Southwest Mess
Here I am, a handful of days into our journey. Tonight is exciting 'cos we'll get to play our second show...and it'll be shows from here on out. On Friday night we arrived in Phoenix and hooked up with our friends and Nicole and Michael of Jim Diamond faves the Love Me Nots. It was good to see them, and I wish them well on their European tour.
Saturday was In-N-Out Burger, a Sights staple since Shettler introduced me to it on tour in 2002. It'd been six years since I'd tasted it, so every bite was BSE (best shit ever).
After Kyle drove us from Phoenix (eating ice cream the whole way) we checked into our hotey last night in San Diego and Shades was reading the reviews of the place online: hooker central.
It was in National City, which my sis-in-law told us was known as Nasty City by the locals. We felt right at home.
We stumbled along and found a pizza place named Napoleone Pizza House. Turns out it is/was a Tom Waits hang, and it's the subtitle of one of his tunes. These anecdotes, a few supplied by our waitress Denise, brought a tear to Jarrod's eyes. We scarfed down pizza while playing the juke (some Waits, Hats Off to Larry by Del Shannon, Marvin Gaye). We found this place by exploring a city, and not typing in "hip shit to do" on our iThing. People should live life a little more accidentally sometimes.
It reminds me of early Sights' tours, when we used pay phones to call venues and atlas maps that were bound in books. We still carry an atlas, and I try to maintain as much of my caveman-ness as possible, but it's getting harder.
I am writing this in a Vietnamese cafe in San Diego after walking along Mission Beach. Shades and I walked two and a half hours around the entire shoreline barefoot and it felt great. I had sent my girlfriend Maria a picture of me on the beach and her response was "You still have those crappy flip flops? I thought I destroyed them." My defense? They're flip flops, I ain't goin' for style here woman. I love that woman.
I know it's been very vay-kay thus far, but we're out here to promote our new record. It's called Left Over Right (get it here or here) and I love it. It wasn't produced by some LA clown, just good old Jim Diamond. If you see him, say hello (and ask him to finish those instrumentals for me!).
All the best,
Eddie
Current tour weight (unknown, but that walk should get me back down to size)
Photos by Shades
