This month

Dear World,

It has certainly been a while and there has certainly been a lot going on personally and in Pomegranate-land, where gumdrops dance and children don't have to get up early in the morning except to go pick tea leafs.

Our tour in July was a blast. A lot of fun was had by all. Got to spend some time with the now fifth member of the band Nathan Edwin. Enjoyed our new touring vehicle. Enjoyed some suburban comfort in Virginia. I enjoyed my 3 dollar portable cassette player and we all had fun listening to the Steve Miller Band.

A quick tour story. We made a pit stop an hour or so outside of Chicago to get gas and food. Josh and I headed to Taco Bell while everyone else headed elsewhere. Immediately upon entering we encountered a group of about ten 17-18 year old white males that immediately started harassing us loudly across the dining room. At first I let it slide and just sort of politely nodded in their direction because they were pretty general insults but then it got very crass and moved into the conjectural "homophobic" vein of yelling. Josh and I sat and ate our food amidst their jokes and so forth but I kept thinking of when Jesus talked about "bless those who curse you" and "love your enemies". I didn't quite know what to do so as they were halfway to their cars in the parking lot I went to the door and yelled out:"hey, you all have a nice day, no hard feelings right?" And sort of smiled and waved. That set them all off and they started violently threatening me and walking back towards the building and two were behind me asking me if I wanted to start something, and if so, why I wasn't walking out into the parking lot. I said I was merely wishing them to have a nice day. I remember thinking, "well, this is what it feels like to get beat up." But fortunately no violence occurred that day. On our way back to the van I was utterly stunned and kept replaying the whole scene out in my mind. Never before in my life have I had total strangers literally want to fight me for no reason whatsoever. We headed back to the van and I said the prayer of St. Francis over the whole thing and prayed for them. I think I felt most sorry that I could walk away from the situation but for them it was their lives. Hate and fear and insecurity or whatever. Wherever they are I hope someone loves them.

My car was stolen in front of our house while we were on tour too. My parents had to go pick it up at a nice price of $160. The irony is that I've been wanting to sell that car and switch to a less oil dependent lifestyle for a long time. Today my friend David actually suggested finding the thief and giving the car to him. I think if I somehow raised enough money to get a moped, I would indeed give him my car. What does everyone think?

We got out mastered version of our second album Everybody, Come Outside in the mail from our friend TJ on 8-8-08. It was kind of neat. I woke up that morning wondering if it was going to be a meaningful day at all and that arrives in the mail. Then I attend a wonderfully informative grill out to support my new friends at Lemonade International (which is an entirely different post), and then later that evening had a very small screening of Sigur Ros' Heima at St. Elizabeth's cathedral. It was indeed worthy of such a numerically rare day.

We did a live Lounge Act session with a pals over at WOXY recently. You can download it and look at pictures and stuff. It's always a great time visiting their studio and talking about Star Trek.

John Coltrane has opened up the world of jazz to me everybody.




I should be posting more regularly now.


in peace
isaac