A Garden of Green Delights and A New CD...

The Greeks adorned their tombs with parsley wreaths for the plant was said to have sprung from the blood of the baby, Archemorus (literally, “forerunner of death”) who, left alone on a riverbank by his nursemaid, was dragged into the water by a dragon and devoured. There is an old superstition against transplanting parsley. The herb is dedicated to Persephone and to Charon, the winged demon who floats his ferry across the river Styx, giving passage to the dead if they bear a coin upon their tongue. Those who cannot afford his fee are doomed to wander the banks of the Styx forever. Each time a parsley plant be picked another penniless soul begins its aimless walk...

OUR NEW CD: “Last Days of Wonder” is available now! You can order it from us and read some reviews at www.handsomefamily.com or support your local indie record shop and buy it there. In brief, the new CD is a collection of love songs sung in airports, garbage dumps, drive-thru windows and shark-infested waters. The CD is about little miraculous moments in everyday life: a golf course shining in the rain, hanging lights bouncing in the breeze, pigeons singing from billboards...We hope you like it.

Parsley is often called, "The Devil's Oatmeal," but all those who discover why this name be used are found dead soon thereafter. Turner says, 'if parsley is thrown into fishponds it will heal the sick fishes therein.' The plain-leaved parsley bears a close resemblance to Fool's Parsley, a noxious weed infesting gardens and fields. Fool’s Parsley is also called Aethusa, derived from the Arab word 'ai' which means burning. Aethusa is said to soothe high fevers when such fevers are accompanied by raving, sleepiness, clenched thumbs, a great love for animals and an undying terror of darkness.

TOUR DATES...In celebration of our new CD we head off in a rented van again...

JUNE 24, ALBUQUERQUE, NM, The Launchpad with Fast Heart Mart and The Rivet Gang. We’ll have a five-piece band at this show!

TOUR DATES: USA, CANADA, JULY, 2006
with meat puppet Curt Kirkwood (http://www.curtkirkwood.com/). We’ll be a four-piece band for this tour with special guests, Stephen Dorocke (playing lap steel, violin and mandolin) and Jason Toth on drums.

7/10 - Minneapolis at the 400 Bar
7/11 - Milwaukee at Shank Hall
7/13 - Chicago at Abbey Pub
7/14 - Detroit at Magic Stick
7/15 - Toronto at the Horseshoe Tavern
7/18 - Boston at TT the Bears
7/20 - NYC at the Mercury Lounge
7/21 - Philadelphia at the World Café Live
7/22 - Arlington at the Iota
7/23 - Charlottesville at the Starr Hill Music Hall
7/24 - Carrboro at Local 506
7/26 - Atlanta at the Earl

ROUGH PLANS...More details soon...

EUROPE, SEPTEMBER and OCTOBER, 2006
Denmark, Sweden, Norway, United Kingdom

USA, NOVEMBER, 2006
We’ll be heading to the west coast of the USA in November. Details to come.

AUSTRALIA, FEBRUARY, 2007

SPRING, 2007: Spain, Ireland

Of our Garden Parsley (which he calls Parsele) Gerard says, 'It is delightful to the taste and agreeable to the stomache,' also 'the roots or seeds boiled in ale and drank, cast foorth strong venome or poyson.' Parsley may be fatal to small birds and a deadly poison to parrots, also very injurious to fowls, but hares and rabbits will come from a great distance to seek it. Sheep are also fond of it, and it is said to preserve them from foot rot, provided it be given in sufficient quantities. The uses of Parsley are many and are by no means restricted to the culinary sphere. The most familiar employment of the leaves in their fresh state is, of course, finely-chopped, as a flavoring to sauces, soups, stuffings, rissoles, minces, etc. The leaves are also dried and powdered as a flavoring.

MORE BITS AT YE OLDE MERCHANDISE SHOPPE...Besides the new cd we also have two new POSTERS for sale and our friend Greg Hansen has a whole batch of new AMPS for sale. To look at the new posters and/or the new amps go to: www.handsomefamily.com then click on ‘merchandise’. I shall have three new PAINTINGS to sell very soon (as soon as I finish framing them) so e-mail me if you want to be notified when they go up for sale (only if you haven’t e-mailed me already about paintings).

Medicinally, the two-year-old roots are employed, also the leaves, dried, for making Parsley Tea (often given to soldiers in the trenches suffering from dysentery). From the seeds may be extracted an oil called Apiol, which is of considerable curative value. It exercises a singular influence on the great nerve centres of the head and spine, and in large doses produces giddiness and deafness, fall of blood-pressure, slowing of the pulse and paralysis.  Parsley is chiefly used for its diuretic properties, a strong decoction of the root being of great service in passing kidney stones, as well as easing dropsy and jaundice. A decoction of bruised Parsley seeds was at one time employed against plague and often woven into flowered or feathered masks worn by wealthy merchants attending society balls in the late 1400’s. In France, a popular remedy for scrofulous swellings is green Parsley and snails, pounded in a mortar to an ointment, spread on linen and applied daily. Galen, “commendeth it for the falling sicknes.... The juice dropped into the ears with a little wine easeth all pain and brings a great forgetfulness of spirit in which even one’s own hands look unfamiliar.” Water of Parsley is given to children troubled with vapors. Not to be confused with Hungary Water, Rose Water, Monkey’s Paw Drops and/or The Wine of Infinite Sorrows.

From the salad bar of darkness I bid you adieu. Xo Rennie