You know, I'd be a liar if I said that I checked my email more than I check my Friendster page these days. Sad, really.

My friend Odessa is celebrating the release of her first record, One Room Palace, this weekend down in at the Oakland Metro. If you haven't been to the Metro lately, they've redesigned things and opened the bar back up (thankfully), and it's a pretty nice space. I'm going to be the cute guy selling merch for her. You can read about her music in this East Bay Express article. Charles Atlas are playing as well, it should be sleepy and good.

God, I love baseball in Milwaukee.

So, even though I'm back from tour I can't update the MP3 of the week or upload photos or write any real concise summary or storyline from tour, since the freaking in-ter-net has been down at my house basically for the past six weeks. Seems as if our firewall is down or something, and the people we share our house with either haven't figured out the problem yet, or just don't really feel like getting things a-running again. So many apologies, since I can only write in hurried type from ye-olde-cubicle.

After our show in Goleta, CA a couple of us went to a dance party (sans dancing, sadly) and I DJ'd some Smiths tunes for all the happy attendees, which has re-ignited a Smiths phase in my life. This is a good thing, since I'm thankful that I was never such a big fan that listening to the music ever got boring, so it's like I have this great Smiths collection of songs I know very well, but haven't beaten into my brain yet. However, I still think the song "Meat Is Murder" is a horrible piece of donkey shit.

The best record I heard on tour was the new one from The Long Winters, called When I Pretend To Fall. Unfortunately, the entire record isn't that great as a continuous piece of goodness, but the first four songs are the most catchy/addicting/wonderful I've heard in a long while. Thanks to the fine folks in Albuquerque who played the CD after our set there a few weeks back for introducing me to my new musical addiction. You can bet your brains that they'll be the MP3 of the week when all things computerized are back up and running. If you can't wait for that, check out the MP3 of "Blue Diamonds" at the Barsuk records page. Stay away from the song "Stupid" though, 'cause it kinda is.

Just when I get back from tour, Miss Rodeo America left this morning for middle-Oregon to hang with her brother for a few days. Man, now I get to miss her some more.

I'm back from tour, sitting around work with so much wrapped up in my head right now it makes me dizzy. Being back feels great sometimes though, so I'm going to enjoy it all I can. I started last night by sitting on the couch with MRA and the kitties and watching About Schmidt. Pretty good movie, and just being at home was really, quite, nice.