(Hmm....let's see how well I remember all this. I'm writing this a couple of days after returning from an immediately-post-ACLF Italian vacation.)
So, the second set of performances for ACLF for this drummer were on a Friday and Sunday. Saturday was a day off.
Friday night was a double-duty (both Pocket FishRmen and Hickoids) night at the ABGB, one of my favorite places to play in Austin. Many of my bandmates aren't too big on it, the crowd can be very hit or miss, but it does have a bit of a built-in audience of food-and-beer patrons, and there's no admission charge. Also, the staff there is top-notch, plying you with drinks and pizza constantly. And.....there's a house drum kit. What more could I want?
The night began with Jean Caffeine, and she and her band played a great set, culminating in Jean getting behind the drum kit for a couple of songs. Harvey McLaughlin was up next, and he and his band played their usual great set. Harvey (Patrick) did not play drums, however. Hickoids were up next. We began with a few of our "regulars" and then Frontier Dan hit the stage with us. I love playing with Dan, there's no other way to put it. He's hilarious, and watching Jeff and him try to one-up each other in "frontmanship" is equally funny. I commented later that it's like backing up Costello and Costello, no straight man. Pocket FishRmen finished the night with a good set, although some people had left by then. The whole show was going up against a reunited Skatenigs show at Come and Take It, and several of our friends were either there or in bands playing that long-rostered show. I still had a great time and thought we all pulled off quality entertainment. What else can you want? (I need to stop ending paragraphs with questions.)
Saturday night, as mentioned earlier, was a night off for me, but I went to Lost Well for awhile to represent and support. I saw Z-Pocalypse (rockin' kiddos from San Antonio), the Me-Thinks (oh, god), and Texacala's new band. I bailed toward the end of Tex's set, as Michelle had stayed home....we were close to our Vacatiano Italiano.
Sunday, early evening, the Hickoids, A Pony Named Olga, and Bigfoot Chester played the Planet K parking lot in support of a Davy Jones art opening at South Pop. Our set again featured Frontier Dan, but for a shorter time this time. Great set overall, and I bought a piece of Davy's art I can't pick up until December. We said quick goodbyes to everybody before leaving, but we had to be at the airport in the morning. And I still had packing to do. Another ACLF in the can.
Sunday, October 28, 2018
Sunday, October 7, 2018
ACLF 2018, Round One
Last night concluded the first weekend of our annual Austin Corn Lovers Fiesta. So far, so good. At least, for me. I can't say the same for others (equipment issues), but the turnouts have been good. Let's recap:
Friday night's shindig was at Empire Control Room, on 7th between Red River and the frontage road of 35. Not a place I like to frequent anymore (parking! downtown! aaaggghh!), but I got very lucky and parked adjacent to the loading door for the club. And for, what is now in Austin, a minimal fee. Adrienne Lake, who used to book Spider House, has moved to this club during the year, and we've played here a couple of times as a result. Despite the Empire place being okay overall, I hope she finds another home soonish. One away from downtown Austin.
Eightball Aitken (from Australia) opened the show, and this is perhaps the third time we've shared a stage with him. He does the one-man show, playing guitar, singing, stomping and tambourining but is also really, really funny. The songs are good, he's hilarious, and I always enjoy his show.
We played next - I was able to set up before Eightball played, and my drum set was being used the entire night. Our set was, how should I put this, a marvel of consistent rhythms and vocals, with the top end....um....inconsistent at best. Tom was fine, but Cody was in rare form. He'd had an 11-hour drive from the panhandle that day, in addition to one eye being almost swollen shut from allergies. And he'd, and I know you'll find this hard to believe, imbibed in some alcohol beforehand. The set quickly became a bunch of the "fuck it" numbers we like to pull out - "Take it Easy," "China Grove," etc. I smelled Cody's amp frying about 2/3 of the way through the set, and he stumbled over to Tom's amp and plugged into it for awhile. Well, that's what I think happened anyway. Cody had already "taken a knee" earlier in the night. With a thud, too. But that was before the amp-burning thing happened. I was told later that the set was indeed entertaining, but not especially together at times. Still, fun.
Ed Hamell, otherwise known as Hamell on Trial, played after us and the crowd had swelled by then. I was never much of a fan of his when he played at Electric Lounge in the 90s, but I'm coming around. Or starting to get "it." Whatever it is, I'm starting to dig it. He might be the last of the beatniks. Amongst his ramblings, he added a quick "A Rapist is Going to the Supreme Court" to laughter and applause. Unfortunately, before his set began, he was using one of Jeff's amps, and that amp fried before he began. So, I think we were a couple of amps down Friday night. But take that with a grain of salt; a drummer's writing this. Whatever Ed ended up using, the sound was less than stellar.
Next up was Slobberbone, from Denton. They have been playing more shows recently after being the toast of Denton in the 90s and early 2000s. We've done a couple of gigs with them in Denton. Again, great crowd, great set. Folks were there specifically to see them and knew their songs well. One issue, though.....their drummer arrived late (not sure if he was just late to the stage or what), and it pushed their start time late, so they didn't finish until about 12:45.
And yep, Cunto! had the last slot and hit it about 1:10. They were fun as always, although Chris Hall was fairly inebriated. I had to give him drumsticks, as he'd only brought.....one. I still enjoyed their set, although the club had lost patrons by then. I felt bad for them having to go on late; this was almost a replay of another show we'd done a couple of months back where they got stuck last. I feel a make-up is in order soon.
I got my drums torn down and packed. Thanks to Evan and others, I got loaded up and was on the road by 1:57. This is important, because the club sits right by the corridor tons of people use to leave downtown at the 2:00 mark. I wanted to be gone by then, and I was. Patrick was there to help Jeff pack up, so I took advantage of that situation. I was home by maybe 2:20. Not bad.
Last night was the second salvo at the White Horse. I always like playing the White Horse, mainly due to the house drum kit. Not the greatest kit, but it's dependable. Once I'm parked, the rest is easy. This night, Michelle went with me, and we needed to eat first, so I got a spot just down the street from the club. The maximum parking I could buy took me to 11:51 in a spot metered until midnight. Would I be able to skate the remaining nine minutes? I hoped so. There was a party at Billy Bishop's Leona Gallery, on 12th street, but we were parked far enough away to where we couldn't easily stop by there, so we decided to eat and hang for the whole show. We went to Tamale House East, which was okay, but about as far removed from a classic Tamale House as you can imagine. I am not a fan of "new Austin" restaurant food. It's impossible to find unpretentious food in the city. Sometimes, when I read food listings in these places' menus, I suddenly understand Republicans. I'll just put it that way.
We headed back to the White Horse and got there just as Mean Motor Scooter was starting. They're from Fort Worth and a particular favorite of Tom's. And they're a really fun, sort of garage-y band, without too much of the whole "genre insistence" standpoint you often get with bands like that. I dug 'em. I had a good chat with the drummer later in the night. Hopefully, we'll do a few more things with them. And there was a fairly decent crowd while they played; sometimes the opening slot at the White Horse ACLF night is a bit barren.
Next up was ACLF regulars Churchwood, who always deliver. I still don't envy Eric, the drummer who replaced Julien. He's doing fine, and I suppose you could argue they have more nuance now, if they're somewhat quieter now overall. Joe always entertains the crowd. At one point, he grabbed me and other folks and had us do a round dance circle.
Western Star followed, and they were full throttle. This was the best set I've seen them play. They have a new bass player who has cemented everything. By the end of their set, everyone was really into it, up front and, well you know the jargon. In the back of my mind, though, I wonder how long until Max cuts his hair and just goes full rock idol. I may have to refer back to this blog at some point if that comes true.
We were next and were mostly a whole different animal than the previous night. Great set, although Tom's equipment started faltering at the end. And it was his birthday! Peggy brought a cake with sparklers on it. Tom reacted in his usual somewhat annoyed, dismissive way, followed by a big grin. Funny guy. I think he's 49 now. In human years, anyway. Hope his equipment's okay. I don't understand the problems, he takes such good care of his stuff. (sic) Wade Driver showed up but didn't join us on stage. Always good to see him.
A Pony Named Olga, playing as "The Prussian Pompadours" for reasons of international intrigue, followed us. What a fun band, as always. "Keko" has to be one of my favorite drummers to watch, of all time. He stands up, playing a kick drum that's behind him by stomping on a kick pedal in reverse. He has a couple of drums in front of him and a cymbal and some percussion. His snare drum has a strap on it, so he can wear it and march through the audience. You just smile the whole time. Heini is always entertaining, and Lloyd carries the good looks and can stand on his upright bass with the best of 'em. Heini fixed an amp last night, too! Thanks, Heini! On a side note, Keko's from Italy and gave Michelle and me some advice concerning our upcoming trip.
Closing out the night were the Beaumonts, who, as always, had the crowd grinning from ear to ear. They played my new favorite "Not As Cool As Jesus," and I believe it was the first time Michelle had heard it. About 1:45, we grabbed my stuff and made a beeline for the door, as again, I wanted to escape the downtown area before 2:00. We did and got home at a reasonable time. Reasonable for us, hah! Overall, a great night. Saw many, many great friends. I feel damned lucky to still be doing this. May it continue a while longer......
Until next time.....have a smoothie......I just did.
Friday night's shindig was at Empire Control Room, on 7th between Red River and the frontage road of 35. Not a place I like to frequent anymore (parking! downtown! aaaggghh!), but I got very lucky and parked adjacent to the loading door for the club. And for, what is now in Austin, a minimal fee. Adrienne Lake, who used to book Spider House, has moved to this club during the year, and we've played here a couple of times as a result. Despite the Empire place being okay overall, I hope she finds another home soonish. One away from downtown Austin.
Eightball Aitken (from Australia) opened the show, and this is perhaps the third time we've shared a stage with him. He does the one-man show, playing guitar, singing, stomping and tambourining but is also really, really funny. The songs are good, he's hilarious, and I always enjoy his show.
We played next - I was able to set up before Eightball played, and my drum set was being used the entire night. Our set was, how should I put this, a marvel of consistent rhythms and vocals, with the top end....um....inconsistent at best. Tom was fine, but Cody was in rare form. He'd had an 11-hour drive from the panhandle that day, in addition to one eye being almost swollen shut from allergies. And he'd, and I know you'll find this hard to believe, imbibed in some alcohol beforehand. The set quickly became a bunch of the "fuck it" numbers we like to pull out - "Take it Easy," "China Grove," etc. I smelled Cody's amp frying about 2/3 of the way through the set, and he stumbled over to Tom's amp and plugged into it for awhile. Well, that's what I think happened anyway. Cody had already "taken a knee" earlier in the night. With a thud, too. But that was before the amp-burning thing happened. I was told later that the set was indeed entertaining, but not especially together at times. Still, fun.
Ed Hamell, otherwise known as Hamell on Trial, played after us and the crowd had swelled by then. I was never much of a fan of his when he played at Electric Lounge in the 90s, but I'm coming around. Or starting to get "it." Whatever it is, I'm starting to dig it. He might be the last of the beatniks. Amongst his ramblings, he added a quick "A Rapist is Going to the Supreme Court" to laughter and applause. Unfortunately, before his set began, he was using one of Jeff's amps, and that amp fried before he began. So, I think we were a couple of amps down Friday night. But take that with a grain of salt; a drummer's writing this. Whatever Ed ended up using, the sound was less than stellar.
Next up was Slobberbone, from Denton. They have been playing more shows recently after being the toast of Denton in the 90s and early 2000s. We've done a couple of gigs with them in Denton. Again, great crowd, great set. Folks were there specifically to see them and knew their songs well. One issue, though.....their drummer arrived late (not sure if he was just late to the stage or what), and it pushed their start time late, so they didn't finish until about 12:45.
And yep, Cunto! had the last slot and hit it about 1:10. They were fun as always, although Chris Hall was fairly inebriated. I had to give him drumsticks, as he'd only brought.....one. I still enjoyed their set, although the club had lost patrons by then. I felt bad for them having to go on late; this was almost a replay of another show we'd done a couple of months back where they got stuck last. I feel a make-up is in order soon.
I got my drums torn down and packed. Thanks to Evan and others, I got loaded up and was on the road by 1:57. This is important, because the club sits right by the corridor tons of people use to leave downtown at the 2:00 mark. I wanted to be gone by then, and I was. Patrick was there to help Jeff pack up, so I took advantage of that situation. I was home by maybe 2:20. Not bad.
Last night was the second salvo at the White Horse. I always like playing the White Horse, mainly due to the house drum kit. Not the greatest kit, but it's dependable. Once I'm parked, the rest is easy. This night, Michelle went with me, and we needed to eat first, so I got a spot just down the street from the club. The maximum parking I could buy took me to 11:51 in a spot metered until midnight. Would I be able to skate the remaining nine minutes? I hoped so. There was a party at Billy Bishop's Leona Gallery, on 12th street, but we were parked far enough away to where we couldn't easily stop by there, so we decided to eat and hang for the whole show. We went to Tamale House East, which was okay, but about as far removed from a classic Tamale House as you can imagine. I am not a fan of "new Austin" restaurant food. It's impossible to find unpretentious food in the city. Sometimes, when I read food listings in these places' menus, I suddenly understand Republicans. I'll just put it that way.
We headed back to the White Horse and got there just as Mean Motor Scooter was starting. They're from Fort Worth and a particular favorite of Tom's. And they're a really fun, sort of garage-y band, without too much of the whole "genre insistence" standpoint you often get with bands like that. I dug 'em. I had a good chat with the drummer later in the night. Hopefully, we'll do a few more things with them. And there was a fairly decent crowd while they played; sometimes the opening slot at the White Horse ACLF night is a bit barren.
Next up was ACLF regulars Churchwood, who always deliver. I still don't envy Eric, the drummer who replaced Julien. He's doing fine, and I suppose you could argue they have more nuance now, if they're somewhat quieter now overall. Joe always entertains the crowd. At one point, he grabbed me and other folks and had us do a round dance circle.
Western Star followed, and they were full throttle. This was the best set I've seen them play. They have a new bass player who has cemented everything. By the end of their set, everyone was really into it, up front and, well you know the jargon. In the back of my mind, though, I wonder how long until Max cuts his hair and just goes full rock idol. I may have to refer back to this blog at some point if that comes true.
We were next and were mostly a whole different animal than the previous night. Great set, although Tom's equipment started faltering at the end. And it was his birthday! Peggy brought a cake with sparklers on it. Tom reacted in his usual somewhat annoyed, dismissive way, followed by a big grin. Funny guy. I think he's 49 now. In human years, anyway. Hope his equipment's okay. I don't understand the problems, he takes such good care of his stuff. (sic) Wade Driver showed up but didn't join us on stage. Always good to see him.
A Pony Named Olga, playing as "The Prussian Pompadours" for reasons of international intrigue, followed us. What a fun band, as always. "Keko" has to be one of my favorite drummers to watch, of all time. He stands up, playing a kick drum that's behind him by stomping on a kick pedal in reverse. He has a couple of drums in front of him and a cymbal and some percussion. His snare drum has a strap on it, so he can wear it and march through the audience. You just smile the whole time. Heini is always entertaining, and Lloyd carries the good looks and can stand on his upright bass with the best of 'em. Heini fixed an amp last night, too! Thanks, Heini! On a side note, Keko's from Italy and gave Michelle and me some advice concerning our upcoming trip.
Closing out the night were the Beaumonts, who, as always, had the crowd grinning from ear to ear. They played my new favorite "Not As Cool As Jesus," and I believe it was the first time Michelle had heard it. About 1:45, we grabbed my stuff and made a beeline for the door, as again, I wanted to escape the downtown area before 2:00. We did and got home at a reasonable time. Reasonable for us, hah! Overall, a great night. Saw many, many great friends. I feel damned lucky to still be doing this. May it continue a while longer......
Until next time.....have a smoothie......I just did.
Sunday, September 30, 2018
Dry / "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" / "Celia, Child of Terror" / Dating Anniversary
Dry. As in.....not sure what to write today. [Edit: Well, the title was premature....]
I could write about political stuff. I could write about movie stuff. I could write about music stuff. Or all three.
I do know one thing. Yesterday morning, before Michelle awakened, I watched "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" for the first time. It's one of those movies I've meant to watch for awhile but had never had the chance....until getting some streaming services. I don't use the word "delight" often, but that's what the movie is. I believe, in the span of its 1:55 running time, it vaulted into my list of "movies I'll watch if I need a pick-me-up." I should have realized that something directed by Edgar Wright would be just that, but it took me awhile to get to it. My loss. Until now.
I also saw a movie that was another surprise, one called "Celia, Child of Terror." Terrible title, great film. I've been collecting those Katarina's Nightmare Theater DVDs for awhile, and this film was on one of those. It's an Australian film from 1988 that is definitely not a horror movie, even though it contains some horror elements. It's more of a childhood tribulation movie. And one that'll stick with me for awhile. I expected way less than I got. It's a fully rich story with a lot of very well developed supporting characters. And the ending is.....well...just see it. You won't be sorry. Not that it gives a lot away, but I wish Scorpion Releasing hadn't use that image of the title character as the DVD cover art.
Yesterday was Michelle's and my eighteenth anniversary of our first date. We went to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre house in Kingsland, a favorite haunt (ha), for dinner, and we'll complete this cycle later by going to The Gas Station in Bastrop for a late barbecue lunch. Then we'll probably watch TCM tonight. The movie, not the channel. We're romantic that way.
But yes, it's been eighteen years. We've been married 15 1/2 years, but we like to celebrate two anniversaries. Why not? Our first date was a great time, and I like to think back on that night often. We went to a screening of "Labyrinth" at the Alamo Drafthouse and then took in a Fuckemos show at Emo's afterward. I remember we also stopped off at a bar Joey Ferguson worked at, one with bean bag chairs on the floor, but I forget the name. We were both kind of showing off to people, as our bonding was becoming apparent, even if we hadn't acted on it yet. It was a fun night through and through. She and I had both been working at the Red Eyed Fly in its glorious infancy, she cocktailing as she finished her second college degree and me booking the place. Within a month of our bonding, I had left the booking to Ron Suman, and she (having already begun working at the TCEQ) left as well. We're still on this adventure. It's a fun one.
In a couple of weeks, we're going to Italy for our first real vacation in almost five years. Due to Michelle's working at the Continental Club and C-Boy's, the most we've been able to muster as a team is a few days in New Orleans each year. And those have been great, but I'm looking forward to a couple of weeks abroad. With my broad. (Buh-dom-bish!) Michelle's got every day pretty well mapped out, with some down time in there, too, so we can just explore surroundings. I'm very much looking forward to this.
In other news, I've secured a new rehearsal space for my bands. Hopefully, it'll work okay. For the Pocket FishRmen, it'll be fine. For the Hickoids, I'm not so sure. It'll be tighter for the five-piece, but we should be able to smartly arrange the room to accommodate. We'll know for sure on Tuesday. The space the Hickoids have been in has undergone some transformation that isn't very friendly to a rehearsal space, precipitating this change. Fingers crossed. At least, the new place is in the same building as the old place.
ACLF, or Austin Corn Lovers Fiesta, is almost upon us. Next weekend that starts, with the first show at Empire Control Room (downtown, ugh) and the second show at the White Horse (east of downtown, only a partial "ugh," mainly because they have a house drum set). Following the White Horse show, or the next day, anyway, I'm heading to San Angelo for my mom's 89th birthday. I'll be there until Tuesday, then head back for work, etc. And then another weekend of Corn Loving, at ABGB's and the Lost Well (that show I'm not playing). The following day is a gathering at South Pop (Planet K on S. Lamar to you and me) for an art show featuring Davy Jones works, and the Hickoids are playing that. The next day, Michelle and I head to Italy. So the next couple of weeks are pretty stacked up. Might not be writing in this here blog for awhile!
So there....I figured out stuff to write today. Without even going into politics.......sheesh!
I could write about political stuff. I could write about movie stuff. I could write about music stuff. Or all three.
I do know one thing. Yesterday morning, before Michelle awakened, I watched "Scott Pilgrim vs. The World" for the first time. It's one of those movies I've meant to watch for awhile but had never had the chance....until getting some streaming services. I don't use the word "delight" often, but that's what the movie is. I believe, in the span of its 1:55 running time, it vaulted into my list of "movies I'll watch if I need a pick-me-up." I should have realized that something directed by Edgar Wright would be just that, but it took me awhile to get to it. My loss. Until now.
I also saw a movie that was another surprise, one called "Celia, Child of Terror." Terrible title, great film. I've been collecting those Katarina's Nightmare Theater DVDs for awhile, and this film was on one of those. It's an Australian film from 1988 that is definitely not a horror movie, even though it contains some horror elements. It's more of a childhood tribulation movie. And one that'll stick with me for awhile. I expected way less than I got. It's a fully rich story with a lot of very well developed supporting characters. And the ending is.....well...just see it. You won't be sorry. Not that it gives a lot away, but I wish Scorpion Releasing hadn't use that image of the title character as the DVD cover art.
Yesterday was Michelle's and my eighteenth anniversary of our first date. We went to the Texas Chainsaw Massacre house in Kingsland, a favorite haunt (ha), for dinner, and we'll complete this cycle later by going to The Gas Station in Bastrop for a late barbecue lunch. Then we'll probably watch TCM tonight. The movie, not the channel. We're romantic that way.
But yes, it's been eighteen years. We've been married 15 1/2 years, but we like to celebrate two anniversaries. Why not? Our first date was a great time, and I like to think back on that night often. We went to a screening of "Labyrinth" at the Alamo Drafthouse and then took in a Fuckemos show at Emo's afterward. I remember we also stopped off at a bar Joey Ferguson worked at, one with bean bag chairs on the floor, but I forget the name. We were both kind of showing off to people, as our bonding was becoming apparent, even if we hadn't acted on it yet. It was a fun night through and through. She and I had both been working at the Red Eyed Fly in its glorious infancy, she cocktailing as she finished her second college degree and me booking the place. Within a month of our bonding, I had left the booking to Ron Suman, and she (having already begun working at the TCEQ) left as well. We're still on this adventure. It's a fun one.
In a couple of weeks, we're going to Italy for our first real vacation in almost five years. Due to Michelle's working at the Continental Club and C-Boy's, the most we've been able to muster as a team is a few days in New Orleans each year. And those have been great, but I'm looking forward to a couple of weeks abroad. With my broad. (Buh-dom-bish!) Michelle's got every day pretty well mapped out, with some down time in there, too, so we can just explore surroundings. I'm very much looking forward to this.
In other news, I've secured a new rehearsal space for my bands. Hopefully, it'll work okay. For the Pocket FishRmen, it'll be fine. For the Hickoids, I'm not so sure. It'll be tighter for the five-piece, but we should be able to smartly arrange the room to accommodate. We'll know for sure on Tuesday. The space the Hickoids have been in has undergone some transformation that isn't very friendly to a rehearsal space, precipitating this change. Fingers crossed. At least, the new place is in the same building as the old place.
ACLF, or Austin Corn Lovers Fiesta, is almost upon us. Next weekend that starts, with the first show at Empire Control Room (downtown, ugh) and the second show at the White Horse (east of downtown, only a partial "ugh," mainly because they have a house drum set). Following the White Horse show, or the next day, anyway, I'm heading to San Angelo for my mom's 89th birthday. I'll be there until Tuesday, then head back for work, etc. And then another weekend of Corn Loving, at ABGB's and the Lost Well (that show I'm not playing). The following day is a gathering at South Pop (Planet K on S. Lamar to you and me) for an art show featuring Davy Jones works, and the Hickoids are playing that. The next day, Michelle and I head to Italy. So the next couple of weeks are pretty stacked up. Might not be writing in this here blog for awhile!
So there....I figured out stuff to write today. Without even going into politics.......sheesh!
Sunday, September 23, 2018
The Hickoids Go West
Hello, blog, my old friend. I've come to write in you again.
Time for a recap of the last few weeks. The Hickoids returned Monday morning, August 27th, from a western states and British Columbia tour. Of all the low-budget tours I've been on over the last 30 years or so, I have to say this was perhaps the smoothest one overall. The odds on these kinds of tours are always stacked against you, for various reasons, but we came out of this one virtually unscathed. I shall commence:
The tour began (after a couple of warm-up shows in Austin and San Antonio; see previous blog entry) in Fort Worth on Thursday, August 9th. And we hit an immediate snag. The plan was for San Antonians Jeff, Tom, and Carl (our merch and video aide) to pick up Cody in San Marcos, pick me up in Manchaca, grab Rice in Austin, and we would then head north. I got a call from Jeff about 20 minutes after the first group left San Antonio; the battery and alternator were both fried in the van, due to a loose connection. They were being towed back to San Antonio for Jeff's mechanic friend to fix up quickly. The battery was new, but apparently not installed properly. Hoo boy. In the meantime, Cody was going to be dropped off at my house, and I had to drive into Austin to get Rice, as he had no easy way to get down to my place. That way, the SA Express would only have one stop before heading north. At this point, I wasn't sure we'd make the Fort Worth show.
But we did. And with about an hour to spare. Gotta hand it to Smitty's cool driving hand. The show went well, although it was a strange bill. My old friend Henry Vasquez's band Blood of the Sun was the middle band, and Mos Generator opened it up. So, we were basically closing an otherwise heavy rock bill. After setting up, I caught some of BOTS's set, and it was pretty stellar. I hadn't seen this line-up yet. Our set was okay, but some of the crowd started to drift away at the end. Typical for a Thursday night, though. It was good to see some old friends from the Honky days there, too.
Following the show, we headed to The Old Pancake House, a place we've visited before, for some sustenance, accompanied by our buddy "Hush Puppy" (who almost never "hushes"). Rice, a devout - and we were about to find out how devout - vegetarian, ordered some sort of German pancake that has its last preparation step done at the table. Fancy. Read on.
There being no rest for the wicked, especially the Hickoids, meant an immediate overnight drive to Santa Fe. About 45 minutes into the trip, the van, driven by Jeff, suddenly pulled over. I had my earbuds in and wasn't sure what was going on. Rice bolted out of the back seat and finished hurling onto the ground from the van. He had apparently already begun purging on his shoes behind me. He claimed the foul of bacon grease in his pancake order. So, we had the first puke of the tour, and a sudden deadly seriousness to Rice's vegetarian vow (like there was any doubt).
After a good rinse of the back of the van, we headed on to Santa Fe, in order to stop and rest up at Tom's friend's Melissa's house. We were actually playing in Madrid, which is about 30-40 minutes south of Santa Fe. We arrived in the early afternoon (I drove the last leg), and I actually got my own room (only somewhat smelling of dog) to park my head for a few hours before cleaning up and heading to the gig. Melissa was certainly a gracious hostess.
My friend Jennifer drove up from Albuquerque for the show, and I'm glad we'd done all the meeting up legwork before getting to Madrid....as I had no phone service in Madrid. Madrid reminds a lot of Wimberley; it's a sort of "art town." Probably expensive as hell to live there. The show was one of the best of the tour. Enthusiastic crowd, etc. Meeting Tom's mom was a highlight. She's like the happy version of Tom. And Jennifer seemed to have a great time. That night was exceptional in all ways.
So, what do we do? Yes, another overnight drive. For good reason, though. Cody's sister, her husband, and two kids live in a nice house in Arvada, just northeast of Denver proper. They just moved into the house a couple of months prior, and it was a big one. We all had space to stretch out. There were five bathrooms in the house, but the one by my bedroom had living room access, so it became the popular one.
The Denver show was a pretty good one, although I expected more people on a Saturday. I wonder if perhaps Denver doesn't have much of a rock scene now....not sure. Old friends aplenty made it to this one, including my old room and band mate Clay Brown, Chris and Stella Hay, K.K. Felvy, and Sandra Calderon. Clay (his wife Aimee was in Austin) and Sandra had just moved to Denver recently. (Turned out Clay and Aimee lived in Arvada, where we'd been staying.) We were fed some good pizza by the venue, too. And, as the Hickoids are apparently unofficial spokesmen for Voodoo Doughnuts, there were two boxes of Voodoo Doughnuts waiting for us at the store across the street from the club. Now, that's rock star livin'!
After finally spending the night in a bed, we arose early the next morning for the trek to Salt Lake City. I should mention, especially as I drew a long part of this drive, westward through Wyoming, that the van's tires were clearly not balanced. Jeff had gotten new tires for the van before leaving, but something wasn't right. And as the battery hadn't been connected correctly, the tires being out of balance was not a huge shock, either. We were going to have get them balanced at some point, and they were clearly getting worse as we went. The shaking had been noticed all the way back on the way to Fort Worth. As I mentioned at the start of this blog, the tour was pretty smooth sailing overall, so you should already surmise nothing bad happened.
Anyway, we got to Salt Lake City, loaded into the venue, and checked into our hotel. I got an extra room for that night, just to have a little extra space. We didn't have a really long drive the next day, so I thought it'd be nice to have. Rice stayed with me that night. Generally, for each night, Jeff had booked two rooms for the six of us. My thought was, if we could stay until checkout time, I might get an extra room, provided it was affordable and available.
After resting a couple of hours, we headed back to the club. I noticed some folks in Juggalo make-up as we drove around town. Juggalos in Salt Lake City. Now I've seen everything. Turns out Insane Clown Posse was playing down the street from us....substantially "down the street." We were booked into a place called The Metro, which was a very nice place, but was also outfitted for about a 1,500 person capacity. We were in Salt Lake City on a Sunday night, so I think you know where this is going. The two other bands on the bill, despite being good bands, were just not right for our bill and didn't draw anyone outside of their girlfriends/wives. We had one "superfan" there (David) who bought merch, took pictures with us, etc. Smitty jumped down off the tall stage and attempted some mingling with the girlfriends/wives/other band members and David, so it wasn't all for naught. Still, we should have never been booked in that place. Also, we were under the impression that some metal festival was going on in SLC, and that this was the first day and a part of said festival. When I asked the sound person about this, he looked at me as if I told him I'd shot JFK. I always thought any festival beginning on Sunday would be suspect; my suspicions were confirmed. We were just in the wrong place.
We got a good night's sleep, though.
Monday morning it was off to Boise, Idaho. I'd never been to Boise before, and my only previous Idaho experience was a Honky show in Pocatello in 1997. Late afternoon, we arrived and checked into the hotel; this time I sprang for upgrades to one room, which gave Jeff, Rice, and myself lots of extra space in our room. When I saw the other room later, I almost felt bad for Cody, Tom, and Carl. Almost. I spent the evening downloading video to an external drive and getting ready for laundry the next day, etc. Rice, Cody, and Carl spent the evening at Jim's Alibi, one of the best bar names I've ever seen. And apparently Cody performed the second puke of the tour, in their hotel room, although I found out about this sometime later.
The next morning, Jeff fashioned an album mailer for me out of a box, and I mailed Chris and Stella Hay the Pocket FishRmen album I had brought for them...but left at Cody's sister's house before the Denver gig. Rice, Hungover Carl, and I went to the post office, and then went to the Walmart Auto Center to get the tires balanced. I was told to come back at 2:00. In the meantime, Jeff became Laundry Man No. 1. He folds nicely. Jeff returned to Walmart with me to get the tires balanced. I bought a decent plaidish "show shirt" at a neighboring Goodwill and then we headed back to the Center to get the van. The Center rep told me the van was ready, and so I headed outside, thinking the keys would be in the van. They were not, and I would have to go back in to get them....but while walking to the van, a mechanic of dubious merit ran in front of me with a torque wrench and hubcaps; I guess the van wasn't ready after all. He tightened all the lug nuts and pressed the hubcaps on the wheels, while occasionally flashing an inconsistently toothy grin at Jeff and me. We still lost one of the hubcaps before we got to Canada. Careful if you use Walmart's auto services. Maybe try elsewhere.
And so, by Tuesday night, we were ready to perform again, at the Shredder in Boise. While the attendance was better than SLC, and the other two bands much more to our liking, there was still a lack of audience energy in the building. Mantooth opened the show and was my favorite discovery of the entire tour. Fun, fun band. Great musicians, tight playing, and a made-up bewigged front man who "had it going on." Jeeziz, were they fun. They were followed by Jimmy Vegas and the Phobes, a well-rehearsed quartet with good tunes. I liked 'em but probably would have liked them more if the lead singer hadn't resembled Ted Cruz's even crazier brother. Really. I couldn't get that out of my head. Our set was decent, but it was probably one of the only times I've seen Smitty unable to motivate anyone in the audience. And not for a lack of trying. We might've been a bit sluggish; a day off will do that sometimes.
Next up, Canada! We headed to Vancouver the next morning, crossing into Canada east of Seattle, in an attempt to avoid a long line at the border. The immigration process didn't take too much time, despite a wait in the building while some officers went through a few things in our van's passenger area. Apparently, a look at the gear in the back convinced them that we were indeed just a low-rent band looking to play a couple of Canagigs. They let us pass.
We checked into the hotel in Vancouver and then headed to the gig at Pub 340. There's been a bar or pub in this location since 1898, according to the Pub 340 website. Great atmosphere, and a really friendly staff. Nearby is a park filled with junkies in tents and on benches. Apparently, Canada has a number of "tent cities" springing up.
A downside to the Pub 340 stage was the upstage part of the playing area had a wooden box (shelf?) hanging over it, which meant I had to be really careful when raising my arms while playing. I purposely set my cymbal stands a little lower to compensate and didn't have a problem. I didn't even bump my head on the lowered obstacle. Surprised me. A couple of acts played before us. Subverter, the first one, was pretty much straight up punk, with a singer who had "that attitude." A couple of times he snarled an apology for their set not being "country." I kept hoping he'd see us, just so he could see what we actually were. A couple of that band came back, but I think the singer left after they played. The second act was Skeeter and the Deets. Nice fellas and a good set of acoustic duo tunes. Our set was raucous and a winner all around. We debuted the "Canadian Medley" at this show, and I could not believe the reaction of the crowd. The youngish punks loved the Rush and BTO every bit as much as the Subhumans and D.O.A. Surreal! And the whole show was a great antidote to the two previous lackluster ones.
The next morning we got up to head to the ferry crossing to Vancouver Island and our destination, Victoria. The ferry ride would be approximately 1 1/2 hours and was a nice respite from being cooped up in a van all day. The ferry had some nice conveniences - food, etc. - which we took part in. It was also a nice day and pleasant to be outside in a deck area. Most of us remembered the ferry ride to Denmark from Germany in 2013....that was a cold one.
But back to pleasant weather. The venue in Victoria, The V Lounge, was adjacent to our hotel. And it looked a bit, as many of us noted, liked Caesar's Palace Lite. Columns lined the back of the stage. This was one big hotel bar. And the show was great. The Jaks folks know how to put on a party. Their band, the Keg Killers, was awesome and in a bit of a different configuration than the one we played with in San Marcos a couple of months back (might've been a different band, really....I'm a bit foggy on the details). Dustin, who had been the drummer in the San Marcos show band was the singer here. He's equally fantastic at both. Our set went off well once again, and the crowd really dug our second performance of the "Masters of Canada" medley. Joe Newman, who has recorded as the Rudy Schwartz Project for decades now made it to the show. I've been a fan of Joe's for 30+ years, and it was good to see and talk with him. For some reason, I thought he lived in Vancouver and thought about him when we were there...and then he turns up in Victoria! Just an all around great night. And it was especially nice to walk back to the hotel. That happens every so often, but not often enough for this old man.
The next morning, we said goodbye to Carl, who lives in Victoria now and was staying behind. And then, we were back on the ferry, albeit a different ferry - this one went directly into Washington and was a shorter trek. Immigration was less of a hassle getting back into the States (which actually surprised us a bit - but then the official was from Laredo...and we had our Texas plates). What took an infuriating amount of time was getting to the hotel in south Seattle. It was Friday afternoon; I probably don't need to write more. After getting checked in (after one false motel stop), we hurried to Slim's Last Chance to get ready to rock once again. I saw many friends there, including Stig Stench, Kristen Lyon, and of course, the one and only Max Brody. Max helped us out by filming our show once again. Max now works for Something Weird video. I envy him.
Joining us in Seattle was Patrick Pena, otherwise known as Harvey McLaughlin, playing piano and shooting video of us. His job was to be Carl, but a Carl who was a pianist. Patrick was texting me as he was getting to the club - after his flight landed, as he had some Uber problems, and finally when he was almost to the club....which was right as we began our set. He ran onstage after our first song (Jeff had already set up his equipment), and he began tinkling along with us. Patrick, of course, was along for the rest of the tour, and I always enjoy his company.
I had a fairly major problem with the outdoor stage at Slim's (Rice seemed to think I had this problem last time, too, but I'm fuzzy on it) - the stage is about as bouncy as they come. That's a particular problem for a drummer, when you need your equipment somewhat stable on the stage. And with the Hickoids, it's really a problem on what I call "stomp songs." Some of our songs are ones where the kick drum is stomping on one-and-three, or even every beat. The bear song here was "Petticoat Junction," which is just a fast train beat, with the kick stomping on every beat. The snare drum was wobbling all over the place, and I quickly got off track with almost no way of getting back on. I already tend to have problems with the train beat anyway, as I'm not very comfortable with country music (shh...don't tell anybody). I envy some drummers (Gary [Jimmy Ned] of the Beaumonts comes to mind) who just slip in and out of that beat easily. Not me. I have to stay right on it, or else, I might just as well break into a solo. Other than that song, though, the rest of the set went well; I think overall we did fine. We were sandwiched in between a couple of bands and The Accused; the whole night was a successful night crowd-wise.
After the show, we headed toward the hotel's direction for some food, and the night turned interesting quickly. We stopped at a Denny's, walked in after seeing some club kids and hookers outside, and were met with the sight of a young man talking to himself and darting back and forth in the waiting area, drumming on a picture frame for a bit, mumbling, etc. We noticed pants on the floor and a "mystery fluid." After a couple of minutes, we thought somewhere else might be better. So we took off for another late-night place and had better luck there, although a hooker from our first stop walked in and made her way to the bathroom while we were there. I hope she had a good night.
The next day, we had two shows in Portland: one outside of the second Portland Voodoo Doughnuts location, and a night show at Dante's. The Voodoo show was slated for 4:00. And was. It. Hot. Damn. The playing area was covered by a canopy, but other than that, blazing sun.
As I was unpacking my drums, I made an unfortunate discovery. My front kick head was pretty much destroyed. This is the "Slowpoke" head I've had on the Hickoids set's kick drum for the last six years or so. Granted, I'd been thinking about replacing the kick head with something else for awhile now, but this wasn't the time to have to make the change. I mean, it was destroyed, not just cracked or torn. It looked to me like something had been dropped on the kick drum. (A certain someone told me he thought this was the case, but no one from the band confessed to anything.) The left-middle of the head was sliced from top to bottom, and the bottom, for about a third of the total circumference, was separated from the rim. I could not patch this up. As I had to get set up as well, Jeff volunteered to go with someone at the show who said there was a music store nearby and grab a new head. Turned out it wasn't the right kind of store, but they had a 22" pedal-side head they gave Jeff. I thought I'd have to use that, but a guy whose band had just played before us offered me his front head. He even started taking it off before I could answer. It was a nice Pearl head and served the rest of the tour. He's my Portland Angel, you might say. I still slipped him some money, even though he complained.
The set was okay, although there were audio problems...lack of monitors, etc. Typical outdoors show. Still a lot of fun. And we got doughnuts!! Tres really has a thing for us. Crazy guy. He needs help.
I headed to the hotel I'd gotten for.....drum roll, please....Michelle and me! Yes, she was coming into town for the show and hanging out a couple more days with Jessie Sundvall and Janet Hammer. The hotel was not quite a mile from the place we were playing and seemed suited for anything Michelle might want to do while she was there. It was a nice, big room in an older hotel. Michelle got in about 8:30 and we Ubered over to Dante's later on.
We ended up just eating pizza at the club and just hanging there for the duration. Janet and Jessie showed up later, as did a couple of other folks Michelle knew. The show itself was just okay. There were some people there, but they were spread across the club; it's a pretty large place. Michelle opined that Portland might be a "younger place." That's probably true. My memory of the night is colored by her being there anyway, so I had a good time. There were band shenanigans after I was gone, but obviously, I can't comment on them, other than I got an earful.
The next day, I bid my lovely wife adieu, and the band headed to Bend, which was south and to the east a few hours. We stopped at Indian Head Casino (of course) along the way, and I picked up a t-shirt for my mom in a crafts store nearby. She digs the Native American-flavored stuff. I had booked a motel room tin Bend at Jeff's request, as lodging was being arranged by a member of the other band....who was Jeff's girlfriend's cousin. Jeff wasn't sure how much room there'd be. And that turned out to be a good call. The room wasn't even $100 and the motel looked to be an old Motel 6 completely redecorated with a solid Indian vibe. I dug the way the room looked. Patrick quickly jumped to room with me, so he and I stayed there. But, the show.....was surprisingly good. And it was a Sunday. There were a decent number of folks there, many being friends of the opening band.
Another equipment note: the previous night in Portland, I had been dismissed before load-out. I had packed everything up and had it together and ready. Somehow, my fan did not make it into the van. I like having a fan. So, we found a van backstage that I brought up to use. And I would need to buy something else before the SF gig. A slight annoyance, but I can't complain much as I wasn't there for that load-out. The broken kick head still had me steamed, frankly.
Monday morning, we began the trek to San Francisco. Keep in mind, this is during fire season, and one of the worst fire seasons the western part of the States has had. Much to our ultimate surprise, we didn't see much fire....I remember a small one in the distance at one point, but I don't remember exactly where it was. We did see more burned trees and some lingering smoke, but that was it. So, the drive to San Francisco ended up being much less eventful than I thought it might be. We pulled into the city around 9:00 and checked into our rooms. I bought one more room for some added comfort, even at SF prices. Not cheap, by any means. Still, we had some room, and we were near the Marina. And we were going to be there for a bit. We ate at Mel's Drive-In that night, which is not a drive-in but a diner. Still, it's fun to say you ate at Mel's. Gettin' all Tayback and shit. And later that night, I walked to the Walgreen's near us. Boom, clip-on fan for $7.50. That would last the tour, for sure.
The next morning I got my laundry to a nearby laundromat for some Wash and Fold service. Even put my ever-stinkening jacket in for a dry clean. While waiting, I took a walk into the Presidio, a place I used to go with my dad back in the early 70s. The Officers' Clubs were there, so we would stay there when visiting the city. It was interesting to see it now, and I took a special trek to the Yoda Fountain I saw on Atlas Obscura. After getting back to the room (I was rooming with Patrick), I told him about the fountain, and he was intrigued enough to make his own way there. Late in the afternoon, while hanging with Rice (and hurting), he made a comment about getting a massage, which is something I hadn't thought of. Phone out....booked one at a Thai massage place for the next hour. That was an experience. It's the type massage where someone holds onto suspended poles above you and steps on different parts of you. It was also something I needed after too much time sitting in a cramped van. My knee was really stiffening badly. The masseur, despite barely knowing any English and not really understanding my jabber, caught on quickly to what was going on with me. After the massage was over, he suggested a lot of maintenance work that my own physical therapist in Austin has been suggesting. Didn't take him long!
In the evening, it was off to the gig at the Elbo Room. We were playing with Sluggo Cawley's new project, Req'd, and our friend Bobby's band Bellyfruit. It was a Tuesday night, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but the night turned out pretty great. The crew ran everything really professionally, so there were no shrugging shoulders when you needed some help. "Professionally".....yes, I just wrote that word. Jello Biafra even showed up and stayed through our set. It was kind of funny to see him wearily sitting down near stage right by the end of our set as I thought, "yeah, we're all getting up there." The other Grannies made it to the show, and it was fun catching up with them. I can't really remember if we had any late night food. Our nice parking place in the center of the hotel parking lot was gone, so the van had to be parked on the street with someone checking on it periodically. I can't say that the hotel was especially accommodating to us band folk, but it WAS a Super 8. I had gotten charged three times for my room but got that all worked out in the end. Ugh. Still, I call San Francisco a success.
Wednesday, we began driving down Highway 1 (or PCH) to Santa Cruz. It's a nice drive I hadn't been on in years, and we stopped at one point to get out, walk down to the beach, and snap some nice shots. We got to Santa Cruz by early afternoon and checked into our rooms. We were a short walk from the Santa Cruz Beach & Boardwalk, and so Rice, Patrick and I headed down there. Someone (me, maybe?) acted like a kid all over again. I rode the Great Dipper roller coaster four times. Tom joined us, and he got in on the roller coaster action, too....which surprised me a bit! It had been many years since visiting there. When my dad had his sailboat, we would sail from Monterey to Santa Cruz. As a kid, it seemed like an interminably long trip, but when I'd see the roller coaster in the distance, I'd know we were almost there. Ah, memories. Like the corners of my mind.
And later, it was off to the club (how many times have I written that sentence now?). We played the Blue Lagoon, which seemed a misleading name. It was an interesting maze of a place, and right next to it was a record/CD/DVD store that was actually open a little later. I picked up the only two discs of the trip that night, a copy of the limited edition of "Demon Wind" and the 4 Film Favorites version of the Batman movies from the 80s/90s. Met my price point, finally. The show itself was okay. Fang played before us, and their set was good, but I suspect they were going through the motions a bit. Didn't seem as intense as when we played with them in San Antonio earlier this year. Our set was pretty good, not a great crowd, but okay for a Wednesday. There was a giant fan built into the wall behind me, sort of an exhaust fan in reverse. And it was loud. Made it a little difficult to hear what was going on, but not that difficult. And I like staying cool.
The next morning, we bid Santa Cruz adieu and headed south to Ventura. In all my California years, I don't believe I'd ever been there. We checked into a somewhat sleazy Motel 6 there and headed to the night's rock residence, the Red Cove. A funky place, for sure. Nice folks working there, but the set up was strange. The stage was really deep, which swallowed a lot of the sound. And the stage was a bit "soft," let's say. Everything sounded strange to me on stage, and it was one of my lesser moments playing. Just didn't have a good show. I think the others might have liked it more than I did. And...at the end of the night...we got stiffed. Or at least, the bar people on duty had nothing to pay us with. I was outside, jawing with Patrick while all this was going on, but there was something about the vibe of the place that....well, let's just say I wasn't terribly surprised. Jeff was going to have to go there the next morning and try to get paid. Hoo boy. And the night ended with a late night McDonald's run with a very drunk Cody mouthing off continually in the passenger seat. By the time we got back to the motel, I took my food (sic) and headed off to the opposite end of the motel to eat in peace. One thing I've started to learn more (finally, in my fifties!) is that it's better to just excuse yourself and find a corner to go to than start a bunch of shit with an otherwise likable bandmate.
Off to Los Angeles the next day. Jeff had booked rooms at a Ramada there, and I swear, it took us almost an hour to check in. There was new, fumbling, management and an upset guest in the lobby. I thought we'd never get our rooms. But we did, and then off we went, as you do (or used to, anyway), to Hollywood. As with most other cities in the U.S. of A., Hollywood has become a sort of gentrified Disneyland. It was still fun to walk amongst the stars in the pavement, and we ate at Roscoe's Chicken 'n' Waffles. It's amazing to me how many silent stars are amongst the memorialized in the pavement. And how many of them I actually know of and have seen their work!
We headed to the club, Cafe Nela, which was toward the north a bit and was an older punk rock dive that felt a bit like....home. The stage manager had everything running smoothly, with each band setting their equipment in one of four numbered spots outside the main floor. I'd never seen that sort of organization for a smallish club before. Interesting. And helpful, ultimately. The only thing I can say I didn't like about the club was their lack of water, even for the bands. You had to pay for water. Right before we went on, Pat Todd brought us all bottles of water....not sure where he got them, and I hope he didn't pay for them. Pat and his band went on before us, and before them was the Golden Rulers, a band fronted by Dave Duet, and they rocked most ferociously. Brian Stack was the drummer, and it was a lot of fun catching up with him. The last time I saw him he was throwing chairs around a club in Houston at a Honky show and was ejected. It was good to see him more in control, and he had a nice wife in tow. Our set was pretty damned sweet. (Recent development: a torrent of our set was found and just might become a live album for us. We'll see.) As a matter of fact, I might go so far as to say it was the best overall show of the tour. Cody got drunk again.
We had a late night sup at a cool Mexican joint, with some added "after hours restaurant drama" to entertain us, and then bunked in. Long drive the next day to Tucson.
Tucson. I hadn't been or played there since 2001, and it looked quite a bit different, too. A very white, gentrified, downtown area, where we played at a place called Club Congress. We were supposed to be able to stay in the adjoining hotel, but it was booked for the night. The club contact had set up rooms for us at a Ramada Inn about a mile away. No problem, really. While the rest of the band ate dinner with Rich Minus' brother, I snuck away to check into the hotel and get a little "me" time. We were on the home stretch, but I needed a little solo medicine.
The show was.....okay. Once again, we played a place where everything was well organized. I was able to fully set up before leaving for the hotel. The opening band, the Pork Torta, set up in front of us. Very entertaining band. Three-piece, with the drummer setting up in the middle, and singing the majority of the tunes. I dug 'em. Our set was all right, but a bit of a let down from the night before (as it would be, of course). Still, I thought we pulled it off well. Immediately after we finished (at 10:00!), a DJ began setting up to play dance music for the rest of the night. We hung around the downtown area for a bit before heading back to the hotel. Strange time. It was sort of like a big dance club party outside the club itself. Live music is definitely dying out in some towns. And Cody became insufferably drunk again.
We had another long drive the next day, to Marfa, so we headed out reasonably early. At some point in the trip (I don't remember where), we stopped at a casino (surprise!), and I had a truly excellent pizza there. Biggest food surprise of the tour. The waiter had recommended the steak and avocado sandwich special to everyone, and most got it. I opted for the pizza, and while the others only gave their sandwich an "okay" at best, well, I was in a bit of pizza heaven. I don't say (or write) that often.
We pulled into Marfa and had to start setting up quickly. It was a Sunday, but there were folks there waiting for a show. And we put one on. It was a strange set, and definitely not one of my best, but we entertained everyone, and that's the goal, right? I clammed something on PM, that, well, I'll just say, I hope I never do that one again. It's the type of thing I sometimes do when I'm tired, I'll put it that way. Ha! Good to see Jeffro, as always, and Todd and Bonnie Kassens happened to be there as well.
It seemed to take forever to get out of the club and on the road. And I have to admit, I was obsessed with watching the final episode of "Sharp Objects," which I did. On my phone, with an HBO app. Sad. But I enjoyed it! The drive back was pretty smooth. When we got back, Jeff asked me if we could just go to my house, and I'd take Rice home. I agreed it was best, although that meant 8:00 in the morning on a Monday, driving into Austin. I took the toll road and got back home within an hour.
That was the tour. No breakdowns (after the first day, anyway). Most of the shows were great; the only real duds were the Sunday/Tuesday of the first week. My leg cooperated more or less, although I have more ideas for the next van tour we'll do, assuming we do one. Once I got back on the exercise bike at home, I was fine after a couple of days. Damn knee. Well, I'll deal with it. And now I have a lot of video to catalog.
Time for a recap of the last few weeks. The Hickoids returned Monday morning, August 27th, from a western states and British Columbia tour. Of all the low-budget tours I've been on over the last 30 years or so, I have to say this was perhaps the smoothest one overall. The odds on these kinds of tours are always stacked against you, for various reasons, but we came out of this one virtually unscathed. I shall commence:
The tour began (after a couple of warm-up shows in Austin and San Antonio; see previous blog entry) in Fort Worth on Thursday, August 9th. And we hit an immediate snag. The plan was for San Antonians Jeff, Tom, and Carl (our merch and video aide) to pick up Cody in San Marcos, pick me up in Manchaca, grab Rice in Austin, and we would then head north. I got a call from Jeff about 20 minutes after the first group left San Antonio; the battery and alternator were both fried in the van, due to a loose connection. They were being towed back to San Antonio for Jeff's mechanic friend to fix up quickly. The battery was new, but apparently not installed properly. Hoo boy. In the meantime, Cody was going to be dropped off at my house, and I had to drive into Austin to get Rice, as he had no easy way to get down to my place. That way, the SA Express would only have one stop before heading north. At this point, I wasn't sure we'd make the Fort Worth show.
But we did. And with about an hour to spare. Gotta hand it to Smitty's cool driving hand. The show went well, although it was a strange bill. My old friend Henry Vasquez's band Blood of the Sun was the middle band, and Mos Generator opened it up. So, we were basically closing an otherwise heavy rock bill. After setting up, I caught some of BOTS's set, and it was pretty stellar. I hadn't seen this line-up yet. Our set was okay, but some of the crowd started to drift away at the end. Typical for a Thursday night, though. It was good to see some old friends from the Honky days there, too.
Following the show, we headed to The Old Pancake House, a place we've visited before, for some sustenance, accompanied by our buddy "Hush Puppy" (who almost never "hushes"). Rice, a devout - and we were about to find out how devout - vegetarian, ordered some sort of German pancake that has its last preparation step done at the table. Fancy. Read on.
There being no rest for the wicked, especially the Hickoids, meant an immediate overnight drive to Santa Fe. About 45 minutes into the trip, the van, driven by Jeff, suddenly pulled over. I had my earbuds in and wasn't sure what was going on. Rice bolted out of the back seat and finished hurling onto the ground from the van. He had apparently already begun purging on his shoes behind me. He claimed the foul of bacon grease in his pancake order. So, we had the first puke of the tour, and a sudden deadly seriousness to Rice's vegetarian vow (like there was any doubt).
After a good rinse of the back of the van, we headed on to Santa Fe, in order to stop and rest up at Tom's friend's Melissa's house. We were actually playing in Madrid, which is about 30-40 minutes south of Santa Fe. We arrived in the early afternoon (I drove the last leg), and I actually got my own room (only somewhat smelling of dog) to park my head for a few hours before cleaning up and heading to the gig. Melissa was certainly a gracious hostess.
My friend Jennifer drove up from Albuquerque for the show, and I'm glad we'd done all the meeting up legwork before getting to Madrid....as I had no phone service in Madrid. Madrid reminds a lot of Wimberley; it's a sort of "art town." Probably expensive as hell to live there. The show was one of the best of the tour. Enthusiastic crowd, etc. Meeting Tom's mom was a highlight. She's like the happy version of Tom. And Jennifer seemed to have a great time. That night was exceptional in all ways.
So, what do we do? Yes, another overnight drive. For good reason, though. Cody's sister, her husband, and two kids live in a nice house in Arvada, just northeast of Denver proper. They just moved into the house a couple of months prior, and it was a big one. We all had space to stretch out. There were five bathrooms in the house, but the one by my bedroom had living room access, so it became the popular one.
The Denver show was a pretty good one, although I expected more people on a Saturday. I wonder if perhaps Denver doesn't have much of a rock scene now....not sure. Old friends aplenty made it to this one, including my old room and band mate Clay Brown, Chris and Stella Hay, K.K. Felvy, and Sandra Calderon. Clay (his wife Aimee was in Austin) and Sandra had just moved to Denver recently. (Turned out Clay and Aimee lived in Arvada, where we'd been staying.) We were fed some good pizza by the venue, too. And, as the Hickoids are apparently unofficial spokesmen for Voodoo Doughnuts, there were two boxes of Voodoo Doughnuts waiting for us at the store across the street from the club. Now, that's rock star livin'!
After finally spending the night in a bed, we arose early the next morning for the trek to Salt Lake City. I should mention, especially as I drew a long part of this drive, westward through Wyoming, that the van's tires were clearly not balanced. Jeff had gotten new tires for the van before leaving, but something wasn't right. And as the battery hadn't been connected correctly, the tires being out of balance was not a huge shock, either. We were going to have get them balanced at some point, and they were clearly getting worse as we went. The shaking had been noticed all the way back on the way to Fort Worth. As I mentioned at the start of this blog, the tour was pretty smooth sailing overall, so you should already surmise nothing bad happened.
Anyway, we got to Salt Lake City, loaded into the venue, and checked into our hotel. I got an extra room for that night, just to have a little extra space. We didn't have a really long drive the next day, so I thought it'd be nice to have. Rice stayed with me that night. Generally, for each night, Jeff had booked two rooms for the six of us. My thought was, if we could stay until checkout time, I might get an extra room, provided it was affordable and available.
After resting a couple of hours, we headed back to the club. I noticed some folks in Juggalo make-up as we drove around town. Juggalos in Salt Lake City. Now I've seen everything. Turns out Insane Clown Posse was playing down the street from us....substantially "down the street." We were booked into a place called The Metro, which was a very nice place, but was also outfitted for about a 1,500 person capacity. We were in Salt Lake City on a Sunday night, so I think you know where this is going. The two other bands on the bill, despite being good bands, were just not right for our bill and didn't draw anyone outside of their girlfriends/wives. We had one "superfan" there (David) who bought merch, took pictures with us, etc. Smitty jumped down off the tall stage and attempted some mingling with the girlfriends/wives/other band members and David, so it wasn't all for naught. Still, we should have never been booked in that place. Also, we were under the impression that some metal festival was going on in SLC, and that this was the first day and a part of said festival. When I asked the sound person about this, he looked at me as if I told him I'd shot JFK. I always thought any festival beginning on Sunday would be suspect; my suspicions were confirmed. We were just in the wrong place.
We got a good night's sleep, though.
Monday morning it was off to Boise, Idaho. I'd never been to Boise before, and my only previous Idaho experience was a Honky show in Pocatello in 1997. Late afternoon, we arrived and checked into the hotel; this time I sprang for upgrades to one room, which gave Jeff, Rice, and myself lots of extra space in our room. When I saw the other room later, I almost felt bad for Cody, Tom, and Carl. Almost. I spent the evening downloading video to an external drive and getting ready for laundry the next day, etc. Rice, Cody, and Carl spent the evening at Jim's Alibi, one of the best bar names I've ever seen. And apparently Cody performed the second puke of the tour, in their hotel room, although I found out about this sometime later.
The next morning, Jeff fashioned an album mailer for me out of a box, and I mailed Chris and Stella Hay the Pocket FishRmen album I had brought for them...but left at Cody's sister's house before the Denver gig. Rice, Hungover Carl, and I went to the post office, and then went to the Walmart Auto Center to get the tires balanced. I was told to come back at 2:00. In the meantime, Jeff became Laundry Man No. 1. He folds nicely. Jeff returned to Walmart with me to get the tires balanced. I bought a decent plaidish "show shirt" at a neighboring Goodwill and then we headed back to the Center to get the van. The Center rep told me the van was ready, and so I headed outside, thinking the keys would be in the van. They were not, and I would have to go back in to get them....but while walking to the van, a mechanic of dubious merit ran in front of me with a torque wrench and hubcaps; I guess the van wasn't ready after all. He tightened all the lug nuts and pressed the hubcaps on the wheels, while occasionally flashing an inconsistently toothy grin at Jeff and me. We still lost one of the hubcaps before we got to Canada. Careful if you use Walmart's auto services. Maybe try elsewhere.
And so, by Tuesday night, we were ready to perform again, at the Shredder in Boise. While the attendance was better than SLC, and the other two bands much more to our liking, there was still a lack of audience energy in the building. Mantooth opened the show and was my favorite discovery of the entire tour. Fun, fun band. Great musicians, tight playing, and a made-up bewigged front man who "had it going on." Jeeziz, were they fun. They were followed by Jimmy Vegas and the Phobes, a well-rehearsed quartet with good tunes. I liked 'em but probably would have liked them more if the lead singer hadn't resembled Ted Cruz's even crazier brother. Really. I couldn't get that out of my head. Our set was decent, but it was probably one of the only times I've seen Smitty unable to motivate anyone in the audience. And not for a lack of trying. We might've been a bit sluggish; a day off will do that sometimes.
Next up, Canada! We headed to Vancouver the next morning, crossing into Canada east of Seattle, in an attempt to avoid a long line at the border. The immigration process didn't take too much time, despite a wait in the building while some officers went through a few things in our van's passenger area. Apparently, a look at the gear in the back convinced them that we were indeed just a low-rent band looking to play a couple of Canagigs. They let us pass.
We checked into the hotel in Vancouver and then headed to the gig at Pub 340. There's been a bar or pub in this location since 1898, according to the Pub 340 website. Great atmosphere, and a really friendly staff. Nearby is a park filled with junkies in tents and on benches. Apparently, Canada has a number of "tent cities" springing up.
A downside to the Pub 340 stage was the upstage part of the playing area had a wooden box (shelf?) hanging over it, which meant I had to be really careful when raising my arms while playing. I purposely set my cymbal stands a little lower to compensate and didn't have a problem. I didn't even bump my head on the lowered obstacle. Surprised me. A couple of acts played before us. Subverter, the first one, was pretty much straight up punk, with a singer who had "that attitude." A couple of times he snarled an apology for their set not being "country." I kept hoping he'd see us, just so he could see what we actually were. A couple of that band came back, but I think the singer left after they played. The second act was Skeeter and the Deets. Nice fellas and a good set of acoustic duo tunes. Our set was raucous and a winner all around. We debuted the "Canadian Medley" at this show, and I could not believe the reaction of the crowd. The youngish punks loved the Rush and BTO every bit as much as the Subhumans and D.O.A. Surreal! And the whole show was a great antidote to the two previous lackluster ones.
The next morning we got up to head to the ferry crossing to Vancouver Island and our destination, Victoria. The ferry ride would be approximately 1 1/2 hours and was a nice respite from being cooped up in a van all day. The ferry had some nice conveniences - food, etc. - which we took part in. It was also a nice day and pleasant to be outside in a deck area. Most of us remembered the ferry ride to Denmark from Germany in 2013....that was a cold one.
But back to pleasant weather. The venue in Victoria, The V Lounge, was adjacent to our hotel. And it looked a bit, as many of us noted, liked Caesar's Palace Lite. Columns lined the back of the stage. This was one big hotel bar. And the show was great. The Jaks folks know how to put on a party. Their band, the Keg Killers, was awesome and in a bit of a different configuration than the one we played with in San Marcos a couple of months back (might've been a different band, really....I'm a bit foggy on the details). Dustin, who had been the drummer in the San Marcos show band was the singer here. He's equally fantastic at both. Our set went off well once again, and the crowd really dug our second performance of the "Masters of Canada" medley. Joe Newman, who has recorded as the Rudy Schwartz Project for decades now made it to the show. I've been a fan of Joe's for 30+ years, and it was good to see and talk with him. For some reason, I thought he lived in Vancouver and thought about him when we were there...and then he turns up in Victoria! Just an all around great night. And it was especially nice to walk back to the hotel. That happens every so often, but not often enough for this old man.
The next morning, we said goodbye to Carl, who lives in Victoria now and was staying behind. And then, we were back on the ferry, albeit a different ferry - this one went directly into Washington and was a shorter trek. Immigration was less of a hassle getting back into the States (which actually surprised us a bit - but then the official was from Laredo...and we had our Texas plates). What took an infuriating amount of time was getting to the hotel in south Seattle. It was Friday afternoon; I probably don't need to write more. After getting checked in (after one false motel stop), we hurried to Slim's Last Chance to get ready to rock once again. I saw many friends there, including Stig Stench, Kristen Lyon, and of course, the one and only Max Brody. Max helped us out by filming our show once again. Max now works for Something Weird video. I envy him.
Joining us in Seattle was Patrick Pena, otherwise known as Harvey McLaughlin, playing piano and shooting video of us. His job was to be Carl, but a Carl who was a pianist. Patrick was texting me as he was getting to the club - after his flight landed, as he had some Uber problems, and finally when he was almost to the club....which was right as we began our set. He ran onstage after our first song (Jeff had already set up his equipment), and he began tinkling along with us. Patrick, of course, was along for the rest of the tour, and I always enjoy his company.
I had a fairly major problem with the outdoor stage at Slim's (Rice seemed to think I had this problem last time, too, but I'm fuzzy on it) - the stage is about as bouncy as they come. That's a particular problem for a drummer, when you need your equipment somewhat stable on the stage. And with the Hickoids, it's really a problem on what I call "stomp songs." Some of our songs are ones where the kick drum is stomping on one-and-three, or even every beat. The bear song here was "Petticoat Junction," which is just a fast train beat, with the kick stomping on every beat. The snare drum was wobbling all over the place, and I quickly got off track with almost no way of getting back on. I already tend to have problems with the train beat anyway, as I'm not very comfortable with country music (shh...don't tell anybody). I envy some drummers (Gary [Jimmy Ned] of the Beaumonts comes to mind) who just slip in and out of that beat easily. Not me. I have to stay right on it, or else, I might just as well break into a solo. Other than that song, though, the rest of the set went well; I think overall we did fine. We were sandwiched in between a couple of bands and The Accused; the whole night was a successful night crowd-wise.
After the show, we headed toward the hotel's direction for some food, and the night turned interesting quickly. We stopped at a Denny's, walked in after seeing some club kids and hookers outside, and were met with the sight of a young man talking to himself and darting back and forth in the waiting area, drumming on a picture frame for a bit, mumbling, etc. We noticed pants on the floor and a "mystery fluid." After a couple of minutes, we thought somewhere else might be better. So we took off for another late-night place and had better luck there, although a hooker from our first stop walked in and made her way to the bathroom while we were there. I hope she had a good night.
The next day, we had two shows in Portland: one outside of the second Portland Voodoo Doughnuts location, and a night show at Dante's. The Voodoo show was slated for 4:00. And was. It. Hot. Damn. The playing area was covered by a canopy, but other than that, blazing sun.
As I was unpacking my drums, I made an unfortunate discovery. My front kick head was pretty much destroyed. This is the "Slowpoke" head I've had on the Hickoids set's kick drum for the last six years or so. Granted, I'd been thinking about replacing the kick head with something else for awhile now, but this wasn't the time to have to make the change. I mean, it was destroyed, not just cracked or torn. It looked to me like something had been dropped on the kick drum. (A certain someone told me he thought this was the case, but no one from the band confessed to anything.) The left-middle of the head was sliced from top to bottom, and the bottom, for about a third of the total circumference, was separated from the rim. I could not patch this up. As I had to get set up as well, Jeff volunteered to go with someone at the show who said there was a music store nearby and grab a new head. Turned out it wasn't the right kind of store, but they had a 22" pedal-side head they gave Jeff. I thought I'd have to use that, but a guy whose band had just played before us offered me his front head. He even started taking it off before I could answer. It was a nice Pearl head and served the rest of the tour. He's my Portland Angel, you might say. I still slipped him some money, even though he complained.
The set was okay, although there were audio problems...lack of monitors, etc. Typical outdoors show. Still a lot of fun. And we got doughnuts!! Tres really has a thing for us. Crazy guy. He needs help.
I headed to the hotel I'd gotten for.....drum roll, please....Michelle and me! Yes, she was coming into town for the show and hanging out a couple more days with Jessie Sundvall and Janet Hammer. The hotel was not quite a mile from the place we were playing and seemed suited for anything Michelle might want to do while she was there. It was a nice, big room in an older hotel. Michelle got in about 8:30 and we Ubered over to Dante's later on.
We ended up just eating pizza at the club and just hanging there for the duration. Janet and Jessie showed up later, as did a couple of other folks Michelle knew. The show itself was just okay. There were some people there, but they were spread across the club; it's a pretty large place. Michelle opined that Portland might be a "younger place." That's probably true. My memory of the night is colored by her being there anyway, so I had a good time. There were band shenanigans after I was gone, but obviously, I can't comment on them, other than I got an earful.
The next day, I bid my lovely wife adieu, and the band headed to Bend, which was south and to the east a few hours. We stopped at Indian Head Casino (of course) along the way, and I picked up a t-shirt for my mom in a crafts store nearby. She digs the Native American-flavored stuff. I had booked a motel room tin Bend at Jeff's request, as lodging was being arranged by a member of the other band....who was Jeff's girlfriend's cousin. Jeff wasn't sure how much room there'd be. And that turned out to be a good call. The room wasn't even $100 and the motel looked to be an old Motel 6 completely redecorated with a solid Indian vibe. I dug the way the room looked. Patrick quickly jumped to room with me, so he and I stayed there. But, the show.....was surprisingly good. And it was a Sunday. There were a decent number of folks there, many being friends of the opening band.
Another equipment note: the previous night in Portland, I had been dismissed before load-out. I had packed everything up and had it together and ready. Somehow, my fan did not make it into the van. I like having a fan. So, we found a van backstage that I brought up to use. And I would need to buy something else before the SF gig. A slight annoyance, but I can't complain much as I wasn't there for that load-out. The broken kick head still had me steamed, frankly.
Monday morning, we began the trek to San Francisco. Keep in mind, this is during fire season, and one of the worst fire seasons the western part of the States has had. Much to our ultimate surprise, we didn't see much fire....I remember a small one in the distance at one point, but I don't remember exactly where it was. We did see more burned trees and some lingering smoke, but that was it. So, the drive to San Francisco ended up being much less eventful than I thought it might be. We pulled into the city around 9:00 and checked into our rooms. I bought one more room for some added comfort, even at SF prices. Not cheap, by any means. Still, we had some room, and we were near the Marina. And we were going to be there for a bit. We ate at Mel's Drive-In that night, which is not a drive-in but a diner. Still, it's fun to say you ate at Mel's. Gettin' all Tayback and shit. And later that night, I walked to the Walgreen's near us. Boom, clip-on fan for $7.50. That would last the tour, for sure.
The next morning I got my laundry to a nearby laundromat for some Wash and Fold service. Even put my ever-stinkening jacket in for a dry clean. While waiting, I took a walk into the Presidio, a place I used to go with my dad back in the early 70s. The Officers' Clubs were there, so we would stay there when visiting the city. It was interesting to see it now, and I took a special trek to the Yoda Fountain I saw on Atlas Obscura. After getting back to the room (I was rooming with Patrick), I told him about the fountain, and he was intrigued enough to make his own way there. Late in the afternoon, while hanging with Rice (and hurting), he made a comment about getting a massage, which is something I hadn't thought of. Phone out....booked one at a Thai massage place for the next hour. That was an experience. It's the type massage where someone holds onto suspended poles above you and steps on different parts of you. It was also something I needed after too much time sitting in a cramped van. My knee was really stiffening badly. The masseur, despite barely knowing any English and not really understanding my jabber, caught on quickly to what was going on with me. After the massage was over, he suggested a lot of maintenance work that my own physical therapist in Austin has been suggesting. Didn't take him long!
In the evening, it was off to the gig at the Elbo Room. We were playing with Sluggo Cawley's new project, Req'd, and our friend Bobby's band Bellyfruit. It was a Tuesday night, so I wasn't sure what to expect, but the night turned out pretty great. The crew ran everything really professionally, so there were no shrugging shoulders when you needed some help. "Professionally".....yes, I just wrote that word. Jello Biafra even showed up and stayed through our set. It was kind of funny to see him wearily sitting down near stage right by the end of our set as I thought, "yeah, we're all getting up there." The other Grannies made it to the show, and it was fun catching up with them. I can't really remember if we had any late night food. Our nice parking place in the center of the hotel parking lot was gone, so the van had to be parked on the street with someone checking on it periodically. I can't say that the hotel was especially accommodating to us band folk, but it WAS a Super 8. I had gotten charged three times for my room but got that all worked out in the end. Ugh. Still, I call San Francisco a success.
Wednesday, we began driving down Highway 1 (or PCH) to Santa Cruz. It's a nice drive I hadn't been on in years, and we stopped at one point to get out, walk down to the beach, and snap some nice shots. We got to Santa Cruz by early afternoon and checked into our rooms. We were a short walk from the Santa Cruz Beach & Boardwalk, and so Rice, Patrick and I headed down there. Someone (me, maybe?) acted like a kid all over again. I rode the Great Dipper roller coaster four times. Tom joined us, and he got in on the roller coaster action, too....which surprised me a bit! It had been many years since visiting there. When my dad had his sailboat, we would sail from Monterey to Santa Cruz. As a kid, it seemed like an interminably long trip, but when I'd see the roller coaster in the distance, I'd know we were almost there. Ah, memories. Like the corners of my mind.
And later, it was off to the club (how many times have I written that sentence now?). We played the Blue Lagoon, which seemed a misleading name. It was an interesting maze of a place, and right next to it was a record/CD/DVD store that was actually open a little later. I picked up the only two discs of the trip that night, a copy of the limited edition of "Demon Wind" and the 4 Film Favorites version of the Batman movies from the 80s/90s. Met my price point, finally. The show itself was okay. Fang played before us, and their set was good, but I suspect they were going through the motions a bit. Didn't seem as intense as when we played with them in San Antonio earlier this year. Our set was pretty good, not a great crowd, but okay for a Wednesday. There was a giant fan built into the wall behind me, sort of an exhaust fan in reverse. And it was loud. Made it a little difficult to hear what was going on, but not that difficult. And I like staying cool.
The next morning, we bid Santa Cruz adieu and headed south to Ventura. In all my California years, I don't believe I'd ever been there. We checked into a somewhat sleazy Motel 6 there and headed to the night's rock residence, the Red Cove. A funky place, for sure. Nice folks working there, but the set up was strange. The stage was really deep, which swallowed a lot of the sound. And the stage was a bit "soft," let's say. Everything sounded strange to me on stage, and it was one of my lesser moments playing. Just didn't have a good show. I think the others might have liked it more than I did. And...at the end of the night...we got stiffed. Or at least, the bar people on duty had nothing to pay us with. I was outside, jawing with Patrick while all this was going on, but there was something about the vibe of the place that....well, let's just say I wasn't terribly surprised. Jeff was going to have to go there the next morning and try to get paid. Hoo boy. And the night ended with a late night McDonald's run with a very drunk Cody mouthing off continually in the passenger seat. By the time we got back to the motel, I took my food (sic) and headed off to the opposite end of the motel to eat in peace. One thing I've started to learn more (finally, in my fifties!) is that it's better to just excuse yourself and find a corner to go to than start a bunch of shit with an otherwise likable bandmate.
Off to Los Angeles the next day. Jeff had booked rooms at a Ramada there, and I swear, it took us almost an hour to check in. There was new, fumbling, management and an upset guest in the lobby. I thought we'd never get our rooms. But we did, and then off we went, as you do (or used to, anyway), to Hollywood. As with most other cities in the U.S. of A., Hollywood has become a sort of gentrified Disneyland. It was still fun to walk amongst the stars in the pavement, and we ate at Roscoe's Chicken 'n' Waffles. It's amazing to me how many silent stars are amongst the memorialized in the pavement. And how many of them I actually know of and have seen their work!
We headed to the club, Cafe Nela, which was toward the north a bit and was an older punk rock dive that felt a bit like....home. The stage manager had everything running smoothly, with each band setting their equipment in one of four numbered spots outside the main floor. I'd never seen that sort of organization for a smallish club before. Interesting. And helpful, ultimately. The only thing I can say I didn't like about the club was their lack of water, even for the bands. You had to pay for water. Right before we went on, Pat Todd brought us all bottles of water....not sure where he got them, and I hope he didn't pay for them. Pat and his band went on before us, and before them was the Golden Rulers, a band fronted by Dave Duet, and they rocked most ferociously. Brian Stack was the drummer, and it was a lot of fun catching up with him. The last time I saw him he was throwing chairs around a club in Houston at a Honky show and was ejected. It was good to see him more in control, and he had a nice wife in tow. Our set was pretty damned sweet. (Recent development: a torrent of our set was found and just might become a live album for us. We'll see.) As a matter of fact, I might go so far as to say it was the best overall show of the tour. Cody got drunk again.
We had a late night sup at a cool Mexican joint, with some added "after hours restaurant drama" to entertain us, and then bunked in. Long drive the next day to Tucson.
Tucson. I hadn't been or played there since 2001, and it looked quite a bit different, too. A very white, gentrified, downtown area, where we played at a place called Club Congress. We were supposed to be able to stay in the adjoining hotel, but it was booked for the night. The club contact had set up rooms for us at a Ramada Inn about a mile away. No problem, really. While the rest of the band ate dinner with Rich Minus' brother, I snuck away to check into the hotel and get a little "me" time. We were on the home stretch, but I needed a little solo medicine.
The show was.....okay. Once again, we played a place where everything was well organized. I was able to fully set up before leaving for the hotel. The opening band, the Pork Torta, set up in front of us. Very entertaining band. Three-piece, with the drummer setting up in the middle, and singing the majority of the tunes. I dug 'em. Our set was all right, but a bit of a let down from the night before (as it would be, of course). Still, I thought we pulled it off well. Immediately after we finished (at 10:00!), a DJ began setting up to play dance music for the rest of the night. We hung around the downtown area for a bit before heading back to the hotel. Strange time. It was sort of like a big dance club party outside the club itself. Live music is definitely dying out in some towns. And Cody became insufferably drunk again.
We had another long drive the next day, to Marfa, so we headed out reasonably early. At some point in the trip (I don't remember where), we stopped at a casino (surprise!), and I had a truly excellent pizza there. Biggest food surprise of the tour. The waiter had recommended the steak and avocado sandwich special to everyone, and most got it. I opted for the pizza, and while the others only gave their sandwich an "okay" at best, well, I was in a bit of pizza heaven. I don't say (or write) that often.
We pulled into Marfa and had to start setting up quickly. It was a Sunday, but there were folks there waiting for a show. And we put one on. It was a strange set, and definitely not one of my best, but we entertained everyone, and that's the goal, right? I clammed something on PM, that, well, I'll just say, I hope I never do that one again. It's the type of thing I sometimes do when I'm tired, I'll put it that way. Ha! Good to see Jeffro, as always, and Todd and Bonnie Kassens happened to be there as well.
It seemed to take forever to get out of the club and on the road. And I have to admit, I was obsessed with watching the final episode of "Sharp Objects," which I did. On my phone, with an HBO app. Sad. But I enjoyed it! The drive back was pretty smooth. When we got back, Jeff asked me if we could just go to my house, and I'd take Rice home. I agreed it was best, although that meant 8:00 in the morning on a Monday, driving into Austin. I took the toll road and got back home within an hour.
That was the tour. No breakdowns (after the first day, anyway). Most of the shows were great; the only real duds were the Sunday/Tuesday of the first week. My leg cooperated more or less, although I have more ideas for the next van tour we'll do, assuming we do one. Once I got back on the exercise bike at home, I was fine after a couple of days. Damn knee. Well, I'll deal with it. And now I have a lot of video to catalog.
Sunday, August 5, 2018
The Video Boy Troubles and Upcoming Shenanigans
And.......when we left our boy last week......wait, that was two weeks ago.....yes, well.....
I was writing about a crash my Mac had, just as I was about to finish a promotional video for the Hickoids. Said video project had to be reconstituted on a PC laptop (the one I'm typing on now), using the editor in Movie Studio Platinum (an offshoot of Vegas). The editor turned out to be okay, although it's missing one crucial feature for anyone editing anything over a minute in length - the ability to set up individual sequences. Since the total time of the video ended up being 1:42, it wasn't super necessary, but still a bit painful to navigate around. The previous one built in Premiere was several sequences of a few seconds in length each.
Within a week, I had it done, and it came out.....okay.
Got a bluish tinge going on in some of the shots which comes from the residue of removing green screen, but I'm not sure why blue. If anyone asks me, I'll just say there was a blue light in the dungeon. That makes sense, dunnit?
Continuing along with computer woes, or more accurately, fixes.....
In the last entry, I stated I was done with Macs, and I'm sticking to that. I ran into my friend Larry Stern a couple of weeks ago (he got me the Mac system several years ago), and he thought it was fixable, although perhaps at some cost. I politely declined. I'm still done with Macs. There's just something I don't like about the Apple company in general, and hey, if I'm going to get political about it....Bill and Melinda Gates have my vote. So, back to a Microsoft operating system.
I chose a Lenovo tower that is set up for gaming, which means it'll be fine for my non-gaming, yet sometimes video-involved self. I decided on this one after much shopping around, and so far, so good. The OS is on a separate SSD drive and boots up really quickly. I haven't done a lot with it so far - still deciding on what video editor I should use - and as I'm about to leave town for awhile, it'll be some time before I really get down to serious usage. But that'll also give me time to decide on software I want to put on it. And, since this laptop I'm using has Windows 10, I'm fairly familiar with it as an OS.
This recent purchase inspired me to get a hard drive enclosure and do some "house cleaning." I pulled all the hard drives from towers I'm declaring dead (two from the Mac, and two from previous PCs), and I've been able to read the data from the two Mac drives - with the help of cross-platform software - and one of the PC drives. The oldest PC drive is an IDE drive, and my enclosure is only suited for SATA drives. Frankly, I'm sure I didn't need anything off a drive inactive for ten years, so I'll just destroy that one. I was able to donate the PC towers to Goodwill, and I'll figure out a home for the Mac tower. It might go back to Larry! Cleaning house!
I mentioned leaving town for awhile...and the video gives that away....yes, the Hickoids are about to embark on an 18-day tour, going west. At the halfway point, we'll be in Vancouver and Victoria, BC, which will be my first foray into Canada. We're not going far into Canada, but still, it's Canada. It's a bit like going to Reynosa and saying you've "been to Mexico." Still, I'm looking forward to a bit cooler weather. Hopefully, we won't run into any of the awful blazes going on in California right now. Jeeziz, those poor folks dealing with that.
On this tour, I'll have responsibilities exceeding drumming and occasional yodeling; the sampler's coming with, and the tour will be documented on digital video. We have folks lined up to shoot the video, so thankfully, I won't have to do that. A really nice fella named Carl is coming with up to Canada. He's a native San Antonian who now lives in Victoria, BC. He was down for a couple of months visiting family, and so he's riding back home with us. He'll be shooting our misadventures, etc. I'll give him a quick tutorial on the camera, and hopefully he'll get some good stuff. We're so photogenic.
We'll leave Carl in Victoria, and Patrick (Harvey McLaughlin) is joining us in Seatlle for the trip back. He'll, of course, be playing his piano on stage with us, but in the van, he'll be cinematographer. There might be more interesting stuff in the second half, I'm thinking. Sleep deprivation is a big cause of tour hijinks, let's say. Although, our significant others are meeting us at different points on the west coast....so that might cause us to behave, if only for a bit.
The sampler is coming as a sort of "audio enhancement" for the stage show. There's an intro, recorded by Jeff, for the show. There's a version of "O Canada" to preface our wonderfully awful "Canadian Medley." And, there's Plastic Patrick's "Hickoid Massacre," to play as an outro. Easy stuff, but I think I'll add a few more things to keep it lively. The sampler's a pain in the ass to set up but worth it, if you have a soundman willing to play ball. I'll elaborate more later.
We had a couple of warm-up shows this weekend, one in Austin, one in San Antonio. The Austin one was a fun, but hot, affair. We played after the Beaumonts, which might not have been the right call. The Beaumonts had a huge crowd that diminished somewhat by the time we took the stage. Still, we put on a pretty good show, although it felt like it was petering out toward the end - probably the heat. The best thing about it was we had Wade Driver in attendance, and he jumped up and played guitar on a couple of songs. He's recovering from a stroke currently, but the energy was there, for sure. It was great to have him on stage. I tried to get him to come up and drum with me on "Back in the Truck," but he didn't seem to want to. No matter. He was a major drum inspiration to me back in the bad ol' days, so I was just honored to share the stage with him. We also stumbled through the Canadian Medley, although it needs work. We're not far off, though.
Last night's show was, as some of my friends like to say, "tits." Fred Greene told me he thought it was one of the best shows he'd ever seen us play, and he's certainly seen enough. The stage at Bang Bang Bar in San Antonio is pretty tiny, but somehow we all got up there. I thought for sure Patrick would have to set up on the floor, but no, he didn't - although he was hidden by a speaker main. Cody was somewhat hidden by the other one, as well. Basically, if you like looking at Jeff, Tom, and Rice only, this show was for you. Jeff didn't want to do the Canadian Medley, so we didn't. It does need a little tightening, still. The only issue I had was getting the soundman to actually put the sampler into the speakers. He seemed a little, shall we say, slow on the draw. He didn't understand that we were using it as a pre- and post-show entertainment, as well as occasionally through the show. After finally getting him to turn it on before we started, he just turned off the channel for the rest of the show. When I quizzed him about it later, he seemed....not really uncaring, but not really cognizant of it, either....I think chemicals were involved. But really, all this is my fault. I realize I'm going to have to have a chat with every soundman on this tour to explain what I need for the sampler to be worth bringing out. It's not much, but it'll need to be said.
I'll try to chronicle along what happens on the tour, although I may just do it in one big chunk after getting back...sort of like I did with the 2013 Euro Tour. We'll see. Until then......stay cool, friends. Your working drummer boy loves ya.
I was writing about a crash my Mac had, just as I was about to finish a promotional video for the Hickoids. Said video project had to be reconstituted on a PC laptop (the one I'm typing on now), using the editor in Movie Studio Platinum (an offshoot of Vegas). The editor turned out to be okay, although it's missing one crucial feature for anyone editing anything over a minute in length - the ability to set up individual sequences. Since the total time of the video ended up being 1:42, it wasn't super necessary, but still a bit painful to navigate around. The previous one built in Premiere was several sequences of a few seconds in length each.
Within a week, I had it done, and it came out.....okay.
Got a bluish tinge going on in some of the shots which comes from the residue of removing green screen, but I'm not sure why blue. If anyone asks me, I'll just say there was a blue light in the dungeon. That makes sense, dunnit?
Continuing along with computer woes, or more accurately, fixes.....
In the last entry, I stated I was done with Macs, and I'm sticking to that. I ran into my friend Larry Stern a couple of weeks ago (he got me the Mac system several years ago), and he thought it was fixable, although perhaps at some cost. I politely declined. I'm still done with Macs. There's just something I don't like about the Apple company in general, and hey, if I'm going to get political about it....Bill and Melinda Gates have my vote. So, back to a Microsoft operating system.
I chose a Lenovo tower that is set up for gaming, which means it'll be fine for my non-gaming, yet sometimes video-involved self. I decided on this one after much shopping around, and so far, so good. The OS is on a separate SSD drive and boots up really quickly. I haven't done a lot with it so far - still deciding on what video editor I should use - and as I'm about to leave town for awhile, it'll be some time before I really get down to serious usage. But that'll also give me time to decide on software I want to put on it. And, since this laptop I'm using has Windows 10, I'm fairly familiar with it as an OS.
This recent purchase inspired me to get a hard drive enclosure and do some "house cleaning." I pulled all the hard drives from towers I'm declaring dead (two from the Mac, and two from previous PCs), and I've been able to read the data from the two Mac drives - with the help of cross-platform software - and one of the PC drives. The oldest PC drive is an IDE drive, and my enclosure is only suited for SATA drives. Frankly, I'm sure I didn't need anything off a drive inactive for ten years, so I'll just destroy that one. I was able to donate the PC towers to Goodwill, and I'll figure out a home for the Mac tower. It might go back to Larry! Cleaning house!
I mentioned leaving town for awhile...and the video gives that away....yes, the Hickoids are about to embark on an 18-day tour, going west. At the halfway point, we'll be in Vancouver and Victoria, BC, which will be my first foray into Canada. We're not going far into Canada, but still, it's Canada. It's a bit like going to Reynosa and saying you've "been to Mexico." Still, I'm looking forward to a bit cooler weather. Hopefully, we won't run into any of the awful blazes going on in California right now. Jeeziz, those poor folks dealing with that.
On this tour, I'll have responsibilities exceeding drumming and occasional yodeling; the sampler's coming with, and the tour will be documented on digital video. We have folks lined up to shoot the video, so thankfully, I won't have to do that. A really nice fella named Carl is coming with up to Canada. He's a native San Antonian who now lives in Victoria, BC. He was down for a couple of months visiting family, and so he's riding back home with us. He'll be shooting our misadventures, etc. I'll give him a quick tutorial on the camera, and hopefully he'll get some good stuff. We're so photogenic.
We'll leave Carl in Victoria, and Patrick (Harvey McLaughlin) is joining us in Seatlle for the trip back. He'll, of course, be playing his piano on stage with us, but in the van, he'll be cinematographer. There might be more interesting stuff in the second half, I'm thinking. Sleep deprivation is a big cause of tour hijinks, let's say. Although, our significant others are meeting us at different points on the west coast....so that might cause us to behave, if only for a bit.
The sampler is coming as a sort of "audio enhancement" for the stage show. There's an intro, recorded by Jeff, for the show. There's a version of "O Canada" to preface our wonderfully awful "Canadian Medley." And, there's Plastic Patrick's "Hickoid Massacre," to play as an outro. Easy stuff, but I think I'll add a few more things to keep it lively. The sampler's a pain in the ass to set up but worth it, if you have a soundman willing to play ball. I'll elaborate more later.
We had a couple of warm-up shows this weekend, one in Austin, one in San Antonio. The Austin one was a fun, but hot, affair. We played after the Beaumonts, which might not have been the right call. The Beaumonts had a huge crowd that diminished somewhat by the time we took the stage. Still, we put on a pretty good show, although it felt like it was petering out toward the end - probably the heat. The best thing about it was we had Wade Driver in attendance, and he jumped up and played guitar on a couple of songs. He's recovering from a stroke currently, but the energy was there, for sure. It was great to have him on stage. I tried to get him to come up and drum with me on "Back in the Truck," but he didn't seem to want to. No matter. He was a major drum inspiration to me back in the bad ol' days, so I was just honored to share the stage with him. We also stumbled through the Canadian Medley, although it needs work. We're not far off, though.
Last night's show was, as some of my friends like to say, "tits." Fred Greene told me he thought it was one of the best shows he'd ever seen us play, and he's certainly seen enough. The stage at Bang Bang Bar in San Antonio is pretty tiny, but somehow we all got up there. I thought for sure Patrick would have to set up on the floor, but no, he didn't - although he was hidden by a speaker main. Cody was somewhat hidden by the other one, as well. Basically, if you like looking at Jeff, Tom, and Rice only, this show was for you. Jeff didn't want to do the Canadian Medley, so we didn't. It does need a little tightening, still. The only issue I had was getting the soundman to actually put the sampler into the speakers. He seemed a little, shall we say, slow on the draw. He didn't understand that we were using it as a pre- and post-show entertainment, as well as occasionally through the show. After finally getting him to turn it on before we started, he just turned off the channel for the rest of the show. When I quizzed him about it later, he seemed....not really uncaring, but not really cognizant of it, either....I think chemicals were involved. But really, all this is my fault. I realize I'm going to have to have a chat with every soundman on this tour to explain what I need for the sampler to be worth bringing out. It's not much, but it'll need to be said.
I'll try to chronicle along what happens on the tour, although I may just do it in one big chunk after getting back...sort of like I did with the 2013 Euro Tour. We'll see. Until then......stay cool, friends. Your working drummer boy loves ya.
Sunday, July 22, 2018
Hot Corn and Epic Failure
The Dog Days of Summer. A Don Henley favorite. Or something like that.
Damn, it's been hot lately. The Austin area has hit the over-100-degree days, and they don't show a sign of letting up. Not much breeze these days, either, making being outdoors pretty unbearable. Fair amount of humidity, too. It all adds up to staying indoors when at all possible.
On Thursday night, I finished installing the corn kernel wraps (received on Tuesday) on my Sonor kit. I had had a question concerning the depth of my bass drum when ordering the wraps, and the company never answered said question, not even after repeated emails and a Facebook message. The wrap turned out to be pretty close to the right size....I think if I would have ordered an inch more, I might've had to trim the wrap. There's a small gap between the edge of the wrap and the back head of the bass drum but not enough to be seen at any distance; you'd have to really be looking for it. It's about 3/8". If it really starts to bother me (the existing cover for the drums is a light tan color), I'll just pull the back head off and slap a little golden rod paint on that strip. For now, I'm leaving it.
The rest of the wraps fit perfectly, and the process was pretty simple but one of the most tedious things I've ever done. On the Friday before receiving the wraps (once I knew they were shipped), I removed all the hardware from the drums and placed it all in individual marked bags. The shells and bags sat in the living room a few days awaiting their dressing up. The wraps were received on the same day, a Tuesday, that the Hickoids had a video shoot planned (something I have to do most of the work for), so I couldn't really do much that day. The following day, in between video editing chunks, I began wrapping the drums. I started with the 12" tom, the drum I use least (I favor a four-piece kit, normally), figuring if I goofed the first wrapping job, it wouldn't be a huge deal. Turned out I wrapped it pretty well, following a really informative video on the wrap company's website. So, I did the snare drum Wednesday night as well. Thursday night, I wrapped the 13" and 16" toms and the bass drum.
Now, these wraps are designed as "no-glue." There is an adhesive strip at the end of each wrap. So what you do is wrap the drum as snugly to the shell as possible, using clamps to hold the wrap and then massaging the wrap upward around the shell to get any play out of the wrap. Once you've done that a few times, and you have the seam positioned where you want it on the drum, you pull back the end, strip off the protective paper, and press the adhesive side down. Then comes the fun. Leaving the clamps on in strategic places, you take a small X-acto knife and cut the holes where the hardware goes, matching the holes in the shells. You start by poking outward from the inside of the shell, and then looking at the cuts from the outside, you can start reaming the holes out (that didn't sound nice). The aforementioned video suggested doing the hardware a piece at a time, so as I would create the holes for a piece, I'd subsequently affix that piece. After a couple of nights of this process, I had plastic shavings all over the living room and a callous on my right forefinger in a place I've never had one from 40-odd years of drumming. Still, it was worth it. The drums look great.
So I debuted the "corn kit" last night at the Empire Control Room in Austin. I used the full kit, due to wanting to show off the work a bit. Of course, that meant switching the position of a couple of my cymbals, causing a couple of probably-unnoticeable-to-anyone-but-me gaffes in my performance. Fun show, too. Jeff introduced us as "Lance Farley's Drum Kit and The Hickoids." Mustn't upstage the singer!
It can't all be good news, right?
So, I mentioned a video shoot earlier. The video shoot itself went great. Jeff got Ruby (from the "Cool Arrow" video) to dress up in her dominatrix stuff and beat us a bit while we wore corn-on-the-cob gags. It's hilarious stuff, and I cannot wait to finish the video. Unfortunately....
I began editing the video on Wednesday, and a large portion of the video was shot using a green screen (actually, all of it, now that I think of it). My Mac has Adobe CS5 Creative Suite on it, and there was a special bug CS5 has concerning the eyedropper tool when running the software on OS X Lion. The eyedropper just doesn't work. In the past, I've reverted my machine to its other hard drive which has Snow Leopard on it, in order to do this work. Trying to remove a green screen without the eyedropper tool is like, well, it's just very difficult. Anyway, everything was going smoothly, and by late Friday night, I had maybe an hour and a half of work left. I went to bed intending to finish Saturday. When I woke up Saturday morning, my Mac monitor was heavily pixellated, and I couldn't select anything on the screen. Thinking everything froze for some reason (the Snow Leopard hard drive was not online), I rebooted but could immediately tell there was something else wrong. After some Googling and repeated reboots, I believe the logic board has an issue. Much work lost.
So, for now, I've moved the files to my Windows 10 PC, which I'd purchased the Vegas suite for last year but haven't really used yet. And I'm starting over. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully, when I write in this here blog next week, I'll have a finished version of the video to post. That's my intention, anyway. Since I had done one version, recreating the video won't be bad from a concept standpoint, it's just that I don't know this software very well. Hopefully ,everything will fall into place quickly.
And for now, I'm not sure what I'm going to do hardware-wise, but I believe I'm done with Macs. That was my only foray into the Mac world, hooked up by a friend in 2011. And it served fine...and to be honest, the reason I purchased the Vegas suite for my laptop PC had to do with knowing this day was coming, although I thought it would be because of obsolescence, rather than failure....but I'm headed back to Microsoft. I may buy a nice desktop, I may not. Maybe a souped-up laptop, I don't know. I do know I want a better external monitor. Ah...the joys of technology ownership. I also hold out a slight bit of hope that the machine will just boot up correctly eventually. I've seen more than one machine do that. Sometimes just a time-out will fix things. Very weird, but it does happen. Not that that fixes the "need the video done" situation.
Guess I'll go home and start work again....if you're in the South, friends, stay cool.
Damn, it's been hot lately. The Austin area has hit the over-100-degree days, and they don't show a sign of letting up. Not much breeze these days, either, making being outdoors pretty unbearable. Fair amount of humidity, too. It all adds up to staying indoors when at all possible.
On Thursday night, I finished installing the corn kernel wraps (received on Tuesday) on my Sonor kit. I had had a question concerning the depth of my bass drum when ordering the wraps, and the company never answered said question, not even after repeated emails and a Facebook message. The wrap turned out to be pretty close to the right size....I think if I would have ordered an inch more, I might've had to trim the wrap. There's a small gap between the edge of the wrap and the back head of the bass drum but not enough to be seen at any distance; you'd have to really be looking for it. It's about 3/8". If it really starts to bother me (the existing cover for the drums is a light tan color), I'll just pull the back head off and slap a little golden rod paint on that strip. For now, I'm leaving it.
The rest of the wraps fit perfectly, and the process was pretty simple but one of the most tedious things I've ever done. On the Friday before receiving the wraps (once I knew they were shipped), I removed all the hardware from the drums and placed it all in individual marked bags. The shells and bags sat in the living room a few days awaiting their dressing up. The wraps were received on the same day, a Tuesday, that the Hickoids had a video shoot planned (something I have to do most of the work for), so I couldn't really do much that day. The following day, in between video editing chunks, I began wrapping the drums. I started with the 12" tom, the drum I use least (I favor a four-piece kit, normally), figuring if I goofed the first wrapping job, it wouldn't be a huge deal. Turned out I wrapped it pretty well, following a really informative video on the wrap company's website. So, I did the snare drum Wednesday night as well. Thursday night, I wrapped the 13" and 16" toms and the bass drum.
Now, these wraps are designed as "no-glue." There is an adhesive strip at the end of each wrap. So what you do is wrap the drum as snugly to the shell as possible, using clamps to hold the wrap and then massaging the wrap upward around the shell to get any play out of the wrap. Once you've done that a few times, and you have the seam positioned where you want it on the drum, you pull back the end, strip off the protective paper, and press the adhesive side down. Then comes the fun. Leaving the clamps on in strategic places, you take a small X-acto knife and cut the holes where the hardware goes, matching the holes in the shells. You start by poking outward from the inside of the shell, and then looking at the cuts from the outside, you can start reaming the holes out (that didn't sound nice). The aforementioned video suggested doing the hardware a piece at a time, so as I would create the holes for a piece, I'd subsequently affix that piece. After a couple of nights of this process, I had plastic shavings all over the living room and a callous on my right forefinger in a place I've never had one from 40-odd years of drumming. Still, it was worth it. The drums look great.
So I debuted the "corn kit" last night at the Empire Control Room in Austin. I used the full kit, due to wanting to show off the work a bit. Of course, that meant switching the position of a couple of my cymbals, causing a couple of probably-unnoticeable-to-anyone-but-me gaffes in my performance. Fun show, too. Jeff introduced us as "Lance Farley's Drum Kit and The Hickoids." Mustn't upstage the singer!
It can't all be good news, right?
So, I mentioned a video shoot earlier. The video shoot itself went great. Jeff got Ruby (from the "Cool Arrow" video) to dress up in her dominatrix stuff and beat us a bit while we wore corn-on-the-cob gags. It's hilarious stuff, and I cannot wait to finish the video. Unfortunately....
I began editing the video on Wednesday, and a large portion of the video was shot using a green screen (actually, all of it, now that I think of it). My Mac has Adobe CS5 Creative Suite on it, and there was a special bug CS5 has concerning the eyedropper tool when running the software on OS X Lion. The eyedropper just doesn't work. In the past, I've reverted my machine to its other hard drive which has Snow Leopard on it, in order to do this work. Trying to remove a green screen without the eyedropper tool is like, well, it's just very difficult. Anyway, everything was going smoothly, and by late Friday night, I had maybe an hour and a half of work left. I went to bed intending to finish Saturday. When I woke up Saturday morning, my Mac monitor was heavily pixellated, and I couldn't select anything on the screen. Thinking everything froze for some reason (the Snow Leopard hard drive was not online), I rebooted but could immediately tell there was something else wrong. After some Googling and repeated reboots, I believe the logic board has an issue. Much work lost.
So, for now, I've moved the files to my Windows 10 PC, which I'd purchased the Vegas suite for last year but haven't really used yet. And I'm starting over. We'll see how it goes. Hopefully, when I write in this here blog next week, I'll have a finished version of the video to post. That's my intention, anyway. Since I had done one version, recreating the video won't be bad from a concept standpoint, it's just that I don't know this software very well. Hopefully ,everything will fall into place quickly.
And for now, I'm not sure what I'm going to do hardware-wise, but I believe I'm done with Macs. That was my only foray into the Mac world, hooked up by a friend in 2011. And it served fine...and to be honest, the reason I purchased the Vegas suite for my laptop PC had to do with knowing this day was coming, although I thought it would be because of obsolescence, rather than failure....but I'm headed back to Microsoft. I may buy a nice desktop, I may not. Maybe a souped-up laptop, I don't know. I do know I want a better external monitor. Ah...the joys of technology ownership. I also hold out a slight bit of hope that the machine will just boot up correctly eventually. I've seen more than one machine do that. Sometimes just a time-out will fix things. Very weird, but it does happen. Not that that fixes the "need the video done" situation.
Guess I'll go home and start work again....if you're in the South, friends, stay cool.
Sunday, July 15, 2018
This Cooking Fetish and Life
If there's one thing I never could have predicted in my own life, it's my sudden fascination with cooking. Maybe I just needed a new frontier, Jim, and I've found it. I'm enjoying cooking almost more than anything else these days, and I feel like I'm improving with each item made. I didn't see this coming. The Hickoids are heading out on tour next month, and already I'm thinking "I'll bet I'll long to come home and cook something." Not that I'm not excited about the tour, but this cooking thing.....jeez, I can't stop thinking about it!
It started with these meal kit delivery services: first Blue Apron, then Hello Fresh. We've been using these for almost a year now. We used Blue Apron for about three months, then switched to Hello Fresh, largely due to more separation of the meal components. Michelle won't eat most vegetables, and the vast majority of Blue Apron's meals consisted of a lightly-seasoned meat on a pile of "stuff." Hello Fresh's meals tend to be more separated, so I can eat the vegetables, while Michelle gorges on the starch side. Last night's was an exception, though....mainly because we hadn't cased the weekly menu....a sort of chicken sausage casserole that she even liked. I'm off-target....
After a few months of preparing these out-of-the-box things, I made my first spaghetti from scratch. No pre-made sauce. It turned out fine, and I realized I was starting to get a small feel for what spice will effect what flavor. Now, I'm not going to start tooting the old horn yet; I still have a long way to go.....just amazed that I'm even trying to do this stuff. It's like the old adage (old, because I saw it first in "Oh, God!") that shaving can make you feel normal again. Cooking is doing that for me. I can turn on music or a podcast, and I'm in my own world. Dig it. Not sure what my next from-scratch endeavor will be....maybe pizza. Or some sort of casserole. Not tuna.
I got out the food processor that we got as a wedding present in 2003 and had never used. It was even missing a part that I picked up cheaply on eBay. And it still had the plastic protector on the wall plug. I've now used that to make hummus, chocolate-banana ice cream, and an Oreo-crust pie. Onward and upward. I'll have to ride the bike more to make up for this (and I am), or maybe making things freshly will mean less crap going into the old body. We'll see. Incidentally, I have lost a few pounds since beginning the work/riding the bike combination. Plenty more to go, but it's a start.
I'm currently awaiting some drum wrap material to cover my Sonor kit in a corn kernel pattern. Should look pretty cool, and I'm expecting the wraps tomorrow or Tuesday. It was a pain getting these, as the drum wrap company I used had an apparently abandoned order system still up on their website, and they had no idea I had ordered for a couple of weeks. They were not good at communication in general; my emails went unanswered. I still have one concern about the bass drum, but we'll see what I get in the mail. If I need to reorder the bass drum wrap, I will, but they also should have answered my email question. I think I can make it all work regardless. I spent a night and a half stripping the shells down to get ready for this, and they're all sitting in the living room now, asking me for their new fancy clothes. X-acto knife and clamps are at the ready.
Tuesday, the Hickoids will be shooting a promo video for the upcoming tour, entitled Rode Hard. More accurately, yours truly will be doing most of the work. I'll post it in this blog when it's done. I think it'll be pretty damn funny. The initial idea is great, and I think everybody will pitch in with good ideas. So, all in all, next week should be a busy one. It wraps with a gig at the Empire Control Room in Austin on Saturday, with Pinata Protest and Cunto.
Pocket FishRmen had a band (and wives', sans Jason's) dinner last Thursday, rather than rehearsing. I think it was a good thing we got together and just hung out a bit at a neutral place. We don't do that enough, and these things are always good for band morale. There was a little band business to discuss, but it was mostly laughing and eating.
I still want to start another band at some point, if only for some laughs and whatnot. It's just tough finding people who want to do at least a similar thing to what you want. At this stage of my musical life, I know enough people but maybe not enough of the right people for what I have in mind. It's a tough one. If it happens, it happens. I'm not going to force it. Two bands are fine for right now, even if I don't really have much creative involvement in them.
On the watching front, let's see...."I, Madman," "Who Can Kill a Child?" (fancy new Blu-ray edition), "Manhandled," "Cry Terror!," and the first episode of "Sharp Objects" (HBO series). (Speaking of HBO series, I've been going through "The Wire" for the seventh time. Don't ask. I'll write about it when I'm done.) "I, Madman" is a horror flick from 1989, a bit blah but okay. Jenny Wright is in it, so that alone makes it okay by me. (Look her up.) "Who Can Kill a Child?" I wrote about back on September 4, 2014. "Manhandled" is a Gloria Swanson comedy from 1924, or what's left of it, anyway. The movie seemed pretty complete, although a couple of scenes seemed to come out of nowhere. The packaging kept talking about how this was the most complete version of the film available, but I haven't found details on what exactly is missing. Still entertaining. "Cry Terror!" was a sort of hostage drama with Rod Steiger as the master criminal. A tense one - very well made, although it had a couple of needless voice-overs. And "Sharp Objects" seems promising, although I do think this current Golden Age of Television has become a Golden Age of Television, Although You've Seen It By Now. There's a definite "True Detective" vibe to this show. I'll keep watching it, though.
Oh wait, one more thing. I finished "Sunshine Cleaning." It wasn't completely predictable but pretty close. Not something I'd rewatch or even recommend, really.
Let's close out this week's writing on a high note....
It started with these meal kit delivery services: first Blue Apron, then Hello Fresh. We've been using these for almost a year now. We used Blue Apron for about three months, then switched to Hello Fresh, largely due to more separation of the meal components. Michelle won't eat most vegetables, and the vast majority of Blue Apron's meals consisted of a lightly-seasoned meat on a pile of "stuff." Hello Fresh's meals tend to be more separated, so I can eat the vegetables, while Michelle gorges on the starch side. Last night's was an exception, though....mainly because we hadn't cased the weekly menu....a sort of chicken sausage casserole that she even liked. I'm off-target....
After a few months of preparing these out-of-the-box things, I made my first spaghetti from scratch. No pre-made sauce. It turned out fine, and I realized I was starting to get a small feel for what spice will effect what flavor. Now, I'm not going to start tooting the old horn yet; I still have a long way to go.....just amazed that I'm even trying to do this stuff. It's like the old adage (old, because I saw it first in "Oh, God!") that shaving can make you feel normal again. Cooking is doing that for me. I can turn on music or a podcast, and I'm in my own world. Dig it. Not sure what my next from-scratch endeavor will be....maybe pizza. Or some sort of casserole. Not tuna.
I got out the food processor that we got as a wedding present in 2003 and had never used. It was even missing a part that I picked up cheaply on eBay. And it still had the plastic protector on the wall plug. I've now used that to make hummus, chocolate-banana ice cream, and an Oreo-crust pie. Onward and upward. I'll have to ride the bike more to make up for this (and I am), or maybe making things freshly will mean less crap going into the old body. We'll see. Incidentally, I have lost a few pounds since beginning the work/riding the bike combination. Plenty more to go, but it's a start.
I'm currently awaiting some drum wrap material to cover my Sonor kit in a corn kernel pattern. Should look pretty cool, and I'm expecting the wraps tomorrow or Tuesday. It was a pain getting these, as the drum wrap company I used had an apparently abandoned order system still up on their website, and they had no idea I had ordered for a couple of weeks. They were not good at communication in general; my emails went unanswered. I still have one concern about the bass drum, but we'll see what I get in the mail. If I need to reorder the bass drum wrap, I will, but they also should have answered my email question. I think I can make it all work regardless. I spent a night and a half stripping the shells down to get ready for this, and they're all sitting in the living room now, asking me for their new fancy clothes. X-acto knife and clamps are at the ready.
Tuesday, the Hickoids will be shooting a promo video for the upcoming tour, entitled Rode Hard. More accurately, yours truly will be doing most of the work. I'll post it in this blog when it's done. I think it'll be pretty damn funny. The initial idea is great, and I think everybody will pitch in with good ideas. So, all in all, next week should be a busy one. It wraps with a gig at the Empire Control Room in Austin on Saturday, with Pinata Protest and Cunto.
Pocket FishRmen had a band (and wives', sans Jason's) dinner last Thursday, rather than rehearsing. I think it was a good thing we got together and just hung out a bit at a neutral place. We don't do that enough, and these things are always good for band morale. There was a little band business to discuss, but it was mostly laughing and eating.
I still want to start another band at some point, if only for some laughs and whatnot. It's just tough finding people who want to do at least a similar thing to what you want. At this stage of my musical life, I know enough people but maybe not enough of the right people for what I have in mind. It's a tough one. If it happens, it happens. I'm not going to force it. Two bands are fine for right now, even if I don't really have much creative involvement in them.
On the watching front, let's see...."I, Madman," "Who Can Kill a Child?" (fancy new Blu-ray edition), "Manhandled," "Cry Terror!," and the first episode of "Sharp Objects" (HBO series). (Speaking of HBO series, I've been going through "The Wire" for the seventh time. Don't ask. I'll write about it when I'm done.) "I, Madman" is a horror flick from 1989, a bit blah but okay. Jenny Wright is in it, so that alone makes it okay by me. (Look her up.) "Who Can Kill a Child?" I wrote about back on September 4, 2014. "Manhandled" is a Gloria Swanson comedy from 1924, or what's left of it, anyway. The movie seemed pretty complete, although a couple of scenes seemed to come out of nowhere. The packaging kept talking about how this was the most complete version of the film available, but I haven't found details on what exactly is missing. Still entertaining. "Cry Terror!" was a sort of hostage drama with Rod Steiger as the master criminal. A tense one - very well made, although it had a couple of needless voice-overs. And "Sharp Objects" seems promising, although I do think this current Golden Age of Television has become a Golden Age of Television, Although You've Seen It By Now. There's a definite "True Detective" vibe to this show. I'll keep watching it, though.
Oh wait, one more thing. I finished "Sunshine Cleaning." It wasn't completely predictable but pretty close. Not something I'd rewatch or even recommend, really.
Let's close out this week's writing on a high note....
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)