Past = Law/System 11
Present = Mother of Water
Future = Thunder / 9
Another slack Saturday. Whew!
Awoke to a call from one irate Halo letting me know his wife had found a note written by Lynn with her name, phone number, and email address. It had obviously been dropped there by me (we go to lunch every day and I’m sure it fell out of my pocket when I took out my checkbook). His wife thought it was his, so that created quite a stir. Seemed like all was well when we hung up though.
I went back to sleep. Got up and called over to Liz’s place to see if she wanted to go grab something to eat. Hope was due in town pretty soon so she said she’d call when she got there. Back to sleep.
The phone rings and it’s Liz two hours later. Hope just arrived. So I printed up a picture taken at the Ani DiFranco show last October with Hope, Liz, and Anne at the Rave in Milwaukee. A wonderful photo! It was well received when they arrived here en route to State Street.
Fresh warm sunny air lulled me into shorts and sandals. Out into the daylight and everyone is outside. Smiles abound. Flesh! Everywhere you look there are people. State Street was hopping. From the Capitol end it seemed like there was a parade or march headed our way. But it was just buzzing with all the people milling about. Perhaps a sports tournament of sorts . . . you can tell because there are hordes of people who gawk and stare at the little things that make this town what it is: guitars and drums, trinket selling hoodlums, punks, drunks, hotties and hunks. They’re all there on a day like today.
Liz, Hope, and I saunter into the Saz and order up falafel and fries . . . the staple of any alterna-sumer. The place is inhabited by a table of beautifully dressed African women who are having an animated discussion in a language that sounds half French and half Arabic. We grab a window seat and of course our time there is spent mostly looking out the window at the people passing by.
We begin plotting the escape from Madison. Will it be just a vacation? Or a tour? Or a mass exodus? The notion of a tour seems popular and so for the next several hours we brainstorm our way through alternative financial realities, high occupational hazards (from taking so much time off), automotive quantum mechanics, tour guidance. Seems like making Heaven’s Stars (a very old Indian trinket with cleverly connected half-loops and beads which allow the holder to transform it into several different shapes) is rather well accepted. We’re convinced we’ll be able to sell as many as we can make.
We drive over to the Corner Bar on Willy Street and pickup tickets for the show tonight. The Weavils and John Brown’s Body will be packing them into that oh-so-pathetically-tiny venue. It’s funny since that place has always attracted a lot of great acts and huge crowds but there is absolutely no room for any of it. Nonetheless we drop down our $10 for tickets and sit and have a drink.
I rib Liz for being up all night with Jess. Also I got to sort of recap with Hope one of the first times her and I met: we were at a Dark Star Orchestra show at the Evermore Theater on Atwood and Anne was with us. In fact that was very soon after I first met Anne and had this ridiculous over-the-top crush on her (which later settled into ‘just’ eternal love). So Hope and I got a few giggles out of that. Funny how time flies and what is in the present later becomes a memory you share with others.
We duck out of there amidst the whiskey shooters and the liquor lookers and head back downtown to get some rest and relax before the show.
I lay down at home and try to rest but there’s just too much energy in the air. So I get up and call over to see if Jasmine and Frannie can make it to the show tonight. They have plans already for a dance party. I pick up the guitar and try to fill some time playing along to Mazzy Star songs. The phone rings, it’s Becca calling to see whether I was headed down to the Union for tonight’s Cork N Bottle gig. Sort of sad that so much is happening in one evening. But since I already have a ticket for the Corner Bar show, I let her know I’m already booked.
I scurry about getting ready for this evening’s festivities:
Looking where I’ve already looked
bread for the head
food for the soul
and of course the last course has already been eaten
(we meant beaten)
The Corner was just HOPPING! The Weavils were playing when we got there. The crazy thing was there was hardly anyone dancing. So Liz, Hope, and I boogied up front for most of the rest of their set.
Nikki walked in soon thereafter and there seemed to be a cool distance. Jeez, I’m not exactly sure why. I guess that’s what happens when people introduce you to someone and are a little over-the-top with regards to you hooking up. So if ANY of you are reading this: in the future, if you are playing match-maker, be subtle. Definitely make introductions, but then leave it to the folks to decide where it goes. Expectations are the fastest way to weigh the situation down.
Ben (another guy who works with Elle), Andy, and his lady Laura were there. That couple was having an excellent evening.