August 29th, 2005 09:52 hours CST
Currently listening to: "La Femme d'Argent" by Air
Feeling: good

Sorry, dear journal. I know I've neglected you. Ever since I stopped my "mp3 of the week" idea, I just haven't given you the proper attention. Gomen ne.

So, what's new? Well, I bought the truck. I feel nauseatingly American right now. At least I didn't buy something as big as an F-150. She is rather pretty, though. I smiled when I noticed that the stereo volume lowers after you kill the engine and start it up again. That way you're not deafened by music that you didn't even realize was too loud in the first place. I picked it up on Thursday and I haven't driven it since. I've been trying to find excuses, but gas prices are so high right now (and will get higher due to Louisiana being completely destroyed) that I just didn't need a car this weekend.

New ride 1, New ride 2, New ride 3, New ride 4

We did a practice load of the vehicles at yesterday. I'm very relieved that we won't have to rent a trailer for this tour. I just hope John's van doesn't collapse under the weight of all that gear. He has way more equipment in his van that I do in my wagon.

Finally cleaned by kitchen and bathroom. Good lord, that was overdue. Started Playing Pikmin I and II during my breaks. Too addicting.

August 23rd, 2005 11:44 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Mercury" by The Ocean Blue
Feeling: good/tired

I've been going through the song and dance of buying a new car in America. I can understand why the sneaky-ness is involved, because these guys make their money off of the interest rates. But when the fat, 55 year old asshole who is destined for a hear attack offers me rates that I haven't even been approved for, that pisses me off. Anyway. I'm going back to Ford after work to sign the papers. I'll be driving a 2005 Ranger Edge in a few days. Too bad I still need the wagon until the end of next month.

Yuka's birthday presents arrived and she's happy. She's 33 today, so wish her a "tanjobi omedtato gozaimasu".

August 17th, 2005 09:26 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Sugar" by Ladytron
Feeling: good

Well, Griff cannot go on the tour with us after all. The music catalog he works for is at it's busiest during the week we'll be gone and as soon as he mentioned needing to have a laptop on the tour so he could work on spreadsheets in the car, I knew it wasn't going to work out. Suck ass because he's fun as hell to be around and he made the Minneapolis trip a blast. Our friend Chris came over on Monday and is already going over songs with me. I'm optimistic.

I've decided to finally sell my Volvo wagon and get a pickup truck. The only reason why I need a car is to haul band gear and to get groceries. It's rare that I ever have more than one passenger in my car. I was looking into the Ford F-150, but that's simply too much truck for me, especially in Chicago. I can't imagine trying to drive one of those things home and parking it after I've been to a bar. I think I'm going to go with the Ford Ranger. Chris has one and I really like it. I'll probably go with the Edge model and get a supercab. I'll end up getting a cover for it to protect my gear from the elements. It will be nice to finally have a vehicle that will be able to carry my scooter. I'll finally be able to drive it around campus in Bloomington when I visit.

We now have less than a month before we leave for the tour. I need to start securing places to sleep. I took my Fender Twin Reverb in for repairs yesterday, to finally fix that annoying buzzing it's been doing. I'm going to get my Rick 360 and my red Fender Jag setup and have the jacks replaced as well. Just have to make a couple of precautionary repairs on the Volvo and then I think I'm set.

I probably won't be able to trade the Volvo in because the sale at Ford ends on September 6th and I need the wagon until the end of that month. If anyone wants to buy it from me, it's going for $2,500.

In other news, John and I went to see Chaos on Saturday. I'm so glad I only paid $5 for this movie because it's a flaming piece of shit. Yeah, the rape scenes are as brutal as advertised, but the acting is SO BAD and the story line is just retarded. One person left during the first rape scene. The rest of us laughed our asses off during the ending gun battle because it was so stupid. We all kind of had a bonding moment outside the theater while discussing how we just wasted 5 bucks.

August 11th, 2005 08:40 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Firefly" by Airiel
Feeling: freezing

This story is from at least a week ago, but I went to go see Shade play at The Bottom Lounge. I went into the men's room right by the stage and saw.....something hanging from the urinal.....

August 8th, 2005 16:20 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Champaigne Supernova" by Oasis
Feeling: this gum is starting to get old

This is my old pedal board.

This is my new pedal board.

I rule.

August 8th, 2005 10:20 hours CST
Currently listening to: "La Femme d'Argent" by air
Feeling: headachey

"Yin, I would like to introduce you to Yang"

Thursday shaped up to be a lot better than Wednesday. We got the Double Door show confirmed for September 27th, and then got offered a show at a kickass record store in Norfolk, VA on the 23rd. There was light at the end of the tunnel. Then when I got home, I got an email from a guy in DC with a spot on the 22nd at the Warehouse Next Door. PERFECT! Everything suddenly worked and I felt like a massive weight was taken off of my shoulders.

We played in Milwaukee on Friday night at the Cactus Club. We were running 45 minutes late thanks to Griff's girlfriend who arrived late and without her wallet. Bad moods all over the place. We got up there around 8:30, missing our sound check. Lights Out Asia were awesome. They need a better video show to spruce up their liver performance, but the music was ace. We played a good set, despite Cory's technical problems thanks to a dullard of a sound guy. He didn't take a line out of Cory's bass cabinet and only mic'd it. Cory asked for more bass in the monitors and the guy asked Cory to turn up his rig. That is the ONLY time I have ever heard anyone tell Cory to turn up. Stupid. I liked Voxtrot quite a bit, however the best moment of the entire night happened when their singer said "I'm only afraid of two things...electricity and snakes." To which Stephanie (Griff's girlfriend) responded "Yeah? What about FOOD?"

I slept most of Saturday because I was exhausted. Just couldn't seem to recover after such a stressful week. I had no food for breakfast in the house, so I rode my scooter over to Golden Nugget for some french toast and a chocolate doughnut. I played Burnout 3 a lot and then took my scooter out for a bit and picked up the Friday the 13th DVD box set. This is volumes 1-8, before NewLine (I think) bought the character of Jason and started ditching the phrase "Friday the 13th" in the titles of the movies from that point. I watched the first 3, which are so brilliant. The endings are insane. I can't decide which one I like more. Probably part 3. I had two really awful dreams about my cat that night. Heh.

Sunday was very laid back. I did some cleaning and watched, yes, the rest of the Friday the 13th movies. I hadn't seen part IV since I was a kid and seeing Cory Feldman as little Tommy Jarvis going apeshit on Jason at the end is worth the price of this box set right there. Too bad the movies went downhill fast after that.

August 4th, 2005 11:25 hours CST
Currently listening to: "La Femme d'Argent" by air
Feeling: stressed

Yesterday sucked. My car had trouble starting again, so I took it to Pep Boys. They called me later and ran off a laundry list of repairs that will total over $1,000. The fuel pump is main problem. What sucks is that they have to order the part... from Howard Orloff Volvo. I swore I'd never do business with them, as they overprice absolutely everything. I decided to take my car to the repair guy that my boss recommends, but after paying the fee for the estimate, I couldn't even get my car started to get it out of the Pep Boys parking lot. So, feeling totally fucked, I walked back in with my keys and told them to just replace the fuel pump and filter so I an get my car out of there.

Then a practice, my gear started fritzing out on me. My Fender Twin is being a noisy piece of shit and at the end of a terrible practice, I realized that the cable going into the input of my first chorus pedal wasn't plugged in all the way. Duh.

Came home and watched the first hour of House of 1,000 Corpses and went to bed.

August 2nd, 2005 15:45 hours CST
Currently listening to: "Everybody On News" by Supercar
Feeling: the drummer down on the street needs to be killed

Pretty mellow weekend, which I needed. I helped Lisa move her bed and other such things to her new apartment. Griff pitched in to help. What a pro. We talked like rednecks in spirit of the enormous pickup truck that I was driving.

Saturday was perfect scooter weather. I met John Seals at The Village to watch The Devil's Rejects. I liked it, but I honestly liked House of 1,000 Corpses a lot better. Devil's Rejects functions well as a sequel, but Corpses had a much spookier feel, where Rejects was just violence and not much else. I also felt like they changed Otis' character a bit too much. He was more a straight man (as such), as opposed to his extroverted character in the first movie. Still, the line about the pussy juice possibly rusting the barrel of his gun had me on the floor laughing. Well, almost. The floor of the Village theater is disgusting.

I went to the Bottom Lounge to see Shade. They're from Pittsburgh and we'll be playing with them in Philly in December. Great live show. Lots of energy. I liked it a lot. Didn't get to see much of For All I Care or The Lavella's, as I was talking tour business with Brad from Shade.

Sunday was reallllllly warm. I went to Guitar Center to get a Voodoo 2 power supply for my pedal board. UPS somehow botched the delivery of the order that I set up through Griff. Asses. Anyway, I still have to replace two pedals, but my board is up and running. Hooray! Now if only I could carry it. The fucker is heavy.

I left my apartment at 4:00 to meet my dad in Lafayette. We were going to meet there to switch cars and to have dinner at Cracker Barrel. You don't get much more midwestern that, folks. Only problem is, I-94 is in a soul-sucking state of construction and it took me 2 whole hours to get to I-65. Dad was already at Lafayette, so he met me at Rensalear instead. We ate at McDonald's, which is something I haven't done that with my father since I was about 8 years old. Still, it was good to see him and have a little chat and all that.

I finally went to the gym last night, which felt awesome. I only ran for 35 minute and did abs since I haven't been to the gym in weeks. I'm gonna try to shed 5-10 pounds before the tour. Cross your fingers. Speaking of the tour, the following shows are confirmed:

When: 17-September-2005
Where: The Shadow Lounge (5972 Baum Blvd. 412-363-8277) - Pittsburgh, PA
With: Hartfield, Sleeping Kings of Iona and Life In Bed
Details: Doors @ 9 PM. 18+

When: 18-September-2005 - The PopNoise Festival
Where: The Rotunda (University of Penn Campus, 4014 Walnut Street. 610-517-4645) - Philadelphia, PA
With: Hartfield, Ceremony (ex-skywave), Project Skyward, Kupei (from Puerto Rico), Stellarscope, The Autumn Leaves, The Color Field Theory and Shade.
Details: FREE! All ages! 12-10PM

When: 19-September-2005
Where: The Brighton Bar (121 Brighton Avenue 732-229-9676 ) - Long Branch, New Jersey
With: Hartfield and TBA
Details: 18+ TBA

When: 21-September-2005
Where: Sin-e (150 Attorney St. 212-388-0077) - New York, NY
With: Hartfield, A Place to Bury Strangers and IfWhen
Details: Doors @ 7:00 21+

We still need to get shows in DC, Boston and Providence. Cincinnati would also be great for the ride home. Taka and Yukari should be flying in on the 14th and they'll go home on the 27th. Our last show should be here in Chicago on the 26th. Working on that too. If anybody can help out at all, please drop me a line.