September 29th, 2024. The Music City Open Mic and a Hurricane.

This tomato plant has taken root in the otherwise quite frighteningly toxic Morsbergers parking lot. Joy and Jeni have tied it up and we are all rooting for it. Pun intended. It makes me happy. No way in Hell am I eating one of those tomatoes though. If none of the infamous Baltimore rats have eaten them, that’s probably death on a vine!

A grey night with the weight of the disaster of Hurricane Helene hanging over me. Kristen’s dad is without power for the next week. Friends in Asheville won’t have water again for six days. Some have lost nothing. Others are simply off the grid. I don’t fear the worst. I worry a bit, but I’m pretty confident that the odds are in their favour.

Has there ever been such reliance on a singular, easily destroyed technology, though? I miss underground phone wires.

Of course, that doesn’t keep me from enjoying Living in the future in other ways! Tonight I tried Morsbergers’ house board, a Behringer rackmount X32, and I was not disappointed. Though I didn’t like the effects nearly as much as my Allen & Heath, and there’s definitely some aspects that I’m not using correctly, it sounds clean, is flexible, and would absolutely be one less thing to haul.

Now if only I didn’t insist on bringing my own monitors, cables, thingidads and whatchamacallits.

And, of course, recording with an X32 means I have to bring my laptop. And that recording failed. Camera sound for the video this week, and that ain’t pretty. Sorry folks!

We do this every Sunday night at Morsbergers at 713 Frederick Rd, Catonsville, MD, 21228. Signup at 6.30, music at 7pm. Enter through the back at the LARGER of the two doors! (the other entrances are straight to the bar side and Boba Fett won’t always point the way!) For information about the photos and videos and usage thereof, please visit https://www.ilyaimy.com/robsopenmics/#videosAndPhotos!

https://youtu.be/sFtbP4KgHIY

A special note to DRUMMERS : recently our friend Charlie’s been coming out and setting up a kit! You’re probably welcome to play it if you ask him nicely! Though Morsbergers has a lot of metal bands on weekends, the open mic night tends to be more singer/songwriter – please be prepared to play accordingly (hot rods encouraged).

Tonight w.