Last night in town we went out to a Japanese fusion type place in Huntington with Gibson and Robyn.  It was good to hang with them one last time before we peaced on the west coast.  Right after dinner Gib and I went and picked up Gabe to head down to the legendary Trestles to meet up with Will for one last surf session. Now you’re thinking…wait after dinner? Yes. We went night surfing.  It can only happen every once in a while when the conditions are right and there’s a full moon.  God smiled and tried to drown me my last in town.  Surfing during the day is hard enough, now add head high swells that you can’t see and the possibility of sharks into the mix and you can almost imagine it.  Gibson made it over the first wave (he was on a long board) and then got wrecked by the second and spent the rest of the night on the beach playing with fire.  I made the paddle out, and then got hammered for two hours by outside sets without ever catching a wave.  Will and Gabe, being the boarderline pros they are, caught a ton of sick rides, and Will had a freakin broken wrist!  It was pretty frustrating, but it was a good experience to have.  Maybe some day I’ll get the opportunity again…the Lord only knows.

The next morning Leah and I woke up kind of early, packed up, and hit the road.   Here’s the schedule:

Monday – Costa Mesa to El Paso

Tuesday – El Paso to Austin

Wednesday  – Austin to New Orleans

Thursday – Hang in New Orleans

Friday – New Orleans to Nashville

Saturday  – Nashville to Richmond

It would be cool if we had taken lots of pictures to document our trip like most people I know, but for the first two days, it seems like we forgot we had a camera at all.  Driving through in-land California, Arizona, and New Mexico SUCKED.  Nothing upon nothing upon nothing.  We ate at an awesome mexican restaurant in Tucson, that had been open since like 1912 or something ridiculous.  We were so full after eating lunch that we didn’t eat anything for the rest of the day. I think we got to El Paso at like 10 or something after being on the road for like 13 hours and we were exhausted and did nothing that night.

Driving through Texas the next day was just asempty as the first day.  We were starving since we hadn’t eaten since lunch the day before, so we pulled over to a McD’s since there was nothing to eat anywhere in El Paso.  We almost never eat there, because we pretty much hate it for its war against Chic-fil-a.  Later on that day we were further validated in our hate when we saw something about there fake-ass southern style chicken sandwiches and some sort of slogan that said something like, “Even on Sundays.”  Never eating there again. EVER. EVER. EVER. bastards….There was absolutely nothing for hundreds and hundreds of miles after that.  Just empty desert. There were times when I was almost positive we were going to end up in some sort of texas chainsaw massacre-ish situation.  After a little over eight hours that day, we finally made it to Austin, which was the first stop we were really excited to make it  to.  We stayed in a pretty awesome, really cheap motel just outside of downtown which was perfect.  We were both really grumpy from all the nothingness and being stuck in the car all day, so we went around the corner to almost the first bar we saw to get a beer and an appetizer and try to relax.  After that it was almost sundown and that meant it was time for the bats to come out! Austin is home to the largest natural urban bat colony in the world. Every night in the summer, thousands of people line up all along both sides and underneath this bridge.  They renovated the bridge in the mid-70′s and when they did it, they accidentally created these small spaces underneath that are perfect bat habitats. Now, every night at sundown literally tens of thousands of bats fly out from underneath to feed.  It’s soooo weird looking.  You can’t see them from the pictures we took, but at first it looked like a million little flying spiders crawling out from these little slits in the bridge.   AND THEY JUST KEPT COMING…for like an hour.  There was this black cloud, it kind of looked like smoke, flying along the river, made up of thousands upon thousands of bats.  It was pretty crazy. After it was too dark to see any more bats, we went on a walk up to 6th street to see if we could find a cool bar to go to.  It was kind of weird.   There was like a hundred frat type giant party bars that were all empty.  Given it was a Tuesday in the summer, but it was still weird.  These bars were gigantic.  We ended up going to Casino El Camino which was supposed to be more of a dive type bar that had really good burgers and chile verde fries that were freaking amazing.  It was also the first time I had seen a PBR tall boy in a loooong time, so I proceeded to have three. All in all, a pretty good night.

So day three began kind of early. We tried  to find this cool coffee shop we had heard about in Austin, but couldn’t find it so we took off pretty quick and headed towards Houston for lunch.  The world began to look more like the east coast after Austin.  More trees, more green, more awesomeness.  We had to get some barbeque in Texas, because it’s TEXAS, so we went to this little place we read about that was supposed to have some delicious brisket…it was.   Unfortunately, Leah ended up with a bone in her sandwich that caused her to chip her tooth and end up in some extraordinary pain.  After that we hit the road for another 5 hours until we got to Nawlens.  We had made reservations at a B&B as we like to avoid major chains of most types if at all possible.  I think it was called  the Lamonte House, it was pink, old, awesome, and just outside the French Quarter.  We actually stayed in one of the other three houses that make up the Lamonte house.  We got in and showered and then headed out to check out things.  We walked around for a bit and then ended up at another place we had looked up called Coop’s place.  It was a tiny little dive bar that had some ridiculously good gumbo.  We hung out there for a while and had several delicious Abitas, which is the local micro brew.  We then headed out to exploit the ability to drink on the street and see what kind of craziness happens.  I’m not sure if it’s just us, or what the deal was, but we just weren’t that into it.  Bourbon street, eh…it was kind of crazy on a Wednesday night, I can’t even imagine what it would be like at Mardi Gras…jeez.  It just wasn’t very much our scene I think.  I mean the houses were rad.  We love the style, but the whole place just felt awkward and evil.  We made a pretty early night of it and went back to crash.

I promise I’ll finish up soon with part three.

I’ve been super lazy about this because it kind of seemed overwhelming and that it would take a stupidly long amount of time so I put it off and now here I am finally getting around to it, so where to begin? I guess with the 4th of July….

The 4th this year was almost perfect. My good friend Carl that I’ve known since I was 12, came to visit, because I promised him a 4th that only California can come through with and did it ever. He flew in on the night of the 2nd and I believe we hung out mostly at the house on the 3rd, while I prepared for the bbq we had planned partly in his honor, partly cause we were leaving Cali soon, and partly to kick off the fourth the right way. We kept it small and it was awesome. I made some ribs and they turned out quite delicious most disappeared very quickly. It went off pretty well if I do say so myself. Onto the 4th! It was nuts. We started off by driving up to Huntington to hang with Ashley and Evan and some other friends for brunch. It was quite delicious and a good way to begin the festivities. After brunch we headed back down to the house to get going. It began calmly enough with a few games of beer pong and lots of ridiculous pictures. Then we all hopped on our bikes to go check out the craziness that is Newport Beach. HOLY CRAP. I believe on July 4th that Newport Beach, California is how most people that don’t live there picture it year round. There are people EVERYWHERE. Lots of girls in bikinis on bikes with their big macho boyfriends and tourists and craziness. I think Carl may have been in a little bit of shock. We didn’t ride down too far so that it wouldn’t take forever to get back and just hung at the beach for a while. Bodysurfing and just being silly. After a while we decided to head up to NB Brew Co to get some drinks and some food and chill for a bit. After that we headed back to watch the fireworks from the back bay and then pass out. Looking back, I guess we really didn’t go all that crazy, just hung out and had fun. Nothing terrible happened, no one got arrested, all in all it was pretty perfect.

So our last two weeks in California after that were pretty standard. I surfed an insane amount. We went to the wedge pretty consistantly, I started to kinda not care so much about work, and just really began to look forward to moving back. Gabe and I did a lot of dawn patrolling when the waves were good. We hung out a lot with as many of our friends as we could and all in all it was pretty awesome. Gabe and Kathleen threw us a going away party at their house which was pretty awesome. Gabe (AKA the tri tip master) made some delicious tri tip and shrimp and we played lots of games. There was a beer pong table, redneck horseshoes, and cornhole. One of our friends, never having played redneck horseshoes before got one of the “horseshoes” stuck in a tree, and I had to climb it to get it out. We hung out there for a while and got a little ridiculous and then rode bikes down to the goat. That was pretty insane. Leah and I did not have bikes so we rode on people’s handlebars. Right after everyone left the house, we all split up like a bunch of high school kids running from a busted party. Well at least, Jeremy (whose bike I was on) and I did. I seriously that I was going to die like 8 times. There was one time in particular where we came so stupidly close to running head first into a tree…oh man. After a while at the Goat, and a bit too much beer everyone went home and Leah and I borrowed one of Gabe and Kathleen’s bikes and headed back with Leah on the handle bars and me driving. Now THAT was an adventure, telluwhut!

That brings us up to the trip back, which will be continued in part 2….

Updates on the trip back, moving in, and life in Church Hill to follow shortly!

I pre-ordered these back in May and received them on the exact day the record was released, not a day sooner or later. I’ve been looking forward to this record much like the H2O record with intense anticipation, but not letting myself get to built up, knowing that bands who sign to majors often blow it multiple times before getting their head back on straight.

The full length (to the left) is on 180g, black vinyl and is so dang shiny I couldn’t get a good picture without the reflection of my arms over top of it. Some may say the weight of the vinyl doesn’t matter in turns of sound quality, but it is still insane how clear this sounds. I’ve been trying to hear the guitar/bass lines on “I Found A Way” (my favorite song on the record) for a week now and I can finally hear exactly what’s happening.

The cover is gatefold which is sweet. Although the art is kinda weak in my opinion.

I think the first time I saw Alkaline Trio was right before (or after, my memory is bad these days) they released From Here to the Infirmary at St Andrews Church in College Park, MD. Saves the Day and Dashboard Confessional played the show as well and I remember being pretty much blown away by every band. The church held many many many many good shows before some assholes decided to start lighting off fireworks inside the building and then the church raised it’s rent price up to $1000, which in turn made shows impossible. Anyway, that show was nuts and so has A3 been every time I’ve seen them since, although I hear they stopped playing “95″ which is definitely a bummer.

So along with the full length, I got this 7″ single included with the pre-order.

It’s pretty sweet. It has their first single off the record “Help Me” on the A, and a cover of Tegan and Sarah’s “Wake Up Exhausted” on the B. Pretty awesome. Punknews is giving it away here. Good luck winning that. I just checked and there are already 6 copies on ebay. Ridiculous.

JEREMIADS

This is from Webster’s

jer·e·mi·ad

Pronunciation:\ˌjer-ə-ˈmī-əd, -ˌad\ Function: noun: a prolonged lamentation or complaint; also : a cautionary or angry harangue

The first post in this new and soon to be overflowing category concerns one of my all-time favorite movies, The Lost Boys. I first saw it when I was five. I begged and begged and begged my Dad to let me watch it. It had everything I loved at that age, motorcycles, punk looking guys with mohawks and earrings, and vampires. My Dad decided that he would watch it first and then decide if it was too scary or contained too much “adult content” for me. The Lord smiled that day (or more likely the devil) and I got to watch it, and was hooked. I have definitely considered getting a Lost Boys tattoo at some point in time.

Well, this morning, as I was scrolling with my daily website checks, and came across this on punknews:

Now, what makes me really angry besides the whole principle of the matter.

Something funny, when I originally watched it, I thought that the sister was being played by Lauren of Laguna Beach/The Hills fame and started laugh a little. However, upon further review (and reading the names of the cast) this is not true. She is actually played by Autumn Reeser, who appeared on several episodes of the OC, coincidentally enough.

All this aside, I’m sure I’ll go see it anyway. However, if you see a guy throwing stuff at the screen out of pure hatred and frustration, it’s probably me.

It’s been a long long long time coming. I pre-ordered it sometime in May and was hoping to have it before the actual release date (as is the custom with pre-ordering), but because of pressing delays (excuses excuses) I didn’t get it until last Monday (I thinkI need just one more set of parentheses in this sentence). I got it on white vinyl. I believe it’s number 736 out of 800.

So the cool stuff….My favorite first. On Side A the picture is from like 1995. They are all crazy crazy young. Toby doesn’t have his parental wisdom face lines yet, Todd Morse hasn’t moved to hollywood and become all fashioned-out, Rusty doesn’t have sleeves or gray hair, Adam looks like I did when I was 22 (meaning 16 (damn parentheses again!)), and Todd Friend looks exactly like he does today, which I think is awesome.

The second sweet thing about this record is the insert. Usually these are made up of pictures of the band at different shows, press pictures, etc, etc. This insert as you can see is mostly made up of pictures of the band members and their families. “Life after Hardcore” is not something that a lot of bands in this genre survive long enough to experience together. It’s pretty much what the entire record is about. It screams, “Look at us. We’re grown up, we have families, we have real jobs, we’re RESPONSIBLE citizens. WHAT?! WHAT?! WHAT YOU GONNA SAY?!” It’s something a lot of “real” hardcore kids say they never want or that they can’t achieve for whatever reason (throat tattoos, inability to hold down a job, poor parental upbringing). Anyway, the point I’m trying to make is that a lot of hardcore wouldn’t exist if it wasn’t for DMS and NYHC, and almost all of those guys found something outside of hardcore to sustain themselves. All the kids out there that think this is selling out, they got it wrong. This is the real world and you can’t be broke forever. It’s OK to grow up a little bit. If you don’t have kids and support them the way you’re supposed to then you can’t have kids like Max. You can’t take them to shows and show them everything that was (is) awesome about hardcore and the community. A lot of kids that are my age just barely caught the end of the era when it meant something that you listened to hardcore. Anyway, I’m rambling on and on and on and on and on. It could get ugly quick if I don’t stop myself. I obviously love H2O and have since the first time I saw them in 1997. I’m starting to think about an H2O tattoo. It’s gonna be sweet.

I promise.

Who am I kidding? I probably won’t. Anyway…

So on the wreck cords front I got this.

I first bought this EP in the summer of 2004, shortly after I met Leah, I believe when she was spending 3 weeks falling in love with Dolores Park and San Francisco. This was really the last good MTB record IMO. The following full lengths, Menos el Oso and Planet of Ice, began to get more serious/experimental/electronic, and drifted away from the fun, partying inspired catchiness of This is What I Know About Being Gigantic and Highly Refined Pirates. If you get a chance check those out cause they will blow your mind with awesomeness. Anyway, the vinyl is a sweet rainbow (no homo) splatter. 1st pressing on 12″ and comes with a bonus track , Houston We Have Uh-Oh!, that was not included on the original CD. The song is alright, nothing super inspiring or mind blowing though. It fits very nicely with the rest of the record.

Let’s see, I’m pretty sure I mentioned that I pre-ordered the new H2O record, Nothing To Prove, like 9 years ago and b9 had apparently a million problems with the pressing plant, and as a result, it just shipped today. This is good news since I can stop accusing them of being the laziest label on the planet (when it comes to shipping) and also stop thinking of the 1000000 possible ways that I can probably improve the shipping process, because that’s my job. I know I did not mention before that I pre-ordered the new Alkaline Trio that also comes with a bonus 7″. I’m excited about that. The video for the first single is nothing revolutionary, but the song itself is pretty sweet.

Speaking of videos…(that was a sweet transition wasn’t it)…..

The H2O record release show was nuts!!! Sooooo much fun. Lot’s of stage dives, I acquired a new very small chip in one of my teeth and some sweet footie of me stage diving. You can check it here and here as well . I’m about 10 seconds into the ISHC video (the second link), the second guy to dive. I then show up in the fourth song of the H2O set. I’m doing a headstand for about 20 seconds on top of a bunch of people…definitely one of my finer moments.  If you don’t want to watch it, here are the screen shots. It looks way cooler in real time though. Toby’s son, Max, has lots of short little parts that you can hear, but not quite see. Lord Ezac was there…Dude has DMS tattooed on the back of his head. That’s some loyalty for real. The new H2O video for What Happened? is much better than the A3 video. You can check that here. Lou Koller’s part is killer.

What else has happened in the last month?….Well, Leah turned a quarter of a century and got a new bike, that actually just arrived yesterday. Our sweet friends Gabe and Kathleen cooked us dinner and we had 4 bottles of wine and a good time. Then we went wine tasting that weekend in Paso Robles, which was nuts. 15 people, 4 wineries, a party bus, and lots and lots of alcohol. Pretty awesome time. I remember more than Gabe (super tall guy in the back) which makes me feel a little better. Gibson (plaid shirt up front) discovered he has a gift for throwing pots. I wish I had some pics of the stuff he made, he must have sat at that wheel for like 2 hours.

Yesterday, Saturday the 14th, we had a pretty busy vacation type day. Leah got cancelled so we took the opportunity to go down to San Onofre and try to get her on a wave one last time. Which didn’t work out so well, but she came close and did very well for not surfing in almost a year. I’m going to try and talk her into going back next weekend and maybe bring Gabe and Kathleen with us. We then went to breakfast and headed back home for a hot second before going to experience “The Wedge”. The wedge is a ridiculous looking wave at the very end of Newport Harbor. The beach faces a ridculous South by South East angle (if that makes sense to any of you I’m amazed) and catches incoming South Swell very well. Well there’s a jetty that sticks about 200 yards out into the ocean and the swell bounces off the jetty and meets up with incoming waves, forming this bonkers looking thing that resembles a wedge. You can kind of see it in this picture. The white water on the left edge would be the wave coming back after bouncing off the jetty. Pretty famous body boarding and body surfing spot. Waves can get up to 40 feet when the swell is right. Many people have broken their necks/become paralyzed/died here. So Gabe, Kathleen’s brother, Hunt, and I went down for about two hours and tried to kill ourselves. Before you start thinking I’ve totally lost my mind, surf was only 4 foot to head high so no deaths occurred, but I did get severely worked. Gabe’s text to me this morning, “Me and Hunt both feel like we got in seven consecutive car accidents.”

So we only have 6 weeks left in Cali. It’s crazy. I’m feeling a little nervous now, but it will all go well I’m sure. Leah booked the moving containers we’re using this week. Those should arrive a couple days after we do. We’ve pretty much planned our driving trip. We’re going to take the southern route through Texas, stopping in El Paso the first day, Austin the second, then two days in New Orleans, then up to Nashville, and then to Richmond! That last one is going to be the hardest I think. Wouldn’t be surprised if we just got so excited to be back that we just blew it off and drove straight all the way from N.O.

I think that gets us caught up. I”ll be better from now on…..

Playlist for today:

Except for today, life has been pretty good lately.  The NFG/ISHC show was INSANE! Sooooo much fun.  I swear NFG played for like two hours and they played soo many good songs.  The venue was sweet, there was no barrier, stage dives everywhere, MOSH MOSH MOSH.   The rest of the week was somewhat uneventful.  

Saturday:

I had an interview locked down for the afternoon, but the guy was on his way to vacation in Hawaii and was trying to squeeze me in a very short window of time that got closed when weather delayed his connecting flight in Phoenix.  We’re going to try and meet up after he gets back from vacation.  We’ll see what happens.  It was actually kind of fortunate because we ended up having some friends over for breakfast and mimosas on Saturday morning and I wasn’t in the mood to be responsible for business.   Finally made the trip to Will and Lina’s new house for dinner which was cool.  It’s in a somewhat fancy townhouse community and everything looks great.  I’m happy for them.

Sunday (funday):

Went to church and heard a pretty awesome sermon from Rankin Wilbourne, who is the pastor at Pacific Crossroads Church in LA, which is where our church is planted from.  He spoke about repudiating grace and how we much we resist letting God love us.   Pretty good theme for this week.  After church was Sunday Funday! No work on Monday = bike parade/pub crawl through Newport.  Very very very fun and very very very exhausting.

Monday:

Slept in (or at least tried to).  Went to a church picnic where we played a pretty intense game of softball that I wasn’t all that into in the first place, but whatever. Home to rest for the coming week.

I think that gets me pretty much caught up.  We only have 8 weeks until we leave here. Kind of crazy…I have a lot of surfing/hanging out to do.  I’m starting to realize that I may actually miss it a little. I won’t miss my job, that’s for sure, but I’m definitely going to miss church, our community group, surfing, the friends we’ve made, the beach, and not having any commitments at all.  Oh well, time to move on with our lives.