lonesome dove.

madison, wisconsin seems to be one of a particular variety of cities in the u.s., like burlington vermont, austin tx, boulder co, eugene or, one of those types of great college towns with liberal thinkers and a generally youthful vibe. had some great indonesian food when we rolled in (with a full 2 hours before load-in – what an extravagance), then spent some time on the internet, a rare occurence on a tour that’s mostly van-centric.
the cardinal bar is slightly over 100 years old, great tiled flooring, wood paneling, and local “capitol” beer, delicious. apparently otis redding’s plane went down in a lake right outside this club, when he was on his way to a gig in madison sometime around 1967 or so. pretty intense. the cardinal has been host to many famous acts in its time. had a great show there, played a nice long set as zh and i were the only people on the bill, so that was some good fun. much love to kimmie and adam for coming out...
put star wars on the dvd player when we left madison later that night to get to chicago so we could sleep in and not have to drive the day of the chicago show, a plan which turned out to be pretty smart. once the movie was on it was about 15 minutes before i passed out, then we all rolled out of the car and crashed hard at zack’s friend dan’s place somewhere near the venue in chicago.
woke up around noonish, dan, our host, brought us to lunch/brunch at “hot spot,” a good diner. corned beef hash, mmmmmmmmm. bowled a couple games with our hours off, loaded into the elbo room, played a couple short early sets in a nice little venue, grabbed a late dinner at the golden somethingorother diner, now we’re back in the car and headed halfway to lawrence, kansas. just put on the 1st dvd of the lonesome dove miniseries that zack stole back from his father back in omaha. sweet.

crashed in a classic college apartment in iowa city, iowa, home of, i think, the university of iowa hawkeyes. the place was relatively trashed, cuz people had just finished up their last finals and were headed outta town. i hope. oh, and let’s not forget espn’s coverage of the u.s. open of martial arts (not to be confused with marital arts). lotsa tough dudes breaking things with their bare hands and feet, laying on beds of nails, flipping around in the air. that’s good clean fun.
back on the road to get to lawrence for another show with pomeroy, pride of the midwest rock scene. our schedule has entered a new phase, get up around noon, drive a few hours to the next city, play a show, eat late, drive halfway to the next place, crash. so our timing is off by about 5 or 6 hours from the rest of the civilized universe.

holy crap.
finished episode 2 (of 4 i think) of lonesome dove, only to find that somehow the 2nd dvd is missing. aaaaagggggggghhhhhGGGGGGGGHGHHHHHHHHAaaaaaaaaaa!!!!! what a drag. oh, and zack’s wallet is missing, too, so if you find it, let us know.

neck status: still not so good, though functional.
listening: the shins.
trip odometer: 4444.4