BLAG Across America Journals, part 2

Sept. 14 1998

Mon. Leave Lisa's, and hide our tour frog in the interior of house as a surprise gift for our gracious hostess. Afternoon in downtown D.C.. Capital building tour, the mall, the rumor of the courtroom "whisper" is dispelled. We take underground transit to Hart Building, to visit Senator Feinstein's office and pick up passes to the interior of the House room and Senate room. The CA senator is in a meeting. We leave BLAG business cards, and grab some candy for the ride back. We check out the Senate Gallery, to find a man passionately speaking to a near empty room and to an uninterested group (~3) of senators. Something about the plight of farmers, taxes, environment... At the House Gallery, there was no representatives to be found. We spoke with a clerk for a bit and left a message on the back of a business card for Cogressman Lois Capps informing her of the BLAG tour and website and offering our services and our support. Exit Capital Building through the drive-thru. Supreme court across the streeet. A quick peak in the room with nine seats, and a walk through the gift shop to buy copies of the Constitution and a biography of the U.S. presidents and their wives. As far as we can tell, none of the other first ladies were lesbians. :) Exit courthouse... Many squirrels, one dead squirrel, a ceremony, collecting leaf material for buttons, hot and humid, traffic near Union Station, coffee, pizza, pretzel roll,... Finally back at the car and on the road. Leave the District of Columbia? why is dc 'd''c'?? Drive, dinner at Friendly's, a bacon cheeseburger, a clam boat, and some chicken cheddars... Continue south, stop near the border of VA and N. Carolina for a gas station rehearsal. There, we befriended George Powell, accordian afficianado, and security guard. We exchanged business cards and later George's good name kept us out of trouble with the local county police. The rehearsal was productive for locking in our bluegrass original set. We got back in the car and drove to the next travel stop for drinks and a game of "quarter-loser", developing a violent addiction to a machine that provoked one to drop quarters in it in hopes that your quarter will drop in such a place, pushing the built up pile of quarters, over the edge into the winner's tray. I could hardly keep myself from breaking another dollar bill for another try. Drive, KOA, camp, humid.

Sept. 15 1998

Virginia is done, North Carolina, South Carolina, anybody see the Appalachian Mtns? Through N. Augusta, pass the Highlander, over 13th street bridge - Savanah River (big green humid), into Augusta GA. Arrive at the house of Amy Christian in the early evening. This arrival marks the begining of the Georgia experience. Amy is awesome, dynamite personality, back up singer for James Brown, totally hospitable...she basically gave us her house. Zack (the real trooper) runs around and keeps us all company, protecting us from unannounced visitors. We head on down to Rhineharts to get some sea food...mmm mmm mmm. ooops, $70, oh well, it was worth it. It is suspected that Lebo's sandal never made it in to Georgia. We take a trip down into Old Town Augusta, and visit with old friend and musician, Keith, guitarist for James Brown. Meet some more faces. Keith's 14 year old brother Benji gave us a concert on acoustic and electric guitars, a little Korn, Nirvana, JB... Very talented, destined to rock! We herded over to the Pizza Joint for some pizza slices and drinks. I am reminded of the beautiful Augusta architecture here at the Joint. Tall, tall ceilings and a deep, deep room. Most of the buildings on Broad St., downtown, are like this... Nacho Mama's, The Soul Bar, Caffeine (now Time Pieces), The Greene Building (JB radio station), etc.. It feels good to be back. We return to Amy's for a little rehearsing out on the porch, out in the humid Augusta air. The Amy button is invented ...eventually we find our sleeping locations: me in the tent, and the others spread out within the interior of the house. ("Rob's therma rest experiment": Was it ever completed? Was it ever filled all the way up? Was it in use the entire night? Did the 3/4" carpet make a difference? Did the length of the piece make a difference?
Hey Steve-a, I am jumping in here. Most of what you just mentioned are control variables, the air pressure was the experiment. I did not inflate it fully, and it ended up hurting my back. I wanted to try the full pressure, but never did.)

Sept. 16 1998

Wednesday. Breakfast at Duke's, grits, eggs, toast, coffee, sweet tea. And then a car tour of Augusta: old friend Louie's house, who has about 10 times as many musical instruments as the last time we were there, stand up bass (he's taking lessons at ASU), timbales, congas, and many other percussion and drums. Frank Christian's home, Amy's dad, cleaning out the garage, good spirits, a nice visit. Drop off our rolls of film to be developed. Jay's music, acoustic bass strings (back up precautions), $139 D'Adarrio arco series was all they had, so maybe I'll do some more bowing when I get them on. Vanilla cokes at Dairy Queen. Zach's yoga session. A Chinese feast. Keith comes over for a short visit. Off to the Red Lion Pub, Walton Way. Good set, old friends... Matt the Hat, Mat X, Brent Cotton, Dale the artist, Sarah Alice, Allison, Jay,.. Preston was a good soundman, playing with all kinds of sound effects, delays, flangers, chorus. A fun night. I forgot how massive that sound system was. It was interesting for the acoustic group to be amplified so heavily. Dear Mr. Fantasy. Back to Amy's to sleep.

Sept. 17 1998

Thursday. Amy gets up and gets ready for her trip to DC. Out the door in a flash. The flight is delayed so Dan and Zach go to the airport to visit with the Godfather. Rob and Steve chill, do a little band business, watch Brady Bunch movie, Marsha. Radio station, 94.7 fm, The BOSS. An interview with Mr. Youngblood, live on the air. We gave him our CD and press pack and he liked and played Velvet Jones and Someone's in the Kitchen (enough to play it twice). A very pleasant experience overall. Nice people. We signed CDs for the ladies in the front office who enjoyed the radio session, Susan and Stacey. We strolled around a bit downtown, and got a pizza at the Pizza Joint. Dan tries to locate a suede brush. (Amy had one back home). PIcked up developed photos. Some good pictures of the trip. Return to Amy's. After a few things, naps all around (~4 hrs sleep). Awake and off to the Highlander. Set up. Shepard's pies and nachos. Reunited with the Drakeley's and Dwight, mushroom Richard. Some new faces... Ashley, the folk musician who does Cure covers, Victor the doorman. We get kind of a late start, 12:30am or so, but at the Highlander, that's one way to do it. We did two sets. Solid show. The Garden set worked really well, Lonesome Cowboy into Rocky Top was good, The Washing Song is getting better and better,.. overall, the band is starting to get that kind of gel that happens most naturally after a band has been touring for a few weeks and playing a lot of music together, and eating the same exact food, and sleeping the same hours, and driving in the close quarters of a van, for a long time, and talking to eachother all the time, and listening to eachother for a long time, Get gas together, eat, drink, hear the same jokes, all the time together... umm.. There's a certain kind of gel, or mold, or something, that starts to build up. The Highlander's casual and free atmosphere allowed us to play well. The receptive and wild crowd fed us some nutritous performance energy. It was good to be back in the CSRA, North Augusta, 13th Street, the legendery Highlander British Pub. We played until about 4:30 in the morning, and then packed up our instruments and headed back home for some sleep.

Sept. 18 1998

Friday. Sleep in. Steve on Zach's dog-bed, Zach on the floor in the front next to Zach , Rob featle on the little couch, Dan on the long couch, and Amy in her bed. The sleeping scene was a bit shocking for Amy's mom, Jackie, who came over in the morning to have Amy sign a resume paper. Sleep a little more. Wake up at 11:00 to call into the Boss and say hi to our friends Tara and Erin from SnapDragon who were doing a radio interview, promoting their shows at the Fox's Lair this weekend. Sounded good. Back to sleep a little more. Eventually get up. Dan, public relations, cruises to Mr. Fridie's office downtown to discuss possible CD distribution and other band business ideas. He enjoyed the CD and seems interested in helping out the band. Nice. Dan returns, and we all prepare a gigantic breakfast at about 5:00pm or so. Good southern meal, grits, eggs, toast, fruit, pancakes, biscuits, oj, coffee,,,, We cruise to Daniel's metal art shop, the renouned Augusta artist who has decorated many of the downtown stores, restaurants, and clubs. We commission him to create the "clockworks", the mysterious stage piece that Zach has been dreaming up. We negotiate a cost, and Daniel goes to work. He picks through his piles of metal scrap, cords, strips, chains, razor saws, gongs, pipes... He welds the pieces of choice together, and slowly builds it up. He lets us bang at it inbetween, to try out the different sounds. An amazing artist. He keeps the piece to put some coats of polyurethane on it over night, and we cruise. FIrst, to the Fox's Lair to catch some of Tara's set. We end up sitting in with Tara and Erin... Fara Faucet, Woody Guthrie's Do Re Me. They sounded wonderful. We invited them to the Highlander, and head on over for another night. Ah the High Lander! A fairly large crowd had already been waiting when we arrived and they immediatly begin putting pressure on us to play. However it was only 12:30 and we knew that if we were going to make it till dawn we would need to pace ourselves. We ordered pizza's and shepards pies, Pound a pitcher of water and finally assume our stage positions a little after one. The first set was extremly long, possibly the longest we've ever played without taking a break. We had several guests to help us though. Tarra and Erin, Kyle sat in on bongos on All of Me and Amy joined us for Queen Bee from the Star is Born sound track mixed with one of our own songs. It was very exciting and brought us closer to the locals. Around Four we took our first break. I was very hot. The crowd at the highlander was beginning to morph. The early morning crowd was just starting to come in. And we fealdt a change in energy. The second and final set at the Highlander began around 4:30. Our exahstion proved to have a sort of liberating effect over our musicality. We were willing to experiment, try unrehearsed songs and let our souls shine through. As the second set continued the crowd began to loose control. Some engaged in lewd dancing, some began to scream like animals and others just drank and stared off into the distance. at five minutes to 6 we ended with Dear Prudence(a traditional crowd pleaser at the highlander). The set was over and we were just barley standing literally. However we still had one more chore before we would sleep. Kinkos copies 24 hour, ten duplications of our band picture for ten press kits for Larry Fridie(an entertainment Lawyer with record label ties). We made the copies, assembled the packets, ordered egg macmuffins at the drive-thru for dinner, and realized that we were officially nocturnal creatures, and we were having trouble communicating with the normal day goers. We returned to the house around 8 and slept and slept and slept and slept and slept and slpet and slpt and slpet and stelp and seplt...

Sept. 19 1998

Saturday. Wake, sleep, wake, sleep. Let's get up and have some breakfast. Let's stay in bed and have breakfest for dinner. Eventually we get out of the house after realizing that we were not going to receive a visit from our angel, Mr. F. To the Savanah River to breathe the energy. Back home for an awesome pasta dinner, then A and G are off to pick up the clockwerks. Freshly polyurethaned, to protect us from the rust and the clockwerks from scratching. Its beauty is totaly overwhelming. We are all very excited about the clockwerks. B has already converted, developing a compelling addiction. Looks like we did not get to play with Tara and Erin, but the mud facials and cucumber eyelids were worth it. With the cucumber eyeilds still mounted on B, we kick back to watch the movie "se7en" which we find to be particularly disturbing. Bed. We have a long drive tomorow, all the way to Nashville.

Sept. 20 1998

Planned on leaving at 8:30, after realizing that we would gain an hour crossing into central time, we relaxed. We figured out a way to safely mount the clockwerks to the roof without destroying the car, the rack, the clock, or any of our other friendly drivers. Cheep bungee chords and twine at Kroger, with the help of plastic fasteners, the werks is secure. 10:30 we leave, and we drive, G drives, then hands to B who takes the posse into the "greenest state in the land of the Free". The Appalachen mountains not so big, no summit marker, Old Smokey is also Rocky Top. Pardon me boy, is that the Chatannooggaa Choo Choo? No, thats a coal burner. A gas station whose only clients are hunters, that don't seem to notice the carpet of flies that lined the pavement. Keep that door closed please. Roads carved into mountains of rock. Arrive in Nashville at about 5pm, so that was about a 7 1/2 hour drive. Del Tacos has Fried Chicken, everyone has fried chicken. Arrive at the Blue Bird Cafe in Nashville Tennessee 5:30, at first they were not going to let us in, they finally did, locking the doors behind us. Seems like a nice place, and supposedly it is one of the premiere places to play in Nashville, but with the doors locked, how can people come in. 6:10, about 20 minutes before we go on, the doors open. People drift in, and soon the place is pretty full. Hmm. We have a 45 minute set, and noting the encouragement of song writing, we decided to do all originals, the sweat set was tight, we got it on DAT, and are anxious to hear it. Audience more than receptive. The mic on the drum seemed sensitive, and the bass was feeding back between songs, but I think we might have a good recording. We sold several CD's, I finally got my autograph down. Stick around to hang out with the staff as well as watch the song writers display their music. Talented people. Chow sandwiches except for A, them pepers are hot. Up the street to H Cue's where we meet to discuss the future of state with patriot and music scene observer Ryan Cochrane. Ryan informs us of many pearls, we deposit two cd's as a gift, and hit the road. We have to be in New Orleans, Louisiana, by 8 tomorow. To Memphis we go, a couple of hours, and we catch a hotel. Zack sleeps while the rest of us work on band choreography and philosphy.

Sept. 21 1998

Wake up call 7, showers, cont. breakfast, Music Highway 40W, 1 hour later, we take the exit to Grace Land, the home of the King, a palace. An audio tour of his mansion and estate was very informative (thanks Priscella), and his house was very inspiring. We placed a BLAG card with a button, and our signatures at his side, and went on our way. Billy Black on the bass, doing the swan. On the road, we hear that it is anywhere from 5 and 1/2 hours to 13 to get to New Orleans from Memphis. Everyone we asked said many things, but the one consistancy was to not speed in Mississippi. Cruise control. Pull into New Orleans at around 7:30, and follow Esplanade straight down to the edge of the French Quarter, and park in front of Checkpoint Charlies, our gig destination. Rick, the friendly bartender, helped us find an inexpensive hotel, which was conveniently located across the street. The Frenchman Hotel, up, down, around, several staircases, the room- water leeks in the doorway forming a protective moat, clogged toilet (nice boobie=trap for the Frenchman burglers), a big fan that looked as though it was about to fall out of the ceiling (amother boobie). We are happy, $127 for two nights. We check in, and cruise across the street to the gig. Free red beans and rice, a little danger involved with woodchips. Free beers, some Cuervo gold, and a fun show. Receptive listeners, some new friends, Austrians on tour, Kufamu, the Nigerian dancer and drummer, David, fellow musico, and the headliners... Aural Elixir, local pop soul. This bar, also a laundrymat, was a great place for the buffet. Back to the hotel, and call it an early night.

Sept. 22 1998

Tuesday. Wake up, free continental breakfast- coffee, oj, toast, muffins, pastries. Stroll, window shop down Decateur. Music, music, and more music. Cool trio playing at the Gazebo- piano, clarinet, drums (friend of Terry Bozio). More combos down the street. New Orleans famous bignets, and drinks at Cafe Monde. Over to the Mississippi River, Jackson Square, more street performers, tarot card readers, mimes, a big church... Lunch at Frank's sandwiches on Decateur, a mufaletta, a shrimp po'boy, a roast beef po' boy, and ice tea. Great food and great service. Back to the hotel, retrieve instruments, first attempt to street perform in New Orleans. Over to Royal Street, thin crowds, good practice. Very hot! and humid. Blood, sweat, and tears in the streets. A slow afternoon on Royal Street, we retire back to the hotel. Borboun Street, looking for food but caught up in the walk and the many sights along the street. Bars, clubs, restaurants, hot dog stands, naked men and women, locals insisting they could tell us "where we got our shoes", a lot of music. Overwhelmed, cautious, curious, excited, shocking, hot, light showers, are we back in Isla Vista? A wild night. Toby, a sailor at the crossroads, advising us to "know who we are, now, right now." Marvin, the information mime, directions and safety tips. Pat O'Brien's, and a round of Hurricanes. The oldest bar in the country, an old blacksmith shop on Bourboun, the Voodoo grape freeze. Walk back to the Frenchman Hotel. Zach and Steve cruise to Checkpoint's open mic night. Jim Smith and Dave are jamming, guitar and tambourine with a brush. We join in for a few songs, some of their's and some of our own. Great experience, cool scene, nice people, great musicians. After leaving Checkpoint and checking out the Frenchamn's jacuzzi... tucked in and asleep at sun rise.

Sept. 23 1998

Wednesday. Check out of the Frenchman Hotel, late. (If you leave the phone unplugged, they cannot call and tell you to leave). We take the Clockwerks and parade down Decateur St., to Jackson Square. Drink a gallon of water, and sweat it right back out. Bread and ham make an affordable lunch. Slow afternoon for street performing. But we jam a bit- clockwerks, bass, and singing. The Clockwerks really grabbed the attention of passers-by. We check out the guitar duo and the dixieland big band for a bit, and then decide to call it an afternoon. Back to the car, pack the car. Solo time in the French Quarter- French Market, Jackson Square, skateboard ride through the projects,... Meet back at Blag van, with gifts, postcards, and short stories. Sandwiches and sides at the Verdi Marte (on Royal and Government). Nice giant-size po'boys! Good Bye New Orleans. Leaving as much sweat behind us as possible, we crank the a/c and head out, north west toward Alexandria. We find an Economy Inn, $55 for four persons. Journal entries. Sleep 3:30.

Sept. 24 1998

Fort Worth, Texas - Wake up at noon, dang that is check out time. Everybody out! Head down to the local Albertsons to pick up some car food, call Gina. It is a long drive still to the North West Lousiana border town of Shreveport, then we still have a longer drive into Texas. It ends up taking us about 4 hours to get through Texas, but there was some road construction, and we stopped at a Texas information booth where some local Texans were very helpful in telling us where to go, how to get there, and were good company for the blagging group of highway sailors. Thanks Waskom Travel Information Center! Laury, Sheri, and Tonji (taun-ya). We drive straight to the gig, and get there right on time. Gina and her brother Vincent come down bringing sandwich material and other finger foods. There were not a lot of people at the Pig and Whistle, but those fortworthers that were there seemed fairly receptive to our music. We had a chance to do some improv and development. Added a couple more songs to the set. Played untill 1:30 then out of there. Sold a couple of buttons. I was surprised to see that some of the celebrity series sold and none of the abc series sold... hmmm. Too bad we did not get that on tape, but since we left our 4-track in Nashville we have to go with the flow. We were all shocked when we heard the news about Bixby. Our friend that had accompanied us on the entire journey, acting as our back up power supply in times of need, did not make it out of New Orleans. The little Lion mouse who rode on our roof, then later moved to the front bumper is gone. A moment of silence for our lost friend. ... Gina fed us homemade lasagne and put us all to bed.

Sept. 25 1998

FW, Texas - We roll out of bed after noon, dine on a magnificent feast prepared by Gina. Get a quick tour of the herb gardens and of the herbal essence factory of Judy Griffin. Hang out and take care of business for a while. Business included phone calls, naps, a post office run and another feast. Next we shifted some things around in the Blag wagon in order to make room for Gina, our gracious host who agreed to accompany us to her parents house in Austin, Texas. We pile into the car and hit the rode just as the sun is going down. About halfway to Austin we stopped at the Walmart in WACO Texas. Steve bought a plush case for his camera and Zach and Dan bought carts to carry thier instruments. Onward to Austin for a night of street performing on Sixth street. Sixth street is alive and vibrant with young people. The streets get so impacted with people by around 12 that the police close the street off. We park, suit up and hit the street. The first people we run into are a trio of musicians, without their instruments. Ironically this group boasts an upright bass, button accordion, guitar and percussion. Sounds familiar eh? We finally begin playing and immediatley start getting a crowd. Oops here comes the cops. "Oh you mean we aren't actually allowed to play in the street, O.K. thanks officer." We head down the down the block and find a less conspicuous spot. There we stayed for the rest of the night. We played to some great people, Matt and Carl, and found the gig to be very encouraging. We reunited with Rob and Gina, who had taken a little Salsa excursion early in the evening. We put our intruments away and rolled off to the car. Drive to Gina's, The long way and pass out in a dark room. As we fall asleep a lite warm rain begins to fall. Ah! very refreshing.

Sept. 26 1998

We awake in the late afternoon. Sandy, Gina's stepmother makes us fruit, yogurt, coffee and bagles. Try the jalepeno pepper jelly on your bagel. Relectuntly we do. My God this is good Jelly. Very sweet with a tangy bite to it. Who would have thought. Showers, business, e-mail. E-mail reveals that our New Mexico gig as well as one of the Arizona gigs has been cancelled due to un forseen circumstances. This means that we may be able to visit the Grand Canyon, or Zion or maybe even Las Vegas. We have choices! Ah the price of Freedom (see washigton D.C. entries for more info on price of freedom) We finally leave the house and head out for some Tex-Mex cuisine at Chuy's, Great food and good company thanks for coming with us Gina and Letty. Ah my stomach is so huge I must make a visit to the Vomitorium Blah, Blah, Uh BLah, BYUCH, Sorry if that was too gross for YA'All but that was the kind of saucy fun that awaited us down on Sixth Street. But before we went to Sixth Street we stopped at the DRAG. The street that alligns the UT campus. There we got coffees at Barnes and Noble and did some serious research into starting one's own record label. Very interesting and exciting stuff we've already done a lot of the work. We leave the book store and head off to Sixth Street. Good street performing lots of positive vibes from the people. Lots of drunk college kids and lots of expensive puke. Ah reminds me of I.V. which reminds me that we will be in Santa Barbara in a week. I miss you all. Anyway the street performing went well, but unfortunately Johnny Law had it in for us. He stopped our little shin dig right as we were about to rake it in. Bummer, oh well. We regroup and depart. Home good, sleep Good, push ups good, 123 Kamikazi uh uh uh Steve attacks. Lebo retaliates. Whoa Lebo, is that a "Full Nelson"? No, it's a cradle. Pant, pant, pant, sleep, sleep, sleep... Good night. scratch, scratch, scratch.

Sept. 27 1998

Sunday, Austin, Texas - Wake early ~10ish, upon the arrival of Gina's father. Awesome Waffle breakfast. lagtime. laundry. lag. Depart the house of Ermis at ~3pm. Head on down to the Pecan festival on 6th street. Dang, 6th street does not let up. Stop by Local Flaver to talk music business with Sue, who is a bucket, overflowing with information. Very helpful, she pointed us in many directions, including European conection tips, New Zealand, ... We skipped around on the ALO CD, and she commented on our diversity and many possiible directions. Great advice! Inspired, we head to the street hoping to check out some cool music. Awesome fajitas for $2.50, a gross brisket sandwich for $3.75, an onion blossom for $5.00, lemonades, and water ice. Separated from Zack, we enjoy the festival. Finally reunited, we grab our instruments, and find a little nook to duck into. Very few police around, and we don't get hasseled at all. We had some troubles when we started playing because nobody would stop and listen. So we take a break, wipe the sweat, take a drink, and just sit, too hot to care. Before long, we had a small croud waiting to hear us play. Hmmm. Stop playing, and you get a croud. We start playing, and the people start jumping, the dollars start dropping, and we sell a CD. We are joined by a wandering group of Bohemian drummers who add an amazing flair to our usual sound. After that we are joined by a couple that (after a glass or two of Champagne) play a nice jazz tune. It is nice to play with other musicians. We finally break down the set, tired, and happy. Head over to Antoine's for a little funk recessitation from Maceo Parker, and his awesome band, including but not limited to, "Sweet" Charles Sharell (the karate master, "Mustang Sally", "Papa's Got a Brand New Bag"), and Corey Parker (ELOS, Maceo's son, "Move your Body", "Let's Get it On"). "House Party"! The show was amazing. We all had an awesome time. Maceo and the band led the crowd through an avenue of greats- JB, P-Funk, andRay Charles. The "Oooh Yeah Show". The evening culminated in a hang out session with Sweets and Maceo. We dropped a CD of with Sweets, and Natasha (manager), and bid them farewell. Hop into the car and drive north. We need to get to Oklahoma. Grab a hotel south of Waco, and crash.

Sept. 28 1998

Monday, Norman Oklahoma - It is amazing, we have yet to leave a hotel without getting yelled at. The phone was left off the hook, ad we awoke to banging on the door 15 minutes past check out. We're comming we're comming, we just need to take showers. Hit the road by 12ish, and roll up to exit 353 to West, Texas. There we stop at the Czech stop for some Kolachis and snacks. They were good. Driving north, make a couple of short stops, including a stop at a class 3 (a shrub in the middle of a free way would be cleaner, and more comfortable) rest stop... we finally come to the Border of Texas and Oklahoma, which is marked by the famous Red River, and its valley. The dirt is red. Swimmers played in calm river water. A vista point with no vista, a couple hours and we get to Norman, a suburb south of Oklahoma City, where the university is located. We find our bar, the Deli, park, then head out to do some promoting. Make new cards, and some fliers. Send Zack and Dan out on the street with the accordian, conga drum, and a fist full of fliers. Little A and B stick around at the copy shop to work on band business (fresh newly improved business cards). We all meet up at New York Pizza. $8 for a huge pizza that only takes 20 minutes to cook. Nice. 9:00 stage call. Small turn out, but the faces are friendly, and we play to them. Two sets, different order, it all works out. Two locals Wes and Blythe fill us in on the southwest music scene, specifically Oklahoma and Kansas, and help make us feel welcome in Norman. Sold and gave away some buttons. At the bar, there was our gracious host and owner of the bar, Greg Anderson, with a handful of entertaining stories about the bands that have visited the Deli. Mistie, on the opposite side of the bar, was having a rough night, having been disqualified from a dance contest earlier in the night at Sugar's, where she had given 3 years of hard work and dedication, and her car broke down too. Murph, the talent agent from San Diego. Our friends Deanna and Mellisa keep us company until we are packed up, and we end up crashing at their house after watching "Boyz in the Hood".

Sept. 29 1998

Tue, Gallup New Mex - We wake up slowly, and we take our time, and finally by about 2:00 we roll away from Deanna's. On our way out, we stop at .. on main street near La Baggette and the Deli, for some really good soup (in bread bowls) and sandwiches. Chow fiercely. Rollin, we ride the blacktop wave out accross the plains of Oklahoma, in to Texas, through allanreed pop 52, and on to New Mexico. What is that out on the Horizon? AH! There it is again! A Flash, and a glow, the sun has set (which is painful since we were driving west) the flashes continue. We finally narrow down that the flashes are 1 of 3 things. 1)Aliens - It is the right part of the country, 2) Nuclear government testing, or 3) Electrical Storm...though we did not come up with this idea until much later. The idea of aliens was shot down...It is totally not aliens. As we got closer, the frequency of explosions seemed to increase, and we could no longer believe that the us or any nation would permit such a gross violation of the most recent version of the nuclear arms treatys...though this is the right part of the country. It is lightning. A bolt almost hit our car, and the rains have come quickly, oh, now they are gone. Up the continental divide we go. gets up to about 7200 feet, and down to 49 deg. weird, The coldest it as been for the last three weeks was 88 deg. Dang, gas prices are up. $1.08 everything is going crazy, it must be el nino. I much prefered paying 80 cnets for gas, but the prices are on the rise. We decided to take the old route 66 accross the Rio Grande, and we eventually arrive in Gallup. Steve A's pink eye has spread to his forhead, and we fear that soon his entire body may turn pink. $30 for the night. Unplug the phone and to bed we go.

Sept. 30 1998

Wed, Arizona - We depart from our cheap-scungy-gross shower-two towel hotel, we go North on rte 666, for a little bit. Stop at Alby's for breakfast. Then we turn west, and head into AZ. We cross straight into the Navajo Indian Reservation, then the Hopi, then the Navajo. Finally we arrive at Tuba City where we turn to head out accross the painted desert. We finally find rte 64 which will take us in to the grand canyon...and it does, after going past many little shops, and the canyon is big...really big. There is no way to tell how big the canyon is by just looking down, it is all too big. We watch the sun set from a small outcropping of rocks, passed the marked outlook point. Big and pretty sunset, big and pretty canyon, big and pretty sky, big and pretty clouds, big and scary crows. Darkness, we cant do much more site seeing, off to Prescott. Arriving at 10pm, we are just in time to catch the Gluey Brothers show. Now that is a show, they had the place packed, a drummer in lace, a bassest with a different hat every song, funky guitarist, and two rappers that could bust series kulo. Their music was danceable, and fun to listen to and watch. We found the Senator Inn just up the road, and were all passed out asleep by 2am...finally we get to bed early. What do you mean it is the same time here as it is in CA, we are in different time zones?

Oct. 1 1998

Thurs, Prescott (pres-kit) - We wake up late, but the hotel owner is cool, he was from Sunnyvale, so we wrapped for a while. Finally we grab a bite to eat at the Country Kitchen. Realizing that we have nothing to do, we eventually fall into the car and start driving....habit I guess. Eventually we find ourselves at a lake, gas prices are going up - buck ten is what we look for. Beautiful rocks 20 feet high, straight, smooth, falling into a shiny blue lake.. for four hours. AHHHH, bugs! Stay in the sun and everything is allright. "SteveA! We need you to help us communicate with the bugs!". Play at the Lyzzard's Lounge to an awesome audience. This bar has cool owners, and they pay well. We play two sets which express a lot of strength in the new style we are developing...open communication. 1:00 hit road and drive...We want to make it to Blythe before going to bed. A and B up all night again. KOA on the Colarado mile 2 in AZ, beautiful campsite. How much? No tent, stars. Comfy gravel.

Oct. 2 1998

Fri, LA and SB - 8:00am fresh baked blag in the wagon for delivery to Santa Barabara. Money on DP? Watts, we must tour watts and see the tours, Mingus grew up here. Amazing structure built by a single man, Rodilla. Totally cool thing to do in your yard. Drive through town, cruise Melrose, head to Beverly Hills, Fallafel King is good. Is 2.50 every 20min parking good? Bill Barrett has us to his family residence for a game of football and trivia. High above the hills. IV via Topanga. Superstar party awaits us, those present included John Holms, Grace Slick, Richard Simmons. Street perform to a wonderful crowd at 12:05am. Lots of of people dancing in the streets. Cops shut us down becuase someone in the audience threw a bottle at them. Best damn bed in a while, Carrie, you are daah sheeeeit.