Today is Tuesday, June 20, 2017 and it is a DAY OFF.
Oh man, oh man. Our friend Alissa made a big batch o batter for the couple of days we’re staying with her here in Toledo, OH and both mornings our first task is to get up, get the griddle good and hot, and make waffles! Truly – I need a waffle iron! (morning of June 17th, 2017.)In Toledo, Alissa took us to the Toledo Museum of Art and we spent a good amount of the day wandering the rather labyrinthine galleries in a broad exploration of everything from classical Roman and Greek sculpture, to ancient Egyptian mummy cases and modern pieces wrought in neon and videography…. above – just a stunning example of how a sculptor, dead for millienia, was able to make stone feel light and translucent… fuck Atlantis – truly, here is the wisdon of the ancients.I discovered a couple of new-to-me painters (I was particularly enamoured with Lyonel Feininger an American Expressionist painter, as well as Anton Mauve and Paul Signac – moody masters of paint and light) and rounded the corner to be captured by one of my all-time favourites Anselm Kiefer – a man who’s work literally reduces me to tears. Joey was really fascinated with old works bringing religion and the presence of the old gods into the room (I think he’s worshipping at the feet of Sekhmet above)… really amazing collection, organized in a way to get you lost, turned around – constantly moving from time to time to era to era in a disorienting but beautiful swirl. (Toledo Museum of Art, June 17th, 2017)June 17th at Swig was the longest of all the nights on this run – a four-hour bar gig in the sweltering, moist heat of Ohio in summer. It was kind of brutal, kind of exhausting – and we were very glad to be able to get Joey to swap over to guitar for a short set of HIS tunes. In hindsight I feel sort of guilty about this – but he’s full of vim and vigour and definitely in the best shape of any of us. He can take it!ilyAIMY performing at Swig in Perryville, OH on June 17th, 2017. ilyAIMY cruising on down the road somewhere in Indiana.over the course of this trip we’ve crossed innumerable Main Streets, Washington Boulevards and about 20 Martin Luther King Jr somethingorothers. ALL good names. Imporant names. Glad tto have’m – but SO glad when SOMEPLACE gives us something NEW!!!It may not look like much from the outside, but up this hill in Bloomington, IN is one of our FAVOURITE places to play!I Love performing in artistic spaces, and our friend Caroline’s house in Bloomington, IN is one of the most artistic of spaces ever. The house is designed by an artist and built from the studio of an artist and filled with art from all sorts of artists – and on June 18th, 2017 we got to fill that artistic space with our own art, playing our little hearts out. It’s a good day.Our friend Jennie Williams is a transplant from Baltimore, MD attending graduate school out here in Bloomington. She graciously consented to opening for us at the house concert on June 18th, and even sat in on a couple of our songs on mandolin!just having a good time on the highway.Yup, that’s for Sharif. Sometimes you’ve just gotta take a sunshine selfie!Heather soundchecking at Evangeline’s Music Bistro in Saint Louis, MO – our first show rejoining with her and our last one before flying Joey back home – June 19th, 2017.I found this little bell in the grass near a local coffeehouse here in Belleville, IL (and it’s not till I typed that that I appreciated that). Heather and I wandered our hosts’ grounds ringing it, but found no cats or faeries… which I THINK is what we were looking for? Bamboo faeries?
