far away trains passing by
Whoa. Almost a week and no post. I'll just take up where I left off in Toronto.
After my Steam Whistles ("That's Good Beer, Folks!"), I went back to my room and hit the hay. The next day, everything came together without any trouble and I actually had a lot of time to kill. Oh. Almost everything came together. The catering company that was hired to feed us breakfast, lunch and dinner never showed for breakfast. Production had to run next door to a fast food place and buy a bunch of breakfast sandwiches to feed our crew. I guess the caterers forgot they had a show to work. Lunch was also bought by production. I didn't see it, though. Jody and I walked down to the subway station next door and bought our lunch there. I had a huge sub from Mr. Sub. Jody ate a Pecanbon from Cinnabon. Kids were already lining up outside by the time we came back from lunch. There was also a Lamborghini parked outside.
Weird, eh? I walked around Toronto a lot after lunch and tried to get a real feel for the city. I love the absolute variety in Toronto. It was so refreshing to see people of every color, every race, every culture... all living together. Rob (a Canuck, himself) spotted a big difference in Canada and the US. Here, we've been trying to make our country a melting pot. America says "Let's blend everyone together in equal parts and muddy things up so we don't seem so different". Canada, Rob believes, lets everyone celebrate their differences. Whether Canada does a better job of this than the US does, I have no idea. I do think, however, that we should be able to take pride in our cultures. Not to the point of belittling another person's lifestyle or heritage, though. The "politically correct" mindset needs to die a quick death. We are all different. There's no need to compensate for these differences. Let's just work through our misunderstandings and respect each other's belief systems and cultures. Ugh. No more soapbox. I'm not feeling especially eloquent with my thoughts tonight, anyway.
So Toronto was great. I can't wait to go back.
On the way back into the US, we were boarded at the border. The customs guy came on the bus and demanded that each of us wake up (since it was around 3 or 4 a.m.) and physically hand him our passports. My passport was taken out of the nice manilla envelope (that worked so well going into Canada) and handed to me. I gave it to the officer. He took a look and handed it back. Then I went to my bunk muttering something about God Bless America, good to be back.
January 3rd. Rochester, NY. I finished early again and walked around the city. Not too much going on. Some good looking buildings every now and then. The bridge beside the venue was pretty cool. We were about 300 feet away from a hydroelectric dam with all kinds of rushing water and rapids. I stepped through a hole in a fence and took a look around under the bridge. There under the bridge, for as far as I could see, was the most awesome graffiti.
And this.
I love finding the little secret spots in a city. Reminds me of the little underpass in old Decatur where we would go hang out occasionally, feeling punk rock. After walking for over an hour, I had worked up an appetite. Right across the bridge was Dinosaur Barbecue.
Legendary Dinosaur. I should've bought a t-shirt. They had the best ribs and a great selection of microbrews on tap. I had some sort of Rohrbach's Scottish Ale. Delicious. I ate alone, listening to the truck drivers beside me give their perspective on the tour. One of the guys had driven for a Lynyrd Skynyrd tour recently.
Which brings me to an interesting fact. The bus that I'm on was last used by Queen when they were looking for their new lead singer. Brian May's guitar was in our back lounge. I'm still in awe about all this, people.
Back to Dinosaur. As I was leaving, I heard someone behind me say "Hey Josh!". It was Corbin and his dad, eating lunch with a couple other people. I walked back to their table, gave Corbin the weird handshake/highfive and made smalltalk. He's a really good kid. He could've completely ignored me and I would've never known the difference. I have to think that his dad is a major factor in his humble personality and all-around good nature. I hope we see Corbin around for a lot longer. We need people like that in entertainment.
Rochester was a good show. Nothing out of the ordinary. I've just been practicing my popzooms with the zoom set to manual a lot lately. It makes for some seriously dramatic shots when you popzoom from wide to close. Kevin is really happy with it and says that I've "got what it takes". Hope so. I'm betting on a big-name country tour in a month or two. It'd be weekend warrior, which means I'd be home half the week, every week. Rock. I'm crossing my fingers.
I don't remember much about Hartford's show. The city was nice and old. I took lots of shots of buildings and walked to the park to find some peace and a huge tree.
I also met this guy.
On to Pittsburgh. I had the day off in Pittsburgh. Here's the view from my room.
My only real plan was to see the Andy Warhol Museum. Lucky me, they were having Good Friday, which means they were open 'til 10 Friday night with half-price admission. Before heading to the museum, I did my now-routine walk through the city. It was rainy and cold but not bad enough to keep me inside. I walked everywhere looking for a good local place to eat and ended eating a block away from my hotel two hours later. It was worth it, though. I wanted to eat at Weiner World, but it was closed.
Instead, I ate at Mike & Tony's Gyros. The portions were gigantic and it ended up being the only meal I ate in Pittsburgh. Mike & Tony's felt like a great diner should. Walk up ordering. Classic menu above the grill.
Friendly waitress who was probably the cook/owner's daughter. All the right ingredients. I drank a lot of root beer while I was at Mike & Tony's. I hit the hot tub at the hotel with a full stomach. One long shower later, I took a cab to the Andy Warhol Museum. I loved it. Here's some pictures. Made me want to listen to the Velvet Underground, but I forgot to put it on my computer/iPod before I left Nashville.
When I got back to the hotel, Steve called and said he was going to a bar to see Lucas play a show. Apparently, Lucas had booked a show at the Firehouse Saloon (or something like that), knowing that we would have the night off in town. We went downstairs to the bar for some pre-drinks. I had a couple of Guinnesses to start the night. Around 9, Steve, Nic, Rob and I all piled into a cab headed for the Firehouse. Most of the cast, band and dancers were already there with a couple of production people freckled about the place. Lucas played an awesome acoustic set of jazzy singer/songwriter tunes with a couple of winners at the very end. First he covered "Part of Your World" from Little Mermaid. Then he ended with a song about Nintendo that he wrote when he was young. I wonder if he'd let me record that song with my computer setup. It had a great, catchy chorus and lyrics to please any oldschool gamer out there. I had way too many Newcastles at Firehouse. If anyone's reading this and feeling a little surprised about the drinking stuff, I'm sorry. I waited 'til I was 21, crazy enough, and now I honestly enjoy a good drink every now and then. Sometimes, though, I find a danger beer. Newcastle is my danger beer. I lost count early in the evening. People were buying for me. I was buying for others. It was a great atmosphere and everyone around seemed to have a lot of fun in Pittsburgh that night. I have a few really awesome pictures that I'm a little afraid to post on here that I'll show you when I get home. Nothing scandalous. Just funny.
I overslept the next morning. I distinctly remember getting back to the hotel the night before but the cab ride there is still a fuzzy memory. Anyway. Nic, Rob and I all overslept the next morning. Our call time is so ridiculous, though, that by the time Nic and I arrived by taxi, I walked right into when I was needed. I was only 45 minutes to an hour late, and we usually use that time to eat breakfast while the other trucks are dumping. So I was alright. Whew.
It was a long day. I wasn't hungover (amazing, I know), just a little more tired than usual and a little scatterbrained. I took a nice nap that afternoon and got back on track.
Let's start with Albany tomorrow. I have to be up in four hours.
16 shows to go! 20 days 'til Nashville!
p.s. I'm in Worcester, Massachusetts tonight and tomorrow. Bo-ring.
After my Steam Whistles ("That's Good Beer, Folks!"), I went back to my room and hit the hay. The next day, everything came together without any trouble and I actually had a lot of time to kill. Oh. Almost everything came together. The catering company that was hired to feed us breakfast, lunch and dinner never showed for breakfast. Production had to run next door to a fast food place and buy a bunch of breakfast sandwiches to feed our crew. I guess the caterers forgot they had a show to work. Lunch was also bought by production. I didn't see it, though. Jody and I walked down to the subway station next door and bought our lunch there. I had a huge sub from Mr. Sub. Jody ate a Pecanbon from Cinnabon. Kids were already lining up outside by the time we came back from lunch. There was also a Lamborghini parked outside.
Weird, eh? I walked around Toronto a lot after lunch and tried to get a real feel for the city. I love the absolute variety in Toronto. It was so refreshing to see people of every color, every race, every culture... all living together. Rob (a Canuck, himself) spotted a big difference in Canada and the US. Here, we've been trying to make our country a melting pot. America says "Let's blend everyone together in equal parts and muddy things up so we don't seem so different". Canada, Rob believes, lets everyone celebrate their differences. Whether Canada does a better job of this than the US does, I have no idea. I do think, however, that we should be able to take pride in our cultures. Not to the point of belittling another person's lifestyle or heritage, though. The "politically correct" mindset needs to die a quick death. We are all different. There's no need to compensate for these differences. Let's just work through our misunderstandings and respect each other's belief systems and cultures. Ugh. No more soapbox. I'm not feeling especially eloquent with my thoughts tonight, anyway.
So Toronto was great. I can't wait to go back.
On the way back into the US, we were boarded at the border. The customs guy came on the bus and demanded that each of us wake up (since it was around 3 or 4 a.m.) and physically hand him our passports. My passport was taken out of the nice manilla envelope (that worked so well going into Canada) and handed to me. I gave it to the officer. He took a look and handed it back. Then I went to my bunk muttering something about God Bless America, good to be back.
January 3rd. Rochester, NY. I finished early again and walked around the city. Not too much going on. Some good looking buildings every now and then. The bridge beside the venue was pretty cool. We were about 300 feet away from a hydroelectric dam with all kinds of rushing water and rapids. I stepped through a hole in a fence and took a look around under the bridge. There under the bridge, for as far as I could see, was the most awesome graffiti.
And this.
I love finding the little secret spots in a city. Reminds me of the little underpass in old Decatur where we would go hang out occasionally, feeling punk rock. After walking for over an hour, I had worked up an appetite. Right across the bridge was Dinosaur Barbecue.
Legendary Dinosaur. I should've bought a t-shirt. They had the best ribs and a great selection of microbrews on tap. I had some sort of Rohrbach's Scottish Ale. Delicious. I ate alone, listening to the truck drivers beside me give their perspective on the tour. One of the guys had driven for a Lynyrd Skynyrd tour recently.
Which brings me to an interesting fact. The bus that I'm on was last used by Queen when they were looking for their new lead singer. Brian May's guitar was in our back lounge. I'm still in awe about all this, people.
Back to Dinosaur. As I was leaving, I heard someone behind me say "Hey Josh!". It was Corbin and his dad, eating lunch with a couple other people. I walked back to their table, gave Corbin the weird handshake/highfive and made smalltalk. He's a really good kid. He could've completely ignored me and I would've never known the difference. I have to think that his dad is a major factor in his humble personality and all-around good nature. I hope we see Corbin around for a lot longer. We need people like that in entertainment.
Rochester was a good show. Nothing out of the ordinary. I've just been practicing my popzooms with the zoom set to manual a lot lately. It makes for some seriously dramatic shots when you popzoom from wide to close. Kevin is really happy with it and says that I've "got what it takes". Hope so. I'm betting on a big-name country tour in a month or two. It'd be weekend warrior, which means I'd be home half the week, every week. Rock. I'm crossing my fingers.
I don't remember much about Hartford's show. The city was nice and old. I took lots of shots of buildings and walked to the park to find some peace and a huge tree.
I also met this guy.
On to Pittsburgh. I had the day off in Pittsburgh. Here's the view from my room.
My only real plan was to see the Andy Warhol Museum. Lucky me, they were having Good Friday, which means they were open 'til 10 Friday night with half-price admission. Before heading to the museum, I did my now-routine walk through the city. It was rainy and cold but not bad enough to keep me inside. I walked everywhere looking for a good local place to eat and ended eating a block away from my hotel two hours later. It was worth it, though. I wanted to eat at Weiner World, but it was closed.
Instead, I ate at Mike & Tony's Gyros. The portions were gigantic and it ended up being the only meal I ate in Pittsburgh. Mike & Tony's felt like a great diner should. Walk up ordering. Classic menu above the grill.
Friendly waitress who was probably the cook/owner's daughter. All the right ingredients. I drank a lot of root beer while I was at Mike & Tony's. I hit the hot tub at the hotel with a full stomach. One long shower later, I took a cab to the Andy Warhol Museum. I loved it. Here's some pictures. Made me want to listen to the Velvet Underground, but I forgot to put it on my computer/iPod before I left Nashville.
When I got back to the hotel, Steve called and said he was going to a bar to see Lucas play a show. Apparently, Lucas had booked a show at the Firehouse Saloon (or something like that), knowing that we would have the night off in town. We went downstairs to the bar for some pre-drinks. I had a couple of Guinnesses to start the night. Around 9, Steve, Nic, Rob and I all piled into a cab headed for the Firehouse. Most of the cast, band and dancers were already there with a couple of production people freckled about the place. Lucas played an awesome acoustic set of jazzy singer/songwriter tunes with a couple of winners at the very end. First he covered "Part of Your World" from Little Mermaid. Then he ended with a song about Nintendo that he wrote when he was young. I wonder if he'd let me record that song with my computer setup. It had a great, catchy chorus and lyrics to please any oldschool gamer out there. I had way too many Newcastles at Firehouse. If anyone's reading this and feeling a little surprised about the drinking stuff, I'm sorry. I waited 'til I was 21, crazy enough, and now I honestly enjoy a good drink every now and then. Sometimes, though, I find a danger beer. Newcastle is my danger beer. I lost count early in the evening. People were buying for me. I was buying for others. It was a great atmosphere and everyone around seemed to have a lot of fun in Pittsburgh that night. I have a few really awesome pictures that I'm a little afraid to post on here that I'll show you when I get home. Nothing scandalous. Just funny.
I overslept the next morning. I distinctly remember getting back to the hotel the night before but the cab ride there is still a fuzzy memory. Anyway. Nic, Rob and I all overslept the next morning. Our call time is so ridiculous, though, that by the time Nic and I arrived by taxi, I walked right into when I was needed. I was only 45 minutes to an hour late, and we usually use that time to eat breakfast while the other trucks are dumping. So I was alright. Whew.
It was a long day. I wasn't hungover (amazing, I know), just a little more tired than usual and a little scatterbrained. I took a nice nap that afternoon and got back on track.
Let's start with Albany tomorrow. I have to be up in four hours.
16 shows to go! 20 days 'til Nashville!
p.s. I'm in Worcester, Massachusetts tonight and tomorrow. Bo-ring.
posted by Josh at 10:31 PM
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