Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

John took a sick day today, just because he has a lot of them left and only a month to use them.  He spent the morning puttering on the computer next to me, and then went out to run some errands.  He’s going to Guitar Center and then to the grocery store, to buy some fish to eat tonight.

The show went well last night at the Fireside.  John ended up forgetting his keys when he went to play in Evanston… I noticed when I came home from the Fireside after soundcheck and before the show.  So as it turned out, I couldn’t even hang out to see Smog… I had to bolt immediately after singing "Charley’s Girl", so I could get home in time to let John in with his guitar and amplifier.  But then he didn’t even get home until midnight, so I guess I could have stayed a little longer.  I was nervous about singing, a bit paranoid about my ability to remember lyrics, especially after screwing up "Patsy Cline" at Jenny Toomey’s show the other week.  But I had no problem with "Charley’s Girl", thank god.  It sounded pretty kick ass, and the people seemed to like it.  It wasn’t too terribly crowded, but just enough to make it fun.  I saw a lot of people I knew, in the hour or so I was there… Rian Murphy and his girlfriend Lisa showed up, and Lisa Turallo from Drag City.  Also saw Eric St. Clair, who said he’d moved to New York.  Said he’d finished medical school at Northwestern (?!? I thought he was just a professional radio guy!) and is doing his residency at NYU now.  Also saw D.V., the filmmaker dude (a friend of Dan Koretzky who was involved in High Fidelity).  He’s so cute and always so nice to me.  Oh my.  Too many sexy guys in this town.

Anyway, back to the Fireside!  (ha ha) Jim White (from Dirty Three) was playing drums with Smog, I saw him at soundcheck.  I told him about Becker putting new guitar & fiddle parts on the country tunes, and he was well pleased.  It is kind of embarrassing that it’s taking me so long to get this project together… I had to confess that I hadn’t even listened to the drum parts he’d added until I started recording with Becker!  But I told him his drums sound fantastic (which is true) and he was very glad to hear that.  Nice to hear him sounding more concerned about the quality of the recording than the timeliness of its release!

The guy who did sound at the show last night looked really familiar to me… he introduced himself as Scott (I think!) and said he plays banjo with Becker sometimes.  I wonder if he’s the banjo player in the Paulina Hollers?  He was really nice.  Jim has cool friends.