Vacation- Mexico 2007!

I'm laying here, actually excited to head out on another flight! You would think that the 20+ hours that I spent flying the other week would have taken it out of me but man, I'm really looking forward to a vacation! All inclusive, adults only...Mexico. This makes me happy. So does the upside down dog snoring at my feet. It just makes me smile. What makes it all sweeter is this morning was the first frost- the first cold and it was friggin cold this morning. This time tomorrow I will be strapping on scuba gear and trying not to drown! Deep breath, deep breath! Ok, I'm gonna finish this strapping glass of wine and begin putting all of this weeks frustrations behind me.........

Bahrain? WTF?

so, we're still in diego garcia. i'll go into more details later. yesterday was a marathon 24 hours of sleep deprivation- part fun, part not. tuna fishing in the morning, massage in the afternoon, show in the evening and then a "BTW, you guys are leaving tonite instead of on friday".... huh? why's that? here's where it gets fun..... diego is a military access location...only. no commercial flights which means that you are limited to military transport planes and when they make it in (or out). as we all know, these flights can change at a moments notice. at 4:30 in the morning, as we're sitting around waiting to board our bus at the flight line (having already been at the airport for 4+ hours) it was announced that our flight was cancelled and the next flight out wasn't until the 18th. HUH? the only other flight that was leaving was a flight headed to Norfolk, VA by way of Bahrain....another HUH? yes, we could actually get home early but we would be travelling for 48 hours with stops in Bahrain, Ireland, Italy, Greece and so on. sounds like a blast on a vacation with a loved one but not under these circumstances! so here we are at the airport...no idea when we are leaving, no idea where we are staying, trying to coordinate things with our POC in Hawaii. at 5 am we finally get back to the rooms that we had already checked out of, catch a couple hours of sleep and get up to a gorgeous day. once again, things have changed during the 3 hours that we are asleep. we are once again bound for singapore later tonite, and once again get to spend a wonderful night at the airport, waiting to see if we are indeed leaving. (airstrip at 6 pm, attempted flight at 1:30 am) i love my job.... i love my job.... i love my job.....

Bound for Diego!

Here we are- a little late on the blog action but trying to catch up where I can. We've been in Singapore for just under 24 hours and are waiting to board a cargo plane bound for a tiny little island called "Diego Garcia". Apparently it's british owned but essentially rented by the US military. The only access to the island is military ship or plane. Outside of that we hear that the food is good (we've eaten crap the entire tour), the fishing is fantastic, and there is a fairly famous trans-sexual named Yum-Yum that we've been hearing about since Japan. I guess you're doing something right when we start hearing about you and you're still 11 hours away by plane. (7 from Japan to Singapore and 4 from Sing to DG). I think we're all looking forward to this stop- not because it'll be exciting but because it will be the complete opposite. A little downtime on a hectic trip is rewarding.

So what else have we missed? We had a number of shows in Japan that were, for lack of better words, lightly attended. Japan bases have a tendency to be fairly large, and there's a ton to do throughout the country. The last thing a lot of these folks want to do is hang out on base and see a band. Its the equivalent of staying home at your parents house and drinking with mom and dad. Doable in a pinch but its much cooler to be.... anywhere. I don't blame the soldiers at all- AFE is doing what they can to bring morale support to the bases but what can you do?

They're calling are flight! Back when I can! (with pictures!)- s

Fuji to Yokota and back again!

Surprisingly I feel pretty good. I made myself get some sleep last night though I did wake up every couple of hours to check the clock and watch bad TV. We have a 10AM lobby call at Fuji and we are heading to Yokota Air Base to go pick up back-line and PA for our dates here in Japan. This mean breakfast with Spike. If last time was any indicator then it means we’ll be dining at McDonald’s. Odd? Not really. They are everywhere here. It kind of takes away from the sexiness of being away from home and in a beautiful foreign land. “Look, there’s a beautiful pagoda and a..... mcdonald’s.” I’d love to have made it over to the base chow hall and loaded up on a good breakfast but when the morning grub line ends at 7:30 in the morning, chances are you’re not going to see me over there!

We Have Arrived! Welcome Narita Japan!

We’ve landed! Probably one of the more painless flights I’ve ever been on, and well, maybe one of the drunker. (though nothing compares to the JAPAN to GUAM flight with Plunge last year!). The Ketel, Jack, Bailey’s and red wine goulash rolling around in my stomach is just feeling lovely right now. I’ve started to get to know the guys and this is going to be a good tour. It’s a little strange to pack up, head to asia, and put your life on hold for a couple of weeks with a band that you’ve never met but that’s part of the adventure right? I’m sure they’re a little weirded out as well seeing as they’ve brought me along for the ride with no idea if I’m going to fit into their family. Little do they know how much of a pain in the ass I am! ha! After getting disembarking from the place we rocked through customs and grabbed the gear. So nice not to have a million things with us like on the Plunge tour. We were able to secure backline and PA in each country so we’re actually traveling very light. We were met at Narita Airport by our coordinator “Spike”. What a funny dude- I met him last year and well, he’s the same! We’re presently on our bus headed to FUJI, Japan and the marine base there. To get there, we’re rolling through Tokyo and the downtown area. I’m not sure why but there’s some crazy thing with massive ferris wheels here. They jut into the sky from a number of locations and they’ve turned them into these massive color wheels complete with spectacular light shows! We just passed Disneyland. Last time I was here it was too fogged in to see anything on the drive to FUJI. I’m out- too much cool stuff to check out!

Scott Gets On A Plane

They’re late. I don’t know if they are coming. Is that them? I hope not. I don’t want them to come. “Ladies and gentleman, we’re closing the doors and preparing to leave for Narita, Japan”. Are you kidding? I’m flying 6,000 + miles and there is no one sitting next to me? Ridiculously cool! I guess sacrificing that live chicken this morning really did do wonders!!!! (jk..no chickens actually lost their lives for me to travel comfortably). Having changed my seat from a middle seat upon arrival in Chicago I’m pleasantly surprised by this amazing turn of events! Not so sure the band is thrilled as I could swear that the three sitting together are bookended by monks. Not that that’s a bad thing, it’s just how often to you find yourself in a monk sandwich on a flight to Japan? Hopefully the graciously intoxicating flight attendant that I’ve had is taking care of them as she has me. Up at 4 AM, a rather uneventful flight to Chicago (minus the idiotic woman who’s headphones weren’t working so she solved this by turning up the volume at her seat so it would come blasting through the little tiny port on her armrest, sharing the soothing sounds of steve winwood with the rest of the plane. BTW, steve winwood, i hate you.) I finally met the band at a stop over in Chicago, a couple of quick rounds at the bar before boarding and now I’m into my 3rd double Jack Daniels and coke onboard the plane. I think I’m going to enjoy this flight! The setup for a trip like this is still somewhat stressful but its slowly starting to fade. The projects that I crammed to make good before I left, the negotiations on selling the studio + house, the leaving of loved ones.....its all starting to settle into the “out of my hands” category now. I got on the plane and we took off, not much I can do about it now. Well, I’m off to continue my quest for Jack Daniel’s and catching up on bad movies. It looks promising....Diehard and Ocean’s 13 are coming up. Cheers!