Bizarre dreams last night. Bizarre and AWESOME. I dreamt that I was Captain Malcolm Reynolds and that I was in a large field. There were multiple dimensional portals shimmering in the field with me and my new-found friends, the bridge crew from the Enterprise-D had been lost and scattered amongst these various portals. Most of my retrievals (the counselor, Riker, Captain Picard and Worf) were easy – I’d just sort of duck into the portal, grab them by the shoulder and drag them back out again. The real problem was Beverly Crusher.
Dr. Crusher had gone to alternate Washington DC which had a large waterfront where she’d managed to get out to a large spit of stone that extended out into a large harbour out in front of the Capital building. This wasn’t the problem. The PROBLEM was that Chinese destroyers were parked off the coast shelling the city, so I had to avoid lots of military traffic and incoming artillery as I made my way out to her. Lots of sheltering from explosions and shrapnel.
This weekend we’ve driven up to New Haven, CT in order to audition for the CT Folk. We knew a LOT of the people in the room including the woman above – Kayte was a real surprise – being someone we’d last seen as a semi-regular at the College Perk open mic years ago – back when SHE was in high school. This trio met and started playing together before I was born and I am constantly stunned by the effortlessness that can be brought to an instrument by people who’ve been playing THAT long. A lot of incredible energy just POURED out of them. One of the most unique acts of the night at teh CT-Folk audition in New Haven, CT. Kindred Queer had two great vocalists fronting the group and a really nice groove. I’d like to get THEM down to Baltimore!
Definitely woke up with one of those confused “where the Hell did THAT come from?!?!” feelings. We stayed with our Connecticutian friend, singer/songwriter Curtis Brand, last night and he was sort of stunned… “you dreamt that in MY house?!!?”
We’ve driven all this way initially for an audition for the Connecticut Green Expo and Folk Festival – Curtis has arranged for a house concert tonight to make it a little more worth our while as another booking for the weekend had fallen through. It sounds like there’s good response despite the fact that it was sort of thrown together at the last minute. His house is BEAUTIFUL though, off in the woods of Connecticut just outside of the college town of Storrs.
Last night we did the “audition” which was actually much more of a “best-of submitted music” show. It was a packed house and 11 artists vying for 4 spots. It’s kind of a cool idea and makes for one Hell of a fundraiser for the festival (something I might want to steal for Takoma Park Folk Festival in some way – especially since we stipulate ALL LOCALS and wouldn’t be putting this burden on anybody from too far away). It was a beautiful setting and we got fed lots of vegetables and hummus – the talent in the room was pretty amazing and we knew a LOT of people there. I think we performed well but it’s anyone’s guess as to who they’ll select.
After the show we drove up to Storrs and were suddenly reminded that it was Friday night in a small college town – we did a lot of slalom driving, avoiding weaving college kids walking all over the streets. We pulled into Curtis’ place a little before midnight and were happily led to our beds!
Today we’ve rearranged some furniture for the show tonight and wandered off to a sister-to-the Vanilla Bean restaurant called Dog Lane Coffee. Really cool space, same great food – and wonderful in-house ginger lemonade. It’s a sunshiney, stunning day and we’ve spent much of the day just sitting in sunbeams getting some work done and playing Scrabble in between emails.
Life’s none too bad.
