MARCH 2010 NEWSDUMPSTER WE'RE SO HOMESICK, WE COULD JUST FROLIC.

To Our Northeastern Friends and Neighbors Buried Under 85 Feet of Snow:  We Feel Your Pain—We Really, Truly Do. Yes, Sir. Mmmhmm. That's our house in Vermont up there on the left, photographed and shoveled out by our friend and musical compatriot, Gene Morrison, about whom you'll learn more later. That photo was taken on or about the same day as the one on the right, in Avila Beach, California. We just arrived in Monterey by way of Highway 1, a winding, mostly two-lane Pacific coastal highway that squiggles along zillion-foot-high cliffs. It might seem like we're having fun, what with 60s-ish weather, sunshine, surf and all kinds of natural splendor, but looks can be deceiving. Fact is, we have oodles o' problems of our own. Since we don't want anyone to think that we're just sitting here by the beach with our red snapper and soft-shell crabs gloating once again that we managed to evade the worst part of winter, but, moreover, that we still can hardly believe that we somehow released ourselves from our respective yokes of servitude in our creativity-and-imagination-scalping cubicle chores which might have otherwise rendered us into pathethic, quivering, grasping fragments of bottom-dwelling existence, drowning in futile self pity under a soul-crushing tsunami of human despair and agony, here are a few of the trials and tribulations we deal with on this very comfortable side of the country while everyone back at home digs out: The multitude of beautiful blooming plants are causing Rebecca's allergies to act up. Sweating a lot means having to do the laundry more often. Out west, the prefix "maple" applied to syrup indicates only its color. We waved goodbye to the last of the Blue Meanie's warranty as it turned 100,000 miles. One of our bikes got a flat tire. Gorgeous California scenery can force your eyes off the road, causing you to drive into a gorge. We've added yet more photos from our 2010 Further West Tour. We've deleted the dirty ones—you can see the rest here. Check back from time to time because we'll be adding more photos and maybe even another dumb caption or two. A Gene You'll Want to Pass on to Your Children—I Mean, His CD. A few years back, a local songwriter stopped by to play us a few of his tunes. He'd spent much of his life on the road, and his musical portfolio was so thick it had its own water table. His name was Gene Morrison, and he had a particular knack for blending sentiment, comedy, tragedy, history and his story into songs so old-timey, you'd swear it was old times. Gene, however, had never recorded any of his expansive material. One thing led to another, and Ken ended up recording and producing Gene's debut CD, Looking Back, which has just been released after about a year of squeezing in sessions between Hungrytown stuff. By happy coincidence, Ken and Rebecca also ended up playing and singing harmony on just about every song as well as providing the cover photography. Most of the heavy lifting, however, was handled by Gene's comforting baritone voice and a host of awesome local musical talent. We're proud as honor-student-brat parents of Looking Back, and urge all Newsdumpster readers as well as their friends and foes to order a copy before their next trip to the bathroom. Click here to see and hear for yourself.

Calendar for March and Early April.
Please check our online calendar for changes, hopefully positive ones.

Wednesday, March 3rd, 7:00 p.m.
Napa Valley College Upper Valley Campus
1088 College Ave.
St. Helena, CA 94574
707-967-2805
Sponsored by the St. Helena Public Library. Price: Free.

Saturday, March 6th, 3:00 p.m.
Branigan Cultural Center
Shannon Room
151 N. Church St.
Las Cruces, NM 88001-3561
575-528-4001
Sponsored by the Thomas Branigan Memorial Library. Price: Free.

Tuesday, March 9th, 6:00 p.m.
Ada Public Library
124 S. Rennie St.
Ada, OK 74820
580-436-8124
Price: Free.

Friday, March 12th, 6:30 p.m.
Barton Library
200 East 5th St.
El Dorado, AR 71730
870-863-5447
Price: Free.

Tuesday, March 16th, 7:00 p.m.
Faulkner-Van Buren Library
1900 Tyler St.
Conway, AR 72032
501-327-7482
Price: Free.

Friday, March 19th, 8:00 p.m.
Frederick House
28 N. New St.
Staunton, VA 24401
US 540-885-4220
Room, Music, and Breakfast! Stay overnight at the historic Frederick House B&B on March 19th, 2010 and your admission to this show is free. See www.frederickhouse.com.
Price: $15 for non-guests.

Saturday, March 20th, 4:00 p.m.
Chesterfield County Public Library
9501 Lori Rd.
Chesterfield, VA 23832
804-751-4955
Price: Free.

Sunday, March 21st, 2:00 p.m.
Chinn Park Regional Library
13065 Chinn Park Dr.
Prince William, VA 22192
703-792-4800
Price: Free.

Thursday, March 25th, 7:00 p.m.
Heritage Public Library
6215 D Chesapeake Cir.
New Kent, VA 23124
804-966-2480
Price: Free.

Saturday, March 27th, 8:00 p.m.
Turtledove Folk Club
@ the West Grove Friends Meeting House
153 E. Harmony Rd.
West Grove, PA 19390
Advance tickets are $15 and are held at the door of the West Grove Friends Meeting House for pick-up the night of the concert. Tickets at the door are $17. Seniors 60 and over, and students are $13 in advance, $15 at the door. Members are $13 in advance or at the door. Children 10 and under are free. Online tickets available here.

Thursday, April 1st, 6:30 p.m.
Chester C. Corbin Public Library
2 Lake St.
Webster, MA 01570-2699
508-949-3880
Price: Free.

Spending way too much time on Facebook discovering way too much about people you don't even really like? Visit hungrytown.net or MySpace.com/hungrytown and feel good about the fact that Hungrytown's Facebook page is still pretty crappy.