Hi. It's Atom. From Philadelphia, I'm driving my Grandma and Great Aunt Essie to West Palm Beach, Florida, where I'm dropping them off for a week while I drive around Florida and play some shows, and then I'll pick them up and drive them back to Philadelphia. Perhaps they'll come to the shows in North Carolina, and South Carolina on the way down and back. They are two of my favorite humans on the planet and really really fun. There are no pictures in this tour diary, because my digital camera had an unfortunate incident where a shelf full of heavy crap collapsed on it. --Atom.

Wednesday January 16th
Chapel Hill, NC
I woke up at 5:45 am at my apartment in Philadelphia, PA and went to my Great Aunt Essie's apartment in Cherry Hill, NJ to pick up Essie and my grandmother (mom's mom; Essie's sister). We drove uneventfully for 8 hours to Chapel Hill, NC where I was to play that night. We drove around, since we got into town early, stopped at Borders and I bought a book about New Zealand, and one about Australia in preparation for my upcoming trip to the two countries. Afterwards, we found the place where I was going to play later on in the evening, and then found a cheap hotel for the three of us to stay, checked in, napped, and went out for dinner at the Outback Steakhouse. The Australian culture at the Outback was not overwhelming. After dinner, I dropped Grandma and Essie at the hotel, and I went to the show place, called Go! Room 4. The show consisted of my stuff, and a band-ish thing called Torch Merauder, which was a fellow named Torch, who painted himself blue, and played keyboards along with a video, played on his television set, of himself (Torch) playing drums. In between the songs, Torch had plenty of dialogue with his videotaped self. Word. The show was fun, and a few friends from Greensboro, NC surprised me by showing up. After the show, I crept back into the hotel room without waking Essie or Grandma, and fell asleep.

Thursday January 17th
Delray Beach, FL
We woke up at 7:30 am, and drove for about an hour until we found Essie and Grandma's favorite all you can eat breakfast buffet (Shoney's) and ate our brains out. Other than that, we drove and drove and drove until finally reaching our destination, my grandparents' apartment in Delray Beach, FL at 10:30 pm. We had driven 840 miles today. I played my grandmother lots of music that I like (She likes the Beatles, Beach Boys, and Atom and His Package (surprisingly), and thinks that Neutral Milk Hotel, Laurie Anderson, and Fugazi are 'weird'). This is the part where we sleep.

Friday January 18th
Miami, FL
When we arrived at Delray Beach at my grandmother's apartment, another of my great aunts, Lillian was there to meet us, as she'll be hanging out there for the next few days. I slept late, and ate some really old matzoh and peanut butter for breakfast, and then me, Grandma, Essie, Lillian and their friend Bea went to "eat lunch". Eating lunch consisted of the 5 of us going to a cramped, busy farmers' market and trying all of the free samples that are available. So, after our 12 course lunch, each course in 2.5 fluid ounce cups, we went back to the apartment to rest for a bit. We went out for dinner with Bea and her husband Milt, and then I was off to Miami to play the show. The show was at a fancy gothic nightclub-ish thing in South Miami. It had fancy dancy lights which meshed very strangely with the nice Food Not Bombs folks. Everyone was nice, and after the show, I returned to the apartment at 330am and went to sleepy sleep and dreamed strange dreams.

Saturday January 19th
Orlando, FL
I woke up, and left Delray Beach to get to Orlando in time for an early show. Before the show, I met up with my friend Brian and a few of his friends and ordered too much sushi. The show was quiet but fun. One band, 'We Don't Care-a-oke' Karaoke-ed their faces off, and then 'Retard-o-bot 2000' did their thing in big, day glo painted, cardboard robot outfits. A woman named Dana showed up to the show early with a pre-written set list for me, so I ended up playing a few songs that I hadn't played in a while. Also, the bass from the massive sound system at the club made the compact disc playing 'package' skip during the song 'Shopping Spree'. It's still worth not having to worry about bringing the actual sequencers everywhere and worrying about their safety all of the time. After the show, a few of us went back to Brian's apartment and watched the end of the snowy Raiders-Patriots game, and then a pretty terrible installment of Saturday Night Live.

Sunday January 20th
Tampa, FL
Brian and I went to lunch at a burrito place, and then I drove the hour and a half to Tampa, where of course I arrived early, so I sat at a bar for a while, looking super cool with my laptop computer. The show was at the Orpheum, which is a place I'd played at a few times. After the show, I went to stay with my friend Chris who is involved with the Amputees, the group who did the artwork for my last record. We discussed some new artwork for the upcoming EP, and he played me his band, Combat Wounded Veteran's new stuff which kicks booty.

Monday January 21st
Tallahassee, FL
Drove the 5 hours to Tallahassee, and sat at a cafe for a while drinking coffee, and answering email and overhearing conversations about the middle east. The show was fun, and a super nice fellow took me to a good pizza place in town where the slices were as big as my oven racks. After the show, I went to Denny's with some old friends from Tallahasse, and I had a tasty malted shake. It was maltalicious.

Tuesday January 22nd
Gainesville, FL
I woke up, and drove to Gainesville, and once there, got an oil change, and then went to visit with my friends at No Idea Records and Distribution. They recently moved into a new space, and it's really excellent, except one of the fish in their aquarium is a total dick. A bunch of us went out for dinner, and then me and my friend Jon, who plays in a sexcellent band called Gunmoll, went and played pinball and Maximum Force at the Common Grounds, the club where the show was to be. The show was okay, except awkwardly quiet except for some heckling which was fun. It was a pretty early night as far as Gainesville goes, and I was asleep before 3am.

Wednesday January 23rd
Delray Beach, FL
I woke up early in Gainesville and drove 4 and one half hours back to Grandma and Essie in Delray Beach. I fell asleep on the couch and did a crossword puzzle with them and chatted for a while. We're planning on leaving at 6am tomorrow. Yum.

Thursday January 24th
Columbia, SC
We woke up at 530am and drove for 11 hours to Columbia, SC while listening to music, and playing car games like 20 questions. The highlight was my Grandma trying to explain to Essie and me that a tire is a vegetable, as in the animal, mineral or vegetable categories. We found a sorta cheap motel and I played a show that sounded really weird to me, and probably wasn't all that entertaining to everyone else since my brain was mushy from 11 hours of driving.

Friday January 25th
Philadelphia, PA
We again woke up at 530am and drove for 11 hours. Now, I sleep, pack up apartment, finish new EP, fly to New Zealand. SOOO boring.