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here's what happened yesterday.
i used to think that they filmed the television show, "without a trace" in nyc. but they don't they film it in la. they left without their props yesterday. so we stole them.
and this morning at 6:30 am which is apparently when i wake up everday from now on.
i am exhausted. niki and i drove from seattle to LA in less than two days. i got a speeding ticket right around here.
the cop was pretty efficient though. he didn't give me a guilt trip or anything. basically he said "hey. what's up? i got you going 90. ya got a license?" i said "yeah" he said "cool. i'll be right back with your ticket." that was pretty much the whole change. the lame thing is that i was gonna buy that truck and now my insurance will probably cost more. anyway. now we are shopping for fabric for niki's clothing line. i recently discovered that i have a knack for finding some sweet bolts of jersey at fabric stores. i am pretty stoked for her and the direction things are going. plus she seems happy and that is always nice.
i burned a couple best of belle and sebastian cd's on the trip. she was never a big fan but after seeing them and hanging out she's into them and now we haven't stopped listening. that's pretty much the same way it happened for me. i know this is pretty gay but today i got a little teary eyed that i wasn't gonna be around them. ya know...there are certain b & s songs that are essentially perfect. just like parenthood starring steve martin. perfect. niki is particularly fond of "song for sunshine" and "get me away from here i'm dying" i knew she would like that one.
i am busy preparing for my next job already. i have to drive back up to portland and fly to chicago first thing in the morning on monday. hectic. but again, the fact that she is so optimistic is making me happy.
here are some photos from the last day of the tour and some other things.
chandeliers in seattle
last brownie. sigh. still as good as the first day.
amazing. how the hell did this happen??? i heard that someone was spotted in running shorts on a ladder. i would have loved to have seen that. while i was taking this photo a random stranger (coincedentally a brit) looked to see what was up and he said "and he is a proper cunt!"
carlos and a thing hand in the rental van. which by the way is called an "uplander". we have yet to see another one anywhere in the world. once i rented a dodge "magnum" (it was either that or a pt cruiser) and someone said it looked like a suppository.
and then the weirdest thing happened. all of a sudden california looked like ireland. i must have driven the 5 north and south at least 50 times. i have never seen anywhere in california look this green. these are the hills right around where 580 hooks up with the 5 southeast of san francisco. it was intense. normally this is yellow brown and sometimes it's black from where fires have torn across the hills. i don't know if it is like this every spring and i have never driven along here this time of year or if this is special. regardless it was a sight
cindy knew my friend kime when they were in high school. the stories that kime tells about her make me think that cindy really played a big hand in making kime into who she is. and i love that person. today is cindy's birthday and she would have been 35. but she died when she was 16. i want to thank her though and wish her a happy birthday.
happy birthday cindy.
as an aside i would like to say that i wish all the style biters would quit biting buzzelli's style and get a grip. cause she might not tell you but i will and as you can tell from the post below you probably don't want to incur my internet wrath.
i am supposed to write about the other secret room at the pixar studios. i don't think i am going to though. i think it is too late and i also don't really think it's appropriate that i give away all of their secrets. today was a big day here. i got linked up and went from like 30 hits a day to 600 today. i wonder if people will stick around when i am not writing about belle and sebastian tours.
so today i packed the van up with all the merch that has to be taken from portland to seattle. i didn't have to go to vancouver which was a little bit of a drag seeing that it is the end of the tour. last tour i got to go to europe and i didn't even care. i mean i cared cause it was more work and i wanted the money. and i liked the band, but i didn't know them well. now i like everyone. band, crew, everyone. it's a pretty great team i think. it really makes touring more fun when you do it with the same people. well if you like those people. so when you find that combination you want it to last.
anyway, so tomorrow is the last show. then niki and i are driving to LA. we just went on a walk here in portland with carlos. 
carlos is coming to seattle and california with us.
a couple of things have happened at the past two shows that have got me thinking about post show behavior.
in sf there were these two guys that somehow got wristbands to get backstage after the show and hang out with the band and their friends. it just so happens that in sf some of my friends overlap with some of the band's so i was around to witness these losers behavior. i am not trying to sound elitist here but if you don't have any business being backstage you probably shouldn't be there and if you are normal you probably wouldn't want to be there. it's just a fact. here are the guys i am talking about.
the guy in the leather jacket was desperate to get sarah to give him a hug. this was around the time the club was making us all leave the building. she wasn't into it and i helped her navigate around this guy. the guy in the striped shirt was just asking anyone if they would let him crash at there place. he didn't know anyone, bear in mind. i thought that once we got outside by the busses these morons would be gone. i was mistaken. they both followed us outside and the worst possible thing happened. they buddied up and made friends with each other. i figure if you didn't have a friend you wpould get bored and leave. now they have incentive to stick around. leather coat guy was trying to get jeopardy guy a ride home....from OUR tour busses. OH! wait i haven't told you about jeopardy guy?? the dude in the striped shirt met some girl that was trying to sell her wristband to get backstage after the show (bad and lame idea) when he tried to buy it she recognized him from tv. turns out that he had (supposedly) been on jeopardy last week and lost. so these guys hung out to the bitter end. no one was talking to them. as a matter of fact they were being avoided like the plague until they insinuated themselves into a conversation. and when they did that we, or at least i, really only laughed at them. and i took a bunch of pictures. here are a couple that pretty much sum up these jackasses.
sarah takes one for the team. she knows how to make a joke happen.
creepy skulker skulking mary and sarah
he lost on jeopardy. note: no one is paying attention to him.
ahhh!
the point here is: don't be a douche. don't go backstage and be a fucking creep. even if you wrongly get back there don't hang out and get more wasted and make everyone laugh at you. or maybe you should cause it seemed a little boring last night in portland. i mean, i am really not trying to be mean. just funny.
last night was an entirely different type of bad behavior. and i don't have any photos to document it. probably cause my ears were bleeding from this guy yelling at every single person that was helping with the load out. i know. i know. the load out is hard and there is a whole semi trailer of gear that is packed and unpacked every day. but to be running around the venue barking orders like a drill seargent at midnight in a pair of shorts was just a little too much. wasn't setting the bike rack up in front of half the merch stall enough tormenting of me? did you really have to scream next to my face for the first 25 minutes of the load out?
i guess after the show i think that everyone should try to be as mellow as possible because i will be going to bed soon and i don't like to get riled up. maybe i should have that printed on the back of all the tickets that are sold for tours i work on. "event takes place rain or shine. blah blah blah. and, by the way, if you are around after most of the paying customers are gone try to be a little mellow or david will write about you on the internet."
should we buy this thing or what??? it is tormenting us.
i am pretty bummed that this is ending.
it's been a couple of days that seem like i work at pixar. i haven't had much time to write because i have been having so much fun with people that i love. i can't believe i am working at the same time. well, tomorrow i will be able to post because i will be in vancouver and i don't know many people there.
here are 5 things i love in 3 photos. i will talk about them in more detail tomorrow.
i promise a major rant tomorrow.
dudes....today was a best day ever kind of thing. they really shouln't tell you that being in a band is a waste of time because it's totally not. if you are in a band then people write you and they say things like: "hey, i work on the simpsons and i love your band. do you guys want to come by for a script reading with the full cast?" or "hey, we work at pixar and we love your band. do you want to come by when you are in sf for a tour of the studio?" of course you answer "unequivocally, yes." to any question like that. and if you are slightly less lucky you are still lucky enough to work with people that get invited to those things and then ask you to come with them. (and you are straight up bummed if you work with people that get invited and don't ask you to go with. those are people that i call dicks.)
today i went to the pixar animation studios with mick and sarah. a couple of fans of theirs showed us around. they are married and work together. one actually animates the movies and one designs the software that pixar animators use.
this is the place you have always wanted to work at but never knew existed. i don't think anyone there has a boss.
i had to remove a photo here. sorry. i didn't want to get anyone in trouble though.
behind them are the drawings for the new pixar film "cars". they represent the whole two hour film in like 100 drawings. it's the first step to creating an animated film. don't worry i am not going to take you on some bullshit step by step how to here.
and here are some dudes from monsters inc.
the thing about the place was, as i mentioned earlier, bosses don't seem to exist. everyone seemed so happy. people would build facades on the front of their offices to make them look like cabins or castles. they had secret doors behind bookcases to get to a room that felt straight out of a private vegas poker room. it had a full bar and blackjack table and was cozy and dark and decadent. then there was the full band set up (drums, piano, guitar and amps) where their friends would come in and play on friday. and a bar. it felt like someones house. and that was just the area where the animators worked. they could watch movies all the time while lounging on couches. i feel like a jealous kid writing about this. "mom, why can't i have the antique animatronic chuck e cheese band in my room???!"
here is angus' ofice, interior and exterior.
he even had the french dude from "the holy grail" in the turrets!
i just realized that i can't put all my photos up here or it's gonna be ridiculous. so i'll have to talk about the other secret room later. it truly deserves it's own post anyway.
however there would be signs of actual work every once in awhile. like this insane mathematical equation. i asked what it did but i couldn't really explain it to you. something about getting different characters to move the same way or something...that's totally wrong. but it doesn't matter for the point i am going to make in a second. here is the photo.
i was sitting here thinking about how behind the scenes always seems the polar opposite of what is going on in front. i mean i am sitting here typing on my computer and kicking back on a couch while 4,000 people are going nuts for the new pornographers. i can see bob text messaging his girlfriend. sez just walked back in with her food. basically, it's like super boring back here and we are relaxing. but just feet away people are experiencing a night that they have been gearing up for for weeks. and they have been at work all day counting down the hours until the show. i always remember that feeling, i mean pretty much everyday...right before the doors open and i see the band's gear on stage i can get goosebumps if i let myself. i loved that feeling of walking into a place to see a concert and you see the gear up there and the t-shirts for sale and you KNOW! you know that that band that you love is here. they are IN your hometown. shit, they are IN the SAME building as you, somewhere. and soon you are going to be so happy when they start playing. that's a good feeling. but i don't really get it anymore when i am not working. anyway, so behind all the fun at pixar are crazy math and super long days and weeks of making a mouth move a certain way. but luckily for angus and his wife and luckily for me those harsh parts are totally tempered by the great perks around us.
i have a friend that gets the nastiest text messages. she showed me one. the picture below represents that message in a g rated style.
the clouds broke in sf and i got to see my rad friend and her rad dog.
how come no one ever told me i have THEE gandolf nose of the century?
i only had two beers last night but looking at these photos i feel like i don't remember anything that went on. and i know i was giving some late night, straight up ohio style advice last night. for those that don't know that means that i was telling it like it is. i guess i don't have to be drunk or drugged to do that though. all i know is that these pictures make the aftershow party in the basement of the wiltern look a little more exciting than it was.
it's nice to see these photos though. i was just sitting here getting a little down thinking about all my possessions, mostly my records, sitting in storage in glendale. i wish that someone were listening to them. i was listening to spacemen 3 and thinking about the record in a box under a bunch of other ones and it hasn't seen the sun in like 9 months. i was gonna write a bunch of lame shit about that, but then i saw these photos from yesterday. and now i am listening to geto boys, so it's hard to feel down. even on a sunny, sunday. do sunday's make you feel down? i don't even have to go to work regularly on a monday and they get me down. i think because i feel like i should be doing homework or going to church or something. you can always tell a sunday. no matter what. ok. here's what happened yesterday.
well, first, the other day i got this rad t-shirt from kbuzz. back when barry bonds was still a skinny kid with the pittsburgh pirates, the sf giants won the world series. and robert bork was about to get dissed by the senate.
yesterday i learned a good lesson. douchebags live all over the world!! so milwaukee, i have to apologize for talking shit about you because actually the catering we had there was better than at the wilern in LA yesterday AND the dudes in LA did the exact same shit that the dudes there did.
really all i can say about that is just a general fuck you, just:
f
u
c
k
y
o
u
this is like showing up to work and someone has dumped the contents of your desk all over. or finding your apartment ransacked by the feds.
the cockpro's in LA get to go home to the ocean and palm trees, they have no excuse unlike the milwaukeeans that only get to eat cheese and be cold.
well, the same as yesterday it was hard to remain angry after that when this little buddy showed up. captain. what a name. look at those wavy ears. i'd give anything to have a pillow made out of those things.
i think it might be possible that sarah loves dogs more than i do. it hurts to admit, but her love really seems to know no bounds.
people love the b & s merch.
and finally here are some photos from the party after the show. and i am going to get out of bed.
buzzo and binky
today i watched "envy" starring jack black and ben stiller. it was pretty lame. but it got me thinking about that whole idea of wanting what someone else has. it's fucked up but it made me realize that for the most part i am pretty happy with the way things are. of course i know it could be better. but i am not really jealous of my rich friends. yesterday at the post office kime and i ran into some people that she knew and she introduced me as her "friend from ohio, well he lives here (la) or...well he's on tour with belle and sebastian. he's pretty much a nomad. it's a great life." the guy said, "yeah! sounds great." and i just smiled and said, "it is if you're not living it." ugh. i don't mind it. i don't know why i say that. but it's just hard to not want a house or an apartment or a place and a life and a girlfriend and a 401 (k). that's when i can get envious. but then when i really think about the people i know and the places i have seen and the laughs i have had and my nieces and nephews i never see i realize it's pretty good. and, not to say i don't have ambitions, but sometimes i have a feeling in my gut that tells me to just keep doing what i have been doing. by that i mean, essentially for the past 6 years i have concentrated on doing the right thing. on treating people fairly and rationally and calmly. i try not to judge anyone too much and if people cross the line then i just cut them off. i try to avoid the shit. sometimes it isn't possible to do that but for the most part i feel like it has guided me to a pretty good spot and i can actually SEE tangible results of being good paying off. maybe not monetarily, yet. but i have had a pretty interesting life so far and i just think it probably can only get more so by all the traveling around i do. it was a feeling i had watching that movie that i was glad i wasn't consumed with jealousy of someone else's luck or someone else's ability to take advantage of a situation for the wrong reasons. i guess this is sort of cryptic. most of my friends are amazing and we all have amazing lives and jobs (which i have mentioned before) so we shouldn't be jealous of people marrying into money. we'll do it with each other's help and it's gonna feel pretty good when we help each other make it and we can't do that if we are filled with envy, which was sort of the point of the movie, which was totally lame, but the point isn't.
on another note: i am cleaning house on my myspace profile and if i don't actually like you then you have probably been deleted.
