Day : Vienna, VA
Welcome to the latest episode of "Leave it to MayMo!" On today's episode, we treat you to the most surreal part of Daron's drive last night (above), then lets jump forward to PANORAMA-RAMA! Today's stitched photo is a Jack's-eye-view from our epic, epic show at JAMMIN JAVA!
Indeed, Jammin' Java is the coolest kids' venue that we've ever played. Imagine our excitement to discover that a dancing machine of a little girl named Ella was celebrating her second birthday with us! We sang Birthday Bite and Happy Birthday to You to her and she really never stopped dancing. UNREAL! Happy Birthday, Ella! Below are Daron and Jack doing what they do best, mugging in one of Ella's birthday balloons. At right is the green/red room behind the stage at JJ: with an unbelievable record collection: Billy Crystal, Footloose and The Cars really anchored the 80's section. This photo taken by Anda Adams, our good friend who we miss dearly!
| 
|
In the back of the red room is a small bathroom that has been SERIOUSLY tagged by the bands that play Jammin' Java at night. Literally hundreds of band names carefully (or not so carefully) penned on every surface of the room.
No sign of John Vanderslice here, but we were interested to find that the Sippy Cups had found a prime location on the bathroom door!
| So here's where the waters that surround being a teacher AND a rock musician get a little murky: To tag or not to tag?On one side (read this with a stern voice): "Our students might see this as disrespectful behavior." On the other hand (read this while whining): "But the Sippy Cups did it fiiiiirst!"
We decided to go with number two. We'll make up for it, we swear.
|
We awoke this morning to find that our little band mascot, the Katydid that Could, was missing in action. Perhaps it was as tired of being on the road as we were, or maybe Mount Vernon was its goal all along. Whatever the case, we felt really lonely until we remembered that this particular Quality Inn has an astounding scultpure collection of its own. THE ART COULD KEEP US COMPANY!
Seriously, this place is really weird. Let's right now create a new recurring section of the Tour Blog called "This Crazy Hotel." You could make up your own theme song, but we recommend that you do it to the tune of either "Silver Spoons" or "Different Strokes."
Exhibit A is to the right, the outdoor courtyard that we can gaze out on from our room. Any of you that went to our Tabby Road release show will probably agree with us that THIS is what our stage should look like next time we're at ACT! We're pretty sure this is where the album photos for "Hotel California" were taken. | 
"Welcome to the hotel Alexandria.
Such a lovely place." |
  |
Next up, Exhibit B, are the two lions that proudly guard the front entrance of our hotel. Keep in mind that the place looks like a storage facility that you might see on Aurora Avenue in Seattle... they feel just a bit out of place.
But don't try to tell them that.
We think the one on the left looks a little bit like Elvis. |
Next up? Exhibit C, the almost porcelain aphrodite statues that welcome you to the morning breakfast bar. On the other side of these priceless figures?
MAKE-YOUR-OWN-WAFFLES!!!
If you haven't stayed in a roadide motel lately, these are all the rage! Check out the directions:
Step 1: dump batter in red hot waffle iron
Step 2: Burn yourself
Step 3: Turn the whole thing upside down
Step 4: Stand there watching it in complete silence as another fellow hotel guest does the same beside you. Kind of like waiting in an elevator only in your pjs
Step 5: Wait 2 minutes
Step 6: Open waffle iron
Step 7: Burn self attempting to unstick waffle from top of iron
Step 8: Do it again tomorrow morning. |   |
Drew went on an afternoon furlough from the band, hanging out with Jessica, his mom and uncle and her parents in Vienna. Jack and Daron split (splat?) off to go explore the DC area and get further silly hamming-it-up shots with major monuments.
The best part about the drive into DC was that we were driving on something called the "Jeff Davis Highway." That's what the sign said and we were wondering, who's "Jeff Davis," and how'd he get a road? Day trading?
Turns out that's JEFFERSON Davis, duh.
But isn't that weird? Have you ever put it together that his friends might have called him "Jeff?" Did William Shakespeare's friends call him "Bill?" Weird. |  |
 |
Anyway, we checked out the monuments as the sun set over the Lincoln Memorial (there's no way that building is up to code by the way- you could seriously fall off the edge).
The Gettysburg address to his right is powerful, clean and concise; truly poetic language. Maya Lin's Vietnam Memorial isn't about the black wall at all- it's about the scar on the earth that it represents, the hillside that has been cut away. The Parks Service laminated photos of soldiers who were lost on July 27 and 28 in Vietnam, a haunting series of dozens of photographs lining the base of the wall.
And the White House? As we looked across the grounds and saw several unknown sillouettes on the portico, it was very exciting to think about who, next January, will hopefully be looking back at us from there.
Jack remembered that the last time he was in D.C. it was also on a music tour- when he was a second soprano in the Northwest Boychoir. It seems like both a lifetime ago and so very close.
Tommorrow's our big day at Philadelphia's World Cafe! We get to sleep in, something that's been a long time coming.PREVIOUS || NEXT |
|
