Adventure #35: Summer 2012 Tour Lock Haven, PA

It is my determination to not let this become one of the millions (billions?) of blogs whose final post starts with something like “I really need to update this more...” before going the way of myspace and friendster. I actually wrote blogs for many of the shows on my last few tours but ended up never having the time to post them. So to summarize the past year or so worth of adventures: many were good. Some were terrible. I got really sick and canceled a bunch, then my car got sick too so I couldn't really do much for about 9 months. Then I had surgery on my gimpy lung, bought a new car (The Hatchback of Notre Dame) and now I'm playing again. Victory and cake for all!

There's something about the first show of every tour. There's always something. This time around it was insane traffic and repairs on my touring mate's car. So I showed up 45 minutes late without the other act (Joshua Stephens, formerly of 19 Action News, who for those of you following along that would be the band I played with the last time I bothered to update this thing.). I am the king of professionalism. The show itself was pretty good. The folks at Avenue 209 are always super friendly, so even when there's hardly anyone there at least it doesn't feel like a wasted night. It was weird performing again after so long off. I kept expecting my lung to hurt, afraid of every high note, but it handled OK. Singing after major surgery on your lungs is a bit like driving a new car. It's not better or worse. Just different. I think the tour might not be a horrible mistake after all. This is my lungs, being OK.

I got up and headed off to Cleveland in the morning. I stopped for lunch in Clarion, Pennsylvania. It's the kind of town that has heavy artillery in the town square. It's also apparently the kind of town where you can see an elderly woman with a walker stumble out of a tattoo parlor at 2 in the afternoon on a Tuesday. In other words: it's awesome. This is Pen Pen trying to buy a copy of the next book in the Foundation series at the local bookstore and shaking his fist in rage at the sky because they only had the first book.

This is a song I wrote this one time. You should download it and share it with your friends.