Here is me and Amanda Palmer singing “Hey Big Dog” at SXSW. I wrote the song with Patty Griffin and it’s an imagined duet between myself and my big dog, Ralph. Amanda sings the Ralph part just beautifully. She really makes me cry. It’s so tender and sweet. Like I really am singing to my wonderful baby dog, and I only made one guitar mistake.
I spent the weekend in Cleveland and Cincinnati and it was amazing. Even though some devastating things happened on November 4th, Barack Obama still won, and as I watched the election along with everyone else that day, when I saw that Ohio went for Obama, I said “Yes!!! We got this!!†so I wanted to thank Ohio for this great victory. They had a lot to do with it.
In Cleveland, Jessie (our killer merchandise diva with the fuschia locks – if you’ve been to one of the “Beautiful†shows – you know her) and I visited the rock and roll hall of fame, because since I am a musician, it is just one of those things that musicians do. Oh, you didn’t know I was a musician? Yeah. I have been a musician for about 3 days. Well, actually, I got an electric guitar a couple of weeks ago, but I haven’t done much except pose with it in front of the mirror. I didn’t actually start playing til Thursday. Maybe that should be my band name, Til Thursday. We are kind of like Til Tuesday, but just later in the week.
I was asked to perform at an anti-Prop 8 rally on the big international day of protest – November 15 – in Cincinnati, and I thought I should write a protest song for it. The fact that there is now a ban on gay marriage just kills my spirit, hurts my heart. I was deputized as a marriage commissioner in San Francisco in June, and I got to marry a gay couple and a lesbian couple at city hall, and it was such an honor and a blessing, and we all wept through the entire thing. It was one of the greatest things I had ever experienced, and the fact that the state considers those unions now against the law just destroyed me emotionally. Momentarily, I lost my will to fight, and I desperately wanted to get it back, and music was the only answer.
I got an acoustic guitar on Wednesday, wrote the song on Thursday, with help from my brother in law, Eric, who is a musician – cuz that is who musicians hang out with, other musicians. Then I practiced for about 32 hours in a row to get ready for Saturday. On the plane I did air guitar like strumming and made the chords with my hands. In my hotel room I played the song so many times I am surprised I was not bodily removed from the premises. I tried it out on the Cleveland crowd on Friday, and they seemed to think it was ok, so I was ready for my big protest singing debut at the rally.
We drove from Cleveland to Cincinnati early on Saturday morning as icy rain pelted down all of I-71, and Liam Sullivan (Kelly) pointed out a sign next to the highway. It said “HELL IS REAL”. I guess it must have been nearby, but the sign didn’t say what exit. If it is real, then they should have some more detailed directions!
They introduced me, and I fumbled with the guitar for a bit. I got all scared that somewhere between me taking it out of my gig bag – yeah that is a musician’s term for a bag that you bring to the gig – your gig bag – I got all worried that in the few seconds that it was out of the gig bag, that it would go out of tune. I managed to get the strap and get the guitar in front of me semi-correctly. Then, I started to play, and miraculously, the song I wrote just came out of me and I know I messed up some chords but nobody seemed to mind much. It was the spirit of the thing, you know? At the end everyone was singing the chorus with me “Shove Proposition 8 up their ass!†and it felt really great.
I was so proud that so many turned out to protest the gay marriage ban in California – in Ohio!!! That so many all around the world stood up for California that day was overwhelming. I was getting texts from friends all over the place with pictures and reports from their local rallies. I’m gonna write “this machine kills fascists†on the back of my blackberry.
I had a good week when I was healthy, and I thought I was invincible. When you are sick for a long time, as I was, like a month, and then you start to feel well again, you think that nothing can stop you. You don’t have to wash your hands. You can go outside with wet hair. You don’t need a jacket. You don’t have to go to bed early. You can party all you want. You can do this, you can do that. Well, you can’t. I am unbelievably sick – again. After being unbelievably sick for almost the entire month of September, and now I am hearing there is a deadly outbreak of strep throat in Ontario! Ah well, I don’t have strep, but I am fucked up. Sorry for having to cancel my Kitchener show. That sucks the most. However, I will wash my hands and dry my hair and put on a jacket and a scarf and make it up to you in Hamilton!
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