Thought i saw you on the road last night... i need to get my eyes checked

well, yesterday i picked up the S.S. Stockholm from one of its many central NY hiding spots. Just opening the door and climbing in brought back memories. As soon as i smelt the sweet sweet scent of year old veggie oil sitting in the back, it made remember our crazy optimistic vision of success we had last year. (for those of you who don't know last year we ran the engine on used vegetable oil) Thankfully we've been bitch slapped by fate enough times that we are now at a point where the glass always looks half empty... and slowly leaking until its bone dry.

So as I was saying starting up the Stockholm and driving it home, it ran a lot better then last year. (a new engine, and actually having all the bolts tightened with a wrench rather than by hand will do that) Although, some things never change. There is still no rear view mirror, it is still really easy to turn left but requires all of your body weight to turn right, and once the massive beast is up to ramming speed its a breeze, but city driving is going to SUCK. Also, as i was flooring the gas to get up to about 35mph, and car decided to jump out in front of me, requiring me to press the brake almost all the way to the floor to get a reaction. That may or may not have been an exaggeration . Come aboard this potentially dangerous adventure on 6 wheels to find out!

So now starts the cleaning process. Matt called me and told me he began removing some things we left in there last year. in our effort to bring all the gear and our bags and such back home in a Saturn, and a minivan that we couldn't take the seats out of, we left some things behind (pillows, blankets, non perishable food, some perishable food we forgot about...). One thing Matt learned and educated me on is that on a long enough time line (roughly a year) bread will liquefy. Who knew right?? well that's gone. and we are planning on dumping our left over veggie oil in the grease trap of a restaurant somewhere. shouldn't be too hard. i mean last year we were stealing oil everywhere, now we just want to give it back. So this next chapter of the adventure continues, we will be having a dance party in the van at our next show at castle rockmore.

So this weekend sees me cleaning a van so big i can't reach the roof and so long it takes up two parking spaces. As well as returning some used veggie oil to restaurants who have no idea what we are doing to their grease traps. And desperately trying to get rod of smells that words cannot describe. Keeo in mind i lived in a 8 dude apartment in college, and the oders that haunt this van dwarf anything i have previously encountered. All of this has become my life because one day i decided to play guitar.

as i sew this together, the other end is slowly unraveling

Well, here i am adding another chapter to this tale of failure. Actually that is kind of a fib. There hasn't really been any major let downs since last time, of course there hasn't been any terrific news developments. Ahh apathy, the one thing that can never let you down.

So as i continue to call people I've never met and ask them to give me and 4 of my idiot friends money to play some chords wrong for them, occasionally clever chitchat pays off. Since last time we've added these dates:

July 13th- Houston, TX at Java Jazz
July 14th- San Antonio, TX at The Warhol
July 21st- Monterey, CA at Monterey Live
August 2nd- Bloomington, IN at the Player's Pub
August 6th- Pittsburgh, PA at Howler's Coyote Cafe

So with that good news comes this slightly worrying news. We are currently playing phone tag with our mechanic about our beloved van The Stockholm: [insert mugshot here]

you may recognize this behemoth. it is wanted in 7 states for murdering dreams, dismembering hope and crushing childhoods. We hope to have some developments on its status as a member of The Andrea Doria family. (its kind of like that uncle that shows up in his pickup truck to family events, rolls down the window says happy birthday/ merry Christmas/ sorry for your loss, then drinks his beer as he drives away). Maybe on a slow news day I'll recount some of the misadventures of this van.

oh and there's some shows coming up in the next week and month:


so in the next few weeks i will continue to try to con bands, venues and music listeners to hang out with the Andrea Doria this summer. As well as call some of my close friends and those who's names i barely remember and ask if me and 4 fun, possibly smelly and most likely drunk friends can sleep on their floors. This has become my life because years ago i thought it would be a good idea to play guitar...