Driving, Driving,
Driving
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| Becky, Gen, Kristi, David on David and Becky's front porch |
We have arrived in
Pocatello, Idaho once again the home of Becky Hardy Van Hemert Kristi’s old
friend from the University of Idaho and her sorority sister. It was a long drive from Boulder, Co. The drive to Boulder was incredibly long. Amazingly it was February when we left
Tacoma, and now it is March. I guess
that’s the way things happen every year.
First you have February, then you have March and I suppose that all
things considered it will be April eventually and then May.
It is “super Tuesday”
today and the USA once again demonstrates how generally stupid it’s population
is. I don’t believe I said that, but
that’s the way it feels. I know better
than that, but really folks. There are
real problems to solve and you are choosing people who categorically will
refuse to solve them. They will tell you
that they are working on it, that they want to solve them but it’s too
difficult. All that will really be
missing is the will to solve the problems but the difficulty lies in the fact
that the human race may truly not survive having its’ head stuck in the sand,
or in this case some other dark place.
If you don’t know what I’m talking about I don’t have the space here to
explain.
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| Colorado Sunset |
It was over 800 miles
from St. Louis to Boulder. It was approximately
a 14 hour drive. I still wonder if
Kristi and I would have made the drive by ourselves. We only drove 4 out of the 14 hours. Gen drove the other 10. He is very stoic about it. I believe he even said that he kind of enjoys
driving, which is something that I could have said but I get sleepy these
days. I did make some long drives coming
out east. I drove from Spokane to
Missoula, but that was not nearly St. Louis to Boulder. There are not trees like we have in Western
Washington. You can see for miles, and
miles all the way. There were some
hills, but no real mountains. Even the mountains around Boulder are pretty
tame hills that are near. Of course
there are some big mountains off in the distance once you get there.
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| Colorado Wind Farm |
The drive across Missouri,
Kansas, and Colorado was telling. There
were way too many Christian billboards, and signs that were anti-abortion. There was just way too much right wing propaganda. It was pretty much all in your face and
downright offensive to anyone who would not agree with the opinions
expressed. We drove through a lot of
little towns that had a church steeple as its’ prominent visual feature. Just out of Kansas City there were a number
of housing developments in the middle of nowhere. I have thought for some time that these kinds
of housing developments are a mistake. I
think a lot of the houses are sold as “rural” living, but with a motif of urban
housing. People who move to such a
development will soon want strip malls and will continue to populate the empty
landscape while the urban environment, which has housing that has passed its’
expiration date and empty lots will continue to decay as populations flee to
populate an automobile driven illusion.
The drive on Monday
from Boulder to Pocatello was different.
For one thing we had 50 mph winds to drive through and soon after
crossing the border from Colorado into Wyoming we hit snow. The snow was windblown and not sticking on
the road. It was actually a little
scenic as there wasn’t enough of it to even obscure vision much. Very soon we were driving on highway that had
elevation of over 8000 feet.
We stayed with Gen’s
old family friends Idie and Tim. As
usual his friends are very interesting, thoughtful, kind and
conversational. I was truly exhausted by
the time we arrived. We played the night
before in St. Louis. I have a hard time
being sociable when exhausted. I simply
lack some social grace at those times and probably would do better if I simply went to my room
and didn’t try to be sociable. It was
truly strange to perform at 2 am in Kansas City and try to be credible when
really, really tired. I suppose that the
people who were listening to us were in similar condition.
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| Idie, Tim, and Gen in Boulder, CO |
I hope you all read the review that we got
from what is a new fan in St. Louis. It
was obvious that our high opinion of Gen Obata is also true in St. Louis. It was great fun to have everyone applauding
every time Gen played a solo. It was
just great to play for an audience that felt like we were meeting their high
expectations. It was a small theater and
the staff were very positive and gave us the feeling that we were stars, a
feeling that I very seldom feel on my own.
It was great to have a good sound guy mixing us although there was a
problem with a direct box and Gen’s mandolin got cut off in the 2nd
set. I found it incredibly easy to
ignore the audio problems, which is great for me. Once again I think that it’s Gen’s influence
in the band. I don’t always ignore the
audio, and I don’t trust anyone who is doing sound for me. I guess I have sound man PTSD. The sound guy was very credible, and the room
was not very large so he didn’t have a very difficult job as far as sound
goes. He actually had two direct boxes
that crapped out on him. I brought a
couple of direct boxes but have had no use for them so far. Had I
been prescient I would have had use for them that night. I did have them with me.
People asked me about
my songs on our break. It was great that
they were such a discerning audience.
Meanwhile . . . somewhere in Pocatello, Idaho we are mentally preparing
for our next journey to Cascade, Idaho.
We are in Cascade,
Idaho. We have been here since Wednesday
afternoon. There is a considerable
amount of snow on the ground here, but the weather has been good and it is all
old snow. This morning you can see that
it has been cold outside. The mornings
find all the outside water frozen and sparkles on ice crystals on the porch. By afternoon water is running off of the roof
and everything is in a state of intense thaw.
It actually was pretty warm by the time Kristi and I took an afternoon
walk yesterday.
The drive across
Wyoming was spectacular. The drive
across Idaho was pretty interesting as well.
There were snow capped peaks in the distance in both directions to our
left and right as we drove. Highways,
however, are highways and rushing
through a landscape, past the towns over the rivers and through the woods tends
to have the same effect. It seems unreal
in a certain respect. You get to your
destination and it’s all in your past.
All you did was sit in your seat in the car and look out the
window. It is the same experience with
different pictures. Gen and Kristi had
both been down these roads before. I
hadn’t so it was all new to me. Gen
pointed out the sign that led the way to a Japanese internment camp site. Kristi pointed out the mountains, gave me
elevations and names of the highest peaks.
I took bad pictures and nibbled on snacks.
We are all looking
forward to getting home. It has been a
long journey. I hope we have learned
some lessons along the way one of which is: we can do this. I will have to laugh in the face of anyone
who tells me that they are no good at the business of music unlike us. Our strength is not being good at it, but
taking the time and making the effort to do it at all. Maybe I’ll explain in greater detail later,
but suffice to say that doing the road seems to consume all of our efforts just
getting to a performance space and doing the nuts and bolts of that. What is really required is that you have your
promotional ducks in a line and get them all quacking or else you really are
not accomplishing what needs to be done.
Quack, quack.
Last night in Cascade we had a
pretty good crowd and I must say we made them pretty happy. We sold quite a few CDs given the size of the
audience. Tonight we are going to participate
in a community event which has the potential for either building our stock, or
tearing it down. At any rate we are
doing it for free. It will be “Valley
Home Companion”, a takeoff on “A Prairie Home Companion” with local people
putting on a performance. We will play
at the intro, the intermission, and at least one place in the show as
well. I will be soooo happy to have this
behind me and even happier to be on the road back to Tacoma tomorrow.
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