the tour diary of jenny toomey

Jenny toomey tour
Tour Diary from Jenny Toomey's Fall Tour Oct 8th-Nov 17th 2001

11.03.2003

PHILLY

Philly 1 Nov 2003 (Jean Cook at the Mic)
I meet Franklin in New York and we take the Chinatown Bus to philly. On the
bus, they show Shanghai Noon up to the point where Lucy Liu tells them she
doesn't want to go back to China. In Philly, we walk around and I get some
mandarin orange juice and bitter green tea across the street from the
firehouse. They have the biggest pocky packages I've ever seen, but I don't
get one. There's a rock band set up right on the firehouse lawn and they
sing red hot chili peppers covers for tips and a man dances. We decide to
walk to the club from there, which takes a while. It's dark and quiet
outside. When we get close, Jenny and Michael drive up and give us a ride
the rest of the way. They're drinking pomogranate juice.
In the alley next to the club you can see Psycho with Tony Perkins projected
onto the wall. It's a nice night so we sit at the round plastic table
outside the club and eat expensive mexican take out. After Psycho they show
Night of the Living Dead, and right next to it you can see Minority Report
projected without sound. There is something else projected next to Living
Dead too but it's out of focus. It doesn't ever change and I suspect it's
an ad. There are a few kids who want to see the show but someone tells them
to go away cause they're under 21. Then the people from the club change
their minds and try and find the kids but they're gone. We play the worst
show ever.

Jean stares up at a very pale psycho victim.

Mike and Franklin watching the flicks before lonely rocking.

Our potential audience falls to the seduction of cinema.

Jean Claw

Wow Pumpkin

The lonely rockers.

The murderous cornstalk.

Brian fills out the audience with dummies.

Dorothy and Jim shine in the spotlight.

Winky Deadguy

(Jenny at the Mic)
Afterwards Brian and Franklin and I walked from Kristin's house to the mythic land of the cheese steak wars. Jenny broke the rules by mistakenly touching the fries of another. We are not welcome there again.

Wall-o-whiz

Steak Window

Franklinsteak..."Hmmm ahh want cheese steak"

Brianpepper

Later

we liberated this crab.

posted by Jenny | 11/03/2003 11:18:31 AM

ATHENS

Athens 29 Oct 2003 (Jean Cook on the Mic)
Jenny got up early and let the dogs out. Franklin bought a shaker egg.
Michael learned smell and unclaimed in the van. We got stuck in rush hour
traffic near Atlanta. Franklin was driving. I think this is when we
listened to Stark Reality Now! (maybe Franklin will explain about Stark
Reality Now?) Pierre was moving so we got a room at the days inn instead of
staying at his house. Dinner was at Grit. We got a pudding cake, choco
pecan pie and berry crisp for dessert. This is the day we figure out how to
pack the van. The Bet opens at Nuci's space. Backstage I crawl into MZ's
piano case and Franklin shuts me in and we surprise Jenny. Then Jenny
crawls into the piano case but we don't shut it. It's a big case. At the
show, we unexpectedly played Masonic eye. There was a thrift store a few
blocks away from the hotel that opened at nine a.m. The one right next door
to it opened at ten. We told Jenny about it. The next morning she went but
said they didn't have much.

At Nuci's space you can rock out and see a doctor for 10 bucks.

This makes Jenny feel healthy.

We decided to join Curves as a band to prove it.

Jenny has always felt a kinship to Curves.

Did they design this logo on a napkin?

Jean is flexible.

but then we let her out.

We tried to apply the nutrition information we learned from Curves.

We combined the 4 essential cake groups....

with the four essential soda groups.

Afterwards we relaxed.

Grit makes delicious cakes but they aren't so good at math.

Hmmm.

This was the actual message left in the Nuci practice space.
We like them a lot.

posted by Jenny | 11/03/2003 10:30:55 AM

NASHVILLE (Jean at the Mic)

Nashville 28 Oct 2003
I love touring. it's like yr in the pulsing veins of the rock and roll
body. - said an anonymous rocker

At Jonathan Marx's house we watched Conan O'Brien and David Byrne's show both featuring Vic Chestnutt and Lambchop. Jenny worked all day. The End had a wall of fame, and the bouncer was lifting weights in a fenced in courtyard
next to the club entrance. We had japanese food at a korean run sushi place
on the same street and met David Berman, who had been awake for twenty four
hours and had written two poems that day. He gave us a book and Franklin
got a personalized pink t shirt that says Welcome To Nashville on one side
and F.BR UNO on the back. Jenny had wasabe again; Franklin noted we were
eating especially well on this tour. We went to the david lynch bar after
the show to meet with Berman, Cassie and Patty and some other friends. Fox
Mulder was on TV and there were mirrored walls.

Backwards swastikas
on the new construction site
because I'm a jew

-a Haiku Franklin wrote about our time with Berman

The End of Jenny Toomey?

The rock wall at the club...

Put Jewel next to Mike Watt

Next day I had beautifully a constructed latte from a christian coffee house.
Truly this is the lord's work.

posted by Jenny | 11/03/2003 10:23:07 AM

KENTUCKY (Jean on the Mic)
We forgot to get paid in St. Louis. Fruit Bat and Iron and Wine had our money when we pulled up to the club. During sound check Franklin and I learn MZ's 'this is a beautiful town'. We order dinner at a karaoke bar around the corner. They had fancy food. Before they started karaoke the TV showed a movie about a guy trying to save a girl who was in a cage. She was handcuffed to a green
hand that wouldn't let her go anywhere. There was no sound. After the
movie, we listened to them singing 'could you would you be my baby tonight'.
We got our food to go. Jenny had wasabe again. Back at the club we tried to
take our picture in a photo booth. I make cranes at the merch table, and
Jenny makes one come out of her mouth. Jenny still has a cough. We drove
back to Mick's house to sleep. His toilet is decorated with day glo hula
designs and real shells.

We woke up early and drank juice, waiting for Mick to come home from his
girlfriend's house. Franklin finds a guitar and sings me a song about
Francois Mitterand. I learned to play hey good lookin on baritone ukelele
and we jumped on the trampoline. We had barbecue for breakfast and listened
to Gary Numan and Stevie Wonder on the way to Nashville. It rained.

Jean and Franklin look good on a Kentucky couch.

There was a dome in Mick's backyard.

We congregated here to pull the engergy of the universe into our tour.

The Ukelele helped focus the vibes.

Things started to get a bit dangerous.

Eventually we did the right thing and left for breakfast.

With BBQ this delicious it is sort of like religion.

So why not make a stained glass pig?

They even served us deep fried pickel chips.

Thanks Mick. You are a super host and you look cute with tomatoes.
See you next time.

posted by Jenny | 11/03/2003 09:42:14 AM

11.02.2003

ST LOUIS
St. Louis 26 Oct 2003 (Jean on the Mic)
Elliot Smith stabbed himself in the heart. CMJ Week was just ending when I
left NY. Franklin and Michael were driving the van from the west coast.
Jenny and I flew in early and visited the Smoothie King and then went
shopping for a jacket and sweater or something warm. It was cold! I got a
Cecil Taylor record at the record store with a marquee. Down the street
they're playing Mystic River at the movie theater but Jenny and I don't go.
We walk back up the street and stopped at a whore store to look for sweaters
(A whore store is a store where the clothes only fit 12-16 year olds and whores);

I finally get a jacket at Rag O Rama. Since we still had some time we got sushi for dinner across the street from blueberry hill. The wasabe is good for Jenny's cold. Beatle Bob was at the show. Fruit Bats and Iron and Wine also played. We split a set with MZ. That night we slept in a loft with only a little furniture in it
and broken glass in the bathroom. I fall asleep right away. MZ wakes me up
to give me earplugs.

Jenny of a Generation at the cool record store.

They had some early Simple Machines releases for resale with nice reviews.

Jean met her friend David.

Then we all went to Beer school.

Franklin also took us to winking school.

Jenny wasn't so good at it.

But Jean picked things right up.

We woke up early and Jenny worked on her other tour. Franklin found a
guitar and we sang through monstor and just because its dying and some other
songs. It was nice and quiet. When MZ woke up we went downtown for
breakfast, and he went to get the brakes looked at. First stop was smoothie
king, then Franklin and I did the crossword at Starbucks while Jenny worked.
Down the street the independent coffeeshop selling sandwiches smelled really
good. We visited the good bookstore and Franklin got four books. MZ showed
up and we left St. Louis. At a gas station somewhere in Missouri they had a
full hard liquor section, where you could get flask sized gin. While
gassing up in Indiana there was X Files pinball. I ask Franklin to yell
when he sees a mailbox. He and Jenny listen to the Mekons.

You can buy a pretty loft in St Louis for not so much cash.

Then you can take macho rocker photos.

Who you lookin' at?

We left that town on fire for the Jenny Toomey Michael Zapruder experience.

posted by Jenny | 11/02/2003 11:26:14 PM