Ok...It's been a minute. Let me gather my thoughts and figure this out...
Wednesday I went out to the beach with Damn Shitty and fam and chilled out, trying to beat the heat. It's freakin' crazy hot out here. Or/And humid. I pretty much walk around dripping sweat like a sick animal. But anyways we did that and watched the seagulls eat pretty much everything on the beach that wasn't nailed down. Also: $1 Pint Night is every Wednesday. I stimulated the local economy with Evolution, Crump, Skinny, and the whole damn lot of 'em! 4 hours of sleep...then:
The next day I got a ride with DJ Illogik out to Midland to meet up with Lunchbox and Coach House Collective for our show in Saginaw. Midland is beautiful. The houses are like Los Gatos pimp, but with bigger back yards. So Booyah Los Gatos. Anyways, we met up and headed over to the Vortex, then Lunchbox's launch pad. (If you're not in the know on either of these, you can come out to beautiful Midland and find out yourself. Totally worth it on both counts. Except for the whole "Vortex-breaker of human bones" thing they got going on.)
Lunchbox and his folks held me down, hookin' me and the whole band up with a nice place to stay and some bomb ass home cooked grub. I'm a sucker for any food made with mom's love.
We chilled for a while (again, sweating the whole time) and then took off to Saginaw for our show. I also asked almost everywhere if there was a White Castle near by. So far, no luck.
White's bar in Saginaw is very Johnny V-esque in it's size and decor, but throw in a pool table, patio, and 50 cent beers and it's enough to fall in love. The people, while looking at me quite oddly at times, were good people. See, I was playing with a lineup of bands, and I was the only hip hop act. Which was fine by me. I gave 'em the ol' Instrument Tongue and rapped about eating pussy and whack rappers...you know, Luck Standards.
The small crowd showed big love and I got CD's into the right hands. Lunchbox and I did some drunken freestyles in the parking lot, which I thought I recorded until I realized I didn't, at which point it was decided that we had to freestlye more to make up for such a mistake.
That night, I got to sleep in a bed. Angels grew wings. Children cried tears of joy. I slept good for about 4 hours.
Friday: 8am. Evolution picks me up in Midland and we hual ass out to Detroit to perform at the Warped Tour: Code of The Cuts stage and pick up Fritzo for the rest of the Say Hi To A Stranger Tour. It was finally time for the Couchsurfers to unite Voltron style and wreck shop.
I may be slightly exaggerating (and believe me I am), but precisely 8 million people were flocking around the Comerica Stadium parking lot, girls almost naked and guys often shirtless with skin tight jeans (fellas, knock it off.) But the party was ON! The place was packed, and with people wandering in all directions it was prime time for Evolution and I to hit the Code of The Cuts stage.
Evolution started off the set with Whistle While You Work, and then moved into his hit, Fat Girls Make Me Happy. I came out and we made it rain Twinkies on girls. Note: not just fat girls. Skinny girls need Twinkies too, so they can grow big for Evolution and make him happy. After that we rocked a track together and then I brought Fritz out to freestyle We Came Here, a song we've never written verses to (and frankly refuse to do.) Then I did Whack Rappers Get Away With Too Much and Into The Darkness.
After my set ended and I figured I wasn't really dying of heat stroke (remember, all this time I'm sweating out my precious life water) I wandered around selling some CDs and telling girls to smile. Fritz took Evolution and me all around backstage to see the tour busses, Internet bus, Guitar Center booth, John Lennon Pro (And I mean ridiculously P.R.O.F.E.S.S.I.O.N.A.L.) Recording studio BUS, a TON of artists and production team members, etc. more than I can remember. He came off his bus with about 4 boxes of free merch and CD's and whatnot he fritz'd up during his journey. We watched 3Oh3 perform a song or too, took some pictures of a wrestling match (like WWF style, in the middle of the concert), told more girls to smile, passed out some CD's and flyers, and hightailed it over to Dante's for a quick "Hi, Hello"/7-layer jello/merch grab and dash, sprinkled with some loving Mom hugs for Fritz.
Did I mention that the Official Warped Tour Afterparty for the Mountain View show is going to be in San Jose, at Voodoo Lounge? Oh yeah baby. Sponsored by Swisher Wheez Ent. and a GRIP of power players, featuring all the dope hip hop acts from Warped Tour. More news definately on the way.
Then...THEN...THEN!!! I drove us to White Castle, even though we had to return the car and it was kinda out of the way. We made it. Funnily enough it was a White Castle/Church's Chicken, and I really wanted to move out here. It wasn't bad. It wasn't anything to kill, say, a small child over...but it was pretty good. Plus I was starving.
I used my GPS to get us home, and it took us a roundabout way, meaning across the west half of the state, all out of the way. We were for sure going to be late getting the car returned, and Evolution and Fritz both were giving me a hard time for driving 65mph in a 70 zone. Forgive me for forgetting there are freeways above 65mph. Thanks for nothing San Jose! Anyways, I'm driving along, getting us home slowly but surely (at least around 70-75mph now) when what happens? The speed limit drops to 55mph, and a cop reverses into traffic to come pull me over.
We mentioned coming from Warped Tour when she asked what we were doing. She said she wouldn't know who we were unless we were the Black Crows. So Evolution told her we were, indeed, the Black Crows. I'd like to say this is when we sang some of their classic hits and got her dancing and buying CD's while making it rain with torn-up ticket paper, but it wasn't meant to be. I got a $100 speeding ticket, with the option to pay right there on the spot.
Now, getting the ticket does suck. But being able to pay for it right then and there and not have to worry about it anymore, is quite frankly almost as awesome as White Castle.
We finally got home (like 3 hours late) after getting lost and selling a CD to some dude in the boonies for $5 Canadian (gotta play the exchange rate game!) and hopped into the hot tub to drink beers and bullshit. It had been a long day for all of us, and the end of an incredible Fritz journey across America on the Warped Tour, which I'm sure he'll be telling you about soon. (I got three words: Seven, Thousand, Pictures.)
The Midland and Grand Rapids shows fell through, so we took the time to meet up with some of Fritz's friends and family out here in Traverse City and get crazy up in the bars. There was a sign outside of one that said "Free Jaeger." So obviously we went in. There was no free Jaeger, which was a slap to the face. We were told there would be Jaeger girls passing out free shit and shots at midnight, which there wasn't. Pfft.
After sucking up an entire game of pool, I made the winning 8 ball shot and with that graceful moment won the shots we had played for. It was a highlight of my drunken night. Nikki Six put Fritz and me up in her place for the night and I gotta say, this is the second most comfortable couch in the world. The first is at my mom's pad, and is willed to me if anything should happen to me. Seriously, it's in the will. It's that comfortable.
Nikki Six is actually so awesome that she let us stay at her place and use her car while she had to go out of town to handle some business. We accidentally set fire to her car, and then drove it into her place trying to put it out. (Just kidding, in case she's reading this.) (no, really, just kidding.)
We dropped her off at the airport this morning and then made plans for the day. About one million different plans with different people. Before breakfast, we had planned to go to the beach, go tubing, go jet skiing, go barbecue at at least 3 different places, record a song, go watch a BMX race, meet up and hang out with at least 10 different people, sell CD's, pass out flyers, eat at Hooters, and play my new CD in best buy at max volume until they kick us out; all while trying to stay as cool as possible.
After breakfast, here's what actually happened. We ate, talked future plans, dropped some people off at the BMX race, packed up and moved our stuff from Evolution's to Nikki's (don't take it personal Evolution! Zues is dope, and the couches are comfortable...we just need the hot water!), hustled CD's and flyers with DJ Fungus downtown for a while, vegged out for a few hours, then decided to hit the mall and try to push some flyers and CD's.
Now, we didn't really think it through much, and heading out to the mall, in a small town, on a Sunday, at close to 8pm - isn't a smart idea. It was closed and the parking lots were barren. However, that didn't stop Fritz from driving the car right up to people walking to their cars and hustlin' CD's and flyers at 'em!
We cruised by the local college and did the same, just driving up on unsuspecting people and getting them to buy good music and support independent artists. Sometimes it didn't work, often it did. I love it when I can roll up on someone in a car and hop out unexpectedly and NOT get shot at. Good ol' Midwest!
We met up with Skinny and then made another quick round downtown to Union Street and turned their Kareoke night into an Open Mic night, makin' 'em play a Beastie Boys song (Paul Revere) that we had absolutely no plan of actually performing. You know me and Fritzo - we freestyled that bitch! Good times, gettin' back in the groove with my fellow Couchsurfer. Made a bunch of people smile, offer to buy us drinks, and then we vanished off into the night.
Met up with one of Fritz's old Ten Cent Depozit brethren, I wanna say J Dog, but it's late and I feel like I might be wrong. Plus I thought we might get hit with lightning, plus I'm horrible with names, my bad. (Will Insert Correct Name at a Later Point) Anways, we met him at the beach to catch up on old times and whatnot. There was a huge storm coming in. I was just watching the already black night sky get even blacker as the giant storm cloud blocked the entire sky and replaced it with a dark giant lighting ball. I don't remember how the lightning/thunder count-the-seconds-that's-how-many-miles-away thing works anymore, but in any case, the lightning and thunder were pretty much back to back the entire time.
Then the rain came. Lots of it. and in big pieces. I seriously thought it was hailing at one point, and then realized that the big things hitting the windshield, bouncing off the road, and all the loud banging on the car was actually just gigantic raindrops the size of water ballons (ok, maybe that's slightly exaggerated - only slightly though. They could definately drown a midget.)
We stopped at a super market to grab a frozen pizza and some provisions for the rest of the week since we should be on a better budget. (note to self: You already knew eating out was expensive, what's fucking wrong with you?!) and got drenched in the 7 feet from the car to the front door. And I had just gotten hooked up with some nice new suede shoes. Fuckin' A. We got our grub, I threw on some plastic bags on my feets, and hauled ass back through the waterfall to get my hungry self and all of us back home and dry. Hella gangster. Haha.
We came back, cooked, grubbed, started writing a song together, and then they passed out. I pulled out the computertron and did this. I'm now tired and feeling good about the trip so far. Good times and people. And it all reminds me of all the people (blessings) back home helpin' hold me down. Appreciation, definately a key word on this tour. Thank you all!!
I'm bout to curl up and pass out on the second most comfortable couch in the world. I miss my woman, I miss my city, I miss my pets, I miss La Vic's, and I miss my bed. One week, and I'm coming back to all you. Get ready.
CD release party Voodoo yadda yadda yadda..you know. I'll see you there.
PEACE
Luck
.......asleep before the laptop hits the floor.