Happy things Lindsay Harris Friel 3/11 '15

 Today I can turn the heat off and open the windows to let in fresh air. 

Squeaky had her first grooming of springtime. She's gone from one stinky, itchy four-legged dreadlock to a streamlined dog. 

I heard this song for the first time this morning while I was making coffee, and it put a spring in my step. 

This also makes me happy. I hate it when people put their feet on the dashboard, but I like the song. I know some of the people in this video, particularly the girl who's driving around with a gorilla. 

I read February by Margaret Atwood, and it resonated pretty strongly. 

That's pretty much it for now. 

MORE
3/11 '15 6 Comments
Yay Cliff Hillis! Cliff is the happy recipient of three Homey Awards this past weekend! He won Best Songwriter, Best EP, and also Male Solo Artist of the Year. Matt loves him and his songwriting; I don't know much of his stuff, but the stuff I know, I really like. I'm happy he's a Philly guy. It makes me happy that you like him, too.
Jill "xtingu" Knapp
FWIW: The couple in the video at 0:40-0:42 (and at other points: blonde woman w red scarf, guy w/salt n' pepper goatee and a plaid shirt, both wearing sunglasses) are friends I met through Vince. Dave is in The National Bird, who played the gig at Dawson Street Pub this past weekend, and Coleen is his fiancé. And, the woman driving with the gorilla in the passenger seat is Kimberlie Cruse, who is in The Sidetracked Sisters, who do storytelling for parties and the RenFaire circuit and burlesque shows and all that stuff; I met her through Walking Fish and The ADs.

Phoenixville must have a pretty tight arts n' music crowd. My point is, how cool is it to be in that web?
Lindsay Harris Friel
Cliff Hillis also makes a mean neck strap out of duct tape.

I learned this six or seven years ago, when I joined Cliff, Ritchie Rubini, and Mark Gorman as Mary Arden Collins' backup band for a couple local shows. I musta left my strap at the Arden Gild Hall the previous night, for it was nowhere to be found. And for future reference, the Winterthur gift shop has an exceptionally poor selection of tenor saxophone accessories, which I totally mentioned in my Yelp review.

But Mr. Hillis and his roll o' tape saved the day. I actually got to hand him an award at the Homeys last week, and publicly thanked him for strapping me while he was making his way to the stage.

(Hmmm...I wonder if I used those words on the mic. "Thank you for strapping me, Cliff." If so, everyone knew what I meant, right?)
Matt Casarino
Will you teach me how to make a duct-tape guitar strap? I NEED THIS SKILL.
Lindsay Harris Friel
Re: February ... last night I came home late. Everyone was asleep and the house was dark. I turned on the blacklight and found her new pee spot. I felt triumphant - I knew I smelled it, and I FOUND IT! HA!

It's the little things, really.
Shelle Klein Houser
"Off my face! You’re the life principle,
more or less, so get going
on a little optimism around here."
Lindsay Harris Friel