Thursday, February 19, 2004

True "Afterglow"

It's a bit after 3 p.m. local time here and I've been up for a few hours now. Yesterday was extremely draining as I effectively was at HotHouse for close to twelve hours doing my in-house chores there and later hosting "Speak Easy."

I set the bar a bit high for last night, expecting a crowd of around 100 peeps. We had 74 paid, which still ain't nothing to sneer at on a Wednesday night (if I include the readers, musicians, and comps we had close to 100 people last night!) I'm chalking it up to a case of setting the bar a bit too high. Still, my thanks and heartfelt gratitude go out to those who did come out last night. The readers were a diverse and talented crew who gave their all and Marvin Tate brought the house down. On top of all that the bar made some good money, which is a bonus and one of the points I look for when producing these things. If the bartenders are happy (and since I work at HH I can figure these things out by asking) we stand a good chance of returning.

I'm gonna let this sink in and start preparing for a slew of Write Club projects: lining up readers for the next "Speak Easy" in May; a mentoring program for young writers; involvement with Make- A chicago Literary Journal; and the final filings for Write Club Chicago's non-profit status, which we should have all funding for after last night.

In the meantime I picked up the new album by Garrison Starr Tuesday and wanted to give a plug for it. She's got this cross breed of Melissa Etheridge, Steve earle, and power punk going on. Her last album, Songs From Take-Off To Landing was a mixed bag that came off sounding like music you'd hear on a very special episode of "Smallville." This album sounds more assured and confident. Get it.

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