Okay, so anyone reading the Journal is probably ALSO on the mailing list, so you’ve already seen this – but I think it’s an important thing to keep in ye ole archives – so here’s an excerpt from an extra-thankful upDates…
Wandering and Wondering:
Well my friends, may I kick these musings off with a hearty HAPPY MOTHER’S DAY to all moms in general, and two moms in particular…. Well – maybe four moms in particular. Crap. Five.
First off – Happy Mother’s Day to Joanna! Sharif’s wife will be celebrating her first Mother’s Day this Sunday – their kid Alexi doesn’t probably appreciate it yet, but he’s the cause of a whole lot of joy both in the band and outside the band, and he continues to impress me by being able to sleep through our band practices. Second off – Happy Last Mother’s Day as Not A Mother to Kristy – Rowan and Kristy are having a kid and we’re just so happy for them! Kristy, of course, appeared on our last album cover with ANOTHER friend’s child (happy Mother’s Day Tori!) because no ilyBabies had popped out yet – but if we were to do another CD cover NEXT year, we’d have a surplus of the little buggers crawling around.
And third and fourth off – a special shout out to MY mom who just took a steel pan playing class (sounds awesome, did it sound awesome? How was it mom?), and a special shout out to Kristen’s mom (thanks for putting us up in Connecticut – great to see you!) and Hell, while we’re at it, FIFTH off – happy Mom Day to Mara (Heather’s mom) who just gave me the most exquisite quilt. It’s even got an ilySpine on it and is the most snuggly of things that I own.
Okay – enough mushy crap. Almost. Also I wanted to heap some more congratulations upon Rowan Corbett – not only is he about to be a Daddy (Daddy Ro?) – but his gigging with the Carolina Chocolate Drops has been going really, really well. He’s bonding and playing and touring and we got to catch him at one of the premiere clubs in Washington DC, the 9.30 Club, early this month. It was an absolutely amazing show and no small part of that was the sheer energy that Rowan brings to the band. It was a spectacular show and though we miss him while he’s away, we’re finally finding our schedule-footing and Rowan will be joining us for a number of shows over the summer and coming fall. (two this month!)
Wandering the marvelous environs of First Acoustics in Brooklyn, NY. Dancing and prancing with Coco Wilde of First Acoustics and Brian Gundersdorf of We’re About 9 in Brooklyn, NY.
Let’s keep chatting about my bandmates for a sec: Sharif has been on the ground floor of getting a new venue up and running, and it’s getting closer every day. Keep your eyes and ears peeled for the coming of The Board and Brew in College Park, MD. I’ve been working the specs for the sound system, so I know it’s going to be a great place to catch
music, and Sharif is going to be managing a lot of their restaurant aspects so we know it’s going to be a great place to eat – Brian et al are ALSO putting a lot of care into their primary selling point – over 500 board games! I celebrated my birthday there and am sad that it’s not officially open yet, but when we’re finally able to share The Board and Brew with the world, it’s going to be EPIC. Like them on Facebook to keep track of how they’re coming along – (Pictures from rob day)
Moving from bandmates to housemates – a special congratulations to Mosno Al-Moseeki who’s new album “Novella” is being released at Teavolve on Saturday the 31st. The CD’s amazing and draws from all sorts of multi-cultural sounds, stories and artists and I am proud, proud, PROUD to say I was the recording engineer throughout the entire project. Capturing the performances of djembes and banjo heads and narrations and guitars, harps, saxophones, French horns – this is an amazing album from many different points of view – and the CD release show (being performed by Mosno’s Greek Nubian Collective) is going to be stunning as well. It sounds like they’re already taking reservations for the night – so you might want to get on that… I’ll be running sound to boot, so I get to be in the front row! (yeah, that’s not the BEST place to run sound from, but it’s what’s happening). More about that at mosno.net.
Ugh – I’ve got a lot to say – but I’m not done yet! Artem Bank! He’s almost done with doing remixes of the ENTIRE ilyAIMY “Another Life” CD. His reimagining of our music has gotten me head-banging to ilyAIMY again.
We’re not quite sure what we’re doing with this material yet – but we’re not going to keep it quiet. It’s probably the best thing that’s happened to the band’s sound since Kristen Jones!
Okay – let me wrap this up – congratulations to ME – my speech at the Library of Congress went swimmingly. If you want to hear what I had to say, you can find that in the Journal here. My Shure-sponsored open mic at Teavolve (one of 48 open mics across the country asked to participate in Shure’s National Open Mic Night) was glorious, and you can find videos and pics of THAT night here.
And finally, let me once again thank Keith Center and the Dreamscapes Project for making us part of their special farewell show. April 19th was an incredible night and I’m not too manly to admit that I cried a couple of times. The Dreamscapes Project was an amazing band, and it shall be missed. Read more about THAT here.
Okay – I think it’s clear that that’s enough out of me. Greetings from slow and crawling traffic on I-95. Drizzle is degrading DC’s speed in all ways and brake lights are determined to stand betwixt Kristen and I and Takoma Park. Grey skies won’t get me down though… if I need to smile, I’ll just re-read what I just wrote and be impressed at how amazing our Lives are.
-rob
ilyAIMY
Somewhere on I-95, MD
reveling in the feel of sunshine and wind on the drive home.
What is it that we think this street sign in Brooklyn is trying to tell us?
