pt. ii, sort of..

As you may or may not know, I've been traveling. I would like to keep you updated, and don't mind doing so by reprinting some of the emails I've written and responded with these past weeks. Here is an email (most of it) that I wrote to a friend of mine recently. Feel free to forward thisto other friends and family:

xo Gene E. Crawford Jr


I'm sorry to hear about your mom. I don't know what else to say. Please keep me posted on her PROGRESS (THIS WILL GET BETTER). I'm sorry the last letter ended so abruptly. I'm sorry I've not written in a little while. Most every moment during this experience burns glowing-hot, and is yet entirely gone the moment I try to hold onto it. News from home, exchanging occasional emails from friends and family I hardly ever talk to otherwise, meals I prepare for groups of people who tell me my food "blows their minds" whom I'll never see again, my first bear encounter in the woods, street characters, double rainbows, weird hometown local bands, dancing, freaking people out with strategically placed fake-vampire-blood just to break the monotony, big purple sunglasses, hot springs under a full moon in IDAHO (glowing eyes abound), riding bikes, getting around in every town we get down in, meeting other kids on tour, telling people I'm from Queens too, finding a crush around every corner. Yesterday: Playing with a concert violinist and hitting on a lesbian. Trust me, I KNOW we were vibing...

Woke up in Bismarck, North Dakota this morning. Smoked a really good pipe (its ALL good West of the Mississippi), threw on headphones and got lost between UNCLE CHURCH and O.E. PARKER tunes on MySpace (its still where I find my most obscure (at least unsigned) finds, to date) (now listening to ODE to the RODDES)..I love O.E.'s "cottonwoods" track (the "going home" track too, my new favorite)..makes me believe all the more that he and I, if not you and I, should be playing/recording more music together..

AS you know, so much has changed this past month with my living situation and general peripheral vision. In the past 5 weeks or so, I've been all the way through to Portland, OREGON and now heading back East to NYC with a band I'd never otherwise be in..befriended and adopted two new brothers when I was sure no one would have me..I've seen some of the best scenery OUR country can offer..I've fallen in love, though not yet married a band (of)(SPIRITS OF THE RED CITY); and you know how great that feels..

I've got a job waiting for me in August RIGHT NEXT to Glacier National Park (saw my first bears there this summer) waiting for me when tour is over..I'm to jump back in the van the day after tour, catch a ride to Wissconnsin, then a train the rest of the way to Polebridge, Montana. Working for a month-and-a-half cooking at a small lodge ("we cook what we can get out of these mountians, or grow out back, we don't really need to go to town") through mid-September, living in a tent under the most majestic skies (Imagine a blazing moon on your right and the sun setting in topless orange and purple mountains on your left, all the colors between; eating what I catch, very little living "expenses"); then a gig waiting back in NYC to be a NANNY for my drummer and his wife (living in Queens for "free" for a year or more, and having a schedule that would still allow plenty of time for part-time work and MUSIC)..Three people who I've mentioned this to agree these are both great jobs for me, and momentous opportunities all around, no?..

The band has got until August 1st to get to NYC for our final gig, and I'll be hitting Toledo for a day or two sometime before then..

can't wait to hear from you

XO gene

ps. also check out a music group (family) called ODE TO THE RODDES..these are a but a small section of the group I mentioned above(S.O.T.R.C.), and you might love them, both..

pps. I lost your street address..please email it to me..
geneintoledoohio@gmail.com

ppss. during a general "random search", I found this:
August 01, 2008
Matthew G. Shoemaker from Hollie A. Shoemaker, divorce.

Hollie A. Shoemaker from Matthew G. Shoemaker, divorce.

I'm about to be 32, can you believe it?. I never thought I would see 28.