Zorba and the Good Boy Dance

March 5th 2008 by E..

As you might recall, Gene was away at a Folk Alliance conference last week, and so did not host The Folk Show…to make up for that, he totally packed his show on Sunday night, as if the herald his grand return to the airwaves…packed show are always interesting (I define a “packed” show as one with at least two acts that are performed in the big World Cafe studio, requiring multiple soundchecks with the bands, and so on)…they certainly keep me on my toes so that everything gets done (and done well) within the 3 hours of The Folk Show…This Sunday, it seems, was brought to you by the color Blue…the first group, a bluegrass-inflected jam band, Painted Blue, were pretty good…this was their first time performing on radio, and yet they didn’t seem nervous at all…after they were done, Gene had a guest in the small on-air studio…Deirdre Flint, currently a member of the Four Bitchin’ Babes, and I have a shared experience which I brought to her attention Sunday night…I met Deirdre at The Point in Bryn Mawr several years ago…she was opening for Da Vinci’s Notebook and I was a fan of hers, as well…that night, a local news channel was filming the performance of one of her songs for an upcoming special…that meant that she had to do the song a few times so they could get good angles and such…for her last song, she said that the tune had multiple endings and that we would determine how it ended…The Point was a very small place…If you were sit in the front row (as Dad and I almost always did), you were practically on the stage…Deirdre proceeded to ask me to come onstage and hold cards with names of different endings for her song, and the audience would choose which they wanted…when I told Deirdre about this on Sunday, she says she remembers the filming of her song, and kinda sorta remembers calling me onstage…it was neat to relate a story like that after so many years, and it makes me wonder what I’d do if I ever (actually) met Robyn Hitchcock…

Day 201 - March 2nd, 2008

I had my first midterm of the semester on Monday morning…it was in the Intro to Radio class…if only the exam could have been to do a DJ break, I probably would have done really well…I think I did well anyway, even if barely any of the things we are learning about apply to public radio…outside the class (which is apparently situated in the Department of Advertising) was a bulletin board that puzzled me in an ironic way…

Day 202 - March 3rd, 2008

Another midterm, this time in Jewish Studies, was yesterday morning…I can’t say that I’m enjoying that class as much as I thought I would…you would think that, after so many years with a Jewish-centric curriculum, I would know all there is to know…such is not the case, since there are an infinite amount of facts, dates, figures, names, places and events to memorize…and no, it’s not as fun as it sounds…

The upshot was that last night I saw Steve Poltz at World Cafe Live…as always, it was great to see him…he’s got a pair of new albums out, Traveling, and its available-at-shows-only companion, Unraveling…he did mostly new material with a few favorites in there as well…what is always a highlight, though, is his storytelling…sometimes surreal, sometimes obscene, Poltz tells his stories the way he writes his songs: with craft…after the show, I gave him an Eric button, and he began to introduce me to a bunch of people as “[his] friend Eric”…so not only is he an impossibly great songwriter and storyteller, but he’s a darn nice guy, too…on top of all that, from where I was sitting, I got some terrific pictures…

Day 203 - March 4th, 2008

So now I’m at the Help Desk at the Ambler Learning Center’s computer lab, listening to The Charlatans (who just released a full album for free on the interwebs)…if you need help with computers or baggy clothing, I guess I’m your guy…

E.

Lyric of the Time:
It’s eight fifteen
And that’s the time that it’s always been
We got your message on the radio
Conditions normal and you’re coming home

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