May 14th and 15th

“Man, girls really love that Matthew Mcconaughey. He kicked ass in that movie.”

– Tyson referring to Brad Pitt’s role in “Fight Club.”

Hey there again, friends! We’ve made it safe and sound to Dease Lake!

Now you might be wondering what’s up here, or if you’ve ever been here before. It’s easy to miss, kind of a pit-stop on your way further north, but if you have, you may have stayed at the “Arctic Divide Lodge” (sounds Game of Thrones-ish, doesn’t it?), experienced some intense snowfall in the middle of May, a friendly drifter on a bicycle named Ryan who has a card that grants him free residence in any parcel of land owned by BC Parks, “Rumours Cafe” which serves up some of the finest pizza pies and internet connections this way north. You also may have noticed the “Tanzilla Pub,” a gentle wood-stove heated gem that feels more like a basement living room than a bar, with the couches and caribou trophies on the wall. Yes, a fine time, indeed.

This time around, the Jobfest 2012 site was held in the local hockey arena within the Dease Lake Rec Center, or as we called it all day, “The Giant’s Ice Box.” It was eerily cold, and dusty and immensely cavernous, but as the motto is in Acres of Lions and the Jobfest crew (other than ‘YOLO’) and coined by our tour manager Daisy Dukes, “We’ll make it work. We have no choice.”

And it sounded great. Our sound tech Brian did a wonderful job capturing the wailing, untamed beast that is any rock band’s, and particularly ours, sound in a catacomb with a small PA system. We had a great big group of kids from the area, as well as Iskut, come down for the entire evening, inquiring about our musical instruments all day long, wanting lessons from all of us. If only we had the time! We even met a kid named Jason, who is apparently a genius when it comes to the Saxophone. Keep playing bud! Become the next Kenny G, if not for yourself, than for us?

Thanks for coming out everybody. We are off to Hazelton, to stay at Robber’s Roost, party central of the 3 Hazeltons. We’re getting ready for one hell of a game tonight. The suspense is killing us.

– jeff, and those other vagrants in Acres