February 18th, 2025. The SPARK w Ivy-N-Ash.

Before heading to my open mic I drove into Washington DC and visited Rowan at work at the National Geographic Museum. I’ve been avoiding this because I have a genuine phobia of driving in the Washington. Literally, it makes me sweat. The drive in was easy enough. The visit was very cool. They’re doing massive construction on the museum and literally have giant steel expandable beams running through the centre of Rowan’s workspace (the yellow things to the right of frame) that are supporting the weight of a massive crane on top of the building. After the visit I had a couple of “between DC and Takoma Park” errands to run before hitting my open mic and I smacked straight into heinous rush hour traffic. I’d planned accordingly, but there is something so very disheartening about looking at the odometer and seeing it took 2 hours to traverse 7 miles. I spent the time, foolishly, listening to the news.

We do this every Tuesday. Signup before 7. I start at 7. 7112 Willow Avenue in Takoma Park, MD. robsopenmics.ilyaimy.com for more information. For information about the photos and videos and usage thereof, please click here!

Well – I SAY that – but realizing that we DIDN’T do this last week because of snow. And *I* didn’t do it last week because we were picking Kristen’s dad up from the airport. Even just two weeks is enough to make me feel a little off-kilter. My camera batteries died early on and I didn’t find my extras (under my laptop) till the end of the night.

I DID get to play an LR Baggs EAG (you know, like Rich Morey has!!!!) and found that whether or not those are all created equal, they probably need some set up to BE equal. Though I was certainly still enamoured with the sound of the pickup, I found the playability to be disappointing enough that I managed to NOT spend $1400 on a new guitar today. (you’re welcome, wife).

However – I think it was one of my favourite open mic STARTS. I was a good storyteller tonight.