Some friends and I went to the wharf to wander. Rich was teaching his wife the blues box, so from time to time they go to a bar in the Fisherman’s Wharf and watch the blues bands that play all day.

Papa’s Garage. Note the drink holder on the mic stand.

I got a ride to Oakland, back to Aaron’s place. We were to go on an errand for Kimric, the guest of the evening. He owns the accordion shop that is in the building that houses 21 Grand, the venue of the evening. He was at the local accordion festival and needed us to get a car airbag. All of the info given to me was piecemeal so I wasn’t sure what we were doing. We ended up at Ace Autoparts. Then, I started to figure it out. Ace was not the autoparts store I thought we were going to but an industrial yard used to build the great things of Burning Man; and Kimric is a part of the Survival Research Laboratories; and the car bag was to be used to blow up an accordion. Ace was closed.
The show may have been the best of the tour. It was packed and we all had good sets. Kimric’s accordion explosion was almost missed, but I saw it. It was quick and huge.
After the show, me and some friends went to Chicken and Waffles. It was the only place we could find open and it was the only family-style restaurant I’d been to that had a velvet rope. I hate velvet ropes but this one was worth the wait.
Speaking of Chicken, Chicken John is running for mayor of San Francisco. He’s been a good friend to travelling bands who have played his venue. He is a kind, kind man.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N0OwMbc9t-o]

The plan after the show in Eugene was to drive straight to San Francisco. Aaron (Duckmandu) would be doing that. I had uncomfortable sleep but at least I got sleep. I don’t know how he did it. On the morning of the 24th, we stopped somewhere near Mt. Shasta and it was beautiful.

somewhere between Eugene and Oakland is beautiful

convenience store wisdom I didn’t take. I got whoppers and jerky.

We arrived in Oakland at Aaron’s place which is a converted furniture store. It has a nice stage in the living room for his band to practice. I took a nap one of five couches and woke up to a call from my friend who told me he’d had dinner with Mel Brooks and watched him drink too much Grapa, giving him courage to do his act from his Catskills days. Gold. I went to the bathroom that housed a fishtank and one of the two fish was dead. The other one stayed at the other end of the tank.

Mel Brooks

12 Galaxies is named after a guy who has . . . I don’t remember. I met him, talked to him and have forgotten everything except that he carried a picket sign that said many things, one of the things being “800 Galaxies”, and that he did some spoken word before the set and walked through the crowd with his sign. I do remember him explaining the galaxies but the sound of his voice was trumped by everything else that was louder. I should have listened closer but I didn’t. Any local hero that has a place named after him should be listened to closer.

All of us, including Frank Chu, had good shows.

My friends, Jen and Rich, came to the show. I stayed with them. We played Guitar Hero and then Gears of War. I fell asleep as my guy was dying. Excellent dreams.

We drove to Eugene in a swift manner. I don’t think I’ve been here since I was with the Bindlestiff Family Cirkus back in 2002. We played at Sam Bond’s Garage. No one knew or remembered we were doing two shows. The sound guy they called was recovering from eating a case of marinated meat seared on a grill. The show started weird but ended up being good. It may have been better than the second show. Someone told me that a cat had sprayed on my accordion case but I can’t smell anything. The bar staff was kind and gave us everything for free.

Geoff in the first show

Geoff in the second show

Duck

We stayed with Devin and Kiri, a couple from Portland with a big place. They made us crepes in the morning that featured tomatoes, basil, and strawberries from the front yard’s garden. Afterwards, Geoff went to visit his 90-year-old grandmother. Duckmandu went to the 76 station to get his van looked at.

circus door to the house. camera phone trumps efforts to prove it.

Devin had RBI Baseball on Nintendo. He knew that’s where I first used the name Corn Mo. Corn Mo was the name I had given my pitcher for my Nintendo baseball team. I haven’t played that game in a while. As I destroyed my opponent, he felt a bit let down, not from my bad ass pitching but because he thought the name came from the game. “Nope.” In the next phase of our time together, he brought out Dr. Mario. He put all the levels on the highest possible and mastered that level like a juggler throwing 9 balls in the air with little fretting.

note the name of the pitcher. only one system has the original corn mo pitcher in its memory. mine.

Jason and I went to KBOO to do an interview. I met a bearded lady at the radio station. She had Van Dyke that was very handsome. Best lady beard I’ve ever seen.

I played “You Finally Got Your Song” and did some talk. I wrote that song in Oregon so it seemed fitting.

filing system for albums

this record is filed under awesome.

file under new friends

satisfying knobs

My new friend, Geoff, reminds me of my old friend, David. I carelessly used the word doppelganger and understood that no one wants to know that there is someone similar to them unless maybe there is a blood relation. Everyone is unique. But I’m pleasantly reminded of my friend, David, while keeping that info from my friend, Geoff. I don’t mind when people say Meatloaf around me when I can tell they enjoy him, also. But, it would be proper if they said, “You remind me of Meatloaf(with songs by Jim Steinman).” Otherwise, it is only a dog barking.

On Wednesday morning, we met up and went to the international district of Seattle. Jason took us to a great Chinese restaurant. These accordion guys are great to hang out with. There was a bit of satisfaction being together after a sold out show.

We drove on to Portland in Aaron’s van. The destination was The Kennedy School, a school converted into a restaurant, bar, movie theater, showtime room, etc. It was a nice place. The show was sold out. People were turned away at the door. That’s always sad. Again, it dumbfounds me to see a room of people that want to hear 5 accordionists. But that was the room and they loved it.

Geoff
Duckmandu
Last song together
nice folks

It was all ages. I tried not to go blue, as they say. I somewhat succeeded. I’m glad my dad introduced me to Peter Sellers’ movies.

The show was good. It was in an old church and was run by volunteers I think. They were really, really nice.

This was the first time I’d seen Geoff or Aaron perform. Both were fantastic. Geoff’s songs are haunting, funny, smart, and beautiful. Aaron does a lot of Dead Kennedy covers very well. I’d say he’s the most accomplished player in our group. He also does a fantastic “Stars and Stripes Forever” cover. I love John Phillip Sousa. Vladmir Horowitz does a great cover, also. So do The Residents. Jason went on last. He can hold a crowd in his hand like a street performer with no final trick. He’s a great showman.

My friend, Nick, came. His show just got cancelled. We were going to drink after the show to his show’s demise. They didn’t have beer at church and they shouldn’t. They did have wine, though.

The plans fell through and I stayed with my friend, Kathy, and her son, Joshua aka Jetpack McLeod. Her boyfriend, Chris, is also a great friend but he was in Montana installing a piece of art. Joshua is a brilliant eight-year-old whose knowledge of music sometimes surpasses Chris’. He’s interviewed bands before and began grilling me with questions as me and him and his mom went to 13 Coins for a late dinner.

Jetpack is on the right. Chris Weber is on the left. That’s you in the middle.

“What do you like to do? Do you like to draw? What’s your favorite band? What’s your favorite song? Have you ever done something and hid because you’ve felt guilty even though you did nothing wrong? What’s your girlfriend’s name? What’s your favorite soda?”

I got a reuben. And 2 pilsners.

There were two places to sleep at Jason’s. One was the apartment of a dearly departed friend that was nestled inside a wood shop. It had a bed, a couch, and a lazy boy. Jason and Geoff slept there. The other was Jason’s house which is a shack that floats on the river. That’s where I slept. I slept very well. It rocks pretty well when boats come by.

“Feel free to pee into the river,” Jason told me since the shack is one room with no bathroom. I used the bathroom in the bathroom because there’s a mom-to-be living in an rv parked nearby and its rude to pee in the accidental viewing distance of a pregnant lady. She wants to name her kid Eva May Joan Fog. She and her husband want to change their last name to Fog because they don’t want to hyphenate the current last names. If the kid were to be a boy they would name him Everett Pterodactyl Fog. At one point they wanted to change the last name to Pterodactyl but received much grief from the future grandparents.

where the Fogs live

Mrs. Fog’s dad, Rick, came over to flip his boat. It had capsized and smelled strong of gas since the motor was upside down. The previous night, Jason had tried to rock it back but it didn’t work. By morning the tide had gone out and the boat was halfway stuck in the mud.

The goal was to tie a rope to the boat and throw the excess rope to the shore. Jason threw the rope to Rick and fell in. His cell phone was ruined. His hat was a bit ruined, too. Rick pulled his boat to shore and then took the dory boat to find his boat’s seat. He was successful.

I met Aaron. He’d driven from Oakland and had slept in his van. Whoever colored his Mohawk did a good job.

We took the dory out and saw some yachts that had met their demise. One was called Elusive Dream.

The fish were jumping.

Jason and Duckmandu on dory

Geoff

I forgot I was flying out of Newark. I shouldn’t have had the plane booked out of Newark. It’s easy when you don’t have a lot of bags. Otherwise, it sucks. The cheapest way is to take the subway to the PATH train and get out at Newark Penn and transfer to a bus. The second cheapest is to take the subway to New York Penn and take Amtrak which was $37 when I checked. Amtrak is overpriced. Another way to go is by car service: $60. Dammit. I didn’t have time to do the other options.

The driver was nice and chatty but he couldn’t read road signs very well. I gave him the benefit of the doubt I’d had when he passed the exits for the airport. It’s his job and he probably knows a shorter way, I thought, so I’d leave him alone. He passed three exits and got on the turnpike so we were late getting to my flight. Turnpikes aren’t made for mistakes. I offered to help him get a job at my friend’s work.

Continental sucks. They’re the worst airline next to Northwest. A few years ago, I used a beat-up walker as a keyboard stand because it folded and was easy to carry. Continental wanted to charge me $90 as extra luggage. I told her it was hers to keep. She let it slide.

This time, I walked up to the gate and was about to ask something-

“Sorry , we’re not boarding yet.”

“Thanks!” I ignored her and ask the tired looking one as the sweet genius left. “I just wanted ask a question.”

“Sure, when I can clone myself into 5 people you can.”

“I just wanted to ask a favor.”

“Sure.”

“Is it cool if I get on early to put my instrument on?”

“Sure, I don’t care.”

This lady does need a clone. She’s tired and burned out. My old roommate worked for Jet Blue. She was nice and pretty. She quit because they overworked her. She was always able to garner cheap rum.

Jason met me at the airport.  He’s the guy that set up this tour.  Geoff had taken a train from Vancouver and was in the car.  Aaron was driving up from Oakland.  It was about 3am my time but I was awake.  Upon arriving in Everett, we passed by a place called McCabes. 

“I’ve lived here for years and never been in there.”

“Let’s go.”

We looked in and saw dance lights and some drunk dancing.  If not for the cover charge we may have gone in.  The music sucked and drinking beer with a cover charge isn’t fun.  It’s almost as bad as waiting behind a velvet rope to drink with a cover charge.