Jana's Blog - And then there were two.

Hey guys,

Playing all these shows by myself got to be a little boring. Honestly, my setup is a bit awkward at these places by I've been playing - when following a loud and upbeat punk band, sitting down to play melancholy music on my keyboard for a bunch of drunk strangers is a little anti-climactic. (Though sometimes drunk people play in my favor, like at Wicked Willy's when a bunch of strangers started singing along to "You Deserve Better.")

So I decided to find a guitar player to join me using the tried-and-tested poor musicians' method - Craigslist. After several responses, I scheduled a meeting with the person who responded first - Mike, who, instead of sending me a recent photo, sent me a photo of a life-size Tetris block.

I foolishly scheduled his audition for 10am the morning of Halloween - foolish because I, having gone to a Halloween party the night before, woke up with a wicked hangover (apparently vodka and whiskey do not mix - just ask the sidewalk in front of my friend's apartment on Wall Street), and he, being on his way to work at an infamous retail store the day of a holiday that requires costumes, was dressed as the Swedish Chef. We played the two songs that Mike had learned by ear, but my brain was so foggy all I could think about was a sausage, egg, and cheese biscuit. What a bizarre morning.

Anyway, none of my other Craigslist contacts actually met with me. But it's okay though! Mike and I are getting along fabulously. To get some performance experience under our belts, we played for the first time at Side Walk Cafe's open mic (along with quite an assortment of interesting characters). I had unfortunately drawn slot 24 from the lottery, meaning that we didn't go on until 12:30am and that I was full of adrenaline for the next three hours, arguing with Mike that Muse's new album is, in fact, good.

Playing as a duo makes me feel much more confident and less like the tiny emo girl that all the bar guys want to quote unquote rescue. I am going to take over the world. You best not miss it!

Our first show together is December 1 at Googie's Lounge. For now, we are just going by my name, but we might re-christen ourselves with an appropriate duo moniker (since no one seems to know how to spell Jana and my last name is an allusion to sea creatures).

Peace out,

J