#13- Covers

It feels like Fall today in August and I'm wearing a sweater. It's been a jittery few days back in he city as once again I am faced with change. Shifts. A friend said yesterday that Fall is her "New Year" and I couldn't agree more. For me this time feels like a cosmic shift of tremendous proportions. Not sure why.

I was back at Penny's Open Mic last night. What a night. That's an understatement. After a weekend of what felt like pushing my brain back into forward motion I found myself suddenly having to push ahead full steam as once again I witnessed bravery. The theme was COVERS and almost everyone went up and did their version for someone else's work. Can you even picture an artistic community where the performers see each other work so often hen can actually "cover" it? It's stunning.

There were a few musicians who were covered a lot- Sean T. Hanratty, Joe Yoga, and Alabaster Rhumb. Listen to their stuff and you'll know why. Paul covered Alabaster and then did an amazing version of the song FAME. I love that song. I went to Performing Arts in the 80's. I lived FAME.

Two women covered each other. Smashing- screaming- dancing- hot and wild covers. One under a cover...a sheet in fact. Speaking of sheets. I danced under one last night. A performer named Jake whom everyone has named "New Guy" brought a sheet and asked women to dance with him under the sheet while all the guitar players played around us. The musicians fell into a great theme song for "New Guy" and I found myself under a sheet dancing and laughing like I was 5 years old.

I covered the open mic itself. I played the "ticket taker". I'd like to go back and work this piece some more. It was very bizarre dong a piece so specific to where I was performing. I was careful about offending people, which has nevern even been a concernin the past becasue I never write about actual people and places. I create weird new ones. I kept most of the focus on Penny-which of course she was fine with. But I think I'd like to make the piece more non-specific and out there. Really capture the cult feeling of the underground performance scene. Make it even more ridiculous that it is...if that's even possible. Quite frankly the scene is still very new to me and makes me a little jittery. I think I'm going to delet one part which was specific to one performer. Too close to home.


Tim Warner performed last night and I was lucky to get to know him a bit more. Tim is a comedian and a musician. He's got this cool edge to him and a deep appreciation for good performance. He's talented. Very. Last night I had the pleasure of dancing with him backstage like we were teenagers in high school. Literally. You know a guy is cool when you say "let's high school dance" and they do...no questions asked. In case you're wondering what that is? It's slow dancing with one persons face smashed into the nook of the other persons neck. Try it. It immediately makes you feel 12 and makes you laugh. We danced to Joe Yoga by the way.

One of my students performed last night, Elena. I was thrilled to see her. Man she's talented and has come so far. It's inspiring. She sang some of her songs on electric guitar. She was fabulous. Penny told me she'd seen her while I was away and already loved her work before she even knew she was one of my students. I love that.

This is like a journal entry. Ah... so what!

There were many highlights last night. luckydave covered like 2 1/2 people...Marsha covered Penny. I am now gearing up to produce the first of many shows called UNTIL MIDNIGHT. I'm co-producing with Bricken Sparacino. It's a monthly variety show where anything goes. After, the audience is transported to an undisclosed location for an after party. It's pretty hot. Our goal is to bring the underground performance scene to audiences who would never even know where to find us. Pretty neat, huh? Our first show is September 25th...come. Maybe I can lure you into this wild and blessed place.