miscellaneous photographs.

haikus

for the places we've been.

georgia.

too deep to see feet
swamp waist-high by age thirteen
come with me to shore.

florida.

leap onto my hand
the blood you draw is not mine
but the colony's.


alabama.

snuck across your feet
under cover of rainfall
we were never here.


louisiana.

lush with disaster
unlcad dolls on pianos
both so overplayed.


houston.

imminent warble
death comes when you've given up
please don't lay down yet.


san antonio.

two cannon ball eyes
screeching secrets into plains
listen hard and weep.


austin

here's a safe haven
here are pains that hault your sleep
one prong on the fork.

more stuff that happened.

in texas there are these birds called grackles. they're actually apparently an invasive species, but they make the most beautiful sounds and fluff up their feathers if you get close to them.

a few more mishaps: kyle got in a car accident, nothing serious- just a screwed up front bumper. emily broke her trumpet, but she got a shiny new red one, like an apple. mike lawless has been sick but now he's feeling better, only now wendy is sick. mike everett got food poisoning so bad that he had to go to a hospital in houston to get an IV. he's feeling much better now.

austin was a sanctuary, after the places we stayed. dylan's parents have a beautiful house with a huge backyard including a pool, great lighting, a hammock, and audio(the dog)'s doppleganger: domino. we drank some 'ronas in the pool and later mother falcon (pictured above) played, and they are absolutely amazing. look them up. apple miner colony's talking about a scandanavian tour next summer with mother falcon. MOTHER FALCON. the band played really great and the audience was very into it.


san antonio went really well, cole and cody were on home turf. i met his family. they are all really great people. before apple miner went on there was a family band (mother, father, son, daughter, uncle) with the daughter (maybe age 16?) as the front woman. it was adorable. the son had his guitar and ego turned way too far up and he and his dad made some really inappropriate comments, but they let geoff use their upright which was nice. apple miner sounded really tight, and we made somewhere around a third of the gas money for the whole trip in that one night.

we stayed at anthony's house that night in his grandparent's HUGE backyard. they fed us an amazing breakfast and lunch. apple miner played an acoustic set in the family room for the family, including anthony's aunt, who's had ALS for seven years. cole says it's been the most important show of the tour so far.

later we went to the wilson ranch (cole's dad/stepmom's place), which was yet another paradise in contrast to the perils of the road. horses, goats, cows, a swimming pool, huge yards, tons of awesome dogs, and good food and beer. cole's dad is hilarious and stephanie is very nice. cole and i stayed in georgie's room. the next morning we woke up in her bed then headed to houston where one of the openers was called Georgia's Horse, and she had a bunny on the cover of her album.

houston was sad... the venue was really cool (super happy funland) but it seemed like the population had lost hope. it was hard to get people to open their hearts, minds, and wallets.

country roads, take me home.

and home is wherever i am. currently, home is a highway somewhere between Amarillo and Denton, Texas.














i made little presents for everyone coming on tour, little matchbooks.




















the day we left everyone was waiting with their stuff, smoking, filming, relaxing until it was time to pack. the vans and 'new equipment,' *wink*, arrived. i suggested the names pinky and the brain for the vans which was quickly accepted. then role call, and then we're off. it's only been two days but we already have role call and loading down to a pretty good science (mostly thanks to dylan blanchard).







our first show in albuquerque was a house show. it was totally packed, and there were five bands on the bill including Small Flightless Birds. by the time everyone only went on everyone was already exhausted, some even asleep in the 'green room.' but, alas, we perked up and watched them rock, hard. the last song they were playing was suddenly interrupted by a "cops!" alert via nathan (who lives there) in the microphone. we weren't sure if the apple miner colony were going to be able to even play, or especially plug in. everyone seemed to be filtering out, and the mood dropped. but the go-ahead was given to set up and start, and so it was. people seemed to crawl out of the woodwork and soon it was completely packed again. there was jumping, screaming, chanting "till the cops come!", clapping, even crowd surfing (seriously). when all was said and done we retreated to tents, chairs, couches, floors and slept off the first day of tour. the next morning there were stretches/jumping jacks, and the small running crowd took off like they will every morning. we cleaned the house to a point where it looked better than when we came, and headed off.








amarillo went great as well. 10th street deli was a meow-wolf/kilby court-type venue in the heart of what seems like a great town of nothingness. i started to walk to get cigarettes by myself in broad daylight, but had to turn around and run back after getting totally weirded out by a creepy dog chained in an alley, a man pointing a fake gun out his window, and otherwise no one around. cole eventually walked me the couple of blocks. inside the small store was a burly, gnarled man with bloody hands and a wad of dip in his cheek buying a 40. he turned to cole, looked him up and down, and says, "here's the first thing: you gotta have a job. you gotta be bringing in the cash. if your'e living on welfare or food stamps you're nothing but a slacker you understand?" cole nods and says "i understand." the man keeps ranting, and the store owner finally asks him to stop harassing his customers. the man put his elbow up on the counter and said, "now you're really makin' me mad." my fingers dug into cole's arm a little but the dispute quickly ended and we made our way back to the venue, the film crew slowly following us with their mount on top of their car.
amarillo is so strange like this, full of crazies it seems. looking at the kids at the venue i couldn't help but wonder how they'll turn out. if this town is built to destroy brains or if it was just a fluke of a certain age group. a small group of people ventured out and found a bench on the side of the road with an advertisement saying "the pagan easter bunny did not die for your sins, but jesus did." there was a photos of a pink bunny crucified.








back at the venue, the show began and everyone loved everyone only, they sold 4 cds right after playing. the apple miner colony started and it took a few songs, but finally everyone tuned in and connected. aside from a group of painfully wasted and irritating yet enthusiastic girls in the front, everyone danced and listened intensely. it was a small crowd in size but big in spirit. i sold a ton of merch (soon to be sold online?), and everyone was super excited. afterward we got invited to a fancy ranch with promises of showers and hottubs and saunas by a guy who dropped about $60 on cds. but he bailed with a dead cell phone so we rolled out our sleeping bags and slept on stage in a big pile.
dylan was nominated to stand on a box to turn the light out, after the plug was pulled we wanted to see a jumpkick off the box. he prepared to do the greatest jumpkick of his life, but instead fell straight through the box. he jumped out and tried to fix it, and accidently pulled the lid off instead. the film crew missed it all! then we traded off talking about poop and philosophical items dealing with eve and the apple and so forth. i got the giggles which spawned a whole lot more giggles from the band. Ryan and a very nice female who's name escapes me went to Whataburger with a huge order for the band. we downed some beer and ate our burgers, peed behind dumpsters because the bathroom was broken, then passed out.

elise is sick and wendy sprained her ankle. kyle had to leave to get his breakpads replaced in dallas. dylan left his drumstick bag in santa fe. so far those are really the only hiccups.

and now we are back on the road. take me home again.

and can i just say how strange it is to constantly have cameras on you?

congratulations, from the bottom of my heart.

The Apple Miner Colony was brought together by the College of Santa Fe. Due to some gross financial mishandlings, however, the college is almost certainly doomed to close its doors. After the tour, then, most of the band will be dispersing across the country and world to finish their educations, follow other dreams, or just get back on their feet.
For graduation this semester, it was decided that it would somehow be too expensive to host graduation at the actual college, so one was arranged at the community college. A large number of students did not like this idea and organized their own, official graduation ceremony outside on the grass at CSF. Both students and faculty divided, two graduation ceremonies commenced this morning. I attended the more 'rogue' version at the college and found myself getting choked up. I was saddened by the tone of the attendees, inspired by the professors and students who spoke, and riled up by Emily's speech in particular.
I began to think about dreams. The hopes and dreams of everyone on the grass today. Who is goverened by their dreams and who holds the reigns firmly in their hands.
Do you have the reigns on your dreams? If so,o you run them out of town, run them into the ground? Do you run them under warm water when they've gone cold and stale, run them to the airport when they've got a flight to catch? Perhaps your dreams have control of you. They hold you in their hands as your creator, tell you that things could be ok if only you could accomplish this or that. They never point out the okay things all around you.
The question of this generation, and it's one we take very seriously, is how to run hand in hand with those fruitful fantasies and ambient ambitions as equals. How to travel often, maintain passionate loves, keep our friends close, but keep the stables in our heads clean and smelling fresh. How to avoid a nine-to-five and therefore a life of servitude to someone else's ideals, yet be able to pay a mortgage or for our daugthers hospital stays. How to attain our wildest desires in a realistic and responsible manner.
I watched a group of students accept their diplomas today, and I was filled with nothing but hope that they, and I, are going to change everything. So, congratulations, Earth and humanity. You're about to receive the best back massage you've had in a long time.