Adventure #32: 2011 Tour (Cincinnati, OH and Bloomington, IN)
It was early afternoon as I pulled into Cincinnati. I headed over to Jenny's and hung out for a bit. I was convinced the show was at 7, so I wanted to head out by 6 at the latest to grab some food and get set up. We got there and I apologized for being late. The barista looked at me confused. She said “when are you supposed to play?” I said “I think 7.” She didn't argue. Jenny and Adam did though. So we checked online to confirm. Turns out the show was at 9. So I was 2 and a half hours early to the show. I feel this makes up for being chronically late to everything my entire life. Now we're even. Anyway, the show was fun. There was a guy from New Zealand I think who was one of the most overwhelmingly positive people I've ever talked to after a show, which is always good. Also met a guy who wants to help out with album art in the future. Double good! This is Pen Pen flirting with a lamp.
I woke up the next morning to Jenny's kids standing over me doing everything in their power to wake me up to play. It was 7 am. We had finally gone to bed around 4:30. Apparently 4 and 7 is to young to grasp the concept of “Uncle Nathan is kind of hungover and wants to sleep.” However 4 and 7 are apparently not too old to make fun of someone for being a hipster and wearing girl pants. Everyone's a critic. This is Pen Pen hanging out with Trenton, ironically.
For a long time Jenny and I have been talking about how we wanted to go to the Creation Museum in nearby Kentucky. Every time I drive through the area I can't help but have my interest piqued by the billboards. Since Bloomington isn't too far from Cincinnati we decided this was the day.
[begin disclaimer / rant] I don't mean to mock people for their religious beliefs. Faith is generally a good thing, and something I often wish I had more of. But the movement in this country to bring us back to Medieval times is both dangerous and hypocritical. You can't make animatronic dinosaurs to put on Noah's Ark without some serious science and technology behind it. And using the consumer offspring of modern science in order to condemn modern science betrays a bit of a conflict of interest. I guess if you really want to live 400 years ago you can deny all the science you want, but at least try be consistent about it, OK? That means no medicine, no internet, and no animatronic dinosaurs. You don't get to have it both ways. [end disclaimer / rant]
This is Pen Pen being devoured by an animatronic T-Rex which is in no way shape or form related to birds but is related to dragons, which exist (these are all facts I learned at the Museum).
Although I had gone to be snarky and possibly start trouble, I ended up being overwhelmed by my curiosity. This isn't really a worldview that I'm ever exposed to firsthand in my tiny snarky New England bubble. It actually wouldn't have been so bad had they not devoted huge chunks of the exhibit to trashing the ACLU and depicting distinctly Brooklyn looking street scenes as evidence that humanity was being judged for the sin of scientific rigor. I like my slum, thankyouverymuch. It may smell bad, but it's home. And frankly, when done well graffiti can be quite beautiful. This is Pen Pen learning about the Kama Sutra via some tasteful animatronic nudes.
Our curiosity / need to be right all the time about everything satisfied, I headed off to Bloomington for a show at Rachael's Cafe. It's sort of a long story, but basically I had a show fall through and had gotten in touch with Rachael's to see if I could play there. They already had an act booked for the night but said I could play after In Accord, who were an accordion quintet that played folk and classical songs. Not entirely my scene, but they were really good. The place was completely packed. Wall to wall people. I couldn't even find a place to sit. Things were looking good. Then their set ended and the entire audience got up and left. 100% of the audience. The only people left by the time I started were me and 3 people who worked there. Things were looking less good. A few girls that I had met earlier in the evening when they randomly pulled over in a car and asked for a piggyback ride to a Starbucks a mile down the road showed up and brought a half dozen roses which they proceeded to chuck at my head while I played. Everything in that run on sentence literally happened. And was awesome. This is Pen Pen singing smooth RnB ballads in a bed of roses.
This is a song I wrote this one time. You should download it and share it with your friends.
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