Mmm. Peppers just smell CLEAN. We’re driving East through Pennsylvania snacking on yellow bell peppers and listening to 80s music. Life’s alright. I question Heather’s “pepper dance”, but only a little. Truly, with all this sunshine and open highway we’ve got cause for mirth.
Last night was my Edith May’s Paradise open mic – good turnout, fun night. Good people. I always come out of that event with a good glowy feeling. It’s got it’s issues, mostly stemming from my own desire to either be a player or being fully in control of the evening, but for whatever misgivings I have going into a night where I know I’m going to do a little bit of headbutting every time once I relax into NOT running sound I end up really enjoying the night.
Ash came out with me last night and it was just pure joy to have him. I don’t know how he manages it, but he’s almost a 24/7 joy radiator and I enjoyed driving down with him listening to Sol.iloquists of Sound and driving BACK with him listening to Laura Grill and all the time in-between. He joined me to finally perpetrate “Superstition” Live and THAT was kind of bad-ass. We played a couple of tunes together – “Tuesday Lady”, “Slight Departure”, “rearview” on top of the Stevie Wonder cover.
DeJohn. Sarah Pinsker! Tim… not remembering his last night right – which is fine. We’ll see more of him in upcoming pages no doubt, over the time of our acquaintance however he turned out to be a racist misogynist so it’s okay that I’m not remembering his name I guess – rob 5/24/21 Georgie Jessup.
The night progressed warm and loud on the inside and cool and quiet on the outside – the mist descended into rain heralded by the dogs coming back from the yard all cold and wet. I Love having Blaze and Max… right up until they SHAAAAAKE the wet off. I tried to warn Ash in time…. I tried….
After the open mic we grabbed dinner at the Double T. I’ve been going there for years and years and the long-time staff there are known faces. They tend not to engage in conversation, executing the production and dispensation of adequate diner food with an efficiency that is only rivaled by the smooth gathering of remuneration after the meal. But though the servers are good sources of small talk, rarely do the greeters and front-of-diner staff chat much.
But this time, as Ash paid, the woman behind the counter read his name and pronounced it perfectly with all the little Arabic dipthongs and whatevers falling beautifully into place. Conversation blossoms from there and we discover that Ana (ah-na) grew up in Montreal where apparently a lot of Arabic is spoken. There are many words bandied back and forth and she turns out to have a degree in multiple languages in addition to having a Syrian brother-in-law. They get chatting about foods and various types of Arabic dishes, some I know, some I don’t. It was interesting to get so much background on someone who’s been a background character in my Life for maaaybe a decade?
Just a reminder that everyone has their story.
Today finds us driving to Connecticut. Again. We DID just do this drive – and here we are doing it again for the sake of the Connecticut Folk Festival and a house concert. I’m not UBER-thrilled to be doing a 5.5 hour drive today, but the weather IS beautiful and the truckers don’t appear to ALL be on crack today and so I have no real complaints. Happy New Jersey!
