May Hem Minestrone

Binge & Beloved at the Raleigh Marijuana March May 1st after our show. Akin to Seattle's Hempfest.


If May were a soup it would be minestrone -- lots of little beans and grains. This month finds Binge and Beloved engaged in many different pursuits and activities. Except not skydiving.

Picture taken by the awesome Jeremy of Effingham.

Rob Beloved debuts with Joy in Red this upcoming week on May 19th at a house show (songs & info here). I'm not just saying this as Ms. Beloved: JIR are simply amazing. Something about the combination of Matthew of Sequoya's banjo + mountain screams and Rob's guitar glued together with longtime musician but newer drummer Mike Wright (Cairo & Byproduct. He also recorded, mixed, and mastered the songs on MS) makes JIR powerfully rich and, I think, lasting.


Fittingly, the group began on our porch as an acoustic jam of Rob and Matthew, interrupted at 1:00 am only by the incessant honking of a neighbor's Aunt (who later returned and did a 'drive by honk' to spite us). The first output incorporates as much mountain (Lazareth's Mountain) as 'hood (Mama's Milk). Invite.



This moment finds me typing in Weston, returning from our first show in Athens. We played an early show at the Go Bar with Black Balloon --




and Brer Paladin.




I'll be uploading videos soon at my Youtube channel. Though there were more people who arrived late for the Karaoke following our show (no comment) we enjoyed playing and meeting the kind Chris of Black Balloon. He was so sweet that he offered us money to film his show the next night since our show was less than profitable. How awesome is that?


It seems to me, though, that touring, especially new cities, is initially about the hand shake. There is a power to in-person that cannot be recreated online or from a distance. Only in the showing up, half the battle according to Woody Allen, is something planted for future return harvesting (it's Spring, so forgive the banal gardening analogy).

Even with low-turnout shows in new cities, you get to meet both venue reps and/or bands, they see you play, you catch their show, they talk with you. Typically, we've found, that it is in these meetings that future arrangements for better shows are created. Or just call me Polyannabinge and continue to sulk over these sad shows.

In addition to the hand shake, we got to eat at the infamous Grit, which has outdoor seating convenient for dog-traveling. My favorite thing about the Grit are the wide and delicious selection of vegan cakes. However, I've been off sugar for almost a month excepting the Rosetta's controlled lapse. What's a gal to do? Sometimes pictures speak more than words.

I shared.

It was only one slice, but per Beloved, he noticed an increase in temper and irritability. Is a study accurate when only one person is the participant, and the other the evaluator? According to my college statistics course, not so much, but in this case, I'd say Beloved has a solid study finding. In addition to a black eye. Kidding! Later on she had chocolate almond-milk ice cream bonbon truffles.. Quiet Beloved! They were new products and had to be tested!


Tonight we're playing and screening in Charlotte at a nice place called Pura Vida. But first it's off to the Leeanne-recommended Zizi's -- which boasts my *dream menu* and is exactly what I'm talkin' about when I'm blabbering for the 1,000th time that Durham needs a 'down home cooking cheap eatery' for the veg & veg-option wanting community.


In addition to Rob's show on Wednesday, Beloved Binge's first show in Chapel Hill for a loooong time is this Thursday at the Reservoir. We're so very happy to be playing with our favorites Ponchos from Peru out of Wilmington, as well as Actual Persons Living or Dead. Come check out the show! Invite. Hosted by Rod Serling.


This week Binge Cafe will host a friend from DC, participate in outreach at the APS walk for animals and, the next day, the Bull Days of Durham, and take part in the Cleveland Holloway first ever Block Party organized by the awesome Catherine of Midtown Dickens. We'll be BBQ'ing and hanging out on Primitive Saturday after 1 pm.


Speaking o' outreach, if anyone of you wanted to give Rob a present or me (just because?) you can most certainly and happily do it through this event we're participating in, where we have been transformed into Team Triangle. Your $ will go to an org that works at reduction of suffering most strategically, philosophically, and effectively -- an org we would leave our house to in the event of death. See our team profile here, complete with Syba adorable-ness, and donate a few bucks if you can! Your donation will be good for at least 10 birthdays/holidays.


At the end of the month, we're heading down to Wilmington to camp & play WE Fest, and annual festival of mostly DIY bands from all over the US taking over the Soapbox and other nearby stages in the city. At $1 per day, the fest is one of the most affordable around for 12 hours of music. That's like less than .10 per hour. Cheap!


In addition to part time work, I continue to work on compiling & writing Tales of a Greek Father and setting up screenings (locally) of Seeing Through the Fence.


In the book category Rob is reading Edward Abbey's Monkey Wrench Gang, and, to keep with the animal-title theme, I am just about finished with Jonathan Safran Foer's Eating Animals, a highly entertaining and accessible (as well as devastating) read about the state of our current food industry as it pertains to the raising, transporting, and killing of animals for food.


He writes frequently about our forgetting and remembering, critical to sustain the current factory system. I encourage anyone to read it who cares about the treatment of animals. I know you do.

Pay Me to Eat Your Vegan Cake ... & Greensboro

One might think, from reading this blog, that Rob and I have a slight addiction to vegan baked and/or frozen goods. Nothing can be more removed from the truth. As most of you know, tours aren't exactly get-rich-quick schemes. And we've got bills to play, plants to water, etc. How to make ends meet and still get the show on the road?

Endorsements for vegan baked and/or frozen goods, of course! So we're not actually eating the items like the pineapple-basil sorbet you see Rob holding there in the waffle cone. But he is getting top $$$ from the Pineapple-Basil Sorbet Co., let me tell you. I think he even shined his sunglasses before this shot.

The last night of a tour is sort of important, I think. We were fortunate enough to have an awesome, awesome last night in the company of Wilmington's Ponchos from Peru and Greensboro's Invisible.

We've played with Ponchos a few times now, and each time I see them they just keep on getting better. I'm trying to get them to record an album so that we can all have some Ponchos in our homes and computers, but they are procrastinating so when you get a chance gently encourage tracking and recording behavior.

I had heard of Invisible through a friend who attended their show at BCHQ, and reported that they were amazing. Then I saw one of their contraptions in a production held at Manbites Dog Theater (presented by Little Green Pig theatrical concern), Europe Central...the Selectric Piano.

In any case, I love it when bands do some things not the same. Some different things. Like making therimins and funny sounds...but doing so in a way that is interesting and more honest than hokey, if you know what I mean. Invisible are that unique combination of band that is this: nice people, inventive music, great performance, fun songs.

We left Greensboro and headed home to Durham. It was so good to be back home. Huge thanks to Resist Not and Evelyn for taking care of Syba. We heard that she slept on their bed and everything. Big thanks to Keelee and Catherine for taking care of moody little Greco too.

Summary: The best part about touring, apart from vegan cake endorsements, is hanging out and hearing other musicians. This can be the worst part too - but fortunately, that was not the case on this tour.

Atlanta, Athens, Winston-Salem: Gaining Weight Fast

And here we have a random dog that I named Chile. Little Chile sat with me as I awaited the screening at the 11:11 teahouse. Chile was instant love. Chile did not care about my harsh words or evil doings. Chile just wanted to be near. The screening went well.

The next night BB had a show with Pete D (of Gringo Star) who played an awesome acoustic set. He was so kind ... instead of accepting money for his 7" he asked folks to donate to the touring band (us). Since he tours for a living he understands. Hurrah to kind musicians!! The more we tour, the more I realize things we could do differently or better for bands coming through too.

Batata Doce played after our set. They were, from what one of their fans said, tropicalia style. This music comes out of revolution. At the end the drummer played on glass jars filled with different levels of water. Sounded way better than my wood block.


The next night we were supposed to leave and go see Kim's band play in Athens, but Justin was kind enough to get us a last minute show at the Earl with Dylan Kight & the Nightbirds as well as the Preakness.


Here are my drums on the stage. We played out front and it went pretty well. Pictured here is Dylan Kight and the Nightbirds, and the Preakness, below.





Before the show we went to Athens to leaflet (rob) and check out the Grit, an established veg restaurant of deserved awesomeness. In addition to real food, we had two different kinds of fake food, namely, vegan cake - the Grasshopper (my favorite) which tasted sort of like the mint chocolate chip ice cream, but way better, and then the other cake, which had a name I'm forgetting (see, Jamie, Rob looks happy again). These were especially good after the show at the Earl, on our way to a house party that Patrick's new project was playing. Unfortunately we missed his band, Hawks, but got to visit with him and accidentally walk into a frat party.


The next day, we headed to Harmony, which has vegan chinese food. It was no Teapot (Seattle) but pretty damned good.





We found the Werehouse and screened my documentary there. I was kind of nervous because I haven't been doing this as long as the band. But load in sure is a lot easier. Go Triad and Relish were kind enough to write articles about it. There are links to these here.

I think that the Werehouse is my new favorite place. There was obviously a lot of work, love, and thought put into this place. They even roast their own coffee.


Here Rob is interviewing a member of the collective, Eric, for his soon to be streamed podcast, BB radio.


We will be playing in Greensboro tonight with Invisible and Ponchos from Peru. More on these amazing bands tomorrow....