Friday, July 23
July 23rd: 8th day of the "Animate Your Character" tour with DDove
show: Mad Happy Lounge in Bend OR

We start off from Merced at 8am and start our journey into the North Country... stop off at the Black Bear Diner in Mount Shasta City great spot.... crossed the border at little bit.. and the speed limit slowed to olden times.. and 200 miles... really became 4hrs... which was cool, we bumped two albums from this cat named Ceschi, imagine The Decemberists, a little Beatles, Myka 9 and Anit-Con Hip Hop.... he could rap, sing and make very good sound scapes...dope artist check him out...
we got to Bend around 6pm and headed downtown to check the spot.. this was a show AKruse (rapper/producer) helped me get since Oregon is his home state... we got to the lounge and people were setting up the sound system, while new Owner Reggie was picking up the subs... we decied to go get a room... they didn't make us pay for Leo ( the mascot dog).. Yea!!!! we all took our time relaxing, taking turn showering and getting refreshed to head to back downtown... Reggie still wasn't there so we went to Mondo Pizza's and ate awesome food.. the weather must have been 75.. felt like Ocean Beach on a great day...
Talked to Rocky Franklin (from Pimps Of The Galaxy) haven't seen Rocky for maybe 10 years....it's been a minute to say the least... he's coming to the show... went back to the spot.. got to meet Reggie... he let's us know we've got a few songs each.. djs are spinning house music.. and people all already dancing.... I'm up first.. so I pick my three most danciest songs.. and it works .. people keep dancing and having a good time... hand out some CD's and get ready for Dove's set ... they switch DJ's and let us know that Ddove is going on later and that she only gets 2 songs... hhhhmmmm...
we look at eachother and shrug our shoulders... he's comes to us again to push it back even more.. and I let him know.. he should have the hip hop on right now.. so he can get the dance vibe going and not have to stop it later for the lyrical slaying that is DDove... he agrees.. so DDove and I go on to handle our business.... she kills intro.. got people watching .... kills dreams... got people dancing.... and in the middle of that song... a guy comes up to me and asks if Dove can do another.. You Know it... we rock Mary and she put them away.. yelled who wants a cd... and people bum rushed her!!!!!
we stick around and watch a super talented female singer/r&b style.... Caitlin Cardier.. sounds good and can really sing... Amsterdam of Top Shelf hits the mic and starts to rock... we stick around and vibe out with locals... it's a really good time.... people are having fun, dancing and drinking ...Reggies having a good night... we tell him thank you very much!!!! and we head back to our hotel room... Leo (TMD) was an angel and we all we happy!! yea!!!!
time to sleep and get some rest to head to Portland tomorrow...

Thursday, July 22
July 22nd: 7th day of the "Animate Your Character" tour with DDove
show: no show/travel day/day off

Still in Merced, getting a lot of legal stuff taken care of for my family... dropped off cds to those i could get ahold of DDove showed up about 10pm ... Amanda had cooked an amazing stir fry and we ate.. and we were all so happy

Wednesday, July 21
July 21st: 6th day of the "Animate Your Character" tour with DDove
show: no show/travel day/day off

We stayed in San Jose the night of the instore performance at Streetlight Records in Santa Cruz.... got up and had an awesome breakfest at Roselena's Cafe... we talked about what to do for the next two days... since our next show was on Friday in Bend OR.... Dove decided to head back to LA, to take care of a few things.. and Amanda and I decided we could spend the time visiting with my mom and spending some time with my family... so we snuck back into Merced for the night...

Tuesday July 20th:
FIFTH DAY OF THE "ANIMATE YOUR CHARACTER" TOUR WITH DDOVE
Show: In-store Performance at Streetlight Records in Santa Cruz, CA

Well we made it to Bakersfield and we're getting too tired to go any further... we grabbed a motel 6... Leo (TMD) wanted a Hilton... but he's not the headliner on this tour... it almost came to blows... but he conceded when I told him I'd take his bone away... pulled in to the motel and saw a fox eating some discarded Carl's JR... Leo watched the fox intensely ...(if you haven't seen Leo..