Warped Tour 2008

TODAY WAS THE BEST DAY OF MY LIFE.

Watch the lil’ video… the nails are braid pullers (as Todd-zilla would call them -makeup artist- more on his ever changing names later… Quadalajara+Todd= Toddalajara. Tokyo+Todd= Todzilla… every body can play along now!)

I will have to show you little by little the crazy shit I collected on my treasure hunt about tokyo… but I am a little exhausto from the speed shopping. I speed shop. In and out. Any who… before I started out on my treasure hunt I did what every sensible girl does… get’s her nails did, and BOY are they DONNNNNE SONNNN. 

The camera cut of Toddzilla… he was GONNA say, “I might get my left pink toe dooone now!” Oh hay okay! All together now!

its 4:00am and yet again I’m not sleeping, my head is killing me. i’ve been trying to quit smoking for a little bit now but fell off the wagon today while I was at the bar (nothing quite like a drink and a smoke). Today was a pretty great day off, The little I got to see of Omaha I really really loved. It’s amazing to think of all the great music that came out of such a small city in the middle of nowhere and in turn gave its city a name and a sense of culture. Like it or not Conor Oberst is basically the Bob Dylan of our generation, i’m pretty sure if he and Mr. Adams ever joined forces to make a record heads would definetly explode. But unlike a lot of other “music” cities in america Omaha doesn’t front like its the shit, theres still a good amount of midwestern self deprecation. Also it doesn’t seem to endorse very much fly by night bullshit music, its not like brooklyn where simply being from there gives your band some sort of entitlement (this is not to say there aren’t good bands from brooklyn but c’mon you know what I mean) if your from Omaha your band still has to be good to get recognized. I had some Thai food today for the first time in quite a while and it is currently burning a hole in my stomach. I find lately that i’m consistently frustrated with myself when i’m not involved in some form of creation, i’ve been obnoxiously ADD with songwriting lately and despite the fact that it angers me I can’t seem to curb it at all. I’ll waste an entire day sitting around staring at a wall and hear these little pieces that don’t seem to want to come together till around 4 or 5am at which point I get up to try and make sense of them but i’m just to exhausted, it seems to be a neverending cycle. I’m hoping the Omaha visit will give me some sort of creative push, when you think about it nothing as beautiful as that scene coming together will ever happen again organically. I’m tired of hearing about politics and listening to everyone blindly champion Barack Obama, I get it though as the man is certainly the lesser of two evils, IF I VOTE i’m going to write in Bill Clinton, dude was responsible for the largest economic growth in the history of the USA everyone was just pissed he liked BJ’s.

Really anyway you slice it, our planet is fucked regardless of politics, here are some things you can do to help yourself get the most out of your time spent on it:

1. Support local music, go to the shows, buy the merch but most importantly go to the shows…

2. Talk shit, most of the worlds problems can’t and won’t change. So bitch about it and make your opinions known.

3. Buy 2 records a month, everyone downloads now and that’s not gonna change and your naive and stupid if you think it ever will. However your just as naive and stupid if you think all your favorite bands are going to exist forever if EVERYONE steals their music. I’m not saying stop downloading i’m just saying throw a couple coins into the hypothetical music offerings tray.

4. In conjunction with 3 read Steve Albini’s “The Problem With Music” essay

5. Drink carrot juice, this is just a suggestion of course but this is the only thing i’ve ever consumed that gives me an instant “better” feeling, its also totally legal.

6. Watch more Adult Swim.

7. Buy yourself a nice pair of headphones, this is crucial in my line of work and I have to say my BOSE jawns are mostly resposnible for keeping my sanity.

8. Walk your dog.

9. Punch an inanimate object really hard, lets face it sometimes life sucks and your pissed off at someone or something. Take it out on something that you can’t hurt and that won’t call the police on you, preferably something that won’t hurt your hand as well, sometimes this is the only way to get it out and move on with your day.

10. If you are in a band and are fortunate enough to have crew who handle setting up the bulk of your shit for you. Love and appreciate them like Henry Rollins says “They get there before you and they will be working long after you leave, they should get your salary and you should get their’s”. 

11. If you are dealing with post relationship hatred of any kind listen to the song “No Children” by the Mountain Goats.

12. Introduce people to things you think are funny, I find there is almost nothing more rewarding than turning someone on to something new. 

13. Travel if you can but don’t expect it to have some profound effect on your life and don’t let someone who’s more “worldly” than you make you feel as though it will, I hate these people more than anything. On the same note try to occasionally leave your area or comfort zone, you don’t have to go to France just get far enough away that you feel it, this will effect your life in a positive way.

14. Don’t buy the Iphone, your really not missing out on much. 

15. Read Ryan Adams blog, if you think i’m crazy, homeboy is bat shit www.dradamsfilms.com