So I just got back from Walgreens where I dropped the pictures off for hour development while Heather and I had a nice lunch that had us both in need of a nap afterwards. Appetizers, as appetizing as they look and sound can spoil any meal. So I get the pictures back and pretty much none of them came out. I have no photos from Nashville, no pictures from the Blue Ridge Parkway, no pictures of people I saw, nothing good. I have a few pics of me in the hotels looking a bit agitated that I will scan on to here soon enough, well, I'll scan them and give them to Sarah to put on here, as I have no clue how to do that at all : ) I also have a picture of what I think is Knoxville, perhaps Frank can confirm this if she is reading this...there's a big gold ball on top of a thingy, and I took it from the car while driving I assume. Is that Knoxville? All I saw of Knoxville was a long strip of highway with tons of restaurants and stores, and my exit complete with a gas station with a market called "Starvin' Marvin" which I meant to take a photo of, but in retrospect I guess it doesn't matter now! The main reason I am pissed about the photos is last year when I did the similar trip none of my photos came out from the Blue Ridge Parkway, this year it was a little out of the way, and in fact it added about 4 hours to what would have been a shorter drive to Knoxville. Instead I ended up arriving there at 10pm or so, much later than projected, so my main purpose was to take photos of mountains and all of that fun stuff...oh well, I guess I'll try again next year. I did get some nice photos of me in the Willie Nelson museum though thank god...

So on to the actual phish stuff now...What a great time, what a great band, and what a great vibe all around. I saw 6 shows total, excpet for the first half of one which I missed after an unexpected 11 hour driving marathon which took me through the Smokey Mountains where I got a little too stoned and encountered rain storms complete with people tailgating an otherwise scared shitless me, and traffic for hours at a time. So I missed a bit of a show, looking at what they played I didn't miss much. So I saw 6 shows, and only saw about 8 or 9 songs more than once. So I got a good amount of songs down. Including the most surreal thing I've seen, Winnona Judd singing Freebird with the boys. How funny. I've now seen the band 63 times I think I already said that here though...I met alot of cool people this time around, and as of last night, the last show, I felt a great vibe from everyone, realizing everyone is there to just have fun and dance and see what happens from the stage that changes every single night. I'd say the shows in New Jersey were the best ones, which was also the case last summer. The venue looks like a space ship too, so that was a good effect. To me it's all about improvisation, I think I've talked about this in my journal before, but with music, I just can't go see bands anymore without the same amount of vigor I used to. It's not the same to just watch a band belt out the hit songs one after another, and pander to the audience. It was great seeing the Cure before this, and it will be cool to see the Foo Fighters and Red Hot Chili Peppers in a few weeks, but you know the Foo Fighters are going to play Learning To Fly. There's nothing wrong with that, people go to a show, they want to see the songs they like. And Dave Grohl is a very very cool guy, probably one of the most down to earth people in the business( a long ass time ago, my old punk rock band opened for his old punk rock band, Scream from Washington DC and we got paid a measly 25 bucks, him and the singer thought this was ridiculous, so they gave us 75 dollars of there money. I'll never forget that...), and if he's happy doing that every night good for him. But there's something to say about going to the Phish show not having any clue as to what they are going to play. They have no idea what's going to happen, as they never play with a set list anymore, and we have no idea what's going to happen. I like to call the songs. "Oh they haven't played that in 5 shows, they'll play it tonight to open the show". I was incorrect on all of my calls this tour by the way. As for the people, for a while I held them in a negative light as "damn hippies", etc. But after noticing that you see alot of the same people night after night and everyone is friendly there's no reason to look at them like that. It's people from every age and background, and I always meet at least one person I like each night. The band itself might not be the most charismatic, but what they lack in that they more than make up for in talent and all around coolness on a completely different level. I can't wait to see them again in September now...

enough

before & after