DAY 61

Austin, TX
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I knew we were in Texas when I saw the Speed Limit signs had changed :) If you know me, you know this made my day.....

We made it to Mr. and Mrs. Colwell's house (Zac's Mom & Dad) around 10pm.

They have a big house, a cool cat, a cute dog, a pool table and instruments, but NO peanut butter. None. Apparently Mrs. Colwell "left it at work." pshhh. Honestly, Zac's Mom and Dad are the sweetest folks ever.....we love them....just no peanut butter :(

Here's Chet....


Unfortunately we don't have a pic of Alice, but she's cute too.

We showered, headed to Sixth St., and met up with some friends at The Jackelope. Trevor, Claire, Ashley, Craig, and Zac's brother Mark.




Most people would search half the earth trying to find their named tatooed on someone's ass.....i found mine in Texas:


Okay...so it's not exactly on her "ass", but close enough.

We walked around all night....ate some "New York Style" Pizza *ha*.....and then wound up at The Elephant Room. We're all pretty excited to see where Zac grew up and all so this was definitely one of those significant places. It's a jazz club that Zac used to play in every week when he was 16 years old. There was a "jam session" going on that night and Zac ran into a guy he met while living in Korea for 7 months. weird!

The omnipresent Gary "Funky G" Harris


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DAY 60

DRIVING DAY
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After cleaning the salsa out of the van, we started our drive to Austin, TX.

We ate some tacos.

We slept at a SUPER shady hotel in New Mexico.






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DAY 59

Phoenix, AZ (Rogue Bar)
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We woke up to a new world...(where in our minds only good bands get to play Conan)...and we put our new socks on. Took a run around Jim's neighborhood with Lynn leading us on her bike (Mickey Goldmill style). it was oppressively HOT. but we lasted 4 miles. Got lost walking back to his house....seriously. That place was like a rat maze...we were just sun-burned idiots in shorts aimlessly walking around a development with a MILLION roads and carbon copy houses. We got there eventually and then split for the community pool.

We got there with a cooler full of beers and a pool full of kids...ALL RELATED! I swear...it was nuts. The Mom and 8 of her kids. We got to know each one while puppeteering them to do any style dive we wanted....these kids were fearless. Keep in mind that Pat and i didn't have shorts. We were just hanging at the pool...rapping with all these little kids...in our underwear. We were just WAITING for the cops to show up and ask if that's our "Lesson Van" out front.

Anyway, we took our showers and went to the club. Rogue Bar is a cool place (technically in Scottsdale, but they don't like to be associated with that town, so we'll say Phoenix). The owner, Lyndsay is SUPER cool and a pool HUSTLER.


I had to warn the next victim..... (and offer him some pie to win my money back)


The show......



The Jim...

The Lynn...

The pants pre-Salsa fight....


Soooooo yeah. I hopped off the wagon for one night and wound up trying to walk the 40 miles back to Glendale...the guys couldn't find me....drove around for hours....Zac called the cops....He and K had a Salsa-throwing fight in the van (R.I.P. white pants)...they found me back at Jim's....grilled some burgers while the sun came up....and we all went to sleep.

Thanks to Terrance and Gina for doing such a great job ;) , Lyndsay for having us, Jim and Lynn (of course), our new friends Kyndra, Karen, and Jeff Bagg, and JD Samson (Le Tigre) ...





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DAY 58

DRIVING DAY!
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The guys picked me up super hungover after 3 hours sleep. Aunt Ryoko hooked them up with an "American-Style" breakfast at a VERY prompt 9am :)

We got a goodie bag from Christine & Jason filled with Injinji Running Socks. When she got word that we are a band of "runners" they quickly signed a sponsorship deal. Now we're run in EXCLUSIVELY Injini socks. They rule. No more blisters :)

Not much to this day..just a long drive to AZ.


We saw a huge field of wind turbines...I love those things!







That's it.

We just drove and drove.....


...until we got to my friends Jim and Lynn's house. We stayed up grilling food (and by "we" i mean "jim").....we watched the most God awful band on Conan.....cried ourselves to sleep....and then dreamt of a better place :-)

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Day 57

San Diego, CA (Brick by Brick)
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The guys woke up at Korensa's and said goodbye to her dog Chutney...This is Chutney....


The guys came to pick me up at Brite Spot.....I was having breakfast with Dan Konopka (drummer of OK GO) and if you didn't know...he's SUPER cool (and a REALLY cheap tipper). jk Dan ;) Seriously, go check out their version of The Pixies' "Gigantic." RAD!

We started our drive to San Diego and saw a purdy 'lil sunset. Then we saw Zac's purdy little Uncle Jim and his wife Ryoko.


Jim is a really cool/mega-smart guy. We all had tea and discussed EthnoMusicology...mainly Japanese Gagaku. (wtf?!) Then Jim took us to a Vietnamese restaurant in town...we had vermicelli and discussed Electrical Storm patterns in Texas. Thanks for dinner Jim!


We loaded in to Brick by Brick....met some new friends (Maelin and Melissa , Joaquim, Randuz, & Brendan ).....saw some old ones (Beth, Matt, Christine, Stacy, Javi, Patrick, & Tucker)





Jim came to the show too and everybody went back to his house for wine while listening to wild modern composers and more philosophical ethnomusicological discussion till the sun came up.





Zac found some light reading....




I went back to my friends Stacy and Christine's house. Javi bought me a sandwich. thanks man :-)

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DAY 56

Los Angeles, CA (Hotel Cafe Day 2)
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The guys went to Venice Beach without me so I'll do my best to re-cap THEIR day. I went to eat at Brite-Spot and saw Iron Man with Sara at the Vista theatre. Robert Downey Jr. is bad like Michael Jackson. We recommend it. Speaking of movies....guess who's going to see THIS movie on June 6th???



Can't believe they made a movie about our bass player!!!

This is Tony Crow...Panda worked with him in Boston....also, he doesn't have a car. (Didn't think those peeps existed in LA)


This is Bryn Mooser....Panda went to college with him....also, he has widescreen thumbs. (I swear this is NOT photoshopped)



This is Harry Perry....He hangs out on the beach and plays is hypnotizing guitar......he' like NYC's "Naked Cowboy" (only he's fully clothed...and not a cowboy)




Zac and Panda had a rope-race to the top....here's Zac diligently "warming-up" before the big challenge.....



Game Time...



...Zac won.



He and Karensa celebrated the victory with some drinks...they're all his....




If you could pick THREE stars and three stars ONLY to visit.....i think we can all agree it's THESE guys.....





We all met up at Hotel Cafe for the second show where we watched Calamity Magnet cast a love spell over the audience. Thanks for playing with us!

The super photographer Scott Schultz took some great pictures....K wore his new jumpsuit...thanks Kenny!













Thanks to Remy, Mike, Bryn, Desiree, Jay, Stephanie, Jay Laura, Craig, Hunter and everyone else!!



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