Living in San Francisco. I can explore and explore and explore and never run out of places to see or grub to eat or coffee to drink or people to meet or things to do. Still though, from time to time I really miss the road. Driving 8 hours through bumfuck nowhere, blasting mix-CDs with the windows down, with no clue what is really in store in the next city or state you encounter. Those were nice times.

Great short-term solution = weekend road trip!

My adventure cohorts, Dakota and Tara, and I had a loosely assembled agenda: go see David Bazan in some random city that starts with a V, then continue driving southward to Hermosa Beach to stay with Dakota’s friend Brian.

That’s about it. So we packed ourselves into a rental car and headed southward.

First stop: Santa Cruz Boardwalk. Dakota and Tara wanted to ride rollercoasters and eat ice cream.

I happened to be battling one of the more intense hangovers of my lifetime, so I wasn’t particularly interested in either. I bought a hot dog (it’s what my hangover wanted at the time), took a seat at the sidelines and silently observed the chaos.

We wandered around for a bit, snapped some shots on the beach, & prepared to head on our way.

We arrived in the small city that starts with a V by nightfall. The venue was a lovely place. A lovely empty place. We were wondering if we were going to be the only ones here.

Sure enough, it filled out, but we easily weasled our way to the very front to watch David Bazan, one of my favorite songwriters of all time, serenade us from three feet away. One of the better moments of my life.

Being in the front row with a fixed 85 mm lens, I could basically take photos that framed his forehead only. I could have backed a few feet up into the crowd to get some better shots. It was definitely one of those moments where you decide whether you would rather have the better experience or a better documentation of your experience. For once, I chose the former.

So then we drove to Hermosa Beach. It was another 4 hours or so to drive. It was also midnight. But we wanted to do it anyway. So off we went.

We arrived in Hermosa at approx. 4 am. We tried to contact our host, as he told us to call him when we arrived. No response. Dakota proposes we sleep in the car.

Nope. Didn’t come all the way to SoCal to sleep in a damn car. So we decide to go find the apartment he described for us. We find said apartment. We knock. No answer. So… we try the door. It is open. We sneak inside.

We are not entirely certain that this is the right apartment. We could possibly be breaking into a strangers home. We check a utility bill on the counter. Not in her friend’s name. Fantastic.

The bedroom doors are open. Dakota peers in bedroom one to see if her friend happens to be sleeping in it. Definitely not her friend. Even better. I convince the girls to hold on and at least let me charge my phone before we have to run away.

Fortunately, in the second bedroom we found our friend Brian. I had already set up my bedpallate on the floor. I didn’t care whose apartment we had invaded, I was going to sleep in it.

And so we did.

We all woke up late. Brian conveniently lives a block from the ocean, so we took a quick walk down the beach, ate some brunch, then headed back to prepare for our trek home.

Only a quick 9-hour trek home. This may be a chore to some, but I absolutely love the road, so I was elated. Not to mention… we’re driving up the coast of California. There could be worse ways to spend your day.

Hooray roadtrips!

I think the phrase “magnetic zero” is absolutely genius, particularly as a band name. Not self-deprecating as much as just… owning your shit. After spending a few years strongly involved with the music industry, either through touring, or promoting, or actually getting paid to work in it, the phrase really resonates with what I’ve observed, seeing a full range of folks on the spectrum of artist vs. entrepreneur. Now, I’m not implying that an artist isn’t an entrepreneur. In my brain, a utopian world exists where artistry and entrepreneurship, instead of often being polarized on a spectrum, would coexist, happily together always. It does for some, but not nearly enough for me to sleep well at night.

Anyway. I could write about this forever but I’d rather just post some fun photos of a show I attended recently.

AB & The Sea, The Watson Twins, & Edward Sharpe & The Magnetic Zeros.

At the end of their set, E.Sharpe invited a crowd of folks on stage. I was expecting an epic dance party to ensue. Instead, he had everyone (several hundred folk) in the ENTIRE venue sit down (amazingly, everyone complied). He then sang us a lullaby. What a way to end one of the most epic stage performances I have EVER seen.

I know I’m long overdue for some posts. More is on the way!

END!

Wow, ok. I’m finally getting caught up on blogs after my longest dry spell yet.

One month and three days. That’s fairly large fraction of the blog’s entire lifespan. I used to freak out if I hadn’t posted in 36 hours. I also used to have slightly more free time.

Anyway, enough about that. I’m blogging again! Hooray!

A few highlights from the past month in Cali:

I officially began work for Porto Franco Records, full time. I still am having a hard time believing that I’m getting a steady salary to do what I love.

I’m particularly happy to be working with this label for a number of reasons. For one, I have a good bit of creative responsibility in my job, which means I have a good bit of creative freedom. Second, the label has a good taste in music. The owners are Russian, and you can hear their tastes translated in their decision to host an eclectic catalog of artists, ranging from indie, folk, americana, blues, jazz, balkan… all with the common characteristic of artistic integrity and stellar musicianship. Third, the label is open minded to not only adapting to the changing industry, but adopting innovative business and marketing models in the interest of finding a long-term solution to the issues in traditional record industry. I spend every waking moment studying the industry and evolving technology, and they want to work with me to find ways to use these new innovations to our advantage. DREAMY!

I’m working on a number of projects for them, but my main focus for the next few months is in the realm of branding, online presence and content overhaul, among developing some really neat projects both online and within the Bay Area. We’re aiming to have the new website up by February, which is exciting. In the meantime, you can check out the existing one here.

Follow us on Twitter, too! We just redid our account: twitter.com/PFRecords.

Also – I’m not going back to grad school (I’ve been in school for an MFA in photography). It was pretty difficult balancing full-time grad work + full-time job + all of my own projects (hence the blog hiatus), and I ended up half-assing pretty much all of my endeavors in the effort to keep all of them in my life. That said, I need to simplify things a bit and hone-in my concentration toward the most relevant projects – work, blog, photos.

Note that I still include photos as a relevant project, as I am still obsessed with photography and I have a blog that runs off of photos. I just can’t afford to build up my debt going through a grad program that I can’t put 100% into, because that would defeat the purpose of going to grad school. And… I have a job that I love. Also a purpose of going to grad school. Achieved.

Anyway. More fun stuff – I attended SF Music Tech in early December. It was, as the name implies, a conference where those involved in the tech and music industries can get together to discuss current issues and ideally brainstorm innovative ideas and solutions. I will say that the discussion of (and/or griping about) current issues largely outweighed the brainstorming of solutions, but it is certainly hard to steer a conversation toward resolution in panels that have a 30-minutes cap, so it’s understandable. There were a number of great startups present that shared new apps that answer to the evolving needs of the industry, including a new facebook music app by my friends at Involver. I met a number of great people both during and after the conference, and am looking forward to attending again. Ideally I’d like to soon get involved with the planning of the conference… with just a little more structure and direction in the panel sessions, there is a huge amount of potential for this to become an extremely productive, content-rich event with a huge amount of utility.

Also in recent news:

- My friend Brandom moved to California, and has been living with me while he’s looking for a place to live. He was a friend of mine from Raleigh days, and I frequently come home to find him and other-Raleigh-now-in-SF-friend Dakota in my room, usually playing cards on my bed. It’s really great. I hope they continue doing this after Brandom finally finds a place.

- My roommates Hoa and Cyndie both had birthdays recently, but Cyndie was kind enough to have her birthday party before I left for NC for the holidays. It was a bacon-and-bourbon themed party, and, in typical Helena fashion, I ate so much bacon that I ended up in bed sick after only drinking half a glass of bourbon. Priorities.

- Brandom and I went out to eat my last meal in California before flying back to NC. We walked to a Japanese restaurant down the street, where I ordered a big bowl of rice with an eel filet on top. Next thing you know, I have swallowed an eel bone. It is stuck in my throat. I can feel it. It is piercing my tongue every time I swallow. I panic. Run to bathroom. Attempt to find bone. No luck. I sit on floor and prepare to faint. Also no luck. I finally reach down my throat and find the bone sticking out of my tonsil. In my attempt to get it out, I accidentally push it all. the way. into my tonsil. GROSSEST INJURY EVER. PS – It never came out and remains inside my tonsil, where it will eventually dissolve. Also gross.

Ok. Now time for pictures! Some randoms from my last weeks in Cali.

Ok. That’s all for now. More updates to come!

END!

This is the last night I stay up til 4am working! The project I have been working on non-stop for weeks now, Mark Growden’s CD Release, is tonight. The theatre is almost sold out already, the CDs are packaged, the programs are designed and printed… everything is falling into place. It’s a great feeling. Everyone has worked so hard. I’m proud of our team.

Here are some photos from the week… the first few being from Kelly & Jim’s engagement shoot (more of those to come when I find the time to finish editing), the latter being from me frantically running around my neighborhood doing a color assignment for homework that I put off until the morning it was due (being busy has its downfalls).

I have some great news and updates coming for you, but I’ll wait until next week to announce them. Things are good in mi life though, as crazy and hectic as it is at the moment.

Also – My mum flies into town today! I can’t even begin to describe how excited I am. So begins a weekend of adventuring with my soul-twin who happened to birth me.

END!

It was a weekend of festing.

Tara and I decided that we would adventure to Pumpkin Fest on Saturday afternoon. I heard there would be a giant pumpkin, and I enjoy all food products involving pumpkin, so I figured it would be a good way to spend my time.

Backed up in a surprising large amount of traffic en route to the festival, we slowly creeped by independent farms, adorned with vast expanses of pumpkins and usually a central funhouse, equipped with whatever pumpkin-themed funhouses could possibly have. It was quite enticing. However, we continued on, assuming that this was simply a preview of the general awesomeness that was to be the actual Pumpkin Fest.

We finally arrive in downtown Half Moon Bay, and we follow the crowd toward the festival. I want to stop at a coffee shop on the way.

So we order two iced pumpkin lattes (it’s only logical). We are waiting patiently to receive them when we are approached by a stranger.

Enter Zephyr.

Zephyr was kind enough to, without hesitation, provide us with detailed descriptions of surrounding pumpkin farms that are far more interesting than the festival itself. It was quite enlightening.

I asked to take his photo, wrote my website on a napkin for him, and we prepared to head on our way.

Next thing we know, Zephyr is joining us for our entire festival experience.

The festival was certainly interesting (though not remotely as interesting as we had hoped), and we ended up cutting our walkabout short. We said our goodbyes to our new friend Zephyr and headed on our way.

We couldn’t help but stop at the strange pumpkin fields on the way home. We also happened to find ourselves in a giant dinosaur sculpture park as well. Just another Saturday road trip.

Sunday I found myself on Treasure Island (that is really the name of the island… it sits in the bay between SF and Oakland), thanks to fantastic lad/production superstar Will Chase. Performances of note: Grizzly Bear, Beirut, Decemberists, Walkmen, Flaming Lips. Environmental details of note: Incredible SF skyline view, fun colored lights illuminating everything, pirate ship wagon, and air that was really fucking cold. Great time nonetheless.

Lastly, mustaches. In Sonoma Valley. I really don’t have much to say about them, other than it felt right at the time.

Thanks to Tara, Elaine, and Greg for being my extremely reluctant models.

I was going to do these for a history homework assignment, so I tried to make them look a bit dated. I ended up scrapping them though.

And the extras:

END!

After awaking from my 15-hour couch nap, I was onward to Phase 3 of my trip: hitching a ride to my hometown of New Bern, NC.

My brother was off work for the night and offered to tote me. He would arrive at 1:00. This would all be great, if my belongings weren’t strewn all over Raleigh.

Most of my luggage was stored at friend Sam’s house, which wasn’t of much use, as I hadn’t actually stayed there at all during this trip. As many of you know, planning while traveling isn’t really my thing.

It would be easy to swing by and pick up my stuff, but unfortunately, Sam was nowhere to be found. So Logan and I decided to go search the establishment most likely to find her in – The Busy Bee. I decided to call brother Kane and friend Erika over to meet us for brunch in the meantime.

We found Sam, and we found brunch. I got a key, and we were on our way to find my luggage.

Upon arrival, I spend a good five minutes trying to get in the front door of her apartment with the key she had provided me, but to no avail.

I try and try and try. Kane asks me if I am sure I have the right door. I tell him he is being silly.

I was definitely at the wrong apartment. I’m sure the crowd of people cooking out outside were a bit confused to see me try to break into two adjacent apartments, successfully entering the second one. I hastily grabbed my luggage and we were on our way.

After two hours of observing eastern Carolina’s brilliantly designed storefronts and billboards, we finally arrived in the homeland to find my mother and my baby catchild, Raphael, waiting for us.

Raphael was my partner in crime in Raleigh. He was my only roommate, and we were serious compadres. I gave him to Kane to babysit while I toured the country this summer, and he soon ended up with my mom in New Bern. I had all plans to fly him over to California upon my settling in, but as I predicted, my mother has become quite infatuated with him and is not so ready to give him up. For now, it is probably for the best, as I will probably be touring and traveling quite a bit in the near future… but I do miss him so so much. He is my precious white monstrous yeti cat child.

Raph apparently has a new fun habit of climbing onto the outside edge of the second-story patio, just for shits and giggles. I’m not entirely sure how he hasn’t died yet. But there’s not much you can do other than just let him do it.

Anyway. Enough about the cat.

My one night in New Bern was great. The three of us ate soup, sat on the porch, played fetch with Raph, and nerded out on our computers together until the wee hours of the morning.

The next day I spent my last New Bern meal at none other than Carolina Bagel (yet to find bagels that compare, even in San Francisco), then took a final walk around downtown with the family, shooting some glamour shots here and there. I’m getting them to work on their sweet model poses while I’m gone. All of us will be pros by Christmas.

(PC: Annette Stone)

Goodbye, North Carolina. I love you, but west coast is calling.

So this week’s project was to take 25 photos of complete strangers. Since I did something similar for last week’s “A Day in the Life” project, I wanted to make this set particularly unique. What better way than to do my assignment at the Folsom Street Fair.

I’m particularly proud of this set. I’m not used to shooting people, and it still makes me nervous, but I see myself getting better at it, and I’m excited to share these.

I will warn you now – if you are easily offended by all that is unfamiliar to you, just don’t view this blog. Okay? Okay.

END!

I took some fun photos this weekend, and would love to post them tonight, but I can’t find my camera charger or extra battery. So they are stuck within my dead camera for now.

Instead, I thought I’d post my favorite photos from this summer’s phototour, as well as a couple of photos that I never posted. As much as I love San Francisco, my heart aches for the road.

Enjoy!

There are all from my six-week phototour with Bowerbirds + Megafaun. If you haven’t actually looked at my tour site yet, just go do it. I bet you might like it. All of Tim’s wonderful photos are there as well. Click and enjoy. www.welldonetour.com.

Hopefully a new blog post involving SF photos will be up tomorrow, depending on if I find this elusive camera charger. Until then…

END!

Hello all!

This has been a very productive week for me so far. I have some important updates to share with all of you. I will explain further below.

But first, here some photos from the past week’s adventures:

A few days ago, I went over to help friend Mark work on his particularly large project of renovating his abode. He is currently building a rather large addition to the back of his home, and I, wanting to pacify my need for being around architecture and construction, offered to help. However, my homebuilding/welding knowledge and physical strength is limited, so I offered to make sandwiches and take pictures instead.

So I did.

How to open a can of Dew with a nail gun. By Mark.

My valuable contribution to the project (other than sandwiches).

While you’re at it, check out Mark’s loverly band, The Bowerbirds. You will be pleased.

Yesterday I spent some time running around both downtown Durham and downtown Raleigh. Stop 1 was a trip to see the Durham Bulls play for friend Eric’s birthday. Hot and schweaty and fun.

Durham tracks jump.

Then back to Blue Martini for a staff jump.

And so began our hike around town to climb and jump on everything possible.

This immediately led to Todd’s plight from the trash can to the pavement resorting in ACL problems for the remainder of the day.

Todd remained on the ground whenever possible.

We had quite an audience for this shot. A few angry cars as well. Oh well. We do what we want.

Ok, now for the important stuff.

First of all, my work has been selected for display at the Busy Bee for First Friday!!! This is a huge deal to me, and I am so excited to be an official part of the First Friday arts scene for my last month in North Carolina.

(photocred: New Raleigh)

Second, I have acquired a second travelmate for my trip across the country.

(photocred: Tim Lytvinenko)

His name is Tim Lytvinenko, a photographer based out of Raleigh. I remember seeing his photos and reading great things about him long before I met him. (His track record includes being touring photographer for The Rosebuds. Lucky bastard. Read what they have to say about him here.) I eventually met him and let him write about Ukranian beer in my Moleskine book before I ever knew he was THE “photographer Tim.” I pieced it all together eventually. He gave me some great advice when I was putting together my grad school portfolio, and I still owe him about 800 beers for it. And now, he will officially be part of my gigantic cross-country photo/blog/video adventureproject. With me+Logan+Tim together for an entire month on the road, I can’t even begin to fathom what we’re getting into. It’s going to be absolutely ridiculous.

That said, I have decided to make Friday’s photos a collaborative project with work from all three of us, in order to help build a buzz around our upcoming project and give people an idea of what we’re all about and what adventures we’ve managed to get ourselves into in the past.

The photos will go on display this Friday (June 5th), and we’ll be present for a casual reception of sorts beginning at 6 p.m. This will give you plenty of time to come by, meet us, take jumping photos with us, get some grub (either at the Busy Bee or one of the other 10 great restaurants around the block), and continue on with your First Friday plans. Regardless, take a minute and pencil in a time to come visit us that night.

Check our our First Friday Facebook event HERE.

Read what OkayGreat.com has to say about our show HERE.

If you haven’t had the chance to read about my cross-country project that will commence in approximately one month, read about it in my previous blog post here.

If you are aware already, and would like to aid us in our travels, please donate here!

That’s all for now! Stay tuned for more updates to come.

hp

[Disclaimer: The 2007 views of Helena do not necessarily reflect the 2009 views of Helena.]

5/21/2007 – Columbia to Raleigh to Charlotte to Lake Norman

So, you remember that van exchange that was supposed to have happened right about now? It ended up falling through. To complicate matters further, we had to give back the van we were currently in TODAY. By 1:00 or something. In Raleigh. Being rideless from this point forward, we decide to just take BJ’s SUV and attach a trailer to the back to carry our junk. He has done this before for east coast tours and it’s worked fine, apparently. 

There are definitely pros and cons to both modes of transportation:

Old Van:
• It was substantially larger and wider than normal vehicles, and despite the two back rows being filled with our crap, there were still two free rows of seats behind the driver, so two people could sit in the front, and two each on the rows behind, with plenty of space to maintain a personal comfort bubble (mine is pretty large).
• Since we didn’t have a trailer, all of our junk was in the van. Sometimes we would be carrying instruments in our laps. Loading and unloading was a real inconvenience because instruments and equipment always ended being on top of personal luggage, so if you needed anything from your bag, you were out of luck.
• The van got about 400 miles to the tank, but the tank was huge and took about 90 bucks to fill up.
• The van drove horribly. Well, I take that back. Maybe the van had potential to be a good ride, but it certainly did not combine well with BJ’s already sub-par driving skills (”BJ, why are you driving in the left lane?” “It’s just the wind”).

BJ’s SUV:
• The SUV is a loooot smaller than we anticipated. Maybe it could hold BJ and five 12-year-old girls (his ultimate fantasy), but 5 grown guys and a tall Scandinavian chick – not so easy. Two in the front, three squished in the back seat, and one sitting in the very back on top of piles of pillows, clothes, and snack crackers. I will definitely be over my phobia of body contact by the end of the month.
• Our van is free of mess, besides the pile of junk/humans in the very back.
• The SUV also gets about 400 miles to the tank, but only takes about 40 bucks to fill up.
• The ride is still a little rough and dangerous, but that’s only due to BJ’s driving now.

So we’re stuck with the SUV, which is okay, despite the circumstances. Eventually we leave Raleigh and head to Charlotte. 

I have only been to Charlotte twice before this.. first on a field trip to the Discovery Place in 5th grade, then later for the Meineke Bowl on New Year’s Eve 2004 (the day before 2005, just to clarify). I was excited to return. 

Our venue, The Evening Muse, was actually located in a smaller art district on the outskirts of the city, a part of town I’d never seen before. It was small, but awesome nonetheless. We grabbed a bite to eat at an amazing sandwich shop down the street where I had one of the best burgers of all time.. sautéed mushrooms and beefness and blue cheese and other veggies. I don’t usually even like burgers. I was pleased. The spot was well decorated and wi-fied and played Widespread on repeat. It was also painted royal blue on the OUTSIDE. I tend to base my judgment of cities on their bars and restaurants.. I approve of the Charlotte art district. Good thing I don’t have to drive 8 hours to get to it.

Anyway, the show was complicated. We couldn’t load our stuff in until 10, when we were supposed to go on (we usually load in when we arrive at a venue.. 6, 7 o’clock, whenever). Well…. The band that played before us ended up playing a bit longer than expected.. about an hour longer. 

11 rolls around, and we are all fairly frustrated and still quite hung over from our night in Columbia. You could say the show lacked a little fire. We are the only ones who knew the difference though. The boys sounded great, and I had the opportunity to do some photogging and shoot some videos. We had people donate money on top of merch sales, thanks to my charm and awesome sales skills, of course. Some friends from Asheville who came to see the show kidnapped Zack and took him barhopping as we parted ways to head for Lake Norman.

BJ’s good friend Reid, who used to play drums for AA, offered us his home for the night, even though he was actually in Raleigh for summer school. His parents were ready and excited, and had even prepped the jet skis for us to take out in the morning. Score. The GPS system in BJ’s automob seems to be rigged by the city of Charlotte. It intentionally led us off of highway 77, into the city for several loops, and then back onto the exact highway 77 exit. Sketchy. BJ also came dangerously close to having us beaten and killed in a traffic jam due to late-night construction. Moral of story: if people want to cut in line THAT bad, just let them. 

I can’t forget to mention how amazing the opening band was. You may think that I’m blindly supporting every band we happen to play with, but let me tell you, we’ve played with plenty of awful bands so far. When I have a good word to say about a band, I mean it. 

Ok. So apparently there are several musicians that do shows at The Evening Muse, most out of California, all amazing. They decided to get together and do a cross-country tour this time around, and we happened to be playing a show with them. They call themselves “The North LaBrea All-Star Conquistadors.” Despite the name, you would take them very seriously if you heard them… I was blown away. They packed the house. Unfortunately, they weren’t really interested in making friends that night, probably because we were a bunch of hung over whiney little bitches at the time. Oh well.

Eventually we arrived at Reid’s house. Hmm.. to describe Reid’s house. Gigantic abode sitting on a peninsula on Lake Norman. Next lot over houses a Nascar Driver (I would have remembered the name if I actually cared about Nascar). Next-next lot over sits a five-story house with floors made of 200-year-old Chinese railway planks that cost more than our lives. All of these houses were built by Reid’s dad, who owns a luxury homebuilding company. For those of you who aren’t aware, I have a sore spot for architecture/design/building/construction. I feel like in a past life I may have been a construction worker, and loved every minute of it. 

Ok, enough about the amazing house and amazing owners. We all got our stuff together and went to our beds (yes, we each had a bed to ourselves.. that = 6+ bedrooms), but not before me, Beej, Bill, and Jessica (Bill’s girlfriend who came up for the night) snuck around the house taking pictures. We might be lame, yes, but we slept in goosedown beds in a lakefront mansion and you didn’t. We win.

5/22/2007 – FREE DAY at Lake Norman/Asheville

We all woke up rested for once! This is a rarity.. we usually get away with 4-5 hours of sleep a night. I think I slept in later than anyone, because I woke up to the boys playing guitar and imitating the grandpa/grandson blues duo we heard during early open mic hour the night before… poor chaps. I thought they did fine. Musicians can be such pretentious assholes.

We went to lunch at McAlister’s Deli, and happened to run into Ricky Rachtman, old-school VJ for the Headbanger’s Ball, did a bunch of work on MTV and VH1.. etc. It was a little before my time, but I recognized him anyway. The boys who recognized him were absolutely giddy, but didn’t quite have the balls to go say hello. Ricky even happened to walk right through our group in the parking lot, but BJ still wouldn’t talk… and so Ricky disappeared into the plaza.

We headed back to the house and spent a few hours on the lake. BJ almost killed both Bill and Jessica (Bill’s girlfriend) on the jet skis (”there’s nothing manlier than cruising on a jet ski at 65 mph… I’m glad we didn’t die”). I didn’t sunburn! I hadn’t had a real day on the water since my junior year of high school. I needed it. 

Reid’s parents invited us to stick around for dinner, and they cooked us a fantastic meal. I was pleased. I talked to Reid’s dad at length about his job, and after finding out that he started a building company with a degree in English, I am feeling inspired about having a potentially irrelevant degree for my future. He ended up giving me a copy of his portfolio and all of his contact information. I think it may come in handy. 

After some frantic attempts at updating travel logs, we all decided to head out and seek shelter in Asheville at the abode of some good friends who came to visit us in Charlotte the night before (the ones who kidnapped Zack). Once again, the GPS system misleads us a bit, but we arrive at the house around 1:00 am. We eventually hit the hay near sunrise. 

We all know and accept that this day WILL be the best day we have on tour. But that’s only judging according to amount/quality of sleep and lack of strenuous activity. We are all glad we had a break, but the boys are ready to rock more faces. Onward.

5/23/2007 – Asheville to Knoxville

Tour has been successful thus far, but there is one little problem we collectively have (besides alcoholism) – sleeping in. Every night we plan our moderately early wake-up time, then immediately disregard it and sleep in until lunchtime or later. Not that this really cuts into our schedules (as we have none besides playing shows around 10:00pm), but it would be nice to have one person drive to next destination while the rest doze off in the back, leaving us the rest of the afternoon to explore the town before showtime. It never quite works out like that though. 

This particular morning, we accidentally sleep in until 1 or so, eat some kickass granola/yogurt/fruit concoction, drink some amazing coffee (Asheville folk really know how to grub, at least in my opinion), pack our junk, and head to the Blue Ridge Parkway. Our amazing hosts, Amanda and Kirsten, offered to take us to a waterfall just to satisfy the burly mountain man in us. 

Unfortunately, it seems that only Amos and I truly appreciated the majesty of our adventure. Okay, I’ll give Zack and Bill credit for being jolly, but I don’t think BJ and Chris enjoyed themselves that much. In fact, I have never seen a group of men complain so much about being outdoors. Perhaps the drive was a bit longer than expected, but after about 30 minutes on the Blue Ridge Parkway, we parked and hiked for a good while. 

I took about 300 photos, then we hiked back to the auto, said our goodbyes to Amanda, Kirsten and boyfriend, and headed off to Knoxville. 

Highway 40 between Asheville and Knoxville is stunning. Unfortunately, we drove under one of the worst downpours I have ever seen in my life. You thought our lives were in danger in Columbia? This drive mostly consisted of hydroplaning while squeezing between concrete walls and semi-trucks at 60 mph. I am glad to be alive. 

Eventually things cleared up and we made it to Knoxville. Knoxville is interesting. Very old city.. it seems like little development has occurred in the last 500 years. I guess you could say it was vintage and has character, but I just see a large dusty desolate wasteland. 

[I promise I am not normally a negative person, and don't usually have only harsh words to say about every new spot I encounter, but I think I'm just not a fan of old southern cities. I know that if I had more than a couple of hours to explore more than the radius of the city within walking distance of a venue I'd discover some great things, but I just don't have the time to find out anything more than what I do within these limits. We'll see what happens once I reach the west coast.]

We are playing at Barley’s Taproom, a HUGE restaurant and bar in downtown Knoxville. To give you an idea of the venue… this is where Lucero and other high-end alt-country acts play whenever they come through. 

We were supplied with all the free food we could possibly want. I ordered the best pizza I could possibly come up with, then immediately left the venue to explore town. I encountered an old junk shop and stepped in to take a gander. I talked to David, the owner, for a while. Apparently this was the oldest antique shop in all of Knoxville. He explained his idea of the city to me – “it’s like an awkward teenager. You know it will eventually grow up into something great, but you are just damn ready for it to go ahead and get it over with.” 

I took his photo and headed back to Barley’s to grub. We probably bought 150 bucks worth of gourmet pizza and calzones and nachos. Unfortunately, they weren’t offering us any sort of drink discounts. Being the spoiled clients we are, we were bitter and decided to play a sober show. I don’t think they realized how much $$ they lost with that decision. 

The show itself sounded great. I shot a few videos, all of which ended up flawless, despite my camera still being grainy. After the full band played a set, BJ stayed up and played another hour of solo material, while the boys sat with me and looked at pictures and Zack sat at the bar trying to find us places to stay for the night. 

We originally had a spot landed at a friend of BJ’s, but she had a family emergency and had to step out for the night, so we were out of options. Zack found a fan who wanted to put us up for the night, but he ended up turning his phone off and sketching. After some discussion, we decided that it would be best just to drive straight to Starkville, Mississippi (approx. 7 hours) and just sleep on the way. Not the most comfortable option, but it was our only one at the point. 

I was going to drive first shift. Just as I was pulling out of the parking lot, we spot a car of foxy ladies leaving the Taproom. We decide that we have nothing to lose, and BJ approaches their car to inquire about a place to stay. The girls offer their place. Success! We later find out it’s because they saw a girl with the posse (that girl being me). I knew my job was important. 

We end up staying the night with these three chicks in downtown Knoxville.. I do not remember their names. One of the girls was from Goldsboro, and I’m pretty sure we knew at least 15 people in common. We spent most of the night looking at videos of the show and playing with Nornton, their kickass dog. Seriously, I cannot express to you how freaking cool that dog was. He will forever be engrained into Bill’s and my memory. I even got to sleep in a bed instead of a couch or floor. Great random ending to a night in Knoxville.

2/24/2007 – Knoxville to Starkville to Little Rock

We all had agreed to wake up at 10am to get a head start to Starkville. Once again, we completely disregard the alarms we set and sleep in until 12. I steal a 3-minute shower from the random Tennesee ladies and we go on our way. I think all of the girls were still sleeping when we left. Thanks ladies, whoever you are!

The drive was long.. about 7 hours.. but it was gorgeous for the most part. Things are quite cozy in the SUV and we have no choice than to have a comfort bubbles constantly violated, but we’ve getting used to it. We also had an awesome lunch of leftover pizza from Barley’s in a gas station parking lot with a good view.

Once we started seeing billboards containing divine guidance such as “THOUGH SHALL NOT COMMIT ADULTERY” or a simple, yet effective “JESUS,” we knew we were back in the dirty south. Starkville was not quite as urban as most of our stops so far. There isn’t much around. It is the home of Mississippi State, where my stepdad spent the 7 years of his undergraduate career. This is no Chapel Hill though. We got lost for a minute and ended up seeing a bit of “downtown” (a street with commercial establishments and people present), but it still wasn’t much to see. I suppose it’s a little emptier than usual since school is out for the summer. We eventually stopped and asked a police officer where Dave’s Dark Horse Tavern is. Actually, we didn’t even mention that.. Zack started off with “we’re a band playing a show tonight…” The cop lit up immediately and said “Dark Horse Tavern! Take a right and then go down 9 lights and take your next right and then a left and straight for 30 yards and a left and a right and you’re there.” Not that complicated, but that’s what it sounded like to me. 

We eventually found the place. It was old and dusty and dark, just how we like it. We had free pizza yet again, but this time we had free beer with it. Upgrade. 

At first, the venue was pretty empty for the show. By the end of it, we had a new posse of dedicated followers lined up in front, and another line to the merch stand. I sold more merch that night than ever, and the venue treated us SO much better than we expected paywise. I feel like this won’t be the last time AA visits Starkville.

Zack got exceptionally sloppy that night and almost quit the band in a drunken stupor, but we eventually calmed him down and convinced him to ride along to our next destination, Little Rock. We left that night and arrived in LR around 6 am at a house a friend loaded us for the visit. I spent some time emailing and being a general computer nerd, and eventually passed out at 8am. You could say my sleep schedule is a little warped. Good end to a busy day!

5/25/2007 – Little Rock

We had a photoshoot scheduled in LR at 2:00 this afternoon. Thank god we came up the night before, because we still came close to oversleeping. Much better than oversleeping and waking up 6 hours away.

We picked up the photographer downtown. She has done some amazing work photogging artists around the country, and came back from LA to spend the day with us. We wandered around town, and I had the best time watching the boys awkwardly pose for shots for a few hours. I could tell they were in agony.

By the time the shoot was done, she got some amazing shots, and we should be getting them within a week or so. I took another nap, and woke up just in time to head over to the venue, The Whitewater Taven. This place absolutely rocks. It almost closed down last year, but in February, a group of guys who had been drinking there since they were 14 decided to buy the place out and make it a kickass music venue. They are a huge fan of AA, and made sure to promote them well.

I’m sitting here in the bar we speak, and it is packed wall to wall. AA just finished their set, and the crows absolutely loved it. We’ll be here for a few more hours hanging out, and then the boys who own this place are taking us out for a celebration at a “late night bar,” one that stays open until 5 or so. I’m not sure how that’s legal, but I won’t question it. I have a feeling that tonight will be in the ranks with Columbia round 2. We’ll see what happens.

[Postlog]

The night ended up a bit different than expected. Nick, the co-owner who planned to take us out that night ended up leaving the bar, so late-night was a no-go. By 2:00, there would have been no freaking way we were able/willing to keep going anyway. After AA’s set, the boys came back and hung out with me at my merch perch, which was conveniently placed right beside the bar, so I had the chance to get to know all of the co-owners, sound crew, and some fans, including Heath and Jonesy, who great guys who have been to at least 15 shows and drove all the way from Oklahoma to catch us tonight.

At one point I was serenaded by some very drunk fellow who kept buying Amos shots of Jameson.

This led to the rebirth of the Baynes-monster, who spend most of his night screaming at the other band, trying to start fights, and saying inappropriate things at inappropriate times. Basically, he and BJ switched roles for the night (not that BJ does much screaming or fight-starting, but his generally inappropriate behavior makes up for it).

After getting harassed by the 3rd guy in the venue parking lot while we were babysitting Baynes, I was just ready to go. The night was beyond great, but I had been up for two nights straight already and I just needed to crash. We finally headed home and there was nothing keeping me from the big fat goosedown (yes, another) bed waiting for me.

Little Rock may be my favorite city thus far.. I like the aesthetics of Atlanta better, but the people in Little Rock absolutely rock. You can bet I’ll be at The Whitewater Tavern again before too long.

5/29/2007 – From Austin.