Ed Note: Jens Carstensen is a LWMB blogger, and the bassist in surf rock band The Giraffes.

Jensey Giraffe here, here being the basement of the Frequency Bar in Madison, Wisconsin. There's cherry pie filling on my jeans from Denver, when someone threw a whole can of it on stage, along with beer, whiskey, fortune cookies and what looked like lo mein noodles. We had to give Aaron's biohazardous shirt a "viking funeral" that night.

All the self-inflicted cigarette burns on Aaron's left arm are getting better, or less pus-infested but he has come down with "Aaron-gitis." Our drummer has lost the ability to speak English and is now reduced to communicating through a series of neanderthal-like grunts, which we still understand. My bass amp died. We're considering playing an instrumental show when we get to Columbus. Damien is still Damien.

We actually managed to do a half-hour radio show for Radio K in Minneapolis without cursing. We've played with some dope bands this time around too, namely Juice Falcon and $20 Love, and we reunite with Droids Attack tonight. En route to Chicago, we randomly encountered The Homosexuals at, yup, a rest stop. Bruno Wizard was wearing a fly denim jacket with a velvet Martin Luther King painted on the back. He could also use a nose hair trim.

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Here's a cute conversation, from Cleveland ...

Drew, drinking a can of Bitberger: “This beer is whack. It tastes like dirty socks.”

Guy from Coffin Riders: “Yeah, but at least there’s alcohol in it.”

Me: “There’s also alcohol in my dirty socks.”

Girl from Coffin Riders: “Ew.”

Thuggy kid wearing fake bling, who appeared to have Down's Syndrome: “Blahehbhdkehehbhb.”

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After our show in Des Moines, where we played 14 songs, the crowd wanted an encore. So much so, in fact, that someone threw a mic stand, and Drew's drum throne, and someone else brandished a bar stool. We didn't play one though.

You coming out to the Prime Motivator CD release party on Saturday? Mercury Lounge, us, Goes Cube, Ribs, good times. "Medicaid Benefit Applique" has been sounding especially tight.

Okay, stay warm / cool.
Colfax Mingo

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An update: considering our previous encounter with the Homosexuals (for whom my old pal and ex-Realistic Mike Dos Santos is playing bass), i walk into the men's room at this hell hovel we are playing in Columbus, and there's a Giraffes poster taped to the wall above the urinal. And on it is written in pen, "Word up, Jens - Mike Homo!" Oh, what Columbus must think of me. Thank god there's no one here.