10-5.Two days until departure. Went to the movies. Going to drink some tea.
10-6.Leaving in 12 hours. Saw the folks. Saw the Koneffs, Alexander (sorry: Alex) now playing the recorder perhaps one day he'll be leaving in 12 hours on a jet plane like PP&M of a musical folk tour of the united states of embarrassment. It is hot here but it won't be there and packing is always a problem when you're gone for 5 weeks and you have to keep warm but you also have to be cool.
10-7. Airplane. Headache coffee peanuts turbulence. Outside is dark a Carolina or Virginia perhaps below. A goin to Newark. Newark into which I flew long ago for Xmas with the Geraces. Then again on the first solo tour, the bellman who asked us what kind of music we played, folk music we said, and then he said something very amusing I absolutely can't remember I'll have to ask Wes. There is a bell here comes a cart slowly slowly up the aisle watch your feet and elbows ladies and gentlemen of the airplane. I know it gets you there fast but flying seems dumber to me every year. Not even the “free” headphones the coffee the peanuts compensate for the inhuman torture of a day in the air. Bring back the trains I say. Three days is fast enough to travel from coast to coast.
10-8. Woke rehearsed walked coffeed ate coffeed rehearsed watched movie walked (dog) e-mailed. Did not see: Melanie Gavin Kelly. A lovely day in brownstone Brooklyn and I am worried about the health of my cellular phone. But now I am going to sleep now.
10-9. a.m. Focus. Is how we start the day here. And coffee mmmm. Yuri on couch blinkng, paws elegantly that’s not the word blitheley insouciantly I think is what I’m looking for paws draped insouciantly over edge. Eyes not focused quite. (Mine not dog’s. Or mine and dog’s.) ISB now. You may hear this. Today in the air there is more white less light.  Julian on telephone in New Jersey. Clicky clacky typy sounds not me only and the gentle noise of Park Slope last night I heard the garbage trucks come not so gently. Homework to do of 2 varieties I will look at one now.
     p.m. Manhattan. The right shoes where I got them before 2 years ago the day we played on the Oxygen network but not the right size (so the wrong shoes) then Valerie’s for hair work (it’s short now but oh so manageable) and cappuccino and friendliness then to Prune for dinner w/ oh lots of people in the basement by the toilet yet private and in fact perfect. Big first shew tomorrow, plenty of new arrows in the old quiver. Lemon tea. Focus is apparently how we end the day here as well.
10-10. (early 10/11). Show one is history. Makor. All right New York. We love you. First ever public airing of the flute and though the first notes came out an octave above where I expected they were notes at least not just huffy wind. Lots of new things it was a festival of new. Philip who will be opening through Pittsburgh came in his white van and we went to Manhattan over the bridge, he is new too (to us). Dave and Karen and Loretta and Dara and Jeroen and Linda. Rain. Men at work in a well lit hole, the yellow slickered workmen of New York. Then we were in a bar in Brooklyn and now we are here. In Yuri hair world. Time to pack it up pack it all up. Then sleep then wake then drive. Amy can’t come to Boston she’s running the cafe at the new Eric Carle picturebook museum but she sends her love. Sarah clean jerked 14 pounds like 50 times.

10-12. Driving in the rain from Boston to Bridgeport, drove yesterday in the rain from New York to Boston or should I say Cambridge 9 hours to do a drive that should have taken half that and my computer is about to go so I am just here to say hello. ABBA/Bee Gees mix (mine). Harvard Square breakfast at the Greenhouse I believe, where your English Muffin gets you three halves, CDs from Newberry Comics. Meet at Peet's on my favorite little square w/ the crossed paths and the cute wood fence. Ian the host in his house of absent friends (Somerville). It is dark early here on account of the clouds also it is 3:34 which in these wintering days is not so early an hour as say in the height of summer which is a lovely season that is not now. Fall has its attractions of course those New England leaves were doing their thing but rain is not one of them not to me anyway I know the plants need it and the farmers though only so much after that it’s a problem really what with the floods and all. Green Street Grill. Robbed of encore by curfew but up until then at TT the Bear’s we were all having a nice time. Though none of our little old days friends are there anymore. Ian is nice he has funny stories about Jamaica and plays the fingerstyle guitar. I am trying to see how far I can push this machine before it really is gone. Could go any time. Soon we will come to Hartford then we will get on the 91 then the 95 this is the 84. Yesterday oh the traffic was bad we cut north off the 95 on the 7 to the 84 but the 84 was bad too but the 7 at least had the advantage of touristic interest (mild). It was bad almost all the way. This is not bad today it is only wet. Dancing Queen has come to make us happy. Actually it is bad now. Because Hartford is almost here.
10-13. a.m. After Saturday night Bridgeport show which was fine more new songs introduced old ones attempted. Ramada Inn with the hardest beds ever devised by man. Freaks and Geeks on the television there’s Harris. Martha Stewart ad she looks happy there. Big gas tanks everywhere like in White Heat. I have no thoughts at all in my head. Yes reference on F&G. Will wake up and go to Philadephia and see Donna see Jamie.
    p.m. Garden State Parkway in the garden state of NJ USA. New Soft Boys ah memories of 2001. Have I mentioned Philip this is his van and he opens the shows he was in a band called the Maggies but now he isn't and he lives in Northampton and his daughters came to Bridgeport. No rain today except in little drizzle bursts though it’s all clouds, still it’s a pretty part here well not right here it’s an industrial park but just before and perhaps in just a minute there’ll be trees. It’s green and wet you can see why the Irish did so well here. This is the road of 35 cent tolls also American flags on every overpass yawn. Flashing green makes exact change. Means I mean. Now houses eastern style made of wood and it’s East Orange NJ. I almost don’t feel on the road yet perhaps because I’ve been down this one so many times and we’ve only stayed in one hotel that was last night and there’s a cememtery and another on the other side of the road perhaps the same cemetery the way sometimes you drive right through a golf course. There is a New Jersey bird. There is a project. Here is a toll. Last night folk club with pretty lanterns and hippie starry backdrop and a lamp onstage and 57 people facing us. Here is the NJ Turnpike now.
10-14 a.m. Up in the upstairs at house of Donna/Jamie. Yosh and Stosh were here but not now. Sarah is moving things for tomorrow's floor work but that is far away and three hours earlier though it is now. Philly was good to us and Holly beat the drum. Before that there was the usual walk down 2nd to the bookstore the record store the Old City Coffee coffeehouse for the famous 6 bean espresso. Acquired the tour Maigret (Maigret à Vichy) and Penelope Fitzgerald's book about her brothers coincidentally related to a movie we watched in New York and on the music purchase tip there was Francoise's English LP and a double set of Colosseum and there was the Serrano dinner and then the show and then car and then sambucco [sp?] and now here and that is all it is time for unconsciousnessness.
10-15. Virginy carry me out of old Virginy. Last night the sniper struck again just about the time we went onstage, about four miles away. Increasing our paranoia. It was all white vans in the lot next to the club. (Us included.) Holly got her congas out again. Wine gums for Wes from the sad little Brit shop with the bootleg videos. It is raining. Why do people have to touch their face when they talk on the phone? I happily entertain your answers. A cute gas stop back up the road where the good old boys were working on their old muscle cars matte black something or other with whatever that thing that comes out of the hood is you know what I mean. The sheriff hanging out in the minimarto talking to the girls. Before that Best Buy before that Target it’s been a day of small profitable acquisitions. These windshield wipers don’t quite do the job. Bryan Ferry’s new album is nice and on, off the i-pod and I am drinking my first prepackaged vanilla Coke and the rain is coming harder it is a no fun weather condition when you have to drive. Here we come Chapel Hill.
10-17. Tennessee the Al Gore highway on the way to Nashville Tennessee home of Nashville Tennessee. Big Daddy’s Fireworks best “bang” for your buck. This  is one of the nice drives of America hills and look at the cool old railroad bridge and it’s only a little bit fall down here except for whatever tree that is. Curvy is as curvy does. Last night was Decatur which was Atlanta and another night of greatest tour hits activity i.e. dinner again w/ Sean and Julie in the Thai restaurant around the corner where it looks like Moss in Sweden strangely and Ginger was there too. And it was a very good show except for the part where we were in different keys and the noisy dudes up front who were fans but distracted by the alcohol inside their heads. Eddie’s Attic is no longer Eddie’s it is Todd’s but it is not Todd’s Attic. Space Age Fireworks Never Undersold. Fluffy clouds and no rain. A bright shiny green day. Guns archery clothing. Cathy on the cel phone w/ Wes giving directions to her house from the Bluebird. I smell Philip’s coffee. The rocky walls of Tennessee are appearing now and the big fluffy clouds are growing bigger we are shadowed. Now Chapel Hill that was Gayle again and Crook’s  again and that used CD and bookstore in the little house again, a small triangle of familiar fun on the Carrboro border. Fried green tomatoes and oh a lovely flavorful squash soup. The often changing speed limits of rte. 24. Philip is worried about his little monkey. Hey can I have a swig of that coffee that you’re drinking that looks so delicious says Wes not to me. John Lennon doesn’t care what flag you’re waving he doesn’t even want to know your name. He would however like you to free the people now, or in 1973, whichever comes first. I have all been here before it’s that kind of trip same clubs same roads same hotels same meals as for instance this morning at the Havana Sandwich Shop for the traditional Cuban preroad meal. Oh here is some sun.
10-18. Cathy house. Laundry laundered but there are sock questions. Antihistamines wearing off and we are going to Noshville and obviously the record store across the street and there is a Red Grooms carousel I've never seen I want to and Hatch Show print hopefully for postcards and etc. there is art here too,  I NEVER SEEN A PERSON I DIDNT LOVE. BY HOWARD FINSTER IN A SHOE plus four more.

10-22. Many days away from the dairy, I am tired of words anyway I guess I needed the break. I am sitting in the dark at Karen's so I do not bother little Loretta who is asleep a partition away. Jersey City. Today was a real New York day. I met Fran under the clock at Grand Central she was the first person ever to show me New York and we ate at the Oyster Bar then I saw Henry Kissinger getting out of an elevator at the Museum of TV and Radio where I went to see a different Loretta he was in my way I said excuse me and it was odd to be so close to one of the world's most evil men then later I walked down to Soho and on the way watched for a while the squirrels of Union Square they were busy with their nuts they live rapidly we must seem slow to them and there was a demonstration too against police brutality and American hubris in general not so many people watching but banners and bullhorns and quite a few police standing around unbrutally then I met Mike and Nina at Dean and Delucca and we went for Ethiopian food but there was some sort of benefit going on books for Africa and first we couldn't hear each other over the kora playing special guest singer and then they asked us not to talk during the speeches so we just had to look at each other over dinner then we went to a bar around the corner to the uncrowded basement area and talked about Ireland and then we went down in the subway and I ran into Eric Duron (sp?) Steve Wynn's stepbrother who was on tour with us in Europe '92. Of course there are all those days before this we haven't discussed, Pittsburgh and Columbus and Louisville and Nashville and Decatur. I will get to that but I am going to sleep now obviously it was a long day today.
10-23. Another New York day ending in Jersey City with Karen and Dave and Loretta who has just gone to sleep. There was lunch w/ Steve and Brigid in a Peruvian place on 9th avenue I had kind of a melange of chicken onions tomatoes and french fries and then walked w/ Steve who just came back from Costa Mesa and Tucson making his record through the Central Park up to the Metropolitan Art Museum of Art to see the Richard Avedon show of photography and that was pretty wonderful all those pores and hairs so finely focused upon and then we went up on the roof unfortunately I didn't have my camera it was quite a beautiful New York day looking at all the New York buildings and the Central Park park and the Claes Oldenburgs up there unfortunately the cafe it was closed and then we walked rather rapidly down to Times Square  and Steve went that way and I went the other and up in the big BMG building w/ my visitor pass to Paula's office and then we took a cab down to 14th St. and went into the Starbucks and I sat down and who was there next to me but LINDA Linda who I thought I would see at lunch w/ Steve but she was working but there she was the second incredible Steve Wynn related New York coincidence in 2 days she was there w/ her sister Brenda who I had talked to on the phone in fact back at the very beginning of this trip in the back of a cab from the Newark Airport airport to Brooklyn. Now it is the end of the day though earlier in this paragraph it was dinnertime and there is laundry in and soon there will be sleeping. What happened in all those other cities Louisville and Nashville and Columbus and Atlanta and Pittsburgh not in that order I have not said. Shows were played and food was et and some people were seen. Philip has gone home to Northampton he dropped me off here and that was the last I have seen of him or Wes for that matter until tomorrow and then of course there will be a lot of that.

10-24. Lobby of the Crowne Plaza Hotel in the vicinity of La Guardia airport in the vicinity of New York waiting for Wes near the rental car desk where Karen dropped me this morning it was a mostly clear ride through the dawn and didn't the light look nice on Manhattan from afar it was all lit up and looking clean (from afar). And they caught the sniper(s) quite possibly it was on the radio and  there was a fire we passed or the smoke anyway but where there's smoke. It's 8:40 a.m. and there are more people in the lobby now than before they're waking up they're going away they're coming in it's all happening here. We are driving to Cleveland today and playing a show. At home the bedroom is a new color and there is a wood floor I haven't seen and won't for some time. My sweater sleeve is unraveling and is held together w/ one of Loretta's barettes it's a bunny, though Karen says she doesn't like barettes so I don't feel so bad about taking it. We are heading out into the Midwest now we were there slightly already we saw Don and Marti in Canton on the way to Pittsburgh he calls himself Dixon but I always call him Don and Marti made soup and here is Wes.
10-25. It is raining upon Ann Arbor. Wes is onstage w/o me because of Roger McGuinn contractual demands but doing extremely well nonetheless. (It is surprising after all.) They are all out there rollicking I hear from my backstage perch where there is some LoJo graffiti that's one of Sarah's acts, and then lots of notes from people I've never heard of, folk people, this is a folk gig. I was down the street more personally profitably drinking a peanut butter mocha can you believe that. They liked Hamlet out there. It is raining. We were rained upon. The usual Ann Arbor rambles even my unusual peanut butter mocha was from a usual haunt. I can hear Roger McGuinn on the other side of the dressing room wall. He is creaking about in there. A sound like the shuffling of cards suddenly a preshow game of solitaire perhaps. The word intercourse makes people laugh. Well it just makes me blush. Unbelievable this single paragraph has eaten half the battery in this laptop I suppose it's time for a new one (battery or laptop for that matter). I could plug me into the wall not me the laptop but Wes has only about ten minutes to go anyway and then all will be motion. Can I tell you anything about Cleveland. The sound men were nice they helped me with my sudden mandolin sound problem, they are very friendly there in any case at the Beachland Ballroom they cook a meal just for you though I've said it before and will again that Ohio is the smokingest state we play. Yet they have the nicest turnpike stops outside of Italy and east of the Mississippi. Tomorrow we will go to the city of Indianapolis which is new. New to me I mean, I think it has been there for awhile. There was some snow in Pennsylvania on the 80 which is nicer than the 76 and not nearly as tiring to drive notwithstanding that the Penna Turnpike has a couple of Starbucks light snow but snow and all the fall colors are pretty. My computer has blinking lights going that could mean anything Wes is playing the guitar fast and impressing the punters and it's all done at 8:43, he's come in under time.
   later. Hotel. These Country Suites are pretty good all phoney hominess but a kind of effort after all except this particular room smells all of perfume as if some worse smell needed to be covered up, it reminds me of the baseball mitt Robert Mache once kindly bought me from a thrift store on tour to replace the one stolen out of the van in New York, it smelled all of perfume and then through the perfume I realized it smelled of cat pee and then I threw it away.
10-26. Bob Evans morning. Now back in a holding pattern holding. Big demonstration day around the world but we'll be in a car on the way to Indianapolis. Dawn Powell book.

10-28. Wes has put on TVland and left the building. The famous music of the Archie Bunkers is playing. Newport, KY, a room w/ a river view if you choose the right window and we played in the house of the man that invented the tommy gun, and he has a lot to answer for. It was a superswell set I said to Wes that if we were the Grateful Dead and people obsessively studied compared and contrasted tapes of our shows they'd be like, dude, Newport Kentucky 2002 that was the one. Off book and in the moment songs played differently than ever before but  organically organized. Of Montreal were downstairs in Halloween costumes playing to not so many. A woman in a French maid costume and blue hair kept passing by an open doorway. Lunch at the Oriental Wok, as traditional in this quadrant. Angela is nice and got to the show in time even though it was early. Tomorrow we will see Dag in the northern town of Madison where I hope it will not be snowing or at least I hope that the roads will be clear I don't mind a little snow in fact I like it. Dag will be with us for 3 happy days, then we get Josh. Yesterday morning we were in Indianapolis having a very good breakfast with Peter Holsapple who happened to be in town producing/recording and w/ the people w/ whom Peter was staying one of whom David Koneff knows but I haven't passed that news on yet I only discovered it later from David and it was great to see Peter and how surprising to see him in Indianapolis. Also here is a shoutout to Nora(h) at the Cath Inc. coffeehouse who gave me a free bottle of water and the touring company a free CD of the band Peter was producing coincidentally which we have not yet heard. Tonight we ate w/ Shannon who came from Ft Wayne in an "Irish pub" in a mall in a room like a castle coincidentally there was someone playing in another room at the Southgate House dressed in phony chain mail also I bought five pairs of socks for $9 and a pair of shoes for $40 but not from the same place my feet will thank me. Dayton was last night that was good too though that is a dead town on a Sunday. I think it is time to think about thinking about sleep.
10-30 (early 31). Milwaukee which beer made famous. Dag the roomie of the night and we have played Shank Hall where I played w/ Steve years ago but it's nicer since it burned down and was fixed though the funny medieval arches are still there at the back. There were three jackolanterns and phony cobwebs on the beer sign. Warren Zevon was on David Letterman and we watched in the bar after the show, I was moved in this sense: the passing of a particular intelligence, irreplaceable and irreprecable. (sp?) A particular way of phrasing, of moving hands around a piano. You know? Moving backward: Dinner was with Victor at the Bean and Barley (I ordered neither) and that was nice. Lunch was back in Madison at the same place as breakfast which was and still is the Marigold Cafe or the Cafe Marigold and Tilney was/is the reason we knew about that. Dag is here his tour is 2/3 over. Big night tomorrow in Woodstock and it's Halloween. Not so big night last night in Madison or tonight in Milwaukee but you know well played for all that. Dag's friend Joel came in a party of four J's: Jen, Jill, Joel and I can't remember the other -- Josh or Joe or Jehosephat. I am tired now it is 1:38 p.m. Dag was picked up in Woodstock last night there was a cat that's deaf I startled it but I didn't mean to I didn't know. We drove eight hours from Kentucky starting w/ a Barnes & Noble Starbucks in the mall across from the gig. Sometimes it rained.
11-4. Early as in the wee hours. The we hours. Just you and me. Cedar Rapids pre-bed. George W. Bush is in this hotel though probably in a nicer room and probably not sharing and the streets outside are blocked with large industrial vehicles and police cars to prevent mad bombers but we walked in unmolested via the pedestrian bridge from the parking structure. Once again we are where the news is happening, once again I feel the presence of the dark side of the force. I made a couple nice shots in pool. I saw Bethann and her father Luke (not to be confused with I am your father Luke) at the CSPS that made up for not seeing in her Chicago where she wasn't. First trip w/ Josh Ritter and we crossed the Mississippi where we usually don't but he was asleep. I have to go to bed soon I have to drive hours tomorrow we have much of the country to cross before we play again. We had breakfast today with Sheila and Sharon and Lissa and Josh who stayed at Sheila's jumping right in to our world at the new place by the railroad tracks and the little station it's adorable there the tracks and thestation I mean. Four big Chicago shows all of them full two of them very full indeed I will tell you more sometime if I have the time or inclination. But Dag and Susan (as in Voelz) and Howe as in Gelb were there to sit in at the Sat. early show, Hogan was there too but did not sing nor did she sit in. I really do need to go to bed now, I will have to fill you in on this later I am going to bed. Less wee hours now, it's 9 a.m. and I was asleep and now I am up and we are just going to drive. I have so much to tell you that I haven't had time to tell you it is hard to find the time especially when I am the sole wheelman there is all about Halloween and the little children of Woodstock parading round the town square in their costumes and no 99 cent store plastic masked costumes either because there was a costume and I suppose out in these little towns they take their Halloween more seriously anyway all the cornfields on the way made me feel I was driving into some sort of Steven King novel but it was not evil it was good. Sophie was a little house on the prairie girl and Kai was a skeleton with bat wings (Bethann spotted a bat in the venue last night but it disappeared just before we went on I didn't tell Wes) they belong to Dag and Meredith who are lovely, Meredith's sister Beth was there she is a poet from the Quad Cities. Chester Gould is from Woodstock and there is a Dick Tracy Way and a Chester Gould museum. There is an old jail you can eat in but we didn't we ate at the Harvest Moon Cafe the nice place with Brigid and Mark and Dag and no one else I mean in the whole restaurant and a saucy spiky odd little waitress girl dressed as a "tough biker chick" with a scooby doo paste on tattoo and then later in Chicago we went to a party at Brigid and Mark's who are new to me but know Carson they got married and had a party (later) and ate chili and cookies. And then Chicago for two big nights four big shows and staying at Sheila's w/ no Bethann sadly and breakfast w/ the Di Lorenzos back in Milwaukee but there's no time now we're leaving here in 24 minutes and I'm still on the unshaven side of shaving etc. Even later. In half an hour Iowa will be but a dream of cows and corn and we will be in Nebraska and then we will be in Nebraska and then we will be in Nebraska. Wes is going for the one, and driving too, which is a rare thing rarely done. Josh is sucking on a Cherry Hall's I can smell from here. It is a pleasant day in the middle of America, despite the presence of George W Bush from whom we are in any case distancing ourselves. Chicago as I was saying. It's usual wonderful homeawayfromhome self. How pleasant to stride through the antechamberly Schuba's bar and there is Kelly and there is Dag and Deanna and suddenly there is Howe in town to play the Hideout talking to Susan. Sharon Sachs in wig. Sheila sewed up my fraying sweater sleeve. Okay now. It's got sunny now I should switch to my shade glasses. The next morning technically.Kimball NE, near the WY border. Snow on the ground to crunch through but not much. Suite-ing it at a Days Inn. The Contender is on the TV Josh is on the pullout Wes is in the next room on the queen and I am on a bed the size of the raft of the Medusa.
11-6. Extremely early morning. Mountain View Idaho Best Western I can hear Josh's TV from the next room we are in the dark here except for the light from this screen it was a long drive today I saw snow I saw buffalo we found the Starbucks in Cheyenne later we stopped at a funny little gas station run by a suspicious old man there were dead animal heads on the wall Wes bought a tape there of Michael York reading Candide of all things half of which we listened to tonight also we played Botticelli which we used to play back in the old school days I remember specifically the commons room of was it D Dorm I get confused which dorm was which that was a long time ago it reminds me I should call Julian about coming to the Southpaw show we ate Japanese food tonight in Twin Falls I am on page 70 of Maigret a Vichy that's really all I've read so far this trip it isn't much.
11-6. Late. Yakima. 3 in a room. Rented movie. Free beer from Larry. Tired. Man playing fiddle to cows at rest stop back in Oregon; cow chasing heron around field. Big old scenery. Tomorrow Seattle. That guy is not Tim Roth he just looks like Tim Roth. Good doggie on TV.

11-10. Winters. Wes changing strings for Josh who is onstage talking about something now. There are people laughing. With not at. I will play soon possibly well I will play soon definitely but sooner if I play w/ Josh. The old Winters Opera House is where we are  that wall I’m looking at used to be the outside but now it’s in. Wes reading English paper picture of a naked human buttocks attached to an actor. Have not felt much compelled to keep this thing up regular like in any case there is not much time for he who drives which is me. Would rather write a letter or draw a picture or get some sleep. Lots have happened since last we met the
11-11. Well see I got distracted and then didn’t feel like finishing the thought. On Jim Healey’s floor though Jim doesn’t live here anymore, nor does anyone else in fact but it is still Jim’s floor. The TV is playing the music they call techno. There is a very big cat named Dinah after Washington not after Alice’s cat but it is not Jim’s cat it is Angie's cat. I saw Laura in the Beach they call North. I saw the signs for the Gerard Richter restrospective at the modern art museum and think I will do that tomorrow. We are going to eat at a restaurant the Blue something I am not sure. Well that went well says Jim that went well. If you need a really nice apartment in San Francisco call Jim. It is hot here today. The Blue Plate. As in special I suppose. In the mission. Or on Mission. Tick tock music. Sarah has a cold. Wes hasn’t rung Trudy is he insane he asks rhetorically. Jim is drawing a map and the cat is interested. Josh has gone to Palo Alto. Do I have the instructions for what? Trudy has seen the Richter show. So Howard is this side of Mission yes. She didn’t seem totally averse to going to it even though she’s seen it already. We are sitting on the floor Indian style. So where did Kelly move to? I don’t know who that is.
11-15. Day off at home listening to mp3s of Jean Louis Aubert while the laundry goes round and I think about food. There is a noise, a timing noise. I should stop thinking about food and just go eat some.
11-16. Phoenix. The mp3s are flowing right into my headphoned ears now, this Walkman I bought way back in the beginning at a mall, where, New Jersey 10-24 on way to Cleveland in new rented van sans CD player, it as I was saying plays the mp3s but actually now I'm listening to the television Wes is making go round there's nothing on he says it's astonishing ah but is it I do not say but think. Morrissey is human and he needs to be loved just like anybody else does. Phoenix was good for show for food and there is still the morning here the AZ Biltmore perhaps. Some fiesta at the Days Inn the band was leaving as we came in there were balloons on the ceiling and streamers on the floor. We forgot about the hour we lost but we got here for our early show and there were people and onstage some newly invented music and then we went to fantastic fancy hotel dinner on recommendation of local Kelly or Kelley (or Kelli?) (but I think Kelly) this hotel not nearly so nice and no restaurant anyway. At the food mart across the street they sold me water through the don't shoot me window. Tomorrow is Tucson I must remember to call John Joey Herb (if I get #), also send e-mail to Mari but she is all disappeared. Los Angeles was good it's home of course and Sarah was there of course lovely to behold and Alison and the Swan Peacocks Kirk and Tammy and Kevin (and Kyung) to beat the drums as in tours of yore and Steve and Mary this room would be better if there weren't a mirror featuring me prominently, Hollywood Blvd. blocked off for 2 premieres and a protest you can read about that at wesweb.net I am not presently inclined to go into details it was in any case humorous and annoying and Jim drove down with us with his bag of apples he left in the car then Sarah brought to Kirk's thinking Jim would be there but he wasn't he was at work until 10 and in San Francisco I stayed at George's and 1) had lunch with Laura and 2) went to the Richter and 3) did Fillmore w/ Wes and Trudy and ate sushi from boats in Japantown and also there was a show in Berkeley that Emily came to and that was exciting and then the traditional Albatross nightcap w/ the Clancys and before that Sweetwater in Mill Valley Cakey drove out w/ us it was cute there and very full in the house and Laura came and Josh's friends Lacy and Ian who were present in Portland as well and Berkeley also Portland was good for dinner (Typhoon) and meeting the new people but not so good for show itself too many low slung divans and ottomans to contend with this headboard has made an impression on the back of my neck a real impression and before Portland there was Seattle which was jolly good fun and Mills was there to open and Kurt played on Canadaeeio and put us up and Scott was there too and John and Dusty Springs put a new regular quarter inch plug on my mandolin which is just epochal and we met Carol at the coffeeplace around the corner I think I was in w/ Ed Chadd once Ed Chadd couldn't make it this time he had a cold Sarah had a cold my mother has a cold and my father has laryngitis but they went to Baltimore where my mother was honored with a speech and a clock and an engraving and the day after there was breakfast at the Ploughman's Daughter (correct?) w/ all the usual suspects + Bill Reifling or is it Riefling. I will shift my attention now.
11-18. In the a.m. Hotel Congress at the end of the day cross legged on a narrow little bed it is all old fashioned here except it is all young and groovy here, I am a spy in the house of groove, I should go to sleep there are 2 long days of driving ahead to the city called Oklahoma City though I understand we may be having breakfast w/ Howe that is if Howe can get up for breakfast but I suppose he can being the father of a youngun and all. This is a happy place for the touring rock musician one of the happiest notwithstanding the tough crowd and bar chatterers. We have not moved outside a two block radius the livelong day including the trip to the radio and the trip to the Grill postshow with Howe and friends, the Congress has it all, the gig, the room, the food, the coffee. Saw Howe and Joey and best of all saw Mari who was off the radar a whole year that was like a granted wish when she walked in. There is a painting of cockatoos. I am tired. We played the Rainer song on the radio and in the club, we played that in Chicago too w/ Howe and Susan. It is a small world we move in earlier I sat in the 2nd story vestibule w/ Josh while he changed his strings and a woman, Kathleen, using the free computer there started talking to us and it turned out she bartends at the Hideout in Chi and of course knows a thousand people we do in fact I recorded music in her kitchen w/ Neko whose kitchen it also is. We made the radio interviewer cry twice cry in a good way I mean. I have met 3 poets on this trip and read poems by 2, real poems not just you know cut up journals. Poetry is hard I can't do it. Thom Yorke is yowling in my earphones yowling in a good way. Perhaps I've met more than 3 poets and don't know it. There was cold air blowing right on my head onstage tonight I had to move out of the way I have a low tolerance for cold blowing air. On the drive from Phoenix I played Wes and Josh the Tom Waits interview CD I made though this is the record company edit and not the director's cut as it were which is funnier Tom Yorke wishes something would happen but something always does. Mari is engaged and moving to Boston because she is engaged. Tom Yorke wishes it was the '60s, but why. This goes out to my people I love.

     p.m. In Clovis NM overheated hotel room X-Files computers but no computer linkup for me out here in the boondocks the Earthlink kid in Albuquerque didn't even know where Clovis is. I will go to the van presently for water. Action and excitement on the TV. From Tucson we went east and saw the Thing I saw that 13 years ago w/ Russ and Co. it's still there still the same still the same additional crap of dubious provenance. I see what's happening here. Calling Sarah back soon it was a world of poor reception out there in the atomic desert, 70 through Las Cruces White Sands and Almogorado [sp?] and Roswell the full (ish?) moon came up over the Indian reservation (pre Roswell) bright though it was light out. Roswell Main Street working the alien connex, alien Coke machine, cutout alien band in music store window. Back at the Hotel Congress this a.m. talking to Dave Slutes now managing the whole op, I know him from when he was a Sidewinder on tour w/ the SWQ in 1990, I would play "Solitary Man" w/ them most nights. Only 3 shows left for Josh sometimes called Frodo that will be sad when he goes but of course only one show after that left for us, preceded by 1500 mile drive. We go we go look how we go. Scully thinks she's figured it out -- perspiration is a conductor for calcium ions.
11-20. 2:22 a.m. Candlweood Suites Oklahoma City my own little room tonight (Wes in the "living room") my own little desk my own outlets my own internet connection my own television (off). Much talking Irish tonight. Incredible String Band in headphones we played This Moment sitting cross legged post-show on the stage of the Blue Door a genuine funky folk gig playing to well I don't know who Greg who owns it and some of his friends and some Josh people. There was a cat I petted it.
11-21.  Dallas. Tomorrow the 39th anniversary of the JFK shooting. Was momentarily (due to misread or misprinted TV Guide) under the impression that today was tomorrow and was vaguely excited by the coincidence but alas it is merely the anniversary of the day before the JFK shooting. Would have gone down to Dealey Plaza to see what might up but will probably go straight to Austin instead after the coffee stop of course the coffee stop at the excellent mall we happen to be placed beside and I do sincerely mean excellent. Josh has gone in advance to Austin to be on the radio we have had our last drive together, tomorrow he goes home to Idaho. There was good Japanese raw fish last night. There were some people for the music. I have no shoes and no socks on and something else.
11-22. In the early morning of the day Friday. Bedtime baby. I sneezed three times. I made some genmaicha. I am sitting on a couch. Today I saw a camel. In a field. Off 35. Today I found the new Keren Ann record at Waterloo. Josh has gone off to his room and if we don't see him in the morning we won't see him again. Until some other time. He's off to Idaho and England and France and to return the ring of power to Mt. Doom. That song of his about the bone of song that's a good song. Our tourlet is done. One more show for the other boys Sunday in Brooklyn and then I am a civilian once again. Paul came to the show. I saw Gurf I can't remember the last time I saw Gurf, probably coming out of his apt when he lived below Victoria. Back in the Los Angeles. There are Buddy and Sally on the TV. We ate Thai food w/ Slaid who is a friend of Josh's. I played the flute extensively on Josh's song "California." Wes is awfully fast on that remote trigger. We have to drive to Brooklyn now, not now but next, next after we sleep. It will be raining somewhere sometime says the weather. America is full of funny people and some of them are on the television.
11-25. All done. Austin to New York in two days, 14 and 13 hrs. respectively. Saw three camels on the way back out of Austin. Much America. Me to Mike and Nina's the king pad of Brooklyn, most excellent views. Up on the roof. But also from the windows. Frosted flakes. Italian market. Red Rail (I think it was called) 4 brunch. Didn't get to Chinatown to see Brigid but Brigid came to the show so did Gavin and Kelly who I thought were gone to Northampton already. Thai food before. More Thai food. W/ Mike and Nina and Nina's brother Jake and their friend Tad, then an invisible wall across which on separate check Abbey (Abby?) and her friends including Sarah whom I met long ago in the city of Chicago travel is like that. Lovely weather. Show good. Then songs and instruments packed away until the next time, when that is for me I cannot yet say. But I will see you again. Love,