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Entry Four: a summary of events from July 16 through July 18, 2004

Dearest Tour Diary:

We had a most excellent time in San Francisco. This city has showered us with affection, mostly in the form of cookies, doughnuts, and pirate supplies. We will not soon forget it.

Our day began with an early departure from Isla Vista. We had a lovely five-hour drive up the coast, during which we put down a good 7 or 8 verses of the Harry Potter Griping Song. We were warmly welcomed to the San Francisco library by Tim and Betsy, and were promptly supplied some tasty yuppie-sandwiches from the café.

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Joe does some songwriting

The rock show that day was astounding. One thousand people showed up and packed themselves into the children's room like eager sardines. There were present-bearers, costume-wearers, scarheads, and all sorts. It was a true party. We turned up extra loud to make sure that those who couldn't fit inside the room were still rocked in a satisfactory manner.

After our triumphant set at the library, we drove down the street to 826 Valencia, the infamous pirate store. Yes, it was just as awesome as we had hoped. There were hook protectors, peg legs, navigational tools, pirate attire and accessories, and helpful hints for swabbing the deck. The store was small though, and we didn't want to completely destroy it, so we played an acoustic set. We played a nice 6-minute version of the Griping Song and decided that it wasn't long enough. Hopefully by the end of the tour, we'll be able to go for a good 40 minutes.

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In San Francisco, Rose became a member of the All Star team. Not only did she show up wearing a homemade "An Invisibility Cloak... how rad!" t-shirt, but she also brought us some tasty donuts.

After the show, we were able to barter some CDs and pins for some great pirate booty. Joe got a compass/sundial and various trinkets, and I got a wax sealer with a skull and crossbones and some pirate dice. It was a totally successful rock show/pirate store visit.

The following day, we brought the rock to suburban San Francisco. The El Sobrante community was completely unprepared for the awesome power of wizard rock. The cops were called in to calm the chaos, but they were quickly banished by some librarians who wouldn't stand to see the rock stopped. Together we have fought the man and we have emerged victorious!

Later in the evening, the McGuire Manor fell victim to some old fashioned Harry and the Potters destruction. We rocked their backyard and the lawn furniture payed the price.

After the show, we went to In 'N' Out Burger with our hosts, Dave, Ted, and Amelia. I'm totally fascinated by this whole "secret menu item" business and wanted to order as many as possible, but I really wasn't the hungry. I went with a grilled cheese (animal-style), some animal-style fries, and a vanilla shake. It was all very tasty. One thing we will miss about California is the In 'N' Out.

After consuming burgers and burger-related foods, we went to an art gallery to check out some guy named Frank. I forgot his last name, but he's a very popular San Franscico schizophrenic. He's famous for standing around outside and holding signs that have weird things written on them. "12 Galaxies" is pretty much his calling card, and apparently there is a very long explanation to the 12 Galaxies, mostly based in incomprehensible conspiracy theory. Anyway, we showed up to the gallery and they had a bunch of his signs hanging up. It was pretty neat, and I would have like to talk to Frank for a bit, but the environment was rather inhospitable to conversation. A bunch of guys were freestyling with bad Radio Shack mics and it relatively annoying. We hung out for a bit and then split. We partied for the rest of the night until Dave and Ted could no longer keep up, and then we crashed.

We started Sunday off in the proper manner by grabbing a half-dozen donuts. During our visit to southern California, we found Los Angeles to be decidedly anti-donut. San Francisco evens the state out. Apparently there are a great number of Chinese restaurants that open for breakfast and serve donuts and coffee.

We were recommended a place called "Chinese Food Donuts Coffee" on the corner of Mission and 24th. I've got to hand it to the Chinese: they make a pretty good donut.

We had some great glazed, a pair of good cakey donuts, and a really great sugar raised. It was definitely a satisfying trip to the Chinese restaurant/donut shop for us.

We spent the rest of the day driving north, stopping only for fuel of both the bodily and the automotive nature. Eventually we arrived in Portland and brought the party to Dave and Amy Mae's place.

Once we had made ourselves at home in their apartment, we were informed that we had won. That's right! Harry and the Potter WON! Can you believe it? We are very excited to be such big winners! It was an awesome feeling and we will not soon forget it.

After our victory, we once again out-partied our hosts and wished them sweet dreams while we wondered if we'd ever find people willing to party past 3am on a Sunday night.

Number of shows: 17
Number of hot dogs/doughnuts/burritos: 15

- Paul 07.19.04