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: Obligatory tourist shot – hey now, don’t roll your eyes. You wouldn’t go to Paris and not photograph Baudelaire’s grave now would you??

: Bob Schwenkler, one of the artists on the bill who performed at The Northern with me, just happens to be the main engineer at Dub Narcotic, where some amazing records by Mirah and The Microphones were made. This is an Ampex 300 tube reel to reel. From the 50’s Bob thinks!; This photo is for my pals Rainy McMaster and Anji Sami - we all heart Mirah!!

Sunshine and Irony feeling it at The Northern. They were a rugged Americana band with true heart. They took me to the Artesian well to drink water too. Apparently this means I am cursed to return. I hope so! Olympia rules!

The Whole Wide World playing at Langano Lounge. Josh Kalberg's shoegazey/hazey guitar/vocal stylings and Charlotte Engler's amazing high-pitch-perfect ethereal voice seem to have combined with the night flash on my camera to set the bass player's head on some kinda neon-drenched fire. Yes, they've got that vibe!

Listen to The Whole Wide World here .

Ah me, the unseen pains of the middle-class white-boy on tour: all those books at Powell’s and out-of-print zines at Exiled Records I didn’t buy will haunt me for a long time. Sniff sniff. But seriously – meeting so many welcoming talented kind-hearted people and leaving so quickly is the strangest thing about being On the Road. “Like an arrow I was only passing through.” Onwards to Olympia!

p.s. Disclosure: I DID buy a used hardcover copy of Ciardi’s Divine Comedy translation (with Gustave Dore’s illustrations) at Powell’s. Yep – just what my suitcase needed. . .

p.p.s. I am on a train. Amtrak wi-fi = tu meke!