6.29.2007

NEW BIKE!

here it is!




the chrome cranks are just loaners, because the black ones i ordered were back ordered, but they kindly sent me the loaners and should have the black ones too me next week. i also plan to do a bit more OBEY sticker detailing.

NYC.

tuesday morning arrived, and we found ourselves parked up at the holiday inn in secaucus new jersey, just on the outskirts of new york city. i guess shane ate a bad cheese steak in philly, because he painted the sidewalks outside the bus after the show, and was checked out for our day off in the city. because of shanes illness, we had to cancel the in store acoustic show we had planned that evening in long island.

jon, paul and i headed onto the shuttle from the hotel to penn station, to get started on some radio interviews for the day.





immediately, i saw that NYC doesn't fuck around with their bikes. i think over the course of the day i saw just as many fixed gears as geared bikes, and plenty of bike messengers.



the enemy.




some more NYC architecture.




at about 2pm, we were all done for the day, so i parted ways with jon and paul, and headed down to the lower east side to 154 attorney st (the nyc canadian consulate / home of aileen and katiebrown). aside from seeing aileen when i got there, it turned out that the majority of our crew had bussed in to 154 attorney as well.



cheapie, aileen and i decided to jump the subway to get to red bamboo (my favourite restaurant in the country), post haste.






i ordered one of my classic favourites, the soul chicken parmesan hero, as well as the cajun fried shrip and a pistachio shake!



cheapie digs into a dijon chicken sandwhich.



on the walk back to the subway, we stopped in at urban outfitters, where aileen, in attempt for those rainy days in "the shit" on warped tour, did her best rambo impression.



fixed gears everywhere!



i opted to break away from the pack and head uptown to the shepard fairey art exhibit at the jonathan levine galleries. unfortunately, this was about as far as i could get with my camera. the exhibit was absolutely amazing! the detail and textures in the prints were something that can only be experienced fully in person with the original print. my mind was fully blown.



more bikes!



i kind of got lost on the walk back to 154 from the subway. i found out that this actually happens in new york, and not just in the movies.



another bike!



back to 154, the crew were all hanging back and relaxing (some more than others)



we watched some tv (new entourage, so amazing) and hung around before getting the gang together and walking a few blocks to a bar.





we headed to angels & kings, a new scene bar in the city run by one of the dudes from fall out boy, or something. we ran into a bunch of friends including the kids from armor for sleep and plain white t's, as well as rob from midtown (djing that evening).

here's plain white dave laughing at my moustache.



DJ rob



johnny cash making an appearance on the wall.



aileen and i!



palmer and pauly.



154's tribute to nu metal enthusiast, danny delprincipe.



kevin is still drinking!




i passed out to the loving embrace of lux the stuffed puppy.



the next day we had to get up real early to get back up to time square for a photo shoot. i think i was actually up at something like 6am refreshing the UPS tracking screen to see when my bike was going to arrive. we left around 11 to head to the venue, still no bike. after the photoshoot, i headed back to 154 to find the bike had arrived. unfortunately i was too excited while putting it together to take any pictures, but now that it is pretty much together (need to add a few more obey decals) i'm going to get some solid photos today. after putting it together, i needed to find a pump to fill one of the tires, and even though i found a rad shop right around the corner, it was closed wednesdays. the trusty google maps helped me find a shop, and i was off to the races of riding the busy streets of NYC.

i road back over to red bamboo for a second serving with my friend pulin from PETA2 and his friend joe. i got the bamboo tofu club and butter pecan shake, which were all delicious! there is actually a little blog about that on their site.



pulin and i hopped the subway back up to the venue, as my 50 block bike ride "parade" was officially rained on (litterally). after the show (which was great) mary and i hopped back on the subway to 154, where she needed to pick up clothes, and i needed to grab the bike suitcase that i left back because i couldn't carry it on my bike.

to be honest, yesterday we were in hartford ct, which was pretty sketchy, so i didn't really bring out my camera or bike. i did find a decent juice bar close to the venue, and made it there and back alive, which was unexpected.

6.28.2007

PHILLY (pernounced the way palmer often says my name)

monday night we played in philadelphia. the show was at the electric factory, which is a super rad venue, and it was sold out and amazing. we talked some business over lunch with our friends mike and scott, and lunch was delicious. my old pal mike ski came out to hang out and tattoo me. we finished moments before having to go on stage, which led me to drip bloody goo all over my bass.

the stencil.


ski-e-e-e-eeee at work.


the finished product.


i saw this rad fixie locked up inside the venue, and assumed that someone working the show was riding in style.


i later found out that the bike belonged to my friend mike sneeringer from the loved ones, and we nerded out for a bit together after the show. he showed me some moves and tricks he's had up his sleeve from riding brakeless fixed for 3+ years, including this rad no handed track stand.



also, cute mary has been hanging out the last few days! yay!


and i met dave wagenschutz.

playlist:
MEMORIAL: berlin. (thanks scott)
ATTACK IN BLACK: new wave.
SIGHTS AND SOUNDS: demo.
THE SAINT ALVIA CARTEL: s/t.

6.25.2007

also...

in south carolina this dude took a photo of us for some newspaper, and we weren't really prepared for it, but i think it has more character than most of the promo shots we've ever done.

SC/NC/VA

so i have slacked off a bit from updating the last couple days, but now i will attempt to attack the entire weekend all at once.

friday found us in myrtle beach, south carolina at the house of blues venue. the house of blues venues are all great venues to play, definitely a cool vibe and great sound. we were at this venue once before last february on the take action tour, but didn't play because shane had flown home for a funeral. i think the show was sold out, and i was stoked to play.




i took the bike out for a bit, which was quickly curbed because the venue was pretty much on a highway. another thing i found curbed on the highway was this snake. ewwwwwwww.



i headed across the highway to this "bargain" store to buy a postcard for HLS. these type stores are pretty much exclussively found in beach cities, but at the same time, you won't find a beach city without one. they had an excess of stupid tshirts and novelty items like this "GIT R DONE" license plate. i also picked up a myrtle beach shot glass for my sister that had her name on it.






on my way back to the venue, i decided to take the dock bridge which also crossed through to "alligator adventure".




saturday brought us to charlotte, north carolina, once again at the tremont music hall (which i think we have all grown to loathe). when riding in SC, i noticed my cranks were coming loose, so upon the recomendation of my friend RH, i decided to get up early and head to black sheep cycles, a fine bike shop about 2 miles from the tremont. seeing as my cranks were loose, i decided to borrow josh's bike, which he has recently named "dump weed". it was definitely a huge switch back to a geared bike with shocks and whatnot, coasting downhill was pretty fun though. the folks at the shop were great, and sold me their crank tool and said they would just order another in.




i also decided to finally get myself a set of toe clip caged track pedals!



came back to the bus and caught some action on neil and cheapies intense game of the american classic, catch.



josh and i (aka 'team bike') assembled for a quick ride, which was deffered when we found ourself in a not-so-nice-looking neighbourhood, esspecially when we saw a shotgun shell on the side of the road...




when we got back to the venue, i put my bike in the trailor, and came back to it not too long after to notice my tire was deflated. luckily i was able to take the wheel off and head back down to black sheep for a tube change. for this, i borrowed shanes mountain bike, which i attempted to name "linkin park", to which he declided to let me borrow unless i agreed upon the name "metalicycle", which i temporarily agreed on to borrow the bike, which at heart, i still feel like calling 'linkin park'. had more time to chat with the guys in the shop, and they treated me great. definitely back the shop, so if any readers are ever looking for friendly cycling service in charlotte, check out this spot. OH! i also got sweet vegan pizza while out on shanes bike, mmmmmm!

after the show i headed to a pub to share some company witht he comeback kids and some of their canadian and north carolinian friends who were at the show. i forgot to bring my camera, and definitely was the acting spokesman in talking our way out of being seated at a $50 a plate stake restaurant that we wandered into looking for a bar.

today we were in norfolk virginia, at a venue called the norva. the norva is well known for having a great staff, excellent venue, and the best back stage band area ever! i wish i had more photos, but in the headliners dressing room(s) there is definitely a hot tub, sauna and several showers! we did a hilarious video interview for PETA 2 where they sat down both us and rise against and had us interview eachother. it pretty much turned into a shit show where we made jokes and fun of eachother the whole time.

here's some shots of the support dressing room which we shared with the comebackk kids.




here is the current status of my moustache. yussssss.



superfans under the age of seven!



the front of the norva, post show.




i picked up this smiths shirt with the remainder of my hot topic gift card, and am posting this photo to make pat jealous (HA!)



i also went to a record store around the corner that we played at once and bought gorilla biscuits, the faint, and set your goals LP's and about 6 or 7 fucked up 7"s...sweeeeeeeeet!