beautiful, funny, sad & true

Day Two consisted of us driving from Breanna’s aunt’s house in Salem, Oregon down to Redding, California.  I did the lion’s share of the driving, all the way from Salem to the first rest stop after the California border, when Justin took over.  Although it was a clear and sunny day, Mt. Shasta was almost completely hidden by haze until we were practically right up next to it.  The little town of Mt. Shasta City is really pretty, and we only drove through it long enough to park and switch drivers, but I would love to explore it sometime.  Northern California is so pretty.  So I drove from there to Redding, where we had Gig #2.

I love that both Breanna’s and Karlee’s names are misspelled on the sign.

Karlee is none other than ViolinistKarlee, who plays with us often when she’s here in PDX, which is where she goes to school.  Her parents live in Redding, and they very generously welcomed us into their home.  There were many wildfires burning in Northern California at the time (there still are, as I’m writing this more than a week later), and the smoke in Redding was thick and acrid.  It was actually very uncomfortable to breathe outside, so we spent the whole time inside talking and eating.  Karlee made these amazing ‘wraps’, her own special fried potatoes, and an amazing grape salad.  Then it was time to leave for the show.

Karlee (on the left) cracks me up in that picture.  Don’t be fooled by her sweet and innocent exterior; just under the surface lurks a straight-up gangsta who can’t wait to pop a cap in yo’ ass.  I just look constipated.  What, you think we gangstas can’t have a little trouble wit da stool once in a while?  Sheit.

After the show, we went back to Karlee’s place and ate (I really should say ‘gorged ourselves on’) ice cream, pretzels, otter pops (made from real otters!  I’m lying.) and various other delectable treats while we watched DVD’s of Planet Earth.  What an amazing show.  We watched the episodes about mountains and about caves.  The cave one was particularly riveting.

Then we all crashed and went to bed.  Find out what happened in the morning in the next installment of. . .ON TOUR.

This past week was one of the best and most memorable of my whole life. I had the opportunity to tour with Breanna and Justin through the American West, and let me just take a minute to say that it was a total blast.

The cast of characters:

Breanna

Justin

and me. :)

Breanna and I both took hundreds of pictures on this trip. After I get done with the entries for the individual days, I’ll post another entry called ‘Best Pictures of the Tour’ or something. But you’ll find that out for yourself soon enough, I suppose.

So here we are, van packed, ready to hit the road.

Somehow it became our ‘thing’ to pose for every group picture twice; one in which we pose normally and the other in which we pose ‘gangsta’. Yeah, I don’t know what’s wrong with us either, but it did make for some funny pictures.

One other thing that’s important to know about Breanna and Justin is that after a year of friendship, they recently started dating. This, by the way, is awesome and gets my full blessing.

Okay, so on with the story. We started the tour in Eugene, Oregon, at a pizza place with a cosmic theme. We shared the evening with a duo from Los Angeles called Homesick Elephant.

They were really great, and super nice people as well. Their music was very influenced by Simon and Garfunkel, in a good way. One of their songs is entitled “Ghost of Philadelphia”, which is actually a phrase that Justin had randomly said earlier in the day, so we both kinda perked up and looked at each other when they sang that line in the song, as if to say, ‘Did they just say that? That’s so weird.’

One of the waiters had a very funny and effeminate way of inhaling through his teeth while he was thinking of something to say.

For example, when we asked him about good places to explore, he answered, “Well. . .sssssss. . .try going downtown–” which Justin and I immediately adopted and incorporated into our own speech patterns for the rest of the trip. The three of us walked all over downtown, and went shopping for clothes at Buffalo Exchange, but somehow we ended up empty-handed.

There were two guys in the audience who kept making me laugh. One guy was drunk by 5:30, while we were arriving and setting up. He came in to have some pizza and sober up, but he kept having difficulty sitting up straight, while dealing with his duffel bag at the same time, so I kept trying to surreptitiously take a picture of him. Here’s the only one that actually came out:

There was another guy who sat right up front and clapped for an uncomfortable (and slightly creepy) length of time after every single song. You can see what I mean from this picture:

He seemed a bit loaded also, but harmless enough. He was just a little bit weird, that’s all I’m saying. But the night was a blast, and the show went off without a hitch. Afterwards, we backtracked and drove an hour back up north to Salem, to stay at Breanna’s aunt’s house.

It was the perfect way to start a tour.

OneYearAgo

It’s midnight on Saturday, and I’m writing this entry from Meridian, Idaho, after our end-of-tour show in Nampa. Tonight’s show was one of our best shows ever. Every note on the cello sounded perfect, and our vocal harmonies were spot-on. We made tons of money in tips, including a fifty-dollar tip from a woman who came to see Breanna the last time she played there.

This week has been amazing. I have tons to write about, and both Breanna and I have about a million pictures to plow through and copy for each other. I’ll be writing each day of the tour as its own separate entry, because if I didn’t, the entry would be thousands of words long.

Tomorrow morning, we’re getting up early and driving back home to Portland. It’s about a six-hour drive, which will feel like a walk in the park compared to the ten- and twelve-hour marathon drives we’ve endured this week.

Talk to you when I get back!

OneYearAgo

I’m listening to This American Life right now, the episode called Duty Calls, and I just feel the need to say wow.  What an amazing episode.  It’s all about the contrast between two sides of a divorced family; one side high-achieving and the other side completely unable to function because of long-term drug abuse and various other problems.

It made me think that I should appreciate my own family, friends, and situation more than I have.  I very rarely step back and think about where I’m headed, or where I’ve been, or even smell the flowers.  I just kind of keep on keepin’ on, whether it’s with a mind-numbing day job or an insanely busy musical life, or other diversions, but I really need to focus more on what I want my own life to be like, and to appreciate the people who are important to me.  Since we’re on the subject, let me take this moment to say that I APPRECIATE YOU, and I’m glad you’re here.  You could be anywhere else on the web, but you chose to visit me, and I appreciate that.

One thing I’ve felt the need to do since my friend was hospitalized is to contact people more, now that I feel up to it, and just check in with them.  It’s all still new and recent, and there are plenty of people who I haven’t contacted yet, but it’s really felt important to do that, even if we don’t talk for very long.  It’s as if I just need to know that they’re alive and well, and to reach out to them in some way.

Wow, this is a surprisingly maudlin entry.  And it all started with a radio show.

My friend is out of the hospital and back at home, with her cat, a bunch of new furniture and a whole new lease on life. I can’t even tell you how relieved that makes me feel.

Next week I’m taking time off from work to go on tour with Breanna and Justin. We’re playing in Eugene, Redding, Reno, Torrey (Utah) and Nampa (Idaho) by way of GrooveFest, next Friday. Very exciting. I’m not sure how much I’ll be able to write from the road, but I’ll at least take some notes, and some pictures, and get online whenever I can. I’ll still be able to send text messages to Twitter, at the very least.

Went out with JBJ last night to see Jenny Conlee of the Decemberists. That was the plan, anyway. We got there and the show was cancelled. Plus, the third guy who was supposed to join us got there early, ate dinner by himself, then found out that the show was cancelled, so he left. Bummer! It was supposed to be BoyzNiteOut/NoGurlsAloud. Oh well; it still was, there was just one fewer Boy, that’s all. Good times, and good jambalaya, were had while we kept taking care of each other. That’s a little inside joke for you long-time readers, by the way.