Monday Fun Day
posted by Majestic Ape at 2:23 PM
Monday, January 28, 2008
We are trying to finish a bunch of new songs to test while we are on the road and the pressure is on. You see, I am the weakest link. When we write songs, I have to practice constantly to memorize these strings of parts, simply because the pace of our practice does not allow me to write things down. I am a visual and tactile learner. I need to see it. I want to write it. I love to touch. I always have some weird little peice of something in my hands that I rub compulsively. This whole winter, I have been picking up every single lost glove that I see in the street. There will be a glove project. More hand and finger and touching themes.
Last night we had a particularly brutal practice. At least it was brutal for me. I had not recorded our last practice and had no reference point. Erick was not impressed. Nor was he silent in his dissaproval.
After a practice like that, I need to walk alone in the dark outside. There have been a string of nasty muggings in my neighborhood. Last week my roommate was robbed at gun point on our front porch. For the first time EVER, I have been mildly intimadated by the prospect of wandering my neighborhood alone at night. And last night, I stayed in again.
My point is this.....I was tired and felt like an asshole but I still had to get up at 6:00 am to teach middle school. I had to blow off some steam. So I stayed up all night drawing. DUMBASS! I finally fell asleep at around 4:30 am and my alarm went off at 6. If I am going to be staying up all night, at least I should get some job. Got no lotion, got no deodorant. Now we are driving back to Gaithersburg for another practice and I feel like there is nothing between my ears. Ready to fall on my face exhausted.
But, hey, that's life. I am not complaining. I picked this existance and I love it. It means so much to me that I start writing again and everyone is leaving comments, You guys are my crew! Everyone has left DC! I am blabbering. I need to get a cat and some bear mace.
I have a new friend who knows how to butcher road killed deer. Do you think that I should add eating roadkill to my foraging for wild edibles practice? I think I'm ready.
Check out this band..............The State Workers. They have a myspace page. Amazing videos. I endorse them. Ha.
The new record, "Ghost Games," is officially being released on Feb 19.
To begin supporting this record, we leave for tour on Feb 12. Our first stops for this first tour are all in the Northeast and Mid West portions of our country.
I vaguely remember when Erick asked me to review the itinerary back in November. When I saw locations like Rochester, Buffalo, Burlington, Detroit, and Chicago, I believe my response was "Dude are you fucking nuts? Do you recall how our van does in the snow?" Erick, the king of practicallity, informed me that we had no choice but to go North. The reason for this choice is that in March, we will be hitting the south, deep south, and south central parts of the country. So, to him, there was no logic in repeating those towns. I still maintain that there is no logic in touring places that chances are, will have inclement weather while we are either en route, or playing.
One of the few nights that I was pretty sure we were going to die, was when we drove home from Hoboken, NJ in a snow storm. I recall trying to drive to the Jersey Turnpike on a snow covered neighborhood street in Hoboken. A trash truck pulled in front of me a few hundread yards ahead. I started breaking gently as to allow plenty of stopping time. That was the first skid. There were two more before we hit the turnpike. I had suggested that we simply stay in the city that night, since we have about 25 friends that would have hosted us. (Most of our DC people are now living in NYC) But the boys would have none of that. I remember that night, that Jeff decided he would take over driving since I was adamant that we not try to make it home. He said something to the effect of "Quiet, you Scared Woman. Let the men handle this one." Our old manager, Matt W, of ESL Music was with us. The combination of humans in the van certainly put our likely death at a more comedic level.
The turnpike wasn't being plowed. And the snow was coming down so hard we couldn't see a thing anyway. Trucks would drive by us and it would send us skidding toward hell. We stopped once to pee and I stepped into a large ice puddle, leaving the feet and legs wet and cold for the rest of the 9 hours that it took to drive home. No heat in the van. That night, Jeff was daring God to stop us! They thought the whole thing was hilarious. It probably was. I no longer get uptight about flirting with death.
But the moral of the story is that we are going north at a time of year that we have no business being in the north. I asked Jeff if we could get tire chains as he is the band accountant. He said he had no idea how to put them on. I said, umm, we can learn. Its not that hard. He said if we had chains on our tires, we would never make it to shows anyway, since we wouldn't be able to drive above 30mph.
I said sometimes its not necessarily about making the shows. Being trapped, being stranded, skidding, sliding, and wrecking seem worthy of avoiding.
Those guys blow my mind.
I think its time for me to get a life.
We are trying to finish a bunch of new songs to test while we are on the road and the pressure is on. You see, I am the weakest link. When we write songs, I have to practice constantly to memorize these strings of parts, simply because the pace of our practice does not allow me to write things down. I am a visual and tactile learner. I need to see it. I want to write it. I love to touch. I always have some weird little peice of something in my hands that I rub compulsively. This whole winter, I have been picking up every single lost glove that I see in the street. There will be a glove project. More hand and finger and touching themes.
Last night we had a particularly brutal practice. At least it was brutal for me. I had not recorded our last practice and had no reference point. Erick was not impressed. Nor was he silent in his dissaproval.
After a practice like that, I need to walk alone in the dark outside. There have been a string of nasty muggings in my neighborhood. Last week my roommate was robbed at gun point on our front porch. For the first time EVER, I have been mildly intimadated by the prospect of wandering my neighborhood alone at night. And last night, I stayed in again.
My point is this.....I was tired and felt like an asshole but I still had to get up at 6:00 am to teach middle school. I had to blow off some steam. So I stayed up all night drawing. DUMBASS! I finally fell asleep at around 4:30 am and my alarm went off at 6. If I am going to be staying up all night, at least I should get some job. Got no lotion, got no deodorant. Now we are driving back to Gaithersburg for another practice and I feel like there is nothing between my ears. Ready to fall on my face exhausted.
But, hey, that's life. I am not complaining. I picked this existance and I love it. It means so much to me that I start writing again and everyone is leaving comments, You guys are my crew! Everyone has left DC! I am blabbering. I need to get a cat and some bear mace.
I have a new friend who knows how to butcher road killed deer. Do you think that I should add eating roadkill to my foraging for wild edibles practice? I think I'm ready.
Check out this band..............The State Workers. They have a myspace page. Amazing videos. I endorse them. Ha.
The new record, "Ghost Games," is officially being released on Feb 19.
To begin supporting this record, we leave for tour on Feb 12. Our first stops for this first tour are all in the Northeast and Mid West portions of our country.
I vaguely remember when Erick asked me to review the itinerary back in November. When I saw locations like Rochester, Buffalo, Burlington, Detroit, and Chicago, I believe my response was "Dude are you fucking nuts? Do you recall how our van does in the snow?" Erick, the king of practicallity, informed me that we had no choice but to go North. The reason for this choice is that in March, we will be hitting the south, deep south, and south central parts of the country. So, to him, there was no logic in repeating those towns. I still maintain that there is no logic in touring places that chances are, will have inclement weather while we are either en route, or playing.
One of the few nights that I was pretty sure we were going to die, was when we drove home from Hoboken, NJ in a snow storm. I recall trying to drive to the Jersey Turnpike on a snow covered neighborhood street in Hoboken. A trash truck pulled in front of me a few hundread yards ahead. I started breaking gently as to allow plenty of stopping time. That was the first skid. There were two more before we hit the turnpike. I had suggested that we simply stay in the city that night, since we have about 25 friends that would have hosted us. (Most of our DC people are now living in NYC) But the boys would have none of that. I remember that night, that Jeff decided he would take over driving since I was adamant that we not try to make it home. He said something to the effect of "Quiet, you Scared Woman. Let the men handle this one." Our old manager, Matt W, of ESL Music was with us. The combination of humans in the van certainly put our likely death at a more comedic level.
The turnpike wasn't being plowed. And the snow was coming down so hard we couldn't see a thing anyway. Trucks would drive by us and it would send us skidding toward hell. We stopped once to pee and I stepped into a large ice puddle, leaving the feet and legs wet and cold for the rest of the 9 hours that it took to drive home. No heat in the van. That night, Jeff was daring God to stop us! They thought the whole thing was hilarious. It probably was. I no longer get uptight about flirting with death.
But the moral of the story is that we are going north at a time of year that we have no business being in the north. I asked Jeff if we could get tire chains as he is the band accountant. He said he had no idea how to put them on. I said, umm, we can learn. Its not that hard. He said if we had chains on our tires, we would never make it to shows anyway, since we wouldn't be able to drive above 30mph.
I said sometimes its not necessarily about making the shows. Being trapped, being stranded, skidding, sliding, and wrecking seem worthy of avoiding.
Those guys blow my mind.
I think its time for me to get a life.
