After the Cracklin Moth concert, I decided to swing by the Clipper before going to bed since it’s only four blocks away from home. Met up with a few other swing dancer friends there to listen and dance a little bit to Susie Gomez and Her Multiple Cats, who have basically a Rockabilly sound. Also got a few hot tomales from the tomale man! You haven’t experienced the Clipper until you’ve had tomales from the tomale man. Undoubtedly a great Friday night. So now it’s 1:45 in the morning and I’m about to go to bed… and I wonder why I always feel so busy. Sheesh.

Uploaded by thesongboy on 30 Sep ‘06, 12.35am CDT.

Cracklin’ Moth is definitely one of my favorite Chicago bands. Joel, Reggie, Solomon, and I decided to have a “guys night” and saw them tonight at the beat kitchen after some pizza at Joels and watching a bit of “The Office”. As usual, Cracklin’ Moth was amazing. I especially dig the vocal harmonies in Something That I Could Lean My Troubles On - which you can listen to from their website - and I love their live version of their closing song, Forever Song. It’s not the same but you can listen to a demo on Matt’s song journal. That last song is probably my favorite part of the live show… amazing!

Uploaded by thesongboy on 29 Sep ‘06, 10.46pm CDT.

Got this in the mail from Italy last friday and it’s been stuck in my head…

---

All I planted came up,
balsam and nasturtium and
cosmos and the Marvel of Peru

first the cotyledom
then thickly the differentiated
true leaves of the seedlings,

and I transplanted them,
carefully shaking out each one’s
hairfine rootlets from the earth,

and they have thriven,
well-rooted in the new-turned earth,
and grow apace now -

but not one shows signs of a flower,
   not one.
      If August passes
flowerless,
and the frosts come,

will I have learned to rejoice enough
in the sober wonder of
green healthy leaves?

-Denise Levertov

At the Hot House!! Last night it seemed like half the chicago lindy hoppers I know showed up at the Hot House for this event. There’s Dawn and Aaron in the pic. I stole this pic from Noel who took a whole bunch of them.

Uploaded by thesongboy on 26 Sep ‘06, 7.36am CDT.

After Dawn’s set this girl from New York named Jennifer Haase got up to play. She was en route to Nevada and made a stop in Chicago to do two quick gigs; one in Naperville then another in the city. So noone really knew about her and showed up for the show but about seven of us were left after Dawn’s concert. And we’re like, hey we should stick around and hear one or two of her songs. I guess I can’t speak for everyone else but when she started playing and singing I was just blown out of the water - and hardly moved until she had done an entire set and I had convinced her to do another song too! I’ve been listening to her CD for the past two days and I’m really enjoying it! Definitely an awesome find!! Plus, her song “Heat Risin’ From The 109″ could be a great blues dancing song in my opinion… bonus. :) You can listen for yourself on her myspace page…

Uploaded by thesongboy on 24 Sep ‘06, 10.00pm CDT.

Sunday night after small group Joel and I headed over to listen to Dawn play at uncommon grounds again. We got there a little late but still got almost an hour’s worth of music!! Also ran into a bunch of people I hadn’t seen in awhile and had a great time just catching up a little bit.

Uploaded by thesongboy on 24 Sep ‘06, 9.05pm CDT.

That’s me about to get a LASIK enhancement on my left eye. Heather, who was my designated driver, took the pic. Actually I got LASIK last May and my vision was awesome but my left eye was slightly overcorrected. So today for no extra charge they went in and did a “touch-up” on the left eye. The surgery went very fast (like 15 minutes) and I got home at 2 this afternoon. I was high as a kite when I got home… they had me on some great drugs. :) So I pretty much just wiped out and slept for the entire afternoon.

In other news we had an awesome time reggae/club dancing last night at Subterranean to celebrate Mike Choby’s last week in the States. And I just got a call saying that I have the apartment in Uptown so I’ll be moving for sure in a few days!

Uploaded by thesongboy on 22 Sep ‘06, 1.50pm CDT.

So that computer I bought off ebay last week? Yeah… they sent it in this huge truck. So all the neighbors were staring at me this afternoon wondering why this huge truck pulled up to my house to deliver something!

On another note, I totally ran over a bicyclist yesterday. It was sunset, and the sun was in my eyes… and the guy rides out from behind another car right in front of me not giving me enough time to respond. Luckily I just barely clipped his front tire… he had a little scrape on his elbow but was fine. Couldn’t say the same for his bike or beers though… and it was a borrowed bike too. I gave him $10, all the cash I had on me, because the whole situation sucked and my truck was fine anyway. If you ever ride a bike in Chicago, don’t ride in front of any cars!!!

Uploaded by thesongboy on 21 Sep ‘06, 3.07pm CDT.

Heard some amazing music tonight with Reggie and Deanna! We listened to an ensemble play music inspired by the documentary movie Born Into Brothels. It was unbelievable. Musicians included John McDowell, Falu, Gaurav, Steve Gorn, Samir Chatterjee, and Soumya Chatterjee. Also it was at the Chicago Cultural Center — which is absolutely beautiful. Oh yeah… and I’m not normally an impulse buyer… but I totally got a copy of the DVD for Born Into Brothels. I enjoy documentaries like this.

Uploaded by thesongboy on 19 Sep ‘06, 7.25pm CDT.

And the main feature of the night - the band Munly and the Lee Lewis Harlots. Munly is also a member of the more well-known band Slim Cessna’s Auto Club. These guys were absolutely amazing - I can’t even tell you. A little dark but very good. The band consists of Munly playing guitar or banjo, a drummer, cellist, and two violinists.

Uploaded by thesongboy on 16 Sep ‘06, 10.39pm CDT.