Hey, what?

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.....

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.

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

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.

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.

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

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

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?

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

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

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.

.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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.

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.

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.