i know, i know, i know. update your blog!!!! is all i ever hear these days. but since i spent much of last week in hysterical tears, girlie-girl style, i was unable to do so. i was also very very busy, preparing for a wedding and cramming with the stepkids, and keeping up with all of my jobs. it's a hectic life. but here's the good news first:
the redheaded stepkids are sounding FABULOUS, especially for a band formed less than a month ago. y'all simply MUST come out to see us at
PACE on saturday night with our SUPERSTAR friends the 50 Ways. it will be a superstar rockshow, most definitely. and as i mentioned earlier, nerissa and katryna nields are doing a kids' show at PACE that afternoon, so it would be a perfect day for all you out-of-towners to come to town, catch what's sure to be a super-cute kids' show with the Nields, do a little shopping and dining in the noho-eho area, and come back to PACE for the stepkids and the 50 ways! our show is only $5 and $3 for members. so it's totally affordable. no excuses.
in other good news,
amanda's wedding went off without a hitch, despite me forgetting an entire verse of "gentle arms of eden" (still kicking myself... how can one forget such genius?) and also despite the terrible weather. i remarked several times yesterday that any wedding i've been to that's worth its salt has had totally crap-tastic weather. i think the old wives' take is definitely true. amanda and artie are just one of those great, great couples, who are great without being annoying. the only annoying thing about them is that they are going to nassau on monday and i am not. but congrats to them.
in other good news, i have finished chapter one/ part one (i don't know what i'm really calling them) of my book. i would really really appreciate people's comments on it. so if you'd like to read it, please
e-mail me and i will send you a copy. i was going to post it online, but will wait to do that until i retain a formal copyright. of course,
josh said he was confused on the first page. and he's annoyingly smart, too. bastard. :) so i'd just like comments. if you have time to read twenty-something pages of an unpublished first novel (unless you count the drivel-ones i wrote in high school),
please let me know.now, to the crappy news...
PACE is in serious trouble. it was forced, last week, to shut down for a few days. it now is re-opened, in abbreviated form. open mic last week, as well as saturday night's show, had to be held in the cafe part of pace. i won't go into attacking the people whose fault it was (david and sonia are NOT to blame, let's just say), but they were forced to rip out all of the seating and risers that took gallons of our blood, sweat, and tears last year, just so they could re-open the cafe. the performance area has to be inspected again this week to determine if pace will be able to re-open that portion of the space. if it is determined that it cannot be handled, financially, PACE will be forced to move. david and sonia are looking to raise ONE MILLION DOLLARS- this isn't bake-sale shit anymore, people- to build an entirely solar-powered theater from the groud up. this is a beautiful dream, and one that i don't believe is unattainable. however, for right now, it sucks completely. at least for the shows that are booked already, including the stepkids' gig, the kind folks at Apollo Grill (good food AND a conscience, yay) would allow PACE to hold performances in the space next door to them. once the inspectors inspect said space on monday, we will know if this is possible. so here's the long and short of it-- PACE is still open, for now, in the cafe on Union St. performances will still be held there, perhaps even in the PACE auditorium. if it is impossible for the auditorium to be used, we will likely be able to hold our performances in the space next to Apollo Grill in the Eastworks building. this will be decided when everything has been inspected and the folks in charge make their decisions.
now i hear you asking... "what can i do to help?" well, the answers come down to things a lot of us don't have a whole lot of, unfortunately: MONEY and TIME. if you have money to donate, however seemingly small, PACE is a 501-C3 non-profit, and you can completely write it off. we will take anything you have to offer.
Mailing address and e-mail is available on the website. if you have experience raising money for non-profits, and can donate your time to help PACE out, it would be appreciated greatly. if you have experience writing grants, or time to learn how, you can help. if you want to know more about how you can help, you can call PACE at 413-527-3700. anything is helpful. PACE is a community of people, not just a location on Union St. in Easthampton.
now that i've done my PSA, you know why i spent much of last week on edge, crying like a little baby. i thought that i was going to lose PACE forever. PACE is what saved my life when i was lying in a hospital bed in boston with no immune system. my good hallucinations were all about stepping onstage for my open mic and being surrounded by my friends there. please don't let it disappear. you CAN help. YOU can make a difference.
so there it is. here's your list of assignments:
1)
HELP PACE!!2)
READ MY BOOK!3) COME SEE THE STEPKIDS!!!!
if you complete even one of these assignments, i will blog every single day for a month. really.
