I became insane with long intervals of horrible sanity.
The trouble with fighting for human freedom is that one spends most of one's time defending scoundrels. For it is against scoundrels that oppressive laws are first aimed, and oppression must be stopped at the beginning if it is to be stopped at all.
Many people would sooner die than think; In fact, they do so
What I have been telling you, from alpha to omega, what is the one great thing the sigil taught me — that everything in life is miraculous. For the sigil taught me that it rests within the power of each of us to awaken at will from a dragging nightmare of life made up of unimportant tasks and tedious useless little habits, to see life as it really is, and to rejoice in its exquisite wonderfulness. If the sigil were proved to be the top of a tomato-can, it would not alter that big fact, nor my fixed faith. No Harrowby, the common names we call things by do not matter — except to show how very dull we are ...
September 15, 2013 - 11:16 a.m.
Dateline � Boltbus to Brooklyn
Boltbus to Brooklyn is the name of Bobtown cover band.
Before telling of my great trip some back to Brooklyn bitching. I took a cab to Penn Station (Baltimore copied the name from Civilization) to catch an 8:15 Bus. Before I went to sleep I ordered the Bus from Yellow Cab with their online reservations before I went to bed at something lik 1:30 AM. I got a confirmation email but not the confirmation phone call. I figured it was because it was so late. The cab was for 7:30. When I woke up I decided to not trust them and called them at 7:10. I said, "I made an online reservation for this morning. The operator said, "The online reservations don't work." Notice no "I'm so sorry � . Her attitude was I knew that you should too. I was lucky they had a cab that picked me up about the right time but only because I had called. If I hadn't I'd have missed my bus and been forced to either miss seeing Bobtown today or paying for Amtrak, That is what I would have done and threaten to sue the company if they didn't compensate me for the ticket. Why do they have an online system and send out emails if it doesn't work I wonder if they just don't bother to check it as it did send me the email. I'm going to write them and complain anyway and see what they say.
More Bitching; The bus is full, it comes from DC. I was the first one on it in Baltimore. I go to an open seat near the front but the woman at the window seat had her stuff on it. I looked at her, she looked at me. And didn't move her stuff. Rather than argue I took the seat behind it. But the guy there was sleeping and half on my seat. I said, "excuse me." He said, "Tha'ts OK" and went back to sleep. He thought I was just apologizing for bothering him. I asked him to move and he did a little bit and was still on my seat. I asked him again and to move his feet so I could use the electric outlet. His elbow is still on my seat.
Boo the internet connection isn't working well enough for me to listen to John Platt on WfUV. I was looking forward to that on the ride home. If I had known I'd have ripped the new ilyAIMY album I got last night. I'm listening to Lynn Miles now.
One last bitch. My phone's alert sound is a very noticeable whistle, which I like But I'm on a bus with other people so I turned the phone on vibrate. But I kept hearing the whistle. I kept checking to make sure I had it on vibrate. I finally realized that it is someone else's phone who doesn't care that he or she is annoying everyone else.
Now time for fun. No, it's time for me to post pictures. We'll see if that works with this slow internet connection. I'll let you know when I'm done.
OK the pics are uploading, we'll see how that goes, if they will be online when I need
them.
I've written 569 words and haven't actually started writing about an event filled day. Yes that's me in a nutshell. Where else do you keep a nut?
A quick recap to get you up to speed, I traveled to Baltimore yesterday for the ilyAIMY CD release for Another Life/Another Live. When Carey lived there I came down about once a month so there's a definite element of nostalgia inherent in going to "The City that Reads (that's a real nickname for Baltimore). It used to say something like that on the benches at bus stops. Carey what did it say exactly?
The plan was for Becca to pick me up at Penn Station. She lives in Baltimore but was actually coming from Northeast PA where she was helping a friend move. That made timing a bid difficult and I got there about an hour before she did. I tried using the WiFi in the train station but my computer wouldn't turn on. I guess it wasn't plugged in properly on the ride home and the battery was dead. That was actually a good thing as it forced me to do what I wanted to do, walk around the City. Not that there is much to see close to the station. I saw no sights but still took a few pics of things that caught my fancy.
They have very small walk/don�t walk lights
Penn Station
The statue is a man from the East or West and a woman from the North or South.
Becca picked me up in front of the statue and then we were off to dinner at the Papermoon Diner. She warned me that the food and service have gone downhill. But that's not why you go to the Paper Moon. You go because it looks like as somebody said this weekend, a pi�ata exploded.
They managed to do the seemingly impossible, providing bad service while having a great waiter; Becca called him a ninja. the problem is that they don't assign a table to a particular waiter which is pretty much asking for trouble. So we waited 20 minutes without getting our waters. Then the food came and both our orders were wrong. But the waiter fixed the mistakes with speed that would make the Flash envious. I had a bacon burger as it was before sunset and still Yom Kippur. See I acknowledge the high holy days.
The food was mediocre at best, my burger was overcooked and dry, and the service slow but the ambience and Becca are both as much fun as a barrel of Monkees.
Then we went back to Becca's house to pick up Billie, and then on to Teavolve for the show. Music is traditional at coffeehouses but not teahouses so I had a mocha latte. OK it's because I like chocolate and coffee but don't like tea. I'm only pointing this out to justify the title.
Just back from the rest stop. If they hadn't said we only had ten minutes I'd have had time to go to the bathroom. it was over 20 minutes. Service was slow at Burger King and that took most of my ten minutes.
We got to Teavolve and I got a great greeting from Heather, Kristen, and Rob, my friends in the band. You'd think I had spent all day traveling there. I hadn't, I took time off for the Paper Moon.
I was officially Heather's "People" at the show because her family and friends couldn't make it. I'm always unofficially one of her people, just not all of them.
We were shortly joined by Becca and Billie's other roommate who I so want to call Bave, too keep up the B theme but it's of course Dave. But I did take the Bolt Bus from Brooklyn to Baltimore to see Becce and Billie. Rob is difficult or he'd call himself Bob to fit the pattern. But he wouldn't be Rob if he weren't difficult.
1252 words and the music hasn't started yet. I always preach conciseness as a virtue when writring. This is concise. This could be one of those novels that takes place in one day. I'm concised it down from 120,000 words to whatever it will end up being. Something under 3000 words for sure. I am the lord of laconic.
So there was music, There wasn't good music. There was great music. ilyAIMY gets some sort of award for having the highest ratio to how much I love them musically plus how much I love them personally, to how often I see them. I believe this was the first time I've seen them play a full set and it was surely the first time I've seen the full band. They are a five piece but I've seen them once as a two-piece, Rob and Heather, most of the time as a three piece, Heather, once as a four piece, Rowan, and this was the first time I've seen Sharif.
Rob, Rowen, Heather, Kristen, and Sharif
Rowan's hands playing the bones are just a blur.
I always think about why I like, don't like, or in this case love music. Last night I said something maybe nobody has ever said' "ilyAIMY appeals to the Bach part of my brain. In all fairness Rob compared We're About 9 to Pantera so that was not the most outrageous musical comparison of the night. So what does it mean? That there music unfolds in time. Unlike so much music it isn't the same 30 segment repeated with different lyrics. There is great music written like that, think "This Land" but if you do that you better write lyrics like Woody Guthrie. IlyAIMY's music evolves, every thirty seconds there's a new movement. At any one time there can be so much going on, Rob's percussive guitar and singing, Kriten's lyrical cello, Heather's totally different singing style that I can't describe in one word. It'scapable of being lyrical or a force of nature. With the full band they do two, three, and four part harmonies. At one point Rob was singing in an almost rap style while Sharif was playing a piano part that could have been by Renaissance. And then Rowen can explode on the bones. You can enjoy Rowen without hearing a thing. I tlooks like he's fighting invisible hell hounds � and winning. I took a video but you'll have to wqit to see that. For some reason it wasn't uploaded to drop box. I did see it on the phone and it looks great.
How broad is their possible appeal. Are they too good to make it big? If you are serious listener there's a good chance you'll love them. But what about people not willing to give it their full attention? They certainly could if they had the right exposure. If people were told they were the next big thing they'd at least get the energy and fun. I'd love it if someone other than John Platt would play them on WfUV. They are rockers living in the folk world and would be a perfect fit. The FUV audience of the 90s would get them. Oddly even though they are now more rock oriented I'm not as confident about the newer fans. If you go to live music with me, if you are are a musician, if you think sounding different from anything you've heard before is a good thing, then you'll love them as I do. They are special.
After the show Becca & Billie passed me off to Rob & Kristen. I always want to write "Rob and Laura." I felt bad not helping get the gear together but I've done this enough to know that it would take more effort to tell me what to do than to do it themselves. I did my usual Sherpa duty and brought things to the car.
Their house is pretty much exactly what it should be. it is not anti-septic and spare as I keep reading is the ideal. No it was filled with delightful clutter. They have stuff. They have a pile of octopuses, an octopile.
Yes Rob and I are cuddling, Why do you think they call them cuddlefish? Well almost.
It was late when we got back and I had to be up early so of course we stayed up and talked along with their housemates. I remember Amy's name. I'm not totally useless. I probably got that wrong.
It was pretty much the kind of conversation you have with people that have an octopile. Pretty much the kind of conversation you have with me. Have I mentioned that these are my people?
I�m up to 2051 words but I've done with my story. You know what's happened today. I'll be in New York in an hour. I'll head straight down to First Acoustics to hear Bobtown another band that appeals to the Bach part of my brain but in a totally different way.
The last few days have been the perfect cure for alienation. It's a strange and beautiful world filled with strange and beautiful people who make or listen to strange and beautiful music. I'm not the only alien on this planet.
I signed the Pro-Truth Pledge:
please hold me accountable.
Memories: Not that Horrid Song - May 29, 2018
Wise Madness is Now In Session - May 28, 2018
The NFL and the First Amendment - May 27, 2018
On The Road Again - May 26, 2018
Oliver the Three-Eyed Crow - May 25, 2018
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Horvendile September 15, 2013
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