Robert:

Hello... I've just got to let you know...

1. Billie is just plain obnoxious. She used to just wake me up at 5, by darting past my face to get up to the window ledge. Now, she's added 6:45, 8, and 9:30 to her schedule as well. She basically shimmies right up to around my ear and meows full blast until she gets some pettin'. Additionally, she seems to have entered a destructive phase. Pulling out poster pins, scratching record sleeves, ripping apart bags and the sort. It may be time to invest in a nice little squirt gun.

2. I had a serious of odd dreams the other night. Quite Nightmare on Elm Street-ish actually. I kept getting out of bed and seeing something strange in my room - alerting me to the fact that I was dreaming. At that point, I would try and do something active (like turning up music or splashing water on my face) to wake up. But it kept happening again and again. How annoying.

3. I'm a big fan of the Police song "Miss Gradenko". Always have been. Written by Stuart Copeland.

4. Get this. The temp agency actually came through for me yesterday. Yes, say it ain't so, I actually went to a job. And it was the biggest JOKE. I basically did a one hour loose training session for a 6 hour work session on Tuesday and that's it. You want to know what I will be doing? Well, I'll be calling certain nationwide pizza franchises and copy centers to alert them that they are past due on their payment for ad space in their respective local phone books. If it sounds like fun to you, then please, email me, and I'll tell you where to apply.*

5. I hate talking on the phone as a job, especially when I may have to deal with irate people - I mean I am asking for money. One previous temp joint had me calling banks! ... You know what I like? Some nice friendly monotonous data entry, headphones (or i'd even bust out the baby speakers) pumpin', getting work done, seeing it happen, helping out with the shitwork. But no. Here Bob, we realize that you said you'd prefer not to do phone work, but we've got this great assignment for you. I shouldn't complain cause I need the monkey, but that's what blogs are for.

6. A quick Hey Mercedes update: the Dayton show on march 21 may be moved to a few days later if they can swing it. We just realized that it is humanly impossible to play Japan one night and then Dayton the next. Ha ha ha? Also, I have just been notified that the march 9th show at 7th Street in Minneapolis will be an all night rock extravaganza. We play the all ages show at 4. At 6 in the big room, (speaking of Dayton) GBV! GBV! GBV!, and at 8 back at 7th Street is Kind of Like Spitting! Holy rock and roll. And at 10 Pizza Luce will be hosting a blowout bash for all three bands, says I. Hot damn. As for other HM related updates... all in good time.

7. I saw The Royal Tenenbaums last night, and maybe it was my low expectations brought on by mixed reviews, but I thought it was pretty great. I never really gave Owen Wilson that much credit, but i have to admit, he's a telented guy. Co-writer, co-producer, and, even though he played his usual vacuous role, it was charming and funny. You can never go wrong with Bill Murray** and I thought the cast as a whole played up*** the fairy tale aspect of the movie splendidly.

8. New to the Pod: "I Was Born" "Against Th' Law" and "I Don't Need this Pressure Ron", all sorta by Billy Bragg.

9. I could never get used to arena life, but I'm not sure I'm ready to spill those guts as of yet.

10. Last night, around 10:30, the upstairs neighbors were BLASTING "Hello" by Lionel Richie. And then, you guessed it, they were marching to it. What the hell kind of training is going on up there?

-

* As I expained this scenario to TFMIC over some Ranalli's Pasta**** he started to get a mad butterfly rumble in the bronx. Not only is he signed up with the same temp place, but he is deathly afraid of offices. I don't blame him. This one is scary.

** TFMIC would argue that you certainly can go wrong with Bill Murray. And that "wrong" is called Mad Dog and Glory.

*** Actually "played down" is more like it. Old Wes has a knack for bringing out the underactor. I like that. TFMIC's Mom did not.

**** Entertainment coupon in tow. I now have 3 books worth. I love food. And water.
posted by Robert at 11:01 AM ***

Robert:

Hey gang - Blogger was down for a good slice of time yesterday, so some posts didn't get published. But they're here now! So check em out. Damon checks in for his third ever post. Keep up the good work. At this rate, his next appearance here will be in August.
posted by Robert at 11:07 AM ***

Damon:

Hello to the world of bloggers.

Count this as my third official blog activity. I think I have a patience problem with the internet which might be the reason you don't hear from me much. But I think Bob threatened me in one way or another if I didn't blog while I was on tour with Saves The Day and Weezer. So here it goes:

I'm currently in Louisville, KY. I'm at the Holliday Inn by myself. I had some work to do today and I didn't sleep so well last night so I didn't feel like going out today. See we have today and tomorrow off so a bunch of people went out to the "funky part of town" (aka the cool part of town) with Chris from Elliot. Great guy.
However, the first thing I saw from the bus window right after I woke up this morning was a bowling alley. Right next to the hotel.
I'm tempted to just go over there by myself, who cares right? Perhaps we'll all go later tonight. If there's anything that SHOULD be done on days off it is, eating, going to malls, going to the movies and going bowling. You can't go wrong.

So the tour has been pretty cool. For those of you who may not know what the heck I'm talking about, I am filling in on drums for Saves The Day durring their stint with Weezer and a few headlining shows at the end of this month and the first few days of March.
My day pretty much goes as follows:
Bus arrives in city around 12:30pm - 1:30pm. Usually goes to hotel. Tour manager checks in, we stay on bus. Bus leaves for arena. Arrive no later than 2pm. Most of us are either awake or just getting up by this point. I usually get up around 12:30 or 1:30pm. I gather fresh clothes and my carry-in bag which consist of my toiletries, clothes, play clothes, drum sticks, practice pad, camera, and a few other little things.
I then scope out the arena and become familliar with it, you know like find our dressing room, find catering, and find the stage.
Then I retire to the dressing room wich is just a locker room with nice furniture and our dressing room essentials (i.e. deli tray, drinks, cereal, wine, pita & hummus, ect...)
I then do a stretching routine for about 30 minutes. I stretch every part of my body for 50 seconds at a time. (totally usless information for anyone reading this, sorry)
Then I'll freshen up (shave, wash up, brush teath, ect.) and go to catering for lunch.
Then we all sit around and wait for sound check which is usually around 5:30 - 6pm

We'll sound check then we all go to catering for a nice sit down dinner.
Then it's time to sit around and wait until about 7:45pm when we all start getting ready to play.
I do some basic arm and leg stretches, play on my practice pad. Our tour manager comes and walks us to the stage.
The lights go down, the crowd errupts, Slayer is heard as our intro music, we walk on stage, the crowd errupts again and we play for 45 minutes.
Walk off stage, go to dressing room and talk about the performance and chill out.

I then take a shower in our dressing room, get dressed and go watch Weezer.
I like them as a band, some of the new stuff doesn't do it for me but it's the whole event that I like every night.
It's fun to be out in the crowd. Plus Weezer has a pretty cool light show.

After the show, I go back to the dressing room to gather my things and head to the bus.
We all hang out there for a couple hours until our driver shows up and our merch guy is done with all his work.
Then we go to the hotel for a few hours. This is when everyone else showers, I usually stay on the bus and either watch a movie or watch other people play Grand Theft Auto 3. Crazy game.

Then I'll crawl into my bunk around 3am, put my headphones and fall asleep. Then repeat everything again the next day.

Definitley having fun but being the support act on an arena tour gets a bit boring and predictible. I'm not complaing at all,
I could easily get use to the arena life, but there is something great to say about playing clubs.
Plus we don't really get to hang out with the fans that much. Our busses are usually parked in a secured area and the fans can't get to us.

There are a lot of goofy rules that we have to follow on this tour.
We have to escort all of our guests to and from the dressing room. If any of our VIP guests are seen in the halls without one of us we get in trouble. We're not allowed to be in the halls when Weezer is going to or coming from the stage.
Kind of weird but hey, they're the ones selling the tickets, not us.

Well, hopefully I'll get to blog again before the tours end.

Over and out,
damon*












posted by Damon at 4:25 PM ***

Robert:

2. So, I found this attempt at a tour diary today on the laptop. I figured I’d post it now, because I doubt I’ll finish it. but hey, stranger things have happened...

Here goes:

“I like to think of myself as the efficient type... but only when the keys for ultimate efficiency are just out of my reach. Last tour diary, I introduced the thing by getting all “woe is me” about my lack of a writing outlet, internet connection, Laptop. Well, now I got one, and you know what? I still thought it much more useful to jot down notes here and there in order to present a full cornacopia of goodness top to bottom, left to right, cut, dry, print. I’ve learned that you can only write about 3 or so scrolls on one measly Waffle House before you just exhaust the restaurant issue in general, and then what about that time when you were shivering in the van as a raving lunatic threatened a throng of people with a gun? I certainly had no time or inkling to jump on old LT at that time, I tell you... So to even things out, I waited again until the very end to write word #1. I thought I’d be able to churn it out chunk by chunk at work, but they’re not being too cooperative this week, so it’s gonna be Doogie Howser style from here on in people. Imagine me sitting up against the wall in bed, with covers draped over my legs, nerdy glasses in tow, imaginary pencil to lip, trying to remember words, names, places, feelings... and so it goes.

A few things to consider while you read. I often will refer to my new computer gizmo as LT, or a variation thereof, for instance, if I write “Then Todd jumped on the Leiutenant” or “Mark talked with Lily Tomlin”, you’ll know what I mean. Just trying to keep you on your toes. Ninthly, I will often refer to my newest obsessive project (#906). Whereas it would just be a whole helluva lot easier to come right out and tell you the intimate details, it’s time has not yet come. So instead, I will refer to the project as OP906. It’s going to get a little confusing, especially on the first few days, but oh well. It makes it much more secretive and interesting to write about... to keep you guessing.

And so here we go. Spring Sunshine Slam 2001 starring Hey Mercedes and Friends.

March 16, 2001

I wake up at Damon’s place with a mission

St. Louis... Hey Mercedes, in the past, has been very punctual. This in sharp contrast to previous bands who would arrive at venues well after the concerts end. I’m not naming names... Anyway, by the time we rolled up to the Galaxy, there was already a line out the door. Any band will tell you it’s no fun loading in equipment after the doors have opened, and there we were. First thing I wanted to do after load-in was set up camp. There was not a moment to spare. I was directed to the backstage area, which was really an under-stage area, and it was pretty shoddy to say the least. It reminded me of my basement where I grew up in Chicago - a dark dank cavernous pit in which all junk was thrown in and then forgotten. I wouldn’t have been surprised to find a few old rotted through refridgerators or the rusted body of a John Deere down there. You get the picture.

Luckily we had some outlets, so I sat on the couch (actually a torn out car seat), clutched my empty thermos and watched the hot pot do its thang. Within a few minutes the first band had started and I explored a little, upstairs and down. Halfway during Dashboard’s set, while walking towards the stage stairs, I dropped my thermos and there was a tremendous shattering inside. Dead... Great. Starting the tour on the right foot I see.

The show was great. Well, actually, it started out like shit but it ended really well. We opened with Bells, and my guitar just decided to stop working. First note. You can imagine the drag.”

posted by Robert at 1:47 PM ***

dan:

You should try the local beer called Medalla light..It's a skunky heineken, but good....
posted by dan at 12:28 PM ***

dan:

well well well, here I am...Joyce and I have finally found a place to surf..And I've only heard the gorillaz like seventeen times only...not to mention a beautiful arrangement of spanish songs..Yesterday we went to Toro Negro State Forest and hiked to the highest point on the island, I've got some killer pictures of the trails and the scenery..It was awesome..we actually just got done touring the Bacardi Rum plant and we've hit the Casa Don Q as well..Did I mention they had FREE rum drinks after the tour..? For the list of beaches we've visited see below:
Palmas del Mar
LuQuillo
Isla Verde
and we are NOT done yet..Tomorrow we plan on getting down to the camuy caves..you take a tram down some couple thousand feet..It stops at a 650 foot wide Tres Pueblos sinkhole, where special platforms allow visitors to view the river passing 400 feet below from one cave to another. Another attraction is Espiral sinkhole, where you can descend some 205 steps to reach the " striking entrance"..we'll see..so we got that goin' for us...which is nice..It's rainy here today but we've had a steady pattern of 70-80 degrees..The restaurants here are also amazing..I ate at this one place where you could eat the whole fish eyes teeth and everything..I didn't get that instead settled for the Mofongo..Talk to ya leter when we get back to the states...boo!








posted by dan at 12:25 PM ***

Robert:

1. Billy Bragg, where have you been all my life?
posted by Robert at 10:14 AM ***