Work, Work, Work...

Holy shit it's already almost mid-August. Where's the year gone?!
The job's still going good, although I'm feeling that schedule change. I can't do much fun stuff on weekends anymore, and everyone else works during the week. Even something easily planned, like going to visit my dad, has to be completely redone. Oh well, whatever.
I got a new page of Banjo's Tune out today! The story's coming along slowly, and it's not too bad keeping up with the weekly posting, though I make no promises from week to week.
My dad had his lapband surgery this week, everything seemed to go just fine. Now is the next difficult step--keeping a diet that will work with his body and not make him feel like crap. Hopefully he will stick to it and actually hit his target weight by Christmas.

FINALLY Faced One of My Biggest Fears!!

Tonight I finally bit the bullet and made it to Open Mic night at Mike's Pizza--not to spectate, but to finally perform. I put a beer & a double whiskey into me to loosen up, but I still felt nervous walking up to the stage.

The staff knew me from the times I'd been there before, but I also got to meet some other musicians that hang around there. One guy, named Mike, was a swim team coach by day here from Kansas City, by night the lead singer for a blues rock band called Juniors Flat Six. He knew a lot of the bands I was talking about and turned me on to some that I didn't.

A bunch of softball players were sitting front and center, so I had a tough crowd. They were sponsored by Mike's so I can't say too much bad about them, but a few were dicks. I warned everyone it was my first time, then said "fuck it, I don't know you guys," then hit the strings.
I started off my (short) set with Thirteen, a Johnny Cash cover, which nobody really knew.

Then I did Rude Awakening (one of mine), which I fucked up a couple times (maybe the double whiskey was too much?), then played Road Trip (another of mine), which received the kind of applause that people do when they think 'oh shit, the song's done, I'd better clap'. The last song I did was House of the Rising Sun by the Animals, and it went over MUCH better. I got a chance to scream, which I should do more often because it's so fucking fun, and people actaully recognized it.

After I was done, a girl bravely got up and did one acapella song, then a couple guys got up to kill time (there were a few spaces left open before the next band was arriving), and I got to lend out my guitar. Mike (mentioned earlier and who bought me a 'Tijuana Hooker') even got up and did a song with them, which was awesome.

Later I was hanging out with some punkabillies (for lack of a better word) who agreed with me that there NEEDS to be a psychobilly scene out here, and some might even jam with me. I'm not holding my breath (been burned on that one before) but it'd be cool.

We all had to sit through some hip-hop, which was not cool, but then got to listen to some excellent banjo picking at the end (I got to hear the Ballad of Jed Clampett!). I closed the bar with the punk guys, then walked to the van feeling better than I'vc felt in a loooong time (and I've felt pretty damned good lately).