another benefit of being in shear madness is the two-and-a-half days off a week, giving one ample opportunity to travel around the area...perhaps, even, to philadelphia, where the decemberists were performing a show at the mann theatre with an orchestra, and i got the chance to catch up with an old friend.
ben franklin, liberty bells, and a fine beer prepare me for an evening with joanna, colin meloy, and a slew of well-dressed musicians.
chills with every song. i think i'm the only person who like metallica's s&m record, where they played with the san francisco symphony. so i like orchestras + bands. it makes everything so...wagnerian and big. below, a snippet from the tain:
i spent monday with dad, waiting for mom to go out so we could fam it up. i drove dad's pickup while making our way out to chester county books - in which i spent a good amount of money in their music section - and while noting his fancy new cd player, i asked him where his cds were. without any hesitation, he reached over and pulled the visor down in front of me, effectively blinding me to the wavy pennsylvania road ahead of me. a few flustered moments and several choice admonishments later, we were all right.
back into the heart of philadelphia for another evening with joanna and her crew. we went to tattooed mom's, a nice dive on south street. graffitti, bad brains in the juke box, and ass baskets, a menu selection of which we partook with great satisfaction.
another fab feature of tattooed mom's is the upstairs section, where they have about four or five old bumper cars for furniture. comfortable, good music, and dirty. wonderful. beth here digs.
beth, jo, and tom.
and how about this? cereality, where i spent my time before making a run back to lake george, has every cereal you'd ever want, and allows you to mix them together. 
here joanna tries her luck with the menu selection known as "the devil made me do it": cocoa puffs, lucky charms and chocolate malt balls, with an added squirt or two of chocolate syrup.
sounds good, right? actually finishing said concoction of sugar concentrate might lead one to reevaluate one's decision-making process. i myself had the "apple pie a la bowl," which was a glorified apple-cinnamon oatmeal, but went ahead and spent ten bucks on a box of cereal i made myself: cinnamon life, oat squares, marshmallows, frosted flakes, cinnamon toast crunch, and several other cereals i can't remember.fine times in philadelphia.