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Listen to: World is Round by SHARKPACT

tour/house/work

i feel like i haven't had a moment to breathe in two weeks. not in a bad way though. i got back from tour (i flew from long beach, hehe, cuz i had to work) and immediately worked for basically four days straight. and now i'm free to do anything but i'm still winding down drinking too much coffee at a cafe sweating a little.

tour was great. some sort of problem arose at each show but we embraced the chaos that is punk and we fixed the car when it broke and we slept outside and swam in rivers and got sentimental seeing old friends. my brief "tour diary":

Day 1: we depart from Scowling at noon, on time but still late. last night's kickoff show was the best i could ask for. SLOUCH was better than ever. RIPE MANGOS was therapuetic in the best way. we had a very exciting set, sold through the merch we set aside from portland. sharkpact was amazing. "its the people not the place." jeff interviewed us for his zine. TIG BITTY and the dance party were rad. everyone was so sweet and appropriately sentimental (it was scowl's last show). i ate moldy hummus. this morning i scrambled and moved the rest of my stuff to the new house, threw a pack together and we're headed to arcata.

played a well attended house show in arcate with a grindcore band called GOUT. i kicked through the bass drum (oops) but someone loaned us one. RCA in oakland started two hours late and was a hot mess (hehe, get it?). some dude kept yelling at everyone for not moshing and we kept unplugging everything, as it was all plugged into a single power cord in the ceiling. it was fun though. SCULLY and WATERCOLOR PAINTINGS were great. and it was so good to spend time with mikaela, chloe, inessa, and others.

santa cruz was like we never left, though everyone lives in a new house (and they don't even let woodsies sleep over!). we played subrosa to all our dear friends and i felt super mushy and expressed it in unfunny stage banter. LOOMS (my fave band featuring 1/3 of my band) reunited. TRY THE PIE was amazing (a perfect ender) and our ex housemates' new band BARE BONES blew me away. subrosa is the best. next morning we went to the river and rope swing-ed and jake stole a $26 smoked salmon and we made a greasy breakfast. OG jen said "i don't understand why bands don't book tour shows a few days apart" and when it comes to magical santa cruz i think she has a point. driving south now to SLO. it i hot and dry and i'm reading teen fiction.

arrived at 2007 house to a gaggle of punks pre-partying in the backyard. played a chaotic set with a tiny PA. the drumset got knocked over nearly every song (in a good way) and my little sister was there! LOKO ONO (weirdo queer punk from santa maria?) was so rad. tons of fun. after the show some younger folks had a blackbird raum dance party in the living room so aug and i slept in the yard. it was nice until the sun came up. in the morning we got a bite and drank and coffee and drove to pismo beach where we assessed a weird noise. had to replace bearings and hangout in nowhere-ville while we waited for a part. we left at the very last possible second to get to our long beach show, dropped off shea in santa barbara and she packed us a lunch.

we made it to long beach just in time for the first band. the show was fine, our first bar show ever. the sound guy was a dick. sound guys are whatever though; some old friends came out and it was so good to see them. then we slept at lauren's house and tour is over.

upon returning to work, i had two notes in my mailbox. one was a goodbye letter from a client, a rebel, face-pierced 16-year-old (that of course reminds me of all my friends in high school). it says that its "not just the tattoos, or the hair, or the music" that makes me rad but that its my spirit. (aww). the other was from an old man co-worker telling me a client from a year ago stopped by to see me and wanted to tell me that what i talked about with him and other clients proved to be great wisdom, and was helpful in some situations. all i can remember talking about with him was finding something worthy of rebelling against (rather than against staff like me) so he's probably in black bloc somewhere right now undermining the patriarchy. i remember that kid was struggling with the shit of the world and some gang life stuff so i hope he is killin' it now. then i went to work and we picked up a ton of donations (books, art supplies) that i solicited with erica, and we played vintage arcade games with a gift card we got and we rented catching fire and watched it because it rained. catching fire (the movie) is so beloved because it really captures the banality of news or reality tv ("what's the difference"?) and feels like it could take place tomorrow. divergent (the book) is such a page turner but lacks that intimate connection with contemporary life. i haven't seen the movie yet. why am i so into teen fiction? DIVERGENT was my "on tour" book. lots of other things happened at work but i'm getting hungry.

Today, my entire old house is almost moved into a new house with a new slumlord, this one more of a windnut and less standoffish. everything is broke and already smells weird but he wants a cleaning deposit. the gas vent is already broken (naturally). carolyn almost moved into a bathroom (there's three! scowl house has one!) but it proved to be more attractive on paper. the house is less central than our old one. beside it is a giant lot (nearly a park!) that isn't ours but landlord says nobody has used it for a decade and we can squat it. our giant detached garage facing a main street (lombard) would be a perfect infoshop but landlord keeps a lifetime of trash in it. there are 8 livable spaces plus the trailer. a block east is a 24 hour taqueria and a block west is a bear bar. two coffee shops nearby, one a $3.50-a-cup kinda fancy spot and the other an instant coffee cheapo spot. i think i'll prefer the latter usually. april was a hard month for nearly everyone i know. i think the move will be a nice fresh start for all of us.