Breakfast Club

Bunty, Trina ,Erin and Jane in Schenectady. I was just getting back from an aeropuerto run.

So it was my first time seeing Susan's ''Classics'' show. I liked it... a lot. She and Julia Biber do a great job together. I got some great footage that will go up as soon as I am at my computer.

I am hanging at the hotel waiting for Natalia to come get me and we are going back to the farm.

Not before we stop in Albany for lunch though....can you say Van's??

Honey bun for The Bunty

It's official...the tearful reunions are complete for the night.

And Bunty (pictured here) has a nice gourmet honey bun in her possession.

We are all hanging out after the show at the hotel.

Sassy!

Here is my partner in crime....

Sassy. She and I shared a BLT for lunch.

I did in fact caulk the entire pool this morning. I gotta make sure Natalia gets the bank bag for her gig and then really? I kinda feel like stretching out under a tree and taking a nap or something. We don't leave till around 3:30 or 4:00 for Schenectady.

I get my tearful reunions not only with Jane and Susan but the fabulous Bunty Burgin will be coming as well as Erin McKeown!

Fun filled...and more. For sure!

Did I get bored?

Dancing with herself??
Twinge of Delight?
Double Trouble?
Am I just having an LSD flashback??

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Here's the sad part... I tried a bunch of different people's heads... but Susan's just plain old looked better on both bodies! Why is that??? I tried Bunty... I tried Jane... tried Trina... I even tried Susan's dad! And she looks particularly good on the boy body!! WTF??

In the end.. Susan dancing with herself was the bestest.. the laughs have not stopped for me... hopefully... somewhere...Susan and Jane are laughing too!

***Susan Werner's heed not used with permission...***

Final prep..

Lyndell Julie and Bunty in the final moments of making our lovely meal.

Brunch crew

Bunty's Pink tubers..

Coffee...

Lyndell's tofu scramble...

Julie's vegan french toast...

Life is good.

coffee and clouds.

Got a nice cup of jitter juice goin' and am peeking out at the Long Island Sound and watching clouds roll in. I wonder if it'll rain?

Had a great time with Meth and Woj in New Haven. Nice to get out and spend time with these two. I swear, they know more about music than I ever could! And they listen to a great array of it too! My ears are open.

Did a little VP debate watching then headed back to my crib down the road. Today I am getting video done and a little emailing. I will do my usual provisioning at Trader Joes and then most likely come back here and see what video wants to be messed with.

Hope the gig in N.C. went well last night. I will call Trina later and see. They are at The Sellarsville Theater tonight in PA, NJ tomorrow and then NY on Sun. I am kicking around the idea of going to NYC to see Erin McKeown at Joe's Pub tomorrow night. Would be fun to see the show and Emily and Bunty will be there too.. .not to mention most likely a few other pals. I could ride up with Meth and Woj. And... the lovely Amy Speace is playing tomorrow as well! Perhaps... hmmm....

Lite bright or???

Whole Foods for lunch...yum!

Kombucha at my side.

It's actually quite lovely out now. Should make for nice driving weather. Bunty and Erin McKeown are driving towards the aftermath of that hurrican in Texas...yuck. We haven't had a whole lot of really crappy weather to deal with this season. I guess we are pretty lucky.

Northampton!

Julie,Bunty and Trina looking at photos from Alaska.

Bunty is probably one of the most sought after photographers in the music biz. And she tour manages Erin McKeown to boot!

Julie made us vegan french toast..yum! And it's currently not raining so we are really happy. We head to Plymouth at around 4ish to hook up with Natalia for the much anticipated Driftwood Folk Series!!! Looking very much forward to meeting Carlyn and her crew at this series.

The Wedding Singer

Today's gig in Morristown NJ is indeed a wedding. It's been pouring rain all day. Yuck!

Should be really nice. About 120 people here for the event.

After this we will trek up to Northampton for a quick bit of time with Bunty and Julie! Yeah!

rested and...

We are rested up and low key now. Trina, Natalia and Bunty and Julie went back to NYC and Janie and Suze and I are headed to the aeropuerto in about an hour and a half. I could have worked this afternoon had I brought my laptop... damn.

My brain is awake with conversations around booking and routing and such. I can do it smarter. And I really am fairly good at it when I can sink the time into. Looks like I will start focusing on 2009 in an uber smart fashion. I need to wrap my brain around that aspect of the job. So much to learn!

I have 4 days off... must be time for a birthday party!

I am particularly excited to have dinner with my mom at Feast tomorrow night. She hasn't usually gotten the evening slot on the ol' birthday. In fact... a bunch of years I was just in other states for my birthday. Arizona is too damn hot in July!!

But this year... me and mom... Feasting and getting to look at each other... that's the kind of gift I want.

Seven women.

Yes... seven.

Seven women.

Fireworks.

Some drinking alcohol.

Some not.

Lots of things blowing up.

Nobody injured.

Lots of laughing till we cried.

Then sleep...

And 4 pots of coffee later and with several Mickey Mouse pnacakes in the bellies of these women we are having chatter around the kitchen table and cleaning up a bit.

Nice stuff...

Jane, Susan, Natalia.. Me and Trina and Bunty and Julie.

And the best part is the vegan birthday cookies I got and the regular happy birthday song last night when we got in from the festival. I feel pretty lucky to actually have a head start on the ol' 43rd celebratory goings on.

Now if I can be reunited with my phone in Chicago, and get my shit packed right for Tucson I will be happy.

Oh... and I have some KILLER VIDEO from XPN Fest!!!!! Oh... My... God!!!!! Stay tuned.

what a fiasco!

I thought I was getting up in time... I showered... I left... I left my phone in Chicago... and I missed my flight. Jeebus!!!

I got on the next flight, so I made it just fine. But Jeebus!!!

So, the word from Philly is that John Gorka is in Atlanta with a cancelled flight so Susan gets his set as well! Good and bad...don't get to see John.. but hell yeah! Bring on the girls!!

So my phone is at the apartment in Chicag which I will be stopping off to pick up tomorrow night before my departure for the Baked Pueblo the 15th.

Blogging from a production computer here at XPN Fest... great crew here!!!

And Bunty and Julie are here!!!!

Surprise blown!

I am sad to say that the surprise that was to be my birthday thingy from Trina is blown...

Looks like Jane and Trina are in cahoots to fly me in to XPN Fest in Philly on July 13th for Susan's show there!!! Yeah for me!!!! While I was trying to figure out where I was going to stall out they were trying to keep it from me... I love that! And the best part is I get to go to Philly!!! Bunty and Julie will be there too and afterwards will be a fireworks festival at Jane's. Yeah!!! My birthday isn't till the 15th, but this'll be great!!!

I was on the phone with my pal Cathryn looking at going to Hilton Head and kinda thinking about a plan in that direction when Trina had to blow the lid offa their plan... Yeah for me!!!!!! That's a birthday present I can totally deal with!!! The other piece of news is that I am going to get to work with Natalia again on July 19th when she opens for Ani DiFranco in Davenport Iowa. That should be veeeery interesting! They are going to gobble Natalia up!!!

I am so lucky to have a chance to contribute to another artist I believe in! It's all going quite nicely... strange how once I get out of my own way and open up how... uhhh.... things open up!!!!

The birthday girls

Our departure from Northampton was at around 5pm and we left Bunty and Julie standing there on the porch hugging.

Happy 40th!

Well it's really a 30th bday shindig for Bunty and Julie, but this is officially when Bunty and Trina get to trade ages. Trina is now officially 30 and Bunty will now be 40. It's been written as law basically.

Sweet gathering of great people here in Northampton MA. And a nice bonus is Cheryl Reid the drummer from Ember Swift's band is here with her family. She was one of the gems from last June's ping pong extravaganza in Normal Illinois.

Vegan cake, wheat free pizza and the like amongst the fare tonight. I do love a healthy party! Trina just got done singing the birthday girls (and the rest of the guests) a few songs with Cheryl and Lyndell lending a nice touch with a little bass and snare.

That's one thing about this job...getting to watch these wonderfully talented musicians get to play with each other like this just warms my heart and soul. I guess I'm here for a reason....haven't exactly figured out what that is, but I am grateful as hell! Maybe I should get a lottery ticket...

My gratitude list

In my attempt to be a good recovering alcoholic I will make a gratitude list. Because even though losing that cash stings and having a bunch of stuff to deal with in AZ kinda freaks me out,I have a lot going for me.

Beautiful day.
Great friends!
Awesome music.
Bunty and Julie's party is today!
Got to chat w/ Mom...love that!
Great coffee this morning.
Bitchin' tan
Should be able to eat salsa in a day (lip healing..)
Two words...Lyndell Montgomery!
Riding trains facing backwards is cool!
And generally feeling like none of this heaviness is going to kill me. I mean really...I have plenty of ''stuff'' to deal with and I will do just that.
It's all good.
I am blessed to have this moment in time.

The Wau Wau Sisters!

First off, it's pronounced like "Vau Vau" and they aren't really sisters...

These gals are a riot!



In other news...

We are speed laundering and getting caffeinated. We will head to Northampton in about an hour or so and we have to stop and get the gifties for Bunty and Julie. We will make a Costco run and pick up another blow up bed because we left ours in Carmel Indiana and hope that the 30 or so people that will be at the shindig will leave us enough floor space to crash somewhere.

I officially have leprosy lip... chunks falling off left and right... eeeewwww!!!! It's disgusting but necessary... I have to let go in order to move forward in life, right?

Blogger has issues

Don't we all??

I can't log into blogger to fix my typos... So now they have issues, I have issues... And I'm hoping that while some of you may have issues, that they are small in comparison to others. In fact, I hope they are small in comparison to my blogging issues...

Ok... issue fixed..

We are getting our stuff together to head to Cancun tomorrow. Figuring how much merchandise to bring, and then trying to figure out what toys to bring. I have the smashball,and I brought the tennis racquets back from the van, but we will most likely hope they have those there instead of hoisting ours all the way to Mexico.

We fly through Miami, and get into Cancun at about 8:30 pm tomorrow night. Of course I hope I'll be able to blog... but there are no promises! I will be shooting some video as well, and uploading after we get back. Of course the other thing of note is that immediately upon our arrival back, we need to go grab the van and head to Northampton for Bunty and Julie's birthday shindig! I will arrive bearing flaming honeybuns! Ok, maybe not arrive that way, but I do have some plans... I need to keep my pyrotechnic skills up to date, what good am I if I can't light a few random items of food on fire?

Just when you think you are in the clear... April Fool's?

And when your boss (read:Trina) texts you and says... "flight cancelled rescheduled for tomorrow" you just know that on this day of all days she is pullin' your leg... I of course texted back saying "Is this an April Fool's joke?" She then texts back "that she wishes she were that good or cruel.." She's not kidding.

Shit...
And really, it's nothing that severe in all honesty... just means a turn and burn in the a.m. instead of the p.m. Now, let's hope they don't screw that one up too.

April Fool's my ass!



A vintage Bunty-ism... to soothe me...