TOUR DAIRYNovember-December 2001

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November 1 , 4 , 6 , 7 , 8 , 9 , 10 , 11 , 12 , 13 , 14 , 15 , 17 , 18 , 19 , 21 , 23 , 27
December 2 , 3 , 5 , 6 , 9

Coda

November 1. Thursday. 2339 hrs. Flagstaff, AZ. Cheers with the sound down. A motel. I am in. First stop of solo drive to NYC in rentavan to meet Wes and David. Motel chosen for no particular reason other than its not being part of a chain. I don't recall the name of it and there'sOklahoma City looks mighty pretty nothing in this small but functional 29 dollar room that says. Loudness of train whistle. Always called lonesome. This is a city of high altitude. I will look at it some tomorrow I will do some business here before heading back out on the highway looking for adventure (but not too much adventure) and a next stop somewhere east of Amarillo possibly hopefully. Considering lunch in Albuquerque. First 2 hours of drive I thought This is a stupid thing to do, I will go out of my mind doing this. Then rhythm established. First stop in Ludlow CA between Barstow and Needles on phone outside minimart watching crows go by somehow began to put me in better mood. Inside minimart clerk and clerkess conversing, she going outside to watch the sunset (deserty, colorful), him saying something about the moonrise being better, she said the other day I photographed the moon rise, he said why, she said it was something to do. He said it's moving away you know, an inch a year. Then (back on road) the moon coming up, bright yellow and full and huge in dry black sky edging over the clean jagged line of floraless desert mountain dead ahead and that put me in a very good mood, plus moonlit landscape less tiring to drive than standard dark dark. Now Conan with the sound down. Now go sleepy.
November 4. Sunday. 0149 hrs. From a motel 6 that's a Yo La Tengo joke. Near Jackson TN.  Tina turner on TV, something from the early '80s. Smell of the mildew the Southern mildew. The south happened today, in Eastern Oklahoma. Arkansas left no doubt. Stopped in OK City for lunch, then in Okemah where we Woody Guthried in '99 for nostalgic cruise down old empty main street. The Crystal. The Brick. Tina's band heavy on the new wave fern bar rock guy look. Mustache and headband action among back up singers, feathered hair and leather jackets. But Tina looking as good as a human possibly can even singing a Bob Seger song. Hoping tomorrow rather later today to cross paths w/ Mr. Kevin Jarvis at the Cats Pajamas. (See here for CPJs details.) But must sleep now. Days are running long. Omigod now here’s Victoria being interviewed and playing the piano. Wearing an orange sweater.
November 6. Tuesday. 0039 hrs. Arrived in the city of New York City the borough of Brooklyn. Was a little nervous about finding my PA NJ borderway in maps are near useless for working out the changes here but instincts were correct and I did not go wrong. I supposed I should get on the NJ Turnpike going south from 78 and that was the right thing to do. Then over Staten Island and a bridge whose name I won't misspell (did I misspell mispell? Mispell misspell?) the something Narrows, you know the one, the winds were buffety and a little unnerving. Wondered was I smelling the terrorism (or was it only New Jersey). New York is not built for as many people as use it, the infrastructure is old old old. What pass for freeways here. I mean I'm from L.A. But made it in. Found parking. This is Park Slope after all. To dine w/ Melanie at the Olive Vine down across the street then after that meeting Wes David Shelley at the other Olive Vine down the next street there's a write up in Time Out it says that David sounds so fragile you're afraid the record will break if you play it or something like that. Back to Mel's. Ed came home from cop school with his baton and his vest. I sit on futon on leopard sheets preparatory to unconsciousness. I was at the Cat's Pajamas too early for Kevin but right in time for Denise's homemade falafel. Tennessee looked good, alive, so did Pennsylvania the downgoing sun lighting up all the orange of the fall trees with dark blue grey clouds lowering low. I took a picture.
0948 hrs. Up. First day in six I haven't had to drive anywhere though must remember to move car before parking police arrive. Blue sky and shivering treetops glimpsed over red gold polka dot curtains of Melanie office room where I slept. Purple feather boa. Chinese cat pictures. Thrift store painted girl, ocean scene. Radiator shelf. Map of the world: You are here (necessarily). Signs from the trip east I did not have time to mention: Frozen Head Park. Hungry Mother State Park. Bushland Texas. I'd better go move that car. I mean van.
November 7. Wednesday. 0100 hrs. Still here or rather back here in the Melanie office end of a long day which included trip to Manhattan and first (and last?) rehearsal. The David songs. The Wes songs. The Wes and David songs. It felt great to play. Nice view from up there in the Egyptian tomb studio on the 11th floor of something Varrick. No camera of course. Went w/ David for sammiches, harmonicas, guitar stand, picks. Ran into Rob at elevator in a cold weather hat. New York brisk and clear and actually nice to be in. The city does not seem especially terrorized and is itself famously no longer terrifying. Deli sent us across the street to bakery for sammich bread because they had run out. But they deducted the what has that got to do with the price of bread from the total. Then Brooklyn again and Shelley made Yuri bark at the word accordion and we walked far to the Chip Shop where we had the chips and the fish and a deep fried Mars Bar. Then here I was here again and this and that. And now I sleep and then I get up and move stuff to Gavin's/Kelly's and then we go to Cortland and have a show, tonight which is Wednesday and then drive back.
November 8. Thursday. 1223 hrs. Sitting here w/ Kelly Link who is eating miso soup and answering the phone. It's David and we are all going to lunch except Wes who is being on the TV. Kelly and Gavin let me sleep until noon which was nice as we did not return from Cortland and first show of tour until the wee hour of four though if you're going to drive into New York City that's the time to do it. Wrong way drive SUNY Cortlandupstate but we did see the charming town of Tuxedo and four real deer dining in a glade as if they'd been placed there by Uncle Walt himself in fact their reality did not strike me at first as reality and then when the sun went down a shooting star. I forgot to say I saw rabbits in Virginia when I was checking into my motel whenever that was. Show last night: Good. Sparsely attended in the sense that the room (old concert hall on the Carnegie lines, w/ giant organ pipes visible behind scrim) was too big for crowd but in all respects pleasant and there was a piano and if it had seen better days it was nevertheless a Steinway and worthy of your respect.
November 9. Friday. 0038 hrs. House of Kelly and Gavin. Brooklyn. Apart from me not a creature stirring not even a. Back from Manhattan and Makor. On the famous upper west side. Well I'd never played that part of town afore. A very nice place notwithstanding they made us leave (our show business being concluded) and it wasn't even midnight. But a very nice place. High class (an Arts Center). A piano they could have tuned but which we made full excellent use of nevertheless. A full house and among the crowd the people of the small world our small world. I was for instance mentioning Davia to Nina and Jill who was standing there said Davia Nelson I think I know that name from Santa Cruz. The Raver there raving. Mike and the aforementioned Nina. (Mike booking the tour but an old chum.) And Sarah had dinner with Mike and Nina quite by coincidental happenstance that was before in the small world. Mammoths out in force (but where did Giovanna go)? Jocelyn, Molly. Jill here for academic conference sporting sprained knee and cane. Young John Whitaker whom you'll meet again in Louisville, w/ stepfather. There was Loretta (late of the LA MTVR now of the NY MTVR and another link in the three degrees of Davia). Jennifer, Nathan's friend who wrote for Best of L.A., introduced herself. Dara Wax from Washington Manuel's friend at Columbia studying international affairs or is it relations and I made sure David met all the academics and NGO folks but he had his own peeps his own posse to attend to. And Jeroen possibly in Hoboken Saturday all the way from London town. That's what I'm talkin about. The show the show meanwhile was from the standpoint of the stage as good a show as ever there was, musical and momentary and semipsychic. Cab ride back to Brooklyn eating peppered nuts and jelly babies passing all down the island to Little Italy where the lights were up across the streets and then over the Manhattan Bridge. Feeling fine. There's a lot of New York left. Tomorrow or rather later today we go Philadelphia. Here's Sarah on the phone. I made tea but forgot to drink it. Haven't seen Gavin.
November 10. Saturday. 0952 hrs. Chester PA, first motel of tour that is the general tour not counting my trip across. Waiting for the shower waiting for the shower to be mine. Flowered bedspread spongey paint effect wallpaper pale pastel abstract "art." The riverlike rush of freeway beyond the heavy industrial curtain drapes. A roomy room. Last night Tin Angel first show was a roomy room but 2nd was full as insert metaphor here. Beforehand was Old City Coffee down the cobbly street by Christ Church where Kevin and I discovered the 6 Bean Espresso earlier this year and there was the book store and the record store (Francoise Hardy, Pink Floyd, Corn Sisters) and the alley of old houses. The good old Tin Angel, the good old George on sound. Serrano food downstairs: may I recommend the pumpkin ravioli. Donna and Jamie of course of course. Loud singing drinky drunk guys down front sometimes were distracting. Jamesons for the trio.
November 11. Sunday. 0045 hrs. Back from Hoboken. Mine goodly hosts are away and I have this pad to myself. Just me and the cookies and the hot water I forgot to make tea in. Toy Story 2. Everybody else is somewhere else maybe asleep. Bridge and tunnel on the way there tunnel and bridge on the way back we had to do some improvising on the flipflop on account of blocked roads and detours. Noticed today really for the first time the absence of the WTC. Rock show night, the people standing. Good and full. Jeroen was there and especially Karen I am tired and need to sleep or would say more.
November 12. Monday. 0201 hrs. Arlington: Iota! Done and done. That is turning into a regular reliable somethingorother. Another fantastic parking space. The good free dinner first (and the good free dessert). The room all nice and fully full and friendly. Driving into Washington the air was full of contrails, bomber death planes riding shotgun in the sky. Sending the protective preemptive message. Am I forgetting something? It's cold out!
November 13. Tuesday. 0105 hrs. A cat has crawled onto my lap. This is perhaps the cat named Monkey or perhaps the other cat. We are being put up. In Chapel Hill. There is folk art here and a cat on my lap going to sleep and very warm perhaps I am starting to itch a bit. But there is something very nice always about a sleeping cat. I am at a sort of kitchen table in a sort of living room. Look there is Wes through a door reading a book. Real words spoken earlier none by me: "Of course because it’s that delicious Japanese stuff which is called but I tell you what I can eat a lot of in Japan tofu over here tofu it’s this kind of rubbery thing that you have to disguise over there it’s like yogurt." Followed by discussion of Oprah/Franzen contretemps (news to me), of recent books (of which I have read none). Drinking tea. Barefoot. Shrimp and grits and a cranberry torte at Crook’s, followed by a Negro Modelo at the something or other Orange Social Club. Chapel  HillOn the road sort of for real now, in the sense that we are away from Brooklyn base camp for a week. (I am far from home the whole all the time.) A detour into colonial Fredericksburg ("America's most historic city") on the way down from Arlington. I was there once w/ Mark Walton and saw a neturia. Bought a cable at Picker's Supply. Pretty autumn trees all along the highway, sky at sunset a spectrum. Crossed leg w/ cat on it now asleep (like cat). Elsewhere the Northern Alliance enters Kabul, a plane crashes in New York, George Harrison leaves a hospital.
1823 hrs. Bookandrecordshopping all day. Hardbound Kenneth Koch Selected Poems, Robbe-Grillet Projet Pour Une Revolution a New York, new Kelly Hogan, live Radiohead, Bert Jansch twofer and this 6ths thing I heard on the radio driving in Virginia last week on a station that came and went and held on almost long enough for the whole of the Low/Dirty 3 version of Down by the River. What was odd on that drive was all the Christian radio esp. the apocalyptic teen drama that kept me well occupied through eastern Tennessee. Back now at house of staying in. Bob Marley is feeling a rastaman vibration. Soon very soon we will go be musicians. Now there is cleaning and working and e-mailchecking. Which I do now.
November 14. Wednesday. 0244 hrs. Chapel Hill: Room 4: a small crowd if crowd is the word but mighty. It felt like date night. Everything is going so well even when it doesn't go  well it goes well. Peter Blackstock who does No Depression was there. In the van Wes played the banjo my banjo my father's old banjo, Wes and David sang songs they sang at school. Went to a bar that might have been called Tyler's and were given free Booker's which is not my favorite thing to drink but certainly is strong.
November 15. Thursday. 0137 hrs. Again we are at the end of a long day and I am too tired to remember what I wanted to tell you too tired to make the words work. Wes come knocking on motel room door but David is asleep or trying to be (I think now he is truly asleep) and does not want to watch the video of himself at Eddie's Attic in the city of Decatur next to Atlanta GA. Uneventful day of road followed by excellent Thai meal w/ Sean and Julie followed by excellent show to full howling crowd. Rare 2nd encore (selected song even more rare). Followed by excellent Kentucky bourbon whose name I cannot now recall set upon the bar at no charge courtesy the selfsame Eddie whose Attic it is. This is a good tour for the free whisky. Don Conoscenti is coming there he's a nice guy and boy can he play the guitar. There was a graffiti sketch of Don (and Ellis Paul and their little percussive friend Christopher (name approximate)) on the wall backstage at the Tin Angel (Philadelphia). I am tired enough to be hearing things, I wrote "music turned enough" when I was asleep just now. I am asleep just now. I am not asleep but asleep enough to write I am asleep.
November 17. Saturday. 0245 hrs. Solo room in Louisville. What's that noise? Well. I don't know it's gone. It's hard to keep up w/ this tour dairy on this tour because I drive all the drives. We went and saw the big bat and then we went to Old Bardstown Road and consumed. Books n records n food. This morning we were in Nashville at the Cat's PJs ; yesterday afternoon I gave David the speedyjiffy Nashville tour incl. the Parthenon (lifesize replica of) and the Great Escape (used records). Denise made lovely breakfast things but we had to eat and drive. Now I have to type and sleep. Excuse the lack of details, or anything that resemblesShoes of Louisville information, or thought. Night night.
1006 hrs. Here is David and we're going to try to make my mandolin feel better over on the old Old Bardstown Road. The bad Connery Bond is on the TV but we are leaving it now.
2001 hrs. Arrived in Dayton by way of large and excellent free Chinese meal courtesy Angela in northern Kentucky just shy of Cincinnati. Hotelwise we are as upmarket tonight as last night we were  down though things were better there (Louisville Travelodge) once I moved out of the smoky nonsmoking room into the nonsmoky one. DL in bath. I don't think I've ever taken a bath between a soundcheck and show and don't expect I ever will though I might. It's no good being categorical about these things or any things. Well no sometimes it is good being categorical. In a library for instance. But even there. In any case. In the lobby a march of high school seniors What's the occasion asked I, It's our semi-formal said one girl, which seemed to translate as the girls dress up but the boys don't. Older man in a very bad wig. Free chocolate cookie (upmarket I told you). We are perhaps going to the coffee street if David ever gets out of the bath. Success with mandolin fixage this a.m. thanks to Jim of the Guitar Emporium on Bardstown Road (I think I've been adding the "old" erroneously) also the Twice Told Coffeehouse where appropriately we went Twice. Here is David all clean. In body. In mind? I find a bath quite useful to wake me up as well (he says), a bit of revival. He is explaining himself because I gave him a hard time about it though in an affectionate jocular way. I must assemble my costume for the evening's entertainment. (Change my shirt I mean.)
November 18. Sunday. 0207 hrs. Big night in Dayton concluded. Who would have known would have thought Dayton would become such a stronghold of Wes. All you could ask for from an audience (they listened they laughed they made appropriate noise, a lot of noise, in all the appropriate places). Thanks to Jim of Guitar Emporium no technical difficulties of the sort that made Louisville difficult (for me) though even that show was good/fun anyway. Tall John Whitaker whom I mentioned previously played there (Louisville) before David and brought in the young people crowd. Also in Louisville we saw the giant Louisville Slugger statue. Now here I am twelve floors up in the Dayton Doubletree. Every so often a small tremor of unknown (to me) origin. At home I would think: Earthquake. DL in slumberland. Next stop Pittsburgh.
November 19. Monday. 0042 hrs. Pittsburgh. Schmancy hotel right in the downtown. Giant lobby dome. Marble this-a, marble that-a. Eleventh floor view of river, stadiums, stuff. Frenchy stripy wallpaper. Complimentary bathrobe. Five pillows on bed. Everything nice though they charge for the local calls which they don't at Motel 6. Street Legal on the free provided CD player alarm clock radio combination. Recently returned from hotel bar they made us leave it was I guess late. Though not too late after all even now it's only 12:45 a.m. After the excellence of last night the gremlins of this almost inevitable. I will not go into the horrible details. Yet at the same time it was all right. Kevin the lovely sound guy and Steelers fan. (He wore the shirt.) We were on opposite the Steelers which might have accounted for the uncustomary deadness of Smallman Ave. In Boston we are on opposite Bob Dylan, whom Wes and David will see tomorrow at the Madison Square Garden. Dinner in the West Indian mode at Kaya. David and Wes split alligator appetizer, David made joke about it tasting of old handbags. I need a haircut.
November 20. Tuesday. 1645 hrs. Guest room at Amy’s. A beautiful little new house for Amy Elizabeth Sarah. Amherst MA. Mission style bed; felt a hair short last night (people smaller in those days), but found the accomodating angle eventually. Dream Syndicate posters, Velvet Underground banana album. Rocking chair where last night slept big gray cat. Amy out shopping. Amherst. Clouds coming in, weather getting chilly; finally broke out the muffler. Listening to Pentangle Sweet Child bought used from Mystery Train record store. Arrived here last night after dropping off other boys in Brooklyn, was fed tasty salad with smoked trout then up late conversing. Off the road until Friday, chilling, working (essay writing for Weekly), laundering, entering numbers in cell phone.
November 21. Wednesday. 1706 hrs. Same place. Alone here, writing, or "writing." Drinking tea, filching Oreos. Listening to Françoise. Gloves used today. Another walk to town, another lunch. Picturesque old inn. Everyone knows Amy apparently. Jeffrey Amherst whose ancient name is attached to many things here his claim to fame apparently was giving smallpox-infected blankets to the local Indians: 18th-century American bioterrorism. (I'm assuming the 18th-century until further research, which I may never do.) Brigid arriving tonight from New York, soon in fact. Looking at Galaxie 500 box set booklet. Listening to Pentangle now. I wonder where Amy is.
November 23. Friday. 1027 hrs. David onstage in New Haven inbetween Your Kind of Madness and Jealousy’s Antiques, his solo break, my little offstage backstage time. Nazneen (sp?) here andThanksgiving other David friends. And a lot more people than you would have thought. And Brigid and Amy over across the street eating at the Malaysian place we were at ourselves but had to leave to come here and make the music. Brigid was in Thanksgiving Amherst for Thanksgiving as well, we were housemates in the house of Amy and guestmates in the house of Byron and Lili. Now that was a lovely night and well supplied. And I took one walk w/ Amy and the dog (named Onyx like Tricia's dog Onyx) and a later walk in the country dark of Massachusetts with a whole little bunch of people whose names I can't at this second recall but most of whom were related by marriage or blood. And then New Haven, meeting Wes and David and Nazneen who came up by train from the city of New York City. And Robert Palm who I saw as I left the low stage in this smokey smokey smokey "lounge." In which I am not wearing my nice sweater because of the smokey smoke. David sounding very good and confident. I would like some water please. Must run.
November 27. Tuesday. 0100 hrs. I have been away from you Tour Dairy. Busy writing for my other life. One piece done but still to edit and another to finish writing. That is all the L.A. Weekly and 3000 miles from here. Boards of Canada in earphones in unseasonably warm Boston which we leave tomorrow or rather today in the later a.m. but where we have already spent three nights running. Though not running. Not for a second did we run. We are over by the Fens and the Fenway and the Fenway Park next to a radio station where Wes and Steve and I once all played live and in person. Before we were here three nights runing we were at Bobby's Farm in the wilds of Eastern Conn., perfectly hosted and well fed. And I petted the sheep Shitty and Stubborn and the goat Half Baked and saw the chickens and the ducks. I was very happy I can't tell you. The house was old and the grounds were beautiful and there was a damp gray that mixed well the autumn orange and brown and we walked into the little town center and saw the little library with its old wood Bacchus carved by a British prisoner back in the revolutionary day, and a little display of frogania and Robert told the story of how long ago the townspeople thinking they heard the war cries of Indians holed up frightened in the church but the next day it was discovered that it was merely the sound of bullfrogs fighting for water. Or some such. So the frog became the town mascot which I thought demonstrated an admirable ability for self-mockery. Now I am tired and must close. We are going to try to get to Niagara Falls before the sun goes down.
December 2. Sunday. 0244 hrs. The days go by the days go by. Chicago third night late night. Not a creature is stirring but me and I am ready to stop stirring presently. We got to NiagaraNiagara Falls Falls the sun had gone down but there was still a little light and anyway there are lights shining all over the thing. It is a big lot of water and movement. I had seen it once it was winter and the spray froze before it hit your face. We didn't get to Canada because we were worried they wouldn't let David back in but I don't understand why. I didn't bother to understand why. We went to the Hard Rock Cafe instead another place David had never been and made fun of videos and gold records. We drove to Cleveland. We went to a sports bar. We Schuba's went to sleep. Dixon and Marti came up from Canton and we went to lunch w/ David around the corner and I had a tuna melt. Got swag (new Dixon, Marti records). We went to the Rock Hall of Fame they have Howlin Wolf's hat and (temporarily) John Lennon's bloody glasses I didn't see Janis Joplin's psychedelic Porsche which I saw there last time when we went w/ the Band. David bought merch. We played a show to not so many people but as is often the case in such cases it was good and long. Michael Fracasso who opened for us at the Mucky Duck in Houston once opened here again he is a nice guy and has the prettiest voice. We drove to Chicago. We played Schuba's. We played Schuba's again (the same night). We played Schuba's again (the next night), and that was the best of all packed to the back wall with spesh guests Dag J. and Susan Voelz (who also guested show 2); Dag was up for Peeps love to Watch U Die and Winder Seat w/ Dead jam breakdown, and Susan so beautifully 5 string violened and sang If You Don't Want My Love which focused my attention on the place and the time and the good fortune, and there were moments like that the livelong night. Then we played the church that was tonight. Now the laundry is going round in the basement and I am sitting crossed leg in the French bed I think they've nicknamed it and I am going OUT.
December 3. Monday. 0024 hrs. Sioux Falls SD. Motel 6. Almost Famous was on the HBO, that is another story of tourdom. This is another another story. Bjork is on the HBO now. That harp playing friends of Nels' is playing the harp I guess. The computer is acting funny, I don't know why, the type is typing in clumps not letter by letter. I got virused the other day it could have something to do with that. Bjork is wearing circus clothes. It is snow on the ground outside and ice and it is cold and night and many a mile to Seattle where we are going. The Mississippi where we crossed it I had never crossed there and it was the last gasp of daylight and very blue and soft edged and beautiful the landscape.
December 5. Wednesday. 00237 hrs. Coeur d’Alene Idaho. Got here over snowy mountain passes, slowly. Stayed in Billings last night. Beautiful great northwoodsy scenery, when you could see it, before the dark came and it was just a stressful slog out of Montana. Which was mostlyIdaho snow clear and sunny up until then. Woke in Billings, stopped in Bozeman. Coffeed up where we saw the old timey musicians play on the last tour, accidentally saw them, their jam. Kara from the radio station came to say hi with a baby. Then we drove. (Saw many cows and some sheeps. A deer bounded across the road (bounded is the word) and there was much car slowage. Yesterday I think it was we saw a fox, which didn’t cross the road, thought better of it.) Then we got here. Then we had a Japanese meal with our shoes off. Then we came to the Motel 6. Then we went and saw Spy Games which no one should do. Then when we came out the van was covered in snow and everything else was too. Then we came back back to the Motel 6. Now I am wondering whether to go out in the cold to get water from the van but I think I will just get it from the sink instead.
December 6. Thursday. 0242 hrs. There is George Harrison on the VH1. He has become something else, he is not what he was. It is Seattle and after the big show. Kurt played, Scott played (one # each). Young Ben Kweller I think is the name opened and he has the true rock spirit. The Century Ballroom fed us well and more or less filled up with people. Beforehand weSeattle cruised Capitol Hill, drank Seattle espresso drinks, shopped. Before that we drove from Idaho and there was snow on the way to Spokane and after, then it was clear, and then there was snow again but not as much as we thought and we got over Snowquami Pass (spelled from memory but possibly correct) w/o incident. Seattle looking very sparkly and shiny. Full of young people in leather jackets, not all look happy, esp. in the rain. After the big show we went to Linda's which is a bar with big pack of people (friend people). Then here we are now at the King or King's Inn, where I was at the end of the last tour diary. Kevin was here and watching Rockford, that was in the spring. There is Alicia Keys on the TV the current hot stuff and she was great singing Donny Hathaway on the New York TV thing but this video is terrible. Big vehicle noise from outside. Night night.
December 9. Sunday. 0141 hrs. Phoenix Motel San Francisco. The thump thump of the disco techno beat from the unfortunately on site disco techno club thumps away in the low subwoofing register as background to courtyardfilling chattering young people fresh from the Thrasher awards who will not go to bed anytime soon, in fact they are going out for beer I heard a girl say. We are next to the party room and w/ a window that doesn’t close. I suppose some of these kids have never been in a hotel before. I drove all the way from Portland and am tired. Everybody go to bed now. Go to bed little children. Portland was nice Sarah was there to see Susan and is there still. We got to Powell’s briefly this morning before the long long drive. Many mountains to cross but the snow stayed on the mountains and off the road. Tomorrow maybe I will see if they have rooms here where the windows close. Seattle was fun too we played the Century Ballroom that was nice. “It is your room do whatever you fucking want.” That is verbatim dialogue from the outside. Not related to our room, someone else’s room. Boom there goes someone into our door again. "Open the fucking door that's all I have to say fuck you open the fucking door hey open the fucking door is this your room no it's not open the fucking door." Not addressed to me I don't think. In any case I am not going to open the fucking door. Kurt Bloch played w/ us in Seattle and so did Scott McCaughey. Young Ben Kweller (he is only 20) opened the show there and I liked him and bought his EP. He was a nice kid with a nice girlfriend and I feel safe in saying that he would know how to behave in a hotel courtyard. "I'm trying to regulate." "All right party wooh take it off" (some girl says). Then the next night we went to Jalisco or Jalisco's and there was karoake but I did not karoak. David and Wes and Kurt and Kurt did but not me not I. There was a big table full of people. People more rock than these kids who won't go to bed but some with kids of their own now. "I'm sorry I'm so sorry." "No you're not. You're just saying that to make me feel better." "Hey has anybody seen my roach around?" "Ewan, fuck off! Fuck yourself! Hey fuck yourself! Ewan, fuck yourself! Fuck you!" Go to bed kids. Go to bed now. 

Epilogical. Here I am now home. For some time. The new year is here. What happened next? The Thrasher kids went home it was quieter. Three more nights of Frisco you're not supposed to say that. Night one was private, a party at Bimbo's, not our party but a party we played and so did Split Lip Rayfield. That was a rock show I had my own riser. See below for personnel. That old gang of radical gentlemen minus Chris but plus Kurt (see here for details of previous collaboration). Dancing people. Kirk and Kevin drove up from L.A. in aBimbos duplicate of our own van w/ rock stuff. We rehearsed in Kurt's brother's new bar, briefly. I looked for the mermaid but  not very hard. We went to North Beach and spent 11 seconds in City Lights then went to have beatnik coffee. Then I went back to North Beach was it the next day or the day after with David and had lunch with Laura at Rose Pistola is it called then coffee in the Coppola coffeehouse. Indicated to David the seedy streetlife on Market. Caren was in a meeting. Night 2 was in Berkeley for the folkies. Then Caren was in her office. Went to 24th St. with Trudy and boys, post office and Phoenix books there was Alison. I bought something Billy Name color Factory photos not as good though as the black and white Factory photos I bought that famous Swedish Warhol catalog for $10 many years ago at Cherokee Books on the Hollywood Boulevard. Then lunch at Zuni then record shops Grooves I think it was called then Amoeba in the Haight Hashbury there is one of those here now and they have got some of my money. Reckless where I'd instored w/ the Romans many long years ago on our one trip out of town no longer there but I did recognize the building. Then Night 3 was in San Francisco again in rock mode for all the people. Jim Healey around somewhere I forget where when. Eating with David and Trudy in the late night place a few doors from Trudy's was that that night or the night before oh who can recall. Elsa is here meowing now. Scenic route taken south, the Highway 1, for benefit of David. But a late start and the sun was down before San Simeon. Still and all. Dinner in SLO at Le Fandango Bistro, Basque and French Cuisine, 717 Higuera St., 805-544-5515, that was satisfying. McCabe's came next because Las Vegas did not. First McCabe's in some time but little changes there even Zack is no longer new, Chelew, Nancy long gone and on to other things. Kirk came and rocked some set one. Then set 2. Then done.

November 7   Cortland NY, SUNY/Cortland
November 8   New York NY, Makor
November 9   Philadelphia PA, Tin Angel
November 10  Hoboken NJ, Maxwell's
November 11  Arlington VA, Iota Cafe
November 13  Carrboro NC, Room 4
November 14  Decatur GA, Eddie's Attic
November 15  Nashville TN, The Sutler
November 16  Louisville KY, Rudyard Kipling's
November 17  Dayton OH, Canal Street Tavern
November 18  Pittsburgh PA, Rosebud
November 23  New Haven CT, Tune Inn Lounge
November 24  Cambridge MA, Passim
November 28  Cleveland OH, Beachland Ballroom, with Michael Fracasso
November 29  Chicago IL, Schuba's
November 30  Chicago IL, Schuba's

December 1   Hinsdale IL, Acoustic Renaissance
December 5   Seattle WA, Century Ballroom , with Ben Kweller
December 7   Portland OR, St. John's Pub
December 9   San Francisco CA, Bimbo's (private party), with Split Lip Rayfield
December 10  Berkeley CA, Freight & Salvage, with Sheila Nichols
December 11  San Francisco CA, Bottom of the Hill*, with Sheila Nichols
December 16  Los Angeles CA, McCabe's

*with the Radical Gentlemen (minus one, plus one)
John Wesley Harding, vocals, guitars, poses
Robert Lloyd, keyboard instruments, mandolin, accordion
Kirk Swan, loud electric guitar
Kurt Statham, bass guit.
Kevin Jarvis, drummering