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.

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.

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.

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.

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.