The Freestyle Piper

Venice Beach Skate Park visit (7/15/2011)

2011-07-15T23:38:00.000-07:00

Footage from Youtube of someone shredding at the Venice Beach Skate Park.

Today I went down to the Venice Beach Skate Park. I was skating the large pool and some local kids came over to skate it too. I got out of the way and took a seat next to one of the kids; he looked like he was 13 or 14. All of these kids could shred. Me, I just try to skate, and when it's my turn I take it. My turn was currently over, so I was taking a break. I sat down next to a skater and started listening to the kids' conversation.
"Where do accents come from? Are people born with accents?"
"No, man, they pick up accents from people around them."
"Yeah, we have accents too. We just don't hear it"
(Laughter)
One of the kids started talking in an exaggerated hick-like American accent.
Everyone cracked up.
The kid sitting next to me paused then, loudly immitated the young kid who immitated the American accent.
"Haha, that's what you always sound like."
Everyone within earshot laughed at this, which obviously pissed off the kid who happened the be the butt of the joke. He dropped into the pool looking rather butt-hurt and disappeared for about 35 seconds. The conversation continued and then stopped abruptly when the kid popped up out of the pool, missing the lip-trick he was going for.
The kid looked up and looked directly over at the young African American kid sitting next to me who had just made fun of his accent earlier.
"Hey D! Why don't go over there and join the drum circle?"
Nobody responded to this crack.
The kid sitting next to me to whom the joke was directed looked surprised. He paused, shook his head, and said out loud, "How is that funny?" Nobody responded.
At this point, I felt it was appropriate to lend my 2cents to the conversation.
"There's nothing to get," I said
"Huh?" The kid sitting next to me looked over in my direction.
"I just said that there's nothing to get."
"Oh, hahaha, yeah you're right, hey did you hear that? There's nothing to get!"
Some people laughed and a few kids looked back in the direction of the one who had made the drum circle joke. Then "D", who was still sitting next to me added the comment, "Unless he means like people in Kenya playing drums or something..." I looked over and with a dumbfounded expression on my face replied, "OH, that's what he was implying? Ha, I didn't put the two and two together! Haha." To this reaction my new young friend looked at me inquisitively.
I paused then grinned and said, "Dude, I'm just playing. It was a stupid joke."
"Hahaha, that's cool man." He smiled. "Hey my name's 'D', what's yours?"
"David," I replied, "Nice to meet you."
"You too."
I thought for a second, laughed and then added, "Besides, nobody is just born with rhythm, you have to learn that shit too, like an accent."
"Haha, you're right," D said.
.

I went on to skate the pool for a few more runs, then I ventured over to the snake run. The smell of blood, sweat, and indo' filled the air around me. I really love Venice.

the other night in hollywood...

2010-11-14T02:23:00.000-08:00

I went to see a rap show. It was a by a group called Swollen Members. I went with my co-worker Dan and his roommates. The show was good, a little bit too stonerish and weed themed if you ask me, but otherwise pretty decent. What more would you expect from a group based out of Vancouver, BC anyway, huh?
After the show let out, we started walking back to where our car was parked only there was one problem - we couldn't get there because the police had blocked off an entire intersection of the street and they weren't letting anybody through for any reason.
Supposedly it was going to be this way for a few hours.
It was obvious something serious had happened in the area, so we started asking around if anybody knew what had caused the police to block off such a large area of Hollywood. Turns out someone had just been hit by a car while riding their bicycle and possibly killed. Shit was serious.
So, we walked around a bit, made a couple of 7-11 trips and basically just tried to kill some time. Finally, around 2:30am after lots of , we were getting tired of waiting and wanted to get back to our car. Dan, being the forward-thinking and always-on-point kind of guy that he is, decided to go up and ask one of the officers directly if we could walk through the area just to get to our car.
Surprisingly, the officer gave us permission. "Sure," he said. "Just make sure you stay on the sidewalk and keep walking forward. Don't stop and when you get up there to the parking garage, tell the Sheriff that the Deputy gave you permission to return to your car."
We thanked him and started walking.
Have you ever seen one of those war movies where there's a huge battle scene that's just ended and you're looking at the aftermath of what just took place? There's ashes that are still smoldering and dead bodies being carted away as armed officials walk through the area clearing it up while they're talking on walkie talkies... Then all of a sudden, a civilian is granted permission to enter the forbidden area and as they walk through they are aghast by all the images of destruction and chaos they are witnessing and you see the scene as if it is from their eyes...
This is precisely how I felt as we began walking past the yellow police line tape that was marking off the area. We followed our instructions and stayed on the sidewalk. I couldn't help but look around a little bit as we walked. To the right there was what looked like a witness being comforted - she was in tears and obviously distressed. A little farther down was a group of young men talking to some police - possibly more witnesses being held for questioning.
As we walked through the police scene, I couldn't help but wonder why no officers had stopped us or said anything. Then, before I could question anymore, we met our first opposition. "Stop right there! This area is blocked off, and nobody is allowed through," one of the approaching officers said.
My friend Dan started to try to reason saying that we had permission from one of the officials, but it was no good. Clearly these officers would not let us walk to our car. Then, as if on cue, our good old friend the Deputy walked up behind us. "Hey, it's okay, these guys can go through, they're just trying to get back to their car. I gave them permission," the Deputy said.
Wow. He must have had one of Willy Wonka's golden tickets in his hand because all of a sudden the officers who had approached us and denied us permission to walk through backed down and let us pass. Unfortunately, this was probably the most grim part of the night. As we walked by what was clearly the scene of the accident, it was hard to avoid looking to the left at some of the items that lay in the street: A blanket. A car that was facing the wrong direction in the street. Bike parts. A dark patch in the road near that hauntingly still blanket... I tried to ignore the thought of what all of these signs could have meant.
It was too much to think about, and so we kept on walking in silence. We got to the car and pulled out of the garage, still surprised we had been granted permission to leave. As we were pulling out of the garage, our driver made an illegal U-turn and started heading back toward the scene of the accident. Whoops!
Cops started yelling, heads turned. Our driver corrected her mistake and turned around heading back in the proper direction. We all breathed a sigh of relief happy to get out of there.
What a somber way to kick off an otherwise good night.
I am so sorry that this happened to somebody that must have been loved and cared about. As I write this, I cannot help but think of the family that potentially lost a loved one.

BOBBY BRADY STORIES! #2

2010-11-09T00:55:00.000-08:00

"This is the story...of Bobby Brady!"
#2

One day, Bobby Brady walked in for work at L$O. Unfortunately, the punch-in computer was down so management was having its employees sign in on a sheet of paper. Bobby Brady got in right on time at 4pm, and so he signed his name on the sheet. After about an hour went by, Manager Dave walked by and inspected the sheet.
"Hmmm...Bobby Brady? Who's signing in as?...wait a minute...." he paused for a second.
"David Duncan, if you expect to get paid, you'd better sign in using your real name," Manager Dave said outloud.
Bobby Brady started laughing and so did everyone else around him on the line.

Bobby fuckin' Brady...

Wolgemut for a weekend in 2010

2010-11-08T13:38:00.000-08:00

Hey friends, I've got some good news. Looks like I will be joining Wolgemut onstage for a weekend of shows out at TRF (aka the Texas Renaissance Festival). It's going to be the last weekend of the Faire, which is a three-day weekend.
The dates are November 26, 27, and 28th!

This will be my only appearance onstage at a Renaissance Festival all year, so don't miss out.

If you're in the area, come check out Wolgemut at TRF - with me as a special guest!
Hope to see you there.

-David

New month, new music....genre that is

2010-11-04T00:54:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody, since I think I pretty much exhausted hip-hop in September/October, I think I'm going to use November to expose some other styles of music to my audience.
I would like to start by sharing some music by a band that I consider close friends of mine.
Bobby (vocalist/fiddler) was in my college pipe band with me. In addition to being a skilled bagpiper (of the Highland variety) he is also an incredible fiddler. And...on top of that, he can sing with the heart and soul of an Appalachian mountain man with a belly full of moonshine. My buddy Marcus plays the washboard with what I'm pretty sure is a washboard I bought for him while in Texas last year (he was broke at the time and I happened to be gigging nearby and we picked it up at an Austin feed store). Marcus is an incredible percussionist/drummer. I admire his skills. You can also check him out in the Indie rock band International Waters. Additionally, I went to college with their banjo player and partied with their guitarist when I was in Austin last year. Back then they were just getting started as a band. Today, they totally rip.
Here they are playing a tasty number in the park:

I love the way this video is filmed. With the dog (come to think of it, I know this dog, too...) running around in the background outside in the park, I don't think the setting could be more appropriate.
Then I saw this video, and realized the true venue in which Whiskey Shivers can shine:

What a song ("Cluck Old Hen" - a classic). Definitely my favorite by them. What a scene too, down and dirty, by the campfire, drunken audience, Texas bluegrass.
As Against Me! would say, TSR..."This Shit Rules".
Check out Whiskey Shivers if you get a chance.
Completely worth every second.

some work from school...

2010-11-02T00:50:00.000-07:00

I'm not going to be posting much work that I do in school on here for multiple reasons:
#1. I'm not trying to show off
#2. I don't think I'm a very good digital artist (yet)
#3. These are pieces done as homework...and generally homework is boring!

However, I think I will post some stuff on here every now and then if I feel it's good for a laugh.

The following is a version of a photoshop project that I did not turn in. The assignment was to "bend the truth" visually. Here, in this picture we can clearly see that Bob Ross has a bad-ass tag...

-DD

Introducing: BOBBY BRADY STORIES!

2010-10-30T04:46:00.000-07:00

"This is the story...of Bobby Brady!"
(#1)

Last weekend Bobby Brady showed up for work at L$O three minutes late . When he walked through the front doors, he saw Chef Eric sitting nearby at a table. Bobby Brady waved to him and said, "Hi" as he walked past him and into the kitchen. Chef Eric looked up, didn't say anything, but started giving Bobby Brady a stern look.

Bobby kept on walking. Bobby Brady had not even started setting up his salad station when Chef Eric came over to him and said, "Come here for a minute, I want to talk to you."

Bobby Brady followed Chef Eric into the break room where Chef Eric started to tell Bobby Brady that his work uniform was dirty and that he was tired of constantly having to talk to Bobby Brady about his appearance. Chef then told Bobby Brady that he looked like more like a "mechanic" than a cook, that he looked like a "messy cook" and also that he didn't look like he was a "part of the team".

"Don't you want to feel like you're a part of the team?" Chef asked Bobby Brady.
"But I do feel like I'm part of the team," Bobby replied.

"Well, you don't look like it," Eric answered.

Bobby Brady listened and nodded his head as if he understood. Then Executive Chef Eric gave Bobby Brady a brand new chef's coat and told him to put it on immediately and to not get it dirty. He also added that if he had to talk to Bobby about it one more time, that he would be fired.
Bobby Brady nodded his head because now he understood.

The rest of the night, Bobby Brady was careful not to spill too much food on his apron and his brand new chef's coat. He did, however, manage to spill some mustard all over the floor of the walk-in cooler later on in the evening.

Bobby fuckin' Brady...

damn... (back to Hip-Hop)

2010-10-27T03:58:00.000-07:00

Well since I feel like such an old man after writing that last post (about ownership, creative property, and all that BS), here's something that makes me feel more cool.

Getting back to Hip-hop...

That right there folks, is a pic of my cousin Kevin Duncan (on the right) alongside famous rapper DMX.

Kev sent me the pic a few days ago and I was more than stoked when I saw it. I guess DMX was in Tucson for a concert and happened to stop by the mall (and the Dairy Queen) where my cousin works.

I asked Kevin for more information regarding the pic and DMX.
This is what I learned:

"Ya man that's him he was mean he ha(d) a concert that night"

when I asked if I could use the pic for my blog:

"Haha na that's cool he shoulda been happy to take a pic with me."

Haha, way to go Kev. Thanks for the text/pic.
yo cuz, David

41 POSTS IN 2010!! creative property/outblogging myself in 2009

2010-10-27T03:43:00.000-07:00

So, here I am writing my 41st blog post for 2010.
Big F-ing deal, right?
Well, maybe not for you, but for me this is kind of a big thing. I mean, figure in that I started this blog as a "tour diary" over a year and a half ago and it's kind of amazing really that I've kept up with it at all since I'm not on tour currently and haven't been since the end of 2009.
Not to mention, 41 blog posts in 2010 means I have officially lapped myself for 2009 (40 posts)! That's right - I have officially out-blogged myself...and I'm not about to stop either. Sweet.
But who's keeping track anyway?
I know I started this thing to be about my adventures on the road and the experiences I was having while on tour with Wolgemut playing my pipes for a living, but this blog has really evolved into more than that. It's gradually morphed into a portrait of myself living out a motto that I really believe in: "Doing my thing, wherever I'm at."
Right now, I'm living in LA, working, going to school, making it happen. My nose has been pressed up against the grindstone so hard these past few months that I think I've hit cartilage. My pipe band is on break so I really haven't been focusing on music all that much which quite frankly I find really depressing.
I've got lots of ideas and I need to start putting them into action.
Not only do I need to start putting my ideas into action, but I need to start marketing and copyrighting them too. Now, before you call me out on my own capitalism (I have often expressed sympathy for socialism and what some might deem 'the Far Left') let me just show you an example of why this is important to me now.
Something hit me today when I logged on to facebook and saw this item being advertised:

Cool looking logo, huh?

Thanks :)

I designed it. And now it's being sold for $5 by the College of Wooster Pipe Band - as a shot glass.
That's really cool and all, except I never gave permission for use of the logo for this shot glass.

Now, before this starts to sound like a complaint, let me set some things straight: I am flattered that the CWPB likes my logo and still uses it to this day - I'm even more flattered that they think it's worthy of printing on a shot glass.

In fact, as an alumnus and a former pipe sergeant of the CWPB, I feel honored that my ideas are still having an influence on the pipe band at the College of Wooster.

However, there is something about seeing your own work printed for the first time that does something to the heart. It's a crazy kind of feeling that I will try to put into words: at first it's like, "Oh my gosh, that's mine! That came from me - it's my creation!"
And then a split-second later it's like, "oh...and it's on a shot glass...who put that there?"
Now, I love that my logo is appreciated, I really do.
Few realize however, that this logo is very personal to me and to a specific point in time. Back when I went to the College of Wooster, there were some crazy things going on in the music department. I'm not sure if these things continue on into today, but at the time there was a lot of frustration with the way I (and others) felt we were treated as a pipe band. I will admit that the way I (and others) sometimes showed our frustration was occasionally in the wrong way (getting ridiculously drunk on band trips and causing multiple headaches for ourselves and the music department as a whole) but the point is that there was a long history of frustration in the pipe band long before I ever got there.
My frustration stemmed from lack of recognition and what I felt to be exploitation. Like the punk rocker I thought I was at the time (I liked to think of myself as punk) I created a logo that came directly from the punk and hardcore community: an "X" with a location abbreviated vertically (typically a state or region) and the letters "HC" horizontally, which stood for hardcore.

The logo (as I used it) was meant to symbolize rebellion and it stemmed from angst. I created the logo fully realizing that most people wouldn't get the reference, but isn't that the beauty of creativity?
They say that the best artists are the best at stealing, doing so discretely in ways that are seldomly recognized. I did it again with Shepherd Fairey's "Andre the Giant Has a Posse" stickers when I was in school by creating similar looking logos featuring our school's president at the time. It was kind of a hit when I posted the stickers all over campus and suddenly people were wondering, "Who did that?" When people found out it was me, it was cool because I
It was my own study on the population - hardly a new idea, but one that was being tested on a small sampling of students in northern Ohio. At the time, nobody had heard of Shepherd Fairey. A year later, he designed Barack Obama's main campaign poster - now he's a household name in the design world.
So, where am I going with this whole thing?
Well, at this point, I've sort of negated my initial frustration with my logo being used. I've pointed out that it wasn't totally an original idea (well, I used a chanter/drum stick to make up the 'X' and it's in my font) and I've also brought up Shepherd Fairey - a notorious designer who for over 20 years was simply a humble street artist but is now well known for his art.
Shouldn't I just be proud of the fact that my logo is appreciated?
Well, I am...
But back to that feeling in the heart I was describing earlier...that logo was something I created. It came from me and at a not so distant time in the past. Therefore to see it resurface in a different context is strange for me. I should have claimed ownership for it. I don't want to be selfish about it. If anything, I hope that the sales of the shot glass help bring money for funding the pipe band needs so badly and is not typically awarded by the school.
If that is the case, then I am happy my creation caused a positive thing for the band - it served its purpose.
This gives me some insight for the future though. I am in school for design now. I will have plenty of time to hone my skills and create new logos and things that hopefully many people will like.
I still have a lot of original ideas that have yet to see the light of day. The importance of owning those ideas has never seemed clearer to me. A conversation I had with a friend recently over creative properties stolen from him comes to mind. The future is here. We must learn from the past.
Look out world. Freestylepiping is on its way...

PS - 41 posts...this blog is now officially "over the hill"...do I sound like an old man yet?

The Spinners

2010-10-24T06:25:00.000-07:00

I can't believe I just discovered this song. I've been bumping around to it all weekend. Solid groove.

Cool Kids

2010-10-20T23:49:00.000-07:00

In case I haven't told you this already, I used to live in Chicago.
Chicago is a great town except for one thing I can't stand about it - it gets so damn cold there in the winter time. Does anybody out there know what windchill is?
Well, let's say you don't and you want to find out. Try this: Travel to Chicago in January and stand outside on a sidewalk in the brisk winter morning without a coat on - you will soon have a real good idea. You'll also be thinking to yourself, "Why is it that it's only 17 degrees outside but it feels like negative 10?"
That's windchill.

So, you may be asking yourself, what could possibly be cooler than windchill?
Well, my friend let me answer this for you. What's cooler than windchill and also happens to be from Chicago is this rap duo right here: The Cool Kids.
Check out this awesome video for the awesome song "Black Mags".
Old news I'm sure to most of you (if you follow rap), but this shit is tight.

Q: And what's cooler than both windchill and these kids?
A: Riding your BMX bicycle in the winter time in Chicago with no gloves on.

"Pedal down the foot hills, wheelies on the front..."

I like Hip-Hop too

2010-10-18T06:27:00.000-07:00

dude is sick. i'm really into this biggie sample - i think it's a super dope use of his (biggie's) rhyme.

"RIP, B.I.G."

Since I'm on this rap kick...

2010-10-05T02:51:00.000-07:00

I've been hyping this Philadelphia-based hip-hop group's presence on NBC's Late Night with Jimmy Fallon show for a while now, but nothing really proves why the Roots' spot on national network television is such a good thing as this video so clearly illustrates.

Not to mention, I gotta give props to both Jimmy Fallon and Justin Timberlake for taking down those rap songs like they were nothing - true fucking skills from two great performers.
What an awesome skit.

Hahaha, and the Jay-Z ending killed me. Oh yeah, I would have like to have heard some Lil' Wayne in there too maybe. But that's all. Otherwise, it was really well done..

Holy shit, this is the future...HO!!!

2010-10-04T06:53:00.000-07:00

Check it out...here's another one:

Puffy produced Biggie.
Biggie was a genius. Puffy was the mastermind.
Puff-Daddy...er, I mean, P-Diddy goes to Scotland and performs with bagpipes...
The world is already a better place.

LA Rain...

2010-10-04T06:45:00.001-07:00

It's raining right now in LA. Wow, I gotta say it's really nice to see some rain. I enjoy the change in weather once in a while.
Funny, how people were freaking out about the heat wave a week ago, this is way more exciting to me.
I like rain..

(b)logghhorreeaa

2010-09-29T02:01:00.000-07:00

Fuck, fuck, fuck, fuckin fuck, fuckin' A, fuckin' fuck, fuckin' L, fuckin' fuck, fuckin' like that taco smell, fuckin' fuck, fuckin' work, fuckin' fuck, fuckin' school, fuckin' fuck, fuckin' sleep 'n drool, fuckin' fuckin', fuckin, fuckin, fuckin' fool, fuckin' cluckin' fuck, fuckin gotta fuckin front (got a *lunt?), fuckin' fuckin', fuck fuck fuck fuck...doesn't 'fuck' look start lookin fuckin' funny when it's just a word, a word like 'fuck', fuckin fuck it's just my luck, write bout clams i wanna shuck, fucking ducks, here's a song by nomeansno:
fuck the fucking fucked up fucks,
those fucking fuck-ups fucking suck,
told you once you stupid cunts,
those fucking fuck-ups all fucked up!

i like the word fuck, don't you?
fuck, fuck, fuck

-fuck(ed?)

PS- some contributions in part by mo-fuck and mo-fuck-A

Why rap is cool (pt 1)

2010-09-25T04:34:00.000-07:00

So, I've been thinking about this one for a while, kicking it around in my head and I think I'm ready to spit it out. This is why I think rap is cool and why I will defend it as a form of music. First off, it's punk as fuck. That's right, rap, hip-hop in particular has the spirit of punk in that it's about somebody telling it like it is, not caring who their audience might be. It's a form of release often to let off some steam but presented in a musical way. Now, the music part is often debated. Many people say, "Oh that's just somebody talking over music." Often people say, "I just can't understand the words." The reason most people say this is because they're just not used to hearing people use their voices rhythmically unless it's in singing. Rapping is not singing, because more often than not, the rapping contains no melody. Rapping is lyrics being set to rhythm in such a way that makes the vocal-line sound smooth. Smooth is defined as "flow" and can best be described as proper musical phrasing. Often in hip-hop, there is a steady beat (almost always in 4/4) which sets a tempo for the vocal-line. The most praised rappers let their lyrics float freely on top of the beat (or more often slightly behind) while still adhering to its musical rules of tempo and structure. The rhythms of the lyrics are often poised in such a way that emphasize the accents within the beat, but this is not always true and can often be a big part of what makes any given rapper's style unique. Rap lyrics typically have a set rhyme scheme, but lyrics in a particular song don't have to follow the same rhyming scheme for the duration of the song. The only thing that seems to remain most constant lyrically in rap is rap's particular emphasis on end-rhyme. Most rappers end their lyrical phrases in words that rhyme together. This characteristic of rap makes listening to its lyrics more interesting. If someone was up there just speaking free-form sentences in rhythm with the music, it would not be rapping. The constant phrasing and re-phrasing of lyrics in conjunction with a well-defined rhythm/rhyme scheme that is set to an established beat is what gives rapping its musical complexity. The real skill comes in being able to pick and choose rhyming words that not only match the rhythm but also fit syllabically. Lyrically, the best rappers are like vocabulary surgeons, picking and choosing the best words, then inserting them into a sentence's structure that reflects the rhyming and rhythmic quality of the descriptions above, all while telling some sort of story or narrative. Rappers often posses the ability to make quick reference of synonyms in their lyrics just in case one word that is needed to express an idea does not match the particular rhyme flow of the song. The ability to choose words that have the same or similar meanings yet fit well in a particular rhyme or rhythmic structure is key and many rappers can be likened to a walking/talking thesauruses. A large vocabulary is essential for any rapper that does not want to sound redundant or too familiar by making constant use of the same rhyming words. A rapper's vocabulary is just one other aspect of what can make him/her unique.

And i'm spent.......

Wolgemut DVD out now!

2010-09-23T21:54:00.000-07:00

So, I just got my hands on a copy of Wolgemut's latest DVD filmed last year at the 2009 Maryland Renaissance Festival. My initial impression is that it's a really awesome DVD. It's all live footage from the last shows I played with the group in 2009 so obviously it's really cool to me...but to make it sound more appealing to a potential buyer (ahem), I should mention that the quality is really good too! I don't normally hype concert DVD's (personally I would rather be there live than watch it on TV) but this one is pretty good!
Content-wise, the video features all the songs you would have seen at a live Wolgemut performance last year including all material from both of our sets (A & B). Of course, as with all Wolgemut shows there is the usual banter, humor, and jokes/gags that make a Wolgemut show more...Wolgemut!

Wolgemut is on tour right now and currently revamping their website (http://www.wolgemut.net) so if you're interested in buying a copy of the DVD, they should be available up there soon.
Try and pick one up if you can!
-David

(b)logghoreaa

2010-09-07T04:31:00.000-07:00

First of all, let me say that I just downloaded Google Chrome and it is literally the bomb...dot com. whatever the fuck that means! let me just speak in normal california-based english and say that it's pretty sweet. yeah, i like it. anyway, this posting is happening because a lot of shit aghem, stuff is going on through my head right now and i don't know where it's taking me...well, not the shit necessarily, but the shit the shit's about. hold up, did that make any sense? ok, i'll slow down a bit. Life. it's happening right now.
the past year has been a really crazy one for me. there was a noticeable shift in the way my life was panning out about a year ago at this exact same point in time. for once i was enjoying it, and then...BOOM! man, i fucking crashed. i crashed fucking hard. everything caught up with me. i was in a little place called Texas and all of a sudden it came over me like a tidal wave - fear, doubt, all this stuff i don't even wanna talk about but it hit me pretty fucking hard in the face. it hit me so hard it numbed me. after a few months of the most unbelievable time i've had in my entire life, things sure went downhill fast when i arrived in Tejas.
seriously, i don't know what happened but it's had a dramatic shift in the way my life has carried on since then. things are relatively the same, i mean i continue to play the music, the pipes, and i make music my main passion and goal in life everyday. what's a day without music? what's a day without life? answer the latter question and you have my answer. but now i have this thing called a job, and now i'm going back to this place called 'school'.
now, don't get me wrong, i am very fortunate in all the above. i've had some really close calls in the last year (losing my tire almost immediately after turning off the freeway). shit's for real, i've been a lucky fool. a damn lucky fool. what's the point of this though? what's the meaning i'm supposed to read from all of this?
so much shit has happened to me. if the same shit happened to someone else, they might even be dead. but here i am, sitting, standing, breathing, loving, happy to be alive. now, the question is what do i now?
Texas took me down pretty hard, no doubt. but how do i rise from the ashes? i mean, i feel like i already have in a lot of ways. i got some confidence back. i'm getting more comfortable in my own skin again. hell, i even learned how to battle what some might refer to as an "addiction". i've recovered in all the ways that a typical person could recover in on their way to becoming a regular normal person in society. i function, contribute to society, and i'm working on "bettering my future" by going to school.
cool.
yeah, that's all pretty cool.
to tell the truth, i wasn't sure a year ago if i could make it back to this point. i thought i had gone and partied my way into oblivion. honestly, that's where i thought i was headed.
and then when i finally got there (bashed my head open on the concrete at venice beach), for some reason i turned back.
the party hasn't stopped, i just don't wear that same party hat anymore.
yes, i made it out the other side, but now what? looks like i'll be sticking it out with school for a few years. holy shit. i can't believe i'm in school again. it feels so strange. it's so against my learned instincts. but now at least i'm learning things that i can apply to furthering my creative endeavors. that is rewarding.
but there is something out there that is more rewarding and ten times more alluring - this thing called music, that life on the road, that calling that at this point remains unanswered.
i played in the world pipe band championships this year, the FUCKING WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS. that alone makes me feel pretty accomplished. i have drive in my highland piping again. what a good feeling. but my past experiences on the road playing in other bands makes me strive and want for something MORE than that. something pure and original and something gold. seriously, something gold.
i want to write. i want to perform. above all, i want to BE a musician. i want to live music. but i also want to excel at art school. how do i accomplish both? and why does it feel like both these goals are attached to a ticking time bomb? do i have to crack one before i crack the other?
or i can i crack them both simultaneously?

more music projects ahead. maybe some art.
stay tuned/posted.\\\\

ps - normally it takes me forever to write a post and i edit/re-edit for hours taking my time trying to get things perfect. this one just spewed forth like diarrhea. excuse the language, i had to let some shit flow

Television Gold right here featuring Rufus Harley

2010-09-01T02:23:00.000-07:00

Happy September 1st - it's YouTube video time everyone!
It's almost 2:30am, I have an 8am class in the morning but I'm awake because I've been obsessing over this bagpiper named Rufus Harley...
Do yourself a favor and wikipedia that name: Rufus Harley

Now that I can assume you know something about the guy, here he is on the 1950's television show "I've Got A Secret":

If that isn't TV gold, then what is?

My favorite part is where she's like, "How 'bout a saxophone?" so matter-of-factly after asking him if he plays a 'sweet potato' of all instruments...wtf were you thinking lady? (actually I know of a group that plays potatoes; they're called the Wyldmen) These 50's squares just can't wrap their head around the fact that this jazz guy plays bagpipes, and then he does just that.
And the song is pretty good too...actually it's brilliant.
To think that this was happening at the height of the jazz music era - it blows my mind. He had a major-label record deal on Atlantic...playing jazz bagpipes.
That's Miles Davis cool...maybe even cooler.

New project in the works...

2010-08-30T02:04:00.000-07:00

So, I don't want to reveal too much about it right now but I am currently in the midst of creating a new piping/music project with my friend Jeff Kim. Basically we're just putting together one track and hoping to see where it will take us. Bobby Womack meets Donald MacLeod with some Kanye thrown into the mix is the best way I can think to summarize it...
More on that later. Look for the link to whatever website I post it to in the future.

PS - I have been studying/researching the works/life of Rufus Harley lately. Coolest stuff ever done on a bagpipe by anyone. I am so inspired. RIP Rufus

Bill Livingstone retires as P/M of 78ths

2010-08-30T01:46:00.000-07:00

Bill Livingstone just stepped down from the P/M role of the 78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band.
You can read about it here if you are interested in the story. This is tremendous news within the pipe band world. In 1987, Bill led the 78ths to win a World Championship title - the first ever by a band outside of the United Kingdom. This led many other bands to follow and achieve the same goal and quite a few other non-UK bands have won the Worlds since that fateful day in August (including Victoria Police Pipe Band, SFU, St. Laurence O'toole).

As a piper, Bill Livingstone's legacy is of particular importance to me. I respect Bill for all that he has done within the pipe band world. As a musician first, piper second (and an incredible one at that) he did a lot to change the game within traditional piping. Back in the 80's (I think) he was one of the first Canadian pipers traveling overseas to Scotland for big time solo contests and in doing so he was able to create a name for himself by winning many important contest events. Apparently while in law school (he is currently a lawyer) he played jazz piano at clubs to pay his way through college. The medleys that were composed within the 78ths' repertoire were mind-blowing in terms of musical proficiency and creativity and definitely transformed the approach that other bands were taking. Anyone out there ever heard of a medley "bridge"? You've got the 78ths to thank for that.
Inspired by the 78ths' legacy and Bill's reputation, I decided to make the journey up to Toronto, ON one year to try out and play with the band while in college. During this time I got to know Bill and the entire 78ths crew. I can't think of one negative thing to say about Bill Livingstone. His presence always commanded my respect and I always looked up to him as a living legend. His wife Lillian is one of the nicest ladies I have ever met and she still says 'hi' to me whenever I see her at a piping event or competition. My experience with the 78th Fraser Highlanders Pipe Band on the whole could have been a little better (I wish I could have played the first season I was up) but just being able to be around such a gifted and talented group of musicians was inspiring enough. And I learned soooo much.
There are a few interactions I had with Bill while I went up to the 78ths that I think are worth bringing up again in lieu of his recent retirement:
1.) Bill hand wrote a 3-page letter regarding (and complimenting) my piping abilities for the Canadian government to assist in the legality of my immigration status to Canada as a 3-month 'visitor' for one summer. I still have this letter and one day I plan to buy a frame for it.
2.) Bill has a really nice car (it's an Audi) but I've never seen him drive it. His brother Ranald is always the one chaufering him to band practices. Bill by the way is a successful lawyer and bagpiping legend. His brother on the other hand last I heard used to manage a KFC.
3.) I got one-one instruction from him at a 78th Frasers band camp weekend during which he told me I have an amazing sounding set of bagpipes and that I can "play like stink". He repeated the phrase "you can play like stink" to me on several occasions.
4.) Of course I can't ever forget that day he cut me from band practice thus putting me out for the entire season - I'm not bitter over it but by far this is possibly the only negative item you will find on this list.
5.) One night at Drew Duthart's house (lead tip) someone was passing around a set of pipes during a party for all of the youngster players in the band to play and show off with some kitchen piping. I had gotten too drunk and by the time the pipes made it my way, Bill was there to watch. I couldn't even make it through the first part of a single tune. I was trashed! Afterward Bill said to me: "David, it took me many years to figure out that I just can not play drunk." Wise words, Bill. All it took was being handed a set of pipes to play in front of you (after several whiskeys and lots of beers) and I never tried to play drunk again.
6.) At the Worlds in 2005, during our warm-up for the qualifier (I traveled to Scotland with the 78ths in 2005 as well), Bill handed me his pipes and asked me to play them for him so he could listen to the band from outside of the circle. I started to wander off just so I could play and keep them warmed up but he came and got me and told me to stand "right here in my spot" as he pointed to the pipe major's position. We marched as a rank as Bill listened from outside and called off the band. There I was at the Worlds in a 78ths kilt marching in Bill Livingstone's PM spot while playing his pipes. This was the highest I have ever felt while playing bagpipes. Seriously things don't get much better than that. I had to fight back the tears.
7.) At the end of the day at the Worlds in 2005, the band had just gotten out of the beer tent. We were standing around on the field and Bill starting remarking on my appearance. "Look at those sharp Mediterranean features, why you're sure to drive the girls crazy," he said to me as a couple of younger tenor drummer girls from the band were around. They started giggling. I think he was trying to build my confidence. Sure made me feel like I was a few feet taller.
8.) In 2007, 78ths band member Jared Purvis gave me a hand towel apparently used by Bill. It says "Old Man Crying Rag" or something similar. I held on to it and still have it somewhere.

Just this year I got to see Bill again after/at the Worlds. Little did I know he would soon be retiring. I went up and said 'hi' to him as he was sitting outside at the Lord Todd's Bar. He was in a typical mood and looked at me and commented on my T-shirt. "The Descendents?" He asked. "Yes, they're an American punk rock band," I informed him. "Hmmmm, I could have figured that," he said. Funny, but I wouldn't be surprised if he already knew who they were.
Always charming, always profound. This is how I still think of Bill Livingstone today. It's a shame to see him step down from the job, but I'm sure it was a very thought-out exit plan. Will be interesting to see where the 78ths go from here. As everyone's always said, "It's Bill's band."
So if it was always Bill's band, then whose band is it now?
And what lies ahead for the future?
Time will reveal the answers to these questions, but until then good luck Bill, good luck 78ths.
See you in the future/down the road.
-DD

Worlds 2010: Results (16th) - From back in the hood, where it's mostly all good...LA

2010-08-25T13:27:00.000-07:00

Practicing up in Northern Ireland

So, I'm back from the Scotland/Northern Ireland trip. What a blast it was. So much fun to get out there again and see some old friends, make some new ones, and especially to be out there doing the thing I love doing the most: making music - and on the bagpipes nonetheless. Being on the "World's" stage was amazing. That contest has grown up so much over the past couple of years. It's seriously like the World Cup of the pipe band world now - no actually, it's more like the SuperBowl (minus the expensive commercials and ratings). There was a grandstand with at least a couple hundred seats, a jumbotron featuring live closeups of the bands competing in the grade one arena and just about a million other appealing improvements to such a rapidly growing and expanding contest. To think that I would have a chance to be broadcast on the BBC playing live in a [bag]pipe band competition seemed unfathomable to me only a number of years ago.
Yet only a week ago it was an actual reality.
Sure enough here it is...the LA Scots' qualifier round performance from the World Pipe Band Championships on August 14, 2010 on Glasgow Green (brought to you by the BBC):

Wow, the fucking BBC. Nice camerawork, lads. I have to say I am really in to this video right now. It's fun seeing our band playing in the big arena and re-imagining what it was like being in there again. It's cool to see it from the outside as well. Wow, our circle looks tight...Colin's closeup is so intense...Is that Harry McNulty judging?...nice plug, McCallum Bagpipes (how much did that cost?)...wait a minute, I was on TV!?!! Holy crap, that's so cool! (Alright, I'd better calm down and pretend like I don't really think it's that big of a deal.) Yeah, seriously, nothing. No biggie. Just the BBC, not broadcast in the United States even...streamed live on the Internet! (sorta like these dudes)
What the? Hahaha...
Seriously, enough of that noise.
Time to put my seldomly self-inflated ego away and back on the shelf for a while. Wait, I was in Pipes|Drums along with Glen Kvidhal too: (Piping Live! Day One: Get in get out of the rain
What?! No way...I guess I have to start respecting p|d now.
Yeah ok that's it, I swear I'm done...

Waiting to compete in Northern Ireland (check out the gnarly shag)

I have to be honest, it's fun getting a little bit of publicity in the piping world, but this is seriously not what pipe bands are all about. In fact, I hope this contest doesn't become too much about the image/publicity thing or more importantly about the money (wait, what money????). It is a music contest after all - nothing more. And that is stressful enough.
Now, about what really mattered the most - the piping and drumming:

What a good performance it was for us. The whole band seemed really happy with it and I feel like we really delivered. Overall, we placed 8th in the qualifier (disappointing news), which kept us from going on to the finals (top 6 got to move up). But, overall that gave us a ranking of 16th in the World, something I personally felt pretty satisfied with considering it was my first grade one worlds contest. Not a bad place to start from - especially considering that the results had us with one 6th in piping. The other judge heard what he thought was worthy of a 14th in piping - interesting margin...no comment.
Our final scores from the day were: 6(p1) 14(p2) 6(d) 7(e) = 16th place in the world

As my homie Ben Febre (drummer) said, "It would be awesome to someday finally play a medley in the Grade One arena," which is something this band hasn't done since well, shit...since long before I was a member. I couldn't agree with him more.

Unfortunately the band has to qualify first; unless they change the rules, which it's rumored that they might. Annyway, that's why we will go back and keep going back, to someday play a badass medley for the judges in the RSPBA.
Look out Scotland, LA's bout to get some rec...

Photo of Scott McDonald - band manager/bagpipe drone sound master

Photography by Jen Febre Boase (via facebook)

World's 2010 - Day 1

2010-08-06T12:39:00.000-07:00

I'm currently sitting in an Internet Cafe in Belfast, Northern Ireland. Our band arrived yesterday via plane from LAX with a brief layover in Newark, NJ. So far, the trip has been great. Belfast is a unique city with lots of fun character to it. I cruised around on my skateboard yesterday and managed to get to know the area pretty well. It's quite a bit smaller than I would have anticipated which is actually a good thing because it makes it easier to get around while visiting. I met a local skateboarder yesterday. Skaters must be pretty rare around here because the fellow chased me for a number of blocks before catching up with me in time to have a chat and ask for a smoke (which I told him I didn't have). We kicked it for a minute and listened to some Wu-Tang on his portable stereo while sitting on a curb alongside the sidewalk.
The people here in Belfast are really nice so far. I honestly came over here with few expectations, but so far everyone I've met and talked to is extremely friendly. The political troubles this city has faced are pretty evident and noticable in certain areas of town. For example, on the cab ride over to where our band practiced yesterday we passed by an area of town that our cab driver refferred to as the "Loyalist" part of town. Just across the train tracks he said is another district inhabited mostly by "Nationalists". I had no idea this conflict was still so alive, but apparently there was a bombing in the city just a few days ago. There was graffiti all over the walls in the Loyalist part of town and much of it seemed to be political. I've also seen some artistic graffiti in parts of town which is pretty cool.
I went into a local music store (of which thereare many) and was pleasantly surprised to find that most of the instruments in the shop were folk instruments. One shop alone had an array of mandolins, banjos, flutes/whistles, bodhrans, and bazouki's all within its walls. Most music stores in the US wouldn't even carry a single one of these instruments in their regular stock. I visited another music store that had a lot of electric guitars and more modern instruments on display in their shop windows. Even that store had a practice set of Uillean Pipes on display behind the front counter. It's very clear that music is a big part of people's lives here.
Speaking of music, the pipe band scene over here seems to be very alive. Just yesterday, there were pipe bands playing in the city hall square at around noon. The European Championships took place here last weekend and there were huge banners for it in the streets. It's fun coming to a country that really appreciates piping and all things related to it. We had band practice yesterday too and so far things are sounding great. Our drum corps just received their brand new drums to play in the World's and I have to say that they look/sound absolutely amazing.
Tomorrow is the Ulster Championships. We will go up against two of Ireland's best pipe bands while there, Field Marshall Motgomery (Northern Ireland) and St. Laurenc O'Toole (Ireland). I'm excited. I particularly want to see/hear Field Marshall. They are probably my favorite pipe band currently and I've heard their medley this year which sounds really crackin'. I'm pretty sure they're putting on a concert right now as I type but I decide to pass it up because I've seen the other band they're playing with (SFU) and there are other things I figured I could be doing with my time. Besides, both bands are competition for us, so I'd rather go support some local pubs or eateries than the bands that we will be playing against in a week. Field Marshall will be at the Ulster Championships so I look forward to hearing them there.
Last night there was a solo piping recital/contest held at the Europa Hotel in downtown Belfast. I walked over to try and catch our own piper Alex Gandy competing but stopped at the bar for a Coke before he started playing. By the time I had my drink in hand, it was too late to enter the room to hear him compete. So, I sat for a while and listened through the doors. The bartender informed me that the hotel we were in (Europa) was the 'most bombed hotel in all of Europe'. Apparently it's been bombed over 33 times. Whoa. The world title is held by some hotel in Tel Aviv. Needless to say, the bar there was the bomb, but I didn't stick around too long after Alex played becuase I was getting tired and soon I decided to leave.
Well, I should go now. My time at the Internet cafe is almost up. I plan to check out this soul/funk music night at a local pub here called McHughe's basement. I've been seeing flyers for it all over town and they've got posteres featuring Marvin Gaye, the Jackson Five and various others all over town so I'm looking forward to this. Should be a fun time. More later..

Northern Ireland/Scotland in two days!

2010-08-03T01:01:00.000-07:00

Well, looks like my trip is almost here. On Wednesday, August 4th I leave for Belfast with the LA Scots. Once there, we play at the Ulster Championships contest and then take a ferry over to Scotland for a week of practicing and preparing for the Worlds.
I'm excited for this trip, in particular the Northern Ireland part because I've never been there. Hopefully it's a lot of fun and full of new surprises.
Nothing more to say really.
I still gotta pack.
-DD

Worlds 2010 - some words about competition

2010-08-01T03:10:00.000-07:00

I hate to admit it, but that last post sounded slightly bold of me. It has been in my experience with pipe bands that nothing is ever for certain leading up to a competition until the final moments before the band walks up to the line (from where the band enters the 'competition circle'). This means any player can be cut at any time before the competition starts for any reason - instrument malfunction, being winded or tired, unsolvable tuning issues, etc. Basically the goal is to go out with the best players you have on the field on the day and if one or two players just aren't cutting it when it counts, then chances are likely that they will be cut from the competition.
Luckily, this has happened to me only on rare occasions. However, to say that I am certain this will be my first grade one Worlds appearance does sound slightly bold considering the above.
That being said, I am prepared to face anything and everything that Scotland throws my way, but I will not jinx my chances of playing with overconfidence.
Therefore, let me just say this: On August 14th, 2010, I plan to be marching into competition with the LA Scots on Glasgow Green at the World Pipe Band Championships.
Whatever happens on the day, happens.
If we qualify (ahem, when we qualify) we will go on to perform one hell of a show - and take whatever placing we deserve, be it top six (an unlikely stretch) or top ten (hoped for).
Stay tuned for more....
I will surely keep anybody interested updated.

At the line with TPPB grade I at Maxville North American Championships back in August 2007

For more info on the LA Scots, check out my current band's history of Worlds appearances/placings: http://www.lascots.org/worlds.shtml

Worlds 2010 Trip with LA Scots in less than a week

2010-07-29T01:35:00.000-07:00

In a little less than a week I will be leaving on a plane for Belfast, Northern Ireland with my current pipe band the LA Scots. We are traveling to Ireland/Scotland for about a week and a half to compete in the 2010 World Pipe Band Championships. The last time I traveled to Scotland was for this same event back in 2005 with the 78th Fraser Highlanders from Toronto, ON, Canada. I have been over three times previously but have yet to actually play in the grade one event.
At this point, I am pretty confident in saying that this will be my first grade one Worlds appearance. Back in 2005, I didn't make the cut with the 78ths. In 2004, I went over with North Coast Pipe Band and competed in grade two, and in 2002 I went over with my original hometown pipe band the Seven Pipers (Tucson, AZ) to compete in grade four. Needless to say, this has been a long time coming. And I'm very excited.
As with all of my musical traveling, I plan to stay in touch via my blog. Expect some updates whenever I can make my way over to an Internet cafe. The big event (The Worlds) is taking place on August 14th. The highest my band (LA Scots) has placed is 11th overall. I'm hoping we can shatter this record, although it's a very hard thing for a US band to even break the top 10, so it's going to be a challenge. Ultimately it's going to come down to what happens on the day.
The BBC will more than likely be streaming the 2010 Worlds online, so if you're interested in watching the event live, you might be able to. Here's a link to the BBC website about the Worlds with a page about my band: http://www.bbc.co.uk/scotland/music/worlds/2009/bands/los_angeles_scots/
Also, here's a video of the LA Scots' 2009 Worlds performance:

Additionally, I would also like to mention that coincidentally my friends from New Mexico/Arizona/Pennsic/the road and beyond, the Clan Tynker Family Circus will be in Scotland at the same time as I am! Clan Tynker is staying in Glasgow (where the Worlds are held) and traveling to Edinburgh for the Edinburgh Fringe Fest. We plan on meeting up and hanging; I can't wait, it's been too long since I've seen my friends in Clan Tynker and it's the ultimate coincidence that we will be in Scotland at the same time, so I'm very excited to see them.
Things to look for on here in the future:
-Trip updates
-Contest Results (Ulster Championships/Worlds)
-Random thoughts/musings
-Stories about busking/skating in Glasgow
-Recap of the Silver Cap Solo Piping Contest (where I will be a personal usher to a random pro piper)
-Photos

Lots of stuff coming up! I'm excited to be so involved in music again.
Look out Scotland/Ireland - here comes LA...

"No Bagpipes Allowed" - LMU

2010-07-16T04:24:00.000-07:00

So, apparently practicing bagpipes can be added to the long list of things you aren't supposed to do/shouldn't be doing on a college campus. Add it to the list along with skateboarding, cigarette smoking, underage drinking, loud partying, and drug use.
What's next? Anyone have a guess?
Obviously, there's more of a story here than I'm actually letting on.
The truth is, I was doing something I wasn't supposed to be doing. I went to Loyola-Marymount College in Marina Del Ray tonight at around 2am and checked in at the front security gate. I gave them the name/dorm number of a friend of mine who was going to school there (who also happened to play in the LA Scots with me) and told them I was "paying him a visit". They let me in and I went straight to the basement of a different building and started practicing my pipes. Within about 25 minutes of my practicing, two security guards showed up and seemed pretty surprised to see me there. They made me stop.
The security guards were actually extremely nice and told me that if I couldn't get a hold of my friend on campus that I would have to leave. The only problem was that my friend had already graduated...and he doesn't even live on campus anymore.
Whoops. (That's the part I didn't mention)
Turns out I was 'trespassing' if I was there alone.
So, I tried calling my friend anyway knowing very well that he wouldn't pick up his phone at 3am. We used to practice there together while he was going to school at LMU in the basement of this one academic building. I'd actually practiced there a few times by myself using the same method, although I'd never been caught before. Apparently the security guards had heard the bagpipes while walking through on a routine security check. When they found me, they made me stop.
So, that was it. I couldn't get a hold of my friend so they escorted me to my car and asked me to leave the campus. Of course, I complied. The walk to my truck was kind of awkward. Neither security guard really knew what to say, after all they were kicking me out for playing bagpipes. To fill the awkward gap in silence, I asked one of the officers if they carried any guns. The officer I asked sort of laughed and answered 'no', but then his partner quickly responded, "Well, we're really not supposed to tell you if we do or not. I could have one strapped to my ankle and you wouldn't know it." I laughed, reassuring them that I was not some crazy lunatic trying to blow up buildings or any other kind of nonsense. They chuckled a bit, but in retrospect, I probably should have asked them a different type of question to pass the time. For example, maybe I should have asked them if they knew of any available campus jobs working at a security desk...or something like that.
Oh well, I guess I have to find a new late night practice spot.

READER SURVEY: Work Uniforms are Ridiculous

2010-07-15T03:10:00.000-07:00

So, this is just sort of a check-up to see who is actually reading my blog. I know there's some people out there that regularly check it out and I always appreciate it when followers leave comments. Please participate if you like, or don't and just read on for amusement; I won't care either way. I've also had the idea to do this for a while, so here goes nothing.

The question is:
Which of the following work uniforms makes me look more ridiculous?
Is it...

A.) My kitchen worker attire, complete with white chef's coat, black company 'orange logo' cap, and kitchen apron...

(or)

B.) My Wolgemut costume, which includes: a yellow/orange German Landsknecht's 'Voffenrach' (sp?), embroidered long sleeve undershirt, black muffin-top looking hat with white 'bigguns' underneath?

I know the more obvious answer is probably B.

Most people have never seen this kind of clothing before and that is reason enough for some to consider it 'ridiculous'; not to mention the bright colors and floppy hat - it really is a pretty flamboyant costume. I would, however, like to see how many people pick A because I do feel pretty ridiculous sometimes in my kitchen uniform, especially when I go for a walk by the beach on my breaks wearing my messy apron and button-up chef's coat.
It's my opinion that both of these uniforms look equally ridiculous if you take some things into consideration (creepy moustache aside). They both have weird hats, strange coat-like shirts with front-closures, an orange-colored accent of some type, and some strange sort of accessory you have to tie on in the front. The point I'm trying to make is that even though one may seem more commonplace in the modern world, both these uniforms are pretty irregular as far as comfortably fashionable normal clothing goes. Needless to say, I would wear neither on a date or to go see a movie.
So, don't ask. If we ever go out, I will choose to be comfortable in a pair of pants, T-shirt, and probably some Vans on my feet. Oh yeah, one last thing - best part about wearing any type of uniform: taking the shit off after a long, arduous day of work - especially the shoes (or boots in the case of the latter uniform).
No better feeling.

Happy 4th of July!

2010-07-04T15:21:00.000-07:00

Yeah, yeah, I said it...
Normally I see this day with a lot of confusion. There's many mixed feelings for me that are associated with the 4th. One one hand, I do enjoy the country I live in. The 'freedoms' that I have are unparalleled in this world and for that I am grateful.
On the other, our history is full of contradictions - and that along with the fact that we are currently and constantly at war (for who knows what reason?) is very frustrating to me.

With that being said, here is a song for the 4th of July:

New Skateboard...

2010-07-04T03:40:00.000-07:00

I'm really excited because I just recently purchased this brand new skateboard deck. I also got new trucks to go along with it. I'm waiting to buy wheels because I have a really specific setup in mind that I'm trying to achieve.

What I'm going for is basically a longboard/shortboard combo - a board that will easily roll over sidewalk cracks and tear through rough asphalt, but that will still provide the ability to do basic tricks like kickflips and ollies. A lot of skateboard companies are currently making 'cruiser decks' that are intended for this purpose. The one I bought is made by CREATURE skateboards.

The wheels I'm waiting to get are made by a company called Rainskates out of Alaska. They have an extremely versatile wheel called the Mini-Tsunami that is a softer wheel (95a) yet an appropriate size (59mm) for doing tricks or skating at a park.

Here's an internet advertisement for the Creature deck...

The ad focuses on the fact that the board itself has a built-in bottle opener on the bottom of the deck. Skate companies are always using amusing gimmicks to get you to buy their products - but I have to admit this one is pretty creative and it makes for a hilarious commercial! Plus the bottle opener could come in handy every once in a while if I need to open up a beer for a friend.

My goal is to bring this to Scotland with me when I go there in August for the World's so I have something to ride around on and also to be able to skate when I'm bored.

A lot of good things are coming my way. I'm excited.

CHICAGO STORIES (#2)

2010-07-03T05:06:00.000-07:00

I just got home from work, but I feel like sharing a story I've had on my mind from Chicago lately. This one could potentially be offensive to some people, so I'm just going to throw that out there. Anyway, heed my warning and continue on if you must...

ONE JANUARY IN THE CITY OF CHICAGO:

When I moved to Chicago, I was instantly frustrated with something - I noticed that the neighborhood I moved into was what many would refer to as a 'gentrified area'. Basically what this means (for those unaware) is that a neighborhood previously inhabited by low-income families (often persons of an ethnic minority) are suddenly being displaced by younger (and whiter) individuals who want to pay low rent prices yet still live closer to a large urban center. The result is that the former poor minority residents get pushed out of the neighborhoods they once grew up in, while rent prices go up as more and more affluent people move in. An easy way to think of it is that it is the exact opposite effect of white flight, except now instead of flocking to the suburbs, the more well-to-do people are trying to get back into the cities and live in local neighborhoods.
There is a word that is used to describe many of these young (often white) people.
That word is 'hipster'.
While I'm not here to argue what is or isn't the definition of a hipster, I am here to say that many of the people I speak of that were entering into and living in the same neighborhood I was could have been classifiable as such. Hell, I probably fell into that category too..
Anyway, while I generally didn't have too much opposition to these types, I did feel as though the sudden influx was having both positive and negative impacts on the environment. One negative impact that I personally felt was that all of a sudden I could easily be labeled while walking down the street in my neighborhood, and typically not in a favorable fashion. I felt as though my very presence there screamed "Here comes whitey! Here I am to move back into your neighborhood, an area my parents once wanted nothing to do with because of you. And don't worry, I'm bringing along all of my friends so that I feel more comfortable too!" What a statement...
This was my main gripe with other young hipster-types not so different from myself. Many of them moved into a new area with their friends, kept all of the same friends and never got to know the neighborhood for what it really was or appreciate it for the cultural differences that it had to offer. From day one, I vowed not to fall into this category.
It wasn't too hard to make friends with younger locals in my area. All I did was get a job working at a nearby Panera Bread - the Logan Square location if you're familiar with Chicago. It's not that it was my goal to work at a place where I would meet these types of people, but as a recent college grad with a BA in sociology, it was really one of the few options readily available to me, so I jumped right in. My first friend at my new restaurant was a kid who called himself 'Sisqo'.
Sisqo was apparently short for Francisco, yet it was a funny nickname in that it was a reference to the rap/R&B artist of the same name and spelling, an artist most notable for his hit single entitled "The Thong Song". Needless to say, this guy cracked me up from the start. He was a bit younger than me and of 100% Puerto Rican descent, but it was his interests that initially sparked our unique friendship.
We both worked the salad station for a day at Panera and I heard him rapping and making references to the Adult Swim cartoon show "Aqua Teen Hunger Force".
"Hey, do you like Aqua Teens?" I asked him.
That was the start of our friendship. Earlier in the day he had asked me if I liked to skate, so I felt as though we had some common ground there. We joked around a lot at work that day and later when we finished, he asked me if I could give him a ride home. I said, 'sure'. Little did I know that "Can I have a ride home?" also meant 'Can we stop at my friends' place and go to the graffiti supply store too?' However, as I said before, I wasn't interested in maintaining a boring circle of friends from the same socio-economic background as me either so I said 'okay' and jumped along for the ride.
We drove to the graffiti store along with a couple of Sisqo's friends and picked up some supplies. I bought four cans of spray paint, which they were all impressed by. It never crossed my mind that buying $20 worth of art supplies could be seen as excessive spending, but to these guys I must have seemed like a rich white kid in a candy store buying whatever he could get his hands on. The truth is I had always wanted to get into graffiti, I just had never had a plausible entry into the world/culture of it. When I saw the opportunity arise, I went for it.
After the drive back, I gave Sisqo a ride back home. I bought him a small can of black paint too, which he seemed grateful for. It turned out he lived just a mile or two up the road from me but on a different street. I went home that day excited to have made a new friend, and eager to experience more of what this new neighborhood had to offer me.

FAST-FORWARD ABOUT FIVE MONTHS...

One evening I was out cruising with Sisqo and two of his friends. One of his friends was a girl who went by "SHY" and the other was a younger kid who went by "Peanut". His real name was Pierre, but I'm pretty sure it embarrassed the hell out of him so he just preferred to be called by a nickname. "Peanut" was half black/half Puerto Rican and "Shy" was 100% Puerto Rican just like Sisqo. I believe the two were dating at the time. So we were out one night in Peanut's car doing the typical Chicago thing which was driving around while smoking a blunt and listening to music.
There was never a goal or destination in mind, just simply the idea of cruising. I had been hanging out with these kids for a while now. Peanut was a new addition to the group and he didn't like to smoke too much but did it just to impress Shy. We were listening to a Lupe Fiasco CD and having typical conversation from which I was usually excluded.
Sisqo and his friends constantly would refer to each other as "nigga" which seemed to be an acceptable term amongst blacks and Puerto Ricans alike. I never used the term, but was typically referred to as "My nigga" by Sisqo when he was talking to his friends about me. He usually would address me as such to my face, but as I said before I rarely said it back to him. I usually just laughed about it or shrugged it off. In fact, it became pretty normal to hear Sisqo talk to me like that, but when we were around his friends I just became the "Token White Guy".
So, one evening all four of us were in Peanut's car cruising and listening to music and having typical conversation accompanied by some blunt. The album we were listening to was "The Cool" by Chicago rapper Lupe Fiasco and I think the dialogue started something like this:
"Nigga, I love this album. It reminds me of high school and shit my nigga. Remember when we used to listen to this CD all day? Nigga that was the shit." Sisqo started.
"Damn, yo, yeah I used to be listening to this CD like all the time," Stephanie chimed in, "Like in between classes and shit we just be listenin' to this non-stop."
"That's what's up, my nigga," Sisqo agreed.
Peanut usually didn't have a whole lot to say but occasionally agreed with something or lent his own opinion to the conversation. He, just like Sisqo said 'nigga' a lot but seemed to feel some entitlement in doing so being that he was half black. He wasn't participating in the conversation though, and so I felt like it was my own turn to say something. This time, however, for whatever reason I decided to try using a word I had never used before in casual conversation.
"Yeah, my nigga," I said, "I like this album a lot."
The car went Dead Silent.
There was a brief pause in the conversation during which I swear I heard crickets chirping.
A moment passed, or maybe two...I can't remember which.
Then, Pierre was the first to speak up. It was like someone had pressed pause and then suddenly hit play again. His words cut through the silence like a knife. "Yo dawg, ok I know you're cool and all but that word is my peoples' word and you really shouldn't be saying it. It's cool though, I just would appreciate it if you didn't use that word around me," Pierre said.
Having been called 'my nigga' by Sisqo for so many months had made me feel pretty comfortable with the phrase, perhaps a little too comfortable though. I had never tried using it amongst any of his other friends before and in doing so I had taken a pretty big risk. But I still didn't exactly understand why Sisqo, being Puerto Rican, could say it and I couldn't. (Hmmm, maybe it was because I was...white?) My better judgement soon took hold of me though and I both backed down and apologized to Pierre immediately, not even trying to justify it.
"Yo, I'm sorry man," I said. "I didn't mean you any disrespect."
I sank into my seat about two feet. SHY seemed uncomfortable yet shocked and amused at the same time. Sisqo was giggling to himself probably b/c he realized he was part to blame for my apparent comfort in using the word. But he was also quiet after Pierre spoke up.
"Yeah, I can't believe he just said that, yo" Stephanie said as if I wasn't even there. She was laughing a bit about it too by now. Sisqo cracked up.
"Hey, I'm sorry, I never do say it usually and I won't ever say it again," I replied.
"It's cool," Pierre said. "Just don't say it again."
Then it was over.
Things immediately returned and resumed to normal. Conversation picked up again and I felt excluded just the same as before. Soon another blunt went around and everything was cool as if nothing had ever happened. We listened to more Lupe and I was pretty much relieved my uncomfortable moment had passed and that I hadn't been kicked out of Pierre's car and left to walk back home on the street.
As it turned out, that wasn't even the worst thing that happened to us that night. Later on in the evening, Pierre's car broke down. One of his brake pads had fallen off in the road as he was trying to park. Luckily though, we had almost reached the skate park.
We all got out of the car and skated over to the closed park and broke in to do some skating and hanging out. Shy and Pierre tagged one of the pools in the park, which sort of irked me, but at that point I was too stoned to care, just happy to be out in the night time air, skating on my four wheels over the concrete surfaces of Wilson Skate Park. After all, nothing could have been more uncomfortable than the tension I felt as I sank in to the back car seat of Pierre's Buick after dropping my first n-bomb as the "Token White Kid". It was the first and last time I would ever use that word while living in Chicago.

WOLGEMUT 2010 PROMO VIDEO

2010-06-29T02:34:00.000-07:00

Sweet new Wolgemut promo video released for 2010...
Ch-check it out!!

It came out way better than I thought it would (props to Lynvander) - sweet show footage.
From a point in the year when we were definitely at our very best.

Thanks Michael!

Thanks Wolgemut - all the best in 2010.

CHICAGO STORIES

2010-06-26T14:51:00.000-07:00

ROUGHLY TWO YEARS AGO IN THE CITY OF CHICAGO:

One morning, I was running late for work. The night before I had been partying with my friends Ben and Sisqo. Ben was really hungover in the morning but needed a ride back to his apartment. I needed to get to work, but was running late and did not have enough time to drive Ben back home. So, I decided to let my friend Sisqo drive Ben back in my car, while I rode my bike to work. In my haste to get to work on time, and also to ensure that Ben got home alright, there were a couple of key facts I carelessly chose to neglect:
A.) Sisqo did not have a driver's license.
B.) Sisqo also did not know how to drive.
Lastly, I should mention that my car was a stick shift and Sisqo did not know jack shit about shifting gears. Yet, I still handed over my car keys and entrusted him with my vehicle in addition to the responsibility of taking Ben back home.
Little did I realize, I was a fool.
A few hours later, I was returning home on my bicycle from work, when I passed by my car and noticed something different about it. The back bumper was completely caved in on one side and there was a noticeable green paint mark up and down the tailgate. In fact, it looked as though the bumper was just barely hanging on! "No, Sisqo...No!" I thought to myeslf. Panicked and furious, I entered my apartment building and walked up the stairs, trying to calm myself down on the way up. When I got up the stairs to my apartment and opened the door, Sisqo was inside waiting sheepishly for my arrival. There was a look of intense guilt on his face. I tried to restrain my anger, and instead turned to an understandingly calm yet forceful tone of voice in an attempt to find out some truth from him about what happened to my car. I thought my repoire (considering the severity of the damage) was actually quite reasonable - maybe a little too reasonable.
"Sisqo, what the fuck happened to my car?" I asked.
"Oh shit, Dunky-Duncs, I was meaning to tell you...see, I was driving, right? And this dude, this guy driving a green car just slammed into me while I was waiting at a red light."
"Ok...Shit," I thought. "Well, did you exchange information?"
"No, well that's the thing, he just sort of drove off...it was a hit and run."
"I see..."
Well, crap. I let my friend without a driver's license, who barely knew how to drive, borrow my car and drive my other friend back home, and he got into an accident, and it was a hit and run. Now I'm in this shitty situation and my car is messed up. I can't call the police and there's no information to tell my insurance company. Fuck. Who's the idiot here? Well, since there was no way I could have predicted the incident and since I'd let Sisqo drive my car before without any problems, I really couldn't place all the blame on him. And besides, I was the one who let him use my car and I knew he didn't have a driver's license. And at that point, I was just relieved he was the one who got hit and not the other way around. So, I decided to ask another question.
"Ok, well were there any witnesses? Please tell me there was a witness."
"No."
Well that seemed a little bit off...but, of course there were witnesses, there had to have been! Just maybe not ones who cared... This is Chicago we're talking about here, where people get stabbed and lie bleeding in the street while pedestrians and motorists travel by not paying them any attention. It seemed believable enough, but still slightly odd to me.
"Anything else?" I asked him (Did it even matter at this point?).
"Not really...Oh yeah. Uh, the driver, he was black."
Well, I think it was at this point that I started to question the validity of his story, but without any more information or a way of obtaining it, I had little choice but to pretend to buy into it.
"Ok, so let me get this straight," I started. "A black dude driving a green car hit my truck, and then drove off. Is that really what happened?"
"Yes! I swear to god that's what happened. Would I lie to you?"
Well, I was beginning to wonder about that because something in his story sounded fishy to me, especially considering the unnecessary detail about the person's race - not to mention the absence of any witnesses. Plus how could he have been able to see the driver anyway when it was supposedly a 'hit and run' accident? In the back of my head I tried to sort things out. I assembled all the pieces of information I was receiving and I quickly assessed that maybe someone was just pulling a race card to try and shift the focus from his own guilt in this incident by instead placing the blame on a supposedly easy to blame target, which is unfortunate and just plain fucked up/stupid in my opinion. (Sisqo, just for the record, is neither white nor black)
I didn't know what to do, so I just tried to calm myself down. After a little while, I called my insurance company and reported a hit and run accident with some minor damage to my vehicle. When they asked me about a police report, I couldn't give them any more information. There was nothing to say really, except that the color of the car that hit me was supposedly green and that it had happened at an intersection in Logan Square in Chicago while stopped at a red light. I had already lied and said that I was driving the vehicle at the time because it was better than admitting I had stupidly let my friend borrow my car without a license.
I hung up the phone even more frustrated than I was before.
Of course, there was nothing more I could do, and I quickly realized I was fucked. Sisqo offered to pay for the damages, but I knew this was an empty promise because at that point, he had been fired from his job (at our mutual place of work, Panera Bread) and additionally had been sleeping on my couch (uninvited and much to the dismay of my two roommates) for almost an entire month. Pissed, yet unable to place the blame on anyone but myself, I regrettably let it slide.
I drove around Chicago with a messed up bumper for about two months, unable to do anything about it.
Then, one day I picked up my friend Ben (same Ben from that fateful morning) at a friend's house near Lincoln Park. I had just gotten a new job as a pizza delivery driver for Pronto 'Za downtown and we were about to hang out after I finished up work. Ben went to throw his stuff in the back of my truck and instantly noticed the bumper.
"Holy shit, what the fuck happened to the back of your car? Did you back hit a pole?" He asked.
"Well," I began, "Remember that one time I let Sisqo borrow my car to drop you off at your apartment before work? Apparently he got hit by a green car."
"What?! Are you kidding?! A green car?? That is so obviously a green pole that he backed in to. Look at the way the dent is shaped. That paint is from a pole, dude, look. He crashed your fucking car."
Sure enough, upon closer examination, the color of the paint that smudged my tailgate was just about the same shade of dark green that adorns the many streetlamps and sign posts that line the streets of Chicago. And what was suddenly even more obvious to me, was that the dent in the bumper on the back of my truck was the perfect shape and size of an indent that would have been caused by a collision with said pole. Once again, I was furious.
"Seriously?" I asked him.
"Yeah, dude. I'm dead serious. He hit a fucking pole. What the hell did he tell you happened? That he got into an accident?"
"Yeah, something like that," I shyly admitted.
"You're a fucking idiot. Why would you let Sisqo drive your car?" He replied.
And so the truth was out; the real fool in whole situation was finally revealed - it was me. I had been played for a sucker by someone whom I thought was my friend. And the worst thing about it was that I had allowed it to go unaccounted for. By that point in time, Sisqo was long gone. I hadn't seen or heard from him in over a month, and on top of it, he didn't even have a cell phone I could call him on. I learned a really valuable lesson about trust and friendship that day.
And I never let another person drive my car unsupervised.

TWO YEARS LATER...

About two weeks ago, I was parked on my street in my neighborhood in LA. I went out to my car to leave for work one afternoon when I noticed a small handwritten note attached to the driver's side door.
The note looked like this:

CAPTION: "I was parked in the lot and backed into your car (bumper) accidentaly - I have insurance and will take care of what needs to be done through AAA. Took photos etc. Please call me anytime."

Sure enough, somebody living on my street had backed into my vehicle, broken my taillight, and in doing so, instantly assumed that the previously existing dent in my bumper was caused by them. The following day, I received a phone call from their insurance company, set up an appointment to have my car looked at, and within two day's time, I was holding a check in my hand (written out to me) that would cover the cost of repair for the damages.
Within a week I had a new bumper!
Two years later, and my car is finally fine.
I don't know what more to say about the incident, really, except that sometimes bad luck is good luck. I don't think there's a more fitting example of it. I've maintained some contact with Sisqo since leaving Chicago, but sparingly (he popped up again after disappearing for a while and continues to do so to this day). He still claims he's going to fix that bumper for me, but now I can rest easy knowing I won't have to depend on him to get the job done. Thank you, lady for kindly smashing into the back of my truck the other day - and for also having insurance, and for also being so kind enough as to leave me a note with your phone number explaining what happened. You have no idea how grateful I am to you.
I only wish the rest of the world was so honest.

My car as it is today - new bumper and all.

"What's Going On" by Marvin Gaye

2010-06-20T03:03:00.000-07:00

I'm currently listening to Marvin Gaye's "What's Going On" album. I recently obtained a copy of it on vinyl and it's pretty amazing as expected. The reason I wanted it so badly on vinyl is because I heard from my friend Mike that the format was more conducive to the way Marvin wanted his audience to hear it. The six tracks on side 'A' are all part of a theme and variations more or less on the opening/title track ("What's Going On"). I am hearing this as I listen to the album and it's even more obvious how all the songs link together when you listen to the tracks straight through as the needle makes its way towards the center of the disc.
Side 'B' is three separate tracks, one of which is "Inner City Blues (Makes Me Wanna Holler)" - an amazing track on its own. The liner notes on the album cite James Jamerson and Bob Babbit on bass. I knew that Jamerson did work on many of the tracks on this album. His bass lines are so solid, and it's refreshing to hear them on vinyl. Babbit's work is equally impressive and having seen a documentary about The Funk Brothers and the Motown story, I have a stronger appreciation for his bass playing as well. He had some big shoes to fill after Jamerson passed away and he does a great job here.
So far this album is pretty great. I've heard most of the songs on it before, but hearing them sequentially makes such a difference. Another standout track in my opinion is "Save the Children", part of the side 'A' opus. This song is quite an emotional one in the my opinion and hits a very important note just before going into a very religious-themed diatribe entitled "God is Love". "Mercy Mercy Me" is the closer to side 'A' and definitely hits a peak in terms of bringing these first six tracks full circle. The sax solo at the end is especially good, but it is the last few chords of the song that make me smile the most. I swear I've heard this ending used (sampled?) in other songs before. It is very memorable, and pleasing that he brings it back to a minor key to end such an astounding twenty minutes of music. Epic is the only way I can think to describe the ending of side 'A'.
Side 'B' kicks off with a diverse sounding song called "Right On". At seven minutes, this track has room for a lot of different parts, and it's obvious Marvin was trying to accomplish a lot with just this track alone. It's nice to hear flute as a principle instrument again, something he did on some of his older tracks from previous albums (see: "Stubborn Kind of Fellow" for an amazing flute solo). "Wholly Holy" is the second track on side 'B' and is really over before you even know it. It's really slow compared to the rest of the album, but it's a nice break from the medium tempo soul grooves that make up the majority of the album. "Inner City Blues" ends the album and as stated before is an amazing track. It is definitely in my top three, if not my favorite, from the nine tracks on this disc.
I'm sure I will end up listening to this LP many times over again. It is definitely worthy of repeated listening. From the beginning introduction that sounds like a laid-back 70's party scene with dialogue comprised of greetings such as "What's happenin' man?" to the bongo-filled backbeat that slowly fades out to end the album on side 'B', this album is pure soul music with just enough jazz thrown in to make it stand out from the rest. Thank you, Marvin Gaye, for releasing this piece of work.
May god (as you know him) rest your soul, and may your music live on forever in this genre we have come to know as 'soul music'.

Capoeira...

2010-06-11T13:04:00.000-07:00

Recently, I started taking classes in an art form that is perhaps the next closest thing related to my heritage other than Highland Bagpiping - Capoeira.
Well, that might be stretching it a little bit...my ancestors were not African slaves brought over to Brazil (my aunt Alzira's ancestors may have been) but my actual mother is from Natal - a northern city located on the eastern coast of Brazil.
So, when I say that Capoeira is a part of my heritage, I am implying that it is a part of Brazil's national cultural heritage, which in turn is part of my own being that my mother is from Brazil. End of story. The point is, I have started taking these classes, and I am really enjoying it so far.
All nationalism aside, Capoeira is a great workout for both the body and the mind. One thing I like about it the most is that there is a strong musical component to it, something that is unique amongst forms of martial arts. The "game" of Capoeira is typically played in a circle called a "Roda" (pronounced Ho-dah) and is accompanied by music played on traditional percussion instruments, mainly the berimbau, along with an assortment of different types of drums. Fighters, called "Capoeiristas", face off in the middle of the circle and dance-fight to the music. Contact is rarely made between the opponents, but the energy is very high and largely derived from the tempo of the music/energy in the Roda.
Take a look here at this example (shot in New York City at Union Square):

I am still very new to this, and so I can hardly call myself anything but a beginner, but I am really excited to be doing something new and refreshing in my life. The people I have met at the Brasil Brasil Cultural Center (where I take classes) are really nice and I feel like the community there is warm and super accepting to newcomers. Basically, it's a lot of fun and I hope to keep on doing it.

And you thought this blog was just about bagpiping... :)

It's funny because I actually saw the group (Capoeira Batuque) performing last year at the Southern California Renaissance Festival, where I was playing my first gig with Wolgemut. They had a show on one of the stages there just like we did although it was located in a different part of the festival. I remember running to their stage to catch shows in between our shows while on breaks. I still don't know what Capoeira has to do with the Reniassance, although I suppose it was happening during the same time period just in the New World.
Anyway, it's cool to finally have a chance to hook up with the group and try it out.

Well, look...what do we have here? (more Wolgemut videos)

2010-06-05T12:52:00.000-07:00

I was searching the Internet recently and I stumbled upon a couple more Wolgemut videos from last year. They are both pretty fun. In particular, I like this one, which was taken at the New York Renaissance Festival with the band playing as a trio:

By the time we were playing in New York, we had already had about four or five months of playing together and man, that shit was tight! I remember feeling particularly confident on the Dudelsac at that point too, and I think it shows in this video. I guess I was starting to really feel it, and I got more comfortable with improvising and adding more embellishments on stage - sort of like jazz. Kudos to Dan ("Jakob") who had only been playing tuppan (the big drum) for about two weeks before this!

This other video, from much earlier on in our tour, is also worth looking at, but it's clear that we were still pretty rough and hadn't been playing together for as long:

Talk about high energy! Mike Huebner ("Albrecht") really rips into that breakdown on the tuppan! I can remember looking at that small stage and thinking, "Damn! How are we going to be able to move around on that thing?" Obviously, it didn't stop us. Shit, we played fast.

I miss cutting loose like that.

LA Scots Contest - Costa Mesa Highland Games 2010

2010-06-05T02:32:00.000-07:00

Over the weekend of May 29-30, 2010, my current pipe band (The LA Scots, Grade I) competed at the Costa Mesa Highland Games against Triumph Street, Grade I (Vancouver, BC, Canada) and Alberta Caledonia, Grade I (Edmonton, AL, Canada). The weekend was split into two events, the first of which was a medley contest held on Saturday and the second of which was an MSR (March, Strathspey, Reel) held on Sunday.

On Saturday, for the medley contest we took first place.
Here is the video:

(By the way, you can see me in the video if you look closely - the camera was right behind me the whole time, so I'm in the center of the picture - just look for the bushy hair sticking out of the hat :)

It was exciting to win and I certainly didn't expect it, but it means good things are ahead in the future for our band, particularly with a World Pipe Band Championships appearance coming up in August of this year. Sunday was a good performance as well, but we took second overall falling behind Triumph Street. If you want to look up the video for that, feel free but I think that in general medley performances are more interesting to listen to/watch, which is why I chose to post this one only.

The weekend was fun overall and on Sunday night there was a big party to celebrate. I met a couple of the judges from the event that night at the hotel bar, one of which was Jamie Troy - famous for being a generally badass professional Highland Bagpiper and also a maker of reeds (Troy Reeds). It was cool to make acquaintance with him and also to be able to hang out on such a casual level. We ended up talking about hip-hop for a good portion of the night, in particular Erik B. & Rakim. Who would have known that one of the piping judges from the weekend was a fan of early 90's hip-hop? It's funny because when I started talking to him I didn't even know who he was, or that he had judged us in the contest that day. I thought he was just another dude in a kilt from a pipe band like me.

It's funny how coincidences work out...

about time for something interesting...

2010-06-03T02:43:00.000-07:00

I feel like it's time for me to actually write something interesting in my blog. But the problem is, I just haven't felt any inspiration to lately. Back when I was on tour, I had stuff I wanted to write about all the time. Oh cool, I'm in Baltimore now...sweet, guess which Great Lake I went swimming in last night...man, Texas sucks...yadda, yadda, yadda. The only problem with being on tour and having all this cool stuff to write about is that while you're on tour you get to be really fuckin lazy. All of a sudden, "Wow, I want to write about that" becomes, "Do I really want to walk all the way over to the coffee shop for an Internet connection just to spend an hour writing about what I did yesterday?" In this regard, being on tour sucks. At the same time, I do miss it because I do feel like my life was more interesting than it is now. But would I be writing more? No, probably not.
Presently though, I'm finding myself at a loss. Do you really want to hear about my day at work and how many times my co-worker whipped me in the ass with a dish-rag while I was bending over to grab some lettuce to make a salad? Or about how I went out drinking with co-workers one night and woke up in the hospital with bruises all over my face and IV's in my arms? Or about all the inside jokes I have with the Hispanic crew of dishwashers that work in the Back of the House alongside us line cooks? Or about the time I went to a party on Venice Beach and woke up (again) in the hospital with a concussion and a tube down my throat after suffering severe head trauma? Or how about why my co-workers insist on calling me by the nickname "Bobby Brady"? (see above pic) Does all of this sound interesting to you?
Actually, now that I think about it, it probably does...bummer.
Yeah, I guess life has been sort of interesting lately. It's hard to think that way though when all it seems like you're doing is putting salads/desserts on plates and cleaning up after your own mess. Yeah, my job isn't the greatest in the world, but at least I have one. And I gotta say, my co-workers really do help keep things interesting. I really do like just about everyone I work with
On the music side of things, I've really just been trying to keep it up lately. My membership in the LA Scots Pipe Band has been keeping me busy piping. I suppose since I originally started this to blog about piping (which used to be how I made a living), I should continue writing about things I do in piping. The only thing is, I'm not really a "freestylepiper" anymore. No, I'm pretty much just a regular old pipe band player these days, which at times gets me down. I don't get as excited about competitions as I used to, although we did have one over the past weekend that went really well.
And in the bar at the hotel in Costa Mesa where all of the bands were staying in over the weekend I did meet a dude who is a really good beatboxer/DJ and I have been in contact with him about trying to put together a track involving bagpipes. He seemed really excited about it. So maybe there is room for some creativity alongside this pipe band agenda after all.
We'll see. I'm feeling more and more ready to start some sort of music project again and I really need to in order to keep feeling like I am a musician, despite it not being my current profession. Maybe this will satisfy that crazy craving I have to just play. Bass and piano have been good substitutes in the meanwhile however and I have been improving my chops on both and also in music sight-reading - particularly in different keys.
I just need another band (not pipe band) to play in again. That would certainly help.
Stay tuned, I'll more than likely be posting some stuff about the LA Scots Grade 1 and our recent competition outcomes in the near-future. It is piping-related after all...just like this blog is supposed to be. Freestylepipin' fo' life...fool (and ya don't stop)

PS - I went to the Liquid Kitty by myself last night after work (see my past post on this West-LA bar) and had three Cherry Cokes; it was awesome. Good music, good atmosphere, good times.

GOOD BEER

2010-04-23T01:45:00.000-07:00

SEA DOG - WILD BLUEBERRY WHEAT ALE
Because beer is only interesting when you are drinking it...and I happen to be drinking some, I want to tell you about it:

SEA DOG "BLUEPAW" WILD BLUEBERRY WHEAT ALE
4.7% Alc./Vol. Pugsley Brewing - Portland, ME

This beer is interesting because it tastes like blueberries. It's true, and when I'm drinking it, it's like tasting a refreshing alcoholic beverage and inhaling blueberry muffins at the very same time. I kid you not. The taste of blueberries in this beer is really, really good. How can you resist that label too? The cute Sheppard dog wearing the over-sized sailor's hat? It's fucking adorable.

The fact that it is usually a $10.00 six pack and miraculously reduced to costing a mere $5.99 at my local grocery store makes it all the more irresistible. I'm guessing the aforementioned price was due to its being bottled all the way in Portland, ME before arriving in Los Angeles - which is sort of like importing a beer from Ireland if you're living on the East Coast of the United States (when considering distance alone).

I swear, this beer tastes just like a blueberry muffin. The only thing it's lacking is alcohol content (somewhat weak at 4.7%), but what more can you expect from a beer whose taste resembles a breakfast pastry? I can't drink Olde English every night! It does leave me wishing I had a mimosa to help wash it down, though.

Anyway, I don't think I'll be buying this beer that often anymore (who knows when it could go back to its regular price) but I thought I'd take a moment to remark on the unique taste I encountered when uncapping a bottle of this brew for the very first time.

Definitely recommended if ever you see it anywhere.

Sleeping In/My Ongoing Battle with the 'Snooze' Button

2010-04-21T14:45:00.000-07:00

I've always loved sleeping in. Ask anyone who knows me. My old bandmate Daniel (Jakob) used to laugh at how grumpy I was when he and Michael Gartner (Micha) would wake me up at 8am to drive up north to our gigs in NY from NJ every weekend during last September. My own father, who used to wake me up for school every morning knows because he eventually couldn't take the verbal abuse he faced when coming in to my room in the mornings and finally just settled for yelling at me from downstairs or outside of my door until I woke up. Ask any old college professor I had. If there was a class sometime in the morning before 11am, you can bet I'd be nodding off in the back of the room, trying to catch up on some precious lost sleep from the night before. The list could go on...
Needless to say, I enjoy my sleep. But it's a catch-22, because I also enjoy actually experiencing the daylight and those passing hours that go along with it. However, that being said, the only time I ever actually see a sunrise if I'm still up in the AM from the night before.
This sort of introduces us to the root of my problem: Not only do I love sleeping in, but I love staying up late.
This has been a problem for me as long as I can remember. In elementary school, I once stayed up so late past my bedtime working on a story to enter into a kids' creative writing contest, that my grandmother had to finally force me to go to bed at around 12:30am. That's the earliest memory I have of staying up so late for the sole purpose of fulfilling my own creative needs, which in this case was finishing my draft version of "The Wizard of OZ: 2000" (A sci-fi take on the classic) due the next day in class. You may have noticed that even on this blog, my most latest of entries (Wolgemut Tour 2009 Photos - which is still being worked on and should be updated again soon) have been posted at hours later than 4:00am and 5:00am in the morning.
So, why is this? Aren't we supposed to 'outgrow' this phase of teenage hyper-sleeping? It seems to me that would be the medical explanation for it; some sort of inbalance that eventually works itself out as we mature. But if so, at age 25 I'm long past due being done with this phase. So, why am I still stubbornly sleeping in like the acne-faced sexually frustrated teenager I was once?
Well, I think a lot of it has to do with the hours I currently work at my job. I work from 4pm to close Sunday-Wednesday and that sometimes doesn't get me back home until after 1am. When I get back, I come home to a quiet home in which both of my roommates have already gone to bed to wake up for their day-jobs, leaving me with the apartment as my own personal oyster for doing basically whatever the fuck I want. So, I waste time. I sit at the computer and look up stuff on the internet. I draw in my sketchbooks. I try to catch the tail-end of Jimmy Fallon so I can watch one of my favorite bands, the Roots kill it every night as the house band. I drink a beer if I have it. I play music from my Motown 50th Anniversary Anthology Songbook on guitar or piano. I read. I practice bagpipe tunes. I watch a movie. I do anything and everything that does not involve going to sleep.
And then I look at the clock and it reads - 5:00am.
"Shit, it's late," I remind myself as if I didn't already know. So I lay down in my bed, not feeling that tired but just knowing that I have to put my head down to get some rest for the next day. And the next thing I hear is the noise of my alarm clock trying to wake me out of bed in the morning. 'But wait a minute...I just got into bed I don't want to leave now.' 11:30am - "BUZZ, BUZZ BUZZ BUZZZ BUZZ". I hit the snooze button and fall back to sleep. 'Ahhhhh.' Ten minutes later - "BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ". I subconsciously reach out and hit the button once again, surprising myself because I did it with my eyes shut that time. Another ten minutes pass. "BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ BUZZ" Another swipe at the snooze button and my head hits the pillow once again. 'Wow, I must be driving the neighbors insane,' I'm thinking to myself. 'Oh wait, nevermind they're probably already at work like the rest of the world. Good thing I don't have to be in until 4:00pm.'
This back and forth battle between me and my alarm clock goes on for usually an hour at least. I can be out of bed by noon (it's happened before) or I can rise as late as 1:30pm. The thing is I don't have to be in at work until 4pm anyway, so this is how I end up using my free time.
One day I want to wake up early - like before 10am and just go to the beach. Or maybe grab my skateboard and hit up a local skatepark for a few hours so that way I'd have enough time to go home and shower/change before making it into work. That would probably be good for me. But until that happens (or I figure out a way to make it happen) I'll be enjoying my precious late hours as a night owl, and greeting the sweet California sun when I feel like it - about halfway through its daily work cycle, when I am finally going in to start my own.

WOLGEMUT TOUR 2009: PHOTOS (PART 2)

2010-04-15T05:12:00.000-07:00

WOLGEMUT TOUR 2009
Hitting the Road

(PART 2)

Texas, Kansas, Iowa, Duluth & Twig (Minnesota)

So, this is it. This is where the tour actually starts. This picks up from when Mike Huebner and I left from Austin, TX at like 12:30am, drove all through the night until we finally made it to Des Moines, IA, the whole time following north up I-35. From there we spent the night in Des Moines, then hit the road once again up towards Duluth, MN...fun town. The gig was in Twig at the Twig Renaissance Faire in Minnesota.

WOLGEMUT TOUR: 2009
(PART 2)

Mike's Music Box (Saving grace and key element of entire trip)

Holy SHIT, the weather's changing...

Whoa, would you look at that? Toto, it seems we're in KS now...

Wow, look at all the pretty colors.

"HEY! Did we just pass my exit?"

Mmmmm..Des Moines has some interesting dinner choices: "I'll have the gizzards, please...No, nevermind, I'd prefer to have the cheese balls. Thank you."

$10 DOLLAR CORONAS??!!

Wow, this would insinuate riots in some certain more southwestern parts of the country.

"Pinche cerveza...Mucho dinero!!!"

Wow, it would appear we are now in Duluth. Dylan was here?

Well, I guess that's kinda cool."

Wow, Duluth on Lake Superior.

What a beautiful place.

"Hey, I know these two people"

The Beach is awesome here.

Home, sweet, home for the next...3 days?

Tail end of Mike's truck...notice the "castle wall" fence in the background.

Wow, there are trees everywhere here

Nice car for sale

Baby likes alcohol.

WHO ARE THESE CLOWNS??

(literally)

PART 3: COMING SOON

WOLGEMUT TOUR 2009: PHOTOS (PART 1)

2010-04-14T04:53:00.000-07:00

WOLGEMUT TOUR 2010

(PART 1)

Southern California, South Lake Tahoe, Tucson, Austin

So, I've been promising to do this for a while, to post the pictures I took while on the road touring with Wolgemut in 2009. Finally, I've gotten around to it. Just so you know, I will be posting this massive collection of photos in multiple parts largely because of the time it takes to upload pics on to my blog and partially because there are literally over a thousand pictures to go through and choose from. I will only be posting the ones I like, so I hope you enjoy this glimpse into what I consider to be one of the finest and most enjoyable experience of my life thus far. Please enjoy what I have to share respectfully and at the same time feel free to leave any comments, suggestions, questions, etc.

Thank you all.

Now, please enjoy:

WOLGEMUT TOUR: 2009

(PART 1)

The "Dudelsack"

Two musical maestros: Michael "Micha" Gartner and Owen "Owain" Phyfe

The wonders of the wondrous Chatauqua West

"TIGHT PANTS!"

(wearin' ass rennies)

Just kickin' it between shows

(lots of downtown in between shows - lots of hanging out and bonding ensued)

Mike climbs trees

(Mike loves trees)

Buds

Michael Gartner feet

Two coons on the dock in Tahoe

Ah, beautiful South Lake Tahoe

More Tahoe

Mike Rockin' it at TBP recording studio, Santa Monica

Kenny recording it.

High Mileage in the Millenium Falcon

Arizona: Homeward Bound!

A quick visit to Pat's

But not for long...on a plane to Austin, TX

Austin, TX

Dallas at Night

PART 2: COMING SOON

New job/Life in LA so far

2010-04-03T16:00:00.000-07:00

So, I got a job in a kitchen. I am now working at a restaurant called La Grande Orange. It is located in Santa Monica, CA - a nice beach city in case you've never heard of it. So far I gotta say, as far as jobs go, this one ain't so bad. I mean, it's still working in a kitchen, but so far I like my coworkers and the restaurant environment is kinda cool too. Location-wise it is pretty great as well. It only takes me about 15 minutes or so to get there from my apartment and Santa Monica is a pretty cool place.
My official title is "Line Cook" and I basically make the salads and desserts all night. The executive chef at the restaurant is from Tucson. I think this is part of the reason I got hired. When I went in for my interview, he started looking at my resume and began naming off the places I'd worked at in Tucson. "Wait a minute...Baggin's?..The Racquet Club?..I know these places. I used to be a member there," he started saying. "Are you from Tucson?" he asked me.
Sure enough, I told him I grew up there. He said he had lived there for 15 years and had operated several hotels in the area naming off some fancy places I had only heard of but never actually dined at. And that was about all it took. He asked me if I wanted to come in for a night of work just to see how I liked the place, and I agreed. I came in one night, worked, and then a few days later I was hired. I work nights now and that's cool by me. Mission: Get a job...Check.
As for other news, I've been playing with the LA Scots Pipe Band recently. We have a competition coming up in about three weeks. It's going to be in Las Vegas and the Simon Fraser University Pipe Band out of Vancouver, Canada will be coming down for the event. In case you are unaware, they are the World Champions from the past two years. So, needless to say, we are about to get our asses kicked. It's ok though. Everyone recognizes that and the cool thing is that we are going to get a fun weekend in Vegas out of it. We also will be playing a concert there too. Should be fun. I'm looking forward to getting to go out and travel to play music again.
Last night I saw a movie called Greenberg. It's a film done by the guy who wrote for a lot of Wes Anderson flicks (Royal Tenenbaums, Life Aquatic, Rushmore). The movie starred Ben Stiller as a former musician "doing nothing" in LA. It documented his exploits of briefly living in his successful brother's big house and ultimately developing a relationship with his brother's personal assistant. The movie was good, but in a lot of ways I found myself able to relate to Ben Stiller's character - especially with the way I felt after getting back home from being on the road back in December/January. Many of the anxieties and issues his character seemed to be grappling with were ones that I felt myself going through only a few short months ago. In retrospect, I'm glad to be out of that phase, but I still look at my past wistfully and do long for good times once had.
Having a job these days makes life feel more purposeful, but at the same time I still feel that I had more of a purpose when I was a traveling musician living on the road. They say that life is about doing the things you love in order to make a living. Right now, that statement is something I feel like I only really understood in the past. I look forward to being able to relate to this feeling again.

Freestylepipin' at Liquid Kitty tonight!

2010-03-17T15:13:00.000-07:00

Hey, got some good news! I will be playing my pipes at the Liquid Kitty tonight for their St. Patrick's Day celebration. So, if you live in the LA area and want to have some good drinks and a good time come on down!
-David

Liquid Kitty (http://www.thekitty.com)
11780 West Pico Boulevard
Los Angeles, CA 90064
end_of_the_skype_highlighting

The Hater Eliminator

2010-03-16T00:41:00.000-07:00

A funny thing happened last night as I was eating out with some friends at a local eating establishment famously known far and wide as "Rosco's Chicken 'n Waffles". Me and my pals had just finished up eating a delicious dinner combo of perfectly fried chicken dipped in gravy and buttery waffles smothered in syrup when we stepped outside to let our friend pay the bill (he was the only one with a card - go figure). Anyway, as we were standing outside the restaurant, I heard some music. It sounded interesting, so I walked over to where I heard it coming from. Next to the parking lot and the side of the road sat a black dude selling incense and playing tunes from his boombox. I walked up to him and said, "What are you listening to?"
"Huh?" He asked.
"What are you listening to?" I asked again.
"Oh, just some jazzy hip-hop shit I've been liking a lot lately. You know, I can't stand the radio stuff these days. It gets too boring, too fast." I agreed with him, exchanged some more words and then saw my friends leaving from the restaurant. "Hey, I gotta go." I said.
"Alright, man." He said. I stuck out my hand to offer a shake and before I knew he grabbed it, slapped it, then pulled me in real close shoulder to shoulder like bro's do when they embrace. This of course ended in the now-standard fist bump, and I looked up to smile at him as I was about to part ways.
"Hold on, man" he said. He then reached into his pocket and pulled out a business card. "That's my card, hit me up," he added.
"Thanks!" I said. Then I looked down at the card. It read: "The Hater Eliminator" Holy shit, how awesome, I thought. Dude's name was on the card as well as "Shorty Love". "I'll see you later. Take care, man!" I ran to catch up with my friends, holding the newly acquired card in my hand eager to show it off and let them in on the world of the "The Hater Eliminator"
What an awesome name. What an awesome card.

And because I have a scanner hooked up to my computer, I can share it with you all too.
Spread the message: Eliminate hate - "The Hater Eliminator"
PEACE and (Rosco's) Chicken Grease

my near brush with employment

2010-03-11T18:22:00.000-08:00

Let me preface this by saying that:
A.) I am not looking for pity
and...
B.) I am in no way proud of my actions

Yesterday, I got hired at a burger joint here in town. The place is on the Westside, only 15 minutes or so from where I live. It seemed like a really casual, cool environment. I would be working with a lot of grease, so it wasn't the most optimal of employment options, but at least it was employment. I was hired on the principal of, "Come in for work tomorrow, and if I like ya, I'll keep ya." That's what the restaurant owner told me. So, I told him I'd be there at 5pm ready to go.

Today, I rolled in for work. It was 5:25pm when I arrived. I had been fighting traffic all the way to my first day on the job. I called in to let them know I was running late. I walked into the restaurant. The owner was with a customer. As soon as he was done and saw me standing in the doorway he grabbed my resume which was still on his counter, asked me to come outside with him, then started hammering me with questions as to my tardiness.
I tried justifying myself to no avail.
He handed my resume back to me, said "Go on, get out of here. If you're serious about a job, show up on time your first day. Let that be a life lesson."

Well, that was about 50 minutes ago. I know I should have showed up on time. Now I must face the consequences. I have no job. I am sad that all it would have taken for me to land this job would have been to plan ahead a little better. Now I am dealing with the frustration and consequence of my own poor planning. A life lesson indeed. In the meanwhile, I'm going to go back to searching on craigslist.
Hopefully there will be better news to report with my next blog entry. But for now, the search continues....

Things Done Changed...

2010-03-11T02:34:00.000-08:00

So, I write this post feeling a bit sad and even a bit remorseful to some degree. In this post, I must reveal that I am officially "off the road". That's right. I'm no longer a part of the touring Ren Faire community. That being said, I can no longer refer to myself as a "Rennie". I can no longer call myself a musician by profession. And I can no longer write in here about the many fun and crazy experiences I am having on the road.
There will however, be a bunch of pictures on here soon that I took while on my epic journey along "the circuit" during 2009. Additionally, I may recall some experiences and post about them as well. Plus, if anything interesting happens in the most current incarnation of my life, I will without a doubt be posting about it on here too.

Now, let's see...should I save the update for now? Or later...

To hell with dramatics, let's just cut to the chase.

I am living back in LA. I have a new apartment with one of my old roommates (Nolan) and a new roommate (Kyle). This time I have my own room, which is kind of nice. Lately my days have been spent searching for a job, practicing my chanter, and getting in some sort of physical daily excerise.
Cool. I guess. I'm 25 now too, as of Feb. 21st, 2010. I feel like I should mention that. It makes me feel slightly old to think about it at times. All the angst and opposition and rebellion I once felt for society seem to be receding and slowly pulling me down into an abyss of acceptance - one that will eventually resurface as a tidal wave launching me back into the world along the shore as just another normal person living a mundane life following the path of the (dare I say it?) "straight and narrow".
Every ounce of me wants to recoil and say "Fuck that! That's not me." I want to strive to hold onto dreams that I've had - passions that I want to explore - interesting people that I want to meet. But how can I do that from LA? My dad and stepmom came out to visit me and to help me move into my new apartment. We went for a walk along Venice Beach. The place is supposed to be full of "weirdo's", "unconventionals", "people flying their freak flags". I was amazed by how unphased I felt walking among them, how nothing I saw there was surprising to me, or even in the very least bit fascinating. Oh wait, something was different and somewhat surprising - Me. The fact that all of a sudden I was on the outside looking in. It made me feel incredibly unsettled, because for an entire year (almost) it was the other way around.
Is this the way my life will be from this point on? Am I going to be forever glued to the path that so many fall into? I am sort of finding all this hard to stomach - at this point at least. I am currently searching for a job right now, but even as I fill out applications and shotgun resumes out to employers via craigslist e-mails, I can't help but think back on what my bandmate Mike once told me:
"Huh, a real job? I don't know...it just sounds so...boring."

And he's right.

Every day I think about what I traded for this current state I'm in. I'm trying not to dwell on it too much, but save for a few uncomfortable situations and one long period of loneliness incurred during Texas, being on the road was one of the most amazing experiences I've had to date. I am going to give living in LA another shot. I have to at this point. But there is no way I can say that I will stay here forever.
A year maybe, then I will see where I am at. If all is going well, then perhaps I could stay here longer. The thought of going back to school is tempting and definitely something under consideration at this point. A job (at least one to start with) will most certainly land me back in a kitchen somewhere - but hey, at least it's not in an office! I won't make that transition yet. Not yet. No way.
"Things Done Changed"

(thanks to Biggie for the song title I used to title my post)

Tennessee Airport

2009-09-24T14:50:00.000-07:00

I’m sitting in the Nashville, Tennessee Airport waiting between flights for my final flight to Baltimore, Maryland. I had a fun time in Arizona, but now I’m ready to get back to work. Two more weeks with Wolgemut in Maryland and then TRF! All I’ve heard since I joined this Ren Faire thing is how great the Renaissance Festival in Texas is. Just a few more weeks and I will find out if it’s really all it’s cracked up to be…
In Arizona I got to have a lot of fun. I saw some old friends in Tucson, attended Punk Rock Happy Hour at the legendary Club Congress, celebrated my dad’s 50th birthday and went to Las Vegas with some of my friends to celebrate yet another birthday – my best friend Nolan’s 25th! I even got to spend a day at Lake Powell with one of my closest friends from college, Jill. She has been working there in hospitality for the past few months and it was a pleasant visit to say the least.
Now the vacation is over and as I said before it’s time to get back to work. My bandmate Dan is already in Baltimore and he plans to pick me up from the airport when I arrive around 10:30pm. Mike Hubner is due to arrive sometime tomorrow (Thursday) and Michael Gartner will probably arrive sometime soon if he’s not there already.
Vacations are great and seeing family/friends is awesome. But while I was home I realized how much I love this life on the road. I missed my bandmates, I missed the lifestyle. I almost missed the Renaissance Festival – heh, it’s an interesting relationship I have with Faire. Renaissance Faires are but a vehicle for a lifestyle that I enjoy and an ever-growing group of friends that I cherish. Let this not undermine how much I love my friends from home and elsewhere but there is just something about the relationships forged on the road that I think are so special. There’s something about taking on this lifestyle and living on the road together that creates a tight bond between us. It will be good to be back on the road after having been away for a while. I’ve truly missed it.
Speaking of which, I’ve got a flight to catch*.

PS – For dinner I got a slice of sausage pizza, but I’m kicking myself for not trying the BBQ! Dang yo, if you’re ever in the Nashville Airport, try yourself one of their BBQ restaurants…the smell is soooo good!

*ED NOTE: As I was writing this I was sitting at a bar in the airport sipping on a Jim Beam (whiskey) & Coke. It cools my nerves for the flight. Just as I finished my first one, I got up to get another and realized my flight was leaving soon. So, I grabbed the drink, closed my tab, chugged it down, and ran to the flight gate. When I got there, nobody was waiting in the lobby but there was a security person walking up the gate.
“Are you David?” He asked.
“That’s me,” I replied.
“Better hurry, you’re the last one to board.”
Damn, I thought, always getting caught up in bars, haha. He scanned my ticket and I walked down the corridor to board the plane. I reached the plane and a flight attendant smiled at me. “David?” She asked.
“Yep,” I answered.
“Welcome aboard,” she said.
I walked down the aisle and found my seat feeling quite content and ready to fly, relieved that I made my flight – oddly cool with being the last one to board.

"Dave in Boots"

2009-09-15T00:27:00.000-07:00

During an extremely drunken night of partying at the New York Ren Faire campgrounds, I managed to lose my left shoe from a pair of Vans I had in a puddle of mud (ED NOTE: FULL STORY BELOW). The next night when I went back into New York City with my friend Corey, I had to wear the only extra footwear available to me at the time - my Wolgemut boots.
What resulted was the creation of this inspiring new look:

What more can I say? When you are forced into situations like this, you must accept them - and own them. I feel safe to say that I did. The proof is in this picture. Enjoy.

Last weekend in Tuxedo/NYC (again)

2009-09-14T23:24:00.000-07:00

So, to make a long story short, my friends from NYC did end up coming out to the New York Rennaisance Festival (in Tuxedo Park, NY) and they came extremely drunk. My friend Corey and his roommate Diana along with two of her friends showed up sometime after 2pm and had apparently consumed an entire bottle of 100 proof rye whiskey on the train ride over. I find the fact that they even showed up to be quite commendable, but that they even made it after consuming so much liquor makes it even more impressive. I ran into these bad apples eventually when they came to watch my 4:30 Wolgemut appearance on the Teatro Del Sol stage. Sure enough, they were at the stage on time, front and centre, excited and innebriated - I wouldn't have had it any other way.
After the show (I know I said this story was short...but I lied) Corey said he wanted to stay and hang out. Diana and her two friends were trying to leave and wanted to catch a taxi cab back to the train station before they missed their 6pm train (the next one left at 10pm), so in what was probably the first biggest mistake of the night, they left Corey with me. The only problem was that I wasn't sure what we were going to do for the night. However, quick to come up with ideas, and determined to show my friend a true "renny's" renassaince faire experience, I decided that we should hang out in the campgrounds for the night and look for some parties. Little did I know that the fact we didn't have camping passes was going to make for an eventful evening.
The good thing was we did have a place to stay in an empty trailer that was not being used for the night. The bad thing was that we eventually got so drunk that we couldn't find where this trailer was in the dark and we had also managed to pick up a slew of security guards who wanted to kick us off the site for not having camping passes. That being said, we managed to create a pretty messy situation out of the night. Throw in the part where I stumbled into a large puddle/pond and ended up losing my left shoe in the mud and you've got a night that could only happen to one of two people - myself or Corey; and we were both there so you can only imagine what kind of trouble we created. I guess that's what happens when you hang out with friends from college and you still act pretty much just like you used to in college.
With the help of security (and whoops, the festival's entertainment director) we eventually found the trailer we were sleeping in and passed out. I slept on the only comfortable sleeping surface in the trailer while Corey miserably slept in discomfort all night. The next morning, I had to wake up and play with Wolgemut. Corey stayed sleeping in the trailer until 2:30pm when I came back to wake him up. I snuck him back onto the festival site and finished out the day of work. It was a pretty good day overall. Despite being super drunk the night before, I managed to make it through over seven different performances throughout the day. We finally finished at 7pm.
I had already been planning on going back to Brooklyn to hang out with Corey for one night, so we both got a ride with my bandmates to the train station and caught the 10pm train in to the City. The unfortunate thing about the whole situation was that I had still not recovered my lost left shoe from the previous night. In fact, it's still probably buried deep down in the mud somewhere in the forests of Tuxedo Park, NY. So, since I hadn't brought an extra pair of 'normal shoes' with me to the Ren Faire, I was forced to wear my costume boots in to the city. Needless to say, I got some interesting reactions from people - especially from this one black dude on the subway. This guy even called to me from across the way, "Hey! Puss in boots!"
Immediately an uproar of laughter came from the large group of friends he was with. He thought it was funny, and I could only really laugh at the situation myself, so I said," What's up?"
"Nah, I'm playin'," he said, "I like them boots though! Can I have 'em?" He then offered to trade me his shoes (a pair of fresh Nike Dunks!!) for my boots. I almost took him up on the offer since I was going to be needing some new shoes soon anyway (and they were some nice Dunks too, btw), but I decided to keep my own boots because I would eventually need them for work again. Oh well. He didn't seem too disappointed. Since his train hadn't left yet, dude then offered to show me what he referred to as "a real big ol' Black ass!" Apparently it was worth seeing, so I walked on to the train he was on and he had his girl friend turn around and...HOLY CRAP!!! That was a big ass! I quickly grabbed my camera phone and snapped a photo. His friends laughed at that - some white kid taking a picture of this black girl's big ass - I guess it was pretty funny.

[PICTURE COMING SOON]

Corey and I eventually returned back to Brooklyn and had yet another late night of drinking and playing Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. I love visiting New York City. I always have such a fun time there - even in renaissance boots.

Back on the West (best?) Coast

2009-09-10T12:56:00.000-07:00

Hey everybody,
I am writing this newest post while sitting comfortably reclined on a couch in Chandler, AZ. I just got back to Arizona last night and the first thing I realized when I got off the airplane and set foot outside was that Arizona really is hot as balls! I had forgotten having spent the past 3 or 4 months in much cooler parts of the country just how hot my home state is. Seriously! I was watching the news a few minutes ago and it's supposed to get up to 105 degrees today!
Whatever...I'm making myself look bad right now. Like I said, this is my home state. A mere 105 degrees shouldn't make me flinch much less break a sweat - sure, if I was superhuman and able to withstand outrageously hot temperatures. I'll admit it, I kind of miss New Jersey's subtle cool temperatures right now. Even the amount of green trees and forest was a nice change in scenery from what I've been accustomed to.
Anyway, I'll be back out west for the next 2 weeks. It's vacation time! Then, back to Maryland for two weekends of playing with Wolgemut. From there, I'll be traveling to Texas for 2 months with Tartanic at TRF, and by the end of that festival, it'll be time to come back to Arizona and eat some turkey in celebration of Thanksgiving. Actually, I'll probably be working during Thanksgiving - sorry family! Oh well, I've never been a fan of holiday food anyway...more for you guys!

Stay tuned for more posts over the week. I've got a few stories from New York to share with you, a couple more from the city even. Not to mention I imagine I'll be facing imminent boredom over the next week since I'll be in Tucson. If I can figure out how to load pics from my camera on to this site, you guys'll all be in for some real treats! That's a promise.
-David

NYC

2009-09-04T19:41:00.000-07:00

So, I just got back from spending a couple of days in NYC - Brooklyn to be exact. Williamsburg if I must be so specific. While there, I had a fun time visiting and hanging out with my college friend, Corey Rankin. Wednesday night, we drank some beverages and played Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2 on Corey's modified X-Box all night. Corey has this awesome X-Box that has been modified so that it can function as an emulator for playing old video game roms on. He has about a bajillion games on there, but during the time of my visit there was only one that mattered - Tony Hawk's Pro Skater 2. Admittedly, I got my ass kicked the first night of playing, so much so that Corey actually suggested we play something else. We played some old Nintendo games and watched some TV before eventually I passed out on his couch.
The next day, we woke up late and grabbed a train ride into Manhatten. We got off on 64th Street and walked into Central Park, and eventually over to the Metropolitan Museum of Art. For a mere $3 donation, I was able to walk around the museum for over 2 hours! Corey it turns out is more of a philanthropist than I. He paid a $7 donation for 2 hours of museum time. What a show off. The museum was great! I saw Egyptain art, Medievel weaponry, Van Gogh's, Matisses, even Michaelangelo's very first painting. There was quite a lot to see in the museum and we pretty much saw the majority of it in 2 hours. After we left the museum, we decided to walk all the way back to Brooklyn. It took us over three hours to get from the Metropolitan Museum of Art all the way to Corey's apartment front door. Crossing the Williamsburg Bridge during the sunset was well worth it. In fact, the whole day was beautiful and the temperature was perfect.
We got back to Corey's and almost immediately got back into playing some Tony Hawk. My game had improved since the night before and for most of the time we were neck and neck. Corey's roommate Diana was around and she helped us polish off the better part of a big bottle of cheap gin. Diana is a lot of fun. She's from Australia but has lived in Brooklyn for over 8 years. She also likes to drink a lot and is always introducing me to some wacky new British TV show whenever I visit. The first time I was over there, she showed me "Extras". This time it was something called "15 Storeys Above". If things work out, Diana and Corey may come out to the Tuxedo Ren Faire this weekend. I got them pretty curious from all the stories I told about the Ren Faire community. Plus it's easy to get to Tuxedo Park from NYC. Hopefully they'll make it.
Oh yeah, one last thing. Diana gave me a website recomendation. It's called ToplessRobot.com
Good thing too. StreetCarnage.com (although probably my longtime favorite blog) isn't always on with their material - especially of late. Topless Robot however, offered up a few gems right off the bat. Take for example, this video:

I think I've just found my new favorite superhero!!! Perhaps she could be my new girlfriend as well...

WHOOOPS...

2009-09-01T09:11:00.000-07:00

We all do stupid things now and then. For me, my most recent bout of stupidity occurred last Friday night. As I mentioned in a previous post, we have been staying in New Jersey for the past few weeks at Frank and Gabrielle's house. Gabrielle has been nice enough to offer me use of her car while she is away and naturally I was delighted. The car is a standard transmission model, so I am literally the only person in the house now other than her who knows how to drive it. Therefore, I have been taking the car out on errands every now and then, but only if the errand was a necessity.
Friday night was the occasion of one such necessity. Dan (of Wolgemut) and I had rented several videos from a local video rental store and the videos had to be returned by Friday night or else we would have to pay some late fees. So, I borrowed Gabrielle's car to go return the videos. It was about 9:00pm when I left and it was raining slightly.
The thing about this video store is that I had only been there once (when we rented the videos) and so I sort of had trouble finding it again. I had been driving around for literally a half an hour when I came to an intersection with a red light. As I mentioned before, it was raining out and I was still looking for this video store without any luck. I remember approaching the red light with my foot on the brake, slowing down, but looking out the passenger side window scanning businesses for the video store when all of a sudden...SMACK!!! A sudden jolt, and I looked up to see the bumper of a gold Honda Civic directly in front of me.
"Shit!" I thought. I had just gotten into an accident.
From the feel of the impact, I could tell that it wasn't a serious accident, but I knew that I was obligated to pull over and talk to the people I had just hit. So, I flipped the car into reverse and pulled into a gas station that was right there at the intersection. The other car did the exact same. Immediately, two 20-something looking women got out of the car. One was already on her cellphone, the other went to the back of the car to inspect for damage. I went up to them apologizing and asking if they were ok then went to the back of the car to inspect for damage.
It was pretty dark out and still raining slightly, but from my point of view, there was virtually no damage on their car. I had already inspected the front of Gabrielle's car and to my surprise there appeared to be no damage on her car either. The accident had shaken me up a little bit and I could tell it had shaken the women up too. I tried to calm them down apologizing and saying that I would accept responsibility for the damages but that I could not give them any insurance information because the car I had been driving was not mine. In the end I gave them my cellphone number, e-mail address, AZ Driver's license number and basically just my word that I would pay for any damage their car incurred.
I drove away from the scene with a slight bit of hope that I would never hear from them again and was actually quite relieved because from what I could see there was virtually no damage to their vehicle. I got back on the road, eventually found the video store, returned the videos, then drove back home to Frank and Gabrielle's. I hadn't been home more than a half an hour before my phone rang. It was the number of the girl from the accident.
I answered the phone, "Hello?"
"Hi, is this David?" A man's voice was on the other end.
"Yes, this is David," I replied.
"Hi David, this is Bryan, the husband of the woman whose car you hit today. I just wanted to tell you that there is a dent."
Crap, I thought. Just my luck really. We talked for a little while and basically worked it out so that he would take the car in for an estimate and I would pay for whatever the damages were. He was going to e-mail me the estimate over the weekend and we would take it from there.
Well, the weekend passed and I had not heard from anyone during that time. Then, Monday afternoon my phone rang again. This time it was the woman I had hit. She informed me that the damages were going to cost around $520.00 and on top of it, she needed a rental car to get to and from work while the car was being fixed. She wanted me to pay for this as well. I figured I had no choice and agreed to pay for this as well. All together it looked as if it was going to cost something like $600.00 for the damages and rental fee. She also sent me a report from the mechanic and was even nice enough to include some pictures of the damage.
Just for kicks I have decided to include the pictures of the $500 worth of damage caused by Gabrielle's car (an early 1990's Honda compact car):
There it is everybody. $500 worth of damage caused by two little screws that were holding on the front license plate of Gabrielle's car.

Sometimes I really can't believe how big a deal people make out of little things. Sure, this is damage and since I caused it I must assume responsibility for it. But the accident was by no means serious and had it been an older car, I don't think they would have cared so much. Just my luck that I hit a brand new automobile.
Oh well. I met with Bryan just yesterday and handed him a check for about $600 - enough to cover the maintenance fees and the rental car. Funny how these things happen. I've had a string of bad luck recently actually. Weekend before last I forgot the bagpipe when we went to the Tuxedo Ren Faire to work. We had already driven an hour and a half before realizing it was gone. Just this last weekend, during a performance on Saturday the bagpipe drone reed broke in the middle of our performance forcing us to stop. And on top of it, 3 out of the past 4 days working at this Ren Faire have been dominated by rain and bad weather. Last Sunday was our only decent day and we still made minimal tips.
All this being said, I think it's time for something really good to happen to me. Not that I'm miserable by any means right now. I'm actually pretty content with where I'm at right now. It's just this string of bad luck that has got to end. Hopefully that's the worst of it!

Wolgemut VIDEOS!!!

2009-08-25T10:53:00.000-07:00

Hey, so I found some videos fans took and posted on Youtube from Pennsic 38. I figured I would post them up here because a lot of people reading this have never even seen or heard the band that I'm currently playing in. So, thanks to some generous bootleggers, here are some videos of me playing with Wolgemut.

Here's us playing in the 'lanes' at Pennsic:

This is our biggest concert we played at Pennsic:

If anyone else finds any 2009 Wolgemut videos out there, let me know! Also, just fyi, the bright colorful costumes you see us wearing in the second video are the costumes we wear all the time now. And let me share one thing with you all: they are really really hot. Jumping around while playing bagpipes in those things is not something you do to cool off. No. Unless dripping in your own sweat underneath 10 pounds of fabric is your idea of cooling off....

something new!

2009-08-25T10:18:00.000-07:00

OK, so I realize it's been a very long time since I wrote in this damn blog that I started a few months ago. In fact, it's been just about a month since I wrote that last piece on Oswego. And I've got some good news too: we have left Oswego! That's right. Now, we are currently residing just 14 miles outside of Princeton, New Jersey in a town called Skillman. We are staying in the carriage-house style apartment belonging to Frank and Gabrielle of the Ren Faire-playing Irish folk music group known as CRANNOG. So far, this is hands down the nicest place we have stayed. There is a swimming pool here and some property with trees and grass. Also, it's really close to NYC (an hour train ride) and Philadelphia as well.
A lot has happened since the last time I wrote in here. The Sterling Renaissance Faire finally wrapped up, we swam a lot in Lake Ontario, we played for a week out at Pennsic, I went to NYC for a few days to visit a college friend, I even briefly dated a cast member in Oswego. Yes, many exciting things have happened. I would elaborate more, but I feel as though I am being more drawn towards the swimming pool with every word that I type!
Which reminds me I should mention the other great thing about being here in NJ: free INTERNET! That's right. No more walking to the bar with my computer to leech wifi.
More updates soon (thanks to consistent Internet!)
I promise :)

Oswego so far...

2009-07-31T13:00:00.000-07:00

Oswego, NY. I’ve been living here for over a month now playing with Wolgemut at the Sterling Renaissance Festival. A few notes about Oswego: It is very small. It is a college town. It is old as fuck. It is the starting point for several canals that run through the entire state of New York. It is incredibly boring. It hosts Harborfest. That’s about it. I really wish I could be more flattering about the place, but it’s tough.
I only mentioned the Harborfest thing because apparently it is the biggest annual event in the city. I also only mentioned it because it just happened over the last week/weekend. For about four days last week, this town was flooded with drunk, horny, rambunctious college students drinking in public and partying until the early hours of the morning. Locals call the event “Harbormess” and loath it, dreading its inevitable return every year. I took it as an opportunity to go out with my friends and put myself on the never-ending meat market of bar night-life.
Unfortunately, I found that this market was already plagued by the presence of meatheads and douchebags who would undoubtedly take away from my chances (if any) of meeting a nice college girl who might want to go home with me. Oh well. That’s why I have friends to keep me entertained and in good company during these occasionally rough periods of draught. So Harborfest was really awful and probably not even worth the mentioning I have already given to it. Let’s focus on more relevant things, such as 2009 The Sterling Renaissance Festival. Hands down, this is the most professional show I have worked at thus far. The site is absolutely beautiful and actually reminds me of being in Elizabethean England. The actors on cast are incredibly talented and this place really transforms into a magical kingdom on the weekends.
The only bummer so far has been the weather which occasionally decides to be a bitch and pours down rain on the weekends. Sometimes, it gets to be really hot and customers don’t want to sit in the sun to watch our shows. But all in all, the majority of the weekends have been pretty decently attended and we have played to many enthusiastic audiences – which is really all a musician can ask for. I will try to write more about Oswego when I feel like it. Until then, I will go back to trying to fill empty voids of time with things to do. Only three more weekends of this faire! Whoo-hoo!

the past few weeks (part 4)

2009-07-16T13:41:00.000-07:00

So, Ohio was cool. I finally got in around 12:30am after my hectic day of dealing with Megabus, but I soon found myself resting up at my friend Joe Egar’s place a couple of hours later. Joe lives in Aurora and came to pick me up from Tower City in downtown Cleveland where the Megabus stop is. We played some late night pool accompanied by some wine and then went to bed. The next morning, Joe, Katie Lamoreau, and myself went to see the new Transformers movie: “Revenge of the Fallen”. Talk about shitty! Honestly, this was one of the worst films I’ve seen in a long time. The plot just kept getting thicker and thicker (but not in the good kind of way). Every twenty minutes it seemed like a new character was introduced. Sometimes thick is good, like when you’re talking about a milkshake, but the way this movie’s plot was thick reminded me of a tub of lard. Seriously, it just kept getting longer and longer, but for no good reason. Basically, it just got worse and worse and towards the end I even found myself laughing out loud at the ridiculousness of the whole thing.
Eventually the bad movie was over. We went back to Joe’s place and swam in his pool, which was really warm and refreshing. Later our friend Mike Auerbach (Joe’s roommate) got home from work, and he jumped in the pool too. Mike, Joe, Katie, and I swam for a few hours and then got out of the pool to continue with the rest of the night’s plans – go into Cleveland and check out Great Lakes Brewery.
I’ve never been to Great Lakes Brewery, but I’ve most certainly had their beers. They make some great products, like for example: Edmund Fitzgerald Porter, Dortmunder Gold Lager, and Commodore Parry’s Ale. We got to try most of these beers fresh off the tap and also we got to take a free tour of the brewery as well.
Unfortunately by the end of the night, I got a little bit too drunk (that’s what happens when they give you free beers) and apparently I ended up flicking off some bartender at a bar later on which supposedly got us (me) kicked out of the bar. I don’t remember any of this. I just recall waking up in Joe’s basement and trying to beat “Aladdin” on Sega Genesis. I got to the last level where unfortunately, Jaffar beat me and I lost the game after playing for over an hour. I swear, no matter how many apples I threw at that fucker, he just kept coming back at me with these huge fire balls! I swear video games can bring out the worst in me. (I’ve been known to throw controllers across rooms)
Later that afternoon, Joe, Katie, Mike, and me drove to Columbus, where Katie lives. Once in Columbus, we went to a live outdoor concert event taking place downtown called Comfest. Comfest was cool, but way too overcrowded. We walked onto the festival site for about 30 mins before deciding to leave. Beer lines were expensive and none of the bands seemed worth seeing, so we ended up visiting a local bar.

This was cool by me because at that point we met up with Shanna (who drove down with her ex-boyfriend from Chicago) and my friend from college, Dan Blommel. Blommel had a dog with him that was very cool. And in order to accommodate his dog, we had to find a bar with an outside patio, which we did. Blommel, Shanna, and the rest of us hung out at a bar for the majority of the night. The bar actually had a great selection of beers on tap. I enjoyed a Dogfish Head 90 Minute IPA as Blommel and I conversed about our recent adventures. Over drinks, I learned that Blommel had enlisted for the Navy but then decided not to go through with it and thus was planning on hopping the border to Canada to avoid his duties. I swear, there are some things you just can’t make up even if you try.

After hanging out at the bar for a while, Joe, Mike, Katie, and I went back to Katie’s apartment. There, we met Katie’s friend Todd. Todd is also my friend from back in the day when we used to go to Wooster together. We got more drunk at Katie’s apartment and then went to the nearby traintracks to hang out and see a train go by. We waited by the traintracks for nearly an hour before a train finally came. We laid down right next to the tracks that the train was coming in on. Then, all of a sudden…WHOOOSH!!! The train came rumbling through and it was exhilarating to see all that steel moving by us at such a fast pace of motion, all while lying with our backs down on the gravel 2 feet away from the tracks! The train eventually passed us by, so we went back to Katie’s apartement to pass out.

The next day Mike and Joe left for Cleveland, leaving me alone with Katie in Columbus. Katie is a graduate student at Ohio State University, meaning she is always very busy. Therefore having me in her apartment all day while she was trying to study/work was not the most productive thing for her. So, I asked Katie to drop me off at our friends Ryan and Nelli’s place out of consideration for her. Ryan and Nelli live in a large house near campus with four other people. Katie and I have had multiple friends who have lived in this house over the years and due to the constant drama that has gone on in the house because of its inhabitants’ active social lives, it has earned the very appropriate nickname of “The House of Doom”.

Shanna was staying at the House of Doom as well, so Katie dropped me off there with her. We then went to a nearby park where Ryan and a couple of her other house-of-doom-mates were playing “bike polo”. If you’ve never heard of or seen bike polo before, it is really a very interesting game to watch. Basically the best way to explain it is that it’s a game of polo (yes, polo) played by a bunch of young hipster-type kids on fixed-gear bikes instead of on horses. They also play on concrete and in this case the game was being played on an old street hockey court at OSU. Shanna and I stayed to watch the whole game, which was pretty fun and then we walked back to the House of Doom with Ryan and one of her friends.

The next day I hung out at the house all day. It was really a pretty dull day until Katie called me after her work to go out for BuffaloWings. We picked up our friend Todd once again for the event. Afterwards, since Katie still had some work to do back at home, Todd and I hung out for the rest of the night and ended up going on a two-hour bike ride with a bunch of kids from The House of Doom and like 30 other people. I borrowed somebody’s bike for the event which apparently happens every Monday night in Columbus.

The Monday Night Ride, as it is called, is basically just a bunch of hipster-type bike kids riding bikes through all of Columbus while consuming alcohol. Todd and I each had a can of JOOSE for the event (a Sparks knock-off) and had a really fun time. It had been a really long time since I last rode on a road bike (I used to only have BMX’s) so it took a bit of getting used to. By the end of the night though, I was having a great time cruising through the streets with a massive pack of bikers. I was also very impressed by the community feeling that this group gave off. At certain intersections, bikers would block traffic to make way for our large group, much like a funeral procession. And whenever one of the riders got a flat tire, our entire pack would stop and wait for them to make the repair. It was a great time and we eventually finished up the ride, and Todd dropped me off at Katie’s where I slept for the night. In the morning, Katie dropped me off at the Greyhound station.

I got a Greyhound bus to Akron where I was meeting up with my friend Marissa. Marissa is one of my good friends from college who is actually getting married very soon. Unfortunately since I’m on tour now, I can’t make it to her wedding. So I decided I’d make an effort to meet up with her while I was in Ohio, and on Tuesday we hung out together all day with our friend Katie Kranyak. We went for a walk in the park and at one point I had an allergic to reaction to a flower that I smelled. I think I got my nose too close to it or something.

Anyway, I stayed the night at Marissa’s new house too and woke up early the next morning to catch a Greyhound out of Cleveland – this one traveling to Syracuse, New York for our next gig. Katie dropped me off at the station around 8:00am. I tried to doze off on the bus but had a hard time falling asleep so I ended up making conversation with the woman sitting next to me for a while. We talked about all sorts of topics from traveling, to family sizes, cell phones, and Michael Jackson, just to name a few things. I love meeting random people while traveling. Greyhound buses always make for the best social experiments and situations, but never for a comfortable sleep unfortunately.

Finally, when I arrived in Syracuse, Mike Huebner picked me up from the bus station. We drove to Oswego where we are now staying in a small house with five bedrooms. The town is quite small and has lots of hills. I brought my skateboard and so I have been riding around town quite a bit. It’s a lot of fun riding these hills and our proximity to Lake Ontario makes for some nice scenery. Looks like this will be ‘home’ for the next two months or so. It is nice to finally be settled down for a little bit. As much as I love traveling, it’s nice to finally have a chance to stay in one place for a while, even if that place is located in the far part of northern New York in a little town called Oswego. Damn, it almost feels like my college town of Wooster all over again.

Bagpipe Hero Video Game!! HAHA

2009-07-07T12:32:00.000-07:00

HAHAHA, this shit cracks me up.
"SUPERPIPE!" HAHAHA

(Mike McNutt from Tartnaic sent this to me. Hilarious!!)

The past few weeks (part 3)

2009-07-07T12:28:00.000-07:00

Wednesday morning I woke up late. I had a bus to catch at 8:15am. As I packed up and looked all around me for my things that were scattered all over Jeff and Mickelsen’s living room floor, I realized that it was more than likely I would not be making my bus. Nonetheless, I continued to hurry as if there was some sort of chance that the bus would be delayed. I ran out of the apartment to the “L” station right down the street with my big-ass backpack strapped to my back and my bagpipe case in my right hand. As I was running to the tracks, I heard an “L” train approaching. Nope. No way I would be making that one. I hadn’t even made it to the station yet, much less swiped my card.

But I continued running. By the time I made it through the gate and to the first step of the stairs leading up to the train platform, I heard the train start to leave. “Great,” I thought. “Now there’s no way in hell I’ll make my bus.”

I tried not to worry about it though and waited for the next train to come. It came surprisingly fast and soon I was on my way to Union Station, where the Megabus I was supposed to catch was most likely boarding its last passengers. In a last ditch effort to make my bus, I tried calling the Megabus hotline to find out about the status of my bus. They told me I had eight minutes to catch it. Fuck. No way I was going to make it.

Sure enough, when I got to my stop and was off the train, I ran up the stairs and then followed the signs for a few blocks on foot that said “TO UNION STATION”. Then, to my dismay as I rounded the corner of the last block, I saw not one, not two, but three Megabuses pulling out of the Union Station bus stop. Damn. I had missed my bus.

I went to the bus stop anyway and asked if the bus leaving for Cleveland was gone. It had already left. All of that hustling, just to find out that I was minutes too late. Exhausted from my journey, I laid down on the sidewalk of the bus stop. Soon, I fell asleep and actually stayed asleep for a good three hours. As I laid on top of my luggage in the morning sunlight on the hot sidewalk in downtown Chicago, passengers for other Megabuses came and went, walking right by me. At one point, a passenger boarding a bus kicked my foot. I woke up, sort of startled. I looked up to see a girl standing over me. She had a pack similar to mine and was starting to load it onto her back.

“Wake up!” she said. “The bus is leaving. Do you want to miss it?”

“No.” I said. “I don’t want to miss it. Where are you going?”

“Detroit,” she replied.

Crap, I thought. “I’m going to Cleveland,” I said.

“Oh,” she replied, then got in line for the bus.

As I laid down again trying to fall back asleep on the sidewalk, I thought to myself how much more fun it would be to go to Detroit – especially if I was going with a cute girl. Maybe I could ride to Detroit with her, then make my way down to Cleveland. But, damn. I had already made plans with friends in Ohio and I really needed to book another ticket for the afternoon bus. Exhausted, I passed out again and woke up around noon.

I called the Megabus hotline again and booked myself a ticket, this one leaving at 3:15pm. Three hours to kill. What to do?

I waited around a little bit, and soon my phone started ringing. It was David Mickelsen. Apparently, I still had the keys to his apartment in my pocket. Whoops. Well, at least now I had the time to correct my mistake. So, I got back on the “L” train and went all the way back to where I had started from earlier that morning. Mickelsen and I met up, got a bite to eat, laughed at my misfortune and mistakes from the morning, and eventually I got back on the train, destined to make my 3:15 Megabus on time – early even.

I got to Union Station twenty minutes early. “Yes!” I thought to myself. There was no way I could miss this bus. And sure enough, the bus rolled up at 3:15, unloaded its passengers, and then took off with nobody on it. “What the hell?” I thought. This just wasn’t my day. It wasn’t until forty minutes later that the Megabus finally pulled up again to pick up its passengers. “Fuck!” I thought. “If only my morning bus had been so late, I would already be in Cleveland by now.” I boarded the bus and sat down for my six hour journey.

The past few weeks (part 2)

2009-06-29T23:11:00.000-07:00

So Ironwood ended (thank god) and we stayed the Sunday night in our hotel once again. Monday morning we woke up, checked out, and then Mike and I hit the road for Chicago. Of course our next scheduled performance wasn't for another couple of weeks (Stirling, NY) so we had some time to kill. Since I used to live in Chicago for a little over a year, I called up some old friends to let them know we were coming through and if I could have a place to crash while we (I) was in town. One of the first people I contacted was my old friend/coworker, Tonya. We got into town Monday night around 6:00pm and ended up meeting Tonya at a Wrigleyville area bar called Slugger's. It was great catching up with her. Mike, Tonya, and I actually ended up sitting in the bar for a couple of hours just talking and shooting the shit. It was a lot of fun and so great to be back in contact with my old friend.
After a couple drinks and some good conversation, we headed out to my old Chicago neighborhood of Logan Square. This is where we were going to be staying for the night. One of my old roommates (also named David) had just recently moved into a new apartment with his current roommate, Jeff. They had two couches in their apartment for us to sleep on. We got there and pretty much ended up just chilling for the night. They had an awesome back porch/balcony that was accessible by climbing through their living room window. A couple of chairs placed outside made it the perfect hang out spot. We exchanged stories for a while and Mike and I blabbed about our experiences on the road.
The next morning, Mike woke up early and drove out to Philadelphia (where he is from) where he would be staying for the next couple of weeks. I slept until the unbearable heat from the morning sun woke me up (approximately 10:30am). David was there getting up for work as I awoke. Not wanting to spend all day couped up indoors, I left when David did and walked to the "L" Train. Along the way I called my friend Shanna. To my surprise, Shanna had just quit her job and wanted to hang out. Out of boredom, we decided to meet up and visit the Sears Tower. Long ago, when I used to live in Chicago, I actually had a job interview for an office located in the Sears Tower. Needless to say, I had been inside of it, but never as a tourist or up to the Observation Deck on the 99th floor.
The tour cost about $15 and was totally worth it. Shanna and I stayed on the observation deck looking down on the city for almost an hour before riding the elevator 99 floors back down to the city streets. It was really a pretty breathtaking view from the top. We actually spotted Shanna's apartment in Pilsen from the southernmost window, which was cool. I could not see my old apartment because it was just too far away and lost in a sea of housing to the west. I did, however, get to look down on the city I used to drive around delivering pizzas in.
After my Sears Tower visit with Shanna, we parted ways and I took the "L" back to Logan Square. In Logan, I went back to my old apartment to chill with my old roommates, Dave and Kyle. It was awesome getting back there and hanging out with the guys for a bit again. Of course nothing had changed and they were just sitting around hanging out doing the same old thing as in the past. But it was cool to see how I used to live from an outside perspective this time. After a few hours of chilling and a visit to our apartment's 4th floor rooftop, I went back to meet up with David at his apartment. Soon after, we departed for the northside of town where we met up with a couple of David's coworkers at the Greene Mill. In case you haven't heard of the Greene Mill, it is an old-fashioned styled jazz club/bar with live jazz every night of the week. We went to check out a group called the Deep Blue Organ Trio. Awesome stuff! The B3 Organ player was the shit. The bass lines he hammered out with his feet on the pedals were far superior compared to anything I could ever produced with my hands on four strings!
I only ended up staying for the first set however and left the club early to go back home. I lost track of the night after a certain point and pretty much just remember waking up sweating again in David and Jeff's apartment. The next day I spent pretty much just hanging out at my old apartment with Dave and Kyle for a bit. After watching most of "Next Friday" I got bored and met up with David at his apartment. We killed some time, got a bite to eat, and later left to meet up with friends at a bar in Humboldt Park. One of my friends from college, David Drake (another David!!) was dj'ing that night at the bar. Once there, we also met up with my ex-girlfriend Cara, and another old college friend named Chris. We hung out at the bar for a little while to catch up and hear David spin some house and disco classics before walking back to David and Jeff's apartment. Chris joined us for the walk back and then he and I went to the local 7-11 where we each bought a 40. For the next hour and a half or so, we chilled on the back porch drinking and reminiscing about college. At some point, I had a half-baked idea to go out and ride the "L" for a few hours around Chicago, but when I realized how tired I was and that I needed to wake up early as hell to catch my 8:40am bus, I changed my mind and sent Chris back home. It was about 3:30am when I finally went to bed.

Past few weeks (part 1)

2009-06-28T14:03:00.000-07:00

The past few weeks have really been somewhat of blur to me. After our stay in Minnesota, we drove up to the Upper Peninsula of Michigan where we had a gig at a tiny Renaissance Festival in Ironwood. The thing about Ironwood is that it is right on the border of Wisconsin. In fact, I think there is even a river that seperates the states. We arrived Friday night and checked into our hotel for the evening before venturing out into the town for some drink and food.
We found a place in Ironwood that looked like a classy little pub. I went up to order a drink and was instantly carded. I handed my ID over to the bartender who looked at it scrutinizingly and ended up denying it saying he could not accept it because it said "UNDER 21" on it. What the bartender failed to observe is that my liscence actually says, "UNDER 21 until 2/21/2006". I tried again to point this out to the gentleman, who took it again and this time pointed out the small chip in the corner of my liscence as his reason for denying it. I protested his decision, to which he responded, "This is MICHIGAN. We can't accept that ID here." I was pissed. I could feel my blood starting to boil, so I got up and went outside telling the rest of Wolgemut that I would eventually be back but that I needed to go for a walk. I decided to try and look for another bar, but as I was crossing the street at a crosswalk with the right-of-way, a truck making a left-hand turn almost turned right in to me. I made hand gestures at the driver as if to say "What the hell, man?" But he didn't seem to notice and probably would have plowed right into me if I hadn't been paying attention.
I walked for a couple of blocks until I came to a bar. There was a sign on the front saying "No checks". I had no cash on me and didn't like the way the bar looked anyway. It didn't seem like the place I'd want to enter alone. I was sure that I looked like an outsider. So, I decided to wander a bit more. I was really hungry and was almost set on just walking back to the hotel and ordering a pizza. But I was seriously beginning to doubt if the town was even going to have a pizza shop. Eventually I was saved by Mike calling me to ask where I had wandered off to. Apparently they were ready to leave the upscale pub. I told him I hadn't had any luck in the town and wanted to leave. Then Michael Gartner said, "Let's go to Wisconsin!"
So, we got in our cars and headed across the river into a town called Hurely. Mike and I remembered seeing the town on the way in. It was instantly recognizable because the main street through the town was loaded with bars upon bars. I'm not even joking when I say that there was an entire couple of blocks lined with them. There even different types of bars, from bars with cage dancing to full on strip bars. We eventually decided to go into one of these bars - a place called The Munch. The Munch was a taco bar and they had a taco special for $3.25 you could get four tacos. Michael and I bought tacos and then Michael also bought me a beer. The difference between this bar and the one in Ironwood (besides the atomosphere) is that in this bar, they didn't even so much as ask me for my age, much less my ID. It was a fun night there though. Mike, Dan, and I played pool and drank for a few hours. Then Mike drove us back into Michigan where we went to the hotel and fell asleep.
The next morning we played the Lake Superior Renaissance Festival. Talk about small! The crowds reacted to us, but sometimes it was down-right hard just trying to get people to pay attention. I'm glad this fair was only one weekend. Relieved actually.

(TO BE CONTINUED...)

Duluth visit

2009-06-28T14:01:00.000-07:00

So, I’m going to try to keep this shorter since I tend to ramble when I’m writing about things that just recently happened to me. It’s funny because what I’ve noticed that tends to happen is I start writing all of my sentences with “We…” or “Then we…”, etc. Now I have to figure out a new way to write about my past 24 hours without retelling it like a fourth grader, so here I go.

Yesterday, Mike and I drove from Des Moines, Iowa up north to Duluth, Minnesota. The trip went much faster than the previous day’s journey which consisted of over sixteen hours of driving and more than forty hours of no sleep for the both of us. The five and a half hours it took us to drive to Duluth were a breeze and a much welcomed change of pace for our adventure on the road.
Mike had hooked up a place for us to stay in Duluth with a friend he had met the previous year at the Old World Renaissance Festival (where we are playing this weekend in Twig, MN). His friend’s name was Ksenyia. She apparently had been at the faire the prior year by herself getting drunk and dancing around listening to her ipod when Mike and previous Wolgemut drummer Elliott decided to run into her. The story then takes a weird twist because apparently Mike and Elliott decided to take a naked dip in Lake Superior shortly after meeting Ksenyia who was still with them at the time. It culminates with Mike standing in the nude on the beach introducing himself to her.
The result of the story: One year later Mike and I had a place to stay in Duluth and a super cool, really nice girl from Russia to show us around.
We had a great time in Duluth, which apparently is the home of Bob Dylan. The beach of Lake Superior is really nice and we walked up and down the beach for a few hours talking and joking. I had fun skipping rocks on the lake, and even got in a nap on the beach. We finished up the night with a small bar crawl in downtown Duluth.
Between three different pubs, I enjoyed the following:
-1 pint of Belhaven’s Best (Imported Scottish Ale)
-1 bottle of Old Style (cheap beer from Chicago!!)
-2 strong Margaritas
-1 Mango flavored martini

Of course, I didn’t follow the rule (Beer before liquor, never been sicker) and I woke up the next day feeling slightly queasy. Ksenyia made us a nice breakfast though and Mike and I got back on the road to drive to Twig, where we were supposed to have a trailer waiting for us. After numerous attempted calls to Michael (our band leader) and several to the festival coordinator, we could not figure out if we had a place to stay at the site yet or not. So, now we are sitting in a Barnes & Noble waiting to hear from someone.
Hopefully Michael and Dan (the rest of our band) are alright. The only thing we can think of is that they are either in jail or hospitalized, because Michael is just not picking up his phone and Dan doesn’t have one. There’s a chance we just may have to stay with Ksenyia again tonight…which is perfectly fine by me : )

2nd Tour Entry/Austin to Des Moines

2009-06-22T08:39:00.000-07:00

My plane touched down a little after midnight on Tuesday, June 9 in Austin Texas. We were a little ahead of schedule as my plane was supposed to land at 12:30. Sure enough, I got my bags and phoned Mike Huebner who was there to pick me up right on time. Initially I had anticipated getting a little bit of rest, maybe a shower, or even a stop at a bar before beginning our drive up to Minnesota, but Mike had other plans I realized, and just as soon as I had loaded all of my stuff into his truck, we were on the road for Minnesota.
We stopped after an hour or so for some gas and burritos. The burritos kind of sucked, but the gas was good – it got us back on the road and kept us going for another 350 miles or so. At about 4:30am, we were almost out of Texas when suddenly out of nowhere, we got pulled over by a cop. Slightly confused as to what we had done wrong (Mike insisted we had been going the speed limit), we waited for the cop to come over to the car. He chose my side, the passenger side, to approach first. “Good evening, gentlemen,” the cop said. We both exchanged our pleasantries, and before we knew it, he had us both outside of the car pinned with our hands against the vehicle.
He proceeded to search all of my pockets and Mike’s and then had us wait for over twenty-five minutes as he inspected and searched our entire car. “I’ll tell you what boys, I’m looking for drugs,” he said as he began his inspection. “If I find anything in that car that you haven’t told me about, you’re both going to jail,” he added just to scare us. Mike and I calmly held our ground. We knew there was nothing in there that we hadn’t told him about and if there was it would have been a total shock to both of us. The cop even threatened to put his drug-sniffing dog on me, a threat I was not particularly excited about since as the cop told me, his dog liked to bite.
After a thorough inspection of the vehicle and a bit of advice about traveling through Texas, the officer let us back on our way without so much of an explanation as to why he pulled us over in the first place. He seemed a little disappointed after not finding any drugs. Guess we just weren’t the droids he was looking for. Mike insists we were subjects of profiling considering that we had a full drumset in the back of the truck which is quite visible from the back window. Musicians apparently are all drug addicts and law breakers. I was unaware of this until now. Guess I’ve been doing something wrong all these years.
Soon, the sun rose and we continued to keep at it, driving northward through Oklahoma. Everything seemed fine until we hit Kansas. Kansas, as many are aware is notorious for its bad weather, and by bad weather I mean is prone to natural disasters, and by natural disasters I am referring to tornadoes. We had just passed through Wichita on what seemed to be a nice, sunny and otherwise clear-sky day when suddenly the clouds descended upon us. We watched in horror as all around us built up a storm that was literally unlike anything either of us had ever seen before in our lives. We watched the clouds swirl around in the sky and were just waiting to see a funnel form on the horizon, at which point I don’t think either of us would have known what to do. We kept on driving though and despite heavy pounding from rain that made it quite difficult to see out the windshield, the storm passed us and a few hours later we made it out and would soon be at our destination: Des Moines, Iowa.
It was about 6:30pm when we arrived in Des Moines. We had been driving for over fifteen hours, had been awake for over thirty, and were finally ready for some rest. So we checked into a hotel, had a dip in the hot tub/pool and then went next door for some food at a place called Daytona’s. Daytona’s was my choice for food and I have to say I was pretty enticed by the hot-pants wearing servers. Also, I owed Mike a beer so we went in and sat down. Our server we soon learned had only been on the job for three days. That would explain why she didn’t know about anything on the menu, had no idea what their specials were, and also spilled half a beer in my lap. Why couldn’t we have gotten any of the other six girls working that night? Why we had to get stuck with the ditziest, newest and clumsiest waitress is beyond me. Hopefully it was not an indicator of things to come.
After some food and some beer, we sat around and watched the Lakers lose to the Magic in game three of the NBA Championship. Damn Lakers could have won it in three games if they had played better. Sometimes I wonder if these things are rigged. I mean how can a team with such a good record suddenly lose in what could potentially be a Championship-winning game? Perhaps the advertisers hadn’t quite collected enough $$$$ yet, and demanded a Game 4. It wouldn’t surprise me if this were true. Especially since there were advertisements in the fourth quarter for Game 4 at least eight minutes before the end of the game.
I probably don’t watch sports enough to comment on things like this. But that’s why I don’t usually watch professional sports. I think there’s too much money involved for anything to be really believable or even interesting. The losers get paid just as much as the winners, and it all seems to culminate in a bunch of douchebags wearing stupid hats and gathering around a TV set to cheer on their favorite stars while getting drunk on cheap beer and Jaegerbombs. I like cheap beer, and I even like Jaegerbombs, but I don’t like a lot of the professional sports scene. Perhaps delivering pizzas in Wrigleyville, Chicago has something to do with this.

It’s 12:13pm on Wednesday now and I’m riding shotgun in Mike’s truck. We are blaring Michael Jackson’s album “Thriller” and driving north on 35. Mike is singing along to the “oohs” and “owwws!” of MJ’s classic songs. I am typing on my laptop realizing that I have been going on for way too long now and if every entry I write up ends up being this long, then no one will read my blog. Ever.
Tonight’s destination: Duluth, Minnesota.
Current song: “PYT (Pretty Young Thing)” by Michael Jackson.
I am feeling the urge to sing along now. Time to put the computer away.

Leaving Tucson/1st Tour entry

2009-06-18T09:49:00.000-07:00

Writing in this blog is going to be difficult sometimes. The reason is that I am using an old laptop that is at least 6 years old and has so little battery power on it that in order to use it most of the time it has to be plugged in. Since I am going to be spending the next 5 months or so on the road, this might present a challenge when writing in my blog. Luckily I have a word processor on my computer which I will be able to write in when I don’t have an internet connection. What will most likely result is a catalog of finished and unfinished blog entries written during my travels, but published (or not published) later on when I can find a Wi-Fi hotspot.
As I write this, I am sitting in the Las Vegas airport. I am here on a layover on my way to meet up with Mike Huebner in Austin, TX. One thing you should know about me: I don’t like flying – except for short distances, and preferably later in the day or at night. My flight from Tucson to Vegas left at 5:20pm, and was only an hour and ten minutes long. The flight to Austin will probably be about the same and it’s about 6:50pm right now so things are going great. The plan is to meet up with Mike at 12:30am when I land in Austin and then we will drive up to Minnesota over the next couple of days. Damn, there a lot of hot girls in the Las Vegas airport. I am sitting here in a bar enjoying a pint while writing and watching people go by. There are lots of slot machines here, but not many people playing them. I don’t mind this airport. At least spending a little bit of time here is not such a bad thing.
The last time I was in Vegas, I was working a gig with Tartanic on St. Patrick’s Day. The day before the gig, they made me walk around the strip wearing a kilt passing out flyers to random people for our shows. Of course I didn’t mind. It was pretty ridiculous and I had a fun time. As our plane landed, I thought back on that day and all the random people I met on the strip. Some of the most interesting people I met were a couple of street kids who I ended up hanging out with for the afternoon. I remember looking up from the street as planes flew in above us, landing in the nearby airstrip. Now I was in one of those planes, tourists looking up as the airplane I was riding on swooped in for an ungraceful landing into the City of Sin.
I just lied. We didn’t fly over the strip when we landed.
But…I did get to see the Hoover Dam. God DAMN! What a dam. “Is this a god damn?” (Hahaha, Beavis & Butthead quote right there). Did you know that in Mexico, they call Beavis & Butthead the “Bad Boys”? (Random fact I learned at a trivia night right there.)
Anyway, I can’t wait to land in Austin. Too bad I can’t spend more time there. Will be fun to see Mike again. Can’t wait to hit the road. Really love fragment sentences.
Can’t believe laptop power didn’t run out yet. Almost finished now. Bought Wired magazine in Tucson airport. Grandmother Nancy dropped me off.
Flight leaving in 30 minutes.
Must go now.

Twig Ren Faire/Minnesota

2009-06-17T09:22:00.001-07:00

So, there's a shitload of stuff I wrote over the first few days of traveling and unfortunately there's no way for me to upload it onto the web right now. As a result, my blog will have to suffer some continuity issues. Oh well. You, the reader, will just have to sort it out. Sorry if it's confusing.
At this point I've been on the road for over one week. Last weekend was our first set of shows. We played at the Old Worlde Renaissance Festival in Twig, Minnesota. The people running the faire were very nice to us and gave us a trailer to stay in for the weekend. The trailer was nice despite constant problems with the electricity during the course of our stay. The first night we were there it was just Mike Huebner and I. It was great because the electricity worked fine and we even had a party with some of the locals we met that night. We all ended up listening to Johnny Cash from my ipod on the trailer's stereo system and drinking. The next day, we woke up to a drained battery and it just wasn't the same again. At least we got one good night out of that trailer.
Michael and Dan showed up later the next day (Friday) and we didn't stay up too late that night because on Saturday we had to play a show. Twig is a very small town and hosts a very small ren faire. I have to say it was a very nice setting for a ren faire however and the turnout was also encouraging. We were undeniably the loudest act at the event and we definitely had some of the biggest crowds. One patron on Sunday told us that we alone were worth the price he had paid for admission. This patron also had the kind decency to buy a round of beers for the entire band during our last show. Because of this patron's kindness, I will give his company a shoutout: Whisky Traveler out of Duluth, MN. If you like whiskey, you may enjoy their website.
It was a lot of fun playing to these crowds. They seemed very enthusiastic for our shows. Quite the turnaround from our shows in Southern California where sometimes I'm sure we were playing for zombies. Once again, we had some cute bellydance girls join us onstage for a song during our last show. It's always a joy to have attractive girls that like listening and dancing to our music. These bellydancers we met from Duluth were especially nice and fun to hang out with as well. I enjoy making friends on the road. There were a couple of stage acts we shared the stage with as well worth mentioning. One group was a duo called The Wacky Chickens. They had a funny vaudeville inspired show in which they portrayed chickens the entire time and had a neat gag involving audience participation at the end. It was funny watching a 70-year old retiree trying to crack an egg into a pan. The cool part was when the chickens (Lloyd and Rose) turned that egg into a live chicken in the pan. I was thoroughly entertained by their show. The other interesting stage act we watched was The Duelists. This duo was a couple of actors who pretended to have a duel on stage. The duel was infused with many little comedy bits and pop culture references as well that ultimately mimicked the whole duel-to-the-death concept that is played out in so many movies. My favorite part was when the one duelist lifted his sword and sheild and shouted: "SAN DIMAS HIGH SCHOOL FOOTBALL RULES!!!" Strangely, I seemed to be the only one in the audience who laughed at that joke. I even got some funny looks for it as well.
Oh yeah, before I forget...

I spied ONE Jack Sparrow at the Olde World Renaissance Faire in Twig, MN this weekend. That's quite a low number compared to other faires. Perhaps these scurvy dogs like not the mosquitos and cold weather of the northern midwest. Twas a site to behold though, and no doubt this Jack Sparrow looked just like all the rest.(I know it's not the typical stock photo, but I'm not even on my own computer right now.)

Currently, I am resting in Brownton, MN. A friend of the band was kind enough to put us up here in this tiny Minnesotan town for a few days and nights. I must give a shoutout to her as well: D'Lis, you are awesome. Thanks for taking us into your house in this strange little town with the bar that is a block away from your home and the weird siren that goes off at specific hours during parts of the day. Part of the fun of traveling is seeing places I never would have otherwise. Brownton is one of those places. I think the population here is around 80. The people we talked to in the bar last night were nice though. After a couple of rounds and a few games of pool, Mike and I stumbled back. I passed out while watching "Pineapple Express" on my laptop.

LA

2009-06-02T23:30:00.000-07:00

Gotta say, I'm pretty sure I'm gonna miss this place.
It's sad, I know. A lot of people hate LA. Fucking hate it.
But I have really liked it here. This is definitely the happiest I've been living in a place than anywhere else I have lived since graduating from college (Chicago, Cleveland, Toronto, Tucson, etc). I have some decent friends I've made here, and as I'm writing this we're sitting in my dining room drinking pbr's.
So, yes I will miss this life in LA.
I hope to return.

npr ruled today

2009-05-27T18:36:00.000-07:00

Today I had to drive down to Orange County. It usually takes me about 40 mins to make it down there if traffic is moving well, but if the freeway is jammed then it takes me at least an hour and a half. Today I left my apartment around 11am, so it wasn't a bad time to leave and the streets were pretty clear. The only really bad thing about driving from LA to Orange County is the reception I get from my ipod to my am/fm radio. If anyone out there knows a good station that works well for ipod, please let me know.

Luckily, the radio is still free, and National Public Radio is still in existence. I tuned in for my entire drive back and although traffic was a major bummer by that point, my listening experience was pretty alright.
Actually, it fucking ruled.

This entire piece was awesome, and I highly recommend checking it out:
by clicking here

It's an interview with the creator of Troma films. He is a really smart guy and lends some insight into the world of corporate media, which in case you weren't already aware, is ALL media (even the Internet).

After the interview, during "All Things Considered", I heard a really sad report about all the gun violence in South Chicago. I used to live in Chicago, so this really hit home for me. People seriously die every week from bullets out there. Weekends are the deadliest and when it gets to be summer time, the violence heats up. Bottom line is gangs are scary, guns are scary, and they are both very real issues in Chicago. The saddest thing is that a lot of the people who are dying as a result of this gang violence are not even gang members themselves. I wish there was an instant solution to this problem.

I'm glad npr has the decency to run a national report on an issue that continues to remain largely unaddressed outside of the local Chicago papers/news.

jori chisholm

2009-05-26T04:00:00.000-07:00

I just found this guy on the Internet.
Sounds like he is doing some cool shit on bagpipes as well.

http://www.bagpiperevolution.com/

I really dig that little sample he has on there. Innovative sounding tune.
Really lends well to the stuff going on around it (drums, guitars, etc.).
This actually looks like a bagpipe album I might buy.

Recording Session: VIDEO!

2009-05-26T01:31:00.000-07:00

Just layin' down some smooth tracks with a Gordon Duncan tune...
"Can I get more music in the headphones?"

(C) 2009, Freestylepiper (David Duncan)

Recording Session: PICS (Finally)

2009-05-25T21:58:00.000-07:00

May 21.2009, That British Place

ABOUT THE PHOTOGRAPHER: His name is Nolan. He is a Wang.
Look him up on: http://www.surfmonkeyfilms.com (or) thelandofno.com
He is good at taking flickity-flics...and the Internet.

VIDEO: Me leaving for work

2009-05-22T20:19:00.000-07:00

The other day my roommate Nolan took a short video of me leaving to go to work:

If you don't think that's cool, you're lame.
(ps - my car IS the Millenium Falcon)

RECORDING SESSION @ THAT BRITISH PLACE

2009-05-22T17:21:00.001-07:00

So yesterday, May 21st, 2009, Mike Huebner (of Wolgemut) and myself went into That British Place Rehearsal/Recording Studios in Santa Monica, California with little to expect. What we walked out with is something that I think will have the possiblity to turn into something very very cool. We walked in there with a pretty basic idea of what we wanted to do:
Record 4 tracks in 3 hrs time.

Doesn't sound like very much, I know, but really getting anything done in a recording studio usually takes way longer than you'd expect, and this was no exception.
Our sound engineer for the recording (Kenny) was awesome to work with and even stayed on an extra hour just so we could finish tracking the drums.

I invited my roommate Nolan Wang to come in and take some photos of us during the session.

(For some reason I can't upload all the photos I have right now, so check back later for some pics of us in action. Much thanks to Kenny for his hard work and also to Gaz and Zoe at That British Place for providing such an awesome place for us to practice and record at!!!)

Pooping at McDonald's

2009-05-20T14:40:00.000-07:00

So the plumbing in my apartment sucks. Every now and then our toilet makes a weird gurgling sound and the water pressure sinks. About two weeks ago, our septic tank exploded and there was poop all over our front lawn - our poop. The plumbers came to fix it and ended up shoveling our poop right back into our flower garden, so hopefully those flowers will become nice and pretty from the fertilization of our fresh poop.

Anyway, the plumbing still sucks and I've been avoiding 'making brown' in our own toilet for a few days now. #1 isn't so hard to clean up when your toilet overflows, but having to pick up solid brown logs and toilet paper off of your floor isn't something I want to be doing anytime soon.
Whoa, the toilet just gargled again. wtf is going on? Is our septic line built over a fault in the earth's crust???

Anyway, luckily I've got a way to relieve my bowels that doesn't involve our unpredictable plumbing: I go to McDonald's.

I have nothing against using McDonald's for the sole purpose of taking advantage of their well-maintained shitter. In fact, it's homage to the fact that they usually do such a good job of keeping their bathrooms well-maintained that I choose to lay my dookies there.
And not once have I ever been bothered by an employee for walking in to use the restroom and then walking out again. If they were to bother me and ask me if I wanted to order something, I'd probably say, "Yeah sure, how about a #2...to stay."

Then I would go use the bathroom, take a dump, and get the fuck out.

Thank you McDonald's, for having such a nice bathroom in which I can take shits.
Your loyal ~~customer~~ patron,
David

btw, you think that guy in the photo up above is going in there to buy food, or to take a massive shit? (50/50 if you ask me...dude looks to be in a hurry)

listening suggestion (ninjasonik)

2009-05-19T12:34:00.001-07:00

In case the announcement of an upcoming Freestylepiper recording was just too much for you to handle, and you need something to help tie you over, allow me to make a listening suggestion...

The Mix#2, by Ninjasonik:
http://www.betavulgaris.com/podcasts/Ninjasonik-TheMix2.mp3

Good shit right there. Download it and put it on your ipod.
For real, check out myspace.com/ninjasonik
ninjasonik, yo
!NINJAFUCKINSONIC (we are) SONICFUCKINNINJA!!

CD IN THE WORKS!!!

2009-05-19T12:09:00.000-07:00

Hey all, I've got some exciting news!
Mike Huebner (of Wolgemut) and I have started working on an album.
Actually, it's probably going to be too short to be considered an album...so for now we'll just call it an EP. What's going to be on it? Well, wouldn't you like to know...

I'm not going to divulge all the information on here quite yet, but for starters, the two main instruments on the recording (and we may even begin recording this week) are bagpipes (Highland) and drum set.

There is no name for our EP yet, although of course this will come in due time. This will probably be the first of the FREESTYLEPIPER recordings to be released in what I hope will become a series. I was hoping to have "The Bagpipe Mixtape" in production at this point, but things don't always go as planned and I think that what Mike and I have got going on has the potential to turn into a nice little recording.
At the very least, it's a start.

Our plan is to have these printed and ready to sell/distribute while we're on the road. Hopefully, by Pennsic.

Stay tuned for more info on this!

JACK SPARROW COUNT - May 16th-17th/SoCal Faire

2009-05-18T11:19:00.000-07:00

Ahoy, ye mateys! Alas, I have spied TWO Jack Sparrows on the last weekend of the SoCal Renaissance Pleasure Festival! Arrgh, this not be many, yet a true pirate knows that scurvy is plentiful when sailing the seven seas and many more of these Johhny Depp wannabe scallywags and scumbags will be spied once the good ship Wolgemut sets sail in two or three weeks' time!

As your good captian promised:

ONE, TWO JACK SPARROWS SPIED IN IRWINDALE!!!

Arrrgghhh! Ye Scurvy Dogs, get a real hobby!

ATTN: FEMALE WOLGEMUT FANS, PLEASE READ/WATCH!!!!!!!

2009-05-18T00:10:00.000-07:00

I am in no way a whore. But I also do not enjoy being the complete opposite of one...
Let that sink in for a second.

That being said, I think this video is going to be very educational for some young (older than 18!) female members of our Wolgemut audiences at the Renn Faire. SoCal is over, so sorry to ALL you ladies that were out there and lost your chance to practice these skills and put your education to work. Fortunately, however, we are about to hit the road, and I will be posting our tour dates on here very soon.

Now, get ready to pay close attention because here is the video:

And here is my two cents worth on the subject...

There's about a million reasons I can give to you for why Wolgemut is the perfect band to be a groupie of, but I am only going to list three:
1.) We are not Good Charlotte (and you have to start somewhere, so why not Wolgemut?)
2.) We are the most rock-like act at the Rennaisance Faire (and we're also pretty attractive and single too)
3.) We are not going to be assholes to you (unlike most real rockstars)

So, why not? Think about it. You've got a pretty good chance at some practice here if this is what you aspire to be. (Just sayin', practice makes perfect)
WANTED: Wolgemut groupies, no need to apply.

Renn Faire in a Box (cartridge)

2009-05-16T03:25:00.000-07:00

I wish this is what Renn Faire could really be like...

"Long ago in the distant future, there's a place where evil knights joust upon beasts of the air. Where you must fly. Joust with your lance...and retrieve the enemy's egg before it transforms into its former self. Joust. You don't play it...you live it!"

Renn Faire...BOOM!!!

The Jack Sparrows Issue

2009-05-15T12:20:00.001-07:00

See this?

This is a dude dressed up like Jack Sparrow.

I have to see this every weekend.
No, it's not what you're thinking. There's not just one guy who goes to the Renaissance Festival every weekend and dresses up like Johnny Depp as Jack Sparrow. There are at least ten.

I don't really get it. I mean, I'm sure it was the same with kilts after Braveheart came out, but seriously: Pirates of the Carribbean came out a while ago.

I wish I understood what it is that makes people do things like this. But it's probably better that I don't because I actually find the whole thing really entertaining! What a unique percentage of our population. Is there a Jack Sparrow look-alike convention too? Do they know they're landlocked?

As an homage to these mysterious pirate people, I'm going to start logging my Jack Sparrow sightings. Everytime I see a Jack Sparrow out at Renn Faire, I am going to post this guy's face in my blog so you can experience what it is that I see. If there are four Jack Sparrows at the Renn Faire in one weekend, you will see me post this guy's picture one, two, three, four times. If there are twelve Jack Sparrows at the Faire, you will have to see this guy's makeup-wearing mug plastered twelve times in my blog.

That's a lot of Jack Sparrows.
Just imagine what this is like in real life.

[BTW, when is someone going to come dressed as a REAL pirate? You know, the kind that sail off the coast of Somalia and hijack US boats? Maybe THOSE are the real Jack Sparrows out there. Maybe some Somalian fucks saw Pirates of the Carribean and started dressing up like good ol' Jack and then realized they weren't actually being pirates so they took their plundering to the seas. I wonder if they wear fake dreadlocks when they're hijacking boats. I wonder because I've never actually seen a real life Somalian pirate and I wish I could.]

Last Weekend of SoCal Renn Faire

2009-05-15T11:28:00.000-07:00

This weekend will be the last weekend of the Southern California Renaissance Pleasure Festival! I am so happy this faire is almost over. I have not enjoyed this faire very much from day one. Unlike many of the other festivals we will be traveling to in a few weeks, there is no camping during the week at this one, therefore less chance for meeting interesting people who are on the road. Most of the people who work there are just weekend workers who come in on Friday nights and leave on Sunday afternoon. Some of them even stay in a hotel during the weekend. I have met some cool people there, notably John from the Poxy Boggards, Darien who is part of the Merry Wives of Windsor, the entire Bey'abi crew, David Yost of the German Guild, Danielle the Washing Well Wench, but aside from those few people (and some others I did not mention here), I have found most of the rest of the people working SoCal to be, well, how do I put this? zzzzzzzzzZZZZZZZZZZZZzzzzzzzzzz.
Boring. Lame. Dorky. Sometimes even full of themselves.
Yes, I said it. And this is coming from a guy who dresses up like a 14th Centery German Minstrel and prances around on stage while playing Medievel bagpipes!
There are so many ironies in this world...I love it.
LAST WEEKEND. YES!!!

Get a load of these d-bags! (Jousters are totally the jocks out at Renn Faire)
Sayonara, suckers!

Liquid Kitty Night

2009-05-14T09:26:00.000-07:00

So, I went to my favorite neighborhood bar last night. It's a place called the Liquid Kitty (http://www.liquidkitty.com). My friends and I go there for a couple of reasons: A.) It's close to where we live and we can take the bus there if needed, and B.) They have a drink special called "The Low Life".
The Low Life is a rare treat in LA - one can of pabst blue ribbon beer and a shot of bourbon for only $3. In a city where bottles of Newcastle cost $5-$6, the Low Life is truly a rarity. My crew (Nolan, Felix, Jon) and I usually go there on Wednesday nights. Tonight we were meeting my friend Max there from college.
Wednesday nights are also special because they are "ipod nights". On ipod nights, guests are invited to bring their ipods in to the bar and put on a 20-minute playlist of whatever music they like. The "rules" are if you put on a playlist that everyone at the bar approves of and it plays the whole way through, you get a free drink. However, if somebody disapproves of your playlist, they have the right to 'bump' your ipod and put on a playlist selection of their own. So far I have participated in this foolery twice. I have yet to receive a free drink, despite that my playlist has gone uninterrupted both times I participated.
Anyway, on with the story...
So last night, I walked into the Liquid Kitty with my friends. The first thing we did was go up to the bar and order a round of Low Lifes. I asked the bartender if anyone was playing an ipod. He said 'yes' somebody was in the middle of playing a playlist, so I went on and sat down carrying the three shots of bourbon my friends and I were about to enjoy. After a couple of Low Lifes and some pretty repetative-sounding music, Jon turned to me and said, "Hey Dave, how about you put on your ipod. I'm getting sick of this metal shit. Play something good." So, I said 'Ok' and walked up to the bar where they plug in the ipods.
I got the bartenders attention and asked him, "Hey, is it cool if I put on a playlist now?" All I was expecting was for him to say, "Sure buddy, go ahead, play your stuff," but instead I got: "Hold on a minute."
He walked over to me and looked me dead in the eye and proceeded to say, "Last week all you played was stuff that sounds like the Liquid Kitty house music. I don't want to hear stuff that sounds like what we play in our bar all the time."

Holy crap.
I was pissed.

Half the reason I like to go to the Liquid Kitty is because I enjoy the music they play. And I was proud of the playlist I had made the week before because I felt it was an homage to the fact that I think they play good music there! Not only that, but it's frickin' ipod night! I should be allowed to drink cheap beer and whiskey and listen to whatever the fuck I want, even if it is similar to what they normally play as the "house music" in their shitty-ass bar. What can I say? I have good taste, and I think normally they do too.
So I looked at this guy, with my ipod in my hand, and said, "Oh, so it's like that?" to which he replied, "Hey, if you got a playlist that's not like the Liquid Kitty music, I'll play it." Naturally, I took that as a challenge. So I went back to our table, took a chug of my pbr, and proceeded to make an On-The-Go playlist that was going to rock this sorry-ass bartender's Metallica-worshiping world.
The playlist I made was as follows:

"Drunken Lullabies" - Flogging Molly
"Ride The Sky" - Lightning Bolt
"Liquid Swords" - GZA
"Argument" - Fugazi
"Reunited" - Wu-Tang Clan
"Apology" - Big D & The Kids Table
"Los Angeles" - Frank Black
"Check the Technique" - Gang Starr
"You Know I'm No Good" - Amy Winehouse & Ghostface Killah
"Running Time" - Hurry Up Offense
"Smells Like Teen Spirit" - Nirvana
"Niggas" - Notorious B.I.G.
"Kitty" - Presidents of the United States of America
"You Think I Ain't Worth A Dollar, But I Feel Like a Millionaire" - Queens of the Stone Age
"From Tha Chuuuuch To Da Palace" - Snoop Dogg
"Everything Went Numb" - Streetlight Manifesto
"Regulators" - Warren G

Not the best playlist in the world, I know, but pretty eclectic and pretty representational of my music tastes (all over the place). I even threw in a Lil' Wayne track at the end before the guy could kick me off, which got me props from one of the black dudes at the bar. (The only thing I would have changed on that playlist was the Flogging Molly tune which I would have replaced with a live version of 'Anarchy Burger' by The Vandals) So, I did it. I played my entire playlist the whole way through and the bartender didn't say shit. (Like he should have said shit in the first place!!!)
So I proved my point, bought a delicious Liquid Kitty martini, talked to a couple of girls, and got the fuck out of there.

The only thing I'm left wondering now is:
When the hell am I going to get my free drink?

That British Place Rehearsal Studios

2009-05-13T01:02:00.000-07:00

Lately, I have been going to this rehearsal studio in Santa Monica to practice my bagpipes. It's called That British Place, and it is run by a very nice couple named Gaz and Zoe. They let me practice there for a standard rate because I don't really use the drums, amps or other equipment supplied in each room.
Going there has been really great for me since I cannot necessarily practice in my apartment. I've found that having scheduled paid-for rehearsal times forces me to practice regularly regardless of whether or not I'm feeling up to it.
Today for example, I woke up with a wicked hangover. I knew I had to make my rehearsal time by 2pm however, so I popped some excedrin, forced myself to get off my lazy ass and made the drive down there. Once I started playing, I was feeling a lot better. It's nice to feel productive during the day, and since I currently work during the weekends, having practice times to look forward to during the week helps to fill up my free time. And I sure do have a lot of free time during the week.
One other cool thing about going there is that I have met some other really cool musicians that practice there too. For example, there is a drummer named Corky who I met about two weeks ago. He heard me playing in one of the practice rooms and knocked on the door to see if I wanted to jam with him. I did, so when I finished my own practicing I joined him in his rehearsal room and we played some hornpipes and reels together on his drumset. Little did I know, but it turns out Corky has performed with some pretty big names in rock from back in the day: Jimi Hendrix, John Lennon, Bo Diddley, The Allman Brothers, just to name a few. He even gave me a CD he played drums on that featured Ozzy Osbourne as a guest vocalist.
Anyway, I'm really glad I found this place and I intend to keep going back there while I'm living in LA. Gaz and Zoe (who are actually British) run a really nice spot and if you live in the LA or Santa Monica area and play music, you should do yourself a favor and check this place out!
I highly recommend it.

That British Place on myspace:
http://www.myspace.com/thatbritishplace

Wolgemut on YouTube/SoCal Festival

2009-05-12T00:43:00.000-07:00

Also, this is one of the first videos of me and wolgemut playing together on youtube. It was taken one weekend at the Southern California Renaissance Pleasure Festival. Check it out...

...and the crowd goes wild!!! (sort of) That track there is called "Dodetium". I will be posting more videos of us here as they surface online.

If you want to see more of Wolgemut in action, there are more videos available on YouTube from other festivals that people have posted. Or, if you come down to the SoCal Renn Faire this weekend, you can catch our last weekend of live performances there.

Be warned though, this festival is not cheap!
Admission price: $26.00
Parking: $8.00

ouch

music (C) Wolgemut, 2009

Han Solo

2009-05-12T00:40:00.000-07:00

Hahahaha, this is hilarious...

Han Solo is the man.

I'm sure many a nerd has seen or noticed this before, but me and my fellow roommates spotted this before looking it up on youtube!

Awesome stuff, yeah!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

something completely unrelated

2009-05-11T04:04:00.000-07:00

There is a website I really enjoy looking at called:
http://www.streetbonersandtvcarnage.com

A few weeks ago, I sent them an e-mail with a picture I took while driving in my car of some kid walking down the sidewalk playing electric bass. The kid seriously looked so ridiculous walking down the street and playing his bass that I whipped out my phone camera and snapped a picture of him. The good folks at Street Carnage must have liked the photo enough 'cuz they posted it up on their blog with the caption: "DEAR STREET CARNAGE: WALKING BASSIST"

This was seriously one of the proudest moments for me in my history of using the Internet. I really get a kick out of their website and check it almost daily. You should check it out too and maybe you will find the same kind of pleasure and joy I get daily from reading their blog and looking at their updates for "Street Boners".

Here's the link to their page with my e-mail/picture so I can show it off and bask in all my glory:

http://streetbonersandtvcarnage.com/blog/dear-street-carnage-walking-bassist/

First Entry

2009-05-11T03:30:00.001-07:00

So, I'm going to start writing this blog now...
And I honestly don't really know what's going to become of it.
I currently am a professional musician making a living by playing the bagpipes.

In less than month, I am going to go on the road with a band called Wolgemut for something like 5 months. We are going to be playing shows at Renaissance Festivals all over the country. Whoop-de-doo.

I've got some mixed feelings about it.

First of all, in Wolgemut I do not play my primary musical instrument (The Highland Bagpipe). Instead, I play a version of bagpipes called the German Medievel Bagpipes. These bagpipes are much less techincally challenging. The music we play in the group is mostly comprised of simple melodies and the gracenotes that I play are all determined by me. What makes the music interesting is the harmonies that my bandmate Michael plays on his instrument called the Rausch Fife (sp?). Also, the rhythmic pounding away at drums which is supplied by our two percussionists Dan and Mike keeps the music moving along. And I must say that it is Mike's tuppan playing that is really the backbone of the band and his beat is what really keeps me locked in when we are all playing togther.

What makes playing in this band fun is being able to go balls out on stage. I like to really get into the music when I am playing it. I used to go to punk shows as a kid and the energy I felt at shows while moshing or dancing is what I try to channel into when I'm on stage. I just like to play as hard as I can and as fast as I can and somehow try to convey to the audience the energy that I am feeling when I am on stage.

If the audience seems to react and get in to it, then I feel as though my mission is being accomplished. If not, then so what. I still enjoy moving around on stage.

We are almost done playing at the California Ren Faire currently. There is one weekend left. The music is getting tighter and today we ripped through a tune we like to play called the Polar Bear Dance. Right before we were about to go into the tune, I turned to Mike who plays tuppan and said, "When we get to the fast part, let's play it fast as fuck." He gave me this intense glare back in acknowledgement of my request and nodded his head.
"Ok," he replied.

What followed was complete madness. We tore through the tune and put out more energy than a bunch of kids on ecstacy at a rave. I swear, that's what makes this shit enjoyable for me. Going out, not really giving a fuck. I may never get to be in a punk rock or hardcore band again. But until I am, I am going to solely focus on making this my hardcore band.

Oh yeah, except there is one thing that kind of makes this band not quite so hardcore or even as cool as I want to imagine it being:

We're playing at Renaissance Faires.

Oh well. I'm in this for the ride, wherever it may take me. If you would like to join me on my ride, I have created this blog for that exact reason. I want to be able to share what it is I experience on the road. Who knows? This could turn out to be a lot more fun than I expect it to be.