My friend Sarah Lentz is in from NYC to play a show at Club Cafe tomorrow night. Sarah rocks out on the piano, and has a full band with her. Here's the email with the details:

Hey friends,
So I am set to play Club Cafe with my band tomorrow! (Friday). There have been some discrepancies on time and price, but the dealio is this:
Club Cafe, 56-58 South 12th Street
Friday, May 30th (tomorrow!)
doors at 9:30 pm and show start at 10 pm (but might be doors at 10 and show at 10:30)
Cover $5 (but may be $7)
412-431-4950
www.clubcafelive.com
I think the Tribune Review has a blurb about me in it today. Check it out, and someone save me a copy!
If things do get started a little later I'm sorry! We have to quickly load in right after their early show.
I hope to see all of you there. This is a big first for me playing in my hometown with a back up band. It reminds me of my college senior recital..... ;)

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I went to see Matrix Reloaded last night with T Carra, and without giving any details away, I can say there's a cliffhanger ... oh yeah and Carrie-Ann Moss (who's a Canuck, who knew?) is still way hot.

hey, check this out: It's totally the kinda funny shit you want to read everyday.
Some fav's? Check in on Your Roommate Day, Car Wash Girlfriend Day, and Save Somebody's Life Day, and who could forget Don’t Put Your Kitten Into A Cardboard Box And Toss The Box Out The Window Of Your Moving Car And Onto The Grassy Median Of A Highway Day!

A Man of Strong Convictions and Talent

An interesting article in the NYTimes about Pablo Picasso, and how the pre-WWII French gave him the shaft. It explains when asked why he never became a French citizen, how Picasso came to say, "I am a Spaniard, and will die a Spaniard." So why stay in France? Politics, for one, a strong belief that Franco sucked and the pre-Franco Spanish govt' sucked, Picasso didn't want to align himself with anyone sympathetic to Hitler.

I'm learning that playing music for an audience is much more than just singing some song lyrics and playing some chords. I mean, yeah, you can do that (and who hasn't done that?) but there is something else that goes into good music. It's ethereal, intangible, perhaps even ineffable, but no it's not inaccessible.

It's definitley related to the Great Unspoken. It remains to be seen how that fits with Cracking the Cosmic Egg.

"A lot of the time I feel kind of limited vocally. I can hear it in my head, but I can't pull it off. I'm restricted because of my range. I just don't have that kind of voice, that kind of range -- you know, like even Emmy has, or like Joni Mitchell. When I first started out those were the voices I wanted to sound like. Eventually, though, you have to come to terms with your limitations, which, in turn, become your trademark." - Lucinda Williams, as she told the Journal of Country Music

So here's a couple minutes worth of cool photos to peep.

Ok, so this is the cool/wierd/thrilling/distinctive thing about the web and especially the blogoshpere: I see a blog name, click on it. links to another, click and BLAMMO you've suddenly found a photo series of one of the most beautiful girls in the world ... as best I can tell, she' s Brazilian.

New York Times has a bit on a girl rap trio and their song Cameltoe

My favorite bit: { Listeners agreed, Star said, but many had one question: "What's a cameltoe?"

A good question, although answering it requires a certain tact. Cameltoe is slang for a fashion faux pas caused by women wearing snug pants; the term suggests a visual analogy. The song is a cautionary tale, intended to help victims — help them, that is, by ridiculing them — into recovery.

The song's lyrics explain the condition more forthrightly: "Girl, that gotta hurt, take some time and adjust/ Can't you see people staring and making a fuss?" }

From Exit Stage Left, This is comforting, like receiving the postcard in the mail that you have to go see the dentist soon:

The Total Information Awareness program now under development by the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, or DARPA, will henceforth be named the Terrorism Information Awareness program.

It's not supposed to be used for certain purposes, like dossiers on US citizens, but how long until it does become that? I have as much faith in that as I do in the temporary taxes that come into effect.

From The Ground Zero Folks, RE: PATransit and our pal Ed Rendell:
If you haven't voted yet today, please do...

And the UltraViolet Loop advisory board asks that you please be aware
of tomorrow's important hearing regarding Port Authority transit
decisions.
Thanks to the Save Our Transit crew for the following info...

ATTENTION BUS, TROLLEY& ACCESS RIDERS!
It is time once again for the annual public hearing to pick your
favorite way to:
KILL OUR PUBLIC TRANSIT!

In order to balance their operating budget the Port Authority wants to:
Eliminate all Sunday service, Eliminate all Holiday Service, Reduce
Saturday service to Sunday levels, Eliminate all service after 9PM,
Eliminate entire routes, increase headways for other routes and of
course increase the base fare to $2.00.

On Wednesday, May 21 between the hours of Noon and 8 PM, we get to go
once again to the Convention Center, downtown and tell the Port
Authority just what routes and services we want them to cut for us this
year. Oh yes we also get to give our opinion about the third fare hike
in three years. Isn't this FUN? Too bad that after just a few more
years there won't be anything left to cut.

Actually, it ain't fun. THIS STINKS and if you hate it as much as we do
then go tell 'em so on May 21.

It is Governor Rendell who cut funding for public transit operations
this year back to what it was in 1994. Many in the State General
Assembly then voted for the Governor's public transit cuts. They are
responsible for this! They need to hear from us. We have till June 30.

Contact Gov. Ed Rendell at 225 Main Capitol Bldg., Harrisburg PA 17120
Call 717-787-2500, 412-565-571 or 1-800-932-0784

Call Stephen at 412-361-3022 to find out who your state representative
is.

SAVE OUR TRANSIT
No More Service Cuts! No More Fare Hikes!

A very good weekend overall.

Friday I met Caroline and Co. at the Tonic bar downtown for her Aussie happy hour send-off. Nice little bar, some cute waitstaff and bartender folk. Very cool bar for the young hip crowd. Oh yeah, something was up at the Federal building, which is caddy corner to this Tonic bar. That was a bit wierd, watching the live news broadcast about the Fed Bldg being evacuated because of a bomb scare, and being right across the street from it. Fortunately nothing happened. then I hungout with Jim and Ro and Tim at the Rumshakers.

Saturday was cool. I played guitar for this girl Valentina's afternoon birthday party at the Rex. Then I worked the CD table for Calliope at the Leon Redbone show. Which meant I got to see the show afterwards. Thanks for the hook-up, Jolene and for the hot-tip, Madge!!!

Very sad news, June Carter Cash wife of Johnny Cash died at 73 yesterday.

Did anyone see the eclipse last night? I checked several times and only saw clouds.

There should be a full moon tonight,with the added bonus of a Full Lunar Eclipse (courtesy of Engel/Bannan page ). Let's hope ther is sufficient clear sky for checking it out.

Leon Redbone is in town this Saturday night at the Carnegie, but tix are like $30 and $75 bucks. I'd so love to go see him play again, but the last two shows I saw were $15 and free.

Wassup ma Jiggas?

A word I invented: Noggage: stuff you put into your noggin.

Kooky dreams last night, in three parts:

1: I dreamt about my friend Delia, partly I suppose because I watched Scotland, PA last night with Maura Tierney playing the part of Pat McBeth. The two (Delia and Maura Tierney) remind me of each other, for one I guess because they have that smooth-smokey kinda voice, and they resemble each other. Chris Walken rocks in the movie by the way, and Andy Dick is funny too. Anyways, we sat and talked in my dream, Delia and I, about life stuff while we watched TV. It was good and insightful, as talking with Delia typically is.

2. Then I dreamt about going on a road trip to see a dinner show somewhere in Canada. My Canadian friend was going too, so we carpooled. We got there and were supposed to get all dressed up, but were in our pajamas. Then we got all gussied up and they still gave us pajama seating which is apparently floor seating in a bed. Comfortable but wierd. Imagine going to someplace like Mattress Discounters to see a concert or musical dinner theater in a made bed. So as we're watching this show, it was like a musical theater thing, some guy who is a knife-guru-sort (kinda looks like Stanley Kubrick there on the left with his beard) approaches us and says he is supposed to do a bit in this show. He immediately takes a shine to my friend. Well that's cool she says, but I think she's a little freaked out by the fact that this guy has like a million different knives, and in the middle of this mattress showcase concert space, has decided to give us a special knife-guru sideshow.
We suggest that he wait until he can go on stage so everyone can see his show. They of course never call him up to the stage to perform, so as we're leaving he follows us all the way back home and in the front yard, says now I'll show you my whole show. He opens up several suitcase-looking attaches filled with knives of all sorts, chinese throwing stars and the likes, and starts up this cyclone of swirling shiny metal, like a angry swarm of metallic bees. Then he tells me to stay away from my friend, that he has claimed her for his show, and that he merely needs to nod in my direction and I'll be sliced up like a honey-baked ham. I said, "Whatever, there's consequences for that kinda stuff, buddy..." I pick up a broad sword and a giant iron spear that I find laying there amongst his stuff, and stand my ground. My friend was, needless to say, a bit freaked out by this guy. And like any good dream sequence, sorta like flipping the channels to see what's showing here, the channel flips and shifts to more strangeness...

3. I dreamt about moving into a dorm-style living space in the Brew House. There were mostly college kids and artist types living there who were cool, many of us were more or less forced to move there. And then there were some annoying freakshow people who I spent half of my dreamtime trying to avoid. They were badly dressed clowns, trying to pass themselves off as cool people, but of course they weren't. They rode around on rusty bicycles, dressed like very colorful street punks wearing cheap makeup that was sloppily applied. Just really bad clowns. Oh yeah, and they thought it was funny to try to give people injections with hypodermic needles, so they'd follow you through the stairwells, through windows, up onto rooftops, whereve you'd go, trying to stick you with a needle full of who-knows-what. I woke up as they were pursuing me and I exited a stairwell into daylight.

Word of the Day for Tuesday May 13, 2003 from www.dictionary.com
comity \KOM-uh-tee\, noun:
A state of mutual harmony, friendship, and respect, especially between or among nations or people; civility.

comity of nations, noun:
1. The courteous recognition by one nation of the laws and institutions of another.
2. The group of nations observing international comity.
In Athens last week, E.U. leaders offered a picture of comity as they formally signed accession treaties with 10 new members.
--James Graff, "Can France Put a Cork In It?" Time Europe, April 28, 2003

Despite the image of civil-military comity during World War II, there were many differences between Franklin Roosevelt and his military advisers.
--Mackubin Thomas Owens, "Sniping," National Review, April 2, 2003

Short-term initiatives in 1919 became longer-term strategies for bringing the two pariahs, Germany and Russia, into the comity of nations.
--Kenneth O. Morgan, "Lloyd George and the Lost Peace: from Versailles to Hitler, 1919-1940," English Historical Review, June 2002

Everyone hopes that Saddam Hussein will honour his agreement with Kofi Annan and that Iraq will be received back into the comity of nations.
--Marrack Goulding, "A wider role for the UN," New Statesman, March 13, 1998
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Comity is from Latin comitas, from comis, "courteous."

I am currently enjoying Jen Bannan's book of short fiction stories, Inventing Victor, and the tales therein. Pick up a copy and check it out.

Damien Rice was in town, anybody get to check out his Club Cafe show last night or hear his in-studio bit at WYEP this morning?

"Be good and you will be lonesome." -Mark Twain

I dropped my lunch
I fell down the stairs
I got a hunch
Somebody cares

I know what I want
I know that I shouldn't
Cuz you have a heart
Even if I didn't

Continuing Education:

Indeed there is still some semblance of order inthe world. It goes like this: the very attractive blonde chick who occasionally appeared in the halls of my building, who more and more recently has been seen dressed to the 9's (imagine a remarkably hot chick on a weekend night) on any given day of the week, who as far as i knew was happily married, had got a divorce. it begins to make sense. see, i don't really know and never spoke to this girl, but she would be casually pleasant. smile, ya know or nod. i knew she was married. simple. hot married chick. smile, nod, but just mind your own business. but then the clothes changed, there were inquisitve looks that lasted longer than normal, followed by a flirty smile ? was she looking at me? i dunno, but a definite change had occured. so married folks are like off limits but dang, i was wondering what is she doing? is she really married still or ever? and i today i learned, yes she was, but not anymore. ahhhhhhhh... oh yeah, and she's finished her degree work and is off to NYU. major bummer... but at least i know what was going on was really legit, and not some other thing.