A special surprise guest at my open mic was Keith Carr! I was really flattered to have this marvelous Irish Cittern player rocking my little open mic night! 
Acacia Sears was our last-minute featured artist as Greg Klyma had to tap out. I’ll take Acacia Sears though… she was absolutely wonderful and I INSISTED that she play with my friend Bruce… because sometimes I fantasize about Cacie. And fiddles.
The world is a difficult place. Do I think it’s worse than it’s ever been? I don’t know. I try to think about that like an outside observer. As I listen to the constant political bickering and the pathetic posturing, as I read the hateful and ignorant comments that people post on comment boards and Facebook, as I read the news and listen to the news and occasionally simply hunker down and try to avoid the news I try to think if its really worse than it’s ever been – at least in my Lifetime.
Certainly they had it worse during the Black Plague? But maybe that’s an extreme example.  Certainly people had it worse in the midst of the Industrial Revolution where children were worked to death on assembly lines and slavery was common? Wasn’t the world a scarier place in the 40’s as Nazi Germany roared and millions of people were slaughtered? What about during the Cuban missile crisis and the Cold War? Remember when true nuclear war seemed like a real, constant danger? Perhaps the threat of a terrorist with a random dirty bomb is more insidious and more terrifying for its sheer randomness – but I’m not sure that I’m afraid that the world’s going to end anymore.
What about the potential political and financial meltdown of America, and perhaps the rest of the world as well? On the one hand lots of newspapers are enjoying pointing out the hypocrisy of Republicans using the arguments that Democrats used when their situations were released – they Love pointing out that Obama’s speeches now are pretty similar to the speeches that Reagan made when HE was fighting to end tax loopholes for the rich and preserve protections for the poor – but on the other hand doesn’t that sort of undermine the weight of our current political deadlock? Can’t I look at that and throw my hands up and walk away saying “eh, it’s ALWAYS been this way, who cares?”
The stock market’s down, but it’s higher than it was. Health care sucks, but we’re Living longer. Our national debt is a nightmare, but who’s planning on coming to collect?
Always cool to come home to see what’s at the shop – looks like we got overrun by miscellaneous Indian and various Asian instruments while we were on tour. And accordions too! The collective noun being a Confusion of Accordions
I don’t know WHAT to think. Students are rallying on the idea of just… not paying back their debts. I can’t get behind that. You can’t just take something and then just declare that the world sucks and so therefore you’re not going to pay for it. You make intelligent decisions based on what you can do, what you can pay for, what’s right for you. Occupy Wall Street continues to occupy Wall Street, but their message, never cohesive, continues to fragment. The Tea Party has reaped what it has sown, arguably finishing off the functionality on an already deadlocked Congress by introducing a solid block of apolitical politicians who don’t believe in making deals or cooperating, but merely in spouting nonsense figures and sticking to untenable positions.
I don’t know that I believe it’s worse than it’s ever been – but I really don’t see how it gets any better.Â
Sharif is a loud and Lively beest with ilyAIMY – however, with the metal band Murder of Trolls, he is a mysterious man in black, silent and forboding. Which is kind of hot.
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