gonkulair

Well, sat at the desk and worked a good bit today. I met a couple of neat people today. I met the director/producer of “Real World” from MTV. They’re here using some secret new camera technology to film the show. I think it’s HD3D iMax or something. Should be neat. We also had some crazy guys flying around on these gas powered Nextel Parachute thingies, I thought they looked pretty cool and I wanted to try, but they wouldn’t come down. Tonight after the show, we’ll load out and head to Mexico City. I’m kind of excited, because everyone tells me it’s a site to see, because there are just so many people there. It’s also 7500 feet above sea level (higher than Denver). That should make for an interesting first day of working. On a side note, I’m pretty pumped about playing on the new GeekSquad Battlefield Server that BFGTech is working on with us. It’s cool because it will allow Geek Squad Agents across the country to duke it out online in a fast paced and fun game. Plus it’s my favorite game right now.

OK, so I’m blah blah blahing about how nice it’s been here, and then we get todays curve ball. Right now it’s in the high 40’s and we’re experiencing some less than warm weather. Since our office has no ceiling, but rather a tent above divider walls, any and all heat is escaping through the open ceiling. I decided to do a blog entry in the hopes that my powerbook would help warm it up. All that aside, it’s still going well here and we’re nearly ready for tomorrow’s show. The air is the clearest it’s been all week, and we can finally see the beautiful mountains surrounding the city.

Well, almost everyone is here. Jake got in last night after 7pm and things were pretty much done. Some final prep and we’ll be ready for tomorrow’s sound checks and such. Not much new to report on my front, everybody is working pretty smoothly, and we’re just waiting for the arrival of my biggest customers, the management offices. I got a lot of my admin stuff and some development stuff done today and that was great, a good sense of accomplishment when I make even the smallest strides out here. It was by far the hottest today, topping out in the eighties. On that topic, just because most of you will be reading from the north, I thought I’d add a weather ticker for my current location. It’s not really a bragging device…ok who am I kidding. It’s warm here, and I’m enjoying it. I heard it’s snowing in the midwest. That’s awesome. I actually do miss the stuff, and was happy to get to be home for some, even if for just a bit.

Well that’s right, as the title says, we’re in Mexico. I’m lovin’ it. 70+ Degrees and sunny. 3 more days until the first show. I’ve got some time to goof around, or at least that’s what I thought. These roadies can be so hard on their machines. People from all parts of the crew have been flagging us down for all types of repairs. Oh well, I guess it is a job. Other than that it’s been pretty mild and the hotel is alright. Beer IS expensive at the hotel, but much much cheaper in the surrounding establishments. We’ve built most of the stage and the offices are finally set up. Now it’s time for the thumb twiddling…

Flew back in last night on an evening flight. It was great, had the whole row to myself and got to read with my feet up. I finished the book “Foundation” by Isaac Asimov. Classic Science Fiction, very good. I’m into the second book now, and will be reading the whole series and adding it to my library. I talked to my mom today and she told me that when you type my name into google a whole bunch of stories come up all over the web. Well, it is true I had to do it. The funny part is some of the stories are syndicated and reach as far as the other side of the world (Australia). C-Razy. Today was a normal day, busy, and something going wrong of course. The color laserjet printer is busted until we get a new transfer kit, oh well. Oh well, we still have 4 more laser printers to work with. We also had a little issue with our Brother Laser printer (POS), it was resetting because of a loaded circuit, which was quickly remedied thanks to some prior knowledge relating to the problem. The show went off without a hitch, and we’re just sitting here waiting to leave. I did get a nice Columbia Fleece vest to keep me warm without overheating in some of these colder venues. The thing is, they are quite cold with just the 150-200 people that are here during load in, but once the doors open, we let in another 15-20,000 heat sources and it warms up a bit, that’s when the sleeveless aspect of the vest comes in handy. Hope you liked the pictures of the wedding.

Well, we left Montreal at about 3am, hit the border at 4am and then I quickly jumped into bed. The bus stopped rolling around 9am and jumped off, grabbed my bags and headed to the airport. I think today was the cheapest taxi ever to Logan for me. It was only $16. Normally it’s around $30 with all the tolls and traffic. I was able to jump on the earlier flight guaranteed for only $25USD and I’m just sitting here waiting and checking my email. Jen’s Grandfather passed away on Saturday, so we’re going to go to his wake this evening. Tomorrow we’re off to Phoenix for her Brother Tony’s wedding. Ahh travelling. It’s getting old. Oh well, I knew what I signed on for. I’m actually kind of excited, because I think I may be able to sit still and read or something fun like that. Well, I’m going to get on the plane soon, so I’ll leave it at that.

Last night we had the “End of Tour” crew party and it was a blast. There were drinks (of course), photos, awards, food and entertainment. It was at a great little club in downtown Montreal. Speaking of awards, yours truly and my partner Robin one “How did we tour without it” for our wireless internet and support services, it was killer. We won a bottle of wine each and a ride on the Band’s plane for one of the trips. Unfortunately neither of us will probably be able to take advantage of the plane ride, but it’s a nice gesture. Maybe we can do it on the next leg for the Buenos Aires->Auckland, New Zealand trip. That would be killer. Oh yeah, that’s right, some of you may not know about that yet. That’s right, they’ve added another leg. South America, New Zealand, Australia, Japan and Hawaii to finish. I’ll be taking advantage of that and staying in Hawaii for a bit after we finish, and of course Jen will be joining me, it’s the only way to start spring off in Minnesota. After a good bit of drinking, dancing and forgetting memories, I headed home and passed out in my uncomfortable, yet unnoticed bed. The day today was quite funny, because there were quite a few people who looked to be in very bad shape. I also allowed Robin to head back to the bus because he looked like he needed it. After yet another show and an uneventful load out, I’m finishing up and heading to the bus… see you back in the states.

Today, we’re in Montreal, Quebec. Quebec is a French speaking province in Canada. That is sort of weird, because all of the signs and street names and things are in French. Diet Coke is Coke Diete, The Bell Centre is Le Centre Bell. The nice difference between Quebec and France is that they seem to have running water and the people shower often here. That, however, is more than I can say for myself today. It’s sort of a reversal on that aspect. Why’s he dirty you say? Well, see we had a show in Ottawa, ON last night, so when it was done we drove directly to Montreal. When I woke up this morning, I hit snooze a couple of times and wrote off the shower. This of course doesn’t mean I’m a pig or anything, I had taken a shower at 2am after load out. Basically it just means I’ll have to take another one tonight to maintain the quota. Since tomorrow’s a day off the normal cycle can resume. In other news, Jen survived her first and probably only Tour Bus ride last night. We both crammed into my teeny tiny bunk and apparently I snored the night away, along with the other bus mates. I’m sure to her it was like a beautiful symphony of snoring. Tonight we’ve got the normal show schedule with Arcarde Fire opening up, I have to remember to listen to the openers and see if they’re worth the plastic their CD is burned on. Tomorrow we have a day off and I’m quite excited about sleeping in a bit. It’s snowing and beautiful up here, I’m sad I can’t go play in it, and I’m sad because Jen’s leaving tomorrow. I’m also happy too, because it means we’re one day closer to our break and I get to see Jen and have some days off to celebrate Jen’s brother’s wedding. Well, I’m going to run my bags to the hotel quick with Jen, more to come.

Once again those pesky aliens were at it and replaced me with an android. Some people out here were suspect of it, however, they also think I am weird, so it was not not obvious to most. Anyhow, I have some adventures to fill you in on, and I’ve dismantled the android and I working on extracting the memory banks from the last couple of weeks to allow me to get back on track. Back to our abnormal programming.

Jen flew into Montreal yesterday and I rented a car and drove up to get her, it was sort of confusing because everything was in French, but I finally found her. We headed back to Ottawa and had a little dinner in the hotel, after that we headed back to the room and watched a little TV, it was very relaxing. So today we had the crew Thanksgiving dinner here in Ottawa. Dori put together a wonderful menu with all the comforts of a great holiday dinner. We had Turkey, Ham, stuffing, cranberries, corn, mashed potatoes and most importantly Pumpkin Pie, no Cool Whip though. It was great. I think it just goes to show more so how a good road crew is truly like a family. It was also neat because there were a lot of Non-Americans celebrating with us. This is now officially the second Major US holiday I have spent on foreign soil. Remember I celebrated 4th of July in Poland? That was fun, even though it was firework free. After dinner, we headed to the “TV Room” and watched a “Office Space”, this was very helpful in keeping the Thanksgiving tradition as accurate as possible. Tomorrow we have our show here in Ottawa, then we load out, drive to Montreal and load in. Ahh, overnighters.