Day : On the road again
Having strolled its lush grounds, considered its expansive art collection and lingered over its American coffee, we finally had to say goodbye to room 221 and the Alexandria Quality Inn. It's been our home for four days now, a luxury to be in the same place for so long.
We discovered a couple of days ago that it is directly behind Mount Vernon (well, not DIRECTLY, but close enough that Daron got to George Washington's Grist Mill on foot. If you're like me, you're like "what's Grist?").
We stopped by Jammin' Java one more time on our way out of town to catch Rocknoceros and try to sneak out with a couple of records from the green room.
No dice on either account: we were met at the door with this sign! Daron went inside to settle up with them from our show on Sunday and meanwhile, three or four pairs of moms and daughters approached the doors to be turned away. One particular three year old couldn't bear the idea of not seeing Rocknoceros and actually clawed at the concrete screaming "LET ME IN!!! I WANT TO SEE THE BAND!!!"
Turns out kids' bands' audiences are actually just like the Beatles'. (That's a lot of apostophes in a single sentence).
Big props to Rocknoceros for cultivating such a devoted following here in Vienna. We were really impressed. Though we wanted to come in, listen and meet them, this sneaky picture was the best that we could do... that's them, between the hanging pendant lamp and the stack of espresso cups.
Now, I know what you're thinking, "they're a lot smaller that I thought they'd be!"
Us too- it really was amazing. You can actually pick them up in your hand- very cute! | 
We've got to take a second now, after acknowledging that the band is really full size, that Rocknoceros wins the album title of the decade award:
"Dark Side of the Moonbounce"
BRILLIANT!!!
They're really, really fun. |
 | Sooo, we hit the road for Chattanooga (but we're going to call it "Chattanoogey" from here on out) and found ourselves achieving a SERIOUSLY depressing milestone: we have now filled up 30 times. Check out our high-tech accounting method at left.
Lucky for us, Discover Card has a 5% cashback bonus for gas this month. Unlucky for us, it doesn't do much to mitigate the mortgage that we had to put on the "Can You Build a Bridge" Bridge in order to afford this trip.
(Editor's Note- the mortgage wasn't taken out on the actual Bridge in Monkey Town- it was taken out on the Bridge of the song itself, "Can You Build a Bridge." If you listen to that song now, even if you bought the album before, there's now a clearly audible Bank of America logo).
(Editor's note to the Editor's note: there actually ISN'T a bridge in that song! PSYCH! But there is an awfully nice footpath leading from verse one to verse two.)
(This joke by Drew Holloway.) |
We're teachers, you know, and we want to pass on a few things that we've learned out here on the Tabby Road. Maybe you're in a kids' band, or any band for that matter, and want to know- how did we do it? With apologies to Dear Abby, here are a few humble suggestions from our very own hand puppet band manager. We're calling it...
Dear MayMo,
My bandmate volunteered to do the laundry, but took the clothes out of the dryer before they were dry! What do I do?
Respectfully,
Damp in Duluth
Dear Damp,
Sounds like you're in a sticky situation! First, I'd dock that band member's per diems. Then, I'd spread the clothes out on top of the musical equipment in the trailer. Sure, it may look like a crime scene, but your clothes will be dry and bonus: HIGHWAY SCENTED!
Luck in Laundry,
Mayor Monkey
Recess Monkey's Band Manager
You're nuts if you think this isn't a recurring segment of our blog. Next up, how to deal with being the only one on tour without an iPhone.
| "Dear MayMo,"
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It was by about Roanoke VA that we found ourselves in the middle of calvalcade of reasons to first observe oddities, then second ask "what's the deal with that?" Like a road tripping episode of Seinfeld.
This could be the new band identifier game- kind of like which Beatle are you, which SEINFELD CHARACTER are you like? We talked it over and agreed that:
Jack=Jerry
Drew=George
Daron=Elaine
Mayor Monkey=Kramer
Even more complicated, which Beatle is like which Seinfeld character? This is complicated because both groups have a George, and we're pretty sure Ringo's middle name is Elaine.
After much delibration, here's where we arrived:
John=George
Paul=Jerry
George=Elaine
Ringo=Kramer
Call it celebrity mash up, we're pretty sure this game is going to spread across the country like Six Degrees of Kevin Bacon. You can do it with anyone! Check it out: Which character from Small Wonder is like which character from Mr. Belvedere!?
Okay, at any rate, here are the Seinfeld moments (at right) in order: |  Do we still have a problem with people not wearing shirts and shoes in restaurants? What's the deal???
 Would you really put a face on a tree? Do trees really need help being picturesque?
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And now, a few more miscellaneous pictures from today, in no particular order. This could be categorized under "having a camera and twelve hours on the road isn't necessarily blog-worthy." If you hadn't already put it together, today's Blog, much like Seinfeld, is about nothing. We've been on the road all day. No gigs, no radio.
Road.
Jack took three separate naps. At any rate, here are some weird things we saw today:
Jeff Tweedy was working the Squishy machine:
The band almost broke up because we couldn't decide if we were nearing the end of Virginia or getting close to the beginning of Tennessee. Big props if you get this joke.
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Watch out! Those junk bikes will bite if you get too close!
Drew, providing the soundtrack of the Tennessee leg of our trip:
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And finally, a little meta-blogging. That's right, it's a picture of this blog as it's being written on the road.
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And, as if that weren't already overkill, here's a photo of the blog about the photo of blog about the blog being written on the road. DING DING DING!!!
If we go any further, our heads will explode. Tomorrow, we're going to be on TV with Dave Loftin, FOX we believe. No word whether Bill O'Reilly will be in attendance but we really, really hope he isn't. Then we're trucking to Atlanta for a library show.
It's so cool that we get to do this. Thanks to everyone who has helped us get this far on the trip. Almost forget to mention: today's exbition was fueled by Ces Brunow and the amazing vegan Chinese food from Vienna's Sunflower Restaurant. Thanks, Ces!PREVIOUS || NEXT |
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