horse change mmm wow so it is nice to feel the evening air like it is up here i just got in from a ride on my bike and it is just exhilerating these days. finally some livability to the environs, as the cherry trees open up white like some cotton candy dream i've never seen and the outside neighborhood grass makes me want to do sunday stuff all week and stay out..
i played that 6 points music fest thingy at ragtime and it was a crazy nite because it was all kinds of people wanting to be in there loud crazy pub-style, and the club was having an identity crisis bc it was made up of regular arlington preppy overpaid smug types and then there were uniform military guys walking in from the set of the aviator except with less to say and there were girls in long evening gowns who looked like they were good to go for a prom. so i threw away my setlist and we did a raucous up-tempo set and got to go out and dance with people while i played and do all sorts of fun things just because it was appropriate, at least in my mind. bernie on the bass and monty on percussion just followed along like it was their first language, this musicmaking. but there were important people listening, and i'm glad it went well. there were two other acts, and michael jantz lit it up before us, and nefrit el-or was very powerful afterward. after all of that they asked me to finish out the night so i felt good and spent my every last calorie.
on sunday ziz and i drove out to some older-world rural part of virginia where one of the best playwrights alive today, john guare (six degrees of separation, many others), was giving a talk/series of readings in this old antibellum place that looked like the centerpiece for the town. there was one restaurant about 20 minutes away, and so we went to that. the talk of the town. anyway mr guare was wonderful, engaging, brilliant, and funny. here are we:
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(by the way, whenever i post pics like this, for those still seeking windows nirvana it is best to RIGHT click and open in new window because you can see the whole thing..)
the next nite i went to see laura tsaggaris play at murky coffee, and she was quite captivating. i like the spaces she is willing to put in the music. i want space.

last night i played jammin java for the first time in awhile, and it was very well attended. i really feel comfortable on their stage and i usually have fun trying to make the vienna audience get a little more out of themselves than politeness. it was an in-the-round thing that cynthia lim asked me to play, and everyone sounded pretty fab- there was an energy that persisted throughout, without people having to depend on the caffienesurvival. here 'twas:
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and cynthia and i doing joni together:
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and gail; the woman, the myth, the legend, helping to sell every single one o the cds i had there:
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j-bird and i just went to sprawl-mart to get some plasti-shelves so that i can organize the madness that is my room a little more and thus my own head. there was this eerie-looking old man putting quarters into this plastic horsey ride so that these giggly sorority chicks would ride on it. it was really terrifying, and i need a good nite to sleep it off that man's grin.
i have lots of good things coming up so i will try n keep you guys updated on here. may the force be with you.
From 1:48 AM

a week as an okie*** ahh... the calm after the storm takes place in the perfectly sunny laze of afternoon monday tulsa, and i feel as though i'm winding down a big exhilerating vacation. the big show was on saturday at cain's ballroom, and it's a little bit funny that i can now say i've played the same venue as dylan, hank williams sr., b.b. king, roy acuff, sex pistols, rush, journey, waaay too many to name.. but to sit back in the greenroom and sip coffee and think about all the tales that have passed here, to see the framed piece of wall that sid vicious punched out, to think of all the crazy-ass dreamers that have sat and bid their time here, is just kind of big.
it's amazing those times in life when out of nowhere, in a way that could never even have been planned so well, a little family of people kind of forms in a place for a few days because of a random situation that brought them all together, and the chemistry is just perfect, and when it's all over you think, never again will this same group of folks exist like this. people flew in from everywhere to crash at the partypad- people from boston and seattle and portland, and friends here, all surrounding this alaska factor cd release show. there was bentley with whom i immediately bonded and who went out and got me a shirt at the gap bc i liked his. he owns 9 cars, and drives a different one every day. he was my partner in crime for many the late-nite-hoodliness. and sabrina who flew in from boston on a whim because they had written a song about her but had never met her. we all grilled out, had sunny-dog-beer-frisbee-relax-o days by the riverside, watched movies and baseball, hit up bars with bras hanging from antlers, and played shuffleboard. and everyone got along in an uncanny way.
the show kind of flew by in a surreal way- there were between 350 and 400 people there. i played a set with candles all about me and used other people's guitars. i think the crowd standing up close on that warped old dancefloor that has seen the traditions of human movement go through its natural changes thru the century really dug what i did. for the first time i was asked for my pick. parker's band played really well, and had the crowd moving and shaking.
that nite we all ended up at some ungodly hour in the middle of the ghetto at this barbeque place that bently knew of. the quote on the marquee read, 'you ain't gotta have teeth to eat our beef.' bently managed to sweettalk his way into the heart of this guy, who ran the whole night in disbelief:
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and we ate phat-ass barbeque that you can't get in normal stripmall urban sprawl that looked like this:
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there were regulars coming in and stopping to do a doubletake at the monstrosity of atypical us there, like 'now wtf is DIS s%#t all about..'
and here's the popular gas chain round here:
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i also would say that i really like the houses around here. there isn't a single one that looks like another one, or at least you would have to search far and wide to find it. kind of like... humans.
and some of the crew during whatever communal thrown-together meal we had that day:
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and finally my tribute to the oregon people present:
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and so i fly back tomorrows and my head feels like the kid kool-aid stand i passed yesterday in the neighborhood.
From 3:20 PM

D's Journal