playing dives & finding campsites

so this past saturday, the 29th, was jebus' first ever out of town gig. we traveled 92 miles south and east to play the downunder bar & grill in winter park, colorado.

what a dive. a basement bar, here's its list of ailments:

*the carpets were probably the same ones from its original construction in the seventies.

*there were 3 dripping pipes above where we played. whenever i'd back off of the mic, i'd get dripped on.

*noise complaints after our first song from the condos behind the bar.

*dingy kitchen windows that looked out on the courtyard; probably hadn't been cleaned in 5 years or more.

*no people! jazzfest was that weekend, and we were up against some pretty big names playing surprise sets at other bars that night. as a result, we really didn't have anyone other than our friends watching us until the last hour of our second set.

but they made a damn good burger, they paid us immediately after we finished, and they were incredibly generous when it came to our complimentary $100 band bar tab. they said we spent $99 on drinks for the band. there's no way - we were ordering beers and shots and mixed drinks right and left! god bless 'em.

the bright spot for the weekend was finding a fantastic free group camping spot on national forest land, right next to a beautiful babbling creek. a good crew of friends and a big group camp - my favorite part by far. jenn and i had a cozy night in our sweet new car-camping tent that we got for a steal at the sports authority. with a very thin moon in the sky, we fell asleep in complete darkness, looking up through the pine tree canopy at a gigantic slice of the milky way.

utterly breathtaking.

little fish and widespread traffic

so with the heat we've been having, fishing for the big rainbows and browns in the yampa river has been slow at best. to combat these summer doldrums, and to get the dogs out on a hike with me, we walked into soda creek on buff pass on saturday morning for a little bit of brookie fishing.

brook trout are native to the mountain brooks and streams in the eastern part of this country, but were transplanted out west in the late 1800's. in larger rivers they can grow to 3 or 4 pounds, but they're also particularly adept at finding their ecological niche in marginal conditions. they do very well, and stay pretty small, in small mountain creeks where the water is thin and fast, and bug life minimal. very well indeed...

i caught 42 spunky little guys in about 3 hours.

i don't really count my fish (really i don't!), but i knew this was going to be a prolific day so i figured what the hell.

they are truly beautiful fish.

on sunday, jenn and i went over to winter park to post fliers for our upcoming jebus show on the 29th. we got to tabernash, 9 miles west of winter park, and promptly came to a halt, at which point we remembered that widespread panic was in town. after moving 200 yards in 10 minutes, we scrapped our plans, did a u-turn, and headed home.

i used this photo of sadie for the jebus flier.

link o' the day:

can't remember if i've provided an etymology of jebus before, but here it is according to wikipedia.

comments

i recently participated in my first comments conversation, held entirely in a fellow blogger's comments section. essentially i challenged a fairly conservative blogger to rethink his interpretation of a scientist's statements. i also called him out on his own hyperbole.

here's the thing - i often complain about how polarized this country has become. attribute this to the proliferation of vapid cable news talking heads, the religious right's insidious insertion into politics, ann coulter, whatever - this country is on its way to an intellectual civil war if we can't find some common ground. and yet, when confronted with someone whose political views i think are off base, i feel the need to challenge/change that person's opinions. which, as we all know, is pretty much impossible. so i'm just wondering... why? why does it matter to me? why put forth the effort when i know that person is as firmly entrenched in their way of thinking as i am?

i have no answer for that. but i think the challenge for me is to maintain my views without becoming polemic. i guess that's everyone's challenge, right?

good f#%king luck.

link o' the day:

john squire was the phenomenal lead guitarist for my favorite band ever, the stone roses. he has a site for his artwork, and there are two new instrumental tracks from him that play on it. check it out.

weekend update (without tina fey)

howdy. just wanted to post an update on last weekend.

*the denver crew made it up friday night. they had a couple other folks in tow, who we got to know pretty well in two days, and it was just a fantastic time. i got mad love for my denver homies, yo.

*frak, timmy-2-ball and i fished saturday morning, and it was damn hot - the temperature, not the fishing. i caught a couple and lost a nice one, frank caught one, and timmy-2-ball got skunked - which has been happening to him for the last 2 years. but he had one on, so there's that at least. baby steps - next step is to get a fish in his net.

*the saturday night gig wound up going off, and snookum sat in on 4 songs with us on his djembe. he did a great job, we were all excited, and he was phenomenally thrilled. he was fearless, for his first time ever playing in a band situation in front of a crowd - just fantastic.

*next gig might be at the rio this friday if it pans out, otherwise we're in winter park at the downunder bar and grill on the 29th.

that's all for now folks.

fo' ten

hello avid readers!

well, tonight at 8 pm marks the end of my 4/10 week (4 ten hour days as opposed to 8 five hour days), and it's been an outrageously busy week at that. i plan on going home, eating a small dinner, passing a little gas, and watching this, which is either going to be cheesy like a big hunk of gouda, or pretty freakin' cool.

the denver contingent of frak nasty, big daddy snookum, MB and j-dog are coming up this weekend. jebus was set to play saturday night (which i was really looking forward to because snookum was going to sit in with his djembe), but now it's looking like it might not happen. the guy who books acts for the restaurant is a flake and a F%#ktard (my new favorite word), and he booked another act in our place. one of two things has happened here. either:

a) he simply forgot we were booked on the 15th, in which case we'll demand that he call the other band and tell them that saturday is our night; or

b) he is intentionally dicking us over, in which case we'll call him an a**hole and be done with it.

wish us luck, and if you're in a band - get a contract! (one of my goals next week is to write up a one page contract for jebus that safeguards us against this type of idiocy.)

link o' the day:

this site is full of some of the weirdest, funniest video streams i've seen anywhere. people are friggin' crazy out there!

some stuff

howdy folks! jebus plays the annual art in the park festival tomorrow. we play a 50 minute set, starting at 2:30, and we're going to do all originals. the rainbow gathering - held north of steamboat above a little town called clark - ends today, so some of its 15,000 smelly dreadlocked wanna-be hippies will be rolling through the festival tomorrow when we play. i say wanna-be because most of these dumbass trustafarian kids are so far from the original hippy ethic they don't even know who ken kesey was. but hopefully we can get them to boogie in that stoned, swaying way of theirs.

the setlist:

shamble on
would you like to see my portfolio? (new instrumental)
mad creek
waiting for signs
pagan panda bear
stop blinking
the arsonist (if necessary)

fishing through town has been phenomenal. i'm reporting on yampa river fishing conditions for a new site called flycurrents. you have to be a memeber to get reports, but it's way affordable. for a recap of fishing with p last weekend, go to his post on the subject.

michael franti and spearhead play the free summer concert series tonight. the stage is at the base of the ski area about 250 yards from our front door. sweeeeet.

link o' the day:

the utah jazz picked dee brown early in the second round, thus reuniting him with his old backcourt mate from illinois, deron williams. holy freakin' crap is that awesome.