a new addition?

this thanksgiving while some of you were doing this...




Bethann & Senon were unleashing this wee guy.
welcome.....,,,
Cypress Giacomo Williams,born Friday Nov.24, 2006 at 6:17am








see you this weekend wee man.

MY GIRL



just got off the phone with Lily.
turns out there are 3 shows she wants to hit up on the same night....
MELVINS @ Troubadour
Joanna Newsom @ The El Rey
Lucinda Williams @ Royce Hall

basically, a female country singer songwriter, a female harpest and the besd rock band around.....

thats why i love her!

we're going to the MELVINS......check this out for 15 bucks
Altamont
Porn
Big Business
Melvins

i'll be getting there early and getting a good seat upstairs for the whole night
i will be taking some kind of pics....

i cannae wait.......
i've got a semi!

Post holiday bloat

how where the holidays for you?
i had a good thanksgiving day at the Zuleta family home here in Los Angeles.
all the brothers and sisters where there and Lilys mum made a great spread for everyone.
being vegetarian at this time of year sucks!
the good thing about this family meal is that no one over does it on the food department.
i'd had a pretty horrific experience a few years ago that was more like a roman/pirate feast than a family meal.
i ate a lot of side dishes and left the in-laws tired and content.
we got home at about 10p.m and crashed.

up early the next day for the 320 mile drive up to Mammoth
i drove.
after missing the 14 while day dreaming on the 5 north, listening to this American life podcasts, we were soon out of greater Los Angeles and into the dessert.
it was my first time traveling this way and it was stunning to say the least.
the weather was great for driving and we made great time, arriving a little before 3.p.m
we met up with Gail and our other friends who were staying for the thanksgiving weekend
we were renting 2 condos (flats) between the 7 of us.
everyone was already hitting the booze, so it seemed rude not to join them.
that was the end of the day from that point on........
don't believe a drunken cook when they say that the stuffing is veggie......
i ate some turkey and a little sausage on accident and was up all night having a major whitey!.......not fun.
got up early but couldn't face any food(surprise, surprise)and sorted out renting snowboarding gear, and got some gloves and sunglasses.
me and Julie K were dropped off by Lil at the resort and signed up for a first timers lesson.
i believe Julie had been snowboarding before but had not been in about 4 years.
it's better to be safe than sorry......we had about 2 hours to kill before the lesson and kind of just went for it on our own.
Gail and Andrew pointed out the basics and left us to try it out ourselves
it all made sense from my skateboarding days...
it's strange to be running with sweat and know that it is cold and you are on snow nonetheless.
soaked and tired we headed off for our real 2 hour lesson.
Tom our teacher, was a friend of ours and had managed to make sure he got our group.
he's a lovely English gent(....did i just say that?) and he clocked that julie and i had a pretty decent grip on the basics and were confident enough to go up the lift and down the "discovery" slope.
everyone had warned us that getting off the lift would be the hardest thing about snowboarding.......Shite!
the worst thing about snowboarding for me is sitting on those old ski lifts!
anyways, we got off the lifts at the top of the run, and put our other foot in the bindings.
the off we went....
the first third of the run is a bit of a blur but i remember going way too fast and crossing through a group of first time skiers. they were all about 7 years old and i went between the teacher and the group following on behind.i managed to control my speed and come to a safe stop and dropped on my bum....
i thought i'd wait for Julie and Tom to Catch up.....
i got up and tried some other things Tom mentioned blah blah blah...

O.K i fell pretty bad.
i believe it's called eating shit.
my tailbone still hurts 3 days later and one of my ass cheeks is brused black!
i've got some nice whiplash too!

i did love snowboarding and i did really well for my first time.
i've just got to be realistic about what i can do at this early stage....

i've done enough for now.
i'll finish in a little bit
sorry for the lack of pictures this time.
i was too busy living the dream bro............



p.s melvins in 2 days..........

A WEE LAUGH FOR THE HOLIDAYS.

waste of money?



so, there seems to be no snow in my future (this weekend)
i guess i'll be hiking , not snowboarding in Mammoth.
have a great thanksgiving, and don't eat to much....
it's a marathon, not a sprint......

on another note.
i saw the pixies tour movie today.
some nice shots of the drum tech's hands in the early part of the movie.
also a really good looking guy behind the bass rig at the first gig.......
who was that guy?......

the movie is pretty poor.
as i was on the tour for a small part of it, i can say the 4 band members really do get along, and it was never like that when the cameras were not on them.

the saving grace of the whole dvd is the dude in the acoustic guitar store who has the conversation with kim.
it's in the bonus footage.
netflix it ....please don't buy it!


peace

after the heat

from this...

to this.........



i've had a pretty full on time of it the last few days while Lily has been gone.
i'm surprised to find i can still actually fill my days and nights like like a real human being when she's not here.
on friday i got up and headed across town to santa monica to check out R.E.I and get myself some suitable trousers for snowboarding.
i'm going with a bunch of friends to Mammoth CA, my first time snowboarding ever, on friday for a spot of post thanksgiving fun. (hopefully no breakages too!)
i found what i was looking for pretty quick and had to get myself out of there before i spent all my money trying to look like a north face ad.
from there i hit the original vans store and found brown old school and slip ons for nothing.....
i also found the British store on the corner on santa monica and 2'nd.
all you need to know is they sell irn bru, so i'll be back .......

i went to the movies and saw for your consideration and was massively underwhelmed ......
i hope it gets better the more you see it.
i have been known to be wrong in the past....


i had football training at night and had what can only be called a shocker.....
a great turn out of guys with lots of new faces looking to join the team before next season gets under way.....(mid January)
good to get the exercise though.
i stopped off at my local 7/11 to by some beer for the house on the way home, and found myself hanging with 4 cops...
they looked at me like i was the town madman.
only when i got home did i realize my face and both hands were totally black from the pitch at training.
nice to see the local Rampart cops living up to their notoriously thorough standards....

can the police do you for talking shit online?......we'll see.

on saturday and sunday i spent my time in Carlsbad CA, visiting my cousin Davie.
he's only been in the states 5 weeks or so, and is working for a computer games manufacturer in the area.

we saw the new bond flick,which was better than any of the most recent ones(not saying much).....but really shouldn't have been a bond movie.
james bond does not have blonde hair and blue eyes.
as far as i can remember he also had a neck!
nazi bond anyone?

it would be a good plane film....which should be a genre in it's own right....but will not be getting shown as the inflight movie anywhere i believe, because of the over long preposterous terrorist sub plot in the middle of the film.
movie rating 5/10
plane movie rating 7/10

i also went to the san diego wild animal park, which was amazing.
we were only there for a few hours, but i would happily go back again tomorrow.
the lions were magic.
you can actually camp at the park during certain times in the year.
i think it would be brilliant.
i'll keep you posted.

seeing Davie reminded me of where i was about three years ago, when i first moved to los angeles.
i had friends here though and could ask favours and advise every day.
Davie is on his own in that respect, so i'm amazed he's doing so well!




i've got to go now and pick up my girl from the airport.
needless to say........
well done celtic.
i actually watched the game live on ESPN2...
you were lucky,but,
did taggert not like that goal..........


see youse.....

I'VE GOT AN EMPTY!

Lily is off to New Orleans for a week to sort out the work shes got going on, on her music street house.
I'm picking her ass up on Tuesday morning, and she's going straight from the airport to work.....I'm not saying anything.
Anyhoo, I've been doing a lot of bank and credit card related stuff since getting back from japan.
I got my Social Security No. right before i left, so I'm now trying to improve my credit.
Now i can also go sit my California driving test..........
I'm not too excited about that.

This is the first thing i did when i got back home on Monday morning......

There really is nothing like good Mexican food on a paper plate to sort you right out after tofu and rice for every meal in Japan

I went to a little joint down the street, and while i wouldn't say it was the best place in the world.....it sure did do a job with me.!

I met up with Senon and Beth Anne on Tuesday for lunch.
Beth Anne is sooo ready to drop her baby that we went to the valley for a special salad.
The legend goes that the salad makes you go into labor... blah blah blah
Lily took Stacey when she was due for her first child (IAN) and i'll be goddamned if 5 hours later, she goes into labor....
The place was pretty good and both me and Senon tried the salad......it was nice but a wee bit too busy for me.
I've not heard if the salad helped Beth Anne yet or not.....but I'm thinking i would have heard by now if it did.
I can confirm that the salad did give me Gas worse smelling than the Tokyo sewage system!


Today I'm waiting to get a package i missed yesterday from u.p.s( so a total waste of the day)
I've got to go into echo park appliances and replace our washer dryer which finally gave up on us over the last 2 weeks
I also owe Cy the dog a big arsed walk round the lake.

Tomorrow I've got football training, i can only guess as to how sore I'll be by Saturday morning.

Then I'm off for the weekend to see my cousin Davie, who moved to Carlsbad CA about 5 weeks ago.I'm looking forward to seeing him.

cheers for now

oh aye.
check out this.

http://www.garthmarenghi.com/

and these stupid photies

....And back again.............



so nice to be back home again, even if I was only away for a week.
Japan was, however, tremendous.
all 4 shows were great and it was a great way to end the years touring for both mogwai and myself.

TOKYO:



the first show in Tokyo was at a place called Studio Coast..........
it held about 3,000 people.
the place was about 40 minutes away from the hotel by van and was near the river........
the backstage area looked like this:



it had a dart machine that didn't work............mmmmmmm..........



and for some reason to prove how far ahead the people of Tokyo are, it had the 2 items in there too. WARNING....THE PICS MAY BE TOO FUTURE-Y-






it really does say Singapole!!!

the show itself was the best of the trip in my opinion.the kind of show that these guys always manage to pull off when it's a big high pressure show. I had only 1 run of about 4/ 5 songs where I was changing guitars with dom, stuart and barry in some of the special tunings. So I was quite an easy show all in.
the stage looked a bit like this for the show......





a surprise return of the mogwai young team lighting right( for one night only.)

after the show there was time for a beer then back to the hotel, where I crashed out like a small child.

the next day I woke early and along with pete and mick went to the park up the hill from the hotel.
it's that one where bands set up and play on sunday......
it was sunday, but I think we were too early for all the rock.
we did see this cool punk band play though.....


we played at the new(ish) liquid rooms on sunday.
I'd only been to the old club, so was surprised at how much smaller the new club was.
I guess having odd things in the dressing room is the coolest thing to do in Tokyo, as in this one there was a ping pong table
we all had a wee shot at it, and I was clearly the best .........................Aye right!







The gig was cool but as with all end of tour shows,everyone is excited it'a all over but sad thet you're not going to be seeing your pals again in the near future.
such is the way of the road etc etc etc

after the show,
i went to the punk rock bar with dom and pete......the rest of the guys went to see the celtic game in the Tokyo supporters club.

see youse later.

WHERE AM I?



As expected the Jetlag has kicked in.
I was caught by Dominic clapping and cheering as the band came on for an encore in Nagoya,with my eyes closed in another world.....Oh dear.

I've been on 2 bullet trains since I last posted.....
Osaka to Nagoya
Nagoya to Tokyo






the weather has been great so far, so we got a great view of Mt, Fuji yesterday as we drove past at 180 m.p.h
I just love the bullet train .......o.k?


the gig itself was great in Nagoya
we played at diamond Hall, which unusually for Japanese venues looked like an eastern European council flat.........Backstage anyway

RATATAT were great again. Mike surprised everybody by getting through the gig, even though he must have had the mother of all hangovers........That dude likes a drink!

no sketches with the mogwai show at all in Nagoya.......And a larger crowd than was expected saw a rockin show.

we had a day off yesterday, which was a bit weird.
some of us went to a curry spot we know and love and have a massive lunch..........Just what the doctor ordered.
then I did some shopping.Tokyu Hands was a big disappointment this time.

to accommodate all the Christmas decorations, they have moved and got rid of all the stuff I would have liked to see!
quite confusing....
I managed to get Lily a cool watch (well i think it's cool.......)
and saw a few I liked myself.........
the highlight of my afternoon was, however, the crazy photo machines........






I was out with Pete, and we dipped our feet in this crazy world......But we'll be back before the end of the trip, spending upwards of $100 each on the stuff......

more laters......

Wake Up:

HAPPY DAYS ARE HERE AGAIN!
while we all hoped it would happen, did anyone really think it would ?...........



See You Later You Utter Freak!
I'm sure you're not sweating.....In fact you're laughing all the way to the bank with all those kickbacks you've taken over the last 6 years.
And, I'm sure you didn't get a lump of coal when you got SACKED yesterday!



George, it's not been a good 2 years has it?
time to get back on the drugs and booze I think.......




NOW A WARNING TO THE GOOD GUYS:

Don't be too pleased with yourselves Democrats.
You guys managed to make progress in leaps and bounds with NO PLAN WHATSOEVER!
How are you going to sort out the mess in Iraq?
How are you going to stop the biggest recession in U.S history from happening?
How are you going to win the election in 2008?

I do think Mrs Clinton is a smart woman.
I would love to see a female u.s president.
BUT........................
check her voting record from the past 4 years...
she has pretty much voted along with every major republican motion(mistakes?)
she spent $29.5 million on publicity for reelection in probably the safest seat in the u.s!!!!!!
$6,585 on flowers for 1 day????
$80,000 at tavern in the green in N.Y.C...............

all got passed as legitimate expenses for this mid-term.
My god, the gulf coast is still not been cleaned up yet.
reading her spending made me puke in my mouth a little.....

please democrats.............
don't elect Damian(ette) in 2008




please please please please please NO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

from your socialist friend.

REMEMBER TO LOOK AT:
http://pedalzombie.blogspot.com/
the other white meat..............

1'st show:




that's what I did today........
this is the best thing I saw today:




the gig went well, although I did have to swap out stuarts amp head half way through the set.
I threw out picks at the end of the show and it seemed to be the most excited the crowd got all night
verdict: Good show.

L.A To Osaka:


back on tour. I can't believe 4 weeks flew in that fast, especial as I really did nothing at home.
I got the car, registered it and got insurance etc etc, played football and swam.....

I have to admit that I've been looking forward to this part of the tour for ages though, as we're playing with my old friends ratatat. I'd not seen Evan and Mike for about three years until diner last night.........
what a great band!

thanks to common sense, I flew on my own from l.a to Osaka via san Francisco.....
it beats flying to the u.k to meet up with mogwai then on to Japan.....
I did cross the date line however, so I'll be jet lagged out of my mind in about 2 days time
my flight home leaves at 4.30 p.m and i get to L.A.X at 8.45 a.m the same day! Good times...

I flew united,which would never be my first choice.
apart from the usual long haul problems ( I'm 6.ft 2, and the seats seem to be made for Japanese teenage girls.) everything went fine.
I managed to get about 60 9.volt batteries through the scanners in both l.a.x and s.f.o in my hand luggage.....I'm not sure if I'm worried about that or not.
I also saw the abortion that is the fast and the furious: Tokyo drift..................
comedy gold for about 20 minutes, then soooooooooo depressing.

got pulled over at customs in Osaka for a second or too
really nice wee lady opened my bag and saw this in my suitcase



one of the guitar polish containers was broken, and my jeans were soaked....
she looked embarrassed and let me go......
result!

was met at the airport and took the 60 minute drive into Osaka.
I realized how lucky i was on the way in......
this is my 12th time in Japan, and i've always been paid to be here...........
sometimes,when your in a stinky euro bus, on the 4th week of a 6 week tour, playing your 8th gig in a row, you can honestly act like a spoilt child...
this really is the other side of the coin.

got to the hotel, which i'd stayed at with mogwai about 5 years ago....
this is the view from hotel room last night.



and here it is in the morning.....




meet up with everyone and ratatat at 8.pm in the hotel lobby and went out for a meal and beers.
being a veggie in Japan is pretty tough,but having our buddy Katsu from smash helping....Everything is usually fine.
I did eat fish by mistake, which usually means a 24 hour whitey, but it looks like I got away with it...

fun times were had by all, and I'm glad I stayed up and didn't crash out when I arrived.
I was asleep at 11.30 and slept till just after 8 in the morning......
another result.

I went for a walk to get my bearings..... But nothing opens until 11.am, which happens to be the lobby call for the crew today...

I took some photos though






got to go for that lobby call.
I hope to get the first pedalzombie pics tonight .....


already missing my girl....

Saturday:

why do aberdeen have to play on a monday night 2 weeks in a row?
it can't be for T.V....can it?

found this online............



i've only got about 25 days till i see the best band in the world again..................


2 drummers, 1 bassist, 1 guitarist 3 vocalists..............SEND IT!

FINALLY:


i'm done for the day.........
i'll leave you with some classics


that lighting rig from the royal albert hall


the mogwai turbonegro jacket


my warrior name?


best band from norway to tour with a miget?

more pictures...............

my brused nipple


graffitti from a certain french gig that interpol will not be alowed back to,but mogwai did.


the closest i got to pharrell all summer


the roman outdoor theatre gig from september.........



esplanade theatre singapore from behind the gear