The Hammond child-reunion has officially come to a close. After four days of walking, eating, watching brazilian bands, witnessing a fiddle festival, eating some more, laughing, and yes, watching too much television, (thank you Freaks And Geeks) the aircab arrived at 8am this morning to whisk my (younger) sister Laura away to the airport, and back to sunny London Ontario. Meanwhile, we didn't want to say anything, but.. well, it's kind of our (my) birthday. (this whole editor's plural thing gets pretty confusing.)

Up since 7:30am on my 25th birthday. I have no plans for the day. I have no commitments that can't be held over til tomorrow, and frankly, that's all I can ask for. Oh wait. I'm at work. Right. Ok, so after 3:30 today, I will have no plans to speak of, and considering that I got to hang out with my sister all weekend, I can't really complain about one day of work.

So far, my birthday has brought me these things:

• a radical weekend visit from my favourite sister.
• a bizarre board game that looks like a lot of fun.
• a dvd copy of The Wrong Guy, starring canadian funnyman David Foley.
• a charming little potted spider plant. (warning: i'm terrible with plants)
• a delicious, hand-made coconut cream pie.
  
• a whopping internet scandal.

Life is a pretty sweet fruit.

It feels like we've been playing a lot of shows lately. Maybe that's because we played three in three days. (or rather, two in one day, and one two days later.) It's tiring. But we're going to have to get used to it, and a lot more, as the tour is drawing ever-closer. Dates are being confirmed one by one, plans made, and I really need to get us some posters cooked up. Oh, and did I say dates?

Just dates?

Because what I should have said is that we're playing in New York City.

At the Knitting Factory.

August 20th, jerks. Holy shit!

The show at One World Cafe was super short, super sweaty, and super fun. Be Bad, and the USSSSSR played as well. After the show, we all offered Kenova a chunk of the door money, which is something he never takes from bands. He was so gracious about it, and seemed genuinely touched, which was pretty nice. That guy does so much, and I don't even think he knows how much he's actually doing for us all. We love him.

Claudette was in town, and took photos of our set, above. I took photos of Be Bad and the USSSSSR. You can see them here.