shows are pretty consistent by now all the new material having been learned, crowds vary from place to place some are very demonstrative but i get the impression that the less physical audiences are still concentrating… liverpool and birmingham were really raving, belfast subdued, after all this time i still cant account for the variety of reactions, perhaps due to the day of the week, moon phases, climate, various factors… crowds are mixed ages, the younger kids seem to always manage to get up in the front… degrees of sing along to the new material as well as the hit stuff, overall people are getting familiar with the new record… thanks to all of you who’ve shown up thus far for supporting us… touring is tough, doing four shows in a row together with travelling after each one is tiring, everyones sleep patterns are wacked out major, just get to sleep on the bus a few hours after the buzz of the show finally wears off and there we’ve arrived at the hotel, wake up and try to get back to sleep inside etc… akira is here (with barbara), i dont think she knows that she’s in europe though, likes looking out of the bus window… england and the continent suffered through a really hot summer but the up side is a really mild fall and its quite beautiful over here now… (i’ve gotten some response from the troops out here and asked various people and the sentiment regarding advertising is pretty unanimously negative, a few people have been quick to point out that the band of course avails itself to forms of tv adverts but if it were up to me to choose id rather have none at all and do without it for us too… everybody really hates the ads in the movies, its somehow more obnoxious to pay to get into a film and then be subjected to the crap that one has supposedly left at home with the tv set… so as regards these invasions of artistic privacy, that is the miserable commercials one has to endure at ones local movie joint the solution is not that hard, far off etc. one thing i’ve learned is that the big corporate entities do live in a certain amount of fear of public opinion… if enough people wrote to some of the big chains like LOWES theaters saying how much offense they took at being bombarded by commercials at the movies i think that something might change…tv commercials are a harder nut to crack but the movie theater ones are a recent horror,) not much else right now, in need of sleep… some great apocalyptic dreams last night no doubt brought on by watching the special edition of “Independence Day” on the bus… oh did i mention that i’d gotten to meet Juliette Lewis who is currently starting up fronting a band, i’d known she was a musician from hearing her singing in films, i’ve heard some great recordings she’s done and i recommend people look out for her… over and out love chris