Wandering the beautifully foggy streets of Catonsville in late November. I’ve been trying to be good about going to the gym hadn’t gone in a week. Walking back I was just kind of awestruck by the softness of the neighbourhood – it’s a stunningly grey day.
Just covering my instruments in Christmas lights. Because I can. Well, because I needed some Christmasish imagery for House of Musical Traditions and had missed a ride to the store, actually. In all honesty I was raised to call them “holiday lights” despite a Lutheran familial upbringing – my mother was big on the PCness of it all, probably in retaliation to my grandmother getting really preachy about “X-Mas”… but to me, the atheist, they’re Christmas lights because that’s how they were popularized. Not Christian lights of course… but I like Christmas cause I like the season and I like the lights – so they’re Christmas lights because they make me feel Christmassy even when the holidays are, to me, not holy!
In a couple of hours we’ll be off and running to Frederick to play our last Maryland show of the year. I’m listening to a Nashville songwriter in the background, I’m feeling the weight of breakfast in my belly, I feel the ache in my wrist of too much time spent at the wrong angle, sleeping, playing guitar, using my computer…
December 1st! Time to get net us a tree!Heather and I doing our annual Christmasish pic at Firestone’s in Frederick, MD.
Engagement gift!!!
My ego’s been getting in the way of enjoying a lot of my Life recently. Like… I think I’m pretty amazing, I think I bring a lot to the table, but I’m lucky to get a second glance during most performances, I’m reaching a point where it feels like my draw is bottoming out and zeroing out.
I make excuses. Part of that is saturation. Part of that is context. But I worry I’m just getting too old.
Now, I’ve always felt that I was going to eventually age out of my profession – knowing that I’d have to go back to other creative solutions to solve the solvency issues of Living in America – but I’m not ready for it to happen yet. I’ve got a new album coming out (soooo slowly) and I think the writing and performance on this album are the best I’ve ever done – but I don’t think anyone cares.
ilyAIMY rocking out at 7 Locks in Rockville, MD on December 3rd, 2016.
The Christmas Tree is no longer nude! This year though Krampus tried to take the title, and Bumble beat HIM – James Hetfield climbed to the TOP to be the Questionable Christmas Angel this year!
I compare myself to other people that I think of as being in my tier – not professionally but performance-ally – the Ellis Pauls and Richard Shindells – Hell, even Ani Difranco and the Indigo Girls. Huge names that I feel like I could hold my own with on stage – but I have no idea if I just struck too late, didn’t try hard enough, wasn’t smart enough, wasn’t friendly enough. Not pretty enough, not angry enough, not gay enough, not… not something.
And yet I never got into this game thinking I was going to be a star… I just… have been feeling spectacularly ignored. Not enough “likes” not enough “views” not enough “shares”. Maybe I just need to tune out of social media, but isn’t that the fastest path to obscurity and simply being forgotten?
The Christmas season traditions continue with the Lego Star Wars Advent Calendar
And with the election, with the rise of Trump – it just hammers home that I didn’t deserve to win. People don’t want a nice guy who tries to passionately and honestly speak their mind (ignore the fact that worked for a decade and a half) they want an angry, forceful liar who just spits out the same old same old. Ugh – yeah, Trump is like the political equivalent of Limp Bizket: familiar to the masses, safe confines of acceptable angry rhetoric, good promotional team…
and the stockings bloody well-hung with care
Bah. Not that you’d know it from tonight. Never mind. Some nights I suck! Bah twice!!
Recording Rowan for cicada, drumming his little heart out! (December 7th, 2016 in the rob Lair)So, once upon a time I had a dad. He was a pretty good dad. I miss him. The other day a random picture came up on our Chromecast, as it’s wont to do – you know – it’s like a screen saver – and I sort of recognized it. Now – there’s tons of clean rooms in the world, and so recognizing it didn’t mean much, but the caption showed that it was from Goddard Space Flight Center – and that’s close enough for me. My dad would take me to work some days and show me some piece of what he was working on, and often that meant a trip to the clean rooms of Goddard. Looking at pieces of GOES or Hubble or the replacement optics for Hubble or the test arm for the space shuttle – it was a favourite thing growing up, and seeing a picture that reminded me so strongly of it was very, very welcome.Heather recording for cicada.Kristen Jones recording vocals in the Lair. The album is coming along pretty bad-assedly. I wish I was better at all the little bits, but I’m pretty good. Other people could probably do it faster. Maybe a little cleaner. But I DO Love all the moving parts.Parking!? HUzzah! On December 12th, 2016 there was a changeover in the construction in Harbor East and they re-opened the road next to Teavolve. I was able to PARK near my open mic!!!Christmas tree at Barley and Hops in Frederick, MD.Kristen and Heather sound checking at Barley and Hops for our last trio show of the year at Barley and Hops, Frederick, MD – December 14th, 2016.After we were done playing at Barley and Hops, we were saying hi to some old friends and new fans and realized that they’d done arted their table!Recording, recording, recording – in the rob lair, things take shape…Ice storm in Catonsville on December 17th. Good day to do the above!
