(written way back in 2004 & updated just before 2/29/08)

I don't remember how I first got the idea to write a song about being born on a Leap Year. I didn't know of any (still haven't heard of any others) and thought it might make a good subject. I wasn't born on February 29th and I'd never met anyone who was. I thought it might be kinda sad to be born on Leap Year and wondered if it might make someone sad for their whole life. It seemed slightly romantic somehow. I scribbled notes on anything that I could use relating to Leap Year's and, being an idiot, just about finished the song thinking that Leap Year's happened every FIVE years. Yes, I'm a college graduate. Lines like "Four years out of five/imagine being deprived" were quickly rewritten as were the more morbid lines like "When I'm close to death/I won't waste my breath/on 19 candles...".

I hadn't written a song in almost three years but I started up again in 1999 and this was the first song I finished. It was easily the best thing I'd ever written and, for better or worse, I think it probably still is. A friend of mine told me it reminded him of the Seattle band the Posies, one of my big faves. That was high enough praise but several years later, I opened up for the band here in San Diego and one of them liked it so much that he asked me for a copy of the song and was asking me about it months later. It's all downhill from there. Seriously.  Well, either that or when Rhett Miller asked me about the song and said he wished he'd thought of the idea first.

I was curious what a Leap Year baby might think of the song and a couple of years ago, before the song was recorded, my mom called me and asked me to make a tape of the song for a co-worker who was born on 2/29. The woman loved it and wrote me a very nice thank you note. When Rookie Card started doing the song, I'd ask if anyone in the audience was born on 2/29 but it took two and a half years before a Leap Year person saw us. 

In 2004, a national news service did a story on the song and we got mentions all over the country.  Leapzine.com, the most visited Leap Year site put the song up on their page and calls our song "their anthem". We played a show on February 29th, 2004 at the Whistle Stop, a cool little neighorhood bar in San Diego.  We'd put the word out that we were looking for a Leap Year baby to sing the song and a guy in Orange County found out about it.  He somehow convinced his friends to come down with him without telling them he was going to sing and surprised them.  Good times. 

This year, we're back at the Whistle Stop on Leap Year Eve, February 28th.  I do a monthly music trivia night there and it just happened to fall on the 28th.  I wasn't planning on anything but then friends and press people started inquiring about what we were going to do.  Newspapers and national news services are helping spread the word and the Leapzine folks called our song "their anthem" and put up all kinds of links to us. Thanks! For a much lighter side that's right up our alley, check out the Quadrennial Council's hilarious take on all the Leap Year ridiculousness who also linked up. So, we put the song up on our page, made a quick video of Dylan and I playing the song to see how many plays we can get in one week.  We're playing a short set for the first time in almost 15 months. Come on down.   We'll do something fun. You just watch....

P.S. If you're a Leap Day kid and come see us, show us ID and we'll give you a free cd. For reals.  Let us know if you can carry a tune....
----------------------------------
When the band first put the song up online in 2001, I sent an e-mail to the Leapzine website and got this priceless reply from Raenell, the woman who runs it:

ADAM! ADAM THE GIMBEL! ADAM THE LEAPING GIMBEL!!!!

What a great song! 2-29 is great!

I loved it. I can relate to it like a sister to a brother. My favorite lines:

I could walk and talk on my first birthday
and by the next I was reading at the 4th grade level
and by number 3, I felt so pre-teen

(Great opening. So true.)

and that's a tender early age to get so disenchanted
but all the other kids seemed to take theirs for granted
it's "Time To Change" forever
Peter Pan would be better

(oh-so-pro...found)

i hang my head and sigh
and calendars pass me by
ahead of my time on 2/29

(I love that line, it's SO true)

2/29 i'm sorry bout your belated valentine
2/29 it's never too late to say that you'll be mine

so you think it's rough being born near Christmas?
try coming out on a day that doesn't exist
in 3 years out of 4
i'll have faith no more

(Oh yeah, I use the Christmas thing too. Yeah, you think it's rough being
born near Christmas, well rough this up.)

in my god given right to closing eyes and making wishes
the combo of the hats and those stupid paper dishes
call me on march 1st if you've got the nerve
i could stand the test of time if they graded on a curve

and don't go counting candles
that's more than i can handle
i might live long but won't get to see 29

(No golden birthday for us Mister)

2/29 i'm sorry bout your belated valentine
2/29 it's never too late to say that you'll be mine

privileges of youth have been revoked
sooner than i hoped

i'm aging faster at a quarter of the speed
my will to live don't have a lifetime guarantee

(i'm aging faster at a quarter of the speed - that line just made me go "mmmmm, good one")

i wanna leap off the deep end
i hope i fall on a weekend...

(HA! There are only 11 times in 100 years that our Birthday Weekend happens. Where the 28th is on Saturday and the 1st is on Sunday. I make a big deal out of those weekends. Tease me all you want. It doesn't affect me anymore.)

What a great song. I'm so glad you found us. I've GOT to have an autographed copy of the CD with 2-29 on it. Leap On my LeapBrother. You rock.

OK - people think I'm a little too into my Leapness. But whatever. I have fun and it's totally cool meeting other Leapies.

I went to your site, you are very funny. I like you and I don't even know you. So did you register with us? I don't recall registering you. It's free you know. Since the beginning, 17 years ago, we've been a free Society.

Thanks again for sharing and I hope you'll stay in touch. I turned 10 last Leap Year. And you?

My Leapest Regards,
Raenell Dawn, LDB 1960
www.leapdaybabies.com
The Honor Society of Leap Day Babies

Once the Leapzine website put us up on the site, we started to get occasional e-mails and guestbook signings from 2/29 folks. Here's a great e-mail from an Englishman about the song:

>Sorry to disappoint you but I think your song is rubbish. As for the lyrics >below
>
>"so you think it's rough being born near Christmas?
>try coming out on a day that doesn't exist
>in 3 years out of 4
>i'll have faith no more "
>
>my son was born on 29 Feb and its exactly this type of attitude that gets on
>my nerves. Do you really think we tell our children they only have a
>birthday every 4 years? We have always emphasised the originality and
>excitement of being born on such a special day. Contrary to popular (it
>would seem) belief, he has a birthday every year - on 1st March if it is not
>a leap year, and every 4th year he has an extra special birthday, some
>really big treat. I know 2 other people who have leap year birthdays and
>that is what they do too. Your mother's co worker born on 29 Feb may have
>loved the song but personally I don't think having this as your birth date
>is a reason to ask the world to feel sorry for you. So, no - being a leap
>year baby doesn't make you sad for the rest of your life, unless you
>yourself want it to.

BASSIST WANTED Want to play and harmonize with Rookie Card? Fun established indiepowerpop/altcountry band. Good songs, good times. We dig Wilco, Guided By Voices, Teenage Fanclub, Whit Strips, Old 97's, Big Star, Weezer, etc.   We get good shows, too much press, wanna play more outta town. www.RookieCardTheMovie.com myspace.com/rookiecard rookie@rookiecardthemovie.com

RC ROADTRIP

Day 3

The Bolt (Sacramento)
Oakland house party

I wasn't sleeping all that well but sometime after 7, I started to hear two people playing trumpet.  At 7am.  On a Saturday.  I thought I must be dreaming but I did peek blindly outside and didn't see anything.  Now I was screwed.  I was too awake and mad to go back to sleep so I took a shower, cursing myself for not bypassing washing up and just murdering whatever marching band youths decided it would be fun to practice at the crack of dawn.  I got dressed, put on my shades, grabbed a stack of rookiecards and got ready to find whatever motel room they were in, pound on the door, yell "YOU SUCK!" and throw them in their face.  I stormed outside and found Fresno's 150^th anniversary parade preparations in FULL swing.  I was going to need a LOT more rookiecards. 

You've got to be kidding me.  I walked around and looked at all of the charming floats, marching bands, local sports legends in convertible Corvettes, etc.  I went back to the thriftstore to buy the shoes I was regretting not getting yesterday and the manager took pity on my early wake-up call and took $7.00 off.  When I got back, a drill team and a drumline was setup right outside our door.  I lucked out and walked back into the room just in time to catch the look on Andrew and Dylan's faces when the drummers started practicing IN A MOTEL PARKING LOT early on a weekend morning.  The sight of them facing the rooms and playing was too priceless to not photograph. 

Obviously, the only acceptable consolation was to enter Dick Van Dork as a Rookie Card float in the parade.  Trying to transform us into a marching band seemed a bit much, so I ran around a bit with an acoustic guitar while Pete took pictures and Dylan drove Dick down the street alongside the floats preparing to enter the parade route.  One marching band organizer asked me not to play because it was distracting them trying to keep in step.  Of course, that made me want to play even MORE off but I started playing offbeats to be in sync with them, which was basically reggae so I started singing the Femmes' "Please Do Not Go" a bit.  We hit Denny's, saw an elderly driver clip a bicyclist's tire when he wasn't looking and headed north.

We stopped off in Merced to shed a tear for the historic Mainzer Theater, where we were supposed to play tonight.   It was actually open so I peeked in the lobby before we headed over to the baseball card shop down the block where we found a bunch of cool stuff last time we played there.  The old couple that own it are still kind of odd but happily dusted off old unopened packs of Michael Jackson and Andy Griffith cards for us.  Someone there told us there's a group of folks that are likely going to buy the Mainzer and continue to do music there.  Hope so 'cos it's awesome and the town needs it.  We leisurely strolled 'round a Rite Aid and 99 Cent store before realizing we should really leave.  I bought a 12 inch army doll called "Great War" but passed on a toy phone that was packaged with the name "Wonder Camera".

When our Merced gig fell through, I hit Myspace to find a gig anywhere from San Luis Obispo to Chico.  I saw that there was a Sacramento cast of Hedwig and The Angry Inch (the greatest rock musical ever) playing an AIDS benefit that night, They said we might be able to play.  When they told us it was at a leather bar and they were crowning Mr Sacramento Bear that night (that's a larger hairy gay man for those of you who don't know your slang), how could we say no?  Unfortunately, Hedwig & the pageant were later in the evening and we ended up being a sort of pre-party bbq thing in a huge, empty backyard.  The patio we played on wasn't made for electric instruments so we drove to a local musicstore to buy covers for the mics to avoid death by electrocution.  On the way back, we hit Wendy's for the most ridiculous fastfood experience any of us have ever had.  All of the frustrated teens working there were complaining, screaming at each other and pretty much ignoring the customers for their own amusement.  We were all greeted by "Can I help you?" and right when we started talking, they'd say "Hold on a second, dawg" and go back and run to get food for the last person.  When I stepped up, the girl loudly proclaimed that fast food was bad for you and that we should all never come back.  The satellite radio station played "Europa" by Thomas Dolby and the Jam.  You kinda had to be there but, trust me, it was hysterical.

We played to some very appreciative people (a bunch of regulars and our friend Ben) with a huge fire pit sending smoke to all of the right places (cough/cry).  We only ended up using a couple of mics and got through it ok.  Strangely enough, as we were getting on the freeway to go there earlier that day, we saw a radio station called "The Bear" doing a promotion, so we stopped to get a t-shirt for a lucky fan.  When someone noticed that I threw some Depeche Mode into our Cure cover, he was the winner but I'd forgotten the t-shirt in the van.  So, as the band jammed out the middle of the next song, I put down my guitar and ran to the van to get the prize.  People said really nice things and totally appreciated how far we'd come, insisting on buying cd's, even though I'd wanted to donate whatever we made.

The best part of the day was getting to see the Hedwig cast do their thing.  I'd messaged with the girl playing Hedwig's husband (actually a woman with a fake beard) and she came out early to see us.  She looked perfect but when their Hedwig pulled up, my jaw hit the floor.  6 foot plus and dressed fabulously perfect.  Getting to sit and have a long conversation with two characters from one of my favorite movies ever was pretty memorable.  They crammed all six of them onto a tiny stage inside and a pretty good crowd showed up to see them. 

It was torture having to leave after just a few songs because they sounded great and Kevin (Hedwig) was hysterical, spending most of the time joking with the crowd.  He went searching for someone in the crowd to help him sing and stopped at me.  He questioned me on whether I'd seen them perform and since I had, did I know the words?  I didn't.  "That is not the answer I'm looking for.  Let's try again…"  The jealous husband reluctantly admitted that he had a copy of the lyrics and I was ushered onstage to do the high girl harmonies on "Sugar Daddy" at breakneck speed.  Everyone said I did great but I know what notes I didn't hit.  It was still fun as hell and even Andrew didn't figure out that the whole thing was pre-planned.   We didn't want to leave but it was 10 o'clock, the Oakland houseparty was in full swing and we had to drive 90 minutes to rock it ASAP.

We rolled into Oakland in the dark and found the house we were looking for.  In looking for a place to replacement show for tonight, I'd found a couple of girls called the Late Night Dates doing fun Le Tigre electrostuff who were playing a houseparty that night.  I asked if we could play and the singer said yes since it was her housewarming party, which was awfully nice.  The party was in a very cool apartment in an old house and all of the neighbors were out, with a DJ out back in a courtyard and lots of coolie kids with red cups.  We got to see the last of the LNDates' phat beats but our hearts sank when they said another band was on next, which meant we could've seen more Hedwig.  Oh well.  We killed time with Christine, a girl from San Diego who'd seen us before, was planning on coming to see us the next night in SF and wondered what we were doing at the party.  Small world.  The next band was a hand drum player, a bassist, a guitarist and an annebriated young lady who kept yelling for us to get the people downstairs to come up and fucking watch them.  The cops decided to put a stop to them, which meant things didn't look good for us.

Since it was just a warning, Isabella said we could wait awhile and play acoustically.  We'd never done it before with the new guys but we figured it couldn't hurt.  The policeman waited outside in his car for 20 minutes and finally left.  I played acoustic, Andrew used brushes on a handdrum and Dylan & Pete played quietly on their guitars.  The previous band was nice enough to let us use some of their stuff and even nicer to sit and watch us the whole time.  People wandered in and out and it turned out to be pretty fun.  I encouraged requests, of course, and for such a bunch of youngfolks, we were surprised they were asking for Harry Nillson, Jim Croce, Leadbelly, and Brian Setzer.  I worked in what I could and we did a halfway decent "Rock This Town".  My favorite part was probably when a punk kid walked in and said "Is this Jimmy Buffet?!" while we were playing a new song that we'd rocked up because it sounded too Jimmy Buffet.  Playing it acoustically, this guy saw right through us.  Damn.

We headed to my uncle Avram's in Berkeley, where he was nice enough to let us have his house to ourselves, while he slept in the back house on his property.  He let us in at an ungodly hour and we conked out pretty quick with Andrew and I downstairs and Pete and Dylan upstairs in his loft. 

Dylan: (thunderous snoring)

Adam:  Um, Dylan?

Dylan: (thunderous snoring)

Adam: Pete? (no response, Adam puts in earplugs)

(after a few minutes)

Pete: Dylan?

Adam: Pete!
Pete: Dylan, you're snoring.

Adam: Pete, tell him to turn on his side!
Pete: He is on his side.
(You kinda had to be there.)

More photos: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/peterbayard/album?.dir=b80ascd&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/peterbayard/my_photos

RC ROADTRIP

Day 2

Fagan's Irish Pub (Fresno)

We woke up late with brief sightings of Charlotte and Roger then loaded up in search of breakfast.  Somehow I remembered my friends Lincoln and Nikki's phone number, which hasn't changed in 15 years and Nikki was home to give me directions to Bobby's, a nearby diner we'd been to years before.  It was cheap and good and had an awesome sign for a ranch breakfast that was older than all of us put together.  We guessed that if you peeled away "$4.99" that it said "$0.25".  We headed north up the 5 for a rare leisurely drive to our next show.

We had enough time to make two stops.  The first was to Buck Owens' Crystal Palace.  I'd heard that the country legend had his own venue in Bakersfield and the exit with his name was just too tempting to not check out.  We pulled over to see a huge old fashioned show saloon that looked straight outta Disneyland.  Inside the well arranged lobby was Buck memorabilia of all kinds, cd's for sale, and bronze statues of Buck, Willie and other greats.  I gave the young counter girl a cd and some rookie cards and she was nice enough to let us into the concert hall/museum for free (normally $5.00).  It's a pretty awesome setup that is covered in every plaque, key to the city and pair of Hee Haw overalls that you can fit in glass cases.  They let us get our picture taken onstage and we drooled over the huge Cadillac with bullhorns mounted above the bar.  We now have a new number one place we'd like to play.  Dare to dream.

The second stop was an old abandoned country theater a little bit up the 99 freeway.  We'd stopped before but the pics came out kinda blurry and we've got new Rookies to immortalize.  It's fenced up and graffiti'd up but still with a very cool 100 foot sign that was recently gnarled by wind damage(!).  Kinda hard to take good band photos without anyone else around but we snapped a few anyways then headed to Fresno.

Dylan used the GPS on his phone and a woman's voice told us where to turn and when.  Crazy.  Three thrift stores in a row were right near Fagan's Irish Pub so we spent an hour or so finding not too much good stuff.  (However, as I type this the next morning, I'm reminded of the burgundy shoes I wanted so I'm going to go over and buy 'em while Dylan and Andrew sleep.  They gave 'em to me for $12 ($18.95 was ridiculous) and I spotted a set of Dick Tracy cards at the counter.  Joy.)

Fagan's is a really nice large room with a big front bar and they set up a ton of tables for dinner where the bands play.  Huge stage and good sound, thanks to soundguy Brad who rocks a Sabbath style stache, runs a local studio and plays in Fresno's coolest indieband, Rademacher.  There was a bit of a confusion with when we were going to play but it all worked out fine.   We hopped onto a cd release for a young country singer named Kristi Warner.  It was the smalltown girl's first performance and her dad was apparently a little over concerned about the details of the show, especially since she was playing "ten sets".  After Fagan's fed us with a great free meal, we played a short country set to a pretty good sized crowd of Kristi's friends and relatives.  Everyone up front had white hair and I made sure to flirt with them as much as possible in between songs.  Even though we kept it quiet, it might have been the best set we've played with the new lineup.

Kristi had a band of mostly older pros who did the new country thing just fine.  She's got a great voice, a vocal coach and a Nashville producer.  New country isn't really our thing but she seemed to be just as good as anyone else out there and was nice as can be.  We mingled during her two sets and then quickly set up for a late night rawk set that we knew would be mostly empty.  It was but a few folks I found on myspace showed up and they brought friends in other local bands.  We kept it super loose, took requests, had a guy jump up and moan Jagger style blues stuff about bein' a pimp over one song and had a ton of fun.  We weren't gonna play it but Lisa liked "Namedrop" enough to put it on her Myspace page, so we obliged with the sloppiest version we've ever played (oops).  We thanked everyone for coming and I tried to thank the owner for calling us "The Rookie Cards" all night as politely as I possibly could. 

The folks that came out were supercool so we tailed them to a nearby bar that seemed too good to be a true.   A nice Italian restaurant with huge vintage black & white photos from floor to ceiling and completely populated with local hipster kids.  We talked about music and I asked them all kinds of questions about what it's like to play in middle California over drinks.  I can't wait to hear all of the bands that they're in (Batteries, Everything All The Time, Gypsy Cab)and come back to play with them. There was a latenight Thai restaurant that we were craving but after not being able to flag a waitress for 30 minutes, we hit the Taco Bell drivethru and slumbered in elegance at the Super 8 Motel. Way fun. We love Fresno.  Made me really excited about the band and bein' on the road.  Hope we have more nights like this.

 More photos: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/peterbayard/album?.dir=b80ascd&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/peterbayard/my_photos

RC ROADTRIP

Day 4

Hotel Utah (San Francisco)

We woke up to find our bassist had disappeared.  It was his anniversary but his wife was supposed to be out of town, so we booked the roadtrip.  Then she wasn't going out of town so they arranged to have her come up for 24 hours.  So, while the two of them spent the day in the city, the rest of us slept late (which we so needed after our parade wakeup call yesterday) and went to get Zachary's Pizza with my uncle Avram.  Hardcore RC fans will recognize him as the man who left us an encouraging, hysterical message that we put on our demo, First Day Of Class.  My dad's older brother has lived in Berkeley since the mid-60's and is sweet, hysterical and nuts in all the best ways.  He kept us all entertained with his ideas on everything, including dating.  He always seems to be with girls half his age and told us how there's tons of lonely women in the Berkeley hills.  He may or may not regularly post a simple Craigslist ad that says he's looking for someone he can take care of and it works like a charm.

Zachary's was amazing as usual.  Still probably the best deep dish pizza on earth.  We followed it up with a walk around Telegraph and Berkeley campus since Andrew had never seen the East Bay.  Andrew and I bought a few things at Amoeba and we bought a few live bootlegs cd's (Simon & Garfunkel, Police, Television) from a guy on the street for just three bucks each. He says been doing it for over a year and no one's ever done anything.  Only in Berkeley!  Yogurt Park is still amazing too.  It was a beautiful, cool fall day so I drove down to the Marina to walk around and see the view before heading back home for a nap.  To get a day this relaxing in the middle of doing 6 shows in 5 days was really great. 

We headed across the Bay Bridge which is always beautiful at night.  A few wrong turns later (I HATE DRIVING IN THE BAY AREA), we were at the cool, comfy Hotel Utah.  The show took awhile to confirm and when we did, the booker said it was cool if I found the other bands to play with and I had a blast finding tons of cool Bay Area bands to play with.  I got two good ones to do the show, only to find that he'd already booked three other bands that weren't really our cup of tea.  Drat.  Still, we had some folks come out, including two old online friends of mine, Andrew and Ling plus the aforementioned Christine, who volunteered to take black and white pictures of us.  We need new band photos.  Perfect.  We got a damn good discounted dinner and I tried to save my voice.

Lakes, an acoustic duo, arrived and immediately asked us if they could play last "because we're from out of town".  They looked disappointed that we'd driven about 300 miles more than they had.  The Procrastanistas, stayed true to their name and started the night off late.  They fit a lot of cool gear up there, including a rotating Leslie cabinet for the organ.  They made us feel young and had a song that repeated the line "This French chick is going out with me/I don't know what the fuck she's talking about", um, repeatedly.  We played probably our best, tightest set so far.  That's what touring is supposed to do, right?   Andrew set up his drumset in the corner, which worked alright and allowed Dylan and I to take silly, dramatic quick steps back and lean against the back wall.  We did a song called "Ducks" that Pete wrote and sang for Meg for their anniversary.  Her tears of joy rolled down from the balcony, nearly drowning everyone sitting below. The 30 or so people seemed to dig it but Lakes did not look thrilled that things were going late.  I actually felt guilty about playing nine songs (even though I cut two songs from the setlist).

We got offstage quick, talked to friends and tried to act natural in our first photoshoot with the new guys (thanks again, Christine). A white dreadlocked guy that was quite nice followed us with a solo acoustic set and then the Lakes duo did perfect unplugged power ballads that would fit perfectly over the last scene in episodes of Laguna Beach, the OC or whatever the kids watch these days.  I missed them rolling their eyes while thanking the few stragglers for staying and sarcastically(?) saying that the last time they'd played SF they'd sold out the Filmore.  With their slick website and thousands of Myspace friends, think they'd be huge.  Did I mention that when you go to their Myspace page, they have an awkward recording of them saying that their album presale is now over but to still buy it?  I diplomatically said nice things and we left.  Now I'm talkin' smack online.  What a tough guy.

Late night Taco Bell again?!  Zzzzzzz…..

More photos: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/peterbayard/album?.dir=b80ascd&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/peterbayard/my_photos

RC ROADTRIP

Day 5

Molly Malone's (Hollywood)

The three of us got out this morning and followed Avram to a bakery in Emeryville.  We miraculously managed to not run out of gas before finding a gas station in one of the worst parts of Oakland, picked up Pete from the BART station and headed out for the long drive to LA.  The 5 drive is totally boring.  We gazed out at the overcast gloom, cleaned up the van, watched dvd's, cellphoned, typed up a lot of this diary, stopped for Carl's Jr, and listened to the Big Star tribute and Pete's ipod on shuffle.  I never cracked either of the books I borrowed for the trip.  We all missed the most exciting part of the ride, because we were all sleeping.  Apparently, Dylan closed his eyes for a few seconds and when he opened them, a huge truck was a lot closer.  Eek.

I would've been fine skipping LA on the drive home but the guy at Molly Malone's liked us, especially since we'd just done a festival with Flogging Molly, who got their start and their name there.  We had plenty of time to set up in their very cool room and hang with a bunch of friends who came out to watch (thanks guys!).  Unfortunately, the other bands don't have any earlybird friends and only a few folks doing open mic next door peeked their head in.  No one told us that 8pm on Monday night isn't party time in Hollywood.  No matter, we played unquestionably our best set of the trip and the sound onstage and outfront was really good.  I wore my "Kiss Me I'm Jewish" t-shirt and wished everyone a good Yom Kippur.  A good way to end things.

We were too late for the guys to see how cool Farmer's Market is but Chipotle tasted really, really good.  I drove the whole way home while everyone else slept and only got a little lost going back to the freeway.  Listening to Zumpano's "Look What The Rookie Did" seemed an appropriate way to finish the trip.  As tired as we were, we unloaded the van and found all kinds of stuff we hadn't seen in days, except for Andrew, who's missing a bag of stuff. 

So, once again, nothing incredible happened and nothing awful happened.  Thanks to cancellations and folks not getting back to me, the whole thing was arranged pretty last minute, so I'm glad we were able to arrange what we did (6 shows in 5 days).  More than anything, it was just good to get out and about.  Even when we played to practically no one, everyone watching came up and said nice things afterwards.  Plus, with our band fund and what we made on the road, we didn't pay for a single meal, drop of gas or motel room.  So, it was a five day all-expenses paid roadtrip.  Fun.  See you next time.

Adam

October 3, 2006

More photos: http://pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/peterbayard/album?.dir=b80ascd&.src=ph&store=&prodid=&.done=http%3a//pg.photos.yahoo.com/ph/peterbayard/my_photos

"Because I'm talkin' about the road."

            -Tenacious D