  Well Linds gave me an eight...C'MON LINDS! Thanks, but seriously...it was still a meld of all of the writing I've ever done and the "new writing" we're supposed to be doing...the kind that's very sure of itself and stupid, in my opinion. I mean, I just don't think it's right to opinionize on something and think of it as "true". What if you don't have an opinion one way or the other? Perhaps it's a hybrid of two opinions? College=REALLY GAY. But Linds gave me an eight and I was incredibly stoked/a bit smug/highly disbelieving. THANKS LINDS!!!! And wow, on another note...I got PWNED last night...so did Abby and Kyndall and Chad, for that matter.
So here we are sitting in the park, fresh off listening to the worst jazz duet that hath ever drawn life into thine lungs, and the production is about to begin...for those of you who don't know, a troupe performs Shakespeare in Centennial Park every year. The whole deal is really huge and it's been going on for about sixteen years now. But anyway. I need to give a bit of background on the area. It's a small, spraypaint constructed amphitheater...as in, there's a full-size, constructionized stage, but the rest of it is grass, except at the back, where there's some bleachers. So basically, you set yourself up within the confines of these spraypainted boundaries. These are set up so that the actors can walk down the stage, and so that they can store equipment in the audience and hopefully no one will touch it. One of these pieces of equipment is a light display. It's a giant metal box connected to a skinny pole that has about two hundred pounds of lighting on the top. This, the stage lights, and another of the same kind of light at the other side of the area, allow you to see the actors. In addition, there were some mounted power woofers on stands so that you can hear what's going on thru the power condenser house microphones on-stage.
Also keep in mind that the house mic is VERY strong and could pick up a cricket chirping a very long way off and make it sound HUGE. So the play begins with the speech from the chorus, because it is Shakespeare and the play was Romeo and Juliet. Unfortunately for us, there's a big black storm rolling in from the north very fast. Not only this, the speech from the chorus is becoming increasingly more gothic-sounding as it goes to the point of fear.
And all the while the house mics are picking up the most ghastly sounds of wind...I didn't know it at the time, but Abby and I both figured it was some effect they were using to make it more goth and stuff. But there was a bed, and the curtains were blowing like no other. I thought it was a fan or something.
Right before it all happened, tho, it got about ten degrees colder in about two seconds and I guess we all knew that the shit was about to hit the fan. It was cold . During recording, every once in a while, a wire will get exposed and create a distinct pitch of feedback thru every available speaker in the vicinity. Remember those lights that I was talking about? At the end of the speech there was a torrent of wind like no other...the only problem was, we felt it as well as heard it, and in that same moment that little feedback came up and we saw the lights topple and fall smack damn in the middle of the crowd. We were sitting pretty much next to them. The light wavered in mid fall and time stood still for a second, amidst the screams and monkey-panic of the moment. I think that someone got hit by the tail end of the light, or maybe they were just too freaked and passed out. But at least no one was crushed flat by the damned thing. But damn. That's when we decided, "HEY, what a great time to leave,".
I found out this morning that FIVE people were struck by lightning in the same area last night. We had two choices, to stay in Nashville and duck it out, or to try and brave the interstate in the midst of the storm, and Nashville for that matter. Abby pointed out the fact that some people were heading to a building next to the Parthenon and it didn't seem like such a bad idea. But I figured we should just try and get through it all, like an idiot. Not that we died, it was just a trying experience. So here we go down the mean streets of Nashvegas in pre-storm. It wasn't coming down just yet but it might as well have been; everyone was freaking out and driving like bums. So we whipped out the cellphones and got to it...we got separated from Kyndall and Chad at a red when I got trapped behind some bum in an Acura, and I would have pranced around the biotch and dashed the light had I not known Nashville drivers in general...altho running the light sort of would have made me one...but whatever, we were panicking, getting separated was really bad. So I called my dad and asked him what the hell I should do, he said stay on the street I was going on and turn right on the interstate. I was able to get over but first I got cut off...bastards. I could try and detail the aftermath but I can't tell you in words about the drive thru that storm on the interstate...it was some fear I've never known.
We had the radio on and it would flicker with every lightning strike, and the rain...I could have pulled over, yes, but I trust being stopped on the Nashville interstate less than I do moving on the Nashville interstate. I just follow the red lights in front of me and hoped to God we would make it. I could attribute two things to my success. The minor one was Kyndall's incredibly sugared tea...it was really good. And I think the caffeine kept me just that much more hyped to avoid being pwned by that semi at one point. And the other, and the major one, was having Abby next to me...suddenly she took my hand and I was moved beyond all reason with nerve and the want to defend her.
I've never been so inspired to courage as at that moment...it was me feeling helpless and doing it anyway, because it was incredibly worth it. Not that we were going to die, but it was lingering about the doorstep at every second, you hear stories about it all the time. What could I say that could do justice to her in that moment, or ever? I love her. So we made it and I was a wreck from all the concentration.
I turned off the car and didn't put it in park, for starters. I had a Sprite when I got inside: it was ambrosia. Chad went out to the car and got the food we didn't eat at the park...none of it, in fact. Poor guy...it was his birthday yesterday, he wouldn't let us do anything.
I offered to go get it, he refused, he said he wasn't going to milk it for everything it was worth...as if he milked it at all, for cryin' out loud. So that was really sad. Then while in the bathroom, the power went out. And thus begins another story. But not right now, for cryin' out loud. For cryin' out loud. What a great/weird night...I hope I never have to do that again, or if I do, I hope I have such good motivators. I'm going to play the guitar now and write pretty songs about love and how good it is to be alive, and the next album has been renamed Love Poem About Flowers and Rabbits and Sunshine , because one thing that that motivates you to live more than death is flirting with it and coming out on top. And now that the mellodrama is done, I wish you all a fraggin' GREAT day. PEACE. 
