Day one of the Week Of Shows involved driving to Tuscaloosa. Ah, T-town, my spouse's former stomping grounds, but never a city that I quite felt at home in.

If I've got any sense, I'll remember to reset the trip odometer tonight before I head out. It's going to be one of those [insert the word here for a three-day span in which you roadtrip to three different cities to see three different concerts and beg some of your west coast friends to stay up an hour later than usual so that you can use your obnoxious amount of free night and weekend cell phone minutes to talk to them so that you won't fall asleep on the way home from each show, which you wouldn't dream of missing].

Yeah. One of those.

The lead singer, Cara, likes to photograph her audience. I've learned to avoid the feedback loop by picking a nice side spot at the bar. Here, I'm just another shadowy face, a friend who hangs out with Colter between sets once a year, contributing surprisingly good gig photos for the band's website.

Five-thirty.  The needle of my speedometer was arguing with the signs on the side of the road; the needle argued sixty and the sign argued fifty-five.  The needle won, as it usually does.

Newsletter just came out - Steely Dan will be touring the States this summer. It has been approximately four minutes since I last breathed. I will resume breathing shortly.

Currently, the closest dates to AL are in Chicago and Washington DC, but the DC dates conflict with this year's dragon*con. More dates are supposed to be booked later, and I would think that an Atlanta, Nashville, or New Orleans date would be amongst them.

As I crossed the state line I realized I'd missed the grand turning-out of the lights, the unknown but somehow pre-determined moment when all of the good citizens of Alabama realize it's time to go to bed, and turn out all the lights. There hadn't been many lights in Tennessee, but in comparison, Alabama was utterly dark. I took the state line exit onto the back roads, and did not see another car (or an open gas station) for the rest of the drive.