Year: 2007

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When being on tour REALLY sucks

Just got this through from the Jonatha Brooke mailing list –

Jonatha will be performing solo at the Borderline on Wednesday June 27th at 9:30pm sharp!

You can visit the Borderline box office (open from 10am-6pm, Monday-Saturday), call for tickets at 020 7534 6970 and/or order online at http://www.seetickets.com/

Hope to see you there!

The Borderline
Orange Yard
off Manette Street
London W1D 4JB

So i’m out of the country when one of my favouritest singers ever is playing. So what needs to happen is all y’all Londoners need to go in my stead, say hi to Jonatha from me, and tell me how great it was. And if she gets a big crowd, she’ll come back again soon… Enjoy!

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domain name cloning…

I woke up this morning to well over 1000 ‘returned mail’ emails in my junk folder – someone had cloned the stevelawson.net domain for sending out spam, and I was getting all the replies.

So I’ve had to set everything that’s not steve@… that domain to disappear into a blackhole. If you’ve been using anything other than that on stevelawson.net please change it, cos it’s not going to reach me.

I haven’t done the same to steve-lawson.co.uk yet, but we’ll see how it goes.

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Two types of church

It used to feel really strange coming to a country so full of seemingly Christian language and yet feeling so utterly alien to it all. It was on about my second or third visit to California that I noticed that I felt considerably more affinity with the honest searching and questioning of the hippies, new agers and agnostics that I met than I did with much of the overly-confident, divisive nonsense that I heard coming from a lot of the christians I met. More often that not, the reasons that people had for disregarding all-things-Jesus-esque were reasons that I wholeheartedly agreed with – the sanctimoniousness of so many of the Christians they’d met, the hideousness of how God’s name is invoked to back up all kinds of horseshit in US governmental circles (‘God told me to go to war‘ etc.), and the gross circus-like game show that passes for so many church services here, and all the televised acts of Christian worship I’ve ever had the misfortune to witness…

I mentioned in one of the tour blogs that Downtown Pres in Nashville is one of the very few churches I’ve been to in the US that I could go to again. I’m just trying to remember where the others were – I quite enjoyed the Presbyterian church I went to in Hollywood, and the Catholic church I visited in Orange county, but I’m not sure I’d go regularly to them if I lived there… But neither of them actually left me feeling alienated in the way that some of the others I’ve visited have done.

There seem to be two very different understandings of what church is at work here – the kind of church I want to go to is one that challenges me to love, to care for the poor, to seek justice, to hold the powerful accountable for how their actions affect the powerless. Church should be a place where I’m encouraged to live a life that’s different in as much as I’m focusing my time on what I can do for other people, rather than obsessing about expanding my piece of the pie. A place where I can be honest, where I can be open about my failings, but also not be able to escape the consequences of my actions, where prayer is about aligning myself with the kind of things that God is concerned about, rather than about some screwed-up spell-casting bullshit where I try and twist God’s arm into giving me a good parking space and sorting out my shit life when I’m not willing to make any changes myself. It should also be a place that encourages me NOT to surround myself all the time with people who believe the same things I do – that, my dear friends, is a cult, and having ‘unsaved’ friends just so you can ‘witness’ to them doesn’t count. That’s the kind of freaky double standard that we find so creepy in people who turn up at our front doors telling us how to live (full disclosure – I once did a ‘door to door’ thing when I was in my teens, with the church I was at – at the time I thought the discomfort I felt doing it was just my resisting God’s call. Now I understand I really should have listened to the voice that told me that a 17 year old turning up at your door trying to tell you ‘the Good News’ is just about the stupidest thing that can happen – it would have made much more sense to go round and ask for advice and listen to people’s stories, but anyway…)

Instead, so often the church is full of people who spend no time with people outside of their church circle, who are all implicity encouraged to dress the same (there are few things that annoy me more than the idea of Sunday best – not that I mind people wanting to dress up for church; each to their own – but the idea that you ‘should’ is pure bollocks), it’s a place where misogyny and homophobia are encouraged and entrenched, where nationalistic pride is fostered (I can’t even begin to imagine what kind of crap gets preached in so many US churches around Memorial day and Independence Day, in a ‘US = God’s chosen nation’ kind of way). Church should be a place that challenges our prejudices, our pride and our complacency in speaking out in favour of any oppressed group, whether that oppression is on gender, sexual orientation, race or class lines. Instead all those prejudices are confirmed

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Shelleyan Orphan on last.fm

One of my favourite bands of the late 80s/early 90s were Shelleyan Orphan – built around a male/female vocal duo, the music was like The Sundays arranged for chamber orchestra – beautiful melodies, lots of Cor Anglais and Bassoon, and, I think, Danny Thompson on double bass. It’s beautiful, but it’s one of those albums I’ve got on vinyl so haven’t listened to in years.

So earlier on, apropo of nothing, I did a search on them, and found that on last.FM, the whole of the ‘Helleborine‘ album – their first album, the one I have – is streamable! How cool is that?? click here to go there and listen to it. It’s magique.

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All I wanted was an iPod…

So, after having been given a ‘circuit city’ gift-card with an unspecified amount on it, I decide to act on one of the things I’d been threatening to do since getting to the states on this trip, and buy an iPod.

We drive to the nearest CC, in Canton, and head in. There are no 80gig iPods on display, so I ask the guy who works there, who’s stood nearby. V. friendly, but as it’s only his second day, he goes to ask where they might be found – it’s all fine, everyone has to start their job somewhere, and I’m always happy for new staff to take a while to work out what’s going on.

While he’s gone, we check the amount on the gift car – $70-something bucks (thanks, Nancy!!!!) – and notice on the wall a sign that says iPod buyers get a $30 gift card included – basically $100 off the cost of me buying one, and even cheaper than lovely friend who works for Mac can get it for me for.

New boy comes back, and rings it up on their computer, but the price is more than it was on their website, so he looks it up, and has to call over a friend to help. Friend clearly knows how the system works, but has THE most offhand disinterested manner I’ve encountered in any shop, other than perhaps Guitar Centre… Anyway, he takes off the difference between shop and web pricing, and then says there’s no giftcard. It’s out of date – what the hell’s it doing on the wall then says I, I’m not interested without it. L is by this time laughing, but close to sitting in a corner rocking and sobbing like Romanian orphan… Supervisor is consulted, OK we can have the $30 off, so he takes it off, then charges us for it, so that he can give us the card. I give it back to him as part of the payment, he swipes it, gets confused by it not having anything on it, then says ‘ah, you can’t spend the giftcard on this’… so only the $70 card will work on this payment, which is OK as I want to buy a perspex carry case thingie anyway.

So we get the iPod sorted, I hand him the carry case and the card, he swipes it and before I get the chance to say ‘er, that says $24.99, it’s only $19.99 on the shelf’, he’s rung it up, so we need to go to the front desk for a refund. Into the queue at the front desk, new boy is now dealing with awkward customer number 2 and has a ‘is my whole working life here going to be like this????’ look on his face. He apologises, but none of this is his fault…

disinterested goon eventually rings up the refund, puts it on the card and hands me stuff, no apology, no nothing.

We leave, happy with iPod, dumfounded that the shop is still open…

Circuit City – avoid unless peoples gives you lovely gift cards.

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Austin to Ohio

So from Dallas to Austin – first night in Austin we spent at a Motel6, seriously low-rent place, but we weren’t actually in it for long… Went down town, found a coffee shop, and then drove out to find dinner, to the Kerbey St. Cafe, for some fine veggie food.

The next day was the first of the Austin gigs, at a place called Cafe Caffeine – a cute lil’ coffee shop, but it was an afternoon show, and not a place where we had any draw, so just a handful of people there. Still, it’s always nice to play, and Brady Muckelroy who organised the shows for us in Austin, played a lovely set, and it was nice to get to hang out with him.

Then the adventure started… just before we played I got a call from Tay – she and the utterly lovely Vicki Genfan were in the Austin area too, and Vic was guesting with Patty Larkin that night at a local studio concert. So I call the venue to try and get tickets, but no-one answers. i leave a message, but we decide to head out there anyway.

The lovely Brady shows us the way, and we get to the gorgeous studio where the gig is being hosted, but it’s sold out. Tay and Vicki come out for a chat, and it becomes clear that a few people who’d reserved tickets might not show, so we stick around and get in just before the show starts! Hurrah! Patty is, as expected, amazing – I’ve got 5 or 6 of her albums, and this is the first time I’ve seen her live. She’s great. Vicki sits in on the last number ( a crazy prog-acoustic thing in all kinds of time signatures), and much love is shared.

We then head back to Austin to the Bananie love-palace – I hadn’t seen Bananie for about 3 years, so ’twas a delight all round. The lovely Schmelen proves to be just as lovely as expected, and the menagerie is full of gorgeous mutant dogs ‘n’ cats. It’s 12.30 but we’s all peckish, so a trip to Magnolia is in order – late night fun ‘n’ games in the Santa Cruz of the South.

Following day, we sleep late, then have breakfast together, before heading out into the sticks to see Vicki and Tay again for an hour or so, before driving to San Marcos for the second of the Austin-area gigs. It’s another coffee shop gig, in Brady’s home town, and he’s clearly got a cool thing going on there, as the coffee shop is full of his friends, fans and family. He plays another beautiful set, followed by Lisa and I. The driving of the last few days, late nights and not enough sleep is starting to catch up and I don’t play particularly well, but it’s a fun gig nonetheless, and there’s a particularly enjoyable duet between Brady and I. L is as fab as always.

The next morning, we’re up at 5, load the car and head out for the longest single day’s driving of my life – 850-something miles from Austin to Nashville. (as a comparison Land’s End to John O’ Groats is 830-something miles).

Back at Nashville and it’s all round the the utterly lovely Trevor and Jenna’s house, where there’s a party in full swing, featuring the equally lovely Marky over from NI (that’s Northern Ireland, not New Internationalist).

L and I are utterly baked after the journey but find some energy to chat to lots of delightful friends old, new and previously-cyber-only, before crashing out early.

Sunday am, off to Downtown Pres. – one of the few churches I’ve been to in the US that I’d consider going to more than once. Followed by lunch back at the Dark’s, with more socialising and fun with the lovelies of Nashville. Eventually we leave from T and J’s at about 4pm, heading out on yes another mammoth drive (515 miles this time) back to L’s brother’s place in Northern Ohio.

And here we are, helping L’s family to move house, hanging out, and trying to regain the energy that was zapped by the tour thus far… we have got two more gigs, one in St Louis Missouri and one in Wisner Nebraska – see the gig dates page for more info.

Thanks SO much to everyone who’s been out to the gigs so far – it’s been really lovely to meet so many great people. Particular thanks to everyone who helped organise the shows – Ralston, Steve in Toledo, Ric Hordinski, Jay and |Crystal, Kevin Ford, Darren and Cindy, Sarah ‘n’ Dave ‘n’ TOGH, Trip and Sarun, Brian, Brady… good peeps one and all.

Go to my Flickr page for some photos from the tour…

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urgent message from 'the simple way'

The Simple Way are a community in Philadelphia, modeling what has been termed ‘new monasticism’ – simple living, working with the poor and needy, setting up micro-businesses that recycle, running after school programs etc… Good peoples. One of the people who runs it, Shane Claibourne, has spoken at Greenbelt in the past – a fascinating and inspiring bloke.

anyway, their neighbourhood was destroyed in a massive fire yesterday, and they lost their community centre, homes, cars… a whole load of stuff. Go to their website to read about it, and if you can, to donate to help them and their neighbours rebuild their lives.

the next installment of the tour blog is coming soon, worry not…

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A rare moment of god-botheringness on the blog…

I don’t often post God bothering things on the blog, but today’s ‘verse of the day’ on the Sojourner’s blog really caught my eye –

“You shall not withhold the wages of poor and needy laborers, whether other Israelites or aliens who reside in your land in one of your towns. You shall pay them their wages daily before sunset, because they are poor and their livelihood depends on them; otherwise they might cry to the Lord against you, and you would incur guilt.”
– Deuteronomy 24:14-15

Back in the 80s people used to talk about believing in a ‘social gospel’ or some other euphemism that suggested there was any other way of reading what it means to be inspired by jesus… with the wealth of stuff in the Bible that relates looking after the poor, looking after immigrants, not pursuing wealth, the dangers of greed etc. etc. it’s a wonder that some people claiming to be Christians can sleep at night…

There’s a magical bit in Amos that says (in The Message) –

” 21-24″I can’t stand your religious meetings.
I’m fed up with your conferences and conventions.
I want nothing to do with your religion projects,
your pretentious slogans and goals.
I’m sick of your fund-raising schemes,
your public relations and image making.
I’ve had all I can take of your noisy ego-music.
When was the last time you sang to me?
Do you know what I want?
I want justice—oceans of it.
I want fairness—rivers of it.
That’s what I want. That’s all I want.”

No wonder so many people are turned off from anything Jesus-related, following Gandhi’s route of being inspired by the sermon on the mount but seeing the church as an agent of the hideous status quo rather than a radical organisation with a deep concern for the poor, for justice… it’s there in the book, just not there in the behaviour of the Bushes and Blairs of this world, making a total bollocks-up of anything remotely justice-oriented, talking a load of shit about their concern for poverty reduction and ‘fairness’ whilst waging illegal wars and backing the IMF and World Bank in their schemes to trap yet more third world countries into privatisation schemes and debt cycles…

grrrr…

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