Binge Cafe

It Takes a Village to Raise a Tour

2009-08-31T14:56:00.028-04:00

So after my last post, I was gently reminded what it meant to choose windows. A few days before our tour ended in June, we got a call from our neighbor about a branch falling on our neighbor's house. Only it wasn't branch-size:

Both of our electricity lines were knocked out. At the time this happened, other things started to happen, enough so that I decided to keep a list of all the windows breaking for the record.

It cost a lot to partially remove the tree, which, after 9 months of touring, made it necessary to work temporarily and forgo our tour to Europe then visit to Greece.

It would have been nice to go to Greece, since my Dad died earlier this month. But life doesn't color in the lines you draw in your head. I never did either, but that doesn't make the deviations from drawings any more bearable. I'm happy that the Seattle Times wrote an article about Dad's life. I also put up a memorial. Luckily, as I have done since childhood, I took a lot of interviews with Dad and have some sort of record of his life besides memory. Of course, he stars in the documentary as well.

Binge Cafe is not a confessional blog (lucky for you, reader!) so I give these details only to provide some framework surrounding our current tour and decision to cut it short and fly to Greece for Dad's memorial in October.

Before we set out on tour, Rob, with the help of good friends David and Mike (tofu mama) painted our house as you see here. We'd been wanting to convert the blah white into bright for awhile. As one neighbor said about the orange (twice) “Is that primer?”

In between working normal-style, I made time to experiment with making ice cream, alfredo sauce, omelets, and cheese out of cashews and almonds, courtesy both of the Vice Dream recipe book and Rockin' the Stove's adaptation of the Veg Times recipe.

The ice cream here is a cashew blended with maple syrup, then whipped up to shape in my 70's ice cream maker. I made two varieties: the first, peanut butter (tasted similar to peanut butter ball dough), and the second, peppermint. I added shredded up chocolate chips to the latter. Both were slightly grainy creams. Thanks to expert friend advice, next time I would soak the cashews to reduce or eliminate graininess.

The cashew alfredo I adapted based on the goat cheese recipe, simply adding some water and fresh garlic to the blended mix, then cooking with noodles or quinoa which results in creamy delicious thickness.

Almond omelet

The almond omelet was a similar recipe, but I added fresh onion to the blender and some cheesy nutritional yeast and tumeric for color as well.

Before we left town we played our first show at the Pinhook. Needless to say, this sign says it all in terms of our love for everything 'hook:

Also before town-leaving I read a couple of books I'm about to recommend to you. The first also received an endorsement from Greco, who usually leans toward Spanish Art History but makes important exceptions:

This picture is also included due to my good friend Aguavino's request that Greco be given equal time alongside Syba, Binge-Cafe style. In any case, I highly recommend the book for all folks wanting to make a difference. Reviews are here.

The second book is also a must for anyone interested in how ideas (yours, maybe?) can have lasting impact, called Made to Stick. In detail, and with interesting stories and studies, the book reviews the main elements of 'sticky' ideas.

Virginia Commonwealth University

Our first stop on this tour was in Richmond at Virginia Commonwealth University, sponsored by Green Unity 4 VCU, who also gave me a nice shirt with their club name on it. The Richmond alt-newspaper, Style Weekly, kindly covered the event as well.

During the screening I picked up a copy of Time Magazine ($5! Same as entire NY Times Sunday edition. What gives, Time?) simply because it had a big chunk of meat on the cover. Though the article touted the benefits of sustainable agriculture, one of the sidebars in the print edition pointed out that meat cannot be produced sustainable in today's quantities demanded, and that the best thing to do was eat more plants, directly. (!)

My people. And, my food:

The next day I had a noon screening sponsored by the Environmental Law Society at the College of William and Mary in Williamsburg, VA, whereby they staffed the event with vegan scones available at their very own college store. (The scones were courtesy of this awesome org called Vegfund. Upon approved application, they pay for vegan food for your events, providing it's an event that wouldn't typically be full o'vegans, like a vegan party.)

The town of Williamsburg itself seems less progressive, perhaps because it is a colonial tourstop complete with reinactments and shops full of stuff you don't need in an economic crisis or otherwise. (I hear you. Scones ARE needed, though, like air and water.)

Following this screening and a quick tour of the town Rob and I headed to Harrisonburg, VA, to screen my film at James Madison that night. The sponsors were EARTH and ARC. Here I am after the screening, at the merch/literature table.

James Madison University

We had a few days off after these screenings, and chose to busk the next day after buying small mini amps as documented here. During our busking, we met this super-nice club owner who invited us to play a show the next day. Unfortunately, I had no idea that my dad had died a few hours prior to our busking. I always thought that I would know when he died, or sense it somehow. It was not until the next afternoon that I learned he had died.

After this we spent some time in the woods which was good. There was no way I was playing the show. Here we are first at the chimneys, close to Harrisonburg.

A number of days later we played at Dahlak's in DC. It was the hardest show I ever played. Luckily we were surrounded by nice people and got to share the bill with Dawn Dineen and the Ash Lovelies.

Dawn Dineen

Ash Lovlies

During our time in DC, we were also fortunate to visit the studio of Yarner Records. Here is Dawn in her studio, all blueish and cool like the Cascades.

I also had screenings at James Madison University, sponsored by the EARTH and ARC clubs, George Washington University, sponsored by SALDF, HATS, and Green GW, and American University, sponsored by Eco-Sense.

George Washington U (before start time)

American University, Q&A

After staying for quite awhile in the DC area, we headed to spend a couple of more days in the woods which was a relief. One of these days, a not-so-good-feeling-day, Syba blasted past me while hiking on a trail and knocked me over, bowling-pin style, flat on my back. I felt much better afterward.

After the woods we headed to the University of Delaware where I had a screening with the Students for the Environment. The University of Delaware Review kindly covered the event.

Now we were off to Philly, the land of easily accessible vegan cake except that I am not eating sweets for 40 days as a sort of fasting during the memorial period. We did, however, enjoy the vegan cheesesteaks available at Gourmet to Go, or Govinda's.

Manhattan Room, Philadelphia (can't you tell?)

Later that night we played a show at the M Room in the Fish Town area of Philly. The good thing about the show was that we got to see and share the bill with Non Canon and a side project of the Hermit Thrushes, Water Beasts...(the project is so Side that there is no site, so I link you to HT instead).

Non Canon

Water Beasts

We headed out to NJ where I'd be screening my film at Princeton. We forgot the camera in Weston, so I present you in front of a majestic door that you will just have to believe is a part of the university:

Me in front of Princeton's majestic door

The next night we performed as part of Lazlo's Blow Up Radio showcase in Parlin, NJ at Buddie's Tavern with a couple of other bands.

Lazlo is one of the dedicated indie-music supporters that make up the village I'm talking about in our title line. So is his friend Scruff -- here they are on our last tour (I never blogged about the end of our 9 months on the road) before we played live on Blow Up Radio:

Scruff & Lazlo, June 2009

Lazlo is hosting a benefit for Spondylitis from October 16th - 18th, so be sure to check it out. Scruff is a devotee of Hawaiian shirts as well as Elvis Costello:

Scruff & Elvis, Sept 2009

The following night it was New Brunswick, where we played at Octopus Studios. Awesome show run by a guy from the Delfields, who also played at the show. Opening were the amazingly good Fun Machine, who played an entire set of Beethoven covers in preparation for a theatrical performance.

Fun Machine

The evening continued with us (thanks Scruff for the picture!).

Then followed with the Delfields:

The Delfields

And ended with a super-nice duo called Brick & Mortar, who had an interesting setup complete with two high-hats. The high hat was in such close proximity and used at such random intervals as to surprise the audience standing nearby.

Brick & Mortar (high hat in foreground)

After more woods/hiking, we headed back to Philly to screen my film outside at Drexel, sponsored by the Sierra Club and Asbury Ministries. The movie screened on a ginormous inflatable screen, which, to clarify, (by asking the tech people), you cannot jump on following the movie.

Seeing Through the Fence outdoors

Next we screened the film at Sarah Lawrence College, sponsored by SPAAR. The campus is quite small and reminded me of a cozy hobbit village. Quite the opposite with our next stop to screen the film at Yale:

Yale stairwell & me at the screening

The screening was sponsored by the Sustainable Food Project and the Yale Student Environmental Coalition. We had a great discussion and they even provided vegan cake! Which I did not eat. But Rob had two slices to make up for me.

Yale, Q&A

An article about the screening should be coming out in the Yale Herald later this week, as I interviewed with their film reviewer prior to the screening. The student with the hat in the forefront of the picture told me he thought that meat was more natural than non-meat foods. We discussed the antibiotics and hormones in modern meat, and how the factory mechanized process was anything but natural. In fact, a campaign to challenge the term is underway. Here's a quick guide to this term and more.

Sound guy Justin, Bob of awesomeness, and Rob, at Two Boots pizza

As continuing part of the It Takes a Village saga I introduce to you Bob from Bridgeport. We were lucky to discover Bob through CT Indie and Tweefort. He organizes shows in the area, and brings new meaning to the phrase 'above and beyond.' When he's not ensuring the Facebook invites include all the bands, expressing excitement about your NEXT show AND screening via invite walls, and encouraging you to go on various radio shows, he's booking the Two Boots in Bridgeport. Nice, nice man who has a lengthy history of involvement with indie music. Before the show, he invited us to attend an art opening at a local skate shop, also run and curated by super nice folks.

No pics of us playing, but here is a suavey shot Mr. Beloved insisted upon due to the fanciful backdrop:

That night we played with a Danbury, CT band Poverty Hash:

...as well as the amazin' and super-fun Boardlords....

who will be forever known to me as the Floorboards due to the unfortunate combo of my poor stage-memory and hearing which resulted in my shouting out this name after "Stay tuned for ..." They embraced the new name gracefully and even said they are available in knotted pine or oak.

Speaking of floorboards, Weston is now sporting fine floor courtesy of Rob's brother in law who installed the flooring over our old, sad carpet:

Now muddy paws and spilled water dishes (Syba!) will be of little consequence.

Jamie & Rob

We've been hanging out with Rob's sister & family for a couple of days. This means some hiking in the woods and Syba jumping from cliffs (photo by Jamie):

Last night we played our last show of the tour at the Elevens. In our third installment of village-gathering we played with the Werewolf Police (with a member from the aforementioned CT Indie), Fields of Gaffney (met Eric Gaffney at our last Northampton show) and Merene (former Aaron B & the True Believers).

Fields of Gaffney

Werewolf Police

Merene

We enjoyed all of the bands. Big thanks to Mark for setting up this show, especially since it was right after a busy festival weekend. The night was officially complete with a dancing lady of questionable sobriety and frequent "wooo!" exclamations.

As a bonus, we found a huge rock in my drum cases at the end of the show. We're assuming the positive meaning of this, which is, we rock. Werewolf Police named the rock Stony, but we still didn't keep him/her.

Our last stop of the tour is a screening for Trinity College in Hartford, CT. In total, we had 20.5 tour stops for the past month, 13 of them screenings.

After the screening it will be a 10+ hour drive back. We're leaving for Greece on Wednesday, returning by the end of October.

This tour has been full of support from friends and kindness from near-strangers. Thank you everyone for being part of our nameless village.

I choose windows. The glass kind.

2009-05-25T14:13:00.048-04:00

You think everything falls apart without you. Really it just changes. This means falls apart, or, maybe, rebuilt stronger.

Speaking of strength, some Reststop Philosophy for you. The three of us were attempting exercise to assuage our guilt or future treat-eating, and stumbled upon these two structures, eye-ball stumble-style.

One is a concrete building without windows, the other a wood barnish building with a few windows. Not to go Three Little Pigs on you here, but I asked Rob which structure would he choose to live in, given that severe weather (like hurricanes and wolves blowing houses down) were probable. He chose the correct answer, which is B., the wood structure. He wants to see out the windows, risk and all. Life choices are very much like this. Complete security is possible, but I'd rather see the storm from my windows. (OK, to take this further, I'd also admit to wanting to build a cellar to hide in, to have the best of both worlds.)

Speaking of, at the beginning of our tour (September - October 2008) we budgeted for fuel being at about $5 a gallon, though it was 'only' about $4 at the time. We and our budget was relieved when fuel dropped to about half that amount. From November onward, gas became:

El Cheapo! I really just wanted a reason to shout this again, as I did much to Mr. Beloved's annoyance whenever we passed these signs.

I was thinking about maturity recently as I was biking home from Whole Foods and some teens did not move out of the way. And then I realized, one-line style, that maturity is the process by which we go from thinking we are the center of the world, to the realization that we are nothing. Or maybe a moon.

As babies/kids our parental figures pay complete attention to us. To some extent, this attention is expected from others as we continue to age. We think we're way more critical than we are. Conversely, too much importance is placed on the opinions of others rather than our own understanding of morality.

All this is leading up to the most important observation that you've certainly noticed: ~~Binge Cafe has grown up and moved to Wordpress and does not know what it is doing. Bear with it/me~~.*

*(Binge Cafe tried to use Wordpress and failed miserably...I've never met an unfriendlier application. I couldn't even manage separating paragraphs, and upon searching the forums saw this was a common problem. Blech. I'll stick with blogger for now.)

~~Back in the olden cave-days of Blogger,~~ (sorry poor Blogger!) Binge Cafe left off somewhere in Texas around March. It's late May. Why has Binge been so neglectful of her picture-posting travel-talking? No one knows. Below, Rob captured my intro at a screening hosted by the University of Houston Environmental Club. They supplied vegan cookies, so I supplied love.

In Houston we also screened my film at the University of Houston, Downtown, for the Philosophy Club, and at Rice University for the Environmental Club and Humane Society.

I think strawberry oat pancakes are pretty darned good. I also tried mango but this was not as exciting as anticipated. Though I've been just using water, I find that soy milk tastes a whole lot better. We'll be making these pancakes on the awesome Rockin' the Stove -- stay tuned!

BB played a show at Super Happy Fun Land which makes me want to do a documentary on people who run DIY spaces, except that I want to tour with Seeing Through the Fence until it becomes as outdated as the Brady Bunch, but with less silliness.

We played with our friends Football, etc (formerly Tin Kitchen of NJ) who moved to Houston recently. They also kindly attended my screening at Rice. They're awesome and you should check them out.

Note the vintage BB shirt...warmed our little hearts.

Also on the bill were a band from Brooklyn, whose name has been deleted from the Recycling Bin, brain-style. Dangit, this is becoming a habit. Again, not out of malice. I liked 'em.

The venue folks were so kind that they even let us sleep inside the warehouse.

Which is good cause the over-drinked lipstick lady who kept kissing her dog (evidence below) crashed on the couch.

After Houston we were off to Lafayette, Louisiana to screen the film at the University of Louisiana. Earlier in the day we leafleted there, then headed toward the theater. There was a breathtaking and lifetaking swamp in the middle of campus, which Syba did not swim in.

Probably because of the alligators.

Luckily we lived long enough for Rob to sample a local beer. After Lafayette, we were off to Baton Rouge to screen the film for an environmental group. Louisiana requires that each campus have a piece of artwork. This one, outside, even has Greek writing.

Next we were off to New Orleans. We had not been since 2002 pre-Katrina, and made a short visit to pay our respects to the 9th ward, sad. BB performed at the Dragon's Den, complete with Cafe Bamboo, the only veg restaurant in town.

We played with this nice duo, High in One Eye:

As with many duos, this drummer was awesome...

And not just cause he was borrowing my tom. We were also lucky to meet up with fellow vegan leafleters at our show.

Vic has handed over 55,000 students information about the animals behind most meat/dairy products in Spring semester alone.

In the third installment of meet-ups, we also ran into the Des Ark crew the day after our show, and made time to catch solo-Aimee at another club.

New Orleans is beautifully parked and historied. Rob and I went to City Park and we highly recommend it. We took turns watching Syba while the other of us went to see the sculptures and statues. During Rob's turn, I decided to shoot portraits of Syba, but should have removed her harness to appear more professional.

Above please find her stoic alert pose. Below, find Syba hoping to make some money from the stuffed ambiguous bear or fluffy green man company:

In a separate shooting, these are Syba having "alone time."

Except how I invaded her space to document it.

She also looks fine in a brown hat, no? Anyone?

I like how the shifter look slike a microphone that she's about to announce something into ("Help!")

In any case, back at the sculpture garden, it was full of interesting pieces, but the below was the most striking. The plaque following details more about the artist's intent.

I took this one for mom, who is the most modestly great violinist.

Sorry if these are violas mom. They're definitely not guitars.

Binge Cafe just lives for pictoral juxtapositioning. Here I want to demonstrate the complexity of human-hood, meaning our choices to protect some and eat others. Presenting, a nice sign in a parkish place where we stopped to exercise en route to our next stop:

And next to this sign, another sign:

Conclusion: Turkeys are not Important Birds. This reminds me of an essay I just read, Consider the Lobster by the late David Foster Wallace (thanks to Nicki for the recommendation). In the historical outline of lobster-eating, Wallace noted that eating this creature before the mid 19th century was akin to stuffing a handful of bugs in your mouth. They were plentiful and crawling all over the beaches, and thus thought of as waste, supply n' demand-style. There were some disturbing descriptions of a lobster's ability to feel pain, noting the small hairs within the shell on their soft bodies.

Speaking of turkey, a professor at the next screening we held in Stillwater, OK, at OLE Miss was so kind to us. After joining us for leafleting, she gave us homemade tofurkey wraps:

We also screened the film in another city in Oklahoma. No pictures.

Finally it was Sunday and we were free to relax again. Here is Rob working on a song for you and me.

Syba should have been a fish.

Atlanta has the most amazing coop, Sevenanda (Durham coop take note!) They have a variety of deli options for vegans and lovers of delicious foods (same thing). Most importantly, they have a rotating supply of vegan cakes to ensure Binge keeps on a regular exercise schedule.

The first place we performed in Atlanta:

Life's short. I wouldn't go back there. We were on the bill with four other touring bands. As you might imagine, this did not translate into an audience, apart from the nice bands who stayed, like these guys:

They asked if they could take our coloring book idea, where blank coloring paper and crayons are put upon the merch table for audience use. Of course I said, "You kiddin' me? That's MY thing. MINE!"

The next night, we performed as part of a Star Magazine showcase, set up by the awesome Justin formerly of Elevado, presently of Batata Doce.

The show was a lot of fun, and we hit up the cheap Chinese food place afterword with Justin #2 and got to preview tracks from his new band Glen Iris. (Note! They will be playing at our house as part of our Thank You Party 6/29. You are invited!)

This is completely self-explanatory:

We skipped the cleanse and had some seitan sandwiches instead.

One of the best screenings we had was at Valdosta State University in Valdosta, Georgia. Before the screening, Rob gives students information on modern factory farms.

Below, heading to the screening. We use the same merch suitcase for BB and the documentary.

And this is me during the Intro, I believe.

There were roughly 100 students there, so the discussion was a lot of fun following.

In the arena of new foodstuffs, I decided to pick up some Laver because it has lots of good things like iron, iodine, B12, and DHA. But also important is the product's edibility.

The results were 50/50. Mr. Beloved reported, "Yuck," while Binge maintains that, when dry-roasted in a cast iron pan, it's just like a chip. A really good chip.

Anyone else cook this stuff? How?

At some point in Georgia we decided to take a break and rent a pedal boat for $5. It was a lot of fun, and I can't believe that Syba actually stayed in the boat. I might say it is a good workout leg-wise. Rob kept stopping just to see if I was pedaling, which, I was. Heavily pedaling, at least 40%. Rob says 20.

We also had a screening in Athens, GA (no pictures) at the University of Georgia. We were happy to arrive back home in Durham for a couple of weeks. In fact, we didn't really feel like going back on the road for the 9th month.

Duofest was a ton of fun and all the duos, I mean all of 'em, I really loved. We were honored to have Mecca Normal, and David of Mecca was kind to do a sketch o'me (he sketches different bands they play with).

Even though we hesitated to leave our porch again, what better way to start road life back up than playing a show on an old farmhouse porch with one of our favorites?

It was wonderful to see the Midtown Dickens again. New songs, crazy harmonies, we love 'em.

BB played next. These pics are courtesy of Michelle's iphone (I-phone?)

The show, complete with vegan cookout, took place at the home of Banjo Bob, who outdoes BB in both 'off kilter' and 'quirky.' He's awesome. We have his Apples & Oranges album, and lemme tell you, the songs will break into your headspace and cross the monkey bars.

Rob's photo. And his book.

We did some leafleting around the DC/Maryland area, and Delaware, then were off to New York, after a quick stop in Phili to get the infamous Vegan Treats cake at GoVindas. You should have seen the look of disappointment on my face when I saw the empty cake case -- coulda sank 1,000 ships. Luckily the vegan philly seitan steaks made up for this, 40%.

New York was our next stop. I attended a Farm Sanctuary meeting then debate. Jasmin, who runs the NY action, is one of my favorite peoples. The debate was something to the effect of, "Should we exploit animals less?" and if you can imagine, there was an opposing position, answering "No." The moderator, who had declared himself neutral (or been declared neutral) later admitted he was one of those people who would not care if someone kicked a dog in front of him (as an example of caring about suffering when it is right in front of you and/or when the animal is a 'member' of the family). Jasmin did a great job of summarizing parts of the debate and afterthoughts on her blog Making Hay.

It's interesting to drive in NYC. You're prepared for the worst, so when you're actually there it isn't as bad as you'd imagined. You do find parking. You do get lost and go over a bridge that puts you back in Manhattan when you were needing to stay in Brooklyn. But somehow, if Weston does not stall, you get to your destination with minimal stress and yelling/honking, and a feeling of accomplishment, like graduating.

My favorite contrast to the streets of NYC is the people-made Central Park. Instead of opting for the $8/hour parking in the park, we lucked out and found a FREE spot across the street with no restrictions except to be out of it 10 days later. I was so happy that I thought we should stay there forever, or at least 10 days.

The only downside of our Central Park visit was an unfortunate live exercise program event blasting the workout throughout the park -- "One, two, YOU CAN DO IT! Come on now, UP, UP, down, UP!" complete with breathy gasps for air and bad music that makes you (me) run away which is why it is effective for exercise.

In the park, finally away from the noise, we found a castle that was built for weather reporting, and took turns being king/queen. I present you Rob the King, overseeing his people.

And a view from the Castle:

After the park, and before the show, we (I) had a very important mission, mission cake. New York is just bursting with vegan cake, or so it seemed. We limited our selections to those within walking distance (1-2 miles) of Central Park. I was hoping to find my favorite, which we'd missed in Philly (Vegan Treats. Could it be a coincidence that they are based out of a city entitled Bethlehem?) Admittedly, I had high expectations:

Photo from Vegan Treats, http://www.myspace.com/vegantreats

So it was with some disappointment, expressed fully after finishing the cupcakes within 10 seconds, that I instead found these tiny overpriced things:

In a desperate move later that day, I bought this slice of cheap(er) cake at a coop later that day:

To summarize, it looked better than it was. The frosting was wonderful, but the cake part was a little dry. But 10 stars for generous frosting.

After getting lost, only slightly, we were able to find time to eat at one of our favorites, Food Swings, in Brooklyn. I had the fish sticks, and Rob made the seitan sub disappear. We also had the Buffalo strips on sticks with a ranch dressing. All vegan! (Do I need to qualify that anymore?)

Finally it was show time and we made it to Goodbye Blue Mondays.

This is a cozy little club snugged under a subway line. We played there last tour and they're super nice. I forgot my camera and the owner mailed it back. BB was added to the bill somewhat late, so we opened up the night. We were happy that a member of the band we played with when we first moved to Durham (at the Wetlands! RIP) the Lost Patrol came out to see our show.

After us, a fabulous lady & her banjo played a set, Chelsea McBee.

A train went by during her song about a train. Next, the nice Key of V performed. A duo, so automatically of course they are on our good list(s). Besides that, they were good.

I took this shot while waiting for my laptop to boot up. It never did.

Tip: Do not purchase an HP TX1000 series laptop. I'm trying to resolve the issue with the BBB. Meanwhile, I got a similar little netbook to my friend Aquavino, and I love it! Mine is an ASUS.

After NY, we made our way to a State Park for camping purposes....

...I think I need a new sweater.

Next it was over to Boston to screen for the Veg Society, a very kind group of folks, I'll say.

The room extended to the right too, where the other half of the audience sat, by the buffet. We stayed with a vegan family restoring their Victorian home. The house had beautiful woodwork and tall windows, a spiraling staircase, and pocket doors. Syba loved it too because they had a dog and a stuffed bunny she proceeded to de-ear. She also left her green ambiguous Bear there, perhaps as an apology for the rabbit.

After Boston, Weston began practicing defiance again, this time by stalling. He chose several convenient places:

Shopping complex exit, at the light;
Middle of busy intersection going up a hill with fast oncoming traffic;
On-ramp to Mass Pike ("Folks, the trucks can't get by you...you're going to have to move.")
Highway ("I'll help you folks pull over to the breakdown lane...");
Dark alley;
Another intersection ("ID and registration, please.")

All these were spread over the course of a day, during our futile attempts to get to Hanover, New Hampshire, for my Dartmouth screening. Luckily, we finally made it to a cold rest area close to Hanover. Since, Weston sort of sounds like he has a cold (swine flu?) and has continued to intermittently stall. But boy, can his top sure pop!

At Dartmouth, all this trauma was mitigated by the baking of vegan cupcakes by one of the students.

They also ordered Indian food for the audience, some of whom were lined up before the screening.

A reporter was there and interviewed me then published the article here in the Dartmouth Free Press. We also leafleted the school.

After, we barely made it to the Lebanon Food Coop, one of the most overpriced I've seen. Some say that all coops are overpriced, but this is not true from our coop experiences across these plains and mountains (the US). On average, we eat for about $2.50 a meal each.

We headed to Rob's hometown of Enfield CT, arriving the next day at his cousin's home. With the next picture, I wanted to illustrate that though Syba actively avoids Weston, while we were visiting outside she had the choice of either hanging out in Weston or Rob's cousin's grassily wooded back yard, and she chose the latter entirely on her own (see below right, behind cousin):

She later moved to the driver's side, where it was much more comfortable to squeeze between the clutch, break, and gas pedals. Before I continue to make fun of Syba, you might wonder why *we* were all hanging out in Weston instead of on lawn chairs by the firepit. I'll refer you to Rob for his response.

A couple people recommended Danbury, so off we went to our show there at Cousin Larry's Cafe. Met a kind blogger there who runs the Hat City Blog and bought a couple of our CDs. He told us about the history of the town, where hats to Danbury were like tobacco to Durham.

Our next stop has become a tradition of sorts when we're in this area, and it is one of our favorites because we get to meet up with the folks who run Vegan Radio (see Scott & Derek below) and eat at Cafe Evolution (also below).

We made it to Northampton and enjoyed Oh Sweet Mama's baked goods.

OK, so I ate a bite pre-photo. Later that afternoon, we took a trip with Derek of Vegan Radio....

...whereby Weston displayed the non-glamourous side of touring and stalled on the busy arterial. Derek and I got out and pushed Weston's backside, hot from the sun like a griddle, so we kept removing our hands to avoid burns and pancake-hands.

We decided to park next to our show location at the Sierra Grille and then bus or taxi to the radio station. Once up, you can hear the podcast at: http://veganradio.com/. For now, you can listen to their archives. They've asked us to create a theme song...this would be our 3rd theme song creation I think (Tech Notes Radio & Endangered Durham were the other two) so we're very happy to continue on in this business.

The show at the Sierra Grille was one of our best in awhile. The kind folks that book the place give bands a free dinner at 7:30 pm. We were on the radio and missed this, but they have plenty of vegan options reportedly, which is good since I believe the other bands were vegan as well. We played first (there are some great photos taken by Derek here). Have I already mentioned that Derek is an amazing photographer? Yep. He's also taken many of the pictures you see in leaflets of farm animals at Farm Sanctuary and elsewhere.

After BB, Vio/Mire played, solo though:

Then it was Aaron B and the True Believers:

They were a lot of fun and I told them all to check out the musicians on Trekky Records as they might be cousins, first or second.

We also met Eric Gaffney (of Sebadoh!) who was at the show and signed our mailing list. His more recent project is Fields of Gaffney. If this wasn't enough, he's either vegetarian or vegan...

Speaking of bands who 'make it,' Rob and I were talking about a band we met on tour who we have been trying to contact about a show in their town. Despite several emails to this band, we had not heard back. Since they seemed very enthused about helping us out before, I was stumped. “Oh, they're busy,” Rob said. “Recording, and I heard they just got signed to a label.”

It seems to me that bands are like orphans at a very noisy orphanage, waiting, trying to look pretty, to sound nice, to be adopted by a label. Or a fan base. Or you. Once a band is adopted, their departure is viewed with some degree of envy, but also joy that it is possible (if that's what we want...and to some extent, that's what we all want – validation).

Maybe we're all seeking adoption, whether it be for work or friendship. To what extent an image inconsistent with our true character is projected for the sake of survival, or a good life, is unclear to me. The ultimate impact of rejection is also unclear. Possibly we adapt or completely drop out. But certainly we change.

The actual adoption has an impact as well. Once accepted our maturity can again be assessed by how we react to our fortunes. My favorite people are those who become greater after adoption, in character and spirit. Rather than accepting exclusive membership in the now available 'higher' class, they remain members of all societies.

I'd just like to insert here, and perhaps I've said this before, that I feel most at home with musicians. Not all musicians, but the majority. Something like a family feeling, which I get with certain vegans too. And Greeks! Don't forget the Greeks.

After the show were were hoping Weston would take us all the way to Providence, RI. He did, pictures forthcoming. For now, I leave you with a love letter found at the Providence Whole Foods market, where they write, "Vegan Options!" on their deli case, in which I found this little happy friend, just waiting for me to adopt it.

PS: Some readers were having trouble with my last post, "We're Gaining Weight, that means Growing." That is, the first picture would show up, but the words were from my previous blog post rather than that one. It obviously worked fine for some people who made comments relating to the recent post, but not others -- in fact, I tried accessing it on a computer here and had the same issue. Perhaps this is a browser problem? But the previous posts all worked. Hmm. In any case, let me know if you have any issues.

Important PSS: The ruling yesterday in California broke my heart. But you can lend some support here: http://www.couragecampaign.org/page/s/1million

We're Gaining Weight. That Means Growing.

2009-03-21T18:53:00.043-04:00

I have to imagine this is what newcomers fell in love with when they arrived after the harrowing trip West to discover California. This is the California I imagine them seeing. Who wouldn't want to stay? On our way out, though, I was very happy to be leaving the modern realities of connecting points a and b, car-style:

Before we left LA, I got a chance to connect with more family, here with Zache, my first cousin.

When we were kids, I, the elder cousin, told him “I wish you'd drown!” while in my aunt's swimming pool. That wasn't nice.

I wish Syba was this enthusiastic to tour. Our last night in LA we were fortunate to play a house party thrown by none other than the former NC troupe known as Casey of Sweater Weather. I say troupe due to the number of attendees who migrated from NC as well as their shared chosen studies of film/television.

Playing the show with us, his first show actually, was the nice man pictured below. He was naturally good and we were very happy to meet him.

We played without mics, and though I have said that I fired Acoustic Binge, this was a compromise because I still got to play my kit...just really, really quiet. I wish I had one of those voices that belted out like an uncontrollable force of nature when I'm NOT mad, that is, when I'm singing. But alas. It's a good test of a song to unplug it, anyhow.

We really enjoyed Casey and Curt's set too.

They played a somewhat last-minute put together thematic arrangement of songs about Friday the 13^th, which was coming out soon. The songs were clever, and though silly, they had weight too. Could have been the depth of the vocals and strength of the melodies. I'm hoping they keep writing material together. Check out Casey's project here. He's touring all 'round so go and see him when he's in your neighborhood.

I bought a vegan cake for the occasion. I was a little skeptical because it was 'sugar free.' I'm careful particularly when I bring a cake to a party where people may never have tried vegan cake before. One bad cake and we're history. Luckily, it was so delicious and the frosting melted as you bit through the moist body of the cake.

I wanted to take it 'to go' but thought that would be rude since I brought it as a present. Luckily #2, other people are discovering the joy o' vegan baking, as published in the NY Times Magazine, cover here:

(Picture from NY Times Magazine article referenced below)

With the unfortunate exception of a couple of statements, this is a pretty good article.

Speaking o' environmental things, there were miles of windmills on the way from LA to Prescott. Anyone know what they are powering? Me neither.

Since we're gone for so long it is impossible for us to cram in shows and screenings every day, both from a booking standpoint and from one of exhaustion. This space provides time to experience an area (when we're not working in libraries) and minimizes long drives.

We make sure to rest and let Syba run around and Rob do push ups. Actually, I think that Syba is kind of showing off how push-ups are pretty lame compared to the moves she can do without (formal) yoga training.

To our delight, even way out in the middle of nowhere, we spotted this "Smoothies and Veggie Burgers" truck:

Unfortunately, we noticed this after we were already full with a Subway veggie delight, vegan-style, soy chorizo added in.

I have another question for my North Carolinian friends. (For those counting, this makes my second question/demand. The other was requesting vegan taquitos at our new co-op.)

I love the idea of minimizing expenese and of course travel by growing fruit. On trips to California as a kid, it always seemed so exotic that you could grow your own lemons and oranges. I remember the lemons falling down next to the pool at my aunt's house (yes, the pool that I wished drowning upon my poor cousin).

Citrus fruit just grows in California, like dandilions. They're delicious. Can we make this happen in Durham? Or is it too cold in the winter? Can someone plant a citrus tree in our yard?

We had to get to Prescott, Arizona the next morning to appear on television. Since this was big-time, you know, television (does anyone still watch morning talk show television? I mean, anyone I hang out with?) we were a bit worried that Weston would do something silly, and we would not get there, but instead another worry presented itself:

I was a bit incredulous at first, not really believing it ... snow? I thought this business was finished back in Seattle. Isn't this the desert? The roads were clear, and Prescott was only cold, not snowed in, so we were relieved to arrive without incident.

We'd lost an hour so it was extra-hard to wake up for an 8:00 am arrival. I never fail myself in one consistent way: if I know I have to wake up early, I cannot, for the life of me, fall asleep the night prior. Hearing Rob and Syba snore doesn't help.

We set up very early.

Here our hosts prepare their notes for the talkshow.

Despite a few pre-on-air questions, the male host still referred to my documentary as a “Socialist take on vayganizm.” That's “sociological,” but I'm guessing the viewers might not notice. I did learn things to cook for my valentine. To my surprise, since this seemed like a relatively conservative show, they highlighted some Morningstar sausages. Morningstar is not very vegan-friendly, but recently (after a campaign) agreed to use one million less eggs.

We were treated well, and Syba even got to roam the studio. I was worried she'd do something uncharacteristic like take a large dump by the hosts, or spew on their shined shoes, but she was very well-behaved.

She wore her “Vegan Outreach” t-shirt while on air. She did not field any questions. If she were asked, I'm sure she would say: "I hate the van. My captors seem to think a few visits to the dog park will change this. And what is with the t-shirt? Hello, fur! Don't get me started on my food..."

The hosts asked us a few questions about the documentary and our band, then we played a couple of songs. I believe we chose “Miso...I don't like people” and “Unification of + and -.” I'm thinking that these were probably not songs for our TV morning audience but we had a lot of fun.

After the show, we were hoping to get a copy of the segment we performed on, but they charge $25. This is the difference between DIY and large companies, in many cases. I would think the DVD (or even electronic file) would be free to the performers since we are, in theory, helping them fill out the show, but then conversely, it might be said that we received promotion for free, and should shut up and drive away in our Weston quite contented. But I'm too Greek to do that. So I stewed. Stew with Gimme Lean and large chunks of soft carrots.

Later that day, we went to the local library to work. Here's Weston from the window.

As you can see, it had started to snow in Prescott.

A few hours later, I recognized the significance of the snowball effect, so to speak...Rob in the parking lot heading Weston-ward:

Now we were in a blizzard, the kind they had in that Little House episode where the whole family was snowed in for Christmas.

Where, to leave the cabin, they had to open the upstairs window and walk on the ten feet of snow. Except we were in Weston, and had a show and screening to get to. In a Darwinian moment, we decided to walk to the shop first without proper winter attire.

Syba rolling in the snow, a) to cool off (it's refreshing), b) no idea.

Fingers frozen, Rob put on the chains and we set off to the Catalyst Infoshop to see if we were still screening and showing. Here is the little shop, snow bound on Art Row:

We were welcomed to the vegan kitchen (Food Not Bombs cooks there as well) and fried up some seitan I'd made the day before. They had a nice kettle of food for us, and we hung around the little info shop. I wasn't really feeling like hauling in our gear through the storm, so luckily I only screened the documentary that night. It was quite heatless in the shop, but a few spaceheaters helped warm up the screening room, and blow a fuse.

Following the discussion we all sat around the living room and discussed whether or not purity was possible (uh-uh), strategic activism, and other matters. Met an interesting lady who photographs a traveling circus performance troupe, who had just performed at the next venue we'd be visiting:

The Trunk Space, in Phoenix, AZ. We left the night of the screening, despite the snow piling down, and barely made it. Even on the interstate the snow persisted, and we were only able to remove Weston's chains after about an hour of driving. Thankfully, the snow eventually subsided as we drove out of the mountains. At the Trunk Space we performed with Skinwalkers:

A lively floor-crawling type of band where you're kind of afraid, as an audience member, that the singer/guitarist is going to knock you over or slam you with the neck of his guitar (accidentally on purpose). We loved his songs and the megaphone added a spice like that smoked paprika I need to find.

Next were the coincidentally vegan band Somersault. Nice folks. Rob was sad they did not play his favorite watermelon song.

We spent a lot of time in Tempe. It's definitely a college town, with a university the population of a small city (50K I believe). Climbed up the “A” mountain and saw a few spiral petraglyphs. Since a sign said that many of the rocks were defaced, I was not certain which were authentic petraglyphs and which were college graffitti. I suppose it does not matter, only time separates them. That said, what the &?!@#$? are people thinking when they mess up ancient communications / art that can never be recreated again?

I screened my film next to one of the better vegan restaurants, Green. Do not let the uninspired name fool you. These people have options. For instance, here lies the chalkboard list of the various soy-namis (aka blizzards) you can decide upon:

One must mathematically break the choices down like a story problem to make the appropriate decision. For instance, as our friend Dawn asks herself, “Is this something I can make at home?” The flowchart, if pointed to “Yes,” would indicate that you absolutely should NOT choose that flavor. If “No,” then it is exotic and you should consider it. Unless you're allergic.

Here's Rob displaying our soy-namis. He chose peanut butter (and apparently did not follow the flow-chart) while I selected some butterscotchy type of concoction.

They were kind enough to advertise for the screening. In fact I was kind of nervous because the place was packed with people who were eating at Green then heading over to Acme for the screening. We had to delay the start time while they finished eating.

This was a fun screening, and also a very rambunctious one where I was less in charge than usual: Syba, along with the owner's dogs, decided to play chase through the audience. I admit, it was cute. Way cuter than the intro I was attempting to give.

At the end, two people who had not seen the film came in and thought they would ask questions anyway, with a polite preface, of course: “I did not SEE the documentary, but ...” Tip to people who do this: Don't. I mean, come in, enjoy the Q&A, but don't ask questions. Unless you want to ask, “Eleni, do you want a large slice of vegan cake?” Or, “Would you like to try this new soy ice cream flavor, malted milk-ball?” (Can someone invent a vegan malted milk ball already? Please?)

In any case, this was a fun screening as it was full o' nice people and we had some great discussions about something I and many care about deeply...the plight of animals used for food. Check out Acme for your AR t-shirt needs!

Or to play “Rampage.”

The nice, nice folks that set this up are hosting another screening without me on 4/3, if'n your near Phoenix, AZ.

It was time to leave Tempe and head to Tucson, a town Rob and I considered moving to back in 2002 when we last went through.

Syba broke the sliding door screen a month or so ago to make this possible.

We were happy to meet Anne and Matt of Vegan Outreach in Tucson, at a vegan restaurant called “Lovin' Spoonfulls.” One word: delicious. I had some sort of sandwichy not-chicken thing if I recall correctly. Two more words: Vegan Cake. The white frosting flavor was the best.

It was awesome to meet two of the people who made VO possible, kind of like meeting Obama in the vegan world. We also met Jack in California, the co-founder, President, and nutrition guru, and many fellow-leafleters, which has been better than peanut butter cups.

Speaking of, Rob leafleted at the University of Tucson, and the Gawds of vegan goodness gave him a few of these!

Syba wanted to share with us, but was not allowed, and displayed her dismay thus-wise (look closely now):

That night we played a show at the HangArt, a nifty space that is not an airplane hanger but looks and feels like one. We played with the Monitors:

and H is for Hellgate (Seattle):

and Logan Greene and the Bricks!

We started carrying around a coloring pad & crayons to our shows. We say it is so the audience can have fun and color all sorts of pictures. It's really because we want to have drawings of us like this.

Some more feedlots...this huge one in Texas I believe, which stretched for miles.

In Texas, I screened my film for the El Paso Veg Society. My grandfather, Richard Davis, was raised in this town. I'm thinking it was a lot different in the early 20^th century. As my mom put it when she received my “El Paso” post card, “Looks like a boring city.” And this considering I tried to pick out the most interesting postcard, to highlight the excitement and vibrancy of the place.

The President of the Society ensured there was a great selection of vegan food for the event, and it was delicious. Here's my intro or outro:

The next day we struggled in vain to find a park nearby, and finally gave up to hang out at the State Park. There was not much vegetation vegetating, but that's probably because this is the desert.

Lucky for us, though the town did not seem to have a lot to offer, we met some nice Veg Society folk (including the President of the Veg Society) and appeared on their radio program which you can hear here:

Instead of the State Park, we should have just gone to this reststop, on the way out of El Paso toward New Mexico:

Complete with monster pineapple.

Weston had been making some noises, so we took him into a VW expert in Santa Fe. One of his noices was a flapping sound, which the mechanics said they fixed by tightening down the mud flap. We later learned (at another VW shop) it was actually the rear axle that needed a new boot. But here in Santa Fe, we got Weston's point system reinstalled (history: the original points were changed to another system then back already once).

While Weston was in the shop we walked around town and bought some overpriced vegan food. Later that night, we played at Backstreet Pizza. This was a show where we were supposed to be quiet: in fact, it was emphasized that the owner was worried we'd be too loud so we couldn't have the show unless we agreed to keep it low. So I played with my hotrods. For some reason it's hard as the drummer to play quiet and enjoy playing. The purist in me thinks this should not be the case, that playing lightly and dynamically is more difficult blah blah etc. But it's no fun and makes Acoustic Binge angry.

After we finished our set, one of the employees asked if he could play my kit. When I gave him the hot rods, he said, “oh, no, regular sticks,” and proceeded to pound the drums. Acoustic Binge very angry!

Speaking o' instruments, my first cousin twice removed (uncle) Steve is a guitar builder. He built Rob's guitar, the wood-finish one. Above are two of his projects. Like any artist, he also customizes messages depending on his customer:

Which are you?

Here he is in action. I have never seen a cleaner shop. This is the shop I remind Rob of when we're home and cannot find a tool. “What about uncle Steve's shop?” I challenge, as an ideal we can maybe obtain someday.

We had an awesome time visiting Steve and Robin (and their dog Arlo) in Albuquerque, NM. They came to my screening at the U of New Mexico, Albuquerque, and we walked around the desert the next day, pictured above.

The night before, I was lucky to discover vegan chocolate Raspberry cake at the local co-op. Though I had sworn off cake, it's not always that one stumbles upon vegan cake, and one owes it to the Vegan Movement to test and report on all of its cakes. This one was amply supplied with frosting.

It is a debt my hips continue to pay, but a little exercisin' and heck.

Our show at Burt's was pretty fun....the first band (screamo-style?):

attracted a lot of fans, who left, before and during our set:

But it was worth it to meet the nice guys in Flood the Sun. They'll be touring soon West Coast-style so check 'em out.

We set off the next day for Amarillo, Texas, where we got a last-minute show. The day before, on Sunday, we were absolutely unable to find a NY Times paper. We desparately checked Starbucks after Starbucks, and a few bookstores. They all reported that the distributor has not sent them any for months, and so we were out of luck. I even found an old NY Times in Weston and called a number to ask where we could find a copy. The security guard on the other end had no idea, and the number he gave me did not work.

And so we settled in and did some scrapbooking, or grass-rollowing, if you were Syba.

You might think it odd that I want the paper so badly. What about an old-fashioned book? I love books. But I love the Sunday escape of no responsibility and no-anything that the paper allows. The book review, the magazine with the ethics questions and crosswords, the Style section with “Modern Love,” column. The arts section, the national and international news, even the Business section.

Last week I was reading an article about Facebook, where the writer wondered if folks could ever plan the future when they were living so wholly in the present (aka Twitter updates).

In any case, part of this fascination with the paper has to do with this taste I've developed for the idea of living in NY. I don't mean leaving Durham. I don't think we'll ever do that. But I don't want to die never having lived in NY. The question is only how and when, and how much time.

Back in Amarillo, there is ONE cool place that you do not want to miss if you're passing through the dry, dusty panhandle.

And that's the 806 Coffeehouse, recommended to me by a student. We contacted them last-minute and they set up a show for us. I can't understate how kindly they treated us, and they even have 'vegan' listed on the menu. This is a place where the outsiders go, us. We loved it. (Apparently Amarillo has some pretty conservative folks, so when they dressed a manaquin in an Obama t-shirt, some customers complained. The 806 is also listed on a conservative Christian website as one of the bad, devilish sort of places in town due to a Pagan meeting that happens to occur there. This only excited the Binges further!)

After the show we went out for drinks at a local bar and then Syba got some treats from the nice, nice 806 folks:

Syba's pagan so she doesn't care about the reputation. It's all about the bagel.

One thing about Texas, besides everything being big (this is true) is that there's some real pride in the state. Such as these grills, found at one rest stop:

I'm certain that many a veggie burger has been flipped on this grill.

We passed through the dry panhandle of Texas into the dry Oklahoma panhandle. Signs of Route 66 (touristy) were everywhere, and we succommed to the pressure and interest in our history eventually. First we stopped at the museum in a small town, but found it was closed.

A man with a cowboy hat on came up to us, saying they close in the winter to save electricty. He said the town was small, stood firmly, then concluded, “and we like it that way.” We left, but not before capturing this:

Not the same man. This is first in a series of really funny dummies (ala the Tobacco Museum talking dummy in Durham, except not the talking).

We found the real Route 66 museum, which was a huge disappointment and waste of time, except for that it quelled the possible regret we might have felt at NOT visiting it.

The fake town was lively:

As was the fake green grass:

This is the first we saw of the Oklahoma practice of painting brown grass green.

After several inquiries, we learned that this green spray was not aesthetic but FERTILIZER or PESTICIDE. It's green so you can see where it's been done.

Rob said that this lady reminded him of the mother in Psycho:

And here is her stove, fer cooking:

And now, presenting, not in order of significance, some townspeople:

Hans the Accountant,

Cliff the Postman, and,

Fritz the newspaperman.

These were the highlights. We didn't pay the full amount so windows stood between us and our friendship with the community.

Inside the museum, for the paid leg of our experience, a few shiny old cars were parked, along with annoying commentary playing without being asked. There were virtually no actual articles from Route 66, except a piece of cement, that was about as interesting as a clipped toenail from a nail salon.

But do go visit Hans, Cliff, and Fritz. They're kinda lonely.

Almost as much as rolling in snow, goose poop, or a dead being, Syba loves the leaves.

Had some screenings in Oklahoma, then onward to Arlington, TX, where I screened for the Environmental Society:

This one was a lot of fun, as there was a room change and it was so packed students had to sit on the floor. Also met a professor whose dissertation was on the units of measurements in the ancient world, which he gave in Crete. We exchanged some Greekities.

Shortly thereafter we discovered that Weston's flap was not the noise we'd heard. These nice V-DUB folks fixed him up good and we even bought a new window-roller-thingy cheap so that I could again roll my window up and down to ask for directions or get fresh air.

Still haven't fixed the clutch, which was reported to be on its last clutch-legs in Santa Fe. We totally believe that, due to some observed behaviors of the pedal, such as it not working every 5th time, but we're trying to avoid the $600 for as long as possible.

While Weston was repaired, Rob and Syba waited outside the library for it to open. Surprisingly, Syba was able to go inside with us, in the foyer area. If you bring her in with authority, and a touch of looking like you need a guide dog, it's a no-fail endeavor. More on that in my next blog.

This has no matching picture, unfortunately, but on the border of Irving and Dallas, there is a most excellent Korean buffet, all vegan. Try it out if you're in the area. BUT, after a screening at Texas Christian U, the professor heartily recommended this place:

Which I would 2^nd. The vegan cake was most delicious:

(again, for the Movement), as was the Seitan Philly:

The shake was equally great, according to Rob, who tried to make it look like I ate it by taking this picture,

When really, I only spilled it:

(in the shape of a jack-in-the-box clown-head).

It's true that the birds fly south.

In Fort Worth, we played at a DIY space called 1919 Hemphill, then screened my documentary.

Rob took that last picture. Also on the bill were Zwounds:

and Smitten Kittens:

I was very happy to meet a fellow-leafleter that Rob and I (mostly Rob) leafleted with in this area. She and her husband came out to the show and screening as well which was awesome.

At this show we met a professor who has Synesthesia so he sees sounds and hears colors. He drew a picture while we were playing, and later told us about the reason Mandarin evolved to have very similar sounding words with vary disparate meanings.

After this night we headed to Austin. It was about a week before SXSW, so not crazy yet. I'd still like to participate in SXSW, but thought we would have to be on a label to get a showcase, even if this isn't stated. Some locals told me we should play it, and didn't need to be affiliated with a label. I'm not into the hype surrounding much-publicized events...I prefer to find sneaky cool things that no one knows about but a small community. But again, as with living in NY, I think it would be interesting to experience. Just so I can say that it sucked with authority. Or quite possibly, and most likely, the opposite.

“Hi, How Are You?” Have you seen the documentary, the Devil & Daniel Johnston? It's really good.

There was a great wifi cafe with vegan food and an outdoor yard to sit in complete with Syba, the Bouldin Creek Coffeehouse. Rob and I worked there most of the day and night from 3 pm till 10 or so, and routed the NE portion of our tour. It took awhile because I needed to figure out which universities would still be open so we could priorize them on our route.

Here are some more suggestions for veg food in Austin: http://vegoutaustin.com/archives/2009/03/vegetarian-vegan-sxsw.html

Also screened at University of Texas, Austin. Nice campus with large trees. We'd been in the desert so long (a month) that it was a relief to see some vegetation. I think this is still the desert. But more greenery.

Has anyone heard of trumpet mushrooms? I saw these for cheap at the coop, and bought them immediately for a new-myo experience.

I stir-fried them in olive oil, salt, and garlic. They were pretty boring and bland. Shitakkes are much tastier. Perhaps I did something wrong, and didn't bring out their true potential? I say this because at a subsequent store they were priced at about $35 per pound...pretty steep compared with the average portobello ($5-10) or shitakke ($7 – 14).

Before we left Austin we played a show at the very manly Headhunters Club.

I do not call something manly lightly. Disagree with me if you will, but here's why this club qualified:

Pro-wrestling played simultaneously on multiple televison sets;
Patrons and employees grunted and shouted at said sets;
When I asked for the merch table, the bartender said, “I'll get a strong man to carry it down for you, it's heavy!”
I was one of maybe three women there the entire night;
Um, 'Headhunters' I think were/are men?

In any case, none of this mattered to me when I saw the joy on Robey's face when he realized that the sound man was his childhood hero:

Do you recognize him? Me neither, but apparently Rob played this man's album over and over again 1,000 times back in the day. He was the singer for SOD (Storm Troopers of Death). To top it off, he recently went vegetarian and was very interested in recipes and other information.

I just did a quick wiki-search and must offer preemptive defense on behalf of Young Rob (YR), who did not embrace the message of the lyrics but liked the guitarwork. Rob is most welcoming and does not believe English is necessary, particularly to be enforced by death, but rather, was attracted to the Star-Wars reference in the band name. I have made this defense up without discussing at all with client Rob (or YR), but it is based on solid evidence including a Star Wars VCR tapes collection worn through by repeated viewings. Defense # 2 is: Guns n' Roses. I think a lot of folks -- maybe even you?! -- listened to ol' Axl and some of his lyrical commentary BITD. As Joe Elliot of Def Leppard said, "it's not the WORDS, it's how they sound..." To think they were my favorite band.

There were five bands on the bill the SOD sound night, which made things very quick-quick-and rushy. We played with this band from San Fran:

and this band Human Circuit from Austin, who I will think will go to places in the sky:

Listen to "Donkey Show." Besides, they were super nice and good to us.

Next we headed off to Houston, to be reported in the next blog.

For now, I wanted to share with you an article about the brain. I found it after I heard the story on NPR. Basically, the study finds there is a genetic componant to IQ, *however,* the brain can do push-ups and even excel as we age (rather than decline, as often thought). Looky here:

"The wires between the brain cells, the connections, are the things that you can modify throughout life," he says. "They change and they improve through your 40s and 50s and 60s." --From "Smart People Really Do Think Faster"

So maybe I'll remember things better in my next decade. For now, I'm working on, as the article suggests, doing mental jumping jacks via crosswords and more Greek-language learning.

Eleni

PS - I updated the BB site for now: www.belovedbinge.com. Adam's design was WAY better but I messed it up due to not understanding how to update new fangled style-sheets. Or some other non-HTML format. So for now, it's HTML 4, baby!

PPS - We're gonna be back for a couple week to play Duofest III! 4/18! Awesome duos! Schedule should be posted here soon -- DUOFEST III.

Hollywood Syba and Other Stories

2009-02-11T14:57:00.022-05:00

The only thing better than Hollywood Syba is my new favorite food, Taquitos:

They remind me of the Taco Time deep-fried crisp burritos, and I must find out how to make these. I am hoping some humble soul in Durham could request them for the new Coop...pleeeeeese? My favorite is the above chipotle flavor. Notice how chipotle is all the rage for the last few years? What happened to jalapeno?

Along this same cuisine theme, here I showcased a little Vlacho Nacho with some Weston-made guac and black bean hummous, the latter mixed with Soy Chorizo (a delicious addition & available in many mainstream groceries).

Though not quite Bento, you might note this dish is an attempt at a face with bucked teeth. Disregard the chipped plate.

Last blog we left off leaving Portland. Spent a few days in Forest Hills, Oregon, screening the documentary at Pacific University for the Students for Environmental Awareness group. The organizer Tina did an awesome job of promoting as evidenced by this lifesiized poster announcing the event.

Imagine a little man standing below, the size of a brick.

Rob also helped promote, complete with his Herbivore “Vegetarianism is Environmentalism” shirt.

While in the Pacific Northwest, which seemed like forever, I kept reminding myself to take a picture of the grey to showcase one of the reasons I left. It's sort of hard to capture on camera, but I think this sufficiently represents day to day life for months and months...

And this is around noon. Needless to write, I was very happy when we landed near Redding to find this odd, shimmering thing, perhaps an alien aircraft:

My vitamin D immediately tripled.

Syba has not relented in her quest for front seat privledges. I tried to block her with my sweater, but this was no match for Syba's focus and determination.

Back in Eugene, Oregon, we played at Luckey's Cigar Club with the fun and fellow-off-kilter Launchpad. They had all sorts of toys and instruments and of course were space creatures.

As was their set, the accompaying set list(s) were elaborate:

We played too (photo taken by Launchpad).

Closing the night were Cymbaline:

After we left the show Weston continued to have stalling issues. He stalled in an intersection where three men were kind enough to push him so Rob could pop the clutch. Thanks, men.

Rob and I eat pretty well on the road as you might guess from reading this blog. Every morning we have breakfast, usually oat-flour pancakes with banannas and/or apple, topped with flax seed meal, agave, and earth balance butter. But sometimes we'll scramble. Usually weekends when we don't have to be anywhere right away in the am.

Here is some breakfast scramble I made, with Shirle's smoked Paprika sprinkeld on top. Food is sort of naked now without this spice:

In Medford, we played at Johnny B's, a 50's inspired bar run by the friendly Johnny.

Sharing the bill was Elly Swift:

Elly was one of those songwriters that pulls you in with a story mixed perfectly in halves: one part reflective sadness, and another of fun. It seems very few performers can visibly pull in an audience on the strength of their voice/songs alone, but she did this. Listen to "Ode to the Workin' Man" and "Noodle." The music is not new, meaning, she evokes someone from an earlier era. Ghosts, maybe.

We also enjoyed Absinthe Rose who played and kindly set up the show. I thought of alerting the copyright office in Durham when I saw they had a saw player as well as a washboard.

We arrived to Redding California on a Sunday, and promptly went NY Times-searching. The Sunday edition is like a present (Book Review! Magazine! Style! News!) so when the local Barnes and Noble reported they only carry one Sunday edition, and of course that had been sold, we felt like we found coal in our stockings. Luckily Starbucks Claus nearby had several copies.

We found a local park pictured here, where we read and played with the Bear for a few hours before our show.

Our all-ages show that night was at a newer venue called the Downtown Eatery. The dedicated man who books shows does all he can to make this place a destination. In addition to bringing bands in he hosts movie and other themed nights. He's awesome.

That night we played with Seattle's Iji, catchy, fun, engaging:

who also guest-starred in Boston's very excellent Math, the Band:

Math the Band set up in the middle of everything and people danced all around them. One audience member drove 60 miles to see them. He's dancing in the picture here, to the left of Iji's bassist.

We also got a new fan.

Kolbiter was the local band who kindly hosted the show with their introspective songfullness.

On inauguration day, Rob and I were at a reststop in between Ashland, OR, and Redding, California. We went backwards to screen my film for the Active Social Skeptics (yes, ASS) at the University of Southern Oregon.

Fortunately we were able to hear the ceremony on the radio 1940's style. Though I felt sad to miss seeing what was described (ex: Obama's daughters 'skipping' up to the stage) I felt a tremendous relief and a feeling I can only describe like a washing. Hope is pictorally rendered here in Mt. Shasta, as seen from Weston while we listened:

After the screening, we headed back to California for our next show at the Stud Bar. On the way, some birds reminded us that traveling by Weston is a pretty boring compared to this:

We arrived in San Francisco to play the show that Vroom kindly set up for us via the Midtown Dickens! Thank you Vroom! Thank you Midtown Dickens!

Here is Rob in front of the Stud Bar with a man who called himself Flava-Flav.

He also said he'd watch Weston for us. The folks at the Stud Bar were super-kind to us and the bartender even had an older Westfalia. We played with Pinched Nerve:

That night we camped in Berkeley as we'd be leafleting there the following day. We found a Whole Foods and even vegan cupcakes there. I did not take a picture of them, thankfully, as they were not worthy of vegan cupcakedom. I think they mixed in whole wheat flour into the frosting. Or make that Buckwheat flour. The opposite of light and fluffy.

In San Jose we played at Streetlight Records with Serenity Now, who were kind to let us on their bill last minute. I don't think the show went very well for BB. In fact, it went poorly. The mic levels were uneven, we were sloppy, and i was cranky. But the woman who runs this store was very, very nice and there are many finds here, record-wise.

Later that night we made up for this poor display of BB and performed at the Caravan Lounge downtown, which I hear is like the Cheers of San Jose. We played with the fun Black Acacias, as well as two other bands. Here are three of the Black Acacias:

I really liked them. Great bass rice noodling and guitar surprises with drum fillings. Plus the singer took off his clothes at the end (well, one layer) which I tried to capture for you all but my batteries died.

Three of the four Black Acacias also came to my screening in San Francisco! They are on my happy good list forever now.

Just like my family in San Jose.

We stayed with my mom's sister and her spouse, two of our favorite people anywhere. The above pic includes my cousin and his family, too. Syba loved it there and helped keep watch with their dog, Molly.

We left for a few days to screen the film in San Luis Obispo at Cal Poly with the Hellenic Society. Here I am performing the intro, which is very unlike BB's intro:

And with a couple of members of the Hellenic Society, or as I call them, my Fellow Greeks!

My friend Joe calls me a Greek supremacist, which I'm not sure is possible since I'm only 1/2 Greek. But it's a really bold-roast half, if it were coffee.

An audience member kindly covered the screening here: Vegan Soapbox. This is an awesome blog with a lot 'o relevant updates.

Next we headed to Bakersfield. In pursuit of wireless in Bakersfield, I walked a few miles to the public library. This is the first library system I have encountered without wifi (actually, the Forest Grove library did not have wifi either, but this was mitigated by the City's free wifi accessable from the library).

Crestfallen, I asked the librarian where I might find wifi. She recommended Long John Silvers, apologetically, based on a sign on their door advertising “Free Wifi.”

I couldn't even remember what Long Johns Silvers was. A steakhouse? In any case, I walked the few miles back to the supposed location and only found a strip mall. I inquired at three locations about wifi, and finally walked into a Verizon Wireless outlet. Thought they might know where local wifi spots were. Course they don't, silly me, they are there to sell things. Like a handy wireless card which I could buy and have wifi “all the time!” and “anywhere!”What Verizon Man (VM) didn't understand was I don't want to have wifi all the time. If I'm camping, I want to be camping. I want a reason not to work all of the time.

So after VM offered a two-year contract and discount on the purchase of the card thingy (all in about 5 seconds) I said, “I don't want access everywhere.” He paused. “Well, this can give you wifi anywhere!” I repeated my disdain for anywhere. "Oh, you want freedom,” he said. Ding ding, ding! Ding! Ding! I was then rendered useless to him, as freedom is not for sale. He had no idea where wifi was.

Why repeat this story of toil and turbulance? I'm curious if YOU want to be available all the time, whether this is by cell phone, wireless, beeper (do people still have beepers?), satellite, or, of course, the ever popular facimalle.

To your humble Binge, this availability is akin to walking around with your screen saver on until someone presses your space bar. Just shut me the &*^% down.

I screened the film at California State, Bakersfield the next day, for the Philosophy Club.

I can't begin to tell you how happy I am to have met the leader of this club, who was very thoughtful. She made delicious stuffed mushrooms for the event complete with two fillings, even – one pesto, the other a walnut-sage-stuffing kinda wonderment.

Happily she and some club members went out with us that night and also made it out to our show the next day:

We played with a local band at the Silver Fox Bar. I'm kicking myself right now (ouch) but for the life of me cannot recall their name, and thus only have this picture:

This lack of memory is not speaking to the band, they were awesome and nice. It was even the bassist's birthday and we led/conducted a song. It is more a reflection of their being added last-last minute and my juggling booking, screenings, shows, and promotions.

The Silver Fox Bar establishment was recommended by the journalist N.L. Belardes, who kindly interviewed us about our tour (bakersfield.com). He even sent our press release out to the local tv stations who covered the events, and recommended we include TV in our press blitzes. (Our first round of TV releases landed us a spot on AM Arizona, which aired on 2/9 in front of 2 million viewers, I think. Pictures next blog!).

Rob and I left that night to head back to San Jose. Weston had still been acting up and stalling. I had to push, run, then jump into him while Rob popped the clutch then held down the accelerator to ensure he did not stall. A couple of men walked by asking, 'why do you have her doing that?' referring to the pushing and helped push the van. Apparently they did not know I was the arm-wrestling champion in a small village of Greece (when I was 12).

On our way back to San Jose from Bakersfield we encountered a source of both an odor that permeates Bakersfield (the Bakersfield Smell, or BS) and my veganism.

Back in 2002 we eloped and took a 6 month 'we got married and let's take a trip' trip, flying overseas to travel through Europe and visit family in Greece, then returning to my family in Toronto, then Rob's family in Connecticut, and bought an '88 Suburu stationwagon (with power windows!) for $500.

We drove Subey across the states, visiting family, toward Seattle. We took the Southern route and even had a song: “We are traveling across the states, in our Suburu, '88, the Southern route we'll go! We'll sleep in our car (that'll get us far!), the Southern route we'll go...” I will not clutter your minds with the rest of the song, but we did include something about driving with expired temporary plates and camping.

The name/idea for Beloved Binge was also then born in Los Angeles, the perfect hospital for excess and consumptatude. On I-5 driving toward San Jose, Rob and I came upon the smell and sight of the Harris Ranch, a feed lot for cows who become beef. Unfortunately the scene has not changed since 2002 when we passed by. I took some pictures this time around as well:

It's hard to capture here the sheer number of cows on stretches of land, black and brown spots as far as you can see. It is overwhelming. At the time I saw it, I realized the cost of our choices to make meat and dairy such a large main part of our diets. They were here, left, abandoned, awaiting the hellish transport and slaughter. Nothing to graze upon – just mud. (Of course their pitiful condition allows them to be outdoors at this stage unlike chickens and pigs crammed in sheds then in cages or crates.)

It broke my heart back in 2002, so I began to look into the dairy and egg industries. After reading about how animals are raised, transported, and slaughtered, I had no choice but to stop eating these products eventually.

Finally we made it back to San Jose. We were lucky to catch my aunts' practice. They are in this awesome outfit called BAGAL (Bay Area Gays & Lesbians). There is a joy and discovery that permeates their playing. They're a whole lot of fun.

I especially love that they made their own version of “Here Comes Santa Claus” (see right).

Here Comes Santa BAGAL, indeed!

The next day I screened my film at San Francisco State.

I screend the film for the Student Dietetic Association as well as the Institute for Civil and Community Engagement, in a huge auditorium within the (related?) Cesar Chavez center.

As a bonus I met the person who runs screenings and shows in another part of the center, and she had some very helpful information about distribution and the business in general. She's also a former member of AC/DShe and current member of the reunited Gutter Sluts (don't Google that unless you want some interesting results). In addition to that she's a film producer.

The screening at Stanford was a lot of fun since there was wonderfully delicious dishes of free vegan food upon food. Dessert was tirimisu.

My aunts came to this screening! The audience was very lively and I'd like to use them for a laugh track for other versions. I am theorizing that folks loosen up more when they are seated around tables, particularly in a comfortable food/meal setting. The Stanford AR group was kind to host and arrange this event somewhat later-minute.

I still need to download pictures from UC Berkeley's screening, our show in LA, the TV show, screening and snow storm in Prescott, and our show in Phoenix. Next time.

For now, I leave you with the most beautiful song in the world that I discovered the other day when I was listening to my Bon Iver channel on Pandora. The artist is Joseph Arthur. I just downloaded and bought the EP it is on, Could We Survive. The song is "King of the Pavement." You can hear it here:

http://www.last.fm/music/Joseph+Arthur/_/King+of+the+Pavement

For some reason, when listening to this song, everything is better than OK.

Goodbye Hibernation Hello Road

2009-01-08T15:24:00.052-05:00

My family home, updated, in Arbor Heights, Seattle. Nana moved here in about 1945 before Mom was born. Mom grew up here, then I did. Here are Mom and her husband Allen standing on the porch to see us off (after Weston started post-stalling/flooding). If you look at the window to the left, you can see Nana's little head watching too.

Saying goodbye to Nana is a different type of leaving. I remember when we'd leave Karditsa, our dad's home in Greece. My grandparents, especially Yaya, would cry. I'd always wonder why they were crying, but realized later they assumed they'd never see us again. Also this sadness is the recognition of our mortality and inevitable end. Leavings are kind of a reminder of this loss. So I try to memorize things, and remember them as if for the last time.

Image courtesy of http://peakenergy.blogspot.com/2008/08/how-to-travel-by-cargo-ship.html.

A couple of weeks ago I was wondering if I'd die early because I'm not really settled and want to fit a lot in, travel and adventure-wise. This was sort of after the thought about how it would be awesome to travel by cargo ship to Greece. Or at least to Europe, then tour. I mean, come on, take a look and imagine yourselves here:

Image Copyright Maris USA Ltd.

It was then that I realized, if I had only a few months to live, this is exactly what I'd be doing, health permitting. Mixed in with this is missing the homestead, the steadiness of our porch, Durham. But the contrast is necessary.

To start from where we left off last blog, for Thanksgiving, we stopped in Ellensburg and were kindly invited to screen the film and share food with the Ellensburg Veg Society. This desert town was so cold that the organizers kindly let us stay in their guest dome. I completely forgot to take a picture of it, but just imagine the coolest guest dome ever.

Thanskgiving dinner was potluck-style. I made and brought some ch'n fried seitan and russian teacakes. Lemme tell you, there is nothing more heartwarming than seeing a foot-long Field Roast being carved on a wooden block, then passed around the table. These are my people.

After arriving in Seattle safely through the pass we played a show at the Sunset with our friends Arbitron, seen above. Picture an explosion. Except for instead of running, you hang out to see what will happen. You're glad you stayed, even though you sustained something.

Also sharing the bill were the awesome Le Shat Noir (whom I was unable to photograph during their set so they kindly posed here). But several photos would be required. The keyboardist has some sort of remote control unit, and is therefore able to wheel around his keys on a walker, moving around pinball-style while the singer Doug pitches himself into the audience. All this and great songs too. You can listen to them live on KEXP on 2/28.

Soon thereafter Seattle had the worst snowstorm, or the best, as your view may be, since forever or when I was a kid. When it started, we were like, oh, yeah, this is Seattle, it will be gone by noon. Syba immediately took advantage and shoved her face into it as if it were goat droppings (as seen above).

I took advantage by gathering clean snow for snow soup, which in my mind, is snow, vanilla, soy milk, and sugar. It was delicious. The picture above is pre-soup.

I also made a snowwoman complete with a full-sized head and anatomically correct chestage, however, there was an accident overnight, and I had to redo the head the following morning.

Needless to say, I was cold and not as ambitious as the night before.

Syba did her usually running in circles and snow-bathing.

We decided to put the plastic lid of a garbage can to use and sled down my old hill.

Rob wasn't as enthused as I, but eventually saw the benefits.

There is something about snow and cold that says to me, "Eleni, eat fat and sugar." To honor this request, I made a series of veggie pot pies (pictured below), cakes, cookies, and lasagne alfredos. To illustrate 'cause and effect,' my body stored some of these meals in the form of 13 additional pounds over my arrival-weight.

Next we went to Rainier, Washington to see Rob's family. Given my dedication to eating, we should have walked. Weston barely made it up the driveway and we all had to pile in to get him to the house.

I have never made a gingerbread house from scratch. Every year I announce, "I'm going to make a gingerbread house" (to rob). Then it does not happen, and of course, by 12/26, it's too late. Sure, when I was a kid I made the lame cop-out graham cracker house. But that's nothing. Luckily, Rob's ma not only knows how to make a gingerbread house, but she showed me the magic of the pie cutter thingy and one other trick I'm forgetting.

These are all her house pieces she made, baked.

She made an extra wall in case of accidents. Or because she knew we'd be "helping." Here is Rob with his sister, Melanie. For someone who had resisted the idea of making the house, Rob seemed kinda serious about it.

Here is Margaret (sister-in law), Sue (ma) me, and Melanie.

Below, house in progress. Tall glasses are inside so it will stand up. It was almost a vegan house, too...I think there was only one stray apple ring & marshmallow smoke that had gelatin.

And, o'course, the completed home.

Ever since this trip began, Rob has been craving pumpkin pie. Rob's ma kindly made a few vegan pies, including the apple one. I also made another veggie pot pie. She has this great stoneware that makes me never want to use the metallic crap again. She said it makes them bake evenly.

As part of our Seattle trip it is necessary to eat at certain vegan establishments. One of these was Hillside Quickie. To my horror, they were out of the Gyros that day. However, this forced me to actually try something different. I had this chipotle cilantro wonderment that was a New Taste.

After this, I was determined to make the cilantro sauce. I bought some cilantro, Veganaise, and chipotle sauce, and brought these to Rainier. Unfortunately, in my haste I had picked up Italian Parsley instead of cilantro, and was quite disburbed (culinarily). But, in making lemonade out of lemons, I made this casserole anyhow, and it was pretty filling and melty-good.

I can't recall exactly what I put in this, but it included torillas, beans, a veganaise/chipotle/garlic/nutritional yeast/salsa mixture, olives, corn, onions, and tomato sauce.

Did you know that goats eat evergreen trees? Me neither. But now it is documented, right on Rob's family farm.

Syba has some neurosis, including fear of bicycles, water bottles, Weston, and horses. We can now officially add goats and cows to the list. She was very suspicious of the goats and after a few days drummed up the courage to sniff them nose-to-nose style, albeit with a slight growl of confidence.

We met some calves as well. When another cow mooed, Syba ran for the house with her tail between her legs, looking back several times to ensure the cow was not following. It was a pretty intimidating moo.

Back in Seattle, we visited our friends Lynn and Tom, who share their home with urban chickens (Tom's lap).

Usually the chickens are kept outside, on the ground, but it was particularly cold this night.

Due to the snow, we had to postpone and cancel a lot of visits. We really did have a white x-mas this year. I made pancakes and hashbrowns. I seasoned the hashbrowns with these life-saving spices Chef Shirle sent us, Somach and Smoked Paprika.

I tried to google "Somach spice" because I'd never heard of it, and google asks me, "do you mean stomach spice?" and yields no useful results. Whatever it is, it's damned good and tangy. I also used this in my last veggie pot pie, which really brought the roux alive.

While in Seattle we worked on a few new songs. It's pretty hard to find opportunities to set up the whole kit and practice. One time we asked the club if we could play early. So it was nice to set up in the living room and have a most enthused audience member (Nana).

During one song she invented this sitting dance I'm going to call The Nana which involves a jerky opening of both arms while simultaneously rolling up eyes and opening mouth. It was awesome and I love her for it.

Speaking o' family, our show at Le Voyeur was surprisingly attended by some Shelton and Woodinville family members...as well as Rob's family. As you may discern from the pictures, it was cooler than a tofu-locker back there.

Photo by Margaret Gilbirde.

Photo by Melanie Gilbride.

We played first, because, well, it would have been late for some of our family.

Following us solo-Young Mothers performed with and around the audience. We're playing with them (full-band-style) in Tucson. Great songwriting & performance + nice fella = we like.

We were excited to share the floor with Clawform, aka our little Durham eyeball Colin, who brought his black metal badness to the show. Ending the night was another of Ian's projects, which, when I asked him the name, he replied "I don't know." However, by the end of the night, he did in fact have a name, which I remember being catchy, but forgot it.

In any case, who needs a name when you have dueling/dueting metal (black metal?) droning violins?

The next night we played in Portland at The Know. It was an early show set to end at 10:30 pm. Pictured above are Paper Brain, who will be releasing an album soon, stay tuned.

We also played with Babies Got Rabies, a fun switch-a-roonie band short a member that night but still sounding full.

Luckily our good friend tofu-mama hooked us up with his friends in Portland and we stayed a few nights in a grand old house nearby everything with nice, nice folks.
So I'm in Portland, the land of Vegan shangri-la, and haven't even mentioned vegan cupcakes.

Here you see the result of a cupcake being so good that I forget to take a picture of it until half-way through. This was a pink-flavored cupcake. The frosting firm, but giving. Moist cupette.

Later that night, I screened my film at Sweet Pea Bakery where this cupcake lived its short life. Herbivore, who some of you might know as the coolest-coolest place to accesorize veg-style, was kind enough to get the word out about the screening, and, not evident from this photo, the room was full o' people and also cupcakes.

I forgot to take pictures of some of our visits, but this is it in a candy-coated nutshell. We're off to Forest Grove and then south from there, which will be good as the skies have been grey and misty every day.

Oh...and I forgot to mention that in December I also screened the documentary at Seattle Pacific University, the University of Puget Sound (Tacoma) and at my alma mater, the University of Washington (at which were mom, Nana, and Allen).

Blow Up Radio (NJ) voted Blender Theory as one of the top 50 releases of 2008, and I think we made some kind of WXDU top 66 and Ross list too. Thank you, list makers!

The Olympian also wrote a feature about our tour. We forgot to pick up a paper, so if anyone has a copy let us know.....

ox
bingeoid

PS - an important PS to Durham and Triangle-ites.

There is a benefit show on Friday at BCHQ with some amazing bands for an amazing person, Alex. He has been wonderfully supportive of the music and arts community, and you might have heard of his company, Urban Footprint Films. Please show your love...here is the post by Midtown Dickens:

http://blog.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=blog.view&friendID=18430528&blogID=462182942

Soy Sundaes are a Part of the Food Groups

2008-11-24T17:35:00.047-05:00

I'm not sure why we're still craving sundaes when there is frost on the ground, but if soy sundaes were on our food pyramid, they'd be right on the bottom with grains.

Lucky for us, there has been plenty of hiking to balance out this caloric indulgence. Boulder, Colorado takes your breath away, literally, due to the high altitude. We went to Chautauqua Park and hiked part way up this mountain (Rob and Syba, exhibit A, below).

This is the view from part way up.

After a nice hike, it's helpful to use leftover whipped soy topping on freshly pressed coffee.

It's advisable to wash this down with Barbara's banana chocolate chip bread. She and her partner run this company.

Syba likes bread, but she likes rolling in dead grass better.

Classic reststop shot.

We recommend the Rocket Room. Nice staff, you're paid, AND you get your name on the marquee.

(we are now called AND MORE). We played with Transit Vibes:

and MORE:
This is DJ Juicebox (Chris Bullock). Thanks to the Colorado Springs Independent for writing about the show.

We changed our name back for our show the next night at the Lion's Lair.

Though the folks were nice, I don't recommend playing here, survival-wise. The show started pretty late after a jazz band played. Despite there being about 20 people at $7 each in attendance on a Sunday night, we weren't paid. According to the sound person, we were lucky: even though he didn't make his full $75, he wasn't going to charge the bands for the remainder.

To be fair to the club, they were very up front about the payment policy and also were extremely clear that you would need locals on the bill in order to draw. This would be a better place to play from Wed - Sat, and/or with a larger draw.

The Jazz band had an awesome double bass player. Enough said.

We played with Gata Negra, which reminded me a little bit of the early Seattle riot grrl music,

and the Firebird 4000 project, who were a creative duo that will be hitting the road for a year as well. Mostly rock climbing, but they'll be booking shows out East too, so stay tuned.

Here we are with our newly named band, the Broncos:

After Denver, we headed to Fort Collins, CO. After screening my film at the university (for the philosophy club) we headed to Wyoming. At the Walmart we were woken up and faced with our first hecklers. "What're you doing in there?" (trying to sleep) and "We know why the windows are steamed up!" (boiling water for tea to stay warm). But they were clever, indeed. After that same night, the first snow:

More than a roll in dead grass, Syba loves on the snow.

Making snow-puppies.

Another way to warm up is by cooking breakfast. This is tempeh, sliced thin, marinated first with agave and Bragg's.

Wyoming:

I liked the Southern part of the landscape. We didn't find gold, and filed a complaint.

We headed to Laramie to leaflet, then onward to Gillette, Wyoming, to play a show at Primetime Paintball, a paintball-game-shop-turned-skateboard-shop, owned by this nice fella:

Unfortunately, Syba found a lot of pizza on the ground and regifted it all over three separate rugs in the shop. There really was no quicker way to clear out the room, much to the chagrin of the first band. I recommend it to clubs trying to close at night. We played with another touring band (Chicago) called Mutual Divorce:

They had some nice bass line changeup action. The kind folks that set up the show are called the Phantasmagorias. They were a lot of fun and included different instruments and songs about "Big Trucks!" (Travel to Gillette, WY, and you'll see why.)

Our next stop, leafleting-style, was Billings, Montana. Here is Rob in action with team Syba:

It really can't get much cuter than this. Who wouldn't take a leaflet?

Speaking of not cute, last blog I mentioned prop 8, the bill that passed banning same-sex marriage in California. After a quick look at Jointheimpact.com, we found a protest taking place in Bozeman. Luckily they had extra signs:

Though reportedly conservative, there were many supporters of the protest. After working at the library, we went to the local coop:

Again, no matter the town, it has been very easy to be vegan. Not only to be vegan, but to eat well. This coop had most of our favorites and, like most coops, a good local selection. The people of Bozeman were some of the nicest. The cashier here offered his place to us, and almost everyone we talked to (except when leafleting the college) was nice. Later that night we played at the Filling Station, part VFW:

The place has been around since the 70s, and it shows. There must be about thirty layers of booze and smoke lining the entire inside. Showering was mandatory after spending a few hours there. But they cater to touring bands, going out of their way to ensure you get a show booked. Plus the folks that worked there were friendly and we had an awesome sound person. The bill did get overbooked, and there were six bands. The first, a beatboxer, goes by his name, Nate:

He was an amazing modern-day Bobby McFerrin with layers of vocal percussion making whole, complex songs he'd rap poetry over. We attended his birthday party a couple of days later. We're meeting such nice people, I'm gonna have to retract my Miso song.

Pete, who is playing here with part of his band the Salamanders, was the nice one to let us on the bill. Another solo act, then another band, Just Add Alcohol played, and Enemy of the Gypsy closed:

We aired out the smoke the next day on a hike. Though it was freezing, Syba remained dedicated to staying cold, and took every opportunity to dive into the river.

Here she is avoiding Weston.

Rob, reflecting.

If only all farms were like this:

Of course those few cows aren't enough to keep up with the 'billions and billions served.'

Bozeman was very dog-friendly. Unleashed dogs were pretty common on hikes, including this urban hike located next to the public library. We hit this path every morning during our stay in Bozeman.

Our next stop was Missoula. They had an awesome not-coop with better prices than the Bozeman coop. They also had Sunspire's vegan m&ms (dark chocolate).

We played the Badlander. Highly recommended, bands. There was a good crowd, specially for a Wednesday night,

and an awesome local opened. They are called Friedrich's Teeth. I think they should move to Durham.

Another favorite new band, Times New Viking (Ohio) headlined. The keyboardist/songwriter/singer is vegan! They are playing in Seattle @ Neumos on 11/21 so check them out.

Before leaving Montana, Weston refused to start for an hour. But then he started. So, I'm thinking, that's OK. On our way to Spokane, we stopped in Alberton, MT, to see an old friend of Rob's. He makes guitars out here. It was about 8 miles from the highway on a gravel road. We all hiked up the mountain by his cabin/house.

Rob had to wear orange due to his deer-like appearance (brown hat, coat). In fact, some hunters now apparently don't even get out of their trucks to shoot. Some slowly cruise by, windows rolled down, gun out window, and bang. One hunter shot a deer right in their front yard. Of course, unlike supermarket meat, the deer got to live, presumably, a good life before death to drive-by. Unless the deer suffered from depression.

By the way, Durham-people, what are you doing 12/6? I think you should head to the Pinhook to see/hear/experience Sequoya's CD release. Also on the bill are new Subdivision 67'ers Scientific Superstar and Sawteeth McTweedy. If that ain't enough (are you people never satisfied?!) Lake and Hennepin, Reese's new project, will also be performing. See links at the link above.

The x-mas music has started, which only means one thing. It's time to make vegan russian teacakes and peanut butter balls. Mama needs some new pants!

We're looking forward to seeing all our friends in the NW. We're playing at the Sunset 12/7, and screening my documentary at the UW on 12/4, and Seattle Pacific University 12/2. But first, I'm screening the film in Ellensburg on Thanksgiving.

Speaking o' celebration of life etc. here are some turkey alternates that'll fill your belly AND your soul, if'n you believe in souls: http://www.vegan.com/recipes/vegan-thanksgiving-recipes-robin-robertson/

A new tradition: http://www.adoptaturkey.org/

I think we're ready for a break. I miss houses without wheels.

Love & sweet treats,

eleni

We Sure Missed Our Porch Last Night

2008-11-05T16:08:00.045-05:00

O'bumpkin. Located in Kansas City, Missouri. Oh, ya, America!

And here is Rob anticipating the results of the election, at a bar in downtown Boulder. I think his look captured the excitement we all felt. I must say that I've never missed Durham more than the moment when Obama was declared our next President. I wanted to be celebrating with my Durham peoples. We met a nice couple of folks in Boulder, though, who sat at our table. There is something about a shared moment that brings folks together, for a little bit. People begin talking with one another. I was also very excited that Proposition 2 passed. My brother, Laki, called to tell me the result. He also brought the unfortunate news about Proposition 8, to ban same-sex marriage. This result makes me feel ill.

Before election day. Blender Theory was reviewed in the Duluth Budgeteer. I don't mind being goofy, if I'm not only goofy. You'll understand this assertion if you read the review.

Prior to heading to Vermillion, South Dakota, I stocked up with plenty of food thinking that we would not have access to our favorites for days (no soy ice cream, vegan cake, or soy creamer = cranky Binge). Even so, to our surprise, there was a small natural foods section in a Vermillion supermarket (½ an aisle) with some good options, but not enough to write about or photograph.

Traveling through our heartland has been a great reminder of the primary reason Rob and I are on the road. The drive from Minnesota to Vermillion, South Dakota was filled with trucks transporting cows either to slaughter or feedlots. The stench was unbearable. How anyone can work at these factory farms, and how animals, with heightened senses of smell, can tolerate it each day, is unfathomable.

I learned that Nebraska is #1 in the country for cattle-related pollution from a handly little map that shows each state with statistical views by the number of factory farms or animals: www.factoryfarmmap.org. It's colorful and interesting, take a look. (NC is #3 in hog production related pollution.) In any case, it is an odd juxtoposition, the idea that the people working out here in the stink, with songs blaring such as “I was borrrrn, a 3rd generation far-mer, married to Jenkins farmers daugh-ter...” produce the food eaten by those in the convenience and class of cities. The comfort of a candlelit restaurant, the cultured diner, and the nostalgic songs for farms of our ancestors is only part of what masks the process of animal to food to table. Honestly, it breaks my heart.

In Vermillion, we screened my film at the University of South Dakota. In the town there was still a faint smell, something you notice less over time. The Philosophy group students and professor were very fun to talk with and engaged with life (as opposed to married to it or having a fling: the balance between taking life too seriously and not seriously enough – um, goofy). Truly I enjoy people who struggle with the world, wrestling and poking it to see what makes a dent.

Prior to the screening Weston's right foot stopped working, brake-wise. He was in bad shape. We spent the night at our usual safe parking lot and took him in immediately the next morning. The bad news was the part he needed would not arrive for another few days, and I had two screenings to get to in Omaha Nebraska the next day.

I decided to take the Greyhound 2.5 hours away to Omaha. Good thing I checked the times, because the bus only leaves at 5:30 PM once per day. We rushed to the station, which was hidden behind some buildings and a parking lot, and were told they accept cash only. We walked down the busy arterial (it was raining and cold too, just to set the mood) and Rob found an ATM while I retrieved things I'd need for the next couple of days without Weston. We rushed back to the hidden station, where they issued the $36 ticket. I remarked that the bus was not there yet, to which the lady replied, casually, as if I should know, “Oh, you know that you catch the bus up the road at McDonald's?” We rushed to Mickey D's (still raining) and there I went. It was odd to leave Rob and Syba behind. We only have the one cell phone, because we're always close by.

Meanwhile I was hooking up a place to stay as well as a ride from the station. Lucky for me I was screening with one of the nicest folks, Jack, who runs Progressive Omaha. He and his wife picked me up at the station, carrying a cardboard sign with “Vlachos” written in black ink. They took me to the most vegan-friendly place in town, McFoster's, where I'd be screening the next day. They had vegan cakes and desserts, and some nice savory options as well: I ate the enchilada with a side of falafel. Also sharing Jack & Patty's home are Sadie & Bonkers:

The next day I screened first at the University of Nebraska, Omaha, for the Philosophy Club. I met the president of the local veg society, as well, who was kind enough to drive me to the next screening at McFoster's. We ate and I had the reuban I believe.

Upstairs, the screening was packed with folks from Progressive Omaha. The Q&A went well, with a few critiques. One man wanted to know why I was preaching to the choir (screening with a progressive group). I then asked how many vegetarians were in the room, to which about 8 hands out of the 35+ people went up. “There you see,” I said, “You're not the choir!”

The audience was very thoughtful and the discussion could have continued longer. It seems the same questions about protein/health and soy come up at each screening, so somehow, many folks are not getting the message that it is pretty darned healthy to be vegan, and we're not eating soy all of the time (85% of soy grown is used to feed farm animals, not soy-dog eaters).
Seems a good idea to have a diversified diet, in general. For instance, use different types of flour (spelt, whole wheat, oat, garbanzo, etc), drink different types of milk (soy, rice, almond) and eat a variety of protein sources (seitan, soy, other beans, broccoli, um, 100 other things). Oh, and don't forget to switch up the ice creams (soy, rice) and cake (cake).

Meanwhile, Rob debuted his solo career (the same which Acoustic Binge quit after dramatically thowing down her tamborine) in this fine town. He walked into a cool looking bar, told the manager his Situation, and she invited him to play for food, drinks, and some small cashola. He played for over two hours with some breaks, and, according to sources, performed some Binge originals (in addition to covers of the Doors and Iggy Pop). My ears were ringing in Omaha.

Finally Rob and Syba joined me in Omaha where we stayed another night with the kind Jack & Patty, who also gave us contacts in Lawrence as well as Missoula. We set off in new improved Weston for Kansas.

Even if, with all the hours and days of driving, Rob gets road rage (which for him is slightly frowning) no matter what maneuvers he makes with Weston (like cutting in front of someone while merging) I don't think anyone could be mad long. Weston just looks too cheerful and innocent to be angry with him. It's like driving a smile.

If you're going to go to a Walmart to have a nice, serene camping experience, do not go to Walmart Topeka. In fact, skip out on the Walmarts altogether. Actually, thus far the parking lots of your friendly not ma-pops have been fairly workable solutions to free in-city camping. Complete with bathrooms and security, it's practically a luxury hotel. They even clean the parking lot for you. But this very obsession with cleanliness led to quite a disruptive sleep in Topeka. It wasn't the clean that kept us awake initially, it was the dirty. You see, when we approach a WM parking lot for camping, we try to scope out the best possible location to do so. Top priorities are isolation, a green grass spot for Syba, and minimal freeway-age nearby. So in Topeka, we found such a spot, which even seemed to provide safe haven from overnight deliveries, a loud practice involving transfering more stuff people will buy cheaply and throw away responsibly.

We had just finished up a game of gin rummy, and I might have been protesting my loss (which I believe is due to some sort of Curse, naturally) when we were startled by an explosion. Then another. We deduced it was gunfire, and pretty darned close. Any concerns over The Curse were now secondary and we began to plan our relocation. As Rob moved to the front seat, the security guard (does the Hyatt have security guards?) rolled up in his truck, presumably to let us know they were on the trail of the shooter, but actually to ask us, “Do you know which direction the gun shots came from?”

Feeling confident of neither cleanliness nor safety, we relocated Weston to a spot less misonthropic but unfortunately along a main parking lot drag. Drivers zoomed by well into the night, some priding themselves in lack of mufflers and loud booming stereos.
Parties were replaced with gusts of wind, rippling our pop-top such that made me wake up Rob asking about tornadoes and Kansas, with the Wizard of Oz as my reference point.
Once the winds quieted, we woke up to excessive cleaning with one of those large cleaning machines. To supplement this noise, a man with a leaf-blower came through, seemingly spending most of his time right next to our van. It wasn't a good night.

It was this night in mind that caused a bit of loose spending. We splurged ($15) and camped at Lake Shawnee the next night. Sunday is our day to rest and read the NY Times, so after finding a copy we headed over to the lake.

Perhaps due to the night before, Rob broke in to the last batch of cookies made by the awesome Chef Shirle – the “Return to Durham” variety. After two months, they were still very delicious dipped in our coffees. Though we did not return to Durham physically, we're still there heart-wise. Kind of fitting for our current location of Kansas.

Speaking of there's no place like home, Rob and I took a detour the other day in search of the land of Oz, intrgued by a sign promising both a Wizard of Oz museum and an Oz winery in the town of Wamego. Upon arrival, it was pretty evident that the whole strip was contrived to take our hard-earned dollars (unless “Toto's Burritos” and the “Wicked“ stores were coincidental).

The museum charged $7 apiece for admission ($6 with AAA! Thanks!) so we skipped that entirely, but not before my asking a few strategic questions to determine if it was worth losing $12. You too can employ these questions, in any situation!

Q: “How long does it take to go through the museum?” A: $7 will buy you about 10 minutes, or 30 at the most. Analysis: That's like $.80 a minute! More than my cellphone!
Q: I also asked about the contents of the collection. A: The original colleciton was not there. Analysis: I don't know what that means, quality-of-experience-wise, but it sounded bad to me, so I proceeded to the next question.
Q: What is the significance of this location (did Dorothy click her heels here or something?) A: The Wizard of Oz was filmed in Hollywood. And, the story takes place in “the flat fields of Kansas...” Analysis: After spending some time in Kansas, that can be almost anywhere, folks.

Next, on to the Oz winery. They offer free samples, which is good since their wine was all priced at $18. I think the high price was due to the pictures of the Wicked Witch and the Tin Man on the bottles. We left without any wine. Perhaps our wine-price bar is too low ($6?). The absense of boxed Oz wine was also noted and regretted. I think the straw man would have loved boxed wine.

The town reminded me of Rosyln, WA, the site where Northern Exposure was filmed. The nice woman at the Oz Museum said that after their museum was built, all the other stores followed. The setting felt like an attempt to grab your wallet rather than your imagination. There is a tiny dotted line between preserving a familiar story and turning it into an enterprise. Sometimes they are inextricably connected, and I realize that. But not without complaint! However, I really did like the feel of this town. I don't mind a little wallet tugging, as long as I can resisit it.

On the way back to Manhattan, Weston decided to stall on route 23 and Rob wheeled him off to the side road. Luckily, he started again after a few minutes. A nice man who was a former aircraft mechanic said it might be our fuel pump. We've stalled a lot recently. But as long as he starts back up, that's not so bad. But a little bad.

We have had the best time in Kansas. One of the things that is very clear to me from two months on the road is one should not make assumptions about areas or people based on their remoteness.

After the above-mentioned camping excursion, we began our trip in Kansas with a show at Edesia's bakery.

Prior to the show, Rob and I filled out our absentee ballots, had them witnessed with two full signatures and addresses, and sent them off. I wanted to take a picture of our voting but forgot.

Edesia's is housed in an old historic building with tall tiled ceilings like BCHQ. The sound of hitting the tom rims produced such a brilliant ring that I wanted to incorprate this hit on everything.

The show was set up by Little Leauge Booking, run in part by the fabulous Kory of the band Dropjaw we shared the bill with. Also on the bill was DJ Spooky Toof, who I could not find online for the life 'o me. This is because Kory made him up. Toof was none other than Kory wearing a mask playing scary halloween music.

As a masquarade ball, attendees were expected to wear masks. Conveniently, a halloween shop lived across the street, and Rob and I were able to acquire intimidating masks. Rob wants to incorporate this look for all shows:

Kory took these pictures. After our set, we were treated to Dropjaw, Kory's rap project complete with freaky beats and much fun.

Here I am dancing like a zombie, per the request of the song that we all do so. It's kind of a step beyond asking the audience to clap their hands. It's a real commitment, but I must say that I totally dig dancing zombie style.

I'm sorry I missed Durham's zombie walk, but I'm hoping to drop these moves next year. In another song, Kory has us all imagining how it would be to ride our motorcycles naked through the desert. So here is what folks do.

Another good alternative to hand clapping. The guy pictured here, by the way, treated us first-rate. He works at Edesia's. If you're in Manhattan, check it out on Poyntz street. Everything is pretty close so there is no excuse to miss it.

A couple from Charlotte, NC were in attendance, discovered when we announced we were from NC, and clapping ensued.

After the show we decided to head back toward Kansas City, Missouri, where we would play a show at the Record Bar the next night. I spent most of the next day in the library working on bookings and promotion, as usual Mon-Sat. In addition to leafleting, Rob is handling the BB booking, mostly, which has been a great relief. Speaking of, do you know that Rob has handed more than 16,000 students “Even If You Like Meat” and “Compassionate Choices” brochures in the past two months? It really does add up. Amazing outreach that is quite easy and effective to implement.

We arrived to our show at the Record Bar thinking maybe we had the wrong night.

A country band was playing, complete with dancing. I actually really enjoyed it as an alternative to music I've been listening to. I also think it was nostalgic since I haven't seen live country music of this sort since the time I went to the Riverside in my early days with my good cousin-bud Tasha. Mostly I'd hear this music when we were cruisin' around in her truck (Junior) driving to concerts at the Gorge or Apple Blossom. Of course we were also listening to the humpty-hump at the time, which I really liked due to his 'my nose is big' and 'no I ain't ashamed' lyrics. The pickle comparison I can take or leave.

I must say that the Record Bar really takes care of you, band-wise. While the country band performs (which is every Tuesday) you're eating well and free. I particularly liked this: “Ask about our vegan options,” right on the front door of their website. In my mind, that's like saying, “I love you.” Rob ordred the Ian McKaye pizza:

while I opted for the Moby:

We also got free drinks. As if this wasn't enough, we met some really nice fellas in the other bands. Edincoat were the first to perform. All three members are law students, somehow fitting in this band plus their studies.

They are a creative bunch, with a little Replacements and REM skipping together with nice little guitar melody hooks. Plus they're really nice, and this was one of their first shows.

After we played, the next band Feverbell took the stage, complete with two photographers documenting the entire thing. Feverbell played a solid set and included extra-drums-in-front action that you see before you above.

We met the photographers (they also documented our set). One suggested that BB go to SXSW and busk since we have never and do not plan on applying for a showcase. From what I have gathered, doing SXSW seems like a waste of time. As the largest industry festival, it seems too obvious. I'm certain this cannot be entirely true – but for a band at our level, it is a step we're not yet set up for, fanbase or label-wise.

This same hesitation I have with attending graduations or other ceremonies. Something about the obligatory makes me want to run the other way. My only commitments can be to Rob and compassion. And vegan cake. But none of these feel like commitments.

Edincoat's drummer kindly offered his home that night, which was good because it was cold outside.

The next day we went to Lawrence, where I would screen my film for the Philosophy Club that night. What a nice bunch'o folks there. It was held in a chemistry lecture hall. Beneathe almost every chair was a school paper. We discussed the question brought up by the film, “what prevents ethical principles from being advanced into action?”

At the screening we also met two of Jack & Patty's contacts, nice folks that book local music venues, design cool stuff, and play music too. We hung out with them after the screening, having dinner then heading over to see Jonathan Richman (they got us in free...which was good because we made it in time for the encore only). Later, we went to another bar without a roof to get by the smoking ban. Had a couple of vegan sandwiches at Jimmy Johns too, then called it a night and slept over at their house. Jeff plays in a touring band called Split Lip Rayfield, and plays this bass he made himself out of an old gas can. Pretty darned cool – check 'em.

My next screening would take place at Kansas State University, an agricultural school, for the Philosophy Club. Animal Science students were invited, and by the Q&A, I was very aware of their presence based on the first question. I was happy that they were present, because, again, I want to start a conversation about our modern food production system and they are planning to play quite a role in this process. The first question/comment was that animal activists were showing the exception, not the rule. I pointed out that the gestation crates and battery cages were standard practice, and that is what I showed in the film. This is widely known and documented by the industry. The students then said that it is for the animal's protection. If this is so, I asked, why is the industry beginning to phase them out? And, take a look-see at the protection in action here and here umm, and here.

In any case, we had a great discussion and I hope to have diverse audiences at every screening. At one point, a man came in late toward the end of the Q&A and, according to Rob, Syba began to growl immediately. When he started to ask his question, Syba was in full almost-bark mode, and Rob had to calm her down. She must have sensed tension. I have to hand it to the students for attending, as it must have been intimidating to attend an event that discusses the problems with the industry in which they plan to build their careers in. We've heard from those in the industry, however. As an egg producer said opposed to Prop 2 said, “Do we want chickens to flap their wings? Or do we want to eat?”

Speaking of eating things without wings, on Halloween I made pumpkin pancakes. Do I have a future in framing pictures, or what?

Except maybe how the plate is chipped and the pancakes are a little burnt. I added canned organic pumpkin pie mixture to the flour, which cooks kinda fast. I had picked up the mix in hopes of making Rob a pumpkin pie. We'll have to wait until Seattle for that, but these pancakes, complete with walnuts, apples, and bananas, were yumly. I sprinkled some ground flax seed on top, along with tahini and agave nectar.

We worked all day (until 7pm) at the library, then headed out to downtown Manhattan, masked and ready to check out the holiday scene. It was pretty noisy and a lot of dancy-drunky stuff, but then we happened on Auntie Mae's and immediately saw that it was our place.

Divey, live bands, good crowd 'o folks. Apparently this venue was open during the prohibition as a speakeasy. I can see why...a set of stairs transports you to the underground bar, hidden beneath a floor of pool tables and dart boards. We went downstairs to the bar, and while deciding what to drink, heard someone say, “Beloved Binge!” It was the couple from Charlotte who were at our show.

We were so happy to run into them, and hung out for a drink and to see a couple bands. We discussed the essential elements to a “happy” life (some of you may know that I have a list of 5 that I made a few years ago in Greece, and like to ask others what their list might look like). After he is finished with the milirary, he plans on studying quantom physics with the hope of proving the existance of the soul. I told him about Blender Theory, which is kinda the opposite of that, but about as scientific as alchemy.

After, we ate at Jimmy Johns again, and I was approached by a painted man whom I did not immediately recognize due to his halloweeness. He was the organizer of the previous day's screening, a philosophy student, and Kory had invited him to his halloween party as well. Rob and I headed over to Kory's party.

A debate ensued between a McCain supporter and my philosophical friend, and the night got interesting. Later, we discussed the branch of Philosophy called “Philosophy of Language,” of which I inquired about since I've seen this listed when booking screenings, but had no idea what it encompassed. I still have no idea, but recall something about snow being white and what language we think in. Since my dad left Greece at 18, and lived in the US over 30 years, I asked him today what language he thinks in. Apparently he mostly thinks in Greek, except for when he thinks about his kids, then it switches to English. If I might state the obvious, this is probably because we are associated with English rather than Greek.

Weston continued to stall, but we made it across western Kansas, farm after farm. Rob took him in today and fixed his wires, so maybe he's fine now. Here's Weston at a reststop with his semi buddy.

You who are missed are missed, lots.