PIX FEST 2005

Announcing the Plan-It-X Fest Tour 2005 Documentation Project

2005-08-08T15:27:35Z

Announcing the Plan-It-X Fest Tour 2005 Documentation Project
pixfestdoc.terrorware.com

Being on the tour was a very interesting, challenging, and memorable experience for me and for the other people on the tour, and I'm sure for a lot of you that went to the shows as well. I saw tons of people taking video, photos, and making recordings at the shows and have seen some links to photos posted on various blogs and message boards. I thought it would be great if people could share all of that media in one place, so I created this web site to allow people to upload and share digital video, photos, and recordings. Also, I thought it would be really nice if people could share stories and thoughts from the shows as well. I hope that people find this useful and meaningful. Visit pixfestdoc.terrorware.com about the various shows. This site is a wiki which means that anyone can edit, add, or delete anything. If you're familiar with Wikipedia (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Main_Page), this site uses the same software and works the same way. If you have no idea what I'm talking about, check out the definition of a wiki (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wiki). To learn how to use the project wiki to add photos/audio/video/stories, check out http://pixfestdoc.terrorware.com/index.php?title=Help:Editing and if you have further problems or questions, please e-mail help@pixfestdoc.terrorware.com. Thanks!

In the next few weeks I will be working on making the site look less ugly. If anyone wants to contribute graphics, it would be greatly appreciated. Also, If you want to donate webserver space to this project, we would really appreciate it. Please e-mail help@pixfestdoc.terrorware.com if you can help.

xo,
Geoff

pixfest @ 2005-07-18T09:40:00

2005-07-18T14:43:03Z

Miss you guys already. I can't believe we made it out alive.

- ginger

pixfest @ 2005-07-15T14:03:00

2005-07-15T19:02:33Z

So I'm (greg o'neill of the Door-keys) at a library in South Dakota about to play our fifth (fourth?) to last show on the PIX tour, and I just read the disheartening message on the front of this site.

While I understand Chris's perspective, I still say that 100% of the kids on and/or following this bus want nothing more than to come to town and rock the shit out of you guys. Chris has the crap end of the stick because he has to be the heavy and bear the brunt of our complaints. But whenever anyone on the bus is allowed a moment to reflect (for instance, standing on top of a hill looking down on South Dekota) we all know how special this tour really is to us.

Are we hot, hungry, sleepy, sore and thirsty? Hell yes. I slept on the bare floor of a bus last night with people's feet in my face and only a Hostess fruit pie swimming in Miller High Life in my stomach.
BUT
I'm also playing shows with some of the most incredible bands I've ever seen. Every night, our band plays for kids who have never seen or heard us before. I get to see parts of the country I didn't know existed or were this beautiful (again, South Dakota, man. This place is gorgeous.)

So yes, 50% of the time 50% of this bus is complaining about not having food, water, or a place to masturbate. But the other half of the time we're ecstatic about the opportunity Chris and the promoters in all the towns are giving us.

Trust me, no one still on tour is unappreciative of what's happening with this giant, fragile, beautiful school bus. There are just times when it helps to complain about near-death experiences and gas station food.

PS
Chris is a fucking Superman. That, or a shark. I think he's slept a grand total of three hours so far on tour. Give him a hug when you see him. Or a waterbed.

pixfest @ 2005-07-12T16:17:00

2005-07-12T21:18:26Z

Someone played naked last night in Des Moines. Can you guess who it was?

pixfest @ 2005-07-12T15:58:00

2005-07-12T21:04:36Z

We've been getting a lot of emails from people confused about how to reserve tickets for the coming home PIX Fest show in Bloomington on July 16. The capacity of Rhino's is pretty limited so we're suggesting that people who are travelling distances to see this show reserve a ticket in advance so they make sure to get in. This is what to do:

Send $10 per ticket along with your name and address to
Plan-It-X Records
PO BOX 3251
Bloomington, IN 47402

Your tickets will be waiting for you at the door. Keep in mind that this show is only a few days away and you have to take the speed of the mail into consideration. At this point it might be too late, but maybe not. Chance it, buddy! Also, Crimethinc Roadless Summer convergence activities will be happening concurrently which will offer folks who can't or don't want to get in something else to do.

Athens, GA

2005-07-11T16:38:35Z

You are on tour in a school bus with about 30 other people. Today, you are in Athens, GA. You ride a borrowed bicycle around town and you remember that the person from whom you borrowed the bicycle once had his knee shattered in a bike accident. So, you also remember to stop at all the red lights. You wonder if its okay to make jokes about his accident. You ride past a bar and hear a song that you recognize drifting through the open doors. The song is "Hey Jealousy" by the Gin Blossoms. You realize that just as the song once felt intensely meaningful and now seems silly and archaic, your feelings of jealousy that your tourmates are getting what they want, or just feeling more strongly about what they want, will soon feel silly and archaic. You come back from your ride sweaty and with your muscles a little sore and you realize that even though you often feel exhausted, carrying a few amps or crates and playing for 30 minutes does not amount to a whole lot of physical activity. You see friends from all over and this makes you feel a little crazy. You watch one of your favorite bands play their last show and you sing along so forcefully that you wake up the next morning with a sore throat. You wonder what it feels like to do something for the last time. After the show, your friend tells you that this is the first time his divorced parents have been in the same place in years. Even though this has nothing to do with you, it makes you feel better. You do not get to go to Boneshakers Version 2.0, Athens' premier queer dance club, but you do get to go swimming at a pool at an apartment complex. At one point you float on your back and narrow your field of vision so as to block out the streetlights and power lines so all you can see are the stars and for a few seconds you are alone with the night. You walk back to where you are staying and hang out outside a 24-hour doughnut store. You fall asleep on your friend's floor, knowing that you will have to wake up again in 4 hours and get on a school bus. You are on tour.

Day 25 Photo Update

2005-07-10T23:24:26Z

Chris almost ate this bug and Dustin was like, "NOT."

The Max Levine Ensemble hosted a dance party in Tulsa.

Soophie Nun Squad and Jeff Ott played Clue.

Ginger convinced Ryan to buy that hat.

Nick and Erin got bored on the bus.

Day 25

2005-07-10T23:24:09Z

The Max Levine Ensemble is getting ready to play outside Solidarity Books here in Lawrence, Kansas. The cops have hassled us twice already today on account of noise, but the anarchist mayor has been riding around on his bike trying to pull some strings. I almost passed out from the heat. Nick Popovici got yelled at by lifeguards at the public pool three times.

Today's is Soophie's last day and Kimya's first (this is her second stint on the tour... she'll be with us for the next three shows). Two more people have dropped off the bus due to illness back home and being fed-up. The rest of us are going pretty strong, I think, though sometimes it's hard to gauge. I overheard Ted saying something like, "I can't handle being hot all the time any more," which a lot of people probably feel. Hot on the bus, hot at the shows, little swimming, in the insulated middle of the country. We have a box of baby wipes that says "SHOWERS."

We're all worried about Hurricane Dennis and the fate of Pensacola. Terry said, "It's not like there's anything I could do if I were there," but I'm sure it's hard to be away from it when some of the people you care about most are going to be weathering the storm without you.

To all the places that we've shown up late to and missed daytime events, I'm sorry, and I'm sorry in advance to all the places where it has yet to happen. How could have we anticipated how tired and cranky we'd be? How could we have known how much Morale would become the most important issue, how it all would teeter on the edge at every moment and how tender people's constitutions would become? How? Anyone with any experience in group dynamics could have guessed, but we were optimistic. So, sometimes we need to sleep when we anticipated a drive. I promise that any decision we make is made with consideration to how much work show promoters have done. We appreciate all of it. Please understand.

So dramatic. But really it's like whatever. Soon we'll all be home and wish we could be still complaining about this stuff.

Erin Tobey,
Historian

pixfest @ 2005-07-09T02:17:00

2005-07-09T06:52:50Z

There is a lot of possible romance on the tour. Watch for it. There is a lot of drinking on the tour. Some members of the tour are at a bar called the chat room right now. No one on the tour is sane anymore. I cannot overstate this fact. We cannot think complex thoughts anymore. "Me want sleep". "Eat food?" "We play now?" We are all going to be really happy and then cry a lot when this is over.

Update

2005-07-09T05:43:23Z

A couple of changes:

-The venue in Tulsa is now the Route 66 Roadhouse. It is right down the block from the Voodoo Lounge.

-Kimya Dawson is now playing in Lawrence, Des Moines, and Pierre.

Hey thanks so much to the kids who brought the La Bouche CD! This changes everything.

pixfest @ 2005-07-06T23:27:00

2005-07-07T04:29:00Z

hi this is spoonboy,
maybe one day i'll write an actual blog thing for this, but until then i have a request. do you think someone could burn a La Bouche (i don't know how to spell it but they were a techno band that sang that song "this is the rythm of the night" and "be my lover wont you be my lover" those songs) for us and bring it to a plan-it-x show? you don't know how much that would mean to me. thanks!!
spoonboy

asheville pix pix

2005-07-06T00:42:43Z

these were taken by the lovely andrew hinderaker of north carolina

emmalee and madeline playin handgames

chris can play the guitar

giner is nice i like her... andrew made this sweet cookie

go to http://www.atomilk.net/gallery/asheville for more pictures! thanks andrew!!!

pixfest @ 2005-07-05T19:19:00

2005-07-06T00:26:28Z

moral boost.
i'm in a bus with 30 some odd people.
a few broken hearts, a few true loves, and a few fresh romances.
people are happy, hot, annoyed, crazy, angry, drunk, laughing, singing, eating, spitting (suprisingly not fighting).
this is crazy. i feel so lucky.
we were all in the ocean in miami, 30 some odd people.. i'm looking around, squinting w/o my glasses, thinking, "why do i feel so comfortable right now?"

so here in alabama after walking many blocks and getting rained on a little, i'm wishing maybe that this tour could last a little longer... i don't mean that really i just mean... "oh my goodness it's working" and just know that the other night as i tried to sleep on the way from tampa to gainesville i was listening to my neil young tape when i heard some wierd noises coming from the back of the bus and i took off my headphones and let my tourmates sing me to sleep...

also i would just like to state an apology to all the people that i have met in the past that i see at shows and maybe do not go up to and say hello... this is pretty hard for me to do.. i know it's happened alot... i'm sorry. i'll get better at it.
xoxo emmalee

The Things We Say (WDC and Asheville, NC)

2005-07-05T00:38:27Z

I tell people this frequently, because I am quite pleased with myself when some off-hand observation that I make turns out to bear more than a morsel of truth. I often feel awkward around very drunk people because they find an optimism, an excitement, an inspiration even, in the things around them, and I just can't keep up. I can fake it, though, I've found, through a combination of volume, obscenities, and references to vice. "Fuck man, shiiit. Weed!" I was feeling particularly awkward last night as I saw as many of my friends drinking as an anesthetic as drinking as catharsis. "Shit man, fuuuuck." We played sloppily and out of tune, not that people seemed to mind since the Theory of Musical Performance clearly states "Drunk people love live music." The Defiance, Ohio corollary to this theory amends that "Drunk people seem to like Defiance, Ohio" (even in our out-of-tuneness and out-of-timeness, our broken strings, and cracking voices).

I said some ridiculous shit at the end of our playing, trying to clear the place out. It went something like this: "Go get drunk and if you don't drink, go make out, and if you don't want to do either of those things, go do something fun like ride your bike." The fact that I made this statement to a room full of people, many strangers, made me sad for two reasons. First, I feel like it gave license for people to thoughtlessly engage in drinking and sex, two things that should require at least a shred of consideration or intention before jumping into, especially when combined. Not that those things are bad at all, but people can make their own decisions about them and generate their own energy for them and sure as hell don't need someone behind a microphone mouthing off about them. Second, I feel like my statement exemplify a generally held perception of our scene of music that is, at times, earned, but often very narrow sited. This is the perception that our energy and passion can be invested in food or drink or romance and this will somehow get us where we want to go - that utopia is only a PBR (or a root beer for that matter), a bike ride, or a game of spin the bottle away. We do the things we have to do (or decide to do) and sometimes we regret them, sometimes we remember them fondly, and sometimes they're just the things we do. In any case, life seems to be more complicated than we are able to, or willing to, express.

I regret some other things that I've said recently, though more as an expression of my mentality than what they might have meant to other people. We were sitting in a circle outside the show in DC when the question came up, "what was the best Defiance, Ohio show?" For whatever reason, I proceeded to dive into a description of what, in many ways, were some of our worst shows. Why is it always easier to express tales of calamity and misfortune (and more fun to hear them) than it is to talk about experiences that were special or meaningful?

On this tour, I guess words of negative camaraderie are often easier, and more fun, than the alternative - an isolated muddle of feelings.

All my gratitude goes to Emerson who gave the bus a pack of much needed Emergen-C.

Graf (Asheville, NC)

2005-07-05T00:18:00Z

For a town with places like the ACRC, filled with lots of zines, magazines, and books about interesting, challenging ideas; or bands like Trouble Trouble Trouble playing awesome, smart songs; there sure is a lot of silly quasi-political graffiti up around this town.

Oh yeah, our bus got tagged at the show in Asheville. My favorite was "making drunk a threat again", which is sadly appropriate, though I fear the threat is mostly to ourselves.

Morale (Asheville, NC)

2005-07-05T00:14:50Z

I'm doing okay, really I am, but this is largely contingent on me being in my own little world, and largely contingent of me maintaining a certain ignorance or indifference to my tourmates. This is because the second I look over at someone and see them looking crazy, I feel crazy. I was trying to explain this to Ryan and he was giving me the "Geoff, what the hell are you talking about?" look when we looked out the window of the bus and saw Daun walking through the parking lot. She was clutching her bag, which was broken, and minding her dress, which was ripped, and squinting from the sunlight and she just looked crazy. Ryan started laughing until his face turned red.

Places (Falmouth/Portland, ME; WDC, Asheville)

2005-07-05T00:10:57Z

I guess I've gone and am going to a lot of places on this tour, though I wonder, for all the time spent at shows, how much of them I really get to see. Still, I've been thinking about places a whole lot.

...

On one of the days where I got to do something that I wanted, or rather, got to do something that, in retrospect, I came to realize was what I had wanted, some friends took me along to Portland where we walked along the rocky shoreline and sat on the rocks and looked out at the lighthouse and the barges passing by in the night. There's something mesmerizing about the darkness of water at night and how only the tops of the ripples are illuminated by the light from the moon, or the lighthouse, or the scattered houses. The niceness of the water at night is the same for water flowing from the Atlantic as it is for the waters of Lake Griffey back in Bloomington where I jumped off rope swings on two nights the week before I left for tour. The jump was all the more perilous for not seeing the wet landing below, but once immersed in the cool blackness, the whole world seemed quiet and beautiful.

In Portland, Shon and I waded a few yards out to some rocks and carefully climbed the slippery and seaweed covered surface until we were sitting just above the lapping waves. Shon told me that, growing up in New England, he had come to love the Ocean and though there was always the allure of living in other places, he wasn't sure if, or for how long, he could stay away.

I understand this, a little at least, because I've seen the Rockies and the Alps in all their foreign majesty and they surely tower above the Appalachians that enclose the valley where I grew up, which aren't even real mountains anyway. Still, even when hiking through these hills and stopping and looking over the valley, and seeing what once were farm fields or forests become subdevelopments, or looking at the hills above me, their faces bald and grey from the clear-cut and strip mines, I still think its a beautiful place. Driving around with my folks on the country roads, as farm fields turn to towns, we pass newly constructed strip malls and super-stores, the neighboring structures built while I still lived in the area and once filled with shoppers and adorned with banners, now sit empty and lifeless. Still, I feel a sense of comfort when returning to central Pennsylvania. I think that a lot of people feel this way about the places that they're from.

Some don't though, and in them I find an intense appreciation for distant places, for new places. My mom grew up in Flint, Michigan - a sad place by her own admission, despite her fonder memories of philanthropically financed libraries, symphonies, and youth programs. We rarely go back to visit my parents' home town, and I don't blame them. Even as a child, I found sadness in that post-industrial ghost town. Maybe that's why my mom loved every nature hike in northeast Ohio when we lived there, or every family vacation to the shore, or every walk on the rocky Pennsylvania portion of the Appalachian Trail. She has a fascination with the fauna or the calls of some strange bird and this is a fascination that makes here walk slow through the woods while I careen obliviously on ahead. I love this about her, and wish I could entirely share her fascination with places instead of just admiring hers.

...

We were sitting outside the show in DC and someone on tour was talking about how he is not fond of the city of Tampa (though I believe the show on this tour has raised his opinion at least a little, and I've always had fun there and thought people were real nice). I told him that when we played in Tampa, he shouldn't be too persuasive about the reasons he dislikes the town lest Tampa residents become convinced that their town sucks and move to Bloomington like so many of us have. Not that I can really say much about this seeming mass migration since I'm a fairly recent immigrant to Bloomington. Who wouldn't want to live in Bloomington, especially if you come from a place that's not so hot? Of course someone would be excited about streets with trees where you can walk and see your friends out on their porches, hiking trails, rope swings, quarries, bike projects, hiking trails, rope swings, quarries, farmers markets, and radical bookstores. And, of course, the merits of a place have to do with more things than those most obvious assets, but coming from a place without those things, they seem really nice. Since I thought about this though, I had a conversation with Greg Wells about how the punks in Richmond are more of a blight to traditionally working-class neighborhoods than the yuppies, and I recall our own pretty trashed (relative to our neighbors) house in the near west side of Bloomington with more than a little shame. I had a phone conversation with another friend who talked about how people from the suburbs are fascinated or enamored with certain cities or towns, but how this excitement is so far from having roots in those places. Being on tour so much these days, I wonder if I'll ever have those roots, or if I even want them. Its like my mom loving natural places in such a fundamental way - roots are something that I admire, but aren't really part of my life right now.

...

I know strip mines from seeing them in central PA, but if that seems like a blight, a mining technique called mountain top removal (MTR) seems even more devastating. Some folks from Mountain Justice Summer were tabling at the show in Asheville and they had some photos and information about MTR. Besides just destroying the beauty of the mountains and problems with erosion and contamination from mining by-products, someone told me a story that really drove home, for me, how extreme an environmental impact MTR can have. One Appalachian town suffered their first tornado after the mountains that had traditionally shielded the town had been lowered due to MTR. Mountain Justice Summer is mobilizing to connect with communities impacted by MTR, halt MTR in places where its happening, and to stop it from being employed in places where it isn't yet a practice. Some actions have already happened, and they're gearing up for broader actions later in the summer. The website for Mountain Justice Summer is mountainjusticesummer.org .

pixfest @ 2005-07-04T18:32:00

2005-07-04T23:42:24Z

I am in pensacola at the end of the line cafe listening to Rosa sing "I'm going to love you forever". I feel like that about everyone on this tour right now. I swear I would be completely miserable 29 hours a day if it weren't for how much I enjoy the company of everyone on this damned bus. The last week we have been getting very little sleep and been constantly baking in our own sweat so please take that into account if we seem sleepy/upset/sick/grumpy when we show up in town. I'm sorry about that. We are really grateful to the people doing the shows and the people showing up. I'm sure I will look back on this as one of the best times of my life, it's just half the day I can't think of anything but getting a meal or a quiet place to sleep. Occasionally, like late last night while staying up for hours playing songs with each other while stripped to our underwear, even the bus rides seem worth it.

-ginger

pixfest @ 2005-06-30T20:57:00

2005-07-01T01:10:29Z

Q: Are there any daytime events in Gainesville tomorrow?
A: Not really. We hear the weather is going to be crappy and no one wants to hang out outside and play games on a day like that. Your best bet is to just like eat at Carribean Spice and hang out inside somewhere then go to the show at the Atlantic at 8 PM sharp so you don't miss Aphid Ant Constructions who are one of my favorite bands.

Q: Uh-oh, Erin, it sounds like you're getting sick!
A: That's not a question, but it's true that I'm feeling a bit under the weather. Luckily, Greg O. and Nick P. have given me many secret pills to help me get better. Also, I was luckily able to keep myself from drinking Spoonboy's pee today, so that's helpful! On the road to recovery!

Q: Why are you and Geoff the only people that update the blog?
A: Because we are the only ones that will seek out a computer instead of drink or have fun.

I Want What I Want (Maine and onward)

2005-07-01T00:19:05Z

I want what I want. We all do, I guess, and I just happen to surround myself with people who are willing to admit that. On one Defiance, Ohio tour, bored in the van, we broke out the guitar and went around exchanging verses, teasing each other about the things that we secretly (or not so secretly) desired. On this tour, its been hard for any of the 30 or so of us to get what we want. Some people want to feel more safe on the bus, others want to go swimming, others want more sleep, or better sleep, while others want to eat when they're hungry instead of when there's time. Even when you get pretty much what you want, its hard to see your friends not getting what they want. Because, isn't that what we all want more than anything? An easy, perfect world where resources are not finite and where one persons desires don't mitigate another's?

What I want, on this tour at least, is to be more of a part of the things that I see that excite me or inspire me instead of being this passing observer. Ryan would tell me that this is stupid and that I am a part of these things but just in a different, less easily identifiable and less easy to pat myself on the back way. Maybe he's right. What I want is to be able to take some of the inspiration and ideas that I get from seeing so many people and places and having so many conversations, both with people I meet and with my tourmates and do something right away with them instead of being stuck with this bus and this routine. I want to do things while the ideas still seem fresh and possible because I know that the responsibilities that I've put off from back home will catch up to me and quell my momentum like an anchor as will the tug of daily life and fun for fun's sake. Ryan would say that this is stupid and that the festering and the waiting is what makes ideas into things that are better in the end and that having to balance them, or preserve them with other things pulling at your life makes the things that you make better. Again, maybe he's right.

Still, it feels like that's the rub of tour. Lots of inspiration, little that can be done with it. I've gotten to do some just for fun stuff, though that makes me forget about frustrations, at least for a little. These are things like skate sessions in Binghamton and Philly or hiking and a nighttime trip to the water in Maine. These things seem so necessary as the days leading up to them always seem so stressful. I've gotten to see old friends and I think that maybe being around so many people all the time has made me feel a little less awkward and a little better at conversation so I can appreciate these friends a little more than on my other travels.

So, I can't complain about not getting what I want. Most of the time I don't really know what I want, necessarily, so I guess I don't really know whether or not I'm getting what I want. Ultimately, I get to do some things that are pretty fun and hang out with some people who are pretty nice and that's always a good thing.

-Geoff

a fake crash ... and a real one

2005-06-27T23:00:01Z

Before tour, I was sleeping in the tree house behind my house, my old room now inhabited by a recent Bloomington immigrant while I was across the Atlantic. It was nice to sleep up in the tree, but noisy. I would fall asleep to the sound of crickets and frogs and I would wake up to the sound of birds or people talking on the street. Last night I slept in West Philadelphia and woke up to city sounds - cars, trolleys, and dump trucks. With the sound of the dump truck and all it's clattering of steel and hissing of hydraulics, I couldn't help but think of that morning in Binghamton, and I realized that I would now always hear the sound of a dump truck differently, not with a sense of foreboding or sadness, just differently.

We drove through the night from Detroit to Binghamton, NY. Following those great lakes on the US side, we dared not to try to get our sketchy asses through the Canadian border. I must have slept, but it was hard to believe because I could never seem to get comfortable. On this tour, I've realized that sleeping in a moving vehicle works okay for passing time, but does little for alleviating fatigue.

Looking around the bus, everyone was twisted and contorted with heads dangling off of seats, feet pressed high against the windows, or heads tucked into little balls resting gently on the back of the seat ahead. For the silence, the scene seemed so unnatural. One could imagine a disconcerting scenario where any one of us could have woken up and, for a second, thought that the bus was lying in a ditch after a horrible accident the way that our bodies were all twisted and strewn across the floor. One could have gasped in horror before realizing that the bus was not, after all, crumpled and twisted, but instead quietly pressing on through the night past the rusty cities and towns that line the great lakes.

A day later, after the show in Binghamton, we had been crammed, the thirty or so of us, in the extra rooms of a house inhabited by some people kind enough to put up with all of us. We nestled in where we could. I found some space in an attic room with Matte, Will, and Benji, amidst the broken window glass and the other relics of the house's previous inhabitants. They had been frat boys, apparently and they had left such strange relics as some expensive work boots spray-painted gold as part of some strange ritual and the remnants of a porn collection with DVD titles like "interracial love" (or something similar but more crassly worded). Those of us sleeping in the attic were just waking up when we heard a grinding sound and then a crash and then shouts of "call 911!" We rushed downstairs, through our numbers, and out the door to find that a garbage truck had lost control and flipped over in the middle of the street, maybe 10 yards from where the school bus was parked, and exactly where the school bus would have been parked had we not backed it up to avoid blocking a driveway. I sat on the porch and watched as neighbors trickled from their houses to examine the carnage. The driver, who had managed to climb free of the dump truck, was staggering around deliriously. EMTs and cops arrived at the scene, followed shortly thereafter by a TV news crew.

It is strange to be a spectator to tragedy. Mere feet from the accident, and the realization that the multi-ton vehicle that crashed could have easily been the one that I was riding in, I don't have any new found sense of my own mortality and don't feel much at all other than a bit of concern for the victims. Fresh air doesn't make that much of a difference, I guess, in terms of distinguishing real life from Rescue 911 or COPS. But it is minutes, perhaps, or yards, that allow this indifference. I heard that Erin had to run from the path of the careening vehicle. Chris was sleeping on the school bus, saved only by friction. Sherri ran to the side of the dump truck where the sanitation workers who had been hanging on to the back of the truck had been thrown and lay in pools of blood. On the porch, we remarked at how slow-moving and confused the emergency workers and police seemed, but Sherri told of how she, seeing the blood, was paralyzed, not knowing what to do to help the people laying in the street as people on the sidewalk screamed "DON'T TOUCH HIM!" at her.

I think all the time about those who lose their lives because of war or poverty or desperation or sadness, but I guess I hardly ever think of being wiped out by dumb circumstance.

Later in the day of the dump truck crash, we found that the tires on the bus were looking a little worn and some couldn't help but think that we might end up like the dump truck. The tires ended up being fine, but shit, tons of metal is still tons of metal.

-Geoff

pixfest @ 2005-06-27T17:11:00

2005-06-27T22:12:37Z

The Max Levine Ensemble has been cutting inserts for a week.

One Reason auditioning for "You Can't Do That On Television" in 1987.

Erin is chilling, Geoff is knitting

On the bus you get to see everybody being so cute and uncomfortable.

The Rotunda in Philly going apeshit for Defiance, Ohio.

pixfest @ 2005-06-27T16:33:00

2005-06-27T22:10:58Z

Q: Where are you?
A: Day 12, Washington, DC at Cafe Mawonaj. I, Erin, am sitting unobtrusively by the Tree of Knowledge table while Mary takes a nap on the bus. Some clowns just ran in the door.

Q: How are you doing?
A: What, like on a scale of 1 to 10? On this scale, I'm running at a solid 7.5. Things change every day. We get different amounts of sleep, different amounts of food, we see people that affect us in different ways. Each show has different amounts of "good" and "sketchy." Generally, it has all worked out at the end of every day. Sometimes it takes a lot more effort to make it happen at the expense of someone's stress, but nothing has fallen apart.

I'm in such unfamiliar waters, dealing with large-scale, semi-professional music events every night. Is this what it's all about for you, Professional Touring Rock Bands? On a normal tour, you have autonomy and can coordinate ways to go out into cities and have experiences outside of the show experience. This, for me, is a wall-to-wall show experience; I move from venue to sleeping place to venue, am surrounded by show-goers and my tourmates exclusively. The interactions I have with people I don't know are only about music and the tour. I'm like, "Is it okay to travel like this? How healthy is this for me?" But, these are rhetorical questions. I'm not too interested in the answers at the moment. This is an experiment and by the end I will know.

Instead of making me irritated and stir-crazy, my tourmates are managing to be life-affirming and positive every second. Who'da thunk? All I think is, "How are you so cool? We are doing this thing together and I love it and you a lot."

Q: Are you serious?
A: Totally. But let's try not to romanticize this shit too much.

pixfest @ 2005-06-25T02:52:00

2005-06-25T07:07:07Z

Gossip column part two:

1. Theo just found an "EPIC" amount of puke under the card table on the bus. So someone had way too good of a time on the bus tonight and then neglected to clean it up or even fess up afterwards.

2. About 50% of the bus residents have left to stay with their friends or crushes tonight in random places in brooklyn. The other 50% of us losers and geeks are left over at a house on city island. Good luck hotties!

3. Ted is reaping in all the money and groupies for himself ever since Rymo and Terry left.

5. Ben from Rosa alledgedly was drinking beer from a coffee cup outside and was alledgedly detained by the cops, and while waiting he alledgedly kicked over his coffee mug "accidentally" spilling the contents into the street.

4. This Bike is a Super Band has been signed to Warner Bros. and will be finishing out the tour in their own learjet "con" minibar.

5. Cathy today was the third contestant kicked off of the island. She may or may not rejoin the tour in athens. We hope she feels much better, and that she doesn't say anything bad about us in the post-show interviews.

pixfest @ 2005-06-23T01:20:00

2005-06-23T05:39:32Z

Plan it x fest gossip column:

1. Madeline says she got a rash on her neck. Strangly it looks like hickeys.

2. Where's Mary Tree of Knowledge tonight? No one knows. She'll be back in the morning.

2.5. Geoff was seen walking on the train tracks late at night with a mysterious friend.

3. I heard all of Rosa is totally like...12.

4. The PIX Visitors beat the Home team at whiffle ball today.

5. We all are coming down with pneumonia.

6. So far four people have puked their guts out. Sherris Wheel wins the prize for two hours into the first drive!

7. The door keys walked 10 miles for a 12 pack of beer.

8. Key point at P-i-x fest meeting: For some people on the tour, drinking beer is like "taking a nap" or "getting sleep". You can go a day without doing it on tour, but it doesn't mean you will be in a good mood.

9. I heard one reason keeps extra slices of pizza in their drum cases.