Terror Alert raised to Rock!
here's the link to stacie's alternate tour blog www.myspace.com/staciethrushman
Day 9
New York City to New Hope, PA
We left Travis in the city last nite. We did it on purpose, though. Both cars, once loaded up, were surely to not park upon the NYC streets twice in the same night. So, Stacie, Jake, and I left for the hotel, while Travis stayed with the Oh No group to collect our money.
The place had absoutely no one in charge when it came to the show, so Travis had to keep checking in to make sure we got paid. Evidently, each time he went back, it looked less and less likely that we'd get anything at all, but we ended up getting paid well. (think I already wrote about this).
So, basically, we had to go into the city from Newark to get Travis. I've never slept so comfortably in a hotel as I did the previous night. After a hotel shuttle and a train ride to the city, we arrived with about an hour and a half to "sight-see." By the time Travis made it into town (his subway got stuck), we had about 20 minutes until we had to leave back for Newark. We took our one touristy photo under the Empire State Building, grabbed a slice of not-so authentic NYC pizza, and headed back to Penn Station. Upon arrival, we realized that the next train didn't leave for almost an hour!! It seemed like we'd never get out of this damn city.
Finally, the train was departing, and we all ran for the gate. I realized that I lost my ticket somehow and was freaking out. I miraculously ended up finding it by tracing my steps back from the gate to where we were sitting. It was right there laying on the ground.
On to Pennsylvania. Today was by far the nicest drive we've made yet. Parts of New Jersey are actually quite scenic, and the portion just before we got to PA near the Delaware river was just beautiful.
New Hope is a little art community right on the PA side of the Delaware that was extremely charming. It looked like St. Augustine or Key West, but without all the crap T shirt shops and dildo stores. The venue was this tiny little place with an extremely low roof (what's up wtih this damn theme?). It had a huge wooden door that rolled away to let people in the venue side, which was extremely intimate. The stage was situated in such a way that tables and benches surrounded it and there was very little standing room. It was almost like a dinner show. They had a bunch of old flyers of obscure folky acts that had played there between 1988 and 1992, but nothing after that. The most notable names were Louden Wainwright and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, but other than that, no one has heard of these people.
The whole show was my favorite so far, we played well, the room was full and the crowd responded really well. We couldnt' use our strobes b/c one of the bartenders was epileptic. That was a first for us. I'm glad someone told us before it was too late.
We played with an old college friend of mine (Mike Wexler) and his band "Mike Pfeiffer and the Associates." They were really good, but played for 3 solid hours after us!!! My god, what a marathon set. It was a really all around good night. Very laid back town/venue, responsive crowd, just what we needed after NYC. We got some PA native Yuengling, which was even more delicious than usual.
After the show, our caravan split 3 different ways, with Stacie and I going to Wexler's house about 35 minutes away. We didn't go to bed until 4:30 and his damn cat was the craziest, most annoying thing in the world. It wouldn't let us sleep. If the door was closed, it would claw and scratch at it until I opened it, but then when it came in, it would mess with our clothes on the ground or sit on top of us and bite us.
Day 10
New Hope, PA to Arlington, VA
Decent drive into DC. We headed straight for Arlington, as we were planning on spending Monday in DC.
The venue was in a newly re-developed area of Arlington called Clarendon. Evidently, this is where all the white people live. They had a whole foods and a mac store and a Cheesecake Factory, and everything else that wealthy white people love. It was very clean but had little original charm. The venue was a really cool place that has actually been around for years, long before the gentrification of the area. They had great beers on tap and a great overall vibe. We met up with another set of old friends (Mike Verille from my old band Monroe Lee, and two of our dad's friends - Chris Malin [former co-worker] and Andrew Preziosi [who my dad went to high school with]).
The venue was really intimate and the show went over really well. Jake even tried his hand at the wise-cracks, since he could be heard w/o a microphone. Since this was the last night of the 6 show run, we all felt a little like celebrating and ended up drinking a bit too much. Stacie and I woke up with terrible hangovers (which I think I still have 2 days later).
Day 11
Exploring Washington DC
A well deserved day off, but it was hardly a rest. We took the train from Arlington to DC to spend the day walking around. The DC subway system is amazingly clean. I think one could sum the whole transit system up by noting that the subway cars are carpeted. This takes some serious gall. We saw the Watergate building, the memorials, white house, capital, supreme court, supreme food court, etc etc. It was a mega-day of photo ops. Walking many miles on a hot day from noon till 5:30 while being very hungover is not fun in any way, but I'm glad we did it.
This day in the city was a very different experience than Thursday. We were directly interwtined with the true nature of DC. You could taste the politics in the air. Also, the central part of town is like a police state complete with cops, soldiers, barricades, fences, and security checkpoints everywhere. Jake accidentally raised the terror alert to Chartreuse by putting our camera bag down on the ground for a second while he took a picture of us in front of the Supreme Court. The two cops out front quickly approached and yelled at him I mean, I guess that's what you want in an anti-terror police force, but it was still a bit weird. Also, a side gate to the white house was opening to let a car out, and all these armored guards came out to watch it as it closed. I was fairly certain they wouldn't find it funny if I yelled "NOW" when the gate opened. In fact, I was fairly certain they would shoot me.
I guess they get constant, legitimate security threats (it is the Capital), so they have to be a bunch of hard asses all the time. Our friend Mike works in the building right next to the White House and he was telling us a story about how a plastic CVS bag blew onto the White House lawn one day and the police had the bomb robot out to investigate it. When you think bomb robot, you probably think of a high-tech remote control gadget that can detect bombs in some sophisticated manner. Wrong. He told us it rolled up to the bag and just started poking it repeatedly with a long metal rod. Then, it picked the bag up and dropped it a few times. Pretty brilliant.
Evidently Bono was in our friend Mike's office building today also. We all envisioned him walking around the halls going "ooo oooooh ahhhh haaaaa" (think vocal ad-lib at the end of One) all day long.
Stacie spent the day with her friend Olivia and we all met up around 6:30 at an Irish Pub in Chinatown (!) to eat and play trivia with her parents, Mike and Sam (friend from Tally). Our team was unstoppable. Except for when we had to stop so we could leave town.
We decided to stay south of Richmond, VA tonight so as to reduce future driving days (Richmond is 160 miles south of DC), but the drive was a real pain in the ass and we didnt' get into the hotel until about 1:30. Exhaustion has clearly set in, mostly b/c of the drinking and long walk around town. It's very nice to have a few days off in a row.
Day 9
New York City to New Hope, PA
We left Travis in the city last nite. We did it on purpose, though. Both cars, once loaded up, were surely to not park upon the NYC streets twice in the same night. So, Stacie, Jake, and I left for the hotel, while Travis stayed with the Oh No group to collect our money.
The place had absoutely no one in charge when it came to the show, so Travis had to keep checking in to make sure we got paid. Evidently, each time he went back, it looked less and less likely that we'd get anything at all, but we ended up getting paid well. (think I already wrote about this).
So, basically, we had to go into the city from Newark to get Travis. I've never slept so comfortably in a hotel as I did the previous night. After a hotel shuttle and a train ride to the city, we arrived with about an hour and a half to "sight-see." By the time Travis made it into town (his subway got stuck), we had about 20 minutes until we had to leave back for Newark. We took our one touristy photo under the Empire State Building, grabbed a slice of not-so authentic NYC pizza, and headed back to Penn Station. Upon arrival, we realized that the next train didn't leave for almost an hour!! It seemed like we'd never get out of this damn city.
Finally, the train was departing, and we all ran for the gate. I realized that I lost my ticket somehow and was freaking out. I miraculously ended up finding it by tracing my steps back from the gate to where we were sitting. It was right there laying on the ground.
On to Pennsylvania. Today was by far the nicest drive we've made yet. Parts of New Jersey are actually quite scenic, and the portion just before we got to PA near the Delaware river was just beautiful.
New Hope is a little art community right on the PA side of the Delaware that was extremely charming. It looked like St. Augustine or Key West, but without all the crap T shirt shops and dildo stores. The venue was this tiny little place with an extremely low roof (what's up wtih this damn theme?). It had a huge wooden door that rolled away to let people in the venue side, which was extremely intimate. The stage was situated in such a way that tables and benches surrounded it and there was very little standing room. It was almost like a dinner show. They had a bunch of old flyers of obscure folky acts that had played there between 1988 and 1992, but nothing after that. The most notable names were Louden Wainwright and the Dirty Dozen Brass Band, but other than that, no one has heard of these people.
The whole show was my favorite so far, we played well, the room was full and the crowd responded really well. We couldnt' use our strobes b/c one of the bartenders was epileptic. That was a first for us. I'm glad someone told us before it was too late.
We played with an old college friend of mine (Mike Wexler) and his band "Mike Pfeiffer and the Associates." They were really good, but played for 3 solid hours after us!!! My god, what a marathon set. It was a really all around good night. Very laid back town/venue, responsive crowd, just what we needed after NYC. We got some PA native Yuengling, which was even more delicious than usual.
After the show, our caravan split 3 different ways, with Stacie and I going to Wexler's house about 35 minutes away. We didn't go to bed until 4:30 and his damn cat was the craziest, most annoying thing in the world. It wouldn't let us sleep. If the door was closed, it would claw and scratch at it until I opened it, but then when it came in, it would mess with our clothes on the ground or sit on top of us and bite us.
Day 10
New Hope, PA to Arlington, VA
Decent drive into DC. We headed straight for Arlington, as we were planning on spending Monday in DC.
The venue was in a newly re-developed area of Arlington called Clarendon. Evidently, this is where all the white people live. They had a whole foods and a mac store and a Cheesecake Factory, and everything else that wealthy white people love. It was very clean but had little original charm. The venue was a really cool place that has actually been around for years, long before the gentrification of the area. They had great beers on tap and a great overall vibe. We met up with another set of old friends (Mike Verille from my old band Monroe Lee, and two of our dad's friends - Chris Malin [former co-worker] and Andrew Preziosi [who my dad went to high school with]).
The venue was really intimate and the show went over really well. Jake even tried his hand at the wise-cracks, since he could be heard w/o a microphone. Since this was the last night of the 6 show run, we all felt a little like celebrating and ended up drinking a bit too much. Stacie and I woke up with terrible hangovers (which I think I still have 2 days later).
Day 11
Exploring Washington DC
A well deserved day off, but it was hardly a rest. We took the train from Arlington to DC to spend the day walking around. The DC subway system is amazingly clean. I think one could sum the whole transit system up by noting that the subway cars are carpeted. This takes some serious gall. We saw the Watergate building, the memorials, white house, capital, supreme court, supreme food court, etc etc. It was a mega-day of photo ops. Walking many miles on a hot day from noon till 5:30 while being very hungover is not fun in any way, but I'm glad we did it.
This day in the city was a very different experience than Thursday. We were directly interwtined with the true nature of DC. You could taste the politics in the air. Also, the central part of town is like a police state complete with cops, soldiers, barricades, fences, and security checkpoints everywhere. Jake accidentally raised the terror alert to Chartreuse by putting our camera bag down on the ground for a second while he took a picture of us in front of the Supreme Court. The two cops out front quickly approached and yelled at him I mean, I guess that's what you want in an anti-terror police force, but it was still a bit weird. Also, a side gate to the white house was opening to let a car out, and all these armored guards came out to watch it as it closed. I was fairly certain they wouldn't find it funny if I yelled "NOW" when the gate opened. In fact, I was fairly certain they would shoot me.
I guess they get constant, legitimate security threats (it is the Capital), so they have to be a bunch of hard asses all the time. Our friend Mike works in the building right next to the White House and he was telling us a story about how a plastic CVS bag blew onto the White House lawn one day and the police had the bomb robot out to investigate it. When you think bomb robot, you probably think of a high-tech remote control gadget that can detect bombs in some sophisticated manner. Wrong. He told us it rolled up to the bag and just started poking it repeatedly with a long metal rod. Then, it picked the bag up and dropped it a few times. Pretty brilliant.
Evidently Bono was in our friend Mike's office building today also. We all envisioned him walking around the halls going "ooo oooooh ahhhh haaaaa" (think vocal ad-lib at the end of One) all day long.
Stacie spent the day with her friend Olivia and we all met up around 6:30 at an Irish Pub in Chinatown (!) to eat and play trivia with her parents, Mike and Sam (friend from Tally). Our team was unstoppable. Except for when we had to stop so we could leave town.
We decided to stay south of Richmond, VA tonight so as to reduce future driving days (Richmond is 160 miles south of DC), but the drive was a real pain in the ass and we didnt' get into the hotel until about 1:30. Exhaustion has clearly set in, mostly b/c of the drinking and long walk around town. It's very nice to have a few days off in a row.