Road Cologne

Lost in the Corn Maze

2009-10-29T15:07:00.000-07:00

While the ocean has always been my true love, I can't say that I haven't had a faint sense of envy of the Midwest for their Fall season. With dramatic color changes and pumpkin growing contests, I've always wanted to get lost in a giant patch of corn, sit in the world's largest frying pan and finish the day off at a pumpkin pie competition. Leave it to my Midwest girlfriend to find the only corn maze on the central coast!

Apparently I'm not the only one on the west coast who had the same yearnings. The maze was so packed that nearly every corner you walked around, some little knee-high cracked out sugar fiend would come bounding and bounce off your leg. I felt like a car speeding through a pack of bugs, deflecting kids left and right with my giant windshield wiper arms. We kept joking at how much more fun it would be to dress horrifically and hide in one of the dead ends scaring the ba-jesus out of those little rug rats. I guess I've been substitute teaching too much as my compassion has turned into antagonism. Maybe it's just genetic. Lord knows my family has spared me no scares when they had the opportunity.

Storms, Pizza, and Escaping Death

2009-10-14T22:16:00.000-07:00

Yesterday the first storm of the season came through and wreaked some havoc on the Santa Cruz coastline. Including a number of mudslides and fallen trees throughout town, the ocean was boiling over with logs, trees, debris, pieces of deck, sludgy runoff, etc. The waves were churning up so much sand and bacteria the water was a burnt brown color. I was watching from Capitola Village as the waves threatened the cars in the parking lot, splashing up against the cement barrier between them, washing away what little was left of the beach. The ocean looked like it was just waiting to eat anything that came near it.

I went back tonight to find the beach littered with all sorts of interesting things but mostly wood debris. There was this funny man sprinting around the beach grinning from ear to ear. I guess someone's deck or wood pile washed away and ended up on shore. This man was on a scavanging mission, collecting any piece of 2x4 or whatever he could find. He was so happy and proud of his pile of mismatched, waterlogged wood, he had his friend stand guard to insure no one stole his bounty. Every now and again he would yell 100 yards across the beach and hold a new find over his head. Haha... It was excellent entertainment while I ate my slice of pizza.

The excitement didn't end there. Just as I was finishing my last bite, a number sirens came ringing through town as people scurried to the end of the bluff. Apparently some beginning surfers had decided today would be a good day to learn how to surf?! No one was seriously injured, but it did take a number of firemen to guide the trapped surfers through the currents, rocks and waves breaking against the cliff. There were a few moments it was unclear if the firemen would need to be saved as well. The sun had set already and it was getting very dark and difficult to see the waves coming in. Thank goodness I didn't have to jump in in my underwear to help!

Mud Slinging

2009-09-21T21:21:00.001-07:00

This was probably my favorite part of the night. Watching these fellers duke it out was a blast. Even though it seemed like every 5 laps someone's clunker would break down, the race was pretty intense. There were plenty of backfires, a couple doors were ripped off, a number of spin outs... All good stuff. I'm pretty sure this is one of things that you just had to be there to enjoy so I'll spare you the play by play. Here are a couple pictures instead!

Pro Wrestling

2009-09-21T21:17:00.001-07:00

Caballos Bailandos!

2009-09-21T21:11:00.000-07:00

Aye Aye Ayeeeeeeeee!!! Awesome band, awesome cowboys, awesome horses.

The Mechanical Bull

2009-09-21T20:23:00.001-07:00

Let me preface this post by stating that my family is inherently wicked and has always enjoyed scaring the crap of each other. Not to mention their fascination with exercising mild forms of torture, both physical and psychological. That being said, I can only blame my pedigree for the immense enjoyment I receive from watching "The Mechanical Bull". I stood by this tent longer than I watched the professional "wrestlers".

Hypnotist Michael Mezmer - "Woo! Woo! Woo!"

2009-09-21T19:52:00.000-07:00

First let's start with the name. Awesome right? I'm going to pretend that Michael's last name really is Mezmer and that it was a sign of his destiny that he was born to "Mezmerize" his audience with his hypnosis routine at county fairs across the U.S. Sorry for the low quality of video, but I didn't have a good seat or a camera with zoom... Thank you Mr. Mezmer for making people do awesome things subconsciously and letting us all watch. "Wooo! Wooo! Wooo!"

Santa Cruz County Fair

2009-09-21T19:31:00.000-07:00

For those of you who love your entertainment off the beaten path, any county fair is a great place to watch the slightly unusual make a public appearance. From racing Alaskan pigs, car races in the mud, dancing horses, and professional wrestling, my Sunday night was fantastic! The next few blogs will be a recap of some of the fun things I got to rest my "peepers" on.

Ode to Tahoe

2009-09-21T19:28:00.000-07:00

Parade Evangelists

2009-09-14T17:57:00.000-07:00

Oh man, speaking of crazies, I found the pictures of the parade evangelist I thought I had lost. As if the Hari Chrishna parade wasn't a spectacle on its own, this gentleman found it necessary to protest with some rather forceful language. Not to ignite any religious or philosophical mud slinging here, but Buddhists, Christians and Atheists alike can appreciate the pose this guy struck when I pulled out the camera.

Land Pirates

2009-09-14T17:53:00.001-07:00

While I thought I had lost a large chunk of photographs from my last trip down south, I was lucky enough to find them on my extra card just before erasing them. If there is one thing Venice does right it's attract crazies. I suppose this is a bad picture as it fails to illustrate that this pile of junk this guy is digging through is actually all tied down to the back of his hand-painted motor home. I'm sure he had more stuff tied to his room than I have in my entire studio.

In-Studio Performance at San Jose Mercury!

2009-09-05T12:49:00.000-07:00

Howdy everyone! I just wanted to write a big big thanks to Shay over at the San Jose Mercury. He gave us a fantastic writeup and brought us in for a live in-studio performance. Follow the link below to check it out. I took Addy and Brice with me which was a delight! "The Merc" ended up posting our stripped version of "Space Vacuums". I'm still doing this all myself so if you have a moment and like the video, post the writeup to your myspace and/or facebook to share it with your friends. It really goes a long way for me. If you post it, let me know and I'll owe you a hug or high five the next time I see you! ;)

I hope you're all well!

http://www.mercurynews.com/music/ci_13255625?nclick_check=1

Mini Golf

2009-09-02T17:48:00.000-07:00

As a lover of a good mini-golf course, I can't say I've ever played a course as fun as Tahoe. Giant dinosaurs, octopus, spiders, fish, etc. Awesome. Here are some pics of Addy doing her best Tiger Woods impression.

Lake Tahoe

2009-09-02T17:35:00.001-07:00

Man oh man... While I love my van, I have a few complaints. For those of you in California last week, you're aware that it was ridiculously hot. To be exact, it got up to somewhere between 103 and 109 degrees in Santa Cruz. I've lived in the area all of my life and can't say I can remember it EVER getting that hot?! So what is the relevance? When it gets hot I have to drive with the heater on in Myrtle in order to keep the van from overheating. After 5 hours of driving, Addy and I were completely delirious from dehydration and stress.

Thank goodness that at the end of our drive, Tahoe was waiting for us and it was gorgeous. We got a little hike in to Eagle Lake, spent a couple days working on our sunburns on the beach, and played some mini-golf at one of the best courses in the world. Seriously.

Urban Van Camping

2009-08-25T14:05:00.001-07:00

I just wanted to clear the air and post a couple pictures so everyone can see how sexy and futuristic sleeping in a van on the side of the road can be. It's cutting edge sucka!

Hari Chrishna Pom-Poms

2009-08-25T13:40:00.000-07:00

My last trip to LA was wacky. The afternoon before driving south, I met my mom for some sushi. I LOVE sushi but this particular meal was spiked with food poisoning. It didn't hit my until I arrived in Venice and ended up taking refuge on a friend's couch. I spent all the next day doing laps from the couch and the bathroom. More info than you needed I'm sure.

On the bright side, the next day there was a Hari Chrishna parade along the beach in Venice. Man oh man do those crazy bastards know how to do it. Huge floats, blaring music, an MC, and religious fanatics with pom-poms?! Sounds like a party to me! :)

I can't believe I lost the photos, but there was a great anit-Hari Chrisna protester following the parade holding a huge sign saying something along the lines of "Believe in Jesus or go to Hell!" He had a matching hat, a fanny pack, and a fantastic mustache.

Needless to say, I was thrilled to point the van north once again.

Bugs bugs bugs...

2009-08-10T16:02:00.000-07:00

I know backpacking has little to do with my musical endeavors, but I thought I'd share some fun pictures from a trip I recently took with my bro and pops. We spent three days hiking 25 miles, with an elevation change of 5k feet, all overlooking the ocean (and fog). I'll have to say that the ocean view was more demoralizing than beautiful as all we could think about was how nice it would be to go for a swim in the 100 degree weather.

Aside from losing 10 pounds from sweating all day and night, there were a TON of flies and mosquitoes that were tireless in their pursuit to enter our mouths.

I wish I had a picture of the "instant lasagna" we had for dinner. Just add water and watch your hamburger helper come to life! The meatballs were like tiny dense sponges and I ate every last one of them. Tasty.

I'm down in LA right now doing my urban van camping thang. Getting a little work done, writing a few new songs, and making plans to leave the country in early 2010. More on all of that soon...

Big Sur

2009-07-17T07:58:00.000-07:00

I'm going to go backpacking with my dad and brother. Hopefully I'll return with a story or two and some pictures too!

Cactus Garden Music Video!

2009-06-03T22:44:00.000-07:00

Almost done...

2009-05-27T16:40:00.000-07:00

We're just about done finishing up a new music video for a song called Cactus Garden. What a crazy project this has turned out to be. We definitely had no idea what we were getting ourselves into. My crazy family all chipped in on this one, so things were always on the verge of chaos and hysteria. Perfect for a puppet music video!

Puppeteers!

2009-05-27T16:02:00.001-07:00

I must admit I had never given much thought to what it takes to be a puppeteer. However, after spending the weekend rolling around on the floor, doing countless sit-ups, dive-rolls, and neck crunching contortions, I think we've all gained a new respect for what it takes to put something like this together... Not to mention your hands are in little hot animal gloves while doing your puppet gymnastics?!?!

2009-05-27T16:00:00.000-07:00

Building a Set

2009-05-27T15:52:00.000-07:00

The first step in getting our video up and running was building a set. What we didn't realize was that by making the farmer life sized, we had to build an ENORMOUS set?! Damn... It was already too late at that point. Mom had spent hours trying to figure out how to make that farmer sing so we just went for it. I went out and bought a bunch of 2x4's to construct our backdrop. Mom bought a giant blue sheet and some paint and we went to work. We painted and constructed everything outside in pieces so we could fit it through the door and erect it inside. I'm actually pretty impressed at how well things turned out.

Domestic Dispute (1AM again?!)

2009-05-26T00:21:00.000-07:00

For the last few nights I've been sleeping in my van in Hollywood. After being hit 3 times my first night, sleeping in the van seemed comical. After waking up to find the car in front of me had been broken into while I was sleeping, I started to feel like urban van camping might not be so safe. Tonight I woke up to a loud bang and what I thought was a car accident. When I looked out the window to see if the people were okay, I saw a man spread-eagle, face down ,lying on the hood of a car in the middle of the street yelling at the driver. What I thought may have been a serious accident was nothing more than a drunken domestic dispute. The man continued standing in front of the woman's car, despite her efforts to drive away from him. She revved the engine, threatening to run the guy over, but didn't have the gusto to squish his bare feet. At the point when she began flashing her lights and honking when people walked by (asking for help I assume?), I decided I better call the cops. I grabbed my sleeping bag and headed for my cousin's floor. I suppose the one good thing about staying in a bad neighborhood is that the cops were just around the corner.

Bumper Cars at 1am...

2009-05-21T09:59:00.001-07:00

After a great day of driving, surfing and listening to music, I arrived in LA at about 11pm. For fear that my cousin's wife Natasha would smother me in my sleep for starting yet another movie project with Keefe, I thought it would be best to sleep in the van. Plus, we have a friend visiting from Columbia, Missouri who came out to help and he had already taken the spare couch.

For those not familiar with the area (Sunset at Highland), the majority of people walking around at night are prostitutes, homeless, crazy, drugged or any combination of the four. All spicy ingredients for adventure. I feared the night would be more interesting than I desired.

It was a little hard to sleep at first due to all the street lights, chatter of people walking by, and car/siren noise. However, around 12:30am, I began slipping into sleep. To my semi-surprise, the van jolted harshly at about 1am. I sat up quickly to see if a tow truck was preparing to haul me away. Instead what I saw was a very nice, new BMW backing into my van... He hit me a second time?! I jumped out of the van in just my underwear and a crazy look in my eye that only sleeping in a van can give you and walked up to his car (as he proceeded to back into my van again?!)...

I must have looked almost half as crazy as I am because the very well dressed couple inside the car rolled down the window (just barely) and addressed my concern. The guy driving wanted to explain that we was only barely hitting my car. His girlfriend was frantically apologizing and trying to get her boyfriend to shut up. I think they thought I was going to attack them?! Ha ha... It's that Northern California grizzle that scared them. I think I'm going to shave today.