CMJ - Day One

So, I volunteered for CMJ again this year and it was one of the best adventures I've had in as long as I can remember. I drove to my parents house late tuesday night and then took the train down with Diana on her way to work early the next morning. I got to Lincoln Center early and got stationed at the Panelist/Exhibitor/Special Event registration table, picking up pretty much right where I left off last year. What was particularly awesome was that the girl who was pretty much running everything, Theresa, remembered me from last year. Anyway, that first day's shift went by pretty quick, without anything particular of note. I did get to register Craig Finn from The Hold Steady which was cool. At 1:30 I was free so I made a tour of the upstairs area. I sat in on one of the panels, Emotional Baggage Goes Gold, which I gathered was about recently prominent confessional lyricists. On that panel were some real names like Craig Finn, Leslie Feist, Rhett Miller, Noah Chernin and Sam Champion. Afterwards I snuck out to the day stage and ran into Craig Finn again and this time I actually got to talk to him for a couple minutes. He was gonna be playing CBGBs on Saturday so I was curious how he felt to be playing there for the first time and to maybe be one of the last bands to ever play there. It was cool. I spent the next little bit at the day stage at Lincoln Center where I got to catch sets by Jennifer O'Connor and De Novo Dahl. O'Connor was good, but De Novo Dahl were incredible. I tried to get their cd but the merch girl Amanda couldn't break a $20. If I can ever remember I'm gonna probably order it online at some point. There weren't any really good shows that first night, so I instead opted to head over to the Directors Guild of America theater because they were doing a free screening of David Cronenberg's new movie, A History of Violence. I was a little bummed at first when I got there because I was stuck with a seat up front, but they announced that he Cronberg and the writer were gonna be there for a Q & A afterwards, so I actually lucked out. The movie was fantastic, unbelievably dark and funny. Cronenberg was just a treat beyond measure. After that let out I headed downtown. I was gonna be crashing with Anna while I was in the city. Her mom was working on a show in the city so she was going to be staying there for the same two nights so I hooked up with them at the restaurant where they were having dinner. I can't remember the name, but it was this really neat little hole in the wall Japanese restaurant near St. Marks Place. It was me, Anna, her mom, and Anna's friend Hope. It was actually a lot more fun than I probably would have had if I had tried to go the the Devendra Banhart show or something. As a surprise to me her mom actually picked up the check, too which was just al sorts of classy. Anyway, after that it was a bit late and we weer all kind of bushed so I just turned in so I could get some sleep before my shift the next day.
At the moment, I need to go to work though so I will leave that update for another day, perhaps tuesday night.