Just Another Day in Red Sox Nation

Yep, that's yours truly delivering eggs to Dot. The director, camera operator, and the rest of the crew did a great job.


Spec RED SOX commercial; directed by Paul Van Wart (Werk Bros., LA)

Casting by Kevin Fennessy, Kevin Fennessy Casting, imdb: http://www.imdb.com/name/nm...

Category: Comedy

Tags: Red Sox Yankees Suck comedy Dot Dwyer John Grenier-Ferris Jae-Omo Zubhuza Rob DiNinni Bradley Van Dussen Avery Hatch

The Low Anthem kicks off west coat tour

An email alert from The Low Anthem gives good news to all those people on the West Coast.

Here it is:

Greetings friends from your tired, sweaty LA road dogs.

It has been our pleasure to play shows for you this summer, all across the midwest, east coast, and New England. But, you may ask, why this coastal bias? When will we make the westward trek? The same path our forefathers traveled so many years ago? When will we cut the bullshit and smell the redwoods? And you may ask, when will we walk down Cannery Row and Sunset Boulevard? When will we cross the mighty Rockies, and swim in the Salt Lake?

Well, my friends, the time has finally come!

We proudly announce our first ever WEST COAST tour this fall in late October and November. We will share the road with compadres Blind Pilot, a fabulous band from Portland, Oregon, best known for playing beautiful organic music and touring on road bikes. If you're schooled in the secret arts of Facebook, do not tarry to use your well-oiled fingertips to let your friends in far away cities know about the tour.

And for those in the fine city of Providence, RI we have a very special hometown show for you to kick off our West Coast tour. On Thursday, October 15 we will be playing the historic Avon Cinema on Thayer Street. The show will start at 8:30 PM with Death Vessel opening. Advance tickets can be purchased for $13 at the Avon during box office hours, or on our website.

Also, we will be playing a show next week at the Narrows Center for the Arts in Fall River, MA on Thu, August 27 with our dear friends, Surprise Me Mr. Davis. The mutually agreed upon theme is anything goes - Mr. Davis will be playing our songs, we will be playing theirs, and eventually all inhibitions will fall by the wayside and who knows who will be getting up on stage together. Davis is the frankenstein band of hometown boys The Slip and Nathan Moore, and recently, Marco Benevento.

And for our old-growth friends in the rest of the Northeast, we will be at the Bell House in Brooklyn, NY on Wed, August 26 w/ Surprise Me Mr. Davis. Then, we return to Philly to play a FREE concert for the WXPN Artist to Watch series in Kennet Square (Sun, Aug 30). Thanks to everyone for all your support!

Love to all!

Jeff, Ben, and Jocie


New web news:

TLA on Twitter! http://twitter.com/thelowanthem

Daytrotter

New York Times Popcast

Time Out NY Video

Baebel

FALL TOUR DATES
Go here for tickets

August 26 Brooklyn, NY Bell House ^
August 27 Fall River, MA Narrows Center for the Arts ^
August 30 Philadelphia, PA Kennet Square FREE - WXPN Artist to Watch
Concert

(IN EUROPE FOR SEPTEMBER)

October 2 Austin City Limits
October 15 Providence, RI Avon Theater!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
October 17 Seattle, WA Chop Suey
October 18 Portland, OR Lola's Room at the Crystal Ballroom
October 19 Eugene, OR WOW Hall*
October 21 San Francisco, CA Great American Music Hall*
October 23 Los Angeles, CA Troubadour*
October 24 San Diego, CA Casbah*
October 25 Tucson, AZ Plush*
October 27 Austin, TX The Parish*
October 28 Dallas, TX Granada Theater*
October 29 Houston, TX Bronze Peacock at HOB*
October 30 Baton Rouge, LA Spanish Moon*
November 2 Tallahassee, FL Club Downunder*
November 3 Orlando, FL The Social*
November 4 Atlanta, GA The Earl*
November 5 Nashville, TN Mercy Lounge*
November 6 Asheville, NC University of North Carolina*
November 7 Norfolk, VA Attucks Theater*
November 9 Carrboro, NC Cats Cradle*
November 11 Washington, D.C. The Black Cat*
November 12 Boston, MA Paradise*

* with Blind Pilot
^ with Surprise Me Mr. Davis

Viva la Vinal Festival in Somerville this weekend

And speaking of Audrey Ryan, she sent this out to to her email list the other day.

Free music; you can't beat that.

Here's the body of her email:

So this weekend is Viva la Vinal Festival 2009, lots of FREE music and fun so come bring your blankets or chairs and spend an evening in a beautiful garden setting…

Friday August 28 & Saturday August 29 from 4-10:00 pm
(rain date August 30)

In the garden at…
The Somerville Community Growing Center
22 Vinal Ave., Somerville (near Union Square)
www.thegrowingcenter.org

Please come join us at this annual neighborhood event as we celebrate the Growing Center and our local artists and businesses.

• Live world, folk, bluegrass, Americana, and singer-songwriter music from local artists
• Children’s music by Charlie Hope on Friday August 28 from 4-5 pm.
• Raffle featuring prizes and gift certificates from local businesses such as the Sherman Café, Hub Comics, Grand, Precinct, Block 11, the Independent, Cantina Mexicana, and many other local Union Square businesses.
• Concession stand with affordable snacks and beverages to help benefit artists and the garden.

The festival is free to the public and all ages are welcomed. Donations are
accepted to support the event.

To check on weather cancellations please call 617-320-0538 or visit
www.thegrowingcenter.org and click on ‘calendar’.

Viva la Vinal Schedule 2009

Friday August 28th, 4-10pm

4:00-5:00- Charlie Hope (Children’s music)
5:00-5:45- David Wax Museum (Somerville folk-Americana band)
5:45- 6:30- Abbie Barret (Somerville folk-country artist)
6:30- 7:15- Akshara Percussion Ensemble (traditional Indian music)
7:15- 8:00- Dan Blakeslee (Boston indie folk artist)
8:00- 8:45- The Accident That led Me to the World (Northampton folk)
8:45- 9:30- Jennifer Greer (Somerville indie pop singer-songwriter)

Saturday August 29th, 4-10pm

4:00-4:45- Julie Dougherty (North Shore folk singer)
4:45-5:30- Chuck Muldoon (Portland acoustic instrumental guitarist)
5:45- 6:30- Rakiya (Cambridge world music band)
6:30- 7:15- Audrey Ryan (Somerville indie rock singer-songwriter)
7:15- 8:00- Danielle Miraglia (Somerville folk-blues singer)
8:00- 8:45- Seymour (Portland indie folk band)
8:45- 9:30- The Points North (Boston bluegrass folk act)

Rod Picott and Amanda Shires--a great opening act

There's nothing like a really good opening act. One that surprises you. One that you can put on your list and watch and start buying their music and you can say I knew them when--and that when was when they were an opening act.

I first heard Bobby Bare, Jr. when he opened for Lucero. Audrey Ryan opened recently for The Bittersweets, and she's a local musician worth learning about. Of course, there was this English country singer who opened for The Cowboy Junkies who actually stopped mid-song because he said he wasn't singing the right words, though I don't think anyone had noticed.

Last night we went to Club Passim to hear Paul Burch. There's always a silver lining to every dark cloud, and not working very much lets me spend a lot of time on Facebook. Wait, that's not really a good thing, is it, even under the auspices of "looking on the bright side." But I was hanging on Facebook yesterday and Club Passim gave two tickets to the first three commenters, so I found myself on the Red Line into Cambridge. And that's how I heard Rod Picott and Amanda Shires.

I guess they met up in Austin. He's from Maine and she's a fiddle player from Lubbock. Now they live in Nashville and play together sometimes, and now they're touring, joking last night that they are calling their tour the 100,000 mile tour or something like that. I guess they're driving around, starting from Nashville, in an old Jeep, and they'll end the tour when the Jeep rolls over 100,000 miles. Anyway, their music--I'm new to them but I think most of what they sang was written by Picott, though there's one murder ballad that Shires wrote--their music can be called kind of country ballads--stories about real life people and heartache with a bit of wry humor tossed in.

She's got a blistering Texas twang voice that she uses with mischief; his is more gravel and barbed wire, but they sound good together, the differences in their voice complementing the other: hers pulling his out of the funk and his keeping the songs serious.

Nice surprises. Check them out if you're looking for some real country tunes.

Structural Engineers needed in Boston

One of my Facebook friends wrote to me with this.

These are tough times for everyone. If you know anyone who is a structural engineer, pass this along. Or even better, just pass it along; let's get viral. Maybe someone will get work out this.

Here's the job:

I am currently looking for Structural Engineers (ES1) to work for my client in lovely Boston, one of the biggest names in the transportation industry. Must be PE and a minimum of 1 year of experience. Work is across Massachusetts, depending on projects.

If you know anyone.... thanks!

Everybody Knows--Dixie Chicks

This song has been rattling around in my head for a couple of days.

I think it's a quintessential trait of a person born in the United States to think that they can reinvent themselves, move somewhere else and start a whole new life, regardless of the past. It's steeped in our popular culture, and is becoming more prevalent as fame transcends talent in our collective psyche. Having been subject to enough people in my life who played judge, jury, and hangman, I can fully appreciate this.

But you can't run from the past. Yeah, the past is done and gone, but it would take a colossal, psychotic effort--repression worthy of Sam Shepherd or Tennessee Williams--to pull it off. And there's a big difference between nuts and nutty. Nutty is okay, but run like hell from nuts.

Anyway, no matter how crazy the person, there are still cracks, and the past will seep in somewhere and do it's work.

Sometimes, the best thing to do is turn around and face the past bearing down on you like a herd of half-crazed wildebeests. It's gonna hurt, but once the herd passes, you can (hopefully) dust yourself off and resume your journey.




Tell me now if you came sneaking up behind
Would you know me and see behind the smile
I can change like colors on a wall
Hoping no one else will find what lies beneath it all
I think I hide it all so well

Stepping out, everyone can see my face
All the things I can't erase from my life
Everybody knows
Standing out so you won't forget my name
That's the way we play this game of life
Everybody knows

Looking through the crowd
I search for something else
But every time I turn around
I run into myself
Here I stand
Consumed with my surroundings
Just another day
Of everybody looking
I swore they'd never see me cry
You'll never see me cry

Stepping out, everyone can see my face
All the things I can't erase from my life
Everybody knows
Standing out so you won't forget my name
That's the way we play this game of life
Everybody knows

You say I'll pay the price
That's the chance that I'll take
Though you may think I'm telling lies
But I just call it getting by

Stepping out, everyone can see my face
All the things I can't erase from my life
Everybody knows

Standing out so you won't forget my name
That's the way we play this game of life
Everybody knows I am just barely getting by

Sugar Mountain--Neil Young

Up until only maybe two years ago, if you had asked me how old I was I would have paused and run a number line through my head, matching the line against reality. There would have been a click somewhere around 17, but then I'd fast-forward to my real age. Somewhere in my psyche I honestly believed that I was still 17. Or that life stopped at 17, or that I stopped growing then...or something.

Now, I feel my age. Not old. Just my age. My real age. And there's something very satisfying and something right and real about all that. I'm at a place in my life and it's here and it's today.

And I love this song, and it's feeling trying to go back, of trying to live somewhere where you're not.

Oh to live on, Sugar Mountain. The nostalgia, the sweet feeling, for sure, but also the sadness and the melancholy.





Oh, to live on sugar mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You cant be twenty on sugar mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

Its so noisy at the fair
But all your friends are there
And the candy floss you had
And your mother and your dad.

Oh, to live on sugar mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You cant be twenty on sugar mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

There's a girl just down the aisle,
Oh, to turn and see her smile.
You can hear the words she wrote
As you read the hidden note.

Oh, to live on sugar mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You cant be twenty on sugar mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

Now you're underneath the stairs
And you're givin' back some glares
To the people who you met
And its your first cigarette.

Oh, to live on sugar mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You cant be twenty on sugar mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

Now you say you're leavin' home
cause you want to be alone.
Ain't it funny how you feel
When you're findin' out its real?

Oh, to live on sugar mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You cant be twenty on sugar mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

Oh, to live on sugar mountain
With the barkers and the colored balloons,
You cant be twenty on sugar mountain
Though you're thinking that you're leaving there too soon,
You're leaving there too soon.

Whister in the Dark staging a reading of my play!

I got some great news Friday night in an email.

Whistler in the Dark, as part of their Whistler Wednesdays stage readings, accepted Red Dog for a staged reading, scheduled for March 3, 2010.

I'm so excited (and honored) to have my play accepted by a group who is giving new voice to theater in Boston.

Stay tuned.