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Entry One
July 5 - July 9, 2006
Including Awesomechusetts, NYC, Pittsburgh,
Ann Arbor, Chicago, Madison, and points in between

July 5, 2006
6:39 am
Paul – The alarm rings. Arise young wizards! Today is a new day. It is the first day of the summer tour. We are ready. Born ready, in fact. We have lived our whole lives for this moment. The fireworks of last night’s celebration are nothing compared to the brilliance of our existence. And when I use the word “our,” I’m not talking about me and Joe or our band, I am talking about us. You and I. We own the world. It is Summer 2006. We’ve already come so far, but we are unstoppable. We are going to the moon. We will fly into the sun. We will fly through the sun. because there are NO LIMITS on fun. Angels from above will look down in envy. We are going to make this summer the best summer ever.

7:30 am
Joe – We hit the road like an asteroid bent on wiping dinosaurs from the earth. Except this time, it would not be the ferocious thunder lizards that would suffer our impact. It will be Voldemort that will melt when struck by our mighty rock. It will be his scattered and mangled souls that will whiter away when the earth is engulfed in a cloud of library rubble and nebula of knowledge that will engulf the planet. We hope you are ready for the wizardly nuclear winter that will follow this explosive Summer Reading and Rocking Tour.

11:30 am
Joe – There is so much traffic. Everyone must be coming to our show. Paul is about to show us his New York City mix that he made. He has been talking about this mix for months. The first song on it is Andrew W.K.’s “I Love NYC.” This mix is going to be good.

2:37pm
Joe- We are at the Donnell Library in Manhattan. I am telling our awesome librarian friend, Jack, that we want our next show to be outside the New York Public Library with the lion statues. We want them to come to life and to start dancing with us and giving everyone in the crowd a hug. That would be the best.

3:21pm
Joe – The auditorium we are playing in is full. Library security is turning people away. We apologize a hundred million times to anyone who could not get in to see us because of the MAN, who this time makes his appearance in the form of fire codes. We promise you there will be another chance to party with us again in the future.

6:02pm
Paul – We just tore that library to shreds! What a way to kick off this tour! Sold the place out! Now we are driving down Broadway on to rock the second part of a day/night NYC double dip. Manhattan is in danger of sinking!

9:40pm
Joe: I’m jumping back up on stage so that we can finish this song. But Paul’s back is turned to me. And he is wielding his guitar like a war hammer, he is turning around and, Holy Pope! I’m going to lose my teeth again. This guitar is going to plant itself in my face and take out my chops. I think though. I clear my head. This time I am prepared enough to prevent a guitar face collision. I assume a defensive position and charge onstage one goal in mind: to keep my face away from my rotating brother-guitar entity. My hand is up and my face is saved as Paul continues his 360 degree revolution. Phew!

12:08am
Paul – Tonight we turned the Knitting Factory into the Sweating Factory. Everything on our bodies that was absorbent was soaked. Ties included. My pants took over a day to dry out. Good thing I brought 2 pairs on tour.

Post-show, we stuck around for a bit and did an interview with the lovely Melissa from the Leaky Cauldron. Check out her awesome footage from the show in this special video edition of Pottercast! Wizard Rock Rules!

12.38am
Joe – Driving in New York is the worst! We were so hoping to take a left on Bowery St. But NO! There is no left turn here. We are forced over the Manhattan Bridge. Now we have to spend another half hour, while Paul throws frustrated cuss words around, trying to figure out how to make a U turn in Brooklyn and get to the Williamsburg Bridge so that we can use our directions to find Uncle Monsterface. They offered their new party mansion as a place for us to crash. We are totally looking forward to sleeping after this extreme double header New York City Subway Series we just pulled off. Of course this all depends on if we can actually find out where we are going. We put Paul’s New York City Mix back on. The car is filled with the sound of Neal Pollock singing “New York City is a Pile of ****.” Paul covered all the bases on this mix. Good job.

1:12am
Paul – The newly relocated Uncle Monsterface are now the proud renters of a gigantic loft in Brooklyn. It takes us an hour to get there because driving around Brooklyn at night is roughly equivalent to searching for horcruxes, but with far more potholes. Eventually we find our way there and make some omlettes and then fall into peaceful slumber on their many accommodating couches.

July 6, 2006
8:04am
Paul – Something always goes wrong! Brian and Ryan are in a separate car headed to Pittsburgh, but there is trouble. Oil leakages and that sort of thing. It will take too long to fix, so we have to meet them in Harrison, NJ to pick up Brian so that tonight’s show will feature both good and evil wizard rock. While picking him up, I ate a crummy bagel at Dunkin Donuts.

11:43pm
Joe – Holy Benjamin Franklin! Pennsylvania is huge. It is a gigantic state. It’s probably really close to the size of the sun. I comment to Cathy about how lush and fertile this state seems to be. Everything is green. There are trees are broccolis that I want to pick off the mountaintops and dip into a garlicy hummus and send down my digestive tract.

2:20pm
Paul – Joe has started in on 20,000 Leagues Under the Sea. He’s reading it aloud for us. I can’t wait to find out more about the narwhal, the unicorn of the sea!

5:00 pm
Joe - We are at the Carnegie Library in Pittsburgh. We are playing outside in front of it. Across the street there is a humungous statue of dinosaur. Why aren’t we playing in ftont of the dinosaur? Do you know how awesome that would be? I mean how many bands get to play with a giant dinosaur behind them. Unless you are in Gwar this seems like a once in a lifetime opportunity.

5:45pm
Joe – Some girls tell us that they want to be mentioned in our tour diary.

6:15pm
Joe – Ok so we don’t get to play in front of the dinosaur, but there are 400 people here, so I guess that is cool too. But do you k now how cool 400 people PLUS one dinosaur is? That’s priceless. Next time, Pittsburgh.

8:20pm
Paul – We ripped it. Pittsburgh rules! I feel like that “Oh What a Night” song should be cued up and blasted loudly. You know, like after a junior high dance? Or the last song at the prom? I know, it’s totally lame. Those dances are fun and all, but tonight was awesome! Tonight we could play “Oh What a Night” and it would be justified! Hurrah!

9:00pm
Joe – We are still at the library. There were so many awesome people to talk too. We got a ton of cupcakes and muffins. Emily told me it was her birthday today and she had a few candles so we put them in the cupcakes and had a killer birthday bash together since I had my birthday a couple days previous.

11:25pm
Joe - Karen, the best librarian in Pittsburgh, is letting us stay at her house. She has internet and an awesome kitchen. We are out shopping to buy some food items to eat. We are going to make these awesome Tofu burritos that Drew Danburry taught us to make when we were in Indiana. Tofu, beans, peppers, mushrooms, avocado, onions, and cheese! It is a luscious symphony that pleasures my stomach.

11:45pm
Paul – As much as Joe might like to think he knows how to make awesome burritos, his recipe needs some work. The seasoning was a little off and they were really on the bland side given all the nice ingredients we bought. We will forgive him though because it is late and he rocked it hardcore today.

July 7, 2006
12:42pm
Paul – Our friend Kevin (who recorded the Power of Love with us) has been on tour for the last month. We are both driving through Ohio today. Him on his way to Philly and we on our way to Ann Arbor. We didn’t really have time to stop and hang out, so instead we pulled off this really awesome drive-by wave. Right around exit 192 on I-80, with Kevin heading east and the Potters westward bound, we spot Kevin’s blue minivan. If our arms were 15 feet long we would have had the best high-five ever. But we settled for a pretty damn cool and victorious wave. Hi Kevin!

12:43pm
Joe – We should have thrown Kevin a copy of our new CD. And he would have caught it and put it on his car stereo and been like, “Yeah!” He would drive off into a beautiful sunset, Paul says we can put this in the script when we finally make “Harry and the Potters: The Movie.”

4:15pm
Joe - We are in Ann Arbor. There is no one in the Blind Pig. We are about to get something to eat when the sky opens up and drops Brian Sniokatis behind our van. Brian shows us this awesome vegetarian restauraunt. Seva. After we loaded up on nutrition, we marched forward to slay the Blind Pig with the double combo of rock and love.

10:45pm
Paul – There are so many great things about Ann Arbor. Like all the amazing people who came to our show tonight. And all the really great places to eat. And Pinball Pete’s! This place is a beauty of an arcade. I went straight for my ladyfriend, Ms. Pacman. Tonight she was in lovely form. Great action on the joystick. Fine speed around the board. This wasn’t like the crazy Czech mod that we were playing on the Block Island ferry. It was a great machine, but tonight I wasn’t on my game. I don’t even think I got to eat any bananas. I felt weak and defeated. I will bounce back though, and when I do, those monsters won’t stand a chance.

July 8, 2006
8:10am
Joe – We slept at Kevin’s house last night. He couldn’t make it to the show since he was working for the man. Boo. But he did offer his place for us to crash. I am in the shower right now. There is a beer can where they should be keeping soap. I am glad I brought my shower flip flops.

9:50am
Joe – Paul is totally right. Food in Ann Arbor rules! We are eating at the Broken Egg. I’m eating an item from the menu, named “Joe’s Breakfast Sandwich.” This is beautiful. This totally has my name on it. It is my breakfast. It is so good. Does anyone else want any of it? “No. Joe,” they say, “This sandwich is yours. You worked to deserve it. It is yours to eat. All the deliciousness of it is for you and you only. You and this sandwich are soul-mates. No matter how hungry we are, we will never separate you from your destiny; the sandwich.”\

3:00pm
Joe – We are in Chicago but stuck in traffic. The Skyway is jammed! It is not like the Skyway from Back to the Future Part II. I wish it was, though. We need to totally put a Mr. Fusion on our van and get some hover conversion done.

3:50pm
Joe – Hot Doug’s (our hot dog stop in Chicago) closes at 4:00pm. We are cutting it incredibly close. Will we be able to have a Chicago hot dog during this trip?

3:51pm
Joe – Yes! We will eat a hot dog. I will eat two! I got one Chicago style and I also ate a duck sausage with fancy cheese. For more details about this meal see Paul’s Dog Blog when he gets around to updating it.

5:30pm
Joe – Our megaphone is broken! We have to fix it! We just figured it just needed some batteries, so we sent our awesome friends, Meghan and Kelsey to go get some for us. We got eight C batteries, which were the right kind, but it’s still not working. We are taking it apart before they open doors, here at the Beat Kitchen. There’s a severed connection in the handset. I just fetched the soldering iron from the van. Paul and I are soldering it up now and it is going to be good as new. We are electrical geniuses.

8:30pm
Joe – Everyone is awestruck when Paul pulls out the megaphone. Their draws drop and the magnified voice of my brother goes straight into their open mouthed faces. I am so glad we fixed it. Now everyone knows what a mouthful of megaphone tastes like

9:09pm
Paul – It is hard to believe that so much awesomeness can be contained in one single room. People of Chicago, we are proud of the fact that every night we go out and give it everything we’ve got. Thank you ALL for coming to our show and doing the same! Tonight was a huge victory for wizards and muggles! Together we are invincible!

10:15pm
Joe – “Pizza, Pizza, Pizza, Pizza!” chants in our van. The McLarens ordered pizza for us and we are going to eat it with them and swim in an awesome pool at a gigantic mansion. We are not even waiting a half hour after we eat to swim. We are going to jump right in, while we are eating! Do you know why? Because we don’t care! We were just on tour with Jason Anderson and he named the top four things in life: “Eating! Sleeping! Music! And Hugs! … Honorable mention to Pizza.” He is right! Life goes by so fast. There is so much to do! It is our responsibility to live life. And that means to make the most of what we have. We are only here in this moment once. We would rather experience the double pleasure of eating and pool partying than be content to save one of those for another day. This is our life. This is the way we live it.

11:15pm
Paul – Wow, yeah. So we’re staying at this very nice mansion in Winetka. It’s owned by our friend’s aunt and uncle. A hot tub! A tennis court! Rock and roll! We could get used to this hot tub. In fact, if anyone else along our tour route lives in an awesome mansion with a hot tub and various other extravagant amenities, we’re probably looking for a place to crash.

12:30am
Joe – Hey. There is an Andy Warhol print in this room. Cool.

July 9, 2006
12:46pm
Paul – Madison, WI. We’re late getting into the city, but it doesn’t matter too much. We just passed a church with a sign that reads, “Unconditional Rock and Roll Worship.” This pretty much sums up how we feel about religion. Maybe after the show we can get a chance to go down to the church and say a few prayers to Saint Springsteen, patron saint of kicking ass.

1:45pm
Some awesome girls who were at our Chicago show drove up to Madison and presented us with a bowl full of cherries that also included 4 bananas with our faces on them. To my knowledge, this is the first time my likeness has been put on a banana. It’s pretty cool. Joe is holding a chili dog on his banana. I’m a little jealous.

7:15pm
Paul – After the show, we went for a dip down at Michael’s Frozen Custard. Frozen custard is unique to the Midwest. It’s almost like America’s gelato. Normal ice cream is made with cream which has a fat content of about 14-18%. Frozen custard, however, is made with ULTRA-cream, which has a fat content of 74%! One bite and you’ve exceeded your USDA recommended daily fat intake. But what a delicious bite.

Onward to Entry 2!

P.S. If you have awesome pictures of us, we'd love to use them in our tour diary. It's nearly impossible for us to get awesome pictures of ourselves because we are usually busy bringing the rock. That's why there's always so many pictures of us eating food. If you've got the goods, zip them up and email them to harryandthepotters(at)yahoo.com. Thanks! You're the best!