PH Balance. Do we need to tell you which of them is Pam? Read Splendid's review of pH Balance, visit the pH Balance website, or buy pH Balance stuff at Insound.

What is your least favorite article of clothing, and why?

Pam Howe: Chaps. Too much leather. Hot.

What's so funny about peace, love and understanding?

Pam Howe: That if you reverse their order you have the answer. Simplicity is funny.

What three essential accessories would be in your dream tour van/vehicle?

Pam Howe: A masseuse, an ascended master and a time machine.

Name three activities that would be more interesting/entertaining/enjoyable with the addition of monkeys.

Pam Howe: Love, peace and understanding... "Don't you know this much is true. Love and understanding is in everything you do..."

What's the best venue you've ever played? What's the worst? Why?

Pam Howe: The Beacon Theatre in New York is the best because it is like the Fox Theatre in the ATL...'nuff said. The worst is the Beacon Theatre in New York because the roadies for the band we were opening for were downright rude.

Describe your dream vacation.

Pam Howe: Portugal for three months while it's winter in the ATL. Silence, horizons and sporadic visits from friends.

What activities (or whatever) are currently illegal, but in your opinion shouldn't be? What activities are legal, but should be outlawed?

Pam Howe: In highly evolved societies there are no laws of right and wrong. Beings govern themselves according to consciousness and self-respect. In other words: I'm for evolution.

Who should be the leader of the free world?

Pam Howe: Everyone should claim they are leader and then with all this empowerment we could take turns. In other words: Muhammad Ali.

You have an eight-hour trip to your next gig. You're not driving, and you're not sleepy. You have the option of reading a book, listening to an album, watching a movie or playing a video game. Which do you choose? And what is the book/album/movie/game in question?

Pam Howe: I choose the book (let's pretend I don't get car sick while reading) and I'm reading The Far Pavilions.

What was the best live rock show you ever saw?

Pam Howe: Smithwick Machine at the Star Bar, October 2000.

You're in an elevator with Mariah Carey, Marilyn Manson and George W. Bush. The elevator becomes trapped between floors. What happens next?

Pam Howe: Mariah and George try to buy their souls back from Marilyn, who confesses he was only the go-between.

You've been given the opportunity to play -- all expenses paid -- in a foreign country that bands don't normally get to visit. You get to pick the country. Where do you go?

Pam Howe: Tibet, and we smuggle in the Dalai Lama.

Why are frogs amusing?

Pam Howe: They have to be thinking of something.

Your favorite broken-up band is going to reunite for one show only at the venue of your choice (yes, we know this is implausible. Who cares?). Who's the band, and what's the venue?

Pam Howe: The Jam. A make-shift stage in my back yard. Capacity: 20.

Is the Internet destroying the English language?

Pam Howe: Is there a virus someone didn't tell me about?

Several US states have adopted "three strikes and you're out" laws, which basically mean that after you're found guilty of three felonies, you're imprisoned for life. How do you feel about that? Is it effective lawmaking, or needlessly harsh?

Pam Howe: It is ineffective and harsh to dispose of people.

Pam Howe puts the pH in Atlanta-based pH Balance. Since she last answered our Pointless Questions, she has released a solo disc, The Sky is Me, and Fluent, described as "a limited edition, hand-styled, heart-compiled, effortless soul-scrubbation. southernsoulhip/hop speakin' tokyo through truth filters that magnify, clarify, simplify, and exemplify...fly. 'this is the new language and phbalance is fluent' example: hoochie translation: letin' it all hang out...every last bit of it." Yeah. We don't write this stuff.