So let me tell you about my troubles.
I like wall calendars and this past year I bought a movie monster poster calendar from the real golden age of such things – and they’re awesome and they’re salivating and there’s women screaming and weirdly-shaped space ships and giant bugs. And there are a couple of months that are too scary for my bedroom wall. Shut up. You don’t know. The monster for November is all slimy and toothy and moray eelish on top of it all and it’s just too creepy to be the last thing I see before I turn off the light.
And so I can’t flip the calendar away from October till December.
This shit is real.
Anywho. We’re headed to NERFA. We’re passing around New York City, watching the skyline make it’s way into the rearview. This takes a long time. It’s a big city. A cloudless blue sky just highlights the discoloured smog that chokes that town. We’re making our way from open patch of road to open patch of road, delayed immensely by incompetent chicken merchants in New Jersey, we’ll be early enough, but later than we’d like, and at a conference like NERFA where everything takes two or three times longer than you’d like, early might be too late.
What can I say? We’re popular peeps.
Damn the incompetent chicken merchants of New Jersey. Damn them straight to Hell.
Of course, working with incompetents in a New Jersey truck stop? Maybe they’re already damned and I’M part of THEIR punishment…
Rolling to NERFA! Kristen’s got work back home, so it’s just Heather and I. New York’s edges pretend NOT to be New York.
And then… NERFA Day 1!
The new (to us) hotel is quite beautiful. Cool indoor / outdoor thing going on with the central courtyard. Lots of space. But weirdly hushed. Still, it’s just day 1 and only half the people are here yet… Attending the DJ showcases tonight (performers selected for main stage slots by folk DJs throughout the region) I was really proud that the first artist to really throw down was none other than Letitia VanSant – Baltimore tis IN THE HOUSE. Another favourite – Grace Morrison we’ve known for a long time (to the point that neither of us can remember how we first met) and I’ve had her at Teavolve a couple of times to boot. A new find : Sam Steffen is a great writer in the vein of Bob Dylan – a true protest writer and an obvious respecter of the traditions of folk wrapped in denim and drawl. Jenn Armstrong! Promoter up here in the New England area and a good friend. We’re here! Huzzah! Getting the lists together for the NERFA open mics. Now it’s time to run around to the Guerrilla showcases – we drop in to support Kala Farnham… but it looks like she’s got an audience!
