north hampton

we drove into north hampton and arrived at chris jenning's house (holla). we threw our stuff in the barn, played some basketball, took some showers, ate some food, i went on a walk, then we set up for a backyard show. of course the music brought the rain, but everyone crowded underneath the tarp until it stopped and it didn't seem to phase the audience one bit. it was ellen's birthday, so "hooray for bailey moore" became "hooray for ellen brand" for that night.

cole at this point was pretty ill. i layed him in bed with some blankets and kleenexes and water and my cell phone. the gang was going out dancing so i decided i'd go out while cole slept. i walked with the film crew and a few others to a nearby dance club/bar. inside we were all barefoot, sweaty, and dancing in no time. i was very impressed at kyle's dancing ability to dance and i am determined to one day have a dance off with him. i couldn't figure out how ryan dances for like a half hour then i finally realized it was a mix of ska and the running man only on a really small scale. ellen had angel wings on that i kept flapping for her. i stole mitch's hat several times for badassery purposes. basically we made the party.

cole called and i needed to get back so i tried to rally people to walk back with me, and by the time i got people out of there and got back it was really late and a man in a wheelchair had cornered me in a parking lot trying to get me to play his guitar.
the next day we got cole to a doctor but not without a few reminders of why america's healthcare system is fucked. but, he got some antibiotics and mike got his toe wrapped up (he got a pretty gruesome toe injury), we found out the receptionist went to CSF and had a class with cole (one of many, many coincidences such as this), and we were on our merry way.

"sad song, last dance

and no one knows who the band was." except all you awesome people!
unless some outside force as strong stormclouds and the seas combined overthrows the destiny of this band, the last show forever for apple miner colony as we know it will be in santa fe, new mexico on june 27th at warehouse 21 (1614 Paseo De Peralta, Santa Fe, NM 87501). it will be epic, there is no doubt in that. i recommend you drop some money for a plane, train, or fuel plus somewhere around $5 for the cover and come see this end of eras.

peachy keene

we got home late then woke up the next morning pack up and head out to keene, new hampshire. the traffic was way worse getting out than it was getting in. the city did not want us to leave. keene was yet another sharp contrast to new york. people were almost creepily polite. everything was spotless and green. cars always stopped for pedestrians and the roads were wide and cushy. the show was at a place called armadillo burrito. bandera (above) got to play here and it was very nice to hear. they are one of my favorite bands including people i know personally.

apple miner played and the strings walked around the room playing rather than sticking to the stage. el rojo's family was there and gave some very generous donations to the band (thanks again!), and show generally was a success.

afterward we stayed at sort of a strange house where we were told we weren't allowed to use the restroom, but there was a nice campfire and plenty of places for tents. the next morning some did some garden work as payment for using space in the yard while the rest of us packed up. we found a great little diner for breakfast, walked around a bit, then headed out to north hampton.

for the record, we are in minneapolis right now and i am really that far behind in updating this blog. i promise i will catch it up one of these days!

a bunch of little apples in the big apple.

the drive into new york was surreal. we went from wide open plains and horse and carriages into first suburbia, then into new jersey. the part we saw was almost 100% power plants and billboards. i actually found it to be quite stunning. then finally, gridlock traffic heading into brooklyn. patricia is a badass driver and parker so we got into a spot right by backyart (lia's house) with pretty much no problem.

i had planned to meet up with my cousin, kristin, and her family as they live in brooklyn the first night in, but we ended up getting in later than expected and we had to forego the visit. we went to a restaurant that apparently we'd looked at the lunch menu for and ended up being too expensive for a few of us. cole, cody d, and i went next door and got pizza and soda. we then decided to just head on back to matt pucket's apartment (the other place some of us stayed). of course pretty much right then it started pouring rain. calling a cab came up, but we were determined to prevail in navigating the subways. this was a good call because it actually ended up being sort of fun, and we saw more of the city that we'd have otherwise missed. after a long trek we finally made it back, soaked and triumphant. jeremy (matt's rad roommate) made us some tea (from scratch) and we had some hilarious conversation before crashing.
the next day i'd made new plans to see kristin's family despite her not being able to make it.
robert (my cousin in-law), 2.5 year old wilsie clover, baby wyath acre, cole, and i had some coffee and played in the apartment for a while.
i watched the somewhat bizarre but highly effective methods to get wyath to both fart and go to sleep and gave him many kisses as this is the first time i'd met him.

we went on a little walk to get some food and robert showed us how to get a meal without getting yelled at in new york. they had to take off to a doctor's appointment, but pointed cole and i in a direction to a beautiful little playground and park. we sat near the shore next to the bridge and stared at the skyline. a pregnant young girl and her older husband were getting photos taken on the rocks. two hip girls were eating lunch and shewing the pigeons away from their feet.

later on cole started feeling sick, but he and i went out for a steak dinner anyway and it was really good.
the next morning was museum of natural history day! i woke up wide-eyed and bushy-tailed and bounced off the walls until we got there. we were going to meet will and emily there, but we somehow ended up on the same train.
once there, cole's illness started getting magnified so we stopped to rest in the museum often.

we got pictures of ourselves next to our power animals.
it was time to load in for the show at coco66. i found out that before the music there was to be some stand-up comedy. this was exciting becasue i'd never seen stand-up live before. most of them were actually pretty funny! my favorite bit was by a really tall guy named jared who talked about the snuggie being the official uniform for depression.
the music began and the bar got really crowded. the apple miner colony then performed one of the best shows i've seen from them. the audience was super into it and afterward there comments like, "you got people to dance and sing... in brooklyn. that's insane." this is definitely a contender in the contest for best show of the tour.

ithaca

one

warn perilous clouds
"tomorrow's abandoned you,
drag your feet today."



two

infatuated
by rain fifteen minutes old
by the time it goes.

we played a biker bar in amish country.

after the show in DC we split up, some staying at ellen's house, some at tamir's. i went to tamir's house, where his parents were so hospitable (thanks!). we got there and there was beer and cookies all ready for us to partake in. in the morning we had one of the most luxurious breakfasts of the tour, with eggs and veggies, bagels and cream cheese, coffee from a french press, juice, toast and jam, etc. afterwards there were even smoothies being made that were very delicious.

this day was an emotionally charged one for me on a personal level as it was my best friend in junior high/high school's birthday who passed away when we were 17. i sang her happy birthday in my head and managed to stay positive and creative all day in her honor.

we started the drive into pennsylvania. i spent the entire time drawing on some tracing paper i bought with colored pencils. it didn't work out to get a show in philadelphia, but geoff pulled some strings and got a show in honeybrook, a really small town in PA. as we neared the venue there was a feeling of disbelief in the van while we passed several amish carriages and farms. we caught wind that we were actually going to play a biker bar here. this was confirmed when we arrived at a bar with men and their bitches, leather, motorcycles, slurring strangers at the bar, and so on. yes, the apple miner colony played a show at a biker bar in the middle of nowhere/amish country. the show went off and there were definitely a few people that really stopped to listen. patricia even heard one dude say "those kids really got their shit together!" then speed off on his hog.

here's a picture of tristan filming jack looking uncomfortable at that very bar.
that night we stayed with matt rosen's family on their stunning property. they had a horse and a pony that were very lovey toward each other. matt plays guitar in a band called nautilus and they're extremely worth listening to.

"you are the reason that you're here." -jeff hanson

so after asheville the plan was to go to richmond and play a house show. but we got to jese stretch's property (huge) and started throwing a frisbee, then ellen got a kickball so we started playing kickball, then geoff got a van full of beer, then the grill started up... needless to say the show ended up not happening. but the night was really magical and fun! i had forgotten how much fun kickball is. the team i was on was ruling pretty hard, but i was really terrified of the other team and a few times i just crouched down and covered my head when someone was running at me instead of making it my duty to get to the base. the points started getting all mixed up as the competitive spirit rose and in the end we called it a tie.



the next day was a show in DC set up by ellen and her mother for a nonprofit called A Wider Circle, which helps underprivalidged familes furnish their homes. it was a totally different crowd, definitely an older one, but the show was one of the more successful ones yet. we sold twenty some-odd cds and all the sing-a-longs were heartfelt and heard.


more later, i promise-- right now we're in ithaca but a lot has happened from then till now!

as for now i just found out that jeff hanson, one of my favorite songwriters, died a couple days ago. please give him a listen or even better go out and buy an album. i recommend Son.