Monday, October 22, 2007

Home Sweet Home

I am writing this final tour blog from the comfort of my own living room, my kitty snuggled up beside me and my roommates cooking a fragrant dinner in the kitchen. Ahhhhhh….. So much room here! By the end of my tour journey I was starting to run out of patience for people in my way and being in their way! I also think I had run out of ‘keep track of things’ because in the final hour I lost my camera and frantically searched the dark bus for it to no avail (Robin found it the next day right out on the seat, I think it was hiding from me)
Austin was a dream.... we pulled in to the Tour De Fat and stepped out into 89 degree weather, and the Handsome Little Devils were in the middle of their show. I love them! They are the sweetest individuals and they put on a kick ass show. When they were in Portland I had the opportunity to give them a place to stay for a few nights and it was really fun to get to know them. (www.handsomelittledevils.com)
We then marched in and played a really fun set. We have been to Austin a few times and have always gotten super enthusiastic crowds, and this time was no different. I was so hot during the set, I couldn’t manage to cool down and it was making me kind of tired, but of course I managed to prevail.
Afterward we were hoping to go to this bridge that is famed for bats flying into it at sunset. Unfortunately we missed the bats…. I have seen the swifts in Portland and it is a sight to behold!
Between shows we went to our lodgings, Benny’s parents house. They have this amazingly gigantic house on top of a hill near the original Whole Foods. Our event coordinator Cory had dinner delivered to the house, pizza and salad. I ate mine fairly quickly and then took a quick nap before the last show. I knew I had a long ways to go this night, as I was planning on pulling an all nighter, I had a 6:30 flight the next morning. The nap though short, was totally revitalizing! When I woke up I felt as if I had slept for 2 hours! So then we were off to Antones, where our night’s set would take place. Our opening act was a really cool band and some burlesque dancers that were adorable and sexy. Before our set we decided to parade around the block to try to get the word out and gather more folks. The turnout was definitely skinnier than last time we were at Antones. The parade went pretty well, though there wasn’t a lot of band energy and it didn’t look good for the show to come. Everyone was pretty tired, and groggy from bellies full of pizza. When we got back into the club the energy stepped up a notch and by the time we had done a few songs we were smokin’!!!!! I had so much fun dancing, and the crowd gave back tenfold. It was a great way to end my stay with the band. After the show was over a guy named Jay invited everyone back to his house for an after party. It was another big beautiful house, though I didn’t get a chance to really enjoy the party, I spent most of the time packing up my stuff on the bus and changing out of my costume and into travel friendly clothes… I tried to imagine traveling at 6am in my make up and costume and it made me laugh! At about 4am I kissed my sweetie goodbye for another week and Jason and I hopped a cab to the airport. No sleep for the wicked! Ok a little bit of sleep. I managed to fall asleep at the Austin airport, on the first flight, at the Denver airport, and on the second flight! It made it all go by in a blur… one thing I did notice was it was at least 75 degrees when I left Austin in the middle of the night, and it was a flurry of snow in Denver, and a cool crisp fall day in Portland! It’s interesting that with air travel we can experience such drastically different climates.
When I got back to Portland I had a nice breakfast with Jazen, Robyn, and Tor, and slept most of the rest of the day away. When I woke up Peter and Bobek were over, and Peter had gone chanterelle mushroom picking and made for us his famous mushroom enchiladas… yummy!!
Today I was freezing all day! All around me folks were basking in the gloriousness of this beautiful sunny day… all is relative… don’t get me wrong, I think today was gorgeous but I was freezing to the bone! It’s all that tropical humidity I have been basking in (NOLA was 96% today!) I’ll have to get back into my Portland habits… long underwear, scarf, etc… there is a sweet sentimentality to the weather here in the fall, it gets me all excited for warm evenings at home cooking yams, watching movies, and eating cookies… yum!

Today was back to work, and it was a dichotomy of lovely and harsh. I came back to the news of 2 deaths; one a member of our burning man community and another was a patient of ours who committed suicide. Both affected me deeply. When I lived in Seattle we had a patient commit suicide. It is such an awful feeling, wondering if there was anything you could have done. Of course this thought is so non productive and there was probably nothing we could have done…none the less she was under our care so it’s hard not to feel a certain sense of responsibility. Could I have given her that extra attention or even a special smile? Let her know she was beautiful and wanted in this world? And how many people do you never know you saved just by doing a small thing? RIP Malia, I hope you are somewhere better. And Tiffa… such beauty you created and projected…and so many lives you have touched. Such a tragedy, you will be missed greatly in this realm.

Love to you all…. Until the next tour…..

Saturday, October 20, 2007

Deep in the Heart of Texas

When we got to Houston, we stopped at the bank to deposit some checks so Heather could do a pay out (she and Andy take care of all the finances for March Fourth) Unbeknownst to us, when we pulled away from the bank we were one body short. Luckily Aspen had his girlfriend Uli’s phone number memorized because we left him at the bank! He was without his cell phone, wallet, or shoes! He had skated around the corner and with 30 people it is easy to miss someone. We have a system so this does not happen. We have several ‘pods’ and they are named by color. Each pod has a pod leader, and anytime the bus is about to pull away each pod leader calls out ‘red team check!’ depending on the color. Well this was the first time we did not do that, so lesson learned. The venue was only 10 blocks away or so, so Aspen managed to find us pretty easily. It could have been a lot worse….
Houston was so fun!! We weren’t sure how we would be received in the red state of all red states, but they really dug it. Our first gig was to march around Washington Park at 6:30; the city hired us to entertain all the people on their way home from work. We marched to the park and played on a grassy area, covered in little dog poo shaped landmines. The first thing that came to mind was ‘oh shit, this could mean tragedy for the bus…’ but no one seemed to track it in, phew! The Houston public didn’t quite know what to think at first, but as we kept going they got more and more into it, and the kids were going crazy! My best friend Shalene’s brother Dax lives in Houston, and he and his girlfriend Stephanie came down to see the show, and they loved it. It’s so cool to see a scattering of people I know across the country, and it is even more wonderful to have them come out and see what I’m up to! We played there for about 45 minutes, and eventually the band moved into the audience (one of my favorite parts about the show) and marched off down toward the venue. At that point we had about 2 hours until our evening show, so Dax and Stephanie took Robin and I out to dinner. We went to this amazing sushi restaurant right down the street.. Usually I don’t like to eat a ton before a show but I couldn’t help myself! They had the most amazing rolls, and we ordered family style and all ate until we were long past full…yum yum!! Robin and I had to run off to go to our show.
Our gig was at a cool little place called Notsuoh (Houston spelled backwards) the stage was pretty small and only fit the horn players, drummers on the floor leaving little room for dancers. We managed to do a couple of dance pieces before we opened up the floor for people to dance. I didn’t hula hoop and I actually got people who had come from the park say they were disappointed that I didn’t do it again! Oh well I said, we’ll certainly be back to Houston. The people were so wonderful, and they got really into the music.
Up in the green room there was a pile of clothes; I looked like it had come from goodwill or something of the sort. A few of the horn players found some pretty fantastic dresses and decided to wear them for the show… Luke had on a hot orange polka dotted flamenco dress, Russ a slinky long shirt dress with a sexy slit up the side (Scottish style of ya know what I mean) Robin a frilly white wedding cake dress, and Ethan had a grass skirt. I was wondering how Houston would dig a crossdressing funky carnival marching band, and they took it in stride.
By the end of the set people were dancing like crazy… I saw a lot of M4 shirts walking around so I think we did pretty good at merch. Dax and Stephanie had told me at the beginning of the show that they were only going to stay a couple of songs…. By the end of the show they were in the front row and after they were in the tshirt line… I guess they liked it!
Afterwards we drove about 20 minutes to Taylor’s uncle Steve’s house. It was a huge beautiful brick house with a really beautiful swimming pool in the back. And the shower. Praise the almighty shower. I don’t think anyone had taken one since before the sweatstorm at the Hi-Ho in New Orleans… you can imagine how lovely our costumes are at this point. Most of us brought between 1 and 3 changes of costume, and they’re all used up by now! We have opportunity for laundry every once in awhile but overall it is pretty inconvenient. Many people are still sick. There is a terrible plague stewing around the bus, starts with a fever and body aches and all that, eventually the cough comes on and even those who were coughing when I started this tour two weeks ago are still coughing. Sometimes the bus sounds like a TB quarantine..
Steve was amazingly hospitable, cooking us the egg and bacon breakfast that we have become accustom to. I of course could not partake and ate my yogurt and cereal with a smile.
Again I’m going to say it. Oh the hospitality! In every single city or town that I have been to on this tour, one or more kind souls have taken this living breathing entity in, housed us, offered us showers and a variety of other things, and fed us. Not just fed us, but cooked for us. If you are reading this, thank you!!! Without you this would just not be possible. Really.
When we woke this morning it was already at least 80 degrees. After yummy breakfast and a quick dip in the pool, we were Austin bound…

Friday, October 19, 2007

From the French Quarter to swamplands

As the bus hurtled down the highway bound for New Orleans, I felt a certain amount of anticipation as well as nervousness. I have never been to New Orleans and everyone kept saying, ‘well it’s going to be very different now, you know, and be careful’ yes, I knew that. I knew that. We stopped at a sushi restaurant somewhere in Mississippi, and we filled the restaurant. At one point I took a picture, and every table except one was M4thers. We crossed Lake Pontacharain at about 1am, and soon we could see the city skyline. We were going to be staying at a friend of Keith’s, named DJ Tracheotomy. His house was in a part of town called the lower bywaters. The first thing I noticed when I stepped off the bus was the wall of wet heat and the smell of mildew in the air. The cicadas were going strong, and I knew I was in the Deep South. The area that DJ T. (Jay) lived in was not underwater in Katrina, but the effects of the hurricane were present nonetheless. As all the fuzzy headed band members began to explore the house and property it was soon apparent that we were not going to be able to sleep there… the house was musty and mildewy, paint and siding peeling off the walls. We had about 15 sick people and 15 more barely holding on to their fragile immunity, and one has thrown her back out. We loitered outside the house, trying to figure out what to do… we were hot and sticky and tired and generally uncomfortable, in a pretty sketchy part of town. Keith finally broke down and called his wife’s parents, and they said sure! Come on over. We headed down through the 9th ward towards Chalmette, where they lived. I looked out the widow at all the ravaged houses; still baring the spray paint of the date FEMA checked the house and how many bodies were found inside. Every house had a FEMA trailer next to it, where the residents were living (if they stayed in New Orleans) we arrived at the home of Mark and Sheri, and they had a nice big backyard for us to pitch our tents. Lots of soft thick grass and a bit of shade for the morning. Their house is under construction right now; the downstairs is completely gutted after being under 5 feet of standing water for 2 weeks. They also are living out of a FEMA trailer.
We woke in the morning to thick clouds and the possibility of thunderstorms. We packed up quick and ate the amazing breakfast that Sheri cooked for us. Just as we rolled away the clouds broke and released all that built up humidity. Truth be told it didn’t really feel any different when it was raining than when it wasn’t; hot and wet. We drove from Chalmette through the edge of the 9th ward toward downtown New Orleans. Along this road there was not a single business still open. Most still had their signs up but windows were boarded up and weeds were growing over the front doors. Some buildings looked like they had not been touched for 2 years, roofs half blown off and walls mangled, rebar sticking out every which way. Piles of rubble were built up along the roadside. It was overwhelmingly sorrowful and the bus was unusually quiet on this drive.
We arrived downtown and at this point we decided that those who wanted to would check into to a hotel, and others who were feeling more frugal would sleep on the bus that we parked at Jay’s house. I chose the hotel. Then we were free for a day of sightseeing. Our hotel was just a few blocks from the famed French Quarter so a few of us headed out to see the world. This was particularly exciting for me as I am an avid Anne Rice reader, I have read every one of her books and pretty much all of them take place in the French Quarter and the Garden District. I stopped to have an authentic Cajun meal with Heather, Topher, Scarlett, LaTisha, Faith, and Jen. The lunch was a different kind of authentic, but still good. When we left there we weren’t really satisfied so we went into another place for a gumbo second. I had the best crab cake I think I have ever had in my life. After that I wandered around the quarter, trying to picture what it would have been like 200 years ago, I tried so hard to get into the romantic aspect of it but what I really saw was tourist trap. Sigh. The architecture was beautiful though, and I soaked it in. after awhile I headed back to the hotel to catch a quick nap before going out that night, the Rebirth Brass Band was playing at the Maple Leaf, same place we were playing the next night. We all wanted to catch that as they have been a big inspiration for us. Well I guess I was tired because I woke up from my nap at midnight! I figured I needed the sleep, so I talked to Robin on the phone for a bit and then went right back to sleep for the night.
The next day was another day off until about 8 when we would meet up for dinner and our show. I had a nice breakfast with Jason and then I swapped Jason for Scarlett and we headed out to find the Mississippi River (hard to miss) one great thing about traveling with 30 people is that you run into them all around town! We were having a nice time sitting by the river when Topher came up behind us and pretended to mug us….. Then it started to rain heavily so we meandered back to the quarter and took refuge in a mixed drink machine bar, all the drinks were mixing in what looked like front-loading washing machines and there were about 20 different ones!
That night we all taxied over the Keith friends Richard and Mary's house for a BBQ. We rode the cab down Rue St. Charles through the Garden District, and I was happy I got to see it. So many beautiful mansions straight out of the Mayfair Witch series. I expected to see Uncle Julien sitting on one of the porches, or Lestat and Louie pretending to have a glass of wine at some café.
Keith’s friends were amazingly hospitable, and we had a wonderful dinner of burgers and GREENS—yay! Don’t get too many of those on the road. And best of all, Robin showed up!!! He had just flown in from Portland, long sleeves and all (it was still hot and sticky and raining) thunder and lightning commenced, perhaps from the joy of lovers reuniting after 2 ½ weeks away (?)
Earlier that day Aspen and Uli had met a woman who lives right down the street from the Maple Leaf.. She instantly loved them and told them we could park our bus in front of her house and plug in. It turned out she has a little shop there too; she sells essential oils and such. Her name was Eliza and any of us who wandered in got a free reading and she gave us a blend of oil that was right for us. She seemed to affect us all differently, for me she seemed to look right through me and tell me what was true. She asked if I had a sister (I could tell she already knew the answer) when I nodded she said’ call her’ with a smile on her face. The funny thing is, I had dreamed about Sarah the night before. She said ‘she has good news for you’ then that night I dreamed of Sarah again. I tried calling her the next day but didn’t get through… I’ll try again. Our show at the Maple Leaf was fun. The venue was very small and slippery, but great crowd energy. To me it felt like the band was a little low energy but this will happen from time to time. Right after the show Robin and I grabbed a cab back to the hotel to spend some quality time together ;) our only night alone before it’s back on the bus and then I’m headed out day after tomorrow. The next morning we had to be out of the room by 11 and we had another whole day before our show last night… so it was back to the French Quarter with Robin this time. We spent a bit of time at the edge of the Mississippi ogling over the riverboats, imagining Ravella boarding the boat preparing to gather her spoils. We also went to the VooDoo museum, another little tourist trap but rather enjoyable. We learned all about Marie Levaeu, the VooDoo queen of New Orleans. When we were in there I got a bloody nose! I decided to take my bloody napkins out with me. The afternoon ended sitting outside Café Du Monde with Jason and Robin, enjoying the sunset and tropical rainstorm.
Our gig was starting outside this place called Café Brazil, and we were going to process through the streets to our final destination, the Hi-Ho lounge. When we got to Café Brazil, we already had a crowd waiting for us and we started marching, right down the middle of the street. Earlier we had decided that we were NOT going to go in the street, as you need a permit for that and another marching band had recently been arrested for doing it without. So we started on the sidewalks but it was hard to keep the crowd of people out of the streets and eventually the band took over the street too… I felt extremely anxious the entire march because I generally tend to avoid doing things that can get me arrested.. But it was an amazing march nonetheless, marching through the 9th ward bringing happiness to the streets, people coming out of their houses and smiling with pure joy. I got to really see the people. They were so happy. They said they hadn’t experienced this in a long time. As we marched the 8 blocks to the Hi-Ho, we gathered people like a lint ball. The air was dry but lightning was crashing about every 2 minutes. We brought the people in to the Hi-Ho and merriment commenced. There were a couple of bands ahead of us, one of them called ‘Flaming Fire.’ then we were up-we of course started with ‘9th Ward’ and the crowd went crazy. It was SO HOT and crazy! After I did my hula hoop bit I think I was the hottest and sweatiest I have ever been after performing. But damn, it was worth it! The crowd was riled up beyond belief… I felt like a badass. I immediately ran backstage and poured ice down my costume. Then back out to the raging crowd. I think everyone in the band had an amazing night. At one point we were spraying ice water into the crowd, it got super crazy. It was a perfect end to our stay in New Orleans, and I’m sure we’ll be back. i guess i was a little skeptical about how they would receive us, maybe because New Orleans is renowned for their music and between Jazz Fest and Mardi Gras, i feel like they might have seen it all. Well i guess they haven't seen it ALL because they ate us up. LOVE!!
We then loaded up the bus in the pouring hot rain, no one fretting about getting wet, as we were drenched in sweat already. Tying up the hula hoops on the top of the bus was interesting in the deluge… I thought it would suck to get hit by lightning but the hoops needed to be tied so up I went. We then drove the 1 ½ hours to Baton Rouge where we slept at Chris’s mom’s house. She and her neighbor took us in, provided us with beds and floor space, filled our bellies once again with breakfast and sent us on our way. We are now headed to Houston, TX to do a show tonight. Earlier we passed a giant swampland, something like 30 or 40 miles across. It was eerily beautiful. We just entered Texas; I’ve never been here. I only have a couple of days left on this tour. I will play Houston tonight, Austin tomorrow and tomorrow night, and then hop on an early morning flight back to Ptown to cuddle with GKitty and get caught up on my life. I’m looking forward to seeing my roommates and getting back to work, I feel like I haven’t been there in a million years! And I definitely need an adjustment. And a thousand nights of sleep. Sadly, I will have to part ways with Robin once again, but we will both be back for awhile in a week.

Monday, October 15, 2007

Georgia On My Mind

As we pulled away from the Echo Project music Festival in Atlanta, Georgia, we lit up the birthday cake and sang happy birthday to Aspen and Daniel. They both turned a year older yesterday, but we couldn’t manage to get everyone together yesterday to do the cake… we are now on our way down to New Orleans, where we will spend three days. Tomorrow is a day off, then we have gigs Wed and Thurs night. The Echo Project was a real success. We rolled in late Friday night, we were hoping to make it there for the Flaming Lips set, but we just missed it. A couple of people jumped off the bus and managed to catch the encore. There was a bit of confusion about where we were supposed to park the bus, they originally had us parked way out and we were going to have to schlep all our stuff to the backstage area, but quickly we realized that was not going to be ideal so we ended up moving to a perfect spot, right behind the stage we were on. It was just my luck that my great friend Judd was our stage manager so I got to see him a lot since we were camped right there. (Judd is in the picture below) Friday night most of us took it kind of easy, unpacked our things, set up tents, cruised around a little, and went to bed relatively early. (Depending on what you consider early, of course) Another thing was that it was unexpectedly cold down there in the south, my breath was a white cloud, and it was about 40 degrees.
---I just looked out the window and saw a sign that read ‘Welcome to Alabama the Beautiful’--- anyway…. Friday morning we had to get up pretty early to be ready for a parade march at 12:00. We started from our camp and went out into the festival grounds, gathering people as we marched around. They loved it! We stopped a few times and did a couple of standing sets, crowds multiplying left and right. One of my favorite moments was looking at the faces as we passed, and seeing this one guy just laughing hysterically. I could tell he wasn’t exactly laughing AT us, he was laughing with pure joy. We made it all the way out to the general campground. Then we marched back in and did another standing set, and slowly marched back to our camp doing ‘temptation’. For the last leg I carried Russ’s trumpet (he plays both trumpet and sax so he had them both out. I handed Uli my hula hoop and pretended to be a trumpet player, it was really fun! Maybe someday I’ll actually make some sound come out of the thing. After that we had the rest of the day off, our stage show wasn’t until Sunday. Saturday afternoon I was excited to see Thievery Corporation, I have loved them for a long time and never seen them live. They actually had a whole band this time, not just two guys on laptops. When I went out to the main stage it was so loud my ears were being assaulted, even with earplugs in. the loudness seemed to distort the sound so it didn’t even sound good. I was super disappointed! I don’t know why they need to turn it up so loud, it is so unnecessary and causes everyone harm…. Maybe the sound guy is already deaf from all the festivals. Wanting to get away from the heavy noise but still desiring to hear the band, I retreated to the back of the field where I stumbled upon a Jerry Garcia art exhibition. Before he was Grateful Dead, he went to the San Francisco College of fine art and these two people were exhibiting and selling his art. (Image Makers Art, Inc. www.imagemakersart.com) Being a hippy from Santa Cruz, this excited me to no end. As I was strolling through the booth, I noticed a little carrier, the size in which you might see a small dog. As I bent down to say hello to the little creature, to my complete and utter delight not only was it feline in nature but also it was a KITTEN!!!!!!!! A cute little medium haired tabby, not older than 7 weeks or so. Uhhhhhhuuuuuuuuuuu…….. So cute! I was playing with her from across the great divide of the carrier when the woman said I could take her out and play with her. My eyes lit up and out came the kitten. Her story was that they were in some random parking lot in Georgia and they found her wandering around lost and hungry, no houses in site. So of course they weren’t going to leave her there. So they named her Georgia and she is the sweetest thing ever. I think I spent about an hour there, just playing with her and she fell asleep in my hands. Finally after dark I bid adieu even though I could have stayed there all night. I then headed over to Cat Powers at the other stage and ran into a bunch of our crew. It was another one of those moments in which I feel so incredibly grateful to be out and about with this amazing group of people, this family. I rolled up to the scene and squeezed myself between Benny and Dave Clay, and we swayed to the mesmerizing voice of Cat while enjoying each other’s company. Then I rolled around the festival with Dave and LaTisha, speaking only in Gypsy speak and interacting heavily with the public at large. At one point Dave and I had a fun little shadow theater on porta potties. Certainly a highlight. That night I decided to sleep on the bus because it was damn cold outside and there was a generator right by us that kept waking me up in the morning. Sunday morning we were roused early again, our stage set was at 12:30. When we marched in to the show the crowd was pretty minimal, but by the time we had done the first few songs the place was packed and the crowd was amped! I think this show was the best one I’ve been in so far. The stage was big, ample room for dancing, the lights were great and the crowd was so energized and practically drooling! I think when we roll into a jam band scene people are so surprised because we rock the place down. I had so many people come up to me after the show and shower the band with compliments. I look forward to playing a main stage where you can hear it all over the festival; they’re going to go crazy! After our show we went over to this photo tent and we got some professional photos done. Then we were free of all musical responsibility and everyone scattered in all directions.. I decided to take it upon myself to find a water source to fill our big 5 gallon jugs. I found a kid with a gator and he drove me up to this barn on the other side of the property. I felt lucky I got to take a tour of the grounds; it was so beautiful with rolling hills of grass and huge lakes. Apparently it is private property and it is 350 acres in total! It must be near the Atlanta airport because planes were flying over in all directions. Not low enough that you could hear them but definitely in taking off/landing mode. Then I got a ride to the showers, ahhhhhhhhhh! I was so filthy. Layers of sweat and dirt washed down the drain. I started to feel a pull towards the kitten again, so I hopped on over there and visited for another hour or so! I missed the Dirty Dozen Brass Band but come on, it’s a kitten… last night I started to feel very done with being at a festival. I wasn’t quite sure what to do with myself and I considered just going to bed but that somehow didn’t seem right. What I really wanted to do was get in my transmogrifier and go home to my bed, watch a movie with Robin and Genghis kitty and eat cookies. I tried to find the darn contraption but I seem to have misplaced it somewhere. For a late late dinner Faith made a huge pot of yummy chicken stew and rice, and we happened to be parked next to Michael Franti and Spearhead’s bus, and they hopped on over and ate stew with us and we had a little mixer. They are super cool folks and definitely on the same page as us. (For all you Sublime fans we just passed Tuscaloosa Alabama) The whole time we were listening to Phil Lesh’s massive 4 hour set, and I loved it! Lots of M4 members like to taunt hippies like me but whatever! 4 hours of Grateful Dead songs, executed in the most professional manner. My heaven, others’ hell. And the sound was perfect at our camp. Right as Phil ended at 11, all the music was over. Well we got kind of a crappy time slot, 12:30 on Saturday (most of the festival is sleeping off the drugs at that point) so we decided to be the headliners… meaning we gathered most of the band together and marched out onto the field, just as all the Phil Lesh fans were exiting. When they came upon us they were overjoyed and immediately we gathered a crowd of about 150, and it just kept growing from there. We paraded them towards the campground and stopped for awhile, jamming along with some of the drummers from Spearhead, and a trumpet player from Afromotive. It was definitely a highlight of the weekend (along with the kitten of course). I had my avocado shaker that Robin and I got at McCabe’s Guitar Shop in Santa Monica, and I was keeping up with everyone. It was super fun to be a part of the music for a change. Last night when I finally hit the bunk I slept soooooooo well. I don’t think I even rolled over; I woke up in the exact position I was in when I fell asleep. I woke up to someone mouth trumpeting Lesley Metal as a wake up call… I love March Fourth! This morning’s prime directive: get the bus cleaned and in order for a 12 hour trip to New Orleans. Current status: filthy beyond words. It took us a few hours but we did it… everything came off the bus and it got a deep cleaning, then everything went back on. I had two lost things found!! Losing stuff on the bus SUCKS. This whole trip I have tried to keep all my stuff together and in my cubby, always making sure to keep track of every little thing and not set anything down anywhere or else poof! It is missing. Well this time I managed to lose my sweatshirt and mug.. I searched frantically for the sweatshirt for like an hour at dusk on Sunday… looking for things on the dirty bus is like searching the bins or bargain barn for your black item of clothing… fruitless and disgusting. You can all breathe a sigh of relief though; I have been reunited with them. Jason and Benny had gone to Jason’s parents’ in Atlanta for the night, and came back wielding the Atlanta Journal entertainment section, with a big write up on the festival, and a half page picture of yours truly, M4!!! We were the biggest picture on the page, and they wrote a whole paragraph about us.

Quote from Atlanta Journal:
 ‘Back on the other side of the site, things were getting a little crazy. For sheer foot-stomping, joy-making fun, you couldn’t beat the MarchFourth Marching Band from Portland, Ore. It was a blend of burlesque, vaudeville, horn-driven funk and marching band madness. The costumed horde, many of them with their faces painted and several on death-defying stilts, made for the kind of spectacle that deserves the word awesome. At the end of the show, the entire entourage - and it was a probably a couple of dozen - trouped into the middle of the crowd at the Eclipse tent and it was almost like the shouting, chanting fans were part of the band.


Here is the link to the picture that was in the paper:
http://projects.accessatlanta.com/gallery/view/music/echo1014/
#11 is the one that was half page… that’s Aspen in the middle, he was one of the birthday boys…and if you go to #13 there is another picture they took that is just on the website (that’s me behind the heart. To my right is my M4th twin, LaTisha, and to my right singing is Alix jumping in on Pilot Erect, her sexy sultry voice echoing throughout the tent) :


We all hugged Andy and Sabrina goodbye, as they were finishing their tour in Atlanta, I hugged Judd and we were off, stopping at the barn for water but only finding a box of cold beer *shrug* guess they left it here for us…. The M4 way……and through the fair state of Alabama, stopping at a gas station/mini mart and thoroughly freaking out the workers and other shoppers. I think they were happy to see us roll away.

One thing I have consistently enjoyed on this tour is the one on one time I get with everyone. Even though we all swarm together as one big ball of fun, there are plenty of opportunities for bonding with single members of the band, and they come in unexpected moments whether it is eating fish out of a tin in the Trader Joe’s parking lot somewhere in Georgia with Ethan, playing Frisbee with Cymbal Dan at a rest stop in Alabama, or sitting next to Halfrack on the bus, waiting for our photos to upload, it is always amazing and really real. Even though I have been in this band for over a year, I feel like I know everyone a lot better now. Again I will say that I feel so grateful for this opportunity. My immediate world is so inundated with the band; they are even infiltrating my dreams! I almost can’t remember what it was like before this tour……
So for now we are on to New Orleans, I have used up a few hours of the drive writing this blog, now a couple more for the pictures (uploading is slow with all the users online) 301 miles to go….

Thanks for reading about this tour from my point of view. You are a trooper if you have gotten all the way to the bottom of this verbose collection of thoughts. I also want to let you know that I have added pictures to my previous blogs. Hopefully as soon as I can figure out how to batch reduce photos in photoshop I will create a flickr account, as I have taken about a million pictures and I’d love to share them with you.

Friday, October 12, 2007

DC… I think?

As we rolled into Washington DC yesterday I caught a glimpse of the Washington Monument as we were headed down the famous ‘K street…. (Good news is, we got some extra funding for the band..ha ha) that was about all the sightseeing for these gypsies. We arrived at the John F Kennedy Memorial Performing Arts Center feeling a bit out of place but just as happy to play for a more hoity toity crowd. The place was so elegant with its marble pillars and deep red carpet, a doorman at every door and we knew Billy Crystal and Robin Williams to be in the building. There was some sort of celebrity thing going on, a few people including Scarlett got to catch glimpse of Billy. The stage was beautiful and perfect for the band; we all fit on it including the dancers. It was well lit and the sound was great, the walls in the hall were made of marble and glass so we only really needed ambient mics. It is so great when there is room for the dancers on stage, because when we have to do it on the floor then we have to push the crowd back so we end up doing all of our dance numbers at the very beginning of the show. When we have ample stage space we can evenly spread out the pieces and the show looks better as well as giving us a chance to catch our breaths between numbers. The hall was just that, a hall. It was narrow and long, when I was on stage I looked to the back of the crowd and I couldn’t really see them at all because they were so far away. There were huge crystal chandeliers evenly spaced down the hall. It was beautiful! Our show was fantastic, we busted out all the G rated songs… I hula hooped to Space Hole… damn that’s a long song! I always think it’s sweet to hoop to Space Hole cause my sweetie wrote it… realistically though it’s too long for me. I was schvitzing like crazy when I got off stage, to add to it the professional lighting is HOT!
The crowd was unusually sedate, but that was to be expected from a seated high class audience. We knew they loved it when as soon as the last note was played people were out of their seats standing and clapping. Our stage manager Mike told us that there is a show on that stage 365 days of the year, he has worked there 6 days a week for 4 years, and we were one of the most enjoyable shows he has seen there. I am going to try to see if Vagabond Opera can play there when we go to the East Coast, I think it is a perfect venue for them as well. After our show Kevin (our driver) told me that if you’re not from the East Coast you might not realize that playing there is a golden opportunity and it’s a bigger deal than I might think. He also speculated that I’m probably the first person to hula hoop on the Kennedy Center stage! Anyone else know any different? I’ll take it!
After the show Mike led us down into the depths of the building, where the employees eat their lunch. We all got a good taste of DC cafeteria food. We were so hungry that we ate it despite our picky appetites… we have vegans, organic only’s, wheat free, dairy free, egg free, you name it. Then there’s plenty of corndog eaters too. I had a salad and a superfood so I was quite happy. The main thing that disappointed me was all the styrofoam there. Even the trays were styrofoam. So we ate and packed up and a boom and a bing and we were back on the road. We traveled last night to North Carolina, to the welcoming home of Barbara, Ethan’s mom. The trip was long and a bit grueling after expending so much energy at the Kennedy Center. A bunch of us watched movies and then when I started to feel a little seasick I sat up front and played guessing games with Nathan to keep him awake and alert for driving. One of the things I really love about March Fourth is that we are a giant mobile party ALL THE TIME. Even when we are low energy at 1:00 in the morning and we stop at a gas station, and everyone shuffles in to go to the bathroom and peruse the aisles for anything eatable (not much to be found) even then, we take over the entire mini mart with our crazy freakiness and the workers and other customers have no idea what to do with their reaction. This normal looking bus pulls up and out file 30+ bizarre people who’s oddity seems completely normal to them. One thing I have noticed about traveling in the bus as opposed to a car is that I don’t notice the landscape as much. For one I am not involved in the driving or direction process, and also there is so much else to do (laptops, sleeping, movies, etc..) that looking out the window actually takes intention. Most of the time when I look out the window all I see is Best Buy, Wal-Mart, or Home Depot so I’m quickly uninterested anyway.
So back to North Carolina. We made it to the Eathanol homestead, and filled up every inch of carpeted floor space. Barbara made us breakfast this morning of French toast and turkey bacon. I am finding breakfast to be the hardest meal for me on this tour, as I am allergic to oats and eggs, and we usually have some sort of egg thing and then the alternate for the vegetarians is granola or something of the sort. Luckily I had some yogurt and cereal. Bellies AGAIN full of carefully prepared by a gracious host food, we embarked once again on a day’s journey, this time to the Echo Project Music Festival in Atlanta, GA. It looks like we are up for an 8+ hour drive today. Right now we are heading down towards Charlotte. Once again I am looking forward to seeing a friend in the next town, my friend Judd is the stage manager for our stage there! So not only do I know we are safe in his hands, I get to see a great friend who I hardly ever get to see because he lives in Colorado.
I am definitely looking forward to seeing Robin; he doesn’t arrive until New Orleans on the 17th. Last time I saw him was just for a couple of days in Santa Cruz, the last weekend in September. I need some snuggles!

Thursday, October 11, 2007

The Garden State




Mobile wi-fi is so cool! Being able to do this on the road makes so much of a difference, all of a sudden I have so much time to do things that I might not do if I had to do it when we were off the bus. Of course I’m not getting any of my book read but there’s always time for that. Yesterday…. Our bellies full of NY bagels, our band of rabble rousers bid adieu to our gracious and effervescent host, Mark, leaving him with bountiful amounts of M4 gear, and lots of hugs. We cruised over the Hudson River via the George Washington Bridge, and into the Garden State, New Jersey. The ride was fairly quick, about an hour later we pulled up to the doorstep of yet another fabulous and gracious host, Carolyn. She is a friend of our Portland family member, Yvonne. (Yvonne is the best! She makes us food at practice, sews us blankets and pillows for the bus, and does MANY other amazing things) As a 30 person band of -ahem- energetic people, when you pull up to some random woman’s house in the middle of New Jersey, it’s good to asses the situation and feel out what is a proper behavior for the current environment. Well right away we knew we had nothing to worry about, she gathered us all together in the driveway and set the rules: no peeing in the hot tub, no smoking in bed, don’t let the cat out, and give the dog a cookie every time you come in until he gets fat or pukes. We got along with her famously. She lives right on a river and estuary, affording a beautiful view and she had a speedboat and paddle boat docked off the back porch (none of which we had time to use) She and her daughter Kim and her granddaughter Shayna had prepared a feast for us. We ate well and then headed off to the show, Carolyn in the bus with the band. Our show was at a place called Asbury lanes, a bowling alley that has a stage right in the middle of the lanes. It was so cool! The audience took a little warming up and by the end they LOVED us! One man came up to me and said in a thick Joisey accent,’ my friend told me there was a crazy marching band here, so he calls me up and says, come on down, and a boom and a bing and here I am!’ And of course after we had all the bowling rounds we could ask for. After the show and bowling, a few of us walked to the beach, which happened to be a block away. It was a perfect Atlantic beach, complete with wooden boardwalk. I was worried we were gonna get whacked by a made man but Jason said that probly wouldn’t happen. ☺ He was thinking we might find some washed up bodies but I said they usually dumped them in the Hudson.
There seems to be some sort of illness going around, people are dropping like flies. It is some sort of cold or flu; we have a few people down right now. So everyone is taking all sorts of immune boosters and trying to get lots of sleep (yea right!) when we got home several of us took advantage of the hot tub… it was amazing!
Today we are driving to DC where we play a free show at the Kennedy center. We just stopped at flying J to clean out the potty… ech! We have a woman on board from NPR’s Morning Edition, she is doing a piece on March Fourth… so keep an eye out for it! I am looking forward to the show tonight, my friend Jessica from high school lives in Washington DC now and I think she is coming to the show! I haven’t seen her in like 10 years so it will be a real treat. Right now we are cruising down the highway, somewhere in Delaware or Maryland, cruising the internet and listening to last night’s show….2007!

Wednesday, October 10, 2007

NY, Chinese Food, and Pinkowitz, oh my!




All I can say is WOW!!! People say NY is rough, but I have certainly not found that to be so. Well, let me correct myself. In the past, I have found that to be so. In fact, I have always felt a little uncomfortable here, like some stranger in a strange and harsh land. This time around it is so different. Is it the M4 experience? To hospitality here is overwhelming. I’ll start with this morning (2:00pm) how long does it take 30 people to decide what they want to do in the big apple? Two hours or so… a group of us decided to go on a walking tour of NY, led by our lovely and hospitable host, Mark, who took the day off work to hang with us. There were 15 of us, and he kept a careful head count throughout the day. He led us through central park, which in my 4 times of being here I have no recollection of going.. probly with my parents when I was 12 but those times are a blur now. We rode the subway, shopped, and created general merriment all the way from the upper west side to Washington square. I got some pink undies that say I heart NY on them and of course Richard got the same undies but custom made to say ‘Dick Lizard’. We ended up in the square and there was a marchingband there, an amalgamation of the Pink Puffers and Environmental Encroachment. They had some hula hoops so of course we jumped in and it was a rocuous rousing moment, general tomfoolery ensued. The subway scene after that was a little out of control, we were down there pole dancing on the hand bars and generally annoying all the other passengers. Secretly I think they liked it… then we continued on to meet the rest of the band at a Chinese restaurant in Chinatown called “Oriental Food’, where Ben Pink’s dad Andrew was buying us all dinner. It turned out it was a 7 course dinner, each a different kind of meat! There were 4 tables of us, about 40 people in total, and on every table was a bottle of scotch that was hand mixed by him, and three or so bottles of good wine. The food kept coming and the beverages flowing, until everyone was at some level or another of inebriation (a common thread to this blog) then we started the toast and it got all sappy from there…. I’ll keep that info to the band… and the fortune cookies read something like,’ it is over your head now, you must get professional help’ and ‘ forbidden fruit leads to many kinds of jams’ whilst we were in the restaraunt a thunderstorm commenced… by the time the waiters FINALLY kicked us out it was pouring outside and we ran for the cover of the subway. Our train was in the sub-subway.. the lower you get underground the more hot and muggy the air, like descending to the depths of a tortured hell… if you’re into that stuff. After a merry M4 subway ride (always an adventure) we rose up to the middle level and came upon an old man playing the keyboard, surrounded by plastic dancing dolls. Something about him made everyone drop all ideas of going anywhere else and we all had a huge dance party in the subway station. The guy was totally adorable and stoked to have created this dance party, the tips were flowing just like the water dripping through the cracks in the ceiling of this sub terrainean disco. Then he busted out ‘Brazil” and of course we all started singing along, our voices echoing through the hallways to the utter amazement and joy of the people around us, most of all our keyboard DJ. Then he neatly ended the song, and we thanked him and were on our way. Where did we go? Well Andrew (BP’s dad) and his lovely wife happen to live but 5 blocks from our effervescent host, Mark, and his lovely wife. He invited us all over for a ‘treat’ so we certainly obliged. The party there was off the hook. Ask me about it sometime. All I can say is 11th floor in Manhattan….holy shit. Ben Pink, i feel like i know you better now! and your parents ROCK. I think I’ll hit the hay early tonight at 3:30. tomorrow we're off to NJ to paint the town black and blue.

IV, Knitting Factory




Yea! The show last night at the Knitting Factory was amazing! So many vibrant happy New Yorkers in the audience, we all gave each other so much energy it was awesome. The stage was super small so we did most of the dance numbers in the audience, then I hopped on stage and hula hooped in the smallest space since Boise with Vagabond Opera. It was cool though, I bumped a few mike stands but no harm done, and I didn’t drop the hoop! The crowd went crazy for Space Hole and we had a guest saxophonist from the Pink Puffers, named Mateo. My friends Stefan showed up with some of his hoping students and my new friends Jonny and Kaitlin were there too… and I even saw some folks from Oregon…. After the show and a long bus packing session the mobile party made it’s way to the upper west side to the residence of our new friend, Mark. He is one of the Flying Karamozof brothers and saw us at the midnight show at Country Fair and loved us. And we love him. He led us to his vertical apartment. It was the funniest sight, 30 people trudging up 5 flights of stairs with all their luggage at 3:30 in the morning, most of them inebriated. Trying to be quiet. Yea right! He led us up to the rooftop which would be our evening resting place. The night was so warm, it was still in my tank top near dawn. Then he cooked us all a yummy snack. I think my head hit the pillow around 5am, but I got a few hours of good sleep, with the help of my bucky eye mask and earplugs. When I woke up it was almost raining, and much cooler. This day off so far has comprised of people deciding what they want to do, and Mark cooking us an amazing breakfast. Later this evening I am going to go see the Pink Puffers play … and then Ben Pink’s dad is taking us all out to Chinese food! The restaurant is called Oriental Food (!)
This is Tom's restaurant from Seinfeld, right down the street from Mark's abode.

III, New York


My luggage’s fate has been written… all worked out as planned! Well, sort of. I got on the plane in Denver, the last leg, the three peaceful hours of sleep I was planning on having. When I got to my seat I found that it was a middle seat in a row that didn’t recline. Needless to say I didn’t get any sleep on the flight. I got to NY and prayed during baggage claim. They were one of the last ones to come out! When I got outside dawn had just hit. The sky was grey and heavy like the heavens were about to burst forth, but it was hot already and it was about 7:00am… I felt all sticky and gross. I got in a cab and we drove into Manhattan, I was silent most of the way, contemplating being in NY alone and how I have never done this before. Near the end of the ride the cabbie starts telling me about NY and how since Guiliani has been around it has been a lot safer here. He dropped me off right in front of Stefan’s apartment… I walked down the stairs to his door feeling the city intensely around me, and rang the bell… he found me at the front door looking quite bedraggled and whisked me in, showed me to the couch where I promptly dropped and fell into a heavy sleep for 5 hours. He has a few houseguests in town and apparently they have been raging it up all weekend long, celebrating John Barlow’s 60th birthday in style. When I woke up someone brought me a bagel… yum! They are so much better here! I spent all morning meeting some beautiful people from LA and Massachusets named Kaitlin, Jonathan, and Lorin and then Stefan took me on a walk all around Manhattan, showing me all sorts of things off the beaten tourist path. It was such a great experience and I am so thankful to have him here. The funniest thing I saw was this dog park that is enclosed with a fence, and all the dogs just go crazy with each other. There was a separate enclosure for little dogs! I know we have dog parks in Portland and dog beaches in Santa Cruz but this one was like no other… I guess the dogs here have to get it out all at once since they don’t normally have much room to run. Well now I am going to hop a cab with all my shite and head out to the Knitting Factory to meet the band for my first show with them…. I am looking forward to seeing them as well as Ariel, she happens to be in town on her way outta the country for 6 months, bound for world travel and a grand adventure of her own! It will be cool to boogie with her one last time…

The Adventures of miss Hotfield Part II



Back on a plane again after a whirlwind weekend of wedding hullabaloo. The good news is, they got married successfully and everything went as planned. No inebriated ex answering to ‘speak now or forever hold your peace’ or anything of the sort. Though I was pleased to see that two of Shalene’s ex boyfriends were there, relationships transformed from lovers to great friends. Great enough friends that they were included on the limited guest list… if I were to get married today I would have at least 3 ex’s there, if not 4. In fact I just went to an ex’s wedding last weekend, Jay and Elizabeth. What an amazing wedding! Visually stunning as well. Happy happy joy joy! And speaking of best exes EVER, I dropped Keith SriKanta Barefoot off at the San Francisco airport this morning, to head off on his grand adventure in the cold realms of Montreal. But back to the wedding. Shalene and Cortt got married in a beautiful redwood grove in the Berkeley botanical gardens. It was so amazing, the little girls in white looked like wood nymphs and Shalene was beautiful beyond words. The officiator was our friend Duane, who we met at Disneyland when we were 14!!! You know when you’re 14 and you go to an amusement park with your friends and you just recently got boobs and your hormones are flying all over the place so your real intention is to meet guys, never to see them again in real life? (ok fine I didn’t really get boobs till I was 16 but you know what I mean) (fine, I was like 18) anyway we met these three guys and one of them was Duane! He and Shalene stayed close all these years, being pen pals and visiting each other in their various cities. He now lives in Tacoma with his lovely wife and two kids and Shalene had a dream that he officiated so he did. It was awesome. Shalene was in a dress that she had made for her by a designer in Seattle, Chrissy Wai Chen. It was absolutely amazing, and parts of it were made out of her grandmother’s wedding dress, worn something like 65 years ago, and her Aunt also wore it 44 years ago. The reception was great too, and it was so wonderful to connect with so many old friends like Hilary, Lisa, Michelle, Amy Baugh, Carol, Katharina and Mike, Randy, and Susannah. And more. And of course it was lovely to have Keith as my ‘date’ and spend one last weekend with him before the big send off.
Meanwhile Robin and his band of Vagabonds have been all over California, down to LA and San Diego. This morning as I was driving back to Santa Cruz from San Francisco I was thinking of the Van making it’s trek all the way from San Diego to San Francisco. We were like ships passing in the night. Er, day, I suppose. Tonight they are playing at Amnesia in the Mission, one of my favorite stops along the way FOR SURE! And of course I adore Sol, the owner. I’ll never forget last time, no room for me to perform so he let me hula hoop on the bar. It was one of those great moments in life that are frozen in memory for good.
I spent a lovely day with my mom and dad (ok fine I slept on the couch most of the day) we visited my Grandma for an hour or so, and then they dropped me off at the airport to catch a red eye to NY, where I meet up with March Fourth… eek! I’m looking forward to it. I have a quick layover in Denver, and I’m hoping hoping hoping my bags make it on to the next plane, as this one was delayed and I’m going to have to run in the airport. If my bags come on a later flight I’m not sure what I’m going to do because we have a show in NY tomorrow night… I’ll just have to send positive thoughts in to the universe. By the time you read this my fate will already be sealed… (i don't have any pictures from the actual wedding right now... i guess i was too busy)

The adventures of miss Hotfield part I

Sitting on a plane again, this seems to be a regular thing for me lately. Well truth be told, last weekend I almost screwed it up beyond repair…..since I am not going on Vagabond Opera tour this time around, I decided to go down just for the Santa Cruz show. Visit my mom and dad, see my sweetie partway through tour and play with my favorite eastern European operatic bohemian Balkan klezmer cabaret band at a great venue in Santa Cruz, the Kuumbwa jazz center. Well when I checked my itinerary the night before I realized OH SHIT!!!!!!! I booked the flight for OCTOBER 27th, not SEPTEMBER 27th! Who does that??? Well to my credit I think I was booking the flight from a hotel room in Boise after a VO show and on my way to Burningman… and I was booking another flight at the same time, the other one going from Portland to Oakland, Oakland to NY, and Austin to Portland. Give me a break! Well in order to fix my ghastly mistake (the night before the flight, mind you) they wanted $80 for a transfer fee, and the fare had gone up by a mere $130. So I said, never mind. I suck. Oh well, now I can go to Bend with the Groove Bomb, that sounds fun too! But Vagabond Opera had other plans for me. At 2:00 the next day they decided that I simply must be at the show so they shelled out the $210 and 7 hours later I was sitting on the runway. Thanks VO!! I like to think that I’m sooooooo important to the band that they would fly me down same day, disregarding the fact that they were staying at my parent’s house and their promoter and radio host is an old family friend who knew me when I was in diapers….they get the special treatment Santa Cruz cause it’s ‘Amy’s boyfriend’s band’ oh and how Santa Cruz loves them! (us) who doesn’t?
So I had a weekend filled with fun and sun and roller coasters and seaweed and sweet love and mom’s lasagne and butterflies (monarchs, of course) and, Vagabond Opera. The show was spectacular. The Kuumbwa jazz center is a really great listening room. Not much room for dancing but the crowd is listening to every little detail. I kind of like it that way, there are so many intricacies that get lost in the jumble of dancing. I think both have their place, really.
So Monday morning I came back to Portland for a week (or so ) of work, and now I am back on a plane again, headed down to Oakland for Shalene’s wedding. I’m a maid of honor! And what an honor it is, my sweet best friend since 2nd grade. ~love~
Then Sunday morning bright and early I depart Oakland and drop off Keith (SriKanta) at the SF airport… he is off on an adventure of his own, to Montreal to train for 6 months with Cirque Du Soliel, then he’s off to Macao China to be a part of a stationary show, for 2 YEARS!!! I am so excited and proud of him, and I am blessed to be the ONE who gets to send him off at the airport. Then I drive back to SC to meet my parents, and they will take me to San Jose to get on a red eye flight to New York to meet up with March Fourth. I get there at around 6:30 in the morning and the band won’t roll in to town until around 5 that night, so I am going to go over to my friend Stefan’s house in the meantime… yay! Blissful haven with my hula hoopin cutie!! I am excited to be in New York, even if it is just for a day. We’re playing at the Knitting Factory Monday night, sounds fun.
Well, it looks like I have to ‘prepare my electronic device for stowage’ I think flight attendants just make up works like ‘stowage’ and ‘deplane’ but you know what? I’m cool with that.