Monday, August 27, 2007

A long Drive, Tour, or someone found out that everyone likes.

So.
We have had an amazing week.
we played a very loud, almost obnoxious bar in Bloomington, IN
the other Indiana show was great, and we loved it.
very
ver y
very kind people there.
we have camped alot.
but its getting better.
or i should say more tolerable.
We bought a bigger tent
i think it holds around 12 people.
its a mini cabin almost.
so much harder to set up at different parks.
much less discrete.

WE played Chicago last night to a wonderful little crowd, and then drove all night to try and make it to Lincoln, NE. WE failed
to say the least.
we made it till about six in the morning
and then we camped out front of a catholic church.
tired.
very tired.
we drove all day today.
picked up a hitchiker on the way to lincoln,
and dropped her off there.
I got to see Annie a very good friend of mine
from a terrible time (highschool). She lives in Chicago.
its alwasy good to see love.
We are in NE tonight and Missouri tomorrow.
blurryingly running around.
sooner.

Thursday, August 23, 2007

TOUR more Grand Rapids, or the day comes the officer arrived wearing nothing but a neckbrace


WE had no show last night (a day off), and spent the day at the GR library.
we ate tuna fish sandwiches, salt and vinegar potato chips, and had our daily vitamins.
I miss home sometimes, but sometimes i don't.

We went to barnes and noble after the library,
Court fell asleep on the couch, kyle finished his daily intake of cosmopolitan
and I read a book on Leonard Cohen.
love is in the air.
is summer over?
well almost over i suppose.
We are back at the library, we are taking baths in the bathroom here.
not too hard to do to be quite honest.
you have to find a way to wash your body from a sink, but very doable.
I think we smell, but its hard to say.

Last night we camped out at the local zoo again.
Good nights rest except for the furious rain storm that came.
Lots of rain, lots of water.
VERY humid!

We woke up to the sound of a local police officers voice.
WE got out and explained our situation..

"sir we are traveling gypsies." i told the man.

he took our id's to make sure nothing was unsound in our past.
We packed up the tent and left.
The corolla is getting worn down, draggin that trailer isn't its favorite job.

we got a show tonight.

We are heading home soon. We will be there for about two days before we leave for NY again.
Brett Dennen tour should be fun.
I have met him numerous times and seems to be a very down to earth individual.

summer...

Wednesday, August 22, 2007

TOUR and a Rain Storm in the Rapids, or, Please do not reshelve these books, etc.

Yet one more,
two more.
days are blending in to the latter and there is light and the end of this misleading tunnel.
Shows are tough at best sometimes, playing for not so interested folks.
I try not to let it get me down,
but hard at best
again, not best though.

We played last night in Ann Arbor, MI a beautiful venue with the Avett Brothers.
The show went well.
We left and tried to find a local park in the area (the time was approx. 1:00 am)
our search proved to be fruitless.
We decided to start driving towards Grand Rapids, and maybe find a park on the way,
we visited many, but yet again very fruitless, every single one was either closed,
or didn't exist (GPS problems).

We finally made it about 30 min. outside of Grand Rapids, the time said 4:07 am.
We pulled into a residential area and found a beautiful little park nestled amongst the large modern looking
homes of Michigan. We pulled up and were dead tired, we found the strength to set up the tent and climb inside
to sleep.
We awoke around 7:01 am to thunder and our rain fly skimpering off to the trees.
We broke camp immediately and sat in the car soaking wet, frustrated, and tired.
We drove to Grand Rapids and sat in a mcdonalds for reasons unknown for about 2 hours.
around 9:46 we decided to find another park (seeing as how the storm had let up) and try our luck at the sleeping thing yet again.
We arrived at the local zoo, and pitched our tent near the parking lot, we were fast asleep.
sleep.
dead sleep.
around 11:30 it started getting quite warm, four boys, hot tent, and sleeping bags.
we unzipped the front door and let the breeze blow in.
Felt incredible.
around 12:09 a hornet flew in and awakened us quite promptly.
we got out.
unstung.
safe.

we layed our sleeping bags in the sun,
ate pop tarts.
talked about the beauty of the trees.
drank water.
brushed teeth.
packed the tent and left.

we are now at a local library.

Kyle is reading Cosmpolitan.
Court is reading "Painting in the Louvre", "blink", and "Nietzsche"
I am writing this...thinking. and lonely.
a bit cold, but comfortable.
still tolerable.
loved you.

gang three.
gang green.

j.c.k.

Monday, August 20, 2007

TOUR and this has to be too real for words, or, even you could sing songs like these.






There are things that have happened on this tour, that have been amazing.
There are things that have happened on this tour, that have been disastorous.
But all together, with those holding hands in the pouring rain of Dayton Ohio it has been life changing (for me)

I love.

Things that have not been mentioned in the blog but should have been:

- we blew a tire on our way to North Carolina, the experience was quite frightening to say the least.
- Kyle has a new preference of love that shouldn't be put into more detail.
- We played in a basement at a club called the underground after our show in philly to 25 people, at a bachelor party, the sound guy was so beside himself when he found out he couldn't run sound, to those 25 people we sold 7 records, we don't know how, but did.
- We have met amazing people in every single town.
- We slept in a dormitory at Carnegie Mellon University after staying up until 3:30 am to discuss our fears, and the bases of baseball. (We appreciate the hospitality Jessica and Lauren)
- We have seen a quarter of this amazing country and only a fraction of that quarter.
- We have come to conclusion that Kyle has no use when it comes to backing up the trailer.
- We have listened to Paranoid Android around 15 times on the road
- We realized the true meaning of "Lechitin"
- We played in the battering rain of Dayton Ohio on the 20th of August for more than an hour, which for me brought me to almost crying after realizing that happiness doesn't come from my prior neccesitation of things.
- We have come to conclusion that we can eat breakfast/lunch and or dinner for less than four dollars for all three of us.
- We have learned to love each other.
- Kyle was able to pick up two women in Orlando and become good friends.

People to thank (not including everyone up until this time)

- Ma and Pa James
- Lauren Lee
- Jamie and Danny
- Scott Smith
- Wes Smith
- Shannon Edgar
- CAA booking (Mathew and Buster)
- Miss Jenna (hotel and wonderful friendship)
- Todd Coder (Bham allstar)
- Melissa Brannin
- Casey Jones
- Stephen Devries and co.
- Nate Edwards and associates
- Jodi (NY) for the wonderful book
- Matt Wood
- Gravity Lounge
- Nick (radio stations and such a wonderful friendship)
- The Evening Muse
- Emma Bear
- Ashley James
- Miss Barnum
- Universal Records (for the great stay in NY)
- Jay Harren
- Rico
- anyone and everyone who has helped us out with our almost foolish dream. (sorry if we didn't mention you on this)



we all cried.





Thursday, August 16, 2007

TOUR and a tent full of us.

The Tour has been

uplifting
thoughtful
tolerable
loveable
usable
growable
interesting
spectacular

but over all of that the tour has been amazing.

Spending time in gods country has been such a beautiful almost life changing experience. We have seen almost all of the east coast. We were lucky enough to have an amazing show in North Carolina, they were quite possibly the kindest people i have ever met, such a respectful crowd...After North Carolina we headed to virginia, the show was good, but after the show we had two on air performances for radio in a city six hours away, so we decided to leave right after the first show in VA so that we would be ontime for the radio show the next morning. So we headed out after, it was a long night of driving, but well worth it because when we got there we were able to locate (due to the fact that we have a GPS device) a local park to set up a tent at and sleep. The radio show was at 8:00 and we got into town around 3:30 so we didn't have too much time to sleep. We fell fast asleep and the alarm clock awoke us at about 7:30 we got up and noticed that around us there were people playing golf. We were too tired the night before to realize that were we had posted our tent was actually a golf course. We had two good interviews at the local radio stations and had a heck of a show that night. After the show we headed to a local club to listen to a very tasty alt. country band, at which kyle was able to hook up with a cocaine addicted 38 year old. We slept in the tent on the golf course that night as well.

NYC...might have been one of the most respectful crowds of tour thus far. Despite its bad rap New York was absolutely phenomenal, A large crowd attended, and the folks that came out were very delightful to play for, i was able to see my good old buddy wes smith as well which was a treat in itself. We are heading to Philly tomorrow and we are very excited. Looks like we might be out on the road much longer than earlier expected, we will be heading out with Brett Dennen early Sept. and with Erin Mckeown during the month of October. Love is there....we...love it.

such a beauty.
mmmm.

and then us.

Friday, August 10, 2007

TOUR w. Vagabonds and Sleep Deprivation

days and days and days have gone by,
sometimes hard to tell where we are exactly in the week.
We have been out now for over two weeks and it feels like it never has, as in it never has felt like this...

We drove seven hours early thursday morning to make it to the show in Gainesville.
a small town with alot of beautiful individuals.
The drive was gruelsome, and having Kyle drive for the first time with the trailer was often life changing, nevertheless we made it to our destination unharmed. While unloading at the club (1982 Bar) there was a strange man in the corner of the back alley sitting in a a wheelchair. The man had been injured years before it appeared, seeing as how he was missing his left leg from the kneecap down. While Court and myself were unloading Emily and Kyle were in the back alley sitting. Kyle must have struck the man odd because within minutes of arriving he started screaming obsenities and death threats toward our little Kyle.
"I will jump this curb and kill you boy."
kyle tried to pay no heed to the man, but again the man spoke...
"I have killed people before you were born you SOB."
after several threats kyle and emily decided to move away from the man into the comfort of the Venue...We played the show and were treated very kind by the locals (not disregarding the one legged man) in Gville. The show lasted till around what i recall to be one o clock a.m. Emily had to catch a flight from Orlando at seven so we wanted to be at the airport by five. Knowing this we decided not to sleep and leave for the airport right after the show. We took off around 1:30 and the rain was falling hard, we haven't seen rain such as that for years it seems. We made it to the Orlando airport arond five o clock, we were all tired, we bid emily adieu and we sat in the airport parking lot trying to decide where to go to rest.
I had an idea...
I had done this before..
I spoke of an idea to sleep in walmart by the furniture sections...you see there are large slots in which one could slip in and rest for awhile going unnoticed. Court and Kyle were very unwilling but with a little coaxing we went.
The slots weren't as large as i remembered last time i tried this, but were large enough nonetheless. Court and Kyle were now more unwilling than ever, but i was tired and didn't really care whether or not they were with me, i sleuthly slided my slender body into the slots and covered my other side with an unbuilt coffee table, i told Court to hand me a pillow, in moments i was sleeping underneath 1500 pounds of unfinished "DIY" furniture. As i was drifting i heard a couple of voices coming down the aisle.
"That coffee table doesn't go there."
i held my breath.
"Is that a pillow in there? grab that pillow"
There was a long pause of voice, and then whispering, i knew i was in for it...oh boy how was i to explain this to the officials? I hadn't any money, and definitely no time to go to the police station to have a report filed. Moments later i heard the sliding of the box that i had so cleverly placed behind me to cover up my body. And then a tapping on my shoulder, i didn't look.
"Hey...sir!" the man said gently.
I didn't breath.
"Sir...!"
I turned around as if i had been asleep for hours.
"Oh...umm..I am sorry i have just been driving all night, and i..umm...was very tired.."
The man explained he needed me to leave..
again i apologized and went to find Court and Kyle laughing on the front benches by the vending machines.
The sun was just about to come up and we decided to park the car and sleep outside in the humid, sticky air of Florida.
its been beautiful.

Wednesday, August 8, 2007

TOUR and Mr. JM

Florida despite the fact that Court was attacked by an on edge man from Tennessee has been a great place to play/stay.
The John Mayer shows were wonderful and we were welcomed by many beautiful floridians. We are very thankful for the chance to play those shows, and hope to have a good stay in both gainesville and Orlando.

Tuesday, August 7, 2007

TOUR and a long ways from home...

(entry provided by Court Holman)

"welcome to florida"

on the drive from nashville to tampa, an incident occured the will forever scar the psyche of your humble narrator, courtney t. holman.

i had just woken up from a car nap as we pulled off to refill. following my usual tour tradition, i stumbled out of the car and over in front of the gas station to smoke a cigarette. i lit up and stood for a moment when i noticed a sketchy looking transient watching in my direction. "probably wants a cigarette," i thought as he edged closer. but when got up to me, he was suddenly "too close". i found myself being grabbed by the back of the hair and pushed into the closest object. (which in this case happened to be an ice bin.)

being slightly out of consciousness from just waking up, it took a moment before i realized my plight. i pushed myself out of the way from a head crack, and pushed the man away from me. i stumbled off the curb and questioned the man, "what are you doing?!" (i may have used a couple choice words for those who think that doesn't sound like me.) "well, i'm gonna kill you," he responded. "why?!!"

being so surprised by this man's sudden desire for my death, i stood as he claimed confusion and was ushered into his truck by his wife. shocked, i finished my cigarette and we got back into the car.

tampa or death by a transient...

Friday, August 3, 2007

TOUR and a wonderful Alabama welcome.








We were blessed enough to be able to play a wonderful place in Burmingham AL, there was a wonderful little crowd of around 45 people and we played some sad songs for them. Here are some photos taken by the ever so kind Stephen Devries, his work can be found at www.stephendevriesphoto.com burmingham has def. been a highlight thus far. Here are some of the photos that Stephen so generously gifted us. Also included is a link to a review that was written about the show. We are happy/loving.


~
review: blog.al.com/intune/

Wednesday, August 1, 2007

TOUR and an attic that belongs to Eddie




the last night in Lincoln (NE) was wonderful we played a small courtyard in downtown Lincoln, there were about five people there but they were a very attentive audience. We headed out toward GA early morning and made it to atlanta 16 short hours later. Tonight we played at Eddies Attic with the Hackensaw Boys, it was a blast and a full house, very courteous and respectful people attended. We are leaving for beautiful Alabama tomorrow, and thus far the travels have been absolutely stunning, being able to see so much of the land that i have always wanted to see has been such a great opportunity. Beauty, best.
joshua

Sunday, July 29, 2007

TOUR and Image.











pictures/fons



























TOUR and well worth..






We leave tomorrow, no no, not tomorrow we leave tuesday,
excited to play,
court and i are.
Still can't believe we didn't get caught breaking the law here.
My father backed into our small corolla that will be taking us to the other side
of.
north america and back.
We can't open the driver side door now, but..
we can crawl.
in through the other side, i hope we are still..
happy,
formable,
alive,
when we arrive back home.
sunday is good.

Friday, July 27, 2007

TOUR and the police (we fought the law and we won)

We have been in NE for about four days now (today is the 27th). Growing up here and not having been back for three years brings up very very nostalgic feelings, mostly of mischevious acts performed by friends and i at a riper age. But even though that age has matured and even weathered a bit we all have a bit of devil inside us, so on that note i will begin the greatest adventure of the tour to date.

We started out the day just like any other, practicing, walking, reading, talking, etc. The night rolled around, and with the parents in bed we (we being Ashley my sister, Court, Emma, and myself) decided to sneak into the local diving pool, that is called woods. We drove the 12 min. that it took to get there, parked the car at the nearby parking lot and started to make our way toward the pool. Since leaving utah five days ago i have decided to record on my new video camera many a thing that we have decided to do on this great adventure, having said that let the readers understand that we documented our beautiful infraction of the law that night. So we got close the pool, there is a fence that stretches around the pool, and climbs about twelve feet high. When we got close enough to the pool we discovered that there were "Nebraska Aquatics" vans parked inside of the pool premisces and wondered if there might be anyone inside either sleeping or preparing for the upcoming events that apparently would be taking place the following day. After having a breif conversation about whether or not it would the best idea to jump off of the diving towers that night we decided to ignore our crickets and jumped the fence. We hid behind the pines while i strategically placed the video camera in the grass facing it towards our final destination (the diving platforms). After a quick shot of adrenaline was pumped into our bodies we quickly made our way to the ladder up the platforms. I started up, we all got to the first platform and the second ladder had a large piece of plywood on the ladder to prevent people from climbing it. Court and myself decided to try and scale it anyhow and made it up with a bit of teamwork and dedication (the girls had decided to only jump from the first platform). On our (Court and I) way up to the third tower we heard a voice come over the pools loud speaker.
"Just so you know, the police are already on their way"
We completely panicked, the girls raced down the ladder instead of jumping off of the platform, i knew that i had no time to make my way back down the ladder so i jumped into the pool about as quickly as i could. Just as soon as my head popped out of the water i noticed that there were about five or six large men making their way around the pool in a very timely manner to perhaps prevent us from escaping before the authorities arrived. Well we definitely had different ideas of how the night would transpire. I jumped out of the pool and raced around the opposite side from where we had initially entered the forbidden pool.
Just as i got to the other side i noticed that Ashley and Emma were already over the fence and running towards the parked car. Court had a bit more of an issue getting away. After i had jumped from the tower he had hesitated jumping, fearing that he would land on me if he didn't wait. Finally he had jumped and had slowed his escape. He got out of the pool as quick as he could and grabbed his shirt and glasses as quick as possible and started scaling the fence. Just as he was about to cross over he felt a large strong hand grab his leg, out of fear he kicked the tyrant in the head and jumped over the fence, we got to the car, and were very relieved to be alive and not in the custody of the local police. Until we realized.
"WE LEFT THE CAMERA!"
i shouted. But there was no going back now, for surely they would be able to detain us if we were to enter back onto the grounds. We parked at a local fast food restaraunt for about 30 minutes before heading back to the pool in hopes that we would be able to retrieve the abandoned video camera. Court and I in hopes to doop the locals held hands to appear as a loving partnership. We got closer to the fence that just minutes before had helped us from escaping the possible imprisonment in the local jailhouse. We got closer and noticed that they were all going back inside and leaving the pool area open again. The police had apparently just left and we had our chance to recover our lost article. We got closer and decided to act quickly i jumped the fence and made eye contact with a guard about 7o feet from me, i ran to the camera as quickly as my skinny legs would allow and ran back to the fence, by this time the guard was yelling at the top of his lungs to
"STOP!"
I wasn't having any of that, i screamed at Court to lift the bottom of the fence so i could slide under to prevent any damage to the camera. He did, and i made my way under, we were just about to leave except that my pants caught on the bottom of the chain links. I was stuck...i wiggled and finally broke free from it just before the guard reached the fence, we ran ran ran ran and ran some more until we reached the car, we jumped in...and made our way back home. It was a beautiful night to say the least, adrenaline, pools, police, and video. We could not have asked for a more memorable time in NE. We are in the process of editing the video to have those who would enjoy it, watch it.
That night was beautiful.


Wednesday, July 25, 2007

TOUR and long drive for someone with something to talk about (Nebraska)






We drove all
day/afternoon/night
to get to Nebraska. We should be here until Sunday then we are off to Georgia.
these are pictures

sinning,

joshuaco.

TOUR and a place to Lay our heads.

We (three of us) are headed out to the east coast to share songs across the country we are in desperate need of places to stay while on the great highway for we will have no money for hotels and such things, if there are any kind folks out there with whom we could lay our heads it would be overly appreciated we will be playing in the following cities:

Atlanta, GA (8/1) blessed
Birmingham, AL (8/2)
Nashville, TN (8/3, 8/4) blessed
Tampa, FL (8/7) blessed
West Palm Beach, FL (8/8)
Jacksonville, FL (8/9)
Orlando, FL (8/10) blessed
Charlotte, NC (8/11)
Washington DC (8/13) blessed
Charlottesville, VA (8/14) blessed
New York, NY (8/15) blessed
Burlington, VT (8/16)
Philadelphia, PA (8/17) blessed
Pittsburgh, PA (8/18)
Dayton, OH (8/20) blessed
Grand Rapids, MI (8/23) blessed

blessed = we found a place to lay our heads

there will be more shows stretching back home (westward) hopefully through Missouri, NE, and Colorado..if you could reach a helping hand in any of the stated dates it would help out very much, the other dates in chicago, des moines etc. will be later posted..please just send me a message if you are able to help so that we might be able to make plans accordingly.
love,
sincere,
joshua and friends


all the places and times that we are playing can be found at joshuajames.tv