Day 32-34 - Washington, District of Columbia

Typically on this tour we're playing for swing or blues dances. Twins Jazz was one of the few exceptions. This venue was a small restaurant/bar on the second floor in the commercial area of DC. It's a place where people come to buy fancy food and listen to jazz while they eat and drink.

The guy in charge of the place took some pictures for us and every picture is framed diagonally. Strange.

Craig Gildner (piano), Jay Miles (bass), Glenn Crytzer (guitar), Mark Ribera (drums), Kevin Woods (trumpet) and Patrick Breiner (clarinet/sax)

While we were in DC we stayed at Mike's house. Mike is an old friend of Glenn's and is a really awesome guy.

Joke of the Day

How does the Jamaican man on the moon cut his hair?

Day 31 - Charlottesville, Virginia

I got sick. I didn't take any pictures and nothing exciting happened in Charlottesville.

Day 26-30 - Baltimore, Maryland

It's been a while since I've posted. I've been bogged down (not blogged down) with homework and sickness.


On the 16+ hour drive from Tampa, FL to Baltimore, MD, we stopped in Florence, SC and stayed at a pretty nice hotel. I definitely made use of the pool and hot tub.

We spent Tuesday through Friday of last week in Baltimore at Nina and Michael's house. They recently bought and renovated the ballroom that we played in. Nina is a professional dancer and travels all over the world teaching dance. They live in the neighborhood of Baltimore that the drug trade portion of The Wire is set in (pictures of said neighborhood to come later).


I spent most of the time stuck up in their house doing homework. My one jaunt out of the row houses was to hang out with Bethany! She took the bus up from DC.

We took the bus downtown and went to the inner bay. While riding the bus, the woman across from us was being hit on by an older man. His winning pick-up line was, "You remind me of my daughter. It's a shame I'm too old to be in a relationship with a gorgeous girl like you." This went on for the whole duration of the ride, roughly 20 minutes.

The cannon on that ship went off and made us yelp.

Those are gummy worms from It'Sugar, a store full of novelty candy.

After eating, we went to the Baltimore Aquarium; it was pretty massive.

Then we rented a paddle boat... a dragon paddle boat.

Rawr!

The gig on Friday was honestly the best show we've done yet. The Baltimore dancers are really energetic and kind of crazy. It was a lot of fun playing for them. It was so much fun that I forgot to take any pictures. It's okay though... we're going back to the same venue for Halloween and I expect to take lots of pictures then.


Even though it was a sea of ghetto boarded up row houses, Baltimore probably was the best city we've played in.

Joke of the Day

What did the shark say to the other after they were done eating a clown fish?

I can't count how many times I heard a child say, "Look! It's a Nemo fish!" in reference to a clown fish. It's kind of sad that that name "clown fish" will be erased from our vocabulary in a few decades.

Day 25 - Tampa, Florida

After playing two days in Atlanta we drove to Tampa, FL. Which, I believe is the furthest south I've ever been.

We got to the gig a little early and got to sit outside in the humid heat and watch the sunset.

It was silly how hot it was down there. It was shy of 90 degrees and humid when we first arrived Sunday afternoon. The native Floridians told me that the coldest it usually gets in the Winter is 40F.

A real-deal palm tree (technically found in South Carolina).

The gig was at a place called Zendah Grotto. They treated us really well there. Every 5 minutes a volunteer named Jeila asked if we needed anything. We hung out with a bunch of the dancers afterward and they were all really great people.

After the gig Solomon left for the airport to fly back to Seattle for about a week to play a few shows at the Emerald City Blues Festival. Currently, Kevin, Glenn and I are driving to Baltimore. Originally we planned to drive all the way from Tampa to Baltimore today. But after leaving later that we thought we're going to stay in Florence, South Carolina.

Joke of the Day

Why didn't the shrimp share his treasure?

We're going to have four days off this week starting today. Bethany and I are going to hang out and adventure around DC.

Day 23 & 24 - Atlanta, Georgia

We played in Atlanta Friday and Saturday at the Atlanta Varsity Showdown. Weekend events always seem to have higher energy and I think we end up playing better because of it.

Atlanta in the distance.

Saturday morning Jessie Collins drove down to Atlanta from Anderson, SC. We had lunch, explored downtown Atlanta together and talked to the Occupy Atlanta protesters. 

For some reason I was listening to the guy in the cocoon.

Maybe this is who came out of the cocoon?? No, no, she was just a random interesting person.

The Atlanta Varsity Showdown included a handful of couple and team competitions which were really fun to watch. There was a lot of really great dancing. I had someone video tape our last song of our last set last night. The dancers made a jam circle and it was real swingin'. I'll try to post the video as soon as possible. For now, check out the video of us moving the piano in Columbus, OH.

Killin' it Kevin and gorgeous George.

We're now on our way to Tampa, Florida! This will be the farthest south I've ever been. Also, it's seriously hot down here. I thought, "Oh, autumn on the east coast is going to be cold and crisp." But it's been humid and sunny the whole time. I'm sure as November comes around and we go further north I'll freeze my Tauntauns but for now I'm shorts and tee-shirting it.

Joke of the Day

(brought to you by Bethany Albert)

What do Eskimos get from sitting on the ice too long?

Day 21 & 22 - Durham, North Carolina

Wednesday morning we drove to Durham, North Carolina to play Thursday night. Solomon, Patrick, and I stayed at Luke and Laura's house. They were a lot of fun. Luke had some fun toys - we talked about moding nerf guns.

We had all of Thursday morning free, so we walked down the highway to a shopping center in Durham.

Exploring the graveyard on Hope Valley Road.

This is the biggest spider I've seen in the wild. That's a large cup.

It was Glenn's birthday Thursday night and he requested that every dancer bring a friend. I think people followed through with it since there were a lot of people there.

It was Glenn's birthday, so he wore his pretty jacket.

Joke of the Day

Why do the Syncopators carry a piano around with them?

Here's a video of moving the piano in Columbus, Ohio that I just posted on youtube. Usually there are only 5-6 people helping carry it.

Day 19 & 20 - Asheville, North Carolina

We spent the last two days in Asheville, NC. It was the first time I had ever been to either of the Carolinas and it made quite an impression on me. Asheville has the reputation of being the Seattle or Portland of the east coast. I've always loved the south and this felt like a perfect combination of the northwest and the south. I really liked it.

They even had a "pike place brass pig."

I'm taking one online class this quarter just to stay enrolled in UW. I've been registered for Stat 311, one of the intermediate statistic classes, but I wasn't able to pick up the text book at the bookstore before we left for tour. After searching in the Indiana University and University of Michigan bookstores, I resigned to having the text shipped to a family friend who lives in Asheville. Ginny and Matt Barker graciously received and passed the book on to me. Now I can do homework... :(

Downtown Asheville, NC.

The venue we were playing at was called Scandals. It was a very strange club that usually hosts drag queen acts. The walls were all made of metal sheets with diamond shaped grips on them and there were little satellite stages for other acts to stand on. It was very strange; we set up on the ground.

Yeah, this is Kevin reading a book on the bandstand... nerd.

The host home that Solomon, Patrick and I were in was the best host we've had yet. Their names were Eva and Bryan. Eva made us a lot of food and they were over all great people.

Joke of the Day
(hover over joke for punchline)

Why didn't the amoeba family have a landline phone?

Day 15, 16, 17 & 18 - Columbus, Ohio

We spent this whole weekend in Columbus, Ohio playing Friday and Saturday for a dance event called Rocktober, put on by Swing Columbus. And, coincidentally, it was Columbus day weekend. Obviously we played this song in one of our sets.

Downtown Columbus

We arrived in Columbus Thursday night and had an interesting encounter with an intoxicated/stupid neighbor that ended with calling the police. You can read all about it here. Aside from police activity, our stay in Columbus was quite pleasant.


The second day of Rocktober there was a Lindy Hop competition that we played for. I took two videos and I will upload them when we have a better internet connection. One is of the competition's finals.

Trailer with some gear unloaded.

This morning I was able to Skype with my parents!

"How do I turn this thing on??"

"Hi Mark!" 

This afternoon we played for the Central Ohio Hot Jazz Society. The audience only have one person with not-white-hair. We played very well and they really liked us. I also met the niece of Jimmy McHugh, who introduced herself we played two songs he wrote 1930 and 1928, Exactly Like You and I Can't Give You Anything but Love.

Joke of the Day 

(inspired by Marisa Pacchiarotti)

"I know a lot of jokes about unemployment, but none of them work."

-Marisa

"I know a lot of jokes about musicians, but none of them work."

-Mark

Taveling and playing with professional, full time musicians is very fun. We're driving to Asheville, North Carolina tomorrow morning!

Day 12, 13 & 14 - Ann Arbor, Michigan/Detroit, Michigan

Dear Seattle,

The first 11 days of the tour were a whirlwind. We played every night in a new city after traveling a long time. Thankfully, we had a two day break before our gig in Detroit last night. Solomon and I spend the two days in Ann Arbor, Michigan. 

Sunset outside the venue in Detroit

I realized as I saw the big "University of Michigan" sign as we drove into Ann Arbor that this is where my childhood friend, Laura Goben, lives and goes to school. We hung out a little bit, her friend Brian graciously gave me a tour of the campus, and I sat in on her church's worship team rehearsal. I went to King's Court Barbershop and a kind gentleman named Curtis cut my hair. He was very kind and asked me to take a picture of us "for the band's website."

Curtis from King's Court Barbershop

I'd say that Detroit lived up to all of the stereotypes and expectations I had of it. The alley where I found the sign below was infested with over a dozen stray cats that had apparently formed a colony there.

Found while exploring the alley near the venue.

However, the club that we played at was a very classy place. Cliff Bells was built in 1935 and is decorated with beautiful mahogany and brass. It was the first non-swing dance event we've played at, but it was still a great experience. The venue has been renovated, but still has all of the original woodwork.

If anyone has any good jokes, let me know. I'm losing steam.

Day 10 & 11 - Chicago, Illinois/Bloomington, Indiana

The last few days have gone by very fast. After St. Louis, we drove to Chicago and played for the Windy City Lindy Exchange on Saturday. The WCLX is a weekend long event and several other big groups were playing for the other days.

Windy City Lindy Exchange

Ignore my face in this one.

We played at the University of Chicago which is a little south of downtown and very close to Lake Michigan. Before the gig, Brittany and Jesse took me to the water front to see downtown Chicago across the water. The picture didn't turn out great, but it looked amazing. There was a rip tide warning, so the waves were huge.

I spent the rest of my time in Chicago hanging out with the Stantons and exploring Chicago with them. We tried to go to a bar after the gig, but it was too late by the time we had decided where to go. So we stayed at their place and had a drink there before going to bed. We got up pretty early the next morning to go on an adventure. We went to a cool coffee shop and a beautiful bookstore. Then went to their church, The Painted Door, which is an Acts 29 church.

Found in a bookstore in Chicago.

Even though this post says it's going to cover Bloomington, IN, I didn't take any pictures there and nothing too exciting happened there. Glenn and Kevin drove Chloe halfway back to St. Louis after the gig at Indiana University and they were extremely tired the next day. But it was definitely worth getting to play with Chloe.

Today and tomorrow we have our first day not playing a gig at night. The first 11 days of the tour we played every night, and traveled 5-11 hours every day. Our next gig is Wednesday night in Detroit. Solomon and I are staying in Ann Arbor, MI while Glenn and Kevin went to Detroit. Solomon had people to see in Ann Arbor and it works better hotel-wise if we travel in even numbers so I went with him. It turns out Ann Arbor is where University of Michigan is located- where Laura Goben goes to school. After we arrived in town, I gave Laura a call and we met up. This afternoon I'm going to hang out at the coffee shop that she works at and go to her church's worship team rehearsal.

Joke of the Day

Where did the General keep his armies?

Day 9 - St. Louis, Missouri

Yesterday we drove from Minneapolis to St. Louis. It was one of the longer drives and we passed through Iowa City, where we had been the day before.

Alex & Tiffany and Rick & Vicki came out to see us play and dance a little. It was really good to see and hang out with some old Seattle folks.

We played at the Casa Loma Ballroom which is near downtown St. Louis. It was a very large ballroom and the acoustics were very different than what we were used to. We were joined by two St. Louis based musicians on bass and reeds. Chloe Feoranzo is traveling with us until Bloomington, Indiana. She's 19 and can really play.

Chloe Feoranzo jammin' on the sax.

Spray paint outside of the venue.

Game of the Day!

We've been playing this game in the van. Think of a song title with the word "love" in it. Then replace it with the word "lunch." We've been doing it for the last few days. Give it a try!

Examples:

"Whole Lotta Lunch" - Led Zepplin

"Can't Buy Me Lunch" - The Beatles

"Lunch Shack" - The B-52's

"Lunch in an Elevator" - Aerosmith