March 27th, 2026. I'm Still Alive.

Tuesday, March 24th I FINALLY returned to hosting my SPARK open mic. Had a small turn out but some really fabulous performances (D. Davis above!). I whipped through the list twice as if to say "look at how many people we can fit in when you're ORGANIZED". Last week I'd tuned in to catch Tinsmith since I was home sick, and was a little horrified to hear the open mic ran 4 and a half hours! However, I went back and timed my guest hosts' sets and they took 20 minutes before getting the first person on the list on the stage, and Juels, though he hath many good qualities, took almost half an hour at the end. Soooo not spending almost an ENTIRE HOUR with the hosts is perhaps rule #1 in getting the open mic done in a reasonable amount of time. Bleah!

Last night Sharif and I went to the
Atwaters open mic in Catonsville.

I have a lot in my head. But nothing really WORTH anything. My 2 cents isn't even worth two cents in THIS economy and there's not a lot of people interested in my opinion. The world doesn't want to know my thoughts on the war with Iran. It doesn't need another person chewing the fat regarding funding DHS. It just doesn't need me to weigh in on wind power.

The world only BARELY cares that I'm MOSTLY past this insane illness I've been struggling with. Kristen seems to be a little ways behind me (which yes, is unfair since she started a week earlier), but I sing harder and had a little coughing assault (worse, more intense than an attack) during the last Lair which left me having to cede my time unto our guest, Jeff Miller. Being sick gets old quick and getting older, I'm worried I'll get sick quicker. Apparently, there's no real way to WIN that game, so I'll just try to keep myself in good spirits.

Last night Sharif I went out to the OTHER open mic in Catonsville (at least the only other open mic that I'm aware of that's running RIGHT NOW) at Atwaters. We had a great time, had a great burger, and had some great bourbon. We had great mushrooms. With five spices. They had a piano. Sharif will absolutely pop into random places with pianos.

It was good to play with him.

Carl and Jesse kicking off the Atwaters open mic, March 26th, 2026.

Kristen stayed HOME.

No-one cares about my opinion on this. But what... the ... fuck? In the comments someone said "well, 99.9% of Christians don't believe in this" and I sorta feel, well, until 99.9% of Christians bother to be upset about it, I really, really don't believe you.