headin home tomorrow!!!

probably be back super late tomorrow, but Saturday I'm goin off!!!! Who's with me!!!!

about to leave SLC and blow up some ordinance

BOOM!

SLC punk

i love this pic

So we've been in salt lake for a few days visiting one of michael's old really good buddies. He's got the total badass bachelor pad complete with hot tub. Since it was comfy, good friends and a storm was north of slc we stayed a few days. Did some karaoke. Michael does a mean "you shook me" from AC/DC. The friggin hot tub had disco lights in it!

We played a show at Alchemy Coffee in slc which was good, but totally blue balls-ing! Me and Mikey (not Michael...yes theres michael and mikey) both wanted to rock on the drums a lot more. I was just playing dumbek, bass drum and high hat. Mikey was playing djembe and washboard. the set sounded great we just wanted more!! stayed that night (last night) in slc...my friend elias came to the gig with his friends too.

tonight we tried the hot springs, but they were full. Had a wild goose chase for a market that had goat yogurt for the chicken korma...once i heard it was all for me, and once i got lost i said lets just get normal stuff, I'll eat something else. So now we're at elias's about to eat! Then probably drive to boise tonight....or early tomorrow....

sorry its been a while!!

Denver...now boulder. My good buds Rob Stone, jeffernuts and jayesh live in Denver. I've had the opportunity to hang out with all of them...We took the bus to boulder last night, got some food (1/2 off everything at the boulder cafe!), then we met some south africans and ended up hanging out with them allll night. Do you know the difference between an afrikaans and the english in south africa? Jefferson left his phone at work, so he ended up calling me from someone else's around ten...he picked me up, took me to brandons while megan ran with the south affricans and we rocked out! six string bass, great drum kit, conga/djembe setup, and two guitars...made for an interesting hour or so of rocking out! then we picked up megan and our international friends and went to see "hood internet." He does mashups...and not well. any DJ that does not make the dancefloor move is in my opinion a total failure, sucks and should be shot on site! He had no sense of flow, timing, energy, nothing. Sure he picked some interesting tracks to "mashup" together, but one mashup did not flow well into the next. Not that there were any trainwrecks, its just that once you get people going...don't put a downer song on next with way less energy!!! Loser! Apparently read a review that said he was "genius." whoever wrote that should be ignored, shot, burned and shot again! today we're going to hike a place I frequently hiked while living here years ago...gregory canyon! And tonight! The bands last show...then we get to figure out how to get a gas guzzling bus home...probably with no shows/money...fun! Thanks for finishing the tour guys (directed at those who decided to stay in denver. In my mind it is definitely screwing us over and not at all responsible. But I also understand shit happens. It's rock n roll man!

Headed out!

We're starting the most sketchy and least funded part of the tour today. Its gorgeous and calm. Lets hope it stays that way!! Wish us luck!!

Last hhh show

Too lazy to write much. Last night was last HHH show and i put it all into it. No tech problems for kit except even with three cement blocks it kept wandering forward so i had to keep dragging it back. I gave it my all. Too tired to party i passed out on my sleeping bag stuff sack. I drank some double espresso thingie from the easiast espresso maker ever. I know this zooted me because halfway through the cup i immediately started playing with whitman and wore HIM out! We stayed an extra day in kevins parent super house. (air hockey, pool and foosball in basement along with the worlds largest couch). This is because the kids are sick so they needed meds. Walgreens ov ercharged them 1000% and so michael made a very entertaining phone call to walgreens which we all enjoyed. Especially the part where he said that he was sending us all to the gas chambers.
We leave tomorrow. Wish us luck in the mtns. And if anyone is reading this please let me know if i should enable comments!
Ciao!

going out in a blaze of glory!

So some of the band members are staying in denver and not continuing on home. I don't know if this means we'll not play with a scaled down group in salt lake and boise, but to not have paying gigs and be driving a huge thirsty bus sounds like a bad idea. If we're not playing gigs we'll probably make it home earlier though...we may also have a lot of fun because there's no stress of gigs and what not. We can share driving, the kids will get attention, don't need a nanny, etc. etc.

I'm actually sort of excited and nervous. It is the most dangerous part of the drive coming up and we're low on funds...this is when the adventure begins!

Last couple of days we've been in Denver. I've managed to hang out with my buddy Rob Stone and Jefferson. Rob actually put me up and kyle, victoria and him cooked a FANTASTIC dinner at his house!! I used his hot tub twice and only had sex on his floor twice as well! haha! Love ya rob! and Jeffro I'll be seeing you TONIGHT!!!

I'm staying at Jay's house now, and we're headed to Boulder today. Gonna find a bus to take us. Oh and it was ridiculous. Jay actually gave us a ROOM to stay in! Holy mother of Jesus! a ROOM! such luxury I feel I have never known at this point. In addition to this room! Was a BED! Oh lord I'm about...to....faint....

In denver! Playing tonight at the outpost! 4321 race street!

videos of us posted online!!! HOLY HOLY HOLY Video!!!!

It's only on FB right now, so hopefully you have FB...

http://www.facebook.com/video/video.php?v=520427347358&oid=80709040008&comments

Also, someone told me that people can't post anonymously on my blog...that's to cut down spam...unless people want to post then I'll turn it on...but I think mostly that Dan C will probably just make fun of me. Dan, Online Bullying is a crime!

about to play a show in durango

Cooking next to the petrified forest. Which is a story in itself. The gates were closing automatically at dusk, so we all climbed in the bus when they were opening for someone and hurried across....we only got to the first area and we were told to go back by three people, but we couldn't turn the bus around! Oh darn...so we had to continue on a ways, but eventually had to turn around. No one wants to mess with AZ cops!

campground, store and "museum" which really means store in these parts. Of course you could go to the other end of the campground and grab all the petrified wood you wanted for free! ahhh commerce!

view to the right from the house we stayed at (15 miles) outside of Durango.

View to the front of the house we stayed in...some really good bouldering !!

the bus has to be plugged in to keep the diesel from gelling during the night. Colorado is wayyyyy warmer than Northern Arizona, at least at night...it's not 8 friggin degrees!

And now for the update!

Michael's on the pots cookin up a storm of some white chili and other goodies. I snuck away to find my lost debit card...found it in one of my pockets, so thought I'd update everyone real quick and recharge my computer.

So we've stayed in durango for two days. Typical to my previous experiences with colorado, everyone is smoking a ton and drinking lots. I've only participated in the latter but enough to satisfy both camps. Yes, it was a "frosty" morning yesterday which speaks nothing of the temperature. We started with $2 pint night (guiness!) and moved on to $2 everything night (patron silver and then crap cuervo). We met clark kent (real name unknown, and without the superhero alter ego), brandon and mariah (not carey). We sang gypsy songs, I rode an extremely nice full suspension bike around the block. In all pictures my mouth is agape and yelling. we listened to hhh quite a bit, and megan and I crashed on two couches put together. details are hazily vague, and the hangover extreme. I didn't eat food til dinner time. I watched three blah movies, and then during the entertaining fun, weird one called Big Man Japan. Highly weird, I was enjoying it but my...eyes...so...heavy...zzzzz.....I will watch it again someday though!! Tonight we go to "articulation" to play a gig, maybe booming, may be some fire spinning, probably lots of nakedness and lots of fun though! It's funny the place is across from the courthouse and down the street from the cops, but apparently that means that everything is on the level so more insanity can take place!

Here are some pics from the night last night. Also from Durango in general. We're headed for the front range tomorrow! boulder and denver! CANTALOUPE JAYESH AND ROB STONE!!!

I'm on the internet, and here's what I've found!

Wisconsin kid shoots up the room and then swat or the kid shoots himself

http://www.usatoday.com/video/index.htm?bctid=692571482001#/News/Student+hostage+Zach+Campbell+tells+what+happened+inside+the+class+held+hostage+at+Marinette+High+School./42804638001/40264770001/692571482001

holy F#$#$ dumbass americans...shopping

http://www.usatoday.com/video/index.htm?bctid=692571482001#/News/Camera+catches+crowd+pile%2Dup+at+Target/42804638001/40264770001/693283583001

and top gear US!! http://www.autoguide.com/auto-news/2010/11/top-gear-usa-season-1-episode-1-watch-it-now-video.html

(nowhere near as good as the british version, but fun!)

3 days of fun! In Prescott, headed to Flagstaff and then petrified forest

coldest outdoor gig yet! Of course flagstaff was colder, but it was indoors so only the loading/unloading was heinously cold at 8 degrees!

They'll let anyone drive the kids around in buses these days!

Well, this is fun, and to the point.

My hair is doing fine, thanks for asking

So we're headed tonight to Flagstaff and then tomorrow to see the petrified forest (http://www.nps.gov/pefo/index.htm) and eventually head to Durango for our next show...which should apparently be epic!

I've been biking around Prescott, but have had to get some errands done. WE've uploaded the video of our latest show as well! Although I couldn't find it on youtube yet, but I did find this: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gidumziw4JE

I bought a brick of drumsticks as I keep breaking them during shows. Three is my record during a show so far.

I left my shoe goo, which has been very vital to both mine and megan's shoes thus far, at the gig last night, so I had to pick up that too. When I was leaving town on the bike though I had to return and let megan borrow my laptop in order to better deal with some stupid, arcane law school application website (I have w7 and she has an old mac).

Can't wait to hit durango as I've never been there. Also the petrified forest and painted desert are both supposed to be spectacular. Actually all of northern Arizona has been incredible!

Oh and my hair is doing well and here are some other interesting shots from the trip!

things are hard to keep up with!

So things have been quite a blur even more than normal since the addition of my girl. We're now in Flagstaff az and the weather is bad enough that we're determining whether we can drive the bus across town or not. It's like 20 deg and snowing out right now...I'm loving it! I haven't been in snow in so long!

We played at the navajo indian reservation last night on the top of a huge hil...outside...in 20 deg weather!!! When I touched my cymbals my fingers would be numb for like twenty minutes. It was awesome since there were two great bands ahead of us too. They were all native americans so that was cool to be with a new crowd of people. The first band blew our minds! They were called let the world die. They played every type of metal, and ska/reggae mixed in. Sort of like soulfly, slayer, and some ska/reggae bands mixed in. The drummer had this "double bass" that was actually two bass drums end to end...so it looked like a cannon!

Second band was sort of an electronic duo, I didn't see much of them because I was offloading the bus.

We played and my bass drum head broke middle of the first or second song (I can't remember). So I got to use the huge "double bass!" I broke three sticks during the show, and my snare stand failed halfway through holy war. Then, while loading the bus I got to speak with the cops!

So I'm peeing next to the bus in this strange sort of just sandy scrub area between houses and trailers and horse corrals. I see what looks like a cop car, so stop things short. Sure enough he sneaks around the bus and looks at the band equipment like it's pounds of cocaine or guns or child porn or something. He asks for ID and I say "why?" He didn't like it, but I didn't like him either. Then he started in on the stupid cop questions. "hey you guys are too loud." (well yeah, we were done though, since we were obviously loading up!) "Oh I know! I was listening." (so then you doubly know were done you douchebag!) He also says that it's a crime not to offer up your ID when they ask, so offer it up. The other toolbox comes over and takes it and relays it back to idiot headquarters. Finally we talk them down and continue loading. Then everyone that watched the show, started coming up and telling me how cool it was and they wanted to buy stuff! I had not sold the band merch yet, so i was trying to find everything, keep them interested and then get change...it reminded me of working for Clear. But this was much different, because it was colder, I actually was part of the product and there wasn't any contracts, fancy clothes or any other bullshit! wohoo!!

Since Tucson though, we played at Conspire which was awesome! played outside! Tons of people, fun, drinks, madness, mosh pits with swirling dust clouds, nakedness in mosh pits and on stage. I found a loin cloth with matching bra thing sort of outfit and wore it all night...

blah blah blah, I gotta get off this computer! ahhh!

Oh, and here's some pics of hawaii, returning to tour...etc. etc...

out of tucson into phoenix

So I've received many texts asking my whereabouts. I was in tucson, had two shows at the dry river collective. The first was tough since Michael left his guitar in san diego, and they were all wiped out from their awesome tijuana trip...had I gone, I might be writing this from jail, but I was in hawaii thank god! But enough on that...what happens in tijuana blah blah blah.

The second show was full electric with an intermittently working stratocaster for michael. I think we pulled off a great show though. There was only one broken nose/concussion.

The biggest news was that Megan showed up Monday and so we stole away to a cheap motel except for the gig.

We had the most gorgeous sunsets on the drive up from tucson, which are characteristic of Arizona...

We're at ASU in tempe, and michael is giving a talk on anarchy and playing a version of the moving "in civ." Megan is enthralled...she's at a school that she applied to law school for and she's listening to the talk on anarchy. I'm in the lobby since I've heard the talk before. The kids are roaming around, pestering, hanging out, having fun. Lanea is here with us chatting. All is well on the bus and in the band. Finances are getting tight, but we should have some pretty good shows coming up, especially starting tomorrow at "conspire" in phoenix.

oh...and megan and i have a hotel room again...with a pool, cuz its WARM!!!

tucson by bike

In tucson...craaaaazy show last night, super awesome at che cafe...jake took the helm and drove all night along with michael and angela...here in tucson, about to get on the bike and ride around all afternoon! Super sunny, nice and warm out...probably gonna get burned, but fuck it! I'm in Az baby!!

kailua bay and lanikai!! Kayak trip!

So today we hit apparently the second best beach in hawai....I'm sure it's not, but oh well, it was pretty friggin wow! No pics yet because we had an analog waterproof camera that we didn't even use the whole roll on. We kayaked out to two separate islands, one of which was surrounded by a great surf spot. On the second one I met some peeps and got to go stand up paddle boarding! Pretty neat, I only fell once....tip: don't go sideways to the waves.

Went snorkeling around the island, oh and my dad almost got severely hurt when a huge wave came over the side of "the queens bathtub." Here's a link...in the middle on the right side there's a lady laying in it...the side of it is the side of the island where the waves hit. Once washed over the top and swept my dad from the smaller tub into the bigger. There was a minute there though when I thought he was gonna float up with a huge head injury....

Then we had dinner at an awesome little local place based on the rec of two very tattooed local girls who were kind enough to give me a beer on lanikai beach...was the best beer ever, and it was miller lite...so if you know me, you know that the situation dictated that I enjoy one of the worst beers ever!

The cool thing about the uahi grill is that they don't serve alcohol but they have a BYOB policy! So we went and got a sixer of sapporo and almost polished it off...

after heading home I tried to convince dad to hit the strip club just for shizzles and giggles...maybe tomorrow night...he was pooped and has to work tomorrow.

So I wandered waikiki and really am not a fan of the night life, which was minimal cuz its so early here. I ended up buying a book from the dollar book store (not affiliated with any dollar store). Called "the Perils of prosperity 1914-1932 by william e. leuchtenburg. That's like buying a book called "why rich people suck" when on rodeo drive. So based on book guys rec I went to the red lion, which was a pretty chill just bar, which is what I wanted. I read my book, had a guinness...then started back out on the street and had a chair massage...that shit wiped me out and so I headed home to get up early and surf!!!

download our first live recording!!!

http://www.radio4all.net/index.php/program/47164

here's the link to fared shafinury in tunnel, audio track via iphone! http://www.radio4all.net/responder.php/download/47163/53054/68028/?url=http://www.radio4all.net/files/bottomupradicalnetwork@gmail.com/3701-1-middle_Eastern_Tunnel_Tunes.mp3

no pics, but I survived many things today...makaha beach with huge backwash, locals and 20 ft waves, and a board that I'm not at all familiar with! Then at tracks with nice 5 ft waves and about 5 ft deep water I survived except for two cuts, one on each foot...

Tomorrow I'll have an 8 ft board and six foot waves and if it's as good as adam says it is...I may in fact be in surfing bliss!

sorry no pics, but an iPhone usually screams haole!

Here is the guy in the tunnel playing middle eastern tunes...Actually Fared Shafinury was his name...for more info you can email him at fared @ faredshafinury.com

also posted soon, there should be a link to the audio I recorded of it!

makapu'U State wayside on Oahu!

Dad and I went for a little hike...didn't get to hit the log jump at the secluded beach, but hey, he's 65! Afterwards we hit up lanikai beach (sorry, no pics), then ate at the crouching lion...way out in locals area...having fun in the camaro too!!

You can barely see the guy jumping off the log that's sticking out into that little channel of water...wanted to jump off it so bad!

Hair shots...this time its sun and surf not grease and grime!

First morning in santa barbara

Just went for a swim and we have a gig tonight!! Tomorrow i fly to hawaii!!

Big sur sunsets by bike

Waterfalls and sitars

So me and new biking buddy dan saw this cove with waterfall. Uh oh wow! Then theres a sound tunnel with a middle eastern guy playi g sitar and singing...holy fucking wow!

Bike porn in big sur!

NEW LIVE RECORDING!!!!

We made an amazing live recording of an intimate half acoustic set at the fernwood grill in Big Sur!!! We'll try and post it somewhere tomorrow so stay tuned!!

We're going to record tonights show!!

Hopefully it works! Its a chill, reduced kit set including djembe floor tom high hat bass drum and ride cymbal...

Inviato da iPhone

Test

Inviato da iPhone

Test 123

Bus pics going north on the 1 from Santa Cruz

In October of 1966, in Oakland California, Huey Newton and Bobby Seale founded the Black Panther Party for Self-Defense. And this is the house where it all began