February 7th, 2021. Happy Birthday.

By the time I click “publish” on this it will have been a year since we were all last together. I would’ve been at the New Deal for a while by now. I like to get there early for shows so I can have a leisurely set up in the time that the backroom’s closed. Kristen would be with me and she’d probably be ordering food right about now. I’m probably loading in and done cabling the mics and Sharif probably rolled in, Rowan and Heather shortly behind him… and Joey will probably get there in just a couple moments… my mom would be rolling in shortly as well, eager to help decorate for my birthday.

I think she brought the party hats?

Hee! Heather got me a tall Sith Lord tool bin kinda droid thing, Kristen made pancakes and cupcakes and I got many, many well-wishers… but check THIS out from Chris and Joylene in Erie, PA!

One year ago today was a really good time. PJ’s kid dancing in the front insisting that I wear my birthday hat. A strangely empty night by comparison to some, all the regulars were someplace else and we had the place mostly just to ourselves and OUR fans – which meant the bar crowd was crowded out.

My mom brought over one of those Boxes of Crap that all parents have. Things their adult children left behind when they scampered off on their own. My mom’s sentimental and has kept lots of these boxes, though many of them have been through a bit of moist Hell. This one was mostly old art supplies and photographs, the former ruined by time, the latter partially salvageable despite it – but there were a couple of weird things that I figured should be thrown out but had such intense memories attached… a pencil sharpener, face paints – and this little hand-held microscope!

A year and a day since the first person died of COVID in the United States. Less than that since the first person was REPORTED to have died. Closer to 11 months since we realized the world really was about to shift and we canceled our gigs, canceled our tour, canceled our open mics.

We’ve been very fortunate as a band. We’ve slowly rotated through the entire lineup so we’ve all had an opportunity to perform at least. We’ve even gotten a couple of moments of quartet over the past year. But nothing compares to the sheer beautiful chaos of all six of us. And I don’t know when we see that again.

I don’t feel much older today. It’s that strange combination of things that I think most of us are feeling : somehow the world’s always been this way, somehow I can’t believe a year’s passed. We’re going to start hitting the “one year since this” and “one year since that” marks – one year since our first fans died, one year since we started performing solely online… one year of Live from the Lairs, one year of VOMs.

Rowan called today to wish me a “hopefully only this single one birthday in quarantine”. I can’t decide if that sounds optimistic, pessimistic – or just about right. My birthday was supposed to be a day of quiet retreat, a snow day of tea and leftover pizza. Alas it’s been a deal of sudden deadlines, drizzle and cold. But it’s still been a good day. I’ve felt useful. I like feeling useful.

Artem is a professor! That’s – kind of amazing. I met him when he was a quiet high school kid coming to my coffeehouse open mics and now he’s my go-to guy when I’ve got questions about audio and video that are high above my ken. He invited Kristen and Heather and I to perform at CCBC last Friday – t’was the first time we SORT of had an audience since we’d been outdoors this fall (well, by “audience” I mean “five crew people” or so) and it was odd to realize a) I wasn’t sure whether to sing to the camera or the people and b) I miss people NODDING ALONG to the music almost more than I miss the random sounds of applause!

upComing & inComing

1 thought on “February 7th, 2021. Happy Birthday.

  1. Susan says:

    I certainly cannot recall a time when I considered you useless in any way….And the opposite of useless is useful right? Happy birthday rockstar with all my love!

    Reply

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