Welcome to the hardest entry I've ever had to write. I'm back home in Portland, summer finally feels somewhat tangible, and my friends are more friendly and summer-y than ever! I returned to a three-part party hosted by my good friend Mikey and posted publicly on Urban Honking; a project that has blown up since we made it in 2001 with States Rights Records' proprietor Steve Schroeder. It's so nice to have friends like these.

Now where were we? I'm back in Portland and it feels so strange; sometimes like I never left, and other times like I've been away for so long. I'm scared of slipping into POST-TOUR DEPRESSION™, but I think I have enough stuff (like the festival I'm putting on next weekend called Catch That Beat!) keeping me busy to avoid it. I totally want to rearrange this apartment soon, though, it's driving me a little crazy in here.

Let's wrap this up!

CARDIFF, WALES: BEFORE & AFTER

We flew into London from Spain.. I don't even remember any of this, but apparently we were really tired and happy to see Kelly after an unfortunate ditching in London where he stayed with the van while we were in Portugal and Spain. If it were up to us Kelly would have been there, for sure. He would be with us in every moment if we had the power.

So Kelly drove us to Cardiff. We were wasted in exhaustion and slept into the Future; our hotel in Cardiff was named Future Inn and actually ended up being mildly futuristic with its television-computer-media center in each room.

I'd never been to Wales and never seen the amazing language. So many consonants together at last. Andy, Johan and I ate some interesting Thai food really close to this amazing structure that I found out later is the Cardiff Millennium Centre; a Welsh arts center akin to the Sydney Opera House.

We played at a church-y place where most of the crowd was sitting down at the beginning of the show ad were standing up and dancing at the end. The bar had Chilled Creamy Brains on tap. It was nice staying in the future. I will see you again, Wales.

BRIGHTON, ENGLAND: BEFORE & AFTER

Holy crap Brighton is beautiful. I didn't know there was a beach-town like this in England. I spent most of the afternoon on the phone using up a phone card I bought appropriately named MEGA MOUTH. I kept running into difficulties with using the phone, almost as if there was a force in the universe trying its damnedest to keep me off the phone. I prevailed and it was all in the name of love and bickering.

Then we played our music and apparently it was really hot not only for us, but also for the audience. I remember most of the shows being hot on this tour. Playing the drums in the summer under unforgiving heat-lamps seems like a good idea at first and then becomes an increasingly risky business for some. I guess my Scandinavian blood really shines here, because I don't mind playing music in sauna-like conditions at all. Sweat is nature's shower, right? Well cover me in towels.

Here's a review of the show in Brighton that a guy named Mike wrote.

I feel you Brighton.

LONDON, ENGLAND: BEFORE & AFTER

Press, photo-shoots, interviews, radio shows, MTV UK, the XL-Recorings office, Colleen the angelic guiding light, vegan bangers and mash, Coke with Lemon, Koko Theater and its endless staircases, big family-style dinners, bending roads, and more. London destroyed us in the softest way a big city can. We have Colleen to thank for making everything much softer and sweeter in London.

Dear London, You had your edges roughened up recently, you had it hard. Thank you for taking your time to whisk us around and take care of us. The show you made for us at the Koko Theater was incredible. I'm pretty sure you oversold past capacity, which is a bold move, but it turned out to be okay. Some people talked too much and made it hard for others to hear the show, but maybe this is to be expected in an alcoholic summer party environment? Anyway, London, thank you! Thank you!

BRISTOL, ENGLAND: BEFORE & AFTER

Just two shows left; tonight and tomorrow. Tonight we played in an old church that had been turned into a community center of sorts. Espers invited us up for a last jam at the end of their set and I felt a little sadness escape my hands into the bells I was shaking. It was nice to have these killer and gentle tourmates with us. Thank you, friends.

Just about every night of the tour we would ask the audience if anyone had a song they'd like to play for everybody and invited up on stage to use our junk. We had all kinds of people and all kinds of songs being played from slightly emo to garage rock to indie pop about stalkers. Mostly they just borrowed Devendra's guitar and sang, but once in Rome a kid had his own guitar (I think the rumor spread on the internet and people were coming armed and ready) and his friend played drums. The only other duo was in Manchester and that was a boy playing guitar and a girl singing a less than 30-second song. Bristol

Annie, if you're out there, if you can hear me.. is this cool? I wanted to post the entire song, but I wasn't sure if it was cool. If you find this it would be awesome if you wanted to post the lyrics to this song and a link where to find your music. Thank you!

Here's a review of the show in Bristol by someone named Tony.

LEICSTER, ENGLAND: BEFORE & AFTER

It was rainy and we were all anxious to play our last show and get going to our respective homes and journeys. You can check out some photos and a clip of "At The Hop" on the BBC 6 website.

Right when we arrived at the festival Devendra and I were rushed over to the radio tent where we did an interview and drew and posed with this poster promoting "BROGA;" a new form of yoga loosely based on secret societies and brotherhood. If you poke around on the BBC site you can see tons of photos of people and their personal messages written on the notebook. I like projects like that.

Well, that's it. No more Hairy Fairy for now. Devendra will be touring around the US in October, but I'll be on tour with The Blow and Anna Oxygen, so I won't have the time to be a Hairy Fairy on that tour. Maybe I'll be back in France and England in November? We'll see. Until then, friends, I'll see you in the hopeful future. (not the Future Inn)

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