Tennessee

Tennessee                                                             2408

Wednesday, November 30, 2005-12:48 A.M. CDT

Good evening from Fort Campbell in the lovely town of Clarksville, Tennessee.  After a grueling 12-hour drive (and a nice 90 minute nap), I performed at Tipper's Nightclub here in town (town being an Army base, mostly deserted because most of her troops had been deployed).  I'm working this week with Stephen Juliano Moore, who I met up in Harris, Michigan at the Chip-Ins Resort Casino many a moon ago.

The show was a total knife-fight, with much of the audience in attendance falling into the "chatty" category...these are the type of people who get shushed in a movie theater, and get all indignant about it because they don't think people should be telling them what to do.  It made me glad that I'm only featuring, and could bail at 30 minutes.

My last journal entry talked about last Friday's show in Buffalo at Witz End, which was bad, too.  I'm glad to report that Saturday I had two solid shows, because I had two solid crowds to work with.  Tonight, I worked in front of soldiers who weren't trained well enough to deploy.  What a treat.

Tomorrow is a night off, so I'm going to Paducah, Kentucky a day early to see what there is to see.  I'm really going because I'd rather stay an extra day in a Ramada Express than the fabulous Skyway Motel where I'm sleeping tonight.  It's not without it's charm, but it does conjure images of rooms which saw escaped convict's last nights on Earth.  Not for me, bro.

Today's big thrill was buying gasoline for $1.99.  I actually saw it for $1.89, but had no room in my gas tank or I would have pumped like a fool.  I need to get a gas can, but I'm resisting the temptation because I don't want to be piloting a rolling bomb down I-70 at 85 mph.

O.K., sleep now.

Ralph Tetta

Rochester, NY