today is different

cut to green pieces
by an impatient child -
the unripe mango

http://u.nu/5ikd6

the killers, set free
on a technicality
drink to new year’s eve

the apple orchard
harvested by bulldozer
november ashes

This song & video could be by anyone - Deerhunter, Whitney & Bobby, Weird Al - and it would be ludicrous and amazing. But, of course, it is by Bob Dylan, and it is the nail in the coffin to all other would-be contenders for the crown of greatest song-and-dance-man of the 20th & 21st centuries. His is an unparalleled greatness which will leave the earth when he does.

10/9: Fresno CA to Lake Forest CA. Disputes over directions lead to a headache. All routes are congested anyway. Hot tub at night.

10/10: Lake Forest CA to Los Angeles CA to San Francisco CA. A new job with a new band. We stop at a strange and familiar gas station on I-5. The weather is disarmingly pleasant. At the concert a pretty girl falls down drunk and is unresponsive. Her friends and the bartender drag her out.

10/11: San Francisco CA to Portland OR. I drive the entire way. We sleep in Corning, CA for a few hours and I consume a delicious veggie burger at Geppetto’s in Ashland OR. We arrive in Portland at 7pm. A pleasant drive - Brad declares Sunday a jazz day on my ipod. I play “Elevation” by Pharoah Sanders and he plays “Rip Rig & Panic” by Rahsaan Roland Kirk.

10/12: Portland OR to Seattle WA. Pho at Than Brothers then radio session at KEXP. People like the band. Ross takes me out to dinner at a tremendously delicious Thai restaurant. A cut above the rest, that place. We have spring rolls, soup and panang curry. I am salivating at the memory.

10/13: Seattle WA to Vancouver BC. Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan is declared too ominous as pre-border music. However it turns out to be the easiest Canada entry I have ever experienced. The border agent is angry with us for allegedly not faxing our documents but dismisses us without asking any questions. After the show we drive back to Bellingham WA. Also an easy border crossing. Still, it makes one realize how stressful it would be to live in a real police state.

10/14: Bellingham WA to Seattle WA to Portland OR. I drop the band off at the airport, in the rain. I drive to Portland and hang out a bit. The food carts at SE 12th & Hawthorne make my night.

10/15: Portland OR. I hang out for a day. See some friends, have dinner with my cousin for her birthday (Bombay Cricket Club - amazing chaat), see Mount Eerie at Wonder Ballroom. I love Mount Eerie.

10/16: Portland OR to Fresno CA. A long drive but pleasant. I try and fail to eat something better than Taco Bell. I get home around midnight and sleep with my dog.

10/17: Fresno CA to Los Angeles CA to San Francisco CA to Capitola CA. Drive to Northridge, bus to LAX, plane to SF. New shoes from Shoe Biz and stupendous dinner at Weird Fish, which has been my favorite restaurant for several months now. Then on to Capitola for a bloody mary, a beer and sleep.

10/18: Capitola CA to Visalia CA. We see “Where The Wild Things Are,” which could have been about 90 minutes shorter, or could have not existed at all, I guess. Whiskey and Yahtzee in Visalia, and a drive home in the morning.

shouting at nothing
in the middle of the night:
an idiot dog

I’m pretty proud of this one.

i dreamt of a plane
screeching through the evening
death trajectory

my nap is over
the police helicopter
chasing a shadow

shuffles in the dark
critters and alcoholics
hiding from the moon

Ed wrote us up real good here: http://estewartartist.blogspot.com/2009/07/concert-review-abigail-nolte-niilo.html

Also, you can now identify yourself as a fan of ours on Facebook.

Something has made it harder to write haiku. How do I get my mojo back?

Tonight Joe Lally played at Tokyo Garden. I was one of the many opening acts. Playing solo is always nerve-wracking, especially when I haven’t done it in a while. Tonight was no exception; I generally didn’t feel too great about my set but we don’t need to get into that.

The restrooms at Tokyo Garden (both) went out of commission fairly early in the night. Something clogged one of them and apparently all of the toilets on the property (including the adjacent church and vacant building) overflowed. Luckily, that leaning building next door finally got torn down last year so there was a nice big dirt lot for everyone to use. Pretty crit, as my Philly friends would say.

I felt pretty bad for the Lally crew. As a member of Fugazi, he really has to be used to better situations, no matter how salt-of-the-earth those fellows are. Here he is, kicking off his US tour in Fresno, of all places, and whaddya know, he’s playing to 30 drunks in a small Japanese restaurant with no restrooms.

They were good though. Fugazi has never been completely my cup of tea; I think my early attachment to Minor Threat is what has kept me listening. But the Joe Lally band was very professional and they played music of quality.

This heat is a nice kick in the pants. A reminder that, once it cools down in a couple days, we’ll still have at least a few weeks of bread-baking, soup-making, basketball-playing, barbecue-having spring weather. If those are the sorts of things you’re into.

old wisteria
cut apart by the neighbor
grown into the fence