Girl Gang, Messin' Stuff Up in Los Angeles...

Playing it safe we ride our broken radiator into the city, scary traffic on all sides and Bethany is braking by shifting gears down --because of the crazy sounds the brakes are making. We get lost on our way to the house of the guy who has the key to our loaned apartment. Once we find him we all really have to pee, so we take turns chatting awkwardly with the three people and one stuffed tiger in the living room. But they give us the key and we find our apartment, lent to us by a stranger who saw us on myspace or something. He's away for a few days so we live here now!

We decide to wait on fixing the car until after our show at a wonderful venue in Highland Park. The venue is whimsically called the Griznar and used to be a) a dentist office, b) a brothel or c) both! Either way it's converted into a very welcoming home for 8 artists and their many bands (and friends).

the Twerks

The Twerks and Avocadería play the first two sets. Fun punk dance music featuring two songs about blow jobs ("my advice to you, no matter what you do don't give him a blow job") and Ganesha-Vonnegut-Latin inspired music respectively. Both were pretty awesome.

Avocadería song inspired by Cat's Cradle!

Then we came out with our little acoustic instrument band and felt really small and silly. But lo and behold! They liked us! We played amidst balloons and smiles feeling successful. Then a wonderful thing happened. B.Y.O.F.F. played. This girl band is a gaggle of amazing females playing a grab bag of instruments and singing in harmonious collective. I was stricken and pleased to be so.

B.Y.O.F.F. Better pictures to come!

On the way home we got crazy lost and all came to the end of all our ropes in various cranky ways, but we did find the apartment and we did sleep. And today we found a place to replace the broken radiator, we fixed the battery with wrenches and patience, we found Bethany's banjo which she forgot at the Griznar, and all just in time to go to our show tonight! Which I gotta get ready for right now!

Dana, Point me in the direction of the Sea, Wouldn't you?

Stef's California family is extremely welcoming, easy going, and well-read, and life here is luxurious. We find ourselves in a world of clean beds, shiny floors, delicious bagel mornings, individual serving coffee machines, ocean views, and better than average wine. (Much better.)


Our first order of business is sticking our desert feet in the Pacific Ocean, and we do, even though it's "cold" outside. The ocean is big crashing wonderful, with hordes of gulls flying towards and away from the sun. A few feet into the sea is a collection of rocks that jam against ankles as the water moves up and down the beach. So we emerge from the sea with salty wet clothes and bleeding ankles.


The ground is full of sea weed treasure piles which we play with as much as possible.









We make our way over to the pier with Stef's cousin Maddy and walk out into the ocean where all the gulls are resting facing the setting sun. The boulders are huge and white with gull droppings. We see a few dead birds couched in crevices between the stones. In zero traction boots I'm afraid of falling into the sea, or worse, into a pile of slippery poo or dead bird. Despite the danger and the smell it's beautiful and real out on the rocks with the sunset horizon and the hundreds and hundreds of birds.

Christmas Eve in Prescott!

Prescott. Arizona's own little Ashland Oregon. But instead of the Shakespeare festival there's Whiskey Row, a street jam packed with pubs that, I've heard, the cowboys visit on their days off. We made ourselves at home in the art district in a tiny info shop that smelled and looked exactly like the Campbell Club and was inhabited by 5 of the nicest humans and 4 of the best dogs anyone could ask for on Christmas eve.



Here is a sample of our lovely song making!

Between mouthfuls of spicy coconut soup and inexpensive wine we played some songs to our tiny audience. All snuggled together with space heaters, do-it-yourself handbooks, fairy dust (that landed in the wine!), accordians, and guitars it was the coziest christmas eve a person could ask for.



After playing our set the whole group decided to make music together. We started making up songs at about 9:30 and kept it up for five hours. There were cake fights in the kitchen, experiments in playing the saw, rounds of coffee made with dumpstered goat milk by a wonderful person named Nobody, and endless improvised lyrics to endless improvised songs. It was joyful joyful joyful, and at the end of the night Todd unfolded the couch that was so full of pennies, dust, and other unknown things that we all shouted with amazement.



Then Todd made a very nice clean sheet appear out of nowhere and the three of us slept like snuggle bugs all in row in our cocoon sleeping bags.



Having had coffee right before bed I got up once to walk outside and see Prescott at night. The stars were exceptionally bright and closer than usual. Then, I snuck back to my place between Bethany and Stef and went to sleep.

Tour Begins: Boys Choir Shenanigins!

With a variety of hip haircuts and beards we left Albuquerque and journeyed to Flagstaff, Arizona. On the way we coined the phrase: "I'll Flag your Staff!" which I'm certain will be very popular here.

Other than that we have sustained a number of very helpful miracles.

1. The windshield is periodically sprayed with bright green coolant reminding us to check the engine every once in a while, and not to mix up the window wash container with the coolant container.

2. We have copied the key to the car (one per person) so that we don't get locked out in the snow a second time!

3. It turned out that the time change in Arizona would make us be on time for our show, then it turned out that Arizona doesn't have a time change, but we were on time anyway (that was a confusing miracle).

4. I made a snow angel and didn't get cold and wet!

5. The virtually empty coffee shop at which we were playing a show magically filled with smiling faces ten minutes before showtime.


All these miracles (and more!) are probably due to the kind thoughts from our wonderful friends and family, but also Stef is wearing her angel necklace, I sewed my lucky buttons to my sweater, and Bethany's praying a lot. Oh, and the magic marble from Eric!

drawings inspired by a dream

1. Where the cloud meets the sky.





2. Where the page meet's it's shadow.





3. Where Bethany meets Christy.




I had a dream where I wrote down the colors of some of the pixels in a photo of a man sitting. The pixels I wrote down were the ones where the man and the chair met.

I could zoom in a lot more in my dream. There were pixels within pixels.