- Getting half off our hotel stay in Richmond, Virginia, because there were huge flakes of human skin and hair on one of our beds???
- Tearing up at Armand Patoine’s story in Rumble Strip. So worth your time.
- The sandbags still in place for Hurricane Ian in Columbia, South Carolina.
- Playing with Finom at New Brookland Tavern in Columbia.
- Eating a block of cheese at a gas station in Aberdeen, Maryland.
- Playing with Finom at Comet Ping Pong in Washington D.C.
- The kind and skilled sound tech, training a young woman sound tech.
- The families playing ping pong in the venue room in the time leading up to our sound check. (Turns out Comet Ping Pong really has ping pong. But no basement.)
- It’s not decadent to be loved!
- The three, buff, fifyish, ball Ukrainian men filling up their trucks at a gas station in New York State, staring us (Finom) down (friendlily?).
- Learning (from my dear friend Elijah) that high school students have been using DALL-E 2 AI technology to synthesize homework and college applications.
- Playing with Finom at TV Eye in NYC.
- Waiting thirty-plus minutes for fried food from a bodega in Queens at 3AM that turned out to be some of the worst food we’d ever eaten (surprise), but which nonetheless gave us life.
- Playing with Finom at Tubby’s in Kingston, New York.
- The showgoer who told me I’m a “responsible” drummer, which made me feel great.
- Sam (Owens) showing us his singing saw.
- Water is blue because it’s actually blue.
- The humongous, well-oiled and delicious beans served by Pizzeria Beddia in Philadelphia. (In addition to their incredible pizza.)
- Playing with Finom at Johnny Brenda’s.
- Friko absolutely killing at Oberlin College, inspiring me (and Finom) to pour more into shows (again)!
- The wine and Pringles party we (Finom and Friko, AKA Friko for Finom) held in our cushy college-gig hotel room.
- Shoe shopping at a Zappos outlet store with the Case Oats band, Warner, Chloe, and Brendan.
- Our one and only Waffle House stop as a band for this run, a rare treat for northerners.
- In South Bend, Indiana, Case Oats with Joe Baughman, who made an incredible music video for Wilco’s “Someone to Lose,” and Bailey Williams, who sang in the Wilco Karaoke set at Solid Sound 2019!
- Case Oats playing with Warner Brownfield and Bats (Jess Awh) at Mag Bar in Louisville.
- Warner’s wonderful, free writing and performing style.
- Nick Larimore, an absolute ripper pedal steel player, always a joy to hear.
- The older, drunk, white ponytailed man who harrassed Casey, Jess, Chloe each separately with acts that included showing them pictures of his girlfriend’s boobs. Thankfully he showed himself out.
- A nice Case Oats show at Music Record Store in St. Louis opening for V.V. Lightbody. Wonderful to have Chet (Zenor) joining up with the tour. He’s such a great musician.
- Case Oats playing Lincoln Calling festival in Lincoln, Nebraska. Afterward, swimming in the hotel pool. We wanted to get in the hot tub but it was occupied by a party of middle aged folks with a dog and when they got out we discovered it was ultra soupy and dark. So we stayed in the pool.
- Mom inspecting the Case Oats tour van before we headed out for the band’s first run.
- The Dubuque, Iowa chamber of commerce members in matching red smoking jackets, cocktails in hand, who held a ribbon cutting ceremony (complete with novelty scissors) at the Fox Den Motel’s new live music room during the Case Oats soundcheck.
- The bartender who told us she had never tended bar before; she’s usually a farmer.
- “Hot Pink” by Meat Puppets.
- The release of “Bungalow,” Case Oats’ second single!
- Kooyrigs: a credible organization providing immediate aid to victims of Azerbaijan’s attacks on Armenia.
- Celebrating Zaid’s (my grandpa) 90th birthday.
- The plastic skeletons for sale at Menards, folded up, hanging on the racks, ready to go.
- This interview with the “last person standing” in the floppy disk business. I used floppy disks when I was in elementary school.
- The concept of a “messianic duo”: not a single savior, but a couple of collaborating saviors.
- The bizarre stories of David Reuveni and Shlomo Molcho, which I found by googling “messianic duo.” It turns out that in the sixteenth century, pretty much all you needed in order to get a meeting with the Pope was a white horse.
- The slightly claustrophobic, slightly cocoon-like hearing test booth at the audiologist’s office.
- The twinkling of the sailboat bells in the downtown marina at night.
- Nat Hentoff’s 1964 New Yorker profile of Bob Dylan [via Austin Kleon].
- “Sometimes I can make myself feel better with music, but other times it’s still hard to go to sleep at night.”
- Every hilarious, badass anecdote involving Tom Wilson. (‘“Man, dim the lights,” [Dylan’s] bearded friend counselled Wilson. “He’ll get more relaxed.” “Atmosphere is not what we need,” Wilson answered, without turning around. “Legibility is what we need.”’)
- Katie Crutchfield on the Listening podcast talking about eliminating the things in her life that didn’t serve songwriting.
- Jon Langford and Sally Timms at Judson & Moore.
- The man wearing a denim thobe (full-length robe) in the grocery store.
- Randy the Raccoon’s Cosmic Country Karaoke at the newly opened Color Club.
- Playing with Ripley at the Hideout.
- Moods are real. Admitting that to myself more easily lately.
- Cutting steel bolts to custom lengths and cleaning them up on the belt sander.
- Unearthing my rain-soaked festival production notes.
- The difference between deferring to others out of respect versus offloading responsibility onto them out of laziness or fear.
- The five-foot-tall duckie illuminated sign left in the alley behind the sign shop.
- Basil posing with the collection of ceramic Star Wars album cats at the Loft.
- The bunched up, dried up spray foam coiled inside a broken glass block like a snake carcass.
- The difference between deferring to others out of respect versus offloading responsibility onto them out of laziness or fear.
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