well, 12 hours of driving, specifically.

it’s amazing what can happen in 12 hours. you can get pulled over by the mahwah police (well, apparently you can do that in 5 minutes if you’re going 71 in a 55). i assumed that when the cop looked in my back seat and saw the guitars and amps and then asked if we were musicians, he was going to call in the narcotics squad and have us strip-searched. instead, he returned my license and registration.

“slow it down.”

“but officer, reprise is already at 56 bpm. we can’t play it much more slowly”

i don’t think he would have understood the joke though, so it’s probably best that i just thanked him and drove away.

in 12 hours, you can drive from bergen county to pittsburgh and back (if you avoid rush hours). and during those 12 hours, you can spend 100 dollars on gasoline (thanks, opec), be reminded that sax and rock are antithetical (thanks, bruce), and repeatedly ask yourself and your passenger, “what the hell are we doing?”

it was never asked, but it was implied at moments. it’s a legitimate question, too.

lest we forget, the answers can be found on the music page. one answer is in the form of an album. another was posted last week, and more will be found there soon. i thought the last song was great, but the next one is better. actually, the next three are all better. and the fourth is so good that it makes me cry to hear it. not really because it’s beautiful, it’s just because it’s so damn good. as a band, we haven’t even started working on it, but i’ve been sitting on my bed playing it ever since we got back this evening, just to hear it out loud.

and even though my self-imposed question still stands (what the hell am i doing?), the truth is, i’m amazed at my good fortune. we’re recording again in 5 days. keep listening.