Projekt Revolution, Part I - MSI

My brother and I decided we only wanted to stick around to see Mindless Self Indulgence and HIM. Since HIM was the 3rd act on the main stage, they were the only reason why I paid $55 a ticket for Linkin Park's little music fest. I would have paid $76 a ticket for the good seats, so I could be that much closer to the stage to see HIM and to get closer shots of Ville, but apparently the second section of seats were the best seats available at the time of the pre-sale. Yeah, ri-ight. Bullshit! (Just once I would love to get really good seats in the first section!)

Because I had lost my tickets I had to go pick them up over at the will call window. After standing in the A - whatever-fucking-letter for quite a while, I was directed over to the customer assistance window. Then when I finally got to that window and went through my losing my ticket and calling them in spiel again with the guy at this window, he informs me that I should have stood in the A - whatever-fucking-letter window and told them my last name since that's where my tickets were. I explained to him that what I told the person over there was the same exact thing I just told him and they told me to come over to his freaking window. The guy was very nice though and got my tickets for me. He also happened to notice that they were actual seats, "These are hard to come by." I said, "Yeah. That is why I was freaked out about losing them. If they were lawn tickets I would have just bought a couple more." But I guess I should have been a little more thankful that I had actual seats, even though my view of the left side (my left that is) of the stage was obstructed by the stupid section sign posts for sections 103 & 102. Yeah. Uh huh. Very thankful.

My brother and I couldn't have timed getting to the show any better. By the time I finally got through the will call lines, got my tickets, and headed inside over to the second stage, MSI took the stage not 10 minutes later. Perfect timing.

Just like when we saw them at the Download Festival in 2005, they were fucking awesome. Little Jimmy Urine definitely knows how to play up to the crowd. Dance Dance Revolution, baby!

After looking at some of these photos though and seeing them up a lot closer, I didn't realize how old they were. I guess I just assumed that they were all in like their mid 20's or something just from how their crowd really seems to be the much younger set. (Well, much younger than me anyway)

I was looking at some of these pictures of Jimmy and was thinking "Damn! This guy looks like he's a total tweaker." He's got that whole thin, spun out of his mind for years that I look 50 instead of 23, tweaker look going on. So out of curiosity I looked them up further and looked to see when Jimmy was born. He was born just a year after me, in 1969. Well, hell. That explains a lot right there. Specially with all the references to the 80s pop culture, I thought they were a little young to be so into the 80s...I guess not. LOL Jimmy does look a little bit roughly worn though, and not just from age. I'm just saying is all. I'm sure the road is not kind to even those who abstain from putting any form of chemicals, so called pharmaceuticals, or liquids into their bodies.

Anyway, without much further ado, here are some shots I made of MSI.

Enjoy, Bitches.

Unfortunately, there was a lot of dust being stirred up during their set. Every time I tried to get shots of Steve, Right? a big dust cloud would then pop up and drift over towards where he was. This shot and another one below were the only two somewhat good shots that I was able to make of Steve. I would have liked to have gotten a really good dust clear shot of him, but it just wasn't meant to be. So if some of the pictures seem to be a little 'hazy' to you, you now know why.

It's a Revolution... and it's upon us!

Sunday the Projekt Revolution Tour is coming to the Shoreline Amphitheater in Mountain View. Linkin Park's little music fest, which of course they are headlining. I'm not a big Linkin Park fan, I liked their first album, Hybrid Theory and was one of the millions who bought it. But when they came out with Reanimation, I dunno, as much as I love remixes, they kind of lost me with that one. And Meteora, to me, just sounded too much like Hybrid, really nothing new there to chew on. I might stick around to see them perform, but I dunno, we'll see.

So then why in the hell am I going to Projekt Revolution then if I'm not such a big Linkin Park fan?

Good question. Glad you asked!

Well, I'm not a big My Chemical Romance fan either. I've heard of Taking Black Sunday and Saosin but haven't heard any songs from them. Placebo? Yeah, never heard of them either. Nor have I heard of Julien-K (giving them a listen on MySpace now, I like Kick the Bass, not too sure about the other songs they got up here though.), The Bled, Styles of Beyond... Yup, never hear of any of them.

Mindless Self Indulgence I had actually caught at the Download Festival, never heard of them until that day. My brother and I were actually making fun of them while they were playing cause they were terrible...but terrible in a good way if that makes any sense. The lead singer actually has a great stage presence that just works. And yeah, my brother and I ended up liking Shut Me Up. I mean, how could you not. It's a great catchy tune and it sounded great that day. MSI is one of those bands that you would love to hire to play at college party. In the end, MSI ended up winning my brother and I over.

Okay, so that leaves just one band left...

Oh com'mon now. Like you really didn't see that coming! That one was a given. Why in the hell else would I be going to this concert!? Why in the hell HIM are touring with Linkin Park and the like, though, is beyond me. They really don't fit in the same genre of music. But I guess because Him, Linkin Park, My Chemical Romance, and Taking Back Sunday are all on Warner Bros. Music makes sense on that aspect of it all.

Last year HIM was supposed lined up to play on the No Sleep 'Til Halloween Tour with Papa Roach, Lostprophets, and Kill Hannah. Again, another line up that I didn't feel one way or the other about, but bought tickets nonetheless just to see HIM again for their Dark Light release. They later backed out of it in favor of getting back into the studio though, which I don't blame them for wanting to do. But I was a lot little bummed that I wouldn't be getting the chance to see them again until after they completed the new album.


Well, now the new album, Venus Doom, is scheduled to be released September 19th. AND... I've already got my copies pre-ordered with express shipping so I wouldn't have to wait and will actually receive them the day of the release. Copies? Yeah. They are release 3 versions of the album. There is the regular version, a special edition version that will have a bonus CD with a couple of the new songs remixed, in a special album package. Then there is the limited edition version that will come with "a 7" x 9" size antique-style "leather" wrapped journal with 60 pages of photos, illustrations, lyrics, etc. and includes the full length CD and bonus disc with 3 songs in parchment envelopes and 3 "polaroid" photos, contained in a sealed envelope in the back of the book." A little excessive you say? Yeah. But guess what? I don't care. So… [sticking tongue out at you]

So yeah, I'm a little extremely excited about Sunday. I'm finally getting to see them again and get to hear some of the new songs off the new album. I've already been listening to Passions Killing Floor, bought that one off of iTunes, since they contributed that song to the Transformers soundtrack. And I've been watching the new video for Kiss of Dawn (also on iTunes), which I really, really like. I'm having high hopes for Venus Doom, already it sounds a lot harder than the Dark Light album, which I knew was going to sound too much the way it did. [Why is that for American consumption that when a foreign band finally gets their recognition and gets officially released on a US label that the record companies end up pushing them for a more "poppy, more radio friendly" album? Fucking record companies! Yeah I know, it's all about getting their money back, then some, on their investments. But fuck-n-a already! Let the artist be themselves. After all, that is part of the reason they were signed in the first place.] Don't get me wrong, I liked the Dark Light, I just thought it could have been a lot better. But like I said earlier, I'm a lot more hopeful with Venus Doom, so far so good. I'm not so sure about the album cover [pictured], but I definitely can't wait to get it so I can hear the whole thing!

Wanna hear the most fucked up part about this whole Projekt Revolution concert that my brother and I are supposed to be going to?

I lost the fucking tickets! I can't find them ANYWHERE! I tore my freaking room apart looking for them fucking tickets over the weekend. It's not like they were lawn tickets either or I'd just say fuck it and buy two more. Since HIM is on the main stage I bought seats so I wouldn't have to be so far back, plus I bought the premier parking ticket too so I wouldn't have to park out in the dusty boondocks. I have no freaking idea where I put them since they obviously were not where I always put my concert tickets so that I WON'T lose them. Ha! I called Ticket Master and spent what felt like forever and a day holding until I finally got a CS Rep. My name is supposedly on the list for the premier parking and my two tickets are waiting for me to pick up at the will-call office. Supposedly. I don't know how smooth this is going to do since I've never lost concert tickets before.

I'll let you know how that goes.

Summertime, time to head to the beach!

Friday at work TinyTima asked me if I wanted to go to the beach with her on Saturday. I said, "Which beach?" I thought she was nuts when she said Carmel. I was thinking she was going to mention some where like Half Moon Bay or Santa Cruz. "Sure, what the hell. It's been a long time since I was last in Carmel. Ooo, they got some cemeteries there, we can hit one of them while we are there!" So we made plans to leave at around 8:30 the next morning. So Friday night I set my alarm for 7.

Saturday rolls around and I am rudely awaken by my alarm clock. There's just something wrong about being woken up by an alarm clock on a weekend. Weekends are to be spent sleeping in as long as possible, especially if you were out late drinking & partying the night before. Unfortunately, I did neither of those two things. But still, it's the principle.

I think I finally got to TinyTima's place a little after 9. After being rudely awaken, it was definately going to have to hit Starbucks first. I needed an iced vente quad soy carmel macchiato to get me jump started! Gawd I just love them iced carmel macchiato's. You should see the looks I get from them when I get two of those quad shot suckers in the morning some times! After getting those quads that one morning, I just can't go back to the regular ones anymore.

Anyway, we finally arrive at Carmel Beach. I'm not even sure when we got there, I wasn't paying any attention to time at all that day. Before I left the house I put in fresh batteries that I had charged a few weeks ago. I had a feeling about that though... We finally find a parking spot. With camera in hand we head on down to the beach. A georgous day for the beach!

We get down onto the beach and I see this bulldog fetching a a huge stick that is about two times longer than he is. Everytime it is thrown out into the water, he is right there fetching it, carrying it back onto the beach. He's just having a good ole time. I take my camera out to get a picture. I turn the camera on and I get a charge batteries warning and my damn camera won't turn on. Before we got onto the beach I had taken a handful of pictures up top, getting the view. The damn bastard ate up whatever juice I had in them batteries taking them few pictures. Now I had nothing left to get any pictures of the bulldog. I was pissed, I had a feeling something like that was going to happen. I knew I should of packed an extra set of batteries with me. Oh well. It just meant that we'd have to hit a store later when we'd go to get some lunch.

But I really wanted a picture of this bulldog. So after a while I decided to try again and see if I could get any kind of juice out of those batteries to take a couple of shots. I was able to get a few shots, only by this time the little guy was being ignored as he kept barking at his big stick to be thrown for him to fetch it. So all I got were these.

I tell ya, that bulldog with that huge stick was the greatest thing to watch. Trust me.

After lunch, with bellies full and fresh batteries in hand we head back to the beach. I had a great time sitting back watching all the kids, surfers, dogs, and people. Camera in hand I just pointed in this direction and that direction, taking shot after shot.

There was a little girl with her big brother and her father that came and sat in front of us. I couldn't help but to take pictures of her. She was just too cute. She was how I pictured what my little girl would look like, if I ever had one. I got some shots of her brother and her father too.

There were a lot of father's there with their daughter's. It was touching for me to see since I never knew my father. There was one girl out there surfing with her father. It was great just watching this little girl surfing. I'd always wanted to learn how to surf, and here she was out there with her father surfing like it was second nature to her.

Then there was this one little girl that looked like she was intent on digging her way to China. She had dug that hole so far down that she'd have to get up on her knees and bend down over into the hole to get more sand out. Her arm would disappear down into that hole past her elbow.

This beach was a very dog friendly beach. There were dogs every where! Every breed you can imagine. Litte Jack Russell's, golden Labs, black Labs, Dachshund's, Dalmation, Corgi, Mastiff, Border Collie, Bernese Mountain Dog, St. Bernard. You name it, it was there. I fell in love with the big ole St. Bernard that was also with a golden Lab. I later found out that the St. Bernard's name was Napolean. Cute as hell! And oh what a slobber puss he was too!

And of course, no beach is complete without a group having surfing lessons. That was fun to watch. You see the instructor making them do all kind of moves, which is funny to watch. Specially since you can't hear what the instructor is saying, so it just looks funny.

The greatest thing that I saw as I was leaving though was what I spied etched into the side of one of the boulders down on the beach. It was a poor rendition of what it was supposed to be, but it was a heartagram none the less. For those who don't know what that is, it is a symbol from my favorite band HIM. It may not mean anything to you, but it means something to me. I don't see many heartagrams 'tagged' anywhere, and this is the last place I'd ever thought I'd see one. So I just had to take a picture of it.

All in all it was a great day. What a better way to spend the day lazin' about, than at the beach!

In case you were wondering. I never made it the cemeteries that day. But there is always next time!

These are the shots that I ended up with from that day.

Rockin' Ghetto Style, Wedding Bells, Cemeteries, and The Slut!

The last couple of weeks has been a little hectic and stressful. Just when I thought my life couldn't get any more fucked up, Murphy's Law came and fucked me from behind. It wouldn't have been so bad had there been a little lubrication to ease the pain.

Okay, so maybe it's not as bad as all that. I have a way of fucking things up all on my own without any help from good ole Murphy. However, one of my problems was actually out of my control. The other is the usual money problems. I spend way more than I get. You’d think I’d learn by now!

On the 14th of last month my car decided to take a shit on me, AGAIN! I drove into work with no problem. I even took off for lunch with no problem getting back to work. Although I did have this funny feeling about my car as I was pulling back into the parking lot at work. Sure enough as I got in my car to leave for the evening, the bitch just wouldn't turn over. Great! Just what I fucking needed again. What sucked was that it now meant that I was not going to be able to make it to the bachelorette party that Saturday. Bastard! What sucked even more was hearing about the great time everyone had at Asia SF with the stripper and everything else. Yeah, everyone but me!

Best of all, my car is still sitting in my driveway becoming one of the biggest, dirtiest paper weights ever. Yeah, I still haven't gotten it looked at to see what in the hell the malfunction is this time. My uncle still has not taken the time to come by and see what the fuck its problem is. I think I'm going to have to give him a little ringy dingy and get his ass over here. For now I am driving my kid brothers other car that is a bigger piece of shit than mine. Like I should talk! At least it runs, unlike mine at the moment. Let me give you a little visual on his piece of shit though.

I can't remember what year the fucking thing is, but it's a Chrysler Sebring convertible, '97 I think. A convertible, not bad, you say. Wrong! It's a convertible that has no back window as that got shattered not too long after my brother got it. He was putting the top down one day and it just shattered. So yeah, that looks pretty ghetto. Now you'd think that with this nice Summer California weather we've been having that would not be such a big deal since it's a convertible and should be driven with the top down this time of the year anyway. Yeah, and you'd be right... If all the windows actually would roll down. I tried putting the top down last week but the rear window behind the driver’s seat will not go down, at all. Again, that looks pretty fucking ghetto, so I put the top back up. Next in line we have the stereo, which is actually a bomb ass stereo system. It's got great bass and all that. However, if you turn the fucking stereo up too much and get all that bass going the fucking doors rattle like hell. Apparently my brother really didn't give a rat’s ass about how well he took care of the car cause now the door panels on the inside are no longer completely attached to the doors anymore. You have to be careful when opening up either door as the panels stick to part of the door molding, which you have to be careful not to try and open the doors with any force as they will fling back shut, ripping the door handle out of your finger tips (which hurt by the way when you have nails!). Nice! So now I'm rolling in a convertible that rocks ghetto style as the doors reverberate with every beat of the bass. I've always wanted to know how it felt to be ghetto fabulous. Now I know! Be careful what you wish for girls, cause chances are it will come true.

Uhm, what else? Oh yeah. I fucked someone that I shouldn’t be fucking. At all. I didn’t plan it, that’s for sure. It just kind of happened. I called up one of the exes, you might remember him as the Cling-On, just checking up on him to see if things have gotten any better for him. He sounded a lot better; he was out of the house and partying. Then I got a text message at 3 in the morning by him asking, “what’s up?” Uh, sleeping! The next thing I know he’s asking me if I want to come over and have some ‘fun’. You’ve got to be kidding me!? I guess he is feeling much, much better. So we are texting back and forth for about an hour. Mainly him trying to get me to come over and fuck him, which I didn’t end up doing. I text him the next day asking him what the hell that was all about and he says that he was fucked up. Great! “So you text me at 3 o’clock in the morning to fuck with me and see what I’d say?” I text him. Of course he’s all no, no, no, it wasn’t like that at all. He tried getting me to come over again, but I resisted. The next day rolled around and the more I thought about it the more I just said to myself, what the fuck. Why not? It’d been awhile since I had a good fuck, let alone a decent fuck. I figured since he was an ex at least I’d know what to expect. That was the one thing I didn’t have any complaints about in our relationship. The sex was always pretty damn good. So what do I do? I took him up on his offer and drove myself on up to his house. What I should have done was just stay the fuck home and leave well enough alone. But NO! My horny self over rode any rational thought process I had and just pushed the sensible me right the fuck out the door and locked it.

So I get there and we just watched the TV for awhile. All the while in my head I’m thinking this is probably not going to take that long to get him off since it had been over a year since he probably had any sex. With all the medication that he was on they left nothing for the sex drive. However, I was soon to be shown otherwise. Not only was he fucking rock hard but lasted a good hour. I guess that was one good side effect from all the drugs he was taking. Although I ended up being left out in the cold. I couldn’t get off to save my fucking life, so that fucking sucked. Oh well. Lesson learned? Hell no! But that comes a little later.

Now the week was upon me to get ready for the wedding that I went to just this past weekend. Now I hate shopping for clothes, let alone a fucking dress! I finally ended up finding one on-line just in time. What was even more awesome was that the fucker actually fit and looked half way decent. Then what with everything with my car and not trusting my brother’s car I was now in need of a rental car to get my ass to Murphys for the weekend where the wedding was being held, at Ironstone Winery. I had already reserved a room for the entire weekend. This was more money I was going to have to spend. I was originally going to drive up with Mr. Love, but he called the week before telling me that he now planned on driving up either the night before or the day of the wedding and driving back the same night after. Well fuck! Time for a new plan for me. I guess he didn’t trust being in the same hotel room with me the whole weekend. Not like anything was going to happen anyway. Well, okay, so maybe I was hoping that there would be some kind of action. But I knew that the chances of that happening were like me winning the lottery. Nada gonna happen in this lifetime! Anyway, I lucked out and got a Chevy Equinox for only $78 for the weekend.

It turned out to be a great weekend despite all my fantasy illusions. I left Friday morning and got up there around 2 in the afternoon. After I arrived everyone else started trickling in. The majority of them all had to go to the rehearsal dinner so there weren’t many of us hanging about the hotel. I took off to go find something to eat and brought it back to the hotel. I started looking in the book that the hotel puts inside all the rooms listing what the hotel rules are, things to do around town, and what-not. There was a map in there of the town and saw a road that said Cemetery Road. As soon as I saw that I was down in the lobby with my new camera in hand asking if in fact there was a cemetery on Cemetery Road. Leave it to me to find the cemetery where ever I go! The girl behind the desk confirmed there was and I was off! I ended up spending about an hour there taking a shit load of pictures. I then ended up down the road where it drops you off at Main Street. Found a cute little bed and breakfast nestled in some trees and took some pictures of that too. Then I took some pictures of Main Street from where I was. By that time it was getting pretty late and not getting enough sun so I headed back to the hotel.

Not too long after returning to the hotel the bridal party came back and it was party time! The guys all took off into one room to play poker and party the night away. The girls all got together in another room to do a little bit of partying of their own. Most of us ended up just popping squat in front of the hotel and partying out there. A good majority of the girls were all smokers and the hotel rooms were all non-smoking rooms. It just made more since to just kick it outside and party it out there. After the hot day the cool evening felt much better than the air conditioner. I was really surprised that we didn’t end up having any complaints about all the noise we were making. You get some of those girls pickled with alcohol and whoa boy will they get loud. One in particular was the groom’s sister who was also one of the bridesmaid’s. By 1 in the morning she was pretty wasted. I knew that she was going to be hurting the next morning, since they all had to be at the hair dressers at 9 to get all done up for the wedding. She was hurting the next day! LOL

The wedding was a blast. The bride was absolutely stunning and the groom was as handsome as ever. She pulled up in a horse drawn carriage that was just so picture perfect. I managed to miss getting a picture, of course! And the setting was just as picture perfect, it was held at Ironstone Vineyards outside set against the natural beauty of the Sierra Foothills, where the Lakeside Park, enchanting flowers, wood-covered bridges and sprawling grapevines provided colorful backdrop. Okay, that little bit I actually stole from their website. I think they described it a lot better than I could have. The whole wedding party looked just as beautiful and handsome as the bride and groom.


As it was also the 4th of July weekend, the vineyard also had a 4th of July celebration with a live band playing and a fireworks display planned for later in the evening. We all stuck around for the fireworks display then we all headed back to our hotels. Mr. Love left the wedding earlier in the evening since he was so intent on driving back home that day. Always the party pooper that one is. I was surprised he stayed as long as he did. He showed up, that was good enough.

After we all get back to the hotel it was later learned that one of the bride’s co-worker’s that showed up for the wedding got pulled over for a DUI. She ended up calling the bride and groom and they were actually going to pick her ass up from the sheriff’s department at 4 in the morning. I’m sorry, but at 35 you should know better than to be drinking and driving. I would have left her ass in the drunk tank! Okay, not really. Being the nice person that I am I would have done the same as them. However, someone else offered to go get her for them so they wouldn’t have to. They did end up taking her to get her car out of impound though at like 8 in the morning. From what I hear this chick was hysterical the whole time, from when she got picked up by the cop until she got her car out of impound. Well, I hope she learned her lesson. She was told by numerous people at the wedding, including from the bride, not to drive. But she did anyway.

I took my time driving home the next day. On my way out from the hotel I asked the girl again behind the desk where in Angel’s Camp the cemeteries were. Oh com’mon now! If you have been paying any attention at all through out this damn blog, I LOVE cemeteries! Since I don’t know when I will ever be up that way again I wanted to hit as many cemeteries that I could on the way out. Turns out there are 3 cemeteries in Altaville, located just on the northwest portion of Angel’s Camp. I found the Altaville Protestant Cemetery, Catholic Cemetery, and Lode Cemetery. At least that is the names I have found them to be here on the web. The Protestant Cemetery was the only one of the three that actually had a sign, the others just had a sign posted warning about vandalism. I walked around all three, just shooting away with my camera. What I love about cemeteries are seeing all the different style headstones that are used. I found quite a few that I have never seen before until now. Now I have the task of actually sitting down and taking the time to go through all the photos and editing the best out of the lot.

So this was all on Sunday. After getting back home I was trying to just relax, but after being gone all weekend and from the long drive back, I was feeling pretty restless and bored. I still had a few hours yet until I had to return the Equinox, which I really did not want to part with. (I think I found my new car!) I ended up texting you know who. I actually text him asking him if he wanted to go and see a movie later in the evening, but he text back that he was broke. So what do I go and do? I text him asking him if he wanted to fuck then. Yeah, I have no couth sometimes. I pretty much say what is on my mind, straight and to the point. I think I was pretty straight and to the point on that one. I really didn’t think he’d bite, I figured last weeks little rumble tumble was it. I guess I figured wrong. He came over and we watched Donnie Darko, all the while he had his hand down his pants stroking his cock. I have to say that, yes in deed, that was turning me on. There’s just something about a man stroking his cock that I love. I wanted to take my time with him though. I managed to make it through the entire movie before asking him if he wanted a helping hand. Although I did tell him that it looked like he was doing a pretty good job there on his own. But being in the slut mode that I seemed to be in, I just couldn’t resist feeling his hard cock in my hand and in my mouth. I was going to make myself wait to feel him deep inside some where else. And let me tell you, I was pretty much throbbing for it already at this point. What a Slut!

This time around I actually got off. And oh my gawd was it a long time coming! In the moment if felt fucking great, but it was missing something. It felt empty, emotionless. Well, what did I expect? It was only just a fuck anyway, right? Yep, and that’s just what it was alright. Just a fuck. I’m finding that I’m not that person. I can’t do just fucks, I need something more there. I need the emotions, I need the feelings. Mr. Love changed me in more ways than I ever thought. Not that I used to just fuck people before I got together with him. I’ve always had some kind of emotions or feelings for the person I was having sex with, you know, at least some kind of attraction. Other than just feeling totally horny, I didn’t feel a damn thing. I can tell he wasn't feeling anything but the sensations of fucking, he was completely gone somewhere else inside his head. So maybe it’s just best if he and I don’t hook up again. We don’t need to be starting anything neither one of us have any intentions of finishing. Lord knows I’m not looking for that from him. Hell, all I wanted was a fuck. Well I guess I got fucked alright, by me. I keep telling myself that that was it, no more. Yet I can’t keep the slut at bay, she is still rearing her ugly head. She wants more, what she got the other night was not enough. I keep telling myself that that was it, no more. But the slut keeps telling me, “Who the fuck are you fooling?!” I mean, shit, it’s only sex right? Right…? Fuck!

The Longest Day of the Year

In honour of the Summer Solstice.

Spinal Tap "Stonehenge"

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah... BFD!

So BFD was this past Saturday.  I had bought two tickets with the hopes of finding someone to go with me.  With a week before the event I still didn’t have any hopes of finding anyone.  Then out of the blue I get a call from Zenn the day of the Zumiez Couch event.  So I figured what the hell, I’ll ask Zenn if he wants to go.  By Wednesday, 3 days left, I got a confirming yes from him.  However, by early Saturday afternoon I couldn’t get a hold of him on his cell phone.  Bugger!  I knew I was going to end up going to this fucking thing all by myself.  Oh well, shit happens!  And it usually always happens to me.  No worries though, I still planned on going, even if was all by my lonesome self.

I had already planned to not show up to the concert until about 6 o’clock.  Face it; I only bought tickets to the damned thing to see HIM and Echo & the Bunnymen.  Since they were on the main stage, I knew I had plenty of time to get there, which confirmed my plans when I got the event schedule off of Live 105’s website the day before.  Echo was scheduled to hit the stage at 6:35, then HIM at 7:35.  Sweet!  

I finally get into Mountain View just before 6.  Parking wasn’t too bad considering I knew that later arrivals would have to park way out in the boondocks.  Not too bad, I just had to walk across a field.  To get to the gates I had to walk past the whole second stage fenced area of the parking lot.  The entire second stage area was completely deserted, having moved into the main area of the Shoreline.

First stop after I got through the gate was to hit the t-shirt stand.  I wasn’t sure if I was going to get a HIM t-shirt and a BFD tour shirt, or just one of what would be available.  I ended up just getting the HIM tour shirt.  After that I headed off looking for the meet and greet queue.  HIM was scheduled for the meet ‘n greet at 6:00.  Figured I’d wait in line since I had some time to kill.  That line was fucking long!  I think I waited for all of 10 minutes before getting bored, and then took off.

So I wandered around a bit more.  Even sat down at one point and text Wenchy asking her to remind me why I went to that damned thing by myself.  Then I got up after smoking a butt and happened upon the Live 105 booth.  Saw a quite a bit of people milling around and could see that they were interviewing some band.  I joined the group of people, took a look to see which band and had absolutely no idea which band it was.  Figured I’d get out my digital camera anyway and take some picture.  Why the hell not?  I had a great view and figured I might as well get some shoots that were not all crap.  So out came my camera.  At this point some guy walked up to me and asked if he could get a light off my cigarette, which I happily obliged.  I asked which band was being interviewed and he told me it was Franz Ferdinand.  “Oh, no wonder I didn’t know who the hell they were!” I said to him.  Which he agreed with me on, then went on to talk about how fucked up one of the guys teeth were.  Comments of really bad English teeth ensued.  

While I had been waiting in the meet and greet line I had looked at the printed schedule booklet that LIVE 105 had printed up.  Looking at that the line up was way off from what I had printed off their website.  So I thought Echo wasn’t going to be taking the stage until later on in the evening.  Boy was I wrong!  As I was taking pictures of the Franz boys I hear Bring On The Dancing Horses.  WTF?!  Echo was on stage as per the websites schedule.  Bastards!  Off I went to go find my way to my seat.  And such great seats they were!  According to when I bought them, during the PRE SALE mind you, the best available seats given to me were section 201, row R, seats 21 and 22.  Yeah, best available seats my ass!  Fuckers!  I hate how they save the front row seats and the front row sections for ticket brokers and crap.  Bastards!

I finally make my way to my seats, well okay, seat.  But at least I had the option to sit in which ever one I wanted to since I knew the owner of the seat next to mine.  And let me tell you, they were both crap!  Holy shit I was far away from the stage.  And to top it all off, the section sign posts for the first row section was right our sections line of sight.  Thankfully those were taken down not too long after I finally made it my seat.  

Now it’s time to see just how far I am away from the stage in regards to trying to take some pictures.  Uh yeah, crappy!  I had to go into digital zoom mode.  Now I know these pictures are going to turn out like crap.  However, at least I’m getting any pictures at all.  

Now what the fuck?!  Are you fucking kidding me?!  Two to tree rows ahead of me is an older couple (well, they were older than me by at least 5-10 years!) who are standing up while Echo are on.  Now mind you, they are the ONLY ones standing in our section AT ALL!  Not long after I myself was mouthing off that they needed to sit their ass down (okay, not loud enough for them to actually hear me) I hear a few people behind me start yelling down to them to “sit their fucking asses down”.  After awhile the guy must have actually heard and sat down, then tried telling his wife, or whatever the fuck she was to him, to sit down too.  Which I was surprised that she did.  Only to stand back up again about 10 minutes later!  After that I then saw a girl walk over to her and ask her if she could please stay seated as there were a lot of people behind her that she was blocking the view of the stage from.  Again I was surprised to see that she obliged and even stayed seated for the rest of Echo’s set.  They took off after Echo finished up, never to see them again after that.  

Echo and the Bunnymen were awesome.  I didn’t know what to expect from this band live as I never got a chance to see them in the ‘80s in their hey days.  All the songs sounded great, especially The Killing Moon.  I was glad I didn’t miss the rest of their set.

HIM finally took the stage about the time they were scheduled to.  They only thing I was a bit put off by was from what Mige was wearing.  Mige is a big boy, no hiding that, least of all in a black mesh shirt.  Every time the camera man was on him you could see his big man boobies on the big jumbo screens.  Ugh, just put them away!  Gas on the other hand had on a Slayer t-shirt on.  Gas loves to rock the Slayer t-shirts.  Ville had on a Hedwig and the Angry Itch t-shirt on underneath his jacket.  Although, Ville always looks fucking good!  Burton and Linde looked pretty much the same as usual.  

Okay, so anyway, HIM’s set was pretty short, only 8 songs.  I’ve listed the set list of both Echo and HIM’s in the slide show below.  

After they finished up their set, it was my queue to leave.  As I was hiking back to my car I spotted a Scion xB in the VIP parking lot that had the license plate of EVILDAV.  I thought it was kind of ironic as Mr Love himself has a silver Scion xB.  Those who know me well will see where I see the irony.  This silver Scion was pretty decked out from his though.  This one I was has blue flames and an iron cross emblem on the back of the hatch.  I included a shot of it in the slide show below.  

As I passed the second stage area I stopped and took a picture of the desolate stage.  I just thought it looked neat with the setting of the sun.  Also included in the slide show I put together.

Then as I was walking across the field towards my car, I was looking towards my right and noticed the building that was on the other side of the trees.  The way the sun setting glared off the glass windows of the building just caught my attention.  So I started walking towards it.  As I broke through the trees though, what I had seen from the field was gone, but what I did see I liked even more.  So I ended up strolling around this building complex for probably a good hour taking all kinds of shots.  Little did I know, until I happened upon the reception area of the building and the ‘quad’ area, that I had been strolling around the complex of Google.com.  Hell, I didn’t even know Google was located in Mountain View.  The pictures that I spent taking there ended up being the best pictures of the night.  Then just before I was leaving, still taking pictures on the way out, I dropped my camera trying to light a cigarette.  I think I broke something in it.  I was still able to take quite a few more pictures after that, but as I turned it off and the lens was being pulled back into the body it made clicking noises.  So now when I turn the camera on and off, the lens makes a clicking/popping sound as the lens goes out and back in.  Great, smooth move on my part!  I’m just glad that it wasn’t my new digital camera that I just bought.  I just bought it a week ago, but it’s on back order.  I’m hoping to get it before the wedding that I am going to on the 1st of July.  

So that is my tale to tell of my lonesome BFD experience.  All in all, it was not a bad night.  Even with the dropping of the camera.  So, for your enjoyment below I have put together a slide show of ‘the best of the worst’ shots from the concert itself and my tour around the Google complex.  The concert pictures themselves I ended up converting to black & white and they still look like shit, but they look a whole lot better than they did in color.  I think they look actually pretty cool in black & white.  When I look a them they kind of give me an old newspaper feeling and even an old Ed Sullivan feeling when you see the old black & white shows from back in the day.  So I guess in a way I ended up giving an artistic feeling to them.  Well, so I see anyway.  I don’t know about you all.  The Google pictures I took in black & white as that was the look I was originally going for anyway, I just added a little bit of a blue filter to them.

Anyway, hope you enjoy.

ATTACK OF THE 50 FT. COUCH

Sunday, June 4th kicked off the Zumiez Couch Tour in San Jose at Eastridge Mall. This is a place where skaters of all ages converge to watch their favorite skater do their thing and hopefully meet them, get a picture taken with them and get them to sign their boards, shoes, posters, or whatever. Then after the skate demo and signings there is a concert. All free of charge.

And of course all the sponsor tents selling their goods and giving away prizes through out the day. I never did make it over to the Jones Soda tent and where their bus was. I would have liked to have gotten a couple of shots of the bus. I did get a shot (film) of some kid getting ketchup and mustard all over his head though. I didn't pay much attention to which sponsors tent that was.

PARTICIPATING SKATE TEAMS
Flip - Geoff Rowley, Mark Appleyard, Rodrigo TX, Lance Mountain, Arto Saari, Eric Fletcher, Bob Burnquist, Shane Cross, David Gonzalez

Adio - Shaun White, Kenny Anderson, Ed Selego, Steve Nesser, Danny Montoya, Brian Sumner, Ernie Torres, Joey Brezinski, Nick Dompierre, Sean Eaton

Volcom - Geoff Rowley, Mark Appleyard, Dustin Dollin, Aaron Suski, Caswell Berry, Darrel Stanton, Ryan Sheckler

Element Skateboards - Bam Margera, Tosh Townend, Colt Cannon, Nyjah Huston, Jake Rupp, Mike Vallely, Brent Atchley

Vans - Dustin Dollin, Anthony Van Engelen, Christian Hosoi, Omar Hassan, Danny Wainwright, Raymond Molinar, Keegan Sauder, Angel Ramirez, Chima Fergusson

The skate team scheduled for San Jose was the Flip team. Unfortunately I missed the skate demo portion. I dropped in to visit with a friend in Fremont on my way down. But you can bet your sweet ass I would have been there for the demo if the Element team was there and watched Bam Margera and Mike Vallely do their thing. Knowing Bam, I'm sure he would have done some crazy ass shit. However, since it was the Flip team I kinda took my time getting down there. A shame though, I was hoping to get some skate shots. Oh well. I had a great time visiting with Miss Kimberly instead.

I did make it for the concert though. Mike Vallely's band Revolution Mother were the opening act with CKY closing. I ended up shooting 4 rolls of film and 100+ on my digital camera. I haven't gotten the rolls developed yet and knew that I'd take some time getting that done and figured I'd settle with whatever my digital would capture for the time being. A good majority of them came out pretty good considering. I'm not hopefully about many of the film shots to turn out too well. I did have my zoom lens with me, but I have a feeling that a good majority of those will come out blurry. I guess I'll find out once I get them bastards developed.

Revolution Mother weren't bad. CKY were great as usual. A few songs into the set Chad ended up feeding Cher Do You Believe In Love through the sound system. Then later on it was Whitney Houston I Will Always Love You. Trying to feel the love from the fans anyway they could. After they played their set Daren Miller, Jess Margera, and Mat Deis were over in the Adio tent signing autographs.

I had taken off to put all my equipment in my car and drove to a bank to get some money. I wanted to see if they were selling the Hellview City Limit Pop. 96 t-shirt that I've wanted for some time. Not even thinking about it, I went to the Adio tent to buy the shirt with out my digital camera. I could have gotten some great pictures of the guys signing my t-shirt. Dumb ass me not thinking!

While I was up front with them Jess had pulled off a big piece of skin off his hands from a blister and handed it to Daren. I thought it was pretty funny. All the guys were really cool, especially Matt. Matt... Mmmm... He looked cute up there on that stage. Lemme tell you, he looks even fucking cuter close up! Mmmm.... Yup... As I was saying before I got distracted, they are all a bunch of nice guys who definitely appreciate their fans. Just a bunch of guys that you'd hang out with at the bar and get shit faced with. Now that would be fun!

Anyway, here are the pictures that I took with the digital camera. After about 3 hours of sorting through them all and editing the ones that weren't too fucking blurry, this is what I ended up with.


Zumiez Couch Tour
Eastridge Mall, San Jose
Sunday, June 4th, 2006