My Maine Town

We're in Maine now. Have been for a couple of days. this is our last day here. as will smith once said, "max 'n relaxin all cool, and all shootin some bball outside of the school" well at least the first part. i don't know how enjoyable it would be with Mike and I playing basketball... maybe frisbee...

so I've left this blog before. over the years. hanging out in Maine, with my friend Whitney. I met whitney in high school and she was good friends with my cousin at the all-girls school. whitney is one of the girls at the school that I did NOT date.

Last night, as I like to do to show my appreciation for her open-door policy (to me at least), I cooked her (and Mike) dinner. she had a late day at work and how tedious it would be for her to work 12 hours and then have to cook up some dinner...

I made some tuna steaks, and chicken with assorted sauteed veggies and cold pasta salad as a side dish. the pasta salad was pretty easy for me to prepare, since, just before we left a week ago, my Aunt gave me a container full of delicious pasta salad and if I had to guess, it was about 5lbs at least. So I've been eating it, about a bowl a day for a week and barely put a dent into it. So I went to the grocery and bought a few things for dinner, and for the remainder of my trip. I spent $80 fucking dollars. stupid!! I'm supposed to be frugal dammit. Yes this food should last... only about half of it is perishable. but anyway, I doctored up the pasta salad with some new veggies and a bit more dressing and it was a nice side dish to dinner. gotta have some carbs for energy right?

so we've been here two days, and of course, two visits to Gelato Fiasco . last night I had cinnamon + tiramisu + peanut butter & jelly flavors. Night 1 was Apple Cider + cake batter + bourbon vanilla. yeah that place has the knack.

as we near the final portion of shows for Leg 2, I wonder how I have been able to survive this trip, with only about $60 in my pocket when we left. Yes of course, I use credit cards, but mostly for just gas, and a couple of meals. Mike and I have packed our own coolers full of delicious and fresh food in order to save some loot in the long run. So I attribute this amazing feat to the gracious audiences that have been buying cds at the last few shows. This trip has been great so far. Great colleges, great venues, great audiences. Especially our last show at the Barge at Colgate. We went through a ton of jive and communications to finally confirm that date, and the crowd was instantly silent as the first chord was struck. I even played 2 full hours, without stopping (only speaking of a potential break) and 80% of them stuck around for the whole long set... and in spite of Yin Yang twins having a big show at a frat party nearby (anyone remember them from the 90's?) I just remember the name... how did these college kids even find them?

I'll likely have to hit an ATM by the time we get home, cos we have a tentative plan to visit Cedar Point on the way home from our eastern coordinates. I bought an EZ pass tag, which is for tollways, so that you don't have to stop, dig through your pockets for cash and change... now I just drive through the EZ pass booths and just slow down a little, then it automatically charges it to my EZ pass account AND I get discounted tolls to boot.... TO BOOT!

This will have been (and already is) a very nice refresher considering our first trip we had a string of about 10 shows in 12 days, then to start this trip was I think 7 in 9 days and tons of driving, so I was pretty beat from driving... it was a nice omen, when we arrived in Brunswick from driving from 10pm-6am, that the Brunswick Diner was open right at 6 and we were able to pig out on eggs, and chocolate chip pancakes. I was pretty delirious at this point and have slept like a baby the past two nights after being reunited with my pillow and fleece hoodie (both which I left here on my last visit). My dad once told me: "Son, you would lose your dick if it wasn't attached."

Yes, I forget things.

A nice 4 show stretch to close out Leg 2 of fall tour. East Stroudsburg, and Binghamton (where I have been before) and Towson University (a new one), along with a Borders Books in Mass... and then the I-80 shuffle.

I don't know how that 1st video blog was received or if it was received, but I felt the need to hone my video skills a bit more and maybe try it at a later time...

all right, I need some breakfast... and to prep my fresh groceries for the duration of the trip... discounted ground veal for $3.50!! over a pound!

-sincerely,

satisfied deal-monger.... nom nom nom nom

Pilot Video Blog Attempt

I kill butterflies / steal iPhones

So... yeah... lots of driving during that first leg of the Fall touring. Technically yes, it was just late Summer. get over it.

Well my windshield was just pelted with dead bugs/flies you name it. It was disgusting. Mike thought it would be a good idea to clean the windshield at one of the gas stations. what a guy, what a guy... so about 1-2 hours into the next drive, the windshield is filthy again... it's the thought that counts.

When we stopped to play in Winona, I noticed something in the grill of my car... I thought it was some sort of 4-leaf clover, but when I inspected closer...




Yup.... butterflies... It's not my fault animal activists.




So we made our way to chicago to play our final official show before going home... we ended up visiting Mike's friend Melissa at the Hard Rock hotel where she works up in the offices... so we play our show, and everything is fine and dandy, and as we're about to crash on Melissa's floor for the night, Mike asks me: "You didn't happen to see an iPhone when we were at the hard rock earlier, did you?"

"No... why?"

"cos I guess one of Melissa's co-workers had hers stolen while we were there visiting (using the bathroom)."

So talk about it, and we determine that neither of us stole the phone...

NEXT MORNING:
Melissa is at work and Mike ends up talking to her on the phone, and it ends up in my hands... She tells me that the security team has been reviewing all the camera tapes of our visit to determine whether or not we stole the phone, and that they'd like to ask us a few questions when we come in to drop off her keys...

they said they got me on camera seemingly playing with an iphone... right in their office... as if I stole the phone, then immediately and openly began playing with it trying to figure out the sex offender app or something... "geez, how do people work these things? they seem complicated... maybe I should just return it... oh wait, that would be suspicious... maybe I'll just drop it in a dumpster in the alley... yeah, that's the ticket!" they also ruled me out because #1 I actually do not own an iPhone, and #2 cos her's (the victim) was a different color than mine. WHEW!

We get there. I put extra money in the meter so that we could endure the bright interrogation light, maybe get stuck in a small, hot room with a 1-sided pane of glass where police observe our mannerisms. Perhaps get handcuffed, or even better still... tasered...

So we walk in, and BAM! She tells us that they ruled us out as suspects because they have us on video leaving their office just before the girl last saw her phone. Hence, we could not have taken it... bummer... no interrogation...

why were we suspects? A couple of interesting looking musicians, hippies, long-hairs (well just me I guess) with beards/mustaches...?

Oh, well I think I figured it out. It was probably Mike's jorts that he was wearing... if you don't know what jorts are, you're probably the only one, but here is a photo...




made it home safely after a visit with some family on the way home, and we did a quick living room show for some local teens... Mike did a very nice solo piece on my acoustic and made it sound like a guitar is supposed to...

we were well fed, and made it home at a reasonable hour. Leg 1 completed...

Gonna be chilling here in MI for a few more days until we kick off leg 2 in Grand Rapids on Friday.

Locally, be on the look out for tomorrow (Labor Day) a free show at Goldfish Tea in downtown Royal Oak from 530-630pm.

Thursday, we will be on UM-Dearborn radio from 5-6pm, but you can only listen to it streaming online... here: to Listen Live: http://www.wumd.org

Otherwise, check out our schedule on Myspace, and if you live in, or know someone in the many cities we will be visiting, then come on out or tell someone else to come see us. It's been fun, and after a great set in Ann Arbor last night, we want to keep the momentum rollin...

"got about a dollar (got about a dollar) /
got about a dollar in the bank"

-gryphon sheperd


*see ya around, jimmy