Where is the hotel?

ancient aztec secret

when your fridge freezes all your produce, it's time to move to LA.

good morning heartache

so you know i've come to mexico city and haven't really had to do much work yet. i feel a little guilty sometimes but that usually passes quickly. i know that soon i will make up for it on the euro tour. it's pretty excellent to be about 4 months into the year and not have stepped a foot on a tour bus or done a show in some totally boring place like Tempe or omaha. although it would be nice to know exactly when i will get to places like portland and seattle this year.

yesterday was a pretty mellow day. waking up from the mexican flags while not difficult was not easy either. it dictated a lazy day that involved a nice italian / mexican lunch, and a trip to frida kahlo's home (casa) and studio. that was the best and a little unexpected. i hadn't even thought about them living here.

i love frida kahlo, i love diego rivera. i love that they were in love. and i love that they were revolutionaries. this museum was rad in that it was not all about her (and his) work. it was more about their lives together and how the lived. like you got to see their kitchenwares. and all these amazing letters from the 30's and the 40's. letters from people like TROTSKY to frida. letters from her to him and love letters from diego. my favorite quote was to trotsky from frida. something along the lines of "dude... listen. diego has been a hardcore revolutionary his whole life. and if something as stupid as him not returning a letter on time is gonna get him kicked out of the 4th international you all are retards. i hope i find you in good health when i return to mexico city. xo frida" that's a paraphrase. (they wouldn't let you take any photos in the house. oh well.) it was in a beautiful neighborhood called cayocan or something.

we walked around and got ice cream.

i saw this poster of bush. hahahha. what a jackass. everyone hates him.

then back to the hotel at like 6 pm for a hardcore siesta. we were supposed to meet at 9 for what we thought was going to be a sort of mellow dinner and drinks party for the bands playing this show on saturday. i was imagining some place outside, maybe divey and quiet and mellow. but it was in a nightclub. i mean, sort of a place that i wouldn't go in nyc or la for a million pesos. really loud, indie dance music. stuff that maybe if i went to a gym and worked out i might listen too. (but maybe not. cause i might just listen to this over and over.) really, the most exciting thing that happened was that we realized that charlie's tattoo of his wife, suzy looks a lot a little like a woman (sorry i am too lazy too look at who it is) on the 200 peso note.

so charles and i finally bailed after a couple pretty good tortas and a mexican flag or two. oh! and we finally also got someone to tell us how to walk somewhere. like, i know they are just looking out for us, but sometimes our hosts here are kind of like "eh.... you don't want to walk back to the hotel or walk to the bar" but i just feel like i am not an idiot. i've lived places that are "dangerous" and i don't want to experience this place from the back seat of a cab (even tho a 5 mile ride is only like $3). i mean if mexico city was really as bad as people think no one would live here. i mean yeah, if you get in the wrong kind of cab you can get kidnapped and robbed via an atm and dumped outside of town. but that can happen to you in SF. the key is... don't get in the green cabs. that's it. otherwise you are totally safe. so as we are walking home i realize that we are stopped at the corner of Alvaro Obregon and Ave. de Insurgentes (kick a name for a street). and i remembered that my new friend amber had mentioned something strange at this intersection. i didn't notice it on the corner we were on. so we crossed and still didn't see it. and then i finally see it in the distance a block or so away back the way we had just come. 8 mannequins or so in a lit up window. and it was late and i felt a little bad about dragging charles around and i was thinking "i hope this is cool and way better than what it looks like from here, 8 mannequins in a store front". so we approached and maybe 30 feet away i knew we were psyched.

lady on the right is laughing at the lady on the left who has only one hand. good thing she works in a hospital, maybe?

is it possible that hillary clinton shops here?

zombie barbarella androgynous chef.

do you love him?

she loves being in the kitchen.

and really, from here on out it just got better.

and then when we saw these three we realized that we had interrupted a mannequin dance party circa brooklyn 2003. we felt bad, so we went to bed.

brutal.

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.