Hey Everybody,
Chandler here back in Pittsburgh. Anne is in
Sweden but she's due in tomorrow afternoon.
Day after that we fly to the west coast for a
string of dates that would make the most well
traveled ask for a second cup of coffee.
Speaking of coffee I have some Klekolo
coffee brewing right this second and boy do I
need it. It has been in the freezer since our last
trip to New England. See, neither Anne nor I
have been home much since then.
It feels like a year has passed since I sent out the December
newsletter well actually I guess it has. Hope y'all all had an
outstanding new year. Me I was in Winston Salem, NC at
a very large prosaic beer slinging bar which chose to present (no hyperbole) eighties night. Ya see, I went to school in Winston Salem in the eighties and... well... never mind... don't ask how I wound up there I just did... The bar was packed full of college students drinking Jagermiester. When the New year came wound around the band toasted the bombs falling in Afghanistan to the tune of Rock the Casbah. Chants of USA USA USA drown out the amplifiers. I thought it was a bit ironic being eighties night and all an evening celebrating the time when we were supplying the Afghanis with the very same weapons we are now fighting against. Brings to mind that David Rovic's line "arm the other side so we can counterattack." So much for students being at the forefront of the peace movement. But then again it was Wake Forest (ya know, home of the Deamon Deakins... I have always loved that name.) and it was me that chose to be there.
Anyway... didn't mean to go off on that little tangent as you can imagine with Anne
out of the Country and me just getting back to da burgh I've got tons to get done getting ready for the West Coast and then Florida. As for me I am trying to get my act together for this west coast trip I've been away so much it is hard to call this home but it is. Let me run or I'll never get it all done. Please feel free to drop me a line and let me know what y'all are up to there are far too few of us not to stay in touch!
See you out there.
Everything,
Chris Chandler
Hey everybody,
It's that time of the month again .
OK so it's 02 02 02 - really it is. How bout that? "To," "too," "two." Anne and I decided this called for special costume. I returned from the thrift store with tasteful purple tights, leotard and crinoline for Anne, but when she handed me the long robe, bishop's mitre and can of black shoe polish I balked (she's says "Just keep saying 'abolish apartheid!' with your best South African accent everyone will get it") OK, that was bad I digress
I wanted to start this letter with a little warning that this month's whirled retort contains the word "fuck."
OK - it does
Now, I don't use this word often (at least in newsletters) because I know some you have underage children that occasionally break into your e mail account and read this particular missive. I understand. I, for one, hate it when people say "fuck" around
K - I - D - S
Besides there is the FCC thang and it might be the ONLY word you can't say on TV
I don't like to use these kinds of words because such words are the sign of a umm a poor
umm what's the word? vocabulary.
But sometimes it is the correct word - not to express the magnitude of some extreme situation - no, those occasions give the word too much weight. Sometimes it is merely because the word is so common in the vernacular - in fact, it is used more often than words like: "the," "an," and "high" speed internet connection" or even "God bless America"
Just wondering, how come we never see "God Bless Uruguay" or "God Bless Lower
Volta"? But speaking of a higher deity blessing a random chunk of land whose borders
have been decided upon after lots of mayhem, killing and outright thievery in violation of that same deity's very own commandments
Here in Vancouver (where we are right now) we've seen lots of Canadian cars sporting "God Bless America!" bumper stickers. But, here it feels different - not like in the USA-not at all at home it feels like it means: "God bless me!" Here it feels almost quaint.. like ya know when your great Aunt Mathilda dies and you find yourself saying "Poor old Mathilda, God bless her."
But I am totally digressing here - how I meant to start this month's letter was by saying
Stockholm; Washington, DC; Frankfurt (Germany not Kentucky,) Atlanta (my former home), Winston-Salem, NC; Pittsburgh; San Francisco; Santa Cruz; Berkeley; Garberville, CA; Coos Bay, OR; Eugene, OR; Portland; Olympia, WA; Seattle, WA, a kiosk conveniently located right on the 49th parallel between Washington state and the Province of British Columbia and now Vancouver, BC. These are the places that January has brought us "Goin down the road feeling bad."
For almost a year now, Anne and I have had a running rivalry over who can land
us the best digs - well Anne has gone over the top on this one in more ways than onewhere does she meet such fabulous people? Her friends Joey and Jim have far outdone themselves Ya see, I am writing you this note from (I am not making this up) the Savoy Carlton in beautiful "City in the Park, British Columbia." We find ourselves with a panoramic view from a glorious 24 stories above the most beautiful city in the United States. [sic] Our view is hampered a bit by the construction site for two more high rises. I love watching people work - like maybe one day I'd like to try that. Soon this will be a view of the 24th floor of several other buildings. But, we do have a hot tub, gym, cable and a high speed internet connection and how does that song go?
"Goin down the road feelin bad" (where are my flip flops? I'm off to the sauna ) "Yea, I'm goin down the road" how's that go again?
Anne told me somebody-or-other said "Nothing's too good for the working class" so we're trying not to feel too decadent but this seems like a good time to say thank you to all of you out there who have opened up your homes and made us feel so welcome. You have - and we could not be doing this with out you! You have no idea how much better this arrangement with Anne is than when the dog, Amanda and I would sleep in the truck and beg strangers for table scraps and an outlet that we could plug the thrift store electric heater in
Speaking of thrift stores - we have had some handsome scores on this trip we
flew into San Francisco and rented a car - really we did but the point of this is that, due
to heightened airport security and baggage limits, we decided not to pack any clothes for
the tour. we opted to buy a new wardrobe (and nail clippers) at the Santa Cruz
thrift store which is what we did I spent $4.47 and we plan to drop off those clothes at a thrift store at the end of the tour in Seattle unless you come to our grateful bread show - (near the last on this tour) We will be doing a clothes give away. (If you've ever coveted a bishop's miter, this is a great opportunity for you Seattle-ites but I look too good in the purple tights & tutu ) Anyway, the thing I can't figure out about the rental car is that we got it in San Francisco, but it has (I am not making this up) Broward County plates (my former home) --but the thing is it has too few miles on it to have been driven from Florida to San Francisco Hmmmm is Jeb Bush and his statewide environmental policy at work here? Surely Alamo wouldn't buy their cars in a state with no emissions standards and then truck them to no they wouldn't do that.
Here in Vancouver (my former home) We are busy getting used to the subtleties in Canadian culture. For instance, Wendy's® uses a maple leaf in place of the apostrophe in its logo, not to mention there is a maple leaf right on the golden arches®. I hear (though I have not witnessed this myself) that not only do they have the little packets of ketchup for your fries - but you can get little packets of gravy as well. Those Canadians! Col Sanders is wearing a toque. The beer is better, the people nicer - I only wish they would stop apologizing "I'm sorry, I'm sorry." But I have a theory about that. It's like in New York when some one says "Fuck you!" they really mean "Have a nice day." But in LA, when they say, "Have a nice day," they really mean: "Fuck you."
So here, when they say "I'm sorry," I think they really mean, "You're a rude impatient Americanit must suck to be you." Though this is only a theory. I come to this theory
because after a stressful but otherwise uneventful border crossing we arrived in BC to
find - not only are these Canadians stealing our fast food but they are trying to steal our health care system too. In fact, we're on our way out the door to a huge rally to try to
head off the latest round of cutbacks in their healthcare system. Seems like the War on Terrorism - (wait, no, it's not a war, 'cause then it would be wrong to keep our 'illegal combatants' in cages) the ummm- the uh response to Bin Laden's faith based initiative has led even this kinder gentler nation to our north to tighten security, boost military spending, and finance it all by lowering the minimum wage.
But if you really want to sample Canadian culture, the best place to do it is Hollywood, Florida (my former home) - which is where we are heading next according to the Census Bureau ®, in February there are more Canadians in Florida than there are here. So we are going to visit themIf any of you have any ideas where we can stay/play while we are there drop us a line after Florida it's Philly, NYC and Boston (my former home) and then Pittsburgh-Kerrville and back
Everything,
Chris and Anne.
