Current mood:	thankful
Current music:	this is the way the farmer rides- matty pop chart

new friends!!!
i love playing house shows and small stuff, that is fliered but mostly word of mouth. i drove to maine by myself on thursday and listened to scan almost the whole time. as i passed through connecticut i heard my favorite herman dune song on wxci. i had to call david and tell him. it was nice. it rained almost the whole way and my wipers aren't awesome but it wasn't a bad drive. when i got to the place i was greeted in the backyard by aaron parker.

he set up the show and it was his family's barn. i went in the house and met his sister kelsey and some of her friends.

i kinda awkwardly wandered around a little bit and had some spaghetti. one of the first thing i noticed in the house were the old bikes with the giant wheel and the little wheel. aaron and kelsey's dad is an antique bike collector, which is why the place is called the bike barn. then i met justin clifford rhody. he had emailed me a few weeks ago about making a comic book for his label friends and relatives records. but i had never written back. so i had to apologize for being such a flake. then i went and got my stuff from the car and put it out in this awesome barn! there are swings in the barn and lots of bikes. people start to show up with lots of food, as this was the first in a trilogy of vegan potlucks! so i set up my little table with my crap then i had some good dinner and dessert. first to play was this guy named dan.

he sang about how you can't buy rebellion and he sang a song he wrote for his dad that almost made me cry. he is going to send me a copy of his cd when it's done and i am glad about that.
then justin clifford rhody played.

he reminded me of jest and counter right away. maybe it isn't his face so much but his soul and sense of humor. his songs were really sweet and kinda silly. i really liked it. i liked the way he sat on his feet and kinda bounced around. and had these inside joke glances with his friend matty popchart, who played after him.

holy cow. matt is a hell of a guitar player. and he is just so fucking nice. his songs feel like your best friend is telling you something really special. it just felt good watching him play. then i played a long set and it was really fun. there were bats flying around. everyone sat on the floor and listened.


everyone there was so nice.

after i played the strawberry allstars played.

his stuff was fun kinda synthy drum machine stuff. he really did some cool stuff with his gadgets and it looked like he was playing simon. this guy named ryan said i could stay at the house matt and justin were staying at. it was zoe's house so she rode with me and we went there. it was nice. ryan and his friend, another justin, made pasta and kale and brocolli for everyone and then me, justin, and matt fell asleep watching finding nemo. they hadn't even realized that i was playing with them the next night. zoe and ryan had to be somewhere early the next day so we got up and went to the library to check emails. matt had decided to go visit some school in northern maine, so justin rode with me. i was glad because i had all day to kill and would have been really bored all by myself. we drove into portland and went to a couple of record stores. the second one we went to "strange maine" was great! the guy working was named brendan and we talked to him for at least an hour. he said we could go play shows in the store any time. then we went and ate at lil lads. holy crap! if you are ever in portland maine you hafta eat here! it is a vegan buffet, and it is only $2.99 to fill a plate with food and have a bowl of salad AND a bowl of soup. and then for each additional trip up it is just one dollar. the food was so good. we ate ourselves sick! then we drove down to amesbury to visit john who runs important records. i was able to pick up more albums and shirts. we hung out at his house for awhile and pooped and stuff. then we went to portsmouth with him and ate a ton more at the friendly toast. oh my. his wife jill met us and john broke the news that they are having a baby! woohoo! congrats! then we drove out to newmarket to shon and tim's house. there was amazing beautiful food on the table there but i was so stuffed i thought i was going to explode. i had to try the raw macadamia and date banana pie shon made though. oh man. good stuff. then i pretty much did explode. first to play was this guy...ooh i am a jerk...his name was derek, or darren...and he played a cover of motorcycle drive by. he said 3rd eye blind was one of his favorite bands so i called arion after his set and had them talk. it was really cute. he was bright red. then this guy named dan blakeslee played but i missed most of his set because i was pooping and talking to john and jill. then justin played. then matty played. then i played. i was so tired by time i played. afterwards me matt and justin fell asleep watching drop dead fred. in the morning we went with shon and tim and tim's wife, whose name i can't remember, to the farmer's market in portsmouth. the three of them have tattoos of garlic! then we went to the healthfood store and to the juicebar where shon works. i had juice and a smoothie and a raw nori roll. delicious. such good people. matt and justin asked me to go with them to providence and they called their friend and he said i could play. we got there a little early and put our stuff inside and met nathan and gus and jay. gus fixes upright basses. it is a great big apartment with a workshop room and a big main room and a stage. this party was a birthday potluck for a girl named sara. everyone was cooking when we got there so we went for a walk. we went down a little trail to a stream and tried not to notice the shopping carts and couches in the water. we talked about wizards a little bit then we walked back. the dog detective had a big bone and growled at everyone. lots of people showed up and everyone had dinner together. it was an incredible feast. and i want to give rachel the prize for the best cupcakes ever!

i met lots of nice people. art set up the show. and there was a nice goofy guy named chip. me and nathan and chip talked about helmetting for awhile. i played first. then these two guys that reminded me of they might be giants kind of. i liked their song that was like fuck all y'all carrying guns. then justin played.

then matty. matt had some really funny back and forth talk with the people watching. oh gosh. you had to be there. then we fell asleep watching stand by me. their next show was at suny purchase so i suggested they come down and see my house and we would go to the apple orchard. so we drove to bedford hills and farted around a bit. then we went to portofinos and had pizza. and then we went to the orchard. first we went to outhouse and they didn't have cider, so we went to sallinger's and got donuts and cider and sat outside and ate. mmm. the last two falls i wasn't eating sugar so going to the orchard and smelling the donuts was torture. they were so good. oh man. anyway. then we went back to my house for a little bit and drove down to purchase. when we got there we asked the boy who set up the show if i could play and he said yes. the show was in the food co-op on campus, which is much bigger than i remember it. first a girl named cynthia played. her songs were good. she was very sincere and i like that. then i went outside for awhile while this guy called storytime played. it was super hot in the room. then justin and matt played and they were great, as always. then i played. i really like playing there. they said i could set up shows there whenever. i would like to play there sometime when people actually know i am playing! after i stood outside with matt for awhile and talked while justin went off to do naughty kid stuff. then we went back to my house and fell asleep watching global guts. yesterday morning we went and bought bagels and chips and salsa and some other stuff and had a picnic at bedford hills park. i showed them the really old graveyard and then we went to beaver dam and waded in the stream and skipped stones. then we went back to my house so they could pack up to head off to allentown. the herman dune's had told me great things about bloomington, indiana and my nice new friends from there make me want to go check it out even more. hooray for nice new friends! i had no idea when i left on thursday that i was going to have such AMAZING adventures!!!