The end is near

In my world away from home time has little meaning when I'm not working. I have lost all sense of day, night, weekday or weekend. Every day is divided into three categories: Show Day, Travel Day and Off Day. These days exist regardless of the date or day of the week. These days know no holidays and are set aside for no reason. There is no swapping of these days and there is no escaping these days.

These days will come to an end the day after tomorrow. Looking at the calendar on my laptop I have learned that today is, albeit very early, Wednesday; another "off day". Thursday marks the last "show day" which makes Friday the last "travel day". Soon thereafter I will be home, looking at the calendar as days in a week and weeks in a month. Numbers of dates and days of the week will creep back into my every day conversation and vernacular as I plan my schedule both socially and professionally around that strange world that exists outside the realm of the roadie where people go to work at a given time, on a given schedule, and repeat the process every day with small breaks called "weekends" in between.

The tasks for me will change as well. Gone will be the daily interactions with like-minded roadie types solving sound nerd problems and making loud noises to entertain thousands of people. Instead, I will be pushing my lawn mower back and forth, repairing broken house things, and re-domesticating myself in preparation for the birth of my daughter. Hopefully there will be a swift return to the safety and comfort of a Prevost.

Hey, do you want to see some interesting photos?

For you people into this kind of stuff, here is the set list from Atlanta.

Yup... I wear Mitchum.

I'm going to explore Boston tomorrow then do the last show. That leaves one last piece of bloggery from "A Wonder Summer's Night" to come. By the way, for some interesting reading Google "Stevie Wonder" and click on the news links that come up. Every review from the entire tour has been spectacular.

Bye!

Marking 2 years...

...of marital bliss by not being home on my anniversary. Aren't I just the dream hubby that girls pine for as children. I know you ladies all sit and hope to marry a less than attractive nerd that has an attitude problem and works in the music business traveling and working long and often odd hours. You all want to marry a man mind is more focused on his career than anything else which is evident by his absence on your wedding anniversary.

Yes, my little droogies, I'm a shitty husband.

But you all can help me. This is my wife, Mrs. E-Rock.

As Stevie Wonder sang, "Isn't she lovely"? She really is. She is a better human being than I am and I don't deserve all that she has given as my wife, friend and partner.

Here's how you can help me. Click Here to visit my wife on myspace. If you're already her friend, please leave a happy anniversary coment for her, if you're not her friend, befriend her and post the comment. Maybe if I can get you all behind me I can make up for being in Boston and not home today.

To my Mrs.... I love you more every year. Thank you for being the yin to my yang and being everything you are and more. (we must raise Helen to avoid boys like me)

Happy Anniversary.

L.A. - Land of the Surreal

I went to Universal Studios to see what I could see. While I was amazed at the ability of the Hollywood tricksters to manipulate our minds on film, I was dumbfounded by the completely false world that was created for our amusement. Wandering around I began to wonder if the cracks in the pavement were due to wear or placed there intentionally to add authenticity. Wandering around the city let me to the same questions regarding the random people I saw. There isn't a real boob in all of L.A. and the faces of both men and women aren't the faces they were born with.

Another interesting observation about about L.A. are the rules of the road. I come from the eastern side of the U.S. where pedestrians have the right of way provided it isn't inconvenient for the drivers behind them. In L.A... the cars will create a traffic jam to allow someone to cross the street while texting on their phone and sipping a mocha-latte-fluffernutter-cafe-ole. Drivers seem to be courteous, yet harried while they honk their horns in a very not New York fashion to alert the person chatting away in front of them that the light has been green for over a minute.

Sushi abounds here. I have eaten more delicious fishy treats in the last 3 days than I have in the last 3 months. Real crab meat in the sushi, enormous portions, reasonable prices... I'll miss the food when I leave.

I have also turned over a new leaf here. Eat Less... Move More... the simple plan to a longer and healthier life. I have walked on average 8 miles a day since I've been here. I take stairs in lieu of the elevator and I am trying to eat less meat. Not completely vegetarian (see the sushi comments) but less cow and pig will be healthier. Who'd have thought a smoke and red meat free E-Rock? The world might be coming to an end.

Oh yeah... we did a show here too...

Here's a rare shot. Looking down from upstage-right. I don't think I was supposed to climb up there, so let's keep it a secret between you (the internet) and me.





...and I suppose I'll finally include a pic of the star of the show. This pic was taken by a journalist attending the show who wrote a spectacular review. (so far every review has been spectacular... did you expect anything less from a show I'm on?)

The young lady next to Stevie is Aisha Morris, his daughter, who is one of the singers in our cavalcade of entertainment.

Tomorrow we kick into overdrive. We ake up at 6:00 am Pacific Time and fly to Chicago to meet up with our busses. (they left 3 days ago). The Chicago show is Monday and then the marathon begins... Detroit, Atlanta, New York, Baltimore, and Boston. A lot of travel and not a lot of time between gigs. I love my job.

More from Chicago... Stay Tuned.

San Francisco

I've never had the opportunity to explore San Francisco before so I took advantage of an off day, bought a day pass for the CalTrain headed into the city with Roadie Nate. The walk from the CalTrain station to the piers is roughly 5 miles through Chinatown, Little Italy and Porno Row. (Porno Row may notbe the official name for the border of Chinatown and Little Italy, but it's the appropriate name I have given it.)

This is a brief look at Chinatown. Every Chinatown looks and smells the same. The pictures say everything.

Little Italy has some interesting signs. Here's one.

Now we move onto Porno Row.

Roadie Nate and I were standing on a corner looking for a specific coffee shop that we had been requested to buy a pound of coffee in. The directions were vague and it took a few minutes to get our bearings. While looking around noticing "Larry Flynt's Hustler World", and other various "adult book stores" a Guido looking pseudo pimp sauntered up to me and handed me 2 VIP cards to the "afternoon show"

His sales pitch was well rehearsed, explaining that he is a recent transplant to the Bay Area from Las Vegas where he was the hospitality director for a famous strip hotel. He told us how he has now moved to Frisco to apply his talents creating opulent upscale entertainment atmospheres for the seedy titty and go-go bars in North Beach. He offered VIP passes, waived the cover charge and offered a free drink to get us into the club. When we refused he sweetened the pot with a "dildo show".

I have never seen a "dildo show" but I can use my powers of deductive reasoning to determine exactly what one is. I have better things to spend my per diem on, but to be honest, there was a fleeting second where I was intrigued by the show.

We politely thanked him for his enticing offer and left him to hustle someone else while we continued our quest to find freshly roasted coffee. Roadies passing on depraved live porn for coffee... the world is coming to an end.

Our trek finally landed on pier 39. Pier 39 used to be a floating marina for local sailing and fishing vessels. In recent years some ruffians have moved in and pushed out the locals. Check these guys out:





There are easily 200 sea lions that are living in and on the now permanently protected marina and floating dock system off of pier 39. The smell is unbelievable but watching them was a joy.

Of course you can't have a San Francisco report without a picture of Alcatraz.

After spending a day exploring San Francisco, the train brought us back. Getting off of the train we immediately noticed something very different in the sky. I had already been fascinated by the sky watching the "marine layer" of clouds blow in over the mountains and roll down the hills fogging up the valleys below with frightening speed, but this was different. At the time we were clueless to the events of the afternoon, but at 1:45 PDT a forest fire had erupted in a national park to the south of San Jose. As soon as we stepped off of the train we noticed the huge plume of smoke in the sky.








There is some sage like wisdom in this graffiti.

And that's what I did today. Time for an early bedtime, it's back to work and another show tomorrow. Saratoga, CA here we come.

Boring gig banter.

This tour has an interesting, annoying and persistent problem. The ever changing AC scheme. Some venues have clean ample AC designed for a show, some have nothing more than a generator, some have a something rigged that is "certified" safe but looks like the science project of a young Tesla. Faulty grounds, neutral legs created through transformers, ground loops... all of these lead to the daily bane of my existence: BUZZZZZZZ, and HUMMMMMM.

With all of the electronic instruments on stage, their varying ages, conditions, treatment and care it's a constant struggle to track and kill the buzzing channel of the day. Digging through a work box case I found the solution to the problem:

It doesn't work. Believe me, I tried it. Nope, the only way to go about killing the instrument hum and buzz is to track the signal back to the source and fix or replace the source of the problem. I'm so in tune to this that I can actually identify an instrument or amplifier by the buzz it gives.

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I have touched on the MON side of the show, so let's have a brief look at the FOH side.



And a self portrait at FOH world.

These folks are generally clueless to the fact that we were on site 15 hours prior to their arrival putting everything together for their amusement. The smiles on their faces tell me we did a good job.

After this we have Labor Day Weekend off in Cupertino, CA. I'll probably find something to take a picture of and talk about in my adventures in California. Bye for now.

Hospitality and a peacock

Every morning roadies across the world say the same thing. "Where's catering?" Someone much higher on the food-chain than I am has taken the time to create a rider that satisfies the needs and desires of a hungry crew. The food is only a part of the "hospitality rider". The goal is to create a comfortable environment for us while we are away from home for extended periods of time. This venue in Woodinville, WA (a suburb of Seattle) was decorated like a museum.

*** by the way, the time stamp on the camera is set for Eastern Time. Subtract 3 hours and for an accurate time. ***
This guy certainly agrees:

But he wasn't allowed inside to see the Dale Chihuly paintings and sculptures that decorate the dining room.

He also wasn't allowed in this building... (and yes, it smelled as good as it looks... yum)