The Old Stomping Grounds

So, first and foremost I quickly want to touch on how AMAZING our show was with Good Old War in SUNY Oswego on Friday. Everything about it was perfect; the venue (Sheldon Ballroom) was absolutely gorgeous, complete with chandeliers and high ceilings and a great stage, and Good Old War was phenomenal. If you aren't aware of them yet, you need to become familiar. They're going on tour with The Gaslight Anthem starting May 5th, and then joining up with Straylight Run shortly thereafter. What a great show, and everyone that came out had the nicest things to say to us, and even GOW was so incredibly kind and amazing to us. Huge, huge thanks to Jazz (coincidentally Jonell's twin sister) for setting it all up. Even the flier... ugh, original artwork, you kill me every time:


This weekend is Fredonia's spring concert (Fredfest), and Kaleena's boyfriend is running the whole thing, so we decided to head out and see all the alumni and friends that will be in town. Kaleena was in charge of the concert last year, and we have both been members of the student group that puts it on every year, so this was our first Fredfest that didn't include any stress whatsoever (and we also played the festival twice over the past 4 years). O.A.R was headlining, and they sold 5,600 tickets, which is HUGE at our school. Overall the concert was a huge success, and I'm so happy for Shane and Spectrum for making the whole thing run pretty flawlessly (at least that's how it appeared). I also met up with a few friends throughout the day, and it was awesome getting to see so many people again after a year of being away from Fredonia.

Two things about this weekend though:

1) It really isn't the same place I remember... at all. I remember coming out for the winter concert, and still feeling an emotional connection to the college, the dorm halls, my old house, etc. But this time, I almost got a pit in my stomach. There's definitely a lot of ghosts in this place, and I think the only reason I enjoyed and loved and even hated this place was because of the people that I had around me, and without them it's just a desolate college town with a severe alcohol addiction. and

2), building off of that addiction, I think Kaleena put it best when she tried to drive downtown last night, calling me and saying "Seriously... it's like a zombie apocalypse of drunk people. They're in the roads, they're everywhere. And there are no parking spaces." What a mess the place was. Driving to and from Jonell's was absolutely terrifying, you actually felt the need to drive slow when there were people walking on the sidewalk because you weren't sure if they were planning on doing a mad rush across the street at that given moment. I actually had to stop on a busy road for a dude looking UPWARDS crossing the street. Forget looking both ways, he wasn't even looking ahead of him. We did manage to get a lot of great drunken feedback, however. Someone came up to me and Jonell, just gave us this big high-five "you guys ROCK!" (at least he was a positive, happy drunk), and I also had quite a few people come up to me "KALEEEEENAAAAAA I'VE MISSED YOU HOW ARE YOU DOING?!" To which I put on my best smile and responded and played along with it (It happens. And there's no point in explaining to someone who is drunk that you're not the person they think you are because that will just confuse them and then inevitably lead to the 20 minute apology when all I want to do is get the heck out of the bar I'm in). But alas, I managed to find some amazing people I didn't think I'd see, some old friends I was hoping I'd run into, and luckily, no one I didn't particularly want to see.

I'll be in Freddy until tomorrow, and I'm staying with one of my bests Jonell at her place in Dunkirk; it's a little far from downtown Fredonia so we had every intention of either going downtown for an hour or so, or going to the grocery store, picking up some bulk candy, and going to blockbuster (I love her; we are such 'stay-in' people. It's awesome). We amazingly did it all, and I managed to snag 2 movies for 9 bucks (Forgetting Sarah Marshall and Miss Pettigrew Lives For A Day). Right now I'm sitting on the couch which she works on a couple self portraits she has due for her drawing class, and Atticus is keeping me company :)


This week is going to be crazy for me, as I return home tomorrow, record, work Tuesday, record, have a great show in SUNY Canton on Wednesday, and then head out to Nashville on Thursday morning. It's going to be busy, but I am so happy. With all the recording and the slow pace of progress in the studio, shows are basically necessary to keep our morale up. They absolutely make everything we're doing worth it. Seeing everyone in Fredonia ask us how we're doing, and telling us they're following us online... you guys are amazing. And again, to everyone who came out on Friday, and to anyone who plans on coming out Wednesday, we love you. Really.

tupper...where?

Tupperware

I'd have to say the most useless thing in my house would have to be the giant box of tupperware that I have waiting around under my bed for the day I move out of my parent's house. I'm not sure when I acquired it, or how I did for that matter. I believe at some point while I was in high school my mom pushed this giant box of what must be hundreds of small plastic containers of all sizes under my bed, and 5 years later (I went to college for 4 years and it remained untouched with the exception of maybe 3 that I took with me) it still resides back there, next to my sega genesis. Which I should take out sometime soon, now that I think about it. The Lion King and Aladdin totally ruled. But yeah... a ton of tupperware. On the glorious day I become a true adult, off to face the world in whatever small apartment it is that I can afford, I will come prepared with sealed compartments and lids for all sorts of perishable goods. And who knows, whenever that moment comes, I can see myself finding it and forgetting about even having that many tupperware. It will be a great moment.

Dogtown. I want to go to there.

Well, due to the fact that I am a recent college graduate and 'starving artist,' most of the restaurants that I go out to eat at (if I do go out to eat) are pretty darn inexpensive. And, if you know me at all, you know I love food, so I really could name off about ten different places between Syracuse (Stronghearts), Rochester, Fredonia (dude I'd hit up good old Erie Dining Hall any day of the week), NYC (Red Bamboo), Nashville (Mellow Mushroom), and Memphis (Deja Vu Creole). But this place is just fun. I know when I go to Rochester when the boy is living out there we tend to frequent it all too much (is that really a bad thing?). If you're in the mood for some comfort food in a unique way, check out Dogtown.

I was just giving directions to this place to my sister and Aaron since they're heading out to Rochester, so it's been on my mind. One of the only places I know of to serve the famous Rochester 'garbage plate' (mac salad, fries, coleslaw, burgers, hash browns, hot dogs, etc all in the same plate, layered on each other) for vegetarians and vegans. Given I rarely do the garbage plate (so much grease!), all of their specialty hot dogs are named after specific breeds of dogs, and they are SO GOOD. I usually get a bernese mountain dog (a veggie dog with mushrooms, swiss cheese and spicy mustard) and their sweet potato fries (which are absolutely amazing). Their prices are relatively inexpensive, you would without a doubt spend less than ten bucks to fill yourself up. The overall feel of the place is pretty nice, very small but friendly, and with a lot of pictures of dogs around. The perfect place to go out to eat on a random afternoon or evening.

When you can't find the words yourself...

A Color of the Sky

by Tony Hoagland

Windy today and I feel less than brilliant,

driving over the hills from work.

There are the dark parts on the road

when you pass through clumps of wood

and the bright spots where you have a view of the ocean,

but that doesn’t make the road an allegory.

I should call Marie and apologize

for being so boring at dinner last night,

but can I really promise not to be that way again?

And anyway, I’d rather watch the trees, tossing

in what certainly looks like sexual arousal.

Otherwise it’s spring, and everything looks frail;

the sky is baby blue, and the just-unfurling leaves

are full of infant chlorophyll,

the very tint of inexperience.

Last summer’s song is making a comeback on the radio,

and on the highway overpass,

the only metaphysical vandal in America has written

MEMORY LOVES TIME

in big black spraypaint letters,

which makes us wonder if Time loves Memory back.

Last night I dreamed of X again.

She’s like a stain on my subconscious sheets.

Years ago she penetrated me

but though I scrubbed and scrubbed and scrubbed,

I never got her out,

but now I’m glad.

What I thought was an end turned out to be a middle.

What I thought was a brick wall turned out to be a tunnel.

What I thought was an injustice

turned out to be a color of the sky.

Outside the youth center, between the liquor store

and the police station,

a little dogwood tree is losing its mind;

overflowing with blossomfoam,

like a sudsy mug of beer;

like a bride ripping off her clothes,

dropping snow white petals to the ground in clouds,

so Nature’s wastefulness seems quietly obscene.

It’s been doing that all week:

making beauty,

and throwing it away,

and making more.



Off to bed.

Be nice, darn it!

I think it's funny that this was a prompt, because this whole situation has been on my mind a lot lately. Not in extreme amounts - but it still just kind of rubs me the wrong way. I definitely feed off of other people's vibes, so here you have it, my pet peeve of offensiveness.

When friends don't act like friends
One of the biggest things that I've realized since moving back to Syracuse is how important true friends are. That being said, I've also realized that I expect and anticipate that my friends (new, old, or otherwise) will treat me the way that I treat them. I've found that it isn't necessarily fair to assume, but still, I think common decency is severely underrated these days. There is nothing more off-putting to me than to feel like you don't really connect with people, especially people who you think are your friends. Even moreso, I truly believe that in order to have friends you need to be one. When I meet new people in a group of friends and get really hot and cold vibes from them, especially in the wake of me proactively trying to be their friend, it really only makes me feel like I deserve better. I don't view that in a pretentious or arrogant way on my behalf, just that everyone deserves to be treated fairly by their friends. I'm really the kind of person that will find someone I don't know, introduce myself to them, and then talk with them for a while; I like making people feel like they belong somewhere. If I'm trying to be your friend - key word here trying - maybe things just aren't working out. My best friends are the ones that I didn't have to exert any effort to feel wanted.

TGI...T?

So lately I've felt as though I've been in a giant fog of work, sleep, repeat. I haven't really established a real 'schedule' at work, I just kind of go in in the morning, and leave when I'm done. So it's made for a few long days, and I really don't mind it at all. I just realize after doing it for 5 days, that I'm exhausted. Especially when something usually follows work directly, and I don't get home until it's past my bedtime.

But it's all fine and dandy, because we're recording, things are moving along, and I have cuteoverload.com or fmlife to make me smile on command. Seriously, how could you not forget about being tired if you see this guy?

I've also been doing a lot of writing lately, which I'm totally pumped about. I just wish I had more time to do it. But I definitely have been productive on the drive to and from work. Most of my ideas come to me when I rarely expect it, and so it really should come as no surprise to me that I need to keep paper and a pen on me at all times.

Also, we have those shows coming up, and our friend Cam from Gonculator will be playing drums with us for them. We'll be practicing with him this weekend, and we're all really excited about that too. We really respect him as a drummer, and he's a really awesome guy.

And finally! Warm weather is coming! Especially after today... 40 something degrees and absolutely shitty. Oh, New York. Tomorrow it should be super warm, which makes me look forward to the weekend.

I think we may be heading out of the studio shortly, so that means Grey's Anatomy, and then bed for this lady.

Feeling kind of out of the circle lately with some people, I think I just miss having some best friends around here. It's hard feeling like you belong somewhere where you're constantly trying to figure out just where that is.

Until then, my future dog:

...I'm realizing I say "really" a lot. We'll work on that, starting tomorrow.