wink wink, nudge nudge

anyway, the show was amazing. the sound was incredible, the lights were great. it was the first time in a long time that i’ve watched a show as a fan. usually, i spend most of the time checking out the rigging, thinking about how early the crew must’ve loaded in, and things of that nature. for weezer, though, i was just singing along, at the top of my lungs.

the following morning, we had a day off. and, hearing the news about rivers, had a show cancel. another day off. and the tour cancelled. more days off. it was by far the most days off in a row i’ve ever had. i guess i can’t complain, right? heh.

so, just three shows with weezer, and that was that. fortunately for motion city, they have more shows with them, in january. but, for me, that’s it.

i’m hoping that things with jimmy robbins pick up, because if there’s no work for me there, there’s pretty much no work for me anywhere. well, none that i’d like to do, anyway. there’s plenty of cover bands and hobby bands, but i feel like i can’t waste my time with that, while my window of opportunity for doing rock bands is still open. heh.

hedwig and the angry inch

primal fear

falling down

standard operating procedure

overnight

aside from “falling down” (which was cheesy) and “standard operating procedure” (which was, sadly, nothing new to me), i was pretty happy with my choices. i was especially stoked about hedwig. i thought the story was great, the music was rad (performed by eli and girls against boys), and the lead actor was amazing. i’m bummed that i missed the boat on that movie, cause apparently, it was released in 2001? heh.

anyway, tomorrow, we have a quick jimmy-less rehearsal, before we meet back up with him in los angeles on saturday. i’m pretty excited about this next leg of tour, as it will be in a 15 passenger van. it’s always nicer to have a place to call home, even if it’s a home on wheels. the flying and renting minivan deal was getting a little rough, and it never felt like we were a band on tour. so, it’ll be nice to be doing it legit. now, we just need our full backline and that will make for a very happy me. hehe.

what else is new? i rooted and installed cyanogenmod on my g1. very happy about it. i bought a class 6 microsd card and partitioned it with a fat32 media storage partition, an ext4 app storage partition, and a swap partition. the combination of the swap and the custom mod have definitely given me a performance boost. and i don’t have to worry about running out of space again! now, if only phone makers would stop seeing android as a low-cost alternative and actually start putting it on decent hardware, we wouldn’t need to do so much hacking! haha.

i’m playing drums for jimmy robbins. check out his music! he’s a super nice and funny guy and we hit it off right away. jimmy has the potential to be huge, and i wish nothing more than that, because that would mean that i’m along for the ride. hehe. we have three fly dates, right now, but lots of stuff is in the works.

my week with motion city was amazing. mark hoppus is hilarious. chris holmes is the man. tony is an animal. eastwest studios are beautiful! easily, the most fun job i’ve ever taken. hehe.

speaking of motion city and hoppus, i’m also working for mcs for two shows in las vegas with blink 182. i’m flying out tomorrow morning to los angeles, picking up the van and trailer, and driving to vegas. couple days of rehearsal, couple shows, and i fly home. should be busy, but fun times.

i’ve been trying to eat healthy for about three weeks now, and it’s going alright. i’m of the opinion that even baby steps are a positive thing, and i’ve taken huge leaps in my diet, so i’m pretty stoked. i wish i could keep up with the excercise portion of it, but when i need to be in three places at once, it can be difficult to squeeze in a workout. at any rate, the scale says i’ve lost about five pounds, so something’s working! hehe.

jesse and jessica’s wedding is in august and i just booked my flight and rental car. this might be the first time i’ve ever done something so grown-up, all by myself. haha. probably because i’ve never had enough money to do so. oh wait, i don’t have money right now. what am i doing? ahhh!

lastly, i leave you with yet another submission to the blog of unecessary quotation marks that was either lost in the pile of submissions, or deemed not worthy enough. i happen to think it’s a “good” one.

it's a new law, alright... *wink wink nudge nudge*

normally, you have to have really good foresight, to be able to heard the finished songs in your head, when it’s just drum tracks. for this, though, everything’s done! the instant gratification is probably gonna make everyone poop their pants. in a good way (i hope). i’m stoked for it.

other than that, i may or may not be getting together with someone who may or may not be hiring me to maybe or maybe not be involved in something that may or may not be awesome. (i hope that was vague enough to not get me in trouble, but still be intriguing! haha). at any rate, keep your fingers crossed for me!

i’ve come a long way since this:

my first drum kit. also, my last polo shirt?

like, when it comes to skill. it’s not that i’m thinking “i want to be as good as that drummer, because he makes a lot of money and there aren’t lots of skilled drummers out there.” it’s more like “i want to be as good as that drummer, because he’s a fucking badass.” so, i’ve been working hard to make myself a better drummer. and i feel like i’m doing alright, but that i can always be better.

different drummers have different skill sets. i know lots of drummers who are very skilled and technical, but they don’t seem to have passion in their playing. it’s like they’re more worried about impressing fellow musicians, than letting themselves be moved by the music.

at any rate, i guess i’m gonna keep doing what i do. i’m just worried that my window of opportunity has shut. i was just talking about this, yesterday. somerset was doing video updates before youtube. we had the nice photo shoot, before other local bands. in fact, we got criticized for it!

when we first came out, people thought we were trying too hard. but, now, every band has a myspace with a giant banner up top (with a professional photo), glossy sounding demos, and youtube webisodes. these days, if you don’t have those things, you’re not trying hard enough! heh.

anyway, i’ve gone off on a tangent. i don’t know that i had a specific point to make. i think i’m just down, at the moment. but, i can turn it around! i always dooooo! hehe.

please, keep your fingers crossed for me!

i would like to hold this pug soon!

so, i’ve been home for a few days now, and it’s been pretty fantastic. been seeing and hugging lots of friends and a surprising amount of tour buds. i’ve also been co-producing a band with jordan, which has been pretty fun. last week, i did an in-place upgrade to windows 7, but i felt like a huge sellout, so a couple nights ago, i went ahead and did a clean install of it. so far, it’s been pretty rad. honestly, i don’t know if it’s worth $100, but it’s definitely worth the $0 that the year-long evaluation copy costs. hehe.

what else? my credit cards are all paid off. i just have $3k of medical bills left, but i’m not even paying attention to it, cause it’s at a pretty low apr. i’ve also heard a rumor that you don’t technically have to pay your medical bills, if you can’t? hah. well, i hope it doesn’t come to that. it shouldn’t. i’m actually sitting pretty comfortable, right now, thanks to the mcs shows that i played, over the last couple of months.

speaking of those, they’re over! if you missed it… umm, you missed it! haha. definitely a once-in-a-lifetime event. if you still haven’t seen the videos i posted earlier, they’re still up on my demo reel page.

man, i’ve been waiting for a while to write a huge update, but i can’t think of anything else to say right now. haha. sorry! maybe next time!

obviously, it’s a weird situation. fortunately for the band and fans, it’s only very temporary. tony will heal and recover quickly and get back at it, in no time. in the mean time, though, i’ll be out with the guys for a handful of more shows in april, and i’ll be giving it my best!

my goal for the next month or so is to ride my bike exclusively. i know i’ve made similar pledges in the past, and i end up doing half bike, half bus. but, with jordan opening his new studio much closer to me, it’s actually feasable. only 3.2 miles each way! that’s about half the distance to my space, which i’ve done there and back more than a few times.

by the way, i think that’s my plan for the summer. i’ve been pretty involved with producing drums on jordan schmidt projects for a little while, now. i also did my first co-producing project with him, recently. hopefully, things keep going that route and i’ll stay involved with either just drums or everything. i think everyone’s pretty flexible and we’ll probably take it a project at a time.

motion city isn’t doing much touring this year, so this would be a great alternative. it’s almost more fulfilling, cause a lot of times, i’m playing drums, or writing parts, etc. it’s definitely more than just tuning. heh. anyway, aside from the next month or two (including subbing for a recovering-from-arm-breaking tony), there won’t be much work coming my way from them. i wish i could be involved in the recording, but there’s not much i can offer that someone in l.a. can’t do better. and, sadly, “studio friend” isn’t a paid position. hah.

in other news, i’m bummed that google latitude isn’t taking off, so i’ve gone back to loopt. similarly, i’m bummed that there’s been no cupcake for g1, and that iphone 3.0 is looking to trounce the g1, in the near future. what gives, google?! you’re letting me down!

for example, in the past, i could always find something to do, on my computer. internet for hours, then maybe do some pro tools, or maybe some online gaming, or even solitaire. heh. but, more recently, after internetting, i get bored. and i get “the bug”, where i want to install linux or give osx a try. but, i always talk myself out of it, because whenever i’ve done these things in the past, i always revert back to my regular setup.

with music, i enjoy being a drum tech, and playing in gloria. but, there’s something else lacking. and i’ve come to the conclusion that i only feel fulfilled when i’m helping to write/arrange music. i haven’t really helped to write a song, since doing writing/recording somerset demos in 2005/2006. doing my lady four with jordan was the closest that i got.

my current living situation is certainly helping me pay off my medical bills, but it’s likewise unfulfilling. i miss my apartment. i miss downtown. and, so, even though i haven’t fully completed my goal of paying off my bills and saving up, i feel like i have to figure out a way to live downtown again. and soon.

my brother is trying to get back into voice over/on camera stuff. i really hope things go well for him. i’m genuinely excited about it, and hope that i can help him get some good opportunities. meanwhile, i’ve also felt like, “hey, i can do this!” heh.

i don’t know if that’s a result of a surplus of ambition, or if i’m just bored and/or dreaming. but, i feel like, at this moment in my life, i am willing and able to do almost anything. i just can’t be in a stagnant situation. i know that i’m better than that and that i deserve more.

i’m turning 27 very soon. yikesss.

oh yeah, i finally started my blogroll. it’s not much now, but they are quality people that you should definitely know.

in more laptop news, the fan is definitely fine. it starts and stops (at both speeds) without a problem, even without i8kfangui. however, everything changes when i run on battery. for some reason, running on batteries causes the fan to never kick on, and the cpu overheats and shuts down. wtf?

and, in other news, i’m really excited about the stuff me and jordan came up with a while back for my lady four. i think the end product is gonna be really good, and i’m glad to hear that the band is stoked on it. as soon as i get something, i’ll throw up some samples.