Freddy's bar open mic...

The thermometer on the billboard across the street from the Chelsea Market is reading 14 degrees F right now.  It's that week in mid winter when it drops into the teens and it's just miserable.  The winters are hard here, yeah yeah yeah.  I've found that just knowing that this part of the winter, inevitable though it may be, is finite and usually only lasts a week or so.  In fact, tomorrow, I think it's going to be in the 40s, which will feel balmy by comparison.

But tonight, I sit through another overnight with the prospect of having to walk to the train with my head bent over and my shoulders hunched, collar up and scarf wrapped tight, as quickly as possible with a mind only to getting on the train as quick as possible and then getting to my front door as quickly as possible.  Before my ass freezes and falls off.

I'm even wearing a thermal shirt right now (something I rarely do) but I wasn't earlier when Lacy and I played over at Freddy's bar on 5th Avenue (man was I cold out there).  This is an open mic we've wanted to play for a long time since I heard about it.  It's literally a block away from my apartment and I pass it every day wanting to stop in and check it out.  Just haven't had time.  A while back though I saw a flier for the open mic night but it's only every third Sunday of the month.

When we arrived at the mic, there was no one in the back room where the mic takes place so we sat in the bar and chatted with the owner.  A friend of mine surprised me and showed up so the three of us sat and had a few drinks, checking out the decor in the bar and listening to the bartender's playlist…he was showing us an artist named Richard Cheese who does covers of rap and popular songs in a lounge style reminiscent of Frank Sinatra and other crooners.  It was pretty awesome.  In addition to that bag of awesomeness, there sits a bonified working player piano that had a strip of lights strung up inside so you could see through the glass plating on the outside and see the inner workings.  It was enthralled.

Eventually, the host of the mic showed up and we moved into the back room.  There was only one other artist besides us and we all ended up getting a decent amount of time.  Lacy and I only rehearsed two songs but found that we were able to pull three more out to play.  One of the was a cover of a Jump Little Children song called "Mexico,"  which I sang.  Haven't don that in a while!

Overall, a fun time and we'll hopefully be doing it again soon.  There's word that the event is hanging on by a string because not enough people come but hopefully, it will be revived when the weather get's nicer.  Surely temperatures in the teens did enough to deter some people from coming.

The rest of this week, I'll be focusing on music for Mohammad's reel which is coming together nicely.  Probably will be adding some more guitar tracks and a piano part and some effects.  Will post when it's done, as always.

On top of that, I'm looking forward to my very VO Wednesday.  Will be meeting a new friend who does VO to pick her brain and then having a voice coaching session right after with one of my old voice coaches from Edge.  Should be fun and will have lots to talk about then.  So, until Wednesday!