Well, I have moved my ass to Chicago, y’all! If you’ve arrived at this page then you know I’ve already switched Internet providers… my new e-mail address is XXX (now invalid).

GUESS WHAT… there’s a big fat feature story about my music in this week’s edition of the Chicago Reader. This is the first time I’ve done a real interview for a real newspaper with a real photographer and all. whoah…

I played my first gig in Chicago at the Empty Bottle on Friday night, it went great! I got to open for Rebecca Gates, the singer from the Spinanes, who I dig a lot. You know, she played a cool cover of the Pretenders’ "Talk Of The Town", and I was sick because I had come *this* close to playing an old country tune called "I’m The Talk Of The Town," a totally different song — it would’ve been perfect!! Maybe we oughta do it up as a split single, eh?

Anyway, the gig went great… I was in a bit of a daze because of all the excitement, meeting so many new cool people, but I didn’t forget to have fun — I got enough attention to make me feel like freakin’ Cinderella! (Damn, I coulda worn a ball gown…)

The next day, I had my first Wesley Willis experience. He was hanging out at the coffee shop across the street from me, and I got to talk to him a little and buy a couple of his CDs. He said "tell me to stay out of trouble," and so I did, and I asked him to wish me luck in Chicago, which he did, most heartily. I want to give him a copy of my CD the next time I see him! As I left the store, he stuck his head out the door and stopped me, asking me to "say RAO." so I said rao. "Say RAAAAOOOO!!!" ("RAAAOOOWWW!!!") "OOWWW!!!" ("OOOWWWW!!") "Now bump me on the head and say RAAOOOOWWW!" (We bump heads and I leave.) Welcome to Chicago, Edith!!! hahaha!!!

I had a great couple of gigs before I left New York… me and Deborah Moore did our au-revoir Holler Sisters show at Two Boots in Brooklyn on Nov. 1st, and on the 9th I got to do some of my original tunes with Mike Daly at the Mercury Lounge, opening for Royal Trux. THAT was a hoot!! Of course it was way emotional since I was saying goodbye to a lot of good friends… I’m really going to miss playing with Mike, the guitarist I’ve been working with for the past year or so. I’m unabashedly trying to convince him to move out to Chicago for my own selfish musical reasons.