.n/a.

This-

2010-12-20T09:16:00.001-08:00

Month 2

2010-06-10T13:32:00.000-07:00

I'm on my second consecutive LCD Soundsystem tour, this time in the US of A, and it is awesome. Every show has been sold out, except for Dallas, but I'm pretty sure Texans don't dance anyway. Other than that bit of news, nothing exciting has happened, I mean a lot of exciting stuff HAS happened, but it doesn't seem exciting to me to write about it. It's the same thing, wake up, unload truck, setup things, eat, tear down things, load up truck, drink beer, go to sleep, repeat, EVERYDAY. So here are some pictures of the creepy room I lived in in Brooklyn and a bunch of other random photos.

Delicious suckling pigs.

Pig leg

Dave Grohl's drums

Synthesizer madness
Some of our rider beer, the rest is in the other room.
This is where Princess Diana died. At least that's what the driver told me.

This is how Mexicans look to British people.

Spain

2010-04-20T02:36:00.000-07:00

I am currently in Spain where I can only understand a quarter of what is said or written, I can't figure out the tv so I'm updating this thing instead. Originally I was supposed to be in Dublin, Ireland today, but there is damn volcano erupting in the ocean which has caused our original travel plans to be changed. I spent the weekend at the Coachella Festival in, where else, Coachella, CA, That's a whole different story, we then then drove to a Los Angeles hotel, I got about 1 hour of sleep, got in a taxi to the airport, flew to Atlanta by myself, met up with six others, we flew to Madrid Spain, and now I'm here, with a grand total of 3 hours of sleep under my belt in the past 48 hours, but it's 11:40am, what the hell should I do? My room is kind of cool, except that they crammed three twin beds into it, all just for me. I'll probably have my sleeping bed, my eating bed and my smoking bed, I haven't made up my mind yet which one will be which. Tomorrow morning at 11:30am we get on board a 14 berth (those are bunks) bus and drive to London, making it there by thursday afternoon. It's going to be a marathon driving session, so we have hired two drivers to switch off and keep the whole operation legal. Our first show of the tour now will be friday.

I'm Baaaccckk

2010-02-13T17:32:00.000-08:00

Last I checked it has been about two years since I updated this thing, and it may very well be another two years until another update, so I'll try to make this a good one. In this two year span I got very burned out on writing about dumb people and my job, but I've found a new appreciation for those types of people, and, of course, my job. In the past year I somehow got myself a job with Death Cab For Cutie, which has taken me around the US and Canada, and now I have somehow gotten myself employed by the lovely LCD Soundsystem from New York City. I also started a PHOTOBUCKET page with lots of pictures, most of them are kind of pointless and I decided not to add any sort of comments, so they are really pointless, unless you have a creative mind and can make up stories about what was going on while I took the picture.

For the time being, go look at some pictures, they give a tiny bit of insight on what has been happening with me, and then look at the tourdates I will have listed after this paragraph and imagine what sorts of great photos will come from them. I wish I could post more dates, but I'm not allowed to let the cat out of the bag yet, but just wait, it will be worth it.

w/ LCD Soundsystem

4/16/10
Indio, CA@ Coachella Festival w/ Jay Z & Them Crooked Vultures, and 6000 other bands

4/20/10
Dublin, Ireland@ Tripod

4/21/10
Dublin, Ireland@ Tripod

4/23/10
London, UK@ Brixton Academy

4/24/10
London, UK@ Brixton Academy

4/26/10
Birmingham, UK@ Academy

4/27/10
Leeds, UK@ Academy

4/28/10
Glasgow, UK@ Barrowlands

4/29/10
Glasgow, UK@ Barrowlands

5/01/10
Manchester, UK@ Academy

5/02/10
Bristol, UK@ Academy

5/04/10
Amsterdam, Netherlands@ Paradiso

5/05/10
Brussels, Belgium@ Ancienne Belgique

5/06/10
Berlin, Germany@ WMF

5/08/10
Paris, France@ Bataclan

6/11/10
Manchester, TN@ Bonnaroo Festival w/ DMB, Kings of Leon & Stevie Wonder +plus 16 dosen other bands

7/17/10
Chicago, IL@ Pitchfork Music Festival

9/12/10
Isle of Wight, UK@ Bestival

more to come, all year long.

2008-05-21T00:52:00.000-07:00

For The Time Being...

2008-01-21T18:04:00.000-08:00

go here to read what I have to say. Or if you're really bored, blogger has now made it possible to view my blog in arabic, it might be fun.

Ohio.

2007-11-23T12:12:00.000-08:00

Baltimore, MD

2007-11-21T09:36:00.000-08:00

Norfolk, VA

2007-11-18T22:57:00.000-08:00

2007-11-17T23:28:00.000-08:00

so I bought an iPhone and its the best thing ever. More to come tomorrow. Fo reals

Nooo Beans

2007-11-14T14:05:00.000-08:00

With all the exciting stuff going on on this tour I would have thought I'd have more to write about, but all I really have to say is....

Coyote Ugly is the worst bar ever created. Ever. Oh, and if my moustache was dark instead of blond I would have one killer 'stach.

ready!

2007-10-13T23:29:00.000-07:00

The day has finally come. I get to leave tomorrow, and I can't wait. I've made though a month and a half of nothingness. It seemed like it was all a horrible dream and I really was destined to walk the streets of Chico/ Nashville, broke as hell. But it's not. My life for the past six weeks has been like this picture,the bird is the tour and I'm the cat. Does that make any sense?

*just so everyone knows, my eyes still look normal.

2007-10-10T23:54:00.000-07:00

I guess he couldn't hang, or maybe he got a clue.

Morraly Shady.

2007-10-10T17:43:00.000-07:00

I would like to give this kid two big thumbs up. He really hit home with me here, I have finally seen the light. No, not really. I've had a hard time stomaching these kinds of people for years, even when they were paying for my rent and *gasp* my cigarettes. I'm glad nowadays I don't have to use confused, christian people's money to purchase my morally illegal vices. Oh wait, I guess they still pay my bills. Just please pray that this kid gets a clue and maybe lives life a little before calling out people. I was going to post his myspace here, he pissed me off that much, but that might a little too much. If it bothered you that much it takes about 5 seconds of searching.

Most Covert.

2007-10-08T00:25:00.000-07:00

Lately I've been suhttp://www.blogger.com/img/gl.link.gifbjected to so many entertaining premium television shows that I'm completely immersed in (entourage, weeds, californication) and I would highly suggest you watch all of them. But I have been having this urge to reach back to my past and take in some shows of yesteryear. That's where this little gem from our northern, little sister country comes in. I thought I made this thing up in my head, I couldn't find any episodes for the longest time and then I finally hit gold and found a shitload of them. The dynamite show I'm jocking here is My Secret Identity, staring none other than Jerry O' Connell. He plays a superhero, of sorts, he can fly with aerosol cans and run really fast, other than that he's just a less a chubby version of his earlier role, but it's still great. There's also a crazy scientist that helps the young Andrew Clements (Jerry O' Connell) with his "super powers". In my opinion the scientist is a huge super power cock block, he never lets little Andrew shine, like in episode 18 where Andrew can't take credit for his good deeds.
And now here's episode 18. Take a look for yourself and get hooked, and if you're a closet fan of the show, enjoy. If anything, the theme song is pretty bitchin.

Online Videos by Veoh.com

Online Videos by Veoh.com

2007-10-06T17:17:00.000-07:00

Someone has more time on their hands than me, but they actually do slightly interesting things.

For Your Viewing Pleasure

2007-10-05T14:32:00.000-07:00

For your viewing pleasure.
My Roommate Is a Dick

It's worth a look, and it may hit home with some of you. I should probably be on this as I have become "that guy on the couch" as of late.

Randy Newman

2007-09-28T23:55:00.000-07:00

I had this urge to listen to Randy Newman the other night. I don't know why, so I acquired a few of his records, and they're not half bad. I don't think my parents ever listened to him, but his songs have this thing about them that makes me really comfortable, like they were used to put me in a good mood when I was a cranky little child, but I'm almost positive his music would never been heard in my parent's house.
Take a listen for yourself, he's got a myspace, crazy huh? He's got an interesting way of writing, his vocal delivery is almost comical, especially with so many tv show impressions in the back of my mind.
And on another note, not a sweet sounding as a Randy Newman song, but still great, what the Kerney, you've gone the way of my brother's live journal. And by that I mean I'm tired of you not updating your shit. Computer or not, get it done. I know you have some important thoughts to share with everyone. Thanks in advance.

Ultra Cred....sort of

2007-09-27T17:05:00.000-07:00

With all this free time on my hands I've been researching some American pop culture. This time around I narrowed my focus to tv shows I watched as a teenager, mainly Nickelodeon's Salute Your Shorts. I came across this tidbit of information that kind of blew my mind, in a small way. Remember Bobby Budnick, the extremely red- haired rocker type kid, well he actually played in a band. Not just just any band, but one with a helluva shitty name and some actual legit players ie; Steve Vai and Brooks Wackerman. Kind of not what I expected to find. Take a look for yourself and here, it's interesting for a least two minutes, about the time it took me to write this, and now I'm over it and can put this little gem of knowledge away until I need to impress someone by busting out the name Bad4Good.

HuMMM.

2007-09-23T12:31:00.000-07:00

HUM on a Cadillac commercial, I never thought I'd see the day.
Wicked Shit

2007-09-22T21:28:00.000-07:00

After looking online at other people's blogs all day I figured it was time I updated mine.
Currently I'm back in Nashville, and to be honest, I'm not all that stoked on being back. It could be because of my hellish trip here (missed my flight, airline lost my bags, ipod died, Arabian prince getting women all hot and bothered in front of me) or it could be my dead car battery, my car key being lost by someone or it just could be that I'm not as adjusted to this place as I originally thought. On the plus side, I have my own kitchen again so I'm able to cook for myself once again. I wish time would go by faster and tour would start in a couple of days.
Superdrag will be reuniting for a few shows, and I get to see one of them, should be great.
Bruce Sprinsteen's new album is pretty good, except it's called MAGIC. what the hell is that about? If I went off album titles alone, which I do on occasion, I would never have listened to this one.

2007-09-16T04:18:00.000-07:00

hey, you know what's sweet, getting robbed at gun point while you're walking home, IN YOUR OWN FUCKING TOWN..Awesome, screw this place. If I ever see those guys again, I think might, honestly, actually, murder them. Now that I think about it their guns probably weren't real, but what is a cell phone and eighty bucks really worth, my life? Not really. so until I find my phone again or get a new one, just don't try and call me, because some asshole might pick up and act like me. At least I got to keep my wallet and Id, nice fucking dude's, I'm more pissed off than I can even explain, so that's why I'm writing right now, because I sure as hell can't call anyone. FUCK.

2007-09-15T02:38:00.000-07:00

Tv.

2007-09-11T01:41:00.000-07:00

With all this time off I should be writing a whole helluva lot more, but my brain has seemed to shut off due to the little amount of thinking it's been doing, or not doing. I have been taking in a lot of knowledge from my new best friend, TV. We hang out a lot, stay up late at night together and just comfort each other. It's pretty nice. One thing TV has taught me is how to cook lots of things, via the Food Channel. Another thing I learned is obesity is "the number one, secondary case of death in the United States", courtesy of this man.

It kind of sounds like an excuse to me, but maybe he was born like that. TV is getting annoyed that I'm not spending enough time paying attention to it.

Bacon.

2007-09-04T19:23:00.000-07:00

From Wikipedia-

Bacon bits are condiments frequently used to enhance the flavor of salad or potatoes. They are a common element of salad bars. Bacon bits are made of either small, crumbled pieces of cooked bacon or, more frequently, textured vegetable protein artificially flavored to resemble bacon. They are most often salted. Popular brands include Hormel Bacon Toppings, Oscar Meyer Real Bacon Bits and Pieces, and Betty Crocker Bac-Os.

Hope this helps you out Daniel.

Greenville, SC

2007-09-02T10:34:00.000-07:00

Sitting in tiny- ass airports is not that much fun. I've been here for about two hours now, just waiting for my 20 minute flight to another airport where I will, again, be waiting for another two hours. At least there are old people in wheelchairs about to race each other, so that's passing the time.

Hey, what?

2007-08-30T20:17:00.001-07:00

I was all excited when my younger brother gave me his old computer, I thought to myself 'now I can blog all the damn time, sweet.' But it's been a week and I have been at a complete loss as what to write about. Something that should be exciting to write about was warped tour, I spent a month on that thing and should have some great stories, which I have, but they are lost in my head at this point in time. At this very moment in time I'm sitting a wonderful Super 8 in Dallas, TX. In all actuality this place pretty much sucks, I would rather be anywhere else right now, which I will be soon. It's weird, I'm at a complete loss for anything interesting to say. Maybe it's because I ate too much pizza, maybe it's because I've become extremely lazy the past few days and can't think about anything but food and tv, that's probably it. That should change soon. If not I'll just keep posting boring- ass blogs and I'll get super fat.

Warped Tour makes me.....

2007-07-31T16:06:00.000-07:00

I don't have much time here, so I'll be brief, I really need to get my own computer, sneaking onto people's busses and suing their computers is going to get me beat up, i don't even know who's this is. But my main focus right now is how much I sweat, I never thoght it would happen, but now I'm a sopping wet mess every day about 9:30am. Not good. But lifting things is making me strong as hell, I think I'll start competing in some lifting contests one of these days, right after the dude from the Throwdown gives me some being tough tips. More posts in the future.

the search.

2007-06-10T21:26:00.000-07:00

Searching your body for ticks is kind of beat. I would recommend doing it if you've been exposed to tick infested areas, but it still sucks. I found one on my leg, it was a wee baby tick, but now I keep thinking there are some buried in my hair, currently burrowing into my scalp. But it was all worth it, we're going to have the sweetest trail to river behind my house, and machetes are pretty much one of the most masculating (which is not a word) things to use, ever. I'm serious, buy one, they're five dollars, and cut some shit down.

Sighting of the Week

2007-06-07T10:29:00.000-07:00

I met Young Buck two nights ago, he was a nice guy, actually talked to me when all he had to do was speed past me, but the best part, he was coming in to buy software from Jacob Underwood (ex- O-Town). What a pair.

2007-05-30T09:57:00.000-07:00

So I had an epiphany last night, I hate busing tables. It was the most unbearable thing I've ever had to do, so I quit. Kind of. I actually just kind of left during work and went home. No one ever called to see where I was, they probably just figured I had realized how shitty of a job I had and called it day. Things I will miss from that job; free food. I thought for a while about what else there was but that's it. Now it's time to look for another job that I want to go to.

2007-05-21T23:05:00.000-07:00

So at the insistence of literally ones of people I am posting a new blog. I've been thinking about doing it lately but I've been super busy trying not to fall asleep at my jobs, yes plural, so that takes up a lot of my free time. It's not like stamping receipts at guitar center isn't cool and exciting (it's not) or busing tables for hicks that travel to the big city from _____________(insert backwoods, hick town) isn't thrilling (it's not). I'd rather be doing something that I enjoy, which I hope comes my way soon. I feel sometimes like I've taken a huge step forward with my life, but then it sometimes feels like I stumbled backwards just a tad. It's not that I miss my hometown, I just miss the people, so I think they should move out here, seriously. I do get my fair share of excitement at my jobs, I got to watch Tim McGraw perform, he was pretty tight to watch, and then there was Bucky Covington of American Idol fame, he sucked huge balls, but the fans that come out of the woodwork for this show were amazing. It's like they'd never seen a person in concert before or a colored light, or person for that matter. They were completely blown away by their VIP seats and pictures of horses all around them. Oh yeah, they all thought I knew Bucky and that I should tell him it's so and so's birthday so he should play longer. How can so many North Carolineans have the same birthday? It's crazy. At GC I get to be belittled by my coworkers and customers, all in one shift. I figures the customers would appreciate me considering I'm the only one not trying to push a strat pack or an extra set of strings on them, guess not. But it's not all really that bad, it's just fun to write about it. Colombo's on tv now, so I'm going to watch the shit out of that now, that show is my new jam, seriously.

People

2007-05-01T15:31:00.000-07:00

So here's a little story for ya'll (I learned that out here). Some friends and I were out at a bar/ restaurant last week,it was a monday night and things weren't really that crazy around town, except for the bar we were at. Not so much even the whole bar, just at the actual bar. Some rowdy college type girls decided it was a great night for tequilia body shots. It was funny to watch from a distance, someone laying on the bar with their shirt up having her friend lick salt off her and eating limes out of her mouth. We all sat back and laughed, nothing out too out of the ordinary, then the cops show up. And totally block our view. They weren't there to lay down the hurt, they seemed (one in particular) to be there to lay down some pipe. This one cop got pretty involved, not taking shots, but gawking over these girls. He was so close to them it was ridiculous. And now the clencher. At one point he leans over and kisses the girl on the bar. Not a peck but a full on open mouthed kiss. I thought it was weird, my friends did too, but I guess they do things a little bit differently out here. Now you may think that is obsurd, but then there's this.

#2: hey Peter can u talk to TP guys about me getting them a machine to try out for the rest of the Paramore tour?
8:10 PM
Peter Sellers: do you make custom ones?
#2: I will flying out to Bamboozle this weekend. If their open to the idea I can get the band set-up with a machine starting at Bamboozle to be used for the 10 remaining dates of the Paramore / Almost tour.
#2: I'm so confident it will increase the bands sales that you'll never play a show without it.
#2: what do u mean by custom?
#2: Nurit 8000 GPRS.jpg
#2: this is what they would be getting
Peter Sellers: we really dont get any requests for credit cards though
8:15 PM
Peter Sellers: if we can have it for the rest of the tour for free, then we will keep it
#2: do you honestly expect kids to ask when only 2% of bands accept credit/debit cards
Peter Sellers: if it works out
Peter Sellers: yeah i do, because the one or two kids per show that only have a card do ask
Peter Sellers: but theres usually an atm in the venue
#2: all I know is all my bands with machines are selling more then the ones without
#2: If at the end of the tour it's something that you still feel hasen't increased sales then you can just mail it back to me & only pay the :
$100 Application Fee
$10 Service Fee
#2: Cutie Is What We Aim For has a machine & so do most all the other FBR bands. 9 out of 10 kids 16 or older have a debit and/or credit card
Peter Sellers: they dont want to pay anything. and they want you to pay for shipping
Peter Sellers: cute didnt use it on tour with tp
Peter Sellers: well he had it, but didnt really use it
#2: they got right after
Peter Sellers: they had a credit card machine when they were on tour with this providence last month
#2: I've never offered anyone this offer before
8:20 PM
#2: if they want to try what I'm offering then the offer stands
#2: the only person that will be missing out is them if they don't want to try. they have nothing to lose becasue they'll do at least $500 on the machine at Bamboozle
Peter Sellers: no they wont
#2: kids spend more by making impulse decisions with credit/debit cards at a bands table vs. going to the ATM to take $20 out to spend on any of the bands on the tour. I would only say half the venues if that have ATMs
Peter Sellers: well im in the venues every day and i see the atm's. were playing big venues, and they have atm's about 80% of the time
8:25 PM
#2: then tell me why bands like Bayside & Straylight Run r doing $600 a night on their machines playing the same size venues but the other bands their touring with aren't
#2: that's an extra $18,000 a month
Peter Sellers: how many of the kids are using their cards instead of cash though?
Peter Sellers: david just invented his own credit card machine anyway. the davinator3000
#2: The average transaction size of all my bands on their machines is $32 in comparison the $10 a kid would spend with cash.
#2: all the bands say kids spend more when they use their cards
#2: it helped NOG out in a big way & that was 4 yrs ago
Peter Sellers: they hardly had for any time at all
#2: actually they had it for a yr
#2: anyways the offer is there. there is no one that would loan a $1000 machine to a band to try out without a contract
Peter Sellers: well we have the davinator3000 anyway
Peter Sellers: thanks though
Peter Sellers: see ya
You left the chat by logging out or being disconnected.

Some of you may know who the second party is, and if you do this probably makes you laugh. It really just fuels me and my dislike for the unmentioned second party.

...And I'll Be There

2007-04-29T19:45:00.000-07:00

To the few Chicoians that read this, spread the word and brace your fat asses because I will be making the first of my few trips back to Chico for a few days. Mark your calendars, May 12th- May 15th. I might be in Sac for a day but one of those days will spent in Chico and in Chico only. So come say hi or something. And the best part is I got really cheap plane tickets, seriously cheap.

What The Falk?

2007-04-23T09:53:00.000-07:00

Columbo is on some shit. If he's on the case you're screwed. CSI better take notes form this guy, you don't need science, just a dirty cigar and a trenchcoat.

Ranju

2007-04-17T10:26:00.000-07:00

One of the best things in my life right now is.... VH1 Classic. It's amazing. Where can I see Damn Yankees in concert or watch back to back Nelson, Hall & Oates, Police, Will Smith, LL Cool J and Foreigner videos? Nowhere except on VH1 Classic. I also watch the history channel quite a bit. But something that threw me off was the "This day in History" segment yesterday. They never have those but yesterday in some year before there was hippies, lsd was invented, who gives a shit. Way to ruin a nice day of Modern Marvels and talk about acid and show hippies walking around tripping out. Well, I thought it was lame. I also have officially gotten myself lost three times now, and I mean driving in the country not having a clue which spotted brown cow was the one I was supposd to remember from the last time I was in the area. The worst of the three I eneded up about 18 miles outside of the city, I've been looking at maps for the past few days just trying to figure out how that happened. With the 18 milies I was out of town, plus the 25 I was away from my house to start with, that is quite a distance, I don't even think I was in the general Nashville area.

Get a free messenger bag for joining the Army

2007-04-10T21:20:00.000-07:00

SO it's been a while, which is why this is a great time for a post. I don't know where to start. I'm extremely bored right now, Easter is a ridiculous holiday, it throws off everyone's work schedules which in turn throws off me getting hired at a job, get back into town fuckers. So to fill my spare time I've been watching Entourage, an unhealthy amount, like all of it. I finished watching the most recent one earlier today and now I'm having withdrawals, it's so damn good. Now I have to mourn the loss of Johnny Cash's house, which seems like the thing to do out here, even though it was already ruined when Barry Gibb bought it last year. The house probably couldn't handle what would soon be living in it's walls, so it decided to end it's existence as a house and become a hindrance to someone in the form of allergies. It's strange, I haven't seen anything that interesting since I've been out here, but hopefully once I leave the house that will change. Now to my actual reason for this post. I know I don't live in Chico anymore, but this has been bothering me since before I left, so here it is. What the hell is the matter with the News and Review? I mean seriously. This is strange for me to write about for a few reasons. One being that Daniel and Josh are the only two people that will read this for a while, and I've already gone into detail about this with them and the second reason is I know some great people at the CN&R. But come on, get your heads out of your asses and actually look around the town you live in and find out what is actually going on there. I know that the Yule Logs are a great band and all, but they're only around once a year, why not nominate the Greg Scott Band for something. There are plenty of other rock bands in town that deserve, but probably could give two shits about, getting a nomination. Take Brighten for instance. At this current time in Chico rock music they are the biggest band in the town. They go on national tours, have the support of well known bands, they are doing what every band in town wants to do. All this and they're all under 21. Or take Jon Wesley, he has some of the best songs in town, with on of the most cred, and competent, backing bands to boot, but instead of him getting nominated his good buddy's SIDE PROJECT gets a nomination, now that is just stupid. In my mind there is no excuse for this, Jon plays so many shows around town, so I don't really think there is any way they have never heard at least one of his songs. I'm not even going to mention the bands I played in, because that would be ridiculous, but seriously, what are these things based on? At least the Americas got in there, even though they could give two fucks about this whole thing, but I think all hell would break loose if they weren't on there, even though the people that choose these bands are never in attendance at most shows. There is no point to any of this, I just had to get it off my chest, and it feels pretty good, but it would probably feel better to have some whisky in me and be telling this to one's face on any given night, but due to my 2600 mile haul this outlet will have to do.

.

2006-06-22T02:21:00.000-07:00

You know, sometimes touring is kinda shitty, you miss things, for example, my younger brother's college graduation, or father's day. I can get over missing those, but then when you get sick as shit and can't talk to people, that's when I wish I was home in my own bed not dealing with long fucking drives and the wonderful Arizona heat. I'll probably be better in the next few days and wonder why I was in a bad mood in the first place. I've actually been having a great time. More on the great times later.

Sharks Love Donkey Meat

2006-04-18T17:18:00.000-07:00

So much has been happening this past week, not real things, just little happenings. I'll try to start at the beginning.
I moved out of my house, then took a nice eighteen hour train ride to L.A., slept for four hours and went on an eighteen hour van ride to Denver, CO. The next few days went by in a strange kind of blur, and before I knew it we were in Reno, NV, the home of Vegas style living done in a very half- assed way. I'm not much of a gambler so I just watched (almost) everyone else lose their money. Our tour manager made some money, but he's the only one. My time in Reno was spent walking around casinos and eating, they have some great steak dinner deals at many places, and I took full advantage of the deals. Then it was on to S.F. I stayed at my lovely friend's house after the show and went exploring in the city by myself the next day. I took some buses around and got to experience the thrill of being yelled at by a foreign old lady for sitting in a vacant seat, I'm still not sure why she was so pissed at me. Some of the guys came up to get me and we ended up at a nice little jazz club and then got lost trying to find a good spot to look at the ocean, but ended up in an even better spot, it was the best end to a night in San Francisco ever. The there was L.A., nothing too interesting there. Phoenix was sort of exciting. We went to an ASU party, those kids are all pretty much idiots, and they like to prove it. Example. I get yelled at not to fuck up this dude's bathroom, while I was waiting in line, I yell back that I'm not some jackass friend of his that goes around breaking shit in bathrooms for the hell of it. He was a dick, I can't fully explain the situation, I'll just say he was out of line yelling at me, so proceeded to throw cigarette butts in his pool for the rest of the night. Saturday night was spent in San Diego, the show was great, over 2,000 people attended, lots of fun. They had a lot of security there patrolling the area for thugs, but they seemed to spend most of their time harassing the bands. This was the highlight of my entire week; We're sitting on a stairwell talking, two security guys come up and immediately ask for our id's, no hi, how you doing, nothing, just straight to the id's. We get them out, he looks at mine, starts bending and twisting it, then turns to me and says "This is an identification card". I say "yeah, that what you asked for". He then looks at the card again and says "You were born in 1981 and don't have a driver's license?" At this point I should have told the guy to go fuck himself, but I just said yes and told us not to hang out around where we were at, which was actually right outside our dressing room. I was little steamed after this, but what really pissed me off was the fact that there were random kids casually coming into the dressing rooms after bands were done and no security was to be found during any of this. A little frustrating. I also had a craving to watch Escape From Alcatraz after my San Francisco visit, which was filled late Sunday night, that is a fantastic movie, go rent it.

b&BJ's

2006-03-31T21:41:00.000-08:00

For the past two years I've been doing a study of things written on the walls in bathroom stalls, and I've come to the conclusion that 97% of people that shit in dirty ass truck stop bathrooms hate George Bush. I'm not going to get into politics because I don't really care all that much, I was just pointing out an observation I made. Also, apparently there is an abundance of men that really need to give blow jobs*, hate Bush, love bj's, interesting.

* I learned this one by reading the walls too.

Back In The Saddle Again

2006-03-20T01:31:00.000-08:00

So I'm at home and being the jacjass I am I didn't post a damn thing while I was gone. My goal for the next two weeks before I flake out on writing again is to post my stories from the previous tour. I have a small excuse, my power supply pretty much completely stopped working and if you could see how I have it rigged up right now you would want to send me the $90 for a new one so my house doesn't burn down when I'm not looking. Seriously though, I owe the ones of people that read this an exciting update, and I promise it will be on yor computer screen very soon. As for now, go here and see what I did for six weeks.

Picture Update

2006-02-25T16:52:00.000-08:00

A few pictures to entertain, stories to come soon.

Gum wall in San Luis.

My Texas cheese, chili, jalapeno, bacon omlette at 2am, it was great.

How to poop in a dirty bathroom.

Sad.

what?

Orange suckin'.

Myspace deletion.

Help with one of the most complicated things ever, deleting your myspace account.

Smart satanists.

Dance party Orlando.

Week One

2006-02-17T16:21:00.000-08:00

After a week of almost all sold out shows I'd say my first week on tour has been a success. I wish some more exciting things would happen because I don't have any stories to share. We're in Texas now, so we'll try to make something happen tonight. That's it, seriously, I've been out of the game for a few months now so I forgot how to find excitement. I'll reharness my powers and get into some mischief.

Putting The Gay Back In Reggae

2006-01-27T17:15:00.000-08:00

The summer of 2002 was a great one. I was in no hurry to get back into school, I had a great job, I had not a care in the world. So myself and a friend decided to start a band. It started off as a two piece, myself on drums and the other half of the band played guitar and sang. I can say I was anything but stoked on the project, but then one day it clicked and I had a new love for the band. We decided to name it Rip- Off Halo, maybe because it kind of sounded like Rip- Off Refused, which in hindsight is what we did, but that's besides the point. So we wrote some songs and found another guitarist, things were sounding great, I was having a good time, enough said. We recorded a demo we could sell on our upcoming tour. Now this tour was not just any tour, it was all of our first tour, and to top it off it was with the Americas. So the tour was booked, the merch was made, we did a nice split EP with both bands. A few disagreements were had about the artwork, no big deal we thought at the time. Rip- Off Halo found a bass player days before the tour, we practiced and then we were off. Six guys in a twelve passenger van, all the equipment included; two drum sets, two half stacks, four guitars, a bass amp, two boxes of merch and a pain in the ass pedal board. We were ready to take over the world, we didn't give a shit about anything, lock up your women and children. The tour started in Chico, a good warm up show for a local, supportive crowd. The onto Redding, great response from the crowd, everything was moving along smoothly. The next day was in Eureka, the show was great, Casey played accordion in the street, the cops pulled us over, we slept on a hardwood floor. Day four we headed to Eugene, Oregon. Said Rip- Off Halo singer drove this day (I did all the previous and future driving) he scared the shit out of everyone. The Eugene show looked a little sketchy, it's in a basement, it's raining, it smelled like lentils and burlap. Everyone but the lead singer/ tour booker are reluctant to play at first, but after the show we were all satisfied and had a great time, we drive overnight to Seattle, sleep in a parking lot of a park. I was driving so I had nowhere to lie down, I try the roof of the van, someone else slept in the park, then it started to rain, so we drive to the person's house that is putting on that night's show. He gives us free deep fried seafood, lets us shower and then we head to the venue. This show was supposed to be the climax of the tour, some great bands were on the bill, but we were so into not caring that we just didn't care. We were stoked on the inside, but we were also on our way to takeover the world, so we had to keep cool heads. The show was played, we all had a great time, but ROH singer was getting to be a little distant with all of us. The next show was supposed to be in Portland, but it fell through. We drove to Portland anyway to hang out with some friends and to pick up some other friends at the train station. While I was in the bathroom ROH singer snaps and yells to everyone how he hates this tour and we all treat him like shit, apparently because he had doubts about some upcoming shows not coming through and because we didn't offer enough praise for how awesome the tour was. He asks to dropped off at a friend's house, we gladly do so. The tour is over, he had quit the band, told everyone he couldn't be in a van with us, so we decided that night he would not be continuing our journey home with us. The next morning I call him, no answer, I tell him we are leaving soon. As I'm loading up the luggage he gets dropped off. Then the task of telling him he is not leaving Portland with us is at hand. The tension is thick in the air. I finally break the silence and tell him, " We decided it would be best if you didn't ride back with us." He doesn't argue, just asks for a ride back to his friend's house. The whole ride he's trying to get us to reconsider our decision, we decline many times, drop him off and head home. He eventually found his way back to town after a few weeks and communication between us (the remaining five) and him has pretty much ceased to exist. And that is my story about leaving a lead singer in Portland. As an afterthought, that was still one of my favorite tours I have ever done, maybe someday we'll all get together and finish our world domination, but probably not. Also, don't be a bitch, people will like you better.

On the road again.

2006-01-23T16:48:00.000-08:00

In a matter of weeks I will have some new things to write about besides my currently boring working class life as I will be hitting the road with Waking Ashland for the next month and a half. I am pretty excited to be getting out of town and doing what I love best, traveling. I get to sit in a van and play bass for 35minutes a night, I'll be writing about my new adventures as they happen. And to make it exciting I will try and exaggerate every little thing that is even remotely noteworthy. To prepare myself for this tour I have locked myself in my room and been practicing their songs non stop (not really). In actuality I set aside forty minutes a day to play along to the CD, I feel pretty good about it all. Also, if you are up for this challenge, February 9th I will be playing two shows in Sacramento, one with Waking Ashland and one with Number One Gun, so make the trek to Sactown and watch both of them. Here is where I will be after that, come say hi if you want.

Feb 8 San Luis Obispo, CA
Feb 9 Roseville/ Orangevale, CA
Feb 10 Campbell, CA
Feb 11 Anaheim, CA
Feb 12 San Diego, CA
Feb 13 Hollywood, CA
Feb 14 Tempe, AZ
Feb 16 Amarillo, TX
Feb 17 Dallas, TX
Feb 18 San Antonio, TX
Feb 19 Spring, TX (Houston)
Feb 21 Tallahassee, FL
Feb 22 Orlando, FL
Feb 23 Atlanta, GA
Feb 24 Nashville, TN
Feb 25 Charlotte, NC
Feb 26 Baltimore, MD
Feb 28 University Park, PA
Mar 1 Philadelphia, PA
Mar 2 Montclair, NJ
Mar 3 Bellmore, NY
Mar 4 Wilton, CT
Mar 5 Providence, RI
Mar 7 Buffalo, NY
Mar 9 Covington, KY (Cincinnati, OH)
Mar 10 Lansing, MI
Mar 11 Grand Rapids, MI
Mar 12 Downers Grove, IL
Mar 14 Minneapolis, MN
Mar 15 Madison, WI
Mar 16 Milwaukee, WI
Mar 17 Des Moines, IA

In other news, Number One Gun has a song in an upcoming movie, it might come out in America, but I'm not sure, check it out here.

That's all for now.

Wednesday is right now.

2006-01-11T17:13:00.000-08:00

I don't know if I'm an idiot, but I don't care, I think my brother is damn funny. I mean, look at the drawing above, genius.

Happy New Year

2006-01-03T11:19:00.001-08:00

After a grueling sixteen hours and dealing with this and this we finally made it to the Seattle area to celebrate the new year. The worst part about the second story was we were literally fifty feet from our exit, and this was after having to drive three hours out of the way on snow covered back roads, awesome.

To Whom It May Concern

2005-12-18T17:43:00.000-08:00

Just wanted to say sorry to everyone that was at the after show party last night that wanted to hang out with me, I was not in attendance. From the looks of my house it was a good time. On top of that I wanted to say a big Fuck You to Dan Burns for apparently pouring beer all over my kitchen floor, sorry I wasn't there to shit in your sleeping bag later in the night. Don't be surprised when we come to your house and I start pissing on your floor, I guess that's how things are done now? I'm having a great time right now triple mopping and sweeping the house, thanks again and please don't bother ever coming over again, you can stay at your parent's house next time you come through town.

Tim Jordan R.I.P.

2005-12-17T10:22:00.000-08:00

Last night I was told some very sad news by a friend. Apparently a friend of mine whom I was just getting to know better committed suicide. I was caught off guard by this news as Tim would be the last person to do this.

Standford Prison Experiment

2005-12-12T21:43:00.000-08:00

This is crazy, I read The Wave when I was younger, but never realized how intense this actually was.

The Stanford prison experiment was a landmark psychological study of the human response to captivity, in particular, to the real world circumstances of prison life. It was conducted in 1971 by a team of researchers led by Philip Zimbardo of Stanford University. Volunteers played the roles of guard and prisoner, and lived in a mock prison. However, the experiment quickly got out of hand, and was ended early.
It was a variation of the Milgram experiment, which was conducted in 1963 at Yale University by Stanley Milgram, Zimbardo's former high school friend. more...

That Crackhead Chapped My Lip

2005-12-10T11:35:00.000-08:00

Oh Chico. I've realized now that Chico isn't totally my town anymore, there's always the threat of some asshole thinking he can come to town from where ever (Sacramento, Oroville, New Orleans) and take shit over. I saw this happen with a frat dude punching Ben and the I got a taste first hand last night when a random crankster walked by me and full on slapped me, open handed, in the face. No warning, for no reason, he just hit me as hard as he could. I was caught so off guard I had no idea what had just happened, I just stood there for a minute trying to figure it out. Luckily I have one of the toughest friends ever, Italian Dave aka Navy Dave, Chuck D, then names keep going, so anyway, Dave instantly is after the dude and his two friends and they are afraid, they were zig zagging across the street trying to avoid Italian. I'm following the whole time as well. So we get across the street and the guy starts saying things I don't want to repeat on here, but I'll give you an idea. He was white trash as can be, he kept calling himself a gansta' and other words that go along with that, you get the idea. So Dave wants to kill this guy, I'm pretty passive and don't know what this guy is about, so I'm kind of on the line, I would like to kick him in the teeth, but it's not like that's going to happen. At this point the guy is crouching down say to come and fight him, but it looks like he's getting a knife or something out of his boot, it turns out he was really just tying his shoe so Dave heads into Starbuck's, where we were going to use the bathroom, then the guy starts talking shit and wants to fight so Dave comes back out and the dude starts to walk away, at this point Brandon, Josh and Ben all walk up and the guy gets really tough then and starts to beat up a trash can, he's punching and kicking it, and then it falls on him and he's pinned underneath a trash can, at this point I realize he's harmless and should have been beat the hell up, but the trash can beat up to it, the he got up and got the hell out of there. Crackheads suck, Italian Dave is great, he just chased after that guy no questions asked, that's some risky business. Everything is fine now, the guy just slapped my face so hard he instantly chapped my lip, I used chapstick overnight so I'm okay now.

In other news, check out this story here, some people are idiots, so are the authorities, look closely at the picture.

Rodeo Bulls Drink Blood

2005-12-06T21:03:00.000-08:00

It's Tuesday, the work week is just starting for me, and it seems like forever already. I cut my finger real nice- like today, it won't stop bleeding. I got to print some stupid shit, I can't even begin to describe the crap that people order (see above image for example), it goes to show how many borderline retarded people occupy this world. In some positive news, I've named my International propane fueled truck Jake Ryan. If you see him around say hi, he's a good, hard working piece of machinery.

The Best Thing Ever..... For Now

2005-12-03T16:50:00.000-08:00

Today I discovered one of the most entertaining games I've ever played. It sounds stupid at first, but once you have it in your hands it's as addicting as cheese balls or NASCAR racing, but better for you. So here it is. It's called Guitar Hero, and you have this fake guitar. The idea is to play along to songs that are on the game, there's some good ones too, ie: Cowboys From Hell, Ziggy Stardust, Killer Queen and about twenty others. It's so much fun, I never imagined it would be good at all, but it is, go to Best Buy and try it out for free, then buy it, I think I might. I haven't tried it in Best Buy, but I'm sure you'll feel ridiculous, so buy it and take it home and then don't feel all stupid, just rock out with a miniature guitar and some sweet songs, seriously. Two words, Guitar Hero. That's all.

New Look

2005-12-03T10:30:00.000-08:00

I've decided to change the color scheme of my blog. Why? Because the other one made my eyes hurt, and it was boring. So I figured, why not change it to green, green is a hip color, right? I like it, so that's really what matters most of all. I gotta go now, This Old House is on, and I actually, truthfully like that show.

Ah Damn.

2005-11-30T19:55:00.000-08:00

Starting this morning I had to switch over to living a real life for a while. Not saying my life before was not real, it was just more of a fantasy/ dream that I was living. Now the band is on a large break, so it was time to make money, hence getting a job. I was ready for the 9-5 grind, but it's become a little more than that, something like 7- 5(or 8) it's different everyday. It will be nice getting the paycheck though. I think since my last post pretty much anything bad happened that could (short of someone dying). We could start with last weekend, Jeff lost his voice, a show was cancelled in Hollywood, fast forward to Wednesday night, we're driving to San Jose, the last show before Thanksgiving and home. The van breaks down, bad. Oil is pouring out everywhere and to add to matters, we happened to run over an open pocket knife the same time our engine block cracks, so we have oil and a hissing/ flattening tire to deal with. We miss the show, make it home early in the morning, my Thanksgiving dinner was pretty much the crappiest one I 've had in years. The next day was my birthday, not much fun there either. We played an early afternoon show in Roseville, the plus to this, besides waking up at 8am, was eating the new Chick- Fil- A in Roseville. That night we went to a party in Chico, Ben and I broke up a fight between some underage bros, dumbass kids getting the cops called to someone else's home. Everything else lately has been going by so fast, I'm exhausted at 8pm, it's my bedtime now, work and sleep. I got asked to judge a battle of the bands Friday night, so I have that to look forward to, I'm actually pretty excited for it, I'll just keep my fingers crossed that not all of the bands are horrible. I'm currently compiling my tour stories in my new journal, that, by the way, was one of the best birthday presents I've gotten in a long time, so those should be up in the near future.

Sam R.I.P.

2005-11-22T11:43:00.000-08:00

I found out this morning on CNN.com that Sam, the world's ugliest dog, has died just short of turning 15. Poor thing, I'm surprised no one tried to kill him earlier on in life. Rest in peace Sam.

Sugar Shack

2005-11-22T00:41:00.000-08:00

I'm in Orange County not doing a damn thing, and it's been great. The shows so far have been a lot of fun, The Junior Varsity are some excellent guys, I like them. We cancelled last night, loss of voice means no show will happen. Tonight's show was cancelled due to the promoter not having his shit together, it's okay, I liked sleeping in and going to the beach. Last night some of us plus friends went to a nice little dive bar, the bartender gave me some free drinks for my birthday, which by the way, is this friday, send me things. That's pretty much all the excitement I had for the night. The rest of my day today, after going to the beach, was spent watching movies and eating pizza, nothing better than doing nothing. That's it, some extremely boring, but enjoyable shit going on.

You Don't Have To Laugh

2005-11-14T20:43:00.000-08:00

My friend Brad found this (click on the first one), I think it's pretty funny. You may not, that just means you have an extremely boring sense of humor, that's all.

Got to got to be Baby.

2005-11-13T15:16:00.000-08:00

It's a nice little Sunday afternoon here in good 'ol Chico. I was given a new stereo by my grandma, so now I can listen to the radio, which is what I'm currently doing, and it's double shot Sunday, that's right, a double dose of Van Halen followed by The Greatful Dead, alright. As of this week I decided to be a little health conscious so I started jogging/ walking in the mornings. I am out of shape. After the first day I had the worst shin and leg pains since I got tall seven years ago. I also am trying my hardest to stop smoking. I cut back a whole lot, 2- 4 a day, I'm trying to get to none, we'll see. If you don't like maintaining your lawn you should call me and I'll make it look better than it did before, I'll rake, mow, water, whatever you need, but you need to pay me, I can't go around doing this stuff for free. As you can tell I have nothing to do but talk about mundane crap, time for a walk I guess.

?

2005-11-09T12:52:00.000-08:00

I have no idea why I thought my last post was a good idea. I'm sorry, now I look like some weird ass cat lover that can't enough of cats with crap on them. Sorry, that's not me, but sometimes people think some things are funny for a little while, even if they aren't. I just wanted to set the record straight.

Waste of Time

2005-11-08T02:00:00.000-08:00

This page is pretty funny, and kind of weird too. But I think you'll laugh.

Fucking Chico California

2005-11-07T19:48:00.000-08:00

Since my last post I've been at home doing pretty much nothing. I was supposed to be on tour but my band has been having a bit of a bad luck streak. First off, Jeff got sick, very sick. I think he contracted a form of malaria from that time we stayed at that group of pygmies house, so we had to cancel some shows. Secondly, our trailer caught a bad case of balding, flat tire, so we probably might have wrecked had we gone on tour, we took care of that problem. With my time off I've been sitting around home watching episodes of Judge Alex, he's my least favorite judge on TV, except for Judge Wopner and his new Prop. 77 commercials. Some of us took a trip to San Francisco this weekend, I got to see a great show, hang out with friends and consume lots of fun. Did you know fun comes in both Jack Daniels and Miller Lite flavors? Now you know. The rain finally quit being timid and showed itself today. My gutters are full of leaves so everything is nice and wet, awesome. Friday night Fall Out Boy played in town, I went to check it out. The first two bands got, basically, a big, shitty middle finger from the sound guy. He did the worst job of running sound EVER. I had to leave during one of the bands it was so terrible. I don't know the guy, but I hate him. The rest of the show was good even though the thousand other people there were fifteen year old girls and their scene boyfriends. I bet a lot of them got grounded for staying out past eleven. One more little nugget of greatness, my IPod took one final shit on me and will never work again. Now I get to spend a week putting music on my computer, again, and another week waiting for a new IPod to come in the mail.

Chico Fucking California.

2005-10-31T10:27:00.000-08:00

I'm back in my room, and I'm excited, we aren't doing the first night of this next tour because of scheduling things, basically, we are burned out and have so much to do before the next tour. So I get an extra day in town. I've got tons of pictures to post from the last few weeks of the tour and plenty of mustaches.

Wha?

2005-10-26T01:13:00.000-07:00

*Here are some entries taken directly from my new purchased journal.

"I want to put somethin' in that backdoor"
- Fred Rogers
*one of the best things I've ever heard anyone, let alone Mr. Rogers say.

Florida sucks, it's dirty and sticky and they make old men work the night shift.

Atlanta, Georgia. Not as dirty as previous states. Everyone here is trying to find Nelly so they can go clubbin' with him. People like to honk and not stop for people. Dudes are scared to walk across the street.
*This show sucked, the only positive thing of the night was Avenged Sevenfold was playing upstairs, I don't like them as much after watching them.

Nashville, TN- Some girls peed in between our van and trailer, I threw pennies and banana peels at them, they didn't like it. I told them not to pee on our van. Chik-Fil-A is goodness in a bun with pickles. Sweet Tea is also one of the best things ever. The Slaughter House sounded like one of the coolest haunted houses ever, I didn't want to spend the money to go inside, nobody seemed very scared when they left. Tonight we had Number One Gun kereoke. Jeff was too sick to play the show, so some of our tourmates helped us out. It went over pretty well, I had a good time.

Plano, TX- Chris' ass went through the side window. Went through like a baseball goes through, I guess, a window. Last night was Number One Gun kereoke part 2. It was a lot more fun this time, everyone came onstage and sang with us. Tomorrow is Houston, this routing is stupid. We're right by Dallas, but we play Houston and then Dallas, backwards? Five shows left. If you're ever in the Plano, Texas Super 8, watch out for Blair Knight. You'll know him because he is the only guy that lives in the hotel that is missing his left leg, is a giant black guy, rolls around in a wheel chair and, if you look like me, will want to "party" with you. Yes. He rolled up to me, asked if I wanted his number. I said I would never use it, so he just jumped to the point, said room 104, I should come over and party. He said I could come to his room and he could show me some things and set things straight in about 40 minutes. I should bring a pen and paper and something to read we could set things straight. This incident took away a huge part of my innocence, I don't think I'll ever be the same, I may have nightmares tonight.

Texas- Ghostface Killa eats at Taco Bell. We ran into the Wu- Tang Legend, he gave us his number and said we should get together in the future and write some music. So I've decided to start writing a Linkin Park- esque album for the occasion. The venue left the Red Bull cooler open near our dressing room, so we took advantage of that. All the bands made up for the 20% merch fee in Red Bulls.

Durham, NC

2005-10-17T22:34:00.000-07:00

I don't know what day it is, I haven't had any internet access in a while, I have a lot of e-mails to check and return, great. In the past few days I've slept in the car a lot, I went to California and back to Pittsburgh, spent some time in an aeroplane, like the one that RHCP sing about, you know the song. I slept eleven hours in the car today, after a night of not sleeping, and now that we are at our hotel it looks like I will not be sleeping at all tonight as well, I just woke up. I saw P.O.D. play Saturday night, they are good, but I don't like them, Ivory from Showbread got up on stage and sang Southtown with them, and almost got thrown off stage by their bass tech, he was pissed, we all laughed, Ivory won five bucks. My thoughts are extremely scattered. Being back in California was a huge tease, six weeks left until I get to sleep in my own bed, and turn 24, that's weird. I've been in Waffle House country for weeks, and I haven't eaten it once, what the hell? I have pretty nice beard (based on my standards) going on, except for this one patch that I can't seem to get to grow, no matter how hard I think about it filling in, someday. Ten hours to go until I leave, hopefully there's some good movies on tv tonight.

Columbus, OH

2005-10-13T00:07:00.000-07:00

Tonight we played about the most amazing and historical I've ever been to. It is called the Newport Music Hall and everyone from AC/DC to Bruce Springstein has been on the stage we played on tonight. Amazing building, amazing sound, amazing stage crew, everything, and plenty of homeless peeps to make the whole experience complete. After the show the entire tour, five bands, about 26 people, all went to the TVU television station. They informed us once we got there that we would be filming live, and that is when all hell, at least for the TV crew, broke loose. We were walking around doing the dumbest stuff in the world behind the host, calling the station and asking to talk with the bands, finding outfits that makde no sense. The head producer was keeping his cool, but he didn't seem too happy that everyone was screwing around so much. I thought it was great. What do they expect when they invite so many people to be on live TV after they've played a show and are tired?

In other news, we got a new crew guy, his name is Stu and he is a great help to us.

Cincinnati, OH

2005-10-08T23:58:00.000-07:00

In a Days Inn in the supposed chili capitol of the U.S. (based on taste?) Nothing too exciting today, a bit of driving, not as cold. The only thing of interest, really, is my stupidity. As I was trying to step over the front of the trailer (where it hitches to the van) I misjudged the distance needed to step over it, and I fell, hard. Luckily I tucked and rolled so I didn't hurt anything but my left shin and my pride. The leg swelled up pretty fast and bled for a while, the picture doesn't do it justice, and now I'm very afraid of that area around van, I've been getting nervous everytime I use the back door of the van.

photos

2005-10-08T23:51:00.000-07:00

Check This

2005-10-08T19:53:00.000-07:00

This is a shameless plug, but I feel it is worth the criticism I might receive. Go here to hear a new Mourning September song.

Minneapolis, MN pt.2

2005-10-07T00:02:00.000-07:00

Minneapolis is a wonderful city, minus the coldness that swept through last night. They have a giant mall, so big, in fact, it is called THE MALL OF AMERICA, as it should be. We spent the better part of yesterday there, and I only got through about a third of it. We even went back today to do some more exploring and some more eating. They have about anything you can think of in there, unicorn rugs, Starbucks (I saw three, there were probably more), a log ride, cocky magicians, chess nerd central, so much crap, so little time. While the majority of my band spent their day on the roller coasters I teamed up with my buddy Brandon and looked at things we couldn't afford, but the biggest disappointment was not having money to shop at the H&M store. If you ever get a chance to shop there, so it, it's probably the best clothing store ever, seriously. After the mall we came back to the hotel and spent the evening with rest of our tourmates. It was the tour managers pre- birthday party, so we had ourselves a good old time at the hotel bar and Applebee's. Around midnight some of the guys jumped the fence to the hot tub, the security guard came by and got a little pissed, which isn't the best idea around a bunch of rowdy, smart- mouthed band members, he ended up getting heckled more than he would have liked. Earlier, in the bar, there some "jar- head" dudes that kept staring us down, we almost thought it was the perfect night for a bar fight, it ended up not being so, we'll save that for a future night. The guys were total asshole though, the waitress told us after they left that they asked her if she could come upstairs with them and give them "some extra assistance." We should have thrown some shit at them when we had the chance. Tonight we played at one of the nicest clubs I've ever been to, full on catering that never stopped, all you can drink Rockstars and sodas, plus a great stage and sound system, and the crowd was amazing. If it weren't for the damn cold, I would love to live here. I'm typing in the hallway of the hotel and security guard keeps coming by and giving me weird looks, I don't really like him.

Minneapolis, MN

2005-10-05T00:26:00.000-07:00

First day back on the tour, and it feels better than going home. I don't think we've ever played in Minnesota before, just stayed the night around here somewhere. The town we were in, Mankato, was strange to say the least. The kids at the show were amazing, except for the group of five or so that clapped so far off beat it was hard to tell if they were doing it on purpose or not. When we pulled up it was raining like crazy, but was hot as hell at the same time, so we were nice and wet and hotter than crap, all at the same time. The venue was upstairs, about thirty stairs to be exact. Not fun. There was a nice bar downstairs with a bunch of drunken locals who decided to drive themselves home even though they really could stand on their own. I was frightened watching them drive off into the rain, I'm sure it might be an everyday event for them. Back at the venue, it was so damn hot in there, probably 80 plus, they had a guy from the club spraying kids down with water to keep them from passing out. Tomorrow is day off, so we're hitting up the Mall of America, all eighteen of us staying in Minneapolis, I can't wait.

Monday

2005-10-04T01:12:00.000-07:00

These past two days have been long and stressful. In the past forty- eight hours we've driven a lot, been completely broke, popped a trailer tire, gotten charged a ton by some backwood dudes to fix it, quit a tour and rejoined within eight hours and driven some more. I won't get into too many details about us leaving the tour, I will just say that we are now back on the tour and very happy with the way things have worked out. I will try and update as much as possible about the upcoming shows. I would also love to post some pictures from the tour, but my brother forgot the usb cord for the camera, so I will have to wait to out those up.
On a lighter note, pick up a copy of the new Alternative Press this Wednesday and read my two cents worth on Myspace being sold to Fox.

Salt Lake City, UT

2005-10-04T01:11:00.000-07:00

Salt Lake City, UT

It’s been a few days, we’ve done some driving, actually, lots of driving, it kind of sucked last night, but I’ll get to that. We played Portland, OR Wednesday night, the show was a little weird, the sound on stage was bad and it was hard to tell if people were into us or not. I got us lost on the way there, our directions said something like take exit 1, go onto ramp, continue onto, no help at all, so me, being the navigational genius that I am drove all over the damn place trying to find the venue only to find out that it was right by where I originally brought us. None of this seems too bad, but I used to live there, so I had no excuse for getting lost. We drove overnight to Seattle. The next show was a good one. There were tons of friends, it was a good time before and after the show. The rain made the day not as nice as it should have been, but it was still good. The next day was a day off, meant for driving to Salt Lake, but we said screw that and hung out in Seattle. I got to eat some Wing Dome, go there if you are in the area, seriously, Jeff recorded some Mourning September demos in the T&N basement and we went to Guitar Center, where I was hit on by a not so attractive female employee and a male employee, all I wanted was some guitar picks. We left around midnight after a good drinking game, I don’t want to say what it was because it makes us look like loser nerds. All I can tell you is the Backstreet Boys have sold more records than Nirvana, sad. We drove overnight and ended up in the greatest place in the world (for Mormons), Salt Lake City. The show was sparsely attended, but it was a lot of fun. The venue was near an outdoor mall where we ate and people watched. This city is actually really nice; there are just some different people here. They have these orange safety flags at crosswalks that don’t have lights, so you’re supposed to hold this flag up in the air while you walk across the street and that will prevent cars from hitting you; I guess it worked since we didn’t get hit. I thought I saw the bass player from the Used painting the inside of a café that opening soon, but nobody else believed me and were all to scared to go back and look, I’m pretty sure it was him, honestly. Two kids running through the mall in their underwear while their friend videotaped brought on the excitement for the night. I thought it would be nice to give him some ice cream, so where he ran by I tossed an ice cream cone to him, I don’t think he thought I would really toss it, so he fumbled it a little, he said he was sorry for not catching it, I asked him what kind of athlete he thought he was. I want to see the tape of the whole thing. We’re now at a friend’s house getting ready to sleep, in a real bed finally. We leave at 8am for Denver.

Spokane, WA

2005-09-28T00:07:00.000-07:00

After spending over 15 hours in the van I was more than ready to get the hell to the show. I pulled the 3:30am- 6:00am shift, and then I was out, but since we’ve got seven people with us I had to sleep on the floor. I sleep really well, but woke up with my hips killing me since there is only some carpet covering the metal flooring of the van. We played this place before a few times, the last time was about two years ago, and the venue changed, I like this building better. We loaded in and waited for project to show up and do their sound check. Nothing too exciting, the venue is next to winery, so it smelled like booze out front, I kept looking around for a homeless guy or some drunk Spokane scene kid, but they didn’t show up until later. Our set went well, no local bands, just the tour tonight, so it came our time to play pretty fast. The kids seemed into the show, but no noise ever came out of them, maybe it was the way the room was, but they were silent after almost every song. I checked with the other bands, they had the same problem, so it wasn’t just that the crowd thought we were crap. Tonight is kind of the first night on the tour for us, no going home now. I’m sitting in the green room right now and there’s all these signatures from bands that I’ve never heard of, and they’re dated from 1995- 1996 era, old school. There are some sweet band names though. I can see ‘Big Dirty’, ‘Fluffy’, ‘Space Spackle’, they were on it back in the day. Today was a slow day, nothing crazy. The only slightly funny thing was some scenester kid was trashed and told us to move out of Spokane as fast as we could, his reason, because he’s been going to shows for over five years and no one recognizes him. Lame. He must really not belong here if no one remembers who he is, it tears him up so much he needs to get shitty to make himself feel better about it all. I mean, what life is worth living if no one at a rock show remembers who you are and won’t let you in for free? Portland tomorrow, I get to sleep in a bed tonight, it’s gonna be great. Later: We are in our hotel room and Jeff, my brother, Brandon & Ryan from Spoken are all playing Halo, they're super stoked right now, I'm not as stoked being that I kind of hate Halo.

Why Is It So Early

2005-09-26T06:11:00.000-07:00

Well, we started our tour last night in Roseville, and things couldn't be better. All the bands are great, the two shows we've played so far have been great, people have been crazy at the shows. Since Friday night a lot has been going on, rides on drum cases, people getting hit in the head, police chases, football tossing with Jimmy Eat World, my car breaking down and getting flat tires, circle pits (it's funny to watch), long drives, no sleep, dirty laundry, geek talk about Halo (not me, others). I don't know, so much, so little sleep, it's hard to think. Tonight, or this morning, is my last time in my own bed for nine weeks, I'm excited, but kind of stressed out about all the stuff I have to do before we leave, mainly I need to do laundry and pack my bag, and say goodbye for a while to all my Chico friends. Once I get into tour mode I'll be set and have my thoughts together a little more. Day off tomorrow, drive to Spokane, Tuesday Spokane, Washington. Goodnight.

I thought I saw an Osmond, but it was just a regular Mormon

2005-09-21T01:05:00.000-07:00

Well, I spent the last day or so in a van driving to and from Salt Lake City, home to the all mighty Mormon. I actually spent so little time in the town I didn't even see one, I think. We drove the twelve hours there, played our set, hung out for a half hour and drove twelve hours back. But we didn't leave our friendliest eastern state (Nevada) without stopping and living it up a little, and by a little, I mean A LITTLE. The idea was to eat somewhere crappy, so we picked the Peppermill Casino. The one in Reno is great, $5.99 breakfasts after midnight, but not in good ol' Wendover. I thought the $7.95 steak and eggs was going to be great, but it wasn't, I think they finished cooking my food first and put it under the heat lamp because my 8oz. steak seemed to have shrunk down to about 4oz and one of my eggs was very cooked, very hard yolk. It was all worth while, though, when I won a little bit of dough playing the penny slots, I was up thirty cents at one point, but then I blew it all, three times in a row. I felt it was three dollars well spent. Then I drove for a while, thinking I could make it to Reno (about 450 miles) not quite, I was 175 short, I realized when I almost hit that smart ass wolf in the road that I should end my shift, so I got some gas, forgot to put the gas cap back, and went to bed, I woke up just in time to see the southern end of Chico, it was beautiful, but this trip was not really worth the time I spent in the van, I still don't really know why we even went there, no offense to the kids that were there, you all were great. On another note, I love my IPod, it's probably one of the best things I've ever purchased, besides that stock in cardboard I purchased when I was eight.

Chico Party (kind of)

2005-09-18T02:07:00.000-07:00

So lately there hasn't been a whole hell of a lot going on around town. Lots of down time, no practice until next week, so I'm mainly bound to the house, but I've found some interesting projects to do. I've tackled the weekly lawn mowing, but instead of waiting until the evening I decided to do it early morning, well, not actually early, but early for me. With that out of the way I rearranged the living room, cleaned some floors, changed some light bulbs and fixed holes in my clothes. That's all there was to do around here, so I went out tonight, and I realized for the millionth time in my life that people in Chico pretty much suck. That's not saying everyone is a bunch of idiots, but the vast majority is. Why do people need to get all dressed up to get shitty drunk and look like an ass, you could wear your normal, everyday clothes and get shitty and end up looking the same to some drunk girl/ guy that won't want to remember what went on come the next day? I guess that's what comes with living in Chico, and I figured after 23 years I would realize that. I think I'm just ready to leave for a while, I've been in town all summer and I'm ready to get out and play some shows. This afternoon we were people watching downtown and there was little 10- 12 year old kid playing his violin, he was pretty good, and people kept giving money to him, he must have made at least fifteen bucks in a half hour, we were joking about he did crank, and all of sudden he packed up his money and his violin and took off, probably to get his fix in down by the creek, his parents should keep a closer eye on him.

Oh Canada

2005-09-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

So I made it back safely from Canada, but just barely, not really. The trip went over pretty well, besides getting over the border and back again. The drive to SF went smoothly, no problems except that we had to park our van in the international terminal, then walk all our stuff a mile to the other terminal. We flew to Seattle then connected to Edmonton, Alberta on a smaller plane. Our flight crew was pretty nice, except for this larger stewardess, she thought she was hilarious, like Rosie O' Donnell funny, she thought. The rows in the plane were about two feet wide, this woman was about three, so there was a lot of ass touching elbow action going on every time she walked by. Overall, she sucked, I didn't like her, but it was a short flight. Once in Canada we had to go through customs, which was a lot less painful than we had heard. They made us pay taxes on the merch we brought in, not too steep, and the guy let us put our guitars through the x- ray machine so we could see their insides. We got to the hotel, went to sleep and woke up early the next day to go play the show. The amphitheatre the show was at was really nice, except it was outdoors and it was ass- cold out there. We played, kids had fun, we had fun, we ate some food, hung out with geese and seagulls, even got a seagull to pick up a smoking cigarette butt, it just stood there with the thing smoking in it's mouth, I wish I had a picture of it. That night we hung out in the hotel. They had a nice bar in there, so we had a drink. There was a Russian guy in there drinking some interesting drink, we asked what it was, he said it was a Sea Shanty, it was made with Grasshopper beer, Clamato juice, lemon, salt and pepper, probably one of the best things I've ever had. We had most of the next day to hang out, but no transportation, so we spent some time at the stores across the street from us, a super shopping center, a liquor store and a cigarette/ gas station. The liquor store had a lot of nice Canadian beers, the superstore had tons of food, and the cigarette store had lots of Canadian cigarettes. They don't have normal American cigarettes there, no Camels or Marlboros, they have all these other brands that look like boxes of condoms and are all exactly the same, just different brands. They also have a law that a certain percentage of the package has to have warnings on it, so they have nice little warnings (some are pictured above). Around 2pm we left for the airport, sat in there for three hours, went through customs again, they drilled us about what our trip was about (or aboot, as they say), finally they let us pass, we got on the plane, flew home, and our trip to Canada was complete, I'll post more little details soon.

Stepping into the year 2000.

2005-09-08T15:56:00.000-07:00

After my near death experience with the meat bee I realized I needed to live my life to it's fullest, so I bought an IPod. This is like a dream come true for me, I've asked for an IPod as my Christmas and birthday presents for the past two years, but never received one, and for some reason I kept putting off buying one myself, that is until yesterday. I found a good deal from apple.com so I went for it. I realized that carrying around a giant book of cds isn't cool and it's a huge pain in the ass. In anticipation of getting the IPod I have been loading all my cds onto my computer, and it's taking forever, I started last night and I am now almost on the Ds in my cd collection. Fifty cds down, 600 more to go, I've got my weekend planned, sit, watch some movies and put cds into my computer, I hope the IPod shows up tomorrow because I'm running out of room on my hard drive. I'll post pictures of me and my new best friend as soon as it gets here, I can't wait.

Don't Fuck with Meat Bees

2005-09-07T19:26:00.000-07:00

meat_bees_fish
Originally uploaded by trevorsellers.

Just a quick note, don't fuck with meat bees unless you're totally covered up. I thought I could dig up their nest in my bushes and be totally fine, but I didn't count on the one bee waiting behind me to scare the shit out of me. While the other bees were busy trying to figure out what the hell was going on the hero of the bunch decided to get caught in my hair and bite my head, just once, but while I was running to the front yard it chased me, I'm pretty sure I lost it, but I keep feeling little things that I think is the bee. I'm jumpy as hell now and my head hurts a little, I don't think it got a good bite on me. So either hire a professional or be willing to burn down some bushes to kill the things.

Flying to New Mexico

2005-09-07T15:18:00.000-07:00

teatime 1
Originally uploaded by trevorsellers.

This past weekend, hours after my people watching experience, I was flew out to Albuquerque, NM. Our flight was scheduled to leave at 6:45am, so figure it out what time we had to leave to be in Sacramento on time. The first half was easy enough, just went to Las Vegas for a nice tow hour layover. I was running on zero sleep, and when that happens I am Mr. Dick. I wouldn't lay off of people, I noticed everyone's bad features and was extremely verbal about them, but everyone around me got a good laugh at the other people's expense. Flight leaves, we go to NM, we play a show, go to the hotel, sleep, wake up at 6:15 to leave for the airport for an 8:45am flight. We're waiting to check in and I can't find my wallet, I notice my pocket has ripped all the way across, leaving a nice hole for my wallet to fall out of. We call our shuttle van, no wallet, they call the hotel, no wallet anywhere, I even had to tell them to check the women's bathroom due to me being impatient and using that because the men's was occupied. But no wallet. Our driver went to check the hotel herself, walks into my room and it's right there on the floor, in plain view she said. I was happy to get my wallet and not miss my flight, but I was little ticked at the hotel people, did they even look? They didn;t give a shit, I could have been stuck there for another day because of their laziness. But, I made it home, no other big problems, just the fear I will lose something important up in Canada this next weekend, I could be stuck in the hell of the north, but I won't think about that.

On another note, high school kids look damn young, like they're 12. It scared me, they shouldn't be able to leave campus for open lunch if they look like they help using the bathroom. Just my two cents.

People Watch

2005-09-07T15:05:00.000-07:00

ErnstDrunk
Originally uploaded by trevorsellers.

I spent my last Saturday night watching people from a corner bench in downtown Chico, and as weird and mildly creepy as that sounds, it was one of the best things I've ever done in my life, maybe. I'll give a rundown of the night's events.

Happenings

1. The first five minutes I was at my bench I saw a guy nearly get hit by a car. Now normally this would be something I would feel was well deserved by the almost crippled, but in this case it was the driver that should have been badly injured. The guy was walking through the cross walk, a woman pulled around the corner, not looking, and almost hit, his shoe fell off in front of her car, and when he bent down to pick it up she started to go again, dumb ass lady. This made me feel really bad for the guy, worse than I've felt about anything for a long time, I don't know why.

2. Some lame ass Chico, hippy types get pulled over right in front of me, I mean I was four feet away, so I got to see and hear everything that was going on. The cop said they were speeding and had expired tags, the driver tried to explain why his tags were expired, something about the moon not being in line with stars and so his tags wouldn't stick to the license plate. The two guys in the car were obviously stoned, the cop didn't seem to notice, the passenger also had to me on crank, he couldn't stop moving around. After ten minutes of the guy asking why he needed to sign his ticket, they were off.

3. Some creepy couple came and joined me. The guy was around 30, the woman, around 50+ and homeless looking, but they were ion the mood for love that night, so they took off after a short time to go find a nice bush or pile of dirt to do their thing in.

4. The line for the bar across the street was immense, I mean it wrapped around the block, which is a little longer than normal. All the kids that came up to my corner and saw the line were baffled as to why there was such a long line for a bar on a Saturday night during Labor Day weekend in Chico, idiots.

5. A little strange guy came up, I remembered him from elementary school, he used to be deaf, no hearing aids anymore, so I thought he would still be friendly. He asked me if I needed a job or some extra money, "No" I said, he kept asking, so I thought he was trying to get at something, you know, "You need a 'job' or something for some extra money?" Finally he tells me I could earn two hundred dollars if I wanted to kill somebody for him, he made it sound so simple, just kill a guy for me that was being a jerk and I'll give you two hundred bucks, my bank's right here. I told him to go away from me, he offered again and I suggested he should go stand way over by the stop light, away from me. He asked a few more people the same thing and finally left. No reports of any murders yet.

6. A second couple joined me and the bench. They were nice enough, came from the bay area to visit some friends who happened to ditch them to go to a crowded bar. They were trying to get a cab home, but not actually trying. When the taxi would get close the guy would kind of flap his wrist around, looking really fruity in the process. Finally, after 30 minutes of this I got up and hailed a taxi for them so they would leave, his girlfriend was super bitchy and she needed to go somewhere else, far, far away from me.

7. Two more girls joined me, they said they ususally sit on the same bench Saturday nights and watch people, it was nice to have someone to verbalize my thoughts to. But when you have two nice, young girls sitting next to you, dudes will look for any excuse to try and impress them, so me, being the only other guy around, was the butt of these brouham's jokes. On two different occasions dudes asked me if I was a little bit gay, not gay, but just a little bit. They were so sure of themselves, too. They'd be like, "Dude, are you sure, not even a little bit?" What the hell, do I look a little gay? Maybe they were attracted to me and my Lyle Lovitt haircut and that made them feel super uncomfortable?

8. Two a.m. rolls around, the bars close and the streets are filled with tons of assholes trying to find the girl they're going to take home with them, most of them ended up leaving on pedi-cabs with their guy friends, anly to go back to their homes and make homoerotic jokes towards one another.

I walked home and thought about how interesting it was to watch the Chico in their natural habitat. Very, very interesting stuff, my only complaint is I wish I would have brought a notebook to write stuff down in, because I know I forgot a ton of things.

They feel like string beans.

2005-09-01T13:06:00.000-07:00

I was never a big believer in karma, until Monday night. A mere three hours after posting a blog that made fun of some sorry sap kid, I started to feel kind of crappy. Not the kind of crappy you feel when you make fun of someone, I rarely feel that, but the kind of crappy you feel when your body shuts down. It started with a minor sore throat, then my back and legs started to ache real bad and I was feeling a little warm, so I headed home. My symptoms worsened throughout the night, my throat swelled up nice and big, my body hurt like I fell off a roof, and all the damn sweat, it wouldn't stop. So I stayed in bed all day Tuesday, shivering and sweating at the same time, not able to swallow, no appetite whatsoever. Wednesday comes around, after one of the longest nights of my life, and I visit the doctor. Now with a name like Immediate Care, I would have expected a little more immediacy when dealing with the patients, but no. The nurse kept looking at my chart, then putting it back and sitting down, but I was finally seen, and my doctor was very nice, she informed me I have tonsillitis and not strept throat, good news, and to save me money, she gave me medication samples instead of making me pay for a prescription. Last night wasn't as bad as the previous, but I was still pretty unsuccessful in getting a whole lot of sleep. I think the worst part is I can't swallow very well at all, so when I fall asleep I drool like crazy and wake up with crap everywhere, I can't wait to wash my sheets, I feel disgusting. My tonsils feel like some sort of tiny vegetable in the back of my throat, it kind of grosses me out. Took some Advil to help with the pain of eating, I'm just waiting for it kick in so I can eat, it's been a few days since I had a meal, saltines and yogurt have been holding me over for the time being, but I'm ready to move on to tougher things, like chicken soup. One last thing, court shows are some of the best stuff on t.v. if you don't have cable, and I think I'm starting to really think this.

eat

2005-08-31T21:35:00.000-07:00

i'm sick, my tonsils are swollen, I can't swallow very well, so eating is hard to do. More on all this later.

This is sad.

2005-08-29T18:25:00.000-07:00

So I found this on purevolume.com and I feel that it should be taken in by everyone. For those of you that don't find anything funny about this, there is something wrong with you. Note: pay attention lines such as; "you are inside of me", "I loa,la,la,la,la, love you" and the best is at the end, so you've got to listen all the way through to get the full enjoyment of this recording.
FUNNY AS HELL, CLICK HERE

The Celery Stalks At Midnight

2005-08-25T17:34:00.000-07:00

Another post from me, the biggest slacker when it comes to new posts. Anyway, my whole week was spent on the west coast as part of a nice little tour with some bands that, at first I was not too fond of, but grew to like, mostly as people. The week started off in beautiful San Diego, Ca. We show up and the line is crazy, around the building, people all over, then we start to notice the large amount of Asian kids. This was Saturday, we played on the tour until Wednesday. By Sunday night our joke about how the shows would be attended by only Asian kids became reality. Now, don't get me wrong, a person into your band is a great thing, it's just weird when there is an entire community all about you. To make this rant short, we gained a lot of Asian fans, and that means we sold a lot of crap, those kids love to buy things. The only not so well attended show was in Eugene, OR, home of too many hippies, and apparently not so many Asians. In the coming weeks I will be going to Canada for the first time in my life, I'm excited and a little scared, what if they think I'm trying to smuggle pot out of their country, I don't want to get detained in Canada for something I would never do, but that would also be a great story. This is the most boring shit ever written, I need to come up with more witty, clever things, it will come to me. One last thing, someone slept in my bed while I was gone, I don't like that, but they left a copy of the Big Lebowski in my DVD player, so that makes it a little bit better.

My Hero of the Week

2005-08-15T15:03:00.000-07:00

Mr. Gabriel Derose is one the nicest, but craziest guys ever, and he is the hero of the week. A little back story on Gabe. He is the merch guy extrodinaire, he does merch for a band called Mourning September, but when asked to work for the Eagles he couldn't pass up the chance. So he packed his bags and flew out to Tahoe to start on the Eagles' California tour. After a few days of greuling work he realized that the long hours and little pay was not worth it, so he up and left, leaving a note saying something along the lines of "I'm quitting, keep it real." He then had nowhere to go, so he decided to walk to Chico, after hours and hours (he was in Angel Camp at the time) he arrived here later that evening, he got a few rides. I was surprised as hell to see the guy come walking down my street pulling his suitcase behind him. I made some steaks, he took a shower and we hung out. With no way home Gabe was here in town for at least a few days, so we took him to the mall where there a fashion show going on. This wasn't a huge show or anything, but these models thought they were badass. Gabe decided to get in line with the models and when he was up, he grabbed a helium filled balloon, sucked it down and proceeded to do a little dance on the stage, walked off and came to sit back down. I haven't laughed that hard in my life, he was so nonchalant about the whole thing too. And to top it off, he goes to the DJ who is spinning records for the show, asks to check out his rig, and then starts to scratch the record that is the background music for the fashion show, the DJ was pretty pissed, but Gabe casually walks away and acts like nothing happened. Later that night he casually walks into Duffy's after blowing off the doorguy, Gabe is only twenty. After being found among the masses he tells the bouncer you only need to be twenty to drink in Oklahoma, but he gets kicked out anyway, left to fend for himself in downtown Chico. He left yesterday after getting a cheap plane ticket, but he is always welcome here at my house. So if you ever run into Gabe, talk to him, he's a one of a kind guy.

In other news, a local writer decided to make an example of my band and our fashion choices. Now I'm totally open to any criticism about how I dress and how I look, but this guy is an ass hat, so it kind of pisses me off. If you're in Chico, pick up this week's Synthesis and look at page 9, read the story, see what you think, I feel it is kind of unnecessary to put the comments he did, but what is even more unnecessary is his column. Just my opinion. It's hard to say what makes me so angry about this. His facts are truthful, I wear women's pants, I like them, they're comfortable, someone else in my band wears a camouflage hat, it looks good, so what's the issue? I think if kids get too large of an ego when they are 17, their heads might not make it through their early twenties, I would be careful, you could burst a blood cell in the old noggin' there, so be cautious about how badass you think you are. Enough of that, I'll get over it this afternoon.

Best Day Ever

2005-08-10T12:21:00.000-07:00

After many a day being super angry and frustrated at the system, postal systm that is, my legal ID fianlly showed up. Some more things happend with the whole situation that I will not go into because there is no reason, the only thing that matters is it's here. With all this talk about waiting for my ID it seems that's all that I do, but that's not the case. I do other things, like yesterday I drove up to Redding with the Cabrini Green crew to watch their show and sell some shirts for them, only to arrive in Redding and find out that the show was cancelled due to a fire next door to the venue, what are the chances. I was super excited to hear the first song they're playing right now, it's excellent, you should hear it. So we went over to the Round Table Pizza and got some ber and pizza. The highlight of this trip was when asked for our IDs to get beer glasses James (who is not 21) noticed the lady didn't really look at ours, she just held them and gave them back. So James had the idea to try and get a glass as well, so he gives the woman his liscence, she looks at it for a minute, trying to do the math in her head, and failing miserably, she gives it back to him and goes to get his glass. She was slightly flustered, probably because she can't do simple math, but then you don't need those skills to sweep and drop off plates. So I look in the back and she's consulting three other employees about the issue, it takes the four of them a total of five minutes to figure out that he was a month short of being 21, genius- ass people. We then made the hour and a half drive back home and spent a nice night hanging out at home, where everyone showed up except for a Dr. Prado, he was missed, as was Josh Kerney, but he's a legit excuse. If you read this today, come to LaSalle's tonight and get real close to the front of the stage so Mikee can hit you with his bass.

Patience.

2005-08-02T21:49:00.000-07:00

Pointless Fact of the Day:
Tomatoes are seedless strawberries.

A few weeks ago, in an effort to look cool and waste my money, I decided to get my right arm tattooed. So I go to one of the shops in town I trust, expecting the artist I want to be there to plan out the tattoo. He was gone on vacation until the next week, so, being as impatient as I am, I went to another shop. I talked with the owner and the artist that would be doing the tattoo. They were very friendly people and I felt comfortable with the situation, so I made an appointment. I go in and get the outline of the thing done, I'm happy with it, it looks really good and I'm thoroughly excited about how the finished product will look. Fast forward two and half weeks to today. I go in to make another appointment for some fill in work, and I'm informed that the artist no longer works there, and the woman thinks he has moved out of town. What kind of shit luck is that? So I am a little miffed at the news and now I am stuck with the outline of what was going to be an entire sleeve of a tattoo. Now I have to suck it up and go to the original shop and tell the guy what happened and hope he can pick up on the idea of the tattoo based on what is there right now. I have faith that the guy will be able to do an excellent job, it's just getting over my pride and admitting that I'm an idiot that will be the troublesome part. Moral of the story; patience is a great thing to have, don't be an ass and get something right then and there, just wait a few days, it's well worth it. Also, don't go to Gearhead Tattoo and Barbershop, I should have known not to when I thought the name was stupid. This is an excellent learning lesson.

On a lighter note, I went to a softball game today, and I realized something, softball/ baseball players say some of the dumbest shit trying to hype each other up. At the game I heard things like; "Let's make this another 9 pitch up to bat" and "Line drive hitter, yeah?" Exactly, I didn't know what the hell he meant by this, and I don't think he knew either. I think I'm going to start playing softball and saying things like "Yoke that bat around and wind it up over there" or "Face the car around backside flip- flops." I don't know, they'll probably love my team spirit, I could probably get an award for having such a positive impact on the team.

USPS should get mad cow

2005-08-01T23:48:00.000-07:00

Pointless Fact of the Day:
Rain comes from trees.

I am thoroughly pissed off at some of the biggest companies in the US, and I can't do anything about it. What, you may ask, am I so pissed about? I'll tell you. Back in November of 2004, my driver's license expired. I neglected to do anything about it until a month and a half ago. I figured, I'm twenty three, just because my ID is expired doesn't change that, which worked for a few months, but now I have same privileges as a high school kid, I haven't been to bar in six months, I have to have my friends buy me beer. So anyways, I get up real early and go the DMV, the wait is very short and I renew my card, easy as hell, I should have done it sooner. I leave for tour and come back, no ID, okay, it will be here after the next one, I tell myself. Get back from tour number two, no ID. Okay, I'll be patient and wait a few more weeks, leave, come back a third time, still nothing, so I call. This little man answers, I can't understand him very well, he's got a weird accent, borderline gibberish is what he's speaking, but I manage to understand that my card was sent out over a month ago and I should have it. I tell him I don't, he says sorry, I have to come back in and do it all over again, I ask if I have to pay again, and this is where I got really mad, not because he said I did, but because I couldn't understand a damn thing he said. He could have been telling me to fuck off and I wouldn't have understood him, I kept asking, "Do I need to pay again?" and something sounding like a man talking underwater with a mouthful of food came back over the phone making noises, so I hung up. I called back, worked my way through all the menus and that bullshit, this time get a nice woman, she tells me I don't have to repay, but I have to come back in, take another picture and sign some legal documents stating I didn't receive it, okay, easy enough. I ask her, "Can I make an appointment with you"? "No, you need to do that through the automated system which will then switch you over to a real person." Fuck that. This was the most infuriating thing I had experienced since the day before. So I try to call the post office, who is even more difficult to handle because they don't give a shit, you need these people. They say all my mail has been delivered as it should and I should contact the sender. I was so angry at this time I didn't know what to do, so mowed the lawn and I pushed to the back of my mind. Until last Friday. I talked to brother, who lives in Davis and I ask him if he's gotten any of my mail, he just got back from Japan so he hasn't looked through it. He calls me the next day and tells me it's there, in Davis. Now, I get his mail still sent to my house, and he gets a lot my mail, so why in the fucking hell can the post office not look at the damn change of address form he filled out, with his name on it and send the right mail to the right house? Who the fuck knows? I think I should be allowed to trip my mail man or something like that for being borderline retarded, I mean, they get paid enough, so why not do a thorough job? If they had some sort of competition I would probably go with them because I'm tired of the mail people doing a shitty job. So to sum it up, the DMV and USPS, the two biggest companies in the US that you cannot do without, are the shittiest things ever, but there's nothing you can do about it.

Home sweet home

2005-08-01T23:29:00.000-07:00

Pointless Fact of the Day:
If you wear socks to bed, your feet shrink.

After spending the better part of three days driving in a van, I'm more than happy to be at home. Don't get me wrong, touring is the best thing in the world, but there is nothing like sleeping in your own bed all day long, and as of today, using the internet in your own house. That's right, my roommates and I have stepped into the present and purchased high speed internet, we're still working out some bugs, but I don't have to drive to my parents house for anything now.
So this last Thursday I played at a festival in Washington called the Creation Festival. It was a big gooshy christian music festival, but they pay well, the kids that watch are into the music and, the best part, it was at the Gorge Amphitheater in George, Washington. So we leave the night before around 7pm, which outs us at the festival around noonish on Thursday. Myself and my bandmate, Jeff, decide to get dropped off in Seattle so we can hang out with some friends for the afternoon, and just kind of sit back and relax and not have to be in the sun at the festival all day. We're having a good time, we go to Tooth and Nail for a few hours, we hit up the studio to say hi to Mr. Sprinkle and hear some awesome Demon Hunter solos, they're amazing, then we hit the road. So we're about 45 minutes into our two hour drive when there is just massive amounts of traffic, they say delays up to two hours, and we have to play in three hours, with over an hour left of driving to do after the traffic jam. So we wait and wait and get through the jam, haul to the festival, it luckily was running twenty minutes late, which we later found out meant we had twenty minutes less to play. We setup and are all ready, but the sound guy was just sitting there with a thumb up his ass not doing anything. I told him to start checking things, he yelled at me, a lot, but we got stuff where we could deal with it, then we played. This was the worst show ever, or so it felt like it at the time, everyone said the sound was terrible, probably due to me pissing off the sound guy, but screw him. So we're done and it's time to eat and hang out. For food they gave us this fake money to buy food with, and you got real cash back for your change, and here's the best part, they also sold cigarettes there. To make this story good I have to back track a little. Earlier I found an example sheet with all the backstage passes on it, they use them for the security guards, well I cut out the all access pass, went and ate for free behind the main stage and spent my fake money cigarettes, and to top it off, I got cash back. Not super exciting now that I think about it, but at the time I thought I was damn genius.

Long Beach, CA

2005-07-21T00:55:00.000-07:00

Due to popular demand, and me trying not be lazy, I've decided to update my blog. I'm surprised and flattered that people check this to see if it's been updated. A lot has happened since I last updated, I got to go home for a while. My activities while there included band practice and things of that sort, hosing off my porch in the sunny afternoon, cleaning my house and a whole lot of sitting around doing nothing except sweating. Fast forward to today. We had the day off in sunny ol' southern California, so we decided to go to Raging Waters, one of the sweetest water parks around, where they like to say "Have a raging time". Stupid. But it was a lot of fun. I was very reluctant at first due to my dislike of sunburns, but I came around and had a great time. The water was chlorinated, the lines were long, but the rides were fast and wet, so it made up for the waits. There's a strong smelling pineapple in front of me right now, it's nice. I'm worn out and ready for bed. One more thing, I don't want to be cheesy, but this I'm going to be, please go buy our new cd, it would be great if you did. Thanks.

Mt. Vernon, IL

2005-06-25T17:55:00.000-07:00

I've spent the last three days in Nashville doing a lot of things, especially schmoozing, but it was fun. We were trying to get our songs in movies and tv shows and things like that, and I think went pretty well, we'll see though. Last night I went out on the town with some friends and Nashville bros are the worse kind. They all wear polo shirts, mostly pink or black with white stripes, and backwards baseball caps. We sat in the bar and played the name game (where you yell a random name trying to get someone with that name). Dudes were not into it at all. Our friend Ryan went up to some random group and started bro-ing down like he knew them and they were into it for about two minutes, until they saw the rest of us laughing in the corner. Later on some dudes wanted to pick a fight with us, supposedly because we were "faggots". Whatever. The night didn't end until about 6:15 am, I got a few hours of sleep and now we are at our next destination. Tonight we had a nice little surprise when we got here. We were told that John Davis, former Superdrag singer, will be opening for us. I'm excited as hell, and then I start thinking, this guy was in Superdrag, I used to love them, and growing up seeing them on MTV, weird. Then I met him and he is one of the nicest people on the earth. I can't wait to see him play. Also, the A/C is broken in the venue so it's about 105 in here right now, heat makes shows more fun. That's all for now, go buy John Davis' record, it's amazing. Oh yeah, I got the coolest picture frame in the entire world, it's got grim reapers on the sides, but the best part is the picture it came with, it's a dragon with skulls around it and then a weird faint creature from the black lagoon face about the dragon, just come to my house when I get home and stare at this wonderful thing for a while, I'll have it open to the public on weekdays.

I'm sick and on tour.

2005-06-18T23:19:00.000-07:00

So right now I'm sick as hell, my throat is swollen, my body aches, I'm freezing cold and hot at the same time, and to top it off, for some reason I was spitting up blood earlier today, it's real shitty. But tomorrow is a day off so I'll get some rest. I can't think striaght about what has been going on in my world, I'll get my thoughts together and post on this thing a lot more often than I have been. One thing is, I hate liars, most of the time. Example; this kid tonight tells us he has our new record already, that it's been leaked to the internet, we get all scarred and start to point fingers, then Jeff gives him the third degree, asking where he got it, how long ago, which songs, and the kid buckled, told us he was nervous and didn't have any facts to back up his story, damn idiot kid. It's not impressive to a band when you tell them you have their new record a month before it comes out, awesome. More in a few days, I promise.

Denver, CO

2005-05-22T23:51:00.000-07:00

Hippies suck, a lot. I haven't seen a real hippy since I was fourteen or fifteen and attended the concerts in the park. But tonight they were out in full force, and we played on their turf, a real live hippy bar. So we show up and the club looks pretty nice, except there was Greatful Dead and Jerry Garcia posters and pictures everywhere. The first three bands sucked, sorry, but it's true, then we played and the soundguy was not happy, we were too loud for his hippy ears, too much distortion, not enough upstrokes. At one point Jeff asked for more monitor and the guy told him he would turn it up if Jeff turned his amp down, no deal buddy. After this comment I thought, Jerry Garcia would turn the monitors up, and Jeff, being the band mouth piece, said that through the mic, everyone, but the hippies, thought it was hilarious. After us was Showbread, and they had the same problems, but there was more and more soap dodgers coming in, we later found out they were waiting for us to be done so they could have their weekly jam. After the show there was one particular guy that was making fun of us and Showbread, so Jeff and John, the keytar player, went and confronted the guy and supposedly he wanted to throw down. Now I've never seen a hippy fight, just get beaten up, so that would have great to get in a fight, some hippies and the eleven people in both Number One Gun and Showbread. Hippies suck, again, stay away from any and all Phish, String Cheese Incident concerts or anything that is that shitty. Also, if you beat up a hippy, let me know, it will make me happy.

trash

2005-05-19T09:02:00.000-07:00

So I just remembered something. Yesterday we were driving through western Tennessee and were stopped at a Taco Bell/ KFC, so you could imagine the crowd in there. So we get our meals and talk and eat for a while, then a girl comes up to us, maybe sixteen years old and she's got her eightteen year old friend and a baby with her. So they start asking why we're there and stuff like that, so finally she ask some sort of question, which I didn't think she was smart enough to do, that basically makes me answer that we're a band. Then she starts saying all the same b.s., "Can ya'll sign a CD for me so when ya'lls is famus I cun tell people I met you?"
All of this is said with a thick drawl, some words, I'm pretty sure, weren't real words.
So I tell the girl that we have one cd left, we ran out at a show, she says she'll buy it, I tell her twelve dollars and then she starts trying to get money together with her friend, then she pulls this one out of nowhere, she says "I can give ya'll a boob shot for the cd", none of us jump at that, we kind of start talking with each other, she then says "I'm just kidding" and friends tells us she's not. Anyway, this was our first time being offered to see boobs for merchandise, and from a damn teenager too.

St. Louis, MO

2005-05-19T00:41:00.000-07:00

I didn't see Star Wars tonight, and I don't feel bad about it. I'll get around to watching sometime, possibly on video, I don't know. The BMG music club is a great thing, so many choices of cds I really kind of wanted, but would never pay full price for. I don't know how, but every night I end up wth my own bed in the hotel, some people share a bed, another sleeps on the floor and I get my own. The people in the room next door have a dog and it barks everytime someone walks by, I'm thinking about ratting them out to the front desk, but only if it keeps me up tonight. I'm looking forward to coming back home, two weeks left of tour, plus one afternoon home halfway through that. Wayne Newton is on tv, I'll leave you with that.

Tupelo, MS

2005-05-17T23:24:00.000-07:00

So I'm in the south and it's been pretty nice, except for the lack of the internet, these southerners haven't tapped into the new century yet and purchsed wireless internet, except for this place, a Super 8 of all places. Everything has been going great though. The band we're on tour with have been super nice guys, all very southern and well mannered. We started this tour off with a nice little 48 hour drive to Birmingham, Alabama, or BAMA!, as I like to call it. The show was a little different, but we all loved it considering we'd been in a car for two days straight. Then it was off to Orlando, Florida, another nice little drive of ten hours and a time change, but this drive was well worth it. We played the Florida Cornerstone Festival which had about every band you'd want to see playing. The first day was kind of exciting, I can't remeber any of the bands off the top of my head, so I guess it wasn't that memorable, except for As I Lay Dying, they are an excellent band, I like them. The next day was THE DAY. We played, which was exciting and went pretty well, but the best line up was in the evening, starting with the Chariot. I'm not too into them, but one of our friends is playing drums for them, so it was exciting to watch. After them was Emery, Copeland, Anberlin, underOATH, Relient K, David Bazaan, Jon Davis and mewithoutyou, I was beat after all that, not to mention very sleep deprived due to the time change and the early mornings. Another highlight of the festival was the hotels. The promoters decided to put all 75+ bands in two hotels next to each other, so there was a lot of (for lack of a better word) partying going on. The first night us and Morning September thought it would be fun to get some beer and hang out around the pool, and everyone else had the same idea. Almost every band I knew was there at once and it was great. Leaving a festival is always hard becuase you have to go back to "reality", less people at shows stuff like that. It's not really that bad. We've spent the last two days on BAMA! and then tonight in Mississippi, and I've found that southerners are a lot friendlier than people on the west coast, they are kind of weird and some seem a little inbred, but they are friendly. We're acting like we're cool right now and are watching 8 Mile, Eminem is doing his battle rap, and I think we're going to have our own rap off after we watch this. and why do some people cover their mouths when they laugh? I don't get it. Is that Coolio? So not much more around here, St. Louis tomorrow, I'll think of some good stories to post.

Nashville, TN

2005-04-20T11:52:00.000-07:00

So we are still in Nashville, getting pretty boring now, I want to play a show. A bunch of us got tattoos yesterday, and my leg is a little sore. I cut the crap out of myself shaving with the razor, not good at all. The thing kept bleeding for almost two hours, but I'm healing up just fine today. Memphis tomorrow, finally a show. I get to sleep in my own bed monday, can't wait to be back home.

Nashville, TN

2005-04-18T23:17:00.000-07:00

So we have three days off and we decided to spend it in good ol' Nashville. Last night we had a barbeque with our friends in Yellow Second and the Merienthal sisters. Tonight we had a barbeque with our friend Sam from Bleach, he's one of the best people in the entire world, I always leave feeling real happy after we hang out with him. I had the idea to get another tattoo tomorrow, so I shaved my leg, and it is gross. Men should never shave their legs, especially if they haven't seen the sun in over four years. I can't even look at it, it is so damn gross. I hope they can fit me in tomorrow, or I'm going to have a bald leg for the next five months, because my hair does not grow very fast. My brother made the drawing for me and he tells me my mom is not happy about it. I made the decision to get a picture of Leatherface and Ash (Bruce Campbell) fighting. I love both of those characters and thought why not put them together? Well, my mom doesn't like the idea of me getting horror movie characters permanently affixed to me, she'll get over it someday.