Iowa and some Knoxville

On the road from Iowa City to Minneapolis there is, relatively speaking, absolutely nothing. We have driven through cornfields now from Knoxville all the way up to here. There was a hole lot of nothing on the roads between these places, amber waves of grain being what they will be in a few months notwithstanding. This reminds me of the few people I’ve met in the Midwest of this country who have said something to the effect of, “these poor people out here don’t even know how this government has kept them poor over all these years and they just continue to vote for them because of they’re Christian.” We stopped by the side of a road in Albert Lea, MN for a look-see at the Perkins and Starbucks(!?). The thing is, I don’t even really like Starbucks espresso, but finding these things can be a dream come true for me. Of course, if I dreamt of Perkin’s, Taco John’s, Hardees, Walgreens, Kum and Go, Jimmy John’s, Subway, or any of the other 50 or so chains that have overtaken the state roads in this country, that dream would also come true.

In the Starbucks of Knoxville, TN, the girl behind the counter…well, I forget everything about the exchange except that she was very excited to tell me that she had visited the Starbucks in Boston. Oh, now I remember. I picked up a shirt at a coffee shop in Wilmington, DE that says something like “buy local coffee” on the front (which of course is not possible at all in the US, but charms the hell out of people who see me wearing the shirt and imagine how nice a person I must be). This started a conversation with the girl behind the counter, which is sometimes a nice thing. This person, however, did not communicate to me that she had any experience in DC, Philladelphia or Boston than that she had visited the Starbucks (her employer) there. I think she thought the local thing on my shirt meant the local Starbucks, which it does not. On the far outskirts of Knoxville, however, this again is a fairy tale of obsession and discovery, where the philosopher king serving coffee sings the words “Philadelphia Starbucks” into my ear and this simple tune becomes a dusting of happiness on my mocha as a float out the door into the outstretched tail-pieces of the sign-dwelling siren. (yes look, she is holding her tail in that logo…ummm)

The cab that we took back (you guessed right, I took a cab to the Starbucks) had the front end totally detached from the suspension, so that when the guy hit the gas the wheels would snap back and top out the suspension loudly. When he let off the gas, the car would settle forward loudly as the engine nearly hit the ground and he momentarily lost control in the fricase.

Senator Barack Obama came to Iowa City for an earth day presentation, which featured the only recycling bins I had seen all week. Unless he steps to me or my friends, or disses my playing, I want him to be potus (just like Jimmy Carter was…confirmed!). He has a nice bus and a trailer (presumably for the amps and drums). There was a comment made somewhere that Patricia Williams dealt with apart, that Obama transcends blackness by having a white mother. This, as I learned from an overheard comment innacurately accusing him of being muslim, is not the worst of what has to deal with on the larger stage.

She took the midnight train goin' everywhere

On the advice of a close friend, an advisor apparently of governmental judgement, I went out last night to see a “Funk Soul band starting at 11 for free!” Of course, I wound up paying $6 to see the last of 4 bands on a plucking and strumming night at The Picador. It was empty and loud but the band were excellent and all of good spirits from Springfield, MO. This provided an instant connection as I was in Springfield a few short months ago. “Where did you play there?,”they asked. “It was purple inside” was our reply “and the lights kept going out.” Springfield, though, was the site of my very memorable 26 hour travel day (see Jan 23 post) that included a few canceled and missed flights, and the talk with the wonderful women of the O’hare Hilton guest services department. I also saw the gripping We Are Marshall in MO, which is the story of….with a crooked lipped straight talking Matt McConaughey playing under (ooohh) the pursed lipped ne’er do wrong Bill Macy.

After a quick detour to a house down the street in our now usual quartet of revelers, we wound up getting our first official noise complaint as we hooted and hollered while 30 rock downloaded at 420k/s. This is much faster than normal, and a result of us being on a college campus with a proper connection.

The next day resulted in trying to get an espresso at a local place and being "forced" to listen to an hour of folk music by Peter Mulvey who was taping an hour for a simple Iowa Public Radio show involving talking and singing. Very cool.

Hairspray Movie Preview on Youtube now

I met an author yesterday who said he was the president a while back, which wikipedia confirms based on the name Jimmy Carter, but I’m still looking in to this.

I’ve been staying away from the gym the last week because I lifted my suitcase wrong and did some terrible thing to my right shoulder. But now it’s starting to feel better.

I’m cooking up a plan for an evironmently action from our company, involving either an offset purchase for one of our segments of travel or…..that’s my only idea thus far.

These boats were made for walking, strangely.

Situated a comfortable distance from everything else, Iowa City heralds progress and prosperity uncommon in the Midwest. There are buildings made of aluminum and plenty of sandwich shops and bars featuring drink specials with t-shirted patrons and mean bouncers doing homework while they pick fights (impressed? You should see how I set my room up this year…)

I’ve joined facebook as I’ve now submitted to some terribly morbid desires to read the threads created as people searched for their friends at VT the other morning. The New York Times gave me this idea, as they have now started web-publishing links like this, which are not exactly news. It’s also an opportunity to create another completely false, yet hilarious, user profile.

Driving through cornfields for two days to this concrete landmark of tank-topped youth we stopped at a Wal-Mart for lunch, which featured something called a Steak and Shake integrated in to the parking lot. The next day we stopped at Mcdonald’s, which, upon entering in search of a bathroom, greeted me with a smell that suggested I was actually already in a bathroom. I noticed a few people putting things purchased in that building into their mouths.

I got an idea about playing isolated college towns like this: it’s awesome. These are people, students and others, who are the right audience for the show, and who have little access to live entertainment on this scale. They don’t have their underpants melted off by searing sax solos everyday is what I’m getting at, but they like it. Also, when Tracy says “come on….Hawkeyes” it sounds like “Come on Honkies,” which is not the point of the show. They do cheer loudly, though.

I’d like to list some of the people I visited in the span from Burlington, VT-Naples, FL: Nick Parrish, Cassandra Corley, Carol and Annie Flanagan, Barb and Dave Flanagan, Erin and Brian and Emma Manning, Jim and Linda Flanagan, Carl Stewart and the Shields, Kaitlin and Kelly Flanagan, Mark and Jan Vinci, The Denny’s, Tom Flanagan and Katie Hayes, Kathryn Stewart. It seemed like a lot, and that’s not including the many cartoon characters and pixies I’ve created in my mind to ride the bus with.

NBC The Office: brilliantly surprising and fun!

The ride to Knoxville was long and sleepy. It was almost 500 miles along only two roads, from I 10 to I 75. We are staying in a lovely parking lot outside of Knoxville where there is a Christian store adjacent and several GM dealerships down the way. I hurt my shoulder lifting one of my bags in the lobby, and am not doing any pushups as a result of this.

As one would expect great things to happen in Knoxville, they had an outdoor concert last night featuring Edwin McCain, of I’ll Be fame. There were loads of other jam bands and whatnot on the mainstage in the town’s market square, and music in the handful of bars lining the strip of concrete that is transformed into a pop music playground for 12 consecutive Thursdays each year. I had forgotten that Edwin’s music feature tenor sax as much as is does, his biggest hit concluding with a sax solo. Good for all of us, but especially good for the tweens singing along while holding their cellphones above their heads.

The late night band in the adjacent bar featured the following instrumentation: drums, organ, bearded singing, vibraphone, electric guitar, mandolin, baritone bugle, timpani, electric bass. They may travel in a VW bus and definitely like to get high. I accidentally locked them out of the bar when I closed the door to the alleyway as I left the establishment the back way.

There was a hanger on named Charlie Brown at our table for a bit of the night, who showed his Medicare card as provenance regarding that desirable situation. He was wearing millions of dollars of rings that he only takes out of the safe for special occasions, and could use them to fight the guy selling roses out of a garbage can, with whom he has a long standing dispute. This is the Knoxville they don’t tell you about.

Gordon Edes of boston.com uses the phrase “in the offing” many times in each article about the red sox. He also failed to mention in either of 2 articles the other day what position Ichiro Suzuki plays for the Mariners. This slippery phraseology is unacceptable.

zen

The week in Wilmington featured a cool theater built into the courtyard of a DuPont building. The shows were sold out and allowed us to play sitting very close to each other. It was the tightest pit one could allowin physics.

We flew on an A320 to Naples for a week of shows.

Because Budget is having a one way sale now, most of the company got involved in renting cars for the week in Naples. Our hotel was conveniently located midway between Naples and Miami, on Alligator Alley, so having our own transportation was a plus to get to the beach and the mart-mart that appeared to be across the street but that was so hidden by lanes of construction and drainage ditches as to be quite unreachable on foot.

Kathryn came to visit most of the week there, and learned to sell t-shirts with our merchandise guy who needed some help.

We had to drive our car to Tallahassee to avoid missing the next show which is about 6.5 hours away or 435 miles. This allowed an opportunity to stop at a Starbucks and a Pilot somewhere near Ocala for relief and refill. One of our lot drank so much coffee that they perhaps could have been classed by the UL as unsafe for countertop use. Our hotel in Tallahassee is easy to find because it’s about 60 feet from I10, clever.