The Masquerade. Dig a whole in your garden, then defecate in it. That sums up the venue.

Asheville North Carolina. Show 18.

I must say, I love everyone in Asheville and perhaps in the entire great state of North Carolina. Good show, great crowd. Be it Asheville or Charlotte, Raleigh/Durham, Chapel Hill, or Greensboro. I seem to always have a good time there.

Nashville. Show 19.

Nashville was fun as per usual. I got to see a friend who moved out there last January. He's a songwriter for Sony Music and also friends with Joel (Deadmau5) We hung out for a while after the show, its always nice to see a familiar face out on the road.

Some drama did ensue backstage. Our opening act was thrown off the tour briefly. It was a total misunderstanding that once clearer heads prevailed was fixed. For a second there we though we were going to lose Mr Burns....as you can see by our sad faces in this next photograph:

On to Chicago. Show 20.

I wrote a nice letter to the city. I'd like to share it with you here.

Dear Chicago,

Thank you for showing me the true meaning of the word "irony".

Keep up the good work, and I shall hope to see you again, real soon.

Yours,

MJL

shows 12-16 in the books.

Remembrance Day in New Orleans.

I wandered the Quarter for a while, grabbed a po'boy from Joe's and went down and sat by the water. I took a few minutes at the Holocaust Memorial and reflected on the brave soldiers who gave their lives so I could travel freely around the world as I do.

The show sucked. Stuck in a smoke filled balcony selling very little while slowly going deaf. That about sums it up.

Florida. Things go from bad to slightly better...to worse....

Mousechwitz. (House Of Blues at Disney)

The high point of Florida for sure. Sales were good, the HOB was smoke free, and catering unlike New Orleans was edible.

Fort Lauderdale. The club was shite, I sold nothing, got food poisoning, and nearly died on the bus ride to Miami Beach. I spent the day in Miami Beach in my own personal Imodium Vietnam in the hotel room. This carried over to Tampa where I still felt like death, convinced I contracted ebola from a dodgy slice of pizza. I started to feel alive again as the bus rolled for Atlanta.

Day off toady in Atlanta. This is our last day off of the tour. I'm sitting in the hotel doing my laundry. Starting tomorrow we go 9 in a row. Then home!

Amarillo. Thursday. Day Off.

Rolling into town we crossed the Canadian River. The Driver turned to me and said. "This here road gets slicker than owl shit some nights." Owl droppings apparently are very high on the slippery feces scale.

We ate at the Big Texan where we were serenaded by minstrels and watched a dude attempt a 72oz steak.

Dallas. Friday. House of Blues.

coming in, I noticed this fine road.

great turnpike or GREATEST turnpike???

Austin. Saturday. Stubbs.

I love Austin. I love Stubbs. Great city, great BBQ!

Houston. Sunday. House of Blues (again...) The staff were very cool. As much as I think HOB is the devil, I gotta say their staff are terrific.

Overall Texas was pretty cool. Sales were fantastic!

Arkansas.

Day off in North Little Rock.

Second jacuzzi room of the tour. Not bad.

Show tonight in Little Rock. I dont know what to expect. One thing I'm sure of? I'm looking forward to New Orleans tomorrow. Here's hoping we don't get too soaked.

I've escaped the club briefly for my hotel room. Luckily its across the street from the Ogden Theatre here in Denver CO. A two hour respite from the thumping bass is welcomed right about now. So I sit and I blog...

Tempe and Albuquerque were fun shows. Both shows (like tonight in Denver) were sold to capacity. We had a show planned for Oklahoma City tomorrow. Its been canceled though. Fine by me. Makes our day off total to 3 now!

Tomorrow we are rolling to Texas then instead of Oklahoma, which kind of sucks because I was looking forward to linking to this video:

I guess doing it now will be just silly huh?

I believe we have a stop planned somewhere in Kansas so the drivers can rest. Remember, rested drivers are happy drivers and always tip your server.

Good night Denver.

We got to Los Angeles Friday for a two night stint at the Shrine Auditorium. It was a festival so all I had to do was hand over the merch to the local sellers and enjoy two days off in LA. I stopped by the venue from time to time to check on the sellers.

Saturday I got to spend some time with my cousin who lives in LA now. We got some lunch and a $50 parking ticket. Good Times. Mostly hung out at the hotel and talked to Kori.

Sunday Morning we hopped on the tour buses and rolled to San Diego. On the way we stopped to wash the buses, while we waited we hit the fruit stand and for $5 got a huge bag of fruit with sugar and chili pepper. So good!

On the way we watched the Abu Dabi Grand Prix.

The San Diego show was pretty good. made some decent money and met a fellow Top Gear fan. The house merch girl also loves the show so we watched the "GTR vs the Bullet Train" episode during the set. High point of the tour so far perhaps???

Tempe Arizona tonight!

I found the venue OK and all my swag was there waiting for me. I did a quick inventory, made my splits and loaded the bus. Made a quick run to stock up on road supplies, had a nice dinner of soul food at this cool little Hillbilly place around the corner.

Now here I sit. Merch is up, earplugs are in, change is got, chair is comfy. Time to make some money!

Its my dog's 5th birthday today. So here are five pics of the birthday boy.

Jetblue BUF to SEA. I'm spending the night in Seattle then flying Alaska SEA TO PDX. I Love Jetblue. TVs in each headrest with free satellite, free wi-fi in their gates, and only 40 bucks to upgrade to their "even more legroom" section of the plane.

I love flying Alaska only because they had great commercials back in the 80s.

I think we've added San Antonio and Albuquerque to the tour. So now that's 28 shows in 29 days!!

I watch a lot of football (Newcastle beat Cardiff today!!!), some rugby (The Falcons drew Sale...) and formula one. (Rubinho wins in Monza)

But most of all I run with the dogs in the yard. Well, Amigo and I run, Lily has learned to fly.

Ready for take off

Starting to taxi

We have lift off

in flight

landing

another safe flight

recharging

I'm happy to walk thanks.