July 11-18, 2008<\/p>\n
Drove to Hamilton yesterday for our gig, had no problems finding the place, greeted by the owner of the gallery, who parked my car, led us to the gallery inside and got us bottles of water. We did a sound check on another tiny stage, no monitors again. I vowed then and there to buy myself a monitor. There was a guy setting up a camera and lights\u2014we were to be filmed, ugh\u2014I only have about three viable outfits-packed badly again, and wasn\u2019t wearing the best one but people tell me I look good. Still it\u2019s hard to play with the lights shining in your eyes. Every show is a new trial, test. Good thing I had my own mike because the ones they had were entirely inadequate. We are ninja, as Roderick says. The building itself was an interesting space, reminded me of Western Front, had been a casket factory, now called the Pearl. There was a beautiful young girl and her mother there who said hello. Her name was Tiana I think and she was going to sing. We set up and waited. And waited. Finally Klyde showed up, warm rasta man, in fact everyone there was very friendly and accomodating. I chatted with Klyde as Roderick noodled on guitar, helping to enliven the room. We talked of Jamaica, island living and slam, tired subject really but everyone seemed to have a take on it. I explain that I was performing my poetry before slam, when spoken word was inclusive, diverse, exciting and interesting. Finally people began to arrive and the show started in earnest. Klyde got up and did his thing, including a hilarious piece about riding a mini bus in Jamaica. Poor Tiana, after patiently waiting, got onstage only to find that the CD player wasn\u2019t hooked up! We had sat there for hours. It seems to me someone, including us, could have done this as we waited. She sang God Bless The Child<\/em> and Pappa Was a Rollin\u2019 Stone <\/em>beautifully. She was very poised for a 14-year old and her interpretations were quite fresh. We got up to play, there was a rowdy bunch in the audience but they were enthusiastic though one woman talked through much of the set, which was nearly as distracting as the bright lights in our face from the cameraman and the fact that I can\u2019t hear myself again! This is mickey mouse bullshit and I\u2019m tired of it. So, we performed to a small but enthusiastic crowd, who danced and demanded an encore. We were swarmed after by several cougars and their boyfriends, one with a big scar on his forehead and a tude to match, leering and making lewd suggestions. We go out of there as fast as we could. I\u2019m glad to have met Klyde though. The show was thrown together at the last minute and he invited us back to do something in the future. We are receiving many invitations, some more attractive than others.<\/p>\n Back in Toronto<\/p>\n I was reading again about the bizarre case of sneakered feet washing up on various BC islands and beaches, which is perhaps why I dreamed of losing a sneaker. I was working on a movie set with one of my boyfriends though I can\u2019t recall which one. I heard someone singing, looked over to see that it was Frank Sinatra, standing at the top of a stone staircase. He was wearing my sneaker! He was frail, embraced me, and though swarmed by others I managed to tell him he was one of my favourite singers. Then one of the crew members tried to convince me that he had been an imposter.<\/p>\n Southern Ontario is so immense! When I left the hotel this morning the weather was warm, now it\u2019s getting cooler and I\u2019m not dressed for it. Will have to borrow a sweater from Aunt Lolly I think. Off on an adventure, to visit my great aunt Laura in Newmarket. Tired but glad I\u2019m going. To my irritation, a young man in gangster garb, ball cap, baggy pants\u2014sat next to me and pulled out a Red Bull then a mickey of Smirnoff as he made dope deals on his cell phone, referring to his product as basil<\/em>.<\/p>\n I\u2019m glad I spent the afternoon with my great Aunt Lolly. Her name is Laura but they call her Lolly. She is my grandfather\u2019s much younger sister so she didn\u2019t know him very well but I enjoy listening to stories from \u201cdown home,\u201d the family lore. They were poor and owning a pair of skates or a bicycle was rare, so her father, Barney, my great uncle made Corona share her bicycle with her cousins. Then he got on it and rode it up and down the hill, my mother anxiously biting her nail and vying for its return. \u201cYou\u2019re worse than the kids,\u201d said his wife. He was a real bastard from the tales I was told, to Lolly in particular. It sounds like she was his scapegoat though he liked to scare all the children. He used to bang the walls and once put the pail they used to collect eggs onto his head. It got stuck! He stood at the door and banged his bucket head on the door, crying \u201cHelp!\u201d She described coming home one night from the chips palace one night, surprised to find him up as he normally went to bed at 8:30. He told her it was midnight, grabbed her by the neck, ripped her blouse nearly off and hit her, hard, sent her flying. She crawled to the door in tears when her mother intervened but was so afraid, she didn\u2019t sleep all night. She got a job cleaning houses and moved out a week later, said they were estranged for many years but reconciled before he died.<\/p>\n Aunt Lolly and I discussed all the rumors that had percolated around my mother\u2019s birth, that Genora (my grandmother) had been messing around with another guy but obviously my grandfather Reginald believed the child was his because she confirmed the story my mother told us about him going and collecting Genora when they were of legal age and marrying her because his parents wouldn\u2019t give their consent. With envy, Lolly described seeing Corona for the first time: \u201cShe was yakking away in French and we couldn\u2019t understand a word she was saying. She had a beautiful green velvet dress, a white crocheted tam and matching shawl. The convent was apparently the source of the aforementioned bicycle.<\/p>\n During our visit, her granddaughter called to ask about the origins of a saying her boyfriend wanted to tattoo onto some body part. They thought it was from the bible, and Aunt Lolly being devout, they thought she would know it\u2014something about life and death. I said it sounded like Latin and suggested he Google it.<\/p>\n Word Jam was great! We shared the bill with singer\/songwriter Jeff Scott, a handsome, rather mainstream but talented singer\/songwriter. Yehuda does a marvelous job of programming and is very organized. I like that he breaks up the open mike, or open stage\u201d as he calls it, before and after each featured performer. Kathleen and Jessica came out, cohorts from Banff Wired Studio. We had a lovely time chatting and catching up, as I did with Alexandra and James McAuliffe who I have not seen in a coon\u2019s age. He\u2019s married with four kids and lives in Kitchener now. He\u2019s running a small press and writing too. A tube from the amplifier blew a few minutes before show so Yehuda brought a small amp which didn\u2019t sound so great but was better than nothing. It\u2019s the most well organized series of them all I think. We really enjoyed the night. The audience was warm and attentive and our work well received.<\/p>\n CHICAGO<\/p>\n Beautiful, stately art deco hotel but noisy room again, TV viewing interrupted by a piercing wails of a baby, had to move to another room, for the fourth time is it? I\u2019m losing track! Roderick wandered and explored, took photos. I went out with Kurt and his boyfriend Adam, attending a reading at an Irish pub in the burbs but not that far out of the city. Roderick went to the hotel\u2019s wine\/cheese\/chocolate bar, sat through a poetry reading though I was happy to meet Adam and hear them both read. Bookish, elitist crowd, guess I should have emphasized my print credentials more but I just don\u2019t give a damn half the time what people think.<\/p>\n Adam told me there was no PA at The Cafe, the venue for our show the next night. Yikes! So next day, off we went to get the organizer\u2019s act together for him. We have to sound good! First we went to Mary\u2019s Cafe around the corner to fuel ourselves with breakfast. I love room service but it kills me to pay $22. for a couple of eggs and some toast, hotel food pedestrian as the very least. Roderick dared to eat a Steamer for breakfast, gastronomically insulting layers of biscuits, sausage, cheese and gravy, discovering in the process that what they call American cheese is actually processed cheese slices. Only in Chicago? He\u2019s been recording these encounters with various dishes for posterity on film, appears to be performing surgery with his camera as he zooms in. I think I hurt his feelings when we were in the airport recently by suggesting that perhaps he should not draw attention to himself and refrain from taking pictures, at least until after we get through security. He pooh poohed my concerns and said, \u201cI\u2019m going to be myself.\u201d Okay. What do I know but obviously you haven\u2019t traveled to the U.S. since 9\/11. Sometimes it\u2019s necessary to blend in, like a snake in the grass. Cathy backed me up last night and told him they don\u2019t like it and that it\u2019s actually against the law. Should research that but whether it\u2019s true or not, it\u2019s still smart to be discreet, play it cool.<\/p>\n We went back to the room after breakfast, made many phone calls to music stores until we finally found a shop that rents equipment. Not like Canada. Guess we\u2019re spoiled by Long & McQuade. Roderick went to MOCA, saw the Jeff Koons, liked Calder collection better. Kurt picked us up, we went to the music store, decided not to rent a massive PA system, rented pedals, a guitar, using foresight, went to lunch, drew up schematics, Kurt volunteered to lend us some of his gear, went to his place, put everything together, tested signal flow, went back to hotel to change, Roddy ran down to the Moorish themed pool for a quick swim, then dragged to a meet and greet, instead of being able to go to the Art Institute, we socialized for five hours then sat through two hours of open mike. Engaged in public relations, Kurt and Rod set up, his hunch confirmed, when Charlie arrived and informed us that he didn\u2019t bring the mike and amp as he said he would and that his guitarist wasn\u2019t coming with guitar and amp until 9:20. Kurt and Rod got the sound sounding pretty well, challenging for Roderick when delay pedal started screwing up and the guitar had spongy strings. I was exhausted and having to pee by the time we got up to perform. I thought there would be a break between open mike and feature but there wasn\u2019t. Audience hard to interact with, seemed cold, distant, really unnerved me, maybe it was just because I was sooooo fucking tired. It was nice to see Shelly Nation and Michel Watson. Kurt bought everyone drinks and dinner. He is such a sweetheart. I\u2019m lucky to have such a good friend. As Roddy says, we need to get off this pass-the-hat circuit.<\/p>\n We returned to the hotel, then had a drink and a bite to eat in the lounge, our first opportunity to relax, had a pleasant chat over shrimp skewers, veggies and dips, one made from beets. Eating well is difficult and I am always excited to find fresh fruit and vegetables while on the road, ordered half a cantaloupe with that heavy breakfast at Mary\u2019s Cafe. I learned more about Roderick\u2019s upbringing, some things rather surprising.<\/p>\n In the news, a lot of flack over the Barack Obama New Yorker <\/em>cover. I can understand his reaction. Sure it\u2019s funny but a lot of Americans, the majority perhaps, are not going to get the joke. It will serve to perpetuate the ridiculous lies and rumours about him.<\/p>\n On the plane, on our way to New York city. Roderick has blessedly been helped with earplugs designed for air travel. He had been in excruciating pain during our descent into Toronto. Looking forward to seeing Cathy. I will only have one day with her as she is off to Seattle to meet with Pearl Jam\u2019s people. She is going to miss Josef and her godson Lucas entirely which I didn\u2019t realize until this morning. They are all going to be disappointed as well. Staying at the Coast Plaza in Times Square, which I\u2019m sure will prove to be interesting, to say the least. Also looking forward to MOCA, Central Park and shopping. Lori told me about a place called Mimi\u2019s Basement or something like that, a mecca for bargain hunters apparently. I bought along unviable outfits, again, need to buy a few things. Did find an adorable silk-screened silk jacket at Peach Beserk in Toronto. Enjoyed Toronto this time, not sure why I felt differently about it.<\/p>\n Sure do miss my hair stylist Irene. I\u2019ve had my hair done twice now while on the road and it\u2019s not half as good as her work. Oh well, those are the pitfalls of travel. Back at the hotel after searching and finding new sandals and previously mentioned hair salon. Ouch! Screwed up my feet big time with the new shoes I bought in Toronto. Why do they always seem to fit in the store?<\/p>\n