Auld Lang Syne

New Year's Eve. Throwing one of these things is like giving birth. There is always post-party depression. A little more so this time as it was coupled with a goodbye.

This whole year of running events has been a learning curve. What this event taught me is that no matter what, I have to listen to my gut. Not doing that was the only mistake made that night. Unfortunately it was a pricey mistake but not a catastrophe. The show was packed, the after hours karaoke was a huge and fun success and everybody involved, especially the main players, were incredible. The vibe in the greenroom was beyond amazing. Felt like a big family reunion where all I wanted to do was sit and chat and snuggle on the couch.

Apologies to my friends whom I feel I neglected. I promise to try and not hijack another holiday.

Some personal highlights include:
Seeing Pattern is Movement and being flabbergasted at how brilliant they are.
Sophie and Wil singing 'Leave the Light on.'
Eric of Foreign Islands sing 'A Thing called love' karaoke.
The girls of Dirty Projectors sing some Heart song wasted during karaoke near 4am.
'Bye Bye Bye'
The Knitting Factory staff.

From Bryan:

The line outside.


My amazingly talented and amazingly kind, warm and sweet friends Chris and Andrew from Pattern is Movement.


Jason, aka Poingly, before he got half naked and all up in the audience's junk.


The scarily professional kids of Care Bears on Fire.


The French sexiness of Neimo.

From Josh Godin:

Wil trying not to throw-up while rocking it out during Senryu's set.

From Deb:

Wil and Sophie from Care Bears on Fire collaborate on Senryu's song, 'Leave the Light on.'



With Brook, Jill and the lady friends of Pattern is Movement in the dressing room.



Oy vey, singing 'Bye Bye Bye' with Brook and the gang at the Tap Room after hours party.




The below is from Senryu's post about New Year's Eve. I wanted to copy and paste it below so that I wouldn't lose it and so that I wouldn't forget that the long hours and heavy tears were worth it. What Wil doesn't know though is that without him, none of it would have happened. Without his encouragement and advice and without him making me feel that everything would be alright, I never could have done it. I'll be forever grateful because as much as this was mine, it was his too:

I have drafted and re-drafted a blog to ultimately answer the
asked and asked again question (even though we've really
only been back a few days): how did New York go?

Well. I can't really accurately answer. Here are words that
may describe it, all at once. With examples.

1) Humbling. Like arriving so far from home, and being greeted
by the open arms and endless enthusiasm of the people who
asked you to play. Not enough just to make it possible for us,
but it was made COMFORTABLE for us. Easy for us. Jennifer
Kellas, from After the Jump, treated us like royalty while we
were there, and there is no thank you great enough.

2) Special. There may be nothing more exciting than doing
something so cool that people drive more than a dozen hours
just to be there with you when it happens. I don't think I could
accurately describe how special it was to have Knoxville
represented in New York so well. We/I were lucky enough
to have Knoxville native turned New York novelist (and my
best friend) JW McCormack in the car with us for the whole
trip. We were met in NYC by our friends Kent and Erin actually
drove. All the way. Rupa and Josh (godin, our design wizard)
flew and met us there. On the flipside, we were greeted by
so many great friends from the north, there to make us feel
confident and at home. We even got to see Andrew and Chris,
our wonderful friends from Philadelphia. You know them as
Pattern is Movement.

3) FUCKING DISGUSTING. After shooting a video blog on the
30th, I met back up with the band and we walked...for....HOURS..
through freezing rain. So we were unhappy and my body, in
particular, was feeling a little rowdy. So we arrive at this Global
somethingorother place to eat, and Agent15 (known to you as
team senryu member Mike Agentis, bassist and beatmaker), me
and him decide that we're going to eat something weird.

BIG MISTAKE. BIG. BIG. BIG. MISTAKE.

So, after a quick glance at the menu, we firmly decide that we
just HAVE to eat....wait for it.....Grasshopper tacos. No, not mint
flavored and green. Tacos. Soft tacos. With grasshoppers. It seemed,
at the time, like a no-brainer. I was sure that such a nice place
would've really over-prepared them, to the point that it wasn't at
all like eating a crunchy, nasty bug. I was wrong. It was not only like
eating many crunchy, nasty bugs...it was worse. They smelled like
pork rinds and they tasted like FUCKING. BUGS. This isn't the worst
news.

I looked over and Agent15 was almost done already.

I wasn't going to flake out, so I ate. And for the next (however
many days it is from them until still) I vomited. We almost had to
cancel our new year's eve set, due to my vomiting. So, the moral
of the story is: don't ever do a gross-out dance with mike agentis.
He is young. He is gross. He is tough. All three, more so than you.

4) Magical. Before our set, i asked the lovely people of New York
if they would mind if I decorated them. To my surprise, they were
so happy about ! So, i promptly covered them with our glittery
mess. The glittery mess that I bought right here at home and
carried under my arm all the way to the stage. After all of the night's
madness wound down, I walked onto the balcony and looked
down onto the Knitting Factory floor. It was shimmery. Then I
walked onto the stairwell and looked down onto the main hallway.
It was shimmery, too. It was shimmery in the bathroom, the front
bar, and all the way outside...up and down the sidewalk. I heard
rumor from team senryu members that our shimmer even reached
the subway. Josh says he shook some out of his hair on the plane.

We finally played in New York. Finally.