Sunday, August 19, 2007

Incublog FIVE: A cross-country discourse (or a lesson in mindlossnessness)

EDIT: ***NEW DISCLAIMER***
After reviewing the posted blog, it appears as if the pictures were resized to too large a size to be fully viewed on this blog. It doesn't necessarily hinder your ability to tell what's going on in most cases, but it's kind of a bummer. On a good note, though, there are lots of pictures, so enjoy!!

---Begin---

Hey peoples!

I apologize. I am sorry. My soul has shriveled, my mind hath flown. This blog has taken far too long to dribble out of my head like the other molasses that's in there. Matt, Griffin, Chris ™ and Taylor, have begun their cross-country drive from New York to Canada. For those of you not in the know, this tour’s routing has forced us (them) to venture across more than 3,000 miles of land and water in order for us to arrive at our destination within the next five days. Incubus and the tour production staff, though, fly home over this time for a short vacation. BUT NOT THE DAWES! Well, actually, half the Dawes do, while the other half lose their noodles. Here’s what’s up:

Wylie hurt his leg something awful. Or it might be his back. We don’t really know yet. He’s seen doctors, chiropractors, masseuses, MRI doctors, dermatologists, etc. etc. etc. to find out what’s gone on with his leg, and the diagnosis is still uncertain. To convey to you all a better understanding of his condition, Wylie has a difficult time doing almost anything. It pains him to walk (he cannot run), bend down, sit, lie down, sit in a chair, sit in his row, lay in his row, be, live, eat, use the restroom, talk, think, do. Makesaythink. Poor guy. Anyway, long story short, he is staying over these next five days at his grandparents’ apartment in New York City in an attempt to rehabilitate himself. Don’t worry, he’s not just bailing on us: he has physical therapy appointments. And don’t worry again, because he’s flying over to meet us in Canada and finish out the tour. Our hopes and prayers go out to you, gimp.

Blake has undisclosed business going on at home. Even we don’t know why he’s there, really. He will also be flying over to Canada to meet us for the rest of the tour. We wish him luck with whatever it is he is doing back in Los Angeles.

And now for the saddest of parts… Darren (Sauce, Sauz, D-Monay, Money), the man you (we) all came to know and love has left us for good. He came out on tour to help out, and now he’s got his own business to attend to (i.e. living it up in a sweet pad in East Village, NYC. Anyone who wants to know his address and phone number, just ask). Darren, it was a great four weeks. You will be missed, brother.
An homage:
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Now now, children – dab those tears, right those frowns, for with every death, we see rebirth. In this case, we see it in young drum slayer, Griffin Goldsmith (Spicy Griff, Griff the Stiff, The Griff, The Stiff), kin of the infamous Taylor Goldsmith. He is 16 years old and full of rotten potential. Unfortunately, he is too young to permanently join the band, but perhaps someday a dream will come true. This is the Griff, do you think they come from the same parents? You be the judge:
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Okayokayokayokayokayokayokayyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy.
So now you’re all pretty much caught up with what’s down. We’re driving in a 12’x8’ van across the country. It sucks, but it’s great. Books, Pokémon, Movies, letters… These are the things that keep us occupied. Now, going back to the future…

Last place we left off was our glorious camping trip in Ohio. Greg got shot in the testicle, we rode down a midnight river, trees were speaking. After this adventure, we continued on back into normalcy over to Columbus, OH. Here, the band did a nice little interview.

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They also played a set!

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That’s all I got from Columbus. Sorry dudes.

But, from there, we continued to Cleveland, which was even a bit more rocking.
Here is one of the things of which the city is most proud: a mediocre (at best) baseball team. Ha! Got you, suckers!:

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Cleveland had a pretty cool ampitheatre. It sat right next to a large body of water. This is what it looked like:

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This patio area is also where we happened to partake in our ritualistic cigar-smoking session. Here’s what we look like:

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I’m the one sitting in the empty seat.

As for the set, here’s what that looked like:
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That's for you, Mr. Man who wanted more performance pictures!

And, for extraneous enjoyment, here’s Mike’s guitar rack. He sure loves his SGs:
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After the show, I went to sit on the patio area you saw earlier, and I snapped a picture of some of the skyline at night. It was really pretty:
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Oh yea, and here’s SD playing with Incubus during their cover of “Stand By Me:”
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MOVING ON!

…To Toronto, Canada. Don’t worry, I’ll tell you aalllll aboooott it.
First of all, this venue was really cool. Their backstage area was almost as big as the performance area itself. We got a really cool dressing room, and the catering company brought us loads of cool Canadian-inspired novelty toys for us to play with. Here’s the dressing room, along with a picture of the silly toys they brought us:
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This place also had a really cool patio thing outside of our dressing room, which overlooked a little harbor:
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And in the “game room,” they had a pool table, and José and Kilmore from Incubus set up their XBOX station in there.
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Oh yea, oh yea! Simon Dawes also had a little interview done while in Canada, but more importantly, one of the interviewers informed us on something that now seems rather questionable. Let’s take a poll. Who here believes that this person’s biological father is black?
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This person tried to make this claim (he even showed us a picture of his dad). It became the consensus of the band that this poor kid’s mother had been lying to him his entire life. What do you guys think? I really don’t know what to believe, though I’m leaning in the way of doubt.

Here are some photos from the Toronto show:
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After Toronto, we had to head over to New Hampshire. This was quite a drive, both positively and negatively. For one, it was long. Real long. However, it was also really beautiful. We drove through parts of upstate New York and Vermont, and most of the time, it was gorgeous. Here are some photos of the scene, and a little town through which we drove:
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Once we got to New Hampshire, Chris finally found his prayer spot. He loves that money. Please don't ask me what he's actually doing, because I have no idea.
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Here are some photos from the NH performance:
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Here’s a nice man-man love shot of Blake and Mike in a warm leg embrace after the show.
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And another cigar session:
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-----------Day 3 of blogging----------------
After New Hampshire, we made a hell of a trek down to Philadelphia. We had a hilarious dressing room that looked like some kid's musty basement-room from the 1970s. Tie-Dye curtains over the windows, fake wood walls - it was great. Here are some photos from there:
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After our FIRST Philly show, Wylie, Darren, Taylor and I decided we would take an hour and a half train ride out to Neeeewww Yoooorrkk City. Wylie and Darren went early, and Taylor and I went later. Here are a few pictures of the 30th Street train station in Philadelphia:
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And here are a few photos from the train:
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We got in late that night, so not much happened, but the next day we went around and checked out the city:
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We also met up with Julian from The Morning Benders (he and Chris were there mastering their record; quite a happy coincidence!). We all went to a Japanese tea parlor, but had to leave after they informed us that there was a $15.00 minimum per person. It was cool, but screw that place!
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And here's Darren's apartment - so cool.
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That day, Taylor, Darren and I went to a park and relaxed. On the way there, we discovered a little taste of home: good ol' "Rader Joe's":
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We also ran into two of our favorite movie characters of all time: Indiana Jones and Michaelangelo the Ninja Turtle:
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After the SECOND Philly show, we all went into NYC for some good times. SD had a show at Jone's Beach, which was just a ridiculous venue. It pretty much sits on the water. Here's Wylie standing outside of our dressing room after just having caught a fish with a spear he fashioned out of a piece of bamboo and the blade from his pocket knife:
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Here's what the venue looked like empty:
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I feel badly about this, but I didn't get any digital photos from the Jone's Beach show. I ran out of batteries and a completely inopportune time. BUT I got some in time to document the rest of our times in New York. Here are some of those:
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Check out these firemen and Darren!
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We spent three days in New York, and on the third day, we got some really great breakfast at this bagel place. Check THESE things out:
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Later that day, we got to go to Central Park, and I got to ride the subway for the first time in my life! Our friends Ingrid and Ashley took us around. Thanks so much guys!
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Check out these sweet kicks:
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While in Central Park, we ran into this idiot:
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But, he was right next to a merry-go-round, so we rode that. Here's the Griff sitting next to me. It was a totally almost homo-erotic moment. I felt like a kid again.
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On coming out of Central Park, we also encountered the John Lennon Memorial. Here's a picture of that, if you haven't seen it:
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We also passed by the hotel outside of which John was shot. It was pretty crazy. Here's we are standing outside of the entrance.
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After this, we went up to Ashley's apartment, which is in this enormous 60 floor apartment building. Her roof has a roof garden, and just looking through the bars over the edge is scary. Here's what that was like:
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And this was about the end of our time in NYC.
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AALLLLLLLLLLLRIGGGHHHHHHTTT............ So, this blog has taken me a couple days to write. I started it in the van on the way over here about 4 days ago, and now we're just outside of Seattle at Taylor's uncle's house. A few things that are really nice about being here:
Homecooked meals
Clean, comfortable beds
Lots of trees
Not a van
Clean air
Baseball Game
Good Fish
Rain
Cold Weather
Rain
Cold Weather
Cold Weather
Good food
Taylor's Parents
Awesome Dogs

We went to a Mariner's game, and that was really fun. Griffin knows how to trash-talk, I'll tell you that much. This place is just covered in trees--it's insanity. I've never seen so many trees! I'll post photos of life here on the next blog, but I feel like I should get this one up for now. I really apologize about the length of time it's taken me to get this thing up, and I do realize it's not necessarily the best blog yet, but I'm trying, I really am!

Anyway, like I've said before, you guys are awesome. I can't even BELIEVE that we got 44 comments on that last blog. The band is so happy that they're thinking of upping my payrate from 10 dollars a day to 15! You guys are great, thanks so much, I hope you've enjoyed! Thanks for sticking with us!!

Forever yours,

Matia

36 comments:

Anonymous said...

Don't know what will be written but I'm excited to read whatever it may be.....

P.S....I forgot a Kudos out to "Koolaid"....good luck on your book! Can't wait till it comes out...in about 5 yrs????

P.S.S....TO "Nadia"....Canada loves you...Snowboarding rocks up in Sault Ste. Marie,ON!

Anonymous said...

Seeing all of those photos of New York made me realize how much I miss it; glad you all had a nice time!

Hope everyone is well for when you all make it down south-- see you then! =)

Caitlin said...

Awesome post. Playing Pokemon eh? I just found my old gameboy and laughed at all my pokemon's names, mostly named after dirty words. Nice.

Anonymous said...

you boys stay well (wylie, you get well!) and enjoy the rest of your tour. i'm glad we all got to spend some time together in nyc, even though i missed out on the grand trip to central park. but hey, i got to take a nice nap instead, so it's all good.


peace&love

Anonymous said...

You guys never dissapoint when it comes to writing a blog:). I loved the John Lennon memorial. It made me want to visit N.Y even more!:D.

keep up the good work on the blog! they should pay you 20 instead!:D.
cant wait for the next one!

Hailey k said...

haha wow...nice blog matt!!! 15 is pretty good my friend...you better be worth it! ;)

This was a fun blog...took me about 4 days to read, but thats okay! It was fun while it lasted! haha
I'm really thinking my SD Boys need to make a little trip back to oregon...It sucks that they aren't doing any oregon or washington dates this tour... :(
But I'm kind of excited to see what you think of us up in here in the NW...its fun up here...
And you think Seattle has a lot of trees, you haven't seen nothin' boy! Bend is like that times 5! TREES EVERYWHERE! hehe...

Andrew said...

Simon Dawes obviously knows how to have a good time. Great Blog Matt! Oh and Wylie, hope your leg/back gets better soon.

Anonymous said...

Was just perusing online when I found this blog. Fabulous pictures and even more fabulous content! Simon Dawes FTW.

I'm not going to lie - I'm super impressed that Wylie caught a fish with such a shortage of resources. Also, those bagels look sooo good haha.

Looking forward to the next entry and can't wait to see you guys in Edmonton. Safe travels and have a good one!

- Alexandria

.. said...

thank you for yet another great blog! wylie: get better soon!

totally off topic...we just had an awesome tornado warning! best storm of the season. well, better go pack everything i own, i'm moving to st louis- keep that in mind when planning your next tour(;

Anonymous said...

So much to talk about.

Comment Part 1:

Darren's gone nooooooooooooo.
Ach.
Bugger.
That's a shame.
He had the best hair in the band.
This is a sad day.

Anonymous said...

i agree, i will miss Darren too but the "sauce" on my carnivore booklet will not let me forget his short, yet awesome run with the band.

i am also skeptical of that guy with the black daddy claims, especially with his hair color. bad joke, indeed.

all the pictures are great, the more the better! hopefully next post you'll put up some from your time at SPAC, yes? yes! alright then, keep rockin' hard, hopefully without any more injuries (get better soon Wylie!)

Allison said...

Ha! You guys are amazing. I hope Wylie and Blake get back soon... Can't wait to see them all again.

Leela said...

Is there maybe a correlation between Wylie's amazing boat shoes and his locomotion problems? I hate to think it...

Anonymous said...

Get well soon Wylie.

That photo of Darren and Taylor walking down the street is pretty badass. The on of invisible Matt is cool too.

Do you think someone should tell the Japanese Tea parlor that a reason they may have no customers is because a minimum of $15 of tea per person is ridiculous!! Send them the photo of the empty place with the caption $15 min order per person.

Anonymous said...

Awesome pictures!! Hope you guys are having a great time on the road!

Simon Dawes said...

DUDES!

First of all, you guys are soooo ssweeeeettt...! BUT - I don't know what's going on here! How did we go from 44 comments down to 15?! I know what you guys are capable of, and I'm not saying we have to meet or exceed 44 comments, but I'd like to see us come close to our record again. Let's do this!

Anonymous said...

New York looked like LOADS of fun! Diggin' all the great photos. I'm pretty sure I saw Wylie on that balcony in Toronto while waiting in line for two hours...kept me entertained for a few minutes, at least, in that God-awful heat. Keep on rockin' guys. You are definitely on my list of favorite bands. Get well Wylie, and good luck to the rest of the guys who have their business to attend to..including Darren with the move! Much love...

Anonymous said...

Yo!
I was in NY during the Jone's Beach show... I almost bought tickets with my mom but we thought it wouldn't be worth it to go to a HUGE stadium show when we can just see the 'Dawes at a club in SF! So we passed... but I was sad for a little bit.
But thanks for posting so thoroughly! I feel like in a small way I can feel like I was there.

Anonymous said...

You know what it is Matt, the abundance of top quality photography has led people to a state of being speechless and they are trying to come round before posting a comment, whilst not knowing whereto start.

Anonymous said...

Please stay in Canada? I don't want you to leave.

Saw SD open for Incubus last night. Honestly, working in radio, I hear so much music that it takes something special to make me sit up and take notice, and you did just that. I'm not sure how you managed to meld so many diverse styles and influences into one cohesive, incredible, original sound, but you did it, and I really hope it's going to mean big things for you.

Send me a couple of discs at the radio station? I'd love to get your on air here, and we broadcast to the entire province (and a HUGE demographic range, because of the variety of styles of music we play) if that's any added incentive. ;-)

(Erica Gayler
CKUA Radio
10526 Jasper Avenue
Edmonton T5J 1Z7)

Oh yeah, and come back to Edmonton soon. Doooo iiiiit.

Anonymous said...

You guys should publish your lyrics somewhere, cause I can never find them out here in this vast internet.

Please and Thank Yous !

amy said...

Briefly thought the picture of the Japanese Tea Rooms was a picture of Darren's apartment.

"But why so many CHAIRS?"

Then I realised.

I suppose Taylor and Griffin COULD look related, if you looked beyond the abundance of curls.

Just shave them both. That'd answer it.

Oh and ditto Nadia; Darren DID have the best hair. Long live the hair.

Anonymous said...

Take care of yourselves guys!
Hot-lanta is coming up in a few days and I can't wait to see you. Any chance on getting to see you pre or post show?

Anonymous said...

There is just too much going on in this blog!

Love the photos from the tour and NYC! And I have to agree that Darren will be missed, but those parting shots were lovely.

Hopefully it won't be to long before the next blog.

Anonymous said...

I can't wait to see you all tomorrow night! :)

Anonymous said...

I messaged my number to your myspace incase there is any chance of seeing you guys before or after the show!

Time to get on the road to see you!

Anonymous said...

Simon Dawes, I regret to tell you that I was unable to see your set last night because of reasons out of my control, which makes me very sad. I think all of my luck was against me.

Besides missing your set, I was unable to bring you the painting I made as a surprise inside of the venue, because who knows what kind of crazy things can happen when you bring in a small canvas into a rock show...

And lastly, I saw Wylie & Taylor outside the venue, but they disappeared into the VIP lounge area before I had a chance to say hello. =(

So now you guys have to come to Alabama sometime! :)

Good luck with the rest of the tour!

Anonymous said...

Has anyone noticed the striking similarity between the album art on Interpol's new "Our Love to Admire" and that of SD's own "Carnivore"? A bit fishy if you ask me...

Anonymous said...

Those mammals get about don't they.

Anonymous said...

Matt, I liked how you signed it Forever yours. It sounds like some cheesy love note

Anonymous said...

i miss you.

Anonymous said...

Gee Whiz fellow Warriors, we killed it with the 50 comment attempt. Not even close. Shucks.

But someone buy Darren some new boxers.
And that guys dad is so not black. His mum is genius if she convinced his dad he was his though.

Anonymous said...

I haven't been on here in a while. I didn't recognize Wylie with that long hair. And Taylor, whheeeeew! You look so hot with your clean cut look, it almost makes me cuss! You look slimmer too. Dang! I'll be so happy when nobody knows you again so you can play little clubs in Nashville or STL again...

Anonymous said...

A blog update would really be great about now!

.. said...

just making sure you guys are still alive(: can't wait for a new blog!

Anonymous said...

I'm looking forward to the new blog!

Greetings from the Netherlands