Light yourself on Fire Tour dates!

We're hitting the road in Aug./Sept./ and Oct.. Hope to see some of you at these dates?


Aug 1 2008
7:00P
YMCA
Sarasota, Florida

Aug 2 2008
8:00P
New World Brewery
Tampa, Florida

Sep 6 2008
8:30P
Velvet Lounge
WASHINGTON, Washington DC

Sep 7 2008
7:30P
Knitting Factory
NY, New York

Sep 8 2008
8:00P
Nari Sushi
Richmond, Virginia

Sep 9 2008
8:00P
Soapbox Laundry-Lounge
Wilmington, North Carolina

Sep 10 2008
8:00P
Drunken Unicorn
Atlanta, Georgia

Sep 11 2008
8:00P
Brass Mug
Tampa, Florida

Sep 12 2008
8:00P
The Atlantic
Gainsville, Florida

Sep 13 2008
8:00P
Dragon’s Den
New Orleans, Louisiana

Sep 14 2008
8:00P
Red 7
Austin, Texas

Sep 15 2008
8:00P
Downtown Music
Little Rock, Arkansas

Sep 16 2008
8:00P
The End
Nashville, Tennessee

Oct 10 2008
8:00P
Transitions Gallery
Tampa, Florida

Oct 11 2008
9:00P
BETA BAR
Tallahassee, Florida

The South! Vacation part three: Atlanta, Ga.

On the last leg of the trip we headed 5 hours south of Greensboro to Atlanta. The plan was to hang out with my brother (Artie), see some sights, indulge in the urban shopping that Tampa lacks, and fill our gullets with even more large doses of Vegan goodies.

Ariel's Top 5

1.Soul Vegetarian (for lunch)
2.Soul Vegetarian (for dinner)
3.The Container Store
4.The High Art Museum
5.Hanging out with Artie (I'd almost forgot that we saw him, he was so busy studying hard! We're proud of you, Artie!)
Vegan barbeque ribs, mac and cheese, collared greens, and salsbury steak. As fake as George Washington's teeth.
Ariel--In Soul veg Heaven.

Ariel--Holding a cache of Container Store goodness while a taxi driver (behind her in the mini van) looks on wondering why this crazy woman is so happy.

Matt's top five

1.Atlanta as the new Vegan Mecca

2.My first experience walking through Ikea.

3.A night stroll through Piedmont Park.

4.The High Art Museum's Civil Rights pictoral documentary from 1955 to 1964. Heartbreaking.

High Art's Louvre exhibit right around the corner from their Georgia Folk Art exhibit.

5.Comprehending my brother Artie working two jobs, handling full time school, and still being able to get up at 5:30am every day for a 2 hour work out. I thought I was busy?

-He Said

The South! Vacation part two: Greensboro, N.C..

By Friday night, we were back in Greensboro at my Brother's house. We strolled through the city of Greensboro (and got a tour of UNCG via golf cart-thanks Rebecca) on Saturday and spent the rest of the time hanging with Buddy, Rebecca, and Gabby. Thanks to Rebecca for being an amazing cook, Gabby for being a precocious ball of non-stop fun, and Buddy for explaining to me why Soccer is a pretty amazing sport--after years of bewilderment, I finally understand.

Ariel's Top 5

1.meeting Gabby, v. 5
2.beginning each morning with a Gabby hug
3.painting Matt's toenails with Gabby
4.coloring with Gabby
5.being introduced as Gabby's aunt


A shy Gabby.

Still a shy Gabby.

Gabby unleashed!!!!!

Buddy and Rebecca just finished hand-building this sweet playground a week before we arrived.

Pink beard the Pirate.

And her first mate, the hornswaggling uncle Matt.

Gabby, Ariel, and Matt. UNCG campus stroll.

Buddy, Rebecca, and the semi-professional nature photographer--Gabby.

A Plaque commemorating the historic Woolworth's lunch counter sit in--Downtown Greensboro.

Foot-prints to the beginning of the civil rights movement. Again, the Old Woolworth's building.

Zombie Gabby!

When Ariel told me that she and Gabby were going to paint my toenails, I said "no."

Then the boss gave me the stink-eye and off came my socks.

For such a tiny little person, Gabby has a ravenous appetite. I've also never seen a child eat as well as she does!

Matt's top 5

1.Gabby.

2.Late night Tevoed soccer with Buddy followed by Metal Mania on VH-1 featuring a video with saw-bladed, Blacky Lawless from the metal band W.A.S.P..

3.Gabby.

4.Rebecca's amazing improv salads.

5.Having to tell my unbelieving friends that I personally didn't paint my toe nails pink.

-He Said

Not pictured: Green Hill's Center for NC Art exhibition, "Regrowth," featured this incredible artist, Bryant Holsenbeck, who makes installations out of discarded objects. This particular one was a tropical forest made out of torn pages from books, garbage bags, garden hoses, pencils, among other things. I can't explain why I love art made out of garbage.

-She Said.

The South! Vacation part one: Chapel Hill, N.C..

After flying into Greensboro, N.C. and setting up post at my brother/sister-in-law/niece's house (aka-camp LaPlante), we took off Thursday morning in our rented Toyota Yaris for a quick trip to Chapel Hill. Our friend Adam is taking the summer off; he ended up being the most perfect host to fulfill our touristy needs. Adam covered all corners: swimming, rock climbing, museum strolls, and most importantly, a docent to our bottomless stomachs in search of vegan decadence.

This is a quarry somewhere near Duke University. Adam heard that it's roughly 60 feet deep which, right from the beginning, made it scary for me to swim in. From the point pictured, we swam across the the quarry to climb a cliff about 15 feet off the water. Adam jumped in with no hesitation, making the jump look easy. Ariel looked at me and asked if I was going to do it. I said no, took about a ten foot running start and dove feet first into the great wide open. My jump was off axis, my arms rotated a double wind-shield wiper in a lame attempt to straighten myself, and my landing was just plain terrible. Afterwards, my butt felt like it had been spanked by a dozen angry nuns. That's what I get for being a show-off.

From left to right: Adam, Ariel, and Matt. Good swimmer, great swimmer, doggie paddler.

Ariel and Adam. The Duke University Botanical Gardens.

I've never seen a Magnolia tree with a root system this wild. Lord of the Rings????

Someone spiked Ariel's vegan cupcakes with a shrinking potion. This was some off-the-wall yard art/plant nursery somewhere near Hillsborough, N.C..

-He Said

Not pictured: UNC-Chapel Hill's Ackland Art Museum. We visited the exhibit of eastern and western representations of the garden and saw works by Catherine Chalmers, Imogen Cunningam, and Edward Weston. If you're in the area in September, stop by the "Circa 1958" exhibition. Rauschenberg, Warhol, Lichtenstein, oh my!

-She Said

The Cure--Now and then.

Last summer, Kieran got us tickets to see the Cure. Due to the delay on their recording of a new album, the tour was re-scheduled a year later. Wednesday was the show here in Tampa. On the handful of other times that I've seen them, they were really good. However, 2 hours and 45 minutes into the show on Wednesday was when I realized that this was probably one of the best concerts I've been to.
After an hour into the performance I began counting songs in hopes that they would cover atleast one tune off of each album. By the end of the night, they had gone back to 1978 with "Boys don't cry" and "Killing an Arab." Unfortunately, they missed one album: "Bloodflowers." This was a record I listened to for 6 weeks straight back in 2000 while travelling through Europe...It brings back good memories and I was hoping to feel some of that live. But O-well, a fat man with smeared make-up can only play his guitar so long.
Although the show was amazing, I was let down that Robert Smith is the only original member. See this photo circa sometime in the 80's. What happened to these guys? Where did they go?
Instead of the original dudes, Robert Smith had to substitute them with these young posers. From left to right: Robert Smith (after a trip to MacDonalds for some Happy Meals), A 20+ year old bass player who loves Adam Ant way too much (Although I did like his conquistador tights and sash), Jon Bon-Jovi decided to play drums on this tour, and who is this 2nd guitarist with crappy henna tattoos, screen from a porch as a shirt, and bat make-up?
Come on Robert, bring some of those old dudes back!

-He Said

Is there a 12-step program for this?

I was looking through my 12-year-old cousin's yearbook, which had a supplemental autobiography of each of the graduating fifth graders. Within just a few minutes of reading their family histories, likes and dislikes, and tales of their funniest and most embarassing moments, I became increasingly irritated by the number of typos, unclear pronoun references, sentences that could be combined for clarity and concision but weren’t, and inconsistent type font and size. I crossly wondered, why couldn’t these kids be provided with autobiography mad libs so that all information could be edited for correctness and conformity? How could a parent send in a full page of cursive font? How could the teachers not correct all the it's/its errors? I had to put the book aside at the letter J before my head exploded.

Yes, I have a problem.