I had a good Christmas. I still have my parents and a grandmother so I’m grateful.
My flight got into Nashville fine but I-24 was closed. So, I was stuck in Nashville. The good thing was that my friend, Janet, was in Nashville staying at her mom’s. So, I had a ride and a place to stay.
Her mom is really, really nice. I think she was a beauty queen at one time. When she picked me up she asked if I was hungry.
“Yeah”
“Do you eat meat?”
“Yeah”
She asked this because Janet doesn’t eat any meat except fish. And by the way, this makes you a fisheater not a vegetarian. I dated a vegetarian whose dad got really excited when he found out I ate meat. Such joy is found in a meat-eating buddy.
“I guess we can just stop at a fast-food place and I can pick something up.”
And then she started dialing the cel-phone.
“You like steak?”
“Yes”
“Hi, I’d like to order a . . .”
And she got me a steak at Outback.
We got to the house and Janet was laid up due to a broken ankle. She was doing video work for Cradle of Filth in Canada and broke her ankle. I like Cradle of Filth.
There were plenty of Michelob Ultra’s in the fridge and they went into my belly with the delicious steak. I crave meat and beer alot. I tried to be vegan for 12 days and I felt great but fell on the 11th day to a free dinner of Steve’s BBQ and Schlitz.
I was at Janet’s from Wednesday through Christmas morning. I felt like a Dicken’s character- a poor lad sitting with a rich invalid girl, drinking beer, watching movies.
Her mom made a big Christmas dinner with Turkey and mashed potatoes and stuffing. Stove Top is good. It hasn’t changed.
On Christmas day, Janet’s stepbrother, Jason, drove me to Clarksville where my folks met me to drive the rest of the way. The road from Clarksville to Cadiz was still shitty but not as bad.
The next day my brother’s family came and spent the rest of my time playing with a 2 year old and a 4 year old who love their Uncle Jon.

I like playing living rooms.
I played in Jessica Delfino’s living room last night. It was a great show. It was a variety show with:
Epstein and Hassan www.theblackandthejew.com
Eurotrash
www.odebratwins.com
Jessica Delfino
jessydelfino.blogspot.com
Haunted Pussy
www.hauntedpussy.com
Dan Fishback
www.cheeseonbread.com
Adira Amram
www.whoownsjackkerouac.com
Nick Jones
www.oojamadome.org
and hosted by Mormon Surprise

I like playing living rooms. They’re extremely intimate and I don’t have to plug in. I’ve played them before at parties but nothing like this. Common Rotation, kings of the living room tours, reintroduced me to the charms of a stranger’s living room but this was the gold monkey of living room shows. Next time you gotta come.

This day’s got me down a little. I can’t hide it. I don’t have a good poker face. It’s rainy and I saw a lot of carnage this morning, watching Dawn of the Dead before I went to work. What doom those people had being alone in a vast mall with lots of other people outside. Angry dead people wanting to come in.
I’m sad Mekhi Phifer died. He believed in me all through 8 Mile.
I wish I were on the road right now. Being on the road when it’s rainy is cozy.

I played a birthday last night at the Hotel Utah in San Francisco. It was all secret and shit. These folks brought me and I hid in this hallway so as not to blow the surprise for this nice girl, Alysha, and her 30th birthday.
It’s a nice room, the Hotel Utah. It’s got an upright on stage and the room is very intimate. Some shows go perfect and that one did for me. I’m always apprehensive to play parties because they are parties and not shows but that was a wonderful show.
I played a 4-year-old’s birthday a long time ago and it sucked. It was my bosses’ kid and he and his wife were real nice but it sucks playing to tiny children running around. This was nothing like that.
I kept the songs to the fun ones since it was a happy time. I’m enjoying playing piano at shows now. The last show I did I covered a Garth Brooks cover of a Billy Joel song on the piano.
The hosts of this party were very gracious and accomodating. I couldn’t have had a better night.

I played 2 shows Friday night. I accidentally had 2 booked. The first one was at the Balazo Gallery in San Francisco and the second one was down the street at the Odeon Bar.
The first one was booked by my friend, Clitty. That’s his name. He used to come to my Wednesday night weekly shows in Dallas that were usually bare of anyone. He’s a good guy.
It’s a nice place with a bad sound system. It worked good enough. I liked those people that came. I liked them alot. Clitty’s band played and rocked me hard. Their singer looked like a lady, like one of the Bangkok Ladyboys. His mike went out and he shouted in everyone’s ear, one at a time. They’re called Triple Cobra. You should see them.
I finally met Chicken John. He used to do circus stuff with the Bindlestiffs I think. His bar is nice. I went on after some belly dancers. They were pretty. I finally went on at 1. There was a guy, about 50 something, going behind the bar and serving himself. He talked loud to people and was the bar’s darling. That guy went nuts over me. He is me in 20 years. I think his name was Flash.