Venice Beach

Venice is a mecca of wonderful, artistic, creative, beautiful freaks. We spent the day riding bikes, walking, and meeting some interesting people, and finished off with a little studio work. Speaking of studio, I'm in San Francisco right now with my friend Mattt Lucas, and he set up a day for me here. So enjoy some of the pics, there will be more on in my Photobucket soon.























Huge drum circle on the beach, happens everyday.
Muscle Beach. After I took this pic, I saw the grill on this guy, was nervous about taking a pic of it. but, I have never seen fangs like this dude had, came straight out of his mouth. You might recognize the guy with the guitar from the movie Fletch.

Santa Monica

I've spent the last few days just hanging out and seeing L.A. I could possibly live here, although we've gone through the whole, "don't wanna drive here thing", I still like it. Joey and I went over to Santa Monica yesterday and he took me down to the dock and along the beach, it was very cool, and very relaxing. We heard some good music, and just hung out for the afternoon. Later that night we hooked up with his friend Steve, who is in the process of building this bitchin 32 Ford. It will be awesome!


There was this woman who approached me upon seeing the camera and said something along the lines of,"So you want pictures of the doctor, you Mother$#%^$% piece of @#$$, Die and burn in hell", after a flurry of expletives and verbal abuse, she accused me of being Paparazzi, and who knows, she could have played a doctor in some random t.v. show from way back when. I saw fit to get a good distance away and with my 300 mm lens (thanks bro, comes in handy), snapped a wonderful pic of her flashing me. Enjoy!

Further down the beach, I think we came across the dock that shows up in the movie IRON MAN. At least it reminded me of that part when he takes the suit out for a test drive, and while flying around it shows him zoom in on some kids eating an ice cream cone or something on this Ferris wheel. Don't know for sure, gonna have to go to the tapes for that one. Take a look and let me know if it rings any bells.

Further on down we came across the infamous Muscle Beach, but there was no muscle to be found, and so we went further down and found a cool little layout of uneven bars, and dip poles, and rings that were put out so people could have some good olde fashioned fun. Joey tells me that every now and again there are gymnasts that come down here and practice routines and workout. The guys in the following pics weren't pro, but were kind enough to let me snap some pics of them.













So tomorrow I'll be helping Joey with his garage sale. I'll be manning the "free hot dogs with a $5 purchase" grill. Should be a nice chill day. Oh yeah, this is Joey by the way, and his dog, which is easily the coolest dog in tha world!

I'm in Los Angeles

Hey friends,

It's been a few days since I have updated, so here goes the recap. I arrived in LA on Saturday afternoon, around 4:30 pm, and yes there was a stupid amount of traffic. To forewarn any of you coming to LA, I don't think it's the traffic that people compare to Atlanta, its the maniacs. Driving in reminded me of that part in the movie Clueless, where the girl accidentally got on the freeway. I saw it, and laughed, but I always wondered how you could ACCIDENTALLY get on the freeway. Well, pretty much every access to the interstate could be easily mistaken. Secondly, I understood why she freaked out. So in a nutshell, I love LA, but hate driving around this place.

I got to my friend Joey's house, and his roommate had some invites to this place called The Magic Castle, it was a castle over near Mulholland that was founded in the 30's by a group of magicians. VERY COOL. The entrance was a trick bookcase that you had to speak a password to to get in. All around the place were magicians doing slight of hand, card tricks, and other random things. it was 4 stories, with bars scattered around the joint. You show up and basically walk around the place and hang out for a bit, then you have a set reservation for dinner. After dinner they give you your tickets for a show. We were lead into this small room, with about fifty chairs, sitting right in front of us were the guy from Armageddon, the lieutenant who tried to set off the nuke at the end of the movie, and one of the bikers from that show, Sons of Anarchy, which is an incredible show for anyone who hasn't seen it yet. The magician was incredible, he must have pulled out 20 birds from his sleeves in about a minute. Then he pulled out a bird in a huge cage, then he pulled out this 3 ft. Macaw. Incredible!

He was followed by the guy who did the puppetry for Team America, he was awesome as well. next came a Bulgarian Woman who was not as good as our host, but still impressive. The whole night was awesome, we left, and Joey had a late night get together at his house where we had a great little dance party chock full of eighties. For those of you who know Joey, there has been little to no change. 

Sunday rolled around, and we made some ribs. YUM! Joey can cook. Monday was here before I knew it, and I had tentative plans to roll out Tuesday morning for San Francisco, but I just wasn't done yet. I swear almost as soon as I hit Joeys house, I felt like I ran into a box of sand. Not quicksand, that freaks you out, this is more like nice beach sand, where you forget for a moment what you were doing, and what you are supposed to do. 

I ran into problems with my Macbook, hence... no pictures, and took it into a local store here to get looked at. they said 3 to 5 days, but most likely 2. I wanted to say,"Well which is it  Man?", but I honestly feel no rush. I'm using joeys laptop right now, and it works just fine. 

I got in touch with another friend who moved out here last year, and quickly got involved with a songwriting team, and was hired as they're studio manager. He gets free reign of the place usually after 8 or so, depending on what artist they have in, and we got to work on a new song that has been bouncing around my head lately. Coincidentally its called "We come back again". The idea I've had long before I left, but we made some great progress on it, and will be finishing it up this weekend. So I'll get that posted up on this site, or my Myspace, or both so you can hear it. 

Joey told me about this thing called Midnight Ridazzz, where all these bikers meet up and ride the streets of LA and stop at random places along the way. I think the one we are going on says,"we're hitting all the $1 beer bars, and bring your shot glass". Sounds like a good healthy mix to me. He changed the oil in his dirt bikes, and I think we're gonna go hit some trails with them later in the week. 

So as of right now, It looks like I'm setting sail on Sunday, but at this point who knows, and honestly... who cares.

I'm doing good. 

Sedona Is Beautiful

I had a great drive from Albuquerque. A healthy dose of Johnny Cash, Phosphorescent, Bob Dylan and silence along the way. I began to see a mountain range off in the distance, it would disappear for a nice stretch of straight country, I would cross another hill, and there it was again. It came to be Flagstaff. You can see it from about 150 to 200 miles away. The snow began to build along the road, and by the time I reached my motel it was about 6pm.

I discovered a nice little tourist trap called Black Barts Steakhouse, and was in for a fun ride. I walked in and thought at first it was karaoke night, but nope, it was the hired act. A guy on piano and a girl singing a nice sampling of wretched top forty hits from the past century. At one point they began singing that song from Oliver, "Consider yourself at home", and the entire waitstaff had a choreographed dance and thing to it. They sang along and clapped and even used the poor salt shakers as percussion. It was very festive. I sat alone at the bar, that faced the dining room, had a trio local pale ale's (highlight), and enjoyed a hearty Black Bart attempt at Baby Back ribs. At this point I really began to miss Georgia, Fat Matt's in particular.

The next morning, I woke up and made off for Sedona. So far my list of possible locations to live in the future consist of Boulder and Sedona. Absolutely beautiful. I took a proper amount of photos to document, but as with anything, you just have to see this place firsthand.

Above you will see that I found myself a nice little peak to set up my stuff. I recorded about an hours worth of songs. Some I have been playing for years, some were works in progress, and others were just made up on the spot. I captured video of it as well, and will be syncing it up for a release sometime after I arrive in Portland.

I have decided to bail on Vegas, Hoover Dam, and Grand Canyon. I love Sedona so much that it will bring me back again. So on that visit, I will take a road trip and catch all of those sights.

Tomorrow, I am making off for L.A. to see and spend some time with my friend Joey. He's got some exclusive, invite only thing, that he has... well, invited me to. I look forward to making it there late afternoon, and spending a few days before making my way to San Francisco.

Albuquerque to Flagstaff

On my way to Albuquerque