November 12, 2013 - Austintown, Ohio. It is 11/12/13, kinda cool... in my nerd way I appreciate that. Finished NERFA with Tim Mason and pulled something of a "trifecta" - to whit: presented and performed in Kerhonkson, New York at NERFA, then drove to Somers, Connecticut to see Nenad Bachand the remarkable Kristen Graves, the Connecticut State Troubadour (Why don't we have a state troubadour?), where the host, Linda Abbott, asked me to play a song after the show and, from there I drove to Tom Bianchi's Birthday party at the Burren Pub. A long run-on sentence that emphasizes the nature of the "trifecta". Now, honestly, that's way too much driving and activity for one day, but, as I age I like to know I can still do certain things... like intense travel.
Initially when I headed into Binghamton last week I was looking for a bookstore that specialized in rare books, only to find out it was no longer there.... I found another specializing in paperbacks only to discover it was closing December 15 - both repeating a story I see all over America as one by one these old bookstores close. I stopped at another one (near Kingston, NY) on my way to my Groton gig where again I was greeted by the specter of another potential closing as the owner hinted at any interest I might have in buying his 175,000 volumes (that I could never afford....) The Groton gig? At Second Hand Prose was an interesting coda to that. A small lovely bookstore that was recently opened - crashing perhaps against the tide. Katharyn and Keith delightful hosts (and a nice friendly turn out - Thanks John and Jamie and Carol and Leo et al....) Lot of ellipses in this entry... It is the press of time making me write fast as I feel the need to get back on the road and make some progress tonight.
Our bookstores remain our heritage - the data storage format that we can retain after the electronics are so obsolete that whole works will be lost to innovation. As I have written before (May this year), two hundred years from now you will be able to pick up and read a book, but that floppy disc (do you recall those?) or that jump drive? Not so much....