I said goodbye to my sweet French and Northwestern friends around 6AM in Paris before I headed for the train station and off to Amsterdam. Khaela was still mostly without a voice but still managed to get a couple sweet peeps out to say goodbye. Previously she was limited to writing and drawing as her sole means of communication. At first it was funny, nice even, but after a while it was a little frustrating. I'm sure it was even more frustrating for her. Sorry KK! I'm sure you can speak with a full, booming, timbre now. I miss you and Melanie and Valerie and Anna and Calvin and Mirah and everyone else.

I got to the Garde Du Nord train station around 6:50 and waited in line for the ticket office to open and sell me a ticket to Amsterdam; where I was supposed to meet up with Devendra and the Hairy Fairy gang to start practicing before our first two shows in Amsterdam as part of the Holland Festival. The ticket office sold me a ticket for 100€ (both the youth discount and direct train were mysteriously unavailable) and told me a needed to make a connection in Brussels. Life gives you lemons, right? I sleepily got on the train and rolled to Brussels. I got off the train and asked the man in the help window where I could catch the train to Amsterdam.. this is where it got confusing and a little scary. The man told me that there are no trains to Amsterdam. He told me that The Netherlands are on strike. I was so tired and just plain shocked that I didn't have the mind to ask any questions so I just stared at him and said "okay" with probably the most blank look my face has even been able to create. After a few minutes of confused pacing and mild panic I decided to find another help window and figure out what all of this meant. I took a number and ended up talking to a nice woman that explained that somehow the ticket computers in France aren't connected to the computers in Belgium (or Holland for that matter) so apparently they didn't know it was on strike when they sold me the ticket in Paris. Luckily they were hopeful that the train would run the next morning and they assured me that my ticket would be valid for up to two months.

Even luckier than that; Antwerp is on the way to Amsterdam from Brussels. My friend Dennis Tyfus lives in Antwerp and had offered to put me up for the night and take me to a fashion show where his girlfriend was showing some stuff she had made. Last year Luke and I stayed with these amazing friends of Dennis' in their squatted house that must have been some sort of retail shop. One of the girls, Johnanna, had some pretty stuff in the show. All in all the show was crazy.

Before the fashion show Dennis took me to Radio Centraal and we record a YACHT session and called a couple people up to do some songs over the phone. First we called Adam for a White Rainbow song, then we called Andy and Devendra. The show ended up being so good that Dennis is going to make 100 copies with 100 different drawings for sale through his website or maybe here, too. Of course I'll let you know. Thanks to Dennis for this, and also for putting me up and taking me out!

So I made it to Amsterdam. I met up with the dudes, we all rented bikes and started practicing, sometimes twice a day. Amsterdam was hot and clear every day we were there.. it was amazing. I stayed in a room with Andy and his girlfriend Alissa, whom is my awesome new tour friend that buys me presents and is like my amazing big sister I never had. The three of us started a fancy dining club where we would go out on an adventure to find a new restaurant every night. We ate crazy-good food. We ate at a vegan squat, some Surinamese food, a place that Luke and I went last year called Vliegende Schotel.. oh man.. Sometimes touring breaks you down to your basic needs.

We played two nights in a row at a beautiful jazz/improv venue called Bimhuis in Amsterdam. Everyone there was so nice and we were honored to be asked to play at the Holland Festival. I was really nervous our first night.. just being without my good friends Kyle "Kritz Krackers" Field and the aforementioned Adam Forkner is enough to make a dude shake in his shorts. Luckily it went well and our second show was even better. Here are my photos of the crowd for the first and second shows. The venue was setup with stadium-seating.. I think this added a little to my nervousness. During the day of our second show we filmed a video for the first single off of the new album "Cripple Crow." The song is called "I Feel Just Like a Child" and you can view my photo set of the video shoot online through my Flickr page.

Devendra is really embarrassed! He asked me to take the video offline, but I don't think I'm going to. It's not so bad, right? I think he's being cute in it! Sometimes the dude is so shy!

Also, I forgot to post my favorite quote of the tour so far; this one is from Noah:

"Which one likes lasagna again, Alf or Garfield?"

Lastly, even if it gets me in trouble.. you HAVE to hear this song. It's the official summer jam and it's in Dutch. It's a Dutch hip-hop song that is BLOWING UP all over Holland... maybe even deeper than Holland, I'm not sure. I want to spread this joy that this song has given me, friends. Watskeburt roughly means "what happened." There is all kinds of weird English in the song mixed with weird Dutch that is rapped with a faux-American accent? I don't know.. Whatever it is it rules. NEDERHOP! Here's a photo of me with a WATSKEBURT sticker we saw in Amsterdam. Here you go:

Emma @ June 27, 2005 2:30 AM

Jen O. @ June 28, 2005 2:18 PM

Justin @ June 28, 2005 3:02 PM

hason @ June 28, 2005 3:10 PM

Robert @ September 11, 2006 8:01 AM

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