January 23, 2003 - Santa Cruz, California

I I love this city! I always look forward to coming to this city. The first time I ever saw the Pacific Ocean was from Santa Cruz while on tour. There are great beaches, an amusement park on the boardwalk and a lot of cool shops here. They have a laundry mat that is a coffee house and internet place so you can check your email while doing laundry and drinking coffee or tea. I think that's a brilliant idea. This was the most free time that I've had out of any day yet on this tour. I had about 2 free hours before sound check - (sound check lasted all of 2 minutes!) and I had maybe 3 hours after. So I walked around and went window shopping the whole time. If you ever get the chance to visit Santa Cruz, you definitely should - did I mention that I just love this town?

There was this big music store next to the venue (Catalyst) and that's another brilliant idea because when you're on tour, you almost always need something in every city. So having one right next to the venue is really cool. The stage was REALLY high up - about 6 feet high. Ted Atwell, our lighting director said their lighting rig was real cool. John Young's alter ego "Gus" showed up to help me with the opening skit but we didn't do it because the stage wasn't wide enough. But I did get a really good chuckle when I sent him on the bus. Joseph has been doing two songs that are going over really good. One is called "Testosterone" and the other is a song for his Daddy. The show lasted every bit of 3 hours so everybody's real tired. We don't have an overnight stay, so we're jumping on the bus for a long bus ride to Los Angeles.

Goodnight, y'all..

peace,

anthony