Note: This blog was written 36 hours ago, which can be an eternity in tour time.

I’m not exactly sure why it’s been impossible for me to write a second tour blog until now. Probably has something to do with the fact that I’m more or less braindead and have been for weeks. Maybe braindead is the wrong word. More like incapable of doing anything besides driving to shows and playing them. I’ve been thinking a lot, but so far I’ve been unable to work those thoughts into words. Even as I write this, I’m struggling against the urge to stop writing this. I guess I’m just tired.

It’s been a long tour. Justin and I came out of the gates with a lot of optimism and excitement, and while I wouldn’t exactly say that it’s been beaten out of us, I can definitely call this the most difficult tour of my career. Attendance has been solid, people have been supportive and generous, merch sales have been a-okay; on paper, it’s been a great tour. But the drives have been long, sleep has been a challenge, and my health has been questionable. I feel run down, and I feel like my brain and body need a serious vacation.

At the moment we’re in the home stretch, and this time around our home stretch involves a lot of time spent with our second family: hp-ohio. Honestly, if I was anywhere else I might be totally checked out by now, but as we passed into Ohio before our show at Monica’s house on November 11, I felt totally energized. Knowing I’d see many people who’ve treated me like family over the years lifted me out of fatigue and homesickness and all of a sudden I was ready for a party. Despite staying up a bit too late and plunging back into fatigue and — well, sickness — I was lifted back up by an amazing show in Ypsilanti MI and some quality time with Steph Anderson of Tonks and the Aurors. Have you met Steph? She’s the Bruce Springsteen of wizard rock. You can’t be in a bad mood when you’re hanging with The Boss. Last night we played one of our best shows of tour in Akron OH, and this time around the after-party was at Squib Girl’s house. SG and her husband (Squib Guy) are really like a second set of parents to me. Their generosity and love over the years has been a blessing and a source of comfort, energy, and enthusiasm. We capped the night with a round of beerball, a game that involves hitting cans of cheap beer with a baseball bat (some would call this alcohol abuse, I call it exercise!). When the Natty Ice ran out, we started hitting cans of Clamato. Probably the highlight of tour for me.

Today, we drive to Pittsburgh for a show at Freya and JP’s house. They are younger than me and so I can’t call them surrogate parents, but they have become two of my best friends in this community and so the honorary family leg of this tour continues for another day. I feel at home without actually being home, and I think that’s really what I’ve been needing the most.

Enough about me — I’ve learned a few things about the state of wizard rock on this tour, and I’d like to share them with you. First of all, it isn’t dead, dying, or even waning. For every person that has dropped out or lost interest, it seems that there’s somebody to replace them. I’ve seen a lot of new fans of wizard rock on this tour — at many shows it’s been a 50/50 ratio of new and old fans. We’ve had our best attendance ever for house parties (previously we averaged 15 to 20 people per show, and this time around the average is close to 30), and we’ve drawn huge crowds in places like Akron and Santa Monica. Last night’s show in Akron was the biggest success in terms of attendance — over 100 people in a small city in November? Honestly, that’s almost unheard of, and it makes me feel very optimistic about the future of this community.

Last weekend we played at Wrockstock, a wizard rock festival in Potosi MO. I always approach major events the same way: I start at Point A and I go where the wind takes me. I ended up in conversations with many different people over the course of three days, and I was surprised to learn that some people view Wrockstock, LeakyCon, and other conventions as the community’s last resort, as the only remaining way that HP fans are able to come together. I disagree. I’ll end up playing 130 shows this year, and each of these shows is a chance for HP fans to come together. Wizard rock shows aren’t just your everyday, run-of-the-mill concerts; they’re community reunions, friend meet-ups, and above all a chance for people to come together with a common purpose. And you can bet on this: so long as Justin and I are involved, there will be a wizard rock show near you in the near future.

Shows Played: 34
Money Raised For the HPA So Far: $792

This is a panel that I am thrilled to be at and speaks to some of the larger missions of the HPA.

Rebecca Davis:
“All that is necessary for the triumph of evil is that good men do nothing.” -Martin Luther King Jr.
Rebecca Davis Dance Company: An organization based on narrative stories of history, literatrue, and social issues.

Professional toruing dance troupe
Repertory:
Antigone, Helen Keller
Greed: The Tale of Enron, Vagn Gogh

Dance is a universal. Dance is a language that we can all speak. The real power of dance is that it creates a commonality between us that we can use for the power of social change. They premiered a new ballet called DARFUR which is based on the Devil Came On Horseback. The proceeds to their work DARFUR goes to Global Grassroots.

The idea behind creating a ballet is creating an emotional experience that people cannot forget. And when you go in there, you’ve experienced something truly emotional that will stay with you.

There is no “starving artist”

davis@rebecadavisdnace.com

Okay. Now my heart is racing. Now I am excited. This is not some dry policy talk. This is emotional and beautiful and potent

Susan Naum is talking about being a privileged American woman – and how her painting was an exploration of that. And in a moment of impulsivity she called the Save Darfur Coalition and wondered if they had any use for her paintings of Darfuri women. And they most certainly did.

I am overwhelmed by this presentation and I need to stop for a moment to just take this in.

The most important thing is really to multilateral-ize pressure. We need to find ways that other countries cannot break into Sudan. We need to go to our European allies.

While sanctions are an effective tool, they are not a silver bullet. The Obama administration needs to make the sanctions more effective by multilateral-izing them. We need more real, substantial progress happening on the ground. We need Congress to be working with the administration as much as possible.

Sudan has suffered consequences due to the global economic crisis. Part of the challenge is its public debt. This regime has accumulated debt. This regime that currently hold this debt is unrepentant and unreformed. Their is over 35 million dollars. This is the second biggest debt in Africa with the exceptioin of South Africa. Most of this debt has been accumulated by the Bashir regime – it is debt that was accumulated without the consent of its people and not used for the benefit of its people. There are clear indicators that this debt went to performing acts of human atrocities. A lot of this debt came within the last ten years. This was debt that accumulated in the late 1990’s.

The government of Sudan has been arrogant about solving their debt – because they can borrow money from other countries. But with the global economy crashing and with the crash of oil prices, they can’t go to the countries that they usually go to. So now they are going to the international community for debt relief. And they are hoping that the international community will give them money for debt relief. This gives us more leverage to say, “well if you want debt relief, it needs to be done on the following conditions….”

Find out more info at savedarfur.org/sudansdebt

Major Hurdles
1- The current government is barely in control of the conflict areas. It can neither contain nor take appropriate action.
2- Spillover effect; conflicts in neighboring Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, Somalia, Chad, and Sudan ease rebels’ access to arms
3-DR Congo is a very big country with a wide range of languages and culture, making local unity against militias very difficult
4- Operation Kimia II has made the situation worse
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Jerry Fowler: John Prendergast and others put together a door one, door two policy for Sudan. If Sudan acts good, then they get door one: rewards. Or what we call carrots. If Sudan acts bad, they get door two: punishments. Or in other words, sticks. Fowler, the Head of Save Darfur is the moderator.

Prendergast is the first speaker. As usual he is both intense, smart, and jovial. He talks about his being impressed with the Obama administration for creating not just Door One and Door Two – but within Door Two, the punishments there is a mystery door that could involve military action.

This government is responsible for the murder of countless peoples. They’ve used starvation as a weapon routinely. In the absence of sticks and carrots we’d be seeing numbers that are much much higher. International deployment, international engagement have to keep happening. We need to engage very very robustly. For that diplomacy to succeed, that diplomacy has to be backed with real leverage. The leverage does not grow on trees. It does not exist in the universe on its own. We have twenty years since 1989 of empirical data to understand what has made the National Ruling Party in Khartoum move to do the better thing.

This session is amazing but I am leaving to go to Congo 101 session.

Just got here to the conference. Got here later than I wanted to, to plenary session. Am writing as fast as possible. Excuse any inaccuracies.

Michelle Gavin, National Security Council; Senior Director for African Affairs
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I just arrived in DC where I’ll be speaking at the Pledge 2 Protect conference about how anti-genocide activists can create viral videos, and of course promoting the HPA.

I feel as though I have been slightly disconnected from the anti-genocide movement for a bit – in part because the HPA has been focusing on Leaky Con, Azkatraz, WWDD, Nine and Three Quarters, Magical Acts of Kindness, Wrock 4 Equality, etc. and in part because I feel that the anti-genocide movement has been waiting for Obama to release the Sudan review policy. The policy has been released so the movement now has more to organize around. Further, this movement has been working on building something much bigger and I am looking forward to be hearing with all these amazing activists in a historic time in dealing with one of humanity’s greatest problems in our collective history.

I’ll let you know how things go and will try to do some live blogging.

Many of you know this video that I produced a few years back:

A story just came out about Wal-Mart banning a couple from shopping from Wal-Mart for life, even though they didn’t actually shoplift. The most distinguishing thing about this couple is that they are gay. So some are wondering if Wal-Mart was bullying them for this reason.

, who are a gay couple) from shopping at his stores for not shop lifting.

The results appear to be in. We’ll be discussing marriage equality and Proposition One on livestream.com/pottercast tonight.

Nate Silver now isn’t so sure. This race is neck and neck and it may not look good. Please keep hope alive!