23. Double, Double, Toil and Trouble

Wilt thou be lord of the whole world? That's twice.
——Antony and Cleopatra, II.vii

If you're doing business with a religious son of a bitch, get it in writing.
——William S. Burroughs

The previous entry ends on something of a high note, as a potential disaster turned into a positive experience for me and Holly. (Too bad the rest of the band wasn't there.) Knowing we had to play Sunday morning, everyone went to bed as soon as possible after returning from our respective concerts.

When we got up, Holly had perplexing news. Q. was sending us out as a duo again. Apparently his impossible-shots, last-minute booking style was catching up with him. Later I learned that we were actually triple-booked that morning. B. and Ben Dally handled one gig by themselves. What was left of LoudmoU4ic (distinctions between the two bands being hopelessly blurred by this time) played the second; the dynamic duo of Holly and Martin were sent to cover the third. In addition, Ken went and gave a talk someplace, no music involved.

Ours was, I believe, Loudmouth's original Sunday morning booking, the others having been added later. We were playing at a small evangelical church in north Athens, where Michalis (our contact at Logos Music) was the worship leader. Though miffed again about not playing with the full band, I looked forward to the duo gig, since Saturday night had turned out so well.

This time Logan and Sarah came along for the ride. There was nothing to eat at Athens Christian Center and no opportunity to get breakfast elsewhere, Sunday morning being the one time of the week when many eating establishments in Athens are closed. We took the Metro to the Maroussi station and then followed a map Michalis had drawn. It lacked a few crucial details, such as which way to turn when we left the station. But after a week and a half in Greece I had picked up the alphabet and could read street signs phonetically. When I realized we were going the wrong way, we retraced our steps and got directions from a policeman.

Until we found the church I had no clear idea what Michalis looked like, but when we met him I recognized the handsome, intense-looking guy in his late 20s who'd been watching our gig a week ago at Koridallos. We were late, but Michalis wasn't concerned about that. He was concerned that the rest of the band wasn't there.

Holly and I did play a couple of songs by ourselves during the church service, but mostly we sat in with Michalis' worship band (Michalis on keys; guitar, bass, and drums; us). The sermon was in Greek, so when it began we repaired to the foyer. To amuse Logan, I carried him over to the foosball table and started fooling around with the ball, at which he emitted a genuine, full-fledged belly laugh. Holly was impressed. "Usually only his brother can get him to do that," she observed. People have always told me I'm good with kids. I was starting to believe it.

Hunger had become an issue, and the cafés were open at last, so I went to grab some sandwiches. When I returned, the service was out, and Holly and Michalis were engaged in a serious-looking conversation.

Michalis, it turned out, shared many of Johnathan's concerns. He'd been trying to work with Q. since before Loudmouth came to Athens, and he was finally fed up with the broken promises. You'll recall that Q. had talked about bringing Switchblade to Athens. Well, Michalis had promoted those Switchblade gigs — reserving venues, distributing posters, and ordering CDs to sell — and he was left high and dry when Switchblade pulled out. More later about that.

Now Michalis was worried about the evening's Loudmouth performance at Cosmovision Center. He'd booked it weeks if not months ago — it was, after all, printed on the CDs we'd been handing out. But he had cause to doubt Q.'s goodwill. In fact, Q. had mentioned something to Holly about another outreach with Elias that night — which would make three consecutive gigs where he'd deliberately double-booked the band.

Michalis is a take-charge guy, and he came up with a plan to force Q.'s hand. Holly and I gave our instruments and gear to a female associate of his, who drove them over to Cosmovision Center. This ensured that the dynamic duo, if not the full band, would have to come back and play there. Meanwhile Michalis packed the four of us into his compact car and drove to Athens Christian Center, where he intended to have a few words with Q.

Unlike Q., Michalis had a cellular phone, and he spent a good deal of the drive talking on it, mostly in Greek. I'm not sure who he was talking to — either George, his colleague at Logos Music, or possibly Philemon, to sort out what was going on with that night's outreach.

Q. and Ken were not happy to see Michalis. The three of them found a table in the courtyard and held a heated discussion for half an hour. I wanted to listen in, but Michalis appeared to be holding his own, and I figured my presence would just antagonize Q. So I kept my distance. Toward the end of the conversation, Michalis produced a blank piece of paper and asked Q. to write the names of the band members he was sending to Cosmovision Center. Q., if I'm not mistaken, wrote the names of the entire band and signed the paper.

So he'd finally put something in writing. Of course it meant nothing — I had tons of e-mail from him and E., which is a form of writing, and it might as well have been written on a bathroom wall. In disappearing ink.

Today's Pearl of Wisdom: Holly was seven months postpartum from the birth of Logan, her second child. She'd been doing Pilates to get back in shape, and she looked, if I may say so, pretty darn healthy. (Sarah agrees with me on this.) Yet, she told Sarah, Q. was constantly telling her to lose weight so the band could succeed in Christian music. Three observations:

1. I thought Christian music was supposed to be about Christianity, not about appearances. If Holly wasn't thin enough for Christian music, then Christian music was fostering body image problems in its female fans.
   
2. If anyone in the band needed to lose weight, it was me, but I never heard a word from Q. about it.
   
3. Instructions to lose weight are hard to take seriously when they come from someone who appears to weigh around 300 pounds.