HOLA from Madrid

So, after a long blog hiatus, I'm back on the map. This time, I am writing from a computer station in our hotel in beautiful, sunny Madrid, after a 7 hour plane ride. I guess it's technically about 4am eastern time, and I still haven't slept a wink. I'm way too jazzed to sleep right now.

I've been to Spain on two occassions before, once in the southern peninsula and countryside, and once in Barcelona to visit my good friend Don Samuel Shpall. This place fascinates me, and has since the moment I first set foot on the soil. The faces of the spaniards are shaped like none i've ever seen, and the buildings and layouts of the cities are beautiful, efficient, and vibrant. As we flew over the countryside, I noticed that the layout of the Spanish countryside is completely different than that of the States. When you look down from the airplane window, you see lots of tiny little clustered towns, none bigger than what looks to be about a square mile, and all of them are built in a circular fashion.

Since my last post, a lot has happened with My Brightest Diamond and with my own life. I got kind of burned out on writing the day to day back in April, probably because i feel a little bit odd blathering on about my exports and expecting anyone to care. Regardless, the journal-keeping side of this whole blog thing still holds its weight in my head. I think the last post I made was in Kentucky, as I described our faithful crew on the "twilight in the fearful forest tour." I came to love those guys/girls like brethren, and have been able to link up with a couple of them since to talk shop. Marcel and Rich are back working with the Decemberists for their summer exploits, while Justin and Rick are touring with the Faint and the Cure. Stephen did a stint with the band Slint in Europe, and is now hanging loose in the apple.

Obviously, there have been a number of events i've neglected to address during my hiatus from the blogosphere. For one, Shara dislocated her knee onstage in Las Vegas during the song "magic rabbit" in one of the most shamelessly rocking moments i've had the pleasure of witnessing in my life. We both jumped and landed at the same time, but when i looked back Shara was sprawled out on the floor, still strumming, but looking up at me with confused eyes full of pain. I mouthed to her, "you ok?", and she mouthed back and shook her head, "no...!" Like a true rockstar trooper, Shara hobbled to her feet, leaned into the mic, and asked for a chair and an icepack. We finished the set, and Shara was immediately rushed to the hospital afterwards. The rest of the shows were in chair-mode, but you should check out shara's freakysweet sit-down moves. Really. It's on youtube from the bellingham show.

Another neglected memory was that of the ride between Kansas City and Denver. Brian and I opted to hop on the crew bus for the ride, which took about 12 hours, in order to give Shara and James some alone time on Shara's bday (and skip out on the driving duties). On that bus ride, I witnessed just what it means to drink and be merry. The "pirate ship," as it was so aptly named, seemed to sway with the yo-ho yo-ho of bottles being sipped and passed and sipped and passed. At around 2am we swashbucklers dropped anchor to get some food, although I stayed in the bus and passed myself out nice and cozy in the back lounge. I'm very glad my mates decided against drawing on my face. The one casualty of the debauchery that night was our merch girl, Katie, who ended up face down in a pool of vomitous muck. Oops. I was glad to be out of the office for that one.

Fast forward to our last two shows, in Seattle and Bellingham Washington. Seattle was a blast. It was certainly the greatest venue of the tour, and we were even joined onstage during "No Quarter" by most of the crew, all of them waving the massive pirate flag we bought for them in Vegas and doing their best to plunder the stage. In Bellingham, the feeling was something like that last day of summer camp, knowing that you've grown so close to a group of people and not knowing the next time you will see them again. We traded hugs, emails, myspaces, and said goodbye after a great wrap-up meal at the tallest restaurant in Bellingham. It was on top of a hotel.

After tour, we in MBD had about ten days off before shooting down to Sao Paolo, Brazil, for the Resfest. It was without a doubt the most positive experiences I've had playing music thus far. Olivia and Carlos, two of the main heads of the festival, treated us like royalty, and made sure that everything was perfect. It was my first time playing a festival, and I can't wait to do it again.

That about brings us up to speed. My Brightest Diamond will be doing our thing in about 8 hours at the Summercase festival here in Madrid. Tomorrow, we fly to Barcelona to do our second and final set, and we will be heading back on sunday. Apologies if this post seems a bit manic, but I needed to capitolize on this sleep-deprived and halfway inspired moment of inspiration. More news to come.