We stopped in Gila Bend, Arizona yesterday.
you know, that gas station on I-8 in the middle of nowhere that has all the crafts outside to make you forget about the price gauging of the gasoline. The one where you open your car door (van door in my case) and the wind from the inside of a clay pit oven washes over your face and you are instantly sweating? Yes, that one.
I walked into the restroom to wash my hands after pumping gas.
As is my custom at home, I put the liquid soap in the palm of my right hand while turning on the hot water faucet with my left hand. Hotter water = less germs = cleaner hands (my thought process).
This restroom, as some others do, did not have any hot water. This didn’t seem out of place to me at all, since lots of businesses do this to save on electricity bills. So I then reached for the cold water faucet and that’s when it occurred to me:
“When would any human being living in or visiting Gila Bend Arizona during the month of August EVER need hot water for any reason at all at all at all?”
The water which ran from the cold water faucet ran at about the temperature I was expecting/hoping for from the hot water faucet. So, point taken, revelation confirmed, and cleaner hands. I win.
America.
We stopped again somewhere in Southern California, also on the 8, also on our drive from Tempe to San Diego, and a man carrying a dilapidated hanging bag and dressed in a scent of “I’m pretty sure that demons attack me when I shower” walked into the Taco Bell where we were sadly ordering something resembling food, walked up to the cashier to place his order, and began by stating:
“Well, you have the best bean burritos in town, so let me get two of those…”
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Grammy-nominated composers LMFAO are currently out on their “Sorry for Party Rocking” Tour. But are they really sorry? Is that an honest apology?
Maybe I’m the one who’s supposed to be sorry: “[You’ll Be] Sorry For [Our] Party Rocking” Tour. I’ll be the first to admit that doesn’t have the same ring.
But I am truly sorry.
And
I work out.
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Radiohead is incorporating new songs into the setlist almost every night so they have extensive rehearsals every day. Sometimes we watch them rehearse. It’s almost as inspiring as the live show. The first time we heard them try out Paranoid Android it sounded good, but rusty, in need of some polish. Then they played it that same night at the show and it was perfect.
Almost every show on the tour has a day in between it and the next show, which is quite handy for Other Lives, since we’re in a van and I don’t think we’d make some of the drives (Austin to St. Louis, Denver to Phoenix) if we didn’t have that extra day. But at the beginning of the tour, there were two back to back shows: Tampa and Atlanta. This turned out to be quite a challenge for the Radiohead crew because they have an extensive stage, light, sound and video setup.
Amazingly everything ended up in its right place that day in Atlanta, but we were behind schedule as a result of the time crunch.
That day, Jesse and I watched the Radiohead soundcheck, which was running behind schedule like everything else. But we didn’t care, we were happy just to watch them rehearse. Thom, however, gentleman that he is, was very aware that their rehearsal time was eating into our setup time, and so, at one point in their rehearsal, he looked over at Jesse and I, sitting in the audience, and he made this expression:
which, we both knew to be “Sorry guys, we don’t mean to be running late, but everything else is running late today, and so what can you do?”
Jesse, in kind, made this expression:
which we both knew to mean “that’s okay, Thom, you’re the best, and what can you do? It doesn’t bother us in the least.”
At the same time as Jesse, I was making this expression:
which was an attempt at “Oh, please don’t worry about it, there’s no need to apologize at all” but I think ended up more like “give me a high-five! wait, make that a high-10 and let’s both act mildly surprised that we even know each other” and/or “awwwwww yeah! look at my hands, I got a reverse manicure, Thom!”
I’m sorry to everyone involved in that interaction. Radiohead is brilliant and I am an awkward, awkward man.
Tonight:
http://www.facebook.com/events/307452125985087/
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