If you're going to New York City, make sure to wear black jeans

I'm getting ready to leave for the airport after a tumultuous 3 hours attempt at rest. I'm having a really hard time deciding whether or not to take my snare drum. . . I really like it, and I want to take it, but I'm seriously pushing the airlines size limits for a carry-on with my cymbal stuffed bike bag. It looks like it's just cymbals and my guitar. My next blog will be from the trip and I'll be sending lots of pics from my trusty cellular telephone-cam. I am really hoping that the handmade bike exhibit is still up at the airport. I haven't been able to see it, cause it's on the safe side of the security checkpoint.

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Alright, suckas, see you in New York!

I spent some time in the garage last night working on the wheel. I had about 20 lbs of Grolleg, which is a clay body that can be a bit of a pain to work with. It is soft and supple, but it doesn't want to stand up to much work. It also doesn't particulary like water, so it was a bit frustrating and pretty exciting to work with it for the first time. Generally, Grolleg based porcelains contain a lot of Iron due to the addition of dirty plasticizers, like Bentonite. One resource suggests using Kaolin based Porcelains, but I don't know if it matters that much for me goofing around in my garage. The aspect I'm excited about with the G based, is that it is supposed to have a wonderful translucent quality when thrown thin and fired. I don't have a kiln or access to one right now, but when I do get to fire something, I'll post some pics.

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I picked up my cymbals from Diane's house yesterday along with my snare and bass drum pedal. I'm going to try to fit it all in my big bag, so that I don't have to check a bag in addition to my guitar, the thought of which is making me very nervous. I leave in two days. I'm excited to play in and visit New York City again. I'd like to have the opportunity more often, but wouldn't we all? Since all of my luggage space is full of musical equipment, I'm taking only two pair of underwear and socks. I'm only staying for two days. . .

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It's raining in Portland, imagine that.

I keep forgetting the titles

More Pedro The Lion this morning upon waking up. I got a job at Portland Public Schools as a ESL tutor. Many people think that you have to know other languages to teach English as a second language. This would be helpful at times, but it's not really a requirement. Mainly one has to be comfortable communicating in English and proficient with Body Language. I hope.

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I just bought a plane ticket to NYC for CMJ. A couple of years ago I bought a ticket to NY for $99 each way. Today, it was over double that price. I've heard that there is actually a tunnel that runs from Portland to Brooklyn, but I don't know where it is, which sucks, cause I could really use the savings.

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I'm looking forward to playing a show this weekend. Dan Jones and the Squids are coming up from Bl(eu)jean. Pony Village is also on the bill. It's a Valiant Arms show and the posters are fucking amazing as per Rob Jones' standard offering.

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I'm posting some pictures of the ride back from Race For The Cure. They were taken on my phone, which is not an iPhone(damn) and they're not very clear.