unique new york.

7/27, 6:29 PM

traffic. traffic traffic traffic. i haven't been very good at blogging since we haven't had much downtime (weirdly we've had days off, but they've been more full then tour days. more to come on that). i didn't take many pictures because we were all over the place and my camera's clunky, so i'm picture-less. but oh man, is my heart is broken. i just discovered that we lost the recordings of five years, the mirah cover, hexagon, family band, and philly from our knitting factory show, which was the best. the absolute best. my friend liz was recording for us, and i'm not sure how it didn't work; i was hoping nothing would go wrong, but i also forceably handed her the device and asked her to record it after a quick how-to lesson, since emily was social-butterflying, SO i probably should have known it wouldn't be perfect. but man! the funnest part of the set! all of the banter! it's really unfortunate. big sigh. really unfortunate. deep breath out, it'll be just fine. ugh. no, no, it'll be just fine. (this is how i talk myself down from most disappointments, usually just for more time.)

we went from jersey to philly & it was great to finally be on the road again. in philly we had a wonderful show at the green line with lots of old friends & emily of the weeds played a wonderful set & we had a celebration dinner & fancy beer at monk's with pretty much everyone, including kyle cassidy who was so kind to host us. it was great to see all of the people i've missed and for a few minutes i wondered if i should move back to philly. i'm pretty sure chicago is right for me, but i felt very nostalgic, nevertheless. the next morning after i stopped into wxpn to visit old friends, we headed to new york for the kf show. it was fantastically fun. we'd expected more people but new york is one of those places where everyone just is, so lots of old friends showed up and we had a very fun time with lots of drinks and dancing and duets and tambourine and fun fun fun. the sets all sounded really good, too, so it's a bummer that we don't have the set. it's ok! i'm over it! trying to get over it! so the next morning we headed to the 9!1!4! to swim and eat delicious lunch and nap. emily's mom and dad are very good for hosting relaxing, suburban bliss. sometimes her dad is more aggressive than relaxing, but we had a very mellow, awesome day. we had a show at jon booth's house that night, and although the crowd was sufficiently under-aged and chatty, we had a great time and did lots of sing-alongs. i sang a song with da costa, who i'd met the night before, who's just awesome. i want him to be in my band, but we'll see how that goes. he probably has to finish high school first. ugh, prodigies. THEN we had two entire days in new york. having days off is so strange. it's great, but it also feels like we should be doing more, like we need to keep moving, like we're going stir crazy, mostly because we are. but since it was new york we had plenty to keep us busy - we all had different friends in the area, and i got to visit with a bunch of my favorite people like christine and liz and hannah rose and anna, as well as meet a bunch of andrew's high school friends. emily's mom also took us to see emily's housemate/our friend carla's show, which was AMAZING. eurydice at the second stage theater. until august. i'm not even kidding. everyone should see it. amazing. there was lots of weeping and stuff with fathers and music and words and memory. it moved me more than a show's moved me in a really long time. so much weeping. afterward emily & willie & i had fancy lady dinner, later to be joined by liz, and then we went to more fancy beer. the fancy beer tour. the ladies with feelings tour. the muscle rub tour. the sheetz (wawa) tour. the only with penne tour. the parking ticket tour. the GET AMPED tour. the electronic catastrophic tour. the followed heatwave tour. it's weird that we only have three shows left. we're definitely playing this radio show on tuesday, so we've extended it for two days, but it feels strange that we're surging up, getting amped and jumping back in the car after we've been so relaxed for so many days, just to do three shows & then go home. people keep asking if we're on the last leg of tour, and i always wonder why tours have "legs". i'd expect wheels or wings, or even feet, but people give them legs. ugh. andrew threw my water away at the last rest stop (by accident, but oy!) and man am i thirsty. we're running late to our manchester show because of major traffic and i'm feeling very ugh. lots of ughs. i hope i get a bit more amped before we have to play. 18% battery life! time to open the windows and hope we make the show on time.

johnson's iced corn & ararat carpets!

7/22 12:34 PM - put on your red shoes & dance the blues

i have decided that jersey isn't all that bad.

we got to jersey on tuesday after our richmond house-fest & arrived at bill cashman (from the internet)'s. we had driven for most of the day & watched movies until we fell asleep. i can't remember what else we did that night. i think andrew & i went to the wawa & dunkin donuts, since nothing else was open. man has this tour been all about wawa vs sheetz. being in jersey so much, obviously, has upped our wawa patronage to a severe level. when we woke up on wednesday we went to the shore right before the rainstorm & looked at the people walking around. because it was a drizzly day we decided to see ratatouille which, honestly, was not quite as good as the incredibles, but was still reasonably funny. on the way there we were in THE biggest thunderstorm that i've ever seen with giant lightning bolts and flash floods; i wasn't feeling too keen on jersey. during the movie the sound went out a total of two times - once during the intro cartoon which we were late for and once during the final climax (of course!) but since it was about rats cooking it was pretty easy to follow without dialogue. emily & bill had gone to new york to get things done, and by the time they got back we were cozy with fancy beer and top chef reruns. they tried to get us to go to asbury lanes (the bowling! the scene! the drinks!) but i had long before made a pact with myself never to bowl again, and was about ready to sleep, so there was no partying that evening. the next day we went to the shore even though the weather was spotty. we jumped in the waves and laid in the sun and ate boardwalk food and drank drinks. i started thinking maybe it wasn't terrible in jersey. we shuffled back home (bill's house, the closest thing to home that any of us have at the moment) and nursed our sunburns and took naps and re-energized for the trenton show. emily had made a pact with herself never to visit trenton again, but this was kind of unavoidable. when we got out of the car a ten-year-old boy without a shirt told us to, "watch out, white people don't belong in this city". at that point we knew the gig would be awesome. we were all ready for dinner, so we headed to the marriott - the only thing open after ten - for food. we had a fun time back at the gig, despite the sound craziness & joe leaving his pedal. noah & the best thing ever had come to play with emily, since they're on the surprise tour, where they surprise people and then play songs. they did a terrific cover and overall the night was a success. then back to bill's for some more down time. downtime at bill's was unbeatable; his nana entertained us with stories and impressions and jokes while we all sat around the house; she offered many a peanut butter and jelly sandwich as well, which was always an appreciated gesture. after we had all rested from the mill hill show, we spent the next morning exploring cattus island, looking at mangled trees and finding secret shores. i was getting even more comfortable with jersey. we headed out to our new brunswick house show at the breadbox, which was fantastic. lots of good company (matt came from his work training!) and new friends and a great line-up. nick nj jumped on the drums with us for our five years cover, which was awesomely fun. i've decided i'm going to start an all-bowie cover band and only play house shows. i think that would be a great career move for me. anyway, after the bruns, we headed back (another time) to bill's for our fourth night of jersey-sleep. the next morning we finally hit the road to long beach island to see laura & rejoin eddie, our drummer, who's going to do the next week of tour with us. we had a fantastic reunion & biked on creaky bikes to the beach and laid out, jumped waves (huge! huge waves!), jumped off each others' backs into the huge waves, and thoroughly enjoyed the beach. this is when i decided that jersey is amazing and awesome. laura's parents have been going to lbi for her whole life, and they rent a house on the bay that's extremely charming. we had a great dinner together and the decided to practise in the living room, which led into a front-yard music-fest at sunset overlooking the bay, which was beautiful and extremely picturesque. after dark we all walked to the ice cream store, which had birthday cake ice cream that tasted like delicious frosting. i got the waffle cone with espresso chip. this definitely hasn't been the healthiest tour, but bill & i did go for a run together on my first morning in jersey (he did much better than me - i couldn't run to save my life after one mile) and we've been jumping around beaches alot this week, so i'm feeling alright. now we're on our way to philly - finally, a place not in new jersey? - and i'm super excited to see some friends of ours, as well as emily of the weeds, who i haven't seen since her newly-mama milkboy show last summer. the rest of tour is going to be, hopefully, amazing and awesome. we're spending a few days in new york with friends, playing a barbeque in connecticut, spending time with my family & friends in boston, and recording on a radio show (folk the system, WXCI 91.7fm in Danbury, CT, 9-midnite) on the very last day of our tour, the 31st, which is also joe's birthday! the last few days have been completely relaxing & fun, and i can't wait to be in transit again. rejuvenation! jersey. who knew?

the penne karl only comes with penne.

12:46 PM

richmond, virginia: hot! yesterday on the way here emily's computer started making chewing noises & eating away at itself. we rushed to a best buy, since that is the worst kind of noise a computer can make and computers are very important things. so we rushed to a best buy where, not surprisingly, they were unhelpful. we had a drink to commiserate and came back to macon's house, which is amazingly lovely, just like macon. richmond is really strange. it has the slow and heavy heat of the south, and the row houses and crumbly sidewalks and bright colors that trick you into thinking you're in the south, but really i think its new england, just hotter. we had a lovely dinner where there was a lovely waitress with some name that sounded like xanadu (but wasn't!) and who we tried to invite to our show but she was worried that she'd be tired, and she indeed did not show up. hopefully she got some rest. either way, she missed a great show. i'm now of the opinion that we should only play house shows - they're much more fun and usually have better turnouts than clubs anyway. morgan's house was brightly painted and there were lots of kids there to listen to music and we drank beer and chatted a bunch. herschell opened. he plays the baritone ukulele and wears tapshoes & pajamas. it was really fun to hum along to. herschell's spiritual advisor was a girl named kristy who i had a friend-crush on. she had the world tattooed on her forearms and was extremely friendly. we were supposed to go to a water park this morning, but water parks all cost over 40$, so we scrapped that plan & our friend-love will never be fulfilled. so as the night continued morgan sang some songs and did some poetry with her friend nathan, which was extremely fun. emily played a very funny set & a lot of people sang along. that's the thing about house shows - sing-a-longs actually work, and usually work quite well. we played a very fun set (see above) and the entire time i was hoping that i didn't melt into a pile of sweat. the house was very hot. beyond sweltering hot. ridiculously hot. so there were lots of fans and people mostly sat & fanned themselves with the construction paper fans that morgan had made for the evening. still, we had a great time and i had a little too much wine and overall it was a great evening. this morning we woke up to a popped air mattress and light flooding through the green and blue windows (see below). after deciding against a water park, we made the executive decision to split up - andrew & joe to the river (which i kind of wish i'd gone too, but the heat was too much) & emily & i to the italian restaurant across the street that's been calling to us with its garlic smell since we arrived yesterday. we had a tiny-sized debacle there, but it doesn't translate well to text; you just had to be there. now we're packing up and heading to jersey (we've decided this is going to be the secret-jersey tour) where tomorrow we'll look at the people at the shore and eat hot dogs and maybe use some self-tanner. jersey, my new home.

speed limit enforced by sharks with lasers on their heads.

2:46 PM

disaster ensues, and lots of things ensue, but havoc can only be wreaked.

day 9! we've all had a bit too much coffee (except for andrew, who won't touch the stuff). currently we're driving from DC to richmond, which is (awesomely) only about 2 hours. it's so hot outside that there's no way to be physically comfortable, UNLESS you have an air-conditioned car, which we do. i'm actually kind of cold, but that's because i'm in the front & have low blood pressure. our show at room with a brew 2 nights ago was fun. we all played well & had a nice few people in the audience & overall had a great time. it doubled as a jazzercise studio, which made the night all the better. we stayed with our good friend josh that evening, which was also great, and since we were so close to DC didn't have to drive around yesterday, which was greater. i got some internet things done & we all watched movies & had a really relaxing time, and then drove to polly's house where we had a great, great house show. (so much great!) a bunch of people on the list didn't show up, which at the time was a bummer, because it was going to be 15 people total - the perfect size! - but it ended up being about 9. still, it turned out to be even more of a perfect size & we had a very intimate, fun, sing-along & sway-along type of show. polly is emily's roommate from ny and is just awesome. the whole thing was awesome. just awesome. this morning we woke up at joe's sister's house and headed to breakfast at a fabulous diner, appropriately named, "the diner," where we had great breakfast food & too much coffee. after an endless wireless search which quickly turned debacle-worthy, we got directions & are heading now to richmond. we're going to see macon, who makes art-hats, and morgan, who's hosting us at her home for the show. we have zero, none, no plans for the next two days. it's a bit worrying, since we have been super-planned (i mean, i'm all about lists & folders & itineraries) thus far. we're hoping to go to a beach or a forest or do some kind of sight seeing but we don't know any people, really, in the area that we're in. we might head early to jersey, but then we'd be in jersey for 6 days & it would just be called the secretly-jersey tour. i don't know. i'm sure we'll make it happen. it's been a really interesting experience, being surrounded by your best friends without a break. sometimes you just need a break. but instead of getting one, you have a weep-fest and move on & feel better. sometimes you don't. right now we're driving married-style (like on a swing set, in parallel) with a trucker. the trucker is looking down on me & is a kindly-looking older gentleman, who seems perplexed that i'm on a computer in a car. sometimes i think the same thing, sir. but there's only so much writing you can do before it becomes illegible, or so much music you can listen to before it becomes the cause of a headache, or so much conversation you can have before you all become tired of eachother's voices. because of all the coffee (when we finally found wireless they made us buy something since it was only for customers - added onto the breakfast coffee) i kind of need to stop to pee, but i think we're close-ish to our destination. i'm sure i'll be fine but some people - specifically andrew's mom & emily - tell me it's bad for you to hold it because it messes up your kidneys. we just passed a sign for spotsylvania. i wonder if you'd grow up with some kind of complex if you lived there. i guess you can grow up with complexes like that anywhere. emily's also typing right now (it's a race! not really, we're both very fast) but joe's reading. the two of them read a lot. my sister reads alot, too. i've never been that into books. poetry, yes. fiction not as much. i really like reading, but it seems like i only do it when i'm absolutely forced and there is no alternative source of entertainment (for example reading all of the fountainhead & 2 poetry books on my 2-week zimbabwe trip last summer, or reading 3 toni morrison novels & 2 wally lamb novels while babysitting infants whose parents didn't have a TV over the summer after my freshman year of college). it just seems like i might as well write or play music or listen to music or take a nap. my sister was always a very fast reader & i was always just average, so i think when i was young i took it upon myself to be someone different, someone who wrote or did other things instead of read. i also get severely carsick when i read in the car (weirdly enough the computer doesn't affect me - emily has the same thing) so i feel like the only times i would read on this tour are the times when it would make me ill. we're stopping for gas now which is great, because i still need to pee, and i think we're stopping at lake anna. no, actually, it's spotsylvania! awesome. couldn't be better.

for miles and miles!

3:18 PM

today we've seen alot of strange things. lots of adult video stores. lots of antique shops. the nipple convalescence home. a replica statue of liberty out atop a semi-island in the pennsylvania canal. the pennsylvania canal. some crazy-looking crazies.

we're driving to maryland. the four of us (minus our beloved beat-maker eddie, who's only doing certain legs of the tour) consolidated into one car, which was tricky. our pittsburgh show was awesome -- lots of good friends & singing along & good paninis. i keep checking the sunroof to make sure the storage device hasn't fallen off. joe's teaching himself how to solo on the ukulele in the back seat. earlier (today? yesterday? the car days blend in) he read us the tao of pooh. so pittsburgh was great. we stayed with dan & joyce in their awesome house, which included walls with monsters painted on them and a lovely (mean?) all-white cat called zebracakes. of course we had lots of good beer and lots of good friend times and lots of productivity. the show was really fun; i'm hoping to upload the tracks sometime soon, probably once i edit them & actually have some time on the internet. not having a plug in the car is frustrating, because there's only so much you can do. anyway, our day off in pittsburgh was also awesome (that was the productive one) and the next morning we hit the road to williamsport. that was yesterday. we're driving past baby llamas! llama, billygoat, and sheep farm on the right! anyway. before leaving for williamsport, we'd had a scare since i? andrew? any number of us? had left the gear bag at club cafe, which included my tambourine (so important!), new microphone & old microphones, cables, and recording device. when i realized it the next day, i had a 20 minute period where andrew drove to the club to check and i sat in the upstairs of the house rocking back and forth trying not to panic. we got the bag the back, but the tambourine was lost for good. SO, since we got to williamsport a bit early, we bought a new one, which was cooler than the old one anyways, and then loaded into the club where they gave us free beer & well liquor, which was well appreciated by all. we ate our delicious free dinners & played three suits of polish rummy but it was making everyone cranky (just because they're sore losers) so we started setting up instead of continuing the game. andrew just drove on the rumble strip (we're stuck in TRAAAAFFIC) because he "just wanted to add some excitement to the trip." turns out the traffic was a huge accident. everyone rubbernecking. so the williamsport show itself was kind of quiet and small, which was fine by us. emily was aggressive towards the crowd and only played a half-hour set which she gave up on after our failed attempt at rehab. during our set the guys at the bar kept yelling "freebird" & we ended up playing songs we didn't know & jazz tunes to appease the crowd instead of ending at an hour. that only lasted for about eight minutes until i got fed up with sounding bad and decided it was time to call it a night. in retrospect we didn't sound that bad, but the same people who kept asking us to play weren't paying any attention when we did play, so i was fine giving up with it. we packed up & headed out after a weep-fest on my part, and stopped at a sheetz (while looking for a motel) which proved to be the mecca of all gas stations. being a pennsylvanian, i'd experienced it many times before, but emily was thoroughly impressed. i got a milkshake. we finally pulled into a super8 somewhere between williamsport and harrisburg. we missed the free breakfast this morning because we woke up after 10, but i was completely alright with that. while we all got ready we watched a children's claymation show about a blue dragon who learned how to yodel. i got really into it. once we'd gotten on the road this morning we started seeing all the interesting, crazy, mostly amish-associated things; the drive has actually been really beautiful - lots of hills and trees and water. andrew just suggested that we call it the old american tour. i don't think that completely covers it, since we started in chicago, but chicago is also not east of the mississippi, so we don't exactly have a truthful title as of yet. we're 17 miles from baltimore, who knows how many miles from leonardtown, and i've just finished my sheetz (yes! the second time in two days!) decaf latte. emily is asleep, joe is reading, and i think i'm going to rest my eyes & zone out to some ella fitzgerald live in berlin, which is one of my all-time top 10 records. it seems to fit the mood.

6:38 pm, leonardtown, maryland: is it weird to feel that we're riding through the dust trail of steve goldberg's last tour?

tour! blog! one!

it is day five of our three-week tour and only today have close quarters started feeling like close quarters. right now we're half an hour out of pittsburgh, which feels ridiculous, seeing as pittsburgh still feels like home. tour? what tour? i'm going back to pittsburgh! that could be a country-western song, in my other life. we've been on the road since early this morning and emily & i both took naps, which is perfect. sometimes the car has too much talking, and so naps were perfect. there's right now a giant ruck with weird ladders on it, and emily & andrew are debating: circus equipment? bridge installation? children's playground structure? i'm excited and nervous about the show tonight, because you always want the most people to come to these shows, but you know so many people that some are bound to not come. last night putting together the futon at ariela's i intensely scraped my foot & it's still hurting. the rest of the tour has gone something like this:
day one, eddie (drums)!) & joe (violin!) arrive in chicago. practicing, good mexican food, and lots of sleep.
day two, emilyn (uke! solo act!) arrives. lots of tea. still more practicing, and then our first show at blend! some lovely lovely people came and we made gas money and there were lots of windows facing the sun. we saw old friends & drank good beer and then crashed with bob & gail, my fantastic uncle & aunt, in the city. eddie & joe slept on my cousin luke's bunk beds and joe fell out of the top bunk during the night, directly onto eddie, who was actually on a trundle. apparently when he fell he yelled, "WHOA!" loudly and woke everyone, but i was three floors down.
day three, we hit the road and headed to cleveland, which was also the day my twin sisters turned 10, which is a very big deal. we were in the car for a long drive but not a painful one, and got to the barking spider a bit late. we played to only four people (the ones hosting us) in a very, very sweltering bar. but there were free pitchers of beer and tealight percussion, which made the situation somewhat more at ease. i also learned about drugstore liquor, which i had never heard of. man, ohio. my aunt gail's friend susan hosted us in her gorgeous home full of antique furniture that was stylish yet comfortable. i kept forgetting if we were in columbus or cleveland, because i have no context for either. susan's house sat right on lake erie, which was gorgeous & warm & we sat out drinking drinks and enjoying the night time. i cuddled nora, the adorable and loveable dog of the home, on my lap.
day four, we enjoyed the house a little more in the morning and ate granola and tried to pack our bags and the car more efficiently. we have a weird top-attachment on andrew's truck since we couldn't fit everything, and we packed alot. sidenote: we keep passing intense looking men driving. emily commented on it earlier and one just passed and gave me an intense, kind of crazy look. anyway, we headed to ann arbor, where we met up with ariela & damien and lazed around the apartment and finally checked the internet and imported photos and did nice, lazy things. it was ridiculously hot. we all traipsed to dinner (america's best burger, voted by GQ magazine) & ended up at the punk-rock elbow room in ypsilanti - emily made lots of charming jokes about the name during her set, and took to calling it slanty - where we had a great time together and the sound was great, despite me feeling too folky in a very girly, pastel-weird-pattern sundress. the club did have a bubble machine, though, which made me feel like maybe it was a little more girly than it tried to appear. after the bar we went back to ariela's & crashed, since it was late & we (i) felt like i had showered in smoke. (smoking! indoors! how i can't stand it!) i was kind of grumpy all night but i got over it this morning (which is now, day five.) damien made us eggs & toast and we piled into the car and now, four and a half hours later (wow, great time!) we're merging onto 376 from the veteran's bridge and my heart is welling up with love for this city. i'm excited about my move to chicago, but i really love it here. i guess other people aren't as excited about pittsburgh, but i think it's pretty great. tonight we're staying with dan & joyce, which is strange that we don't have our own place anymore, but we couldn't ask for better friends in this town. the more i think about it, the more i get excited to see everyone tonight. it's raining, but at least it's not 97 degrees.



_{emily in the backyard in cleveland!}