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Vance’sMondayNitePajamaParty #80 BIG CRAZY BIRTHDAY SHOW

I’ll play whatever I want. I’ll PLAY MOST OF WHAT YOU WANT.

When: Monday nite 10/11, 7:30pm EDT
(“doors” open at 7 for community hang) -

Where: https://youtu.be/soLJfPs61Gc

Who gets 10%: Schools On Wheels https://www.sowma.org/ Ending the cycle of homelessness, one child at a time,
the mission of School on Wheels of MA is to support the academic, social and emotional growth of students impacted by homelessness.

$$: http://paypal.me/vancevancevance or
https://venmo.com/vancevancevance or
a check to VanceFunder P.O. Box 17,
Arlington, MA 02476 for this web-groovery.
Pay or not. Up to you. Let’s stay connected.

This week’s pajamas = my birthday, so I’ll wear a birthday sui...wait, ok lemme rephrase that...

I teach and coach stuff.

Good Good Man - the CD - streaming all over, even get one from me

***While I have you, after my slam dunk at John Davidson’s Club Sandwich in Sandwich, NH last night, I’d like to give my thumbs up to two friends playing that same gig in the weeks to come:

Thursday 10/14 - John Svetkey https://clubsandwich.ticketleap.com/jon-svetkey/
Thursday 10/21 - Jim Infantino https://clubsandwich.ticketleap.com/jim-infantino/
Both of these indescribably wondrous musicians were part of the scene I came through in the late 90’s when I was getting my feet.
Close friends, worthy of a nice fall trip up here to see them do their thing in the coolest of clubs***

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GRATEFUL - 10/11/21, MY BIRTHDAY - GRATEFUL

How do I express being grateful without it all reading like a Wikipedia entry or an obituary? I could start with how *thank you* is so meager. But there it is. And here it is:

I’ll be 63 on Monday.
And I have equal-aged friends in their third and fourth years of retirement.
And I’m singing, playing, and writing better than I ever have.
Miles Davis said “Sometimes it takes a lifetime for you to sound like yourself”. That’s me.

I’m sporting electronically powered parts without which I would die.
And yet I’m running 18+ miles a week.

I was homeless for 4 years as a teen.
And I’ve co-owned this house for 21 years (spellcheck corrected "house" to “hose”. OK, that too. Came with the house).

I have a hobby through which I’ve made some of the most forever people in my life forever and ever.
I’m good at the hobby, and yet there’s so much still to learn. And I’m getting better at the learning

I have loved golden richly and lost brick hard.
I’m still trying to figure out people-to-people stuff that my 20-year old neighbor seems to have figured out for 5 years already, making me a work still in progress.

I come from sick, abusive, alcoholic people yet I’ve never had a drink or done drugs and I endeavour to be kind.

I’ve had 3 Standard Poodles and a Schnauzer. And a turtle.

I have fans that think I hung the moon.
They pay to come hear me sing.
They've even paid me to play from my house on Monday evenings. 79 times.
I taught myself singing, guitar and songwriting.
I teach all of that now.
And I’ve toured and worked with some of the greatest entertainers known to entertainment.
Next year I’ll tour with Ellis Paul and with Willy Porter. And Paul Reiser.

Let me encapsulate my thanks. I pay the mortgage on the house I co-own with the money I make from singing to people who think what I do is worthy. Yeah, the happy-go-lucky homeless kid that slept in your yard in a tent one summer, your couch next, your spare bedroom and your porch that summer, has a hobby that puts him in contact with some of the greatest aviation historians in the world. I have a pacemaker, Poodles, rootbeer, kindness, books, minivan, a sump pump, health, spiders, grey Hoka running shoes, a few guitars, a drill press, 4 pairs of airplane socks, a song.

And a hose.

Thanks for your faith in me. I’m ever so grateful. Happy Birthday, Me.