The Bus in front of the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame

DSC_0016, originally uploaded by Rock the Vote 2008.

Thursday, September 25th, 2008

Voters registered yesterday - 16,810
Miles travelled today - 32

6:45 pm - Somewhere in Cleveland - You travel with a group for a while and you learn things about them — sometimes even people you were already close to. My sister is on this tour and I have learned that somehow, perhaps by means of a small detonator in the direct geometric center of her duffle bag, she manages to spread her belongings around our hotel rooms in a pattern that can only be described as post-explosive.

Our current hotel room is splattered with various garments and I have found — along with the expected assortment of pants, blouses, skirts, sweatpants, shorts, socks, undergarments, T-shirts, and sweaters — several electric cables, a hairdryer, deodorant, a comb, two pens, a short novel, and various shoes. And this is just the surface layer. It is possible, nay likely, that underneath there are untold treasures. For all I know, a brief excavation could yield fossils of undiscovered dinosaurs. There is no knowing of course, since before such a dig can take place we are forced to leave the cluttered sanctuary of our hotel room and do actual work.

Today’s actual work involved Santogold and Low vs. Diamond at a concert at Case Western Reserve University in Cleveland, Ohio. Contrary to the name, Case Western is in eastern Ohio, but — when founded in 1826 — was in the western reserve of Connecticut. Of course, since then Connecticut has become an utterly meaningless player in our national elections while Ohio has become pretty much the winner-takes-all state for presidential elections.

Today’s actual work also involved a quick stop for a photo at the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame here in Cleveland and a long late night ahead of us at the House of Blues. The bands who played this afternoon for free are playing for a slightly older, wealthier demographic for $30 and we will be spending a good long portion of the night seeking out anyone unregistered within that demographic.

Tomorrow finds us at Kent State with Hawthorne Heights and also finds my sister with the near impossible task of repacking her preposterous mess.

—Nick Brown