9-12 On the Beach: After BBQ with Vicki, The Black Swans load back in the Taurus and head 3 1/2 hours to Norfolk, VA. Noel reads his checkmate book and Canaan is hooked on a ninja mind control book that teaches how to manipulate and exploit. I listen to Modern Times. Show is at a great record store called Relativity Records with an amazing p.a. and a $1 copy of the Geoff Muldaur record on Prestige with Van Ronk and Von Schmidt. Pretty happy folk boy. Show was near empty minus local trio called the Beautiful Uncertainties that were part Nat Merchant and part Juice Newton. Youngsters, with good pitch. We made $67 nevertheless, and followed Lou in his rent-a-Taurus to a friends place on Virginia Beach 20 minutes away. In the old days, there was pass code lock, he says, but now you need a key and his friend is nowhere around. So we walk the beach, sober full of salty air, my feet in the sand, the waves huge, the moon near full, and all Black Swans and Lou go mystic for an hour. We sleep in sleeping bags in the backyard under a giant Elk tree listening to the ocean and jet planes. In the morning we visit the Edgar Cayce Center for Research and Enlightnement. He had, so they say, the most powerful psychic abilities of all time. I walked a Labyrinth that symbolized Life and the Black Swans took an E.S.P. test and failed. Now we’re in Richmond in a beautiful art space where we’ll play in several hours. Oh, and Pitchfork ran a nice piece about the tour a few days ago. Come see us.
another pic after the jump…
