Northern Lights!

I had no idea this happened during the summertime, but apparently, it does!

The day before the northern lights, I saw a beaver for the first time.  They make awesome slapping noises on the water from time to time for some reason.  Then, the day after, a bunch of Canadian geese flew overhead in a v formation, honking.  This part of Canada (northern Ontario, around Lake Superior) is gorgeous.  There are more lakes than humans, in my estimation.  Tomorrow, we head out for the farmland in Manitoba.  I'm definitely sad to be leaving.

Helpless, helpless, helpless, helpless

After an awesome show at a kayaking lodge (the room was on a peninusla, with big windows on three sides looking out on lake Superior), we had an alarming task in front of us: hitchhike from Wawa to Thunder Bay.  Wawa is a famously bad hitchhiking spot; it's known as the worst place to hitchhike in North America.  Neil Young even wrote a song about it -- it's called "Helpless".  I had to shave my beard in preparation so that I would look less like an axe murderer.

(Before, during, and after the shaving.)

Everything turned out great in the end.  We waited about two hours, then got a ride from a friendly Quebecois photographer in a pop-top sleeper van with green polka-dots.  Turns out he's got a blog too! http://pourquoi-pas.info/ 

Recordings!

We played a show in a town of 1400 at a venue called The Auld Kirk.  Tome, the proprietor, is the kind of guy that we love to do shows with: a patron of the arts, an enthusiast for the kind of music that isn't just background noise, and a very hospitable host.  (He took a lot of time out of his schedule to show us around the area, and introduce us to the menagerie of small animals on his farm.)  He records all the shows he runs, just because he's awesome.  I've got a cd of the full show, but here is a video and two tracks that you can gobble up right this second:

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=471698739621&ref=mf
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=472017834621&ref=mf
http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=472056834621&ref=mf