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

Oh boy! I love a new notebook.  This one I got at the Deli Mart on Bedford & N. 7th because it was such a Hello Kitty shade of pink.

It’s been probably six months since I’ve kept a journal — I think I was fixing to move in with D. when the last one trailed off.  Well now we’re living here quite comfortably and happily, atop the Road Tramps motorcycle club with the three cats living in peace — my Junebug and Boo Boo Kitty and D.’s Markie the Cat.  And Little Pal sleeps with us & the cats upstairs but is banished downstairs when we’re not around — he’s a cat chaser.

I don’t remember where I was with my music last time. The main thing that’s totally changed things is that the Ships Mast was closed down in the middle of September. So I no longer have a place to play every Thursday night, and that whole scene’s fizzled and more or less shifted over to the Right Bank.  All those Ships Mast characters have moved on to other things — Arthur Friedel; Vinnie a.k.a. Vincenzo Napolitano; "Wild Bill" Teller; Lisa & Tommy Johnston, I hardly see these people anymore and it’s real sad because they were such a huge part of my life for the past year. I was in a depression, like mourning, for a month after it happened. Now it seems like that chapter in history’s closed and John and Nora Gallagher might never open another bar in the neighborhood.  Hopefully they will though, but a lot of things have changed now; a lot of bad feelings got passed around in the melee.  I only hope something new and cool can open up soon.

The Right Bank is okay, but Kerry has been reticent about giving me a gig there. Last Sunday I finally broke the ice though, by doing a solo thing after their poetry readings.  I did about 6 or 7 songs and bang-banged my guitar around and people were very complimentary about it afterwards.  I did, let’s see: "Been Smoking Too Long," "Hard Times Ahead," "Searchin’," "Distance" (after they yelled for an original tune) and the one they really liked was "Bang Bang". During the chorus everybody banged on the tables and shit — Tom started it.  (Tom is my drummer and he couldn’t help himself.)

I got a wonderful mention in Medea’s column in the new Waterfront Week.  I’ll try to quote it… "Last Sunday night at the Right Bank poetry night we got a rare chance to hear Edith (of the Marfa Lights) solo, and if hers isn’t the sweetest sound outside Texas! She sings ‘Bang Bang’ like a slow hand…" That’s my first Medea mention I think, and I’m very proud of it. I absolutely love feeling like a minor star in the neighborhood.  Now, if only Kerry’ll give me a gig… Actually I’ve got a lot more on the agenda than just the Right Bank.  Last night I spoke to Kitty, the owner of the L Cafe, and she said she’d be glad to let me play there — she’d seen me at the B.A.R.C. benefit in October at the Mustard Factory.  I played there with the whole band and she asked me if I could scale it down for the café and I said of course.  What I’m planning is a modified version of the old duet of Edith & Jeff, but maybe with Tom on snare drum & brushes.  Like the old open-mic setup, compact.  I have to leave a tape for Jane, the lady that books the music, on Tuesday.  Jeff is out of town until December 7th or something — he went on a hiking trip to Nepal and Thailand, the squirrel.

Yesterday I read an ad in the Voice for a rockabilly band looking for a singer. The ad mentioned Wanda Jackson and Johnny Burnette Trio so my curiosity got the better of me and I had to call the number.  The guy’s name was Mark, I guess he was the guitar player, and we had a good talk and all the right names were dropped on both sides, so I agreed to come out to their sort of audition on Monday night at a rehearsal space on W. 30th in the city.  I’m going to have to hustle to get there on time after work; Vic is pretty harsh about letting people get off early.

You may well ask why I’m auditioning for a rockabilly band when I already have a band of my own.  WELL, I kind of feel bad about it, but what the fuck? My band plays that chunky-chunky Texas swing kinda thing, which I totally love doing and I have no intention of stopping.  But they’re not a rockabilly band, although Tom gives the closest approximation. THIS rockabilly band has a stand-up bass player, cool!  And they have props at the Rodeo Bar.  It can’t hurt to try it out.

Over the past month or so, I’ve gotten a great jones (ha!) to listen to the old Tejano conjunto music of my San Antonio and Guadalajara youth.  My two favorite CDs are both on Arhoolie, Lydia Mendoza’s "La Gloria de Texas" and a various artists disc with women singers from the 40s like the (related) Mendoza Sisters and Carmen & Laura.  I have to buy the Lydia Mendoza disc for myself ’cause I borrowed it from the Muze library.  That’s how I got turned on to the way-cool accordionist Santiago Jimenez Jr. I am learning a few songs in Spanish, like "Un Rato No Mas," "Margarita, Margarita," "Que Cobarde" and "Marina Marina".  Everything’s in the key of A, seems like.

I’m going home to Texas for Christmas, and it’s the first time I’m going back since I moved to New York in May 1990.  I’ve seen my mom and my dad and my sister since then because they’ve come up to visit me, but I haven’t seen my grandparents in San Antonio or my little brother & sister John and Lilly. I’ll spend most of the time in Austin with my mom. I’ll get to drive around in her Chinook and hopefully disappear for awhile to hang out with my old pals like Rob Jacks and that whole crowd.  It’ll be good to see some old friends finally.

My new friend Deborah Moore and I have been working up some country-harmony duets like "Lula Lee" and "Soldier & the Lady" by Coon Creek Girls and "Lonesome Pine Special" by Carter Family. She is an okay belter, if somewhat unschooled vocally.  By that I mean that she doesn’t sing "precisely" but she does get it out there and that’s all that counts really.  We’ve practiced two or three times together but the songs are pretty hard to learn and we want to get it down cold before we do it in a performance situation.

Damn, I wish I could bring my guitar to Texas. Jeff is going to be in town at the same time and wouldn’t it be a kick to do a little playing in our hometown, at least at my mom’s house!

My mother’s going to love my hair now. No, it’s my sister Lucie who’ll really flip out. I’ve been growing it out for awhile and it’s finally one length more or less, just above my shoulders. I sacrificed some length in my last haircut to get the one-length effect, it was down to my shoulderblades already but it was too layered.

Work sucks, don’t even ask.  I’d love to find an easier, less hair-raising job but I’m afraid that’s not possible. They just gave me a small raise and made me a salary employee, but they’ve also given me a whole hell of a lot of responsibility and undue grief lately so even though it seems like the ideal job being two blocks away from home, sometimes a shit job in Manhattan seems inviting. (But please God don’t let me go back to advertising!)

D. and I have been getting along splendidly.  It was a big adjustment moving in and getting used to living together, and then the Ships Mast thing threw us both into a boozy funk for awhile. And, uh, I hate to say we both have started smoking cigarettes again, but we’re vowing to re-quit.  I’m really staying in love with D. and loving him more and more all the time, which is a new and wonderful thing for me. I actually want to marry this guy, which I never did with any other boyfriend.  He’s like my Prince Charming. (ugh)

I’ve been trying to write some more songs lately and I came up with two in the past couple of weeks, "Shadows" and "Another night, another day". Of course I’m not satisfied with either one but I’ll present them to Jeff when he gets back & see what he thinks.  <My chief musical director.>