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Misery VS The Wall Of Death, Part II of IV
continued from:
Misery VS The Wall Of Death, Part I
7:00 PM 10.28.07: I fly out of the grocery store to the cab, get in, and start trying to regain some sense of acceptance that I will in all likelihood be missing the very band I wanted to photograph, and am using the funds I'm supposed to be paying towards keeping the electricity on in my house to get down to the show, anyway. But how can I NOT photo Sick Of It All after HOB goes and gets me permission to do it??? They cancelled their West Coast tour earlier this year after Lou (Koller) was sidelined with severe back pain from a ruptured disk (I can totally relate), after missing the chance to photograph them when they opened for AFI in January (THAT was a GREAT show... especially when AFI's crew (Smith and RJ) came flying out of backstage and dived into the crowd during one song; and Andrew's head-walking to sing onstage with Davey during AFI's set was legendary before he even had a chance to get home from the show)
So I sit, in the back of dark cab, and try to be zen.
This lasts until I get down to the part of the 15 Fwy going through Rainbow, and directly to my right off the shoulder are 5 firetrucks and flames leaping into the sky. Passing it, it looks like a structure fire, not one of the wildfires that were still burning in San Diego County at that time. The cabbie looks uncomfortable.
Then I notice that both sides of the road are BLACK, and the smell of smoke and fire floods the car... but I can't see enough in the dark to see what the damage is (I would get chance on the way home). Eventually, that passes, as we get closer to the city.
Then the guy starts asking "Do I turn here?" every time we approach an interchange. I'M NOT THE DRIVER!!! THAT"S HIS JOB!!! I know enough to stop him from landing me in Oceanside, but I start getting really nervous.
8:40 PM 10.28.07: The nervousness is justified when he breezes past every ramp and looks to be on his way to Mexico.
Viva Hate is done and Madball is on stage.
Okay, we can get to the 5 and right into Downtown (I have map, once I'm in downtown, and know basically where it is from years of going to conventions in that neighborhood). I give him the map. He looks at it upside down. His ceiling light is broken, so we're trying to read the map by the light of cell phones. I notice the 5 is ending and he took the wrong off-ramp. "Is this it?" he asks...
I look t the huge sign announcing that he's driving into the Navy port (complete with NO U-TURNS sign and security checkpoint with armed men) and tell him, "Um, no." He stops in the middle of the entrance, makes a (bad) U-Turn, and then passes up the ramp to get back on the Fwy he just accidentally left and strikes out on a surface street "looking for the highway".
I point him towards the 5, knowing if we could get back on it it would go down into Downtown. He TURNS. I point out we're by the docks. "The docks?" he says. Yes, that's what they have all those ginormous cranes and ships right there. I look ahead and see what looks like cars traveling down a ridge line and realize I'm looking at the Coronado bridge. Then we hit a dead end.
Cabbie turns AGAIN, but starts going in the right direction. I point out the 5 onramp. His cell phone rings... he's chatting away "No, actually I'm in San Diego right now", as he PASSES the onramp. At this point, I can SEE the buildings Downtown. I point out we missed the Fwy. He looks confused, starts to turn AGAIN (away from the buildings) so I start gesticulating wildly directing him to GO TOWARDS THE BUILDINGS. YES, THERE. THAT'S WHERE I"M GOING. THE BUILDINGS.
He goes towards the buildings. Slowly.
10.28.07 9:00 PM: Accepting the low bidder on a flat rate to San Diego definately had it's drawbacks... and that's all I'm going to say about the remainder of the trip...
10.28.07 9:10 PM: I'm at the HOB box office and they've given me a contract to fill out and sign before I cn pick up my photo pass... my vision is so fuzzy I can't tell what half of it says... I think I my have signed away my first born male offspring to Disney in return for being able to photograph a band in their trademarked establishment (the main issues seem to be that I might get their building/interior in the background of my shots.) I check off boxes, initial points, and sign my life away... and they take the form into the back to be approved and countersigned...
...then bring me back two tickets and a butt-ugly blazing pink sticker with "PHOTO" written across it in black magic marker and "Property of House of Blues" in fine print along the bottom.
I hope that's refering to the sticker...
I go up to the door and wait for security to finish searching and "wanding" a few people ahead of me. When it's my turn I start to show them my camera bag but they see the pink sticker and just wave me through. (I've never been searched when I have a photo pass... seriously, they trust photographers not to be carrying contraband items??? :-).
Then I'm in a dark stairwell trying to figure out if I'm supposed to go up, or down, and I hear Madball thanking the audience and leaving the stage.
(expletive deleted)
10.28.07 9:25 PM: I scope out the merch table and glance around the main floor, then decide to hit the ladies room and use the better lighting during the time between sets to replace batteries and memory chips and make sure I don't look TOO horribly beastly after the trip, because there are some extremely attractive punk and psycho girls outside and I'm feeling bit under-whelming with zero makeup, split ends and baggy jeans.
Yep, look like shit. Oh well...
Later, I'll discover that I probably threw away my ear plugs when I tossed the empty battery packaging...
Continued in Misery VS The Wall Of Death, Part III...SICK OF IT ALL!!!
Misery VS The Wall Of Death, Part I
7:00 PM 10.28.07: I fly out of the grocery store to the cab, get in, and start trying to regain some sense of acceptance that I will in all likelihood be missing the very band I wanted to photograph, and am using the funds I'm supposed to be paying towards keeping the electricity on in my house to get down to the show, anyway. But how can I NOT photo Sick Of It All after HOB goes and gets me permission to do it??? They cancelled their West Coast tour earlier this year after Lou (Koller) was sidelined with severe back pain from a ruptured disk (I can totally relate), after missing the chance to photograph them when they opened for AFI in January (THAT was a GREAT show... especially when AFI's crew (Smith and RJ) came flying out of backstage and dived into the crowd during one song; and Andrew's head-walking to sing onstage with Davey during AFI's set was legendary before he even had a chance to get home from the show)
So I sit, in the back of dark cab, and try to be zen.
This lasts until I get down to the part of the 15 Fwy going through Rainbow, and directly to my right off the shoulder are 5 firetrucks and flames leaping into the sky. Passing it, it looks like a structure fire, not one of the wildfires that were still burning in San Diego County at that time. The cabbie looks uncomfortable.
Then I notice that both sides of the road are BLACK, and the smell of smoke and fire floods the car... but I can't see enough in the dark to see what the damage is (I would get chance on the way home). Eventually, that passes, as we get closer to the city.
Then the guy starts asking "Do I turn here?" every time we approach an interchange. I'M NOT THE DRIVER!!! THAT"S HIS JOB!!! I know enough to stop him from landing me in Oceanside, but I start getting really nervous.
8:40 PM 10.28.07: The nervousness is justified when he breezes past every ramp and looks to be on his way to Mexico.
Viva Hate is done and Madball is on stage.
Okay, we can get to the 5 and right into Downtown (I have map, once I'm in downtown, and know basically where it is from years of going to conventions in that neighborhood). I give him the map. He looks at it upside down. His ceiling light is broken, so we're trying to read the map by the light of cell phones. I notice the 5 is ending and he took the wrong off-ramp. "Is this it?" he asks...
I look t the huge sign announcing that he's driving into the Navy port (complete with NO U-TURNS sign and security checkpoint with armed men) and tell him, "Um, no." He stops in the middle of the entrance, makes a (bad) U-Turn, and then passes up the ramp to get back on the Fwy he just accidentally left and strikes out on a surface street "looking for the highway".
I point him towards the 5, knowing if we could get back on it it would go down into Downtown. He TURNS. I point out we're by the docks. "The docks?" he says. Yes, that's what they have all those ginormous cranes and ships right there. I look ahead and see what looks like cars traveling down a ridge line and realize I'm looking at the Coronado bridge. Then we hit a dead end.
Cabbie turns AGAIN, but starts going in the right direction. I point out the 5 onramp. His cell phone rings... he's chatting away "No, actually I'm in San Diego right now", as he PASSES the onramp. At this point, I can SEE the buildings Downtown. I point out we missed the Fwy. He looks confused, starts to turn AGAIN (away from the buildings) so I start gesticulating wildly directing him to GO TOWARDS THE BUILDINGS. YES, THERE. THAT'S WHERE I"M GOING. THE BUILDINGS.
He goes towards the buildings. Slowly.
10.28.07 9:00 PM: Accepting the low bidder on a flat rate to San Diego definately had it's drawbacks... and that's all I'm going to say about the remainder of the trip...
10.28.07 9:10 PM: I'm at the HOB box office and they've given me a contract to fill out and sign before I cn pick up my photo pass... my vision is so fuzzy I can't tell what half of it says... I think I my have signed away my first born male offspring to Disney in return for being able to photograph a band in their trademarked establishment (the main issues seem to be that I might get their building/interior in the background of my shots.) I check off boxes, initial points, and sign my life away... and they take the form into the back to be approved and countersigned...
...then bring me back two tickets and a butt-ugly blazing pink sticker with "PHOTO" written across it in black magic marker and "Property of House of Blues" in fine print along the bottom.
I hope that's refering to the sticker...
I go up to the door and wait for security to finish searching and "wanding" a few people ahead of me. When it's my turn I start to show them my camera bag but they see the pink sticker and just wave me through. (I've never been searched when I have a photo pass... seriously, they trust photographers not to be carrying contraband items??? :-).
Then I'm in a dark stairwell trying to figure out if I'm supposed to go up, or down, and I hear Madball thanking the audience and leaving the stage.
(expletive deleted)
10.28.07 9:25 PM: I scope out the merch table and glance around the main floor, then decide to hit the ladies room and use the better lighting during the time between sets to replace batteries and memory chips and make sure I don't look TOO horribly beastly after the trip, because there are some extremely attractive punk and psycho girls outside and I'm feeling bit under-whelming with zero makeup, split ends and baggy jeans.
Yep, look like shit. Oh well...
Later, I'll discover that I probably threw away my ear plugs when I tossed the empty battery packaging...
Continued in Misery VS The Wall Of Death, Part III...SICK OF IT ALL!!!
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| Posted by Buzznet's Official MiseryXchord™ on 11/04/2007 3:56 AM | Visits: 47 |
Hope at least that all of this "I dunno" mental calculation on his part was being done on flat rate as opposed to with the meter running...
"Que sera, sera
whatever will be, will be..."
...and know absolutely that Karma is going to kick him good in a soft spot, sooner if not later...
Oh yeah, flat rate... but as noted, going with the low bidder probably worked out for me about as well as it does with U.S. Defense contracts...