Farmer John, Planter Of Toilets.

There are two kinds of seats - seats WITH holes, and seats WITHOUT holes.
This is Farmer John McCaffrey. He sits on a seat here with no holes. But he decided to put his talents to work across the highway from his barn, up near Laytonville, CA. A solitary toilet now sits about 30 feet off the highway, right out in the open. People turn their heads, laugh, honk, stop, do u turns, take pictures, and occasionally sit on it. And then of course they sign his Toilet Journal and have a beer with him afteraward in the barn as more people drive by and discover the joy of outdoor plumbing.

on his tractor, Farmer John
sits up high on 101
cross the highway, broken toilet
folks all stop and try to use it
sign his journal just for fun...

No privacy, but the views are spectacular!

This is some crappy serendipity!

I just got an email from Peter Cooper, a writer for the Napa Sentinal. Apparently, Peter passed by the very toilet I did last month, up 101 by Willits and Laytonville, where Farmer John McCaffrey and his potty are getting chuckles from the drivers, and visits from the constepated. Since I was the second person to ever sign John's Toilet Journal, Peter saw my name in it when he himself signed it. Peter used to hear me play, a dozen years ago, somewhere around Napa, and this was the first he'd seen my name since - in the Toilet Journal. So, Peter wrote about this whole thing in The Napa Sentianl paper under his byline - here's the link to his newspaper article about it, a touching and funny read about Farmer John and his Toilet Journal: www.napasentinel.com/ArticleTemplate.php (titled "The Toilet Journal: An Adventure in Serendipity" by Peter Cooper

(If this link dissolves anytime soon, I'll try to just post the text here or at my site somewhere?)

Anyway. I finally got my film developed since I sat down on that thing. This is a crappy shot, but it will have to do. And I guess I'm not the only musician who sat here for a pit stop... some band has started a photo contest for this or something... see Peter's article for that info too. I'll send them my picture if the contest is for reals.

In case anyone else wants to sit on the 101 john and pose, and win some kind of crapper contest, I've set at least this much of a bar - so be creative. You can't just win by dropping trow and sitting.

Michael

PS - (as of Nov 05, I decided the photo posted here of me on the John, was just too incriminating, and well, TMI. So, use your imagination... me, on a toilet with a guitar, out on 101, being honked at, with a cowboy hat on...)

Kate Wolf Music Festival - Jams, Drawing, and a random Highway Toilet.

well, the Kate Wolf Festival up in Laytonville was awesome. The fun actually started before I got there. About 10 miles south of the festival, I spotted a toilet sitting smack in the middle of a big green lawn area off the highway. It just sat there in the open, about 30 feet off the road all by itself. I drove past it a bit, but couldn't resist turning around. Anything that gets you laughing on a 4 hour drive deserves a U-turn. I stopped to take a picture, and then a guy sitting on a tractor across the highway waved me over to him, and he made me sign his journal. His name is John, and he'd put the toilet there three weeks earlier as a joke, and decided that day to begin a book for the folks to sign - anyone who stopped to gawk at it, take a picture, or, god forbid, sit on it. I was the second person to sign the book. So, I took a picture of John on his tractor, and then I asked John if we could head across the highway again together. I handed him the camera, I dropped trow, sat on that toilet with my guitar, and John took two pictures for posterity, or posterior... whatever. The truckers were honkin! The festival line up was fun and diverse - David Grisman, Nina Gerber, Richard Thomson, Iris Dement, Donovan (he's not changed, even more upbeat than when i opened for him in Santa Cruz ten years ago), the Duhks (Celtic meets Cajon meets Bluegrass meets Pop), Robert Earl Keen (with a killer band), and on and on - google it, Kate fest gets an amazing lineup every year. I think they may have maxed out this year, about 3000? My old friend Keith Greeninger did a set with his band - Steve on bass and Dayan on everything else (that guy is amazing). Keith also had a reunion set with his old band "City Folk" - another bunch of talent. Alisa Fineman sat in with them, great to hear her again. Saw Paul Kamm and Eleanor McDonald around a lot, but I missed all three sets they did, I was busy with my own music and drawing duties. I did Etch A Sketch workshops with the kids after my sets like I do at Strawberry, always a kick. And I camped with some of my Strawberry friends - Michael and Linda Lou and Tim and Michelle (the very same "doctors" from Strawberry, who helped me when I hurt my ribs - we've become very close since then, vicoden will do that for ya :-), also some folks they know, Jim and Heidi and Chris were in our camp, Jim played some sweet dobro, Chris made some sweet red wine. Jim's up in Chico, so if/when I gig north, I hope to fit him into some set lists somewhere. The last night, Sunday, we had a good jam of songwriters a few camps over; Alan (the festival tent man) had a carpet and a heater. Megan McLaughlin was there too, and I met a new writer named Lila Nelson there, from Arcata, really cool stuff. Good way to end the festival! I stopped by to see John, and his john, after the festival. He was there in the barn with a few friends. 20 more strangers stopped and signed the book by then. We sat in the barn, had a brew and talked about broken stuff (his barn is full of it, and people drop by to leave more with him to fix). Nice guy. If you go north up 101, pass Willits, just before you head into Laytonville, look for the toilet on the right in the mowed grass. John's barn is directly across the highway. Stop in, sign his book, have a beer with him, look at the junk in his barn, and tell him I said hi :-).

I owe a picture or two of course, but I'm dealing with a disposable camera here, haven't gone to develop it yet (god what a waste of money that is, I need a palm pilot phone camera thing...). I'll try to get something up, at least the toilet shots anyway, after I get back from the High Sierra music fest. I leave for that tomorrow. Back on July 4th!

meantime, here's a photo of me and The Spokes at the Bistro this month. Our next show there is a Wed Night Pint Night on July 20th - Free!

Tribe.net is... um.. its like, um, it's.... a THING!!

Part of why I'm blogging today, is because my profile is being introduced as part of a 'profile showcase' I have going on Tribe.net. and I gotta look like I'm in tune with my own content! Anyway, With surprize and joy, I recently found out I was nominated by the tribesters into the first ever "Tribe 25", meaning, people dug my music, Etch A Sketch art, and Napkin Literature stuff enough to get me showcased 'site wide' on Tribe.net.. I'll make new friends!! :-).

This week begins the Tribe 25 kick off thing.

For those unaware of Tribe.net: this is a FREE interactive/social/networking site full of artistic people, business folks, services, events, social groups, stuff to do, stuff for sale - just think Friendster.com meets Craigslist.com meets Myspace.com. You can create your own profile, or start your own tribe, invite your friends into it. Or join others tribes. Find people into Japaneze Gardens by typing Japaneze Gardens as an interest in your own profile, click the word (which acts as a link to others with that word), and it automatically finds gardners in a direct site wide search. Often, whoever shows up in the search is connected to you via one or two or three degrees of people between you. Get it? Apply that theory of "6 degrees" enough and you'll be hanging out with Al Pacino. I haven't been too active myself yet with getting fans and friends in to join my tribe, but I do go to the site myself for cultural things to do and to join other tribes that seem interesting. To get started, visit the Tribe.net site, and do a search for my name, you will find my profile. Say hi and then just go surfing on your own. Enter any topic you might be interested in at the main page, and you'll see a community of people pop up who are also connected to you in that common interest. Another Example: Burning Man Festival is a common interest for a lot of folks in there, a ton of folks have gone to it. I surfed into a San Jose tribe of Burning Man enthusiasts, and I joined their tribe. I haven't even BEEN TO Burning Man yet, nor even a SJ burning get together, and I've not been vocal within the group (yet), I'm not even sure I'll go to the desert and wear body paint and run necked through the sand -- But at least that social group is there to explore locally when I have the guts. They look nice, they'd just go bowling too right? Or, just find your old classmates or something. Banjo players can link up, go to the beach, have a bonfire, whatever! (kidding, I love the banjo and dearly miss the one I broke in that brawl up at Strawberry).

Happy trails, pass the vicoden.
Mike


PS - The Tribe techies say for Mac Owners of very old Macs (like me) there is a glitch in the OS system when used in combination with Internet Explorer that messes the view of the new Tribe site stuff. (I have an OS-9, and maybe they are also talking about OS-X). Anyway, you may want to try some other browser or computer to get in and see it all if you're on an old Mac. I've not gotten all my own bugs out yet.

MM solo, and MM the Lab Rat? Introducing, "MM and The Spokes".

To start, here's an old addage I love to quote, from
my brother Danny - "Mike, Life is an experiment, and
sometimes ya blow up the lab".

With one week of healing ribs now passed, doc says I
will be fully recovered for my next folk forray - a
Band Gig with "Michael McNevin and The Spokes" at The
Bistro in Hayward, June 11 - bring your crutches, your
casts, your downtrodden, your poor, because it's FREE.
In fact, impress your friends -- tell them you're
covering their tickets!

"Michael McNevin and The Spokes".
Sat June 11, 9-Midnight
Hayward, CA at The Bistro
1001 B St. (Corner of B & Main)
Free
(510) 886 - 8525
www.the-bistro.com/
Music, Guiness, and a savvy sudsy crowd.
www.michaelmcnevin.com
Songs, Etch A Sketch art, Napkin Literature.

The solo acoustic thing has morphed when I'm at the
Bistro - this is an experiment, I tried it a couple
months ago there and we had a ball. I play a '59 Sears Silvertone U1 guitar (vintage Danelectro), while Drummer Hugh O'Donnell (of Hugh and the Heffners), and Bassist Ran Bush (of The Loaded Ponies) keep me from running off the road. No rehearsals, just an Acoustic/Electric Americana mix of originals and covers - whatever the band and I can pull off together without hitting that fire hydrant.

High Sierra Music Festival: The High Sierra Music
Festival on July 4th Weekend (www.hsmusic.net), is a
different kind of experiment - Electric Koolaid Acid
Test maybe? They began this festival in the Central
Sierra in '91, 6-700 people showed up. I sort of
became the folk mascott that year, as I stumbled into
camp with just a smile and a demo tape -- played 3
times that weekend as a TBA filler act while bands
were lost or sleeping!! Now, 15 years later, HSMF is
in Quincy, CA, a 5 stage affair and 10 thousand music
lovers. Here's a sample of the 100 acts coming: Gov't
Mule, Leo Kottke and Mike Gordon, Michael Manring,
Michael McNevin, The Bill Frisell Band, The Waifs, Man
vs. Machine, The Mother Hips, Chuck Prophet, Lotus,
Banana Slug String Band, disappear fear, Grace Potter
and the, Nocturnals, Old School Freight Train, Jerry
Joseph and the Jackmormons, Railroad Earth, Johnny
Sketch and the Dirty Notes, JT and the Clouds, String
Theory, Keller Williams and Friends, Garaj Mahal, The
Duhks, ALO, Hot Buttered Rum String Band, The Dead
Kenny G's, -- ETC!!

Strawberry Ribs Forever

Hi everyone, I'm nudged along today by outside forces, and it's painful so quit nudging me.

I'm back from the Spring '05 Strawberry Music
Festival, up near Yosemite, where I was NOT MEDIVACED
OFF THE CAMP IN A HELICOPTOR!! A few recent rumors in
the Hog Ranch Radio chats were speculating I might
have been the poor soul on that helicoptor -- not so!
I was indeed sporting a set of sore ribs though,
walking around the campground all sideways gasping for
air and mooching pain killers. Also, pertaining to my
rib injury, I swear I did not fall down during a
bender, nor did I have a drunken brawl with a burly
banjo player, nor did I wake up slung over a tree
branch with a pair of boxers on my head singing
Dropkick Me Jesus Through the Goal Posts Of Life!!

As the Vicoden now sets me to wander, I recall none of
that anyway... Here's what happened. My Strawberry
sets on Fri and Sat at the "lake stage" were a blast.
I did some Etch A Sketch drawing workshops with the
kids afterward too - it all went swell. But after my
Sat afternoon set, my left ribs started going south.
They'd been sore prior to my Sat show, but I just
figured it was the hard cabin bed I'd been sleeping
on, or the lugging of guitar and CDs from cabin to
stages. Well, at dinner (I was singin regularly for my
supper at the KVMR radio tent), I found myself
wondering "So, when did I get old? Today?? Why am I so
dam sore??". Then after dinner, man, they were aching.
An hour later they got even worse - couldn't breathe
too well, coudn't lie down, had to sort of just hunch
real still in chairs. So, I finally limped and groaned
my way to the festival medical tent. To make sure my
heart was happy, they did an EKG (which stands for
"Empty Keg, Go'git'mo"). I checked out fine with the
wiggly lines, but since I was still in pain, they
offered me a joy ride in an ambulance, which I
refused. We all had basically concluded it was a
bone/muscle thing. To repeat: I did NOT try to lift
the "Rock In The Road" in search of choice fishing
worms, I hardly ever fish!! Anyway, thanks to Camp
Remember, Lindalou and Michael, Bernie, Tim and
Michelle, Bill, Doug the massage guy, and that 'brothers/sisters' camp near the lake -- it was so sweet how people checked in on me and fed me pain killers. Amazing too how a carefully poured shot of premium Tequilla can further take the edge off.

I slept for a few hours Sunday night propped against
the cabin wall, 6am got up, drove down the hill (my
truck seat actually provided the most comfy position I
could ask for my ribs), got Xrays at Kaiser. Ribs
weren't broken, so that's good. Finally caught some
much needed pillow in my own soft bed.