2010 Tour 2

I don't really feel that I've reached the opposite coast until I swim in the ocean. This beach was near Arcata in far northern California (near the Redwood National Park, as seen above). It was cold but was a passable substitute for bathing. No showers yet on this tour.

In many respects, the fact that routing is largely non-negotiable on tour means that you see a lot of the landscape richness that most people never see. America is sublimely beautiful. I probably shouldn't even say that, because all of this was here long before there was ever anything called "America". The beauty owes nothing to the nation, except maybe its destruction.

The sights reframe in my mind the tired old antagonism between city and country. Country people have a (reality-based) stereotype of urbanites as insular, closed-minded, and unappreciative of the richness of the natural environment; in particular, coddled and unresourceful. A lot of the time, that's true. City people hate on country people for being uncultured yokels. And it's true that plenty of country people are more excited about the new Super Walmart outside of town than the fact that they live in a landscape which has enormous power and spiritual significance. The argument is moot anyway, because now everybody lives on the internet and their cell phone. The point of all this is that geography has basically nothing to do with anything (anymore).

"Experience" in and of itself is not enough. I've started understanding the landscape the way you understand a show in an art gallery that nobody goes to, or a rare musical recording. You get blown away and something inside you changes, once you realize that the stone and water and air was there long before the lame culture wars, and will be there long after our petty bickering is forgotten. It's not about cataloging endless stimuli, it's about being molded and humbled by a forceful confrontation with your own smallness and filthiness in the face of the sublime. You want everyone to see what you see, to be changed the way you're changed.

2010 Tour 1

I'm posting from Lincoln, NE. We're a week in. So far, so good. Having had three years since the last tour, nobody knew what to expect this time around, but we've been surprised at the positive responses and the financial stability (so far... fingers crossed). I've been thinking a lot about the constant digital connectivity that we enjoy on the road. This tour is our first without any printed-paper directions. One time Sean Ingram of Coalesce told me that he used to spend hundreds of dollars on tour on long distance. To call home from pay phones! Now everyone has cell phones with Internet, text, GPS, Twitter... it's almost like you never leave home. Because home is, in fact, the Internet.

The Rosetta van broke down on the very first day, driving from Philadelphia to Detroit, but after getting that fixed we haven't had any more problems. Even though we showed up in Detroit at midnight, they still let us play.

I was happy to be back in Fargo, ND for a few days, for the first time in three years. We spend three nights with Rusty from Battlefields, who played six shows with us. Rusty actually booked the tour for us, and did a really good job too. I'm really looking forward to seeing new and old friends in the next couple weeks... Conor and our SLC friends, Jordan in Seattle, my in-laws in the Bay Area, the North dudes in AZ. Many people to see!

Every tour has dominant themes. Frisbee is one of this year's.