Brake Fluid & Cake

Greetings fellow inhabitants,

Well, BB has made it as far as the fine State of Connecticut with minimal incident.
Following DC, we drove up to Philadelphia, and parked on South street. We were determined to find Gourmet to Go, a veg restaurant reputed to have great vegan desserts. I found it, but it had closed up and had no sign of redirection. Luckily, upon further exploration, it was in fact open down the street, and we had our hoagies and tremendously huge slices of cake prior to the show. The cake was amazing...they made the frosting incredibly creamier than frosting I have made (see previous postings below). It was like a huge ball of delicious fluff. I'm not sure if that is a result of beating it longer or some secret ingredient I'm not aware of. The cake itself was rich and moist as my grampa's hankie.

After eating, we headed over to The Fire to take a nap in our van before the show. The club was located right next to the fire station, appropriately, so we had no fear of our pyrotechnics getting out of hand (did I mention that we added an act where Rob jumps through a flaming hoop?) That night we performed with Joe Jack Talcum (ex-Dead Milkmen), Kablammo, and 1986. We enjoyed the show and recorded most of it (except our own set). The staff at the Fire were extremely thoughtful and even provide an upstairs apartment for bands where email may be checked, the antique road show or other TV may be viewed, or the toilet/shower may be plugged/used. Thus far it has been the best-equipped club we've played. Though a house was offered, we parked our van in one of the band's neighborhoods and slept soundly. I was wondering what the upscale folks thought of us in our blue-curtained van, waking in the am in front of their well-tended lawns. But no one said anything.
We returned to Gourmet to Go and got another slice of cake for post-breakfast. We leafleted a bit at U Penn and walked around the campus there. Lots of trees and brick. Pictured here in this blog is the building on South street which an artist created and took mosaic to a whole new unbelieveable level. Sprinkles of this type of art are found on other buildings and walls of South Street as well. It completely transforms the area. You can also see an inner view of the courtyard below (the artists garden).

Onward to Trenton NJ, a city we are told not to leave our van unattended in. Luckily the club has a restaurant attached, and not only a restaurant, but a vegan place...I had "fish" & chips and Rob had "chicken parmesana..." (sp?). The food was delicious and we're hoping they expand to NC. Also pictured are Indianburn, a cross between Guided by Voices & Mother Love Bone (with MLB providing the dominant characteristics). Check them out! Prior to their act Come Dionysius performed...a Kurt Cobain w/curly hair and a little funk.

We headed toward Providence, RI the next day to visit Rob's dad a couple days. I made an amazing discovery that made life worth living again (at least for a day or two) - soy whipped cream spray! I had just been telling Rob, I can't wait for soy whipped cream in a can to emerge, and there it was in Whole Foods. We used it all up in one night and morning on our rice dream mint & chip ice cream and then in our lattes.

Onward to New Haven, where traffic held us up for over an hour. Our van started to make a clunky noise, or so we thought, when a man told us "it's your brakes probably!" We pulled over, and everything seemed ok so we continued without a tow. Rob discovered some brake fluid leakage, so we're thinking we need to tape that up somehow with whatever tape thing they use to keep brake fluid in. Luckily, Rob's cousin arrived at our show with a bottle of the stuff, and we arrived here safely.

Please note our matching outfits and Rob's new suspenders (available for $5 after the tour!)

The show went pretty well, Cafe Nine is a good establishment and the staff were friendly. School is out so the Yale crowd is missing but we had fun. Also performing were the Furors, a great duet that have been performing together for over 20 years.

I was complaining about loading in and out, disassembling, etc., when Rob's cousin pointed out that it only took us 21 minutes total, and we were going slow too. Ah, logic...I'll have to remember that next time I complain. Also, a very nice person that we had met at Veg Summerfest last year showed up. He works for the company Zaadz... check them out at www.zaadz.com. It is like Myspace with a soul, he reports.
I need to sign off now...stay tuned tomorrow we'll be on Vegan Radio then at the Brass Cat later on. We're looking forward to it, now that I know loading is only under a half-hour....thank you everyone for your support!
--mz binge

Oh - PS - note to the Bull City BoardGames crew! Rob's cousin highly recommended that we consider the following games for BCBG's:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Settlers_of_Catan
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carcassonne_(board_game)