Well, it looks like the band situation is working out a little better than it has. We've got a guy on our side now, a local promoter who likes us, and we've thus got some negotiating muscle. Useful things, like good shows, longer sets, none of this six bands on the bill shit (we try to avoid that and have done fairly well since the beginning). Mr. Chris took the guy and his ladyfriend out to lunch...

...whereupon he pistol-whipped them, threw them in the trunk of his car, drove out to an abandoned factory and explained to them the facts of life.

...either that or they had a pleasant lunch during which they discussed band business and that we're much easier to book now. He knows we've been wanting to work with him more seriously for a long time, and has been an actual genuine fan since the first time he saw us. Very personable guy; young and enthusiastic.

I like my version of the story better though.

I just ordered a mini quadrocopter

RE: anvil shipping, use one of the friendly Flat Rate boxes the PO has...

played Philly last night crowd of 6,000. Funny area, very much seemed hillbilly like. Them folks luv thur GnR

Well, the rate will certainly have been flattened.

I can so picture a bunch of those duct-taped together around an anvil.

I also remember- and this was years and years ago so I forget the details- someone or someones using No Postage Necessary whatnots to make some organization or other eat the shipping on Very Heavy Things. I think it was the Republican Party (this is well pre-9/11) and the objects in question were things like rocks, bricks, iron junk found alongside railroads and the like.

Fucking awesome. That's about 3x bigger than the biggest thing I ever played in front of.



I just got back a little while ago from the studio, where we finished up what we needed to do for the Garda stuff. There's a few things my drummer and I need to take care of (some sampler overdubs, some of my synths and the odd backing vocal) but that's it, I think. And then off it goes to whomever winds up mixing the thing.

Might have an interview for a job in Preston meaning I'd have to move oop north where all the good mountain biking is Problem is it's a £4k pay cut initially, but the job sounds way more interesting than what I do now, and apparently everything is cheaper up north Full-on broadcast engineers (this is a junior role) get up to £35k which is more than I'd ever get doing what I do now, so that sounds appealing.

Good luck man! That aint too far from me and the preston/bolton area is cheap as fuck to live in.

Is it easily doable on £18k? Because that's what I'll be on initially.

Also I forgot to mention, I finally booked myself in to get that octopus with tophat, cup of tea and monocle tattoo in August He might add a handlebar moustache as well, and possibly a cane

Absolutely. Rent is a fraction of what it is in Manchester and I know people who live in the swanky suburbs of south Manchester in their own flat who are on that sort of coin. Would you be looking at your own place or sharing? If you do need a share i may be able to put word out as I do know folk up that way.

In other news I've just invested in a 30 bottle wine making set up. I'll be sailing the seas of cheap red wine in a matter of weeks.

Was hoping to get my own small flat or something as I feel like I'm done with living with randomers after living with utter cunts at uni.

Oh how I know that feels. My first solo apartment was the shit. Sucked at first cause I was "lonely" being used to always having a roomie around, but that shit wore off quick once I was smoking pot, drinking beer, playing TF2 all while bare-ass naked on my couch.

Feels good.

Got called in for a second round of interviews at Sam Ash. Did not realize the interview process was so damn intensive for this place.

Got a new haircut though, so obviously this shit is in the bag.

Obviously.

Leave for Alaska Sunday. Is nutz.

How long on this trip?

This one is gonna be kinda completely fucked. I was supposed to be gone for sooooo long, was gonna be The Big One. But, due to Alaskan contractors becoming more and more privy to what we are doing up there, they are trying to run us out. A very successful roofing company in Fairbanks we previously subcontracted under that my dad brought into the EIFS business has been submitting unfeasibly low bids (like, truly nonsensical shit by tens of thousands of dollars) on these jobs in which we are in competition for. It became clear a couple years ago they intended to start implementing the things they'd learned, but using Alaskan plasters and contractors. Mind you, most of those plasterers up there are complete fucking hack alcoholic pieces of shit and the men overseeing their work don't actually fully understand the application of this particular system, but those people look out for each other and try to keep jobs local. It is kinda fucked, a little bit. Atleast, for us. Can't really blame them for watching out for their own.

Except really, that some greazy ass shit has gone down with those people in terms of betraying what were not really friendships/believable promises. But my father is a fickle man, and you can trust no one.

Ah, but man, I am retardedly horrible at presenting coherent lines of narrative: I might only be working up there for 7 weeks, with a possible split in the middle separated by a couple weeks or more.

When the going gets weird, the weird turn pro.

Things. Are getting weird.

I'll drink and smoke to that, though I probably should not.

Things are indeed getting weird, and I am somehow becoming even more of an embittered, impatient asshole. It like always, is nothing external, but holy fuck. Waaaayyyy too many moments of unfounded rage over nothing. And an increase in what I would consider valid disgust with people. And just staring into space. It is a fairly profound/terrifying/confusing time.

Well, round 3 of interviews for sam ash on tuesday.

For realzies.

Surprise! You are interviewing for CEO.