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

http://s375.photobucket.com/albums/oo196/1countrokula/Denver%20to%20Albuquerque/Albuquerque%20to%20Flagstaff/?action=view&current=32ea46ac.pbw

Slideshow

I'm still negotiating on learning how to post this stuff. Follow the link below and let me know if this works.

http://s375.photobucket.com/albums/oo196/1countrokula/?action=view¤t=46a0af64.pbw

I'm up!!!

So I was supposed to head south to Albuquerque today, but Amy and her guy Jon came by for dinner last night, and invited me out to Boulder to hang with them tonight. So, I'm about to head up there to see them, well, Amy for some checking out the scene stuff, and then Jon, later at his gym. Apparently there is a salt water bath we are going to hit.

I'm starting to consider heading through these mountains into Vegas. Instead of south, and around them. I did want to see Sedona, but I'm starting to realize I'm enjoying myself much more when I can sit still, and enjoy one place for a few days.

I got friends in Vegas, L.A. and San fran. So when I leave tomorrow, I'll just drive up to Highway 70, look west, look south and make up my mind. It actually feels good to know I can do that if I want.

Red Rocks

Red Rocks is freakin' AWESOME!!! I would love to catch a show there someday. Anyone who ever has the opportunity to should do so.

Boulder today

Hello friends,

I hope everyone had a great Valentines day. I celebrated with my true love. We hid away from all noise and made sweet musical love all night. I tried to record some of the newer songs I'm working on, but ran into too many problems, so we just kept the evening to ourselves. I arrived Friday evening around 9:30pm, staying with my friend Meghan here in Denver. She has a totally bitchin' house. I love it. Very old and beautiful. The owners live next door and basically bought it cause they wanted a bigger backyard. She also has one of the coolest dining room tables I've ever seen, it was actually a door that they found while on vacation in... somewhere, cant remember. They made it into a table, and its just, well, cool. I've just been hanging around the house, doing random things. I made a mission to re-budget my trip yesterday. After seeing consistencies in gas and other costs, I had to break up the trip to make sure I could afford to make it all the way to Portland. Things are promising.
So today, I'm heading to Boulder, going to kinda hike around and try to find some good spots to take some pictures. The sky is clear and perfect, and when I was out for a few minutes earlier, I could see snow covered mountains close in the distance. Should be a very good day.

Ahhhh..... Denver

I've finally arrived in Denver. Man, the western part of Kansas is brutal. I was able to depart Lawrence at a fair time, I hit the highway, and Thomas blurts out,"drive, for 561 miles". It started out easy enough for the first 4 hours, but after that it was, well, worse than Texas.



This is how it looked at the beginning of the trip, beautiful, long rolling hills, could see for miles, then it just got flatter and flatter. The snow was building on the ground as well. I took this to mean Denver was going to be bad, but the snow disappeared by the time I reached Denver, but it was dark, so dark. I could barely see the road in front of me. There was a stretch there, where I did not see
another car, in front or behind me for, almost 2 hours.

By the time I hit Denver, I wasn't prepared. I figured It was populated by a bunch of chilled out hippie types, suppose I'll find that in Boulder, but these people should be up for the psycho driver of the year award. I was even talking to myself, I remember at one point I said,"Oh yeah?, you wait till I get parked and get this trailer off my ass, I'll show you how to drive! I'm from Atlanta! You dont know who your messin' with." Now it sounds like I'm goin' for the psycho of the year award. I reached my destination, and we quickly found ourselves a few blocks away at this little pub. I slept in, and I feel great. I'll be here for a few days, and with a much nicer environment, the next post will be much more interesting.

Holy Hell Folks!!!

Once I got out of Nashville, It was pouring, hammers and nails. The wind was freakin sideways. No fun at all with my trailer in tow.

For the rest of the day it was treacherous wind. I saw the bike on the back shifting a bit, so I stopped for a little adjustment. I about got blown over my car upon exiting. I had 50 mile an hour gusts coming at me. It was a really tough ride, and so I decided to give it a break in St. Louis.

I had high hopes, so I stopped at a Hampton inn. I may have even had daydreams that they were running specials for free rooms for traveling musicians. Sadly they were not, but the guy at the desk was nice enough to give me the triple AAA discount, but the price was still twice what I wanted to spend. So on to the Motel 6. There is a long story involved with this visit, but I'm sure most of you have been there, so I'm just going to leave a picture of my Internet access card to tell the story, look close. I wont go into the rest of the story, but yes, I screwed up. Even after the screw up though, I got a voucher for a free night at Motel 6. Rock!

I was off at a respectable hour today, I jumped on the interstate and within 15 minutes figured out I was kinda hungry. I stopped at the handy combo gas'n'food joint. My car ate, and I ate, but damnit.. I'm cutting out the McDonald's for the rest of the trip. No more fast food. My anonymous tells me bananas, and nuts and berries, yum. Missouri was a much nicer drive, so my mood today is infinitely better.

I made my way through the countryside, listening to the vast resources my ipod has to offer. Speaking of, Jonathon, ex-roommate from Nashville showed me an excellent little trick with my ipod, the "on the go" playlist. I play my songs in alphabetical order, and every time I something comes on that just makes me feel good about driving, I click back to the list of songs, and save it to this playlist. I will be doing this throughout the entire trip, so by the time I reach Portland, I will have amassed the single greatest collection of songs for the road trip. It'll probably be a 10 disc set of mp3's though, as I haven't even made it through the A's yet.

Kansas City literally came in a flash. I was through it before I even knew what happened. Thank god for my trusty friend Thomas, my English accented GPS companion. He let me know consistently,"in a 1/4 mile stay left, then stay right, then stay left. In an 1/8 of a mile stay right, then stay left." It was ridiculous. I never would have made it without you Thomas.

I finally make it to Lawrence, Kansas. Just on the other side of the state line. I picked my buddy Ben, whom I spoke of earlier, from school where he is studying to be a social worker. He transfers to K.U. later this year. Good luck, man. He showed me around the campus, and I forgot my camera, can you believe it? I finally get somewhere, and he throws me in the car to show me around, and I don't bring the camera. Stupid! Stupid! Stupid! (accompanied with a light pounding on the forehead). Anyhow, it's a very nice campus, and as for Kansas being flat, they found the one giant hill to put the school on top of. Very nice view, really. We went and had some pretty fantastic sushi afterward, joking the whole time that we were eating raw fish in Kansas, yes.. we were aware of this.

I am trying to get things situated for my stay in Boulder/Denver. I'm hitting the road around 9 am, God willing, and will be set to arrive around 6 pm. I will definitely have some nice pictures for you guys to see after this weekend. Take it easy, love you all.

On the road again

I don't much feel like talking right now, but I am trying to keep myself motivated, so here is a small update.
It's difficult leaving friends. Although I have been living somewhat away from several of you all for sometime, and not seeing you for months at a time. It 's different to consciously drive further away from everything so familiar. I know that these feelings I have will be replaced with newer discoveries, but it has yet to settle to that point. Not enough goodbye's, or so many that you just want to keep doing it. It's at that time you really feel loved, and you know how much you love everyone in your life.

I'm about to leave for Kansas City, and I will be facing much wind and weather. Wish me well.

The Night Before

Hello, Greetings, Hola, and What up. Thanks for stopping by my little blog here to check in on my whereabouts. It is the night before I leave and I'm still running through the checklist, uh.. yeah, who am I kidding, my checklist basically entails me walking past the same spot 1000 times before I pick up a box and put it in the trailer. So I have been just walking in circles for the past 12 hours filling up the final 2 spots in my trailer, and loading my car. I'm pretty much set now, with the majority of stuff safely locked away, and mainly recording gear and random stuff overflowing in my trunk. It'll be a nice drive though, other than recording here and there, I wont even need to open my trunk or my trailer till I arrive.

I figured I would go ahead and give you all a layout of my trip, so you got a better idea of what I'm putting myself through here. I've been dreaming about packing up the car and heading west for some time now, I mean years, 4 or 5. It wasn't until shortly before moving to Atlanta did I resolve to eventually head for Portland. Well, the entire subject came creeping back in around July. Business wasn't good, and it just seemed like time to push off for the next thing.

One thing I didn't account for was all the preparation. Of course, I've never moved across the country, so how could I know. I at first dreamed of shedding all these materials and just going out bare bones, but it is difficult to just drop all these things that mean something to me. And when I say things, I'm talking about the lighter from a camping trip, 10 books of high school poetry, my own poetry by the way, damn I was a dark kid. I suppose I still am as well. Go ahead and think of as many random items you can, multiply by Pi, and you get somewhere close to the amount of meaningless stuff I've amassed.
Now considering all that, I should hand it to myself that I actually managed to get rid of approximately 75 percent of this stuff. When I moved into my current home, I packed a 14 foot Uhaul to the gills, and I've managed to scale it all down to a 4 x 6 trailer. I probably would have been able to dump everything and drive, but once I decided to take the trailer along, you can imagine exceptions started to abound. It was like an episode of American Idol, my personals auditioning for the golden ticket to Portland. It was sad in some instances, I found myself feeling empathetic as Paula or the other guy, (I really dont watch it, oh, Randy, thats right) would. Allowing these pathetic articles of my history to taint the rest of my belongings, maybe it was fear that someone else would discover it discarded, and I could be horribly embarrassed from the depths of the collective conscience.

Now that the rant has exceeded all my expectations, I take us all the way back to the beginning to give you an itinerary.

1. First stop is Nashville, I'll be seeing a few ex roommates, and old friends.
   
2. Next morning is up early to hit the road for a beautiful 9 hour drive to Lawrence, Kansas. My good friend which has been gone from my life for too long, Ben Gerrard, will be my host for this evening. Ben is an Austrailian, living, working, writing, and pursuing an education here in the states. Some of you Athens folk know Ben from writing an awesome column in Flagpole Magazine entitled,"Club Notes".
   
3. Providing that Ben doesn't keep my ass out too late drinking mucho beer, It will be up early again for another beautiful 9 hour drive to Boulder, CO. I get to see my great and lovely friend Amy. Amy, just earlier today sent me a very obscure and vague little text, pondering the ever intriguing question of, "have you ever been skiing or snowboarding?" I am from Georgia. What are these strange words she is speaking, could be text speak, but what the hell could snowboarding be short for? I'll have to think more on this tomorrow.
4. Ok, this is where it gets interesting, cause I'm not so sure where I'm headed from Boulder. I see there is much snow fall as I write this, hammering the Rockies, and maybe it'll clear up a bit before I get there. We'll just have to see.
5. Anyways, after Boulder, in no particular order I've got; Vegas, Hoover Dam, Grand Canyon, Sedona, and I guess whatever else I can find out there. I am prepared to give myself a good 3 to 4 days in between Boulder and L.A.
6. Which gets me to my next number, L.A. I just got all kinds of people running around these parts, so again, it'll be about 4 to 5 days there.
7. San Francisco - I'm really looking forward to this, I got a great friend named Mattt Lucas (three t's are intentional). Mattt is bar none, one of my favorite people I know. He is a Kung Fu Master, Stuntman, Insane Musician, and all around great guy. I look forward to seeing him, and playing some music.
8. So after about 4 days in S.F., I'll head north, through northern California, into the Redwood Forest, and soak it in. I have set the time frame to tentatively arrive in Portland by the 27th or 28th.
   

So, to recap, I'll be on the road for about 18 days, seeing all sorts of beautiful places. I'll document my travels with this website. I have tentative plans to record a set in the desert somewhere. I have a video camera, a wonderful Canon Rebel digital camera with a 300 ml lens, and a wide angle/fisheye, and all my recording gear set to go. I will be throwing up some cool things for you to look at, watch and listen to. Please bookmark this page and visit me often.

I love all of you very much, and all of you are welcome to come and visit me if you feel the need to get out of the south.

Stay in touch and God bless,
Count