Also: I don't have much in the way of pictures this time around, so I plan on substituting with Google images vaguely related to my fun. You know. To make it visual. And hot.
Search term: "hot." You decide.
The antibodies worked, that hole in my esophagus closed up and I'm infection free. Sometimes I wonder if the inside of my body's leaking into itself, and the food I swallow is just chilling out with my spleen.
Since the fishbone incident I've been chewing my food like a normal adult, making sure there aren't any fish bones hiding on my pizza or in my milk.
As far as touring, things have gotten a bit quieter this half of the year. There's still four months left to go, but January through June seemed to be the peak of my musical activities. My enjoyment in touring is mostly derived from the isolation in all the travel, from home and all its responsibilities. It's a wake-up call to come back to all of that, to get back to your house and deal with family illness, to pack up and vacate your childhood home, to realize "Oh...I should probably go find a paycheck."
Of course, the natural reaction to all of this is to procrastinate, and then to make excuses, like "I've been moving around so much this year...It'd be a great treat to go sit on a beach and read for a week," when I've actually been "on vacation" since January, driving around the country and having fun but calling it work because there's money involved [sometimes].
Weekend on the Cape with the fam. This one's actually mine.
So after putting it off long enough, I've reentered the workforce right in the same spot I left it, thanks to some extremely understanding employers.
Search term: "work is fun." That's funny.
And then there's the moving-out-of-the-childhood-home thing. It's less sentimental and more irritating, than anything, but I attribute that to the years spent in college and the last year of touring. I mean...after all of the moving back and forth, what's home? I'd say a 15-passenger van, at this point.
I have, however, unearthed treasures at my old house. These are all actual things discovered there, no Google searching involved.
The only way to get jacked.
Recreating my favorite videogame. Bring on the headcrabs.
Untouched video camera from the early 80s. COOL PURCHASE, DAD.
#hothat
We're close to empty, at this point. There'll always be plenty to go through over there. Especially when my dad's going through every piece of paper in the place. No, we will not need my filled application for preschool anymore, Dad. Just toss it.
All of this isn't to say my life is completely mundane.
A few weeks ago, The Venetia Fair was kind enough to take me out for a day in New Jersey. They opened for Hit the Lights, and the show was at a water park...Was there any question as to whether I should to go?
Joe Brown taking his seat on the dashboard. Yes, the van is moving.
It was one of those days where you wake up at 6 AM in one place, drive really far, then get back to the same place you started 24 hours later, all without sleeping in between. Not ideal, but it felt good to laugh that hard again.
It was a beautiful hike, complete with scenic views that were slightly diminished by the tourist trap that is Mt. Washington's peak.
These don't belong up here. Go. Away.
And most recently, the lovely and talented Ms. Julia Nunes invited me to perform with her in the lovely and talented country of Canada.
Search term: "Canada."
It was my first time north of the U.S., and I'm hoping it's not my last. Julia and I had a crazy morning-flight, complete with no sleep the night before, almost not boarding the place (twice), and getting searched at customs. On the way back into the States we actually got to try those new X-Ray body scanners. DID YOU GET A GOOD LOOK AT MY BALLS, CANADA? EH?!
Canada was the absolute nicest place. Now it's easy to see why Americans so eagerly pretend to be Canadians when traveling in Europe. They're just the best.
Montreal was real fun...but smelly. I took note that each district of the city seemed to be geared towards a different bodily discharge. Our hotel was right on the border of the Vomit and Piss districts, so we kind of got the best of both worlds.
And not only was it the weekend of the Montreal International Film Festival, it was the Montreal Fetish Convention. In our hotel.
I didn't even have to type "fetish" in. This came up when I typed "montreal fun."
For the time that we did spend in the hotel, it stopped being strange to share an elevator with a man dressed in skin-tight leather and temple piercing.
The best part of the trip was meeting up with friendlies Nataly Dawn and Lauren O'Connell, who were also brought in to play the show. Along with Julia, they were great company to have walking around Montreal, searching out places to eat, purchasing fancy chocolate facial masques which would later be smeared on our faces during "girls night."
The best part of the trip was meeting up with friendlies Nataly Dawn and Lauren O'Connell, who were also brought in to play the show. Along with Julia, they were great company to have walking around Montreal, searching out places to eat, purchasing fancy chocolate facial masques which would later be smeared on our faces during "girls night."
I like turtles.
The girls were not only good company, but something like inspirational. I might sound like the organizers of the event we played in my appreciation of the three talented ladies, but seeing the three of them together and onstage, drawing all of those fans to a country they don't even live in, it just made me want to keep up with what I'm doing. Which is I guess why they were brought to Canada in the first place, to inspire students and disaffected youth to be creative. So, mission accomplished, girls.
And once again, I'm back in the office of my parents' home at 2 AM, typing up the latest slew of events in my life and planning what's to come. And what is to come? Options are presenting themselves again, like they always do, interjecting with plans I made a month ago that were supposed to last me a while. I should be thankful for the excitement, and I am.
I ran across a Craigslist ad around the time of the Fishbone Incident, a Boston newbie was looking for someone to play music with. He listed all of my favorite bands as influences, which prompted me to send an e-mail. Less than a month later, we've moved all of our equipment into my barn, and we've written four songs.
The before shot.
My new 38-year-old baby. The sweet taste of credit card debt.
There's no telling where it'll go, hopefully somewhere. For now, I'm just glad to be playing and writing music with people again. When we've got a band name, I'll let you know. We're kind of stuck with
"Chinese Food" as our name right now, so...that needs to change.
What I do know about the project: It will be BR00TAL.
Our first overnight recording session.
The moon was full a couple of weeks ago. A Facebook friend IM'd me and told me that some planet (Saturn I guess?) was positioned right under the moon. I rushed outside to try and get a picture, this is the best I could get.
See you tomorrow.
