AC4: Sunday
Woke up at 10:00 to finish tallying the voting for the superlatives and to print up the certificates. Anthony called and asked if I would bring him a change of clothes. He and Dan had stayed at Matt’s to play basketball. Headed over to the club for Charlie’s scenework workshop.

I was exhausted and didn’t get the full impact of the workshop, and it was a little anticlimactic since Andre and Anthony were the only out-of-towners there. AC4 was definitely over.

We did the awards ceremony during a smokebreak at 1:30, because I figured that the group that was there was all we were going to have. A few people showed up around three and were sorry that they missed it. Richard gave me a framed picture of all the teams that everyone had signed as a show of appreciation for arranging the whole thing, and I almost cried because I thought that was so cool.

Charlie and I headed back here and I changed my AC filters, then we watched the Neutrino Video Harold that Kurt had sent along. That blew my mind. I just watched it for the second time today, and was awake enough to appreciate it more, but the mechanics of pulling off a video harold in 25 minutes blew my mind. Those guys are my new heroes.

Anthony rejoined us, and Ben Moser and Jason Matthews met up with us for the Dual Exhaust show at East Chapel Hill HS. You could tell that Zach was thrilled to be in Chapel Hill, because he kept referencing Chapel Hill landmarks (to Beth’s obvious confusion– to her credit, she barreled right on through and it almost felt like a game she was playing, whether or not Zach was aware of it). Some of the CHiPs folks were in attendance; you can tell Zach still has a lot invested in that group.

We all headed over to Linda’s for a few beers, but I was spent. Jason, Ben and I went to Triangle Billiards for some pool around 10:30; I fell asleep in the back seat of Jason’s car and the next moment at which I was fully awake, I already had a pool cue in one hand and a beer in the other.

I took Charlie and Anthony to the airport at 5:45 Monday morning, came home, and took the day off to sleep and relax. It was Thursday before I felt really awake again. And then, we planned ImProm.

AC4: Saturday (Part III)
Meat Lodge was firing on all cylinders. We had a much more relaxed show Friday, but Saturday, we began finding connections and reincorporating a little better– particularly Charlie and Bill– and it was a stronger show. I wondered how the crowd would respond to us right off the bat, as opposed to when they’d had another group to warm them up. Answer: Positively.

We’d started 20 minutes late because the 9:45 show ran so long, so when we finished our set, Dual Exhaust went up right away. We missed the first two or three minutes. Which bummed me out, because I would very much like to have seen the full nine yards. They were amazing. Trust, confidence, amazing recall and listening… everything about Dual Exhaust was incredible. I could hardly believe that I was watching the same Zach Ward that had left Chapel Hill a few years before… but then, I wasn’t. I was watching an older, more patient, more trusting Zach Ward than had left. I was proud to see what he’d become. And that he’d found the perfect yin to his yang in Beth Melewski, whose patience and dark slant fuel Zach’s best qualities perfectly.

Best single line of the new century: “I’m not breaking up, I’m just putting limits on the solidarity of our relationship.”

That show made me consider kidnapping Anthony or just moving to NYC.

The Dual Exhaust show ended at 1:20, and people began adjourning to Matt Cunningham’s house. I said goodbye to a couple of folks who were headed home and wouldn’t make it to the party or the Sunday workshop. Green Bay began the 23 1/2 hour trek home, after my unsuccessful attempts to sway both Carrie and Andy to stay in Raleigh forever.

I stuck around to help clean up for a bit, then headed out to my car to go to Matt’s. As I was walking, by myself, I had the most uncontrollable urge to laugh out loud, at nothing in particular. I wore a smile so big that it actually began to hurt all the way to Matt’s.

It was a quiet gathering– about 20-25 people. I drank a few beers out on the porch with Matt, Jason Matthews, Ben Moser, and Zach and Beth. Went inside about 3:00, joined the larger group for an hour, then headed home at 4:30. As I was getting my car, Sarah Garguilo told me that Meat Lodge had upped the bar for her, which I took as a tremendous compliment, though I was a little mystified as to how anyone who saw that show would rave about anything other than Dual Exhaust.

I had to dig my fingernails into the back of my neck to stay awake on the way home. I broke the skin.

Got home, and started tallying up the votes for the superlatives. Fell asleep on my floor somewhere around 5:30 or 6:00.