Happy New Years bands and fans! Where did this year go?

More importantly, what do I have to show for it? This time last year, I was still a fresh-faced blogging-newbie, naively thinking ggdc would become a chat room or someone would throw money at me for starting a magazine etc. Thinking it would happen in 2003 was the naïve part, realizing the real reasons I try desperately to keep up this journal has been a complex and rewarding journey.



Trying to keep my show-going notes current online has given me new respect for those in the performing arts that also keep a day job. As a visual artist, I am used to locking myself up in the studio until ready to present my work to the world like a batch of freshly baked cookies. Not so with performers and journalists, you have to be out there multi-tasking , growing the cocoa beans, milling the flour and preheating the oven – all while performing. Knowing that many of these actors and musicians also punch a 9-5 time clocks like myself, is truly mind-boggling. For those of you that have made the redoubtable move of kicking the 9-5 safety net to the curb take heed of this thing a 40’ish male friend of mine said after seeing LTH at Carter Baron Amp this summer: “It does my heart good knowing that there is someone my age going to work with their shirt untucked.” While I am not a 40’ish male, I know exactly what he means. I sometimes enjoy the “untucked shirt factor” as much as the music.



What else has this obsession got me? A ‘beater’ of a car. For most the only way getting a beater would be of mention was if proceeded by four letter words. Having lived in DC for over a decade without a car by 2003, (I had not even been behind the wheel since the mid-nineties) the decision to actually buy a car was formidable. While I’m still not sure it was a great idea, and as I’m still afraid to drive on highways and parkways having been nicknamed “the threat” by at least one person. Embracing the rock & roll world started me questioning my slavish attachment to the DC subway system that has yet to move into the 20th century and stay open 24/7 and made me re-visit driving as more than a spectator sport. While I’ve not been on 95, or even close, I’ve been known to wear a path Clarendon like a Conestoga wagon trail. For you readers prone to worrying, this driving thing has reduced my bar tab to all time lows. While this may not be rock & roll, it’s got all kinds of benefits like health and money in the bank (sort of).



I said these exact words last year, but it bears repeating. To all the musicians, club owners, bouncers, bartenders, musicians’-significant-others, and fan friends THANK YOU for sharing your gifts, your love and your livelihood with me and all the groupie girls and boys. If I didn’t live it everyday, I would not believe that hard ass rock n’ rollers and club owners could be unjaded, all around fantastic human beings. Please don’t ever loose sight of that.



I also want to thank those behind the scenes at ggdc. In no particular order



Debbie & Jenn are #1.




Ask Mike at Crosstown Arts who took my suggestion for the new WAMA Members Calendar-visit it often.


to Mike of Cheap Date for linking to me.


To bands who took time to read ggdc, while I am still trying to find time to see them perform Juniper Lane, Junk Food, and The Issue, Mark Helm, and
Mike Shupp.


And to Mike Holden for starting
AMS that sends me plenty of hits.


To the deej and
Hungry for Music for doing more than the next guy for the right reasons even when they don’t have too.


And Mr. Joel for keeping his calendar up and running when I don’t have time to update mine.


And my greatest hope is that my brother’s Wigilia (Polish word-look it up) promise to me comes true: to help me work out my IT problems and try to find time to possibly be my webmaster, so cross your fingers.





Love & Luck & remember enthusiasm doesn’t cost a cent


ggdc