OH HEY THERE BIG UPDATE.

hello friends,
i have finally found the time and proper internet connection to prepare and upload the majority of my photos taken over the past couple of months. i got really lazy again for a while, and didn't really take any photos on the canadian tour, but, here's what i've got.

i left japan on a plane for LA, which arrived around noon. in LA we connected onto a flight to vancouver, which arrived later that afternoon. at this point i parted ways with my band members and caught my own flight to toronto. i arrived in toronto around 1am, and after walking around the airport for a few minutes realizing that my sanity wouldn't allow me to hang out at the aiport until my next flight at 6am, i rented a car and drove home for a couple hours. i arrived home around 2:30, and decided that i needed to try to be back at the airport for 5 or shortly after. you'd think that after not sleeping in my bed for a month, and being in the ridiculous transit that i was, taking like 5 flights already that day, the first thing i would want to do issleep? well, i really couldn't. i basically just laid in my bed for 2 hours, had a shower, and headed back to the airport just in time to catch my flight to new york city. when i arrived in NYC, around 8am, i walked over to one of the neighbouring terminals to meet up with the lovely and talented stacy smallwood, who had flown in from ohio for the weekend as well. stacy and i were greeted and picked up by her friend heather, who took us back to her apartment to chill out before the show. by the time we ended up heading to new jersey for the show, i was completely wiped, and actually felt like a zombie. somehow walking into the show and realizing that i had made it there suddenly rejuvenated me completely. i headed backstage and said hello to the guys, and ran into some friends from all over the east coast before the set.


for the first few songs i stood right about here, a few rows back from the front, right infront of chuck.


after the set was about half done, i was feeling the intensity of a bunch of large, sweaty, overly excited dudes in the pit, and decided to move sidestage and watch the end of the set from there. this also put me in prime position to stage dive during "our own way".



snagged a superfan pic with chuck right after the set, and got the gang to sign my copy of the 'til the wheels fall off LP that they were selling with special handscreened sleeves for the show.

my photos here aren't much to write home about, so you should go and check out these ones. be sure to look for me in the crowd shots ala where's waldo, i'm there!


here's a classic shot of shithead smallwood and i, followed by a few of us embarking on some red bamboo with katiebrown and co.





finally we see stacy representing brooklyn in fine style.


i flew out of NYC that afternoon to montreal, connected to toronto, and then connected back to vancouver, where arrive at about 2am and took a cab to the hotel that the bus was parked at. the next day we started our first ever canadian headlining tour, which went better than any of us could have ever asked for. the tour sold out every date across the country, and we had a rad time, regardless of it being like, -40 in edmonton. it was nice to experience what it feels like to have my beard freeze to my face, but only for like a minute, after that it sucked, and so did having my hands and feet feel like they were going to fall off.

while we were in winnipeg i met a swell gal named chelsea. fast forward to the end of the tour, chelsea came to toronto to visit!




she managed to grab my camera and take some photos around toronto while i drove.



i took her to several of the fine vegetarian restaurants both downtown and in the greater toronto area, including both sadies diner and licks!




after a rather lovely (said in a british accent) meal at licks, and a quick pop in at mom's house, we headed down to catch a brief glimpse at niagara falls.



okay, now time for a huge fast forward to a few days into the american tour. day 3 brought us to philly, where i get really excited to eat vegan cheesesteaks at gianna's.



this time in philly i got the pleasure of going to gianna's twice! for lunch i walked over with our old merch guy danny (who had smuggled himself back on the bus for the trip from nyc to philly), and again for dinner with my 2step brother jon and his wife mel (who are both vegan! and pictured below). i find "2step brother" to be the best and easiest way to refer to jon, as he is my step brother's step brother, or better yet, my mom's husband's ex wife's husband's son...right.



here we have a few photos from the show in philly at the troc, graciously taken with my camera by adam mott






here we find tour manager and sound engineer sean palmer hard at work, with aforementioned former merch guy, and all around doof, danny delprincipe.



now we jump a few days ahead to nashville. it's been quite some time since we've actually played nashville, and i think our last headline show there had 93 people show up, so it was awesome coming back to play a sold out show at rocketown skatepark, coffee shop and live music venue. now the ultimate plus side of all of this my friends, was clearly being able to spend time with my good pal kyle sloan (who happens to manage the skate park attached to the venue)




i hung out with kyle all day in the skate shop, and after the show he took me to see his fairly recently purchased home, where the photos above were all taken. after checking out his pad, we headed to a 24 hour cafe to chat and catch up more. i ate a delicious sandwhich and naked smoothie.




the next day we played atlanta, and pretty much the only thing i like about atlanta is soul veg. as you can see below, i got a kalebone sandwhich with fries, salad and a side of vegan mac'n'cheese (which doesn't look nearly as appetizing in this photo as it actually was).




next up, florida. here i am in florida.


coming to orlando always requires a stop in to see the late night, downtown, vegan hotdog cart.


here shane and fagoondez get into the southern spirit (and rich pay homage to his mexican roots).


after amazing sold out shows in orlando (house of blues in disney world) and ft. lauderdale, we stopped in clearwater for a day off. clearwater is minutes away from dunedin, which happens to be where the toronto blue jays play their spring training pre season games. luckily on this day, the jays had a game against the clevo indians to which a few of us canadian baseball fans (with chris gainesville in tow) attended.















our last day in florida brought us to st. petersburg, where these next two photos were taken with the brother/sister combo of trent and shannon mcrae.



next stop was to the french quarter of new orleans, for our first ever headlining show there at their lovely house of blues. here are a couple photos i took on the beautiful sunny day that we had off before the show.




on the night that we had off in new orleans, wilco happened to be playing their second of two benefit shows. we managed to score some tickets for this massive sold out event, and it was amazing! wilco played for 2 hours, and completely ripped. here's a photo i took on my phone.


this television show is hilarious.


this record rips, get into it!