Slowly I turned. Step by step. Inch by inch. The Three Stooges. Plans for a fan party in Niagara Falls in February 2016. Great questions: CD Release Party or tragic marketing mistake? Is Roger for real? And if so, are there any other prog fans in Atlanta?
Roger CortonNiagara Falls. Slowly I turned. Step by step. Inch by inch.
JCHDamn. You beat me to the punch. I wonder if anyone under fifty will get that reference.
So the upshot is that you want to revive the annual Niagara Falls Fan Party at Spring Break February 2016? Right on, man! It’s about time.
RCIt’s a sad day for America when you have to explain who The Three Stooges were.
JCHPreach, brother.
RCSo the upshot is that you want to revive the annual Niagara Falls Fan Party at Spring Break February 2016? Right on, man! It’s about time. We haven’t done that in six or seven years.
JCHNot since THE ICY HAND OF DEATH!
RCI didn’t want to mention it.
JCHYou’ve got that Southern politeness. But yeah, not since I LOST ALMOST TWO YEARS OF MY MOTHERFUCKING LIFE TO THAT COCKSUCKING ORTHOPEDIC NAZI SURGEON.
RCWho shall go nameless. (laughs). Well, I’m glad to hear that you’re over it emotionally as well as physically. But I guess the question is, “Why now?” And also, isn’t it short notice? In past years we started planning the even six or eight months ahead.
JCHWell, I had an interesting reaction to our little blog from a friend. She seemed to think you’re not real. She described Roger as my ‘alter ego’. In effect, you’re me.
RCHmmmm. I’m not sure, but I think I’m offended. OK, wait… that’s not true. I am sure I am offended.
JCHSo you’re saying you don’t want to be me? Now I’m getting offended.
RCNobody should ever want to be anybody else, dude.
JCHAin’t that the truth.
RCWhy on earth does this person think that? Is this a fan? A ‘friend’ friend or a ‘very special friend oo la la’?
JCHWell, definitely not a prog fan. But I asked the same question and her reply was something like, “Because of the banter. He gives you a hard time.” Whatever that means.
RCBanter. That sounds like something you would say. Which makes me think you made her up.
JCHMan, I love that notion. Well done! Dig this: both of you think I invented the other. There’s either a song in there or a great science fiction story. You know, with some heavy, Einsteinian Quantum shit. But regardless who is ‘real’, I think she brought up some real valid points. Which is what got me thinking about Niagara Falls again.
RCSuch as?
JCHWell first of all, I definitely think you should fawn over me about 100% more. That right there would improve the credibility of the blog.
RCI’ll get right on that, chief. And?
JCHAnd also, forget about you, it dawned on me just how few people actually ‘see’ me these days. I still think of ‘me’ as back in those first five or six years when I was out there a lot. Her comment was something of a reality check. I was never ‘popular’ but now the image of Howard Hughes comes to mind. I gotta get out more.
RCIf Howard Hughes did progressive rock. And without the fingernails. Or the money.
JCHRight. No fingernails. And maybe the Niagara thing could bring in a bit of support for Epic and even give some preview of the next record.
RCWhich you’re already working on.
JCHYes. And I want to talk about that a lot in the coming months. Although now I gotta put the spotlight on Epic.
RCSo do we consider a Niagara Falls party something like a CD Release Party? In our last chat you said that Epic would be available before that? Do you delay release?
JCHGood question.
RCAnd the other question is, is there enough time to get everyone there who wants to get there? Like I said, we usually need a lot more time to plan a party. I also want to point out that the whole idea of Niagara Falls in February never struck a lot of fans as the wisest move. I mean, seriously. Canada for Spring Break?
JCHAnother good question. So your mission, should you decide to accept it, is to send out a mass mailing to everyone on the list and keep re-sending every week until Christmas. Then we’ll make the go/no-go decision announcement Christmas week.
RCI can do that.
JCHSpeaking of ‘out of touch’, it dawned on me that you’ve told me where you live but I’ve never actually been there. Where the hell is it anyway?
RCIt’s a suburb of Atlanta. Google it.
JCHSeriously? I had no idea. Damn. I wish we could do a show near you. I always kinda figured we never did that because you were somewhere out in red clay land.
RCYeah, my next door neighbors are Daisy Duke and Gregg Allman. We’re way out there in the boondocks. We just haven’t built a fan base in Atlanta. It’s not a huge prog area to begin with, but the fact that you obviously don’t know shit about the area probably hasn’t helped.
JCHOuch. I guess I deserved that. OK, I’ll definitely work on reaching people on your block. Or at least, Daisy Duke’s block. Seriously, I’d do a solo show for just you and the family. Obviously, I couldn’t do this without you. It’s a funny thing; we’ve met three times, right?
RCAt those Niagara parties.
JCHIt’s just weird that we ‘know’ each other so well now that I kinda forget that we haven’t met outside the virtual world in almost a decade. I mean, we do ‘banter’.
RCTime gets away from everyone. Especially as we get older. To paraphrase your Epic poem, years can go by in what seems like an hour.
JCHNo doubt. I’m thinking more and more about how many friends I have, literally all over the world, that I haven’t seen in ten years. It seems like there’s something wrong about that in this day and age, but although it’s now so easy to reach people ‘virtually’ it’s so much harder to get to people physically. I mean check it, you know how much cheaper and easier plane flights were ten years ago.
RCRight. My wife and I have talked about that. We got used to just being able to get on a plane and see our kids and whatnot. We definitely don’t travel as much as before.
JCHWell, screw that. It’s been long enough for this boy. Niagara Falls? Here I come!
RCI love the enthusiasm. But before we get all zippy on this, Have you considered we do if there isn’t enough interest? Back up plan? Like you said in our original talk about the next two albums, “The Russkies don’t take a dump without a plan, son.”
JCHYeah, well… so look at what happened to those guys. Honestly I don’t have a back up plan. It’s another great question. You’re just full of great questions today.
RCOK, for readers new to the program. Please fill out the Come To My Town form. Be sure to put Niagara Falls in the Google Address section. Remember that we’re talking about doing this during “spring break”; either the weekend of the 19th and 20th or the weekend of the 26th and 27th. Be sure to indicate your preference!
