January
Begin the new year seeing the R0yal Bangs. Am pseudo-stalked by a miniature Joe Strummer with multiple personality disorder. Help Bryc3 move, but miss his going away party. Start dating beautiful Egyptian chemistry prof. Play at Square Room with the B4ngs; we are treated like kings. Manage to get an apartment by myself, at the last minute. See first black president become inaugurated on television while fighting sleep after working 40 hours in shelter. Sign ownership of the house over to my ex. Write a very meta blog about another blog, get a million hits and general praise from the world for lambasting attitudinal indie kids. Have lunch and discuss possible world music radio show on WDVX (the day this happened was likely the most elaborately satisfying day of my life, though not strictly as a result of this event). Discover existence of Hint of Jalapeno chips. Take vitamins every single day and drink water. Go out with P3t3 a couple times. Have a few major family dramas strike all at once late in the month, on Mom's birthday.
Triumphs: secured apartment against odds, dating an A+ guy, blog success (lol)
Failures: not reading enough
February
Move into apartment. Big Ears Festival is a thing; hang out with EP and JW, but mostly EP. Bust my ass and lose a large sum of money at Matmos. Meet Whiney and Drew D. Horribly ill while moving; concern. Matt asks me to get back together, a collective lol from the peanut gallery. Move Bernard to apartment that night. Hooks move to new practice space. Meet musicology student dude, cuet but too young. 4ndy asks me on a date, I demur. Getting annoyed of Ram3z. Have to miss Hooks show due to work issues, this is a "big deal." Set up interview with 4rgentinum Astrum. [CONTROVERSIAL MOD EDIT]. Big conversation with Ben re: future of Tenderhooks, I cry, start smoking again that night (Ram3z). Ask off for tour and hope this will be worst month of year.
Triumphs: moved, wonders of apartment
Failures: started smoking again, financial ruin, injury and illness
March
Touring took up 2 weeks of this month on some life-changing shit. Lots of travel, <3 the Wading Girl. Developed strong inter-band friendship with those cats. Went to Providence, Rhode Island for the first time. Stop seeing Ram3z. Get back from tour and hang out with Matt Gr4y all night, driving around listening to Operation Ivy. Kissed musicology dude on his birthday. Hiked Abrams Falls.
Triumphs: touring (with $$ and <3 results), hiking, smooching
Failures: too much beer?
April
S3an sez let's make this shit for real; this occurs outside the Longbranch in a scene that belongs in a 90s rom-com. Drive to NYC by myself and stay with C0smo, we love each other but have a weekend of pain inc. my car getting towed and 1 inability to get it out of tow. Hooks play with Superdrag at the B0wery, hang out with [ban me]. Nice 2 days with S3an when I get back, then awkward two days, then some weird shit on Friday. I meet Wilco while fighting vomiting. Hiked Little River, Cucumber Gap, Grotto Falls, Clingman's Dome, Andrew's Bald, and Alum Cave Bluffs. Went to a psychic. Matt Gr4y dies. [CONTROVERSIAL MOD EDIT] in dorm room. All of these last 4 months, I have been talking to Hoosteen a lot.
Triumphs: that crazy nyc drive and back by myself, hiking a lot
Failures: very depressed in re: m4tt dying, but this is no one's failure?
May
I miss M4tt's funeral due to being at work. There are bunnies in my yard. S3an and some Longbr4nch folk and I go (illegally) to the top of Ayres building at UT; astronomical view. We (Hooks + R0yal Bangs) play Sundown, then [CONTROVERSIAL MOD EDIT] and my BF goes home to Chicago. Do a twenty mile hike and nearly get eaten by bears. Hear that the W4ding Girl broke up, through email. Turn 29 just after watching Eugene Chadbourne play a rake solo. Pick up Hoos from the Nashville airport and we plus many of my friends see Enslaved and Opeth on my birthday. Hoos stays at my house and we share a weekend of no sleep, basically. 4ndy, Hoos and I drive to Baltimore to see Deathfest and I get to see many great bands (and C0smo! <3). S3an comes home and we see Bonnie Prince Billy and he stays with me for 4 annoying days. He drinks a wizard staff at my neice M4deline's show and I have to literally drag him up my stairs. Not as a result of this, I become friends with Chris H4mblin.
Triumphs: driving 2000 miles in a weekend was pretty empowering in a "look how tough I am" kind of way, tons of awesome shows, awesome to hang out with Hoos, awesome to hang out with 4ndy
Failures: it was quite depressing to hear about the W4ding Girl, though that is not a failure of my own.
June
Went to Norris Dam and the Museum of Appalachia with Nij. Start practicing with H4mblin for a Judy Garland tribute-cabaret act involving my dressing as Jackie Kennedy covered in blood and singing "The Man That Got Away". It is hot in my apartment because there is no AC. Hike Laurel Falls, Cove Mountain and Jake's Creek, the latter largely in the rain, which results in a fairly enormous bust-up with my band (did not attend practice iirc). I love H4mblin and we are BFF. [CONTROVERSIAL MODERATOR EDIT] upstairs @ br4nch. Get wasted with 4ndy and he holds my hand and tries to kiss me, but I <3 S3an at this time. Raft the Pigeon River. Get Popcorn Sutton-made moonshine in Hartford, TN and ogle boys. Have this one night at 4ndy's where I just sit totally hi o the couch and radiate hi vibes for hours feeling like a teenager. Go see Dad at his cabin - or was this July, when's father's day? Rearrange my entire apartment. Some kinda campfire party at the Brod3ur/Fod3r's. Dramatically berate J0hn Rule to everyone's delight. Michael Jackson dies.
Triumphs: Lots of hiking and exploring, obtaining Smithsonian-grade moonshine
Failures: tbh this was probably the best month of the year.
July
See T-Model Ford and dump S3an in a really shitty style; these occur on the same night. It is cold in my apartment due to I installed the AC. See 4rgentinum's cd release and get locked out of my house. Get a computer and internet at home for the first time EVER. Go on tour with Hooks again. Meet I4n J0hnson (<3) and Matos. Kinda miserable, tbh -- seems to be bc of breakup. Go to Cataloochee Valley with S3an and see elk for the first time in my life; S3an sees a bear for the first time (lol flatlanders). We make out that night in front of the Branch and get back together; this is the first time in my life I've gotten back together with someone. Emily and I investigate the Job Corps murders. Play with Joseph at the Pilot Light. My ex-roommate finds out I didn't put the car he sold me in my name and threatens to call the cops on me. Summ3r moves to Prague. S3an improves.
Triumphs: Summ3r moved to Prague, I bought a computer
Failures: Drama, money worries
August
Leave work illegally to play show, which goes very well. Make plans to join BM band with 4ndy and various other 4rgentinums. S3an goes back to Chicago. Go on tour with Hooks and meet the Boyfriends and the Matrimonials and I love them both. Follow through and make a BM band with 80% of 4rgentinum Astrum called Malleus M4leficarum; realize Chris is the brains behind 4rgentinum and a brain in general, simultanously realize I love Chris. Hang out with 4ndy a lot. Am bitten by a cretinous rat and develop Haverhill fever; it is very serious. S3an comes home :/. The Hooks literally play a show for barbecue, and S3an meets my mother. 4ndy makes one dramatic overture and I realize I like him too. S3an plays a show and sux, 4ndy comes to it, and it is quite awkward. Drugs are stolen at work and I am accused of it. Unhappy with S3an, I finally start seeing 4ndy just before breaking up with him. Dumping S3an is even less fun than it was last time. Feel crappy, but also certain. Malleus plays a show with L0custa; [CONTROVERSIAL MOD EDIT]. Rock Camp for Girls begins meeting/planning stage.
Triumphs: I'm finally in a BM band, I'm finally not dating S3an
Failures: Relationship woes and whoas, gross illness
September
Chris and I hike Snake Den Ridge and see Maddrons Bald. We do backwoods camping for the first time at campsite 29, and promptly get a written warning from a park ranger when we climb down. Royal Bangs release Let It Beep and S3an acts weird, texting me not to rumple his hair. W1ll Morgan's father dies. Nij's birthday party which she has requested I do not refer to as a debacle; a huge fight and a dude gets arrested. Spend most of the month being Dunlap's husband, rescuing her from various woes, doing rock camp stuff, practicing with J0seph and his Bros. Sister is dating a [CONTROVERSIAL MOD EDIT]. Go to NYC and play with ZZ Top @ the Beacon Theater and my musical hero from high school years texts me and calls me on the telephone. Play the Americana music festival. Get in huge trouble with work and have to sign last chance agreement as a result of said trip - feel this is not my fault, and the last chance agreement is crazy anyway. Cover coworker's shifts due to a plane crash. Tenderhooks small tour begins (3 days) and reeeeally sux. Ex BF calls and screams at me.
Triumphs: Being a very good friend, imo. Play Beacon Theater.
Failures: Work fail, band fail.
October
Rock Camp fundraiser at punk rock swap meet goes really well and I get fired up about the concept. Bryc3 comes to town. Tenderhooks play with Richard Lloyd who has Danny Tambarelli aka Little Pete in his band, and Little Pete uses my amp and I talk to Richard Lloyd a bit; go next door to see Joseph play, so good, sorry not to be among all the Brothers. [CONTROVERSIAL MOD EDIT] tells me he is in love with me while sitting in my passenger seat in full drag holding a wig head. Cmac gets mad at me for being a flake; tbh he is right; I make adjustments. Go to NYC with 4ndy and have an amazing time!!! Play on Fox News in a shirt that says "Defeat the Christian Right" and get hi with I4n J0hns0n. Play 2 CMJ shows that no one comes to and our manager tells us its time to put up or shut up; I decide to shut up. Rock camp open house a huge success. B3n and I quit Tenderh0oks on October 25th. Go to Cherokee with Cmac; Trail of Tears mini-golf.
Triumphs: <3 Andy, good to be free of T-hooks, rock camp, NYC trip
Failures: ??
November
AYOVEMBER!! Hike Mt. Collins and Charlie's Bunion with Cmac and it is soooo cold. Camp at Icewater Spring shelter. Become eligible for 401k. Stand H4mblin up for Bernadette Peters and he's not speaking to me. S3an emails me bossing me not to go to the Longbr4nch, lol. Spending time alone more; reading more than normal. Someone writes an article about the Hooks breaking up and everyone starts asking about it; He writes another the following week, it's like the fuckin Dethklok minute for a while in Knoxville, retarded. Start planning a trip through VA to see Papa M and Until the Light Takes Us in NYC, but butthouse the trip due to the event sucking. Fuses blow in car. 3lishia becomes my boss. Spend most of this month with new wonderful BF tbh.
Triumphs: camping so hard, <3 Andy
Failures: 3lishia became my boss; saw no shows(?)
December
First snow. Guitarist is missing. Get in Xmas spirit bigstyle. Bryc3 and I are no longer friends. Andy goes to jail and I am so scared thinking he is dead. Play 2 shows with Joseph, one is at a party I almost run out of gas at and the first was at the b-haus. H8 boss. Matt C texts me "did you flip your collar at me in front of the pilot light yesterday?" and then texts me the rest of the month. See the Meat Puppets and drink free all night; hug 1 Kirkwood very tight. SEFAP a thing, [CONTROVERSIAL MOD EDIT]. Snap at Drew at xmas, but otherwise it is mostly wonderful -- the actual family arrived early to avoid the annoying part of the family. Xmas ramble with Andy at Ijams; we get each other great presents. H4mblin and I are friends again. No one will EVER cover ANY of my FUCKING shifts at work. Begin looking for another job during last shift of the year. Excited about tour with 4rgentinum, because once again I have managed to join my favorite band. Symmetry. Love.
Triumphs: SEFAP MVPs, clarity
Failures: who cares
― S.E., we runnin' this FAP shit (roxymuzak), Monday, 28 December 2009 06:49 (fifteen years ago)
eleven months pass...