hard times in kelso, wa

Sorry we have been slow at updates. Intermittent access to the internet, biking around in 100+ degree weather and not having much down time has left little chance. We’ll be posting more photos and stories in the next couple of days, when time allows.

A brief report: had a fantastic time on Whidbey Island, hanging out with our friends Ashley and Eli of the band LAKE. They have an amazing piece of land, right near this lake we went swimming in, and we did the screening outdoors. It was super fun to have a couple of opening bands: Chrissy and Flurpy, which were both hilarious and dreamy.

Biked down to Seattle and did a show at the Vitta Cafe. It was a pretty good show but way hot. Also David and I set a record by devouring 3 pizzas in about 10 minutes.

In Tacoma the show fell through and we wound up camping in someone’s yard. The couple we stayed with were super nice, despite the framed picture of George Bush above their TV. The woman even brought us strawberry shortcake!

Then it was down to Olympia, where we did a show at a neat all ages space called Nothern. A light turnout but enthusiastic crowd. During the encore an applause-o-meter was implemented to decide the fate of “Choose Your Own Adventure”.

Next on to Chehalis and the Matrix Coffeehouse. The show was a pretty poor turnout: we wound up playing the show for one guy who showed up on a TV (in actuality he thought he was coming for song group night). Now its the homestretch back to Portland and Eugene…

Dispatch from Victoria

Outdoor Screening in Nanaimo, BC

Had a fan-tastic show in Nanaimo, where about 20 people congregated outside the community radio station to take in the show. Meanwhile, during the screening, we snuck away inside the station where we were interviewed on the People First radio show.

Hear clips from the show here and here.

Special thanks to Michael Carpenter for setting up the show, Kevin and People First radio and CHLY.

Other Nanaimo highlights included eating deep fried Nanaimo bars, seeing seals by the docks and an amazing mediterranean dinner at the Thirsty Camel.

The next day we headed south, trucking the backroads through some cute towns like Duncan “The City of Totem Poles” and Chemius “The City of Murals” and finally took the ferry on yonder to Brentwood Bay, where dinner found us eating PB & J and getting kicked out of park we had sent up camp at.

Finished the ride on down to Victoria today, went swimming with our hosts and taking a breather before the show gets rolling.

more bloggin’ action

From Cut and Run filmophiles:
http://cutandruntour.wordpress.com/2009/07/10/tough-stuff/

From Just Seeds/ Visual Resistance Artists’ Cooperative:
http://www.justseeds.org/blog/2009/07/tuff_stuff_from_the_buff.html

things totally not going as planned

The DVD production party has been stalled. The whole painting a bike tire and running it over the DVDs thing didn’t go according to plan. They wound up looking like gross blobs so its back to the drawing board.

We did manage to finish editing an essay which we’ll upload shortly. Then JP went off to pick up friend from airport, while Gracon and I ate pizza and figured out we should just pay someone to print on the DVDs.

Heading out to Kinkos to make screens…

eating cookies and preparing for dvd assembly

Eating delicious vegan cookies and getting ready to make DVDs. Blogging the shit out of tough stuff tonight!

Bloggin + plottin’

In Portland setting up blog and scheduling tour. Watch this space for updates from the road!