Mike’s Tour Blog: Vol. II Issue VI
Rice and beans, rice and beans.
For the entirety of February I’m eating rice and beans, just rice and beans. I’m allowing myself two exceptions. The first is Valentines dinner and the second is Jacob’s birthday dinner. Both of these meals will be fantastic, I’m sure of it. This is not a dietary blog, this isn’t a track of some type of progress. I’m a pretty fit guy and I’m in good health. It’s a bit about the good and the bad… and the rice and beans.
I’m not selling everything I own, I’m not burning whatever cash I have, I’m not moving to the hills of Appalachia, I’m just eating rice and beans for a month, that’s it. It’s a personal experiment, you need to test yourself sometimes. I heard about this book, Scratch Beginnings. I haven’t read it yet, just excerpts, but the basic premise is this guy that just graduated from college wants to start from scratch. He gets on a train heading somewhere in the southeast, no set destination, with 25 bucks, a duffel bag and a tarp.
He’s got a couple rules, he can’t beg for money specifically and he can’t use his college education or personal connections to his advantage. He has to start as a nobody, albeit a healthy nobody without a family to support. But, cut to the chase, after 10 months or so, the guy has a furnished apartment and $2,500 in savings. It’s about determination and possibility and whether not that thing they call the American Dream still exists.
So I’m eating rice and beans for a month, that’s it. These things aren’t necessarily directly related, just things I’m thinking about it. We would have to have a little chat for my exact reasons for this ‘fast’ if you want to call it that. I’m up for that chat though.
I feel stupid talking about it, rice and beans are tasty.
Lets talk about Atlanta. We love some Atlanta, it’s a good fit for us. The people are a good deal nicer there than most parts of the country, with the exception of Oxford Mississippi, they want to support people they believe in, and they dig rock n roll and sweet tea vodka. They also have an H&M and an Ikea and who doesn’t like affordable Swedish efficiency.
We played at the Vinyl in midtown. The last time we played there we brought our friends Jeff and Dean. The exit for the club was closed and it took us two hours longer than it should have to move about 5 miles. Jeff had to pee the whole time. I regret that I didn’t stop for him, I thought we were close. The Vinyl is a cool joint and the guy that books us there is always good to us. We had a solid bill that we put together with Rick Brantley and JR Rund joining us and The ELMS who as always put on an impressive show. There’s an air of unpretentiousness (may or may not be a word) with the crew we play for up there that I dig. They sing along, they have a good time, the girls dance, there’s not too many folded arms.
Folded arms are my enemy, if I can at least get a head bob then we’re doing alright. A toe tap is alright.
All of the bands played really well, I love JR, he’s a good guy. He’s one of those guys that puts it all out there and that’s a relatable thing, vulnerability. Anyways, it’s good, get his record. Rick puts on a great show too, lots of classic rock bombast, very Nashville. I definitely thing you’ll see us sharing some bills in the future.
I think we hung out at the Local that night and flirted with the idea of going across the street to the Clermont Lounge. I refuse to explain the Clermont Lounge, if you know what it is then you know what it is. I don’t think I could have handled the sight (or moral burden) of taking young Cannon to a joint like that quite yet.
Travis and I made a trip to the closest McDonalds around 3 am, it was in a hospital, my google map did not say that. We saw some strange characters in there, sang some R&B to the sassy ladies working the counter and went back to our friend Ashley’s place to crash.
Tomorrow was Marietta.
