AFRICAN RUGS UK

This show was at a skating rink…the sound guy refused to give us any horns in the monitors. We played well and had fun, and people enjoyed all three bands. That said, I’m going to let Mike Rehfus of The Articles take over. He asked me if I wanted him to write a little something every once in a while, and I told him he certainly could, so he wrote a special piece about the tour thus far, entitled:


Renewing One’s Faith In Mankind Through Sleeping On Floors:
Random Truths About Touring
Mike Rehfus
The Articles

Last year The Articles logged something like a million road miles, the first half million all by our lonesomes. But it wasn’t until we hooked up with Skinnerbox that we discovered The First Law of Touring: Touring with other bands is more fun. It’s obvious, really. Seeing the same faces every night really takes the edge off the whole hunger/homelessness/exhaustion thing. But not since we went steady with The Skalars and Magadog for a few weeks last fall have we had the pleasure of the shared road.

It was worth the wait. The major brotherhood/sisterhood vibe of Mooonstomp 3 is electric. Easy Big Fella and the Robustos are positively two of the most wonderful bands we’ve had the chance to play with, let alone tour with, and so far it’s all made for some seriously good times. The kind of times that you start missing now because you know you’ll really miss them when they’re all over.

We’ve already instituted the ole’ touring tradition of the Van-to-Van Foreign Exchange Program. Riding to the next gig with another band helps break up the monotony of staring at your bandmates beautiful faces day after day, and is also a bold reminder that yes, Virginia, all touring bands are very, very dysfunctional.

But I digress.

So far most all of The Articles and The Robustos participated in the exchange program, however, I believe Brett Rakestraw (Robustos tenor sax) and I were the first over-nighters . After the Thursday, July 9 show at The Chameleon Club in Lancaster, PA I became an honorary Robusto, and Brett became an Article. Robusto bassist Jay Wallace enticed me into their sleek new 15 passenger Econoline with the promise of a swimming pool at the host’s house (you can make me do anything with the promise of a swimming pool). We rolled into the murky Pennsylvania night, the windows glazing and hazing with raindrops, the whole van caterwauling along to Easy Big Fella’s infectious “Eat at Joey’s”. Many of the songs EBF is playing this tour are on it, our favorites being “Road Alone,” “Big Guns,” “Rude Boy,” and of course, that special hidden track you’ll just have to buy the disk to find out about.

Our hosts for the evening lived in King of Prussia, PA; the parents of Doug Reilly, drummer for the very cool Space Ate Mafia. I’m not entirely sure they were expecting two bands. Nonetheless, his parents had prepared a gorgeous picnic spread in the dining room and cleared about an acre of floor space for the combined forces of Easy Big Fella and The Robustos (The Articles were being housed by old old friends back in Lancaster). Folks jawed and noshed into the wee hours, and in the morning we luxuriated in a full breakfast spread, over-due showers and laundry service. Our hosts opened their doors to perfectly strange strangers, and all they asked of us was a group photo on the lawn.

The mind-boggling generosity of the Reilly’s leads us to another law of touring: People are extraordinarily cool to touring musicians. It’s eerie. Night after night, a loving host always seems to come out of the woodwork. In Cleveland on July 5th, uber-fan John Socks swooped in to house The Articles. Darren in Pittsburgh brought home The Articles and The Robustos to his very tolerant mom’s house while EBF crashed at bassist Jeff’s Mother’s Cousin’s house (map that one out). In NYC, former Magadog bassist Gabe materialized to offer us 4000 square feet of crash space in Brooklyn. He couldn’t be found after the show, however, and several Articles woke up in the van underneath the Williamsburg Bridge outside Moon Man Noah Wildman’s pad, inside, his floor carpeted with Easy Big Fella and several random Articles. After the DIY Ska fest in Philly on July 12, The Articles crashed at drummer Dan Margulis’ sister’s house, and The Robustos went back to The Reillys. And after the Wheaton, MD show on July 14, all three bands (23 of us) stayed at my sister Patty’s house in Reston, VA. The cost of lodging at Patty’s, however, was a little higher. Patty demanded a photo of all three bands on the front lawn AND t-shirts.

So when this glorious Moonstomp 3 tour rumbles through your hometown, remember: even though The Articles, The Robustos, and Easy Big Fella represent the future of ska as you know it, and are all extraordinarily talented and charming (and dysfunctional), we’re still humble enough to accept outrageous acts of hospitality. You’ll only help to reconfirm our faith in mankind, renew our love-affair with the road, and make us all

The tree of life of the Philippines which isn't really a tree.

Coconut Palm (Cocos nucifera)
The coconut it not a nut but a fruit. The term coconut pertains to the fruit while the tree is called a coconut palm. It belongs to the Arecaceae palm family and can grow up to 6 meters tall. Called the "tree of life" in the Philippines, all parts of the palm has uses -nothing is wasted even at the end of its fruit bearing years. Listed below are the basic parts and its uses:

Coconut Husk & Shell
- this part of the coconut is soaked in water for up to 10 months, pounded, dried and de-fibered (now by machine). The husk, called "coir" can be used to make ropes. The coconut husk is also used in making doormats, twines, padding material for furniture seats and as padding for ornamental plants like orchids. In manufacturing, the coconut husk is used in making wall boards, filtration pads, carpet underlay, insulation materials and other products. While the dried shell can be used to make handicrafts like: piggy banks, cups, decors and even musical instruments like the Vietnamese Dan Gao and the Chinese Banhu and Yehu.

Coco-Lumber
- the trunk of old coconut trees that not as productive as before are cut down. The trunk brought to the sawmill and made into coco lumber. This soft wood is much cheaper that the standard "Tangile" lumber that is available in most lumber stores and affords may poor people build their homes at a much lesser cost.

Coconut Fruit
- the delicious meat of the coconut fruit has many uses, it can be eaten as-is, processed into snacks or sweets or used for cooking (grated & juiced for the coconut milk). While the coconut water is a health drink that not only quenches thirst but also cleanses the kidneys. The coconut water contains: anti-oxidants, sugars, proteins, fiber, vitamins and minerals. The meat is also converted into copra. Copra is either exported or processed domestically into cooking oil. Recent findings also show that coconut oil can be used as a substitute to diesel. Already, coconut oil blended with diesel is being used but new test reveals that coconut biodiesel can be used alone on diesel engines without any modification.

Coconut Leaves
- even the leaves are not allowed to go to waste. The spine of the leaves are usually used as firewood for cooking while the leaves itself is stripped and turned into brooms or "walis ting-ting".

Coconut Roots
- are used as toothbrush during the olden times. When pressed the juice of the roots is used as medicine for dysentery. The root coloring can also be used as a dye.