Speaking of notepads, have you heard about the latest craze?  The low-tech hipster PDA, just a bunch of index cards held together with a binder clip.  I love that, it really appeals to my love of list-making and my fetish for office supplies.  It also leaves me lusting over fancier things like a Levenger pocket briefcase and a little Moleskine notebook for writing down my song-snippets.  I love using my Treo for contact management — I have so many of those it really is a space-saver, but for note-taking, the Treo doesn’t really work too well for me.  I like to have notes and to-do lists right in front of my face, not hidden away in a program on my phone that I might never open for weeks!

Speaking of list-making, Eric showed me his to-do list.  That guy is amazing, he actually has things to do and he does them!  Heheh.  Oh yeah, I might as well take this opportunity to mention that Eric’s new CD just went onsale at CDBaby, check it out!  He’s doing a release party on the 28th, an early show at the Hideout, if you want to hear this stuff in person.

Just registered for an account at AudioScrobbler; I was reminded of it by John Cunningham at that last Beat Kitchen show.  Right now my iBook’s back in the shop getting a blown speaker repaired but luckily there’s a plugin for Windows iTunes as well. You are using iTunes aren’t you?  If not, why not?  Sorry to be so bossy but seriously, there’s no good reason not to.  It’s kinda like the Moleskine notebook of audio software; just beautiful and elegant and simple and pleasing to the touch.  Anyway, AudioScrobbler.  It’s transparent enough that maybe I might actually get some use out of it, since I don’t have to do any actual work to get the list populated.  So far today I’ve just been listening to various MP3s I downloaded off the web, at Mangos and Mandolins, Songs Illinois and other mp3-blogs and suchlike.  There’s so much free music out there I hardly ever bother listening to actual CDs anymore.  I used to think it was just a phase but I’ve been doing this for years now.  Hmmm.

I bought myself a new Uno deck the other night, so after a nice dinner at Cafe Sushi, we had a little tournament betwixt me and Eric and Geoff and Sarah G.  It was loads of fun, I hope we can do it again real soon.  It seemed like Geoff was going to win but then Sarah turned the tables and beat us all in the end.  We didn’t get all the way to 500 points but it was a long enough session to satisfy.

I’ve been working out at my new gym just about every single day.  No results on the scale yet, but I am working my butt off, hopefully literally.  I did my orientation thing the other day and got weighed and measured; they told me I should probably just put away my bathroom scale for the next six weeks or so, ‘cuz I won’t see any results until then.  I think I’m just checking to make sure I don’t gain any more weight.  I quit smoking last August as you may know, and man… I’m very glad I did it but jeez, I wish it hadn’t changed my metabolism and made me gain twenty pounds the way it did.  But at least it’s forcing me to get in better shape.  It’s been a slow journey towards self-improvement — the long walks I started taking at the beginning of last year; the renewed interest in roller skating; the joining of the gym.  I hope this isn’t just a phase, it would be great if I could keep this up the rest of my life.  I don’t think it’s too unrealistic considering I’ve been keeping it up for almost an entire year now.  But we’ll see.

The one downside of all this has been my poor foot… I’ve been having pain in my left heel for awhile now, for months.  At least since this past summer, because I remember mentioning it to Erick Blake the day we went to see the Huckabees movie at the Davis.  I’ve done a bit of Googling and I think what I have is plantar fasciitis.  Which is very common and isn’t all that serious; what I need to do is pretty much what I figured: stay the fuck off it when it hurts.  Stretch it out.  And wear better shoes, dumbass!!  Heheh.  We’ll see, I’ll keep an eye on it and try to be gentle on it and hope it improves.  If not, I’ll just have to get it amputated.  Just kidding!!

Speaking of feet, I was walking on Rush St. yesterday, on my way to the Apple Store, and saw Jerry Springer pass me.  On foot.  He was literally one foot away from me.  I thought it was my imagination but a guy walking next to me commented on it and looked at me to be sure he wasn’t imagining things.  Weird huh?

Okay, back to my life in the big city…

A few weeks before the show, my producer Rian asks me if I can put a name on the guest list for L.A.  I say, no prob!  He’s says it’s this actor friend of his, blah blah blah and can I do this?  Says he can even give the band a place to stay that night if we need it.  He told me about his being in Boogie Nights, but I couldn’t remember the character (still can’t, but then I only saw it once, a long time ago).  He also mentioned a bunch of other movies, but I hadn’t seen any of ‘em.  So.  On the night of the show, I put the name on the guest list but by that time I had gotten confused about who was who on that list.  Which one was Rian’s friend?  Anyway.  Later on after we played, the whole band was in a frenzy trying to decide where to stay.  Everybody had different pals they wanted to go off with.  Me and a few of the guys ended up deciding to stay with Adam from the Pehr label.  (Who… I really owe a bunch of e-mails to.  Ugh, I suck.) So ANYway, that’s all settled.  After that I was free to tend to the merchandise table, talk to people, and do what I always do after a show, which is to run around like a chicken with its head cut off.  So.  One of the people that came up to me then, apparently, was John C. Reilly.  Only… he didn’t really say who he was.  Or if he did, I didn’t snap to it.  He sure didn’t shake me by the shoulders and say "EDITH… I am the guy that Rian told you to put on the guest list.  I am Rian’s friend John C. Reilly, REMEMBER???" Maybe then I might have realized what was going on.  What I know did happen is that he DID ask me if anyone needed a place to stay.  And my reply was… "Naw, I think we’re covered!" and I think the next thing I said was something along the lines of "Well… thanks anyhoo… I’m done with my cigarette so I’m going to stand over THERE now…" pointing to the merch table.  See, ‘cuz that’s my duty and obligation, to guard, protect and oversee that big pile of crap I bring with me.  And in Los Angeles I’m not allowed to smoke by the merch table.  SO.  The next day I get an e-mail from Rian, and got to read it while I was at Adam’s house.  He was all… "WTF?!?  You totally blew off my friend, EDITH… you FREAK!!!" LOLOLOL.  So I’m all mortified.  I tell the guys in my band what happened, and they’re pretty much the same as Rian.  "OMIGOD!!!  WE LOVE JOHN C. REILLY!!!!  We could have stayed at HIS HOUSE and you totally blew him off!!!!  Oh!!  My!!  God!!" Absolutely everybody knew exactly who he was, except me.  Ugggghhhh.  I never lived it down, either.  They were laughing about that for the whole rest of the tour.  They were stopping people on the roadside just so they could say "Hey, look what a dumbass singer we have!!"

I wrote to ICDSoft about the MP3 thing.  They would definitely let me post my own music here, no problem.  But the weird-song-of-the-week idea did not fly with them.  :-( But it’s funny, the way they phrased it.  They said if it’s a violation of copyright then I can’t upload it.  So… what does that mean REALLY?  What about stuff that’s out of print?  Or something that never was copyrighted, never been released commercially?  (I.e. a bum singing in the subway.) My intention was to put up songs that there’s no way in hell you’re ever going to find on any album or compilation.  Stuff that’s so far out of print that the LABEL is long gone, much less the release itself.  Argh.  I don’t want to piss them off but… it just seems preposterous to imagine that the RIAA could get them in trouble because I’d posted a Shooby Taylor track, or the equivalent.  So many other websites do it, why can’t I?  Like… what about Blake?  He’s been posting his stuff for years and years and years.  And the songs he posts are almost always the product of major labels, even if none of them are in print anymore.  Right now he has an old Ministry track that appeared on Wax Trax in the Eighties.  Ministry is a POPULAR band!!  Whereas I’m talking about music made by fucking ventriloquists’ dummies, WTF?

I know… just because one person jumps off a building doesn’t mean you should too.  But still, it just don’t seem fair.  I’m kinda pissed.

The show went great!  Perfect weather, not a cloud in the sky.  There were just thousands of people, I have no idea how many.  Somebody guesstimated 3000 but I’m really bad at judging crowds.  But it wasn’t so bad to play in front of them!  I was shitting bricks before I had to go on, both times.  Standing on the ramp to go onstage and feeling like I had to shit, piss, vomit and pass out all at the same time.  But then Jon Langford is such a goofball, I don’t think it’s possible to be very nervous on the same stage as him.  I think I was the only one in the whole PVC’s that claimed nervousness or who hadn’t actually played in front of that many people before.  I sang alright though.  No huge problems, maybe just a little wiggly in places.  You may interpret all this to mean that I did fine.  :-) I’m always nervous before I play, but it usually disappears once I start, and today was no different.  The sensation of being in front of a jillion people wasn’t substantially different than being in front of 100, or 350 or whatever it is that a "big show" would be for a gal like me.  Everyone was spread out through the park, sitting on blankets or milling around, so it wasn’t nearly as "crowded" as it would feel during a sold-out show at a rock club.

Lots of Cosmonauts showed up.  Kelly Hogan was there, but not Chris Mills or Brett Sparks.  Didn’t see Laura & Tracey Dear either. Jenny Toomey and Jean Cook were there though.  Jean lives in NYC and played violin on my 2nd album Telescopic.  Every time I see her in Chicago I get the big mental spazz… "I know I know this girl… it looks like Jean but it can’t be!!" Until finally I realize it IS her.  And I’ve done this two or three times now, when will I get over the fact that the girl can travel if she wants?  The context is wrong at a PVC show… "Hey, you’re not country, I’m only supposed to see you at INDIE shows!"

So, who else was there.  David Yow, who’s always great.  He always calls me Elizabeth!!  Because he thinks it’s funny, and it is sort of funny. He’s more of a charmer than a dickweed, I’ll put it that way, heheh.  I’ve probably told this story before, but he’s only razzing me because the 2nd or 3rd time I met him, he accidentally called me Elizabeth and I got all irate about it.  Well, it was more funny than anything, I was just yapping in his face "My name’s EDITH, NOT ELIZABETH!!!!" with this total "OMIGOD!!!" expression on my face.  As IF.  LOL.  So, every time he sees me, he wants to see if he can get me start yelping at him again.  Well I’m plenty gullible but I’m not gonna fall for that one twice!

Oh hey… I got to meet Rosie Flores!  Of course I’ve seen her play before but never actually met her.  I was genuinely thrilled.  The rockabilly filly herself!!  I saw her open for Wanda Jackson one time in New York (with my pal Lauri Tyeryar) and she fuckin’ ripped.  I mean she shredded on guitar, wailed on vocals and just tore it all up, man.  She was so sweet to me today.  We’re from the same hometown now that I think of it; I should have mentioned that.  I was obviously geeked out over her and even tripped over a folding chair in my excitement, she had to catch my arm…!!!  Whoah there little lady…

It’s pretty exciting to hang out backstage at a big outdoor thing. I definitely love seeing those hot celebrities, and hopefully taking their picture.  I did have my camera today of course, and got about 20 shots, most of them pretty good.  Somebody took a picture of me and Rosie and Jon Langford, but I look horrible in it.  Boooo!!  I had my teeth bared in a grimace of overexcitement.  I got lots of other good pics though, of John Rice (PVCs), Janet Bean (Freakwater), David Yow (Jesus Lizard), Jenny & Jean, Rebecca Gates (Spinanes), Puerto Muerto.  Even got a picture of two of the Throat Singers of Tuva, in their street clothes.  They did a set before the PVCs, it was really neat-o.

I always avoid outdoor fests like the plague (as an audience member) but I sure had fun at this one.  The Old Town School folks were super nice. They had a big tent for us to hang out in, and food, and lots of mirrors and even little spray-bottles laying around.  I mean like, different flavors of BODY MIST.  They must think we’re going to get all stinky up there and need a little spritz!  "Ummm… we’re not going to say you’ve got b.o., but there’s that bottle over there in case you feel the urge…"

After the show John and I wandered up to Laurie’s and got suckered into some purchases.  I got the latest Gillian Welch, which I think I actually have already, but if I do it’s laying around somewhere where I can’t find it.  So now I have it FOR SURE.  :-) John got the new Sonic Youth on vinyl.  And I got a used DVD… an old horrible wonderful 70s movie that I used to really love called Audrey Rose.  John made burgers tonight and we watched it.  It’s got some hilarious moments.  Marsha Mason (The Goodbye Girl, right?) played the distraught mom, poor thing.  "B-b-but… it’s… a… night… mare…!! ::whimper::!!" Her daughter Ivy’s body houses the reincarnated soul of Anthony Hopkins’ daughter Audrey Rose, who died in a fiery car crash two minutes before Ivy was born.  The poor child is losing sleep because she keeps morphing into the dead girl every night.  She wakes up (as the dead girl) and starts freaking out, thinking she’s trapped inside the burning car, beating her hands against the glass etc.  When Ivy finally dies at the end of the picture, Anthony Hopkins says… "She’s free now.  Free!  Her soul is free!  It’s free.  Free!  Her soul is free.  Free." ad nauseum.  My only question is… if the soul was so tormented in Ivy’s body, why’d it go there in the first place?  After the car-crash, why didn’t it go chill out in some Heavenly rest-stop and wait a few years and THEN get reincarnated?  But no, she had to shoot herself into Ivy’s body, ruin her life and ultimately kill ‘er.  But her soul is free now!  Free!!

I really want to be Audrey Rose for Halloween some year.  I’d wear a nightgown, bandage up my hands and run around in circles shrieking, and run around to all the windows banging on them whilst yelping continually.  I already have this imitation down cold, believe me!!  I can do other scenes too, like where she’s staring in the mirror saying… "Hey Audrey.  Audrey Rose… hey… Audrey… Audrey Rose… Hey…" Or another one where she’s under hypnosis and says "Mommy.  Mommy.  Mommy.  Mommy… Mommy?  Mommy…!!  Mommy!!!  MOMMY!!!!" As you can see this film is all about using repetition to drive its point home.  :-)

Tour’s going great, except I caught a cold.  Seems like I never get sick when I’m at home, just on tour.  The guys are telling me I’m snoring like a buzzsaw and coughing and sputtering all night… they all have earplugs but I still feel guilty for being the loud one every night.

Last night at the Spaceland was such a great show, much better than the last time I played there.  The last time I was here I remember feeling kinda like "what the hell am I doing here?  Everyone’s acting weird!!" Not that many people showed up, and I just felt like an alien for whatever reason.  But this time we had a good turnout, for a Sunday night.  The audience was really listening, which is the best feeling.  When you can tell they’re actually paying attention and not just standing around talking to each other, it makes you want to kick ass and really wow the crowd if possible.  My voice was a little raggedy what with this cold, but not too bad.  The silver lining to having a cold is the gravel you get in your voice — low parts are a lot easier to sing than they normally are when you’re healthy.  We played "Who" for the first time on this tour… I think of all the songs I’ve written, it goes the lowest in pitch, so it’s usually pretty hard for me to sing, but not last night!  Whoo-hoo!!

A guy came up to me last night to ask me a question, I can’t even remember what.  But when he walked off, somebody else ran up to me and said — "do you know who that was?  He’s a movie star!!!!!!!" And they told me his name is John C. Reilly, and he was in all these movies, some of which I have seen.  But I hadn’t really looked him in the eye enough to register what he looked like.  And even after getting the band to explain to me who John C. Reilly is, I still can’t for the life of me remember actually seeing him in any movies or anything.  I can’t remember any of the characters they’re telling me about.  Oh, I just suck that way.  I have a bad memory for faces, and names, and places and you know, pronouns in general.  Heheh.  Another guy was telling me he’s a TV producer and did I see this show, or that one, or the other one?  I hadn’t seen jack shit.  I told him all I watch on TV is the news… he says "CNN?" and I go "Yeah, and Ashleigh Banfield".  Blank stare.  Well, I guess I live in my own little world don’t I.

We’ve had pretty great luck finding places to crash along the way.  I’m terrible about that, I’m hardly ever the one who scores the crash-pad.  Because I’m always running around, putting on a show or just busy schmoozing with the customers at the merchandise table.  The lowest point for me was after the San Francisco show.  One of the bandmates found us a place to crash with a friend of his who lives in Oakland.  We get there and all the guys threw their sleeping bags down and I soon realized there was no place for me to lie down!!  It would either be the kitchen or the hallway, which I didn’t want to do.  So I went out and slept in the van, but I was a big baby about it.  I got all pissed off and started crying and feeling sorry for myself.  Adam came out after about 20 minutes and told me they’d moved things around and made a slot for me to lay down.  But by that time I was all tear-stained and full of anger at what had just happened (even though I had no right to be angry!!), so I told him I was staying in the van.  I didn’t really want to, but I didn’t want to go inside either.  Of course I didn’t get any sleep to speak of, and I was a fucking wreck the next day.  It just sucks to get depressed on tour.  I guess it’s just a result of being so far away from home, meeting a lot of strangers and feeling like an alien in general.  Every once in awhile I have to just bawl my head off and get it out of my system.  It’s no good though… Ryan says I need to find a better way to deal with my problems than to just go into my shell and get so upset.  He’s right!!  I’m working on it.  The really low points like that are so few and far between, but still…

Anyway, I pulled myself together for the show in Sacramento.  It was one of those hippy coffehouse-slash-bar-slash-restaurant type places.  They had *great* food and lots of yummy juices and power-drinks.  So I got to eat, and drained a couple of juicy-juices and felt a lot better.  The opening band in Sacramento had about 50 people to see them, but by the time we played there were only maybe 15.  But I like playing for a small audience.  I repeated the Steve Martin gag that goes… "I’d like to thank each and every one of you for coming tonight.  Thank you… and you… and you… and you… and you…" etc., pointing to all 15 audience members until they’d all been thanked.  It was pretty funny.  :-)