YES and how are all of you? I'm doing well, taking a breather from all these shows.

October 20th---Gettysburg, PA. Thanks to Emmaus for having us. Thanks to the kids that danced from the start of our set all the way through it. Seriously, they didn't stop dancing---it was great. And to the Emmaus Mom who cooked us a meal---that alone was worth the trip. And SANCHEZ the MANCHEZ you are one crazy kid. We would've taken you with us if we'd had room (and your parents' permission of course).

October 21st---Charlottesville, Virginia, at a private party for some of Carl's friends. Played outside. As soon as I picked up the sticks to start "Prelude" I realized I should have warmed them up a bit. It was like drumming with icicles. Regardless, we had a lot of fun, and Mallory's mom makes the best pumpkin soup. Seriously. Lots of moms cooking for us recently. It's nice. Reminds me of home. Oh, we also covered "Lady Madonna." Reminded me of the olden days of "Don't Let Me Down." Anyone remember those times? Jeremy's senior piano recital?

October 25th---State Park, PA. Played with Oppenheimer, an awesome band from Northern Ireland (they're on the same label as Architecture in Helsinki). Thanks to the Darkhorse Tavern for being so accomodating. Good to see our old housemate and EMU grad Joel Lehman as well.

October 27th---Virginia Beach. Drove straight down there after Jeremy got off of work to make it to Relative Theory in time to play a short set before our scheduled spot in a show at Club Relevant which was ten minutes away from Relative Theory. With Dan's help, upon arriving at Relative we unloaded everything up several flights of stairs, set up, played 5 songs, tore down, loaded back up, and were back in the van on our way to Club Relevant, all within 50 minutes. We were pretty impressed with ourselves and pumped to play show #2 when we got a call saying it had been cancelled. Bummer. So we made our way to Cheeseburger in Paradise, the restaurant/bar established by Jimmy Buffet. We then drove another 45 minutes to Dan's parents' house, who were gracious enough to let us crash there for the night.

October 28th---woke up to a huge breakfast prepared for us by---you guessed it---Daniel's mom. So we ate and just kind of sat around until it was time to leave for Longwood University in Farmville, Virginia. Arrived at Longwood to find out we were playing outside again. It wasn't as cold as Charlottesville but definitely cold. We had fun anyways, and made it back to Harrisonburg in time to catch the end of a few Halloween weekend parties/shows.

So there you have it. This weekend we're off to Cumberland, MD, followed by an all-day recording session here at the Shapiro house on Sunday. Going to try to lay down some more roughs for Daniel as we set our sights on the distant goal of recording a full-length album that doesn't suck.

It's 1:30 a.m. and time for bed. Peace.

Shapiro played a wedding on Saturday. Wow. One of the more awkward shows I've played. Ever. The wedding was for Jeff (from Aggrocrag) and Emily, some friends of ours. Jeff asked us to play at the reception.

So we arrive at some ranch-style farm where the reception is to be held. We walk into the reception "hall," a large, camp-meeting-type large wooden barn but with very nice floors and decorations, very rustic-looking and classy, it's hard to describe but whatever. I realize my drums are going to echo like I was in the Grand Canyon and my Hot Rod sticks are broken. Oh well. We set up and attempt to soundcheck ourselves. I tape up my drums as best as I can to cut down on the overtones. The only other people around at the time were the catering service crew, so we asked them if it was too loud. They said, "Yeah, but we're old. It'll be OK."

The guests start to arrive and I can feel the tension within me begin to grow. There are a lot of my Harrisonburg friends there, so that helped, but they were flanked by an equal number of elderly people. We are told to begin playing after the bride and groom had gotten their food and were seated. We are about to begin when the catering lady comes up and asks us to play some "dinner-type music, no rock and roll or anything." Grrreeeat. So Jeremy talks to Jeff and Jeff tells him not to worry about it, to just start playing.

So we begin. We open with "Prelude." I am playing as lightly as possible. In the middle of the song some guy comes up to Jeremy and tells him we are too loud. Jeremy turns around at me and we look at each other helplessly. I am playing lighter than I ever have before at a gig. So I laugh and we trudge ahead with our set, despite our urges to just apologize to everyone and stop playing. We are interrupted numerous times by people telling us to turn down. We do our best and continue to play our half-hour set.

We threw a few covers into our song list. Jeff requested "'Til Kingdom Come" by Coldplay and "The Luckiest" by Ben Folds. We also played our jazz version of Aggrocrag's "Rattle the Cages." You should have seen the expression on some of the more refined wedding attendees. Priceless.

Finally we finished and they turned the iPod back on and Jeff and Emily came over and thanked us. They seemed to be happy so that's all that mattered to us. Jeff said he just enjoyed watching the faces of his parents' friends who clearly "didn't get it," meaning our music.

So needless to say, we will never play another wedding ever again. However, we were honored to play for Jeff Crag and his lovely new wife at their reception, and we hope that despite the awkwardness, those present at least got a little pleasure from Nathan's lounge-singer vocals in the Aggrocrag cover. Rattle those cages, you two crazy lovebirds.

Well, shows are piling up for October like traffic on I-495 North in DC during rush hour. Yeah, that's a lot of shows.

OK so maybe it's not that many, but it feels like it, especially considering that we all have jobs, I'm still in school, and we're trying to write a full-length album.

The Galaxy Hut was fun as usual, but next time we play in DC I'm hoping it's an all-ages show, or at least 18+. Sorry to all the people who wanted to come but couldn't.

We are continuing to make rough tracks of new material. The latest song we recorded is in 5/4, and it's challenging to play but once it's polished up I think it's going to be a pretty sweet tune.

"Ah, that's one sweet tune." Dr. Sachs, eat your heart out.

Oh, and thanks to a Dover, DE fan who created this clever picture. I personally think this should be the cover of our new CD: