:: Music As Social Agitation Records::

:: Monday, September 27, 2004 ::

in the process of redesigning and settling back in after tour. i've only recently discovered the greyhound, not the bus, but the drink, and found it quite obviously fitting. every time i'm talking about something, i inevitably say: "when we were in...." and i talk about some city and some highly exaggerated story follows. and whenever i'm listening to someone i say: "awesome, awesome, awesome."

heading back down to california by this friday. had a great weekend. someone find me a job where i do nothing and get paid a lot for it.

COOL. THANKS. -tim

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:: brs 2:33 AM [+] ::
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we got back into washington state a couple of days ago, playing a show in kennewick on the way back to seattle. the kennewick show was just okay, not many people stuck around for matt's or my set. the show last night in seattle, however, was awesome. lots of familiar faces and good times. thanks to everyone that showed up.

we're playing in olympia tonight at le voyeur. should start around 8. tomorrow night at the derby house, email me for directions. also starts at 8 and we're playing with the inimitable jack saturn aka the online romance. should be good times.

last thing: a bic can open your kryptonite lock. -tim

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:: brs 2:33 AM [+] ::
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here's an update from two days ago. what was that, tuesday? we're in provo, ut, right now, reaping the benefits of wi-fi in karl's house where we're playing tonight. i'd update more, but then that would make the update below even more obsolete than it already is. i'd be impressed if you've gotten through all of matt's posts. get reading, sucka!
-tim

ps. edit: i've also been slow to get labrynt's very, very last post up which was sent to us via the internet from missoula, so i'm adding that, after my post, in red. enjoy!

9:12 a.m. central time, boulder, CO

sitting on the deck at brandon's apartment after a marathon greyhound ride to denver. boulder reminds me of parts of rohnert park, at least in my immediate area. winding down to the last week of tour, we'll be in kennewick on friday, which to me, is as good as over, since having lived there for three years will be like returning to a home of any kind. anything familiar is very welcoming at this point.

the last few days have been excruciatingly long travel days, and we have two more of those to go; the ride from denver to provo, ut is supposed to be pretty long, and we spend one more night on the bus leaving salt lake city to go to pasco. the shows have been pretty bad, too. the show in st. louis at the infierno room had only me and matt playing, no local acts, thus, no one showing up. there were a few people in and out, but we actually lost money on the show, since we had to pay for beer and food there and didn't sell a thing or get paid. we both played two sets, in hopes that people would come in, but i was so out of it after the bus ride and the walk from the greyhound station that i hardly felt like playing, and it was pretty obvious. st. louis is pretty effin' scary, anyway, what with the greyhound station being in a pretty rough part of town. luckily, some nice people we met gave us a ride there at 230, right before our bus was to leave, thus minimizing our time in the scary station. matt contends that the seattle station is still the ugliest and dirtiest of all the stations we've been to, which may not be far off.

before that we were in chicago, actually, blue island, il, which i'm told is still actually chicago. we played at ray's pizza with foxtale and the bee's knees, both of which were great and very nice. during our first stay in chicago, i was a bit turned off by the city, the people, the traffic, the gentrification, (mostly due to the wicker park fiasco/show). the second time around i liked the show better aside from the drunken heckler that only matt had to deal with, and the people were nicer. we got to see tosch again, which was nice, and we got to check out jamie's landmark studio. if only we had enough time to record. anyway, my point is that the first time around chicago lost me, the second, it reeled me back in. hooray for chicago.

holy shit, remember those crows we saw in the grand canyon that would make swooping sounds every time they flapped their wings? i just saw one, and it's flapping was audible over achilles heel right now.

speaking of achilles heel, i had to buy the mutherfucker again through itunes the other day because i was THAT desperate to hear the shit. best tunes on the record as of today: start without me, the poison, arizona.

before chicago we were in kent, ohio. kent state university looks nothing like the pictures, and all the kids party on thursday night. there's a 24-hour deli/cafeteria downstairs in one of the dorms and it's packed with kids at 2 a.m. the show was off-campus at julie's house-- it was well attended and we met some nice kids, as usual. mc homeless and his acapella flow was a nice change of pace to all the whiny shit me and matt do all the time. kids are smart over there, though, they are radical and know their shit, intimidating. this kid noah made some tasty vegan vegetable/tofu curry that we devoured in a second. matt didn't sleep that night. i did.

i think we're gonna go look for some wi-fi in town today so we can post this shit, as brandon's teaching class and we got bee-dogg at our disposal. heading west feels good. -tim

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:: brs 2:31 AM [+] ::
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sitting in the greyhound station here in springfield, MO. looks like we are not gonna be playing the house show tonight and instead will be high-tailing it west to denver (6am arrival tomorrow morning). we really need to be getting that way at this very moment. i think we are gonna try to pick up a show/gig at a coffeeshop tomorrow morning or evening. i want to be playing tomorrow somewhere. i added it up yesterday and though we have 10 of the next 11 days booked, we have had 11 days off. five for the convention. four missed shows. three our fault or the NYPD's and one greyhounds. and two scheduled days off for the last three weeks. huh. not as busy as i would like to be and i am for sure a little pessimistic about how effective or how much we have been successful getting our music out there. lots of fun shows for sure, and nothing to horrible overall happening, but... i dunno. for how taxing this whole greyhound thing has been, and for how much of normal life and normal productivity we are missing right now, i am not sure if it has been worth it. i am eager to do another greyhound tour, but i am thinking the 21 day passes are probably the perfect amount of time. from here on out, i want to be touring at least 60 days a year. maybe two 21 dayers and two week longs. i want to take eli out before the end of the year... so last night was st louis and the infierno room. downtown STL, on washington. an odd area that seems stuck between run-down, urban ghost town and aspiring young, professional gentrification. tons of empty first story spaces right next to ritzy sushi bars and shit. apparently this is the second time in the last decade they have tried to re-vitalize the area. it was kind of like a beautiful GQ-ing model person you might meet and then they laugh and you see there teeth are yellow and they are missing a few. BUT i was excited cause as we approached downtown from our walk from the greyhound, i realized that i had read/looked through a book a few months ago in the library all about urban st louis and its history and development of its architecture through the last century. there really is some beautiful architecture downtown, nothing too flashy but just these huge impressive structures with subtleties. what is most impressive is how all the buildings are packed up tight and right next to each other along the blocks, too the point where it just looks like a massive cube, flat-faced yet striped every quarter-block since there are actually four not one building. tall, high-rising massive wall of concrete and almost forgettable windows. overture. overdeparture. anonozine. more later. the show was fun, the 3-4 people working there were nice considering there was no one else on the bill and about 15-20 patrons over the course of the five hour night. there was obviously a little miscommunication between me and elvis, the owner/booker, which sucked. me and tim made the best of it though hitting up the dollar tacos ten times over and taking in a few of the dollar pabsts and getting replay on the cowboy pinball game 6 times in about 12 plays. we each did two short sets. tim, me, tim, me. things picked up towards the end of the night, we met some nice locals and talked about our scenes and our cities. no offense to you bham and seattle, but everywhere we go, be it rural wisconsin or scary urban downtown areas people are so much friendlier and open-minded than you. sorry if it hurts, but you should really try to smile and listen more often. we all should. (steps off high-horse). we had to catch a 3am greyhound and to get to springfield for our show here tonight, which we cant make.

friday night in chicago was a lot of fun and jaime and his posse were really nice. foxtail kicks ass and you should all check them out, as does the bees knees. the show was at this pizza place in south suburban chicago (blue island) and susan, the foxtail drummer, grew up there. her friends and family came out and there was a good amount of people. rays pizza was good. before the show and during my set (onlY) there was this really obnoxious drunk dude. it didn't bug me much at all, i was just having another rough set, but everyone else seemed to be getting pissed at him. during bow interrupted he was talking loudly on and about his cellphone and 1985 cemented its first commercial plug for verizon. the bar tender gave me a sympathy pint, which was nice, but i think she was annoyed about us hipster looking young kids coming in and taking over and scary-ing off her locals. it kind of annoyed me too, how these kids were looking down upon and getting disgusted by the hometeam when they were the out of towners. i have been hyper-aware of suchness, this notion of being an alien in an unfamiliar system and not just cause me and tim are constantly the foreigner on tour.i think alot of it had to do with the RNC and how NYorkers felt invaded and taken advantage of both by the republicans and by the protesters. anyways, after the show we went back to tim (foxtail and PAL bassist) house which was a nice pad above an old, now apartmented cornerstore. john tosch was staying there and we were hoping to bump into him. we then went and got some beers and went over to jaimes house to check out his studio and his place, he was interested in recording us in the morning as seth (PAL'er and bees knees singer/guitarer) was interested in having me and tim be a apart of this free music series he was doing. he essentially recruited artists and friends and then made 100 copies of a recording of theirs and passed them out. me and tim are gonna try to record one of our NW dates to use for it. should be awesome. seth was awesome. he gave us one of his zines and three of the cds in the series. after jaimes we headed back to tims and passed out in the niceness. woke up, got to hang out with them and tosch for a bit and then finally had a chance to experience the chicago l train and mass transit as we made our way back to the chicago station for like the 5th time.... getting ready to bus out of here in springfield, i will try to finish off the RNC shit soon. oh there was this crazy ass bar/repair shop made of wood paneling down the road from here called joes. tons of auto signs, shoes hanging up everywhere (kind of like the peanut man in bham). wednesday night stareting at 8pm, pay five bucks get free beer on tap till closing. fuck. saturday. bikini carwash from 10am till??? whoa. -matt

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:: brs 2:23 AM [+] ::
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on the greyhound again, just got done dropping people off and picking people up in toledo, OH on our way from kent, OH to chicago, IL. toledo was were we had missed our connection last time through due to the bus being late and we decided just to express-line it to NYC. kent was alright, another mostly college town. lots of rich kids, a semi-historic looking downtown. mc homeless, aka matt, set up the show and it was at his friend julie's house. about 15 people showed up or were car-pooled there. the kids around here are super on top of their leftiness, and though many looked like normal dames and dudes, many were hard core socialists or hard core anarchists, etc. ohio is another swing state this year, and we had a nice debate on the car ride to the venue over how important it might be to vote for kerry (over nader or another). i think very. tim started the show off and then i followed and then mc homeless through down some words acapella style. i am eager to hear what it sounds like with beats behind it, it was pretty good stuff. then this kid jeff played some songs on julies electric guitar and ended a short set with "a boy named sue." julie was then inspired to play a couple instrumentals and that was that. the plan was to go to Noah's apartment and cook some food before heading back to matt's dorm to crash. noah was in the middle of moving out of his apartment though due to some black rot issue and so we went to this other kids house and noah cooked up a fine vegan dish, we also went and got a vegan pizza on top of that at this pizza bar place and i hung out with the apartment dude and this girl he was trying to pick up on. got a shot of whiskey. got sick of transient associations again. played tool's "anema," sinatras "when i was 17" and princes "1999." on the juke box. tonight was thursday, a big party night, and there were tons of kids out and about and we drove by a lot of frat parties as well. after eating we headed back to matts kinda quick since we had to get up early to get a ride to the bus station. maria, jeffs girlfriend, was kind enough to give us a ride early into akron (10 miles away) so we could catch our bus. and here we are. i am looking forward to chicago tonight, i guess mostly because i know what to expect since it is a bar show and such. this last batch of gigs have been house show oriented and that is a lot more socially taxing than a bar, and a lot more unpredicitable. yesterday, when it was warm and rainy outside, the driver had the heat fucking cranked. it sucked with irony. all other days have been freezing on the bus due to too much AC being blasted. of course, i also dont have much to wear in the warmth department since i have left all my warm clothes elsewhere, including my sleeping bag. last night was the worst night of "sleep" yet. hard, cold floor. AC going.arm for a pillow, windbreaker for a blanket. the third week out is always the toughest for me. that is when i really start to miss everyone and when i get frazzled by the new city everyday transience. the fourth week, and hopefully in this case tonight, things begin to be homeward bound and it makes it much easier, plus you start to get into more familiar parts of the country. anyways...

back to jail. lots of dialogue throughout the night as frustrated detainees chimed in at the frustrated cops on the other side of the grate. for many, many hours only about 5-6 people were being moved along each hour. the funniest thing was probably the solidarity clapping and cheering that would take place when any of the female inmates, who were being detained in another big room like this, were brought into the medic area in our room. often times these cheers sounded like catcalls and it was kind of funny. we had sporadic phone access in this third cell finally. a cop would log in who wanted to make a call and then dial it for them and allow about 10 people every hour or so to make calls. i called the Legal Justice Center folks on a couple of occasions to try and get word on my one concern of having out of state warrants. i called tim as well, to give him an update on what had happened. about the only thing they told me was not to tell them that over the phone. many of the cops spent many consecutive hours passed out in the chairs outside the cells. just waiting like us to get there shit processed. i did not see my officer throughout the night at all. one time i awoke and saw a glimpse of him and figured he would be here for now and so i wanted a few minutes to call him over and see what our status was. he was gone for several hours before i saw him again. the cells were a cig smoke stained yellow. there were benches around the outside. the rooms were about 20 feet by 30 feet or so and there was at many times, more than 60 of us crowded in. it was nearly impossible for us all to even sit down anywhere and lucky were the ones who passed out length-wise on the floor first. early in the am, probably about 1 or so, things started to pick up a bit and more and more of us were being released to the next stage. everyone started to get increasingly anxious to be moved along. most people were able to see/chat with there officer to get an update. apparently the drama was that the officer had to go with all his detainees at once to booking and so it was a matter of finding the five people they arrested and getting their paper work all together. it was another two hours before i saw my office again. his named kept getting called while he was gone too, which meant that his papers were coming up if he was just there enough to get them. when we chatted he said he was a long ways away from getting everything together, so sit tight. he kept moving in and out, probably just as tired as me, he had been working since noon the day we got arrested. on two occasions i had to shout out his name so he could hear from the hallway that his papers were getting called. finally, at about 4am or so i was called out and handcuffed to a chain of four others. it was so nice to be able to move this freely. we were led to the fingerprinting area and i began to freak out here again about the whole prior record thing and being detained longer because of it. i had one bench warrant out for past court fines and another for an incident involving a BB gun and a non-moving vehicle in the spring time. they had the high-tech fingerprinting machines, no-ink, just laser-imaging and high-speed connection to a national database. after finger-printing they brought us to a smaller, yet more barred cell that put the prisoners on each of the long walls and had a middle cage for visitors, perhaps lawyers or family or whatever. on the other wall was a group of women who were at the same point in the process as us. some chats occurred about how everyone was doing and after a half hour we were called out again. it was no time for the mug shot. it was a longer walk to the basement to get the mug shot and apparently at this point we were entering the real realm of the corrections department. it was also here that we first came in contact with other arrestees and prisoners. while waiting in line the guard, older and pretty nice, spent 20 minutes scaring the shit out of us about how much we were gonna get messed with once we made it into a cell-block. i was pretty much shitting my pants, not so much from his dialogue, but just realizing i might be one of the few protesters to get left in the system for awhile. behind me was a kid who was in the same boat, as he had been arrested on friday for protesting and was released with a DAT (date to appear ticket) which gained him his release, for now, but prohibited him from returning without hard consequences. we were both pretty sure we would be there for another couple days and set loose with all the normal patrons (said to be murderers, rapists, psychos, etc). the CO's were pretty harsh and blunt, as they have to be, and they had a fun time with all us soft-skinned babies for the next 12 hours. got our mug taken, and then lined up to be brought into a cell block. after 20 minutes we were lead into the pistachio green cell block and all the familiar faces surrounded us. we were welcomed by the familiar cheers and claps. we had phones here in each cell and i called tim and the LJC folks again and again didn't learn anything. the CO's were really having fun with us, yelling at us excessively and being generally pissed off for having to deal with 1500 of us. after a few quick medical questions, we were moved across the hallway to another cell. it appeared that there were 12 of these small cells down the hallway, and the center of the passage way was the desks and working center for the CO's. another batch of sandwiches and fruit and milk was brought to us and one cell, in solidarity with the palestinian prison hunger strike apparently decided they were not gonna eat any food. apparently soy bologna exists and apparently we were offered it. some people tried it, but no one really believed it was veggie. apparently bloomberg had told the press that we were gonna be giving boca burgers in jail. that is funny on so many levels. a major thread of the dialogue between protesters and cops that week was that the cops were on our side, they had been fighting (and protesting) for a new contract and the protesters often reminded them of that with chants like "come join us" and many anti-bloomberg things. our whole cell block took to chanting, and randomly shouting fuck bush, fuck bloomberg. back in the yellow cells upstairs, there was this kid with a funny accent. when we were given cereal and milk to eat, he wanted more rice crispies, what he called in the funniest of accents "crispies." "can i get some more crispies" sounded hilarious enough, but when we all took to protesting chants he would often change the nouns in the chant to crispies, and we soon followed his lead. "what do we want? CRISPIES! when do we want them? NOW!" was some funny ass shit. anyways, a lot of chanting happened in the green cells and at times we had the upper hand. the CO's were not as easy to ignore us when singled out and yelled at and there were some heated shouting matches. i think what pissed the CO's off the most was the special treatment. everyone on their side, and our side, was completely blown away at how much off a failure the set-up to get us processed and through the system was. of course, this was the single largest amount of people arrested in one day for them ever, and we were part of the largest protest the streets of NY had ever seen. (or something close to that). that was a good feeling. so word came down from the CO's and through the telephone wires that lawsuits were being filed against the city to get us immediately released and that it was likely to succeed, apparently a lawsuit was also being filed against our treatment (both for the pier conditions and for the length of our jailtime). they are not supposed to keep you more than 24 hours without arraignment (though they claimed that normal inmates sometimes went days before it). i was never read my rights, though i think they didn't have to for some reason. anyways, this cell was the most cramped and the most uncomfortable and everyone was exhausted and trying to sleep, which didn't work to well. they started to call people out again and at a somewhat quick rate and, for the first time, i was one of the first half of people called. we were told we were being taken to see a legal advisor and then to see the judge. fuck yes (even though my hands began to sweat at this point over the warrants). we were brought to another cell in another part of the jail, these were beige and fit five of us. with me know was one of the protesters who actually got into the convention and made a spectacle in front of all of madison square garden (not during bush's speech of course he was not set to speak until the morning) throughout jail, it was kind of hinted that we were being detained so long to keep us off the streets. i dunno, it seemed like the system was just not set to handle all of us. i do know that many cops admitted that they would be cracking down exceptionally hard on thursday and they would have no tolerance for deviance. we were also threatened that if we were arrested again things would be a lot different. after 15 minutes there, my lawyer (i requested an LJC one) arrived. i immediately asked her about the warrants and she seemed to think it wouldn't come up, since they were trying hard to get everyone out now and plus she had apparently all the paper work the judge would have in front of her and she didn't see any mention of warrants. five minutes later, at 2:45pm, i was sitting off to the side in the air-conditioned courtroom watching the judge make 30 second decisions, all the same, all for conditional releases that as long as we didn't get in trouble in the next six months charges would be dropped, and two minutes later i was thanking my lawyer, thanking god after two hours of sweaty nervousness and walking out the courtroom a free man... -matt

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:: brs 2:24 AM [+] ::
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just left state college, PA and josh and renda. it was really great to see josh and this was my first time meeting renda, his fiance. she was awesome and cheerful and sincere and her positivity made me smile often. they make a great couple. i guess dairy products are big here and it was a must that we stop at Myers Dairy Farms front store to get a milkshake. i sat that one out because during our five hour layover in harrisburg, PA there were cheap frozen treats at the station store and i got myself a Banana Jamma (like a banana pudding pop covered with a layer of chocolate) and a Strawberry Shortcake Ice Cream treat... brenda had sent out an email to the kids in her grad department and we were set to play a show in her living room at 8pm. no one really cared if anyone showed up and we were hanging out eating burritos and listening to music. by 8:15 or so, 4 of their friends showed up. josh played a set of songs, though he was admittedly drunk and had only practiced for a bit earlier in the day. it was good to hear his music and his voice again. he writes such good songs. tim and josh did a couple MLB songs together, too. we were picking up free wireless from someone in the apartment building and i stayed up later uploading a lot of songs to myspace for some masa artists and watching the station agent and starsky and hutch and drinking more beers (sorry for drinking too many josh and brenda). i decided to go for a walk cause the weather was wet and autumnesque and once out the rains let loose and i got fucking soaked. fucking soaked. i actually had to strip the clothes off and wrench out all the water. i could have easily filled a pitcher with how saturated my clothes were. keeping with my tradition of leaving needed clothing and such behind, i symbolically (or for practicality sakes) disposed of the 2 dollar salvation army shoes i had purchased in NYC to demonstrate in.

the night before we were in binghamton, NY and played a house show at Phranks place. Phrank and Adam (who had set the show up) played an acoustic set of their songs (the band is called Nancy and i have been plastering their stickers everywhere since). it was good, acoustic punk and very assertive. also on the bill were two indie pop kids, Justin Clifford Rhody and Matty Pop Chart, they were from indiana and knew serene. i kind of have a bad taste in my mouth for that area and those circles right now because serene was so certain that some of those kids (via this message board so many people are on) would help me out with a show and no one every fucking even tried to point me in the right direction or help set a show up. justing seemed to know who i was when we introduced ourselves but kept quite about it. i dunno, in these DIY punk community environs, you have to really not like someone to not even try to help them come to your town/area, if you are of the sorts to set shows up and such, which tons of these people were. maybe some of it had to do with me not being able to help a few of them out when they came through bellingham, i dunno... i will have to talk to serene more about it... anyways, justin and matt both had cute tunes and voices, and pretty guitar playing. i realized that this toddler (or baritoned) voiced, mellow indie acoustic thing seems to be taking the nation by storm these days. so many kids doing it. so many thanksgivings and microphones and mirahs and blows. i think it is a good thing. what a mild punk revolution. huh... me and tim switched back and forth a bit but i don't think either of us was really comfortable. after a chunk of four of my songs tim decided people were probably bored with us and finished our set with one of his songs (abruptly at that, i think he might have played 3 songs to my 6). huh. we had to catch the greyhound that night and matt and justin, though stoned, were the soberest drivers to get us there. we also played with this band rookie from columbus, ohio and they were pretty good at the power pop punk bit. i could see them playing with axes of evil at the 3b nicely... the night ended with matt and justin begrudgingly accepting the rest of the roll of transparent duct tape i had left from NYC. damn, i wish i wouldn't have given it to them.

as far as our oneonta show. shit got fucked. we showed up at fine arts 212 (a classroom) around 6pm and wanted for vic/others to show up. no one did and by 7:30 (half hour past show time) we were exhausting our options of trying to get a hold of Vic. luckily we had wireless connection in the building so we could search on the computer for how to get a hold of him. we emailed him found a home number for him and called, found his AIM and buddied him (he was "away" for a long while). asked some of the musician students practicing about him they told us to search the school website for his campus number, so we did and called him and left messages. we decided to go to the student union building and there we got some food, watched good will hunting and used there computers there and kept trying to get a hold of him. we got kicked out at 11pm cause they closed and called a cab to take us to the all-night diner in town, and possibly to a motel. right before the cab came, we decided to go back to the fine arts building and try to hang out there all night (act like students practicing). it was unlocked and we set things up with our guitars to look like we were studying. btw, oneonta apparently has an excellent music industry program, though the university was the most elementary school looking college i had ever seen. i couldn't believe it was over 100 years old. once we got back to the building we set tims computer up and signed on to AIM, Vic was on and after about five minutes he replied to me and apologized and said he would come get us. we had been worried alot about where we were gonna be spending the night and it was nice to know that we would have a place now. the place was vics dorm room. we met his suite mates, got some pizza, drank some mountain dew and played Halo on their Game Cubes. seven of us were playing on two TVs. i got my assed kicked. vic was a nice kid, soft-spoken and well-mannered. i felt bad that only a few hours earlier i had been cursing him out and calling him Chumbley (the dude in menomenee who flaked on our show). i have yet to hear the cd of vics music that we got, but i am looking forward to it. its funny, and really cool, how many cds you get on tour of the artists you play with. good times....

vermont, upstate new york and pennsylvania are all beautiful with all their rolling hills and deciduous trees. too bad falls only last a few weeks out here. i am sure they are beautiful, none the less. the hills and rivers and trees get a little boring after awhile, or maybe the stuffy, drab greyhound is tainting our appreciation of the surroundings... i dont know...

okay. back to the RNC story, i guess. pier 57 is a place of big contention and a legal case now. the cops had announced only a week before (about the same time they were bragging they were gonna be able to handle 1000 arrests a day) that they had created a temporary detention center for protester arrests. well, actually, one article in the village voice, claimed the cops had plans to keep the pier open afterwards for such violent events as the US Open. huh. anyways, it was a huge old warehouse that had stored metro busses and seen them get fixed. as such the ground was black with oil and anti-freeze and other chemicals. apparently, when all the critical massers got arrested in friday, the ground was soaking wet as well. there is more legal issues with the floor, in that a lot of people were having respiratory problems and breaking out with rashes. (let me just disclaim here that i was frustrated a lot by how whiny and wimpy a lot of the people i was arrested with were). most of these folks were white and middle class, though some of the loudest were older and not white. people were bitching the whole time, rightfully so for the most part, but often it got old to hear so and so go on about the gross sandwiches again. mostly i thought it was disrespectful to those who live this prison-industrial complex on a daily basis, and to those who have been wrongfully or rightfully imprisoned for political and non-political causes. plus, we were getting special treatment, be it the extra food or water, or the extra patience the cops had with us). anyways, people were getting sick i guess form the unavoidable floor. they had created with tall, razor-topped chain link fencing a series of about ten fifty by fifty foot pens or so. there were benches inside that could hold about 15 people total. there was water available and a portapotty in each. there were enough people in each, though, that it was tough to find room for everybody to sit (on the grease-drenched floor), let alone for people to lay down. when we arrived, they checked in our clear garbage bag with all or belongings and we were sent to various pens. it took about an hour and a half to get through the line and eventually assigned a pen. i met 30-something Carmal McMahon from Ireland, who had lived in NYC for ten years and was going to NYU for english education work. non one really knew what to expect, there were rumors that we were to be arraigned and possibly released here. all throughout the two days, the cops responded to inquiries by playing confused, but being optimistic about how long it would take. this is a strategy they use to try and keep us calm and rulable throughout the process. they have a legal right to lie to us, though we cant lie to them. i spent the first four or five hours in my first pen with about 80 people or so who kept arriving and departing. every time, over the course of the two days, someone got their name called and advanced to the next detention, everyone would clap in solidarity. no one still, or would ever, really know what process and stage was next (despite however prepared, researched or experienced they were beforehand). once i was called out from the first pen, i was taken to a desk and me and my arresting officer and another cop went through my belongings and listed them. i got a receipt of all the cops had and was shipped to the next pen, even more crowded, though a bit larger and with mostly new people. things, at times, were unruly. protest chants occurred and every time a new busload of people arrived from later protests, the whole place would erupt in cheers. we spent till about 8am in this next pen. afterwards were moved to a very large pin and lined up in rows. this pen was larger than all the others put together, and some people had had the luxury of being kept in this one all night. word spread around that they were gonna bus us to corrections now. and they used a megaphone this time to call out the names. there never seemed to be any order to who and when one was chosen. beforehand, though, they tried to pass out sandwiches (bologna or cheese) to everyone, though a lot of people didn't get one. oh, and also, we were sex-seperated. boys in ones et of pens girls in the other. apparently they decided that all the boys were gonna be moved along first (perhaps becuase their was more of us, i dunno).... oh, i forgot, they also were taking polaroids. 3 were taking at the arrest site, three more once in line at the detention center. one of each was a picture of you and your arresting officer. one picture was attached to your bag of shit.... anyways, i was put on a jail bus with a whole new group of people and we were bussed to the corrections facility. the PD officers warned us that corrections is a whole new ball game and that the officers there were vicious and mean. about 10am we got off our bus and lined up alongside of it. we were being shouted at and such and the guards were definately meaner. the bus that came in behind us had chanted and cheered the whole way there and when the head of a five person team watching over us heard them come in, he told his boys to put on there riot gear, which they did. that dude was an asshole and looking to cause trouble. we were brought single file, handcuffed in a chain, upstairs to a floor with three holding cells. we were searched (for the 3-4th time) and loaded into first cell. i spent from 10am till 3am in two of these cells. people got stir crazy not everyone could lay down, or even sit down at once these cells were so crowded. there was a shitty toilet and a sink that barely worked. in the first cell we were made to wear our cuffs for about two hours and people increasingly complained about this. for the longest time the cops were not sympathetic, but finally they decided it wasnt cool to keep us cuffed when we were locked up. a lot of people had issues with their cuffs and i know several that were gonna go to a doctor to document it. again with the random name calling and we were moved to the third tank over. outside the tank, officers were busy with paper work, by late evening, all the officers had arrived back and were sitting around waiting to get the paper work for their arrestees... -matt

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:: brs 2:25 AM [+] ::
...

we are in albany today on a three hour layover before our first, and only, campus show. not sure how it will go, we are playing CUNY-Oneonta. we were in albany yesterday for a bit on our way to burlington, VT. which was a alright. i guess burlington is a sister city to bellingham. do they realize that it snows maybe twice a year in bellingham and that autumn usually lasts a few months at least? i don't think so. there is a huge lake (5th biggest in the world or something). it is called lake champlain. i am called lonely. i am having a hard time dealing with all this quick several hour at most relationships, "too lonely for these transparencies" is how i wrote it on my hand yesterday. "charming is amphibious," unrelated, lay next to it. i am listening to the lullaby, lullaby compilation that greg copied once again for me (since i lost the last one). this was one of the last albums that hit me hard in the Irving house. i miss them muchos i have postcards for them. i have no idea how anything in my life will be when i return. perhaps autumn this was probably the worst time of the year for me to leave for a month, as i wasn't doing well the months prior to leaving and am insanely upset at myself for how efficiently i push people away and out of my life. it has gotten bad. i haven't given my heart out in the open to anyone in years. fantastic. anyways, the radio bean in burlington was quaint and small. this dude mostly monkee was playing when we got there. turned out he had some early set time. we found out the show had to be done at 10pm and the fliers (listing four acts) said the show began at 9pm. carl, who helped with the show was nowhere to be found, neither was any audience greater than four heads, and me and tim decided to play the 8-9 hour, switching every three songs. carl and co, though unannounced to us, arrived and him and his posse (about 15 people) hung out outside until they went on. they didn't finish setting up until 9:20 and apparently weren't aware the show had to be done by 10pm. sean _____ opened up, these were all high school kids from Jericho (about 40 minutes outside of burlington), and played about 5 songs. than carl and co did about three songs, all pretty long and pretty two chord repetitive. both of them were goo dsongwriters though for being so young and it was really easy to sing melodies and harmonies along to their songs. we obviously couldn't stay at carls house and so we pestered the barista/bartender. there weren't really any all night diners or anything. we decided to go hang out at this club where a band called the aphrodesia (who were on a "just vote" tour and who also traveling in a huge bus that ran on 100% veggie-table oil. dope ass kids. they were from san fran and played african/worldly funk music, elaborate costumes and stage antics as well. i fucking loved them. a lot of demonstrating and protesting seems to be about confronting negativity's with communal positivity's and bright, cuture (like theatre, puppetry, costumes, music, etc) and it never occurred to me that the pinnacle in music for such revolutionizing is worldly funk music. so perfect for revolution. anyways... i wanted to talk to them after to see if they had gone to the RNCon, but tim wound up finding these two dudes whom we could stay with, they lived 10 minutes outside of town and we walked there with a cool lake breeze and half lazy moon. john and justin. not from burlington. college grads. dog named buckley. we had to leave at 5:30 am to get to the bus station on time. we took a nap at like 2:30am. nice.

syracuse was awesome. didn't get to see much of the town, liked i had wanted to (since my grandfather spent all my life there until coming to the NW to die). emily and her friends were all nice, beautiful people. i don't think syracuse lets ugly people live there. "the eaves" is their attic. and it is big. they did a nice job decorating it. they had a bar set up there. there house was amazing too. they were mostly industrial design majors. emily was a music industry major. they are thinking of moving to PDX. the whole set-up and such reminded me of the DOS in anacortes, right down to the amazing hospitality. we were the second show there. casiotone FTPA played the first with joel and emily and kats band the martha dumptruck massacre. CJ1 is playing in a few weeks. we played with tony presely and dan solomon. dan did spoken word, half comic and commentary, half set pieces. good stuff. charmingly political. tony played electric guitar and sang. he had only been doing both things at the same time for a month. they are on a 11 week tour and will be coming through bellingham in early october. i am tired. afterwards, we drank some more than made a trip to a foosball table. couldn't stay at that house so we went to another house and played atari and listened to nighthawks at the diner. i was sloshed. amazing i made it back to the eaves house without getting lost or passing out and i crashed on the second story porch. i had a hard time all night with the notion that i would be gone tomorrow and never see most these people again. this is where the loneliness started to hit hardcore. anyways... this bus is moving around too much... -matt

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:: brs 2:25 AM [+] ::
...

i'm at some school in oneonta, ny right now, i'm not even sure what school it is, but we're playing in what looks to be a classroom. i couldn't care less though, because there's wireless in here and the floors are tile and stuff and i'm a sucker for the reverb. last night we played in burlington, vt, to maybe two people or something, at least i know one of them was actually listening. we made two bucks. the night before we played in syracuse, i made bad jokes and felt stupid, but the eaves was rad.

here's some leftover pictures the past few days. -tim

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:: brs 2:21 AM [+] ::
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"oh me, what have i done..." serene covers a song with a chorus that begins with that line. i forgot whose song it is, but serene does it so beautifully. during our eight days in new york city, i had few songs stuck in my head. one line, "times square hit without warning" from some gibbard song that neither me or tim can figure out right now (i sang it to the melody in lowell, MA and subsequently, and fittingly for this weeks events, got "theres a look in the faces tonight thats untrustable as the hope that you'll never return in awhile, but your always on time..."). that last line was pretty much stuck in my head the whole week and felt right in NYC. where to start.... well, after an hour of pretentious, snotty gabbing from two 10-12 year old indian sisters behind us on the bus to syracuse, the unofficial first name for the second half of the tour has been named "Dammit, that sucks." (make your suck start loud and trail off into a lower keyed whisper for proper pronounciation). so yeah, i got arrested. i was one of 80 persons left as part of a solemn march from the WTC to madison square garden. we knew we would be stopped before then, and sure enough, the cops (though we were walking quietly in two by formation down the sidewalk) wouldn't let us past 28th and Broadway. it was tuesday night, the night of 1500 (police total) arrests and we laid down in the road wearing white, holding hands. NYC lifer Mary Round (44 years young) was on my right, and John Stewbridge (25 years old) from jacksonville, florida was on my left. i would see him in various pens and concreted rooms for the next 44 hours. but that is not the beginning of the story. i guess i will start with tuesday, the preset day of creative, non-violent direct action. i woke up late and missed both the direct action refresher "courses" (one at st marks at nine am and one at another church put on by the WRL at 11am). there were many things happening that day and i made a rough plan to go to union square to check in with how the day had gone so far, then travel to the fox news "shut up" protest at four pm, than travel down to union square again and see if the WRL solemn march was on time to pass by at 5:30 on their way from the WTC to madison square garden and also to see which of the two convergence points (NYPublic Library or Madisan Square Park) was better suited for a non-affiliated or affinitated solo protester to join up with people, then to travel to that location to make the massive trek to madison square garden. if things went all right i was going to travel to st marks afterwards for updates and then to the bowery cafe (open 24 hours a day that week as a santuary) and then possible call it a night, though i had arranged to be a part of the pink slip, unemployment line that was set to snake a single file line through miles of downtown manhattan. there were dozens and dozens of smaller actions planned for tuesday by various, small affinity groups aimed at disrupting the daytime and nighttime activities of the delegates and various RNC related entertainment and business plans. because i had not planned well enough before arriving, a problem i had all week was finding out about and trying to join up in such actions. these groups were designed to be small and enclosed, as to prevent infiltration and to keep actions efficient and more easily consensus-based. for the most part, i felt on the outside of a lot of the protesting and demonstrating, though i was in the thick of a lot of it. while in jail that changed, but i still wished i had planned ahead more and connected more with a/some groups before arriving. anyways. so i checked in at union square and already people were being arrested and the police, who up to this point had been pretty accommodating, had been cracking down pretty hard. at the WTC, the word came up that the solemn march had already been broken up and 100 people or so arrested. i had wanted to march with them from union square to madison square, but it looked like that was not gonna happen. murmurings abounded that any large group of people making their way towards the garden were gonna be confronted and stopped by the police. which was contrary to their reaction to both permitted and unpermitted actions earlier in the convention. so people were arranging to move in small groups and to converge later. i decided to head up to the fox news "shut up" shouting and their was a good crowd of people taking up the block of the sidewalk in front of the fox building, as well as the sidewalk across the street and some of the the other nearby sidewalks. my estimate was about 500 people or so. (i have not had a chance to read all the indy -and mainstream news- about the convention yet, i will try to and get back to this with their numbers and words... for now i want to try to get down my story their without losing it to time or to other takes on events). plenty of fun chants to be had, anti-o'reilly and anti-fox. the police decided to give us some of the street, a bit more than a NYC sidewalks width, but people were hesitant to be penned in with their little metal fences, and it took about 10 minutes for 4/5 of the crowd to move into and feel comfortable that it was not a concession for them to rally there. the other 1/5 remained on the sidewalk. the rules for the week were that you could stand on the sidewalk if you were up against the inside of the sidewalk and not blocking traffic. it didn't take long, especially in a few of the more colorful, smaller actions against delegates for the cops to decide (illegally) that no one could just stand on the sidewalk, you had to keep moving. we weren't to that point yet at the fox rally. one person was arrested, i could not see what for, but once she was put into the police van, it appeared that she was scantily clad, or possibly topless. i stayed yelling at the highrisers for about an hour and then decided to walk to the library, as i was told that would be an easier place to affilate with marchers for the night. i got there a half hour before the gathering was supposed to start. i am not sure if this one was a permitted rally, but the actions of the cops were as if it wasn't. it didn't take long for the crowd to swell to probably 500 and the geography of the front entrance was difficult. i will probably half to draw it out, but essentially there was a big main walk/stairway up to the entrance from the front and then two side stairways that fed into a small plaza about halfway to he front doors. the architecture was awesome. anyways, people took to the vaulted plaza area and there were many banners and a guy handing out dozen of flags. people were taking his flags and then taking to the steps to display them, it looked like there was gonna be a nice wall of banners and flags to look at and inspire before we headed to march on the garden. cops were awkwardly dispersed throughout the crowd and there was no set, us on this side them on that dynamic, which can be a recipe for disaster. on the sidewalk in front of the building and stairs the cops began antagonizing lingerers and telling people to move along, so i made my way up onto the plaza area. apparently someone had already been arrested for trying to hang a banner from the the stone pillars at the entrance. people were just mulling around and their was little organization to the crowd. out of no were, the cops surged into the crowd and attacked a kid (probably for "illegally" wearing a mask or something) and chaos broke out. more cops surged in to support the arresting cops and used their clubs to violently push people away from the kid, in a circle form. tons of boos and "shame" and "let him go" chants were had (the standard for isolated arrests like this). and the cops stayed on the plaza and begin pushing people, in a very unorganized and hostel way, away from the middle of the plaza. many people were being pushed and directed right into the clubs of cops coming from the otherway. eventually, after five minutes of this, the cops had cleared to people of the plateau of the plaza and everyone was pretty much caught between the plaza and the sidewalk, on the front stairs and the two side stairs. this efficiently isolated us into three different groups. the cops on the sidewalks stepped up there keep moving get away rhetoric and in five minutes the white shirts decided to cut of the middle section of the sidewalk, isolating the protesters even more. no one, even non-demonstrators could walk along the block now. a few more arrests had taken place in this scuffle and soon the group began to reorganize on the right side stairway and corner of the block. the geography hindered this effort again and the group was now probably down to 300 people. leading the group (keep in mind the most efficient and accepted form for these rallies is to have them be anonymous, group-led, non-individualistic efforts) was this shirtless, 29 year old blonde fellow with a megaphone (illegal) who had stumbled into my portion of the poor peoples march the night before and assumed control of leading the chants. i hated the fucker. he was alone and he never stopped with his loud noise and assumed power and never passed it off. i am pretty sure he was a cop. i had been the night before and was even more so now. anyways, after having to listen to his conducting (the crowd -which felt pretty inexperienced in general- for the most part was into it, possible just out of a "something is better than nothing/we just got fucked with and need some kind of order" way) for 15 minutes HE decided that it was time for the procession to the garden. people, in a very spread out/nonchalant/disorganized way started to make its way west on the sidewalk. after two nights of massive, tight processions through the streets of manhattan, this was not doing it for me. there was hardly any chanting or few signs and it was like i was walking down a normal sidewalk with the sole bonus of hippie-stank. i cut out at the first subway station we passed and decided to head to the madison square park location in hopes of meeting up with a larger march. i was depressed to come up out of the station and find a small group of many 50 people. i did bump into kris jorgenson from provo, though and it was nice to see him. i mulled around trying to overhear where everybody was and apparently across the city, various groups were being met with aggressive police resistance. the colorful parading at union square was getting attacked over the course of the hours, in harold square people were beginning to converge and the cop presence was as well. there were two "organizers" there and they were advising people to not travel in groups bigger then ten or so. they then launched into a quick training course on direct action and decided to walk up to harold square. cops and media were all over the city and most extremely on tuesday. just as a was getting ready to set out, the lady said that across the street a march was traveling by, but she advised us it was unpermitted. she was a wuss.

during her talk i chimed in asking about if she or anyone new the route of any of the marches heading to the garden and she didnt want to answer that. as if i was a cop, the crowd was happy she didnt either. i was out of the loop. i was getting really frustrated about all the sissyness and disunity that day which was heavily augmented by the fact that i was alone. on the one hand their was these people, not willing to front-line it, scared of the cops scared of pushing the limits. on the other side were the people i wanted to be affiliated with, small groups that got up at 7am to go piss off some delegates at a breakfast, anarchists that were shouting in the faces of delegate families as they came out from watching the lion king. these people were organized and ready to push the limits. some had been in the city for a month preparing, most were staying together at various hostels and squats around the city. regardless, i was not on eof them because i had not prepared to be one. thus, i found myself with a desire to take it to the next level, but unable to without breaking one of the first rules about such actions. that of having a small group, or at least a partner, around you.

the group across the street happened to be the white shirt wearing, quietly marching solemn WRLers that i had wanted to march with for a bit earlier in the day. i ran to join up with them and was excited that there route took them to harold square were the shit was going down. i quickly learned from them (at least the three people around me, since it was a double-file line) that they were not the ones that got mass arrested earlier near the WTC site, it was a different group (i think some critical mass kids and more colorful types). i found partner to march with. mary had been arrest twice before in marches (both in new york, the first in 82 or so in an anti-nuke march, the second in 99 when the cops shot a civilian (for got his name) and riots almost broke out). and was nervously excited, anxious about the cops response to us. the cops, in a walking bike line were guiding the march down broadway. we marched like that for about 15 minutes and in that time i learned that their plan was the plan of all groups. march as close to the garden as possible and then stop and rally. at 28th street, and in about ten seconds, we knew this was as far as it would go and we all took to the street and laid down. i was not to worried about the police response as there is a formula and game plan for both parties in these die-in situations. out of nowhere it seemed, and within 10 minutes time, there was a crowd of probably a couple hundred around us (i did not see any of them marching with or around us). they began chanting in solidarity and at one point chanted the bill of rights. there was way too many fucking cameras. it was annoying. and, of course, presspassers could walk freely in the street. everyone else was quickly pushed to the sidewalks and we were told that we would be arrested if we stayed there. we were on the ground there for a bit over an hours time. lots of chatting with mary and john and this other young woman. everyone was on there cell-phones calling home and friends to let them know they were to be arrested, even mary who laughed at the idea first, being that it was a die-in. the folks on the sidewalk were eventually pushed off of the block we laid in (probably to keep them mostly out of eye-sight of us, to reduce the amount of witnesses). there were a few scuffles on the corners but most of the people stayed for a bit, and about 50 saw us till we were on the busses. there were legal observers taking our names. by the time the cops got around, finally, to plastic cuffing us and packing us up and in and on the road, it had taken about 2 hours at least. we got to pier 57 around 10:30 or so. the cops were nice at the die-in, got our first hints of how much they were being overworked (some i met had worked upwards of 40 hours straight by the end of the fiasco).... -matt

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:: brs 2:27 AM [+] ::
...

matt got out earlier today. we're heading to boston tomorrow. the convention is over. bush is revered, kerry is "desperate," the race is too close to call. i got some great pictures though, which i'll put up soon. jason and i stood in times square watching this twenty-something kid stand around with a big W shirt on and a sign that said, "Bomb Iran Now" on one side and "W is my war president" on the other. -tim

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:: brs 2:21 AM [+] ::
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this is what matt was arrested for. i just talked to him and he sounded pretty tired but said they were giving them food and stuff and being treated pretty nice. i got his arrest number and he will hopefully see a judge this evening, since i hear that arraignments have been happening 24 hours (not stopping like 1 a.m. like previously noted) a day because it's been so swamped down there.

i called to cancel the show tonight and hung out outside of 100 centre street where central booking is. at 730, i finally got through to central booking and they hadn't gotten matt an arrest number yet, 24 hours after he'd been arrested. i called again around 1130 and finally got the number. it's a waiting game now. i'll know more tomorrow if he doesn't get out tonight.

if anyone is worried about me, don't be, save your good thoughts for matt.

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:: brs 2:20 AM [+] ::
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