Where is the hotel?

where's the airport?!!

yesterday i had two drastically different airport experiences. first, as you know, i flew from austin to LA. this trip to the airport was routine, for me and i think for most people that travel for a living. now, i am not trying to sound pompous or worldly (which i am) all i am saying here is that experience matters. wwe woke up 90 minutes before we had to be in the lobby. sarah and i both discussed how the key here is to not unpack more than you need to in your hotel. that way when you go to leave it's a breeze. then we showered and mozeyed down to the lobby leaving nothing behind. i won't say that i have never left something. lord knows that you i have bought enough apple power adaptors to supply the whole tour. but once you do it 8 times you won't do it again. once in the lobby we waited for the cab, arrived at the airport, checked in and had a relaxing 75 minute wait until we were in the air. no rushing, no panic, no swearing, no swerving on the highway. i don't have a photo from this trip. it was so routine that i didn't even think about the need to document it. however in order to make my point here is a photo that implies the tranquility of the situation.

now, my other trip to an airport was last evening when kime and i drove greg to the long beach airport. long beach is about 35 minutes south of LA with no traffic. the guy, greg, works for himself out of his home. what he was doing all day i have no idea all i know is that he wasn't packed at 8 pm and his flight left at 9:30 pm. we left at approximately 8:15 pm and we swerved all over the highway and he was very antsy about making sure that he had some cash and wouldn't believe me that surely there was an atm at the airport both in long beach AND miami. i mean i wan't even going anywhere and i was super nervous. here are some photos from that trip.
our deluxe ride, the 80's coupe de ville with a broken brake light. in it's defense, i must say the velour upholstery makes for soft and comfy ride even in stressful situations. now i know why hip hop guys prefer the cadillac.

kime, unlike myself, knows what is in store and is not looking forward to it.

wasting precious moments stopping to check the time. (here's a tip: when you're super late for some place you have to be it doesn't matter what time it is, don't stop to check, just keep moving forward)

another tip: don't start making out. again, it's a time waste

the first sign of sketchiness and panic.

speeding through echo park
dream center outside the car, nightmare center in the car.

the sad goodbye.

the frightened passenger.

just a tip from someone that once flew 22,000 miles in 13 days on 10 different flights. just leave for the airport earlier than you think you have to, you can learn to relax and enjoy the airport. eavesdrop on your fellow travelers, learn to hate them and cringe at all the things they say. watch all the sad people debarking from their flights. enjoy the rare happy reunion. it's really not too much to ask for is it? cause if you show up looking like this for a flight everyone is gonna know that you are a procrasinator and a poor traveler.

on a separate note: it's true. i really do like mostly hard core, heavy metal and belle and sebastian. it's weird.

so many ideas and notions and thoughts

god. i have been filled with things on my brain lately. but then i can't remember to write them down. now i will rack my brain for the next 30 minutes and try to list as many as i can remember.

first let me just say that it is not up for debate. the film (yes, film), parent hood, starring steve martin, et al., made by ron howard in 1989 is on of the best films ever. if not the most perfect movie ever made. unfortunately it is not on available on dvd so you have to watch it on video cassette. nevertheless, you should watch it asap.

yesterday we were in milwaukee. i woke up to a st. patrick's day parade passing right by the bus. even though st. patrick's day is still a ways off. a few days at least. parades are pretty weird in this day and age. i mean why do these people come out to watch the mayor of milwaukee walking behind a long stretch limo, a fire engine, and some stupid floats. i guess the bag pipes were cool. but it just seems a little boring to me. one lady was set up at 9 am, the parade didn't start until noon. here are some things i saw in the parade.
dudes on motorized bar stools and recliners.

there were these irish stepdancing girls. i couldn't tell if their curly hair was real or not. it looked weird regardless. a little stepford crossed with children of the corn.

yesterday was a pretty good day for dogs! sarah and i saw a ton of them. i mean any day when you get to pet a dog is a great day.
this dog kept backing up into sarah. basically he just decided to sit on her. it was okay though.

see. now i am just writing about the pictures i have taken recently. i am not really writing about any of my observations. i don't really like that. why can't i remember any of these things. it's like when i go record shopping and as soon as i walk into the store i can't remember anything and i just have to pee. pretty lame. it's like the same thing with dreams for me. i wake up and think, wow, weird. i gotta remember that one. and then 20 minutes later i am like what dream?
anyway, then we had desert. in milwaukee desert looks like insects or bugs.

this is what i wore to dinner yesterday. well, actually i wore it all day and half of today. which is about 1/2 a day less than i normally wear my outfits. the thing is...people gave me a lot of shit about this outfit. just cause i had a pink long underwear shirt on. the thing is...first, i don't care. second, if i am tough enough to wear a venom shirt that says "We drink the vomit of the priests, Make love with the dying whore, We suck the blood of the beast, And hold the key to death’s door" then i think i am tough enough to wear a pink shirt. i mean i am pretty tough. skinny and weak looking, but kind of wiry too.

there were some chandeliers last night. it's too bad that this one didn't fall on the head of the people that were selling the merch. it might have knocked some sense into them. i don't mean them any ill will. i sincerely think it could help them.

this is bob, he's a pretty rad guy. he sets up the pa each day and thinks that i don't do any work.

this is mark. he is the keyboard tech. he eats a big fuckin sandwich and then goes to bed. he also calls me "dude" in an american accent. you can im him at: vintageb3 tell him i sent you. that's a peanut butter sandwich, by the way. he is also a rad dude. he teaches me scottish words like porchil and cundy. i enjoy using them in the wrong context so now everything is a porchil or a cundy. it makes the day a little more fun when you abuse other languages.

ohhhhh! okay. here's a thought i had. dudes in milwaukee that load trucks are mother fucking douchebag morons. these guys last night had 3 boxes of stuff to put on the trailer. i mean how hard is that? here's what it looked like today. note the box with the two yellow/green stickers on it. yeah, the one that is UPSIDE DOWN!

here's a close up of the UPSIDE DOWN box. the thing is that it couldn't have fallen like that, cause they couldn't have put it anywhere to fall over. it is just how they put it in there. i mean, whatever...it's not breakable shit. the point is...don't be a douche cause you have to live in milwaukee.

oh! another one...people are weird sometimes when they see tour busses or t-shirts or i don't know what sets them off. but today, while i was cleaning up the above mess, i hear some random guy outside the trailer say "you selling those t-shirts?" so i ignored him. i mean i didn't even look up. dumb question, right? then he says it again, and his voice is louder and he is sticking his head in the trailer, "you selling those t-shirts tonight?" (he is not coming to the show mind you. trust me.) i say, "yeah". he says, "ugghhhs" and walks away. yeah...he really said "ugghhs" or some sort of grunt. i just wondered what made him want to ask that question twice to a total stranger working for a band that he has never nor will never hear of again. it's odd to me.

well, it's snowing outside and i have to go see how the merch is going tonight. nutso, no doubt.