Indiana, People!
I’m back from Bloomington and home for a while. The material is coming along fine. I’m still riffing stuff out and need to lighten it up a bit. Shit is dark.
I usually go to Bloomington once a year or so. I haven’t been there in a while obviously. It was good to be back. The Comedy Attic is truly a great little club. It’s perfect for working shit out. I know most people think of Bloomington as a college town and it is. It’s something else though. I can never figure out what exactly.
Like I said, I’ve been going there for years and every time I’m there I feel a weirdness, maybe even a darkness pervading the chipper little city-sized quad. I mean, Indiana is sort of a red state shit show. This darkness is deeper and weirder. I think it has something to do with those quarries. Maybe they dug too deep and they unleashed something primitive. It isn’t menacing. Just crispy. Most of the times I’ve been there something weird has happened. With people. In hotel rooms. You know what I’m saying. That doesn’t really speak to the vibe though. Maybe mine, but not the general dark frequency, but maybe part of the cause.
It must be the layers. The primitive weirdness, the Republican weirdness, the college students that repeat themselves year after year like well grooved synaptic canals, the people that never leave the school for one reason or another, the locals and the drug addicts. It’s a strange balance.
The crowds are always great and the room is so small and tight there is no distance between thought and expression and it landing. No hiding.
The late shows get loopy because I can’t auto pilot. It’s a lot to put out.
I don’t know why I am a take-the-first-flight-out-guy but I kind of am. Especially if it's only one of a few nonstops. I got to bed around one on Saturday night and woke up at 4:15 to get on the road at 4:45 to drive the hour to Indianapolis and drop the rental off and get a 7am flight. Too early to even get coffee somewhere. Driving in the dark in basically waking consciousness while it's drizzling is a trip. Literally and figuratively. Did it really happen? It did. I am home.
The idea is, if I leave early, I’ll have a whole day at home in LA. A whole exhausted, loopy day that feels like it’s happening underwater. Totally worth getting up early to travel.
Today, I talk to Julie Delpy about her new show ‘On the Verge’ and her career and family and France. On Thursday, I talk to journalist and music critic Kelefa Sanneh about music and life. Good talks!
Enjoy!
Boomer, Monkey and LaFonda live!
Love,
Maron
Dark Frequencies.
