Update.

I know that like, two or three of the people who read this blog do it purely to keeps tabs on my life, so I will post a short update.

In October, I played a song of mine at Herman's Hideaway for a talent contest. Most of the, er, talent was... er... karaoke. Anyway, sum a long night short, I won $500.  That's a hundred dollars a minute, for those doing the math. Mostly I just had a great night getting to catch up with about two dozen of my favorite people.

One of the other performers that night was a rapper, he went on unfortunately early, found me after I went on telling me how moved he was by my performance.  Exchanged numbers, and within a few weeks he had invited me to perform at a hip-hop showcase and birthday party he was putting together at Herman's. He offered me two ten-minute sets, serving as the "intermission."  I was stoked.

That showcase was last Thursday. On Monday that same week, I came to the realization that I could use some help, so I made J play his drumset with my tunes. It is worth mentioning that anytime we play together, everything instantly sounds better. Instantly I feel like a complete package, like a cohesive idea. I could not ask for a better companion for my musical career.

We did not bring the drum set to the show - too much of a hassle, so I asked my roommate to borrow his cajon.  Effectively, I was completely out of context, planning to open with a two-part polka-waltz medley of Home and Old Typewriter in the good ol' very-not-hip-hop key of C major.

Oh, and I had one too many beers and completely forgot all the words to my own goddamned music during the first set. If you are wondering how I dealt with this, I pretty much took the few lines I could remember and mix-and-matched the words in the correct melody.  I left the stage feeling like I should never be allowed to perform again.

Unfortunately, I was tipsy enough for my voice to sound stellar, so within twenty minutes I had shaken a dozen hands and received half a dozen phone numbers and business cards.

Got to see a lot of talented writers go up on the stage, and will be making contact with all of them. Only three women performed whole night (and one of them was me), the other two were badass.  Reminds me that there is a serious shortage of female representation in the music industry as a whole, especially in a few select genres. Time to fix that...

I sat there for three hours and did nothing but drink water and mumble verses to myself before my second set at 11:30.  It worked out though - went great.  Decided to start with a short slam piece to fit the mood, then played Sing, followed by a new and improved Color Wheel.  It was so much fun, and my confidence was so fiercely boosted.

And the following two nights I had gigs with Moses Jones. Life is sweet.