Steve "Doug Hansden" here. Today began with Brian and I paying a visit to the fine folks at Action Music in Falls Church VA, our favorite new place to throw money at used/vintage instruments. There we picked up a still-new-in-the-box 1978 100 watt Marshall JMP head and a lovely black '77 Les Paul Standard that has already found its it way onto the record.

Brian finished up the main guitar tracking for the record around 6:00 P.M. and then it was Dave's turn at bat to continue his vocal tracking.

["Leave out the fucking," says producer Steve Hanksgen, in reference to Dave's foul mouth. Actually, it was a technical problem that tripped him up, not concern for sensitive ears. -RbM]

Roger has become the official photographer (as of last night) and will try to fit this in between trips outside to do some spray-painting.

Hey everyone - it's Dave. Hope you're all doing well. We're taking a quick break before taking a dinner break. Does that make sense? Anyway, I just wanted to point out how hilarious it is that Roger is outside right now spray painting punk slogans on the walls of local businesses as I write this. I remember in the early days of the Boston crew we used to do a lot of that. Once it was just Jon Anastas and I spraying away, when a couple of middle aged guys sitting in a car across the street yelled at us to stop. We flipped them off and kept right on painting. They guys turned out to be cops, who hauled us into their unmarked car post haste. I was scared shitless. They did the classic good cop bad cop thing, and I was so naive that I didn't realize it - I just thought one was really cool and nice, and the other was a true Nazi. In the end they let us go with a warning. Total wankers, those cops. Who wouldn't want to see DYS written in three-foot-high letters on an alley wall?

[Maybe they were angry that you used to penguin dance and beat up beer swillers. -RbM]

Colin here - That reminds me of when Roger and the B-Town crew (that's Bethesda for non-DC area folks) used to spray paint, etc. in high school. For some reason, I was never with Roger and the gang when they had run-ins with the law. That's lucky for me since I had already been in some trouble earlier on. The best story from those times is when the gang decided to put a USA Today newpaper box on the railroad tracks. Realizing that it might not have been the best idea to put the box on tracks, the group went back to remove box. Going back to the tracks, they were greeted by a not very happy officer. I'm glad I wasn't there so I didn't have to do community service.

I spent my Christmas vacation when I was fourteen doing community service at a goat farm in a small Massachusetts town (right before I moved back to DC and taught myself to play drums). You can imagine what a wonderful experience this was. I show up, its about 5 degrees, and there are five repeat juvenile offenders pulling out their knives and talking about what they had done to get community service. I remember one kid had stabbed his grandmother for $20… I sure was in for some fun, making cement park benches and shoveling goat shit for 5 days straight while the kids I was with drank cheap vodka mixed with orange juice. Yes, after that experience I made sure I stayed away from the man in blue to the best of my ability.

Peter called tonight to say hello to everyone. His mom is from Germany and he had just spoken to her last night. She just got back from there last night, where she was looking for a copy of the board game "Dag Nasti" for Peter. As it turns out, the game has been discontinued for some time. The German division of Milton Bradley has just bought out the company that makes the game. For those of you who live near a city where the Shackleton "Endurance" exhibit is coming, the new version will have the "Dag Nasti" board game they used on that expedition. Be sure to check it to check out when it comes to your town.

For those of you who don't know about Ernest Shackleton and the Endurance expedition, you should read his biography by Roland Huntford. It's an amazing story, and it puts life in perspective. He was a strong-willed guy who dealt with tremendous setbacks and challenges in a world vastly different from the one we live in today. If you've toured in a punk band, read about the Endurance and you will never feel that you really had it that bad ever again. Of course, for all of you lazy people out there, you can go see the Endurance movie that is in theaters.

The songs are coming along well today. I finished up lyrics for two songs. Guitars and vocals are coming along well. If you really want to read something interesting, Roger needs to tell the stories about blowing cars up back in the day. Good night. CS