Tuesday, August 17, 1999

This was the day of our unexpected rehearsal at an English pub restaurant called UK club in a town called Livermore, east of Pleasanton. First I changed the group's plans for the early part of the day. Paul wanted to go to Apple headquarters in Cupertino and I mentioned I wanted to go to the health club and then everybody wanted to go to the health club. I brought Milo and Douglas with me and it was cool, really Milo's first trip to a health club. I saw him and Douglas swim. I tried to do the lap underwater but couldn't. It was too long. We then went into the jacuzzi, Milo's first time. He said he was having so much fun that he shouldn't tell his wife he was doing this! Next was the sauna and he was freaked out by this room and didn't understand the purpose which I attempted to explain to him. By this time Louie and Paul made it and Louie was in the jacuzzi talking to me about "business" i.e. when I should pick up people at the BART station in Pleasanton, the closest stop to Livermore. Paul, Milo and I showered at the same time and "bonded" as naked men. Milo thought I looked like Homer Simpson. Is that a compliment??? Afterwards we got some lunch, went back to the room and prepared for Livermore.

Douglas and I drove together as we did many times on this trip. It was the first time we hit rush hour traffic which occurred on all the highways. We were supposed to pick up Rebecca at that station at 5 and we weren't even in Pleasanton by 5. After arriving in Pleasanton we couldn't find the BART station as we went past the town toward I-580. We asked a gas station attendant at some street where it was and we happened to be at that street! After one wrong turn 'cause Douglas saw the sign but didn't notice if it said we should turn, we saw the sign again which said go straight. We made it to the big BART station at 5:35 pm. The actual tracks were on the interstate median as in Virginia with the Washington Metro. We saw Zack there but not Rebecca. We called the club and Rebecca notified everyone that she was gonna be late. She arrived less than 10 minutes later. The fact that we were late was fortunate as no one had to wait long, even if it drove sometimes detail-oriented Louie mad. We drove around Pleasanton, finally finding the Interstate and arrived at the UK Club in Livermore, a self-described redneck town as mentioned by the waiter with a tartan apron which at first looked like a kilt.

I then had to drive Rebecca and Zack back home. We had fun talking as Rebecca "discovered" we were typical "men" talkin' about women, sex and love, not merely band members. We had a nice time. I took some wrong turns but with my instincts and her knowledge of the City, we found where we had to go. Zack and I also talked about Zack and Philip Glass, his father which was very eye-opening, that his father worked his ass off to succeed. In addition, Zack worked for his dad as part of the road crew and has traveled 'round the world! We dropped Zack home and back as the driving takes a lot out of me but it is a responsibility I shouldered by renting the minivan.

Today was the day I caught up on writing this journal, and doing e-mail. I declined to attend the health club. I went out later to get postcards, stamps and a sandwich which I ate in the park where the music is on Thursdays but the seafood salad started to drip on my shorts and the park bench. I forgot to get napkins but was thinking about it. I finished the meal in the room, wrote the postcards and it was time to go on the road to Club Chibbo in Berkeley on University Avenue. It was located in a not so great looking Ramada Inn. We hit rush hour traffic again but since it was easier to get to, it wasn't so bad. We got off in Berkeley and it wasn't too far from the I–80 exit. Once we got in you could just tell no one was gonna show up even though we sent them flyers so they could promote our show. The cook was an asshole. He put in tapes in a cassette player that sounded warped but it was a bad cassette deck. Phil helped with the lights as we set up.

The bartendress and waitress were also pretty and were being fawned over as well. Our "pay" was pretty good Ethiopian food that Phil explained to us. There was an interesting "spongy" bread that came in a roll where you unroll a piece, tear it off and pick up the food with it, essentially eating it with your hands like the natives. There was lamb, chicken, beef and various vegetarian spiced dishes which were quite delicious. I made sure to have plenty of diet coke so I'd be awake for my chauffeuring everyone back to San Francisco.

We packed up and I then drove Emily, Rebecca and Zack back to San Francisco, my umpteenth time over the Bay Bridge. We all had fun talkin' about whatever and Emily helped me make the correct exits to get to Fell and Scott. Again we got back to San Jose at about 3 am. Another long trip. Douglas gets to be a permanent passenger as he told me his philosophy of women, which I will leave up to you the reader.

Around noon earlier that day I spoke to Louie who informed me there was a live car chase on cable, the Fox news channel (what else). It was not a particularly high speed chase but there were captions that the man had a dog in the car. I watched it for almost an hour when the truck stopped at an exit and he got out and was apprehended. Minor excitement.