Note: This is a journal entry — it was written on paper or on my computer, then transferred to my website, maybe years later.

Hey.  I’m in fuckin’ PORTUGAL, can you believe it?  I can’t.  We played in Porto tonight (=last night) at a place called Mercedes… actually the full name translates to "My Mercedes Is Bigger Than Yours".  Heheh.  This is probably… no, definitely… the most unspeakably beautiful city I’ve ever seen in my whole life.  I took about 65 pictures today so you can see for yourself once I put them online.  The town is just… I don’t know.  Medieval meets old-fashioned with a little modern thrown in, in all the right places.  It’s a river town and the club was practically on the waterfront, where all the action is.  This doesn’t seem to be quite as much of a party town as, for example, Caceres in Spain, which is also a really medieval-looking place.  There everyone was out drinking in the streets all night long, but here it’s really dead outside at 3 in the morning.  Of course it is Sunday so maybe everybody’s home tonight getting a good sleep for work tomorrow.  Which is what I should be doing!!

I haven’t been able to talk to John in fuckin’ days and days.  I left a message for him when we were in Vigo, but there was no internet cafe or computer to be found.  Tried to call him today but my Spanish phone card wouldn’t work (DUH, because I’m not in Spain).  Tried to use my Visa debit card but that wouldn’t work either.  And there wasn’t a convenience store in sight, or none that I could find, or I would’ve bought a new phone card.  I’ll call him at the first pit-stop once we get back into Spain tomorrow.  We’re supposed to drive to Sevilla but we have a day off.  Andy has kindly offered to let us stay overnight at his country house somewhere close to there.  We’re going to do laundry.  I’m all about the laundry.  I like a suitcase full of clean clothes, it’s such a rarity when I’m touring!!  I haven’t run out of clean clothes to wear yet, but another day and I’d be turning my underlovelies inside out.  I just hate that.  Yeah I know… too much information, Miss Frost!!!  ;-)

The people from the club were super nice.  Aren’t they all?  But I mean it every time I say it.  The promoter guy is named Augusto (sp?).  Very nice, very business-minded indie kid.  His girlfriend is Sofia (or Sophia?) and she’s the sweetest thing.  Augusto was talking shop with Andy most of the time but Sofia zeroed in on the REAL talent in this family, that is, ME.  :-D She was fun to talk to especially after spending the last week clustered up with a buncha macho men like Ryan and Andy.  (Haw haw haw…. "quien es mas macho?")

We had dinner at a really nice restaurant.  It was equally nice as the one Julio took us to in Vigo, but this is Portugal so it had a different feel.  More wood, I guess you’d say.  We got started with plates of peel-your-own jumbo shrimp appetizers and then moved on to the main courses.  I had big-ass veal chunks with mushrooms and rice… it had a much better name than that on the menu of course, but that’s what it was.  Very basic and very good, which is just what I wanted.  I like really simple good food the best.  Don’t take much to please me as long as it tastes good.  :-)

There was a musician (our age) playing in the restaurant while we ate.  He was playing acoustic guitar and singing… started out in Portuguese and then moved on to do some cover tunes in English.  Maybe he saw a table full of gringos and thought we’d enjoy some stuff in our own language.  He played "Moonshadow" by Cat Stevens and a Neil Young song that I didn’t know.  The guys at the table were egging me on to go up to the guy and invite him to my show, so I fuckin’ did it!!  I showed him my picture in the paper and said something like… "Look, I’m playing a show down the street a little later, and my friends think you might like my music… come out if you like!" Of course I couldn’t say "I think you’d like it" because that’s not for me to say, heheh.  He played a Radiohead cover right after I told him that…!!  It was the one with the "I lost myself…" line in the chorus.  Anyway, he did turn up at the club with his girlfriend later on, but we had already played by that time and he missed the whole thing.  Oh well, it was an idea.  They had a beer or two and we chatted a little, and he promised to come out a little earlier the next time I play here.  :-) I think he said his name was Rafael, maybe?  Rodrigo?  God, I forgot.  His girlfriend was Rita, at least I do remember that.  Dammit, what was it?  Ruh-ruh-ruh… Rogelio?  Pffff… I just suck with names.

The club itself was really kewl.  It was in the lowest section of walkways right along the riverfront.  On the inside it was completely OLD ROCK walls, decked out with nice new wood floors, and two bars.  When I say "old rock" I do mean solid rock.  Huge giant stones and archways, very very medieval.  They told us it used to be a chapel, and that’s what it looked like.  I guess I played right where the altar used to be.  The acoustics were pretty good for a room made out of solid rock!  I think the only other time I played in a rock chapel was in Vendome, France in 1999 or so.  That was a very big 15th century church which had been converted to a music venue… this was much much smaller, but the rock structure looked to be the same era.  Or anyway it was obvious the room had been there for three or four hundred years if not more.  What a trip to be playing music in a place like that!!

At sound check time we had to wait for the sound guys to set up the brand-new PA in the club.  They gave us a monitor that still had the freakin’ price tag on it!  Anyway the waiting gave us a chance to walk across the river for a half-hour and gawk at all the boats, and all the tourists walking along the river.  Andy has been here many times so he was pointing things out and explaining them to us a bit.  If you ever need a tour guide, just let Uncle Andy show you around!

I’m really psyched we got to come here to play.  It was one of those things that I wasn’t really sure we were going to be able to do, but it came through, and it was like just a bonus for the tour.  Something for the ol’ scrapbook.  I really want to bring John here someday.  I can’t believe how gorgeous it is.

I’m having a lot of fun on this tour.  It’s been great — Andy’s been good company and makes for a really good tour manager.  I’m going to remember all this for the rest of my life!  I know I’ll get a lot of mileage (so to speak) from this trip just like all the other places I’ve been lucky enough to travel to, like France and Holland and the U.K.  I really feel privileged to have this job that I have, where I get these really neato traveling opportunities every once in awhile.  It makes me glad my music has stayed on a relatively small scale compared to other bands that might get on a major label, get a lot of money thrown at them, put out one album and then get forgotten immediately afterward.  Or have all their creative control taken away from them, or whatever problems that come about because of all the money.  I’m just building my name little by little by little, and I make NO money compared to lots of other bands, but on the other hand this is a totally sustainable thing.  I could be doing this ten years from now, twenty years, or however long I want to really.  If I had a bigger name in the music world, it would all be so different.  I’m glad.  I enjoy being me.  :-D It really has its moments.  I think I’m very lucky.  I mean, did I mention I’m in fuckin’ PORTUGAL right now?  :-D