2023
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February 21st, 2023. The Open Spark w Elena La Fulana.
My friend Ana’s in town from Sweden and caught me kicking off the evening. Newcomer Charles. He says he gets up at like 3.30am which is madness personified, and said he wasn’t going to be able to stay – but he was so struck by the music (and who wouldn’t be) that he stayed up…
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February 18th, 2023. Get out the way.
Holding lyrics for Gabrielle Zwi at the FocusMusic Annual Meeting at El Golfo in Silver Spring, MD on Sunday, February 5th, 2023. It’s not a big deal, but it’s what I could do. They were squinting at the lyrics on the stool in from of them*. I’m in a band with two sexes, 4 races…
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February 14th, 2023. The Takoma Open Spark w Dan Hovey.
No-one photographs the photographer. Erik Sharar hanging out behind the scenes. You might recognize his name as the guy who took the last batch of “real” ilyAIMY promo-pics. We do this every Tuesday at the School of Musical Traditions at 7112 Willow Ave, Takoma Park, MD. Signup at 6, music at 7, moderately family-friendly, 2…
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February 12th, 2023. It’s been a good week.
My birthday week’s been amazing. Sunday I hosted the annual FocusMusic meeting and showcase, and though apparently I BLUSHED under the attention, a lot of people made a big deal out of my work in the local music community and I got a big bonus. Yay! Berfday bonus. The day was full of highs and…
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February 9th, 2023. Burning.
NOTHING like a hug and a song from Marc Evans for your birthday!! (at Takoma Spark in Takoma Park, MD on February 7th) It’s been a day. And not a particularly good one. It’s been a week. And that week’s been similar to this day, though there’s been high points and low points and everything…
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February 7th, 2023. rob Day at the Spark.
Nothing to do with my birthday. Probably older than me. A cool art-deco fire hydrant in Silver Spring, MD. Today I’m 48. What a strange concept. There were days, years and decades I didn’t think I’d make it this far. I guess now it’s my responsibility to make it to my NEXT “real” milestone, “as…
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February 5th, 2023. Focusing.
Herb Levy, FocusMusic. February 5th, in my role as FocusMusic’s Executive Director, I hosted the FocusMusic annual meeting and jam. For the first time in two years we were back in-person, looking at one another’s smiling faces, making bad jokes and eyeballing one another’s drinks trying to figure out… “now, was that MY water or…
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January 31st, 2023. The Takoma Open Spark w Juels Bland.
We do this every Tuesday at the School of Musical Traditions at 7112 Willow Ave, Takoma Park, MD. Signup at 6, music at 7, moderately family-friendly, 2 songs / 10 minutes / 1 pun whichever’s shortest unless we’re feeling generous. A very sparse night which made me really sad. Juels Bland, our feature for the…
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January 30th, 2023. And now we don’t.
My technology is a difficult mix o’ stuff. I perhaps get unreasonably annoyed when people contact me when I don’t want to be contacted. In all fairness, it’s not like I have “office hours” in practice, much less, posted anywhere. I’m a musician and artist by trade and most people expect me to keep odd…
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January 29th, 2023. And now we rest.
I was fearing this weekend. Not hugely. Not terribly far in advance. But I was concerned about it starting on Tuesday when it turned out that some sort of miscommunication meant that we had THREE gigs this weekend, not “merely” two. Now – in the Before Times I’d not have thought twice about this. Hell,…