Tuesday, July 14, 2009

where'd your eyes go?


I'm sitting here, somewhere in Louisville, Kentucky. In some faceless coffee shop on a street called Bardstown. The band arrived in this little town yesterday afternoon, after we discovered the unfortunate cancellation of our show in Owensboro. A collective decision was made to travel to this street called Bardstown. We played on a sidewalk for an hour, maybe, shaking tambourines, bowing stringed instruments, and tinkling on our rickety little glockenspiel. Generous patrons tossed the occassional bill of currency into an opened cello case. Later, we were able to weasel our way into playing in the upstairs of a brewery, still on this street called Bardstown. They were hospitable. We made lots of new friends. 
So, I'm sitting here, in this faceless coffee shop, on a street called Bardstown. I am drinking deep the anonymity that the environment is offering. After a week of constant social obligation, it is a settling thing to sink into the stillness of singularity. Alliterations galore. Yikes.
 
There is an ache somewhere in my spine to swim in the ocean. I've assumed the culprit to be merely the poor sleeping conditions in which I've adopted lately, causing my spinal column to shift and squeak. But I realized, just now, that it is something far more interesting. Swimming in the ocean is something that I love, and will continue to love, despite how spooky it may be. I am able to scare myself out of the act, at times. I scare my own little brain so much that it refuses to allow my physical body to gallop from the sand to the surf, only for fear that an ominous presence is waiting for me somewhere out in the blue. Waiting for my clumsy figure to collapse into the arms of the sea. Waiting for whatever that moment would be, when it can swiftly snatch me up and swim me to the bottom of the ocean, where it can eat me in peace. All of this to say, I'm going to the beach on the Nineteenth of this month. It will be wonderful. 

We are performing this evening at Derby City _________ (something). I expect it to be fun. This is the next to last stop on our tour. It ends tomorrow in Nashville. 

I am almost done reading Breakfast of Champions, by Kurt Vonnegut. I have been enjoying Mr. Vonnegut lately.