After playing in Chicago on Monday, Dylan and I woke up at 6 am on Tuesday to make the drive to Charlottesville, VA. I think it took us about 15 hours, including a long stretch of driving 40 miles per hour on the highway through terrible sleet and snow. Dylan made us stop in Louisville, KY, at a place called "Why Louisville" which is self-described as a "fan club for Louisville." Or something like that. Basically, they had a lot of Louisville inside jokes and hipster shirts. And basically, the two girls who worked there were lame hipsters who didn't respond to our witty driving-delirium-induced string of jokes.
Throughout the entire month, I was once again sleeping on floors/futons, sometimes at the homes of people I had never met. So I couldn't wait to return to my huge comfy bed in my parents' house in Sanford for a decent night's sleep. It was surprising when I woke up at 4am shivering because the heating didn't work. I tried to find blankets, but for some reason my blanket had disappeared. So much for the comforts of home. I had spent a better night on a futon in Chicago where it was 0 degrees outside, and where inside, Dylan was waking me up every 20 minutes to stop my snoring.
I got to see Bloomington, Indiana for the first time in my life. As well as Toledo, Ohio. Both seemed like more fun than I would've guessed. Toledo was snowy, cold, and windy, but still seemed surprisingly cool. Same with Louisville. Despite hipster nerds. The men at Jimmy John's were agreeable. Which also reminds me -- why would they open a Jimmy John's in Charlottesville, ONE BLOCK from Little John's? Little John's is the best sandwich establishment in the United States. So they open a chain sub shop with the same last name right down the street. That doesn't make sense to me.
A few things learned this month
- Part of the problem with writing a wildly popular internet blog (cough cough) is that you are worried to write about people who may end up reading the blog.
- I don't really know who Kathleen Madigan is, but the XM comedy stations played her so much that I don't even want to Google her to find out. She is either sleeping with someone at XM programming or has a great publicist.
- When sitting next to a close male friend in a theater, it is always funny to nudge him when there is onscreen nudity. It gets funnier throughout the movie.
- "Role Models" received a 76% rating on Rotten Tomatoes, which has got to be the highest rating for a movie that has been described as "a mound of dog turd flavoured with honey...just like dog turd with honey on it, the mess is unappetising."
- If you don't know a guy's name, but you later refer to him as "Garth" and your friend immediately knows to whom you're referring because that guy looks exactly like Garth from "Wayne's World," then "Garth" is probably awesome.
Friday, January 30, 2009
Wednesday, January 7, 2009
More!
The sound man where we play in Atlanta is a very very sweet guy. It's been fun to chat with him when we've been in town, especially because for years he ran sound for a band called Jellyfish, who spent a lot of time on tour with the Black Crowes.
But this time we talked about more serious things, because our friend has had a very tough year. He started by telling me of his recent heart attack. Then came the enormous medical bills. Then it was a messy divorce.
Then his daughter called him one day and told him that his ex-wife was currently dating one of his close friends, who lives in another part of the country. "Can you believe that?" he asked me. "You know what the worst part is? They met on eHarmony. They just filled out profiles and got matched up." We couldn't help but laugh about that. "Actually," he continued, "he's also the drummer for the Temptations." We couldn't help but laugh about that too. Attempting to use my ninja-like conversational skills to lighten the mood, I asked him which part was worse -- that it was his friend, or that it was the drummer for the Temptations. Thank God he laughed about that too.
Finally, I asked him to tell me something good that had happened lately. He spoke of his beautiful grandson Sammy. And showed me pictures of Sammy with Cookie Monster. Then he told me about terrible back problems he had suffered through until a few months ago. The pain had been so bad that he could hardly walk. He visited numerous doctors, acupuncturists, and anyone else who he could afford and who would listen. Finally he was about to have an extremely expensive surgery. Until he was hobbling out of the club one night and someone yelled at him from the balcony to come back inside. He said the pain was so bad, he almost didn't do it. But he said what the hell, and went back up the steps.
Someone inside introduced him to a drunken yoga therapist. The woman told him that she could probably help him, and she showed him a few intense stretches he could do. He said thanks, and hobbled back out of the club.
He said that after one and a half weeks, his pain was completely gone. After a long bout with terrible back pain, he was about to undergo an expensive surgery, and this inebriated yoga teacher had cured him in one week.
I asked him what he did to thank her. He said that he never saw her again. He didn't get her name or number or anything.
"Well, time to find her on eHarmony."
But this time we talked about more serious things, because our friend has had a very tough year. He started by telling me of his recent heart attack. Then came the enormous medical bills. Then it was a messy divorce.
Then his daughter called him one day and told him that his ex-wife was currently dating one of his close friends, who lives in another part of the country. "Can you believe that?" he asked me. "You know what the worst part is? They met on eHarmony. They just filled out profiles and got matched up." We couldn't help but laugh about that. "Actually," he continued, "he's also the drummer for the Temptations." We couldn't help but laugh about that too. Attempting to use my ninja-like conversational skills to lighten the mood, I asked him which part was worse -- that it was his friend, or that it was the drummer for the Temptations. Thank God he laughed about that too.
Finally, I asked him to tell me something good that had happened lately. He spoke of his beautiful grandson Sammy. And showed me pictures of Sammy with Cookie Monster. Then he told me about terrible back problems he had suffered through until a few months ago. The pain had been so bad that he could hardly walk. He visited numerous doctors, acupuncturists, and anyone else who he could afford and who would listen. Finally he was about to have an extremely expensive surgery. Until he was hobbling out of the club one night and someone yelled at him from the balcony to come back inside. He said the pain was so bad, he almost didn't do it. But he said what the hell, and went back up the steps.
Someone inside introduced him to a drunken yoga therapist. The woman told him that she could probably help him, and she showed him a few intense stretches he could do. He said thanks, and hobbled back out of the club.
He said that after one and a half weeks, his pain was completely gone. After a long bout with terrible back pain, he was about to undergo an expensive surgery, and this inebriated yoga teacher had cured him in one week.
I asked him what he did to thank her. He said that he never saw her again. He didn't get her name or number or anything.
"Well, time to find her on eHarmony."
Sunday, January 4, 2009
Only The Finest
Last night was the second show of our new tour. In Hartsville, SC. The previous night we played once again in our living room in Sanford, NC. Once again, it was fantastically fun. We played "You Shook Me All Night Long" during "soundcheck" in Sanford, so I was requesting it for my own band by the time we started the second set, when everyone had had enough to drink. I thought it went over well, and wanted Dylan to play his mandolin solo while walking up the stairs onto our loft/balcony that overlooks the living room. No dice.
Someone made a joke about us playing a bigger venue, like the Magic Dome in Orlando. I don't know if that's a real place, but I doubt the person realized we'd be traveling to South Carolina the next day to play at a bar called The Midnight Rooster.
Kristy ended up vomiting all day yesterday, so Dylan and I played the show in Hartsville by ourselves. We played for almost two hours, but since I know about six of Dylan's songs, the evening included a bunch of covers, and Dylan telling me what his songs sound like, right before starting them.
Dylan's roommate is a guy named Rocky (who I can't stop calling Bucky), who collects comics, laughs a lot, has painted his drum set four times since he bought it, refuses to obtain music or movies in any type of illegal fashion, and has a book in his bathroom called "What Your Poo Says About You."
Someone made a joke about us playing a bigger venue, like the Magic Dome in Orlando. I don't know if that's a real place, but I doubt the person realized we'd be traveling to South Carolina the next day to play at a bar called The Midnight Rooster.
Kristy ended up vomiting all day yesterday, so Dylan and I played the show in Hartsville by ourselves. We played for almost two hours, but since I know about six of Dylan's songs, the evening included a bunch of covers, and Dylan telling me what his songs sound like, right before starting them.
Dylan's roommate is a guy named Rocky (who I can't stop calling Bucky), who collects comics, laughs a lot, has painted his drum set four times since he bought it, refuses to obtain music or movies in any type of illegal fashion, and has a book in his bathroom called "What Your Poo Says About You."
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