Ice. Ice and snow. Good morning retail work that gets me up and moving to the DC area from Baltimore at 7.45am on a Tuesday morning with sleet-covered roads and ice-encased car. Highway signs that generally encourage me to be highly suspicious of my fellow human is instead recommending that I be highly suspicious of my surrounding road surfaces and thick sheets of ice come flying off the top of ill-cleaned cars as I guiltily listen to a couple of chunks launching from our own conveyance.
Maryland’s ice storms are things of beauty, if you don’t have to drive in them. Later today the sky will probably clear and the trees will glitter like diamonds and spread rainbows across the region. Everything is glazed and shimmering. My sci-fi self likens it to the Predator’s stealth effect – which it is almost entirely not like.
It’s been a quiet start to the year – 2011 was welcomed by a Pot Luck Open Jam, but other than that and a house concert we’ve been mostly lying low. It’s been absolutely delicious to actually have a “weekend” like normal people have. I’d never trade playing for such a wonderful rest, but there was a happy coincidence of lack of gigs and lack of anything ELSE to do, and it gave me a taste of what all of the hullaballoo is about on all the radio stations every Friday. All that whistle noise and “Thank God” stuff and the rush home. Even just doing some house work was a welcome thing. It was just so… normal.
Of course, normal gets old fast. I’m working on booking our next round of shows out Westish, delving into our new NACA membership. I haven’t decided if it’s worth the price yet, but I guess if we get two bookings out of the whole process, it will be. We’ll just see if we get those two bookings. I get burnt out reading through and listening through the booking requests I get for the Java Mammas open mic feature. Weeding through the generally inappropriate requests made by people who haven’t looked at the venue at all. I hate that – do your fucking research. Java Mammas is an inappropriate spot for your 5-piece screamo band!
I worry that I might do something similar with these colleges – at least on the surface. I’ve got information about what they’ve booked in the past, how they spend their budget, who theoretically books what kind of programming – and ilyAIMY really can fit anywhere. We’ve played alongside death metal bands and traditional Irish players and national touring folk artists and rap starts and we’re funnier than most comedians…. Hey college booking beest! How do we convince YOU of this?!!?
