Mr Bishop's Fist was an amazing band, and they only released 3 songs. Although they were a little dark. I think I saw them at a Cornerstone Festival. Joel, your blowin it, call me. Did you lose your cell phone again?
Thursday, November 14, 2002
Wednesday, November 13, 2002
Well, lets start at the beginning of this past weekend. Ryan and Michele flew in late Friday night. We picked them up and just hung out. Saturday we went to Ocean Beach to look around, it was still raining a bit so that sucked. But the waves were huge at OB, crashing over the OB pier. There were a few surfers braving it, but not doing too well. We ate lunch at Hodads and stuffed ourselves. Later that night Ryan and I went to Hemingways in Old Town to have some cigars that he brought. We had a great time, and Ryan revealed to me his plan to try to be a professional field goal kicker, very cool. Anyway, we were sitting there and I see this guy with some long dreadlocks and he looks familiar to me. This guy is with some chick and he actually comes into Hemingways. When he turns around I see that it is Sonny, the lead singer of P.O.D. Some of you may have no idea who this is, but trust me, P.O.D. is a huge rock band who have sold millions of records, so it was cool to see this guy. Plus, I have been into P.O.D. since 1994. It was his birthday and it turned out he was meeting a bunch of peeps there. I did not talk to him, though I wanted to. I have decided that I don’t want to be “that guy” who goes up to famous people and bothers them. This summer I was with Jay and El Brundage in Cincinnati and we saw Jimmy Eat World eating dinner, but we did not bother them, and I saw the Get Up Kids in Waffle House in BG once, but did not bother them either. So that is my feeling about that. But it was cool to see Sonny.
Sunday morning Ryan and I went to Sports City in La Jolla to watch football with Sam and Donkey Boy, and that was fun. Good games, we were mainly watching the Chargers/Rams game. Around 1:30 we hit the road for LA and our Price is Right adventure. And up front, let me say that my past thoughts that I did not like LA have been confirmed. The place is a scum hole for the most part. I know there are good parts and some fun things to do, but too many people, traffic was insane (and this was on a Sunday) and there was trash everywhere. We got up to LA in 2 hours. My sis Mary had gotten a couple of hotel rooms at the luxurious Guest House Inn in Sunset Strip in Hollywood. This place was less than flattering. We met up with Mary and Casey and then heading out to Santa Monica, which is actually really cool for the most part. We squeezed in my car, 6 of us, and we thought we were only 10 minutes from Santa Monica, but we were wrong. It took us over a half hour, driving through stoplight after stoplight; it was a pain in the rear. We saw a pedestrian that had been hit by a car, so that was crazy. And we saw several “ladies of the night” walking the streets, so that was weird to see blatant prostitutes just walking around trying to talk to dudes.
We finally got to Santa Monica and did some shopping and walked on the pier, which is really neat. We went to get some food at a mall food court. There is a situation that happened at the mall that involved some bad meat, some ketchup and a toilet, but I really can’t go into it, just wanted to mention that it happened. So we drive back to our hotel around 8:30. I can’t remember exactly when, but I ran a red light somewhere and all of sudden, cameras were flashing and I guess I got caught running the light, it made me so mad. When we got back to the hotel, I wanted to go back out to this amazing record store called Amoeba Records that is on Sunset, but no one else wanted to go, so I went by myself. This store is amazing; it is almost as big as a Best Buy and filled with CDs, vinyl, DVDs and posters. They have huge new and used sections. Jay, you would freak out at this place with all the vinyl. But the place closed at 9pm and I got there at 8:55pm, so that sucked. So I left and drove around Sunset and Hollywood Blvd. I saw the Troubadore and the House of Blues. Saw the Capitol Records building as well. I ended up at Tower records on Sunset. I was there many years ago with my dad, so it was cool to be back. And Rivers Cuomo from Weezer used to work there before they were big.
So I head back to the hotel. I pull up and I am trying to park, but this weird looking chick and some guy are walking slow and looking at me. I’m driving slow, trying to pull up, when the chick starts walking towards my car. I’m thinking what is she doing? I roll my window down a bit, but she opens my passenger door and starts to get in my car! I say something like “Hey, I’m just trying to park, do not get in my car!” And she looks like she is strung out on drugs or something. I don’t know what she was doing, or what she wanted with me, but it freaked me out. Then the guy with her started to talk to me and I said, hey, I’m just trying to park, please get out of my way. So I head up to our room and I see this other chick, dressed like a hooker, knocking on a door. Crazy stuff, I just get in my room as fast as I can. I was totally wigged out. Just your typical night in Hollywood I guess?
So the next morning we wake up at 5am so we can get to the Price is Right studio by 6am. We get there and things are crazy, people in line, cars lined up on the street. We finally get in and our tickets are marked 306-313 or something. 330 people get into see the actual show, but only 10 contestants get chosen to get on the show. So were thinking we are at least going to be at the taping. We sit in line for like 2 hours while dudes go through and number tickets. By the time they get to us, turns out we are on standby. The reason is, if you have a group of 25 or more people, you automatically get on the show. So there were several groups of 25 or more, so we got screwed, even though we were within the 330 number. So they told us to come back at 11am. We left to eat breakfast and check out of the room. We went back, and every time you go to the parking lot, they do a security check of your car. So I roll up, the guy is checking out the car, then I have other dudes waving me to move my car up, so I do. Then this other guard kind of yells at me that his hand was still in my car when I started to pull up and that I need to watch what I was doing. So I’m thinking, whatever and I go and park. Mary was behind me in her car and when she parks she tells me that the guard called me a fool. So now I’m pissed and thinking about going back and talking to this guy. And I did. I walked over to this dude, first I apologized for pulling up, and he gave me the same stupid speech about watching what I was doing. I say, “that’s fine, but don’t call me a fool behind my back, if you want to call me a fool, I’m right here, do it now”. He says, “I didn’t call you a fool sir”. But I come back with “Nope, my sister was in the car behind me and she heard you, so your lying”. It was awesome. This other guard standing near us just started laughing at the guard that I was confronting. That made it worth it, knowing that the laughing guard was going to make fun of this idiot for calling me a fool and me yelling at him. It felt good to do. I think I am getting better at this, after years of watching my Dad yell at bad service at restaurants and other things. So in the end, we did not get on Price is Right and we drove home to beat the traffic. Last night Ryan and I played some B-ball and that was really good. My hands hurt from typing all of this. Have a great day.
Sunday morning Ryan and I went to Sports City in La Jolla to watch football with Sam and Donkey Boy, and that was fun. Good games, we were mainly watching the Chargers/Rams game. Around 1:30 we hit the road for LA and our Price is Right adventure. And up front, let me say that my past thoughts that I did not like LA have been confirmed. The place is a scum hole for the most part. I know there are good parts and some fun things to do, but too many people, traffic was insane (and this was on a Sunday) and there was trash everywhere. We got up to LA in 2 hours. My sis Mary had gotten a couple of hotel rooms at the luxurious Guest House Inn in Sunset Strip in Hollywood. This place was less than flattering. We met up with Mary and Casey and then heading out to Santa Monica, which is actually really cool for the most part. We squeezed in my car, 6 of us, and we thought we were only 10 minutes from Santa Monica, but we were wrong. It took us over a half hour, driving through stoplight after stoplight; it was a pain in the rear. We saw a pedestrian that had been hit by a car, so that was crazy. And we saw several “ladies of the night” walking the streets, so that was weird to see blatant prostitutes just walking around trying to talk to dudes.
We finally got to Santa Monica and did some shopping and walked on the pier, which is really neat. We went to get some food at a mall food court. There is a situation that happened at the mall that involved some bad meat, some ketchup and a toilet, but I really can’t go into it, just wanted to mention that it happened. So we drive back to our hotel around 8:30. I can’t remember exactly when, but I ran a red light somewhere and all of sudden, cameras were flashing and I guess I got caught running the light, it made me so mad. When we got back to the hotel, I wanted to go back out to this amazing record store called Amoeba Records that is on Sunset, but no one else wanted to go, so I went by myself. This store is amazing; it is almost as big as a Best Buy and filled with CDs, vinyl, DVDs and posters. They have huge new and used sections. Jay, you would freak out at this place with all the vinyl. But the place closed at 9pm and I got there at 8:55pm, so that sucked. So I left and drove around Sunset and Hollywood Blvd. I saw the Troubadore and the House of Blues. Saw the Capitol Records building as well. I ended up at Tower records on Sunset. I was there many years ago with my dad, so it was cool to be back. And Rivers Cuomo from Weezer used to work there before they were big.
So I head back to the hotel. I pull up and I am trying to park, but this weird looking chick and some guy are walking slow and looking at me. I’m driving slow, trying to pull up, when the chick starts walking towards my car. I’m thinking what is she doing? I roll my window down a bit, but she opens my passenger door and starts to get in my car! I say something like “Hey, I’m just trying to park, do not get in my car!” And she looks like she is strung out on drugs or something. I don’t know what she was doing, or what she wanted with me, but it freaked me out. Then the guy with her started to talk to me and I said, hey, I’m just trying to park, please get out of my way. So I head up to our room and I see this other chick, dressed like a hooker, knocking on a door. Crazy stuff, I just get in my room as fast as I can. I was totally wigged out. Just your typical night in Hollywood I guess?
So the next morning we wake up at 5am so we can get to the Price is Right studio by 6am. We get there and things are crazy, people in line, cars lined up on the street. We finally get in and our tickets are marked 306-313 or something. 330 people get into see the actual show, but only 10 contestants get chosen to get on the show. So were thinking we are at least going to be at the taping. We sit in line for like 2 hours while dudes go through and number tickets. By the time they get to us, turns out we are on standby. The reason is, if you have a group of 25 or more people, you automatically get on the show. So there were several groups of 25 or more, so we got screwed, even though we were within the 330 number. So they told us to come back at 11am. We left to eat breakfast and check out of the room. We went back, and every time you go to the parking lot, they do a security check of your car. So I roll up, the guy is checking out the car, then I have other dudes waving me to move my car up, so I do. Then this other guard kind of yells at me that his hand was still in my car when I started to pull up and that I need to watch what I was doing. So I’m thinking, whatever and I go and park. Mary was behind me in her car and when she parks she tells me that the guard called me a fool. So now I’m pissed and thinking about going back and talking to this guy. And I did. I walked over to this dude, first I apologized for pulling up, and he gave me the same stupid speech about watching what I was doing. I say, “that’s fine, but don’t call me a fool behind my back, if you want to call me a fool, I’m right here, do it now”. He says, “I didn’t call you a fool sir”. But I come back with “Nope, my sister was in the car behind me and she heard you, so your lying”. It was awesome. This other guard standing near us just started laughing at the guard that I was confronting. That made it worth it, knowing that the laughing guard was going to make fun of this idiot for calling me a fool and me yelling at him. It felt good to do. I think I am getting better at this, after years of watching my Dad yell at bad service at restaurants and other things. So in the end, we did not get on Price is Right and we drove home to beat the traffic. Last night Ryan and I played some B-ball and that was really good. My hands hurt from typing all of this. Have a great day.
Tuesday, November 12, 2002
Hello people. I had an unbelievable weekend with tons of crazy stories that you will not believe. I went up to LA (Hollywood to be exact) on Sunday with Tracey, Tracey's brother Ryan and his wife Michele, and we met my sister and her husband. Our main goal was to get on the Price is Right on Monday. At one point it looked like we were going to get on (I even called my dad at work and told him we were going to get on, because we thought we were at one point), but in the end, things did not go our way and we did not get to be on the show, even though we had tickets. Its a long story and tons of other funny, crazy things happen to us over the two days.
But, I do not feel like going into the details of those things at the moment because I have just learned that my great Uncle Rich died last night. I feel very sad about it and it does not seem appropriate for me explain my "fun" weekend at this moment. My uncle Rich was a great man who was funny and loved fishing. I will miss him and my Grandpa arguing about things and making fun of each other. They had a great relationship and it makes me sad that I will not see that again on this earth. My uncle Rich re-affirmed his belief in Jesus this past weekend (he had a heart attack a few weeks ago and had had surgery, and was thought to have a full recovery) and I am glad that he is with him now. In light of this world's state, he is in a much better place. At some point, not sure when, I will give a better account of my great weekend. Please pray for my family, especially my grandpa and my uncle Rich's wife Peral, who he leaves behind.
But, I do not feel like going into the details of those things at the moment because I have just learned that my great Uncle Rich died last night. I feel very sad about it and it does not seem appropriate for me explain my "fun" weekend at this moment. My uncle Rich was a great man who was funny and loved fishing. I will miss him and my Grandpa arguing about things and making fun of each other. They had a great relationship and it makes me sad that I will not see that again on this earth. My uncle Rich re-affirmed his belief in Jesus this past weekend (he had a heart attack a few weeks ago and had had surgery, and was thought to have a full recovery) and I am glad that he is with him now. In light of this world's state, he is in a much better place. At some point, not sure when, I will give a better account of my great weekend. Please pray for my family, especially my grandpa and my uncle Rich's wife Peral, who he leaves behind.
