TODAY a lot has been a little off-kilter. It seems like everyone had a note in their calendar that said “rob goes away today” and so there was a half-dozen emails and texts all saying “oh no! I know you’re leaving soon! I hope I haven’t missed you I need I need I need I need”.
Somehow I wish it was better understood that when someone saves up their work or their worry, and them drops it all on me at the last second, it really causes a lot of trouble. Trouble that I can roll with but trouble nonetheless. And yet, it bugs me when people preface it all with “I know you’re always really busy” because it means that perhaps I’m not wearing it well.
But there have been such beautiful things over the past couple of weeks and I need to be better about documenting them. As a Trip comes forth, I know I’m going to spend a LOT of time in a car – and mayhaps that means I’ll get a lot of writing done, but if there’s one TRUTH out there it’s : don’t think you’re getting done as much as you expected to get done!
Saturday, August 30th – the weather and music continued. We also continued another tradition : a little moshpit of young girls. Friday in Bethesda they had all been given chalk and were doing lots of little chalk drawings in between dancing. Which means we got lots of chalk in our gear despite being on a raised stage. Saturday it was all about the lanternflies, which all the kids know they’re supposed to kill. We’d flick them off ourselves, our mics, our instruments and our stage and the little moshpit of young girls would close like a well-oiled killing machine, stomping and crushing. And so that means we got lots of bug guts in our gear despite being on a raised stage.
One little girl had a cup full of water that she was drowning them in which was really gross. Eventually we discovered that the goldfish in the frog pond would eat the lanternflies and tried to encourage everyone to dispose of their kills in the pond, but all in all, there was just a lot of carnage EVERYWHERE.
This was the Comus experience I’d been craving. A frog, sunset over Sugarloaf mountain, lots of people singing along for the songs they knew and rocking along to those they didn’t. They were a little overloaded and i didn’t get the burger I wanted, but I DID get the burger I needed.
Sunday I hosted my last Morsbegers open mic for the coming month and had a really fantastic time doing it right up until I didn’t – we’ll be playing OTHER people’s open mics for a bit coming up so I’m trying to be forgiving but near the end of the night a bunch of people came over from the barside and completely undermined the mood, causing Juels to go off the rails a bit and meaning the last 10 minutes of the night wasn’t simply a loud, rowdy last 10 minutes, but meaning it was a loud, rowdy, rambling, sort of embittering THIRTY minutes, which it didn’t need to be.
And so MONDAY comes round and Heather and I head back to Dickerson to play Sugarloaf Vineyards. Piling on the shows and piling on the miles feels distinctly like we’re preparing for the rest of the month’s travels. I actually end up spending almost an hour trying to get food for Heather and I and then cap off the show by spilling ketchup all over myself, much to the JOY of Rigby.
Rigby is a charming animal in person, but is a frequent interrupter of our FocusMusic board meetings on Zoom. It’s good to hang out, though he was embarrassed by his freshly shorn, sheepish self.
Say THAT five times fast!
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