BLAG Journals

BLAG Across America Journals, part 1
Aug. 23 1998	Depart Saratoga at 5 no 6 no....7 no....8 no.....9.... Geesh. We finally hit the road at 10:00pm (atleast we got the day right). We drive straight with a quick stop in Davis.
Aug. 24 1998	Arrive in Park City after a quick tour of Salt Lake City freeways by Zack at 1:00pm. The affluent ambiance combined with the ski bums, and aparently high Mexican population made us feel comfortable...almost like home. Park City is beautiful...clean air, nice people, green mountains. Radio shack, send off some mail, Albertson's. Go to Orion's music store, where we were supposed to play, but we decided to play in the downtown area instead. That worked out well, we met some new people, made enough money for dinner, and we did not get arrested for blatently violating city policy against street performers. We happend accross our high school friend, Bill Pidwell...he and his roommates Kevin, Chris, and Greg were kind enough to give us a place to stay for the night. Thanks guys. You got a cool pad.
Aug. 25 1998	Wake whenever, shower, clean. Rob spends an hour making 1 800 phone calls trying to figure out why the heck he is not able to check voice mail. After talking to a bunch of people he finds out that the reason he can't is becuase it does not work outside of California and Nevada. Great. There are some messages that will have to go unchecked. Rob came up with a workaround that means we can keep using the cell hone number, but it is now forwarding to his work phone which he can check periodically. Its all good. Web access was established, and now it seems that we may be able to do web updates as well. All things are good. The stuff all fits in the car...barely, reorganization has hapened twice, and we finally have full legroom. We are contemplating purchasing a turtlepack/s-car-go/luggage rack for some of the stuff we don't need all the time. We hit the road, heading North to Montana.
Aug. 26 1998	Starting to think that certain types of food (Mexican) should beavoided if we are going to spend a long time in the car the next day. Stop in Jackson Hole at an Internet cafe for some coffee and to write some promotional letters to radio stations and newspapers. Stop in Yellowstone just in time to see old Faithful spout 100 feet into the air. Leave out the west entrance of Yellowstone and head north on 191 to Bozeman. Arrive at the Filling Station, set up and play for a few hours to a small yet exciting and interesting crowd. Meet a band that had played here the night before and travel to the Zebra bar to check out some of the hightlife. Get some dinner at Arbys, the car overheated while waiting for the food. We met lots of people while standing in line at the drive thru. Days Inn for $70 provided a restful refuge.
Aug. 27 1998	Wake late, drive to Billings Montana to visit Steve's Grandparents. The time in the car provides ample time to discuss the state of the band, and what we want and what we expect from eachother. The general attitude is that we just want to play and have fun while we are doing it, we do like having an audence. Steve's grandparents Alma and Felix Adams are very nice, they fed us, and gave steve a banjo that his Grandfather had used in highschool. Spent some time workinging on the webpage and publicity. Have an evening jam with the Adams family then head off on our way. We have an 18 hour drive, and we want to get some of that behind us before the gig tomorow. Our equipment fits well in the van now that we have truely separated equipment from bedding, it will be interesting to see what will happen when we add the banjo...Skateboards on the roof we hit the road.
Aug. 28 1998	Drive all night with a short nap at some rest stop somewhere in Montana or something. Who knows, it was all dark. The only bummer about driving east during sunrise it that it gets in your blood-shot-tired-feelinglikeyouarehungover-notwellrested-eyes. It was still a beautiful sunrise. Now that there is light, North Dakota scenery is beginning to make an impression.... . Arrive in Fargo ND in the after noon, though we dont really know what time it is since we can't quite figure out the time zone. Fargo is a university town. We hang out on campus. Make press kits, eat, nap, then play some music. Before hitting the road we stop at a local grocery store for some food, hang out with some locals who are really cool, and buy some CD's. We go off to Taco Bell and pick up a couple pintos and cheese and some rice for some BLAGvan buritos. Good good. Anyone that thinks there is a lot of blond haired people in CA just doesn't know. It seems that as we travel throughout the North West (a currently strikng airline that delayed the arrival of the groom of the wedding we are performing at) that there is less and less of a chance to see someone not blond. Though our color matches, we feel strangely out of place, I think that I prefer the diversity of CA. Lebo takes the wheel, and gets us to Minneapolis at about 10pm. We rest on a pier out on a lake, wearing shorts, a beer, new friends, enjoying the big sky, all the stars, comfortable, very nice house and family - Joe, Mary, Ellie, Molly & Dan, Joey & Anna, Thanks, you guys, you are totally cool. Sleep well.
Aug. 29 1998	Wedding day. Wake late, Lebo cooks a feast, he calls it "Eggs of Leb'ole and potatos" clean up, band business, practice. Off to the wedding, slightly late. I do not think that we have pulled off anything on time yet. It always seems to work out fine though. I guess we are just blaggers and thats all there is to it. The wedding was spectacular, it was totally cool, slightly different than your traditional wedding, the bride walked down the isle to some Bach, and the ceremony was all middle eastern music. Very exotic, and sort of unexpected since they were not middle easterners, it was a danish wedding. We played the reception afterwords, and that just turned out to be a big dance party with a lot of happy people that were not afraid to stomp their feet.
Aug. 30 1998	Wke up at 10, said good by to our new Minnesota friends. Stopped by Heidi's familys house for some brunch, then we hit the road to Chicago. Long Drive, 7 hours from the twin cities to Chicago, but it was one lane most of the way, and that really slowed us down. We rolled in to Chicago 20 minutes before we were supposed to go on, and we set up and pulled it off no problem. We got a good recording off of the sound board. We met a few people that bought our buttons. Got some chicago style pizza, and sandwiches. Went in search of the Phantom, our old friend from highschool. We found him, and he graciously donated his couch and floor space to us. We all pass out at about midnight, very tired from the drive.
Aug. 31 1998	mon, chicago - Try to wake up, but it is hard. So just lay there. At some point I (Rob) call my dad to find out what he thinks about the strange problem with the car over heating. Its the fan. Hmmm. That needs to be fixed, it will be very difficult to make it to Ohio through the toll stops without a fan. hmmm. I guess we need to do some automotive research here. First some testing. Kevin lives with several cats. Alergies no like cats. The breeze, that seems to be the only thing more constant than the trains, seems to minimize cat itch. Dropped the van off at the crysler dealership becuase it was still under a service contract. Picked up a rental car and got our gear together for the show. Does being a minority mean that you feel like everyone is looking at you? Chuck all of the gear into the big red rental blag van and head off to the heartland. cool restaraunt, loud trains, so we kind of had to modify our songs and insert loud crazyness everytime a train chugged by. It was a meelo dinner crowed, we made some money and had some good food. We met some cool characters like Jen, who drinks alone on monday nights, and some others that were happy to buy a cd. All in all it was a good night. Sleep by 1 or 2 which seems to feel really late.
Sept. 1 1998	Tue, chicago - Is the car fixed? Yes, it was just a blown relay in the fan. An oil change and a lube, and BLAG van is on the road again. As per the suggestion on Vyto, the friendly auto mechanic, as well as Darnel, our driver for enterprise, Zack and I go get some pizza at Giordano's....Wow, amazing Pizza, stuffed, with the sauce on top. I new they made good pizza in chicago, I did not know that it was inside out and upside down. Excellent to say the least. Steve, Dan and Kevin spent time at the campus, and once we were reunited, we packed the van, always exciting, especially when we get to throw our sleeping bags of the third floor of kevins apartment building. Attach the Hamster wheel to the roof and head downtown, straight to the sears tower, where we take the elevator to the lowest floor. Wasn't very exciting, but who has been to the lowest floor of the sears tower? Off to the Elbo room. Cool little bar with a nice stage downstairs, crowd of mostly musicians, and friends of Leslie Nuss who was very nice and played cool music. Maybe we will Jam in New York. The people at the Elbo room were all cool, Antoinette and the Lizzard Boys had some cool songs and a powerful sound, we enjoyed hanging out and talking about the Chicago scene with abe, and other staff members of the Elbo Room. With no place to stay, we decide to head south. About 4 am we finally found a campsite just south of Indianapolis. We all fall out of the car into our sleeping bags on the lawn.
Sept. 2 1998	Wed, Richwood, Ohio - On our way into town, we passed several neat things, like the first pavement ever laid in the US, but we did not stop for it. We did however take the time to pass by the local highschool three times. Arrive at about 2:00 to a feast presented by Mabel Gill, prepared by her friend who was not able to join us. We chowed fiercely, then as a kickback from the energy consuption and lack of cafine, both Dan and Rob had nap attacks, falling asleep on the lawn until 8pm. Steve ran some errands while Zack toured the town of Richwood with his Grandmother. The Gills have an extensive family history in this town, including a street named gill street, which deadends into the county fairgrounds. Mabel got us pizza for dinner from Domminy's drive-thru liquer store and pizza. Then she put on a private concert for us including works by some of the classical masters as well as some of her own arrangements for both piano and accordian. Very talented musician. sleep.
Sept. 3 1998	Thurs, Richwood, Ohio - We all wake up by noon, and after the exciting bursting of the pipes under the shower - nearly destroying the BLAG Mobile office, we all managed to wash up, and hit the road for Cleveland. On the way to Cleveland, we take a slight detour that pushes us onto back roads, and we loose an hour. We roll into Cleveland, and go straight to the Barking Spider. Grab a bite to eat down the street at a cool little jazz club, and then we decide to play outside, acoustically. We went over really well, and we met some really nice people during the set. We got a couple people dancing, sold some cd's and some buttons. We are now out of business cards. The crowd grew as we were playing, and at the point when our set was over, the place was packed. The First String Band was going on after us, and they were nice enough to let us play during their break later that night. Cool guys, cool music, I liked the barking spider a lot. Martin, the manager, was really nice, gave us tshirts and beer, and everything. We stay until closing, then drive towards Erie. We got tired, found a campground and went to sleep...in a tent this time.
Sept. 4 1998	Fri, Rochester, NY - We wake up at noon, shower in the campground showers, get some bread cheese and turkey and oj, then head to ny. Pennsylvania goes by quick, we wanted to stop at the falls, but time pressure forbid it. Janice is on the radio right now. I am in the van with the lap top on my leg, it is plugged into the cigarette lighter power converter Clear skys, freeways are full. We just passed into New York. Finally, we have made it to the east coast! :) Ok, so we show up for our happy hour set, two hours early, which is impressive considering the one hour side tour zack led us on of upstate new york freeway. The happy hour set was cool. We met a lot of nice people and had a great time. So much fun that we decided to try and play again later that night. Unfortunately, the crowd was so loud, and there were so many people that we could not cut through with our acoustic instruments, so we had to pack it up. However we were reunited with our old friend, Jeff Zeller, from UCSB, who was very appreciative of the quiet yet intimate final set at the Bug Jar. All and all we did well, met some nice people, and even met dave who might convert the cd to mp3 so we can put it up on the web page. We are visited during the show by hometown frinds, the Gitlins, old Zeller and also family of dan's, the lebowitz's. They let us stay at there house, and even had beds for us, this is truely a treat. Tomorow morning early, we are going to try to figure out why the car squeeks at us. I love seeing the people sign our guest book.
Sept. 5 1998	sat, Saratoga Springs, NY - The morning began with a physical assualt on Steve by Rob and Zach. Steve retaliated, elbowing Zach in the eye. Though painful, all three agreed that it was effective calistenics. The band regrouped and joined cousin Steven for a brunch buffet, followed immediately by pictures outside in the Lebowitz's garden. We thanked them profusely. Giant tomatoes, basil, and an amazing cucumber were given as gifts for the road. The band also accepted the responsibility of delivering an early Chanukah gift to cousin David in Boston. It is secured well. Leave Rochester and head to Saratoga County. Upon arival, we locate King's Tavern where we are scheduled to play and check in with Bob, Corey, and James, as well as with Dan's Uncle Larry, While Dan visits with his uncle, the rest of us decide to check out downtown Saratoga. Steve goes skating for promo info (Skidmore College newspaper) and almost gets arrested, Zack hits the streets to make some money for dinner, and Rob scopes the local scene for food. Zack makes about $20, we buy burritos. Good. Returning to the tavern, we go on at Midnight, and play one set, to a receptive crowed. We met lots of nice people, including Lareta, and Deidra. We cut out at about 2am, which is early for this town, a distinguishing characterstic that makes the east coast, and west coast saratogas strikingly different amongst many strange similarities?
Sept. 6 1998	Sun, Saratoga county, NY - Dan wakes early to visit some family. The rest of us wake up by noonish, and eventualy decided to head out to downtown Glenns Falls, and check out the local Hot Dog vender - New Way Lunch (a.k.a. Dirty John's), who makes a very special sauce that tastes strangely like cinnamon and currey. Some good hot dogs. We then head up to the shore of Lake George, where we suddenly are driven with the desire to street perform. We set up the alter, which is the Chanukah gift and accordian case, and other various BLAG market items. The dollar bills start flowing in, and we are happy, becuase we made money for Ice Cream. It turns out that the photo shop that we were playing in front liked our music, so we gave them a cd, and they took our picture. Gave us each an 8 x 10 black and white photo. We are planning on using this photo for fliers. A little time to relax with the feet in the lake, then back to downtown Glenns Falls, where we get club sandwiches at Abbot's. Fat and happy, we head into Saratoga, where there is a big music festival called Hats Off happening. Check out a couple of the 13 stages, then settle at a salsa band stage where we shake our very special things to the cha cha and rrrumba. After the bands stop, we find a nice trash heap to stand next to, and we sing quietly to ourselves about the times we had before the war. Then we Jammed some Bob Marley with a Rastfarian banjo player. Back to Grandma Lebo, and we hit the sack.
Sept. 7 1998	Mon, 10:00 am, heres an idea, lets go to Boston. Bang! In the car on the road we drive. Damn these roads, every strech of road is under construction. 4 or 5 hours later we finally arrive in the outer Boston area. Dan's cousin, David, has a cool little studio with enough room for all of us (barely :) to sleep side by side on the floor. We drop off all of our stuff, happy that we have a place to stay, and head down town to Pizzaria Regina for some tasty thin pizza. MMM MMM. Dirty silverware on the floor please. Walk around downtown Boston for a while, its getting late, almost 10:00 but there are still people out at Quincy Market. We come across the North Church where Paul Revere made his horse ride to hang out with the hunchbacks and the pilgrims...with the aide of the indians, made light signals to help starving hunters trace the local migration of wild turkey. We roam a little more, heading down toward the River Charles. We climb many rocks and walls, scope the bacci ball courts by the river, admire the USS Constitution... nice city! Beautiful and fun even near the middle of the night. We all return to David's in the caravan tour of downtown to Waltham. David's house. Sleep.
Sept. 8 1998	Tues. We sleep in a bit at David's while he's off to work early. We decide to go into town by way of the commuter train. The first train of the trip. Nice experience, friendly people. We catch another train, and take it down to the Newberry Street area. Greek restaurant for lunch. Good falafel king. Coffee at Starbucks, flip through some of the entertainment papers to llok for any mentions of the BLAG Buffet visit to Boston. It mentions our name in the calender for the Kendall Cafe show. Lebo decides to stay downtown and B_AG drives to Milton. Arrive at Nancy Teele's and have a pizza and chicken feast...a buffet really. An exciting drive to the gig and a tour through Cambridge marked the second portion of the evening. The gig was a lot of fun, David Lebowitz brought a ton of people from his work and cousin Toby, aunt Nancy, Great (grand, greek, great griat) aunt Vicki and Braxton and Ann from Davis all made it! The people at Kendall Cafe were good spirited and friendly. Small Moon Run, Todd, and sound man Allan provided the music before us and were very receptive to our set. Another fun show with some new songs for BLAG. Zach and Rob sleep at Braxton's and Dan and Steve go back to David's, but only after a 2:00am appearance at Kinkos Copies. At last everyone sleeps.
Sept. 9 1998	Wed. Rob and Zach awake early in the morning and take the T to the Commuter train back to David Lebowitz'. We are tired and the sun is bright. Arrive at East coast Lebo's house and wake west coast Lebo. Showers, packing ritual, Deli and BLAG is on their way to New York City, The Big Apple, The Whole Enchilada, The sweetest Cucumber in the world. Saw some apples in a fruit store. Rob and Zack starring at the apples...rob - "Wheres the big", Zack cuts off rob, "No dude, were in it." rob - "oh, yeah." Thanks for the hospitality David. We arrive in New York just in time for rush hour. Dan and Rob navigate through Manhattan, across the Washington bridge, and into New Jersey. Dan asks "Hey Rob, why are the big buildings behind us now?", After a few minutes of scrutinizing the map rob responds "'cause we are driving into New Jersey". Zach, Steve, crossing legs after drinking large SOBE's... traffic all the way through the Lincoln tunnel provides ample time to complain about their bladders and prepare to use SOBE Tea bottles as latrines. Fortunatley a stop by the harbor provides a better location, a view of the World Trade Center, view of the lady with the candle. Ahh the Satue of Liberty! Ah lots of buildings! Ah lots of big buildings! Drive to Greenwich village, Brakes need to be looked at ASAP, the sound has changed from a simple squeek as we drive to a gentle moan that seems comperable to the gentle sound of train stopping. Park and cruise for a bit. More thin Pizza at Washington Square. The chef tells us it's "the best", but I'm not sure if I agree. Steve contacts a buddy from his middle eastern music camp. Good old Souren. At Souren's suggestion, we head to the cafe Mogador for some live Arabic, Turkish and Armenian music. Cafe Mogador on 1av and E. 8th. Dancers! New York is wonderful. It completly exceeds all my pre-concieved notions about it. This is a place to be marvled at. Music and dance every where. People yelling hey and honking every few seconds. I seem to be the only one who ever answers, though. With nowhere to stay, we turn to Hotels which at ~$120 for a 4man room with parking, and lock the car up for the night. We found a cool room at the Hampshire Hotel near Time Square on west 49th street and Broadway, we are finally here. The Big Apple, The spicy cucumber, The garlic peach. A short rehearsal inside the hotel room, through the real book vol. 2, and some walks around the block, some showering, some very involved visits to the van and another visit to the BASS Nippppp ? conclude our first evening in New York City. Stay up all night doing band stuff.
Sept. 10 1998	Thurs. Zach and Rob wake early, calls, van, Midas, walking distance. Car almost gets towed by a cop driving a tow truck (1 minute parked illegally on NY street). Success. View the Ed Sullivan theater, return to hotel, wake Lebo and Steve. Showers, then everyone leaves outside into the city. Music Stores- Manny's, the famous. A stop at Staples for folders, and a gold pen. Jekyl and Hyde Club tour. Down to Carnegie Deli for lunch. We enter... four? yes, right this way, four?, yes come on, this way... we are escorted by a chain of people to our seats. Waters and pickles wait us, as if they had been expecting us. We order three sandwiches, we heard they were big, $10 a piece. They were very big, only bread and meat. We enjoy the lunch. After making some financial calculations, we realize that we are, unfortunately, out of money, in debt. Pick up van. Regroup at hotel. Zach and Rob take nap. Steve and Dan take the metro to Greenwich Village, walk around, find a cool world music store that has Richard Hapopian in stock, famous armenian 'ud player that we met and played with in SB. Zach and Rob's metro excursion. Met up at Stomp! to catch a life altering experience. There were many stones and columns, matches and lighters, trash cans and pipes. Subtleties in music. A chat with the cast of Stomp! and more NY nourishment, soup and sandwiches. Metro to the hotel, walk to the Copa Cabana- free cover, live salsa, expensive water, $5 Coors, end of an era. Rob goes to find more salsa, jumps in a cab and says, "89th and Broadway, to the Latin quarters". Zach, Dan, and Steve hail cab, "take us someplace to see some jazz, we want to be mellow". Cab driver laughs, he is a musician, NY born, Haitian raised, returned to NY for work, three kids. He wants to write a song called "I want to be Mellow". His shift lasts 'til dawn. He drops us off in Greenwich and recommends the Village Vanguard, but the $15 show, Tommy Flannagan(p) with Kenny Washington(d)... was over. Head down the street to see a blind piano player at Nathan's, playing rock hits from the 60's and 70's, in a Ray Charles, gospel-soul kind of way. We also meet Steve outside of the bar, a local who runs a thrift store with cool crafts and things, a werewolf mask and glove set... Nice man, used to own a studio in town recording latin music but was jailde for arsen and lost it all, but he claimed to have been set up by his landlird. He painted a cold picture of NY. Dan checked out Small's, an all night jazz ciub next door: the Composer's Octet. Metro back to the hotel and reunite with Roberto, a slave to salsa. Sleep.
Sept. 11 1998	Fri. Wake up in time. Check out of the hotel. Get van from parking garage. Drive around a while, looking for a gas station. Zach was feeling very hostile during the escape from NY. Grab some pizza slices and Lebo maneuvers us through NY and the Holland tunnel. We can see lady Liberty on the horizon as we head into New Jersey, en route to Virginia Beach for our next gig. Drive the 13 down and we pull into VA Beach around 9:00, via the Cheasapeake Toll Bridge/ Tunnel. $10 toll!! but worth it. Above the water, under the water, above the water, under... The toll ensured our safety. We arrive at Hoopla's, our gig destination. There seem to be many students and locals. Exhausted and hungry, we set up our p.a. system, order some food, and begin. The people who stayed seemed to enjoy our slightly different sounds. We played a short set, ate flounder, steaks, and burgers, and started up another set. We were inspired to stretch ourselves during that set and some people liked it and others seemed confused. We did a more digestable third set that pleased the crowd and enthused the fans of the night that had stuck around. Sold some CDs, got the mailing list signed, made some good money, met some nice people. We packed the car and headed to Gloucester, VA, just north of the beach area, where our friend from the UCSB Middle East Ensemble, Najila, was living and had welcomed us to stay the night. It was late when we arrived, so we chatted for a bit, but crashed out quickly.
Sept. 12 1998	Sat. Gloucester, VA. Wake up. "My God, I had no idea that we were in such a beautiful place!" exclaimed Zach, as he peered out the window, and packed his sleeping bag. Najila cooked us a wonderful breakfast, ham omelettes, toast, fruit, juice, coffee, apple butter spread!... We discussed politics, music, and the international situation. We also met her mother, both were very cultured and gracious. We also enjoyed the many musical instruments around the house, a pump organ, an old Baldwin, an mbira thumb piano, a small glockenspiel, some drums and various sized bandirs... We also got a tour of the estate, a beautiful river and creek, a quaint cottage which she hopes to lease out for a nice price, whispering pines, pennies in a stream, the worbling of a meadow lark, and a paw paw patch. Lush green grass that Najila keeps up herself (an 8 hour mow job). We depart, with drinks and fruit for the road and a CD of Arab American music complied by Anne K. Rasmussen, an ethnomusicologist in VA. Off to Jamestown for an in car tour of the island. Informative poster boards gave us a history lesson- first settlement in the New World, many hardships, corn , grapes, tabacco, primitive refridgeration systems, herbal medicines, glasshouse, success! Williamsburg excursion, lost momentarily... D.C.! Pentagon, the Potomac, the Archives... a small but effective memorial for FDR, many stones and columns and statues, a very strong city. Amazing acoustics at the Canadian Embassy. We engage in conversation with two locals trying to sell us sunglasses and watches- Zulu and D. They direct us to Georgetown. Pennsylvania Ave... many people! Kind of like I.V. on a Friday night, but much more ethnically diverse. Burritos, ahhhh tastes like home. Street perform on the corner of Wisconsin and Pennsylvania, good crowds, lots of fun, lots of people. Street light corners are good, everytime the light changes, you get a new crowd of people. The art of street performing. Rob reunites with his sister's old roommate and friend, Mattew, right there on the corner. He looks twice, then hugs. Rob's cousin appears, the lovely Lisa Voss. She hangs out and we meet later at the Potomac waterfront. We have a couple drinks, enjoy the view of the Potomac, and chat with Lisa, Matthew and other new friends. Return to the car, two parking tickets for obstructing a crosswalk and parking less than 25' of a stop sign. Our performing tip money covers the charges. Easy come, easy go. Follow Lisa bac to her house through the streets of D.C. and the surrounding areas... pull-out bed and couches, comfortable apartment just outside of D.C. ...zzzzz
Sept. 13 1998	Sun. D.C., a day at the mall. The mall is the stretch of monuments and memorials stretching from the Lincoln Memorial to the Capital Building). The walk was amazing. The many names at the Vietnam Memorial, thousands lost, only 7 women. Canadian flags ornamented the memorial because there was a memorial service in Canada that wanted the flags archived in D.C. Very touching. Lincoln Memorial. Oh my God! A dove just flew onto his arm. The statue, big and impressive. His second innagural speach was written on the wall. What a situation he had on his hands. Korean War Memorial, we overhear a tour guide, "the price of freedom... freedom is not free". Enter Janis, "Freedom's just another word for nothing left to lose". Enter BLAG, "Freedom?..." Walk down the relecting pool, pondering the price of freedom, of mind, speach, government, sex... The only real freedom seems to be a pyschological state. See Washington Tower monument in the distance (looks like UCSB's Storke Tower). We visit a festival at the base of the tower where a tent and stage is set up and a gospel group had just finished and another is getting ready. Pictures and writings of famous afro-american leaders adorned the walls of the tent, reminding us of our country's history of slavery. A fitting addition to our visit from Lincoln Memorial. Onward towards the Captial Building. Drinks and a small fry between us, three per person. More stones, columns, fountains... the Capital Building! What a sight! Well kept, big dome, no sitting on the ledges yells a security guard. Judiciary building, also very nice fountains and building. Nice door. We head back via Pennsylvania, revisit the cool Canadian Embassy, White House, the Eclipse. Many news vans everywhere, and the town is a buzz from the Clinton sex scandal. Leave D.C., and head to Lisa's parent's house for dinner, the great Voss dinner. Wonderful! They engage us in great conversation, and provide us with insider information on the local political scene. Very informative and thought provoking. The food was great, chicken, pasta peperoni sallad, rolls, ginger ale... We are continuely impressed with the hospitality we continue to receive, and Steve announces that he will continue to tour continuely. Thank you Voss family. We depart, drop off Rob and Lisa at home. Steve, Zach and Dan head back to Georgetown, the long way, to catch the Kenny Garret show at the legendary Blues Alley, settled in an actual alley off Wisconsin St.. The $17 show was worth every moment. Great music, great place, nice people. We enjoyed the band very much, Professor Reid(b), "Chris Davis on the drums", and a great piano player as well. After the show, we went upstairs to visit with Mr. Garrett, who was very humble and friendly, and made the three of us feel at ease. We gave him a card. It is always nice to meet someone who we resepct. He is en route to Boston next. We also gave his manager Brad a card and CD. Great night. We drive back to Lisa's and sleep. Steve and Zach stay up a little and discuss band stuff, genre categories, the international scene, and other related topics. WE ARE officially HALF WAY THROUGH OUR TOUR.