Thanks for all the wonderful birthday wishes! I had a lovely day that included such delights as backyard cat bath time, a stroll up the high line ending in a glass of rosé with @spaceisnice , happy hour oysters with @philnotbombs , seeing a great theater show created by the talented @gregkotis & @ayun_halliday , dinner in Koreatown with @joshjoshjoshnyc & @bearhebert_ , and some very thoughtful gifts with a decided theme (wildflower walks are apparently in my near future). All that and a pre-bday baths excursion with @kierinbaldwin . My heart is very full. ❤️
Regarding that theater show: there are two more performances of I Am Nobody and I super recommend it if you’re in NYC! Check out @theater.of.the.apes for deets.
One million years ago, the hilarious and talented hula hoopist/performance artist @misssaturn2000 and I shared a van seat and many motel rooms on the epic @bindlestifffamilycirkus tour of spring 2003. What a delight to share the stage last night at @parktheaterhudson thanks to @softbodyburlesque ! #stillgotit #circuslife
Old school Bindlestiff in the house... Hanging out back stage with these fabulous people and realizing that we have been making show together for more than a quarter a century.
One of the highlights of Charming Disaster’s show on Friday night was the unexpected appearance of my high school English teacher, who apparently retired to Rochester, clocked my name and face on a show poster after 30 years, and has been listening to our music. Phil Dollard was the faculty advisor for our high school literary magazine, Opus, for which I was the editor for 2 years (sharing the role with @kierinbaldwin when we were seniors). It was a formative early experience of leadership (not to mention pre-desktop publishing software layout, featuring blue pencil markup and rubber cement fumes). Dollard also started the “coffeehouse” cafeteria performance series, which is where sometime in 1995 or 1996 I got my first taste of performing my own words to an audience and hearing the room go quiet—a moment that marked me forever and led directly here. It was a wild full circle moment to see his face in the crowd, and a little like one of those dreams where everyone you’ve ever known is at the same party.
Here are a few moments from the other night, paired with one from that first coffeehouse show, as captured on VHS.
P.S. I’m going to post the coffeehouse video footage on the Charming Disaster patreon in the next few days ;)
What a joy to reunite with a beloved friend from my wayward youth at @charmingdisasterband ’s Portland show last night!
1/ 2026
2/ 1996
Time is meaningless.
Snaps from the CA leg of @charmingdisasterband ’s tour:
1/ at @moryork gallery (LA)
2/ front yard cactus (Fresno)
3/ in the Tower District (Fresno)
4/ reunion with @erdberg (LA)
5/ back yard tiny house digs (Berkeley)
6/ @susannah_staats harvesting some Meyer lemons for us (Berkeley)
7/ nighttime caper blossom in @sellers_timothy & @achauer ’s garden (LA)
Los Angeles, I have arrived! @charmingdisasterband plays tonight (3/5) at @permanentrecordsroadhouse and it it would be dreamy to see your friendly faces. (And yes, I did just eat a kumquat straight off of this tree) #foraging #cali #ontour
