. At the National Air Force Museum at the Wright-Patterson Air Force Base they walk you through the history of flight – from the Wright Brothers’ first bicycles to the latest fighter jets. It’s pretty amazing. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA I didn’t know they’d actually BUILT “girocopters”. I thought they were an aborted line never fully-realized only remembered by the Dwarven artificers. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA Silver planes make for interesting photographs. We were rushing through the museum so quickly that I don’t actually have much else to say, unfortunately. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA With craft like the B2 bomber (above) and the next-generation Stealth fighter prototype to the right there, it’s no wonder the Air Force test ranges figure so high in UFO mythologies. I was wise, of course, and held my tongue about Hanger 18 while at Wright-Patterson. Military prison and MiB debriefing would’ve made us late for our next gig. OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERA I feel that this is unfortunate location for such a sober monument to man’s acheivements. Perhaps it’s a reference to being high? No, that’s just silly! We spent our last couple of ours in Dayton, OH at the National Air Force Museum wishing we’d allowed more time for it. It’s free and it’s awesome and it’s absolutely huge. We had about an hour and a half to devote to it.. The Apollo 15 reentry capsule. Carbonized and scorched, the idea of three men returning to Earth in a blazing plume to smack down into the Pacific ocean flat on their backs in this tiny, cramped artifact of 1960’s technology is absolutely terrifying to me. To be in the presence of it made me shiver. I’d always wanted to be an astronaut and having a father who worked for NASA made space seem both closer and further away. Sometimes it seems like our pinnacle of endeavour was reached and abandoned 40 years ago in a lie of an effort to reach the Moon. The Lunar surface was only a side-effect in our effor to deliver nuclear warheads to the Soviet Union in a ballistic package. Once we figured out how to do one we’ve not bothered to return to the other. Says it all about OUR priorities, I suppose.
I hate those decisions. I’m pretty sure we made the right one, but really – maybe neither outcome helps. We met some people tonight. Some have said they’ll come to our show on Thursday. One said he’ll make sure we’ll make it on to the list at a bar called Peaches tomorrow night. Another handed me a card and said he was there looking for talent and would like to “sign us”. Eddie had long silver flowing hair and hosts a blues jam that he’s invited us to. They’ll make an exception for our sound. No-one bought any CDs.
Tomorrow, we’ll go play Peaches, we’ll go play the blues jam. Exponential opportunity expansion. Open mikes 98 and 99 of the year. Then I’ll check out this guy’s website and see if I care whether or not he’s interested in us and whether or not there’s anything he can do for us and for that matter, if that crinkled and battered card that he took so long to dig up is even his. And we’ll try and sell CDs.
Wednesday we’ll see what comes to us and we’ll play and we’ll talk and we’ll see. Maybe we’ll sell CDs. So far we have enough money to get us to the next town. An intense Life indeed.
Thursday we’ll play at the Nite Owl. It was a last-minute show. It altered our course through Ohio and Indiana. We’ll have been working Dayton all week in a hope to get people to that show and maybe no-one will come. But maybe, just mabe, everyone who said theyd come out will come out. And maybe this time they’ll need to take a CD home with them.
Friday we’ll get to Columbus, Indiana and play a place that’s been dying to have us back. I hope they remember us. I hope that not reminding them who we were tonight isn’t going to bite us in the ass. I hope, I hope, I hope.