My fridays are different from other people’s fridays. Mine are awesomer. I get to sleep in, slowly gain consciousness and watch bad sci-fi movies… I’m fresh from the victory of my open mic night (rarely NOT a victory) and generally I have something interesting awaiting me in the evening – like a gig or, in this case, bowling with friends. In Sharif’s words “I’m not good, but I AM enthusiastic” and I think I’ll be accompanied by many others who are, if not good, at least enthusiastic.
To me, it sounds like a good time had – and speaking of good times had: “The men have smeared rendered blubber on your suit containing the sexual hormones of mating blue sharks”. Awesome. I highly recommend you NEVER watch whichever iteration of 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea it is that I’m currently subjecting myself to. I haven’t been paying attention, but that line caught me off guard – for some reason everyone on screen is very, very moist and we’re at the sea monster scene where, apparently tentacles were too expensive to render…
In any case, like I said – last night’s open mic was a triumph. I was actually pretty worried about it: Jerry, my old boss from Glovia International had dropped me an email the week before saying that his son was in town from the UK for the week and wanted to come see ilyAIMY… I was really, really flattered but had to explain that a) Heather’s not in town and b) the band never plays at my open mic and c) my open mic is far, far away from where he Lives in Northern VA – but with a jaunty Brit laugh Jerry assured me he and his spawn would enjoy the night and that the trip would be worthwhile – leaving me… still nervous.
Freshly bathed mammal, wishing his bath upon the rest of us.
See – five years ago I quit my very lucrative day job to make very little money as a musician. Jerry was an excellent boss, and very, very supportive. He would let my schedule flex around my gigs, to the point of letting me work from wherever when possible, which could’ve allowed for some amount of touring. I think he thought I was a little crazy for doing this and I certainly didn’t want him to come see me and think “wow, you gave up all we were doing for… this?!” Especially without the support of Heather, and additionally with the fact that the open mic has been a little bit low-population recently, I really didn’t want to get any loser patina on me.
Silly, I know – but you want people you respect to, in turn, respect YOU, you know?
But he came on a great night – the list was filled before the music began and the feature, Eileen Korn, was utterly spectacular. I adore her. Of course, that list didn’t stay full… at one point I reached a… a difficult part of the list…
“Next WOULD be Rick Millman, but his plumber’s late and he’s not going to make it.”
“Next WOULD be Dan Houtz, but he had to pick up some sound gear and he’s not going to make it.”
“Next WOULD be Meg Bowen, she got a flat tire and she’s not going to make it.”
“Next WOULD be Sarah Fridrich, but her piano lesson ran late and she’s not going to make it.”
“Next WOULD be Sarah Suicide, but she’s disappeared and she’s not going to make it.”
Sigh. Luckily I was on form and didn’t embarass myself too badly. Ash makes an excellent percussion partner and SOMEONE was singing a lot of Heather’s parts form the audience.
Yup. It was a victory.
