When you're in Rome...get a fucking air conditioner.

Day 2 in Rome.

Since the last time I updated I:

- Slept in Frankfurt airport from 5 AM - about 10 AM.
- Spent all day in said air port (luckily there was a grocery store with vegan groceries).
- Took a bus to Frankfurts little brother airport, Hahn and slept there.
- Woke up at 5 to board the air plane.
- Flew into this heatbox of a city (although it is still beautiful).
- Spent all day at a fest we played with our good friends in To Kill.
- Have wanted to kill my self for the lack of coolness in this place.

Now I'm sitting with 3 other people in this little studio that has no AC and one revolving fan. It's a place to sleep at least. Plus, it's nice to be in the company of good people. Josh is an amazing individual and I'm really glad I've got 3 more days left with him.

Today we will be doing touristy shit, vatican, coliseum, chapel, etc. etc.

We also heard from Josh that there is a place that sells vegan donuts (!!!) so of course we will be stopping by and trying these rare foods. We also have some new friends that we met that have been traveling Europe since we've been here that told us it's next door to an ice cream shop. Heat = Ice Cream.

I miss Mighty O donuts. If I had the money I'd fly to Seattle just to eat those things.

Done.

Day 49. This is final.

I'm sitting in Belgium after eating a nice meal from the awesome food stand at Ieper fest. French Fries, Seitan sandwich, and a gingerbread ice cream...a vegan couldn't ask for more.

Tonight was our last show of the tour and I'm happy to say that it's over. It's nice to know I fly to Rome for a week to just hang out and go sight seeing. After a week in Rome it's time to fly back home to get back to the daily grind. I will miss the shitty drives, bread filled dinners, and funny chants...and I mean that honestly. It was a good first experience and a long one at that. Getting to know Outrage and the other bands I got to know has been awesome. I actually met some people with substance and who can actually make me talk.



I have a busy schedule ahead of me though...October 10th I will be flying into Houston Texas to play Die Youngs last show with 7 Generations. Maybe a possible Seattle trip on the 3rd to see UNBROKEN? Who knows. Then it all comes down to The 24th of October; 7 Generations final show. That night I'll be giving an ode to bad luck, some ridiculous people, and unfortunately some people I might never see after that. Regardless it's about time to call it a day for that one.

I know I keep saying this but when I get home all distortion will be unleashed in a new project...I'm giving it everything I got and more. Let me assure you that it will ruin lives and at the least, ears. Revenge is a dish best served with a side of distortion.

That's all I've got. I'm horrible at tour wrap ups. Maybe I can think of some other way to articulate how the tour went, but if not this will suffice. Tonight drive to Frankfurt then hang out at the air port for a day and off to Rome.

"you're the kind of person that goes places in life"

I'm sitting this on the third story of a flat we're staying at, in Nottingham England. Today was our last day off of the tour, we have 3 more days left on this roller coaster of a tour. Sadly after all is said and done, I will miss the no sleep, long drives, shitty turn outs and mass consumption of bread. Regardless, I cannot wait to come home and lay in bed and play my guitar some more.

So I suppose this is an update: Yesterday we played with Trash Talk, this was our second show with those guys and tomorrow is our third and last. I've always known Spencer, their bass player, but I never knew the other guys, getting to know them these past couple of days has been good. Their sets are always out of control, which is not surprising, being that I've played with them multiple times at home and have seen their reactions there. I'll look forward to seeing those guys when I'm back at home.

Now if you read my post previous to this, you'd see a picture of me infront of the infamous Lads club. Yes, I went there. Yes, I went to Strangeways prison. Yes, I went to Vinyl Revival, where Morrissey buys records and bought something for my self. Yes, I was happy and miserable in Manchester. Standing infront of the lads club was so surreal, I almost didn't expect it to be an actual place. I walked up to the building and ran my fingers across the brick walls thinking "Morrissey has touched these walls before"...I knocked on the door hoping someone would open them and let me in the Morrissey shrine room. "I know my luck too well" though, and as fate would have it, there was no door keeper allowing me into the little piece of heaven. I was still satisfied. Manchester, so much to answer for...I wish you'd answer the door.

Today we went to a vegan restaurant in the morning and ate a semi good breakfast...it might have been too much for how good the food was, but I suppose anything beats bread and jelly for breakfast. After the vegan restaurant we walked around the down town area and watched kids jump into water fountains and watched them go into a man made beach right in the middle of a downtown square. I looked around for some shoes I might have wanted to buy, but I didn't see anything I wanted. Tomorrow we will be going to the Fred Perry store and getting something, possibly?

London Thursday, Belgium Friday, Rome Sunday - Thursday.

I knew it was going to happen someday.

England is swine and it owes me a living.

Good things come in twos.

I'm currently in Hungary, not sure where in Hungary, but maybe 3 hours away from Budapest.

I'm not sure where I left off but the past couple of days have been pretty good. We've been playing with Soul Control, I've seen them multiple times but I've only ever known one of the members who now isn't in the band. So getting to meet the rest of the band this time around has been nice. The shows have been good and the food has been good as well. I really can't complain.

Last night while in Romania we saw a man sitting on a park bench huffing something out of a plastic bag and masturbating in public...literally sitting there doing his thing. Just when I thought it couldn't get weirder; he climaxed into the bag and started huffing again. A group of us stood there and watched this happen...my mind is still blown.

Other than that, that's been the highlight of the last couple days.

We're playing a fest in Hungary called Risefest. 13 bands and we don't go on for maybe 4 more hours. I'm taking the time to collect thoughts and such.

We went swimming today in a nice little lake, played some punch volley ball and threw sand at each other. Yeah, we're children.

That's all I got for now. I'm currently listening to an audiobook version of Henry Rollins "Get In The Van" and I'm liking it so far. I've also been playing ALOT of solitaire and am getting pretty good at it.

I come home in two more weeks. I'm excited to see some people, excited to work on that new project and blow peoples ears off. Prefuckingpare.

Fact over fiction.

I haven't had much time/desire to write, sorry. I started off naive and idealistic (dont we all?); thinking I was going to write in this every day. Something in me snapped. I wanted to stop looking at things as something "blogworthy" and instead take them in mentally and keep some of those things as my own, in that moment and not taint them with words that could not even come close to capturing the things I saw or feelings I had while seeing these things...to tell you the truth nothing that exciting has happened, it's just a matter of trying to stay disconnected.

Now I'm writing this in the Czech republic as everyone around me sleeps (snores) and I lie awake with no desire/need to sleep. Natural coffee kicks in around midnight here (4 in the U.S.) I might just sleep in the van tomorrow on our drive to Slovakia. It's 3 am here...now maybe 4, but again; no desire to sleep.

The show tonight was small and intimate, I like shows like that. I'd prefer 5 people staring at me playing guitar than 30. The room was small and the hosts were great. We got into town around 6 and ate noodles (straying away from the traditional European bread meals) with fake meat sauce. Gas station food and left over bread from previous shows doesn't always cut it, so I look forward to my only meal a day.

The tour has been going somewhat smoothly, we have about 11 more shows left and then we're off to Rome to hang out for 5 days. I fly home on the 4th. When I get home I just want to take a long nap. Don't bother calling, writing, emailing, myspacing, whatever it is you do, don't do it.

After my somewhat desirable rest I will continue working on a project that a friend and I have been brainstorming for the past few months. It requires distortion, it requires anger, it requires pain, it requires suffering. I'm sure you know what it is. I promise you, this will be good. I'm putting everything I have into this next project. I make the rules. I break them.

I will leave you with an aesthetic clue:

Everything And Nothing.

Words cannot describe how crazy and hectic these last few days have been since my last update.

I ended in St. Petersberg...so we'll start from there.

St Petersberg show, insane, small, hot, sweaty, tons of kids, Russians being crazy. Right after our show (ended at 11:45) we had to catch a train to Moscow at 1:00 AM. We walked to the bus station from the venue. That sucked...but our tickets were paid for so we couldn't complain. Cue: 8 hour train ride over night to Moscow. Cue: Employees getting drunk, people sleeping under benches and in vents on the train. Absolute chaos turns into tossing and turning with little to no sleep on an over night train ride. Woke up with a sore neck and back...whatever, I'm on tour.

Moscow: Arrive at 9ish...get on the subway...first thing I notice is blood splattered on the subway doors from some drunk Russians fighting earlier in the morning...we then go to the promoters flat and hang out and play a round of Pride Fighting for play station (Guess who won?). We meet Dima our tour guide for the day, the guy who tells us where to go and where not to go do to Nazis and other dangers in Moscow. We march red square, see lenins tomb, other candy land looking buildings, take some pictures, go to the biggest church in Moscow, see a mummified priest. Get kicked out for loitering and looking like heathens. We walk around more (literally like 6 hours of walking)...take the subway, walk through with out paying. Head to the venue, huge stage, huge venue (hatebreed could have played there), huge back stage, meet some friends from our previous night in st. petersberg, even our little hand tattooed 16 year old friend. Amazing kid. Show starts and surprisingly it wasn't awkward to play on a stage that high...bunch of kids having fun, a kid jumping off the balcony. Apparently Nazis came in during our set and they got stomped on. Good to hear. The anti fascist movement over here is crazy and makes the states look like a joke. People actually die over here, molotovs, bombs, fire bombs, beatings, stabbings, etc. etc. After our set, we have to leave to the train station again (8 hour train ride to Bryansk) this time we have beds and it was way more relaxing. It was fun, regardless. Head to sleep and arrive in bryansk shortly after (no sleep till...bryansk?).

Bryansk Russia:
5AM wake up and head to the flat we were staying at. I made the mistake of trying to catch up with people back home...I wait till people are finally awake and we eat some food. Cue: Ipod shitting out and my life being in shambles. Words cannot describe how sad I was/am. Life. Plug. Regret. Anyway, head to the venue, the show was in a museum and it was insane, again...that's the theme of eastern Europe so far. People stage diving, making the roof fall through, and they don't even know the words. They just love the music. Anyway...we hang out outside until our rides show up. What happens? A drunk fight happens...it was over as soon as it began, people exchanging numbers, emails, and other things knowing we'll forget them/erase them/wash them off our bodies. Finally our rides arrive...we head to the promoters house and we try to find tickets home (thinking we were all going home cause up till now, tour has kind of sucked). No dice. For a second I thought the world was coming down on me and I quickly realized that I'd rather go through this then sit on a couch and watch t.v. all day.

Fast forward a couple hours...get in a van and head to the russian/ukraine border...anticipating the outcome of us being able to get in. We can either get in and it's smooth sailing or we can get denied and be stranded in Russia for days. After a couple minutes of brief paranoia and dealing with a driver who didn't speak english...we get through.

Half way there...we meet Dennis, our Ukrainian promoter and he guides us through the process of entering into his country. Fill out a few papers, lie about money, and we're 3/4 of the way in. Now to passport control...Ukrainian soldier asks if we're American and with hesitation we all say yes...a big smile lights up his face and he says "OBAMA!" with a thumbs up. He asks to see our bags and asks if we have ganja, we say no. We're through. We take three cars to our first stay in Ukraine. The name escapes me, but we got to the flat and we head to sleep. The late afternoon sun has a way of waking you up whether you want it to or not. Regardless we all wake up and watch the Ukraine version of MTV, waiting for our crazy host to get to his 1 of 4 houses that he owns. He's always in a rush, but he's always late. Gotta love the irony. Anyway, he comes by (2 hours after he said he'd be there) and tells us 7 people can go with him. Me and 2 others decide to stay and watch more television that we do not understand, except for the occasional Justin Timberlake video that pops up. An hour and a half goes by and still no sign of us being picked up. Apparently Alex had forgot about us and he finally has to be reminded to come get us. He comes and gets us and we arrive to the venue (which is basically just an abandoned garage) and immediately we are greeted with smiles and hand shakes. We don't look Ukrainian and we don't dress like them so we have to be American. We make small talk with the locals who are stoked on us being there. They love America, grunge, seattle, Nirvana, Pennywise, NOFX, and others that I stopped caring about in 9th grade (except Nirvana). Time to play. Chaos, again and again and again. It was more chaotic post set. I was kissed by at least 4 guys and a few girls...I did not consent. I was signed and I signed stuff as well. That's always weird. But these kids were just grateful that we came to their country to play music. I was happy to make them happy. After the chaos and the dust settled we headed back to the flat we stayed at and made pasta with pasta sauce that was literally ketchup. I couldn't complain. Here you eat what you can, especially with our dietary restrictions. Eat. Sleep. Wake up. Shower. T.V. Get in another van again.

Kyiv, Ukraine:

Here I am typing this in one of the nicest apartments I have ever stayed in. Dennis our promoter is a computer wiz I suppose and it shows. We have 3 days in the Ukraine at this very nice establishment. Hopefully all goes well here. The show tonight was fun and not as chaotic, but still worth all the hard ships we've gone through. I think it's time for me to stop writing.

Pictures to come.

P.S. My ipod was restored (sadly my music is gone, but I'll have it back).

I think I can live with 15 gigs of music as opposed to 78.

Currently listening to Jarboe and Neurosis. This is fantastic.

From Russia, with hate.

St Petersberg Russia.

Im sitting in the middle of downtown St Petersberg typing this. I don't have much time, but to summarize tour...crazy. We're doing the next six days in Russia and the Ukraine via bus and train with out a translator. So far Russian hardcore kids are the nicest I have encountered. Tomorrow, Moscow Russia.

Hopefully the rest of these shows go well. 3 and a half weeks of tour left.