Slam Up, Wake Up! It's time for a break.
We left the cold up in Manhattanā¦ for the warm at Joey-HD, Carly, Lauralee, and John's home of art and music. After filling our bellies on potluck fare, we played an intimate set (is there such thing as a not intimate Slam Up show?) and felt so much love we did a Good Kind of Love encore. Then the one and only John Beacher treated us to some tunes.
Poopaquarium courtesy of Us and We Art Ā
Morning = the most shamazing tour brunch EVER. Vegan scramble, taters, eggs, banana choco chip pancakes, and frieeeends. We were so swept up in it all we almost were late to our feature at Dover Books!
#brunchselfie
One guy literally fell out of his chair during XXXmas seXXX so clearly our job was done.
Swimming to a town near you (thanks to Elizabeth Curry photography).
Got to take the Wombmate Roommates Shannen and Sean up on their housing offer! Unfortunately, we had to bounce the morning after for our feature at Bus Boys and Poets as part of Sparkle, a queer open mic! Since we were competing with the Super Bowl (and Katie Perry AND MISSY ELLIOT WUT), the crowd was small, but it was great seeing our friend Regie Chabico and Teaneck homie Sam Cruz!
Stayed with some sweet bike and builders (shout out to Alex and Arden!). The next day we got a little exercise in before going to La Ti Do, our performance home to listen to some show tunes and poetry.
Finally got to be DC tourists (fourth time's the charm)! Had a sweet brunch (thanksgiving quesadillas?) at Tryst, and we were thoroughly reality checked after a visit to the National Museum of the American Indian. Spent the evening enjoying wine and energy talks and homemade pizza with our DC fam Alex and Richie.
Apparently the architecture was inspired by "Native sensibilities".
The next morning we headed to the nearest mall to get the rest of Slam Upās hats embroidered by our friend Dee, which resulted in us having to spend the day camped out at a Target Starbucks (the worst^2), but now we have 10 sweet hats!!!
THIS GUY (Taylor) bought a hat and donated $50 to the cause. Whataguy.
The show was SLAMAZING. Comedy sketch group Sketchup opened up and set the stage for laughter (with a little orgasmic terrapin action and Jewish food references, we felt right at home). Thank you to Theta Pi Sigma the queerest frat on the east coast- and the coolest as far a we are concerned. CROSSED into the south to our Blacksburg home with Mama Sabs and Das Mew Mew.
Nothing like a day off making brownies and hiking.
We meet up with friends Katie and Dylan at their house for a show AND Martina and company drove down from Roanoke to party with us. It should be noted that the only reason we know Katie and Martina is because Emily scoped out their āalternativeā haircuts and determined they should know who we are. Moral of the story: sometimes judging a book by its cover, or a person by their hair-do, IS the right thing to do.
Saturday we scooted down to Boone, NC to visit LEAF (and now real world) friend Michelle (whose artwork is featured in Slam Upās sweet new collage zine!). Burrito dinner made to fuel our sweet set at Third Place.
Finding hiking necessary for balancing the city life.
After a sunny morning hiking in the Blue Ridge and some dope Indian buffet we made our way to Asheville to meet up with dancers Kate and Whitney, of Second Story dance company to shoot some footage for our āGoodbye Labelsā music video.Ā
River Arts District, meet Second Story Dances.Ā
Talk about Asheville magic- we stayed at the Landing, a creative hotspot. We had a loft over a warm communal kitchen, that was connected to a warehouse space PERFECT to, oh I donāt know, practice dancing and swinging on hoops. And when we got there (after an obvious obligatory stop at our stomping grounds Battle Cat Coffee Bar) there was a house concert going on thanks to Anna & Elizabeth. Check them out- if you donāt know what crankies are you should.
Hypnotizing babies.
After a day of rehearsal and scoping out shooting locations we were ready to film! Could not have gone more smoothly. We were pretty beat after a day in the cold and ready for a day off. Asheville seems to be a place of transition for Slam Up.
Wednesday we spent the day by ourselves processing the last year of our lives. Touring. Planning. Touring. Recording. Filming. Touring. Travel. Travel. Travel. Itās been a lot. After a day of nature, haircuts (RIP Jewfro), and yoga, and a tough conversation, Slam Up decided that it will be ending our tour in Albuquerque, New Mexico.
Point of view from the Palace of Cats. Place of dialogue and hair cutting aka Hair By Rae.
To all our friends who we will be missing this time around, we are sorry that 2015 wonāt involve Slam Up reunions. Doesnāt mean we donāt love you!
And we still got several cities we will be garlic bombing!
Stay tuned- we still got a month of adventures to let you know about.
peace/love/breath,
S^
Did you have a garlic bomb today?
