Same Brain Tour: Mountain Highs and Valley Lows
We have spent less than two weeks of our Slam Up lives in Asheville, yet every time we walk into Battle Cat (the center of our Asheville brain-map), we immediately feel at home. Got some groceries at Ingles and made our way to our friend Robyn’s home. Decided to do an open mic at the Odditorium before our longest no-performance stretch of the tour yet.
BATTLECAT love. Also a nice little sampling of some of the slamazing artists we've seen on our travels.
There was a chilly drizzle when we rolled into the Blue Ridge Mountains. Not the most welcoming atmosphere. But within a few minutes of arriving a stranger (soon to be friend) helped keep our things dry, one of many random acts of kindness to come.
The leaf magic started pretty much immediately. We had no idea where we were when a nice man on a four-wheeler drove us straight to the volunteer check-in. After a smooth job-assignment we were treated to some dope live music, while treating ourselves to some dope warm burritos. This is when our LEAF experiences started to diverge.
Cali's LEAF Experience: Working with the coolest people in the kitchen (SHOUT OUT to Black Mountain Biscuit Factory and Louise’s Kitchen for making bomb local focused food), serving food to artists and getting leftovers in between seeing Rising Appalachia and some of the best spoken word poets in the country. Making friends with kitchen folk, poetry folk (so surprised to see Alley Cat and Jerri from WPS), volunteer staff folk, Toy Boat folk, 40 House folk, old camp friends folk… There were so many souls to give Reality Checks to. It was crazy.
These ladies could harmonize in their sleep.
Cali's interpretation of Emily’s LEAF Experience: Working hands on with sick children for five hours straight (two days in a row), getting sick, and missing the main things we had been looking forward to seeing. Making friends with five years olds and Barb, our neighbor. Not sleeping and consequently having a bit of a physical/emotional/mental breakdown.
Spotted: Profile Doppelganger of Jarrett. You played bass in another life.
Our schedules were polar opposites so we barely saw each other until Saturday night which we spent watching a BOMB poetry slam. Shout out to Theresa Davis for the win. Stumbled into a performance by Poncili Creacion- CHECK them out. They are where puppetry meets mime meets modern dance, and they make all their creatures out of foam. We also stumbled upon the largest contra dance we had ever seen- literally seemed as if the lines never ended. Ended the evening with The Nth Power, modern day soul music. Our night of discovery ended only because our bodies started to give out.
The next day Em was ready to leave, understandable since she hadn’t slept all night, but Cali was not. It was a not-same-brain moment. She needed to say good-bye to this hotbed of creativity and human kindness and mountains.
Emily had observed pieces of the magic here and there, for example our neighbors making her pancakes and coffee for free (well, we paid them in company) and a surprise singing session with old acquaintance Saro. Her illness unfortunately had set the tone of her LEAF time. We spent the morning looking for the Healing Tent, healing through massage/yoga/herbs/earth, only to find Cali's friend Scottie Sunshine aka Sunny Delight (hope that’s cool that we call you that Scottie). We had crossed paths a few times already (same brain waves), and Cali even had the opportunity of having him play his healing drum Omni Solaris on her chest. It literally makes your cells dance, and dancing is a proven method of making one feel better.
Before Emily had a chance to get treated by Omni Solaris, she had the opportunity to play drums made by Hand on Fire, renaissanced propane tanks. Jonathan and Nick, the men behind Hands on Fire, create pieces of art that sing out of old propane tanks. Cali was chatting with Nick while Emily was playing away when he asked for our names. Upon hearing them Jonathan asked if he could tell us a story. Cali asked, “About a drum?” About a drum indeed.
This particular drum, which we have since named Baby, is not beautiful on both sides. Its origins are evident. But you wouldn’t know from the sounds it makes. Jonathan wove a story of how he crafted it, and then he calmly concluded (paraphrased), that he had had a dream and God had told him to give the drum to Emily. "Your name is on the inside.” They had been waiting for Em all weekend. At this point Cali almost started to cry. This act of giving with absolutely zero expectation of receiving something in return, an act that facilitated Emily sharing her music with the world (and by extension Slam Up's music), embodied everything Cali had been thinking about for the last four days.
Scottie Sunshine played on Emily for some time, and then we ended our LEAF adventure with a surprise performance on the kids stage before Kids Rock happened. They were awesome and had more swag at the age of 10, if they were even that old, than we will ever have. Maybe next time we can come to LEAF as Slam Up, Baby included.
Asheville: Where we did nothing but lie down and sleep for 24 hours
The healing music helped get us through the festival, but we still had to spend all of Monday sleeping and drinking tea before our show that evening. The Lesbian Brunch Meet-Up group SHOWED up for our little shindig. And Robyn (of course), our #1 Asheville fan. Tuesday came all too soon, but we will be back in Asheville (and Battecat) in the next few months.
Stopped by Louise's Kitchen before leaving Asheville/Black Mountain for real.
Boone was never on the list. We only knew it existed because a LEAF kitchen friend we had made, Michelle, was a creative from there and insisted that we stop by. Since it was on the way to Blacksburg we made sure it happened (took a bit of facebook stalking). None of us had the energy to help put on a show, but we are so beyond stoked for our visit to Boone come 2015. So many amazing artist and projects happening there, Tommy Lee and Wonderland Woods Productions to name a couple. Maybe a music video collaboration to come? Â Definitely a potluck/performance. It was difficult to leave North Carolina (we literally got our first Slam Up speeding ticket ever and had to turn around because we forgot our food bag), but at least we were headed to Mama Sabs.
 Anna Nathanson reincarnated as a thrift store.
Blacksburg = Friendcation
For 3 days (or something like that) we were at home with none other than Mama Sabs. Apparently Emily isn't the only one who calls Sabine that, but she did invent the name back in 2007 when Mama Sabs took on the role of caretaker in Paris. We were still in recovery mode after the LEAF and we could use all the TLC we could get. Lots of tea drinking happened. The first night, Cali slept and Emily and Sabs went out for old times sake. Nothing beats partying in France and Ireland but things did get crazy enough that we had to go to D.P. Dough for some bready, cheesy sustenance.
Pre bready/cheesy sustenance
The next few days were a blend of recovery, mourning, the case of the mysterious face, internet chores, chillin in nature, watching chick flicks, and eating cookies and brownies. Jordan, Sabine's roommate, showed us her crossbow - that was cool! Mama Sabs took us to the river - WOOOOO - and to Pandapas Pond. Now, the last time Emily visited Sabs they got lost on the trail, lost all cell service, and thought they were gonna die in the snow. This time we didn't get lost on the trail itself, but we did get a little lost on the way home. Good thing Sunshine Farm Lane (country road, or Chinese food restaurant?) had some beautiful scenery. We also discovered that Blacksburg has an amazing little coffee shop called Mill Mountain Coffee. It was at said coffee shop that Emily creeped on a girl with cool hair, who turned out to be extremely cool as a person. We exchanged info with Katie and invited her to our little house show we were going to have.Â
DUN DUN DUN. The house show got canceled! NOOOO! Well..it wasn't that sad because the very next day, Katie's house was going to have a show. Slam Up invited themselves to play a little pre-show set and, after going to a 'smores party at D.P.-Dough-Alex's house, we showed up at Katie's. By the end of the night, we felt like we found our Blacksburg performance community. The next morning we had breakfast at Mill Mountain and had to say bye to Mama Sabs :( Â Thank you, Sabine, Jordan, Alisha, and Ryan for hosting :)
C-Ville + DC: The Weekend of HORRORible Timing
Unfortunately, Charlottesville and D.C. happened during UVA's homecoming weekend. Never. Again.
We drove straight to C-Ville's community college to see Cali's old APO friends who had gathered to do help create PVCC Community Garden. You know, something that good-hearted people do. Cali caught up with people, Emily wandered around and stole oreos and goldfish. Next, we went to downtown C-Ville and walked around. Vendors of all sorts were selling goodies and we found ourselves chatting up a nice Moroccan man who sold leather bags, bracelets, and belts. We traded our CD for some bracelets and sold a CD to a precocious high-schooler, Martina, and her friend and ex-babysitter, Kaitlin. It didn't take much to convince the two to come see our show at Bon. BON! It's funny, because both Bon and Slam Up have changed a lot since January. They now have a full-fledged performance space complete with a beautiful red curtain and their cafe is better than ever. If you're there, get the vegan chocolate smoothie. SOOOO good. It was a modest audience, but Michell Miller and the Fire Tigers took control! Despite Young Alumni Reunion happening at the EXACT same time as Slam Up, friends Bridget and Mary Shea and their art people showed up! And Alan from African Drum and Dance! Spent the evening hanging out with friends old and new. Peaced out in the AM after eating breakfast at Bluegrass, a must.Â
We arrived that afternoon in DC for our 3pm show. Kim was there from last time and made us feel at home once again at DC Arts. Unfortunately, 3PM on any Sunday is probably not the best time for a show, seeing as DCers like their brunch, but this Sunday was particularly bad because lots of people were still in C-Ville at homecoming weekend. So there were 13 people in the crowd, as Tori, a student reporter from UMD graciously pointed out (the truth hurts, but it was still the best student article ever written about Slam Up). However, we still managed to bring the energy, especially since we had Julia Jordan there to warm the crowd up (or wake them up?). We always say that it's not the size of the crowd, but the mentality of the crowd. It's true, and while this DC crowd wasn't the most lively, they were all ears and groovin' with us in their own still-drunk-from-brunch-way. We love you, DC! That night we enjoyed a rooftop view of the city at Alex and Richie's, our DC ma and pa. On Monday night we performed at La-Ti-Do's Spooky Spectacular, which was -surprise- AWESOME, as La-Ti-Do always is. That crowd sure loves to laugh.
On our way to Dover we made a pit-stop in Balti to see Red Emma's (our favorite place in B'more) and had delicious Mexican food with Sam. Merci beaucoup!
Dover: The First State in Chronology, Not in SizeÂ
So let's just start off with the fact that Acorn Books has been by far the most attentive venue Slam Up has ever worked with. Throughout the tour our days were brightened by little check-in emails from Ezzy, our glorious contact and coordinator. You da best.Â
Geography lesson: Delaware be SMALL!!!!!!!! Seriously...for a while we weren't sure whether we were in Delaware or just Delaware-ish Maryland and the confusion only heightened. Flat, flat land. Nothing but farms and fields -- were we in the Midwest?!!! At one point there was nobody on the road except for us and a horse-drawn buggy. Finally we hit Acorn Books, which, as it turns out, is the ONLY BOOKSTORE IN THE COUNTY! WHOA! (Fun fact: Delaware only has 3 counties). You can feel the love in that place. We finally met Ezzy face-to-face. We also got to meet Ginny, the owner, who gave us a little Acorn history and reminded us of the importance of shopping local when it comes to books. Amazon is indeed cheap, but that's cus they buy 50 million copies of each book! Your local bookstore gets maybe 10. Anyway, Acorn Books is not only a great place to read and buy books (and cute magnets), they are also the home of some great community events.....LIKE SLAM UP'S SHOW! We were told that the people of Delaware don't really come out for shows and it's a shame because the talent is not lacking whatsoever. We were treated to some smooth jams by Flight Simulator (aka the cutest twins ever, Sean and Shannen), some crazy improv and beats by Brock, and some heart-felt group poetry by Savannah & Mitchell. All in all, it was one of the best crowds ever. We will certainly be back!
Until next time keep your eyes and ears out for the XXXmas seXXX music video coming your way.
Rabbi Santa Clausenstein and Bambi "BamBam" the Reinbow Reindeer
