IMG LIve Tour : June 2007

Well, we're near the end of the tour.

Right now I"m in Council Bluffs, IA and will partake in their lovely casino cuisine in just a few. But before i get to the everlasting mediocre food that is alwasy served from the buffets, I'll review the first month of the tour.


June 10th to June 25th:

I arrived via night flight to Norcross, GA (just outside of Atlanta, GA) to meet up with the rest of the tour. While in Georgia, i met both the West & East coast teams and we went through 2 weeks of training. Although sometimes it was a little boring, IMG Live was really good about taking care of all of us and event let us have the weekends off to hang in the city. The only places i really got to check out though were the malls, five points (where i saw Andre 3000) and Twisted Taco (some kinda hook-up bar).

This was all good and fun and it was awesome getting to know everyone on both teams. My team seemd like they would be pretty cool and get along well. I had Mike, who previously toured with me on the MTV U tour i did, and there was Matt, who got the gig via Mike somehow, and Angela, who was recommended for the gig through accounting.

Some highlight of training including setting gear up and breaking it down, figuring out the pack, making hotel reservations, cargo plans and flight reservations. Also we all went out for sushi one evening which was really fun and Josh pate (sorta one of the head dudes) took us out to eat at Ted's which was really cool.

Eventually training was over, which was good because we all wanted to get on the road. Our first event was in Kennesaw GA which went off really well, partially because we had alot of people to help us out during our presentations. AFter this event we flew off to Iowa and did some gigs there. It was pretty awesome getting to ship our gear, reminded me of what Brian from BBVD goes through when shipping the bands gear via plane. It was pretty simple and i was not intimidated by it which was awesome. After a successul stay in Iowa, we headed back down to Miami where we met Chanel. By this point we'd gotten to see some people's personalities come out, some good for the tour, and some bad, but hey that's the road.

However this brings us to July and I will have to hold off before venturing further into my storytelling as I have to get dolled up for a night out with the boys.

TTFN

M to the B

What I did on my summer vacation....

Well, not really a summer vacation...and it's not really even summer, but i suppose what i've done is as close to a summer vacation as i'm going to get this year.

After coming home from Orlando, I snuggled back into being at home and doing nothing, which was very irritating and i was anxious alot of the time because I didn't know what to do with myself....However that period was soon smoothed over and heres' what i ended up doing...

-Hung w. Emily @ Sharky's
-Saw ALIENS @ the 1209 boys' house
-went to Disneyland w. Tamra & saw the new Pirates movie
-went to Cha Cha's, which was crowded
-went to Zach Round's B-day Celebration! celebs such as (Nick Cofrancesco, Ken Dodge, Ryan Martin, & Zach Rounds were there.
-Hung out in Venice w. Emily & Shady
-Went to a Homesick Elephant show and hung out with some really good people, made omelets at 3 in the morning
-went to El Cid for an open mic night, good stuff.
-caught a High Strung show at Spaceland
-had a lovely afternoon bbq/dinner @ Yuki's
-saw Tamra at the Olympic Emporium w. her Improv Group
-sang Karaoke w. John & caught up w. him
-played guitar hero w. Dan
-made a wonderful afternoon feast w. Emily, dishes included cheese blintzes, indian food, strawberry soup, home made truffles & watched Homicidal
-had a roommate dinner w. Sean and Dan, making some of the same things as listed above plus a three-cheese maccaroni & ham steak & carrots
-Went to the Troubadour to see Mike Pinto, Bargain Music, & some other band play. Norwood from Fishbone made a special appearance, doing back up vocals for 'The Suffering' & also met one of the L.A. roller derby girls who said i should join the team!
-gave Dan his b-day present early (light up drum sticks & the first season of anna nicole's show)
-went to my friend Mark's Foxfire party and saw an awesome nintendo video he made, along w. getting to hang out w. some friends for the evening.
-today I will pack, i just got back from the grand opening of a pole dancing studio that my buddy leigh works at...i plan to take classes when i get home in september! should be awesome.

Anyways, that's what happened from the middle of May to the middle of now. Hope everyone is well, i'll be reporting from the road as usual to let you all know what's up.

chowza!

MB