Saturday 10/2/2010
thoughts on the roadside world
driving across the midwest, en route to chicago & listening to strange new music.
There are huge weather fronts moving against us, we have been driving in rain all day from detroit, and it is now beginning to break. I can see brilliant rays of sun streaming through rolling grays and pale gold. But its all pale, there is no sharp high-contrast coastal color, the saturation of 5:30pm is very low, almost grayscale.
We pass a dead raccoon on the road. A church, depots, rural commerce.

I think about the intense social experience of the city, our godless intellectual dense webs of people and jobs and interactions. Out here there is god, liquor, tradition, autumnal swaths of land, duty, distance, mindless violence, beautiful human talents and graces twisted into a sparse landscape that might echo the dawn of human time.

You can go a whole day without seeing another person, even if you desperately want to see someone.

All of the food on the road is filled with sugar and chemicals. Progress is slow, a blind eye meets corporate exploitation, and enthusiasm for innovation is a flea pulling an oxcart.

Last night we played at the trumbleplex, which is a beautiful wooden warehouse with dangling Christmas lights and a big stage… felt like a giant barn in a good way. I videotaped the set, hopefully by the time I post this I'll have a link to some songs!
P.S. Billowing LIVE at the trumbleplex 10.1.2010 !!!!!