12.20.2009

Another...

...movie making me feel my life is empty w/o a girlfriend/significant-other. One of the big repetative themes in everything I see is, "your life is meaningless without love, or something like it." More and more lately I've been feeling like something's missing, like something BIG is missing. I love what I do, I love my friends, and I love my family, but I feel like I need more. I'm not talking about a material more, I'm talking about someone to share my life with, my stories. Right now I have this huge emotional spiderweb just wanting to be untangled by a long talk about how this movie made me feel. Emo s**t I know, but...sometimes you just need to spill.

The movie I saw tonight was Avatar. I (as far as I can remember) have never felt as involved emotionally in a movie as I did tonight with this one. It was a beautiful story, a beautiful movie, and the love I felt in this movie overwhelmed me to the point where I'm actually stopping every so often while writing this to close my eyes and remember what my heart and mind have captured from whatching it. Beauty.

I crave this more than anything.

Companionship. Someday.


Sleep now, I'll dream of Pandora tonight.

12.14.2009

No Recording Session 4



So I wasn't actually at the mixing session weekend cause I got stuck working on stuff in Philly, but rest assured, I can only say that mixing is boring, and I probably wouldn't have used much (if any) footage from that session anyway. So, on to business. I'll post here, and other places asking for videos with good quality video and sound (originals, not rips from youtube) of us playing live. Since it'll be hard to get them over the internet.

If you actually have a high-quality video of Rosetta, message me on my Twitter, MySpace, or Facebook, and I'll message my mailing address back to you. The incentive for sending me live videos is I'll send you out a free copy of the DVD once it's finished (even if the video you sent doesn't make it on, I'll just be stoked that you sent something)

12.02.2009

Rosetta in the studio: Session 3 (finally)

It took me uploading it 3 times to youtube before it worked correctly. First time cut off the beginning and the end, second time there was no sound, but finally the third is successful. So here we are with the third installment of the Rosetta recording clips.



And some pics for ya.














I also uploaded to Vimeo, but it's still converting as I'm writing this, so, I'll post that link later on my twitter.

11.17.2009

Rosetta Recording: Session 2

Another weekend in the studio in NY. The glitz and glamour….out the window, and we're here to work!

Mixing board!


Guitar tracks are grueling, and Matt as usual is stressed out, but what's a Rosetta record without Matt getting stressed out?


Here's a lovely shot of Matt's pedalboard.


And then the heads used for Matt's guitar tracks (there's one missing, we ultimately used 5 heads).



All guitar tracks are done. I got rough mixes of the record, Armine is working on vocal and sample arrangement, and we have a few songs we need to finish the bass on. Here's some clips from this past weekend.

11.09.2009

Rosetta in the studio: Session 1

So, Rosetta is in the studio again (this time not ours) and we just wrapped up our first weekend of recordings. We'll be recording every weekend for the duration of November (with mixing the record extending a bit into early December).

Andrew welcomed us warmly, and so did his dog Brady (I didn't get any pictures, but I got a lot of video). Starting at around noon, it took around 6 or 7 hours to get mics setup and sounding write, tuning drums, adjusting things, and what-not. We then took the rest of the day to start on drum tracks, and wrapped up around 11:30pm saturday.


We stayed at our friend Luke's house, had an awesome breakfast, then headed back out to the studio at around 12pm. We sat a bit while Andrew messed with drum tracks a bit, and then we got a'rollin'.


Blasted through drums, got a good bit tired from it, but it was a lot of fun and the drums sound INCREDIBLE! So...a little more editing of the drums, and we're ready for bass around 8pm.


Dave rocked out a few songs and as we were all starting to pass out, we ended, packed up, and were on our merry way. We'll be heading back up next weekend to continue bass tracks, as well as start on guitar and vocal tracks, so stay tuned to here, my twitter, and Rosetta's twitter.


P.S.: We're filming the sessions, so look for a Rosetta DVD sometime after the record comes out next year. I can't say if it will be a Translation Loss release along with the record, but I can definitely say I'll have copies for people at shows. I'll also try capturing some clips and posting them to my youtube when I can.

stay classy...

10.27.2009

Enter: The Mac

So I've finally crossed over. I've gone out and purchased a MacBook Pro (which I am now writing this on). It's glorious, and fabulous, and it makes me happy.

...Okay, enough fanboy talk. It's a quality machine, and a HUGE step up from my iBook G4 which was a joke even for watching videos on youtube. Don't be fooled too much. I still love to death my PC desktop that I built myself, mostly cause it's used for gaming, and as my DaW (Digital Audio Workstation for those not 'in the know').

9.12.2009

Recording Rosetta Demos

So we're in the studio this weekend to record demos for the new record we're gonna be recording in November with Andrew Schneider and it's gonna be awesome. We're having fun and fooling around. We had Indian food from this great place called Saffron, and made Matt fart a lot, and the studio smells bad now. I'll have to open the windows, turn on the fans, and light some incense or something. Everything sounds amazing. I got a new snare drum. An Orange County Percussion snare:




And a new microphone:


And here are some fun pictures form todays recording session:



And last, a neat panorama I did of the studio:

8.18.2009

Drum/recording stuff?!

Since Matt posts all about his guitar gear and what-not, I'm gonna start soon posting stuff about my drums, as well as our studio 'Jane-Doll Studios' and it's gear (since our first two records and the balboa split were all recorded there). So stay tuned, for the info be flowing before ya know it.

8.17.2009

Family reunion - a synopsis.

A meeting? What family reunion has a meeting, with a historian, head
corrispondant, and treasurer? Mine. No one talks to each other (at
least outside of their immediate family), unless it's to make mildly
witty banter as if we were stangers we needed to amuse. Boring people.
Talks of cancer, lineage in diseases, hereditary problems, and more.

Like a business meeting, there are reading of past meetings, and
reminiscing of old times through regimented time sheets written by a
secretary age 86, writing in chicken scratch. Collection plate to pay
for the hall for the next year, where half the people that are here,
will not be. They trap you by having the meeting after the food,
because you can barely move let alone what you wish to do, run away.

8.12.2009

'Prototype' a game footage video. Awesomesauce.

Been playing a game called Prototype lately. It's really fun. It's sort of if you combined GTA4 with an X-Men game and then said "Blow s**t up, (while trying to figure wtf is going on)". I'm enjoying myself. I haven't gotten too far into the story yet, but it seems interesting. Anyway, I just posted a video of game footage I took using Fraps, a video capture program for video games. A little editing in After Effects, some suspenseful music, and viola! You got yourself one sweet looking game teaser. Enjoy.

7.24.2009

Livin' La'Vida LI

Writing this from Long Island, NY. On the beach too. My cousins' house is right on the beach. Not a normal beach house like you'd imagine, when it's just for coming and swimming, having a place to rest during the summer, and hangout on the beach. This is a fully dignified year-round live-in house. The other thing too, is that when I walked in, I thought the air conditioning was on. Turns out it's just a whole house fan, and the front windows are open taking in the breeze from the sound (the LI sound is the beach/ocean thing here). It's wonderful.

Tomorrow I'll have a ton of pictures for ya. The Warner family reunion/picnic is tomorrow too. Gonna be big fun. I haven't been to the reunion in a very long time (around 7 or 8 years), so I'll get to see a lot of people I haven't seen in a good while (save the wedding earlier this summer).

On a side note, I'm thinking of cutting my beard. Not just a trim, but a whole-face shave. I'm considering shaving it ALL off, but I'm thinking that might be a little extreme after having a beard of this magnitude for so long. I might go for a goatee or something...or if I'm gonna go full baby-face, I might consider shaving it to just a mustache or a fu-man-chu (spelling?) for a couple pictures, then shaving it off completely.

Whatever I decide, I'll have pictures to post afterward. I won't cut my top hair, cause I want that to get as long as possible. I'll either grow that long and simply be awesome, or...I'll donate it to locks of love, that would be fun too.

...So, wrapping thing sup here cause I need to go to bed so I can wander the streets of Riverhead, Long Island all day with my dad greeting and hugging cousins and relatives I haven't seen in almost a decade.

Night.

7.19.2009

Random lyrics, stories, limerics, whatever

I was randomly searching through my HD today looking for old projects that I could either play with, or just delete and I found some random folder labeled 'scripts'. Here are two short...whatevers that I found in two different files. I think they're quite neat. Feel free to borrow and re-post these to stuff if you actually like them, but please give credit where credit is due, I'm extremely proud of these short (and rare) bursts of awesomeness.



Disclaimer: These both were written a good 7-12 years ago, and I haven't edited them at all from how I found them.

Oh woe to my ill begotten fate, truly I have wrought my own demise these nights.
Starvation of the soul is but a small price to pay, however,
for the rewards given to thee by teachers so unknowingly evil.
Must we strive and sruggle for these swine of men?
Must we truly twist in their sinister grasps?



This one was neat to find, cause it actually had a date on it. Go me.

Doth love fall upon the grace of the angels.
What scene shows us for our humanity but love?
Can this feeling be faked, can this emotion be taught,
can our fellow man understand what it is to be in pain,
can our fellow man understand what it is to be in love?
This world is not what we think,
but what we think is not what this world is,
our savior, our passion is not what we see it as,
but as a child, we see passion as a mystery,
and as adult, we see passion as a game,
this game is not a test of skill,
but a test of love,
to know love, is to win the game,
to win the game, is to be free.
Be free.

- Bruce McMurtrie -
Wednesday, December 22nd, 2004

The crowd, the craziness, the music.

I've been looking at videos of us [Rosetta] for a while now since we've been back from tour (and wishing I were back on tour), but this one video really shows how crazy it got. This is a video from Budapest, Hungary. Good times had by all if you read my journal entry earlier about it. Anyway, here's the video:



...while writing this I also found this other video of one of our new songs from Budapest, Hungary. I love to watch from around the 2 minute mark, cause you can see Matt head banging in the background really really intensely. Gotta love it:



Anyway...working on some video projects today. Working late tonight.

7.14.2009

Earth ZOoOom!

New video I've been working on. Again, simple stuff compared to some other things I've been working on, but, that's why it's finished first. It's a zoom effect, much like those cheesy ones when some dude screams, and the zoom out to space, and you can STILL here him. Crazy. Enjoy, more to come.

7.13.2009

New youtube video. Nothin' big, but fun.

I've been playing after effects a lot recently, and this is the not so neatest thing I've done, but the other more awesome things I'm doing aren't finished, cause they take considerably longer to do. As this video is only a simple title animation, I finished it a lot quicker. It's just the text 'Jane-Doll Studios' but it zooms out as it's written as if on a blueprint, then starts shacking as if it were at the beginning of an action movie or something. Simple right? right.

anyway, enjoy, more coming soon.

7.01.2009

Europe final days 14, 15, and 16

--day 13 (cont)
Show was crazy...hot. I had a fan on me, but it sucked cause it blew
in all directions except at me. We played well, and the crowd went
crazy. Met a girl after the show 'nadia'. Pretty name, nice girl. Was
really apreciative of us coming to Tilburg. It was funny during the
buildup of out last song, Armine was way up front and I guess got
really close to her, so she took her glass of water and poured it over
Armine's head. There was a very attractive female photographer there
too wearing a tank top and camo pants. She was rawkin' out near the
end too. A nice last showwithcity of ships.

We have a day off tomorrow, in which we'll drop off the city of ships
guys then head for Poland. Should be an interesting show tomorrow.

--day 14
Woke up, had breakfast, just toast and jam and some coffee. We're
gonna be dropping off city of ships today in Berlin. Gonna totally
miss those dudes. This tour has been supremely epic. Show in Poland
should be interesting with sepultura, but I consider last nights show
the last one, because I think tomorrow is just the tour promoters
attempt to boost blindead's popularity. There will be some fun people
at the show for us though, along with people from our first show in
wroclaw. McDonalds time.

Thinking about this seputura show a bit more, and I'm starting to
wonder if people will even be into us. I know some will, cause there
are people coming from where our first show was in wroclaw, but I
doubt that it would be a stadium-filled type deal. I donteven know how
big the venue is anyway. For all I know, it could be only a bit bigger
than where we played last night. Who knows, should be fun either way.

Such...a...long...drive. And we're not even near Poland yet. We're
just dropping the city of ships guys off at the Berlin airport. This
is actually a normal length drive in the US, but for some reason it
feels so much longer here. Should be an epic sendoff though at the
airport. We've been doing accapella impromptu grindcore sessions in
the van all tour, so we're gonna get one last in at the airport.

Feels like we've beendriing forever. Poland is beautiful at 4am
though. Clouds on the ground everywhere, quite foggy. Only about 100km
from gdansk, then maybe we'll get to actually sleep rather than
attempt to sleep uncomfortably in the van.

--day 15
Slept well in the hotel, I think. Got to get online and chill for a
bit. Out for breakfast with Armine, Dave, and mojo. Matt and wife
didnt wake up to our grindcore door jam we did as we left. I just
really hope they don't go wandering and miss soundcheck. I'm getting
some cod and French fries.

So...at the venue now for 'soundcheck'. Of all the problems I tried to
envision for this show, not being able to fit on stage because it was
too small, and too filled with sepulturas' s**t, didn't even cross my
mind. Waiting to see if it's even possible to even play the show.
Le'sigh.

Two develpments. One, I learned that we actually had this show first,
and sepultura was added later, and two, there is (as of now, before we
can even try to soundcheck) barely enough room for us onstage let
alone our gear, so there are talks about moving the two bands
(blindead and Rosetta) to another venue, in fact, sepultura bumped us
off our own show. Gotta love logical planning.

So, much to matt's dismay, we're staying and playing. I just want to
play music, f**k all or whatever. Matt wants the sound to be perfect,
I just want the people that came out to see us to be happy. As long as
they're into it, it's a good show, no matter how I feel about it.
Blindead is on now, then we get to be weird and move the drum kit,
setup matt's crazy guitar setup, and rawk out.

Epic development. Blindead is now gonna play a longer set, and then
sepultura is going to play after them and play as long as they want,
then, once they're cleared off, Rosetta plays. So, we're technically
headlining over sepultura. Crazy.

It is kinda a power trip to wade through a crowd, having them
wondering why I'm pushing to the front only to see me press through to
the backstage area. Watching sepultura from backstage now.

--day 16
Sepultura wasn't all I thought they'd be. Their crowd was huge, but
their music isn't that interesting.

So here's the juice. As I'm walking back from the room after getting
my water bottle, tea bottle, and chaning into my show shirt, I'm
approaches by 2 girls and a dog. They ask me if I was staying in the
hotel I justcame out of. They then asked if I could take their dog and
keep him in my room while they go attend the sepultura concert. I was
hesitant at first, not thinking the hotel allowed pets, but then
thought, "yours confronted with two people in need, and it's no skin
off my nose if we stash her dog in the bathroom for an hour or so, let
him sleep, be a good sumaritan." So we tried to sneak the dog up to
the room, but failed as the reception dude saw the dog sticking out of
her jacket. We reasoned with hinfor a moment after he said no pets
were allowed and headed up to the room. It was weird at first when
they first left the dog. The owner was hesitant to leave her dog, but
her freind eventually talked her into leaving. We arranged a meeting
place after the show, and then headed in. I to the backstage, and then
to...wherever. I think they kept drinking, because next time I saw
them, the owner was crying, and wanted to check up on her dog. I
assured her he was fine, and that I acutally just checked on him, and
he was fine. She still wanted to go see him.

Side note: she [the owner] told me earlier that she ha just been
kicked out on the streets by her boyfriend and all she had was her
bag, friend, and dog.

When I took her up to see the dog, they were already quite drunk, and
the owner layed on one of the beds and played with the dog. I'm not
sure if it was the language barrier or what, but it seemed they were
insinuating that as payment for help, there would be sexual favors
involved later. I jut kinda giggled and walked into the other room to
wait for them to be ready to go, since sepultura was finishing up, and
we had to setup and soundcheck. The owner refused to leave, an after
much coersing by myself and her friend, we finally got them down to
the venue.

The show was fantastic. I think it was the stress of the day, or just
the thrill for the end of tour, but we played amazingly. Everyone
loved it, it was still hot as all hell, but I had a fan, so I was
moderately cool.

After the show, the plan was to meet at the backstage door after I
packed up everything...neither were there. Finally when we were done
signing things and handshakes hugs, and some drunk polish guy saying
his girlfriend loves me and it's a tradition to kiss them, I went back
to the hotel to see if she was waiting. Only the owner (without her
friend) were waiting on the couch. She was bawling with tears. The
reception guy asked me if I could grab her things and dog from the
room and bring them down while the lady waits in the lobby. He securty
guard was watching her like a hawk. I went up, grabbed her things and
dog with Armine, and brought then down. We then sat outside for what
felt like hours trying to figure out a course of action for the two
homeless and their dog. Dave eventually intervened, which I think was
a bad idea, because dave can be nice to strangers at times, but he has
very little patience, and an even shorter fuse.

All the while we're sitting outside, the owner (being quite
inebreated) kept asking personal questions about my life and love back
home, and I think was trying to say she wanted to be my girlfriend,
even though I didn't live in her country. I kept having to repeat
answers to questions all night long due to their ineptness to retain
random information.

We finally came to the conclusion we should ask mojo if they could
sleep in the van because of the hotel restriction with the dog. Mojo
said,"no" so we would have to think of something else. But when I got
back down to them, the dog and owner were gone, and only the friend
remained. We figured she'll just stay with us, and figure where her
friend is later. This where it gets kinda crazy. We're packing for the
plane ride and then going to bed. So I lay down on the sofa bed and
she gets in right next to me...etc.

It was a really nice experience having someone to hold again
in the morning. It made me envious to have someone to hold like that
again.

Moral o the story: no good deed goes unpunished, and girls are soft
and warm.

At the airport now, flying home. Godspeed.

Sitting here now going over the nights events, I'm sad in the fact
that i wish I could have helped those girls out more. The one
disappeared with her dog, and the other stayed over, but left without
me being able to say goodbye, cause she said goodbye and that she was
very appreciative, but to Dave and Armine while I was in the shower.
My right shoulder is still sore from holding it up rubbing her back
all night. The night (at least with the two girls, not the show) was a
complete disaster, but I'd do it again in a heartbeat.

Layover in Frankfurt /sigh. Two hours to wait and nothing to do.

6.28.2009

Europe day 12 and 13

--day 12
Internetted this morning, on the road to holland now. Only a 2hr drive
or so. Lots of horses and cows here. Had a monster from the the waffle
place from yesterday. Twas delicious. Davey from maudlin and his
parents really took care of us these past few days. If I had the
capacity to learn all these languages, I'd move to Belgium. People
here speak german, Dutch, French, and some eve Spanish or portougese.
Respect.

Pigs, cows, and horses, oh my! Passing a ton of animal farms while
travelling through holland. Some interesting smells too.

Arrived in leowarden (at least, I think that's how it's spelled) and
it is exactly how I'd imagine a Dutch town. Feel like I'm in a dream.
First thing the city of ships dudes did was go to a hashbar and smoked
up, I had a cup of coffee and watched them. Wandered around a bit,
beautiful city, lots of bikes. The bicycles have their own road on the
streets. Lots of very attractive women...as every city so far in
Europe. Getting food, dropping bags off at where we're sleeping, then
playing. The bar is playing awesome European ska, it's incredible.

Tasty spaghetti dinner. We got some awsome pizza from next door too.
We were getting taken l where we were going to sleep. It was upstairs
of a bar around the corner. As we walk in our feet stick to the floor,
and I still get. Weird vibe as we head upstairs. Once we get to the
top, the hostess opens the door and it's this gigantic luxury
apartment-type deal (I'll take pictures). Came back and started
getting stared at by the cute bartender and this cute girl she was
talking to...maybe I'll dig up the guts to one or the other. It's more
likely I'll talk to the other girl cause female bartenders I think
brush guys off cause everyone hits on them. Who knows. Waiting for the
show to start.

People and place were great, but no one really showed up.

greatest night ever. Met a dude that played WoW, went to the place
we're staying (which is a two story dance club pounding away all
night) and Eric [from city of ships] tried to do laundry and blew the
fuse to the whole floor. The bartender said he can only reset the
breaker if he resets the whole building, so he can't do it till after
people stop partying...which from the sound of it, sounds like never.
Onto tilberg tomorrow.

--day 13
All of a sudden woke up and missed my mom and dad. I guess
homesickness is settling in. Only a couple shows left. Part of me
doesn't want to go home, the other part wants desperately to. Tilberg
is supposed to be an amazing show, then we part ways with city of
ships and head to gdansk with blindead to play with sepultura, haha.

Got to tilburg. A lot more commercial place than leowarden. Fun
looking place though. There's a festival type thing going on. We
stopped at this place called 'karnak' after wandering around for food
for a bit. The place looks good. Armine and I just ot a margarita,
which is (which I first learned in Australia) just plain old cheese
pizza. Venue is huge. Apparently disturbed is playing here tomorrow
night, coalesce after that. Feels good to be able to be playing in
such a big-name place.

Dressing room here is crazy, the placeis rediculously hot though. The
dressingroom has showers, so I'm gonna go take a cold one.

6.26.2009

Europe day 11 (cont)

--day 11 (cont)
Went out to the bars to hang out. People got crazy. The craziest part
was that a guy from work at home was at the same bar, in the same
city, in the same country in Belgium I was at tonight. It really blew
my mind.

Onto holland tomorrow. Dave's gonna feel like crap. I think this is
the most he's had to drink all tour. Once again, nothing to report
back from the bar situation. I'm too chicken to make a move, though,
granted, pretty much every girl was there with a boyfriend.

Flickr ftw

I'm gonna be posting all my pictures to flickr (though I may still post a few to twitpic just to quickly put them on twitter). The link is in the left menu bar, but here it is quickly for now:

http://www.flickr.com/photos/lafingputz

enjoy.

Europe day 10 and 11

--day 10
Show was pretty bad but whatever. As much as it interferes with tour,
I'm seriously craving some female companionship right now. The show
today is at some sort of festival. People are saying it'll be good,
but I'm questionable. At least we'll be able to play more than one
song, I would hope.

Walked around the city center for a bit. Had some coffee. Came back
and had more coffe, oj, and an apple.

Drive wasn't bad. This place is like new jersey. The show is a big
fest. It's kinda hoakey, but it was fun. Weirdness with drum stuff
tonight too, but whatever. Sleeping at one of the other bands
vocalists house, his mom also made us a rediculously delicious dinner
with fish and potatoes.

Day off tomorrow. Matt, wife, and possibly Armine are going to
Amsterdam. Too expensive for me right now, I'll wait till we pass by
on our way to the Netherlands, and hit up the world Capitol of sin,
hiyo!

--day 11
Slept pretty good. Andrew (the photographer that came with us) had to
go to the hospital cause he said hhis lung collapsed. Day of relaxing
otherwise.

Andrew had to get some sort of surgery for his lung. We'll have to
figure out how to pick him up on monday when he's released from the
hospital.

At the beach. It's beautiful. Water is warm, babes are hot (and some
topless), and [Belgian] waffles are f**king delicious. Waiting for a
food place to open recommended by our host for awesome fries.

Got the most delicious burger and fries I've ever had. There was some
kind of crazy sauce on it that was spicy and incredible. Wish I had
taken a picture of it now. I got a 'medium' fries, but the plate was
huge. Eric and Andrew (from city of ships) got the 'super' which was
gigantic. Unfortunately, none of us finihed our portion of fries,
cause they were just too filling, but still amazing. Multiple types of
dipping sauces too.

We're back at the house and near everyone is in a food coma. I just
took a shower, even though it was a cold shower, i had to go sit
outside (where I'm writing this) to cool off. The relaxing day
continues. I think the plan for tonight is to go for a European dance
party, and I'm gonna hit on girls in a Scottish accent. Should be rad.

Side note: so many people ride bikes here in Belgium it's crazy. Only
thought of this as like...4 cute girls rode by on bikes consecutively.
Zing!

6.24.2009

Europe day 8 and 9

--day 8
Long ride to Leipzig. Not much of interest on the way so far other
than we were pulled over by what I guess was border patrol coming into
germany. Checked our passports, asked a few questions about why we
were here, and he was interested in our bands and such. His final
question was "you don't have any drugs with you do you?" all at the
same time we all say 'no' excitedly, cause none of us actually do. He
laughed a bit and we went on out way.

Long boring drive to Leipzig. Venue was really tiny. Felt awesome,
like playing in a basement in Philly. One of daniel's (drummer from
city if ships) cymbals is broken. I feel bad, but we both beat in it
equally. Either we'll just have to live with it till Rosetta goes
home, he buys a new cymbal (cause I don't have the money for it) or
the drummer from blindead let's us use his...which I doubt.

On to Belgium tomorrow. Should be a good time...except for the long @$
$ drive. More boredom expected.

--day 9
So, not only was the drive to Belgium torturingly long, but the van
broke. It didn't break 'down' though. There was a weird gas type
smell, and a clicking sound under my foot, but we attributed the smell
to the factories we passed along the way. Turns out something broke in
the van, and was spraying gasoline out the back all over the trailer.
It smelled horrid. The venue was hard I find, there was some sort of
carnival going on blocking the way to the entrance. Best of all, we
arrived late, city of ships has to go on immedietly, and the 2nd van
(carrying Armine and the entirety of blindead) has yet to arrive.

The 2nd van showed up, but with limited time I spare. I'm hoping
blindead doesn't play a full set, because I think either there's one
more band before is, or we are playing next. Either way, we'll
probably only be able to play for a very short bit.

Looks like we're not playing at all. Hands down, worst show so far
this tour. Waiting for the van to get fixed after this I guess.

So we got to play one song. Quite unsatisfying. Squatting on some wifi
in the middle if the sidewalk in Belgium, kickass. 'nother show in
Belgium tomorrow by the beach, w00t!

6.23.2009

Europe, day 6 (cont) and 7

--day 6 (cont)
Got spoiled in Budapest with a buffet dinner. Food was delicious. Was
Hungarian pasta and turkey in some sort of tomato sauce, plus lettuce
in salt and vinigar. Apparently the sound guy here is the 'american'
type of sound guy, and thinks we're too loud. Working out the problem
now.

Some girl came up to the merch table confessing her love for our band
and cried as she gave Armine a hug.

So yea, the show was...rediculous. I'll dive right into it...Armine
got propositioned by a girl to have sex with him, but I'll get back to
that.

People went nuts when we played. I had stage lights shining on me
blocking most of my view of the crowd, but I'm told that people were
swaying, jumping over each other, and pretty much going crazy the
whole time we played. There were people once again asking or
autographs, and some people almost bleeding their heart out saying
they loved is and we were their favorite band ever, like that girl
that cries as she hugged Armine.

Okay, once we were done the show, Armine was socializing, and we sat
down and signed auographs, which was crazy in and of itself, but there
was this one girl that kept inching herself closer and closer to him.
Finally when he got up to start packing up, she popped up and started
admiring him really closely. I walked away for literally a second, and
then everyone was whispering about that girl hitting on him, and
(Armine told me this) she was 'heavy petting' and rubbing her chest
against his hand. Apparently she got really intense, but Armine held
to something 'rock stars' don't usually have, morals. Meaning, he
didn't take advantage of this horribly drunk girl, almost literally
throwing her vagina at him. Best part is, she has a boyfriend, and he
hit on matt's wife.

At the hostel now, no wifi. I'll have better luck tomorrow in the city
where apparently, there's wifi everywhere.

--day 7
Awesome breakfast at the hostel kitchen. Pretty girls eating at the
same time as me, obviously I'm too chicken to talk to them even if my
intentions are strictly conversational. Spiderman 3 was playing on the
television in the cafeteria, but even dubbed in Hungarian, it's still
a really bad movie.

Armine, matt and wife went out to see the sites. I'm gonna sleep more,
and maybe take a shower. On to Vienna today. We meet up with matt's
sister and friend. I'm stoked.

Budapest sidenote: this hostel is the first time this tour that I
haven't had to use sandpaper toilet paper. Very happy about this.

Stuck at the hostel bored. Matt, wife, and Armine went out to see the
sites. I didn't feel like wandering today. Good thing too, cause it
started raining a bit after they left. I'd love to go back to the
venue to get wifi, but I'll just wait for somewhere else. I'm assuming
the venue or hostel in Vienna will have wifi, so till then, i'll just
write my notes.

Sat out on the couch near the front door of the hostel for a bit
reading some Budapest literature. Some group was clearing out of their
rooms. Thy were all girls, all (at least what it sounded like from
their language) Swedish, and all gorgeous as all hell.

Waiting outside a grocerey store in Budapest. Apparently the blindead
dudes wanted to get wine, or something.

Starting to realize it's no big deal to drive Mercedes here. It's
like, the Volvo or ford of the EU. We're touring in a Mercedes, haha.

First bad weather of tour. Got a rainstorm on the way to Vienna.

Got stoked for a second when we arrived to the venue cause there was a
big outdoor part, but remembered it was raining. Then we went inside
and the venue was still pretty big, pretty cool. Sound checking now,
then...fooood.

Food was awesome. I love Vienna food. Show soon.

Tried to connect to the wifi, but it failed, maybe tomorrow.

Show was okay. Unusual personal problems made the show weird (at least
for me) but people still enjoyed it all the same. On to Leipzig,
Germany today.

6.21.2009

Europe Day 5 and 6, plus pictures!

All photos for this tour (up till this post) can be found here.

--day 5
We're at a local Czech restaurant and about to eat this fried cheese dish with fries. I'll take pictures. It's gonna be epic. Carbonated water is all the rage here. I hate it, but I get it whenever I ask for 'soda' but I think I have to ask for 'voda', not sure though.

Fried cheese is goooood. Authentic Czech dish, picture coming soon.

Stopped at a truckstop and had a cornetto. Now I know why Simon Pegg loves them in his movies so much.

At the venue in Brno. Some creepy guy answered the door, they're waiting for some type of cabinet (maybe musical, or part of the stage) before we can load in and soundcheck.

This place is kinda creepy looking, but it could be fun. It's right near a university, and we're only about 500m from the hotel we're staying at, so sleepytime can commence quicker than usual. Food i here, w00t!

Matt's sister and friend arrived, but turns out there's no room for them in the van or hostel. I guess they'll figure out something. Meanwhile, the fuse for the power on stage blew twice during blindead's set. I really hope we (city of ship and rosetta) have better luck.

No such luck. Power went out during our 3rd and 4th songs. We were able to finish the 3rd, but not the 4th. People were bummed, as was I. Again...lots of beautiful women here.

Still waiting to see how Matt's sister and friend situation is gonna work out.

We've been put up in an actual hotel. Pampered much? Still no wifi though. Hung out for a bit. TV only had 3 channels, all in Czech. One was a porn advertising that was amusing to watch for a moment, but then just got weird. Anyway, Budapest next.

--day 6
Good sleep in a nice bed. Alarm on my iPhone woke Andrew (from city of ships) and I up. Sounded like the fire alarm. Free breakfast at the place next door, yay!

Enjoying the company of Matt's sister and her friend, esp. her friend. Apparently the tour manager, Mojo (pronounced mouyo) had all the tour money (for gas and stuff, not our personal merch money) stolen last night. Le'sigh. On our way to Budapest today. Heading out soon I hope.

On the road to Budapest. I'm actually saving money by not being able to change my American money over to present currency. I've used my card a couple times, but most places here don't take it. Still thinking about Matt's sister's friend. Probably a bad idea torturing myself like that. I think we're meeting up with them again in Vienna. 4hr drive to Budapest, gonna try and get some sleep.

In Slovakia now, but keep seeing signs for Bratislava, and it makes me giggle because of the movie EuroTrip.

I'm getting used to this carbonated water thing. It's weird, but I'll suck it up for the rest of tour, hell, maybe I'll start to actually like it.

Arrived in Budapest. Really awesome sites. The wifi isn't working on my iPhone, but is connecting on my laptop, go figure.

They setup a giant buffet for us here. There's a huge lounge room for bands. More pampering much?

6.20.2009

Europe day 3 and 4

Someone stole my sandwich from the hostel fridge last night, and some
dude threatened me with what I think was bitchslap in a language I
didn't understand. He mimed the slap.

Armine got stopped at the airport security in Prague cause he had a
picket knife in his bag that even he didn't know about. Funny, cause
the US and Frankfurt airport security didn't catch that. Way to go.
Suck it got confiscated though. On our way to Athens to play one show
though. How awesome is that?! Gonna take a s**t load of pictures. I
still have pictures I need to upload from my regular camera next time
I can get reliable wifi on my laptop.

SkyEurope to Athens is making us pay €2.50 for a bottle of water...I hope
there are cups for sink water in the bathroom, causeu throat is
staring to get really dry...

...no cups in the bathroom. The real bummer is, I was just gonna cup
the water into my mouth, but accidently hit the stewardess call
button, and had that uncomfortable situation where I had to explain I
hit the wrong button not knowing if she spoke English. Good times.

Beautiful flying into Athens.

Stuck In rushhour traffic on the highway in Athens on the way to the
venue. Only with rosetta.

Motorbikes everywhere, it's kinda crazy. I mean everywhere. There is 1
motorbike for every 6 cars.

Baggage checkers wrecked matts pedal board again. Gotta love airport
security. Musical instruments = bomb?

On the bright side, the promoter for the show got matt his head that
he needs to actually play the show. The house kit for the club is a
piece of crap, and the cymbals on it when we arrived had chunks
missing from them, luckily I've been informed we're getting actual
playable cymbals for the show.

Got cymbals. They're okay. I've already told myself that this show is
awesome by the simple fact that we were flown in on the promoters dime
(or relevant currency) and we're in Athens, Greece. Yikes! We walked
up to see the acropolis. Long @$$ walk, I had to rest a bit once near
the top, but my gosh was it beautiful. I'll have pictures up asap.
Now, show time. No matter what the turnout, or money made, this was an
amazing show. We fly back to Prague tonight right after the show, thn
into Brno, Czech tomorrow.

Side Note: almost every woman I see is freaking gorgeous, and it makes
me sad, cause I know that even the alour of tour or anything can break
the strong language barrier between us...that, and I smell aweful.

Every show so far i've been overjoyed just to be apart of this journey,
and I'm grateful for what the music I play has brought me, and where
it has as well, but, at least once every show, I see a couple being a
couple, or just plain makin' out in the corner, and I get envious. I
guess that's a bit selfish since I've been granted with the gift to
not only bring music I enjoy playing to the world, but to travel it as
well, but it'd be nice to have someone close to share my stories with
and have a little more intimacy than just a close friend or bandmate.
Anyway...back to the fun.

Show, once again, was incredible. Ton of people, they were into it,
rawkin' out, and except for one of the cymbals being broken, the snare
shifting constantly, and the kick pedal fell off the kick drum
twice...I'm in Athens, Greece, and nothing can ruin my good time.

There's a problem with being paid though. Apparently, the people that
put on the show didn't get enough people out, and can't make our
guarantee. Usually in the US, if we were pampered this much, and this
happened, we wouldn't feel comfortable taking their money, and we'd
just take a little hit in the pocket. Blindead wants that money, and
now they're arguing. /sigh

We'll see what happens, but honestly, I'd rather just forget about it,
and talk about the next show when we get to it. I'm hungry.

Wandered around for food for a bit, found an awesome place, had some
crazy good pizza. Waiting out in front of the venue waiting to head to
the airport.

So...on the way to the airport, we see the promoters car (filled with
almost all of blindead, pulled over in the side of the road
surrounded by 6 police cars. I still don't known exactly why they got
pulled over, but they said they pulled them from the car one by one
and searched them, and there was a guy on the hill watching them with
a pistol pointed at them. Way to be intense late at night Athens. They
probably thought they were the 'anarchists' from the riots.

One of the greek drivers said that the anarchists throw bombs at police
where they know they'll gather. Crazy.

So...tired. Redeye flight to Budapest connecting to Prague. I'm about
to pass out on the airport floor. I really hope I get to sleep once
back in Prague.

The flight to Prague was actually super short (I think because I fell
asleep) and they gave us cinnamon rolls and orange juice. Still kinda
tired though. Gonna try and get in a shower and then we're off to
Brno, Czech.

Got wifi at the hostel in Prague, so, updating stuff now.

6.18.2009

From Wroclaw to Prague

Gonna start just copy/pasting my days notes into emails and submitting
to my blog that way, since it's getting harder to find unlocked wifi,
except when I'm busy having o load or play a show. So here goes.

--
Took forever to load up and get going. Finally leaving wroclaw at
2:30pm (we were supposed to leave around 11am). Turned on the radio in
the van, and nickelback was on :- /

On to Prague. Poland is really flat. Pretty though. So tired, bur I
hate falling asleep in the van because I never know where I am when I
wake up.

Had some great coffee at a truckstop. Unheard of in the US. Entered
Czech. Scenery has changed a bit.

Reading 'the Tao of pooh' and enjoying the Czech countryside.

Except for all the signs I can't understand, it feels a bit like we're
on a US highway.

--
P.S.: I'm just going to post pictures to Twitter when I can, so follow
me at http://www.twitter.com/lafingputz to get the days images of tour.

BJ's tourgasm!

So...this show was rediculous. We played two encores. wtf? After we played I walked out of the show near the merch tables, just to throw out some water bottles and stick paper-wrapping, and got hounded by people asking me to sign everything from their tickets to beer bottles (not kidding) and tells me they've seen Isis and cult of luna live, and we were tons better. Weird.

More later on in Prague.

6.17.2009

I woke up and I was still in Poland.

Everyone went to a play of Hamlet last night. I opted out to lay back and relax...though I ended up passing out in my bed fast asleep.

Got to the venue and setup shop at the merch table.


saw a dead pigeon w/o a head.


and now it's setup and soundchecks.



...more to come.

6.16.2009

A gander at Wroclaw.

Just got back from a stroll around Wroclaw. It's a nice place, and I can't understand a word anyone is saying. I tried to order a cappuccino, and I failed, I had to utilize my charade skills again by pointing at the menu, then trying to ask what something else said. Apparently it was some kind of upside down chocolate brownie/muffin with chocolate sauce and caramel on it, with cherries all around it...mmm...I was happily surprised when that arrived. I also exchanged some money for polish 'zloty' and I'm a rich man. I handed the exchange person $40 and I got back 127zloty. w00t!



Got to see a really neat church right before heading back. I made a panorama with my iPhone pano app. It's sweet. check it here.

It's weird...driving around here, sometimes I forget I'm in Poland. Some parts actually look a bit like Boston for some reason.


Edit: re-linking all my photos cause for some reason twitpic refuses to let me link them remotely.

Made my first international purchase...

Cost me 4.05 euros...which is like, $6 US. Got an orange soda and some pretzel sticks, w00t. The flight wasn't that long, but it was annoying. For one, I was unusually uncomfortable. Usually I'm fine on planes for sleeping, but for some reason this time I had trouble getting to sleep. Secondly, we apparently sat in front of 2 gentleman from the Philadelphian Italian Mafia, and their mother, whom which they were taking back to the motherland...and they're loud, and obnoxious, yay!

On the plus side, I'm in Germany. This is my first official post of the Europe tour. If I connect to the wifi at the Frankfurt airport wifi, I have to pay $0.18 per minute...so I'm not gonna do that, and just wait till I have free wifi to upload my posts. I already have a picture. Took it of the Germany equiv. of our 'Air Mall'. It's advert-fail, and I love it. Matt said to me after this, "there will be a lot of 'english fail' all over Europe." I'm excited.

Check out the bottom left hand corner:


We're here on a layover waiting at Frankfurt airport to fly to Wroclaw (still don't know how to pronounce it), Poland. At that point, we get to where we're staying, which I think is a hotel of some sort, then Matt checks over his gear, makes sure it works properly, then I think we're gonna try to practice with our rented/borrowed gear here or something that. I've been informed that I am not allowed to fall asleep when we get to our hotel in Poland, otherwise I'll be set to that sleep schedule for all of tour, and I will be miserable. So, I'm sad, but at least after todays torture, I'll have a normal sleep schedule, and sleep like baby when I finally do.

So, I'm gonna take a nap on the floor of the airport here waiting for a flight (which i not for another 2 hours) then on the flight to Poland, drink LOTS of coffee.

--Later...

A dude approached me as we were boarding the flight from Frankfurt to Wroclaw. He asked us if we were a band. I thought to myself "are we that dirty already? that we look raggedy enough to be a band on tour?" He introduced himself, and said he was gonna be in town for a while and when/where we were playing. I gave him the info, and I'm hoping to see him at the show tonight.


On the flight. Had a ham and butter roll sandwich thing, and a mars bar. It was yummy, the mars bar was cold too. :)


We then landed in Poland, and I needed to use the toilet. I asked an old lady if she was in line for the bathroom, but she responded in German. Luckily I'm awesome at charades...and had no clue what she said, so I just nodded and smiled. Once done, we collected out bags, thanking jeebus that everything got there alright (as far as we knew at that point, cause matt still had to check if his amp actually worked when he turned it on).

I'm writing this as matt is flipping out reconstructing his amp, we're in awe at the venue, and I just had a coffee (plus the one from the plane, and the one from the plane before that...) but I want more coffee :)


I'll post more pix once we get to the hotel...or something, wee! Poland!

--

6.15.2009

Up late, packing, playing, writing...etc.

I procrastinate like whoa...

Meant to spend the whole day doing laundry and packing, but I ended up setting up my drums and writing/recording two new songs.


It's now (at the time of writing this sentence) 12:47am. I have a bunch of stuff to do tomorrow before 2pm which is when we're leaving, so hopefully I have the intelligence to pass out after posting this.

Here's how my desk looked prior to posting this...notice world of warcraft present on my main screen.


Anyway, my bags are packed now (except for some last minute laundry, and whatever toiletries I need to pack after I use them tomorrow morning. So I bid thee farewell, and we'll see how well I handle my promise of writing a blog everyday. I don't guarentee that I will post every day, because It'll depend on if I can find a place with wifi or not, but I'll definitely write something, and post it once I find internet.

Much love, c'yall lata.

6.13.2009

The European blog ftw.

Sending in my blog via email to test this out before we head off to
Europe. I'll keep updated with my awesome descriptions of awesomeness,
and take many pictures. We'll be bringing a video camera as well, but
I don't think I'll have the footage off that till we get home.

Anyway, stay tuned, and rawk on!

5.22.2009

Digg Story: I'm Ready to venture back to Jurassic Park

Sure, there were two sequels to Jurassic Park, but one would be required to sustain an egregious head injury in order to enjoy them. This is perplexing to me, considering that the conflict of man versus genetically re-engineered dinosaur clones is one of the most fundamental in a writer’s arsenal.

5.13.2009

My first documented celebrity sighting.

Apparently he only lives in Upper Darby or is from there, but I was (am) at work at starbucks today. I serve a few customers this afternoon, and all of a sudden Jamie Kennedy is at my register asking for a black iced tea. Now, I'm not one of those people that goes star crazy, I just think it's kinda fun when I see someone from a movie or band I like. I thought it was him from knowing his face, but it wasn't till he spoke I knew it was him. I made his tea, rang him up, and he said, "mmm...good" and walked out. It's a good day...on a sadder note, twitted is down for maintenence, which is why I'm writing this long story instead of writing a short synopsis there. Off work soon, then more script editing...and WoW. Yay!


P.s.: Justin is awesome and wanted to be included In my story. So...he's smiled at Jamie Kennedy andmade a 'connection' and they'll be getting married later his summer.

5.06.2009

My van blesses me, and curses all else.

Why is it that everyone but me gets pulled over in my van...other than me. A while ago, I had the van (this is the van that rosetta tours in) inspected, but there was a problem code that came up in the diagnostics about the transmission. I didn't have any time (nor the money) to go get it fixed at that time, so I just let it go and told them I'd be back to finish the inspection once I got it done. I have yet to be back .

A little later my front left headlight went out and I had no problems. We had shows in NY this weekend, and had no problems. Magic happens, the blessing that is me. And when I'm not driving the van, or in the van while it's being driven, the magic disperses (or just follows out). Anyway, my mother had to borrow my van to move something big, and when she was getting gas, a police officer noticed her headlight out, and followed her out of the gas station and gave her a ticket. But just yesterday, my father had to borrow my van because my mother was using his car (for whatever reason). He comes back later that night to tell me that he ran damn red light, got pulled over, the cop noticed the headlight was out, and on top of everything, he couldn't find the registration OR the insurance (which btw was sitting right there in front of him on the frickin' dash board). So now he has five days (I say 'he' when it really means 'me' because the van registered in my name. FML) to go to the police station and present registration, proof of insurance, and a receipt saying the headlight has been fixed.

I have to do this in five days with a) my regular work schedule, b) my recording schedule, c) my freelance work I have to get done by end of week, and d) having shows all weekend.

Overall, this is a major f**k, and it's making me unnecessarily stressed out.


...on a happier note, I found all my old monkey-smileys from my old-old blog which I'll be using to great extent from now on.