FIRST! I was trying to be funny by playing that Fallout Boy cover. I also though it was hilarious when Jacki Ward sat in the front mouthing along with the words. That’s how I found out that people might not be finding this humorous. Since then, i have left to the jokes to the professionals, like Nick’s face.
Magdalena’s is closed?
Darn. In a recession, the first thing to give up is leisurly activity, and although we call music our life, Magdalena’s was a leisure, one that should have left us long ago. That was a birthing spot, and a money drain. I noticed the Tea House outside of the bus window. At the time, I was really into drinking tea, instead of coffee. I went inside and to grab a cup. Without saying much of anything, Nancy, the co-owner, handed me a vacuum, and asked if I could help her clean up the place. When I got done, she asked me to take on a new project. I never got my tea that day, but I did find a job to work at for the following year or so, for the tremendous salary of a sandwich with every shift, and a 24 oz. of beer.
We learned about booking shows, hosting events, jamming, performance, and attitude. And although it had it’s flaws, the Tea House served it’s purpose to us, as being a center for the absolute most developmental time in my life. To Tommy, Hattie, Nick, Timmy, and anyone else I have been overjoyed to have met at the Tea House, I’m glad we had it when we did, but honestly, I never want to go in there again.
Oh yeah, and that guy, Shannon, was one of the biggest assholes I have ever encountered.
Right now, I’m on a bus (with wifi) towards NYC. A quick meeting with the producer of my upcoming E.P. at 5 0′ clock, and then an early morning bus towards Philly for 2 shows in town, one festival just outside of town, and a gig back in Cambridge on Monday. After that, I’ve got up to 7 bands crashing at my house this week at random points. These bands include; Annie Palmer, Patrick Elkin, Goodnight and Good Morning, Brittan Ashford, Frontier Ruckus, and a few more. Two days after that, I’ll be jumping on a plane back to Michigan to officially start packaging and promoting the big tour. A press release of over 200 discs, but the problem is, I DON’T HAVE ANY MONEY! Although, something will work out, even if I need to sell my soul.
GTG RECORDS 
Yeah, I completely forgot about the Tea House essentially, until circumstances had me play two shows there in one week. If it hadn’t been for that, it would have probably been September or something before I found out. And then it probably would have been something like “huh, I thought they closed like a year ago.”
I got a little disenchanted with Magdalena’s, but mostly because they tried to be too many things, lost focus, lost money, and just had boxes of commercial teabags. What was up with that?
But way back when, at Tim Lane’s poetry open mic, is where I read publicly for the first time, with my broken arm in the air so the blood wouldn’t pool in my fingers. I read at every poetry night for almost a year and a half, and played a show there with an acoustic version of The Hat Madder. Isaac wore fairy wings and kept saying “meow” after his songs. That’s the kind of place it was — comfortable, nice lighting, a staff made of of 85% really nice people and 15% deuschbags, and a meeting of the minds for people like me, Jeremy, Chris Dorman, Tim and Aaron Curtner, and my friend Jen who immortalized me in a poem as Pollux — not only one of the twin sons of Zeus, but also an Orange Giant star 34 light years from earth.
It was that kind of place.
Last time I was in there a couple weeks ago the staff was really disorganized, being so accommodating to each other it was almost comical. They were “out of tea” (???) so we got some sort of raw chocolate ball thing that was pretty tasty. I’ll miss it, but, like Jeremy, more as a magic room where lots of connections were made than as a business that I would choose to support.