went out to andre’s second annual pool party to hang. got to see some faces i haven’t seen in a minute

like doug. i just remembered on the weed hounds tour we drove through a city called durant and for an hour substituted the word “doug” for other words in movie titles. for example: doug of the rings, douglander, o doug where art thou, the cable doug, doug in the outfield, etc. good stuff.

it was a lot of fun hangin but i didn’t go in the pool. my ears were fucked up and still are to this day.

ew look at the blisters on that boy’s hobbit feet

billy drew some weiners

kevin slam dunked some shit

and this dude made up a little score card. it was pretty funny

a few bands played, here’s one of gaza. more here

i noticed doug was very distracted during the sets, i found it really funny for some reason

then the hounds played. first time i saw them after not being in them. kinda weird but definitely cool to be a spectator again because i like the band. more shots here

the next stop on the weed hounds tour was new orleans, louisiana. this was definitely one of the places i was most excited to visit just based on it’s history. i was also somewhat eager to see what state it was in after katrina. the first thing i noticed on the trip in was the gps was showing us on a highway and there was nothing but blue in each direction

for miles traveling into new orleans you were basically driving over water

beautiful marshy swamps and rivers flowing right under us

this all seems like the same shot but its miles apart

and the weirdest thing was there were houses with like boats in the “driveway” on the sides of this road

so the first thing we experience when new orleans comes into view is the sight of the hugest, darkest, blackest cloud i have ever seen. lightning was dropping from the cloud tearing through the sky. it was centralized right over the city we were about to visit. i’d say that from our point of view maybe 290 degrees was still completely blue but ONLY in front of us, over NOLA, was a giant storm cloud.

the rain was so intense and heavy that i didn’t even think to take a picture of it. i was definitely thinking to myself “are we about to walk into another nightmare situation for this city? is this what it looked like before the levees broke?” kind of nerve wracking. traffic was slowed but we did make it into the city and over to the circle bar, which was where we would be playing. it was still pouring and they were technically closed but they let us in and we watched some world cup.

the rain began to clear a bit and i felt a little more comfortable. plus i was happy i wouldn’t be viewing the city under shitty conditions.

we still had maybe 7 or 8 hours before the show started so we wanted to make good use of it

we left the venue (which was basically a two story house converted) and headed over to meet logan and sam, laura’s friends.

they offered to direct us to some legit cajun food spot but getting there proved to be quite a task. every road we ventured over to was completely flooded… and this was only after like two hours of rain. i cannot imagine the nightmare this city faced

you may not be able to see it straight off but that blue sign is an evacuation route marker and the road was basically flooded. we pulled into a gas station and decided it would be best to head to a joint called coop’s which was over in the more touristy part of the neighborhood

the rain damage was a lot less over here and was starting to dry out. we went into coop’s and ate a heaping load of meaty food. i got some of the best fried chicken i’ve ever had and with some red beans and rice.. i later found out that the red beans and rice may have had rabbit meat in it. so that was weird

we were then headed over to one of these take out daiquiri places. i forgot that new orleans has like no drinking laws. you can drive with alcohol, you can drink it on the street, whatever the fuck you feel like.

some more of the beautiful, but shabby looking homes

all the streets were lined with two or three story buildings that didn’t feel american. i’m no architecture expert so i can’t say what feeling or time period they gave off but it was not like any city i’m used to. and also the trees are so enormous and ivy covered, it felt like the city was dropped right on top of a swamp.

so here is the daiquiri place.. it had a number of varieties to offer. for example laura got a “booty call” and pat’s was called like “thug’s dream” i think. for fifty cents extra you got a bonus shot or something.

oh and at some point logan and sam’s friend met up with us… forgive me but i forget his name. he was from georgia i think. nice dude.

this dude on the street was singing, he wasn’t that bad honestly. nick chimed in with the mouth trumpet and he was like “we need to get you a bucket too because you’re pretty good!”

i saw a junk store and went in to look for junk to bring home. turns out it wasn’t really a junk store but a over priced, old-grandma-looking furniture thrift store. nick got some beads

and pat got some “1957 pegasus” medallion. i don’t understand it either. none of us did.

we then walked over to the mississippi to hang for a bit. this group of chumps had t-shirts on that said “christian outfitters” and left behind some bullshit pamphlets and illogical bracelets on the bench we sat down on. GET DA FUCK OUTTA HERE

another river boat thing. logan was chatting with, schooling me to a lot of what went down around the time of katrina. that one was full of knowledge. he recommended some documentaries and stuff which may be too depressing to watch.

at this point my determination kicked back in…

i headed down and put my hands into the mighty river. it felt good. i have now touched the mississippi.

before heading back to the venue we stopped at a bar for a bit to wet our whistles. this guy was in the back. ohai plz

we then checked out the nightmare that was bourbon street. it was just as bad as it sounds. people on the over hangs shouting shit, bad stones cover bands, voodoo shops, sleezy strips joints… even black country rappers (with matching cowboy hats!) we bounced and headed back to the venue after greeting everyone we saw on the street with an “‘ey dare”

got back to the venue pretty tired at this point. had a few colas to put some pep in my step. the dives played and were pretty cool but because i was so tired i couldn’t even stand to watch them. the noise wasn’t suiting my head at the moment

this is the only shot of girlfriends i took i think. but they rocked that shit.

in the bathroom – “completely in their element?” explain plz. we went back to logan and sam’s to crash out but logan was not done. he ended up taking nick, pat, benny and i think laura out to another bar afterwards. they missed out because me, jenny and andy got to sleep in the air-conditioned room with a tv! that was marvelous.

i got to sleep on this couch. we were all kinda tired and not looking forward to what lied ahead a little later… a long, long drive

this is the chairman meow. what a cute name for a really cute cat! he was a big fella!

logan took us to a place that offers some of the best pee-cawn pie in new orleans. another tibbit of knowledge he dropped on me was that it was the first place in the city to hire, on their own accord, black people as workers.

how many band members does it take to work a muni-meter? no seriously, it was hard

the wait sucked, but i had some delicious hash browns and a HUGE slice of chocolate cream pie. that was really amazing. the waitstaff wore white shirts with giant black bow ties. the one fella kept cracking wise and shouting lots of “who dat” stuff. i still don’t understand what the shit it means but i guess i’m a yankee and never will. we hit the road and braced ourselves for the long haul to tejas.