May 10, 2007 - July 8, 2007 Various

Sunday, July 08, 2007 Atlantic City and West Virginia Off I went on the Academy Bus Line, in the middle of the afternoon to make my way to (of all things) Atlantic City! Woo hoo! Atlantic City, baby! I'm going to win big! Okay, no, that wasn't the objective. Not in the least bit, thank you! I actually hate the whole casino scene/mentality, and usually stay far, far away from it. Tonight, instead of gambling, I was making my way to meet Kerry and company (my new employer) to do a backstage catering gig for Dancing with the Stars! After sitting for nearly three hours on the bus, I finally got off in Atlantic City, and made my way over the catering van to meet my new co-workers. There Kerry was, waiting for me at the bus station, then we made our way over to the van. There was some shopping to do for the show taking place the next day, and time was wasting away! We went back to the van, where I met Carl and Peter, two very unassuming guys from the Portland, Maine vicinity. We all got into the van and decided that we were starving! Off we went to one of the local haunts of Atlantic City - The White House! I love this place, and everything about it! especially the steak and cheese sub that I had! It was freakin' amazing!!!!! It was so simply prepared, but I ate every last bit, and loved every last moment of eating it. It was sort of like a Philly cheese steak, but ever so slightly different. It was a whole mess of chopped minute steak that was covered in Provologne and grilled onions. Then in addition - just to jazz it up - I threw some jalapeno peppers on it. Yummmmm! Okay, enough on that. And yes, I am a food retard. After our sandwiches and shopping, we made our way back to the hotel, had a decent sum of five or six hours of sleep, then made our way to the venue. I had a great time working with these guys. Nobody's uptight, mentally ill, or annoying in the least bit, and we all seem to share the common thread of a sarcastic and dark cooks' sense of humor that I so enjoy being around. We got through the hour day, jumped in the truck, and made our way to our next gig in West Virginia. Here it was, 10:30 p.m., we had just worked an eighteen hour day, and had at least a five hour drive ahead of us. Such is the life of an itinerant chef/caterer. Carl and I jumped in the truck and away we went for another festival, this time by the name of "All Good". We finally arrived at 5:30 a.m., made our way to our hotel rooms for a couple hours of sleep, then made our way to the location. Let me tell you, West Virginia is beautiful!!! I've been through before, but it looks different this time around. It's absolutely gorgeous! Especially when you've been up for twenty-five hours and you're driving into your hotel parking lot, through mist and fog, at sunrise. The drive was anxiety inducing at moments (A twenty foot truck, through the mountains of West Virginia, in less than a mile visibility!) The kitchen, or course, as is the case with all festival/backstage catering, was completely non-existent. As part of our job, we had to build an outdoor kitchen (including a temporary floor), from the ground up. Talking to a few people tonight after work by the pool, I've realised that that's exactly what I like about doing these festivals and backstage catering in general. You never quite know what you're up against when you show up, and you get to see the kitchen being built up with not a soul in sight. You build it, the people come, and it's suddenly a small city. You cook, you feed the people, they leave, then you tear it down to exactly what you saw when you first arrived -- absolutely nothing but a baren field in the middle of nowhere. It ends just as quickly as it starts, and I love it! Now to figure out where I go to next! The story continues... 4:45 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Friday, June 29, 2007 NYC Current mood: restless I've been back for almost a week now, and quite frankly it sort of feels as if I never left. It's as if Bonnaroo never happened, which would have been fine by me. I'm feeling a bit restless, though, and can't wait to leave again. I guess I'll have to wait until the 5th. Atlantic City is first on the agenda, then straight to West Virginia. Who knows where I'll go after that. Perhaps a trip back to Minneapolis??? I'm way overdue to go back and visit. But then again, maybe LA is in the cards. Maybe both! 11:41 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Tuesday, June 26, 2007 Bonnaroo Current mood: exhausted I made it back alive. A bit torn up, but alive nonetheless. Bonnaroo probably was the hardest job I've ever done in my life. Fifteen to twenty hour days, limited staff, shitty food, and even shittier working conditions. But, we all made it through, and frankly, I feel that much stronger for going through it. In addition to a few epiphanies that I had along the way, I actually accomplished what I went out there for in the first place. I knew it was going to be a tough go, and probably not very enjoyable, but what I wanted to do is meet other people that might be able to connect me with music related cooking gigs. Now that I payed my dues at Bonnaroo, I'm next going to go to another music festival with another company out of Maine. I'll be doing some real cooking, and with people that actually seem to care about food. What a concept! This time it's going to be in the hills of West Virginia for a festival by the name of All Good. Judging from the line-up, it should have been called All-hippy, but that's irrelevant. I leave on the 10th, and come back on the 17th, and I can't wait. They're coming down from Maine and picking me up in NYC in the truck, which should be interesting unto itself. I can't wait! Until next time! 12:33 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Saturday, June 02, 2007 I Heart Salad and Tennessee I made it through the eight days in Texas without incident. Fort Worth is, um, interesting? The hotel that we stayed at was a Best Western, right off one of the interstates, and let me tell you, it wasn't exactly the nicest place. George, my co-worker ended up with bug bites all over her legs, and two other people from the company had jewelry stolen from their rooms while they were at work! Thank god there was a bar off the lobby, and we all often found ourselves congregating there after our twelve to fourteen hour days. On one particular night, a few of us went to have dinner at one of the local Mexican restaurants. To get there, we had to arrange a ride with the shuttle driver. The shuttle driver turned out to be quite the character. He was a genuine, bonafide Texan, straight from Lubbock and his name was Van. Van the Shuttle Man. Later that evening (or perhaps it was the next night) my co-worker Eric and I ran into Van the Shuttle Man (VtSM) in the hotel bar. Since Eric and I had a couple of drinks in us, we suddenly thought that we should have VtSM show us around his fair city of Fort Worth. Well, we got way more than we bargained for. VtSM took Eric and I to his trailer, which was about two miles away from the hotel. The first thing that he showed us was a couple of stationary tools that he had made special covers for. Evidently VtSM had a fondness for Mystery Science Theater 3000, and had decided that he wanted to make replicas of Crow and Gypsy. He made little Crow and Gypsy tool covers out of buckets! Quite amazing, I'd say. He also had an obsession with gorillas, and even had pictures of the gorillas from the local zoo on his wall. Throughout the evening, he tried and tried to convince us to take time away from work so he could take us to the zoo and introduce us to the gorillas. Tempting, but alas. Duty calls. After spending a little more time in his trailer, we talked him into taking us downtown to one of the Fort Worth hotspots. We went to some Irish bar, of which the name escapes me. No loss, because VtSM had to make his way back to the hotel. He was still on the clock! When we returned, VtSM punched out and joined Eric and I by the pool. Ah, but not quite yet. VtSM suddenly thought that his key card for the hotel was missing. Oh, my, I've never seen somebody get so upset over something like this. He was pacing back and forth - I would almost say somewhat a gorilla in a cage. He even jumped the fence several times to get back into the hotel. Finally, he suggested that he go back to the bar to see if he left it there. He then suggested that I go with him to look for it. Yeah sure, pal. Let's say that you and I go in the shuttle van and look for your key card. I said no, and then miraculaously, three minutes later he found his key card in his pocket. We hung out by the pool for a bit then had to call it a night. We did see him many times over the next couple of days. To sum it up with VtSM, I would say that he is a completely harmless but eccentric man that fried out a few brain cells over the years. That's just a guess, though. He could also be a serial killer. I did get one day off in Fort Worth before I had to fly to Nashville. John, Alan and I all got into the shuttle (a different driver this time) and made our way to the famed stockyard district, which is home to the world famous Billy Bob's bar. It's the world's largest bar, and it has a mechanical bull! Yee haw! They also have an indoor bull riding ring, and in all actuality it looks a lot like a run down casino with a Texas motif. You see, in Texas, I think they really think it's its own country. You see the Texas flag everywhere!!! And forget about songs about Texas. There's a whole lot of God Blessin' Texas going on, I'll have you know. Before we went to Billy Bob's we went to a few other bars, mostly of the tourist variety. One stood out in particular, which was called the White Elephant. They had an entire wall filled with white porcelain elephants, and we spent a few hours playing some sort of hand shuffleboard. I'm sure there's a different name for the game, but that's about all I can come up with at this point. I even got a t-shirt! Chris, the Executive Chef met up with us after Billy Bob's and we went to a steakhouse down the street. I mean really! How can you go to the stockyards and not get a steak??? Next stop, Tennessee. Day five has come and gone here in Tennessee. We showed up on Tuesday evening, and made our way over to the hotel. Well, it's not really a hotel, it's more of a motel. I kind of like it. It's a no frills motel that's located on a country road, right off I-24 in Manchester, TN. Manchester gives new meaning to the word country, I'll tell you. I would say that every other car is a pick-up truck and 99.8 percent of the guys here are bonafide red necks. Equal percentage for the gals here. At present, we're feeding only a small group of people. We're feeding all of the people that work on the infrastructure - such as, electricians, steel workers, artists, and general construction. So far I've met a few people that really have struck me as interesting. There's one woman in particular that is involved with "operations" on the site. Her name is Red. She's a big-boned, loud-mouthed southern girl that is completely a trash talker, and apparently had an affinity for moonshine. Evidently there's a mountain located down the road that is called, simply, "The Mountain". They love to make moonshine there, and according to all the locals, it's "the best" moonshine ever! Now if that's not an oxymoron, I don't know what is. Anyway, at one point Red told us to look out for her, because she was going to hunt us down to drink moonshine. Well, let's just say she hunted us down. Moonshine is crazy stuff. The batch that she had wasn't as evil tasting as I thought it would be, therefore it was somewhat easy to drink. At first I didn't see what the big deal was, then it snuck up on me and knocked upside the head! Moonshine is sneaky that way. Red left the mason jar half full of moonshine with me so we could fill it with fruit in the morning. Now I have in my possession a mason jar filled with moonshine, watermelon, strawberries and a splash of red wine. 3:12 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Wednesday, May 23, 2007 Back in TX Current mood: tired Oh, how tragic. I have to use the computer in the hotel lobby, because apparently the Wi-Fi doesn't work outside of the lobby. Lame, and very much lacking in privacy. I arrived in Texas on Monday the 21st after an eight hour delay at LaGuardia, and a two hour wait to retrieve my luggage off the flight that came in after mine. An excellent start to the beginning of a month and a half work trip away from home. So be it. I got my luggage, made my way to the hotel, and immediately began work the next morning. We had a 7:30 start the first day, which completely blew me out of the water. 7:30! That's unheard of with this company! Today, it was business as usual, though, with a 5:00 a.m. start. Yay! I do like the morning, but more so when I'm going to bed at that time, not waking up. Once again, so be it. So, five more days of golf world, then off to Bonnaroo I go. I'll be in the middle of nowhere, somewhere in Tennessee, for almost a month. I think I'm excited, but everybody that I work with has warned me of fifteen to twenty hour work days, in really intense conditions. What exactly does that mean? Does it mean that we won't have running water or electricity? Does it mean that we'll have to rub sticks together to start a fire? Perhaps we actually have to go out and get into classic hunter/gatherer mode to feed the clients. I don't think we're feeding the musicians, but it would be kind of funny if we had to go out and hunt down an elk for say, someone in Tool, or perhaps gather berries for Sting's breakfast. Oh, the things that amuse me. 3:41 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Saturday, May 19, 2007 What day is it? I've been back for all of three days, and frankly, I'm not even sure what day it is. Okay, I just figured it out, thanks to my computer. 'Tis Saturday, and I'm going to a hardcore show, of all things. This will be a throwback to say the least. Who am I going to see? I keep on thinking that I'm going to see Agnostic Front, but that's not it. I'm actually going to see Negative Approach. Six of one, half a dozen of the other, in this case, I guess. I think I saw Negative Approach when I was like sixteen, or something like that - and let me tell you, that was a loooooonnnnnng time ago. I'm sure the guys in the band aren't exactly spring chickens either. I head off for Texas again, this coming Monday. Unbelievable. Since I've been back in the city, I think I've been home all of maybe ten hours??? Yeah, that's it. I've been on the run ever since I landed at LaGuardia. Since I've been here, I've managed to see all the usual suspects, and I've even managed to piss off Jay! He can be so high-maintenance sometimes. And all because I wouldn't go uptown to have dinner with him and meet his "coleague". So, last night it was The Brought Low at Trash, and tonight the hardcore extravaganza, and tomorrow perhaps some brunch action with Susie Mai and company. I might just go over to visit Nick instead. In that case, see y'all at the Beauty Bar! 9:44 AM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Monday, May 14, 2007 Bittersweet I'm leaving Phoenix tomorrow to go back to New York! I suppose it's somewhat bittersweet, seeing as I won't see my family in a while, but frankly, I really can't wait. So now I'm trying to get to the point where I'm tired enough to sleep, but nothing seems to work. That's okay. I guess I can sleep on the plane. Actually, that's not true. I can't really sleep on planes, or in cars for that matter. So be it. Tomorrow when I get back into town, first on my agenda is to meet up with my friend Jay. He's pictured in my photos section. I'm guessing that we'll end up at one of the eight-million gay bars that he might frequent, although I think he has a straight friend visiting him this week - whatever that means. Bottom line is that it doesn't matter where I meet him. What really matters is that I'll be home, and I get to see my little Jay-bot. I'm also going to try to meet up with my friend Linda, but I'm not sure if that will happen. Perhaps on Wednesday? Ugh!!!! I only have five days to see friends and to focus on my business before I leave for Fort Worth and then Tennessee. I'm pretty sure that I'm on the verge of being stressed out, but I think that will all change once I get back in the city. 8:39 PM - 1 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Sunday, May 13, 2007 The Next Installment Current mood: geeky Oh yeah. It's been an action packed weekend, I tell you. While going through the New Times, I came across something about this thing called "Bands on Grand" that was supposedly taking place on Saturday night. I ventured over to this place called Paper Heart to buy a wrist band, and not only discovered that they were closed, but that they were showing a movie later on that evening. What were they offering for my viewing pleasure? Oh, did it really matter in the end? Well, just for the record, they were showing a "B" flick by the name of "Unholy Rollers". Roller derby, baby! I made my way back to the Paper Heart at 8:00, paid my $5.00, and discovered that not only were they showing a movie, but they also had some bands playing. Right on. I can't remember the name of the second band that played after the movie, but the first band were pretty decent. They were called River City Rebels. Evidently they're from all over the country, and just tour all the time. The band seemed to be comprised of really young punk rock kids, and one aging punk rock guy that evidently was the songwriter. They played their set, which to me sounded a little like Joe Strummer's solo stuff, mixed with maybe the Boomtown Rats - if you can imagine that. I sort of liked them, so I asked if they had any CD's for sale. The guitarist said that they only had some promo stuff and that he couldn't part with them, but then later gave me one. How kind of him. As for "Unholy Rollers", well, I think the name speaks for itself. Martin Scorsese was the Senior Editor, if you can believe that. While watching Unholy Rollers, I started talking with this older woman that was sitting next to me. She kind of gave me that ex-biker chick vibe, if you no what I mean. As the conversation progressed, I discovered that her name was Kat, and that she had lived in Phoenix for about thirteen years. She also seemed to know the lay-of-the-land quite well. We drank a few beers, exchanged numbers, and discussed maybe meeting up over the weekend. How nice. Saturday, as promised, I took my nieces to go ice skating. Now let me tell you, it's been at least fiteen years since I've been skating. When I was a kid, I used to go every single day, at least during the winter months. I even took figure skating lessons for about five years, if you can believe that. At the last minute, Jane (my sister-in-law) asked me if her sister Susanne could come with us. I wasn't quite expecting it, but I was fine with it. I've always liked Susanne, but evidently within the past few months, she's had some violent episodes. I'm not entirely sure what has been going on, but evidently she has some sort of mental illness, somewhere along the lines of...Evidently she has been medicated, so everything is fine. Or so it seems. But I digress. I rolled on over to Bill's and Jane's house, and then we all jumped into Susanne's car to make our way to the skating rink! At first I was a little nervous, but after a couple of push-offs, it was just like riding a bike. After skating, we made our way over to some sort of fancy outdoor mall. Unbeknownst to me, we made our way into a fancy children's clothing store. God, I really hate shopping. Have I mentioned that before? I really, and truly do! Shopping ended quickly, then off we went to grab a bite to eat. Later, the whole family came over to Mom and Dad's house for dinner - including Paul - Jane's brother. That was all fine, but I had enough of family for the day, and I had things to do elsewhere. As soon as dinner was over, off I went, back to the Paper Heart. I made my way over to the Paper Heart again for "Bands on Grand". I saw a couple of Phoenix's favorite local bands there, then decided to roll down the street to some of the other galleries that were taking part in "Bands on Grand". I started walking down the street, and saw that Kat was calling. "Where are you?" "I'm leaving Paper Heart." "Oh, I'm right outside." You know how those conversations go. So, back in we went to see the rest of the bands for the evening, and have a couple more beers. The next band on the bill was Rocketline. They were a rocked up version of Mahavishnu Orchestra, meets Can, meets perhaps Syd Barret era Pink Floyd. They were okay, but the guitarist sort of got a little annoying after a while. He had a tendency to use way to much delay, which is fine in small doses, but come on! Not all the time. Thank you. The main band that I actually wanted to see was Green Lady Killers. They're sort of like The Ramones mixed with The Runaways. As it turns out, they actually just signed to Joan Jett's label. Go figure. I kind of liked what I heard on their MySpace page, but it didn't come across the same live. I guess there's something to be said about having a lot of studio time, yes? As soon as their set ended, Kat and I made our way down the street a bit to a place called Casablanca - a little dive bar that Kat evidently frequents often. Their tag line is something like, "We have over 100 bands per month!" Well then. The band that we walked into were called Horchata - yes like the Mexican beverage. The guitarist/singer was pretty much naked, with the exception of a thong - I guess a la WheWhoCannotBeNamed. Gross. They even did a cover of "Back Seat of My Car", by the Dwarves. Well, isn't that a stretch. We stayed, we saw, we met a few people, then I went on my way back to Mom and Dad's place. Bye Kat! See you soon! Seeing as I can never seem to get to bed before 4:00 these days, I stayed up a for a little longer, and did random bullshit around the house. Seeing as we had Mother's Day brunch at 9:30, I thought it would be best if I get some sleep sometime around 5:00 a.m. Why am I such a vampire?!? Brunch was fine, but actually the food kind of sucked. Can't take me anywhere, I tell you. My Niece lost her retainer at one point. That was pretty exciting. After four of the kitchen crew dug through the garbage to find it, miraculously it was finally found by our waitress on a plate that hadn't quite made it to the dishroom. Crisis averted. Next stop - Home Depot to buy a new range! While waiting for my folks to do their Home Depot thing, I spent some time on the phone with my friend Pill playing long-distance-concierge. He's visiting NYC right now, which really kind of sucks. I did put him in touch with Susie Mai, which is great, but I wish I could have been up there to hang out with him and show him around. C'est la vie. He'll probably be back this summer. Tomorrow, a day at the Mayo Clinic. My Mom is going for a consultation for both chemo and radiation therapies. She also is going to do something with a physical therapist because they removed some of her lymph nodes. I'm not sure what that's all about, but I guess the physical therapy is necessary. Or is it? Tuesday I go back to New York!!!!!!!!!!!!! I have a million things to do, and a million people to see before I leave for another month and a half. Can I get it all done? I feel strange. Until next time... 3:19 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

Thursday, May 10, 2007 Hockey in the Desert Current mood: amused Tuesday night's date with my nieces to go ice skating of course got pushed up. Not only because there was too much going on that night, but also, because Saturday is just a better day to do it. Why? Because Saturday is Radio Disney day at the rink! Woo hoo! My nieces are 7 and 10, by the way, and beyond age, differ from one another in so many ways. Kristen, the seven-year-old, is the athletic one, and has a tendency to be rather fastidious. Everything that she wears has to match perfectly. And forget about her getting stains on anything. Out comes any spray or stick cleaning product in about fifteen seconds. Odd, but true. Allie, on the other hand, could care less about what she wears. She'll rock a blue shirt with orange pants any day! She's also the academic achiever of the two. Don't get me wrong, they're both super smart. Allie just seems to push herself a little harder to get good grades - with a lot of help from my "overachieving" brother, of course. I didn't mean to sound bitter on that one. It's just the truth. But I digress. Anyway, so Radio Disney ice skating on Saturday it is. Last night was interesting, though, because my brother called me to invite me to his intramural hockey game at one of the local rinks. Yes, it's true. Once a Minnesotan, always a Minnesotan, I guess. So, Dad and I made our way over to his house to catch up with the kids, and then to follow Bill(y) (my brother) to the rink. This rink was pretty awesome, I must say. There was a bar next door to the rink called the Icehouse Tavern. On the wall that was connected to the rink, they had a long expanse of glass that looked right onto the ice. I kid you not! You could sit at the bar and order a Molson (yes, they had Molson on tap) and watch the entire game from your seat at the bar. A Minnesotan's dream come true. So Dad and I bellied up and ordered a couple of drinks. Okay, so the view wasn't stellar from the bar, so we eventually made our way out to the rink. My brothers team (The Pumpkins!!! Ha ha ha!) lost 5 - 4. Of course, the tradition states that the team has to meet for drinks after the game, so they all made their way to the bar for libations. I met the majority of them, and they all seemed quite affable, to say the least. I later found out that out of the twelve that were there, three were originally from Wisconsin, seven were originally from Minnesota, one was from Chicago, and one was from Jersey. Go figure. Later today we're supposed to go to the botanical garden. I might have to say no on that one, because it will be well into the 100's by the time we make it there. Tommorrow, skating, dinner with the family, then some band thing that's going on downtown. Sunday, we got the Mother's Day brunch thing, then only a day and a half and I'm back in civilization!!! I can't wait. 5:54 PM - 0 Comments - 0 Kudos - Add Comment - Edit - Remove

New Rekids! Current mood: satisfied I couldn't help myself! Off I went to Tempe again to see what it was all about during daylight hours. Well, it's filled with students, and it's freakin' hot!!! The car informed me that it was 106 degrees at one point! Oh, yes, I know. It's a dry heat. I don't care if it's a dry heat. It's still really, really hot - and it's only May. My Sister-in-Law told me a story once about how a woman passed out from the heat. As it so happened, she passed out right on some asphalt! They found her a half-hour later with 3rd degree burns wherever her body was touching the asphalt!!! I'm sure the sunburn wasn't so great either! Something to consider if you ever thought you might move to the desert. Hmm. While in Tempe, I came across two things of interest. One was a Japanese market, right on University Blvd. I went in to check out their wares. They had the usual fare of umeboshi plum, various seaweeds, and bonito flakes. Plus they had a few rice steamers, and various tools for rolling/preparing sushi - all stuff that I can easily acquire in NYC. It just makes me appreciate the city that much more. That being said, though, I was glad to see that Tempe had something beyond the usual Baja Grill or McDonald's. I also saw that they had an Ethiopian restaurant, and a number of Thai restaurants. Surprising, to say the least. I also came across a record store by the name of Eastside Records. Lots of vinyl to be had, which I was surprised by. I saw a reissue of a Pagans record that I thought about buying, but I was there for a quick fix, so vinyl wasn't an option today. To sum it up, I needed something that I could throw into the car's CD player for immediate listening pleasure. I'm impatient that way sometimes. For my quick fix, I picked up the following: Refused - The Shape of Punk to Come (I've always loved this record, and have been meaning to buy it, but never have until now. Despite how angst ridden this record is, it still makes me feel peaceful, somehow. Weird???) Reigning Sound - Break Up...Break Down (Doesn't the band name say it all??? Plus I loved the Oblivians, and Reigning Sound are awesome live!) Eastside Records is a a nice store, and I would highly recommend a visit if you ever are in Tempe. The owner is pretty cool, and gave me the low-down on what's happening in the city. Well, as it turns out, the low-down is that there is no low-down. Unfortunate, to say the least. Evidently there are a lot of condos being built, and all of the artists and musicians are being priced out of the neighborhood. Sound familiar? Anyway, the record store is on University and I believe Ash, right in a strip-mall, next door to a head shop. Shocking, I know. It's also right down the street from Casey's where I was the other night. Okay, so that's it for now. Tomorrow, a report on my trip to the botanical gardens with my folks. I'll take pictures of cacti for your viewing pleasure.