ग्रेट आईडिया

I don't know why but all of my headings keep turning into some strange language. I'm at bob's house in olympia washington right now, aka Bicycle HQ. Fun times, bob is mixing the new Yes Please album and I just ordered 1000 5" polyvinal sleaves. I really want to start an all scat band and call it "scat attack!". I realized the other day that there are certin syllables that you really should never use in a scat solo. these syllables include...
-"mup"
-"rub!"
and worst of all
-"poo!"

try it. It dosen't work. You can email home recordings of scat solos to danielle.chiero@gmail.com
xo ross

देअर्बोर्ण हौस

Bob, Danielle, and I drove through a rainstorm that streatched all up and down the highway from olympia to seattle. The Dearborn house is a diy venue run by our friend tiffany in wallingford. The show was a little bittersweet for us since we wern't sure when we could get to play with micah again. After we returned to olympia micah moved to seattle so we havn't been able to function as a band the way we used to.
When we arrived at the house, Clyde was there with his friend Roy making pie. Tiff and Forrest, Josepha and Sibsi from Berlin were there as well. This was the last day of their us tour. We had played with thim the night before in olympia.
The show happened in a gallery nextdoor to the house, the place was totaly packed and full of good vibes. Lots of folks sang along to the show. Amber and Garrette, the founders of Hollow Earth Radio were there as well and they recorded the whole show. (hollowearthradio.com).

lyon, revisited

the cathedrial was full of old french people singing hymns, we pass a line of folks waiting for their turn at the confessional. The stairs leading to the crypt bears a sign saying “be quiet” in 4 different languages. We go down and see some folks trying to shush their baby who keeps chirping like a bird. Each little noise it makes echos off the stone walls. Babys are always being fussy at funerals. I remember how when my grandmother died these kids kept making noise and laughing during the service. An adult sushed them up at some point. I remember my mother saying how she liked it how kids made noise at things like that and how it made her remember that life was still gonig on. 
 
 
 

munich

The german government decomissioned an old WWII era military hospital after the war. Now they rent out the buildings to different groups like a montissori school and this collectively run cafe called Kafe Kult. Against Me! performs the same night as us. We know because this kid there talks about how they used to play at Kafe Kult before they signed onto a major label. Now all of their old fans can't afford to go to their shows anymore.  
 
 
 

strakonice and the velvet revolution

a communist govornment controled czechloslovokia until the "velvet revolution" on 1989. Petr lived in strakonice at the time, for him the revolution was something he witnessed on the television. day after day workers gathered in the city and stood oddly silent, occasionaly singing the national anthem or listening to a speach. One day it ended and suddenly for the first time in his life, petr could leave the country. "There used to be many beautiful buildings in strakonice but the communnists tore them down because they were innefficent." he tells us . Petr works in a library in a castle near the river. We walk there together and pend some time looking a books and using the internet.  
 
 
 

avenyeshka's apartment

avenyeshka works with a diy collective that promotes events in prague. She lives in a house with her twin borhter, mother, and grandmother in a placethat wasn't on our map. (aparently we got a crappy tourist map of prague.) we experienced nothing but wonderful hospatility the whole time we were in the czech republic.  

downtown prague = gothic disneyland

I first visited prague in 2001 at the age of 21. the month I spent living there stands out in my memory like an island surrounded by an ocean. Prague seemed like an island to me. I flew in on a plane and traveled around on foot and my subway my whole time there, experiencing a different culture for the first time in my life. Now as I drive in these memories collide with my knowledge of european highways and how everything is connected. When I first came to prague I was a tourist, fresh out of college. Now I am a musician, invited there to perform. Downtown prague is not for the czech anymore. they've been pushed out by capital, by tourists. We see thousands of them on the streets, gawking at mozarts clock or at the punk kids gathered around the horseman in wenseslas square. Prague is a city that is raing it's first generation of teenagers to live under capitalism, and a city where beer is cheaper then water and the ”authentic“ mexican restraunt uses exclusively canned vegetables from mexico. The czech republic is a land locked country and, I'm told, obsessed with the sea. I think about how we all want things we can't have, and how anything can become ordinary, tike these angles with golden wings staring down from the rooftops, or traveling to ancient cities day after day on a european tour. I think about the bitterness I hear in people's voices as they talk about how forginers have taken over the down town and how we're all losing our homes to wealthy people. That's how it is now. If you are wealthy you can just buy your way into any communnity, take it over and reshape it to your desires.