September 5th, 2010.

*To the right, Seth Horan performing at Milk Boy Coffee in Philadelphia, PA. We play with the coolest people*.

I would like to petition the Powers That Be for an additional day in the week. It would be a day off specifically charged with making sure that people who do a part-time job during the week and an artistic job through most of the weekend get a day off. In theory I got one of these this weekend (Friday! We didn’t have a show! MADNESS!!!) but really, by not using my Friday sensibly I’m now behind and kind of stressed out.

Beautiful ladies at our show at Milkboy. Unfortunately, when the three acts of the night all got there each of us looked at one another and said “I thought YOU were the local act”. We played to about 10 people. It was pretty sad. Still, it was great to see Seth Horan perform, good to spend the day with him. There is rumour that he’s moving to our coast. Shhhhh.

Of course, in order to take advantage of the day, I think there’d be a burden to demonstrate need, perhaps some sort of notarized copies of one’s Google Calendar or something, but then with that need demonstrated one would be provided some sort of dimensional key that allowed one to step into Vacation Space for 24 hours betwixt Thursday at 11.59pm and Friday at 12.00am. This would be excellent for the economy as a whole, because with the addition of such a Pocket Day I’d manage to catch up on sleep and with the remaining seven days of the week I’d find myself with the energy to go and DO stuff. I’d perhaps go to Hershey Park, because I’ve never been. Or I’d go back to that train line in Western Maryland, because it’s amazing. Or I’d host another movie night – but I wouldn’t be too exhausted to PLAN it.

This monster was waiting for us in the parking lot after our show in Philadelphia. He was filled with curious ruminations on the subject as to whether or not our heads would come off and what the innards would taste like

Yes. All-in-all, I think it would be best for all of us, the species as a whole, if I was given some semblance of control over the timestream. It would be the right thing to do. Please, contact your local Congressman or woman and inform him or her that Robert Hinkal of Baltimore, MD should be provided with control over the chronosphere. Assure them that I would do American things with it. Like buy stuff.

Already am. Thanks. I choose not to include the OTHER sticker which of course reveals that the rabbit habit mostly involves ingestion, rather than perhaps forming a great army of the beasts and taking the world by force and also storm.

This is all the long way of saying that we didn’t have gigs on either Friday or Saturday and I managed to get very little done and am STILL tired. These were the last days off until October 29th, which should be used to practice in any case. Yes, some sort of shoehorn day needs to be placed into the rest of the week. Or maybe a whole Pocket Week at the beginning of every month.

I fear the Convincer. Whatever it is. I think it’s a seatbelt simulator of some sort. I can’t see how it’s POSSIBLY safe. So I guess I’m already convinced. We passed this somewhere on the highways and byways of Connecticut and I looked it up online later. It didn’t really have much discussion as to what it was or what it did to you (just referred to it as “the Seatbelt Convincer” but it had a schedule of lots of local county fairs and suchnot. Meep.

This morning has dawned spectacularly. The sky is cloudless and it’s beautiful in the same way that a flawless-skinned celebrity is beautiful: perfect and entirely without depth. The colours fade from that pale almost-white at the edges, fitting so perfectly into the omnipresent Maryland flora of hardwoods and concrete, and then fading up to a deep blue that hints at the fact that if I would just spend more time staring at the zenith of the sky that I’d forget gravity and slip and simply float away.

Hee! A pseudo-Hang drum! I’ve never seen one out in the wild before. This guy surprised me by the haunting melodies that he drew forth from this instrument at the Vanilla Bean open mic in Pomfret, CT. The whole night was filled with great music. The host, Eric Paradine, was his usual mix of charm and beautiful guitar proficiency. I think that this crowd could count as one of those groups that I’d gladly transport to Maryland. Of course, I’d pack them into Victoria Station first…

There’s a lot of appeal to that.

Last night we went to see Brennan’s band, Petalblight, perform at Teavolve. It was a tiny crowd but a good show. Perhaps the tightest I’ve ever heard them sound, with a better sound balance than I’d heard previously. Elliot, who plays the upright bass, is a beast. He’s not afraid to be downright acrobatic on his fretboard and I’m quite familiar with the workout he’s getting. He almost seems more appropriate to some sort of rockabilly act and I expect at any moment for him to swing his instrument around in a full spin. I suspect the only thing holding him back is the cables.

And speaking of haunting, the beautiful Kala Farnham performing as the co-host at the Vanilla Bean. I’d remembered her as having a Lovely voice and as a writer of wonderful things, I’d forgotten that she is so striking and about the size of my thumb.

It was good to park somewhere and NOT worry about how far we were going to have to walk with amplifiers and guitars. I think that I’m really, really tired this morning. I’ll have to find some pep, some zest, some vim and perhaps some vigour between now and the show at Cyclops tonight.