another day off means another big update with plenty of photos. this updates covers "rob dyer week" and more, from austin texas to denver colorado (where i am today).
we got to austin the weekend before the annual
south by southwest (SXSW) music conference started, but just in time for the SXSW film festival. SXSW brings film and music industry folks from across the nation/world to the streets of texas for hundreds of bands, shows, films, speakers and events over the course of a week in march. here we see the streets of 6th street packed for a film at the ritz cinema.
something i love to do while in austin is walk, and this day was no different, as i awoke early to walk my usual couple of miles en route to jamba juice, whole foods, waterloo records, and back. unfortunately my afternoon walk wasn't photographed, i did take a walk at night to check out this coffee shop/cafe called jo's, on recommendation from my good friend, austin native, and ian mackaye look-a-like,
zach blair. jo's offered a delicious local recipe vegetarian bbq sandwich, which i ate faster than i could think to photograph, oops!
on the walk back i took a photo of this building on account of the fact my friend jesse pointed out that it resembled an owl.
fast forward a few days to las vegas, day one of rob dyer week! fortunately i survived a day in vegas without any gambling, and unfortunately i also didn't make it to
ronalds donuts in time before it closed. i did, however, make a trip down the strip with josh, sara, and mark to the fashion show mall.
we decided that it was a good idea to barricade the bathroom door while rich was taking a shower, which provided with funny times for funny guys when he tried to get out.
and here he is, rob dyer! rob flew into vegas to ride along with the tour for a week through the west coast.
joe likes to give kids a hard time, but i found this note to be pretty funny.
when i arrived back from the mall, i met up with vegas/buffalo's finest, mr. and mrs. joel.com. after the show, we jumped in the "so emo" mobile with little robbie and headed to in-n-out burger.
a few days pass by and we arrive in hollywood. i got up early and headed east on hollywood blvd, across the 101 to meet up with superbro
will evans.
after a cup of coffee at his pad, we were picked up by his ladyfriend mariwether and headed to hollywoods finest vegan restaurant real food daily for brunch.
by the looks of this photo, mariwether is a total deathbabe, and our hang out that afternoon seemed to agree.
the club sandwich with avocado never disappoints!
did i mention it was a beautiful spring day in LA?
after eating we headed east on melrose over to LA's self proclaimed 'bicycle district', home of
orange 20 (pictured below),
the bike kitchen and this rad ice cream parlor that i believe was called "scoops", which had a ridiculously delicious vegan strawberry balsamic ice cream!
the legendary hardcore/punk venue
the ukrainian hall is also located around the corner.
the bike district also features a cartoon wall mural featuring some cute, and possibly straight edge, characters sticking it to the man and promoting peace.
and it looks like this little guy is on his way to (hate) freedom.
due to an anti war rally going on at hollywood and vine (right where our show was), will leant me his bike (which i named cory commuter) to get back for soundcheck and explore hollywood on two wheels.
cory was a smooth ride, and comfortably got me a few miles down to
posers on melrose, where i bought some new digs.
after the show, a few of us walked over to cafe 101 for some late night breakfast foods. i had the piled high plate of mexican food and fried tofu that they like to call the "no heuvos rancheros", and i also helped talked will into going vegetarian! i think he is a week deep already, and is enjoying it from the sounds of it.
current orange county resident via australia's finest guitar shreddin', vegan straight-edge warrior and all around sweet bro jona weinhofen also came along with a couple of hot metal babes in tow, which of whom i didn't manage to snag a photo with.
next we head north to san francisco, which means
amoeba music and
set your goals!
here's me being the cameo guy with set your bro's, who shortly performed a cover of the movielife's "i hope you die soon" with vinnie movielife, in preparation for
their set at this years bamboozle festivals.
joe sauce is stoked, and so is his bizarro twin rich nandes.
and rob dyer is always stoked, and still here!
our next day was a day off just outside of portland oregon, where i bought this silly guitar, a 1960 guild starfire I.
did i mention that portland is gorgeous?
they also have a plethora of vegan food, and i was lucky enough to find this rad place called the paradox cafe, where i enjoyed some vegan french toast, fried tofu and fried potatoes.
the show in portland was in a smaller venue with out a barricade, which made for a pretty fun show.
here's kevin and i, mid song, in post show celebration of paul-marc's birthday!
yesterday we played in denver, which brought out the infamous william woods, my superfan.
he let me wear his sweet pandabear hat on stage, too.
i've been obsessed with this show big time lately.
and apparently when sean palmer isn't doing our sound or managing the tour, he's working as an intern at seattle grace hospital....weeeeeeird.
only a week left of tour, and i gotta say, i'm pretty anxious to get home and stay there for a few weeks. i picked up a vintage gintane french track frame, with some campy cranks, a pair of old normandy/mavic tubular track wheels, and a few other old track bike parts on ebay the other day, and plan to get it on the road as soon as i get home, on account of the fact chris has a tal friend interested in getting a bike, who has shown interested in buying my
iro. ever since i got the
rossin i've found it pretty tough to switch back and forth between riding a steel track frame and an oversized aluminum frame with more relaxed angles, so hopefully this new bike will ride stiffer like the rossin and will provide me with a bike that i can ride whenever and take on tour and such. with this, i also plan to swap some parts off the rossin, specifically the brown wheelset, so i should have photos of both my new and updated whips in the coming weeks.
bye for now.
current playlist:
otis redding.
billy bragg & wilco - mermaid ave.
wilco - yankee hotel foxtrot.
constantines - kensington heights.
weekly episodes of lost.
grey's anatomy.
