Mangia Piu Kale!

no more anatomy of heartache

Tuesday, June 28, 2005

back in NY, the awesomeness continued when I got to see GeoffreyTodd and commenced to party all night w/ Natalie D. and Mike K., who i'd not seen since moving west. we danced to hall and oats at a party called Shit Hammered, where we also watched 1.5 fights, bottles crashing to the ground at many instances, and bras hanging from the ceiling. i headed to philly on weds, benny's arrival sounded by skateboard wheels. he told me how he, salo, and thousands of skaters descended on Love Park the previous day. some SF guys stayed w/ Ben and Salo as well, and they were equally awesome. we all went out, got Stefan, ate dinner and drank. then we played around in a park and it felt so excellent, nothing beats the city-park-at-night-summery-feeling. the next day we went to a park that the guys are building, and people are seriously sleeping there at night, they're so excited to get it done. than we checked out the whispering wall, and walked around a few parks. while ben was in class, stephan took me to an abandoned factory and i could have spent hours there. aw philly yer so nice. grafitti , swings and crosswords, beer and walking and summersweat and hugs. back in brooklyn, marty and tera took me to a really nice dinner, then i went to see doug and amy for a bit before heading to a party. we checked out a singer, Kevin Divine, elliott-smity and pretty good. he covered a tim harding song so i was pleased. we walked across the bridge to the lower east side, and there was Carolyn, glowy in a white dress. we rejoiced til morning, i caught a cab driven by a sweet person who wrote a book and we talked about art and life and all that cliche 5am stuff. i felt sad to leave.

Tuesday, June 21, 2005

lazy day. i'm in park slope, in mary and tera's excellent apartment. it's been good to spend time w/them, i wish i was here when they didn't have to work. we got in late on sunday and watched napoleon dynamite, and dan and mikey called me from someplace in Montana, drunk and singing lots of songs and playing guitar. they did one called "i want to be connected to connecticut". yesterday i walked around the neighborhood and did some reading and writing in Prospect Park. My grandfather Ben spent his last year in a nursing home at Carroll and Prospect, and so I took a photo of the arch/monument thing that he could see from his window. i ventured into the park, where even for an early Monday afternoon, there were lots of kids playing and people sunning or walking their deleriously happy dogs. i took off my boots and let the sun warm my legs..

Sunday, June 05, 2005

"and so it is... i can't take my eyes off of you"
so phoenix was fun and low-key, we had a huge amount of driving the next day, and rested somewhere around Las Cruces to see the film "Madagascar". it gave me relief to do something familiar. we drove so much, but it was never too bad. i love watching the scenary unfold and change slightly. we'd stop for bathroom and gasoline and everyone would play a quick game of soccor in the lot. it was a grand relief to sweep into Austin. i love that city. i tried to get my cousin to come to the show. while he couldn't, it was still cool to talk to him for the first time in 4 or 5 years. Emo's is an awesome venue, except that setting up my stuff w/ the sun glaring down was hellish. but at night, i appreciated the fact that the show is outdoors. (I)NC headlined, folks were so damn friendly there. a woman named Ingrid sat next to me selling cd's for her husband's band, "The Arm". she was so nice and we talked about her kid and staying awesome and punk even when you're married and have a baby and are totally stoked on those aspects as well. she inspired me lots, i gave her a pin to give her kiddo. i got tons of tips, everyone had lots of interesting stuff to talk about, and they gave me a cool poster. the guys have a friend named Mani who lives there, and we discussed Palestine a bunch. Dave from Trail of Dead was also at the show, it was good to see him one more time. And Stefan's sister Jen lives there now, and came to say hi. I used my spare time to hang out w/ the Quebec kids at a bar called Maggie May's, and hung out mostly w/ Alex for the remainer of the night. He's phenomenal and I'm glad I got to know him; one of those folks by whom I feel changed,. As I was packing up and saying my goodbye's at close to 3am, it started to rain. It was sad but f'ing perfect as well. Kisses and hugs and goodbye forever or for a long time, back to the hotel, up the next day to drive to Houston. Mani met us there, we hung out at Rice University while Dennis got interviewed, I sat in the grass in the sun, called Carolyn, made plans to meet up in NYC. The show was the tour's finale, and Susan met me there. Susanface! So good to see her after 2 years. We sat together, acted goofy, ate vegan brownies that Jen made us. Saying goodbye to everyone was sad, but they'll be back in L.A. at the end of July for some festival. Suz took me home, and I slept forever. The next day she took me to the best thrift store ever, a good veggie restaurant, and we walked around all these cool places. We met up w/ her friends Alexia and Brian that night. Thru Susan's life, Houston ain't bad at all.
I was sad to leave, i definitely wasn't ready for anything to end. And now I am in SF and a bit sniffly, Brian is here and it's good to see him. A week from tomorrow I leave for NYC, to celebrate my loved ones' birthdays, see Pixies and Interpol at Jone's beach, see Manowar at BBKings, catch up w/ Carolyn, spend time at our cabin in Chichester hopefully, and see Benny and other philly kids. Things are going well, I shouldn't let myself be too sad or scared. I will have to get another job soon to bring $ in, but i know it doen't have to be a big career-centric thing.

Saturday, June 04, 2005

on touring w/ mike and (i)nc...
i was only gone for 10 days but it seems like longer. a tornado in colorado delayed my home-coming, and i rolled in late, a bit sick..
i wasn't impressed for my first show in Petaluma, at the run-down and grafitti-covered Phoenix. it reminded me of Gilman, 6 bands, and it lasted bloody forever. Amanda showed me how to do things, and it did feel good to see Phyte again, and meet the INC guys. the opening band on tour, We are Wolves, are from Montreal and truly awesome. Trail of the Dead was good as well, tho i've never been into them. i was able to sleep in my bed that night. It was good to see Brooke at the Fillmore, and J.C.'s ex-wife was in town, it was lots of fun. I didn't have to work much at that show, so i just enjoyed myself. i got used to being on the road pretty quickly. 4 people to a room at night, up early and just 3 minutes or so each to shower, than out to the van, than off for food and ideally caffeine. everyone teased lots and made inappropriate jokes. eventually i got into it too. The swedes were awesome! funny and friendly and generally good to be around. we played lots of good and bad music in the van. I got to know Phyte better, he's an amazing person, and Scott. Morrissey and Har Mar Superstar were at the L.A. show, and Fred came by as well, then we went to the Knitting Factory where i saw Fischer and Hayden!
The Vegas show was nuts. As we rolled over the Nevada state line, I trilled happily and made everyone take notice, since that's where Dan is from and i'd never been there before. It always weirds me out to be in the desert. It's gorgeous but so different from what i grew up with. We passed a car accident that had just happened. bunches of people were running to this bashed up car that was smoking. there was someone passed out in the driver's seat.
The House of Blues is connected to a casino, so us merch folks had to sell there, watching people gamble, smoke, and get drinks from coctail waitresses in bunny costumes. i started to get to know Alex, WAW's manager, better at that show. we talked a bunch and he's sweet, smart and quirky. Phyte's friend Robert met up w/ us at that show, and he is another amazing person. he travels around the northeast building obstacle courses for kids in places like Maine or New Hampshire. he hasn't had a home in 6 months, his job pays for hotels for him. he gets to be outside all the time.
The San Diego show was a ton of fun, Alex and this otehr girl and i had miniature dance parties behind the merch table. Everyone kept bringing me drinks, i always felt very taken cared for. We had to leave and therefore didn't get to swim at 3am w/ the other folks. we headed to Phoenix, the last one w/ Trail of Dead. it went well, i got a marriage proposal from a drunken glam-rawker who wouldn't let it go.