and so it goes

July 20, 2009

Sitting here in the upstairs dressing room part of the Sputnikhalle venue in Munster, Germany where we are playing this evening, and where we spent the day off yesterday.

Thus far we have played 4 shows and now have 6 left until the end of this leg of the tour. I must say that I have enjoyed each and every show as I do for most of them. It’s what you call being a fan. However being directly involved in the show and with these dudes as “the band” sometimes there are certain things in which you look at differently. Since we have been here I have had some thoughts about how involved or not involved some of our Europian “behind the scenes” people are.

So last night we all sat in front of the bus for a couple hours while we watched Barney entertain us all with a drinking game he volunteered to play. The name of this game is called Centurion. The mission of the game is to drink 100 shots of beer in 1 hour 40 mins. 1 shot of beer every minute. You have to sit in the same seat, and not pee or you would be disqualified. If Barney was to pull this off there was a $150 in prize money. At 10:00 PM we started the Centurion festivities . I was the “official” poured which meant every minute for 2 hours I had to pour Barney a shot of beer for him to work his way up to being a Centurion. Out of any of us the only person that I know could pull this off would be Barney and it was something he was definitely into due to the prize. Off days of tour can be pretty fun! At about shot 30 we could all notice a change in Barney and from then on it just went downhill, or uphill which ever you may. Chris documented each shot with his camera and looking back at those pictures is quite something. The first picture Barney just looks like himself but as the shots continue his face/ expressions in the pictures definitely start to change/ melt drastically. At around shot 80 Barney was definitely officially hammered and had mentioned the urination feeling a couple of times. The quotes and one liners coming from him during this entire mission were unbelievable and had most of us almost on the ground laughing. Well a couple of hours later Barney had officially become a Centurion and was for sure feeling this alcohol. At shot 100 it was then offered to him for every 10 more shots he would received 20 Euro’s from Jord so Barney who likes to bet/ gamble chose to keep em coming. He made it to 110 in a definite drunken state and kept it going to 122 until he finally called it quits. Amazing!! Truly something to see, witness, and take in. Watching Barney get up with 10 + beers in hs stomach with out peeing and finally walk away to take a pee was something else as well. This was our day off in Munster, Germany. Centurion!!!!


July, 31, 2009

Sitting here at Dulles Airport after spending a week here in DC with Helene on a layover from my Frankfurt to Montreal flight.

Tour ended last week in Stuttgart, Germany and now Propagandhi is taking 2 months off due to a lil Propagandhi entering this world next month. Our adventures will continue in Oct with a tour of Western Canada/ Northwest US.

Last Monday when I landed here in DC I exited the plane, walked thru customs where I was greeted with a “welcome back” and thought to myself “welcome back to where?”. I guess having a US Passport will get you a welcome home greeting. Aahh. Thanks US of A.

One thing I noticed while I was walking up to customs was outside a couple of border/ customs guards with a couple of German Shepard dog next to this flat trailer storage trailer with separate compartments. The only thing I could really think was this was the dogs kennel and is where these American “soldiers against war/ terrorism” sleep every night.

Now I definitely have many issues with mans domination over animals in which I will go into in a bit but I also thought that both officer and dog were to have a certain bond with one another. Meaning these canines would accompany their masters home after a day of protecting the homeland. I guess not? Thanks for the sniffing and keeping the country clean now back to your trailer.

After being “welcomed” back home I then proceeded to the baggage check which was jam-packed with travelers waiting to retrieve their bags before continuing on. Out of nowhere I see 3 custom/ border guards with a dog come zig zagging thru a huge line of travelers very hurriedly with no word of warning. Each person continued just standing where they were waiting for their bags while these border guards and their dog went about their business of sniffing out every single person in the line. No warning. No discussion. No permission. Everyone including myself were to sit their obediently and let this animal and its handlers invade our space searching for what exactly.

My thoughts other then being completely frustrated with this invasive act were this: What if you have just arrived from a completely foreign land, you don’t know any English, and at some point in your life you have had a horrendous traumatic encounter with a dog? This is highly possible! Trauma is a real thing and when the brain has been affected by something deeply it will do whatever it can to protect itself and its human body.
Now a dog coming to close to someone who possibly has had a horrific experience with an animal as such could potentially cause someone to freak out which would not be good for that person or the dog next to them who has been trained to be aggressive in threatening situations.

The US Border Protection system and really honestly its entire system in general one day needs to be really deeply looked at. There is a very high possibility that it does more harm then good to itself.