Okay, TV reporters, we get it. You\’re brave. Hurricanes are dangerous – they bring harsh wind, blinding rain, and do lots of damage – yet you\’re willing to go there and stand in it. We got it. I tell you what, how about you quit yelling at me to look behind you at the telephone pole that could snap in the wind at any moment, and I\’ll quit hoping it lands on you and your dashing raincoat if it does. Deal?

Tour\’s over and we\’re home. Thanks to everyone who turned up at the shows and helped us out in so many ways. Also, thanks to those who stayed and cheered us on from home. We\’d also like to thank our newest friends, Johnie 3, for sharing the stage and spending so much quality time with us before, during and after so many of the shows. Finally, our special thanks goes to Christy Darlington for having us out with him this time around. I\’ve known him for many years and am proud to have finally been on tour with him. He\’s quite a guy and quite a friend.

We had a great time and hope to be back at all -well, most- of these places again soon. But, for now, only one thought continues to bring itself to the forefront of our minds time and time again: That new album isn\’t going to finish itself. Looks like we might have to.

A couple shows, however, are coming up in September:

9/10 Dallas, TX
9/17 Lewisville, TX

We\’re still alive, kicking and filling up the gas tank with fury. We finally actually played a show at Blonde Shells a little while ago, even though we\’ve been sleeping here the last three nights. Blonde Shells is this really cool basement venue in Silver Spring, Maryland run by the unbelievably kind Mr. and Mrs. Jones and their kids. Three dogs and forty birds, I exaggerate not, also help out with things \’round here. The show was great, the hospitality greater. And honing in on their neighbor\’s unsecured wireless internet is really coming in handy at the moment, too. Anyway, long live the Jones\’ and such. We appreciate them a great deal.

I told you about Baltimore so explaining how the show in Hanover, PA went would be redundant. Almost exact replicas of each other. Last minute booking, no people, an irritated owner, a pulled plug, lots \’o driving for nothin\’. Fun, fun, fun, as they say.

We have, however, done a bit more sightseeing, and as you\’ll soon find out, yes, we\’re those kind of people. The ones who approach total strangers asking them to snap quick shots of their \”group\” in front of some large landmark. Yeah, that\’s us alright: (more…)

Back at Borders, this time at White Flint Mall in Maryland, fitting right in with the uptight, unfriendly pricks who brandish sleak laptops and stares that could kill a guy. Oh and there\’s this really happy guy eating pie.

We\’re just here to grab some food and try to update this thing before we head over to Hanover for the show tonight.

Things have been going really good. The shows have been a lot more consistent and, well, all-around better than the West coast, though Baltimore was a bust. We showed up but no one else did, so they cancelled the show. We weren\’t too disappointed and didn\’t really expect much anyway since the show was booked only two days earlier. Oh well. At least I got to visit the namesake of my favorite Aaron Cometbus song.

I wrote some other stuff about New York and other cities in a notebook, and I\’m hoping to transcribe them later.

I gonna go eat and let someone else use the computer. I think we\’ll be posting some more pics in a bit.

If you can, try to come to a show. Or at least pretend to.

8/14/05 University City, MO
8/15/05 Bloomington, IN
8/16/05 Pittsburgh, PA
8/17/05 New York, NY
8/18/05 TBA
8/19/05 Shepherdstown, WV
8/20/05 Hanover, PA
8/21/05 Silver Spring, MD
8/22/05 Philadelphia, PA
8/24/05 Anniston, AL
8/25/05 Atlanta, GA
8/26/05 Heflin, AL

We\’re back home for a few days. Sorry for the dropoff of updates. The rest of the West coast and Las Vegas went good. I have some more pictures to post but don\’t have any more double-A\’s to power the camera. I\’ll stock up again in a few days and get going with that.

Oh and thanks for the emails and comments while we were gone. Nice to hear from everyone. Keep it up.

On Saturday, my girlfriend Kim graduates from UNT with her Master\’s Degree. Great. Yet another real diploma to hang on the wall next to my North Lake College Associates \”certificate\”, dwarfing it even more than it already is. It\’s okay, though. I\’m very proud of her. She\’s certainly earned it. And, in case you\’re wondering, yeah, she\’s already enrolled for another semester. Sheessh.

On Sunday we leave again, beginning Leg #2 of the tour. That\’s right. Our tour could wear pants. Figurative pants.

Anyway, we\’ve also added a few local shows for September. Check the shows page, below the tour dates.

More tour pics:
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The FedEx Kinko\’s on Magnolia in Riverside, CA has almost become my home. Most nights we\’ve been sleeping at a house a few blocks away, and I\’ve been venturing down here quite a bit to take advantage the high speed internet. I\’m even considering naming the cubicle I sit at. (How would you even spell \”Cuby\”?)

I must say that touring is an odd thing. It\’s quite fun and even relaxing on one hand, knowing that the only thing you need to do each day is drive to the next club and play, but it also gets pretty darn boring during the downtime. And it turns out Sunday nights are a drag no matter where you are in the country.

We\’ve been going around a lot and passing out CDs to people in the area, trying to \”get the word out\”. What an odd process. You approach someone after making a generalized assumption that they might like your band from the shoes or shirt they\’re wearing; you attempt some small talk loosely based around music or bands or piercings or whatever; then if all goes well, you offer them a free CD to \”check out\” when they get a chance. Most people take it – many even offer up a \”thank you\” or a \”wow cool, man\” – but on occasion there are those who give you the glare, the same one you might give to those guys who show up at your door right as you sit down to eat, asking if you want to buy a newspaper subscription or crack or something.

And me, I\’m terrible at it. I usually end up either making a horribly wrong assumption based on someone\’s studded belt (it\’s amazing the genre boundaries those things cross these days), or worse, I simply end up chickening out at the very last second without saying anything, likely coming across as some sort of nervous-looking stalker-creep-guy.

Luckily, we\’ve survived so far and have even heard back from a few people who actually liked what we gave them. I guess that sort of gives you a sense that you\’re doing okay, that you\’ll be fine, and that you\’re not insane. Then you realize that you\’re still considering naming your Kinko\’s cubicle and recognize a homesick lunatic when you see one.

See you all back home soon. We can\’t wait.