The strangest thing

Attempts to catch up with Neko Case failed. I tried through a couple of websites and through her record label. I heard nothing. I even mentioned it to Mountain Stage, which is really the court of last recourse. If you can help it, bothering the venue about an artist appearing on their stage is sort of awkward. In essence, you're asking them to do you a favor so you can help them. It complicates things occasionally and about half the time is fruitless.

Sometimes the gatekeeper (and most of the time you never know that is) just can't be bothered to tell you politely, "no." No is an ugly, unhelpful word, so they'll stick their fingers in their ears and pretend you're not talking to them.

I still ask for help from venues sometimes, though not very often compared with the number of interviews I do, and only if the artist is the main attraction. I've asked for a little extra help from every stage in town. I know which ones can help sometimes and which ones seldom do. Locally, I've gotten great help from Mountain Stage and The Clay Center. They're usually pretty motivated to help. Others appear to be less motivated.

Anyway, Case was a wash. I never heard anything --until yesterday when Case's publicist called to let me know I had a ticket to the show. This would be a ticket I didn't request. I requested an interview. I guess I could see where they might be confused. The words sort of rhyme.