HOT HOT HEAT- CANADUH/ EUROPE- APRIL/ MAY- 2005

April 6th at Dallas/ Ft Worth TX airport

Here is another little installment of another tour where you all get to know me over the internet/ computer. Ha Ha. This is a little thought I had last week on how most people who read this actually get to know me better through these emails then in person. Not the most comforting feeling seeing how I love hanging out with people and talking with people IN person.

“we are all flying on second class baby”

I just left RVA today for who knows how long. I realized that I am going to miss a good time of year at home. Late last night my good friends Nick, Joe and I went to the end of the hill and chilled for a good hour or so talking about life, tree roots, bow and arrows, canons, revolution and then a little while later trying to hide from the police who are now starting to frequent my neighbour hood a little more these days. So sitting there I realized that the nights are starting to get better at home which means there is going to be a lot of night time chilling that I am missing out on. Spring time in RVA.

Oh well. So in about 3 hours I am going to arrive in one of the most beautiful cities I have ever been to and which was a big part of my child hood. The mighty Vancouver, Canaduh. Vancouver is located right in between the pacific ocean and the grand Canadian rockies. Its such an amazing sight to see. A city surrounded by the ocean, dense forest- trees and then the mountains over towering everything. This is going to be the first time ever being all the way across Canaduh and its something I have always wanted to do so im stoked.

Tour doesn’t start for another couple days but I wanted to arrive early to go see my grandma who I haven’t seen in a little over 2 years and who was just in the hospital yet again. She is a trooper though I must say. 95 years old and has been in/ out of the hospital for the last couple years. I will say that I am very fortunate to get to see her 1 more time. I also have a feeling that this will probably be the last time I will get to see her.

April 8th Vancouver, Canaduh

Just came back to Vancouver today on the greyhound where I was in Chilliwack for a day to visit my grandma. I haven’t seen her for over 2 years and last time I saw here I thought would have been the last. Well due to her tough ass she is still kicking strong. Its pretty unrealy. Seriously she is in and out of the hospital constantly and is going to be 95 years this year so its crazy to see her because she is doing very very well. I couldn’t believe how good she is doing. Amazing. I ended up leaving Chilliwack with her biography which she wrote and then also my great grandma’s biography which is very fascinating. Both were born in Siberia which is pretty incredible. My ass is Russian. Right On! Ha ha. Anyhow it was nice to visit her and come out of it with some history of my past. I also saw some uncles last night from my fathers side so that was good as well.

Today I arrived back here in the afternoon and just walked around the city. Went down to Canada Place and just sat and looked out into the bay. Amazing scenery. The city, the mountains, and the ocean. A good background for a beautiful city. I have said this before and will say it again this city is so incredible and one of the prettiest, most diverse cities I have been to. Good times. So tour starts tomorrow which shall be fun and something am looking forward to.

April 10th Whistler BC

Here I sit in the middle and base of a mountain range which is host to one of the worlds best ski/ snowboard hills. Whistler!!! Seriously as a young kid who went skiing at least twice a week being here is amazing. I have always heard of whistler and always wanted to come so now here I am. I guess this morning driving in here Carlos and Paul (yeah we got Paul back!- everyone like Paul last tour so requested to have him again. He’s back) saw a bunch of coyotes.

Yesterday was a lot of fun. I woke up in the morning and left scotts house to head into the city to meet everyone. My friend Scott is the person I have known the longest. Him and I grew up in northern Canada and played hockey together etc etc so it was nice seeing him.

I got to the venue and met up with everyone. Totally nice seeing everyone again. Its weird because you’ve been on tour with each other before so you have this certain bond. Good times.
The show yesterday was sold out and was for the home town crowd. Vancouver+ Good show= FUN.

“bush is the shoes and blair is the laces” a quote from a documentary I am watching in my hotel here in Canada. CBC put it out and let me just say you would never ever see this in the good ole us of fucking a. no way!
Its amazing and its just some dude cruising around Baghdad interviewing the locals, us soldiers, and the restistance and its shows mass amounts of brutality. Unreal. This shit is still going on and it goes on completely under our noses.
DAMN!! I am still watching this and it’s a must SEE. You can probably find it at the cbc webstie and download it. Its called “mission accomplished” and is a documentary. Actually I just saw that it was from the BBC but played on CBC.. please check it out.
WOW! Now on CNN there is a story about divers in asia who are cleaning the reefs from debris that has been left over from the tsunami. Totally ruined from the garbage.

So there are a lot of foreigners here in whistler. I noticed a bunch of aussies who I met today. I guess people come here too work, snowboard and live for the year. Good times.
Well I just realized that I need to do more yoga while on the road. The last time I was home I went about 2 times a week and now nothing but I am doing a lot more bending etc etc. so yes I need to maybe put out some time everyday to do some relaxation. Yeehaaw!

April 11th, Vancouver, BC

Just about to hop on the bus to head to the Croatian cultural center we have an all ages show today. Our first show was at the commodore which is 18+ so its really cool that they chose and we are playing this show. Catering to everyone which is always choice.

April 15th, Saskatoon, SK

So the last couple days have been very event full. Having another day off in Vancouver, seeing my brother travis in Edmonton, cruising the west ed. Mall (biggest mall in the world- not a good thing though. Ha ha), partying with pedro- actually efren- who played pedro in napolean dynamite-insanity, and then our show in Calgary yesterday.

On our day off I just walked around downtown Vancouver for a couple hours before I went to buy some groceries before our long bus drive that night. The drive is actually one of the prettiest drives I have ever been on however this night it was dark so you couldn’t see anything. Basically to get from BC to Alberta you have to cross the rockies and its absolutely amazing. The drive was pretty crazy due to a major snow storm at a certain level in the mountains. Turns out we had to pull over in the middle of the night due to how bad the conditions were.

The next day we were in Edmonton which is 5 hours south of where I grew up as a little skid in Canada. Yeah! Havent been this close to home in over 3 years. Nice. My brother was also making a trip to Edmonton to come see the show and myself. We arrived late which sucked but what can you do. We loaded in and Travis and his grrlfriend Alana were upstairs waiting for us to arrive. I had to do some work so I met up with him later. It’s a bummer because the last time I saw my brother and sister was last summer while I was on tour as well which means I have to work so I cant really visit.
I couldn’t get a hold of Travis at first so I cruised the mall and checked things out. This mall is pretty insane. Inside there is a ice hockey rink(where the OILERS sometimes practiced before the NHL fucking ruined the great sport known as hockey)
Anyhow like I was saying there is a huge amusement park w/ roller coasters etc etc, huge water park, huge indoor lake with submarines and seals inside, go carts, and indoor golf. Plus mass amounts of stores. It was nice to walk around because when I was a kid my family and I would come to Edmonton for numerous things so we would cruise the mall. Sometimes it also was kind of a bummer because we would go there before xmas season and my mum would go nuts. Not fun. Ha ha
I met up with ole travinsky and his girlfriend and we went to eat before I had to head back to the show.
The show was huge and sold with around 1400 people. Nuts. I haven’t been this busy in a long time on tour so it was nice. The people I was dealing with at the venue were kind of laim which sucked but sometimes you deal with bimbos.
After the show I met up with my brother and hung out with him and his grrlfriend in our bus for a little while before we headed out. Its pretty funny because I know my brother gets stoked out due to getting to hang out on the bus etc etc. He is also a fan of HHH so I know he was quite excited.
We had planned on heading out so I said farewell to Travis and Alana who caught a cab to the place they were staying. I went out with everyone to a place called cowboys in Edmonton. At first we all thought “great we are going to get our asses kicked” but it ended up being pretty cool. Actually a lot of fun. Good Times.
So Pedro from Napolean Dynamite was at this bar due to him making an appearance. Turns out as well that he was at this show and introduced the futureheads but I missed it. So So random. Pedro in Edmonton, Alberta. He was a fan of both HHH/ futureheads so was hanging out with us all night. I talked to him for a couple minutes and it turns out he is just on tour. Ha ha. He had shirts with him he was selling “pedro for president” and was here in northern Alberta on tour. NUTS. When I go out at night to bars etc etc I usually just people watch due to me not knowing many people so I was watching pedro for awhile and hes definitely crazy. YEAH!!

Well we left and arrived in Calgary yesterday for our show last night. Another big sold out show which was busier for me then Edmonton. The show was at the university of Calgary on campus so ii didn’t get out to cruise around at all. Just the food court.
So this band the futureheads we are touring with RULE. This band is a good live band and fucking catchy as shit. Last night Ian and I were in the back lounge of the bus and put on the new QOTSA record. QUALITY stuff!.

May 11 koln, deutchland

So last night I released I lost the current book I am reading. King Leopolds Ghost is the title. So there is a little story behind this little ole book.
King Leopold was a Belgium king in the late 1800s to early 1900s who colonized congo Africa. With this colonization as well as any colonization came a lot of horror and brutality. Estimated around 10 million people murdered in the congo around this time.
Okay so the first time I started reading this book is when I landed in germany after my trip to Egypt. I was on the train actually to Luxembourg (belgiums neighbor) and thought it would be fitting to read about this situation while being so close to it. Well after the train ride I realized I lost this book on the train. Oh well. Bummer but I bought another book.
Well fast forward a month and I buy the book again before my tour with HHH. So I start to read this book slowly- a couple months ago- and had about 20 pages left just the other day. Last night while sitting in my bunk wanting to finish this book I realized I don’t have it. The last time I remember having it was actually in Brussels, Belgium and haven’t seen it since. King Leopold has been dead for about 100 years now but I have a feeling he is trying to drag this brother down!!. Ha Ha. Bastard!!
Anyhow that was a thought of mine while laying in my coffin trying to get some sleep.

So when we come back to the states we are playing a bunch of radio shows which shall be nice. I looked at some of them and I am super excited. YEAH!
We are playing a show in mountain view CA with some bands that I am REALLY looking forward to. We have ourselves the foo fighters, alkaline trio, Kaiser chiefs, sleater Kinney. This festival is going to fucking RULE and I am super excited for it. PLUS its in the one and only califas. YEAH!

So today ian, dustin and myself walked around koln this morning before we had to load in. I took them both to the big cathedral here at the center of town which is a pretty amazing, gothic looking cathedral.

Now I am here at the venue where I am going to take a shower, do some work in the trailer and see whats in store for tonight.