Extended Weekend

After dealing with my seventh call from work on my day off (I have an "Indispensibility Theory at work... where it's good to be nearly indispensible... If you're completely indispensible, you get a lot of phone calls on your sick and vacation days... If you're nearly indispensible, you've either prepared well and left the adequate amount of information before leaving the office, or do work that your co-workers can figure out... Either way, "nearly indispensible" is the way to be.), I finally got together with my two out of town friends, Audrey and Brad, and went to a local vineyard, where we sipped wine, and took in some lovely views. (I'm pretty sure I now want to live in a vineyard - or at least right next to one.)

The vintner (is that the word for "wine maker?") at this place was a chemist, which explains the formulas for some of their wines: "Meritage® symbolizes the winemakers blending the classic Bordeaux grape varieties. This Red Meritage® is made from 73% Cabernet Sauvignon, 18% Merlot and 9% Cabernet Franc grapes all grown in our vineyards. The free run of these grapes were fermented separately, blended together, and aged in new French oak barrels for 12 months." How one arrives at 73% over 75% is beyond me - but apparently they know what they're doing.

Following wine tasting, we left for my gig... It went well - and I'm learning, that when you have fans who come and see you at multiple gigs, you really have to accept that fans come with a certain bill of rights that they sincerely believe. One is making requests. On Friday, a fan insisted that I need to sing "The Night The Lights Went Out in Georgia..." She told me this repeatedly. Another fan (and this is the first time this has happened), actually purchased a CD for me. On the back, in black marker, he wrote "Kelly," and circled the song he wants me to learn.

I discussed this the next day with Carl, the guy at the music store. "You know, fans around here come with entitlement. They make demands I've never had anywhere else." said Carl. "It's not like that in New York or anywhere else. Believe it or not, that's why I stopped playing full time!" (Where I understand the sentiment, I don't actually believe that is why he stopped playing music full-time, and now works in a music store, but that's just my guess. I could be wrong - Carl is an extraordinary player, but living where we live and being a FT musican probably takes more travel than perhaps he wants to do... or he couldn't get the amount of work he wanted - but quitting because of the fans? How very, very Britney of him!)

On Saturday, Audrey, Fran, and I went to see the Andy Warhol show at the museum in town (it was on-loan from Pittsburgh's Andy Museum, which I recommend, should you ever find yourself on that side of PA). I kinda like Andy Warhol... I don't get him, but I like him. Did you know, for example, that Andy Warhol (real name: Warhola) kept a warehouse worth of "time Capsules," or boxes of miscellaneous hoo hah? They held newspapers, scribbles, notes, ticket stubs, ephemera - whatever crossed Andy's desk... When the box got full, he filed it away and began filling another. My favorite thing about Warhol is his attempt to float light. He couldn't figure out how to do it - so instead, filled several mylar pillows with air, and set them in a room with several fans in it. The pillows simply floated around... Very cool.

Ok. That was the weekend. Happy 4th, everyone!