Is the blog going the way of 35 mm film, CDs, and the eco-marketing scare of the mid-oughts? Facebook has drained the bards of Hawkdom of some creative energy, it would appear, dear Reader. Tweets and posts peck at the muse often, and leave her just as she’s waking.
And the Hawks blog is a travel blog, after all, and we haven’t hit the road as much in the last couple of years. But some good road trips are in our near future, and so we beg the Muse for longer conversations.
On this Friday the 13th of April we’ve packed the Yukon, with its new tires and wiper blades just in time for a rainy morning, and we’re heading up the 5. Will we beat the shutdown of the Grapevine due to snow? Our companions on this tourette, Old Californio, had an efficient departure and are already over the pass. Just to show us up, they’ve rented a 2011 Yukon XL Flex/Fuel, jet black with leather seats and big wheels. Our ’99 Yukon (regular length) looks a little road weary next to this fresh, young model. Is Yukon Extenze available? Yukonal Rejuvenation? The youth and spirit, nay brash immaturity, of the OC lads raises out ire and stokes our competitive pride. It’s seven hours to Auburn, up in Gold Country, and we’re going to be cutting it close for sound check. As is our way.
The central valley is looking very good. A series of odd late rains has greened our fair state, just as we were heading for a dried out summer. Lupines have dusted the Grapevine, where there was indeed snow, but just on the high ridges. We’re in an unbroken San Diego to Sacramento/San Francisco 60 mph caravan under gray and black clouds, with a startling blue over the hills to the west. Lovely.
Kevin Jarvis is driving; Rob Waller sits in the front passenger seat; the two Pauls sit on the rear bench. This configuration will probably be our constant, as the two shorter members of the band are packed like sardines among soft bags. We didn’t attach our Thule pod to the roof. Rob lobbied for it. The Pauls lobbied against it. A certain injustice prevails.
This version of the Hawks has a wide conversational topic spectrum. Soil maintenance and the philosophy of the untilled field; current relations in the L.A. country rock scene; what is country rock?; golf; golfing with Randy Weeks; golfing with a cruel golf cart duo that mowed down an egret; the shocking and dismal experience of seeing Tiger Woods up close; old Augusta; child psychology; acoustic guitar pickups; state supreme court approves half hour lunch break per ten hour shift; Obamacare (fuckin’ Obama); Justice Roberts’ internal conflict; the inevitable bad taste of public art; the giant LACMA rock; drummers and drumming; hawk flies over big rig stack, survives, good omen.
Green and gray, green and gray, lush blue black ponds and canals, egrets, infinite white black clouds rays of rain and sun, doh! eco inappropriate suburb in the middle of fields; whew, back to green and gray, green and gray. So lush. Life lives in the San Joaquin.
Old Californio has beaten us to Auburn by at least 45 minutes, those upstart bastards. It’s going to be tough to overcome this psychological advantage, but we will figure something out. We’re passing through Sacramento and hoping for merciful traffic.
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I was thrilled to see you guys play for the first time in Auburn, after having listened to “Shoulda Been Gold” about a hundred times, and just loving it. Very happy to see that you play and sing as well on stage as on the album, and got more of your CDs. The next day, I continued south (home being north of Nevada City) to L.A. for the first time in many years. And I did indeed see hawks in L.A. (so maybe we should talk.) Many thanks for your music, and please come to Nevada City/Grass Valley or better yet, to North Columbia on the San Juan Ridge. Would be happy to help encourage/promote such a gig. And BTW, every time I saw that goddamned California Aqueduct and all the N. Calif. river water that L.A. squanders, I couldn’t help getting mad. But I’m not blaming you for that.