i think to really appreciate the time in which we are currently living, one should drive the width, the sheer girth of this country. i mean there is no way to describe what it feels like, what it does to the mind to drive for 4 days straight, from one coast to the other. here we are doing it the semi-easy way, to drive at like 80 miles an hour, and even that way is a far stretch from what i would consider easy. to forge thru forests and mountains and wildlife and the pure roughness of the land, just to create a new life for yourself, i mean that must have been insane. the whole early era of living in this country was for humans far different than us. and I am usually the guy whose thoughts are usually devoted to being weary of the trappings of progress, but there is something essentially amazing about being able to do and know things this very easily these days. anyway i could write for days about the tradeoffs associated with technology, but suffice it to say that it is usually good as in most endeavors to take the middle path- to appreciate the sheer art that is a collective arc of human vehicles of achievement and knowledge and communication and production and transport, but to at the same time realize what takes from self and what corners us off in ironic alienation and what are the waves of repeated history, lapping faster and faster in unison with our bigger and growing file sizes.
so jonathan and i are finally at the other edge of this country, after the brain-congealing process of driving 4 days straight. i can't really describe what it feels like trying to get my brain back into normalcy now.. the first day we drove 12 hours, the second day 14, the third 10, and yesterday 5. that's like a normal work week compressed into 4 days, except with sitting in a tiny little box being the function, and having the jet lag of 3 hours being added on. we've been for so long in the middle of nowhereville that i feel out of touch with humanity. for most all of it i did not have cell reception, and there was no internet to be found. now my 9 oclock minutes begin at the midnight of my east coast peeps, and i guess it is time to disappear like tomorrow's wind. i am not complaining about all of this, i am just attempting to describe what goes along with such adventure. it sounds dumb, but one must have downtime from driving. anyway i'm sorry to anyone who thinks i am really bad at being in touch. i wish i could.
the first night we left at 4 in the morn and j, i, and greg drove to chicago. what a wonderful city. we only had an afternoon/eve in ferris beulerland but it is always instantly cool to just be there. and it was important to me because i got to play at for me the second of the sacred venues- that is the rooms where buckley has graced. i played in this contest at the uncommon ground which was fashioned after the eddie's one where they pick three finalists and then a winner. anyway i won the thing that night and the finals are on the 17th. i'm trying to find a way to make that. anyway the whipping cold bustling friend chicago was complimented by warm brown hues and amazing hot cocoa and good listening people. here are some before and after shots:
after that we got put up in a cush hotel somewhere by jon's gal stephanie's aunt, and we had a late nite hotel feast of pizza and wings and spaghetti. sometimes food for the weary is like alms for the poor.
then began the journey into nowhere, our stabbing westward. the freezing cold wasteland going on seemingly forever was nothing of t.s. eliot. i think it would actually be a good idea if we could somehow chop out the middle of this country and sell it to the russians or something, just make a slice into the cylander of earth, you know get down in there and take care of fault line malfunction and then make it a 10 hour drive to cali. it'd be waay better i promise. i remember being in the bitter chill of nothingness, with the afternoon sky as black as coal with nothing to be seen for miles, in the middle of minnesota somewhere and stopping in this gas station to coffee up and freeze our fingers off to get gas. there was this little gas station clerk about jon's age in a woven hat looking fashionable and laid back and on the surface like any other magazine-reading american gal. and i had a brief conversation trying my damndest to not sound ethnocentric and demeaning, but just kind of wondering.. what do you DO? what comprises your life? i asked what they went out and did, like on a saturday night or something, and she mentioned some town they might drive to, like probably with a population of a few hundred or something, and i was just thinking.. i have no idea. i can't even imagine. fly away, future butterfly, seek the livelyhood of the human race. but i can't be any sort of ethnographer with that attitude i guess. i actually am thankful for everyone who exists in our heartlands.
by the middle day when we drove 1113 miles we were delerious, singing whacky rymes about the trucks going by and anything that made no sense we could think of. here is a list of the top 3 worst states at the top of this country:
WISCONSON- there is pretty much nothing in this state except cold earth and cheese. it would be a nice place to test our president's nuke-o-planes.
NORTH DAKOTA- the only cool place in the entirety of this state excited me to shivers and boyhood. nucleo told us about it and said it was the only thing noteable the north way, and he was so very right. twas called space alien bar and grill, in bismarck ND, and in a place colder than i have ever been in my existance, when you think your limbs are going to fall off and your life is finally over, you are met with this oasis of salvation. a huge wonderland of everything alien you could ever wish to see. decked out in spaceship rounded colorful decor with memorabilia from past and present alien product collecting, clippings on the wall from newspapers and enquirer articles, and a gameroom with space alien themed games where you could win space toys with tickets you've won. and a bar shaped like a huge space pod and they serve you food with patented cones and futuristic design holding the food.. well you get the picture.. but really you don't- i promise it was heaven pour moi. here are a couple shots:
and lastly of the worst states up top,
MONTANA- yes there is some beautiful scenery if you keep driving and keep looking, but GOD this state is too big for its own good. it took the whole age of reason to cross this behemoth piece of crap, and i am no more the better for it. but one interesting tidbit- contrary to what you would expect, the gay population of Billings Montana rings in at about 50%. so it's cool if you are brought up a cowboy and always found yourself more interested in matching drapery than the art of lassoing, there is a comfortable and inviting place for you.
lessee hmm the best signs we've seen along the way: 1)there is a gas chain around the northwest side of this country called 'Kum and Go'. no lie. 2)where there is just driving and blank land somewhere in the middle of it all there is this big rickety wooden farm building with different parts and silo-looking facilities with large lettering on the front that reads 'Top Shelf Genetics'. 3)sign showing the locale of 'University of Mary' 4)there is a city in montana i think called 'home on the range' 5)we also passed a sign that said 'leaving apple maggot quarantine area'.
finally we made it across the idaho border and drove into washington state. the mountains here are breathtaking.
i had a show in spokane washington (pronounced spokEN like 'jeremy spoke in class today'.. coincidence?) at a place called fat tuesdays and it was king. really huge venue with a whole big stage shindag and i think we even got some good recordings on the new software we brought along. here's that:
i think the most beautiful place we passed is when you're on I-90 and right when you pass the columbia river- the whole landscape looks otherworldly, like the cover of some yes album or something.
we made it to the great wide world of seattle, and i can't even really believe a place like this even exists. it's like a great city as chicago or NY or something with people piled upon people upon people but in some lakey edge of our country where you would never expect all of this. funny we were sitting somewhere eating and the radio station was playing soundgarden and nirvana and such, and i was wondering if there are 'classic seattle alternative stations' here..::deep radio voice::'listen to what we once were! all the hits from when the whole country was listening!'
played a place last night where the program included an equal number of poets and musicians alike, and i thought that was commendable. we're in a shabby little hotel by a korean market and j is watching jerry so it's time to get up out of here and find the adventure we came for. sorry bout the long-windedness, but i feel as though this is like a hundredth of what i WANT to say..
