Where is the hotel?

i've got nothing to hide from you

okay. so i am basically super lucky. for real. two weeks ago i was in TAIPEI (and i know i still have not gotten around to writing about that, but it was awesome) and now i am in MEXICO CITY and it is just as killer. yeah. you know these places exist but that doesn't even matter. cause once you get here and you are existing within them... that's when it's happening. i am lucky. i have a job where i meet rad people all over the world. i swear i won't ever complain about my job again. well.... maybe that's the tequila talking but fuck it. mexico city, forget what you heard. sure, it might be a little dangerous but so is paris. sure the cops might suck, but they suck in LA too. dudes... mexico city rules.

this one's for kime.

urban trees.

tacos like you've never had in LA. i am not even sure i can eat mexican food in LA again.

amazing architecture.

mariachi's line the streets like hookers looking for work.

and then you round the corner and it's mariachi square. 24/7 mariachi party zone. come here to hire a band for your next fiesta.

quick break for a $2 michelada (cerveza, sour mix, tabasco, ice. yum)

friendly strays are everywhere enjoying the mariachi's.

and then inside the bar to find this guy. the shocker. pay him 100 pesos a pop and he will electrocute you and all your friends. grab an end of the cable hold hands with your friends. it goes up to 11.

feel the pain.

the phantom tingle lasts for awhile.

and this, my friends, is what i am gonna bring home to you. the "mexican flag" limes, white tequila, and tomato juice with tobasco and worchesteshire sauce. one at a time = delicious.

andreas, one of our hosts, looks a little like my old employer, paul banks from interpol. oddly enough paul lived in mexico city and was a grade ahead of andreas at the same school.

and three mexican flags later... time to leave.

where those chilly winds don't blow

i am only wearing dead t-shirts this summer. i just got this one on ebay.

disposables

here's some photos i took with disposables over the last two months.

liz clayton. brooklyn brownstone owner. just like cosby.

housewarming leftovers.

no age. brooklyn loft space. one exit. mattresses in the window. awesome.

candy in kyoto

the view from shibuya excel hotel tokyu. the same view i always have. i am NOT complaining.

taipei. not japan.

we got milkshakes in taiwan. they were tasty, tasty hangover cures.

2 beer party comes to the states

i am now an expert on eating with sticks and se asian beer. i'll happily show you how. finally, really on my way home. although i have to say, looking at photos today. i really miss taipei.

i've seen your face a hundred times

i'm coming home.

but first i have to stop in toronto.
taipei - vancouver
vancouver - toronto
toronto - LA

be home friday night.

press her and a coffee will be made there

dudes! OSAKA care package from s hason! she's rad. fed ex is rad. japan is rad. but most rad of all is the pizza dice that came in this fed ex box. give em a roll and they tell you what kind of toppings to have on your pizza. buzzelli.... these have your name on them. pick me up at the airport friday night.

i am getting really behind here. things have been happening so fast. shows in japan are getting better and better. i mean crowds/kids. i remember really polite responses and super attentive crowds from the past. which is really nice and respectful but not really what a band wants/needs at a rock show. they really need to hear some crowd action to feel like they are having a good show. but the past few for dinosaur and broken social scene have been amazing. a perfect combination of both.

first up was osaka. i was at this place the very first time i came to japan in 2001, the osaka quattro. it's in a mall, just like all of them. and the dressing room is just the best. there's something about the graffiti in that room that is different from other dressing rooms around the world. all graffiti covered dressing rooms in japan have this feeling. i think it's cause there aren't any dicks. there's no drawings of naked women. not a ton of trash talking about other bands. mostly it's just people writing their band name and what year it was they were there. i think you can feel how stoked everyone is to be in japan when you are in these rooms. i found ad rock and fredo tags from that tour 7 years ago. and there was this this M.I.A tape tag on the door that was totally camo but totally obvious at the same time.

i don't have any shots of the osaka show for some reason. but i have shots of an okonomiaki pancake! yum. the best part about shows in japan is they start at 7 pm and are done by 10 pm so people can get the last train. doors at 6. it rules. then you have plenty of time to hang out after the show. and that means eating. we went to this oki place and gorged. i even tried the tokyo style that was described as looking like vomit. it ruled. 3 beer party that night. and they were playing satellite death metal radio at this restaurant, just in the bathroom tho. i heard opeth and entombed when i visited. a bunch of white north americans latched onto us after the show and somehow ingratiated themselves to a couple people and i ended up having to pretty much tell this girl that i didn't want her sitting at my table. i mean i just don't want to talk to white people on asian tours. especially not ones that pretty much invited themselves along to a meal that the promoter was gonna pay for. i'd rather sit with the people i am working with and the local people from the label and the promoter. not some lame 22 year old college girl that no one is interested in. so anyway, when i told her she had to go to a different table i am pretty sure she thought i was a prick. and when i was standing behind her in line at starbucks the next morning i still didn't feel bad.

shinkansen to tokyo the next day! totally rad. comfy seats. smooth ride. we went from sun in osaka.
to clouds.

to snow

and back to sun again just in time for mt fuji.

the first tokyo show was at the liquid rooms. the crowd was so polite at first it was like a library. it's only after they were given permission by the band to go nuts did they. and then it was kick ass. except for the white girl in the front that kept yelling for the set list and literally stood perpendicular to the stage the whole time and didn't seem to be having very much fun. you can see her here.

actually you can see her in a most of these.

kurt and courtney were there.

chu-hi time. i gotta go. like i said, things happen so fast over here.

** more about white people at shows in asia later on. **

tremors

if i was IM'ing with you last night around 11 AM east coast time.... i hate to say i told you so.

5.2 Magnitude earthquake according to the USGS.

i know i had three chu-hi's but come on. i am not a 5 year old, three drinks aren't gonna make me hallucinate a swaying building i am sitting in.

my first earthquake was a japanese one. i AM lucky.

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arigato gozai-mas, japan

going to singapore today.

everyone around me is a total stranger

sydney. hmmm. we went back there from brisbane. for one last show in australia. i can't really remember. oh yeas. it was a good show. a pretty easy day. feist. lots of other canadian horn players on a tiny stage. and some freak show in the crowd with this sign that i am (for some reason) still carting around with me.

and then this dude was there! i am standing there on the side of the stage... as usual. as usual day dreaming about will and grace or kiki dunst. actually, this show was particularly bad in that spiral had to point out all the exciting things happening to me. luckily none of which were actually affecting the show just weird shit going on. so, again i am on the side standing in space looking at the crowd, but not looking. all of a sudden for the second time this week this dudes face materializes out of nowhere and like a flashback from vietnam (presumably) i realize that this guy is THEE crazed double middle finger dude that told me to go fuck myself the other night when he thought i was forcing the band off the stage.

later that night i saw my old friends the presets. the last time i saw them was in tokyo as well. but sydney is there hometown, so it's not really weird. and they were playing on the festival so it's less weird. i finally got to see them play and they were excellent it was nice to see them in a little alley with the bass really really loud and kids going nuts for them. even if dance music is gay. i do like this. maybe it's cause kim plays the drums with a shit look on his face. we hung out a few times over the week or so. as you may remember, i tour managed these dudes on their first tour in the states. i was their first tour manager ever. up until then they had been flying around being coddled by their manager like little babies. i flew to nyc rented the gear and a minivan and drove up tp montreal to meet them. they said the next day over the course of the 5 hour drive to toronto i made them professionals. according to them i scared them straight and they have never missed a lobby call since. apparently i laid down the rules of how the tour was gonna work and implied (all tho, i am quite sure it wasn't my intention) that i would beat them down if they broke any of my arbitrary rules... arbitrary in that i make them up on a daily basis. but easy enough to follow in that 99% of them are rooted in common sense. and since they are smart, reasonable dudes that hated ladytron (the headliner) as much as i did everything was great. they had never driven across the country and i schooled them on how america operates and taught them who is and who is not a big fat fuck.

and then i told them some funny stories about bss and their penchant for not following my arbitrary rules and we laughed and maybe someone called them a fat fuck.

presets.

fed the fuck up.

and then i lost my mother fucking blackberry. f those things. i am going back to my good old razr when i get home. luckily i lost it on the eve of japan where i can't use it anyway. i left it in the back of a cab after i l got in a fight with the cab driver about where he was going. it's pathetic when you know your way around a city on the opposite side of the world better than a cabbie.

the next morning was off to o sah KA. and japan. is kick A. first night we ended up at a mexican wrestling bar near the hotel. i had a burrito which was basically a tortilla stuffed with guac (seriously, that's it. about 1/2 a pound of hot guacamole) and smothered in mozz cheese with salsa on top. it was actually pretty tasty. and i had the super strongest margarita served sans ice. this is the burrito

the next morning some of us took the shinkansen to kyoto which is like 15 minutes by super fast train outside osaka. kyoto rules. tons of temples, geisha's in the streets. old time vibe. no other white people around. it's great. one of the main destinations was the temple of 1000 buddhas. actually i think there were 1001 buddhas. it was amazing. unfortunately no photos allowed. but i am sure if you googled it you could find one. it was intense, as are most things here. the building was rebuilt after a fire, but that was like 1000 years ago that they rehabbed it.

it's actually

the longest wooden

structure in Japan. google that too.

and it is impressive in that regard. the beams are massive. they are precisely cut and it is beautiful. in a word, it is japanese.

like i said, we were the only white people for miles. on another trip to japan a long time ago i went deep into the countryside and really felt like an alien. and it was a similar but not as strong vibe here in kyoto. when i came out of the temple there was a group of school kids taking there photos in front. well their teacher was taking photos of the group. he had a whole stack of cameras at his feet which i thought was awesome. so i took some of him taking photos.

after the kids finished up these two shy girls came up and pantomimed getting there photo taken. well i was standing with some people in the band the assumption was that they wanted their photo with them... turns out they wanted it their photo taken with the giant gaijin with long blonde hair. japanese are smart. so i took some photos with them and a couple of their friends. classic peace sign photos. and since japanese are also really kind they let the other band dudes get in a couple snaps.

then we walked around the city eventually ending up at another massive temple and eating okinomiaki food (google it).

please, make it real.

this lady was at the temple.

these are all prayer for love.

kyoto.

back to osaka on the slow train. a nap and then off to the best sushi i have had, ever. i am not a big fan but i have eaten at some big time sushi places. nobu, blue ribbon, etc. of course this nondescript place sort of smoky place in the middle of a city many people don't like, osaka, was the best. the best.

we heard all this joyous yelling coming from the other room so justin and i went to investigate. i sort of thought it was the kitchen and we were gonna tell them delicious which i had just learned that day (but now i forget). it turns out it was a room full of really young salarymen (google it) and they were wasted! i wish i had the sound on tape they made when we walked in. it was a roar! we greeted them with a big "hooooo" and then we snapped these photos.

mid roar!

(my hands. always looking grotesquely massive)

i can't remember this dudes name. but notice my japanese hunch. if i walked through that door upright the top of it would hit me square in the nose. it happens on a daily basis.

yeah, we took those photos. and 3 of those dude puked. so radical.

i gotta go to work. our last night in tokyo. boo hoo. who wants to take japanese with me in april?

the more i do it the better it gets

okay. i really want to post about japan. today was such an awesome day. but first i have to get this australia recap out of the way. which isn't really doing justice to australia. cause up until landing on japanese soil it was rad. it is a fact of nature that you CAN NOT get a better cup of coffee anywhere in the world. every place is an undiscovered intelligentsia or gimmie! coffee. and the people i get to hang out with down there are rad and funny and they rarely say "heaps".

okay.... this is a little out of order cause i have already posted about sydney, which was after melbourne, but before brisbane and before sydney again. but i wanted to do this day or two in melbourne justice. but now i have waited too long and i am afraid i have not been taking my cod liver pills (i forget) which are supposed to help with my memory. also i am sure that since the 2 beer party has now crept up to 3 beets and a small sake has not helped matters.

anway... i got to melbourne, worked in the afternoon and then headed to the medina downtown by 7 pm. i was meeting my friends harley, lucas and ally at their hotel. they were in town with interpol. aslo, my friends. not to name drop. but those dudes are my roadie bros and that i get to run into them all over the world makes me realize how special this job is. really everybody. over the last year of running into these guys in nyc and tokyo and osaka and now melbin i have become friends with most of the crew and they always act psyched to see me. and that can be enough to turn a bad day around. so i headed over cause they were gonna have a bbq at their hotel by the pool. it was summer after all. well when they said bbq i thought they meant like some hot dogs or something. turns out they are all gourmet chefs and it was a super deluxe spread! not really done justice by this photo but you get the gist. the band came down as well and everyone was getting along and it was actually really fun.

then i walked home to my hotel. the next day i met LA friend and interpol keyboarder farmer dave for a little sightseeing action. we went to the nick cave exhibit at the melbourne city museum or something. it was so radically inspiring. all sorts of journals and photos and audio recordings of him telling stories about writing songs. he's lived on 5 continents and had a crazy life. i bought the book so i can better see how he works.

the show that night was great. i got to eat with lucas and hang out with the band a little before their gig. it was rad to see those dudes so together. not much drinking to speak of and they seemed like they were rolling with the rigors of an almost done world tour. the show was tight and looked and sounded great.

harley

you know a band like interpol has reached some sort of different plateau when they actually get a clap-a-long at their show.

especially when one of the clapping is wearing a Helmot australian tour 2007 t-shirt.

then i went out with daniel and dave to some fancy wine bar and talked about girls. surprisingly really fun. okay. that is such a gay glossed over version of what that post was gonna be. ugh. too bad the internet in australia is total bullsh.

anyway... then we played in melbourne. i posted about that already.

then we flew to sydney. and bss played what was probably the best i have ever seen them play. feist, who was in australia playing on the festival shows flew from perth, arriving just before showtime, to play with the band. it was so rad to see them with a girl for the whole show again. it's where they truly shine with the older broken songs, having a women on stage with them. and having feist and her powerful voice doesn't hurt.

there's feist. i didn't take too many photos of her playing. again, i am not comfortable taking photos of most people. and i was just really concious of how many photos must have been taken of her over the past year and i didn't feel like contributing to that.

then we flew to brisbane. this is where the partying truly started to go from two to three beers. this is also where i saw the koala mentioned below. but after the club gig some local kids took us out to a bar. turns out this bar is where a mutual friend of owleypatrol and mary was playing. i didn't know it until the next day when yoshi introduced himself to me as a big fan of this blog. i was flattered to say the least and taken aback at the realization that people actually read this. yikes. (i actually know (somewhat) how to punctuate but i just chose not too cause when it's 3 am and you want to get this crap pn the internet, it just doesn't matter).
so we went to this bar with some clap your hands say yeah people until we got kicked out cause one of us was wearign a baseball hat. probably cause it was a phillies hat.

here's some kids we partied with and one adult that couldn't make it home without kevin's help. and one dude we didn't party with but wished we had.

ugh... god there is still more...
the next day we saw the koala's and the kangaroos and the emus. some birds of prey. pretty radical and really deserving of much more than this whatever post. m. manson was there too. at some point in time when he was also a retarded school boy.

i can't finish this now. sorry. i have to go to bed. we hung with some straight up salarymen tonight at a sushi joint.

actually. i am not sorry at all. i am stoked.