Travels

What a week it's been.

Let's see,
last Tuesday I woke up,
had a meeting with Break.com
about working with them on making funny videos.

awesome.

Then we hit the road for Oroville, CA,
where I had a gig on Wednesday at a Casino.

Right before we went out the door,
I stopped to check if there were any open mics
in San Francisco or San Diego.

I needed somewhere to stop on the way to Oroville,
which is not the kind of place you want to spend two nights in.

I found one in San Fran, at a hostel called the Green Tortoise.

It's in a dodgy part of town full of strip clubs and bars,

awesome.

We drove all day through the mountains,
ate at Carl's Jr, hit San Fran,
went out drinking, hard, found a blues band
playing at the diviest dive bar I've ever seen.

all they served was Busch on tap.

The blues band is called the Powell Street Blues Band,
fronted by a tiny Japanese woman who actually goes by the name, Yoko.

She played slide guitar and howled,
the homeless guy who was tending bar
gave us lots of free drinks,
we stumbled back the hostel,
which has a party room full of European people.

I jammed on the piano with some new German friends me made,
and we partied until the wee hours.

The next morning it was up early to hit Oroville,
I played my show, hung out with Comedian Shaun Jones,
gambled a bit, smoked some weed with the new homies from
Sacramento out in the parking lot,

then it was time to enjoy the pimped out complimentary hotel suite
with the huge bathtub.

awesome.

The next morning,
we had to wake up early as hell to drop
off Comedian Shaun Jones at the airport,
and I hassled him the whole way for advice.

We had a nine hour drive back to LA,
so we stopped for a nap at some mountain top
vista point, and we stopped for lunch in Lodi, CA.

Lodi is the town from the Creedance song,
"oh lord.... stuck in Lodi again"

and it was cool to see.
We had an awesome lunch,
and hit the road again.

By the time we got back to LA,
it was time to pack, sleep for a few hours,
and then wake up and hit the airport for Chicago.

I had a layover in Salt Lake City, Utah.

I almost missed my flight,
I was running down the hallways
with my guitar in hand.

I was jogging alongside one of those people movers,
the little golf carts that take people around the airport.

An old dude in the back saw my NORML sticket on
my guitar case. (national organization for the reform of marijuana
laws)

He said, "alright, man... NORML.... cool....!"

I thought to myself,
"yeah thanks, old dude, I've got a plane to catch"

"how did you get that sticker, man?"

"oh... um... I wrote a song for a contest of theirs"

"cooollll, man... did you win?"

"yeah, they paid me a thousand bucks, it was great"

still thinking to myself, leave me alone, old man,
I'd love to talk to you, but I'm going to miss my flight.

At that moment I looked right at him for the first time.

slowly, it dawned on me.

I was chatting with Tommy Chong.

as in, Cheech, and Chong.

I stopped in my tracks,
he said something like,
"take it easy.. man"

and I said,
"wow, thanks!"

And that was that.

My flight to Chicago was late,
so I landed at Ohare,
jumped on the Blue Line,
got picked up by Donehoo (the drummer)
and we stopped at Black Rock in Roscoe village
to meet some friends and grab a beer.

quickly!

We grabbed Pauly (bass player)
hopped in the van, and hit the road
for Berwyn, a south suburb.

We got to the club, which had been transformed
from a tiny, little, spooky Cigar Store/ Bar
into a giant, spooky, circus tent out in the parking lot.

There was a decent crowd,
we had about ten minutes to set up and play,
amongst the bed of nails and the creepy dolls
from the freak show the night before.

We did our set, had some fun,
drank some beers, ate some stomach churning nachos,
smoked some weed with skydivers out in a huge truck,
packed up, and went home.

whew.

This week, I've been practicing and writing with
Pauly and Donehoo to get ready for a small tour.

We hired our friend, Bret Yager,
to come along and video tape out journeys and adventures.

We're going to put out a full length DVD of the Nice Peter touring
experience.

And next week, we're off to Michigan to record a new album.

I'll try to post updates as much as possible,
and when I can, I'll stream our practices and misadventures
online, just for you voyeurs out there.

much love from Chicago,

-p