From Mike: For those of you who haven’t been keeping up, Jared hasn’t been feeling well. A lot of in and out of hospitals and they haven’t quite figured out what’s what.  He was well enough to play in our Sullivan Hall show, however we had called out for the Harrisburg show in PA a couple weeks back. As it was, the universe was going his way and landed us with our first snow storm of the winter. I’m not sure what the other fellas decided to do with their night.  I went home.

And in the center of my hometown there is a pond that in the summer provides a giant field of yellow flowers. But in the winter, if the temperature’s right, it’s ice. You’ll see children and parents alike walking down from surrounding homes and intersecting roads with sticks and skates over their shoulders like hobos. It’s quite a sight, and when night falls the tall lights turn on around the border of the rink lighting up the center dropping a curtain of blackness around the outside creating an illusion as if nothing else exists. If it were not for the lights of the surround homes, you’d really think so.

I go home when I can and I feel like can’t get out of the city enough. Fleet Foxes have a song called white winter hymnal and I can’t stop listening to it.

From Jared: Ever do a colon cleanse?  This will be my 3rd one in 3 weeks…not by choice of course, but seriously, I’m getting to be a pro.  I just finished the last sip of the nasty drink that will soon have me making a mad dash to the bathroom….and then again, and again, pretty consistently for about the next 2 hours or so.  My last two colon cleanses were enemas (I won’t go into detail there), but so far, I prefer the drink much better.  Tomorrow I have to go to my GI doctor at 8:15 AM, where I will swallow a pill containing a tiny camera.  Wires will be patched onto my stomach, which will then be connected to a reciever hooked onto my belt.  The tiny camera will take pictures of its journey throughout my entire digestive system, and send the information to the reciever, which will then be analyzed by my doctor.  I hope the camera pill has a flash…it’ll probably be pretty dark in there.  Not much natural light I presume.  Technology is cool huh?  Oh, by the way, the show on Friday at Sullivan Hall kicked ass.  But chances are if you’re reading this you were one of the 102 people there, so I don’t have to tell you that.

encore: learn from your friends

From Ryan: I put this nail strengthener on my pointer finger. Nutra Nail Green Tea Nail Strengthener.  My finger gets really worn thin on my right pointer from strumming. Im sure this happens due to some flaw in my technique.  Now that I’m thinking about it, I don’t think I’ve ever really had a technique in playing any instrument.  I have techniques for random things like buttering pancakes.  Music is a thing that I can’t help but do that the rest of my life has to adjust and compensate for. This weeks adjustment . . . nail strengthener.