February 5th, 2020. Today please. (oh, and Robb Johnson at El Golfo).

My computer is being horrible this morning. I’m watching the files from Monday night’s open mic sloooowly resolve, the progress bar craaawling, as I watch the files from last night’s open mic transfer from their various cards on to my hard drive… crawwwwling. Every once in a while I seem to do things in JUST the wrong order.

I know, I know, have I tried turning it off and turning it back on again?

No, because I don’t want to ruin the beautiful continuity of all these Lovely progress bars. Look at them, so filled with purpose, so pure in their knowledge of WHERE they are GOING – if not precisely when they will get there.

Coffee is complete. Breakfast is almost et. So my OWN progress bars are all reaching 100% at which point I’d really like this computer to catch up with me!

Ah, there we go. Audition is mixing a three hour long 12 channel audio file, Premiere is ingesting a three hour 3 camera shoot, I have 90 chrome tabs open and I’ve just finished moving 90gb of audio video files… so I guess the fact that it took a while to open 300 photographs in Photoshop I shouldn’t bitch TOO much.

But Task Manager shows I’m barely TOUCHING the POTENTIAL of this machine.

Move along little computer. Move along.

Last night was hit hard by a cold, cold, cold rain that came out of nowhere since February has been treating us with kid gloves recently (I wonder, is this a reference to the kind of gloves you’d use while boxing with a child or very, very soft gloves made out of a goat’s child? Neither way is particularly nice…) and now suddenly it’s allll SHITTY.

In any case, I had a magnificent list, filled with talent and I might even go so far as to say a legend here or there. My featured artist, Robb Johnson, was incredible and I wish I’d gotten a little more opportunity to just sit and watch him, but the list was not just filled with talent – but downright filled. I turned a couple of people away and I’m still debating when / if I really need to ask about starting the night earlier.

Robb Johnson

Robb Johnson was one of the few artists who broke through my jaded ears last year. He’s become a regular at Teavolve with his humble introduction of “music is the thing I Love most and I’m grateful to those who listen” and realizing that he’s faded in and out of my Life since College Perk days does all the more to endear him to me. Knowing that he’s planning to leave the area soon (and that he’s being kind of mysterious about where to next) means I really wanted to get a more-than-two-song slot out of him before he vanished. I was glad it all lined up. With vocals like Radiohead and a guitar aesthetic like acoustic Chris Cornell, he speaks to something inside of me deep in my formative years in the 90s, wailing with deep honesty and cracked beauty.

The El Golfo open mic is made possible in part through the support of Dave Eisner and the House of Musical Traditions. Our featured artists are supported through the generous donations of our audience! Gallery here : http://www.ilyaimy.com/wordpress/?p=16542

Video here: https://youtu.be/65hAF6–rik

The El Golfo open mic happens every Wednesday at El Golfo in Silver Spring, MD. Signup at .30pm, performances at 7.30pm. 2 songs / 10 minutes whichever’s shorter, with a family-friendly environment – and is hosted by rob Hinkal of the band ilyAIMY. Rob’s Open Mics were declared a National Open Mic by Shure Microphones, “Best of DC” from Dcmusicdownload.com and have received recognition from the Library of Congress.

Tonight we were graced with: