The Tac of Sea

Tacoma

Quotes:

“I’m a marshmallow full of danger” - Chuck (from the day before but I forgot) (because they had Full Sail Amber on draft at the Café’)

“R2D2” A woman pointing at the Robot from Lost in Space

“I can’t load out with this much urine.”

“You make me vagina crazy.”

Fauna: Not a damn thing. We’re heading into Bigfoot country tomorrow, so fingers crossed.

Today was almost a day off for us. Our hotel was only a half hour from Tacoma and it was supposed to be just Chuck and Lisa anyway. Everyone, with no acrimony whatsoever, wanted to get away from each other. To that end I got up early and took the light rail downtown to the EMP museum. I enjoyed it although it wasn’t the mind blowing technological wonder that I thought it would be. The Nirvana exhibit was kind of inspiring, seeing all the early setlists, hand drawn posters, and cassette demos. It feels good to see the continuum of rock bands. Knowing that in the beginning everyone starts out the same; crappy songs, crappy gigs, lame band names, trips to Kinkos, pictures of impossibly young kids trying to figure out how to look and sound like their heroes. It's good to know that there are thousands, hopefully millions of bands out there all the time. just plugging away; veering wildly between transcendence and clearing out a room like a Baby Ruth in a pool. You’ve got to admit it’s pretty wonderful. They had a floor dedicated to AC/DC. The neat thing about that was that whoever curated it focused almost exclusively on the Bon Scott era. Seemed like a chipper fellow right up to the aspirating of vomit thing.

In the basement they had an icons of sci-fi exhibit and as I was standing in front of the Robot from Lost in Space a woman passed behind me and said knowingly to her friend, “R2D2.” I snapped around to see if she was joking but her command of misplaced confidence seemed to be absolute. They had an original Dalek and I don’t know, some other shit. (Including a Comic Book Guy dude who was wearing a shirt that said “Josh Wedon is my Master Now” in a way that implied a vagina would have been just as fantastic of a site as Kirk’s chair) (perhaps too easy of a joke but, and I feel for the guy, the closest he’s coming to getting laid is letting some pudding go stale in the ‘fridge and turning down the lights) Also cool was an entire exhibit dedicated horror movies.

The show that night was at the Mandolin Café, a coffeehouse, with thankfully local beers, sitting just off the road in a non-descript Tacoma Suburb. There’s really not a whole lot to talk about. I got up and played some songs with Chuck and Lisa, which was fun. They played four Ass Ponys songs, so suck on that old time fans. It was a pleasure to get to sit down and talk with some of the people who really helped us make the tour possible. R and U, the wonderful daughters of one of our friends whipped my ass at Harry Potter trivia. (For the record I didn’t know Lupin’s middle name and they clinched it by giving all of Dumbledore’s names.) It felt like a nice break from the hectic pace. John and Joe did the band’s laundry while we played. And even though I found a pair of my underwear under one of their pillows it was a small price to pay.

On the way back to the hotel we stopped at a Target and as we were walking back to the car each one of us brought up the fact that somehow we felt happy to be in there because it felt  a little like home. Even though we’re having a great time it would seem there’s a little bit of sadness tied up in being far from home. There’s a neat passage about just that in the first few pages of, “A Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy,” but you should probably read that for yourself.

Tomorrow is a driving day.