Malkolm in the middle…of nowhere

I had just woken up and was extra groggy from a rather bad bit of sleeping in the car. I think that perhaps the mountain driving didn’t agree with one of my sleep stages (delta wave sleep maybe? ---- on that note, do you think you can even reach the delta wave deep sleep during a car ride, or would all the car fuss mess with yer sleep stages? Maybe that was the problem all along.)

Anyhow, we pulled into a shell station somewhere in the middle of Oregon and piled out of the car to “gas up.” As I was doing my standard gas station / rest stop stretch routine I overheard someone at the next pump saying “hmm I think that is a band.” I looked up and saw a peculiar looking fellow who seemed strangely familiar. When I went in to the gas station to throw out some garbage and look for a rest room I saw the guy hanging out across from a magazine rack and sunglasses carousel. At this point I was pretty sure I knew who this was so I went up, introduced myself, and asked, “Are you Stephen Malkmus?” Sure enough it was him. He asked a little bit about our group and we had a chat about the tour, Idaho, and what to expect in Portland. Incidentally, he predicted we would hit traffic near Portland, and indeed we did.

Anyhow, we walked back to our cars, exchanging a few thoughts on Philadelphia, and I went in the trailer to get him a spinto band disc. Meanwhile he shared some thoughts with the rest of the band about the west coast and we exchanged some war stories about sleeping on strangers’ floors.

I suppose that was probably the most interesting part of the day* seeing as we played a rather sloppy set last night at Loveland.

Ok, I suppose I’m off now. Oh, before I forget, I am teaching myself how to pick locks.


*Although we did have a nice fruit and veggie tray at the club which was pretty good.