In Erie, PA we had a great time running around with the Honest Mistakes and their kids, hunting frogs and taking selfies with them…
Riding the dragon at the Erie Public Library – a truly stunning building! With dragons!
I’m sitting in a midwestish coffeehouse listening to two people discuss the physical manifestations of Jesus, and how to maintain faith sans the existence of evidence (and / or evidence of existence), and the sadness of people who refuse to understand that they are lost. I’m dying to turn around and see who and what these people are, but it’s empty enough that I’m not going to be an awful blatant atheist. I’ll maintain the illusion that their conversation verging on argument isn’t the predominant sound in the room and wrap my typing around me.
ilyAIMY performing at Mr. Smalls in Pittsburgh, PA. What a stunning room! We were the open mic night featured artist on Monday, April 10th, and though I started out feeling guilty that I wasn’t home in Baltimore hosting my OWN damned open mic,I got over it quick – because this is truly a stunning spot.
our old friend Amy Mmmmhmmm (unsure of the precise and correct number of ms and hs there,
It’s amazing how out-of-driving-shape I am. Today’s roll from Columbus, IN to Findlay, OH wasn’t even four hours but between Heather and I we needed to break it upa bit – she hurt her back early in this wandering with a combination of kids and cajon, driving and sleeping – and I just generally don’t handle the long drives as well anymore. Kristen just bears up to it all like a champion, nestled in the back, but my neck and legs are KILLING me. In a sec we’ll wander the streets, get a mile or two of walking in and solve this problem good and hard… oh, and then play a gig.
the OTHER church that the owner of Mr Smalls bought and converted after having purchased the church that he’d converted into Mr Smalls! Mr Small’s is owned by a dreamer. A very smart dreamer. Once we were done with our set we were offered a tour around both the larger venue (we played the small room, previously part of a school house adjacent to the Catholic church that later become Mr Small’s) and then the church across the street that has been rebuilt into a recording studio.Liz Berlin’s first band, the Mosquitos, joining together for the first time in 20 years and jamming at Mr Smalls. You might know Liz from her other band, Rusted Root.
While in Pittsburgh we crashed with our friend Chris of the Weathered Road, and while he was at work we’d mosey up the street to a cafe where we drank coffee and ate baklava and communed with Hermes, the local lizard. At Cafe de Noir in Pittsburgh, PA.
The last week has definitely been full of highs and lows. A physical manifestation of my recent emotional state. Pittsburgh delivered interesting and hopeful connections, frenetic and interested audiences, possibly some real professional advancement, and a personal tour of the hidden away private studio of one of the members of Rusted Root, petting the cat, checking out the ouds, listening to the stories. In the middle of the week I felt useless and uninteresting, old and ugly and failed. And last night in Columbus, IN a weird mix : big CD sales, decent turnout, obviously people had missed us and were willing to put their wallet where their mouths were, but the feeling that we hadn’t GONE anywhere, playing this same little bar in its fondly-remembered loft… I Love it, but is it a sign of arrested development, both emotionally and professionally?
… and then we’d come back to Chris’ place to be greeted by the Lovely Luna!
The conversation has turned to the woman saying that she’s tired of people who tell her that “yes, faith in Jesus will see you through, but you’ve still got to ACT and God helps those who helps themselves” – and she’s saying that these people obviously can’t believe in God, and that by taking action she’s displaying a lack of faith.
Is that where I’ve gone wrong? I’ve been trying too hard, flouting the grace of God? Somehow I doubt that.
It’s a very, very windy day here in Findlay, OH. I fought it all the drive up from Columbus, IN with the car pushing hard to the east, struggling towards the slow lane as – haul to the left. My shoulders feel like they’ve been on one of the gym’s weight machines on a very low weight for the past three hours and if the car had a mind of its own I’m sure it would be leaning into a subconsciously-remembered gale in its parking spot.
Let’s go for a walk, catch some Pokemon and look for dinner.
At the Riverside Inn Festival back in Cambridge Springs, PA we met a woman named Melissa who was tickled pink that we were headed to Pittsburgh next – and even more tickled that we had a night off… she knew a guy who had a bar and she said “lemme make a call”. And so it was that Tuesday April 11th found us walking into a bar called Hollywood Gardens (or was it Brixton Brewing? The place hath two names!) and realizing that it was the same place our friend Colleen had tried to get us into a couple of years ago. She was tickled that we were playing there. All these people tickled, and yet it’s Sarah who got tickled and pictured… t’was a good show.So, since we played a gig with our night off in Pittsburgh, PA – we took an open mic night and turned into a night off in Columbus, OH. And what’s a night off in Columbus but a night to go to Chocoholique and eat high-class Mayan Easter bunnies in Short North?Greeted by Eric Nassau in the colours of SPRING!!!Columbus, OH is eternally fascinating with its wares… Made in the USA, hey?This ALMOST made us late to the show. Eric Nassau introduced me to a place where I could play Jumpman online. Yeah. My favourite game from our family Commodore 64 has once again renewed its sweet, sweet hold on me.Huzzah! Us! And THEM! ilyAIMY and Blind Engineer playing at the Big Room Bar in Columbus, OH on Thursday, April 19th, 2017.Fuck all y’all. I bought two sets of earplugs a) because they ran things entirely too loud at the Big Room Bar and b) because I really enjoy buying things out of vending machines.Blind Engineer (with Eric Nassau on bass) rocking out at the Big Room Bar.So – lemme get this straight – you spelled “ilyAIMY” right but you chose to advertise your fundraising “imortal” bricks? Hrm. Fail. (At the Big Room Bar on Thursday April 13th, 2017 – Columbus, OH)
