Day28ish

Greetings from Atlanta.
We somehow made it to the next left turn of our trip after Tampa Florida.
I have never been to Florida and I was on the search for gators. No such luck, but we did go to the home of gatorade, Gainsville. Justin saw the nose f one near New Orleans. Lucky.
Soafter Texas we went up to Little Rock an d played in a sports bar that is usually open during the days, but hasbeen convinced to open for rockshows on the weekend. The workers were very hospitable and a sizeable crowd showed up. It was one of those shows where there are plenty of places to sit right up front, so the chairs nullified dancing. It was like that the night before in Huston at Super HappyFun Land. To many chairs euals zero dancing. It's okay because you can look out and tell that some people are into the shwmethepink experience through headopping and he claps at the end. Little Rock we got a motel room and slept through the day because we drove through the night. Oh bo o boy those nght drives take two days out of me. Oh well, we got to make up for it during the day, and after the show Emy and I experienced The Waffle House for the first time.
After Little Rock there was this extra special surprise. We went to this small college town of 25,000 people called Cleveland Mississipi. Zach set up a show there because he went to a festival a few years ago and all the kids that seemed to have a zeal for life and all the kids who were dancing up a storm were from Clevelad. We played out in the country at a farmhouse and at dusk throngs of kids showed up with beer and smiles. Dango Dango. They had the first very thick accents I have heard so far. It was overheard of the first band,"Main, that band sure did kick. 'Nd if they didn't kick ass they sure did kick something." Also, another quote about the place we were at was,"You know man, if your different like you got a mohawk or you're bald, you can come here and rock out."
Cleveland was he most sweaty show we have had so far. people were dancing up a condensationstorm right at the begining. They out sang us on the Beach Cruisin' Crew, and we gt doubletime claps while we were dancing S.O.T.I. It was absolutely rediculous. We woke in the morning and hightailed it to New New Orleans.
We showed to the SPAZ but and qickly started squealing at the reunion of such good homies. The kids in Nola are the same kids that came through the Nghtmare at the right time and helped us into another year. The stayed out n forest Grove with us and we forged a wonderful relationship. These kids are doers. They went to Nola as soon as the shit hit the fan with bus loads of bikes and blankets and cleaning supplies and such.
The landscape of New Orleans was so surreal. Most roofs had blue tarps on them, white trailer parks suplied by FEMA stood in places where buildings once were. The trailers had water and sewage hooked up to them. There were piles of garbage all over the place, waiting for months with probably months to go. The electricity was still out in some of the hardest hit areas. We set up to play in an old flooded school that has just recently been opened by Common Ground as a housing facility for the throngs of volunteers taking their spring breaks to help this city. We set up in the gym which was the lunchroom and they served a great vegan meal. Earlier that day in Cleveland I had blown up and was swearing because I went to a subway, wendy's and mcdonalds and noneof them had something that would fill me up or satisfy me without compromising mu entire eating habits. I was inrare form. So going to a place where it is impossible to go to the store and buy fresh vegetables, and still have the most amazing vegan meal with all the colors of the rainbow was tearjerking. Before we played for the after dinner crowd, there were some speakers about the history of racism in New Orleans. I found out that for Hurrican Betsy in '65 they blew up the levees to save the FrenchQuarter. This is policy racism that justifies killing black and poor people in the name of MONEY. A woman that was speaking has been working as a wite womantrying to fix racism wit white people. She dispeled the myth that it is "the white man" that is evil because it is the white woman that raises these creatures. We need to work on our race. So she told us that 94% of the inturned in military camps were black. She told us about how many of those people didn't have a credit card to ride out thestorm in a hotel. It was heavy stuff. The room was full of college aged kids who sacrificed their spring break to wake up at 6am to put on a dust mask and scrape mold from the floodlines in the houses. The real rock stars. They started dancing as soon as we struck a note. It seemed like they were just happy to have something to take their minds of the crazy tragedy they were helping erase. We didn't do Metrosexual becuse it just felt like the wrong context. It was a very powerful night. The whole area was without electricity, and it was run by a generator. Sometimes it woud short out and all of a sudden there were flashlights everywhere, maintaining the light. I thought it was such a beautiful metaphore for what was going on down there. Outside in front was the shower facilities. People were waiting outside in bg lines in nothing but their towels and whenever someone came out the whole toweled crowd would cheer. Across the street was a tent city. The whole neighborhood was blackedout. No electricity. All the houses had this big X spraypainted on the front with the day that the house was checked out, the toxicity situation, the team that checked it out, and how many dead were found. It was eerie.
The next day I went on a tallbike ride by myself. Oh my gosh. I can't tell you how wonderful it was to ride a bike! and by myself! and it was a tallbike!! I went on a personal tour of the lower 9th ward. I thought I had seen some destruction the night before. Oh how I was wrong. I saw where the levee had been "breached" and it has signs near it asking of anyone saw the levee breaking or if they had any pictures because in this day of equality noone believes that it just broke. I saw houses on top of cars. Whole house moved from their foundations and ran into the neighbors house. Fridges in trees. Boats on cars infrontyards. Whole sides of buildings ripped off to reveal the livingroom set and big screen tv. On almost everyblock there were 15 passenger volunteer van with kids in masks helping add to huge piles of debris and insulation. Shiny shoed Texans were salivating over the new possibilities. There is an ultimatum in the area that says if by aprl 1st that 40% of the block hasn't come back to restore the houses, the block will be leveled and those shonyshoe texans have plans to put in casinos. Have I said enough? I am being strongly called to gather up a team and spend the winter in New Orleans. They need sunflower seeds and fava beans t plant to fix th soil from the toxic waste it has gone through. There is so much possibiity there. Huge amounts of people are joining together down there to rebuild Nola in their eyes and in a more positive and just way. There are many possibilities. Sculptures made of rubbish, a public mourning wall can be used from an old building that used to be there where people write the names of their loved deceased. It was so hard for us to find a show down there, but when we did, the kids came out and they had a blast. Everyone danced. New New Orleans wants more bands to come through and play. It is so needed.
We tried forever to make a meal for the lovely people who put us up. We couldn't find a kitchen that had gas or that was available. It took hours of hard times. It shows how hard it is for the ones down there right now. That night we tried to buy some beer or whiskey for after the show. It was sold out. Put that into perspective.
We left the second night and drove to Pensacola. The baby needed a safe, non-toxic place to stay,so we headed to the only time on tour we would get to see a beach. It was beautiful white sands and clear blue water. Just like the movie Contact. We stayed at this nice house with a huge porch. There was huricane Ivan that came through in 2004 and destroyed an apartment complex across the street. I woke in the morning to 5 cop cars surrounding the golden nugget. Thenthe swat team showed up. Emy was doing something in the van and she had a bra in her hands as the cops showed up. What the hell? It turns out that they use the apartment complex across the street for tactical training and they were going to shoot an instructional video. IT was pretty surreal. They were blowing things up and shooting eachother with paintballs, and drinking gatorade. The show at night was good because there was a few kids who, get this, had purchased our CD at the local store. And they knew the words. Oh mi gosh. how precious.

I am running out of time, so to sum it up, Gainsville had a bunch of drunkards but the house we stayed at had a half pipe , a jungle , and rad people. We slept on the trampoline.
Then in Tampa we played at a Skatepark. It was so totally radical. They let us borrow skateboards. It has been a while, but I got a chance to rip it a little. I am still sore. The show was totally rad because a group of kids did some research on us and showed up in short shorts and danced the whole time. It was very fun.
Then we drove to Atlanta to stay in this very sweet suite that Shannon's mom hooked us up with. We played in Athens and there were a bunch of bike kids. The electricity wire had a bunch of shoes strung over it. We were greeted with fireworks. A very fun night.

Day 18, Denton Texas

Howdy!
Well, after 24 hours in the Golden Nugget we showed up at 1919 Hemphill in Fort Worth and as soon as we touched the ground we had to load in and play. I think my eyes were closed the whole time. 1919 is such a rad venue. It has an extensive book and music lending library, a full room with a freestore in it, rad revolutionary style murals on the wall, a large calendar for the various radical events, and tons of couches. This place is similar to what we have been thinking about opening in Portland. The show was short, so the fact that I was totally out of it went unnoticed. The songs we play have gotten so tight! Playing in front of people everyday really helps. Texas is very flat and abandoned. I used to think that texas should just become it's own country due to the kooks that it produces, but they really only have grass lands for cows and oil. That wouldn't be very nice to isolate them. Also, people here are very nice and endearing. Tonight we are playing at a venue called the Rubber Glove Studios. It started out as a practice space for bands, then they had those bands play small shows. Then they became so successful and turned it into a bonafide venue. It is important in these little towns to have a place to experience music. Day 18 and I am totally lost in sluggish thought. Everytime I am in the van, I naturally fall asleep, curled up in some crazy position. It's this strange half asleep, half awake thing that really makes concious and subconcious hang out together. Tons and tons of unsatisfying sleep.
Besides that, it has been pretty neat running into familiar faces in unfamiliar lands. It is a signature of my religion where everyone really is connected within a6 degrees of separation. After Las Vegas, most of the trip will be into uncharted territory. I am so excited to flesh out my cognitive map of Rad America. The search for good ideas across the country has been pretty rewarding. The ideas is that Rad America is the trunk and it is encouraged to grow out in as many different directions as possible. Also, there has been a common symbol, the lightningbolt, that has shown up in every city. It is a great symbol for RAD America because as noelle says, you can't bottle lightning. So I have been exploring the tenets of R.A. and what it could mean. I like the idea that this New Renaissance is growing out of the dark times we have been experiencing. It's definitely a new agey idea, and we are pretty comfortable in our daily lives right now. People won't revolt with full bellies. But to me it seems like there are these amazingly positive movements growing strength throughout civilizations. How can we link them together more adequately and create a larger social ideal of positivity?
Word of the week: Positivitarian.
These are unfinished thoughts and I want to explore them more, but the band pack mind is on the move.
Until next time.......

Zach's update from San Diego

sacramento was a totally tight yogurt shop. red square. a bunch of kids were there and all hanging out. it turns out the band big business was playing across the srteet and stayed in the motel room next to us. the pinchers of peril ripped it , vision of a black moon went all crazy metronatural style. the guy at the yogurt shop said i could hook up other bands there to play on weekends . we totally reccomend sacramento. then we drove to the bay area. the flower shop is a sf version of the nightmare collective except with more untz-untz-untz- or it uncha-uncha-uncha.in the background and it is right in the city. we came across the huge bridges and as soon as we got on the 280- we could see a building covered with totally tight grafitti fresh crisp ..they turn busses into veggie oil road palaces among other things. they put up the rad america fun movement up as a home base for three days.we played at the frisco disco a totally snow ball party in this cave looking bar called the arrow bar.the vietnamese place is amazing , cheap and honestly they took the order , walked down the stairs and walked right back up the stairs with 4 huge tasty plates of food 1o seconds later.noelle went to bring the van around the block but it took like 25 minutes because of all the no turn streets and such. zach took off on a minibike to try to find her but no luck, then when she came back , this guy ,we thought was going to pimp shannon actually told her to pray to her higher power in 3 weeks .. then we took a day off and starlet got to see the full house house..we played an amazing show at the knock out on mission on monday night. there were friends from all over !! dan had come down from Portland to hang ot with us in the bay area for the weekend!! stella , josh 86, lbc, burnside bill, black label bike gang all up in that peice.we took in 175 $$$ our biggest payday of the roar. we are averaging about 85 $ a night _door =merch. and we are spending less than that on gas so WHOPEEEEEE santa cruz @ ben peirce 's warehouse. a bunch of kids came out on a tuesday night. one kid said he would buy a shirt if he could sell his acid, he didn't end up buying any merch so i guess. the band sheena had some member difficulties but put on a rollicking performance as rebecca and the goat fuckers..then we drove through the night to LA. we made a error in judgement so we took the 1 all the way to san luis obisbo. 105 miles of coast hugging rock falling road narrowing pitchblack 30 milesperhourpalooza shannon safely navigated our vessel throught the night and we woke up at an in and out burger 15 minutes before they opened........mmmm doubledouble..

Postcards from Rad America

The Pinchers of Peril in Eugene


5lowershop, Home of The Constant Techno Party


The gang in San Francisco


Trouble and Chaos in SF


Noelle and Dane work it!


A very rock n roll baby.

Nickey's Update

Hello again from the road... We are in SF for three days. Yesterday I hung out with my intrepid former Hampshire roommate, Andrea Davis. I hadn't seen her since I graduated, so it was pretty great to catch up. She is definetly on my top 5 roommates list. There was a Hampshire alumni event going on at Mills college in Oakland*, a meet and greet with the new president, so we went to eat free food and drink free wine (well, Andrea did, I didn't). We mostly stood around and gossiped about people we went to school with. A couple wealthy mothers of current Hampshire students came up to talk to us and ask what we are doing now. I told one woman that I was on tour with a punk band and she said "a what?"
"A punk band." I replied.
"Oh! A punk band! Oh goodness!" she exclaimed in response.

Uh, yeah. It was kind of funny, I felt very scruff-tastic and smelly at this event, and at the end I got a big bag of leftover veggies. Later, I told the woman about my div three and that I had won a grant for it... I think that made me sound like a little less of a Hampshire failure. Not that I actually think I am one.

San Francisco seems like a pretty magical town, I definitely want to come back and visit again. We're staying at a warehouse at the bottom of Bernal Hill called 5lowershop. I would find it way to overwhelming to actually live here, but it's very cool. There's art on practically every available surface, two greywater bathrooms and a pratical fleet of biodiesel buses outside (one of which we're sleeping in).

The show on Saturday was at a dance night called Frisco Disco, at a bar on "sleazy sixth." Really, the crazy people in San Francisco seem a lot crazier than crazy people a lot of other places. Shannon saw a crack deal going on while she was changing in the van, and later a guy told her he was psychic and that she needed to pray to her higher power in the next three weeks. Zach found an empty coke bag at the bar. Everyone got asked for a quarter about fifty times. When we were ready to pack up the van, Noelle got totally lost and disappeared for twenty minutes... It was a bit of a comedy of errors, but we did fairly well on merch. Two guys that seemed to have jumped off the screen from High Fidelity were really into Show Me The Pink. Also, the DJ was really kind of awful and made me long for the hipster dance nights of Portland instead... DJ Nightschool would NEVER play techno.

Also, we've eaten two incredible meals here. First, one of the best burritos I've ever had at Cancun in the Mission, and then crispy noodles and spring rolls at a Vietnamese restaurant on sixth next to the Frisco Disco. The food was faster than light and tasted divine. There was even a picture of Julia Child on the menu, eating there and grinning.

So, yeah, tour is pretty amazing. There's a few things I could complain about, but their really petty and stupid, so I won't. I do need to start reading more to keep myself entertained during the downtime.

*Mills College was SO WEIRD. It's a really beautiful campus, but it's in the middle of Oakland (and, uh, I guess a bad neighborhood? It didn't really seem like it to me, but then maybe it's just racism because it's a white girl school in the middle of a mostly african-american city). So, there are these huge gates you drive through with a guy in a booth asking you what you're there for... And the entire campus is surrounded by a barbed wire fence. Super freaky.

Day 8 update

Hello.
Greetings from San Fransico, in the depths of an underground wearhouse, hiding from the rain. I slept in one of the 5lowershop bus bunk beds last night. This bus seems to be legendary to me because it has just returned from an epic journey across america first with The Counter Current Coalition that brought supplies to the frontlines of devestated New Orleans. Then some one picked it up and brought it to New York, Painted it light blue and gold, and it housed the filming of a documentary from NY to California with Reverand Billy and the Church of Stop Shopping Choir. They traveled across freedomlandia to give performances to hotspots like The Mall of America, Disneyland, and Wall*Mart HQ. They have a 40 member choir and the guy that made the "Supersize Me" movie was the man behind this new documentary. So I felt some magical humm from inside the rounded bus roof. It was a good night's sleep. Today is Day 8 of the Rad America Tour. I can't imagine doing seven times more of this routine, but I am excited to see it through.
Here's a free association of the tour so far:
*HardCorevallis gave big hugs after the show. Microwave popcorn was flowing.
*Stonehenge in Eugene had a triple-level treehouse. As soon as we started playing this waft of smelly people(our band) invaded the basement. Soon others generated their own phermeones to mingle and mask the odor.
*The Ashland show was set up that morning, and the guys house that we played at had a room the size of a kitchen for us to play in. The guys at the house were on the phone calling everyone. "Hey were having our tuesday night concert at the house again. There's a hot girl band." It was pretty sausage flavored that night. We had a mini mosh pit. And this time we used dry oatmeal in the air cannon and I cut a few eyeballs and contact lenses. oops. After the show, we retired at a 70's style pimp house equipped with pinball machines AND, get this, a lighter that was suspended from the ceiling with a wire track that it could slide along and the rope it was on would extend to reach all sides of the room. This amazing contraption was all centered around a caterpillar hookah. Shag carpet and a big screen. We played Memory Dance Chain and showed off some acrobalancing.
*Chico, Chico, Chico. What a party town. Two songs into our set three guys were COMPLETELY naked. According to Deven, that is how Chico rolls. The show was sweaty and everyone was dancing in the front room of the Broken Glass Collective. And they are serious about breaking glass. We headed out to dollar drink night at the University Bar. It is like the siren song to sailors to offer unlimited dollar well drinks to poor touring bands. We stumbled back to the house and ended up having banana peel olympics in the kitchen. There is a video floating out there somewhere. Total Chaos. The Pinchers of Peril are our new best friends.
*Water and joints for the morning. An artatarian from Chico who started a space called CRUX, threw down $20 for burritos in the morning. The cone paid for the rest of the touring crew's food. Our first bonus. Then off to the winding road towards Eureka! And bvy winding i mean, as soon as we got on the road there was a squiggly arrow sign that said the next 140 miles would be slow and crazy. We averaged 32 miles an hour. It was such a rollercoaster. We played a show at an art gallery/studio called empire squared. It was nice to break the house show routine. The air smelled like ocean. The place is cradeled by redwoods. Redwoods are so bittersweet. I guess the entire planet once had over 5 milion acres of redwoods, now there is only 45,000. Holy shit! The friendly giants don't die until they fall. 500-800 year old beings. Do you want that coffetable and dinette set still? GRRRRrrrr.
*Onto Sacramento where we played at a yogurt shop. It was a little bigger than Ashland, with big windows where people peered in. I could see some kids dancing in the parking lot. It was fun. It was a Friday night, but I didn't feel like going out at all because it seems like we have been maintaining a party atmosphere for the last week. I miss having things i need to do. We hurry up and wait all day. Hurry, get to the town, wait. Get to the venue, wait. It's like being on the MAX for hours in between the Nightmare Collective and Portland. I have no assets, no projects. I need some suggestions on a good book to read. Get lost in a magical story.
*The first night in San Fransisco, we got a gig at the Arrow Bar for Frisco Disco night. Here our smell stuck out like a sore thumb. I heard this guy chanting with the early 90's houyse remixes, "you smell, you smell, you smell." Boom, boom, boom. haha. We played in a bar the size of the Dunes. The back of it has been transformed into a glitter cave. It was a fiasco to load out because the place was so small and it would be rude to interrupt a sardine-grinding dance floor to load out our wierdly received rock show. So we had to load out through the back door, up a flight of stairs and down another to deposit the stuff right outside the door we entered from. Alot of human Chains. Dan and Stella, Old School Zoobombers showed up. They helped us with our mountain of electronics piled on the shadiest street in SF, 6th and Market. After 10 minutes, we no longer were polite in shutting down requests for free quarters. I was changing in the GoldNnugget and I saw a crack deal go down through the tinted windows. They instantly charred that rock and quickly diasapeared. It was my virgin experience viewing that. Oooh the big city. This sunday is our day off. Hallelujah!!! Slept in and bummed around all day, pretending to be busy and productive. Now it's time to cook a 40 person dinner. Until next time....

Hey! We're leaving in two weeks! This is Show Me The Pink the blog! Yeah!