So I was reading the latest AP about bands that made a huge impact on other band members lives and it really got me thinking about why I do what I do. I was a late bloomer to music always kind of a dorky jock growing up, then I got to high school and started playing hockey with a lot older kids and that started me getting really interested in music.

I remember sitting in the locker room listening to MxPx teenage politics and then going out and buying everything they had at National Record Mart. This was my start. I started going to see my friend’s local bands play shows. I started dating a girl in high school and she turned me on to a local band from Pittsburgh that gained national prowess had a real record label and toured. We went to a ton of their shows and eventually befriended the band. Then it happened they asked me to book a show for them at my college. I had no clue what I was doing they kind of helped me and I ended up doing a few more while I was in school and booking some pretty large bands in a tiny room in state college, Pennsylvania. At the same time I started noticing the guys handing the band their guitars and checking their mics and wondering more about them. Two of the first I remember are actually my friends now and we talked about that show back in 2000 at laga that he worked and I was in the front row singing along.


Early on I wanted to make sure that my friends shows went well, I tried guitar failed miserable and I am brutally tone deaf, but I defiantly trace my skills to my Jewish up bringing and Seder (order in Hebrew and also the telling of the Passover story). I love what I do. I travel the world with people who make other people happy and it is my job to keep them happy.

I am growing older and the pressure from my parents to “grow up” is looming but I am grown, so what if I don’t make a lot of money and stay in shitty hotels and drive in a van around the country. I love every second of it, even the shitty times when I don’t have work I think about what I do and love. I love running on no sleep no food and no showers just to make sure we make a show to play for 30 minutes just to fly right back out.

Its weird because times past and most of their bands never left the backyard basement or vfw and I am sitting on a plane flying to Seattle from Texas on a crazy travel day for the band I tour manage and I start thinking. This is my job and all these business travelers who travel work don’t have half the fun I have on bad days. I have been to Europe and Japan. Drank at Oktoberfest smoked weed in Amsterdam, stared at the Eifel tower at night, and eaten raw hoarse in Japan. How many 25 year olds get paid to do these things with people who are like family? My roommates from college are getting married own houses have a lot more in savings then me but who loves their job more than anything I do. I don’t want to go back and do anything over touring the world for a living is the best way to make a living I can think of and I am very grateful for everything I have done and will do. I plan on going on for years and hopefully doing bigger and bigger things

This is a thank you to every band I have worked for, for letting me do something I love to do.

It's been a long long time

I have not updated this in a really long time. The last time I posted was when I got back from Japan, which is still the best place I have ever been. I have been trying to keep busy so hears what I have been up to.

After Japan I got the call to go out and Tm Haste The Day (myspace.com/hastetheday). I was out with them on the Norma Jean tour. The tour was alright but I got to be friends with the guys in Haste The Day.

I came home spent a about two weeks drinking and hanging out with my friends in Pittsburgh. It was a good time. I also managed to work a few shows for Joker.

In mid December I headed out with Haste The Day on the 12 Days of Christmas tour w/ Sky Eats Airplane, Emarosa, and Inhale/Exhale. Emarosa is one of the best bands I have toured with in a very long time. It was a quick 12 day tour through the southeast which was really nice for the warmth. I have new found love for sonny's and cracker barrel thanks to the htd guys.

I came home from that tour thinking I had work lined up for Jan/Feb but it ended up falling through. I did however move into a new place on the South Side which has contributed to me going out a lot more than ever. and eating a lot of gyros.

Cucu played a show in DC for the latino inaugural ball. I saw a bunch of celebrities and was running around like crazy all day. It was a really unorganized event.

Tomorrow I am flying down to Nashville to take a look around the city to see if I like it. I think it would be good for my career to move there then hopefully I will have more work.

Japan Party!!!!!

I just got home from Tokyo where I spent the weekend with the band Secret & Whisper (http://www.myspace.com/secretandwhisper) playing Loud Park Festival (www.loudpark.com). It was the greatest weekend of my life. I never expected it to be that much fun.

Thursday October 17th I stayed up all night for my 6 am flight to Houston. I get to the airport and my flight is delayed till 8:30 in the morning which gets me into Houston minutes for my flight to Tokyo. I run through the airport only to find that the doors to my flight are closed. I am crushed to say the least. Luckly there was a drunk passenger who they had to remove for the flight so they let me on. I passed out on the flight awoke half way to japan and spent the flight watching shitty movies and reading. I land in Tokyo at Narita airport at about 330 on Friday the 18th. I get my bag find my driver who takes me to Saitima Super Arena where the fest is taking place. I spend the entire drive in silence because I am so excited to finally be in Japan and my eyes are wide staring at this new place. I arrive at the Arena and meet Narito from creative man who is awesome and takes me in for a production meeting. While at the arena I run into the guys from obituary and down who where really nice. I've never been part of a metal fest like this. I finish up my meeting and take a car back to my hotel in shinagowa. I get to the Hotel check in and there are already kids in the lobby waiting for the bands to show up. I hop in the shower go down and wait for my guys who i've never met to show up. The guys arrive with our interpreter Mizo and their friend jeff who took a vacation to Japan for this. After we all check in we start walking around shinagowa to look for some dinner. We wonder down back allies that are super clean and eventually we find this really cool restaurant. Jason is the bravest eater out of the secret and whisper guys so the two of try horse sashimi ( raw horse meat) and wasabi octopus raw. We have a couple beers and head back to the hotel for the night.

The Next morning Saturday the 19th we wake up at 7 am to catch our ride to the festival. The drive is beautiful and all of us are commenting on the previous evening and how cool everything is as we drive past. WE point out crazy buildings and billboards. We arrive at the arena and head to the dressing room to drop our bags. Then we went to the stage for our soundcheck. It went quick and easy. The anticipation for the band and myself kept building. After soundcheck we got some breakfast and got ready for the set. I'm running up and down the stairs doing all I can to make this show perfect. We go up and play at 11:40 am to at least 9,000 crazy kids. Secret and Whisper is not a huge band in the states but kid were singing along crowd surfing and moshing. I went out to front of house to listen to a song and it sounded amazing. Once the set was done we headed to press where the guys all split up for interviews. I hung around and listened to all going down and couldn't stop smiling. Finished up press headed to catering which was american food which was lame. They had this crazy hot sauce that all most of us could handle was dab. This is where the drinking started. After lunch we went into the crowd and corridors of the arena and the guys got mobbed it was like they were slipknot instead of the opening band for the day. I was really happy proud for the guys. I even took pictures with kids which I never do. Dragonforce was the first band we watched they were incredible. I had never seen them before. Dragonforce finished we re-uped on some beers and went back in the crowd. I loved walking around seeing all these crazy kids. Headed backstage to hangout and to watch avenge sevenfold. There was a backstage bar where I ran into the guys from Airbourn and Bullet for my valentine. I ran into the fans from the hotel the night before one of which was super cute and a giant slut it was funny. We would be at the bar talking and as soon as a bigger band would show up she would disappear. I introduced our bro tech to a bunch of bands and he couldn't have been more excited. It was his first time ever backstage as part of a show. We all went up to watch slipknot who puts on a great show. I watched a few songs and went back to the bar. I came back to find out that clown came off the stage and smacked a drink out of my singers hang. He later made jerking off motions at him from the stage( after talking to other bands this is normal). After slipknot we headed back to the hotel. As we were leaving jeff was yelling out the windows of the bus and the true partying began. We got back to the hotel and the night was spent drinking $200 a bottle whisky with Airborun. I proably went to bed around 5 am.

The next morning sunday the 19th Bradyn and I woke up early and went to a cafe for some breakfast. I got a late and we sat outside and watched people walk around. I started really falling in love with Japanese girls. They are so beautiful and stylish. The trend was shorts or a skirt with high boots and beanies. We headed up to the hotel and got the rest of the guys and met up with our interpreter MIzu again(we would have been lost with out her as we found out later that night). In the lobby we met the base player from guns and roses who came up to talk to my guys. We hoped on the train and went to shibuya for some lunch. We ate a sushi restaurant where there was a conveyor belt where you take what you want off of it. I ate fermented beans, fish row and fish testicles besides the staples of tuna, eel and squid. Mizu was astonished at our bravery when it came to eating. We finished eating and started wandering shibuya. I the whole time my jaw was on the ground seeing girl after girl who I would wave at and they would giggle. I hit up the BAPE store and bought a shirt. Party was the word of the trip so Jordan and I wanted to get it tattooed on us in Japanese but it never happened. We went to an arcade and i watched kids play video games. Also I saw my first amazing bike it looked like the obey fixie without the decals. The wandering continued tons of pictures taken by everyone. Finished up in Shibuya and headed over to harajuku which is full of tourists as well as this kids who dress up crazy. We walked around and ran into Dragonforce at a toy store. I saw this awesome pink bike as a well as a few different vivalos. I continued my trend of trying to talk to girls ( I need to learn Japanese). After the shopping we headed back to the hotel for dinner. Jason and my plan was to eat whale but it didn't happen. We did however eat pig colon, squid oysters, and scallops. Now the party began. We decided to go back to Shibuya to find a bar on the way we ran into black tide. Got off the train in shibuya bought some beer and started walking around trying to find a cool place to go. We really needed Mizu but she went home. It was a lot of fun just wondering around trying to find something to do and attempted to talked the locals. Eventually we ran into bullet, machine head obituary and a bunch of other bands from loud park and headed to a rock bar. It was lame so we headed back to the hotel. Where the party lasted till 7 AM. More expensive whisky was drank and tons of calls from security. I slept for about an hour this night.

I woke up at 8am woke up some of the guys as I was leaving for the airport at noon. I really didn't want to go home. We went out to a noodle house for breakfast before I headed back to the hotel to get my bags and say my good byes. I was bummed about leaving the guys and mizu. Even thought it was three days it felt like a 3 month tour with how well we got along. Headed with Jeff to the airport where I had the same flight as black tide. I got another noodle bowl with zak and austin before crashing the whole flight. i'm home now and I can not wait to get back to Japan. I have never been that happy in my life. I had smile on my face the whole time and not once even though about coming home.

I'll hopefully be back their soon I can't wait. Check out my pictures linked below. The guys are going to add to this site as soon as they can.

http://www.flickr.com/photos/31609879@N02/

a new found interest in music

Recently my love for going to shows and listening to music has come back. After touring I got jaded and shows stopped being fun. Since I got home from tour in august I've seen a number of shows that have changed it. I saw new found glory, brand new, thrice and gaslight anthem. Being in the crowd singing brand new and new found songs felt so good. The majority of me loving shows and music again is due to gaslights new album. I've listened to it more times than I can count and i still love it( I'm listening to it now). I saw them tonight in Cleveland and even though the sound was shitty I had a great time time. Thrice was amazing as always, I'm glad I gave them a second chance. Saturday I get to see Saves the day which I'm sure will also be an amazing time.

I got a job for the time I'm home. I am the production manager at gravity and diesel. Its supper easy but it allows me to keep my tming skills on track and watch other tms and learn what I can. I want to be on tour really badly I really love waking up in a new city and seeing friends. I want to tm arena tours. I want to really be challenged as I really do love the life.

I no longer talk to kimi she is out of my life and I really have been happy since it happened. I've been riding my bike and making new friends from bike polo. I do wish I had a girlfriend there are those nights were a warm body in your bed next to you is amazing. I need to learn to talk to girls, I see so many who are cute but I'm to scared and never talk to them. Maybe I'll try this weekend.

detox

I feel like i'm detoxing from the greatest drug in the world. she was the greatest thing in the world and made me so happy. now i'm going thru the hardest withdrawl of my life. my inside hurts non stop and my brain is just going a mile a minute thinking about her. Eventually the shivers and the pain will go away and then i'll just be left of memories of her and she will be out of my life. i feel like if i let her in my life with things different i'll just be holding on to the hope of getting back together with her which i know won't be happening. she has moved on from me and its obvious but i just dont want to let go. i'm so addicted to her and i want it to go away. i hate being addicted to someone she has way to much control over me. i need the pain gone.

what a difference a year makes

so a little over a year ago i was at merrieweather post pavillion outside of baltimore and it was the begging of warped tour and now i'm a a shitty nu metal tour. I wish i could go back to a year ago kimi still loved me and I was much happier. now i'm left with very few things. the two people i would talk about my problems with both have found a boyfriend so it leaves me with no one to talk to about how depressed i am. the good thing is tomorow i fly to la and hopefully will see kimi. i miss her a lot and haven't got to talk to her as much as i want. this will end the longest period of me not seeing her since i met her. i'm excited and scared.

my new fuji

I love my new bike, i've been riding it ever secound i get and love it. i had to leave it on the bus when we flew to new mexico and i wish i had it today. we are a baptist convention where there is no tv and my phone doesnt work. my bike would be key to ride around and give me stuff today. we flew from jersey early this morning so no sleep for me.

yesterday we played with the almost, mxpx, norma jean and emery. it was awesome playing with bands that i know and have friends who are in them and work for them. but now its back to nu metal and garbage back to being bored