In Tongues

Touring so far is about what I thought it to be. A lot of down time driving, a lot of confusion with other bands getting sales done, small crowds and strange venue owners. Also it’s a hell of a lot of fun. You get to know the other guys in the RV probably more than you really want to, but it’s the kind of bond that only comes with being in very close quarters for extended periods of time. The girls are… interesting and although Inverse and I are relatively unknown, you can see that there bit of mystique about us in the minds of people we meet. It makes sense, we get to do the stuff that most people just see on MTV… well when MTV used to actually have music on it. And even if its on a small scale, we still put as much energy and effort into our performances and people notice that.

I’ve been recieved much better than I thought I would have been. I’ll admit I stereotyped the black clothed, fucked up hair having, makeup wearing guys and gals that have made up my audience so far, as rockers and metal heads who probably wouldn’t be interested in what I was bringing, but people have been more than complimentary and I have had quite a number sign up for my email list and have sold more CD’s than I thought I would have. Trevor, Inverses singer, said something like “Well the talent is undeniable and people pick up on it regardless of the kind of music they usually listen to,” (He makes fun of my love of Jason Mraz). But he’s right about that. On a side note he hit the crap out of his head on the stage last night during one of his more intense throws of passion. It looked like it hurt quite a bit, but nothing a little Don Pedro couldn’t fix. It’s a blast to watch him perform because he it totally into is music, which is something I’m still working on.

Where we played last night was an experience to be sure. What used to be The Gaslighter, in Gilroy is now, The Globe, a christian oriented venue thats stage is set up to look like a barn an old west gold town. On the bright side we did actually get in the venue unlike last years Gaslighter attempt but on the down side I was asked what my relationship with Jesus was about 15 times. The owner was nice enough and so were the people working there, especially this one staff member who was probably the coolest Mexican imigrant ever. He was always just right there when ever you turned around, ready to help move things, open doors, and just be generally helpful which most staffers aren’t. So to you, mystery Globe staffer, I salute you, you are in the hall of fame. Unfortunetly I don’t think I will ever see him again. Dominic, Inverses guitarist, got spoken to in tongues and was presented a bible by the Globes owner, a man who stood about 6 foot 6 who was very intimidating in the way that religious zealots can be. I think I’ll pass, but hey, we got paid and now it’s on to new and different things.

My friends are awesome. They drove fourty minutes to see me play a thirty minute show, brought my CD’s that had just been delivered to my house (3 days late) and then bought a ton of them. More of them will be coming to the Aptos show today and I’m excited to see some of them that I haven’t had a chance to in a long time.
I wanted this entry to be a little more compelling than the initial one because I want to look back at these in a few years and remember all the funny shit that has happened, but it wouldn’t do it much justice to type it all out and “what happens on tour, stays on tour.” ;)

Sleeping Anywhere

After spending the night at Paul’s parents house in Temecula, which are both way more upscale than I thought they would be, I went to see his graduation from CSULB in Long Beach. We ate lunch with his family including grandmothers on both sides and his uncle and wife then went to Topher’s (Inverse’s drummer) house and packed up all the equipment and proceeded to down town Long Beach to have some beers. I’d write more about it but honestly nothing that I found of interest happened so I think that the brief description I gave should suffice.

I spent the night in the RV that we will be calling home for the next month. It’s actually nice compared to what it could have been, I can sleep anywhere though so it doesn’t really matter.
We finally got on the road today after a few delays and we’re currently on the way to Fresno for our first show. These should get more interesting as the tour continues, most of what came before this was just tying up loose ends and packing.

All for now from I-5.

mardi gras in san luis obispo

ive been to a good number of mardi gras in san luis, since my sister was a freshman at cal poly in 1997 till this year i think ive missed it once. every year its been a blast and every year its gained a little more attention from people outside of the local community to the point that people come from LA and SF just to party there this weekend. a few years ago due to the shear mass of people that congregated downtown for the annual parade the city decided to shut it down as a form of crowd control. horrid idea. now they party has gone else where like to apartment complexes like cedar creek and its been crazy the last couple years. crazy but not over the top, now this year in "anticipation" of rowdy crowds cops were brought in cops from 20 different agencies to calm the storm as it were. but of course in typical cop fashion instead of blending with the cowrds to make sure the people obeyed the law and stayed safe they flexed their muscle and blocked off california street so people couple get to cedar from the campus side. a few fundamental reasons why this was a bad idea. it gives people a reason to not like the cops presence. it didn't really black anyone because if they were smart enough they could have just walked around like my friends and i did. it give people a reason to congregate and get obnoxious. this cost the city over $50,000. (http://www.sanluisobispo.com/mld/sanluisobispotribune/7871551.htm for info) there was a fucking police helicopter flying for hours overhead, FOR WHAT!? like that search light did any good other than to give people a direction to flip a middle finger to and yell fuck the police. this was a sad mardi gras because it just shows how little these agencies understand what their purpose is. do you really thing that all the vandalism that has happened in the past reached $50,000 in damage? i doubt it. city leaders need to get their heads out of their asses and out of our faces and realize that you can not stop mardi gras especially in a town that boasts the largest celebration west of the mississippi. so what you need to do it make san luis safe. have the cops but make their presence and integrated presence, don't line up in full swat roit gear and shoot people with tear gas paintball guns. come on people, i go to community college and i can see that that isn't going to work.

the crying game

this entry has nothing to do with crying, games or the movie from which that title was borrowed. it in fact has to do with kittens and more specifically why kittens are so damn funny. i dont know. but every picture i see of a kitten is absolutely hilarious, and myspace is overflowing with kitten snapshots. whether the kitten be running for his life from rectangular masterbation demons, scratching records on a turntable, or being held and gunpoint cleverly captured in that little "you've excited me to the point where i must totally exagerate that im about to pounce on something" pose so that he looks like he is holding his paws up. they are all classic. i was in kind of a funky mood today, but no longer. kitten humor has saved the day. i hope i have a cool dream tonight, i love sleeping so much that i forget to dream too often.

pollen: plant reproductive cell or horrible plague from the fiery depths of hell?

i spent the weekend in tahoe, beautiful snow, no pollen. i come back here and i am immediately assaulted by that god awful yellow mist. hacking, weezing, shortness of breath, this is bad for someone who trys to sing. but inspite of this adversity i sang quite well at our friends house after dinner tonight, one of my best performances to date i think, and my friend is going to hook me up with a singer/song writer dude in santa clara. soooo we'll see what happens with that. in the mean time claritin, you are my only friend. red wine, you can come too.

a funny thing

we are a strange group of beings, we are so stuck an appearence. i think there should be institutionalized training to help people overcome first impression decisions. i painted my left hand finger nails black and its amazing how off put people get. i wear all "average" clothing so im classified one way then someone sees my hand and you can see in there eyes how they are mentally reevaluating their position on you. VERY interesting. i just wish i knew more people, talking to friends is so much nicer than strangers because you can be more honest. well usually. ;)

if you could only see the way i popped inside

there is nothing worse than bad porn. and there is no worse porn than when couples get into the business. "oh hunny are you ok?" "you like the way that feels?" look im not spending precious hours of my life watching eccentric marriage counciling, i want non communitive grunts and that funny slapping noise and thats it... ok the occational weaking strung together plot line can come too. i was given these words: wisdom, vintage, fence, dolls, psychic, down, want , private, served , effect, homes, frequencies and told to make a sentence with all of them. so i made this: like wavering radio frenquencies, at times, in private, my want to feel the effect of my vintage wisdome outweighed my foresight, as it no longer sat upon the fence, or tumbled down as my dolls once did with a strange consistency that not only served to promote the notion that i harbored psychic abilities, but that the homes in which i was raised were somehow blessed beyond that of the average dwelling see this is what i should do for a living, people need to pay me to write and sing. thats the plan :)