that I’m the first person on my friends’ list to post this:

The NPS Draw is up.

http://nps2007.com/the_draw.html

http://www.boston.com/news/globe/city_region/breaking_news/2007/07/firefighters_ba_1.html

That link will take you to a story on a mill complex in my hometown of Uxbridge that is burning down as we speak.

Those of you who remember the very first incarnation of Speak, the poetry reading that I ran in my hometown for a while, will recall this as the mill that was next to Woodland Spice and Tea on the other side of the railroad bridge. It was home to various art organizations over the years; I ran a poetry workshop at the old Youth Center there, and there are still a lot of small businesses and artists who make their home there — or rather, made their home there. was deeply involved with things going on there, far more than I was.

The factory whistle at Bernat’s was the soundtrack to the town’s life for my entire childhood. My grandmother worked there. The factory made the dress overcoats for the Navy during WWII, and the color of those coats was known officially as “Uxbridge Blue.”

In my head, I hear:

Homeless…homeless…
moonlight sleeping on the midnight lake.

— Ladysmith Black Mombazo, from Paul Simon’s “Graceland”

There really aren’t any words of my own for how I feel about this.

It took me exactly the same amount of time to drive back from VA to MA as it did for me to drive to VA from MA.

Grrr.

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I’m performing tonight at a benefit for homeless causes down in Middleboro, MA. The event starts at 6:30 and there are poets, musicians, etc…I go on around 8 or so.

This is going to be a weird gig. Faro had to pull out of the show due to a family obligation. Since the specific request of the organizers was to have Duende, and even more specifically for us to do the New Orleans / Katrina piece “Do You Know What It Means,” I offered to pull out if me solo wasn’t what they wanted…I also offered to try and get a_solitaryman to try and fill in on a guitar arrangement of the music, since he helped us produce the track to begin with and knows the music cold (sadly, he was unavailable). Barring those options, I told her I’d do the show solo.

So…instead of all that…the organizer (who, I think, didn’t quite get that I had some definite opinions about the options) went and hired a guy to write out the bass chart for the piece from the CD and learn to play it. (This happened while I was in VA, by the way.)

I spoke to him last night — nice guy, but I’m a little worried, since his first words to me after pleasantries were exchanged were, “So…was he playing a five string bass on this?” And when I said yes he said, “Ohhhh…ok….”

I just got off the phone with Faro (who thinks, as I do, that the whole situation is pretty funny) and learned that he doesn’t even use all five strings on the piece.

I don’t have high hopes here, but professionals soldier on…We’re getting together around 5 or so to go through it.

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I need a break and some money and some hope and some answers and a quick and painless death followed by paradise and tea cosies on my head as a sort of reward for going through some of the pain I’ve been going through lately.

Either that or a cup of coffee.

Ah well, Icchus is sleeping next to me on the couch and that helps.