Day  : Phoenix, AZ
About 50 miles outside of Phoenix, this is a very, very good sign. Like our Tabby Road trip has arrived at the actual place. The unintentional skewing of a camera error only makes it sweeter! Rubber Soul!?
My friends, welcome to Arizona, home of John McCain. My friends, in honor of being in McCain's turf, we're committing to inserting the words "my friends" into every sentence in this portion of our blog.
Stefan, king of Zooglobble.com and our host, was quick to assert that, ironically my friends, this isn't McCain country, despite it being his home state. The "9-11, KEEP YOUR EYE ON THE PRIZE" billboard we just passed makes us wonder about that but, my friends, we'll take Stefan's word for it.
At right, friends, is a not very flattering picture of the good Senator, but we thought it accurately depicted how we're feeling at this point in the trip. Let's just say our car doesn't smell very good today.
McCain devotees should at least give us credit for not using this smaller, grizzlier picture instead. Is there any way that this is a real photograph?
Our guts say no but our hearts say yes.
Which is it- guts or hearts? |
 |
|  |
 | The iPhone has totally defined this trip, for better and for worse. For better, I think we're right on the verge of convincing Daron to get one of his own, even though Drew promises to stop making fun of Daron's flip phone when we get back to native soil.
Far, far worse are the iPhone Apps that Steve Jobs and friends are letting through the cracks. Many backseat hours allow ample time to review them all and, while Phone Saber and More Cowbell are two gems (the latter even made a guest appearance on our Spare the Rock set yesterday morning!), there are a lot of wasted bits and bytes here.
Case in point, this application called "Editer." Moving right past the fact that a program that ostensibly took many, many hours to develop was allowed to go live with the name "EDITER," (are you KIDDING?), the sole purpose of this application appears to be to put a mustache, goatee, cigar and chef's hat on a photograph of Jack in a Best Western elevator. The wierd thing is you HAVE to use all four things, regardless of the picture.
Still, we had the surreal moment in Alabama of watching a YouTube video that Gwyneth had uploaded, from a show less than two hours historic in Decatur. Really, really crazy that this is even possible. |
The break into Arizona was pretty epic- tons of precariously perched boulders straight out of a George Lucas CGI movie. Dust storms are whipping up the fields on either side of Interstate 10.
We heard that Phoenix was in the middle of a heat wave, high heat weather advisories being handed out like ice packs on the Labyrinth playground, but when Jack said something about the heat at the show today the people were like, "No, this is normal for here." They'll tell you it's a dry heat; what they won't tell you is you won't be able to get your t-shirt to unstick from your back. |  |
 | But we're getting ahead of ourselves. We rolled into Phoenix at precisely 1pm and headed to a coffee shop that Stefan Shepherd from Zooglobble.com suggested near the club. Stefan rolled in a few minutes later and joined us at an outside table bathed with mist and iced Americanos.
It's a dry heat.
What happened next was the best thing yet on tour- we got to follow Stefan to the show, in a MOTORCADE! Sure, sure, it may not technically be a motorcade with only two cars, but we felt pretty important riding in a caravan with Stefan. It was like the motorcade following the president! |
We played Modified Arts, a funky little club in Phoenix, with worn down floorboards and a well-loved stage. Really, really, REALLY hot- we were impressed that kids were able to dance during Down Down Down and Boogie Monster. Daron said that the air conditioning was running during the set, but that was the heat stroke shock talking. This is not a Seattle summer.
That's us with Stefan, a rare sighting in the flesh of the most influential kids' music authority in the country. It was a total honor to get to play in his 'hood.
| 
What you can't see is the sweat. It was all-encompassing, a small ocean. |
 | Huge thanks to Stefan for being our inside man in Phoenix and for all of the support he's given us these last two years. It was a year ago this week that we met him face to face the first time when he sat in on the end of our Wonderstuff summer camps. Stefan (and family), THANK YOU! The kids' music scene is lucky to have such a tireless advocate and fan. If you haven't visited Zooglobble.com you should do so now! There are so many kids' band doing great, great things and Dr. Shepherd has his finger on their various pulses...
In other news,
"OH YEAH!!! IN-N-OUT BURGER!!!" Jack exclaimed as we rolled out of Phoenix.
Drew thought Jack was trying to pull a fast one when he suggested ordering his Double Double "Aminal Style," one of many learned off-the-menu options there. What resulted was a burger that Drew elevated to the second best burger that he'd ever tasted. Kind of like the Pennsylvania of burgers. Right behind Delaware.
|
 | As we're typing these words, miles of scrub and crazy dive-bombing birds are passing by on our way across the desert toward Los Angeles. Jack really wants to spend the night in Victorville CA, which holds the honor of having the world's largest outdoor thermometer.
Meanwhile, we've been reading a copy of the offical Jimmy Carter Innaguration book that Drew got free with purchase at the Jimmy Carter Museum. So much optimism for our country back in 1976... almost as if he were his generation's Obama.
Jimmy Carter, you have just provided this band's new slogan whilst on the remainder of this tour. |
|
